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GRANT: It’s almost time to plant food plots. Always reminds me that seeds are a perfect illustration of the life, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, without the resurrection, Christ would have just been a nice teacher – a guy in history. But, the resurrection – it changed the world.

GRANT: Due to Christ’s resurrection, we now have a clear path to spend eternity with our Savior. I hope you join the Woods family this year and celebrate the real reason for Easter and worship our Savior, Jesus Christ.

GRANT: Last week, we shared that recently we’ve had several favorable burning days here at The Proving Grounds. The weather is different every year and you’ve got to make the most of what you have. Favorable burning days often means not very good days for growing or planting because it’s dry and low humidity. In those days when we can’t be doing food plots, it’s time to improve the native habitat.

GRANT: One day, our team was able to burn about 100 acres of native vegetation, bedding areas, here at The Proving Grounds. Now, that’s not a lot in flat country or CRP fields or flat level pine stands down south. But in mountain country, 100 acres is a long day.

GRANT: A few days later, the humidity was forecast to drop again; the wind speeds were gonna be ten miles an hour or less; it was gonna be another good day to improve some habitat.

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GRANT: There was a north wind and low humidity when we arrived at the bedding areas on the south side of Big Cave Road. March 13th and getting ready to drop a match. Do a little prescribed fire today to improve some habitat.

GRANT: Today, we’re burning the south side of a steep slope. Swirling winds here in the mountains make it tough to hunt and even tougher to conduct a safe prescribed fire.

GRANT: So, on top, we’ve got a pretty steady breeze coming out of the north. We’re burning the south side. It’s – the breeze is gonna go right over the ridgetop, swirl a little bit and then be almost still in the bottom.

GRANT: As always when burning in the mountains, we’re gonna start a fire up here. The wind today is pushing it downhill. It’s gonna slow down once it gets over the mountain 40, 50 yards. We’re gonna create a black line; go down both sides; then light the bottom and let it rush back up.

GRANT: Today, with the wind coming this way, we’re not worried about throwing ambers over our break on this side and it’s quite a ways across the valley. So, it should be a safe burn if the conditions behave as forecast.

GRANT: We always start a fire with everything full.

GRANT: It’s important to take time to make sure the backpack blowers and chainsaws are filled with fuel and will start before the fire. You don’t want to wait ‘til the fire jumps or a snag catches on fire and find out your tools aren’t ready to work.

GRANT: This is your valve and at first, you just gotta open it up and get it going a little bit. But then, you’ll be cranking her down ‘cause as it builds pressure, it wants to come out like a machine gun.

GRANT: All right.

GRANT: That baby’s gonna rock. On top we’re a little windier than normal. But our relative humidity – whoo hoo, hoo, hoo – anyone want to guess?

GRANT: Yeah. 22. And it’ll, and it will be more – it will be lower out there in the sun.

GRANT: During the preceding couple of days, Clay and our interns, Tyler and Jacob, have prepared a fire line around the top of the burn and down both sides tying into a road in the creek in the bottom. Before we started the fire that afternoon, I took time to explain the burn plan to everyone on the team.

GRANT: Okay. Here’s the burn plan today. Of course, the wind is kind of wanting to go this way – mainly this way. It’s gonna die down – 50 yards over the slope, it’s gonna die way down. So, I’m gonna start lighting these leaves right here and go this way. I think it’s gonna go off here pretty quickly and then it will just really slow down.

CLAY: Okay.

GRANT: Okay?

UNKNOWN: Sounds good.

GRANT: So, you two are working as a team. I’m gonna have you backing him up and I think – I’m not sure it’s gonna make the power line, but we’ve got to burn that edge ‘cause we don’t want our back turned and then it gets over there with the head fire and jumps it.

CLAY: Yeah. Yeah.

GRANT: So, you can start lighting down that…

CLAY: Okay.

GRANT: …pretty soon.

CLAY: Okay.

GRANT: Okay? And just start working your way down it and if it’s easing over this way, that’s great. Just don’t get too far ahead where it’s in a big…

CLAY: Yeah.

GRANT: …head fire. Once we clear the hardwoods on our back fire, we can do whatever.

GRANT: The plan was simple. We’d start a backing fire across the top; lit it back through some mature hardwoods. Clay and I would be lighting down both sides – staying ahead of that backing fire. That would allow us to have a black area – or an area with no fuel – so that fire wouldn’t build up speed and jump the fire lines. And then, once we got into the bedding area or the native grass and forbs, Clay and I would move a little quicker, have a big black area, and then light the bottom to send the head fire through the remaining of the burn area.

GRANT: We lit the fuel on the side of the fire line where we planned to burn and watched how it would behave.

GRANT: The first little leaf pile gives me an indication – and you can see it’s spreading and carrying pretty rapidly. It’s going this way as we thought it would. The wind’s gonna come over the mountain and curl toward the bottom. So, it’s gonna, probably be a side fire once we get over the mountain a little bit.

GRANT: I’m just gonna light about 10 or 15 feet and see what happens here. You guys are good to light up over there.

GRANT: We’ll see how quick it dies down once it gets over the edge of the mountain here.

GRANT: We lit a small section of fuel, just to see how it would behave. It’s one thing to know the wind speed and the humidity and other indices. It’s another to see how it’s gonna behave at that site at that particular time.

GRANT: We’re lighting down (Inaudible) so I don’t hit this with the head fire and any backup (Inaudible).

GRANT: It feels much calmer. We’re just a few feet below the hill there and it’s much calmer right here than it was on top.

GRANT: Backing fires – fires going against the wind or downhill – tend to move very slowly. In steep terrain, I almost always start at the top of the area to be burned with a backing fire. This allows me to see how the fire is gonna behave and it’s much easier to control than starting at a bottom and setting a head fire that’s ripping up hill and could easily jump the fire break.

GRANT: She’s gonna cook up here.

GRANT: In this case, we were burning from north uphill to south downhill and we had a north wind. So, it was pushing the fire a bit faster downhill than normal. Once the fire had burned 100 yards or so below the top of the hill, it slowed down because that hill is cutting off that wind. It circles a little bit right on the other side of the slope and then lays down the further you get downslope.

GRANT: Once the top of the area that was to be burned had been lit, it was time for Clay and I to start working down both sides of the fire. Setting fire along those breaks creates a larger area with no fuel so the center of the fire can’t sweep to one side or the other with the head fire and potentially jump the line.

CLAY: 40 or 50 yards down – had to come out and relight a little bit in the power line here. And my fire went out in front of the bluff, so.

GRANT: Copy that. I’m not as worried about the power line as long as you get that leaf line and give me ten yards off the power line.

CLAY: Copy that.

GRANT: An important job on any fire is have what we call a fire monitor. Someone that’s off somewhere that can see most of the fire unit and allow others, via good communication, to know what’s going on. Today, Daniel was the fire monitor.

CLAY: Copy that.

GRANT: Daniel was able to get in a Redneck Blind on the opposite ridge and have a great view of the burn.

DANIEL: Grant, I can see your flame on that other side of the glade now.

GRANT: Thank you. Copy that.

GRANT: Once Clay and I had lit the edges of the fire down to the bottom, we could light the bottom of the fire instead of the head fire and not worry about it jumping out of the area to be burned.

GRANT: Jacob, watch for (Inaudible) sparks. You can work your way back to that side. Be working your way back up to that side.

JACOB: Roger.

GRANT: Clay, you can just follow him slightly up that side (Inaudible) watching for (Inaudible) so (Inaudible).

CLAY: Copy that.

GRANT: Last summer, we showed how hardwood saplings had taken over this bedding area – especially the bottom portion. To be able to meet our objective of maintaining this as a bedding area composed of native grasses and forbs, it was necessary to have Flatwood Natives come in and treat the hardwood saplings with a safe herbicide. Without that treatment, the hardwood saplings would have canopied out and not allowed any sunshine down to the soil. And there wouldn’t have been enough fine fuels in the area, grasses and forbs and a few leaves, to carry the fire.

GRANT: We’ve tried burning this area in the past and fire might top kill some of the hardwood saplings, but it would not root kill them. It was necessary to use a herbicide to terminate those saplings and have a good fire.

GRANT: I’m very confident this fire was a success and we made a lot of progress toward restoring native grasses and forbs in this area.

GRANT: In a few weeks, after the temperatures warm up and we get a couple of rains, we’ll go back and tour that area.

UNKNOWN: Yeah.

UNKNOWN: I’ll leave that to Daniel. I don’t know. That big part there just wasn’t burning at all.

UNKNOWN: Quenten, do I need to string over to you at all or how are you looking over there?

QUENTEN: Copy that. I think once I get…

GRANT: Prescribed fire is a great tool for habitat management. It’s also a good way to give future wildlife biologists some practical field experience.

GRANT: Current GrowingDeer interns, Tyler and Jacob, have had lots of opportunities to get in-field experience the last few weeks.

GRANT: I often reflect how blessed I was due to an internship, decades ago, with the Bureau of Land Management in Elko, Nevada. That internship and the mentors I have was a huge jumpstart to my career as a wildlife biologist. Since then, one of my ways of paying back is accept interns. I’ve now had more than 35 interns and I’m really pleased that more than 90% of them are currently employed in the wildlife field.

GRANT: Last week I heard from one of my recent interns, Tyler Gentry. Tyler was from Kansas; did an extended internship with me and gained employment with a wildlife firm in Nashville, Tennessee. Tyler shared last week he was conducting some prescribed fires and I’m thrilled that he’s not only having fun, but helping others improve wildlife habitat.

GRANT: As green up is starting to occur here in the Ozark Mountains, prescribed fire season is about over until probably late August or so and that means it’s almost time for turkey season here at home.

RAE: (Whispering) Here you go.

GRANT: I guess you did that.

GRANT: Well, yeah. It definitely…

RAE: As long as it does the job.

GRANT: Oh, Rae’s got his eyeball right in the center right there. Rae is wanting to smoke that thing right there.

RAE: I was ready.

GRANT: Oh. I can’t shoot him. I can kill him.

GRANT: To tune-up for turkey season, we had our good friend and world champion turkey caller, Steve Morgenstern, come to The Proving Grounds and give us some tips.

GRANT: Steve, all my buddies are thinking about turkeys this time of year.

STEVE: It’s getting to be that time, isn’t it?

GRANT: It is. I mean, everybody’s either out scouting or practicing their call; driving their wives and kids crazy. Or the wives are driving the husband’s crazy or something like that.

STEVE: That’s right.

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: Or some of the buddies are even gone doing it right now.

GRANT: I hear you. Yeah, we gotta talk to Scott about that. So.

STEVE: I know.

GRANT: I wanted to come out today and just spend some time with you. Steve’s a world champion caller and a friend of mine. And, uh, Steve has helped us in the past; talked about some basic calls and kind of defining them. And I want to rehash that just a little bit.

STEVE: Okay.

GRANT: And then get into a little bit more advanced techniques.

STEVE: Okay.

GRANT: I mean, man (Inaudible) really dialing in. How do you hold that pot – what’s going on? Not the basic stuff, but in this situation; in that situation.

STEVE: Step it up.

GRANT: And this would be a great place to do it ‘cause, you know, my daughters have harvested turkeys here. This is one of my favorite fields here at The Proving Grounds for turkey hunting ‘cause you can see along the ridge and they like to roost right back here and strut down this way. Or right up here, there’s a little field right behind us. Rae killed her last turkey as a youth last year. It was great fun. We saw a turkey come strutting right up this road we’re right here on. So, I think turkeys when I’m right here.

STEVE: Okay.

GRANT: But I’m not a master caller. This is just one of those locations I can count on turkeys roosting around here.

STEVE: Sure. Absolutely.

GRANT: But if I’m going, you know – like Daniel and I are getting ready to head off to Tennessee or Kansas and hunt – and we’re going into a place cold. We’ve got to use a little bit more calling at that time. So, let’s just go through and show a couple of the basic calls. You know, a yelp, a cut, whatever and then you’re going into a place cold. Let’s just take that scenario. How are you gonna call?

STEVE: Okay. Your yelps, first off – pretty simple. You gotta high note and a low note on your yelp. You’re gonna have your high note coming across the top like so. And your low note’s gonna be on the down stroke. High. Low. And then you’re just putting ‘em together in a turkey type rhythm. High. Low.

GRANT: Okay. So, when you’re coming across the top, you go straight down or do you arc over?

STEVE: It’s kind of an arc – a, a J or a half circle.

GRANT: Right.

STEVE: Half-moon.

GRANT: Right.

STEVE: Because that will bring – what that will do is that will bring that high note across the top…

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: …and the low note when you come down. And then you’re leaving that striker or peg tip right on the surface and drag it back to where you started from. So you got high, low, drag it back. And then you just speed it up for your turkey. Gotta hear that high and low in there.

GRANT: Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Eeeoh, eeeoh, eeeoh. Yeah.

STEVE: Right. That keeohngk.

GRANT: Yeah. Yeah.

STEVE: And then the, the cluck part, the cluck or the cuts – all is you’re doing is popping that peg. You’re starting the same spot you did on your yelp.

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: But, you’re just popping it.

GRANT: And you’re going down on your…

STEVE: In a, in a straight line. Just a straight line – pop it down. And leave it on the surface.

GRANT: I, I think it’s important to note that when we’re saying down, it doesn’t necessarily mean towards the ground. Depending on how you’re holding your pot, we’re going across the grain of where you’ve prepared the surface.

STEVE: Exactly. When I say down, I, I – it, it’s coming to the center of the call. You’re starting, say a third of the way in and you’re bringing it down into the center of the call.

GRANT: All right.

STEVE: And that’s in just a straight line, pop it down, drag it back, pop it down again.

GRANT: I see.

STEVE: Put your clucks with your yelps. Kind of in a turkey rhythm. Your cuts is a cluck, sped up in a, in a cutting style rhythm. So, you start your clucks. And then speed ‘em up a little. Put ‘em into a cutting rhythm.

GRANT: I believe if it was a little sunnier and a little warmer, we’d have one gobbling right now.

STEVE: Oh, he’d be on us. He’d be on us.

GRANT: Yeah. Yeah. That’s sounding good.

GRANT: That’s some great basic stuff. So, let’s think about now, you’re with me and gosh, you and Daniel and I say we’re gonna team up this year. We’re not gonna give you a gun. That wouldn’t be fair. So, you’re gonna call with us. And we roll out there to Kansas; we get invited somewhere – public land, we’ve never been before. And it’s before daylight and, you know, we’ve looked at the map and we’ve kind of all batted back and forth. “I think we need to start at the creek bottom.” “We need to start here and there.” What are you gonna do?

STEVE: Well, first off, obviously, you want to try and locate a bird.

GRANT: Hmm. Hmm.

STEVE: You’re gonna throw in an owl hoot. Something, you know, something as an early morning locater. If no success on that, if you don’t get one located and can’t get on one.

GRANT: Hmm. Hmm.

STEVE: Or you go in later in the morning.

GRANT: Right.

STEVE: It’s after daylight, whatever.

GRANT: Yup.

STEVE: Especially on public ground, these birds have been pounded. People are coming in; they’re coming in with everything they’ve got at ‘em.

GRANT: Sure.

STEVE: What I’m gonna do is – I’m gonna go in and start easing. Okay? When I first walk in, I’m just gonna give ‘em some soft yelps. See what kind of a response, if any, if you get any kind of a response. Get a little more aggressive as you go – not just start blowing ‘em away. ‘Cause I’m gonna want to move and…

GRANT: Hmm. Hmm.

STEVE: …work that a little bit, you know. Maybe work some – a little bit of clucking and cutting in. But, not get super aggressive. Because that’s probably what everybody else has done…

GRANT: Sure.

STEVE: …ahead of you.

GRANT: And if it’s early season, like now, and the leaves are off, that sound is traveling so far.

STEVE: Absolutely.

GRANT: You can blow out a whole bunch of acres before you really are set up to hunt it.

STEVE: Sure. That’s what happens with – and, and your friction calls. And that’s what, what they’re good for, especially, a, a crystal type surface. Or a friction call, in general. Box calls. They cut through that anyway. And then with, with less cover, I mean, you’re covering a lot of territory with just some real soft calling.

GRANT: Sure.

STEVE: You know, if need be, I’ll get in and maybe do some clucking or purring as I’m –you know – as I’m moving through to kind of emulate a, you know, a hen or, or something cruising.

GRANT: Flock of turkeys feeding through.

STEVE: Yeah. A flock of turkeys…

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: …feeding through. You know, just, just some little clucks. And as you’re doing that or moving through there, you know, and kind of moving your feet, you know…

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: …scraping some leaves or something…

GRANT: Right. Right.

STEVE: …as you’re walking through, trying to, you know, trying to imitate what a bird would do.

GRANT: I think you just hit an excellent point. Because I admit, I’m not a great caller and I’ve tagged a lot of toms that held up out there a little ways. You know, they responded to the call, got in a little closer. And I usually will have a stick of some kind – doesn’t have to be real big – right down there by my side where nothing can see it moving unless it’s in shotgun range.

STEVE: Hmm. Hmm.

GRANT: And I can just scratch the leaves a little. ‘Cause turkeys in the timber make a lot of noise.

STEVE: They do. And, and a lot more than people would realize. And, and obviously, you want to move quiet as you can. But the sounds that you make – if you make, like a turkey…

GRANT: A turkey.

STEVE: …would make.

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: Or even a deer or something like that, you’re gonna – I mean, you’re gonna imitate that and it’s gonna, gonna put them at a lot more ease.

GRANT: Yeah. We’re not busting great big sticks walking through or something like that.

STEVE: Exactly.

GRANT: But we’re easing through. You’ve heard turkeys out of your deer stand, probably. And we’re just easing through and…

STEVE: Hmm. Hmm.

GRANT: …and, of course, we don’t want to be calling a lot while we’re easing if we think there’s a lot of other hunters in the area ‘cause they’re gonna hear that and think, “Here comes a turkey.”

STEVE: So. Well, absolutely. Especially on a public ground. Or on a ground that you’re not familiar with, you know.

GRANT: Yeah. Even here at The Proving Grounds. We have people slip in, whatever. And you always – safety first. All the time, safety first.

GRANT: Well, let’s fire up a little bit more calling here. You know, now we’re later in the morning. We, we don’t think anyone else is out hunting. We haven’t located a bird. We need to reach out and touch one somewhere.

STEVE: Okay. So, then, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna get into that aggressive yelping, the cutting. Really jack it up and reach out, you know, and try and spark him and fire him up after he’s maybe got rid of his hens or, or finished.

GRANT: Right.

STEVE: You know, it’s later morning. So, I’m gonna hit it – just a series of yelps to begin with in case there’s something, like, really close.

GRANT: Sure.

STEVE: You don’t want to blow him clear out. So, I’m just gonna give him a. Listen, listen for a little bit. Sometimes even turning a little bit. Because that call’s gonna be shooting that sound out a little different. Then, if I’m not hitting anything – step it up a little bit.

STEVE: Then, give it a listen. You probably don’t want to call a real long extended series just for the fact if he is gobbling or does gobble, you don’t want to miss him.

GRANT: Yeah. You’re overriding him. Yeah. Yeah.

STEVE: If you’re with a buddy – what we do a lot of times is one guy will stand back or get ahead. You know?

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: Usually, one guy stands back; the other guy moves forward; gets away from it a little bit so he can pick up that gobble.

GRANT: Especially, when they’re cutting a call, the guy separate will pick it up where the guy calling just doesn’t pick it up a lot.

STEVE: Yeah. If you’re – it’s, it’s loud right here and you’re, you’re ringing all around. It’s hard to pick up that gobble. If he’s, you know, a couple yards out. Even if he’s 100 yards out, you know?

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: And you got that call singing in your ears. But that, that excited, aggressive yelping; throwing your cuts in; and then you’re listening. You know, every time you’re not calling, you need to be listening.

GRANT: Yup. I think reading turkey behavior is a big part of it, so I’m always listening for hens or anything else to see how excited they are or maybe they’re toned down. It’s a little cloudy day or boy, they’re really ramped up. I can call more aggressively. And I try to mimic what’s going on in that area.

STEVE: Absolutely. And there’s something else, too. If you’re, if you’re – say you’re cutting and running. You’re trying to fire one up and it doesn’t happen, you want to set up – just make a little blind call setup. You know? Sit down.

GRANT: Yup.

STEVE: Then, what you’re doing is you’re trying to read the situation, um, start maybe some yelping. Some clucking and purring; some scratching as you’re moving through. Maybe get a little louder. At some point, there, there may be an old gobbler strolling by. You know, you want to set up against a tree and you’re just doing kind of some. Just emulating that hen turkey – just yelping, walking through.

STEVE: You’re, you’re plain yelping…

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE; …but you’re getting it enough to where they can pinpoint you.

GRANT: I gotta tell you – and it’s not as thrilling. Boy, one’s out there hammering and every time you call the hammer and they come in all blowed up and strutted in. I mean, that’s the ideal turkey hunt. Right?

STEVE: Absolutely. That’s textbook. Yeah.

GRANT: But, the real, I guess, sense of more accomplishment – you’ve got a quiet morning and nothing’s happening. You sit up against an oak tree.

STEVE: Hmm. Hmm.

GRANT: Maybe some scratching in the area or something. You call in that old, mature, silent tom. He never gives you a peep along the way.

STEVE: Yeah. He’s just kinda….

GRANT: And you finally see that, that head. And then, maybe by another tree, you see the head and he finally works in there in shotgun range. That, folks, actually probably takes more skill than that two-year-old that’s just fired up and making you sound like you just won a calling contest and comes running in, saying, “Hit me with a load of Winchesters right in the face.”

STEVE: Or if you’re setting there and, and nothing, you know. You’ve got a buddy and you’re like, “What do you think? What do you think?” And then all of a sudden, you hear that.

GRANT: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

STEVE: And you’re like, “Oh no.” Because you know he’s close; he’s right there; he’s never said a word and all of a sudden, he knows he’s where that hen should be.

GRANT: Yeah, yeah.

STEVE: And then he pops out and he’s like, “Okay. Here, here we are. Let’s do this.” You know?

GRANT: Yeah. And your gun’s on the ground and your sandwich is in your hands. There’s just not a lot you can do about it.

STEVE: Absolutely. Yup. You’re hung.

GRANT: Yeah.

STEVE: It’s over.

GRANT: Yeah. You might as well – you know, Daniel and I just had our – or Clay and I, actually – just had that down in Florida just a little bit ago. Some – I’d have a sandwich in my hand, but turkeys come in the back side of us. There’s nothing we can do. Instead of spook ‘em; instead of trying to make a quick turn or – that just wasn’t going to work out. Not likely to.

STEVE: Hmm. Hmm.

GRANT: We let them drift on off and caught up with ‘em two or 300 yards down the way and…

STEVE: Sure. (Inaudible)

GRANT: …worked them again.

STEVE: Oh yeah.

GRANT: Steve, we’re gonna wrap this up. Just run through some of those calls again for us. You mentioned purr. Do some purrs, run through some calls…

STEVE: Okay.

GRANT: …and let’s wrap this up.

STEVE: The purrs – all is you’re doing on a purr. Okay? You’ve got your cluck. Your peg on a purr is just skipping. Okay? Just kind of drag it across and let it skip. Put your clucks with it.

STEVE: Purring – clucking and purring is a good call to finish something off.

GRANT: Yes.

STEVE: Okay? Another thing that you can do with that. Set that down. Is it’s in your lap, set it down. You’re toning that all down. Set it – a lot of times, I’ll set it on the ground. Prop it against my leg. Just up enough to where it’d go. Any turkey sounds that you’re getting, don’t have to be perfect.

GRANT: Right.

STEVE: They’ve got to be effective.

GRANT: They sound different out in the woods to me.

STEVE: Exactly.

GRANT: The different turkeys sound different.

STEVE: The clucks – again, we’re, we’re starting at a spot – starting – pop it down, drag it right back to the beginning spot. You’re cutting; you’re, you’re upping that a little bit.

STEVE: Something you can do on your cutting – if you want to bump that up a little bit more. Instead of just taking the straight down stroke, pop it off to one side. You’re getting two different…

GRANT: Right.

STEVE: …two different pitches out of that. Mix some of that in. The more real that you can sound to that bird, the more effective you’re gonna be. Put that with some yelps. Rhythm, turkey rhythms – yelp turkey. Don’t yelp like a guy on a call.

GRANT: Absolutely. You know and I, I’d like to close this up by saying, I tell you, folks, you don’t have to be an expert caller to enjoy turkey hunting. Steve’s a world champion. I’m not. I enjoy turkey hunting; I’ve tagged a few turkeys along the way. The pot calls make me really – because I, I’ll be honest. I get a little nervous with the mouth call every now and then. I think I’m sounding pretty good in the pickup. I get out in the woods and I’m going.

STEVE: Sure.

GRANT: “Well, I don’t know about that.” You know. And when I get to feeling that way, I lose my confidence a little bit. I grab my pot call and my striker and man, I can put a tag on a bird and take some turkey breast home to Ms. Tracy for a meal.

STEVE: That’s right. That’s right.

GRANT: What – just – everyone’s gonna ask. I’m gonna get a gazillion emails. So, just tell us what call you’re using. Because everyone’s gonna ask.

STEVE: The call I’m running here is actually – it’s the Redeemer crystal call that we did for the GrowingDeer outfit.

GRANT: And, and the design, kind of, is for guys like me that aren’t master callers; that probably don’t take enough time to practice. And you can get good tone out of it easily. It’s not a finicky call.

STEVE: It’s – no. It’s not finicky. It’s easy to play; it’s very lively. A few, a few minutes of practice and you can make turkey sounds like a pro.

GRANT: Yup.

STEVE: You know. In the timber. You know, the big thing – it’s not, it’s not how good a caller you are, it’s how much fun you have doing it.

GRANT: Absolutely. Steve, thanks for sharing your expertise with us and this year, let’s try to hook up and do a turkey hunt together.

STEVE: Let’s do it.

GRANT: All right.

STEVE: Appreciate it.

GRANT: We’re gonna share a few of Steve’s calling sequences here. That way, you can simply listen, stop the video, and practice with your calls.

GRANT: If you’d like to learn some more turkey hunting techniques or share some turkey hunting stories, why don’t you join fellow Bass Pro RedHead Pro Staffers, Jerry Martin, Allen Treadwell and myself at the Bass Pro store in Springfield, Missouri, March 31st? We’ll be giving some turkey hunting seminars from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and hanging around the hunting department that morning. I look forward to visiting with you March 31st at the Springfield Bass Pro store.

GRANT: For weekly updates about turkey hunting strategies, simply sign up for the GrowingDeer newsletter.

GRANT: Whether you live in the south and the leaves are fully out or you’re in the north and still walking through snow, every day is a good day to enjoy Creation. But most importantly, take time every day to slow down and listen to what the Creator is saying to you.

GRANT: Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.