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
Scouting and Finding Turkeys: E-Scouting to Boots on the Ground
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
From scouting topo maps to a few secret spots for finding fresh turkey tracks, we focus on how to actually find spring turkeys—starting at water-shaped roost sites, moving through midday strut zones, and using sign the right way—while sharing honest lessons from our past wins and dry spells. We also talk Mississippi’s new turkey stamp, our YouTube plans, and listener-requested scouting tactics.
• why water, elevation and comfort drive roost choice
• how to efficiently combine e-scouting with boots on the ground
• benches, strut zones and midday movement patterns
• reading scratching, tracks and dust bowls with freshness in mind
• food and bugs in bottoms, cow pasture advantages
• wind, rain and heat shaping daily locations
• hens nesting vs setting, the agenda and late-season shifts
• shrinking the map at hand by ruling out where turkeys are NOT
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Setting The Stage For Spring
SPEAKER_01Welcome back to this privilege of podcast. My name's Hunter Ferrier joining you alongside Chase Ferrier again today. And we are inching inevitably closer to our favorite time of year, which is spring turkey season. It's um it's right around the corner. Whether you like it or not, I hope you do. If you're like us, I'm sure if you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you weren't, also giddy is all get out when it comes to the uh the anticipation side of spring turkey season. We've got a lot to talk about today. We're gonna kind of be diving back into some of the prior mention, it wasn't a Q ⁇ A, but it was requests from our listeners via our social media stories and stuff, kind of diving into what y'all want to what y'all want to hear about. And I didn't think about this until kind of after last week's episode, but a lot of the um, and this is going off script already, we haven't made it a minute, um, but I'm already off the script of of kind of what I wanted to make sure to get out before we started our discussion, but all of the requests and stuff we got had to do with like questions and everything. Yeah I mean, like I was mentioning, there's there's different types of podcasts. Some are some are very good at storytelling, some are very good at hosting guests and interviews and diving into the you know very niche knowledge and stuff like that. And then there's some that that are just some folks are just one person doing it, you know. But yes, uh it seems that folks are tuning into our podcast to learn a little bit. And I want to make sure I put a little disclaimer here that I'm not claiming to know too terribly much about turkey hunting. I was about to say I don't know everything, but that's not even that'd be an understatement itself. So I don't any advice you get from this podcast is just kind of via past experiences, and a lot of times it's just um kind of refined through a bunch of things that didn't work and stuff that I figured out that didn't work. But that's turkey hunting, and everybody knows that. I don't care how good you are, you're never gonna be great at it. You can be really, really, really good, and I still don't think there is there is such a thing as a great, great turkey hunter. Um if you were, I mean your success rate would be out of the roof, and you'd probably be golfing or fishing or something because it'd get boring after a while, and I think I'd probably get bored with it myself if it was anything near easy. But it is cool to see that you know, kind of after um after years of doing it, that folks have established an expectation of what they expect to hear on our show and stuff. And it seems like a lot of folks just want to talk about, you know, want to hear stuff about our past experiences and stuff like that, and going into some of the things that we have learned along the way. And that's um that's cool with me. Yeah, we uh we also have stories and stuff like that, and we are gonna have some guests hopefully late February. I'm hoping to pile up on those once we go up to Nashville for the NWTF convention um in the middle of February. We've got a little podcast room there, and and we're gonna try to kind of rope as many folks in there as we can, depending on their availability and and uh willingness, but that's the plan at least. So looking forward to seeing y'all there at the NWTF Convention in Nashville in the coming weeks. We're already started our prep for it. But um, other than that, we got um YouTube video of that tutorial on the vest is up, so so I'll be bumping the orders right after that. So I I think it answered a lot of questions that folks might have been having, and uh just give you a good non-lifestyle look at it. It's just like here's the vest. Here's some zoomed-in stuff on the pockets. Kind of if you're holding it at a store, this is what you'd probably be looking at. So seemed to answer a bunch of questions on that, so that's good. Check it out if you haven't. And while you're there, go ahead and subscribe to the YouTube because our buddy Easton has got I mailed up a hard drive to him the other day. Okay.
Community Requests And Show Direction
SPEAKER_01Of a bunch of hunts. So he's he's working on getting us some hunt videos up that we'll be going on our YouTube in the very, very near future, and they're gonna be pretty consistent because I'm not doing them, and I'm inconsistent when it comes to that kind of stuff, so that's a big relief for me and you. And um he's good at it, and it's just a matter of getting it out there. I didn't have the time. So I haven't in three years, and I finally bit the bullets out. I ain't gonna have the time this year, I bet.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01So follow the YouTube channel, we're gonna have some hunts start coming pouring out on there. Um might carry on in the season, I don't know. Um bundles are back on the website, I think I mentioned that last week. 20% off when you bundle a bunch of the new gear. Uh y'all check it out, springleasure.com. I'm not gonna dive into that too much today. And while you're there, if you do want to use Pod 10 as your discount code for 10% off. I'm not positive that combines with the bundles. I'm not sure. So 10% off other things, maybe.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um that's it. All right. Um other news I have was Mississippi's turkey stamp is out, which is Oh yeah. I forgot all about that.
SPEAKER_02That is big news.
SPEAKER_01Yep, that released this week, and which is good. Anything anything for the wild turkey, I'm for. And um our buddy Adam Butler is we're lucky to have him. I'll always I'll die on that hill. We're lucky to have Adam as our guy, as our turkey guy in Mississippi. 100%. Um, he's really good at what he does, and he he cares about turkey hunters and turkeys. Mm-hmm. And that's his job. And he's got some folks are made for their job, he was made for it.
SPEAKER_02Right, 100%.
SPEAKER_01And um it's um I'm not gonna get into diving into the details of it, but um half our way more than half our listeners aren't from Mississippi, but yeah. Anything anything that can kind of get a better handle on this has been a long time coming, you know, they've been working on this for a long time, but uh anything that generates funds for the wild turkey is awesome. But I'm an analytical guy and I'm a data guy, and anything that can refine that data down to specific hunters, hunting a specific species kind of deal, you know. I mean I have a sportsman's license, so I mean I could be hunting rabbits and doves and that's it, but I'm in the bunch of turkey hunters. Or I might only be hunting turkeys and I'm in the bunch of all this. So anything that can kind of separate that to me that's worth ten bucks. Because then their analysis of allocating the resources they already have plus the extra ones now is gonna actually go to a better decision. If that makes sense. Right. That's what I'm pumped about. That might not even be the point of it, but yeah. That's that should help tremendously in that arena.
SPEAKER_02Anything cool you got? No, I mean I'm I'm fired up about the turkey stamp myself. Um just the understanding and being able to get analytics on turkey strictly turkey hunters versus just general hunters, that's a big thing for me. Um and hopefully, you know, we can see that data a little bit based off of this somehow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I don't know how they're gonna plan to do that, but yeah, I'm I don't I don't care as much about it as as seeing it as I I know that the folks who are making decisions on it will be able to make it's hard to make decisions based off how many turkeys you got and how many people are hunting them when it's very cloudy on how many people are hunting them. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_02So that's a big move in the right directions, I I see. So um, but yeah, that's about all we got going on. How's uh everything going? I hadn't been up at the shop last few weeks.
SPEAKER_01Rocking and rolling, we're going full throttle. Yeah, trying to get these orders out so y'all can bear with us. Just light them. They know no way around it it takes time out today. But um that and then also getting ready for an WTF, we're about to be biting down on that. But going into the discussion, which was the most requested topic of everybody, was finding turkeys.
SPEAKER_02Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_01And I kind of I grouped them into finding turkeys, but um, a lot of them were e-scouting, a lot of more boots on the ground scouting. There's different kinds of scouting, obviously, and there's different times for it, and there's a time and place for everything in turkey hunting, but um so we're gonna I don't know, just kind of dive into all of it, I guess. Which finding turkeys will be a little bit more of a it's I don't think it's a public versus private. I'm I'll go ahead and say that private turkeys you you don't have to look for as much
Gear, YouTube Plans, And Bundles
SPEAKER_01if you've funded there more and more, if you own the land, if you lease the land, if you're in a camp or something. Usually you got an idea, you got a handle on it. Right. Um, and that was it's funny because like when when I would hunt seals uh uh you know over the years or whatever, he'd been in a handful of camps and he would know kind of what the turkeys were probably gonna do, and I didn't, and it would just be like I don't know what we're gonna do now. Most times he was kind of right though. Yeah, it didn't make sense to me. I'm like, I don't think a turkey's gonna do that though. You know, why would they do that? I didn't know enough about the land to know that it would make sense for them to do that, but this the hesitation, the second guessing and stuff coming from a guy who's never seen it, would kind of get I would get in the way of us moving fluidly and we wind up going to kind of what Seals was saying in the first place. And he's just basing it off something that happened two years ago. Right. But a lot of times that does happen um when it comes to behaviors and stuff. A lot of times there's a reason they're on this hill, there's a reason they're in this ridge, there's a reason in this bottom. And unless something dramatic changes, they're probably gonna be in that same little routine. But public land, yeah, you a lot of times you're agreeing to it um if it's new. So so finding them is a big deal. And but but regardless, having a turkey to hunt is the biggest deal of them all.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01I think um that's that's well over half the battle right there, is finding one to hunt. And as long as I got one to hunt, I'm good. Yeah, I don't care where it's at. As long as I can find as long as I have found one. Exactly. Yeah. If I um if I come home and I look pretty beat up and I'm in a bad mood, it's it's not because I got beat by a turkey, it's because I couldn't find a turkey to get beat by. As long as I got one to get beat by, I'm all right. Um But yeah, so we're gonna dive into finding them, and there's a I mean, there's a million ways to skin a cat, I know, but this is just kind of how we kind of go about it. And I'll probably think of a few things to throw in there mid-episode, and I'll probably think of a few things that I left out after the episode. So y'all, um, y'all bear with me there. And and I think there's there should be a the availability for some comments, maybe on some of these episodes, if y'all want to throw one in there of what about this or what about that. First thing you gotta do is look for them if you're gonna try to find them. You you definitely ain't gonna find them if you don't look for them. And and the folks who don't look for them, you probably ain't gonna find them if you do. They're you're probably gonna be finding them after somebody else has found them. Yeah. And you're gonna be you'll be hunting some behind. Yeah, you're gonna be hunting some pressure turkeys at that point. Right. But or just finding tracks.
SPEAKER_02And they were there.
SPEAKER_01Right, you could be finding where turkeys were. Yeah. That's more of it. But that don't mean they still gonna be there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Which that throws a whole nother question, you know. If you're finding sign, you gotta learn how to read how uh recent it was. Yeah, that's a big thing. Because like if you're if you're finding stuff from two weeks ago, it's probably changed, you know, kind of at some point. Uh not always, but a good chance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So and um and I've I've we'll we'll dive into that because that's a big deal. And we'll we'll dive into that here towards it, not in the middle episode, tail end of the episode, but if there's a if there's
Mississippi Turkey Stamp And Data
SPEAKER_01a a procedure to go about it in in terms of maybe narrowing it down, the best way is obviously get it get out of the truck. Get out of the truck to go find them. Go put your boots on the ground, go look for the turkeys, seeking you will find kind of deal. Um, but I understand there's an efficient efficiency aspect to everything, and and I've wasted a lot of time looking for turkeys, and I don't think I would want to disservice the audience by telling too many things about that, because I learn more in those wasted mornings than I will probably be able to teach anybody in the podcast, if that makes sense. So um we'll we'll refine it to a little bit of kind of what we look for, but not necessarily everything, because some of that is up to you to find, and I think in the finding you will learn more about turkeys and their behavior than I can actually do in a in an episode. Right. And um and I worked hard finding turkeys, so I'm not passing up too many freebies.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01But finding finding where to get out of the truck though, that's the hard part. Is a is a big deal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um I I I can't tell you where because everything is situational. But the the first thing you kind of gotta do is is break down to when and where's. Where they where they roost is gonna be a little bit different when they hang out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And all the way down to the time of year and stuff, which we'll get into. But yeah, I mean, if you're gonna if you're gonna listen for 'em, obviously you want to find them on a roost, or even if you're hunting them, you want to start around the roost. And and if I'm if I'm looking for good roost areas, this could be kind of I'd say more on a map than it is just, you know, walking around and looking at a hill. If if you're trying to find a place to get out of the truck at, whether it be to listen or to put your boots on the ground and walk or whatever have you, finding finding where they roost is gonna a lot of times be around water.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01And that that seems like, well, I knew that. Yeah. But did you trust it enough? Because that's a lot of times I've I've tried to find them where they roost, and that's not the first thing I circled on the map, and lo and behold, after a morning or two and not finding them, I'm like, they ain't no water around here. You know, like these are all beautiful areas. There's a ton of turkey looking woods, but ain't no water. Right. You're gonna have to have water. So creeks, rivers, stuff like that. I don't I'm not I ain't a budget. I don't know if it's a safety thing or uh predators can't get to them easier. I I really don't know.
SPEAKER_02But or necessarily just the need of water. Yeah. Thirsty. I I don't I have no idea.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I've seen them roost over breaks stuff weed up in there, and then they fly the trees out. Um almost like a like a different animal, not even like a turkey.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, I've seen that a lot, especially in like slug, sluh, swamp style areas, they're gonna roost normally on over some water. They'll get up in it. Yeah, and I mean they'll be six, eight hundred yards from the edge of the land. Yeah. And that don't always mean they're gonna come to that you think that's the closest point to ground, and and sometimes they go a further away to ground.
SPEAKER_01They know where that ground is, and that and that's the the the funnest turkey ones I've been on is is when I'm hunting one in that exact situation where it's slewy, there's a bunch of standing water, and I can remember one when I was around college age and I was hunting those on public ground, and I watched this turkey for two hours, and he was about 65 yards at 18 different directions. He'd try to come in and there'd be some water there, and he'd walk out, and then he'd come back. But he imagine like 18 times a turkey came into you and just stopped at 60 65 yards. It was still awesome because you never know if he's coming back, and he would, and he'd just come hammering back, but he just could not close ground and I couldn't really move because it was wide open. It was like March 18th or something like that. Um in a in a big river bottom and stuff, and it was it was fun, frustrating because there was no I just wanted to like yell at him like if you'll go left, just go left. You know, there's nothing I can do to make you do that, but I I'll tell you how I got in here because he wanted to bad. Right. He just couldn't, and he was, I mean, he was you know looking this way and he he was getting mad. It looked like frustrated. He he walked off finally, and you know, I I killed one the next day on the other side of the creek. I don't know if it was him or not, but I heard one back that way. I'm like, well, I know where I'm not getting tomorrow. Yeah, because me and him need a break and uh went came in from the other way and first time. You know, no water on that side. Yeah. But um, but yeah, man, if I'm looking for water, I'm looking for that, like we mentioned in an episode uh not long ago, the the oxbow shapes in the creeks and rivers. For whatever reason, I I I tend to find a lot of turkeys around there when it comes to roosting. Um it needs to be open. You can't be a cutover, the three-year-old cutover, something like that. They ain't gonna fly into that, flying a road in that, right? But they ain't gonna fly into that cutover, more than likely. Um and low pressure, like think comfort when you think roost. They think comfort and well think comfort more so for all of it, but including roost, but also where can they be heard from on the roost? Like they want to be heard. That their their objective is to get herd into here, right? So higher elevation, usually. Um if there's a group of little knolls and stuff, they're probably gonna be in the highest. Depending on the trees, they'll they'll
The Real Challenge: Finding Turkeys
SPEAKER_01reach some little trees or some big trees. Um if I'm listening for them, if I'm trying to figure out where they're at, I ain't trying to get on in the roost. I've done that before. Um I try to get 100 and something, 150, 200, 300 yards from the roost, depends on the time of year. If I can help it. The last thing you want to do is pull up and park under them, because they will fly down into a gravel road. I don't care if it's daggone main road on a place. Right. They'll fly down into it and walk off of it. Yep. Because they don't have because they can see it. They know if a vehicle's there, they know if somebody has come up there. It they're safe in the tree in their mind. You know what I'm saying? So they're they're kind of okay as long as as long as they're not on the ground. That does that kind of eliminate some of the danger there and they know when and where they can fly from.
SPEAKER_02Um another thing I like to do when trying to to find you know where they probably are gonna end up roosting or hanging out. I mean, this kind of goes for all of it. If I have e-scoted a place and I think it looks good, I like to go put boots on the ground in four or five of those places just to see if my e-scouting's correct or not. It looks good from the air a lot of times, and you get there. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've pulled up on a place that I, you know, I'm I'm telling myself, there's a you know, I got a 99% chance of hearing one right here. You know, I convince myself I am correct, and I pull up and it's a briar thicket that you can't see an inch and a half into and you can't get to there and all this other stuff.
SPEAKER_01And that yeah, that's what I was saying. There's there's a process you gotta go with because I'm not saying this in a bad way, but a lot of folks ask for e-scouting tips. And I'm like, that helps, but that ain't gonna find you a turkey. You still gotta know what you're doing. Yeah, you know, like and I don't I don't do a ton of e-scouting. Right, and I don't I don't a lot. If I if I go to a place, I'll m I'm telling you more time, I don't sit up at night looking for places on, you know, in and laying in my bed and just just analyzing and analyzing and analyzing all this tope and stuff. I'm like, literally I look for the water. Is there a way I can kind of get to it by morning? Yeah. And then I'll go to it. And I mean and in a way I've gotten pretty good at finding turkeys when it comes to being out of state or somewhere you you know what to sit through, you know what to what you know what what turkeys like and don't like and stuff like that. And that comes with time. I there's no way to me for me to tell you the the intuitive nature to that. Right. Um but it's just a process of refining down the situation. So I mean you got roost size, you got the where they're gonna be in the mid middle of the day. All right, that's gonna be a little bit more of their kind of their breeding habits, which is uh according to Dr. Chamberlain last year, he was mentioning kind of this theory of the the lek, the the leck area. They're a lek species of bird. They they've returned to the spot, they're very comfortable here. Something about the curvature, the slope, the out little altitude, I don't, you know, I don't know, but it something about it they return to every year. He was kind of mentioning protect at all cost because it takes a while to establish that very comfortable, predictable area for them to breed at. Right. And they they like that. Don't mess it up, you know, got a deal. Don't don't cut them trees down. Um because because that is a big deal when it comes to you know repopulation and stuff like that. And I'm not a turkey, I don't know where they like to breed at, but I would think open area stuff where they feel safe. That that that's when the the hangout spot is gonna be a lot more to do with food and safety and stuff like that. Strut zones.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01I've always wondered what that meant. Like a strut zone, like an end zone with a strut zone, you know. Right. It it it's I'm thinking like the the mid mid morning hangout.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think it's if I'm and this is just I'm I'm wondering if this is what people mean when they say stress on where they can be seen and herd is where I think when I hear that word.
SPEAKER_02And it sounds silly, but where they're gonna go fishing for hens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And that's their their stage. Stage, yeah. You know, call it that. Where where the hens can see them and where they can hear them. Yep. That's probably not gonna be a little bowl. They're not gonna go hang out there and hope something on the outside can hear 'em. Right. They're gonna go where it's open, where it's high, where the sun's hitting, where that where they look pretty at, where they sound pretty at. They're a little bit conceited in that nature. Yeah. Um that's gonna be a little bit more, I mean, if there's a bunch of elevations, think benches. Think, you know, uh if there's like a if there's a bunch of very tightly placed together lines and there's a few that are wider, and then they go back to being tight, that's a bench. Right. And that's where they can get and they can just wow down in there and just hammer through down this mountain. It is awesome if you've never hunted in the mountains and and when they get on that bench. And they they I've I've noticed a lot, they they have their spot.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's like the roost, the ruler roofs could not the literal roost, but like they're as big as this two by what is it, two by four table.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's their spot. And they don't like getting off of it. And I've seen them, uh, Jordan Bliss and I were hunting with seals a while back, and and there was this turkey. I think to this day he was on a little mound, a little knoll of a mound, but it the top of it wasn't bigger than this. Right. Because me and Jordan could not figure out how in the world he would have been in this big gully. And I don't think he was on the other side, and we don't think he was on this side, and we heard him fly to like to move, and there was one little think of a cypress knot. That's what this dirt looked like. Like that at the top, like a perch.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_01I think that's where he was. I don't know. But it was almost like he was just standing there like on a roost, just hammering at his hammering at that time. We were very, very close. Right. Like we thought at any second he was gonna walk out. And he didn't we heard some wings and he gobbled again a little bit further down. So he flew off something. Right. But he was he was eye level with us, I promise you that. So I don't know, it doesn't make a ton of sense, but um Yeah, and and and then if they're with a lot of hens, they're gonna be going where the hens are going. So I mean that's when you break it down into food sources, grain, acorns, stuff like that. Where you gonna find that at? Grains will look at the plant. It's got grains on it. That's where they're gonna be eating those at. But at the same time acorns, you gotta also think these ain't acorns, this ain't the acorns in November. Right. This is acorns from November. So where are the acres gonna be now? They might not be where you deer hunted at. They're gonna be in the ditches in the ravines in the bottom where water's pushed them down. Turkeys f flip
Roost Logic: Water, Elevation, Comfort
SPEAKER_01leaves over a little more. Right. Um, so that they kinda ain't a scavenger, but they they're wired to look for stuff. And that's that's where you're gonna find that scratching and stuff.
SPEAKER_02And and I don't and a lot of times that's also looking for bugs. So if you got a bunch of rotted out acorns there, bugs are gonna be in and out of them rot rotted out of acorns, so they're looking for bugs and acorns all at the same time. They may not be even be eating the acorns that you found washed up in this little corner or pocket of a something, you know, or another, but um you know, a lot of bugs will be around rotting leaves and and and acorns and I mean anything. You know, it may be those cypress balls that their bugs are living in that rot. You know, anything like that that's just oil logs, things like that end up in one spot. Cow patties. Cow patties is a big one. They like them.
SPEAKER_01I've seen them do that a lot. And um and and and then the fields that might not have like grains on them or whatever, but there's there's certain, you know, that ain't Dudley. But you know, there's certain things folks plants for the sake of bugs, not for the sake of the turkey eating it, but the bugs it brings in. Right. Um which isn't just as much of a s strategical effort, you know, as the other stuff. But yeah, just but and and just as much as the food kind of dynamic is their safety. So I I think they do like to get in the open. Um but there's a lot, especially when there's a lot of eyes and stuff. And that turkey, and I think of when I think of a turkey's if he's drumming and strutting and stuff like that, I don't they don't do that if they're not comfortable. I mean, if you think differently, go move your foot in front of one as he's strutting in there, he's he's gonna his news gonna go back up and he's gonna he ain't gonna sit there and try to strut again usually. Right. Unless you have some live decoy there, you know, taking his mind off of you. But um, but yeah, if he sees you, he ain't gonna just keep strutting and stuff.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01So if he's strutting, I think he's putting a lot of trust into the other eyes. And if you'll watch turkeys in there in the field, I've never, to my knowledge, seen all the turkeys' heads down at one time. Right. It's almost like they're on a rotation, yeah.
SPEAKER_02One's one searching or looking.
SPEAKER_01And and and they're in sync too. It's the second, I mean, they'll be 30 yards apart. The second this one's this one's head staying up in the back and they're all pecking up here. One, he puts his head down, one comes up. And he puts his down head down, this one comes up. It's like they're always got eyes out, and then you just multiply it by two by however many turkeys there are, and that's you know, that's kind of his level of comfort. So he's back there strutting, turning, twisting, doing whatever, he don't he's gonna know something coming up after him. So, but if they're in the open, it makes that a lot easier, obviously. So and and and they might not be there all day, but if you're looking for scratching and there is a food source around, whether it be acres and stuff like that, that's where you you know, start there, don't start in thicket. Um and don't start in stuff where it's this much water around, you know, anywhere outside outside of Florida or not. I mean, I've killed them in water all over the places, but it's very rare. Right. I I killed them in thickets, and it's very rare. I wouldn't recommend trying to do that. That was just situational.
SPEAKER_02Um another thing is is the weather so much. Oh heck yeah. As far as wind and and and rain comes, I I mean I've I've found myself, you know, getting on certain sides of slopes because I know the wind's coming over that. And I mean that kind of throws into deer betting um a little bit, knowledge there that I learned from deer, you know, more than turkeys. And it's worked out quite a few times for the turkey's sake. Um if you got a strong west wind, probably get on the east side of the what is it?
SPEAKER_01You better get me tied up now. Yeah, I don't need to do that directional thing. So that messes me up. It's gonna tie my brain in and just as much. But if you Where the wind ain't blowing. That's that's what I have in my little jot on nose is like the most important thing when it comes down to this refinery of info is where are they not. That's that's kind of, I think I mentioned earlier, like I'm not saying I'm just good at this. I've gotten pretty accurate at finding the turkeys, though, in a new spot, and a new I ain't never stepped foot in this place before, but I've got I've gotten pretty good at within the first time or two, first try or two, one of them's probably right, you know, and I think it has a lot to do with whether they're not. So my my choices all of a sudden go from in the more novice sense, you know, years ago, boom, here's X XWMA, XX National Forest, and it's huge. Right. And I'm like, I have no idea. Well, now I look at that and go, they're not here, and they're not here, and they're probably not here yet. And so now I'm my map is looking like you know, very a much smaller, condensed thing in my mind. Right. Um they can be anywhere. And I want to make sure that's said in this episode is that there's nowhere they can be, and there's nowhere they're definitely gonna be. Um, but you know, if that they don't like to be in grasses up taller in their head.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's a f yeah.
SPEAKER_01They that they can't see through it. They don't know what's on over there. They don't like being anywhere they can't see or hear.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Anything that that hinders their ability to live is a is the factor that matters in their in their mind. Also, even short, like little short wheat and stuff like that. Yeah, oh that's a food source. Yeah, well if it's wet, it ain't it ain't worth it. I mean, I mean it's still a food source, but it ain't worth them getting bogged down and not unable to fly. You know, if there's a bunch of dew or it rained last night, they're gonna they're gonna might be on the edge waiting for that stuff to dry out, but they ain't gonna fly down into this wet field, no. Right. Because that's gonna get their feathers wet. That they ain't worried about looking pretty. They're worried about being too heavy to fly away from a coyote or something, you know. So they're they're not gonna be in there yet, they might be in there later. Um and they they just they trust their instinct just like we would if we were given the same situation. We we just try to make it a little too definite.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I think that's a a lot of the reason why you'll see them in cow pastures versus hayfields, um, is because the cows kind of keep it mowed down. But think of the woods in the cow in the cow pastures. Oh, yeah. It's like you burn them over here. Look like you burn them, yeah. 100%. Um eat down, eat down. Yeah, that's um, I mean, I it's always a lot of people have always have asked me that question. Why do you find turkeys around cows? You know, and there's there's so many different different reasons. Reasons. You know, a the feet the versus a tall field of grass versus you know, like you said, the the woods are normally more clean around there. The understory is is clean. Look like you burned them. They've there's if you got cows, they gotta have water. So there's gonna be water on that place somewhere. And the bugs, I mean you got uh uh why you think you see all the what
E-Scouting Vs. Boots On Ground
SPEAKER_02is it, tick tick bird eager things out there? A lot of times that's them chasing grasshoppers, so there's a big grasshopper hatch there.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, those uh those tick birds ain't necessarily just following dogs. There's a reason they're following the cows, you know, there's something. And I mean you might even break it down to dang nitrogen in the soil and grass, because they I mean they also they they gotta have grit in the crawl. So so I I think they can probably find a rock anywhere.
SPEAKER_02Anywhere, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it's not necessarily a big deal, but um, but they do have to they have to dust. They they need some very fine, powdery dirt. And when it comes, and we're talking about finding, I'm not, you know, we're kind of gearing off them now. We're talking about where they're gonna be. Right. Which is, you know, in essence, to find them, you gotta know where that is. But when it comes to finding them, period, um, looking for things like the nest bowls. Not nest bowls, dust bowls. Yeah. Did I say nesting earlier or did I say dusting earlier?
SPEAKER_02You said dusting earlier. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um I had nesting in my in the back of my head. Um, but yeah, finding them dust bowls is gonna be very powdery looking dirt, usually in a road. Usually you're usually gonna walk by it. And that's you know, that's where they're gonna be dusting off at. It'll be a little bowl. And um you might not see no tracks around it because the tracks are, you know, the wind blows one time and it blows that dust over there. And then they get they gotta have that for bug bug stuff. That almost hygiene thing. Right. Um and they're gonna sit there and they're gonna preen for half a day. Yeah. And and preening they move their feathers and put a little oil on their beak and they put it on the feather, and that's how they become waterproof, weatherproof, stuff like that. And they rearrange the feathers and they very meticulously align everything and sheen everything down. That's that's part of their daily life, and they're they're not thinking about breeding and thinking about eating and stuff like that. They're not they don't care about you, honestly. Um They're gonna do that in a pretty comfortable area, too. They want to be comfortable there. Because they're their heads kind of down and doing you know, preoccupied stuff. Probably want to do it in a group. So you see one 1130 and he's by himself walking across a cow pasture, and you got a box call and a shotgun in the truck, you got a chance. Oh, yeah. Because you know, there's not much as hanging out, he's doing. Um But but yeah, when it comes to finding necessarily the tracks and stuff, and and these are not like you know, little secret tidbits or whatever, but like if I'm if I'm looking for tracks, I'm gonna get obviously dirt, mud, stuff like that. I might not look for tracks if I know for a fact it's been really dry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But even if it has been really dry, you know, there's go find you some ruts where there's still some standing water looking at bottom of there. You have no idea how long that track's been there, but it'll tell you if there's turkeys there. Yeah. I did that uh last year, I think I was PA maybe, I don't know. But uh log and road, they made not terribly long before. And um Yeah, I also track like track tracks. Like so everything was kind of eliminated, but in the in the ruts that it ran over, there was turkey tracks in almost every one of them. Yeah. So so they've been covered by a uh piece of equipment. But it was able, I mean I was able to know, hey, there is turkeys around here. It looked like there should be turkeys around here. It just kind of verified that I wasn't in a in an odd spot or something. Because that will happen. You you you get out, you you you pick an area on a map, and then and especially in some of these areas I've wanted as of recently, it's all pretty. It's all turkey boys.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You guys get as mine. I don't I don't that that ties me into a knot too. That's when you gotta get out and figure out where they're at. And it's it's tough if two of the days are cloudy and overcast and low pressure, and you know, you only have one day, you better make the most of it. Yeah. Because you don't find them on that day, and it's it's gonna be tough to find them because they could be literally anywhere. And everybody sees these woods too, and they know they think they're pretty too, so you can probably run into some honors.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. I found that a lot myself. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So but if you're gonna be if you're gonna be looking for say scratching, they look think the banks on the sides of roads. Yeah. Like almost kind of like their chest level, they'll just knock all this you know, leaves down and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02And um a lot of times like I'll find it on on the high point on the side of the road, scratching. It'll be like if I if I come over a hill and there's a you know a high point of a hill on a road, a lot of times I'll park at the tip of that hill and get up and walk out, you know, just 20, 35 yards off the road. And, you know, not a lot of times, but enough for me to check, I find scratching right there. Because that's the highest point of elevation close to a road. Um and a lot of times you will see it on that chest high bank area too, where one is slipped down there a little bit.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, I mean I and and and a lot I'm saying, you know, if you're just looking if you're looking only for scratching, you know, kind of some spots I've uh tend to find them. And and then um you know, you ain't gonna find a scratching in a big field or whatever, you'll find tracks in there and and the best places to uh and and then a lot of times you'll you'll see you'll know if it's turkey scratching most times because it looked like a dang tornado came through there. Um sometimes it'll be a little little bit, but a lot of times it's gonna be Oh yeah. That that's the one that matters. You might have known like just because the turkey flips and leaves over, don't mean that's where the turkey's hanging out at. And that's catch 22 there. I've I've I've caught myself arguing with myself over well, if the turkeys were here, they ate everything. They're not gonna come back here. All I know now is a turkey exists, not necessarily where it where it's going and stuff like that. You gonna have to hunt them to find that out, is all it comes down to. There is no real answer. Yeah. That turkey could be here or there and anywhere.
SPEAKER_02Right. I don't pay attention a lot to scratching as like you would a food plot for a deer. You know. I I think we need to say that. Um I kind of uh like you just said, I find scratching and I'm like, okay. It's a confidence booster, if nothing else, of turkeys exist around this area. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then we're still kind of like where do you even get out of the truck at? Then kind of wearing out of the truck, where do you even listen for when you listen at and stuff? Um, you know, so so just checking that off that turkeys exist is a big deal. And then and and then it's gonna depend on the weather. Like you said, if it's gonna be on the weather, they're they're they're gonna be out of the wind. They're not gonna be in the middle of the wide open on a really hot day. Right. Don't waste your time looking for them in the middle of the hot day in the middle of the field. They ain't gonna be there, they're gonna be in the shade.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Um don't go listening for them when it's really windy. You ain't gonna hear them gobble. They might not be gobbling, and they're probably gonna be in a spot where the wind ain't hit them, and you ain't gonna hear them gobble at the dick gobble.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's just it's just little things like that to take into effect, and they're all situational. But and and the time of the year, and they're gonna be where the hens wanna be most times. Which is crazy because you're like, oh, well, the hens go to the gobbler, and the the gobbler, well, the hens, the hens rule everything.
unknown100%.
SPEAKER_01That hen will go to the gobbler, gobblers going to the hen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, that's real nature. That's you know, the hen don't there's no contract obligation for that hen to have to go to the gobbler. He wants her to, and a lot of times, you know, she will.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01But if she don't, he's gonna leave, he's gonna walk towards that hen. And and the same thing is, and once he's behind her, he's kind of I know I've seen this, and it and it kind of screwed
Strut Zones, Benches, And Midday Habits
SPEAKER_01with me. Up in the mountains a couple years ago, I watched we've done a podcast on this, I watched a turkey corral a set of 10, 11 hens, and I've never seen the stress on an animal's face like he has. And just watching him from a I mean, I was a flying wall, he had no idea I was there. I had a bird's eye view of it, and there was hens coming out of the woodwork at him. He got one time. And um, I sat through the rain since 3 a.m. Unknowingly that it was gonna just downpour and it was gonna probably rain. But that was my only chance. I had to walk through the wide open to get there. Gary and I were hunting. We had bumped him twice, and I was like, this is this is the only way I'm gonna kill him. If I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna get in there so early it don't even matter. And and just sit and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. And I did a fly down, did a couple tree elps, and just sat. And it it was a good six or seven minutes went by, nothing you know, answered like that, but I mean he just pow right and he was in the open, and I thought I could see the whole open. I'm like, now I have no idea where he's at. He was just right over the little roll on my left. And I I mean, I'm in the dark shade of the woods, kind of at the top, big roly hills at the bottom, and there's a big cut over here, and this is where we'd walk in, and there were boot tracks freaking everywhere. Right. I think people came in from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. since we left. I mean, it was like everybody knew about them. And and they'd stay up here on the high, and you couldn't get, once you were here, you could not do anything. There was zero moves available that they couldn't see.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01And um, and I bet you a lot of times, so many times they were in those woods and saw people thinking that field was empty and walked through it, and they just they never knew a turkey existed. They just got out there, came back. Um But now I was on I was on the right, I was on the good side then, and and and made it through, and I was like, okay. And but I was able to watch him corral these hands, and he was so stressed. And I I felt I would feel bad if I called and just insinuated, hey, you want one more. I think he would have just given me the bird kind of deal, you know. Um so maybe they maybe they do push them a little bit. He he pushed them all the way up this hill, and he pushed them. I'm telling you, from he'd have chased his right kneecap from me. I mean, these hands were walking right here and right here, and he wasn't 50 yards, he walked up the hill. These hands, I mean he I mean he went and grabbed them with his beak, pulled them, jerked them around this way and that way, and got them in order, and they kept trying to run off, and he'd sprint over there and run, push them back, and he'd trying to push them like cattle. You know, it was really like hurting chickens though. I mean, you can imagine. But he pushed them up there and he stopped by halfway, and every single one of them got. single line while right by me. I'm thinking this is really cool. Yeah. To watch this. And he was he was like a just a monarch of a bird. Just a noble looking old turkey had a head was that big and just but yeah I mean th those hens I I think that that gobbler follows them. But I think a lot of times he's he's got something in mind. He's pushing them so that made me second guess a lot of that. Kind of who who's who's running this show. But if it's later in the season those hens are late. I mean there's a difference in hens laying and hens setting. You know if they're laying they're going to be near the thick stuff that a hen likes to you know lay a nest on and they're going to make their way there. When they're setting they're not getting far from it.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01So those gobblers are going to start roosting not far from it if they're going to get with them. That's a good chance to kill them. You know the hens ain't got many m many hours to spare those gobblers are still wanting to breed as much as possible. I think that loafing period in the middle gets a little longer for those gobblers. You'll almost see them start getting back into pairs or something. You know they're not just so low running wide open. They are looking for a little bit of food here and they're probably hungry. They're tired they they're trying to chill a little bit and they'll honor hen calling them looking for it you know and that's a good time to kill them but um yeah find it find finding find them where the hens want to get their destination so to speak. Right. There ain't no way to find that necessarily on a map and be pretty accurate with it I don't think but you just got to get out there and and and pick up on it and and that's part of it. That's the that's the fun part of hunting. You don't want to take all of it out. Right. You know if we can help you get a good idea where to start where you don't go three years without hearing a turkey you know you're probably going to stop turkey hunting. So if we can help you get to hearing a turkey awesome but uh but I'm telling you the year two that I went and did not hear a turkey made me love turkey hunting so much more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah I mean if you were batting a hundred or a thousand or however you call it I mean it wouldn't be fun anymore I wouldn't think and so like I mean you don't want to necessarily just know you're going in there to you know pop up something comes up shoot one go home that just wouldn't be fun no no more so the the playing around figuring it out is is 99 95% of the fun part of turkey out in the way we take out um that's just me though. If we uh if we can sorry got a you got a water I got one but it ain't doing much I th I think it's his the dust in this warehouse yeah for moving so many things around right now.
SPEAKER_01I mean it's it's rough I can everything's kind of glassy the past week or two and God knows what stuck in my sinuses from all these boxes and everything but but anyway before I have a deck of masma attack over here remind y'all to check us out on YouTube. We got some hunts coming along and uh that VES tutorial as well as um we're trying to upload some of these um video some of these pod um some of these podcasts to YouTube as well so you might have to get us out of here.
SPEAKER_02Anyways thank you for listening to the Spring Legend podcast. We'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_00That's good enough
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