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
49-State Super Slams with Brooks Henry and Sophie Hooker
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We talk with Brooks Henry and Sophie Hooker at the NWTF convention in Nashville about chasing wild turkeys across the country and what it takes to finish a 49-state Super Slam at a young age. We get into the unglamorous parts of travel hunting like budgeting, gear failures, planning routes, and learning when to move on to a bird that is actually ready.
• finishing the 49-state Super Slam in Utah and how that final swing came together
• skipping high school graduation to hunt South Dakota and getting humbled by tough birds
• saving money on a family farm to fund spring travel and what it really costs per state
• food, sleep, and living out of a truck versus adding comfort with a camper
• trusting gear, shooting TSS, and the superstition that follows missed birds
• the broken red dot screw story and why checking patterns and mounts matters
• flying versus driving and why Nevada can be a one-state exception
• dealing with crowds, access limits, and hunter harassment without wasting your season
• the “when he’s ready” theory, covering ground, and not getting stuck on one turkey
• using topography and woodsmanship to break a turkey’s bubble and close the deal
• Sophie’s goal to start chasing her own 49 and how they plan to do it together
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Alright, welcome back to another episode of the Spring Legion Podcast. I am hosting this solo today. My name is Chase Farrier. Um I'm sitting here with Sophie Hooker and Brooks Hen Henry. And um just want to say thank y'all for coming on for a moment. I snagged y'all out of the middle of the crowd while we are at Nashville's NWTF convention. Um yeah, kind of threw this on y'all last minute minute. It's thrown on me last minute too. But um I appreciate y'all taking the time out to uh to jump on here and speak with me for a moment. And um just want to jump in, y'all. Y'all can introduce yourself and uh kind of what y'all do and what y'all are known for. All right, I'll let you go first.
SPEAKER_01I'm Sophie Hooker, I'm from New Albany, Mississippi, and I grew up hunting with my dad, and I enjoy hunting with Brooks now a lot. We love to travel.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, nice. I'm Brooks Henry. Um been turkey hunting since I was a little kid and finished my super slam last year, and now me and Sophie just jump on the road and kind of take it easy. Nice, kind of treating turkeys.
SPEAKER_03Relax a little bit more this go-round, huh?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Well, I don't know if I'm capable of relaxing anymore.
Finishing The 49 In Utah
SPEAKER_03Yeah, me and you both. Me and you both. We're uh we're we're one for being wired, it seems. Yeah. Um Yeah, so let's uh well first off, you you have completed the 49, correct?
SPEAKER_02Yep. I finished last year in May on the 7th.
SPEAKER_03So that's uh that's all 50. Now, is there a bunch I would say what else you got left? That would be the normal follow-up question. We ain't got none left. So um what uh what was like where'd you finish it? Where was that uh if you don't mind me asking?
SPEAKER_02And I finished in Utah.
SPEAKER_03Utah was that on a swing?
SPEAKER_02Would you do a couple states that week or Yeah, we uh I had just killed Delaware and West Virginia and Sophie was in color or New Mexico hunting with her granddaddy. Okay. And so uh I had planned to go to Wash fly into Washington, Mikhail Giddens, a good buddy of mine, and uh we were gonna finish his Grand Slam and then go into Utah and finish my Super Slam. But I ended up flying into Albuquerque and me and Sophie hunted Colorado and shot some turkeys, and the original plan she wasn't gonna come, but I I told her we were in the airport, I was like, Why don't you just move your flight and come to Spokane? So we flew into Washington and she finished her single season Grand Slam in Washington and Idaho, and Kel finished his Grand Slam. Really? And then we jumped into Utah and drove down there and I finished my super slam.
SPEAKER_03Man, so that was one heck of a it was a good week. Heck um so and and word on the street is you are the youngest guy to complete, correct? That's the word on the street. You were the youngest guy.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if anybody's younger. I knew of a kid from upstate Ohio that was creeping up on me, but I think he slipped in some into some trouble. So uh I don't know if there's anybody close right now or not.
Skipping Graduation For South Dakota
SPEAKER_03Man, well, hopefully you can hold that that title for a hot minute. I'll hang my hat on it for a little while. If nothing else, you did it at once, at one point. That's always what you can always say on that. That's right. Um that is a big accomplishment. It's it's one of those things I've always kind of just never paid attention to, but if it happens, it happens, you know, kind of guy. And it probably will never happen because that's how I feel I feel about it. I think it's really cool that people do set out to do that. And um I mean it's it's it's a lot of dedication, I'm sure, and stuff that I don't I just don't have that dedication to nothing. I'll hunt the same state over and over and over again, kill 49 in that one state if I can, you know. I just get hung up and and and like being home, man. It's it's I'm weird about it. Um don't travel as much as a lot of people probably think. Um, but you know, I I do like to to travel at least two or three times a year. Um so um if you want to dive into kind of what like what what did life look like before you were really trying hard to get your 49? Because I mean you were so young. I mean, I don't assume you had like a day job and you were getting getting tired of going and sitting in a cubicle all day or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02I was I was in high school when I started. I you know, played regular sports and all that. Right. COVID happened. I think I was a junior. I'd have been a junior. No, I was a senior in high school when COVID happened, and uh nothing to do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just sitting at home boards.
SPEAKER_02Shot a bunch of turkeys in Georgia, probably more than I should have. Right. Uh we ain't gotta talk about all that. But yeah, I get that. I was sitting around and uh I had some mentors, Keith Ott and some other guys that were doing it, and I I was, you know, I think it was graduation week and we were still gonna walk. And uh a good buddy of mine had text me and he was like, I'm gonna go to South Dakota. I was wanting to travel and shoot turkeys. I was like, Yeah, we'll go. So I skipped graduation and I told the principal to leave the diploma at the front office when I get back. And uh I got my teeth smacked in South Dakota. Yeah, we hunted for like seven days. It was late though, like late March South Dakota Black Hill turkeys. Like it was awful. And it kind of lit a fire in me, I guess. Because you think you're good until you go and actually experience some like real treacherous turkey. You know, like or like it just I think turkeys are the same, like wherever you go. Just whatever time you hit it, we hit it wrong and we got our teeth kicked in.
SPEAKER_03That's that's a big thing, is hitting it wrong. Yeah. And I'm real good at hitting it wrong, brother, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_02I've had my fair share of hitting it wrong too.
SPEAKER_03But that's you know, that's what kicked it off. And that was that one of the first few states you had traveled to about that point?
SPEAKER_02I had gone to Nebraska with uh some family before, you know, the same year, um, shot some turkeys and then uh I think I did South Carolina that year. So I did like three or four states. Right. And that was nothing crazy. Nothing crazy.
SPEAKER_03You weren't like halfway there, obviously. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I wasn't even close. I'd only shot turkeys in Florida because I grew up on the line at South Georgia and Florida and Georgia and Alabama. And that's the only places I'd hunted.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. You were starting about where I started. You know, I guess if I was to start today. I've only got I think eight under my belt, honestly. I mean you gotta start somewhere. Yeah. So um and you just you just saw an opportunity jumped on it. And so you you completed this pretty much from you were what, 17, 18?
SPEAKER_0217 when I started to twenty-two. Man.
SPEAKER_03That's a lot of time on the road.
Budgeting The Road And Real Costs
SPEAKER_02It was. And I didn't really like um, you know, graduated high school, went to college, right, did one semester in person, and I I hated it. Like I don't it wasn't for me either. I mean, I like to park, you know, I like to drink some beer or whatever you want to do, or all that. And uh but it was just I I felt like I was just wasting my time. Right, right. And that next spring, I I took a whole year and a half gap and just worked with my family farms, and so we just I worked on the farm. Okay. Taught them into letting me skip a few months. I understand that. I got on the road.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can probably pull a few strings if it's your family farm.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they they well, there's some family members that don't get too happy about me leaving. Yeah, fair, fair. They can, you know, they can lick their wounds when you're on down the road.
SPEAKER_03Right, right. And no, I get that a hundred percent. And um, yeah, if you uh that's that's what a big question I want to ask a lot of people is is you know, what what line of work are you in that uh uh you know l lines you up for that? So I mean, yeah, you being a family, you know, that farms and stuff, you know, there's probably some some cornered cornered eyes at the at the Christmas table every once in a while, but you know, other than that, they'd get over it.
SPEAKER_02There is, and I don't I mean most farm kids understand that they don't pay you nothing when you're working for your family. I save up, you know, eight, nine months out of the year to pay for three, and that's low at all. Reset in June.
SPEAKER_03Right, yeah. And that's how you kind of did it. You just saved up in the winter and and and and sp and blew and and not blew it all, you used it all, you know, by by the end of spring, and when you ran out, you stopped hunting, and that's about it. That was about the only limit you had.
SPEAKER_02The first year I I did it on like the first year where I traveled really hard. I think I ran out of money. I was like in New York with Trey Stodemeyer, and I ran slap out of money. I had to I had to text my mom, and if I texted my dad, I'd get a cuss. I text my mom, I was like, Can you uh vene make me a little bit of money? I can't get it back home. I just need to get home.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I swear when I get home I'll be done. I'm just I I know it's a lie, but I'm gonna try and say it tell you that. So yeah, that's uh I think everybody's run out of money in the turkey woods a couple times. Yeah, I've I've done that. Now that's that is a question I have. Have you tried to even tally up how much it ended up costing you total?
SPEAKER_02I've tallied a lot. I mean, you couldn't really go back and tally it all up. But like I think over the grand scheme of things, you can go ahead and say a thousand dollars a state. Yeah. Because when you add it up, like you know, you got gas and all that stuff, and the outwest states, you'll fill your truck up six times trying to get from the south like from Arizona to northern California, and then you're gonna fill it up four more times in between there and Oregon. I mean sixty, seventy dollars a tank, add it up, plus your license and food and whatever else.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, and if uh if you get a hotel or anything like that ever, you know, it adds up quick.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I think on a cheap side you probably do it for 30 grand. Mm-hmm. Expensive I mean you did it you I mean, there's no limit on the other side of the yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean you can go as high as you want, I'm sure. Spend as much as you want. Yeah, especially if you hanging in outfitters or just renting cabins and Airbnbs and Lord knows what else. There's there's some folks do it that way, and I just I ain't gotta like that.
SPEAKER_02And then you gotta tally up your shells. I mean, you probably shot$1,000,$1,500 of shells at minimum. At minimum. At minimum. If you're shooting TSS, right. My personal opinion on that is if you're gonna spend all this money to get these states and be you know you're on a journey to try and have an accomplishment, you probably want to be carrying TSS. I agree.
SPEAKER_03You drove 14 hours to get to You don't hear pop that ain't a boom. You know, no, and and I and I'm I'm I'm I'm with that 110%. You if you wanna you wanna trust your equipment when you leave the house and and you don't have s you know any second guesses. If I miss a turkey or something like that, I I'm about to pick up a different gun almost, you know, just because I'm I'm thinking, you know, it's a gun's cursed. But something's wrong with what's going on here. Yeah. Get a whole new box of shells or something. You know, I'm I'll I've I've stopped them many times halfway through. If I miss a turkey, I'll go buy a whole new box of shells. Just like I it might have been a bad one, you know. And it probably wasn't. And I know it wasn't, and then turkey was six steps, and I my gun was halfway on my knee still, you know, something like that. Like obviously we're gonna miss that turkey.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's the confidence you need there. Yeah.
Gear Confidence And Turkey Superstitions
SPEAKER_03If anything will give you a little bit of an edge, that's what that's what I'm looking for. So um rather superstitious fellow myself. So I'm too. Which, yeah, is there any big superstitions you do before season, after season, anything like that you'd want to talk about?
SPEAKER_02I don't really have any other than using the same gun. I've shot the same gun from the first state to the last one. No kidding. Yep. Every turkey was killed with that gun. That's why. And I retired it in Utah, so she'll never see another one die.
SPEAKER_03Man. I've got I've got one that that I've been use I I retired my first 12 gauge 870 about I think it was 2018. And I I shot I I had a weird shell go off at the time and I felt like I you know wounded a turkey and it didn't kill it. And it that probably was a wet shell, because we were hunting in the rain two days before that. But I went and put it on paper after that, and I sh I ran all kind of shells through it and it wouldn't paper right. And and I was like something tweaked on this gun, and it was it was the the dirtiest gun I'd ever shot. I mean it I mean I and I mean like most 870s are. It would I mean not not dirty in mud, I'm saying dirty and what it did. I mean it was it was doing them dirty. And um I'd never seen a gun like that that would just shoot it that consistent, that good, that perfect all the time.
SPEAKER_02Well that's what I sh I mean I shot an eight I shot a youth eight seventy from like the time I was five, six years old until I started my super slam. I don't know, I just for some reason wanted to run a semi-automatic from my super slam. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So what yeah, what gun were you running?
SPEAKER_02I ran a 20 gauge Franchi. Was it Frankie? Frankie Franchi was Frankie Franci. Same thing, same thing.
SPEAKER_03Well, that's that's a pretty general gun from what everybody's told me.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I never had a single I had the only issue I had, and this is like I couldn't this is wild. Uh 2024 I flew to Nevada trying to get my Nevada turkey. Didn't kill one. And I can't I flew into night flew by I flew out of Nashville back into Nashville. Right. And then drove over to North Carolina. I got North Carolina and like four turkeys in two days on the game. And I was talking about superstitious. Uh-huh. Patterned my gun, it was shooting like four feet low, and I could I was like, what would have done that? Right. You know, so I re-sited it back in running red dot and uh shot the rest of my states all the way up into Utah. And we patterned the gun before Utah, it was way off. Pulled the uh red dot off in the the year before in Nevada, somehow the mountain screw broke and it like picked the red dot up. Well, it never set back in until Utah. So I shot like 12 more states with it with that screw broke off, like pushing the red dot up. I was sitting there at B and V with you and when I pulled the red dot off. I was like, I can't believe that happened.
SPEAKER_03I had one more.
SPEAKER_02I had one screw. I just I put the one screw in. I'm like, I hope it'll hold up the rest of the last state. That's all I need. All I need. Just pull through. I took some loctite and put it on there.
SPEAKER_03I was like, hammered down on that one good time. It'd have to work. Me and Seals were set up on a turkey one time in Alabama. And he he leaned up there and he looked at me and he tapped his red dot and went, and it was loose as could be. And I was like, We have worked our butt off the last three days. Yeah, I swear that thing better be still be on there. And it sure enough, I mean, he killed a turkey ten minutes later with it, and we were like, I guess red light stayed on. You know, it was always a big joke we always tell all the time when we're hanging out.
SPEAKER_02And that hey equipment's a big thing. That is. Like staying on top of it. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03You gotta you gotta clean them guns and stuff. I I do every uh other year. So those 870s, man, they've they've been good to me. Um that one I've got now, I think I've got 26 under its belt, and um I've actually kept tally on it just and I'm the only person who ever killed a gun uh killed a turkey with it, and that's the third only gun I've killed a turkey with since I was since 2018. So and um yeah, I keep a tally on it, which was something I wish I would have done with the first one because I I was just like, I wonder how many it took for it to finally give out on me, you know.
SPEAKER_02I I was I try to keep tally on that one, I just eventually just quit. Get lost. Get lost.
Traveling As A Couple And Camper Plans
SPEAKER_03I'm kinda in that getting lost phase. I'm kinda like, what was last year? How many did I kill last year? Yeah, what was this? So um, well, tell me a little bit, Sophie, about y'all traveling together. How did that start out? Because y'all have been together, what, about a year now, I'd say roughly. Um I met y'all up here last year and I it seemed like y'all kicked some things off. I wasn't sure about it. You know, I wasn't sure quite yet, but it seemed to seemed to stick and y'all seemed to go well together, and uh y'all seemed to have a good spring together. So how was that shifting into his gears from what you were used to?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, you know, he said he flew out and met me last turkey season. That was our first turkey season together. And it was a lot of fun and I feel like it was a little bit more laid back than what he usually does. Like whenever we're together. He's pretty he's pretty strict on his stuff and he likes it the way he likes it. But yeah. So we went out to eat and stuff whenever we're turkey hunting, and usually he eats out of his cooler and all that, you know. But it was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_03He took care of you at least. Yeah, you gotta gotta make some exceptions.
SPEAKER_02Just the week, you know, just the week before all that, eating out, I was eating hard boiled eggs out of my cooler. My grandmama bowled up for me from her swing, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Lord. So yeah, then that's what you normally do if it's if it's just you or or you and a guy or two, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I usually just take like, you know, summer like stuff that just stays good. Stays good in the cooler, like, you know, beer sausage, beer sausage, summer sausage, hard-boiled eggs. Snacks more, yeah. More than nothing. I'll sometimes talk my my grandmother into doing some like chicken salad or something, like a big old tub, and leave it back there with some crackers. Yeah. Just something to eat.
SPEAKER_03Right, right. Now what what how you warming that up when you eat? I know you ain't eating a cold chicken salad now. Come on.
SPEAKER_02It's gotta be cold.
SPEAKER_01We got a camper though for this season.
SPEAKER_03Y'all did. Oh, that's gonna be cool.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, we're gonna be awesome. Well, we we jiffied a deal out of this old thing. Oh yeah. Well Lord. We didn't pay much. We got a little we got a little 18-foot pool behind us. It's got one bed and all we need.
SPEAKER_03She uh had.
SPEAKER_02I told her she's getting a luxury experience this year. I've been sleeping in the front seat of my truck or my Eno for the past five turkey seasons.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so you do front seat. Yeah, I usually truck you you run all this in.
SPEAKER_02I was in a ram when I did it. Okay. I had I actually did my whole super slum out of that truck. It's a ram 1500 and they got good interior.
SPEAKER_03I will give them that. Yeah, they're pretty comfy.
SPEAKER_02It's pretty comfy. That thing will lay flat, and so I just stick my feet in the dash and go to sleep.
SPEAKER_03Hang out, man.
SPEAKER_02I mean, you're so tired. I mean, you know how that is.
SPEAKER_03You get so woofed, you can sleep on a dang gravel under under your truck, and I have done that before. I'm not gonna lie.
SPEAKER_02I've sleep on the ground a few times.
SPEAKER_03Quite a few times.
SPEAKER_01I won't be participating in any of that. I don't blame you.
SPEAKER_02I don't blame you. She's won't she says she won't. We ain't dragging the camper for one state. You can be uh maybe I'm gonna.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, you get you better drag that camper. Uh yeah, I've slept on riverbanks, I've slept in the on the dirt underneath the truck, I've slept in the truck with a camper shell on it, I've slept on a truck with a tonica cover on it, whatever you call them, the flat covers. Talk about feeling creeped out. It's blacked out in there. You feel like you were in a box. You feel like uh you better start knocking pretty soon, you know. But you know, either way. Um yeah, it finds you in some wild places and and it takes you everywhere that you you need to go and and it's all all you need is a little bit, you know. Yeah, it's all you need. It makes you it makes you really think. And and you and Hunter are wired a lot more alike than than I think a lot of people know. By the end of the day, you know, as far as y'all's traveling goes, once you once your mindset, you're gone. Yeah, do you plan out better than he does? Yeah. He's a he's a night before.
SPEAKER_02I'm a weird, like we've been playing for a while.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Y'all breaking out spreadsheets and stuff.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I got an Excel file. We're sitting so I mean I'll break it down like I wish down to like the season opener and like which state next opens up the closest to it so we can be there in the quickest amount of time. Like it it's broke down pretty it's pretty strategic. No. But I mean That's what it takes. If you're gonna do it on a like something, you know, and there's nothing wrong with it. Like if you're just doing your Super Slam, you're just easing along, like go turkey hunt. But if you're doing it on a timely manner and you want to get it done, and there's a quick way to go about it. Right. In a logistical way. Just logistics, yeah. Yeah, I mean hell, I ought to start a trucking company after the past five years. I'd probably do well. I was about to say that.
SPEAKER_03You start a logistic logistic company right now, you'd you'd probably be top of the line by the month. Yeah, honestly. No kidding, no kidding. Lord, it's uh I've I've dealt with a lot of logistic industries, uh being in my old line of work, and and it's it's some good ones, and it's some real not good ones. I should say that. No doubt. So it it ain't hard to beat some of them. Yeah, you you got a shot, man. I'm just gonna tell you.
SPEAKER_02And it's the planning thing too, like packing. That's the only thing I'm not like I don't pack much. Like I pack a bag that's got underwear and socks, and maybe some driving clothes, but as far as turkey hunting clothes, there's one set. That's it.
SPEAKER_03That's that's how I normally run. And I, you know, a jacket or two if I need just in case. Yep. And that's uh I'm not heck half the time I'll wear my turkey hunting pants driving. You know, and that's the only pair of pants I'll put.
SPEAKER_02She hates on those slip-on hay dudes. She hates on them. Yeah, I don't think.
SPEAKER_01I'll make up for him. I'll bring a I'll bring like two bags. Yeah. You know, she'll make up for four.
SPEAKER_03Well, if you're flying, if you're flying, it's about the same of if you would have brought a bag, right? Yeah, yeah. If you would have brought a bag, you know, she just she's making sure it keeps it level out. She's keeping it level out. Yeah, so that's a good thing to have. And uh if y'all if y'all can find happy greet happy ground in between, that's that's the that's all that matters, right?
SPEAKER_02I've never complained about how much she packs.
SPEAKER_01Oh, he's trying to work on my packing.
SPEAKER_02I am well we went to Kansas duck hunting this year. Granted, it's 18 degrees. It's cold, snowing. Yeah. She's got a bag the size of this table here in the back of the truck.
SPEAKER_03I probably would too. I get cold pretty easy though.
SPEAKER_02Well, there was a lot of there was cowgirl boots in the bag. We're going duck hunting. I mean, you know, it's there's nothing wrong with it. She wants to look pretty everywhere she goes. I understand it.
SPEAKER_03You gotta respect that.
SPEAKER_01As soon as I don't bring a nice outfit, we're gonna go out with a nice and we did that in Georgia in Athens.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we did. We yeah, we went to Athens.
SPEAKER_01I was like, don't bring anything.
SPEAKER_03I've been in some fine restaurants in some bottom land. Me too. Plenty of them. A lot of them weren't clean either. Yeah, they don't know where a lot of work.
SPEAKER_02They can wear their suits and stuff. That's yeah, that's our suits, man. We just don't wear a tie. That's all it matters. That's all it matters.
Nevada Crowds And Hunter Harassment
SPEAKER_03So but um Yeah, what else was I was I want to hit? Um So you do you fly a lot or tr or are are you mainly trucking it?
SPEAKER_02I mainly truck. I've flown a few times. Only times I'm gonna fly is if who I'm hunting with, like if I'm meeting up with a friend or like I was supposed to go with like it was uh I think the only two times I've flown have been for Nevada, because it's just I'm not driving for one state. And uh that's like a 30 hour drive. It's just not happening.
SPEAKER_03And had you been I don't mean to interrupt, but had you hunted Nevada before this, or was that the first time hitting the ground out there?
SPEAKER_02I hit it twice.
SPEAKER_03You did hit it twice.
SPEAKER_02The first year I went, there were um I was I was in Arizona hunting and I got a phone call. Like just the amount of people that were in that valley was unbelievable. And so I like flipped the coin. I was like, I'm just gonna go third third week of the season. Nobody was there except for one group from Alabama, and I kind of got hunter harassed the whole time. Really? To the point where I just moved my flight up a few days and it's not even worth dealing with. There were there was like four turkeys that were on stuff that I could hunt, and I door knocked everything in the valley, nothing else was available and I was like I just had Have to be at the mercy of these four guys from North Alabama that are harassing me. I yelped a turkey to the road about five times. They were on this ranch across this hardtop, and I had to yelp the same turkey almost on the hard top, and he just had to come into the right-of-way and we I'd have killed him. But they'd pull up in their truck and beat the horns, run them back off and stuff. I had enough. I flew out of there and I came back.
SPEAKER_03I would have had to get away from that pretty quick, too. I wouldn't have probably handled that situation. Well as you did.
SPEAKER_02It's just like I'm wasting time. Well we got two words exchanged, no doubt. I'm not going to say what they are here. Right, right. There were.
SPEAKER_03No, I think I'd have a few choice words myself. It just ain't no, it ain't no sense in that in the hunting industry. It's an animal we're all hunting together.
SPEAKER_02And the funniest part is those guys had already been there. They'd all kill turkeys and they just liked turkey hunting that. He's like, oh, we loved it last time we came. I'm like, why do you want to come here? Like, bro, I don't even want to come here. I'm going to be here right now.
SPEAKER_03It's a rough, rough state I've heard from a lot of different people. So I mean, yeah, you sometimes you just got to share. Yeah. Get used to it, sharing, you know, and living together and and work and hunting around each other and all that, and everything's a better world. I work with anybody, you know. If I see something running somebody, I'm going to try and talk to you and hope for the best for both of us. You know, I want to I'll I'll I'll tell somebody like it, like if I know there's a hard bird to hunt down the road that I've I've just got off, go go try him, buddy. I hope I hope somebody takes him out of the woods because I don't want to come back to him tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00Hunt him again. I'm done with it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's whooped my tail three days in a row. Yes, he's all yours.
Finding Ready Birds And Moving On
SPEAKER_02That's the secret to killing turkeys, what you just said. Yeah. Just finding the one that's ready.
SPEAKER_03Find the one that's ready. Move on. And I'm not good at it. I get hung up bad on what.
SPEAKER_02I get I know a bunch of there's like a you know, a bunch of people preach like this old the old turkey or educated turkey theory, and a bunch of people like I mean, I preach the when he's right theory. Oh, yeah. When he's when he's ready to die, he's gonna run the gun and scrape over.
SPEAKER_03I agree. If you if you can get up and cover enough ground to find the right one, you gonna you can do good.
SPEAKER_02That's the name of the game, just covering ground. Right.
SPEAKER_03So whether that's getting in your truck and driving four hours, staying in your zone or staying or whatever you gotta stay in. That happened in Missouri.
SPEAKER_02I I killed Arkansas like within two hours of the morning last year. And I had like my swing was like Arkansas, Missouri, Delaware, West Virginia. It's like the last four on this side of the country I needed outside of Utah. And uh Missouri whooped me into pieces. I was like, out of all the places I'm gonna come to and get whooped here. And it was just they weren't ready. I mean well they were, it was I probably got on 15 turkeys in two or three days, but it was like every turkey was just like, you know, an inch from dying. Right. They just wouldn't do it.
SPEAKER_01He needed my help.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I ended up calling her. I was like, I don't I don't know what to do. The first time I super slammer, I was like, I'm legitimately getting my teeth like really kicked in right because I would rather not hear a turkey at all than be on ten different turkeys or fifteen over the course of a few days and they just are a smidge. I mean, every one of them you can hear them drumming, you know, right on top of you can hear leaves cracking, you can't even see them though. Right. I think it was just the terrain. Uh I it was an odd terrain and something I never been in. I mean, I've been in some you hunt the whole country, you've seen it all, but I hadn't seen it, it was just a little bit different than what I was used to, and I just couldn't figure it out in those three days with them.
SPEAKER_03That's that's where I normally get hang up hung up to. I'm not used to it. When I hunted New Mexico, it was a New Mexico is a booger mouth. Man, it those those turkeys would fly down and and be three miles over before I can even think of about standing up, and I'm like, well, you spend four hours.
SPEAKER_02I was in that mountainous stuff in Missouri, and like turkey'd gobble across this ridge, and there's not a spine to get to. It's gonna take me two hours to get over there. He stayed gobbling the whole time, but as soon as I get over there, he pitches across. I'm like, where the where are you going?
SPEAKER_03Right. What was the sense in that?
SPEAKER_02What inclines you to fly a mile off this ridge?
SPEAKER_03I know I know seven coyotes that ran down these finger ridges and scared all these turkeys, and now I know they ain't seen me. Lord, yeah, I I know I get that and all about that. I mean, that's that is 100% outgo.
SPEAKER_02That's all it was. I just had to move. I mean, I drove three or four hours and back back to it then. Goblin turkey died.
SPEAKER_03Business as usual as it is. So, yeah, that's that's a big thing a lot of people forget, and and I'm one of those, and I get hung up on a turkey that I shouldn't be hunting, and I know every day when I wake up, I'm like, he's gonna do it again, he's gonna whoop my tail, he's gonna he's gonna make it hard.
SPEAKER_02I think that's what makes it special though. Like you want to kill that. Yeah, I mean when you want to sit, you like it's like it's almost like hanging the bait over your fat. Like they're just hanging it over your you know, nose, and you're looking at it, you just can't quite grab it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can't quite leave it. Walk off from it.
SPEAKER_02Walk off from it either.
SPEAKER_03Uh they know how to do that for sure. Oh yeah. It's that's that's the fun in it and the the love for it, I think. By the end of the day, that's that's where you you get that feeling of of uh whatever that feeling is we're all going for, is is somewhere between them two positions, you know, of of of defeat and success. That's so hard. And if I quit ever having that feeling, I just want to stop. Exactly. Exactly. I uh I had one last year that that I I didn't feel quite right about. And it wasn't no it was a good hunt, everything he just he didn't show off enough, and then it didn't hunt he didn't hunt the way I normally hunt him, you know, and and I just man, I I pulled the trigger. I I felt a little weird and I was like, all right. And I had six five or six more down the barrel that I didn't pull the trigger on because it didn't feel right. And I, you know, and that's weird, and I don't I'm not trying that to brag, and I'm not saying that in any kind of way. I'm just saying there is a feeling if I don't get it, my favorite turkey to kill, like she came to my farm.
SPEAKER_02This was like one of the second times we ever hung out. Right. I was like, let's go turkey hunting. It it had been storming for like a day, and I was like, it's gonna be yeah, just right after a hard storm, you know. It's gonna be right.
SPEAKER_01And uh He was so nervous.
SPEAKER_02I was nervous. Uh yeah, I yeah, but you still we still doubled. We did. But these turkeys, I mean, we you know, sitting out in a field by themselves, they weren't strutting, just like you know, almost just kind of scratching, just looking right, you know, whatever. I just kind of leaned out of this wood line or down the woodline and just yelped, no gobble, nothing, but face just pitch white, you know, just shades white and just starts walking to me probably 200 yards away. Yeah. And I just slid back up in the wood line. I was like, they're about to kill him. She's like, What? I'm like, just get ready. Right. And I leaned out one more time, they're about fifty, sixty yards, and then it's thick wood line. I was like, you just gonna I was like, that's the turkey I like to kill those. It's a quiet one. Nothing says nothing, just comes in. He's want I mean, he's asking for it doing something like that.
SPEAKER_03No, I agree. They do. And uh see, I like them, I like them putting on a show. If I can have it, I'd I'd rather have it that way. But I mean that is a woodsmanship. And now if it if I feel like I'd used a lot of woodsmanship, I guess it is all I can you know, kind of understand that if I put myself in that position where all it takes is two yelps and they walk right in and I shoot 'em, I did my job.
SPEAKER_02I think that's like why I enjoy it. Like, you know, it wasn't because he was hot and he was ripping it, it was just simply because you put yourself in the right position to kill a turkey.
SPEAKER_03And you you yeah, you use past experience to put to do that. And you know, and you're you physically feel like I really just outsmarted one pretty easy. Pretty easy.
SPEAKER_02You know, almost in a way, yeah. And it also teaches you like you know, you learn more from the turkeys you kill and the ones you don't kill.
SPEAKER_03Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_02And I mean, you watch that turkey, like he's in a field, so you can actually watch what he's doing. But like if you're in the hardwoods or something and you're yelping at a turkey, you're like, oh, there's no turkeys here, like there's a turkey there. Oh, not a thing. If you knew there was a turkey there previously, like best chances you probably can get a slip and sit down and get it.
SPEAKER_03If I can see one, we got a way better chance. If I can see one before he sees me, we got a way better chance of getting where we need to get. Um that is a huge, huge factor in in how we hunt, you know, when we are in open timber, but majority of it we're in pine thickets and and briars and junk, you know, that's just all we got to hunt, you know. I hunt the majority.
SPEAKER_02And it's it's it takes a good woodsman to kill turkeys and stuff.
SPEAKER_03It's hard. It's hard, man. If you don't get if you're one step off, you're gonna go to the body. And you're gonna go home.
SPEAKER_02You know, y'all are kind of in that where the black belt of Mississippi kind of runs like is a little bit a little south. A little south. A little south. That's how I am where I'm at. Right. Yeah, you're in that same. I think it's hard birds, man. I mean, I think the best turkey hunters in the country are cut from that from from those turkeys.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I don't know. There's been a lot of debate on that. There have. I mean, I've I've had them whoop me in Texas, I've had them whoop me in the Easy's, but you know.
Woodsmanship And Reading Topography
SPEAKER_02I've had them whoop me. I've just never had them whoop me like that place. I have that place. I'll teach you some stuff. I will. And that go like the like the woodsmanship thing. Like I think if you can become like a just a guru on topography, you kill a lot of turkeys. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's what you look for mainly is topography.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. I think 90 per like 90% of the turkeys that have died have been single-handedly killed off topography. Right.
SPEAKER_03Um, yeah, that it took me a couple years to figure that out topography, but I've now kind of got an understanding for it and I'm liking it.
SPEAKER_02Well, the first time I ever looked at it, I was like, Well, how far is this line from this? Is that actually steep? And you get everything like, oh my god, it can't even get off there.
SPEAKER_03And why is that one darker than the other ones? You know? Oh, that's what it means.
SPEAKER_02You know, and then you learn to read it and then you see it with your own eyes, and then you begin to be able to like look at the topography map and then know what you're like. You show up, like it looks like you figured it would look like.
SPEAKER_03And that just comes with experience in it, and looking at it and paying attention. The mainly thing is paying attention to it. I can't tell you how many times how many years I walked through gullies and whatnot, and I'm like, oh.
SPEAKER_02You can show up, you know. You can show up to your home farm and you're like, I know that turkey's gonna be gobbling at. I mean, you can start looking at topography maps, and if you can place yourself, you're like, I know where a turkey probably would be. But no, I mean you're not down to the like yard. Square footage. Square footage, but I mean you'd have a good idea. You'd put yourself in a better position than you were just showing up.
SPEAKER_03I did that about two years ago, uh, close to close to home, and and it was it was one of those places I could only hunt for a couple days, and I was like, man, I've seen some birds around here, you know. I know there's birds close and wasn't getting much, and I said, Well, I'm gonna go get right here in this little topography change right here. And it's just a little circle on the map, and I was like, it's you can't even feel it, but I was like, what what I'm gonna walk top, my pen is in that, and you can't even feel the slight elevation change on this flat piece of ground. But it was just a six-inch difference, and I killed a turkey in in freaking 30 minutes there that came from a whole another ball game, and he was coming right there, no matter if I was yelping or not. He was just coming to that one almost square footage, you know. It was and I just felt like I had accomplished so much doing that because I knew it was gonna be a ball game up in there because it was hard hunting woods, it was hard woods to maneuver around in, I'll say that.
SPEAKER_02So I mean that's what it boils down to, that and breaking bubbles. Yeah, a lot of breaking bubbles. Getting in their bubble. Yeah, gosh.
SPEAKER_03If you can get in their bubble, you're you're almost there.
SPEAKER_02It's an invisible line, but there is a moment in time where you break it.
Sophie’s 49 Goal And Wrap-Up
SPEAKER_03I agree. 110%. 110%. Anything else you'd like to throw in on that, Sophie? We're we're kind of getting towards the end here, but nothing really. Looking forward to many more.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. I love to travel, so I'm excited. Brooks Brooke says he wants me to do my 49.
SPEAKER_03Okay. I mean, she's gonna be hunting with me. You know, it's kind of part of it. It's part of it.
SPEAKER_02I mean, we're not gonna go just hit the same place over and over. Right.
SPEAKER_03I understand that.
SPEAKER_02You had some good turkey hunts last year with me.
SPEAKER_01I've got eleven, so I've got to do it.
SPEAKER_03You got a good kickstart, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Not a bad sort. So we're gonna get a bunch.
SPEAKER_03Well, we've got what two more springs to be done. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing to it.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna get a lot in it this upcoming same time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we we're like in a tr I'm like in a transition phase from moving from the farm, potentially moving to Mississippi. Yeah. And I just said to hell with it. Maybe we'll just take one more spring before life's gets real, real. You know, graduate college in the spring. Okay. Or summer, hope. Well, I hope the spring. Well, whenever you might be summer. Whenever I decide to get done. Yeah, I get that.
SPEAKER_03And uh who needs that anyways, man. Not us whole turkey on it. No, we don't need it. We'll get clever. Yeah, we we we got enough street smarts to get through.
SPEAKER_02We'll get through. We'll make it by.
SPEAKER_03Well, that sounds good, and hopefully y'all do have a good spring. And if uh y'all ever down my way or we ever on the road somewhere similar, holler at me. We'll do something. Oh yeah, we'll have to do it. But yeah, I appreciate y'all coming on, and uh hopefully y'all have a good rest of y'all show. Get to hang out with everybody, and I hope to see y'all tonight. We'll uh we'll be we'll talk some some some more turkeys, I'm sure, off mic and and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02I think I think we're headed to your b uh I think we're headed to the Spring Legion booth right out of here. Oh, I think we'll get my hoodie up or something. We got my hoodie.
SPEAKER_01I love some t-shirts.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, I think we're going to pick up some stuff. We're going to Tribe Kelly after that. Yeah, yeah. I'll spend some money on it. That one's gonna hurt.
SPEAKER_03Maybe she'll buy yours, you buy hers. Yeah, that's that's a good tribe. I think I'm gonna head to Ricky Page or somebody like that. Might get in the get in the wrong end of the stick on that one, but but no, yeah. Y'all go have some fun and uh thank y'all for taking out uh a good 30 minute section of y'all's time and uh just uh look forward to hearing from y'all spring.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. We appreciate you having us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. So that'll wrap us up on another episode of the Spring Lynch Podcast. We'll see you next week.
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