The MeatEater

This week on Back 40, we’re tackling a frustration just about every landowner has faced at some point: you plant a beautiful food plot… and the deer barely touch it. We asked one simple question: Why aren’t deer using your food plots? To answer it, we brought in four guys who’ve spent years figuring this out the hard way—Thomas Mlsna, Jared Van Hees, Kyle Heuerman, and Terry Peer. From poor plot placement and overlooked soil issues to hunting pressure and treating food plots like a silver bullet, each guest breaks down the biggest mistakes they see—and what actually gets deer to use a plot consistently. We also get into the importance of transition vs destination, how to properly gauge utilization with cages, and why plot size and pressure are often more connected than you think. One question. Four perspectives. Endless insight.

Connect with Jake Hofer and MeatEater

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop MeatEater Merch

Steven Rinella and the MeatEater crew discuss: The Turkey Week Giveaway Sweepstakes; a giant moray eel; biking and fly fishing; Delta Waterfowl hen houses; more on TSS and tungsten; nibbling on nuts; turkey season changes; the Death Valley Super Bloom; bad poacher dudes; Shiras moose; and more.

Outro credit: "The Screaming Song" written by George Alan Sparhawk

Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network

Steve on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

On Tuesday, March 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced sweeping changes for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Notably, the Trump Administration will move the headquarters of the federal agency, which manages 193 million acres of multi-use public land, from Washington D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. Additionally, there will be a major shakeup of how USFS organizes its office and research facilities.

The administration’s decision to move the headquarters west was explained as moving decision-makers closer to the land that they manage. “Moving the Forest Service closer to the forests we manage is an essential action that will improve our core mission of managing our forests while saving taxpayer dollars and boosting employee recruitment," said Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins.

The move has been met with praise by many local leaders. "This is a big win for Utah and the West,” said Utah Governor Spencer Cox. “This isn’t symbolic. It means better, faster decisions on the ground. Everyone who depends on our public lands, from hikers and campers to ranchers and timber producers, will benefit from this change.”

In contrast, some environmentalists say that the move could lead to the loss of talent and institutional knowledge due to folks leaving the agency instead of making the move, which happened during the ultimately failed attempt to move the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters from D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado, during the first Trump Administration. Additionally, they argue that moving the office closer to large tracts of USFS land won’t necessarily improve the management of those places, because the national office’s role is to coordinate resources and issue guidance based on national policy, while other offices implement it.

“I would push back on this idea that moving out of D.C. is moving closer to the people you serve. That’s not the role of the national office,” Mary Erickson, a retired forest supervisor, told High Country News.

Of course, the shake-up will extend far beyond relocating the agency’s headquarters; the USFS will also close many regional offices and shift authority to state offices, while also maintaining a network of “operational service centers” to provide administrative and technical support. Additionally, the agency will consolidate its research stations to one unified research facility located in Fort Collins, Colorado.

"This is about building a Forest Service that is nimble, efficient, effective, and closer to the forests and communities it serves," said USFS Chief Tom Schultz. It’s not clear if the transition will include layoffs or how many regional office staff will be required to relocate. The agency’s fire management workforce will not undergo any changes.

Some in the environmental community worry that the reorganization has not been well thought-out and that its implementation may lead to worse public land management. “At a time when wildfires are getting worse, and access to public lands is already under strain, the last thing we need is an unnecessary reorganization that creates chaos and confusion for the land managers, researchers, and wildland firefighters who help keep our forests healthy now and for future generations,” Josh Hicks, conservation campaigns director at The Wilderness Society, told the Associated Press.

MeatEater’s Director of Conservation, Mark Kenyon, shares some of Hicks’s concerns. “This news does not exist in a vacuum…In just over a year, the USFS staff has been slashed by nearly 20%, budget cuts of over 30% have been proposed, and foundational management plans and regulations, such as the Roadless Rule, have been set to be rolled back,” he said. “Adding the forced relocation of critical staffers, or more likely their resignations, and the shuttering of regional offices and critically important research stations on top of all that raises plenty of reason for concern.”

However, Mark also remains hopeful that the transition will be successful.

“For the sake of the wildlife and wild places that hunters and anglers depend on, I hope that these changes can lead to the efficiency gains and other benefits outlined by the Administration,” he added. “But in the meantime, I'll be asking my elected officials to keep a close eye on them.”

Feature image via the Library of Congress of the historic Sidney Yates Federal Building in D.C., where the Forest Service has maintained its headquarters for over 30 years.

When the boys at Double Bull unleashed their first camouflage cubes on the turkey market, it wasn’t exactly a quick burn. Until then, most turkey hunters just put their backs to a tree and then went into statue mode to fool gobblers. Some hunters employed camo netting or stake-out style blinds, but no one entered into voluntary confinement to kill a bird.

Born largely out of the desire to be able to bowhunt turkeys more effectively, pop-up blinds have now become a standard tool in the turkey arsenal. And why not? They are comfortable and provide a huge advantage when used correctly. That last part is a kicker though, because a lot of folks still don’t seem to understand how to truly maximize their blind time. This all starts with understanding how blinds really work.

Before he passed away in a motorcycle accident, we had a neighbor who retired early and absolutely loved my daughters. Fred would often be found sitting in his yard with his overweight chocolate Lab, Chainsaw Sam, or he’d be tinkering in his garage working on some type of project.

I’d be pushing my twin daughters around the block in a double stroller, and then I’d hear a voice from inside the garage asking if I wanted to stop by for a beer. I rarely turned down an offer for a cold one at that point in my life. He knew it, so he’d emerge from the darkness of the garage into the sunlight without waiting for my response, a Michelob Golden in each hand.

I think about Fred just about every time I set up a turkey blind, because on those sunny days when we’d have a beer in his driveway, I couldn’t see him in that garage unless he had a light on. The contrast between a bright, sunny day and a dark garage is no different from the contrast between a bright, sunny day and a turkey blind.

If you learn to use light and shadows correctly, you learn how to use blinds correctly. This is more important for bowhunters, or anyone hunting with kids, but the truth remains that if you want to get away with a lot of movement in a blind, you have to heed a few simple principles.

The closer you are to the windows, the more likely you are to get spotted. The less black you wear, on your hands, face, and anywhere else, the more likely you are to get picked off. The lower the light outside, the more likely you are to get spotted. The more you set up to face directly into either the rising or setting sun, well, you get the drift.

The whole goal of using a pop-up blind is to keep you and your hunting partners from tripping off that little warning system in a tom’s brain. Think about light when you set up your blinds, and then you actually hunt out of them, because it’s the best way to not get busted.

While I think decoy choice, as it relates to the seasonal timing, is probably the number one factor for drawing longbeards in close (accompanied by top-notch calling, of course), the way you envision birds using the land around you matters blind-wise.

The standard mode of operation is to put a blind on a field edge and call birds in. This works, because well, they’re turkeys. Even then, specific location matters, and if you’re not going to post up on an ag field, you have to think about how the birds are likely to approach and what that means to your setup.

I like putting my blinds up so that birds are most likely to approach from anywhere but straight ahead or straight behind. Straight ahead, and they’ll have lots of time to catch sight of movement. Straight behind, and they’ll often catch you off-guard, and they’ll be looking at the one side of your blind you might not brush in as well as the rest.

For bowhunts, I have to consider that my decoys will be within 10 yards. My blind has to be in a great spot that allows it to be brushed in but also allows for an easy shot. With a 12-gauge, you have more margin for error on exact blind placement and shooting range. The rules still stand, though. As you’re looking for a perfect spot to place your blind, think about how longbeards are likely to get there, and what they’re likely to see when they first lay eyes on your decoy spread.

Then, bust out the handsaw and get busy.

Several years ago I was tasked with filming a whitetail bowhunt in northern Wisconsin for Bowhunter TV. While setting up a couple of blinds, my cameraman casually said that when he hunts out of a blind, he really brushes them in. I came from the world where you could pop up a blind anywhere, and the turkeys would mostly ignore it. I figured the deer would as well.

I followed his advice anyway, and he was right. The more I brushed in my blinds and let them season, the more deer I killed from them. Then, I started doing the same thing for turkeys. I quickly realized that while some gobblers just don’t care about a new blind in the middle of a picked cornfield, most of them do. At least pressured birds do.

You want to brush in your blind to achieve a few goals. Depth is a big one, because it tucks you farther into the shadows and helps obscure your movements. You also want to ensure that no panel of your blind shines too brightly at any point in the day. This means you just need to break things up and allow the shadows to do their thing. Lastly, you don’t just want the birds to accept your blind as a part of the landscape; you want them to not even notice it.

This means tucking it between pine trees, in the middle of a deadfall, or just anywhere that allows you to use natural vegetation as your starting point. Then brush it in, and when you think you’re good, keep going. There’s no downside to a little overkill on this front.

On this episode of Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb is joined by Dr. Misty Newcomb and Josh Spielmaker, along with special guest and Turkey Stories newcomer Holly Newkirk, a sophomore at the University of Arkansas, in the Tecovas Hot Seat. Holly shares the full story behind her remarkable first solo turkey hunt, where she harvested her first gobbler and then turned heads by bringing it back to her sorority house lawn for photos, creating an unforgettable scene. The crew also dives into an unexpected but important thread from the Turkey Stories episode: hunting safety, and the lessons that surfaced along the way.

Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas.

If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [email protected]

Connect with Clay and MeatEater

Clay on Instagram

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop Bear Grease Merch

Spencer Neuharth hosts MeatEater Trivia with Janis Putelis, Brody Henderson, Randall Williams, Max Barta, Cory Calkins, Nate Mason, and Laura Mascari. 

Connect with MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips

Subscribe to MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop Trivia Merch

This is my wild game take on the classic “marry me” chicken. And while you might get a proposal out of this dish, it will definitely convince a reluctant significant other to tag along on a turkey hunt!

Wild turkey brings a deeper, more savory flavor to this Tuscan-inspired sauce. I particularly like browning the meat and aromatics in a little turkey fat or chicken schmaltz (though butter or oil will do just fine). A squeeze of lemon and the sun-dried tomatoes cut through the richness of the cream and make everything pop.

Serve it with crusty bread to soak up the sauce and pair it with a side of roasted broccolini. It’s the kind of meal that wins people over—at the table and maybe even in the field.

California wildlife officers arrested four men on March 13 following a 3-year poaching investigation that uncovered close to 30 deer allegedly taken across multiple counties, some out of season, some with spotlights, and some with fraudulent tags, according to a statement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Investigators say the group used spotlights, hunted out of season, and repeatedly abused California’s deer tag system. Officers found physical and digital evidence that deer tags were being recycled and reused, just not in any environmentally responsible way. In one case, a single tag was reportedly used to cover four separate deer before being duplicated and used again.

California’s deer tag system sets harvest limits and helps wildlife managers track what’s happening inside each zone. When tags get reused, it’s not just breaking the law. It also messes with the data that drives future seasons and tag numbers.

The investigation stretched across deer zones D7, D8, and D9. These zones are located in central California and are areas that see steady hunting pressure and where tag numbers are tightly managed. It eventually led officers to Visalia and Farmersville, where officers served search warrants and made four arrests.

During those searches, officers say they found a number of deer skulls and antlers, a large quantity of processed venison, and a firearm without a serial number. California Department of Fish and Wildlife K-9s Shep and Judd assisted, locating a concealed firearm hidden under a couch and a buried deer head.

The case was supported in part by information submitted through CALTIP (Californians Turn In Poachers and Polluters). This confidential tip line allows the public to report poaching and pollution violations anonymously, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The case has been referred to the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution. The names of the arrested parties have not been released.

Public reaction on the CDFW’s social media post was largely supportive, with one commenter writing that offenses like this “keep wildlife from legal responsible hunters.”

Thirty deer don’t just disappear from a landscape without leaving a mark that honest hunters will feel in the next season or beyond. The system works best when people play by the rules. Cases like this one don’t just end with the arrests and court dates. They have a ripple effect that shows up in future buck-to-doe ratios, tag quotas, and draw odds.

This is going to be a sort of ridiculous apples-to-oranges analogy, but hear me out: You probably wouldn’t put out a thick-necked, ears-pinned, posturing buck decoy in the beginning of September. Sure, you might lure in a moody fighter to scrap, but mostly you wouldn’t because the timing wouldn’t be right.

We inherently understand that about deer, but we don’t really think about it as much with turkeys. And why should we? You could stack up enough gobblers with a single hen decoy and the right calling to support an argument for not overthinking your spread.

You’d also not kill as many toms with that move as you would with a more strategic, seasonally based strategy. This is because there are phases to turkey season. Your spread should reflect what the turkeys expect to see from their fellow birds. This matters, and it’s all about setting an appropriate scene given the timing of the season.

Calendar-wise, there is obviously a difference between the early season in Alabama and the early season in Michigan. Essentially, we can call the early season the first week or two after an opener. While that might be early March in some states and mid-April in others, the general theme of turkeys at that time is to be more concentrated.

This is when the winter flocks start to fracture, the birds generally have more company on food sources, and in roost trees. This is also the time you can hunt them when they still might be figuring out their dominance hierarchy.

What this means for hunters is that this is prime time for a full-strut decoy. It’s also prime time for a jake decoy and as many hens as you can put out because turkeys expect to encounter small flocks of real birds, and they travel in groups. While you can certainly kill a bird with a single strutter, or really any combo of dekes, the best bet is to try to mimic what the birds expect to see.

My personal preference for the early season goes one of two ways. If I have birds scouted out, and there is an obviously dominant tom hanging with a harem of hens, he gets a full-strut decoy with a full fan and several hen decoys. If I’m just hoping to reel in any longbeard or group of jakes, I go with a quarter-strut jake and a whole bunch of hens (at least four). Once that initial phase of the season comes and goes, it’s time to switch things up.

This is the time for the birds to start cruising, the bugs to impact daily feeding patterns, and the pressure to get to the flock. It’s also the time to start paring down your spread.

While this is up for debate, I almost always leave the full strutter in the garage and go with either a quarter-strut jake or a breeding jake with a white head. The quarter-strut jake is probably the best decoy to ever hit the market, and is really good all season long but ideal for the middle part of the season. Every bird out there thinks he can kick his ass, unlike a full-strut decoy.

This is a decoy that just doesn’t discriminate and really cuts down on 75-yard, cautious drive-bys with jakes and two-year-olds that have not won a lot of cage fights recently. I never put this decoy out without a laydown hen and at least one or two stand-up or feeding hens as well. I like to present a small flock heading in a specific direction, with a youngster who looks like he’s about to get lucky.

To me this is an ideal setup for smaller clearings and food plots, logging roads, and any time I set up in the woods. A breeder jake gets the same hen treatment, but he’s more likely to spend time in a good-sized field with me. The white head of the decoy signals that actual breeding is imminent, and it can draw a violent reaction from birds that might otherwise be content to strut 250 yards away in the opposite end of the field.

This is the most difficult part of the season for most hunters. The birds are fully split up, the hens are nesting, and the food sources are plentiful. The birds don’t have to work too hard to survive, and the bulk of the breeding has passed.

When I’m shotgun hunting, I’ll often reduce my spread to a single head’s up or leading hen. I just want to show one lady and then sell her presence by calling like she really wants company. Like maybe a raccoon got to her nest the night before and she really needs to get another boyfriend before the window closes.

If I’m bowhunting, I’ll either use a standup hen for visibility and then a laydown hen that he’s likely to notice as soon as he approaches the other decoy. Almost always, they’ll turn their attention to the laydown hen and position themselves for a shot.

A jake decoy can obviously work in the late season too, but I would go with the least intimidating setup you can get. Think quarter-strut jake here, pushed way, way low to the ground, again to draw a bird into an exact spot for a shot. The idea is to acknowledge what’s going on with the actual turkeys and sell a scene around it.

Clay Newcomb answers your questions and breaks down his Utah mountain lion hunt captured in MeatEater's brand new "12 in '26" film series. He hunts with mules and hounds in the mountains, testing his fortitude in some seriously steep and rugged terrain. Presented by @Moultrie.Products and @onXHunt

Watch the film now on MeatEater's YouTube channel

Connect with MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips

Subscribe to MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube