Combining his passion for the outdoors, hunting and making a living, Steven Fuller has begun a video series promoting land management and hunting techniques.
“We don’t just shoot ’em, we grow ’em,” he said of his land management techniques. “You can improve the rack size (of a buck’s antlers) by the nutrients that you put into the deer with minerals and supplements. The healthier the deer, the more meat and the more weight there is on it. If you can help them be healthier during the winter months when some are starving and others run themselves down during the rut, you can have a good deer harvest.”
“We try to pass on the traditions I feel are being lost. The old-timers used to pass it down to their sons. Today, a lot of kids play video games instead of learnabout trees and birds,” he said.
Fuller, 25, a 2004 Pea Ridge High School graduate, earned double degrees in conservation wildlife management and communication arts with a minorin field biology. The son of Jeff and Brenda Fuller, Steven has returned to Pea Ridge after college graduation in 2009.
Along with co-host Josh Button, a senior at Pea Ridge, and staff member Scotty Flippo, Fuller creates videos weekly to post on his web site for The Huntin’ Grounds.
“We feel like for a lot of video series you have to have a lot of money or a lot of land. But, whether you have 15 acres or 1,500 acres, our techniques will work.
“I love getting kids in the outdoors as much as possible,” Fuller said, adding that he has been able to take at least five different youths out hunting this year including a youth who is a cancer survivor and a boy without a father.
“Josh was able to take kids out as well. It’s a way of getting our passion and our knowledge out there,” Fuller said.
Currently, The Huntin’ Grounds has five different sponsors and is getting thousands of views each week. They also have a Facebook site, as well.
“We just recently launched our new web site - www.thehuntingrounds.com - and people can follow our newest videos.”
Fuller hopes to team up with a few other video production teams such as Mossy Oak. He also plans to take kids out for a spring turkey hunt in a couple of weeks.
One of the services he provides is a deer census.
A biology and ecology teacher at Lifeway Christian School in Centerton, Fuller said there are many things landowners can do to promote a healthy deer herd on their property including planting food plots and performing prescribed burnings which helps remove the debris off the forest floor and improves the timber stand.
The infant business just turned a year old, beginning March 11, 2010. “Honestly, we’re doing better than most people do in five years,” Fuller said, adding that he’d love to have his own show on an outdoor channel.
For more information, e-mail Fuller at thehuntingrounds@ gmail.com, contact him through the web site or click “like” on his Facebook page.
News, Pages 1 on 03/30/2011