Last week I loaded up my van, said goodbye to my wife, and hit the road for what will be a three-month-long escapade across the United States, all to chase the wild turkey.
This was the start of my sixth Turkey Van Tour, which consists of me living and traveling out of my Ford Transit van, and documenting the entire turkey hunting season in video format. For the past six years, the TVT has been my obsession. It’s not an exaggeration to say that traveling to different states, meeting new people, exploring public lands, and watching spring slowly reveal itself, all while chasing that next gobble has shaped how I think about the world.
Tom Kelly once wrote: “I do not hunt turkeys because I want to; I hunt them because I have to. I would give it up if I could, but I lack the willpower.”
While that sentiment might be true for some veteran turkey hunters, it’s not quite right for me, at least not in this stage of my hunting career. I hunt turkeys because I get to, and I love every second of it. I’d hunt them all 12 months of the year if I could.
TVT is my way of making the spring turkey season last as long as possible. The video series combines two styles of content into one, incorporating the camping, cooking, and van-life that you see in van travel videos, as well as the diehard, public-land turkey hunting videos that you find from creators like The Hunting Public and Pinhoti Project. If anything, I hope the series helps document that turkey hunting is fun even when it’s hard — actually, especially when it’s hard. And also that wild turkeys are worth celebrating.
For the premiere of TVT6, I headed down to Mississippi for the opening week of their turkey season. Lucky for me, I drew the non-resident public land tag, so I’d be hunting and camping around the many acres of public land available in the state.
Spring seemed to have come early in the area. The woods were already greening up, turkeys were gobbling, and the hunting was much better than I expected. We had three opportunities on three Mississippi longbeards on opening day.
You can find all of the episodes from the new season of Turkey Van Tour on Outdoor Life’s YouTube Channel.