The Spring Legion Podcast

Sleazy of Pinhoti Project | Old-School Turkey Hunting and Most Memorable Hunt

• Spring Legion Turkey Hunting • Season 5 • Episode 146

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0:00 | 40:23

We sit down with Eric “Sleazy” Warlick of The Pinhoti Project to trace his path from a young turkey hunter in North Carolina to a 49-state Super Slam, built on old-school mentors, truck camping, and a working man’s calendar. Along the way we talk family hunts, small travel hacks, and the kind of luck you earn in the turkey woods.

• origin of the “Sleazy” nickname
• first turkey seasons in North Carolina and early mentors
• the moment those hooks set on a young Sleazy
• learning without internet, tapes and magazines
• completing the 49-state Super Slam without rigid plans
• balancing a full-time upholstery job with travel
• truck-camping setups, cold-night tricks, simple meals
• superstitions, lucky camo, and minimalist gear
• favorite hunts, first birds, and family milestones
• safety on the road and in the woods

Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe to the podcast! There's plenty in store for spring turkey season 2026!


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Meet Eric “Sleazy” Warlick

SPEAKER_00

Alright, welcome back to another episode of the Spring Legion Podcast. My name is Chase Farrier. I'll be hosting today. Today I am joined by Mr. Eric Warlick. Is it Warlick or Warlick? Warlick. How you say it, yeah. It sounded the same, but it felt different.

SPEAKER_01

Well, usually the way I say things is totally different from every other way people say things.

SPEAKER_00

Me and you both, my man. These thick southern accents get hit on a little hard, especially when you're traveling around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

When I was a kid, I tried to run from it. You know, I was a little bit embarrassed of it. High school and stuff. Now it's sort of working out in my favor a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

It is. You kind of got got one of those I I'd listen to you tell some more stories, just hear you talk, man. Um most of y'all may know him as as Sleazy, though. And uh that may be the first question I ask you is where did where did when did Sleazy come into play and where did it come from?

SPEAKER_01

Well, growing up uh growing up playing ball and stuff with all my pals and stuff, they caught uh it was easy.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

And uh, you know, like Eric Wright from NWA, so I got the easy. Well, the first time when I started hunting with Dave and Squirrel, we was on a trip somewhere, and uh they was asking me about the nickname, and uh Dave said, Ah, that ain't gonna work, you know. And uh a few days later I killed this turkey. I can't remember how I killed him, but they said, You sort of done that turkey sleazy. And then it that has sort of been stuck ever since. It was it's been that ever since. So now I just if somebody calls me anything, I'll usually answer to it.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. I I get that. I've uh I've had my fair share of nicknames that didn't stick. You know, let's say that. I ain't even got none that that are actually a nickname at this point, but I I I'll answer to about anything. Yeah. Especially Hunter. I get called Hunter more than anything.

SPEAKER_01

So um Yeah, you ain't got as much gray hair, so you you all right on it.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. Yeah, so that's uh that was that was one one of my more uh popular questions I thought to ask you is is where the nickname came from and how that started. And um My wife hates it. Oh, I bet. I bet. They don't ever like nicknames, it seems.

SPEAKER_01

No, she didn't like the one before or the the the this one, so they want to call you that government name, as I as they say.

SPEAKER_00

So well um well let's dive in. Let's uh if you don't mind, tell me something about like your where you came from, where you started hunting,

First Turkey Season Memories

SPEAKER_00

um and and how you got into to being a the turkey hunter yard.

SPEAKER_01

Well uh grew up like everybody else. Uh my daddy was taking me out in the woods uh as a kid in diapers. He just took me whatever he was doing. And uh more around my teenage years. I think he may have took me turkey hunting a time or two when I was real young, but I remember hearing turkeys gobbled, and it wasn't nothing that uh that we ever did enough for me to and I was too young to understand, I guess, but around uh 94-ish, they opened the first turkey season in my county of North Carolina. They had never been hunted.

SPEAKER_00

Really?

SPEAKER_01

And uh my daddy had killed a few turkeys, but he had some friends that were really good old school turkey hunters. I'm talking, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

The ones you want to hang around.

SPEAKER_01

Still, still trying to hang around them, but they getting gone, you know. Right, right. Now I'm sort of trying to uh I'm I'm turning into that. The old the old dude nobody really wants to hear, but he's always talking. But anyway, yeah, the uh it was the day before the first turkey season we had in my county, and my dad's friend Mark Franklin was his name. Woody is what we he had a nickname, Woody. They showed up there and they said, We're going turkey hunting in the morning. I wasn't really into it. I you know, I hadn't done it enough to know anything about it. At that time where I live now, still to this day, you could walk out in our backyard and you could hear a half a dozen of them in the evening.

SPEAKER_00

Man, man.

SPEAKER_01

You know, you You didn't have to be Dave or Matt or any of these high-tech callers. I mean, you about r rub a pot and a pan together and they was gonna come to you, and they're unpressured birds. Oh yeah. Anyway, we went out that next morning. I didn't really want to go, but they made me. And uh me and my daddy sat on one ridge, and Woody, he went on out and uh turkeys got the goblin. They was just everywhere, you know. We wasn't really in where you needed to be. Of course I didn't I didn't know ten yards from 500 yards, I didn't know how close you needed to be to a turkey. I was just sitting there with dad. Anyway, maybe 30 or 40 minutes after daylight, I heard Woody shoot out the ridge. We sat there and turkeys quit gobbling, sun started coming up, looked coming around the ridge, and he he had it across his shoulder carrying it back out through there and uh I said, Look at that. He walked up there and laid it down in them uh leaves and it opened that tail up and I just knew that that was that was what I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_00

You wanna you wanna sit there and stare at as near as you can?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I didn't even I didn't even come close to killing one. Just looking at that thing, I said, I don't know, I don't know why it done

The Hook: Seeing A Fan Unfold

SPEAKER_01

that. I I can't tell you why it does certain people like that. It just does. And my daddy, he he hunted them off and on all his life, but it never did him like that. Right, never beat him, I guess you say he loved to get up and hear them, and he loved to see when I finally started killing him, uh he loved to see me. And occasionally he'd go and kill one, or he he he was bad to miss him. Um but uh yeah, uh like a few weeks later, Woody came up and picked me up one day after school and we went and he yelped me one up in the evening. Uh it walked up there about 25 or 26 yards and I killed him. I had a Remington 870, that's what they gave me. And uh I didn't know what to do once I killed him. Uh he was flopping around. I just walked up there and held the gun on him. I said, if this thing gets to moving too much, I'm just gonna shoot him again, you know. And Woody came up there and picked him up by the head and told me what I needed to do. Right. You know, it seems like the uh I just ran with it from there. I mean, it was immediately I started trying to collect information, uh, but them days it was magazines, a few hunting videos, wasn't no internet forums and uh none of that. You you either knowed somebody that turkey hunted and learned from them. And uh, you know, I excuse me, just growing up, I'd be watching all them Moss Yoke, Real Tree, Primos. I said, Oh, they was hunting all over the world, and I was just infatuated with every single bit of it. I would buy, I'd go in Walmart, and you know, like after turkey season, before turkey season, nothing was on sale. After turkey season, all that stuff was on sale.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

And I I was usually getting down about my spin level then, so I'd buy leftover DVDs or VC VHS probably at that time, and and uh yeah, I my turkey calls all came from Walmart, probably like most people in that generation.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And uh the next year I had bought me a turkey vest and uh some turkey calls, and I'd practiced on them, figured out a little bit. Uh killed a turkey the next year, me and Woody again. We doubled that year, and uh the third year I hunted was the first year I got to go out of state. My daddy had always hunted uh South Carolina and that's uh he said, You want to go? And at that time I was still hunting on a youth license. I didn't have to buy a license, so it wasn't costing a whole lot. So went down there and it was it was old school. Uh he knew all them guys. They all showed up every year. Uh he didn't he really didn't go to turkey hunt. His buddies, Woody and a few other men that he knew, he liked just to hunt camp. He liked to have a fire, he liked to cook and drink beer. I mean, that's what he that was what he enjoyed doing. And if he felt like going hunting the next day win, if he didn't, he might just drink some more beer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, he was the camp hangout man. Yeah. I think every good deer camp has at least one of those.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but but he knowed he knew the area so well he knowed where all these turkeys were.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

And uh he'd get up and take me, and he might go with me or he might just take me to the gate.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

And, you know, I'll be here when you come out. And uh I was I was just I was just so uh I just wanted to to talk to every one of them people and get as much as I could out of them. And you know, some of them it was a different time in turkey hunting. Right. It was starting

Learning Old-School Ways

SPEAKER_01

things were starting to open up a little bit, but most of them old dogs, they wasn't gonna tell you a whole lot. Right.

SPEAKER_00

That's kinda kinda how I grew up too, the the older guys that we hung out with. It was if you got anything out of 'em, you you better hold on to it tight. Mm-hmm. Or it was a lie, one of the two. And you had to figure it you had to you had to figure it out. It took time to figure that out. They were they were being serious or or or f fibbing you a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

So So probably the second or third day he got up and took me to a gate, and it was sort of spitting rain. He said, get out through there. And long story short, I went out there and it was foggy, misty. I walked up in the middle of a bunch of turkeys. Big old gobbler had I think he had twenty couple hens and the fog and mess sort of blowed through and he was just out there full, full out, and I said, Oh my god, it's probably seventy-five or eighty yards, whatever. And you know, I just yelped to the thing and I swear it's just like God sent him to me. I mean he left all them hands and walked straight out there and I shot him at like twelve yards. And uh Yeah, that's where it all started, and then you know, it's just uh it's turned into a problem really for me in my life, but uh I don't I wouldn't change a bit of it. I wouldn't I wouldn't live it a another way than the way I've done it. Uh, you know, a turkey hunter, they all think their way is the best way. Right. But there's a is a whole lot of good ways to do this thing. I I don't you know, I've got my ways, but that don't mean everybody has to do things my way.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01

That's just my way.

SPEAKER_00

I like I like the the way you're going about that. Because that that is one thing, you know, we get asked a ton of questions too, and I I I tell them, you know, take it with a grain of salt, because it it ain't it ain't no guarantee. But I I'm willing to, you know, give you a little bit. I mean I give you all of it, but I'll give you something, you know. And uh I'm no pro by any means. I wouldn't ever say that about myself, but um They ain't such a thing. They ain't such a thing. You ain't no pro either, you know. So um, but you gotta start somewhere and and and getting started the seems to be the the biggest crutch for everybody is once they get started there that they know going back. And those that it doesn't bite, you know, once they do try it and they don't get enough out of it, you don't see them very often anymore. You know it. And that's understandable. Everybody's got their own thing. Um which is cool to to pick their brains on what they experience too sometimes. Um I like to do that, you know, from time to time myself. So well that's uh yeah, that's that's a pretty good rundown on how you got kicked off. And um so leading into to how you do it now, are you still um which you've you've completed the 49, correct?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I finished it two uh years ago.

SPEAKER_00

Two years ago? Okay. Um leading into now that you've completed it, you just still gonna just joyride from here on out, or you got a plan?

SPEAKER_01

Uh do you plan? I hate play I hate plans, I'm gonna be honest with you. That's how I am. I hated it the whole time I was doing that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's why my my my Super Slam was probably the sloppiest super slam that's ever been done. I mean, I would be from this side of the country to that side of the country and think I could do it in two days. And I I I I finally did put a few things the first half of it was probably pretty easy because uh everything was over the counter and you'd just show up and hunt, and as it as time went on, uh, you know, you're getting draws, more and more of that stuff was coming into it, and then there was a handful of them, it was just boogers. It was just boogers, you know, you were scared of it was like a monster under your bed when you was a little kid.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

You was scared to look under there. So then was you know, you think about them,

Early Success And Out-Of-State Hunts

SPEAKER_01

and then you know, you'd p I'd sort of mix one of them in every year and pick one of them off, and uh but it's no, there's no more planning. I mean, if if if somebody calls me and I can get off of work and I and it's the the place or the situation is appealing to me, I'm I go. Worth that mainly now is my son. I enjoy watching him shoot turkeys. Uh he ain't as crazy about it as as I am, and uh I was telling uh Mr. Doc yesterday, you know, I I hope uh everybody like you you hope your son does this like you. I I I I d I hope he d I d I hope he ain't as crazy about it as me. Right. But if he is it won't be a bad thing. I mean if you if you get out here and earn your way through it and uh sacrifice a lot of things and do it you know, I I just don't think it should be hand handed over uh, you know, to anybody. That's like if he would ever take a notion to do a lot uh you know, I've I've I've spoon fed him a lot but I've I don't make him ever go. Right. He and he's normally he'll kill a turkey or two every spring and he's his appetite's full.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So as long as he can still keep tasting it every year, you know, maybe when he gets old enough to start driving and maybe he'll start doing it on his own. So because daddy ain't gonna be here forever, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I agree, I agree. And um so how old is he now? Fourteen. Fourteen. So you got what, two more years before he gets behind the wheel, roughly. He might be on by then. You never know. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, he's here with me up here at this thing, and uh yeah, I thought I said, You ought to go with me up there. He plays a lot of basketball and Okay. He's been busy with that. And I said, That man, you can go up there and he's I don't know. I said, Well, a lot of pretty little girls running around in that place up there, you know. If you get bored with dad, you can go chase some of them around and uh so he's been here messing around with it.

SPEAKER_00

So Well good. Is that is it his first time coming up?

SPEAKER_01

He we used to bring him in a little bitty boy, and it was it was horrible. He hated it. Right.

SPEAKER_00

So As most most youngins do. Yeah, yeah. So that's what I've learned having two nieces. They they're they're either running your time or the the the time is run running them, one of the two, it seems. So um But yeah, that uh I I was I was curious about that a little bit too, you know, growing up, you know, or watching him grow up hunting with you and stuff. I like how you're doing that, not necessarily pressuring him to to want to, you know, get as, as we say, crazy as we are, you know. And I I'm probably not as crazy as most. I'm I'm kind of more on on the content side of if I kill two or three, I'm good. You know, and I've always been that way. Now, Hunter, he's he's gonna go every day. He's got the bug a little way worse than I do, um, which is cool. But it's fun to watch him. And as long as I can watch him hunt them that way, I'm I'm content. I'm almost more content watching somebody else shoot him than I am me, you know. And that's just how I've always been.

SPEAKER_01

Um Well, we all wired up just a little bit different.

SPEAKER_00

A little different. I as long as I can be outside, I'm happy. You know, that's how I am. So um you mentioned, you know, getting off work and stuff. So if if you don't mind me asking, you know, what what will work life look like for you? And um say what you do or nothing like that, but if you want to, you can't.

SPEAKER_01

It doesn't matter to me. I'm a I'm a furniture upholster. I build furniture like the the leather and the fabric parts of it, not the uh woodwork, not it's upholstery. Uh been doing that since uh I was nineteen, so that's just that's just what I do. And uh, you know, tried to get when I figured out that that's where my life was gonna be, uh it it honestly, it's just it was just another thing. If if I'm gonna do something,

Many Roads To Do It Right

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna get good at it. Right. I want to be good at it, and you know, I guess I'm all right at it. So right.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I respect that. That's that's the I wish more folks were like that nowadays because we'd have a lot nicer stuff.

SPEAKER_01

It always don't you know, I want to take off from March to June every single year.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And uh that don't happen. I mean, people see uh the Instagram and uh the book face and stuff like that, they probably think I hunt every day of spring. Right. I c don't even come close. Right, right. It's 90 days in a spring, I've never touched. Yeah. I'd love to one time. But it it it'd be fun. We gotta make a living and somebody gotta pay the bills, and that's that's that's all that matters most of the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Keeping that roof open and kids fed, that's the main thing.

SPEAKER_01

Ain't nobody ain't been no trust fund for me to do any of this. So I've had to do the thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, same goes here. I've uh heck, even with being in the turkey hunting world, you know, business, I guess you'd say. Uh it's it's weird to even say that that it's a business, but it's business around turkey hunting. And heck, it seems like we're now more busy in the spring than we are out of the spring. So um I always stay back and take care of orders and business when whatnot. And even when I'm working on other stuff, I end up just kind of sticking around the shop and hanging out with, you know, with with the gear and apparel side of things and handling business. So I I don't travel as much as I probably could, you know, if I honestly had a regular job. Yeah. So I was just curious as that. A lot of people wonder those kind of things and you know how they how you've worked it out to to where you can travel, and I guess it's just, you know.

SPEAKER_01

I think it that that part uh uh is appealing to m the the everyday guy that's doing the same thing as me. You know, they they ask me a lot, they say, how how do you hunt as much as you do? I said, probably ain't hunting no more than than most people do. I just I just try to make hay when the sun's out, you know. Right. That's that's it's it's uh efficiency, you know, is is the deal for me. I mean if I get if I get the time off, I've got to make it count. Right. That's just the bottom line.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. You don't want to waste no days in that time of year for the time. I can't afford to. Right, absolutely. I don't think anybody can, no matter how hard you're trying. Um But yeah, that's cool. That's cool. I like that and the fact that you can do that, you know, and still hunt a good amount, you know. You can. Yeah. And I've I've I've I did a lot when I was younger too, when or not younger, but when I had a the old regular nine to five in it, I found myself, you know, in that same situation quite a bit.

SPEAKER_01

I'll just send a text.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, cool, cool. Um the next thing I was gonna kind of work my way into is is is traveling. You know, how how are you staying, how are you you camping, you you truck sleeping, what kind of truck setup you got if you do sleep in a truck, that kind of stuff and Yeah, that's that's the way I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01

Uh that's the way it's it's basically the the way I can afford it. Right. I it it wasn't always it wasn't always my dream to live like that, you know. I um But somewhere along the line it turned into it, you know. It did. Uh and then I met other people that were doing it and they had a lot better ideas and setups than me, so you know, I just sort of grew into that and now it's it's the way. Uh yeah, I sleep

Finishing The 49-State Super Slam

SPEAKER_01

in a truck, I've got the back of it built out, uh just a camper shell, a couple homemade drawers, mattress, uh little Coleman stove, stuff like that. Uh uh the older I get, the more aggravating getting dressed laying down is. Right. You know, you y that's probably the you know, getting a stand-up and pull your breeches on, that's a that sort of becomes uh a bigger deal as time has went on.

SPEAKER_00

I understand that. I keep a I keep an extra floor mat in the bed of my truck so I can throw it on the on the wet, dewy grass or whatever I'm parked near and and jump out and keep my socks on and not get my feet wet, you know, kind of thing. Yeah. That was one of them little things. Man's gotta adapt to it, though. Gotta adapt, man. And most most men would probably say, man, don't worry about getting your feet wet, you know. Don't be a sissy, but it it changed the game a little bit for me. I don't like getting it. I don't like wet. I don't like wet boots, man. That's the worst. That's the worst. And um, you know, so so if you're uh you said you got a Coleman stove, is that just for for meals, just hot mealing it, you know, just you prep them or you um I you know I I deer hunt just to have I carry a lot of deer burger with me, you know, that's a staple for me.

SPEAKER_01

So my stove is sort of a uh one part of it's a stove, the other part of it's a grill. So I'll grill burgers, you know, hot dogs stuff like that. I mean, you ain't eating a whole lot that when uh I mean that ain't the main focus. Not at all. You just eat just enough to keep yourself able to go.

SPEAKER_00

Right. A hundred percent. It just helps if it's warm, though. If it's warm, it's a jink, it's a game.

SPEAKER_01

Especially if it's been sort of cold, you know, cold and rainy. If you can get you a little warm meal, it perks you back up.

SPEAKER_00

Perks you back up. Yeah. And um now I I I ran into a situation this year where we ended up getting in a in a place and and and a cold front moved in real hard. And it I mean it got down to like 20 degrees at night for two or three nights, and it it got plum rough there because we weren't properly prepared. You do you keep a little heater in the back or anything? Or you just got a good sleeping bag?

SPEAKER_01

No, uh, in the back of my little old truck, I I carry an old school lantern. And honestly, I can wake up at the clock and I'll turn that lantern on and it puts off enough heat in two or three minutes I'm getting out from under them covers. I mean, I've slept into teens many nights. No heat, no nothing like that. Uh yeah, I can cut that little lantern on here in a minute. I'm getting dressed. Well, you know, on some of them colder nights, I don't even ever get undressed, you know. I just wear the clothes all night, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. 100%. Heck, half the time we were we were I was talking with somebody a minute ago, and half the time it seems when I'm going on a trip packing wise, I all I I'll wear my turkey hunting pants and just have my shirt hanging up in the back and a t-shirt on. I got me two or three changes of t-shirts, underwears, and socks, and that's about all I need. Yeah, it's it's as long as the weather's going to cooperate. So maybe a jacket.

SPEAKER_01

It's weird for me because I'll have a bag and stuff hanging up, like if I'm gone for t 10 days. Normally that's I'll do a couple of them trips a year if if work permits. Um And I, you know, I got all kinds of clothes, I got all kinds of stuff, and I'll wear the same stuff the whole ten days. I don't even never change it. Right. Especially if I get to killing a couple of them now. We sure ain't changing it. We definitely ain't washing them, that's for sure. They don't get worse. I don't even know if they get washed in a year.

SPEAKER_00

I I've never washed my camouflage, I don't think. Yeah. Well, you know the package and it it goes in the trash can whenever when they get too bad, they produce it.

SPEAKER_01

You know, back in my day, it wasn't none of this stuff like we wear now. Right. Everything was cotton and it would be fading, you know, so you didn't wash it then for that reason because you didn't of course now we got this these t-shirts and stuff that it's cool to have a faded t-shirt, but it ain't cool to have no faded camouflage britches, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Not in the turkey woods, you looking like a highlighter sitting over there in

Hunting As A Working Dad

SPEAKER_00

the corner, man. It uh it's definitely I I I grew up hunting in all cotton stuff, and and recently honestly till we we started doing the spring legion gear, I hunted in cotton old school stuff, and and it was always, you know, pick the pair that's less faded, you know. I'd always have to go in there and kind of fiddle around. And Lord, it it always hurt real bad when one of those started getting faded out, and you know, kind of had a little luck left in them to draw out. So, but yeah, normally that's the only time I I get rid of a pair is when the luck's run, slap out of them. So I try to get every drop of the luck out of a pair of pants or a a shirt or heck, even sometimes some socks, you know. Yeah. Getting superstition superstition on them. Uh I I think, but but I think every turkey hunter's got a little bit of superstition on it. I heck I think I ate the same breakfast for about four weeks straight because I I was I was on a hot streak one time and by the end of it, when it started going south, I I don't think I ate that same break that breakfast. I ain't had none of those bagels or whatever. I was eating donuts or whatever it was. I don't think I've had any of them since. Um well is there is there a specific hunt that necessarily just sticks out to you, you know, as a has a little golden light on it of of a good memorable hunt that you'd like to dive into?

SPEAKER_01

You know, it's always I got recent ones like uh you know, anything when my son stands out. Um one of the big ones, you know, uh of course I I I done one of these the other day and I talked about a turkey I killed out west, but the one uh where we was in Hawaii, mm-hmm that was yeah, that was a big deal when I got to to uh watch uh Tanner kill that turkey. That was his the end of his uh US slam and uh Yeah, you know, a lot of the a lot of the turkeys that really uh uh that I really remember is a turkey that somebody else got to kill.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know. I I enjoy the ones for me, but it you know, I if I can just be a part of something that's monumental, I'm good with you know, I've killed enough of these things. I tell people, you know, if I don't kill another one, I'm good with it. Yeah. But I, you know, I ain't gonna just I ain't gonna quit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, come March, that's gonna change a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna try to get my hands on a couple of 'em.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So yeah, that's uh that's kind of how I feel. I got some some buddies, I got their first ones in high school and whatnot, and you know, seeing them light up like that. And I've it's been a couple years since I've seen a first turkey killed, and and and those seem to those three or four seem to stick out a little bit brighter than the rest. Um and and you know, there's some memorable ones with my little brothers and and my dad. I've I've my dad, you know, he he he was a hard-earned turkey hunter growing up. He he did it the old school way, he he kind of fought his way up, kind of like you were mentioning, you know, earlier, um, kind of hooked in hard on it for a while, and then we were kind of in in the woods since diapers, you know. I remember before I could walk, remember him hopping out of a truck somewhere he knew turkeys were and hitting a box call just so we'd hear him gobble in the truck. He'd roll down all the windows and whatnot, a little single cab, you know, Z-71 he had. And um I I we had realized not long ago we had never seen him shoot a turkey. Because he had always just put us, you know, so far when he had three boys, I mean he had to, and we didn't have mu much private ground if we had any, so it was pretty tough to get all three of us one every year, you know. Yeah, he had his work cut out for it. And uh I'll forever be grateful of that

Truck Camping And Frugal Travel

SPEAKER_00

for sure. But um a couple years back, it was actually, if you've uh read Hunter's book, The 82 in one bird, the one he hunted for 82 days, and killed him on the 83rd, the morning he killed that turkey, he texted me and told me about, you know, he he said some sly little line, I'll I'll save that for another time, but it was a almost a riddle telling us he got him, you know, finally. And then I shot one that same day, little brother shot one that same day, and we're sitting there, and we'd actually had a little little spot in Texas at the point at that time, and and we'd we'd never really had turkeys on that spot, but we tried to go every couple years over there. And um we were sitting there eating dinner and it was getting closer in the in the evening time, probably four o'clock or so, and we hear pa la You know, off in a distance, a turkey ran on the gobbled, and we said, Well d well dad, we gotta go try him. Oh, I don't want to, I don't want to, you know, th these turkeys are for y'all, you know, you can kinda you know just put him put it put himself second, you know, all the way around. And then all of a sudden, um I don't know who it was, it was me or or the guy that was over there with us and stuff, and he he said, Man, if you want to come back over here, you you gotta you gotta go try. Give him one go. And I got to watch him and my little brother slip up there, you know, a couple hundred yards, and it was just open enough I could see the tips of their head moving and yelping him in, and sure enough got in front of him, he shot him. That's the first turkey I saw him key up in front of me. Probably the only turkey all three of us have. And um, I was fortunate enough to watch that, and um it was really cool there, and you know that that's one of the most memorable ones for me.

SPEAKER_01

That story reminds me of a story that that's memorable to me now that you're bringing up some old memories about my daddy. He's been gone for five or six years now, but uh you know, uh it took me and my brother years to kill one on the same day because we don't hunt together a whole lot. Right. And uh well we finally me and him worked that out sometime another, and then my daddy in his later years, he got to where he was hunting turkeys a little bit more. I mean he had gave up hunting with me way earlier. Right. I mean, he wasn't having no more than mountains, you know. So I'd never killed a turkey the same day as my dad and my brother, like you're talking about. Right. So it was uh it was opening day around the house and you know my brother texted me early that morning, I was on public and getting my getting just rolled, just you know, getting killed and uh my brother he's consistent on the opener.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

I mean he gonna get one.

SPEAKER_00

He's gonna have a plan put together when they cracked the he always seems to pick the right turkey. Yep, yeah, I understand that.

SPEAKER_01

He knows he's a little bit smarter than me, so I think that's got something to do with it. But uh so he he sent me a message and he killed a turkey. So I'm just hunting, still hunting, just making ground. Well, about dinner time he texts me and he's got there's a picture of dad, and that he's got a turkey.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And they said, you know, you gotta get out and come check these turkeys out. I said, I said, right, I said, I'm not coming out of the woods until I kill a turkey today.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Even if it means sleeping back here.

SPEAKER_01

Buddy, we doing it. 7 p.m.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

I struck that turkey, and a lot of people, you know, I I don't shoot turkeys going to their roost, but I yelp this turkey in at 7 p.m. in full strut.

SPEAKER_00

Shoot.

SPEAKER_01

And got him.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I never came out of the way. I meant to kill a turkey that and you know Man. That's a long day. It's I I think there's something to do with this, you know. I tell people there's a

Cold Nights, Warm Meals, Small Hacks

SPEAKER_01

magic in turkey hunting. And you you know, you can pull it out of yourself sometimes. When you really need to, there's a little bit of magic there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it's it I've done it enough in my life that I believe in that, you know. And I I felt like I pulled magic out that day because and I don't know how, but I didn't even text them back and let them know I pulled I was coming up the driveway when it was almost dark.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

They waited all day just so we could take that picture together.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. Yep. That that's that's that was a good day. Yeah, it was a good day.

SPEAKER_01

And both of their turkeys were bigger than mine, but I didn't care either. It didn't matter. If he if he had Wallace, he would he counted. He was two years old and I loved him.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. I love a two-year-old anytime I can get one, man. It seems to be the the bread and butter, man. I I'd almost rather shoot a bunch of two-year-olds than uh than any of them older birds as they call them. So I don't know about you, but if I can find me a two-year-old, that's where I'm gonna hang out for a hot minute. I'm not prejudiced. I ain't prejudiced one bit, my man, either myself. Um, so yeah, I mean that's that's gonna cover most of the most things unless you just want to tell another story on a specific hunt or anything.

SPEAKER_01

I ain't got a whole I mean I can sit here and talk all night, but we all got jobs to do, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00

We all working while we're up here, huh? So well um I appreciate you coming on, number one, making a time slot. I know it's tough.

SPEAKER_01

Come and ask me, and I told you I'd do it when I tell somebody that that's that's me.

SPEAKER_00

Well, uh it sure means a lot to us here. And uh I appreciate you just for asking me, you know. Absolutely, man.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you can get on here and talk a little bit about turkeys, I'm happy about it.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, it just it's something to pass the time and keep you keep you keep you sane till spring. That's what we try to do with it. We try to tur talk turkeys all year round in some form or fashion, whether we're doing it on a podcast, whether we're we're talking in the shop over some gear, who knows what.

SPEAKER_01

Usually just talk to myself about it. I've started doing it.

SPEAKER_00

I've started slipping off into that that train. So um, but yeah, uh, I just want to say appreciate you coming on and uh look forward to to seeing this one out and and hearing it again.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, yeah, let's get after them, man. Let's everybody have a good spring, good safe, safe travels. That's that's where it's at, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Safe spring for sure. That uh traveling and and hunting, because uh there's it seems to be a lot more folks out there doing it.

SPEAKER_01

When you're on the road, I've I've seen a lot of accidents and it you know, that could be me any day. I could be you any day. I mean, you don't know when your day is is is it's already picked. Right. He's already got it picked. We don't know it, but you never know when it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's gonna wrap us up, and uh I thank y'all for listening to another episode of the Spring Legion Podcast. We'll see you next week.

Head Shot

Hunter Farrior

Host