Tag Team Turkey Hunts (Episode 180 Transcript)
This is the video transcript. To watch the video for this episode click here.
GRANT: April 29th and we continue to have a lot of great turkey action here at The Proving Grounds and Heath and Lindsey Martin do a double tag in Nebraska.
LINDSEY: (Whispering) That’s my turkey.
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LINDSEY: Okay. (Fades out)
GRANT: Growing Deer pro staffers, Heath and Lindsey Martin, live in Arkansas but they like to venture out a little bit to go on hunts.
LINDSEY: Hey, guys. It’s Lindsey. Um, it’s April 11th. It’s about 3 o’clock. Um, and as you can see we’ve got some stuff set out here, and Heath and I are actually heading up to Nebraska for the weekend. About six, seven hours. Maybe eight hours for us from here. Um, hopefully we’ll get Heath on a turkey tomorrow. And then come Saturday, maybe I’ll get a chance to get one with a shotgun as well. So, stay tuned. We’re hoping for a great weekend.
HEATH: (Whispering) See her right there?
GRANT: Heath had found some sign and put up a ground blind and that afternoon, sure enough, they saw a couple of hens fly up to roost.
HEATH: (Whispering) Trees swinging up there. She just jumped up there. She’s walking around trying to find a good limb to sit on. Yeah, right there he is. Always on that side of the fence. Dadgum it. They already crossed.
HEATH: Are you on him?
LINDSEY: Yeah.
HEATH: (Whispering) There’s more birds gonna come to this tree site, so I’m actually gonna get in the blind and see what happens for in the morning. Holy Cow. I can’t believe that. Them jokers just came out of nowhere. Man, that’s a good bird, too. Big ole heavy bird.
GRANT: Heath made a great shot with his Impact. But he wisely brought that bird back in the blind, knowing that shotgun season opened the next morning. And Lindsey had a shotgun tag.
GRANT: The plan worked perfectly as those hens that roosted nearby were noisy, and he started mimicking those calls in an effort to bring those hens in, hoping some gobblers would follow.
GRANT: Heath’s calling was enough to stir things up and bring those hens on into the decoys. Suddenly from the left, a lone jake appears. That would be perfect for Lindsey’s first turkey.
LINDSEY: (Whispering) Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So, I just got my first turkey in Nebraska. Um, I was about to think it was not gonna happen this morning and I did not hesitate. I busted him. And that is my first turkey ever in Nebraska, baby. So, I am excited. We’ve been sitting here shivering all morning long. But I don’t care. That’s my turkey. Hey, good looking turkey.
GRANT: I want to congratulate Lindsey on her first turkey and Heath and Lindsey for setting a great example of hunting together and sharing Creation.
GRANT: It’s always a happier drive home when both parties of the hunt have tagged a bird; especially when that’s a husband and wife traveling those long hours.
GRANT: Back at The Proving Grounds in between turkey hunting, we’ve been doing a little work on our food plots. Rather than disking and all the negative impacts of that of allowing the fine soil particles, which are the most valuable, to blow away and compact in soil with all the weight of that disk; we simply spray that existing winter crop and prepare to plant our spring variety.
GRANT: That standing plant material will simply fall down and make the perfect mulch for your food plot. That vegetative material that fell over to mulch serves several purposes. If a heavy rain happens to occur, the mulch actually intercepts the raindrops, lessening the compaction when it hits the soil allowing it more time to absorb in and not run off, limiting erosion. It also serves to keep moisture from evaporating back out of the soil because the sun’s not directly hitting the soil surface. And of course, that vegetative material is fertilizer. Worms and other insects will decompose that slowly, making it the most effective slow release fertilizer. Finally all that weed matter covering the soil surface greatly reduces the amount of weeds that are gonna germinate come up through, competing with your forage crop. Healthier soil results in healthier deer and healthier turkeys.
GRANT: Now that our food plots have all been sprayed, Adam opted to take a morning and go hunt with his brother.
ADAM: The bird’s roosted right out front; he’s responding to our calls and we’re thinking it’s just a matter of time.
ADAM: (Whispering) Hey, hey, I heard that. That was a spit, though, wasn’t it?
CHAD: (Whispering) You hear it walking?
ADAM: (Whispering) Yes.
CHAD: (Whispering) To my right. To my right.
ADAM: (Whispering) It’s directly behind us.
CHAD: (Whispering) To my right!
ADAM: (Whispering) Okay. Dude, it’s like 20 yards.
CHAD: (Whispering) I see him.
ADAM: (Whispering) Okay.
CHAD: (Whispering) He’s slowly walking this way.
ADAM: (Whispering) Look at the frost on his fan.
CHAD: (Whispering) Come on.
ADAM: (Whispering) I got him.
CHAD: (Whispering) (Inaudible) fan.
ADAM: (Whispering) Okay, take him whenever you’re ready.
CHAD: (Whispering) He came right on top of us.
ADAM: (Whispering) You know, in all the years we’ve hunted turkeys…
CHAD: (Whispering) Oooh.
ADAM: (Whispering) I don’t think we’ve ever had one just get that close with no cover. And you could hear him spitting and drumming and I was like, “There’s no way he’s gonna walk into this food plot. He was so dead set on that hen decoy.”
CHAD: (Whispering) Yeah.
ADAM: (Whispering) Gosh that was perfect. I, uh, you couldn’t have drawn that up.
CHAD: (Whispering) Oh, look at how frosty he was.
ADAM: (Whispering) And you could see his fan. It was just…And when I first looked at it I was like, “Does he have a white fan?” But it was just the frost on him.
GRANT: I really enjoyed watching that hunt. I especially enjoyed watching the frost pattern on that gobbler. It’s amazing how the Creator designed those animals to survive the cold nights and open up during the day and let that heat escape. I hope you have a chance to get out and witness the miracles of Creation this week. That’s exactly what Adam and I did this morning as we had another great hunt right here at The Proving Grounds. And we’ll share that hunt next week. Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.tv.
ADAM: Alright let’s go. You may recall last week were in Kentucky. Been like, baam! Owwinnow Brian’s a cow, owwinnow Brian’s a cow. Um, we’re set up on a bird out front, gobbling. I just really want to focus on my career right now. Alright, ready? Should I say something about frost now?