Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 539: Is it OK to be a Just Okay Hunter?

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Ep. 539: Is it OK to be a Just Okay Hunter? · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern whitetail hunter, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and this week on the show, I'm joined by four
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: hunters who've decided it's time to embrace being an okay
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: hunter and all the fun, fumbles and failures that come
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: along with it. All right, welcome to the wire Hunt podcast,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: brought to you by First Light. Today in the show,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: we're gonna answer the question is it okay to be
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: a just okay hunter? I think there's something we said,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: there's this idea and I think a reality of source
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that we're probably not all going to be a Mark
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Jury or and in fault or uh John Dudley, and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: maybe there's something to be said, Maybe there's a benefit
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to embracing that reality. Two accepting that reality to a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: degree in finding how we can be our own kind
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of hunter. That's the discussion we're gonna have here today.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And I'm joined by four guys, four guys who have
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: started a podcast in the community called The okayst Hunter,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and they're all about embracing this idea, embracing the fact
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that We're not all going to be the best hunters
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in the world. We're not all going to kill giant
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: bucks every single year, and let's not kill ourselves trying
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: to do that or trying to compare what we're doing
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: to other people. Let's enjoy our hunt, Let's hunt our
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: own hunt, and let's celebrate that. That's the message these
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: guys are sharing. This is the message that I, you know,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I think I needed to hear. This is something that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: if you've been listening to the podcast over the last
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: six months, you've kind of heard me going through some
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of my own kind of I don't know, debates and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: internal dialogues around what I personally want out of hunting
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and what my goals are and why I'm doing what
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I'm doing. Um And if you've listened for a long time,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: you know that I've always been a very goal oriented person,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: very achievement focused, very driven, always you know, pushing to
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: be the very best deer hunter I possibly can be,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and and just striving and striving and pushing and pushing,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and you know, not wanting to cut in the corners
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and preaching the importance of not cutting corners and doing
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: everything you possibly can and sometimes that's a great thing.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I think that's a really good thing and stuff I
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: stand by. But sometimes that maybe you can go too far.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Sometimes maybe you can get to a point where you're
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: so stressed about what you achieve or uh get when
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: it comes to hunting, or you're putting so much pressure
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: on yourself, or you're so focused on the outcome that
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you lose sight of your community and your friends and
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: your family and the fun of hunting. If any of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that stuff starts happening, I think maybe we've got a problem.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And that's something that I've experienced personally myself. So talking
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to these guys, I got to think, and maybe it
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: is okay to be okay sometimes maybe there's something that
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: we said about actually having fun while you're hunting or
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: going to breakfast with your buddies. Uh yeah, maybe it
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: will decrease your chances of feeling a tag a little bit,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: But does that really matter? Those are some of the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: questions we're gonna answer here today. I'm joined by Eric Clark,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Derek Melcoor, Tyler Meaden and Greg Tubs. These guys are
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: fun group. They've got a great perspective I think on this,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and as I mentioned, I think it's a much needed
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: perspective as so much within our white tail hunting community
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: is so focused on killing big bucks and you know,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: sharing your pictures online and people bragging about their big deer,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: people trashing other people about their small deer or whatever
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: it is. There's just a whole lot of craziness I
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: feel like these days, and um, maybe this is just
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the antidote that we need. So I'm excited about this one.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the chat. I hope there's some of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you out here that can benefit from this one. To um,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I certainly did so. Without any further ado, let's get
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to my chat with Eric, Derek Tyler and Greg and
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoy it. Thanks for listening, all
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: right with me on the show. Now, I've got a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: very full house. We've got Eric, Derek Tyler, and Greg
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the okayst Hunter crew coming to us from the bar
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and the basement to the studio of the Okas Hunter
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: whatever you wanna call it. These guys are already having
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: a good time. It seems that. Welcome to this show, guys,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. Cheers of a Yeah, I wish
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I was I wish I was partaking. But like I said,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: it's it's three o'clock in the afternoon here I'm recording,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and I just had a coffee, So I don't know
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: if mixing coffee with beer immediately is a good idea.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys have tried that. But
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: you're you're already pulling some rookie numbers there. You gotta
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: think ahead about this and coffee, man, you gotta throw
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a little whiskey in there. That's a good point. That's
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: a that's a proven commodity. You make a very good point.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: So so you guys obviously know how to have a
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: good time. But what I want to talk to you
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: guys about and you can each kind of individually give
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: me your own take on this. But you know, when
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I recorded the previous introduction to this, I share with
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: everybody about how I've I've had a little bit of
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a transformation in how I view my hunting and how
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I approach my hunting. And this is something that I've
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: kind of been going through over the last six months
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to a year, um, and I've kind of coming around
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: to rethinking my goals, the why and the how of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: of how I hunt, and so I say all that,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: because what I'm starting to appreciate more seems to be
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: very in line with the theme of the brand. You
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: guys have started the Okayest Hunter, And I guess maybe
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: this is a question for whoever wants to talk the loudest.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I guess, but why why the okay stunner? Why did
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you guys launch this brand, this movement, this idea? Why
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: is it okay to just be okay at hunting? They're
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: all pointing at me. This is Eric, this is Derek's wheelhouse, Rdier.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I'm on the spot. So you know, really, at some
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: point along the way, um, I had been uh a
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: victim of but you know, I I took some shots
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: at being shamed, you know, for posting a do fund
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: that I got with my bow. It was a ten
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: yard shop from the ground. It was very exciting. I
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: happened to be because here my daughter was born. Don't
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: make me do math on the White Hunt podcast. But
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I'm thirty six now, so I think it was or No.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Thirty two thirty two, and so that was my first
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: year at the Bow and I posted it and people
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: were just dog piling on me. And then I felt
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: this pit of my stomach, like, wow, you know, maybe
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I should be better by now, or why did I
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: post that? Or what you know, I maybe I do suck.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: This is awful. And then somewhere along the way, shortly
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: after I saw the same thing happened to a child.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: A kid posted a picture of like a button buck
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: or something and or like a spike and they just
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: got you know, uh, just a couple of people just
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: happened to say you should have let it go or
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: something like that. And I bought the domain name like
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: ten minutes later, and I'm a bit of a domain
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: name horder, but it was, it was that was the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: kind of um the spark that lit the fire, and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and so we kind of lead with you know, no
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: dear shame, no buck shame. We built a started to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: build this community, started to hear from others that felt
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: similarly and started to share their spike buck photos with
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: us that had never seen the light of day before.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: And it opened up our eyes to say, wow, there's
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of people here that you know, are have
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: experienced something with it like this, are are are afraid too,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: and that's probably not good for hunting as a collective. UM.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So that was that was it. I mean that to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: answer your question, that was the start of it and
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: it's evolved quite a bit from there, but that was
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the kickoff. So when you say an okay hunter the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: okayest hunter, what how would you define an okay hunter? How?
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: How would you guys define yourselves even celebrate the failures.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: There's there a lot of teachable moments there and like
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: learn to laugh at yourself. And if we think back
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: to time before social media, no one cared. You know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you just went out and you had shot deer and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: you had fun. And I think it's trying to harken
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: back to get getting back to our roots. Is is
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: why we got into the stuff, like be a kid
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: about it on Christmas morning, As our friend down south
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: says Jared, Nor would you know, should ever gets your
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: pea hot um? One way to put it? And it's
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: this laughter that we're having right now, like that that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: need there needs to be more of that going on.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: So we we leverage humor a lot. But everyone's at
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a different stage in their hunting journey and that should
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: be celebrated to you don't know what someone else is
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: going through. Um, you know a lot of us here
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: raising families or some of us are focusing on our
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: careers or um, maybe you're trying something new for the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: first time or whatever it is. So it's just be
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: cognizant of others and you know, I'll jump in and
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: so that the where people are on their hunting journey.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: It's it's really hard to know that when you see
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  Speaker 1: one picture on social media that someone posts, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I look at myself. I've gone through a real evolution
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: as a hunter. This is Tyler, by the way, I
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: probably introduced myself. So yeah, you know, I started hunting
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: when I was twelve. UM. Was really blessed to have
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: like this amazing property. We saw all these dear you know,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting there as a twelve year old and trying
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: to you know, wait for a certain like size of buck.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And this is before social media. Like this is how
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I started hunting, very spoiled, very judge of other hunters,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and then like I started to evolve. I got into
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: bow hunting about eight years ago, UM and started to
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: sit there And I'm sitting there as I'm hunting and
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: thinking about these deer that are walking by and what
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: people might be saying if I posted that, what would
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: they comment, but what what they think, and that's just not healthy. Right,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: I'm passing up opportunities to make memories. But why am I?
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Why am I doing this? And then, um, now I have,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: you know, two young kids, so the amount of time
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that I actually get to hunt is minimal. So you know,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: right now, like I'm just looking to put some meat
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: in the freezer, right, It's that That's what it's about
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: for me as I look out the next couple of
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: years and until my my daughters get a little bit
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: older and I can start taking them out with me
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and maybe get a little bit more time in the field.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: So it's you know, I look at it as you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I've I've really evolved and gone more from someone who's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: trying to hunt a certain age class of buck to uh,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you know, more of an okayus hunter or someone who's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: almost at the beginning stages. UM. And I look at myself,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and then I look at other people on social media
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and where they might be at, and the whole thing
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: is it's really interesting and I've you know, Eric, Eric
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: pitched the idea to me UM a few years ago,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: was that maybe and I was having all these thoughts
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and feelings about it, and I was like, I'm all in,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: let's go, you know. And it started as hey, um
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and buck shaming, and it's now for me, it's more
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: about how do we make hunters feel comfortable in the community,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: no matter where they're at and their hunting journey. And
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I'll jump in on that. This is Derek Um. I
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: kind of look at it a little bit different way
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: now than kind of when I got started with you
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: guys just over a year ago, and going off with
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Tyler said like, you don't know where someone started their
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: journey hunting, and they may have had the best of
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: public land and hunting came super easy. They got a
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: whole pilot deer when they're fifteen years old, and that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: kid might look at another kid who's fifteen who grew
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: up with no one showing him the ropes, and he's
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: hunting the piece of crap public land down the road
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: because it's all he's got, and hunting is two totally
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: different things for those two people. And instead of seeing okay,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: this hunter is like okay, is it not a great hunter?
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I see it as like it's okay no matter what
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: kind of hunter you are, So like, whether you're that
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: probably public land hunter the probably land like it's okay.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: As long as it's legal, it's okay. And celebrate it,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: like what they said, like your journey, their journey. Embrace
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: where you are in it, and it's okay for other
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: people to be where they are. What about you, what's
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: your story? Greg? My story? Um, basically started hunting as
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: as a young guy too, you know, twelve years old,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: had my hunter safety succeeded on a turkey right away
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: in the spring with that multiple deer had you know,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: witnessed the worst cases of buck fever. Ever, as I'm
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: watching giant ten pointers jumped through fence rose and you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I I love that stuff, and I I had to
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: take a break, you know, got into tech school and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: went went off and started a career, and I took
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: a pretty long break from deer hunting, did a bit
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of duck and continued down with turkey. But I always
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: enjoyed it no matter what. And I hunted with people
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: of all different skill levels, and you know, they all
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: treated me pretty much the same. You know, we're all
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: respectful of each other. And it's the same with this group.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not the best hunter here. I've not killed the
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: most and biggest deer. But I really enjoy it. I
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: enjoy the camaraderie and like these guys that said it,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it's okay to be okay, it's okay to celebrate it.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: And everybody's journey is different. Yeah. You know what's interesting
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: is like listening to all of your stories and in
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: in from my own experience and talking to other people
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: and stuff. One thing that seems to stand out so
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: much is just the the impact of comparison comparing what
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: we are doing or where we have done, or what
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: we've quote unquote achieved or got or whatever, comparing that
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to others. Uh. And you know, I don't know if
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: this is something that is just and mean it is
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: human nature. I guess I was gonna say, I don't
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: know if this is human nature, but this is human nature.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: But I think it's human nature that has been it
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: has been amplified by technology and social media. Right. I mean,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: if you were to look back twenty five years ago,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: there would be a little bit of like, you know,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a little bit that dick measuring contest your muffs of
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the kid like that kind of thing. At the bar,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: right coupe, people put out a picture from their wallet
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and they say, I got this big buckets, Like locally
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that in a group of like twenty people, maybe you'd
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: be like telling stories and comparing this or that or whatever.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: There's a little bit of that kind of thing going on.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: But now we aren't just pulling out a picture from
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the wallet and showing two guys at a table. It's
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: you're talking to thousands of people on Instagram, or you're
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: talking on a podcast to people, or you are sharing
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: something on Facebook that can go viral or be posted
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: on some message board or some forum or some Facebook group,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and so many people see this thing, and so many
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: people that don't even know you personally. So previously you
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: were only sharing your experiences and and kind of going
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: back and forth the people you had a relationship within
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: a history with and who cared about you. But now
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: this stuff is being shared across the world to a
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: bunch of random people that have no connection to you,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: no understanding of you. Uh. And also there's no I mean,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: all the downsides that come with general social media trolling
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: as well. So all of these things I think have
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: amplified this idea of not living, not just being able
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: to live your own experience, but your experience in part
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: being what am I trying to say? That your experience
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: inevitably is always going to be in some way compared
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to others. Like that's the kind of human thing we
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: all we can't help but look what we have in
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: comparison to others. But now that sample size is huge
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and full of a bunch of a holes, And I
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: think that is is this crazy new sensation that we're
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: dealing with. It is really really profoundly impacted hunting in
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the last ten, fifteen year or something like that. Yeah,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: it's competitive human nature. You know, everybody wants to either
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: do better for themselves or maybe prove that they're better
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: then you know, the next guy. And some people taking
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: another step further and they brag about it, you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: they put it out there and either they get shamed
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: for it or a pet on the back. And I
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: think a lot of times on social media there's there's
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: times when this is happening and it's not even inherently bad,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: like someone's not trying to shame you or like patrol you.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: But like when when a young person or a newer hunter,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: or anyone for that matter, shoots a six pointer and
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: someone says, oh, Hey, nice buck would have been a
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: beauty in a year or two. Like, that's a nice comment.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: They're trying to be nice, they're not trying to shame them.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: But to that person who maybe just took their biggest
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: or first year, it doesn't feel like a congratulations. It
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't feel like a pat on the knock because it's
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: got that compared to a nice job. But I'm gonna
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: kick you in the ass on the way up, Like, well,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: what's worse as the people you know themselves that say
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: not not the biggest, but so they're already doing themselves.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: They're already going on defense before they even get it out.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: And and it's like, well, if it was big enough
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: for you to shoot, then celebrate it and respect the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: animal by the way to some degree, because now you're
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: doing that animal disservice, you're doing yourself a disservice. And
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the folks that don't even share at all, it's like
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: because they don't even want to deal with it, it's
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: not even worth the anxiety that's going to come with that.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: So there's always a keyboard cowboys somewhere, Eric. I mean,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: they're like they're like protecting themselves, right, You're forecasting the
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the the what's going to come down the hill from
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: the worst part is they're protecting themselves from other hunters,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: people who are supposed to be one of the same community, right,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Like that's what they're protecting themselves from. What we're going
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: to forever have to deal with that. We're trying to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: change it, We're trying, we're trying to help. So what
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: do you think that if we were to point the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: finger at the source of this problem, this kind of
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: virus inside the community, Um, is this is this stemming
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: from like the media? Is this because the mainstream hunting
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: media has perpetrated or perpetuated an idea of what you're
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: supposed to do, and they make it look so easy
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: and they make it look like big bucks are everywhere?
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: And is it that? Is it like this uh pornogrification
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: of hunting or is it is it instead at the
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: social media aspect and just like like people like just
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: regular people being trolls and all that? Is it the
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: com is it the comparison thing and everyone trying to
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: be cooler on social media? Like, if you guys were
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: to try to trace this back to its source, do
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: you have a theory on that or is it really
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: a combination of all the above and something else too. Yeah,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I say yes out of the gate. But the I
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: think the the core issue is ego and human nature
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: what she talked about. I read a book human you know,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the Laws of Human Nature by Robert Green, and it's
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: very long book about human nature, but you can start
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to see some common themes that root back to the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: beginning of time. And I've also read the book Ego
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: as the Enemy about too many times. Yeah, and so
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: that is the main theme, that there's ego in hunting,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the ego and everything, but ego and hunting it in
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: itself is particularly particularly rampant among this type of you know,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: people are really visceral about hunting. We have really strong
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: opinions because it's tied to our heritage and our family eyes,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and so different opinions clash really loudly in our in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: our space. Um, I'll say, social media isn't it's just
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: magnified what's always been there. That's it's just bringing it's
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: just shining a light on something that's the human at
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: that's always been there. And to your point about the
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: hunting industry and these uh, you know, grip and grins
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and the and the pros doing certain things on on TV.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: You know, it's unfortunate that, you know, the platform that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: they have and have had for some time, UM doesn't
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: allow for showing mistakes because the reach that it has.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, if you're on cable television and someone
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: just happened to scroll through and stop and they see you,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: you know, uh, wounding an animal and making a joke
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: about it or something like that, that show is gonna
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: get shut down. So even though they're making those mistakes,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: they're just not showing them at all. UM. So something
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: for us is is a little bit of contrast. Is again,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: well that's our focal point. We're we're focusing on the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I dropped the thing down the tree stem at play plank. Oh,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I forgot my release, I tripped into this thing. I
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: you know, all the common mistakes that even the best
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: hunters have made have made, which is something we call
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: okay as moments. Even if you're not like a complete
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: okais hunter byr like definition, you've still done some stuff
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: that you can laugh at. That piste you off in
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the moment um years later, it's a great story to tell. UM.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: So I think to your point, the answer is yes
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: to those things. I think ego is the is the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: core of it, and then a lot of that has
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: just perpetuate out these other systemic problems. But we ought
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: not to be the head butting the neck off within
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: our own community. And i'll ddd I think you know,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: for me, as I look at I think it can
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: be a lack of perspective from from people. Right, you've
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: hunted in the same county, on the same farm or
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the same piece of public and whether it's good or
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: whether it's bad. We don't understand that people are in
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: different circumstances, right. Um, you could have a hunter who's
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: in up in northern Wisconsin big woods, you know, low
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: population to deer hunting and or low population of deer numbers,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: and you know they're what they define as success or
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: someone in a CWDS. It's gonna have different decisions to
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: make them exactly. You know, their definition of a shooter
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: buck is different than you know my definition of a
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: shooter bucket. I'm hunting in Buffalo County, Wisconsin. I'm curious
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: if if something I experienced recently is something you guys
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: have experienced that kind of led you to where you
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: are now with this um where I had fallen. I've
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: gone so deep down this wormhole we're talking about, where
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I've been so obsessed with trying to achieve these goals
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and looked at it like a mission that I had
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: to spare no expense and no like if I took
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: an ounce of time off, I felt bad because I
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't giving it everything I possibly could and if I
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't doing everything perfect, I was awful on all these things.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: And I made, you know, this hunting thing into well,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I guess, I guess I'm in a unique situation. I
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: was gonna say, I've made it into my job, but
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: it is my job, so maybe my maybe my story
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: doesn't really work, but um, but what I'm trying to
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: say is that I had gone so deep into putting
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: all this pressure on myself and and whether I wanted
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: to admit it or not, I was comparing myself to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: other people or judging myself negatively because I wasn't like
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: other people. YadA, YadA, YadA YadA. All of that led
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: me to going on a lot of outings or trips
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: or having a lot of moments where I was not
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: having fun hunting anymore. I was losing the fun of
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: this thing, and that was what I think helped jolt
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: me out of this. Is is kind of realizing that
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and realizing this's not it's not worth losing the fun
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: of this thing which that has been so transformational in
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: my life in a good way. Uh. Have anyone of
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you guys had anything and you could have come to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: in a different way it might have lost is fun
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: because of the negativity in the community or anything like that.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: But have you guys have ever had a moment where
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: you started to worry about losing the fund? And is
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: that part of what jolted you into this, uh new
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: way looking things? Anyone's that resonate? I think that didn't
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: jolt us into this, that this helped us shed that skin.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Okay as Tunner as a brand that we're working in
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and building and so forth, and spending time on and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: seeing and talking to folks helped us realize that, you know, uh,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Ryan Holiday again on the reference stillness is a key
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: talks about being present and being in the moment and
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: appreciating that. And I found myself like getting mad at
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: deer like by the end of like, which probably wasn't
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: terrible because I'm like really motivated to kill the thing, um,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: you know. But but I was like, well this is wrong,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Like I'm I'm taking the joy out of it because
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I wasn't getting the results that I wanted even after
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the effort. It's like studying for a test, taking the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: tests and still doing bad. It was like, but deer
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: hunting isn't a test. Maybe it is to some degree.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: You can test yourself into certain scenaries and measure things,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: but there's no guarantees. There's no like guaranteed outcome. You
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: can put it all the effort in the world. I mean, Derek,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: you hunted your ass off last season. What do you get? Yeah?
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Like right, so, but you know, and that's just how
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: it goes. But that's that's the joy of it is
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the process. And again when you start to really enjoy
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: that process and all, like the preparation, it's like tailgating
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: for a baseball game. Half the fun isn't sitting in
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the stands. I get a home run, don't go around.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: That's a great part. But half the fun is like
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: getting ready, buying the Bronts, like cooking all with your friends,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: playing bag toss, playing catch, you know, walking the stadium,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: having some peanuts, getting some nachos, like all of that
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: stuff can be replaced with hunting terminology. And we're in
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: a very similar situation. And if it happened to strike,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: go home run, if we happen to see a deer
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and actually make a connection on it, that's just bonus.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: It should always be bonus. So Mark and I can
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: relate to what you what you experienced, do it to
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: a degree, obviously not to your degree. You know, I
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: would say seen, I think I shot my first buck
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: with a bowie. Yeah, I think sixteen. And byen I
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, pressing so hard during the season,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: it wasn't fun anymore, and it it sucked. You know.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I got the end of the season, I was burned
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: out and didn't have a deer to show up for it,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and I was miserable. I was glad that the season
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: was over instead of missing it. It's hard, it is,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: it's so hard in the family, and you know, and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: that's when like the next year, the next summer, as
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: when you know, I met Eric and we started talking
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: about this and it was like, this is this is
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: what I need personally as a hunter so that I
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: can go out be okay with making mistakes, be okay
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: with not shooting the biggest buck, be okay with maybe
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: not feeling my take, which is probably worth more of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the norm than anything else. Um. And you know that
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: that opened up, as Eric said, it shed it, shed
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the skin and made it okay for me personally. Um,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and I enjoyed hunting much more since we've started this.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: We all get served a piece of humble pie with
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: a side of tag soup every year. So and Mark,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I know you said, you're kind of in the process of,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: you know, like this realization of trying to make hunting
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: back like fun and the way you you know, remembered it.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And this is kind of what happened to me. I
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: take white tailed deer hunting more seriously that I absolutely should,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: and anyone knows me, like that's all I really think about.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And do I give Gregg is an outman like hes ducks,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: like he loves all this stuff. I do that because
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to like occupy a little tiny bit in
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: my life away from deer, because I'm always thinking about it.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I drag a boat on the boat every once in
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: a while. We tried to go chase salmon and Charlton Lake, Michigan.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So about five years ago I started I started hunting
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and realizing that I was like feeling the pressure to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: kill one, not for myself, but just because like I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: felt pressure to produce because people think of me as
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: like a deer hunting guy, So like, holy crap, what
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the hell am I doing? Like I'm trying to kill
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: this deer, like so I can get a kill, like
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: because that's what I'm supposed to do. And what helped
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: me kind of get past because it really was bad
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: feeling like it was terrible realization. But I had a
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: good buddy who was a fishing friend, and he asked
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: to me, He's like, dude, can I start bo hunting
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: with you? And I was like that would be awesome.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: So the process of like taking him through and kind
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: of teaching them and letting him have like all those
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: okayst moments totally like reinvigorated why I do it and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: like what I enjoy about it. And now Adam is
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: probably crazier than I ever was about it. But like
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: just kind of stepping back and taking my own like
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: you know, pressure and drive out of it hoping someone
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: gets started just totally changed the way I looked at
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: something I've been doing my whole life. Yeah, that's a
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: great that's a great point. And that's that's something I've
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I've experienced to the last few years, just how how
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: much fun it is to to not only help other
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: people and teach with other people, but just experience it
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: with other people. Again, I mean, I think for a
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: lot of us, and I might be speaking just in
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: my own case, but I think for a lot of people,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: we come into hunting in some kind of community fashion. Right.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: There's deer camp, so there's family, friends, or there's a
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: body that takes you out whatever, and so a lot
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: of people's hunting journeys start with that kind of camaraderie.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: And that's a big part of why we love it.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: That's a big part of why I loved it was
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: going up to my family deer camp and being up
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: there with my dad and grandpa and uncles and the guys,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and I mean, that was so great. But for me
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: at least, and I think this is a relatively common
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: trend for some people. The deeper you get into it,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the more hardcore you get. Once once I got to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: like this terminator mode I was in, it was like, well,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I can't afford to go to the deer camp because
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the deer hunting is there isn't that good anymore. So
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: I need to be on a solo mission to Iowa
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: to hunt seven days straight. And even though my other
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: friends are gonna stop midday to eat lunch uh and
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: get together for breakfast or whatever and bs, I need
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: to be out there every hour of the day. So
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to spend all my time in the tree YadA, YadA, YadA.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden, I went from what
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: used to be a community camaraderie kind of thing to
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, now I'm like a solo assassin
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: that doesn't have time for anybody else, and I lost that.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Um So, just trying to reclaim like the community fun
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: part of it is some thing that I realized is
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: such a huge thing too. Yeah. It's like, you know,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: doar things like trying to solve a puzzle, endless puzzle,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and the more pieces you find that the more fun
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: it becomes, the harder it seems to get. It's like
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: perfecting a golf swing. You know, you could probably leve
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: in a golf course and I've never done it before.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: And I could. I learned pretty quick how to get
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: a ball down the what's it called, don't off the
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: green and down the fairway. But you know, at some
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: point you get you get so good that you know
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: eventually the you get in the red zone, right like,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: it gets harder to move the ball across the next
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: goal post because there's it's compressed. Um, it's really hard.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: And one of the things that I think I wrote
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: about on our our website and maybe the swing put
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: in your show notes or something, but we have an
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: article called okay as hunter becoming okay or maybe this
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: is a little bit of you, but we mentioned uh
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: an MM and m M a champion, you know Frank
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Shamrock that talked about a system that he used to
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: train as fighters called plus minus equals and what oh
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Amanta was like, have so when that's better than you
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that you can look up to as a as a mentor,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: like that person can mentor you have someone that's not
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: as good as you that you can teach because by
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: teaching someone to do something, you are and stilling something
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: in your mind in a way that like is really
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: walking in that information. And have someone that's equal to
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: you that you can spar with. And obviously in the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: context of fighting, you can imagine if you always gotten
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: rang with someone better and you get your as kicked
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: all the time, you have no confidence. If you only
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: fought with someone that's not as good as you, you'd
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: have too much, you'd probably cocky, you'd beat the crap
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: out of some of all the time. And having that
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: person that's equal to you to spar with, like, really
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: is that building that sparring, that sharpening of you know,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: steal versus steel. And in deer hunting, I'm sure we
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: all have someone that we could look up to that like, wow,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: while they're really doing their their style matches my style,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: their their terrain and where they're at is kind of
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: where I'm at this look similar. I can learn from
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: that person. I think we as hunters all have something
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: we can teach someone else. Even if you just hunted
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: for a single day in your life, you probably learned
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: something with your unique perspective on the world that you
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: could teach someone else. Um And obviously having someone that
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: you can spar with, I greg you and I are
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you know for I don't know. I think you're better
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: than me, but I think we're equal in some ways,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: you know, um, one hand washes the other man. I mean,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: not everybody is gonna be always even evenly matched, yes,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: but be humble. And wherever you know, you and I
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: go hunting, I try to help you out in any
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: way I can, and you'll look at whatever I'm doing
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and go, hey, maybe you should do it this way
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and just take it as constructive criticism and work together.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think Mark that you know, getting to
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: be okay is definitely okay. And Derek's plain about teaching
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: someone else read invigorating him. That's a that's a very
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: tactical way to say. Let's see if this jostles at Louis,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Let's see if this kind of brings me back to
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: my roots. What do you guys think of What do
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: you think the scale of this, of this feeling? Like
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: if we if we were described this feeling or this
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: set of concerns or whatever, this this thing that you
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: guys have, this theme you've kind of developed your group
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: around and that I'm tapping into here as we discussed this,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: what's the scale of that across our community? I mean,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I think there's one side of me that says, gosh,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: there's gotta be a lot of this. And there's another
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: part where, you know, I remember I don't know, ten
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: years ago or something when I was just getting really,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: really really into it, and I remember scrolling through Facebook
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: or Instagram during the hunting season, and it seemed like
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: every single person on the internet was an expert deer hunter,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and everybody was killing the biggest buck of their dreams,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: and everyone was so good and I was the only
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: person that could possibly be struggling. I think sometimes for
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: people who can field that way when they look online, Um,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: do you think there's a lot of people that feel
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: this way? Or there are a lot of people that
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: are crushing it that like going super hardcore and aren't
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: can earned about it this kind of stuff and just
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: want to keep on killing big bucks. And yeah, it
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: could be some guy that does concrete for living and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: he's often winners, so he's got all the time in
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: the world, and maybe it's a you know, some people
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: have built the life that they want to live, and
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: if and if you've been fortunate to do that time
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: in the wood to something that not all of us
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: can afford. Um, I think the okayest hunters of the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: of the hunting community outnumbered the experts by and large. Yeah,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: that's true. With everything you want to do a math problem,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I'll still two thirds of them, two thirds of us
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: hunters are probably okay, and the the other third are
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: you know, upper echelon hunters. They because they have the time,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: or they have the property or all. How many people
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: watch football versus playing the NFL. You know, there there's
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of people that play in the NFL, but boy,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: oh boy, there's way more fans that you know, just
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: love the love being in it. One thing, one thing
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: I've noticed, and I always take this as a pretty
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: good gauge, um, just my experience. I'm always parking in
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: public parking lots and hunt in public land all the time.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: That's all I on. And the camaraderie and the parking lot.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Like you talk about camaraderie with your family, the hunting community,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: but like the people who share the land with you
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: are your community too. And when I was younger, man,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: I remember opening days in Wisconsin. Somebody would be pulling
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: out a buck and guys would be kicking dirt, smashing rocks.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Can't believe that guy got oh, just pissed that this.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: You know, somebody else got their deer. And what I've
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: noticed in the last five years and credit I would yeah,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: their dear right, they had it on camera over the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: corn pile at midnight. That was his buck. And UM.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I remember being younger and just going, what the hell
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: is wrong with these people? Like why can't they be
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: happy the dear dead, like be just say good job
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: and like move on, try to go find a new
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: your deer. The last five or six years, I have
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: talked to more people in parking lots that were friendly
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: than I ever had before. And I would credit a
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: lot of that what the hunting public guys are doing,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: because they they put out when they talk to people,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: they don't skip that part of their video. They put
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: it in there, and I think that's helping build the
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: community and a lot of more people are open to
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: other hunters and building camaraderie with the people they're sharing
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: land with. That's a very good thing, Yeah, I think. Um, like, uh,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: there are over eight hundred thousand uh your hunting licenses
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: sold last year in the state of Wisconsin between gun
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: bow crossbow. UM. I would guess the majority or those
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: are okayst hunters and the small minority, you know, percent
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: are expert hunters. If you compare that to the numbers harvested,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: you're gonna probably find that out. And there's there's people
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: hunting for content to like literally people that go out
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: with camera crews and they hunt for content. And I
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: don't think that's inherently bad necessarily, Like if it gets
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: someone into Hunt England, they stick with it. Great. Um,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: that's probably not too many. But you know, some of
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: those people are like literally changing shirts and making separate pictures,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: are getting third people in and changing the scenery. Like
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: that's a whole different issue. But like to your point
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: about what we're seeing on social media, that's no different
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: than the you know, fake millionaires that go rented a
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: car Lamborghini and hold a couple of bills in front
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: and say you want to get rich, Like you know,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: that's similar, like you want to kill big deer. You know. Um,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: it's uh, there's there's always going to be that kind
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: of stuff going on, So just be careful of what
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: you're looking at on the internet or know that like, hey,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: maybe that person hunts full time hunting public. That's that's
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: their gig there in the woods more than most people.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: You know, they can afford it. That's what they do.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: So here's a question, a little devil's advocate kind of question.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: I suppose, Um, I've always looked at hunting as and
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: again this certain people would this would resonate with some
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: people wouldn't. But for me, I have always had a
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: theory that human beings, most human beings, needs something to
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: push them. They need a challenge, they need a goal,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: they need something to be working towards. And inherently we
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: enjoy ourselves more when we are growing as human beings,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: when we're pushing past an obstacle, when we are being
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: challenged to learn new things, to try new things, to
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: struggle and to get through it. And so I have
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: looked at hunting as being like a really really good
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: avenue for that kind of personal growth. Like that for
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: me has been like the iron that has sharpened iron.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: For me, I thought, man, hunting is this activity that
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: I can do that is not just fun, but it's
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: actually making me a better, more fulfilled person because I
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: have this thing I have to work hard at and
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: I have to constantly get better at it, and I
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: have to push through these things. And so I've looked
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: at it like a personal growth tool as well that
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: it's served that function at least. And and as I
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I've just been like kind of going through this evolution myself,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: I've had like some self talk. I'm thinking through all this,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, Okay, does this mean that I relax
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: my goals? Does this mean I settle? Does this mean
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not striving for whatever it was in the past?
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: And is that okay? Am I just am I getting lazy?
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Is this like a fancy way of just being lazier?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Or is this just an excuse? Am I making excuses
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: for myself for not doing as good as I could
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: it have, or for not trying as hard as I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: could have, or for you know what I'm saying, like
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: these are these are like some questions in the back
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: of my mind that I'm just exploring with myself. And
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I'm curious, what do you say to that If someone
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: out there is listening and they're saying, like, Okay, yeah,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of these things resonate with me. But at
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the same time, man, I also hear other people who
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: are reminding me that, man, if you want to achieve
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: something special or that means something to you, you have
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: to work hard. You have to be willing to push
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: through the tough times. Um, And maybe these things do
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: matter to people. So I'm curious, you know, across that
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: large sweeping set of ideas, does any of that make sense?
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Do you guys have thoughts on that? And where you
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: know where the okay hunter might be able to land
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: in this mix? Yeah? I think so. A mentor of mind, Uh,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: he did didn't exercise with me. He drew four circles
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: on a piece of paper, and each circle represented a
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: thing I was working on right, different objectives and projects
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: that had going on my life. And he said, you know,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: you can move these four balls or circles down the field, right. Uh,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: you know, you kick this one and kick that on and
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: and kick this one. Can You'll get there? You can,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: It can happen. You can certainly do it. But you
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: could focus on one or two of them, and you
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: could do it a lot faster. And once you get
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: one of those all the way down the field to
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: the goal post, which you're trying to do, maybe it's
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: shoot you. Maybe that's one of those goals. Um. But
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: these other competing things that are also important in my
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: life matter also, So focus on prioritizing whatever one is
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the most important at this stage in life that you
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: have the most resources and capabilities to do and accomplish,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: then who's to say you can't. Life is long in
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: five years, ten years, fifteen years, go back and do
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: that other ball, that other thing. So for me right
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: now and I consider family, well, that is the most
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: important thing. My kids are gonna be young once and
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be the dad that couldn't go
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: to this or couldn't go to that because what I
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: had to go chase that deer, Like I'm not gonna
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: have that conversation with them when they're older, when they're
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: not going to know their dad. So I'm gonna be
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: a dad first and foremost. And guess what, when they're older,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: they can come with me when they're in college and
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: off living their own lives. Like I am now that
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: all the time in the world to go do that
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: other goal and kill that big deer, you know. So
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: it's just it's a matter of perspective, priorities and how
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: you prioritize them. And it's not to say that I
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: can't work as hard as I possibly can at something. Um.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: I agree with the sentiment that you know, we like
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: to be pushed and that brings out the best in us.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: But it depends on what that thing is. And it
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that you can't do it later. You can
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: always get to it later. And maybe by doing the
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: first thing, um, you have more time, energy and resources.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: If I'm folks on building a business, maybe I'm building
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: a life that I want, and I'll be able to
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: fund um a hunt in other states and go chase
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: bigger deer than I've ever could have done if I
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: just kept trying to do it now. And but the
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: other stuff die in the mine. So that that's a
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: unique perspective that I like to offer. And I'll add
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I just think I think it's you know, you gotta
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: do what makes you happy, right, So if you're burning
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: out chasing deer and it's gonna make you happy to
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: quote unquote settle forty deer, then do what do what
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: makes you happy? You know? For me, you know, I'm
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: thinking about um, well, this last this past season, Um,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: my daughter was born November, so I got to bow
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: hunt a total of maybe five days and I did
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: not go out uh at all during gun season. And
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: so like just perspective, right, I wasn't gonna yeah, I
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to sacrifice any of that time, and so
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I knew if any deer walked by with that had antlers,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: I was probably going to draw back on it. And
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I knew that didn't any of this one. Yes, let's
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: not talk about talk. Yeah, I think we running out
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: of time. I like that, So you know this next year.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know this coming season on how much time
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: I want to have, but Derek's point, in five years,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: I might have more time where I can I can
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: push myself a little bit more. You know, before I
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: had kids, I've spent a ton of time in the
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: ton of time in the stand right unsuccessfully most of
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the time. But I spent a ton of time in
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: the stand and tried to push my health. But right
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: now I know I can't do that, and it's gonna
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: make me happy to spend time with my girls than
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: it is for me to sit there and grind in
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: entry stand. Yeah, Greg, did you have a thought there? Well,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: I mean I could just share my experience from last year.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: I mean we know what I was chasing. Yeah, Yeah,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: I had an opportunity that just didn't quite pan out.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: It was public, so there was other guys I'm fairly confident,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: were very certain that they knew that deer was in there,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: and that area was getting more and more pressure by
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the week as the season progressed, and I got to
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the point where every time I turned around, I was
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: finding another cell cam, another scent drag, another bag, another
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: plastic bag land there from whatever snack they were eating.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: And you know, no matter what I did, like, the
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: sign was getting less and less going through certain areas,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: and then I did have to settle. I decided it
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: was just time to leave that area and go somewhere else,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: to another area that I felt confident in, and I
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: took a buck there instead. Was it the monster that
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I was after? No, but I made a hell of
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: a memory going in there, stand on my back, do
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: what I do what I do, and followed the sign
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in hung and killed that right away. It went well,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: so it was okay to be okay. Then, Yeah, it
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: was a lot of fun driving to Pennsylvania to hunt.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: And I got a text from Greg and it was
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: a picture of it. Here was like, holy crap, he
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: did it? You know, I subject we get so used
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: to like I get to talk to these guys every
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: week about hunting, and stuff we love and usually you're
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: you know your bodies, they're kind of like minded like
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: you are. So like most of my friends I talked
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: about hunting are very driven to get a big buck um.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: But talking with one of my co workers, who yeah,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: I'm a hunter, you know, and oh got another hunter.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I can talk to him. We have cafeteria dude together,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: so I get to spend some time with him, and
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: he's explained to me, you know, the hunting. You know,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: he goes out for Wisconsin gun season. Awesome, I'm like,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: you soaking it in, Like what do you do? What
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: do you hunt? You know? He finds a spot to
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: sit on the ground, he's I'm going to the library
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: this week. I check out a couple of my favorite books.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: I just sit out there and read, Oh do you
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: get a deer? Sometimes I like but like that's what enjoyed.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: But that's that's that's a tradition. That's okay, that's okay.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Like some guys have huge goals. I know all of
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: us we have goals every season and what we'd like
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: to do. Some people their goals just to get out
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: and enjoy nature. Because that's not what he does. That's
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: like the whole perspective thing, like you don't know what
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: his situation is, he has no money, he doesn't understand
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: how I think about your hunting is not let me
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: pick out a good bookstand because I just don't do that.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: I think it's a great idea, I like for something else.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: But that was like really eye opening, Like talking to him,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: it's like holy, not no, not at all. I think
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: everybody stores I think I think I think it was
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Tyler who said it first. Whoever was hard to keep
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: tracking you guys over there, But but someone just brought
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: up the fact that you know, it might be settling
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: for one person, but if it's fun, it's fun. And
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: I think that is is becoming like my my, like
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: north Star is aiming towards what's fun and trying to
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: avoid what's not. And if if a goal is no
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: longer a fun goal to chase them, what's the point of,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: you know, sharpening your acts to chase something that's that's
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: actually not fulfilling for you at all. But I mean,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I think this is this is something that I'm just
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: seeing more and more. I think that this is I
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: think this is a growing trend in our community because
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: you know, While everyone talks about how hunter numbers are
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: down relatively have been, have been going down over the
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: last fifteen years, whatever it is. People talk a lot
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: about how we're losing hunters. That's true, but I think
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: that the number of people that are taking it really,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: really seriously is growing pretty substantially. So the number of
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: people who you know, like you, Derek or me, who
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: who who like your life revolves around White Hails and
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: you everything goes into it and you don't go to
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the library to grab a book to sit in the
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: ground on no opening day. Right, there's a whole lot
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: more people that are spending lots of money to get
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: their saddles and their sticks dialed in, and they've got
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: everything taped up, and they know every little patch and
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: corner of public land where there could be a big bucket.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: They've got their cell cameras all over the place. Like
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: the number of people that go that far with it,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: that group as is growing. But I do think that
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: that group where there's a lot of growing interest and excitement,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: there's also this growing pressure and stress that people are
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: putting on themselves because they think, if I've invested this
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: much time, if I've invested this much energy. If I
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: am a part of this community that values this thing,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: I have to be getting this thing. And I can
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: tell you just like within my own little personal circle
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: of like good hunting buddies. I have so many good
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: hunting buddies who we all claim to love this thing.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: We all you know, we're group because we love this thing.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: There's so many times during the hunting season where people
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: are complaining about I hate this, Why am I doing this?
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: I should ut golfing? Uh, you know I'm gonna take
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: up ice fish in a month and a half early now, um,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Because everyone's just driving themselves crazy worrying about you know,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: doing something wrong or messing up the hunt, or somebody
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: else screwing up their hunt, or how come everyone else
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: is getting it. There's just so many stories and examples
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: and people I can think of and myself, including certain
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: examples where we're just we're sucking the fun out of
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: it by virtue of pressure, too much goals, too much stress,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: too much whatever. Comparison, there's all these different like vultures
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: sitting on the power line looking down at our carcass
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: on the ground, just waiting to come in and take
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: a bite. Um, and I guess my question then, is
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: if the solution is to if the solution is to
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: embracing an okay hunter mindset, whether you're a really good
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: hunter or you're not. Just I think there's an idea
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: here of like an okay hunter mindset. What's the key
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: to doing that? Like, what's the key? What's how can
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: I become a successful quote unquote okayst hunter? That being
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: someone who's you know, embracing the idea of having fun,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: embracing the mistakes, embracing the balance, embracing the good and
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: the bad, all that kind of stuff. What have you
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: guys found, both with yourselves personally and maybe hearing from
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: other people in your community with kind of chasing this
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: new goal of how we approach hunting? How do we
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: do that better? Uh? You know to two things come
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: to mind, and it is cheesy as it's gonna sound.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: There's two hashtags that we use. One of them is
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: my tag my hunt, and at that rate, it's I
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: bought the tag with my money. It's literally my hunt,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: so I'm gonna do what I want with it, and
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: therefore I should think the same towards others. It's their
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: tag and it's their hunt, and if we stop focusing
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: on what other people are doing with their tag, we
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: can then focus on what we're doing with ours to
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: make ourselves feel more fulfilled. And if that spreads enough
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: and people focus inward rather than outward, and that like,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: if that were to scale, that was like something that
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: could actually scale more people would stop ridiculing others and
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: there'll be less fear of being ridiculed, and it would
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: alleviate some of that pressure. Would be a bit of
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: a relief valve. Um two then you know it kind
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: of I don't fix some of that issue, I suppose.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: And the other one has never never passed And that's
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: a stark contrast to two people saying let it walk.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: But what we're really trying to say is never passed
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: on doing what makes you happy, or never passed on
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: making a memory, or never pass on a chance of
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: fili your freezer. You know. Again, tying this into your
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: hunt and focusing inward UM can really help a lot.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: And and I think Tyler, you made one of the
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: you know, like posts of stop caring what you know
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: about people you don't know, judge your hunt or I
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: don't know how you worded it, but um you know,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: why do we care about people we don't know judging
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: our hunts, Like it just doesn't matter. Why why should
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: that matter? And I think to that point, they're not
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: judging your hunt, the my tag, my hunt, like when
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: you see a picture on Facebook, your d um the kill,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: the outcome, and one hunters always say, it's not about
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: the outcome, it's about the hunt. People don't know what
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: your hunt was, they don't know your story was, they
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: don't know what that dear did. They've got you so
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: excited right there, just judging the kill might take my hunt,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: like you don't know someone else's hunt. Don't judge it,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: don't judge it based on the kill. Yeah, I'll I'll
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: jump in Dondico greg S, you know, talk about relieving
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: the pressure. I think, you know, we use humor a
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: lot in our messaging because laughter, laughter is a good
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: care for some of the frustrations that happened during hunting season. Yeah,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: we try to be really really relatable because this stuff
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: happens to everything you see on our social it's like
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: something that has happened to us. It's very relable. And
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: we started to realize like, well, gosh, we're not the
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: only one to dealing with this stuff, so that relatability
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: is really carried on. But Greg, Nathan get a couple
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: of points here, Yeah, I know. I got one other
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: point and another hashtag to add to the call it
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: number three hashtag is shoot deer. If you haven't had
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of experience shooting deer, you haven't had
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of experience tracking deer. You want to
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: get good at that, you need to shoot deer. I
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: mean I went on a long dry spell of not
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: killing anything with my bowl, and all of a sudden,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: as a service technician out in the field, I had
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: one customer that had a doll problem. There was a
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: suburban area, and that really helped me, hone my shooting skills.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: How how to how to shoot deer, you know, how
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: to wait for them to move a certain way and
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: when I can draw, and how high I should set
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: my tree stand in certain situations. And you know, there's
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of learning that went on there. And I
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: went on a really awesome, you know, tirade of just
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: knocking deer down. So take that advantage, you know, or
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: take advantage of that and shoot him when you can.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: If you have a dough tag, Why are you not
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: using it? Yeah, I think there's a lot of people
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: who I was gonna say, I think there's a lot
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: of people who because of what's portrayed on the media
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: or seen on social media, it's it's easy to think
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: like that. It's you know, even when you're just starting,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: you have to be holding out for a big buck
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And because of that, like you just said, Greg, Uh,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: you pass up on so many opportunities to learn, so
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: many opportunities to get better because you think you have
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: to hold out. I mean I had this exact problem.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: First off, as a kid growing up, I thought I
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: had to shoot a buck for my first year. So
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: I passed up on a thousand does as a kid, uh,
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: and never shot anything until I was like eighteen or
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: nineteen because I wanted that first year to be a buck.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: That was my first problem. And then I killed that
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: first buck, second buck, and I think after killing my
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: third buck. Ever, at that point, I had consumed enough
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: hunting media and seen enough stuff out there that I thought, Okay,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: I can't shoot year and a half old bucks anymore.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: I can only shoot three year older bucks. I have
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: to shoot big bucks now. So I only killed three deer,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: and now I'm trying to shoot him a relatively mature buck,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: and and thinking that that was what I had to do,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: and I probably had a whole lot more learning I
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: could have done. I had a whole lot of could
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: have grown from and enjoyed, had a whole lot of
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: fun if I had, you know, enjoyed those introductory years
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: more versus immediately trying to jump to somewhat you know,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: expert level status because I thought that's what you had
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: to do. I think I don't think I'm alone in them.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Managing expectations a big thing that I think a lot
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: of tough with all the you know, YouTube and in
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: the hunting videos, one thing I always think about. And
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Greg knows he's going to know the guy when I
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: mentioned it. But he and I went down to public
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: in Illinois and we're doing some hunting and we ran
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: into a guy just outside of one of the parking lots.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: We got out, we started scouting. There's another car in
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: the parking lot, but it was midday, so we were
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: pretty sure maybe this guy was walking around. We only
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: made it if that from the truck and we ran
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: into the guy. I thought, good, we can talk to him,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: see if he's going in or out so we don't
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: mess him up. So we go over and he was
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: a first deer hunter, just started. And the guy had
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the crispy boots, brand new, first set up, brand new
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Matthews V three. Like, this guy has done some serious
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: research and watched all the right things. Like I think
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: about him all the time, and I'm like, I wonder
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: how that season went for invested this much and like put,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sure this guy he had to have three grand
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: wordth of equipment just on him, right, And he's like,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: I never hunted before, And I was like, I hope
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: he finds some sort of fun or happiness and the hunt,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: because boy, that would be a really crappy way to
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: realize you don't like hunting after doing right after buying
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: what he thought, you know. So true, And I don't
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: think that guy's alone in that. I think there's probably
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of people that have taken that same path,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and it's just great to see that excitement. But but
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: there's there's a whole lot more to it than having
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: just the right gear, that's for sure. So what about
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: let's lean into a little bit more about Like if
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: I were to if we were to generalize a lot
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: of what I feel like you guys are talking about here,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: it's it's like focusing on the fun, removing the stress
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: or finding that pressure release valve or whatever, because those
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: might be like the two conflicting um energies that are
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: kind of streaming through hunting as like personally your personal
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: hunting journey and then like the community. Right, there's like
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: the fun side and then there's like this pressure or
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: stress that goes along with it, and we can kind
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: of go leaning more into the stress side, or we
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: can lean more into the fun side. I'm curious if
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: you guys have any other like tactical advice for how
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: to do this, Like an example being, one thing that
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: I've always thought that would make me a lot happier
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: during hunting season would be to remove Facebook and Instagram
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: from my phone and everything during hunting season so that
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: I would never know what anybody else was doing. I
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: would never have anything to compare against. I would never
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: have any reason to feel like I'm not doing that
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: great because I would never see any of the other stuff,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: and I would never worry about having to post a
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: picture and someone dogging me about whatever, like that's like
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: a tactical thing somebody could do that might just be
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: a pressure release valve to kind of remove yourself from
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: that negativity. I can't do that, but um, I'm curious
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: if there's any things that you guys do or have
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: thought about that have helped you kind of lean into
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: the fund side of being an Okay hunter or release
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: whatever pressure or stress there might have been in the
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: past for you guys, or maybe it's something totally different. Honestly,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: it's our our community. For me, it's it's knowing that.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Um here's here's a terrible example, which is I'm notorious
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: for doing it, so I apologize for for doing this,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: but we listen to this. So we're going tomorrow morning
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: at five o'clock. We're leaving with my three kids, my
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: my kid's grandparents, and it's going to be a fun
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: trip on a Disney cruise And what is great about that? Yeah?
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: But hear me out. So we went to this a
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: couple of years back when we just had just our
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: daughter and my wife was pregnant with our son. So
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: now we're like, you know, outnumbered, we're playing you know,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: his own cover, Tom Man a man. But the point
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: is going on that trip versus something like a Royal
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Caribbean or whatever. We're gonna be around other parents that
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: are going to be we don't just say suffering. Also,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be other screaming kids. There's gonna be things
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: built into this experience, like changing stations at every turn.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be ways for moms to do like what
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: they do with pumping and stuff with their bodies. And
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be someone's going to hand a kid and
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: ice cream cone when they're screaming and having a total mountdown.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: So when you're doing something that's surrounded by a way
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: that can accommodate the lifestyle choices you're making, and think
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: about our community of okay as Hunter. We have a community.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: We literally have an okay as Hunter crew. We have
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: like a hundred people that have like bowed to be
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: brand uh accolades and or accolytes. Whatever what's for here
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: doesn't thank you yes, So you know, having that support
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: system gives us the bree thing room to feel like
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: we can take that pressure off. So it's it's not
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: necessarily completely tactical, but I put on a dad butt
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: shirt the other day and I'm not super proud of
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: my dad body because I took a lot of pride
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: in my fitness and my physique and I have that
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: is not a thing right now. And I put on
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: my bush like well, you know, but I put the
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: shirt on that way behind ethical and suddenly I feel
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: like it's okay, Hey, I'm wearing this dad bought shirt.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: I'm part of a community now. Like there's an other
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: guy and they're like cheers that dad bud bro. Like yeah,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: it's okay. I've left one community, I've joined another one.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: To have a support system is important and and our
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: community provides that, you know, So I think that's critical.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, I know people that aren't on
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: social media at all and they never were, so like
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: they don't have to deal with that hard switch of
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: trying to leave it behind that that's a big friction
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: point that would be difficult to do if you get
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: some joy out of that. So that's my two cents
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: on the topic. I would I would agree. I think
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: it's I think it's community and and having a message
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: that's out there right that's different from maybe mainstream and
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: what we see a lot of whether it's YouTube shows
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: on other hunting shows, um, you know what's on it.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: Instagram with the grip and grin, with the you know,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: huge bucks. You know, just understanding that there's all the
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: messages out there and having that out, having that visible
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: for for new hunters or wherever people are in their
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: hunting journey to see. I think that's the that's the
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: release point for me personally, and I hope it is
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: for other people too, because I don't think it's realistic
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: to ask people to delete Facebook and Instagram. I mean
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: there's yeah, Well, dude, I'm telling you, I'm gonna differ
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: with you because it's my career. And I deleted the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: Facebook app and the Twitter app off my phone. So
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: I haven't been able to take Instagram off, but just
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: taking Facebook and Twitter off on my phone. So if
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: I still need to do something for work, I can
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: get on my computer and do it. But by removing
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: the apps on my phone, I have been still maintain
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: my job and keep my career, but dramatically improved my
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: mental well being because the impulse stuff like the you're
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: you know, you've got ten minutes randomly or two minutes
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: in a line, and you flip up and Facebook and
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: start scrolling like I was able to eliminate that, and
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: that has been super tangible. And and I guess that
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Instagram would be great. That's the next one in my list.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: But I'm telling you it is doable and it has
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: helped me. So for whatever that's worth. Yeah, that is good, Greg,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: What about you? What about me? What about Bob? Baby steps? No?
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: I think surrounding yourself with good people. I mean there's
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: a group before of us where we you know, we
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: had our whole group chat going all fall and you know,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: kind of feel bad for the one guy that couldn't
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: make it out and I'm posting pictures of being in
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: the stand and he's just I can tell his gears
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: got to be grinding a little bit. And it's not
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: to poke at him, but you know, maybe he can
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: live a little vicariously through my pictures or something. You
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: took the words out out of my mouth. I'm not
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: out there, but I hope someone. I hope you're Yeah,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: so you got the right attitude for it. Not everybody
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: will have that same attitude. Um, but and I enjoy
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: and sharing what's going on. It's not to be bragging
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: about it or anything. It's just, hey, this is what's
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: happening out here, and but having the right people in
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: your core circle. That's probably one of the biggest things. Yeah,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: for sure, sharing the okayest moments with you guys, like
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: when I stuff up bad because normally I don't share
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: that stuff myself. I don't tell my my other I
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: think buddies were like hardcore, I don't. I don't tell
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: him that I messed up, dropped the climate stick twenty
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: ft and dinged off everyone. I'm not telling. But when
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: we get together our group text, I'm I guess what
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: I just it feels good and let go of that
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: stuff and know you're not getting judged. It feels good.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: Ye imagine having to admit those things to tens of
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: thousands of people every day on YouTuber podcast. That's that's
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Um. So the relatability door opens
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: up and suddenly people start like sharing their stories with you,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: you know, And that's that's where it's like, oh, well,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: this isn't that bad, you know it's that or it's
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: they look at and go, you know what you're you
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: guys aren't for me, Okay, we're not for you. That's fine. Well,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: there's certainly there's certainly a lot of people that do
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: like that kind of thing, because you know, I basically
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: have been living the okayst hunter at least results side
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: of things since I started this whole thing, Like I've
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: been making more mistakes than anyone and talking about it.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: And I always joked that, Uh, a guy walked up
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: to me. Not a guy, a friend who's also in
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: the white tail world who said that me, said that
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: I had cornered the market on failure in the deer
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: hunting industry. So I've kind of made a kind of
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: made a name of this thing, and somehow people have
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: stuck with me. So there as there must be something
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: to what you guys are saying. Uh, but I want
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: to I want to do something. I want to do
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: like a a little bit like an on air exercise
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: of sorts. Here, Um, let's let's do something. I don't
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: know if it will work, but we're gonna work through
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: this as like a group project out loud. We're gonna
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: think through this idea. Let's say do anything, and just
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: the rest of the group carries me. I want to
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: I want to write the ten commandments for being an Okay,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: it's hunter. So for someone listening right now, who's thinking, Yeah,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: you know what, this resonates with me. I want to
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: lean more into this approach to hunting. If we could
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: think of like ten commandments, ten rules, ten words or
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: phrases to live by. Let's let me hear what you
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: guys have, and I'm gonna take a note to keep
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: track of what our ten are. And if if Eric
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: has an idea and Greg you think it's horrible, please
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: call him out and tell him how horrible the idea
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: is so we can narrow down the ten best ideas.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: I'm to kick us off with the first thing. And
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: I think that it's important to not take yourself too seriously.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: I like that, don't take yourself too seriously. You just
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: already made way too much pressure on yourself. Remember why
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: you started? Number two, Remember why you started? Keep them coming.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: Guess I'm liking this. I'm writing them down too. I
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: would say, ever pass and making memories what it's all about.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: Never passed on making memories. Shooter buck is in the
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: eye of the beholder. I like it. Shooter Bucks in
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: the eye of the beholder. Right, that's four of ten.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: The way there, Congratulate people you don't know, Like everybody
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: says a good job of your body, but like make
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: a habit out of congratulating anyone and everyone just to
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: build the community aspect. Yes, it's gonna be way better
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: for the community. Do you'll enjoy it, They'll enjoy it.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: Everybody will be happy. I don't know why it is,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: but it seems to be it takes a lot more
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: energy to be hateful and in a disresector, disrespectful jerk
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: than it does just to be nice and come over
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: and talk to somebody. You never know, you might make
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: a new friend. I mean, don't you ever wonder, like,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: who are these people to have the time and energy
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: to talk trash on social media? Some people have really
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: admitted basement is underwear. Yeah no, if some people literally
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: admitted that, they just honestly, it's like that's seen in
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: a dark night. Some people just like to watch the
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: roll burn. Some people literally just want to stir the pot.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: And they're not even they're not even like actually upset.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: They're just poking you to get you upset. I don't
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: get people like that. It's weird. I'm like, man, you're jerk. Gosh,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: that's five out of ten you're asking the wrong crew. No, no, no,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: we'll come up with something and it just funnel me
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: in the right direction. But something along the lines of
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: like bring a buddy, or like bring some of us
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: mentor somebody everything well not even it's always better when
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: you have somebody to share it with, it is. I mean,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: they're you're successful, you're not successful. It's always better. You
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: came with me on that one hunt. I mean you
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: and I were on a bunch of honts together this year. Um,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: Illinois in here close to home. You guys are with
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: me in spirit when I was thrown by all those bucks.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: You know, you were calling us Stuart. But that was fun.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: That was so fun. Yeah, We're on our way down
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: to Illinois and Eric's Collins. I'm like, why is it?
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: Why are you calling dude? There's a buck down here?
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: What do I do? Seriously? Go after him? Go after him? Um? Yeah,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: I think along the lines of go with friends, because
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: friends are always going to be there for you. You know.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: Point in case I shot that dough, you were there
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: with me. It had been a bit of a drag
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: getting it out by myself. It wasn't terrible, but we
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: were always in there. So I think always be learning
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: is important you know, the moment you think you know
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: it all, you should probably stopped your hunting. Yes, you
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: got to just keep an open mind overall, and I
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: think enjoy that. I think I would add like, always
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: be learning and embrace that, like, don't feel bad that
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: you don't know at all. Actually get a kick out
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: of the fact you've got more to learn, Right Mark, Mark,
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: I think you got it just talking with Eric and
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: like here in his mindset. But the okay as Hunter
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: isn't just like a bunch of groups of bad hunters.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: Like everyone who I feel like listens and like is
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: along with us on the jersey. Everybody wants to get better,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: Like there's no way that. Yeah, I want everybody everyone
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: they're here because they want to learn something. They want
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: to get better, right, Like the okay It's Hunter is
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: not just a bunch of jackasses walking around the ones
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Like people want to get better. Every having that goal
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: is like an important part and people's goals just differ.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Can I throw one in? I'm not I'm not part
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: of the official crew, but let me say if this
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: had passed the test, if you want to, I think,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: don't say anything. If you can't say, well, what's what's
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: the old phrase like if you've got nothing nice to say,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: don't say anything at all. I mean it goes back
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: to the congratulating people you don't know. But like, hey,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: if you have a thought on someone else's buck online,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: you don't think that they waited long enough for you
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: think it's too small or whatever. You think the shot
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: placement wasn't great, Keep that to yourself, Like we don't
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: need any more negativity out there, right, Like if lead
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: by example, yep, Yeah, I think it goes back to
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: every situation is different. You don't know what happened there. Yeah,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: So I would say my mindfulness of the hunting journey,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: like if that's the thing, you know, and and that's
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: for yourself and for others, like you know again taking
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: that fresh cup yourself, maybe your hunting journey has changed,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: You're in a different course for a little bit, Like
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: it's okay, it's okay. Never pass up a chance to
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: hunt with family, m that's important. Like you mentioned Iowa
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: thing before Mark, and I kind of related to that,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Like you get a chance to go hunt somewhere really good,
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: but if you have a chance to hunt with family,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: I think that's far more importantly. Chasing a big deer
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: because you don't know when the next time you'll be
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: able to enjoy that moment. Like it's okay to make mistakes.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: That's like that, like celebrate failures literally. Now we're twelve.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: Now we're twelve guys. Yeah, er, can't I get a
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: shot of bourbon for that? This is this is good stuff.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: This is good stuff. So let me let me read
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: back the the eleven that I captured. Okay, and then
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: if you want to cut any one of these from
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: the list, you can. But this is this is what
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: we have and this is this is a really nice
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: way of uh getting a synopsis of our conversation here
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: to day. Number one of our ten commandments to being
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: an okay hunter. Don't take yourself too seriously. Number two.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Remember where you started. Number three. Never passed on making memories.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Number four. Remember that a shooter buck is in the
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: eye of the beholder. Number five. Congratulate people you don't know.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: Number six. Bring a buddy. Number seven. Always be learning
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: and enjoy that. Number eight. If you don't have anything
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: nice to say, keep it to yourself. Number nine. Be
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: mindful of the hunting journey and how everyone's is different
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: and number ten, never pass up on time with family,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: and an extra credit was celebrate failure. What do you think?
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: Is that a pretty list? We got the ok eleven,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: not the ten commands crossed out. That's a true eleven
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: point right there. That's pretty good stuff. Uh huh so,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: uh so, guys, this is uh, this is a bid
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: fun Is there anything that we haven't touched on that
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: you have a burning desire to get out there? Is
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: there something that you really wanted to talk about that
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: we haven't yet, or do you feel like we've got
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: a sense of of how to really embrace the the
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: okay side of the Hunter in each of us. I
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: think we captured the essence really well, and if we
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: wanted to go on, you know more, maybe that's great
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: for another go around at some other point where we
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: could get some hot button topics that have been boiling up.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: But I don't think that's a good fit for how
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: we just wrap this thing up right now? So then,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: uh don't where can folks go to to tap into
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: what you guys are doing? Where can folks find more
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: of your content? Everywhere? But no, you can Okay, it's
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: Hunter dot com and that's okay, A y e s
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: t because I say it fast. Uh. You know, we
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: have okayst Hunter podcast dot com as well, but you know,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: really you're going to see us on TikTok heavy, Instagram, heavy, Facebook.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: We have um a couple of groups on Facebook, the
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: Shooter Buck Club. We have the Okay so on our
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: crew that people can join if they want to really
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: kind of get close to the community and have that
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: camaraderie and there's some benefit to being in that community.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: But you know, we're on giffy. If you if you
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: go on your iPhone or Facebook and you type in
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: Okay's Hunter as a gift, you're gonna find some and
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Derek's spitting out some sort of tree nut or something weird. Yeah,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: swinging on a vine. You know we're really uh yeah,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: so we're we're I think fairly omnipresent across the digital
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: Twitter to Twitter. We're proud of Twitter, Twitter, awesome, Instagram podcast.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: There you are, there you are now. Well, thank you guys,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: Eric Derrek, Greg Tyler. This is this is just what
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: I needed tonight. So thank you, thank you, Thanks for
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: having us. Cheers. I appreciate it and that is a rap.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you being here. Thanks for tuning in. I enjoyed
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: this one. I appreciate you joining me. You know, it's
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: gonna be an interesting year. I'm gonna be looking at
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: a whole a whole lot of different things within my
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: hunting life. Right, a few weeks ago, we talked about
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: how I'm re examining how I shoot. This week we're
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: talking about how I'm going to re examine somewhat of
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: how I approached my season, and and the goals and
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: stresses and and all that around of it. Um, I
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: don't know a lot of change for me, interesting stuff.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: Hopefully this is something you can relate, to learn something from,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: or just laugh at. I don't know what it is,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: but I appreciate you being here with me through it all.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: So until next time, thank you, and stay wired to hunt.