Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 511: First Deer Stories on the Back 40 with Evan Barrett, Forest Wagoner, and Hank Forester

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Ep. 511: First Deer Stories on the Back 40 with Evan Barrett, Forest Wagoner, and Hank Forester · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and this week on the show, I'm joined
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: by two new hunters that I had the privilege to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: mentor this year on the Back forty, and we're talking
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: first dear stories, learning to hunt and more. All Right,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: by First Life, and today, folks, we're talking new hunter mentorship.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: We're gonna get you updated on what's happened with the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Back forty, and then we're gonna dive into a couple
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of great stories about two new hunters that I had
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the privilege of helping mentor on their first successful deer hunts.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: So joining me today, we've got those two aforementioned new hunters,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Forrest Wagner and Evan Barrett. And then we also have
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Hank Forrester, the director of Hunting at the National Deer Association,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: who's the mastermind behind this field to fork mentorship program
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that I was doing all this through. So why should
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: you listen to this? Well, if you're a new hunter,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking this one's going to inspire you. You're gonna
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: hear from two folks who likely went through the exact
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: same things that you are, who struggle to figure things out,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: who sought out help, and who ultimately had a pretty
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: life changing experience. I think this conversation is gonna give
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: you some hope. I think it's gonna excite you. I
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: think it's I think it's going to motivate you. So
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: if that's you, this is absolutely an episode you want
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to listen to. But on the flip side, if you're
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: an experienced deer hunter, I think this is still going
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to be one. Maybe it's even more important for you,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: because at least for me, hearing Evan and Forrest stories,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: it was it was a breath of fresh air. It
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: was it was exactly what I needed after a long
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: season of worrying about all the minutia of deer hunting,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: you know, obsessing over specific deer or strategies or my
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: goals or what's going well, what's not going well, all
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff that you get wrapped up when
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: you're so so into this thing. These guys helped kind
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of lift me out of that fog. And remember, I
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: don't know remember why we do this stuff in the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: first place. There their stories were just um god, they
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: were just really really cool. It was it was, it
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: just kind of filled me with good feelings, I guess,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, And you know what,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: these days, uh, we need that kind of stuff sometimes.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So that's that's my pitch and short, I think, uh,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I think at least what I felt was a sense
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: of new energy after this conversation, new excitement to get
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: out hunting myself and help other people. And if that
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: sounds good to you, I think you'll enjoy this one.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: So without further ado, why don't get into it, here's
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: my chat with Evan, Forrest and Hank. All right, so
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: now hear me on the show is Hank Forrest, or
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Forrest Wagner, and Evan Barrett. We've got the Field to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Fork crew back together again, and uh, I'm very excited
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to get to kind of wax nostalgic on a couple
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of really fun weekends we had over the course of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the past I don't know, six seven months, I guess
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: has been so thank you each and every one of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: you for for making time here to jump back on. Um.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I want to jump right into stuff though, rather than
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the pleasantries. I'm just gonna jump into the story if
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you don't mind, And Hank, you are the one I
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: want to jump into this with. First, we'll get to
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Evan and Forrest and you guys stories about what led
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: you to wanting to learn to hunt and what led
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: you to the field of fork program. But Hank, you
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and me kicked off well, heck, I don't know when
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: this was. I think it was late December twenty twenty.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: We hunted together on the Back forty and we did
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: a podcast Asked afterwards with Nick CEO over at the NBA,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and we talked about the plan for the Back forty,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: how we were donating it to the National Deer Association,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the hopes and dreams for what would happen on the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: property in the months and years to come, you know,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the plan to try to use this place as a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you know, as a as a training ground for new hunters,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: as a place to help teach people about hunting, to
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: demonstrate different things about hunting and land management and all
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And we kind of left that
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: conversation that day. I think we talked in January one
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: then at that point about you know, this is what
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: we hope is going to happen. This is what we
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: dream will happen someday. Now stuff has actually happened. So
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping you can help us, you know, filling the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: gas between then and now, at least up until one
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: hunt started. And tell me from your perspective, coming off
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: of that conversation with the three of us and then
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: you going out on your own, like what happened in
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the intervening months leading up to anybody stepping foot on
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the property. What kind of things had to be organized?
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: What was the story internally for you guys at the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: NBA to figure out, you know, how are we going
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: to manage this place? What are we gonna do with
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: this place? What were those next steps? Absolutely thanks for
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: having me Mark. Um. You know, I wish I would
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: have listened to that podcast before we got on here
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: today so I can remember exactly what we had said.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: But I think we followed the the battle plan fairly closely. Um.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: We of course said that we were going to reach
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: out and form a committee, a volunteer committee, um, to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: oversee the property. You know, some local some state representatives
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: for India from Michigan, and of course a few of
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: our staff members. But we we did form a habitat
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: committee and kind of a property management committee made up
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: of a diverse group of guys UM in the area.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And UM they've really taken the lead on UM, you know,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: day to day oversight of the property, property improvements and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: really prepping it for the hunt. UM. You know, of
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: course there were some logistic things to figure out, but
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: we did in fact write a full management plan for
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the property. UM. My colleague Matt Ross helped a lot
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: with that from the Conservation Department. But of course a
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: lot of our volunteers on the committee UM, either UM
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: you know, professionally or UM just as a passion do
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of land management, habitat management in the local area,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: many long time India members and many from the Southeast
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Michigan branch was which is kind of local to that area.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: So UM we came out in March and you were
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: gracious to join us again and give them a kind
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of a personal tour of the back forty, which I
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: know really jezz them up, and they really appreciated that,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of how they formulated the plan. They
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: they wanted to you know, maximize the potential to back
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: forty four wildlife and and diverse wildlife, but also maximize
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the opportunity for new hunters to harvest their first year
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and of course carry on the legacy that both you
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and meat either you know, began. And so that was
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of what went into our our zoom discussions
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to kind of create this management plan. But a quick highlight, UM,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I should just go, you know,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: through their names real quick, just to thank them for
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: their service. But we had two India interns that actually
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: stayed on and uh they were interns the semester that
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: we kind of took over management that March, and they
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: stayed on full year. And and you know, people have
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: seen them in the photos from the back forty and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and they helped the mentor the new hunters. I'm sure
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: they'll come up. But Sam Hog and Xavier Austin really
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: helped us out um in an intern capassing later as
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a volunteer, but kind of the leads with the Southeastern
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Michigan branch of Corey Francis and John Neville, Drew Gilby
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: UM and from kind of a state level UM Chad
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Feeling and Eric Schnell helped out a lot and so
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: just briefly, I'll just say that, you know, we planted
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: acres of switch glut grass. They maintained the nine acres
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: of food plots and added line and fertilize their seed. Um.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: They added four acres of native prairie seed with forbes
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and wildflowers, two acres of short grass. They planted an
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: American chestnut orchard. Um that we're hoping we will get
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: FDA approval for like a genetically modified American chestnut that
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: will not be susceptible to the blight and actually create
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: kind of a um, you know, a foster area for
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: you know, chestnuts to come back in that part of Michigan. Um.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: You know, we're working on some water, added great a
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: gait and stuff like that. We added birdhouses to the property.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: U five multrily cell cameras, just um, you name it.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: They put in a lot of work. They checked on
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the bees for you a lot of spraying and planning
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: and even in and I think April or May, um
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Xavier our interns that never killed a turkey and they
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: took him out there and he got the first game
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: animal off the back party under our management of turkey. Yeah,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: you know, it's really Uh, it's you read through that
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: so quickly, it's easy to overlook. Oh yeah, they did
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff like it. It sounds like, oh
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: so easy. They planted nine acres of this, they planted
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: twenty acres of that, They planned an acre of this.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: That is a ton of work. I mean, those folks
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: put in a lot of time and they weren't getting
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: paid for it. I mean, these are people just volunteering.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: So I want to second what you said as far
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: as giving those volunteers kudos to to really really make
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a point that that was a tremendous gift of their
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: time and energy and their tools and their equipment and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. Um, it was. It was really cool
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to get to watch that from a far and get
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: updates and see what was happening, and just to see what,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: you know, what we began really take an awesome step forward. Um.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: So it's it's a citing from my perspective to see
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: that property continue to flourish and continue to see it. Uh,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, it really is morphing into what we dreamed
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: it would be someday. You know, it started out it's
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: just this kind of raw piece of dirt and the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: hope was like, man, someday this might be a wildlife
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: paradise and it's sure trending that direction. Um, I mean
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it really is. So it's a great work to you
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and all the guys there that were doing all that. Um,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: that was that was exciting to see. So from there, Hank,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Habitat work was done in the spring and in the summer,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and then in late August we had our first educational
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: event for the Field to Fork program. Um, can you
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: quickly set the stage for what you know, the what
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: was the game plan for that? And then I want
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: to get Evan and Forced to kind of introduce themselves
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: and tell us a little bit more about them. But
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: but real quick, Hank, from your perspective, what was in
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: your mind? What was your hopes for this thing we're
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: going to put on in August? Sure? So, um, you know,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: we kind of discussed it with the group of both
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the Habitat and you know, people interested in helping us
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: with the programmatic aspect of the field the forts on
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the back forty Um, So we decided that we wanted
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to do what we kind of term a community based events,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: so like a long time you know, a filled the
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Fort program that happened over the course of a season,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and most of ours do. But sometimes, you know, the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: actual organized event will be condensed into like a four
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: day weekend or something, and then you know they're hopefully
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: be uh you know, follow up opportunities to get honey,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: but it's it's kind of not in a package deal.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: But we wanted because of the opportunity, you know, a
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: branch and volunteers and and and Michigan has always been
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: a strong state for the National Beer Association, but we
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: wanted to incorporate the local community, recruit local new hunters,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and really try to just build on that kind of
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: community and local field. So we went out and we um,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: you know, we recruited hunters via a Google survey. We
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: survey potential new hunters. We also had to recruit more mentors, uh,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: you know, to facilitate these hunts, and also hosts properties
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: because uh, you know, the back forty is a great
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: piece of property, but we we really can only hunt
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: about four people at a time on the property, so
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: we wanted to um, you know, be able to take
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: a few more hunters and that in the program. And
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: we ended up selecting ten hunters for our first year. Um,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and we set about kind of training them and giving
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: them the background they need to be successful. So we
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: offer all of our field to fort participants free online
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: hunter education and free access to our deer hunting one
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: on one course with hunter ad dot com. And so
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: they kind of do the initial you know, prerequisite at
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: home education. And then we brought them in in September
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: for a training day before the season started. Excuse me,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: august Um, I guess it was before the season started
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: late August Um. We utilized a local Michigan d in
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: our range for the shooting portion, uh cook some venison mills.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: You know, they had gotten a lot of the dear
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: biology and and that kind of stuff from the online courses.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: They even got, you know, the hunter education courses. But
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: we like to reiterate safety and a few other things.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: But I'd say the highlight of the event was the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: property tour that you you helped us lead. Yes, So
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: we brought everybody out to the property and then I
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: kind of walked everyone through to see all the most
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: important locations in the farm. And throughout that time I
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: tried to share as much as I thought might be
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: relevant about you know, how dear use the property, how
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: different things in the property might be representative of stuff
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: that you could see out on your own hunting on
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: public land or somewhere else. Kind of talk through hunt
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: setups and mindset and things I'm thinking about when I'm
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: out there and I don't know, try to try to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: be as helpful and and use this landscape as as
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: a sort of a template for a whole bunch of
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: different deer hunting discussions. So that that's that's what that
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: looked like from my perspective. Let's hear from the guys though,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that were actually learning so Forced, Evan, Let's let's get
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit of what led you to this point, um, Forced,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Can you kick me off here with a little bit
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: about what led you to want to win a deer
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: hunt and how you ended up making your way to
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: get involved here with the Field of Port program. Yeah,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: absolutely so. Um. It pretty much started out with growing
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: up fishing all the time and seeing some friends as
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I was a kid, going hunting with their family and
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: friends and being curious about that. And as years went on, UM,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I was never really invited or or had enough interest
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: to move forward, um to really pursue it. Um, mostly
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: because you know, when you're young, you're looking for an
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: adults day. Hey let's go hunting, you know, but that
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: just never worked. Doubt and for fishing for many years
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and getting more and more into other types of fishing,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: starting to get surrounded by people who, um can now
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: say hey, have you ever killed his ear? It's like, well, no, like,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: well you should do that. Sometimes it's like okay, how
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: do I do that? And I say, well, you've got
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: to find a mentor, and well, like okay, and then
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I just kind of sit there and wait for an
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: invitation and nothing happens, and I'm like okay. And UM.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Then about five years ago, I UM, when I discovered
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the Meat Eater podcasts and the Meat Eater episodes and seeing, um,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the the culture of cooking and conservation and everything that
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: was lining right up with my main interests at the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: time was was you know, fly fishing and fishing and rivers,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and um, when that became a huge passion of my life.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Conservation is natural, like this is so beautiful. I want
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: to take care of this forever for generations to come.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: And then um, seeing the meat Eater platform being exposed
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to that and seeing oh there's this isn't just about
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: harvesting deer or getting large antlers. There is a giant
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: conservation effort behind it, and that was was a big
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: part of it to me. And then the top or
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: was you can make wild game taste good, and you
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: know you can. You can have you know, at the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: most complete lifestyle surrounding it if you want to, and
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: if not, that's okay too. There's plenty of options to
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: get outside and experience your your state or your you know,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: local natural resources UM without having the need to. I
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: feel like you have to go on a vacation every
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: six months somewhere UM in order to enjoy yourself and
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: reconnect and that type of thing. So at that point,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: after doing some networking over the past few years, asking
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: you know, start with friends, then I started with friends
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: of friends, co workers, co workers friends, and I did.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I did get a few people interested to talk to
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: me and would answer my questions about equipment and places
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: to go, our resources to check out, but UM just
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: had a few closed doors where I could tell that
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: there's still no invitation and you know, after all the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: reading and resources online, it's it's like, Okay, I get it.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: They want that time for themselves and you know I
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: could respect that, and UM, I just did not could
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: not find an avenue to get out in the field.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: So it was it was very tempting to go afield myself.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: But um, the field dressing, I think is is where, Um,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: you know, as many videos as you watch, or books
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: as you read, or diagrams that you study, there's still
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: if there's a worst case scenario, I don't want to
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: be in that worst case scenario and feel so So
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: from there, how did you discover the field of fork program?
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: How did that eventually fall in your lap? Um? I
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: was just on my phone on Instagram looking through things,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and UM memory serves correct. I believe it was spring
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: last year or maybe early summer. Um, I believe it
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: was the first light add in my in my Instagram
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: feed with just I believe it was field of fork
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: or backboarding too fork or there's something along that line.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh wow, this is okay, this is
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: something where oh adult lead or for adults to learn
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: how to harvest deer for their own consumption. Okay, yeah,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what I want. I'm not looking for somebody
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: to teach me how to shoot a big buck or
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: anything like that. I just want to get out there
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and get food clicked on that UM and that began
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the whole process with engaging with the n p A
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and the forms, filling up the forms, and the application process,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and you know, Hank just kind of took it from
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: there with us, and I was like, oh my gosh,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: this is happening. And um, I have four small kids
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: at home and I know that hunting takes a lot
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: of time. And I'm like, oh no, did I just
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: do something I'm I can't handle with when the time
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and I told my wife says She's like okay, and
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I said, are you all right? I think she said, yes,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I know you've been wanting to do this for years.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Go for it. I'm like, oh, And then just you know,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: I've been on cloud nine ever since that that UM,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that invitation to have the opportunity. Yeah, that's that's so cool.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Uh Well, I want I want to dive into a
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: bunch more of that, but but first let's get evans
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Oudt of the story. Evan, can you can you give
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: us your version? Yeah? Oh great? UM, A lot of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it follows you know what what forests described, but I
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: think the you know what sort of drew me in
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: initially was my passion for food. I've I've spent most
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: of my life cooking UM for a good portion of
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: it professionally, but you know, now more more as a hobby.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And you know, I got used to and and almost
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: you know, tired of the same chicken, pork and beet right,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: And so I felt I could come very far with
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: with the typical meats that you can you can get
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: at a supermarket, and then you know, push that further
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and start you know, sourcing those better and and doing better.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: But you know, at the same time, like there was
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: this just wide variety out there that was different and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: exotic and was going to be much more challenging. And
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: and so that is what sort of drew me in
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: initially UM and and I had this this sort of
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: feeling or calling or what what happened. But well before
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I knew about UM meat eater and and that there
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: was a community out there that that was hunting and
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: fishing for food. And and what shocked me was the caliber,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the caliber of of cuisine and the caliber of cooking
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and thoughtfulness that went into the harvest, and that went
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: into the execution of the raw product. And I was
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: hooked immediately. I mean that was it. Like I don't
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: think I'd ever fit into a mold so perfectly. And
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and and finding a community out there that that was
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: inspired and and was was into taking wild game and
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and you know, harvesting your own proteins and and doing
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: that thing. And then and also foraging and all these
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: other you know, all these other ingredients sourcing methods and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: then applying like really really excellent, really really um high technique.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I mean it was just it was fascinating. Um and
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: so that was a huge, huge draw. And then and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: then as it went further, they started with birds. Um.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I did what I what I feel is
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: a very typical Michigan thing where you get a shotgun,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: you get a pump, you get a pump acts and
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: shotgun because you can change the barrels, you can use
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: it for her own and you can use it for
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just it holds a lot of purpose
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and uh And and so I started I started by
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: by hunting birds and doing upland I just fell in
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: love with upland and uh and it just kept kind
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of growing from there. You know, I wanted to after
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: hunting peasants. I wanted to hunt grouse, and after grouse,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to move on to the to
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the next thing. And eventually it was you know, turkeys,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and then it was deer, and and uh, I had
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: been successful. I had been successful, um, through reading and
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: watching videos and doing a lot of research on my
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: own and and in some cases getting guys and and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and you know, different methods. But I was unsuccessful and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: put in a lot of effort, more effort into deer
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: hunting and than than really any other type of hunting
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: that I had tried up until that point. And and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: it was very uh, it's very disheartening at a certain
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: point where it was it was you know, it was
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: very challenging, and I was just I was started to,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: you know, feel conflicted about it, and and uh um.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And it was when my sister had, like, you know,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: but she hadn't even you know, heard of the back
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: four Tell you know TV show at the time YouTube
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: show at the time. Um. Of course by this point,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, deep in it. I'm listening to the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: podcasts and and uh and watching the shows, and so
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: she sends over this, like I think it was she
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: got an email from the Michigan Department Natural Resources, and
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and it was just like, Hey, does this looks like
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: something to be interested in doing. It looks like a
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: mentorship for adult hunters for deer. And I was like,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: do you have any idea what this is? Like? Do
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: you have any any clue? Just fine, we need to
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: sign up for this. And and lucky for us, we
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: we both we were both accepted. Um and it just
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: turned up to be just just an unbelievable parparence. So
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: from there then okay, that's that's that's it's great to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: get both of your stories and hear what lads you there,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and and it's it's it's encouraging to hear just how
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: spot on this whole program sounded like. Once you discovered it,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: you were like, Oh, this is the thing I've been
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: waiting for forever. Uh what I'm what I'm curious about.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: The next is that first experience, so that you know,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the day you went out and went on the range
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: and you got to eat some venison with folks and
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: you met the mentors and we came out to the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: back forward and I watched you guys around. What was
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: your take after that? So that was your first real
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: experience with the program. UM, now you kind of have
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: an idea of what you're in for. UM, I guess
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: maybe Evan will keep going. U. Since we're just heard
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: from me, what was your thoughts on how that went?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: You know, was that a helpful day? Was the whole
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: process up to that point what you're hoping? UM? Curious
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: about that? Yeah? No, So there was great communication leading
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: up to it. Uh as at Tank pointed out, they
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: they gave us a ton of resources so that we
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: can do a bunch of homework because you had a
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: excure of people that were coming to this program. I
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: had some hunting experience, I had hunting license. I was
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: familiar with firearms and crossbows at the time, and others,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: you know, we're not. So it was it was. It
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: was well managed for sort of like all of the
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: range of people that were that we're going to be coming,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: and I thought that there was a good level of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: communicating sort of prapping people and knowing what expectations were coming. Net.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So it was it was. Although it was, you know,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: it was a bit intimidating, it was not in any
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: way it was handled well enough that it was not intimidating.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: At all to such that you wouldn't want to show up.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: You were excited when you got there. You know, I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: think that I think that there was any intimidation there.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: It's just that you you you know, you wanted to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: be president of Mind and you know, and uh and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you didn't want to you know, um screw anything type
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: of thing. And so but the way that they handled
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you from the time you arrived, there wasn't an opportunity
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: to screw anything up. It was very very very well
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: managed um introductions all around. It was great to see
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of different people from a lot of different
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: backgrounds who were there for a lot of different reasons,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and I think that really started to bring down the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: level of, you know, of any sort of caution that
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: anybody may have had, because people come to this program
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: and come to hunting in different ways and from different backgrounds,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and so to hear the stories and was was really
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: great and to get to know each other. And then
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: it was orchestrated in a very safe manner, so you know,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: people who may have never handled a firearm or across
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: or anything like that, we're we're treated very very well.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: And again, so the longer you were there, the more
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: that it became more comfortable. And then from there, Uh,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: you know, Hank will not brag about how good his
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: cooking is, but his cooking and his thoughts is unbelievable,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and so don't listen to him when when he does. Um,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: that was really fun because then it was like it
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: was like a sneak peek into into the future. Uh.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: And then the of course the the tour. Uh. And
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and you're showing up for that, um, Forrest and I
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: almost famous, And that was cool. Uh. We we held
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: each other up. And no, I mean just the fact
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: that that you know that everyone was was was like
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: there to put their time in. I mean, the mentors
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: were there to put the time into. The NBA was there,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and then you were there. I mean it just kept
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: on like reinforcing just how special this was and and
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and what it meant and what kind of commitment it meant. Uh.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: And so then as a mentee, and I think I
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: can speak for the mentees, it was like, wow, this
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: is this is amazing and and and we um, you know,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: we're we're gonna we're gonna be handled well, like this
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: is this is gonna go well because you're you know
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: again you're you're you're in a new circumstance around new people,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and you're you're ultimately out there, uh to do something
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people have learned over many years,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: and we're trying to shore that up into a very
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: small period of time. But it just kept feeling better
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: every single minute with with how well it was was
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: put together. That's awesome. What's your what was your take force? Yeah,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: same same thing along the organization of the whole event
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: myself and I was too amazed by the other mentees
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: in the backgrounds of all of us have different reasons
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and it was really neat to see the broad spectrum
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: um And yeah, there was that same amount of apprehension
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: about is this you know, am I in the right area?
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: And my way out of my lane here? And and
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But once the introductions and hearing
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: everybody's um story, which takes a little bit of courage
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: because you just meet all of these strangers and you
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: you're standing around and it's Okay, why do you want
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: to do this? And so it's I think that's kind
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: of the beginning of the journey, is everybody kind of
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: kind of announcing out loud, you know, what there, what
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: with their hopes and dreams are for this and UM yeah,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: that was that was the big part to kind of
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: instantly kind of break the ice in a way and
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: understand that we all have a common a common goal
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: and and you know, the conversations and and everything just
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: started to flow so well after that. But for for me,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: I think, UM, you know, just the time UM spent
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: to take the mentees, to coordinate with the UM with
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the mentors and UM with with the rain in UM
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: was was way beyond my expectations. UM. The amount of
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the number of mentor mentors that were available to help
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: people like me who are not as familiar with rifles
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and crossbows, UM was was more than expected as well.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: It was you know, I felt like it was one
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: on one and if there was any any question, anything needed,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: any apprehension, it was it was very well addressed. And
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: because for me it is UM, you know, if you're
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: gonna take the shot, you wanted to be the ethical
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: kills you don't want to you know, you want to
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: be as best as you as you can be. And
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: there's a little bit of for me, I feel like,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: can I really learn to shoot a rifle and a
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: crossbow and in one day and then you know, actually
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: ethically kill a deer, you know, the next time we
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: meet up. That was the big thing. And like I said,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: with one on one instruction with the rifles and crossbow,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: the mentors really where helped you affirm that no, this
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: is good. You know. You you take a few shots
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, that's not on. We're exactly where
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: I was Amy like, that's a dead deer. I was like, okay,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: all right, that's a dead deer. That's all I used
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to hear. You know, because you could I suppose you
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: could go out, you could join a gun range, you
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: could buy a rifle. You could you know, take all
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: your safety courses and everything and show up at a
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: rifle by or I'm sorry I had arranged by yourself
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: and do that. But how long would somebody spend trying
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: to hit a bullseye from fifty yards out and not
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: accomplish that and feel like they can't go afield? So
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: that was a big confidence boost, a big primer um
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: that was that was really well executed. Yeah, it was
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: you know in mind too, just just getting too yeah,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: getting to the point when we were there on the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: property and getting to meet all you guys and here
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: a little bit about each of your stories, and and
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: then walking around answering questions, sharing all those things. I
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: remember having a moment we were standing on I think
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: it would have been like in the back five back
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: field five, maybe somewhere back there, and remember looking back
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and you know, when you're on those pills, you can
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: look back down towards the swamp and it's kind of
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: a pretty good wide view because of the topography there.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Remember kind of looking over and I saw these ten
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: new hunters are aspiring hunters and ten mentors, and this
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: property with all these habitat improvements that we've been doing
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: over the years, and the blinds we put up, and
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I had this kind of flash where you kind of see,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: like the movie montage reel of all the things that
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: led up to this, and it was like one of
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: those one of those weird times in life where you
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: step out of yourself just a little bit and can
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: see it for what it is. And I had that's
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: just like just wow that it actually happened. We actually
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: have done something that maybe matters, Like maybe this is
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: a really cool thing that actually came to the others
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and gonna help people. And here's exhibit A of it
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: actually coming to fruition. And uh, that was. That was
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: exciting to see, an encouraging um to see that you know,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: what began as a inkling of an idea sitting in
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: my office and then led to a whole bunch of
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: debating and talking and uh arguing and brainstorming, you know,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: in conference rooms four years ago, which then led to
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: you know, just a whole lot of crazy things happening.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: So um, so it was it was wild to see
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: this next step all coming to life. And then it
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: even got wilder when we fast forward another month or
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: so to the first hunt on the property, and interestingly,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Forrest was paired to hunt with me that weekend. And
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: then I think your kids got sick something like that. Yeah, yep, yep, yeah,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: so sick kids kept forced from getting to go. Yeah.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I decided, you know, well that was that was one
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: of the toughest things, one of the toughest choices I
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: ever had to had to come to come to peace with.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know, maybe it's a lot of fisherman
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and hunters and hunters I don't know what agree with
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: me or not, but I'm a big fan of having
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: really good what I called good juju, like good harma.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: And so you know, if if I'm if I'm skipping
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: out of work to go fishing, I'm probably not going
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: to kids in fist, you know. Um, But this opportunity
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: was huge, but it took me. It took me about
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours to really come to that right decision.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: And that was could call in calling the sick the
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: sickness and be like you, I can't do it. I
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: got it. And and that's a good thing, right because
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: if I probably would have went, I probably been driving.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: They're probably not going to shoot be because I leave
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: my family at home. Yeah, it all worked out in
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the end. And uh, and since Forest couldn't go, Evan
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: you got to join me, and uh we had a
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: pretty darn cool first hunt on the back Ford, do
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: you want to tell the story we have? I guess
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: quickly before you do that. The first hunt we're gonna
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: have was gonna be an early Antler Lists season hunt.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna bring all these folks out, some folks
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: will each each mentee was paired with a mentor and
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: then we split up from there as far as where
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: we would go I think there was three or four
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: pairs of us that we're gonna hunt in the back
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: forty different corners of the farm, and then other groups
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: of folks went to some other properties that we had
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: access to in the general region. Um so you and me,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Evan were paired together for that trip. Talk to me
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: about how you're feeling leading me into it and everything
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: that happened. Let's let's let's hear this uh wild story. Yeah, yeah,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: so it was. It was. It was pretty uh it
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: was it was a lot uh to to put it,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: you know, to put it in those terms. I mean,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you know, you show up and again, you know, it's
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: just being a part of this is is already a big,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: big deal in itself, and then you know, about ten
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: minutes after arriving, you know, it was like, oh hey,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: uh you're you're cool, You're with Mark, You're good with that, right,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: we're gonna film you and it's your first time and yeah,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: so it was kind of like oh okay, cool, um
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: but a little maybe a little bit take along. It
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: really didn't. I mean, everyone was you know, again, it
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: was very well organized. Uh So it just you know,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: it took a little time and then uh, and that
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: was really our first time like meeting and you know,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and and you know, you were great and and just
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: really down to earth and Mark, our camera guy, was
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: just terrific and and he you know, he was just
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: just a blast of be with and so the three
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: of us really sort of hit it off well, I
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: think early, and that that made a big difference and
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: really brought down that it went from you know, feeling
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: uh so large and intense and and it kind of
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: boiled down to like, hey, let's go hunt like this.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: This feels like this feels like a hunt, you know,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: and so um, it was cool to have that experience
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: where we got the tour with you the property before
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: because we we sort of had an idea the layout
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: of the layout of land and the layout and and
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: where we'd be and what we'd be doing. Um and
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: uh and I picked up a few tricks from you
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: even just that you know, even that that day I
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: carry nose jammer with me now everywhere a goo and
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: so so that was cool and um, and then you know,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the thought process of between how we enter uh to
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: not you know, interfere we had to be careful because
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: we had so many hunters going out to different parts
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: of the property that we had to be very strategic there.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: So there were lessons picked up and um and and
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: also like the you know, I I think that part
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: of what I struggled with was truly understanding the impact
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: of sense and you know, a lot of what you
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: read and listen to and watch is you know, focus
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: around like very intelligent, very you know, knowledgeable, mature, fear
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: um And and that's not exactly what I'm going for. Uh,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm looking to to fill freezers. And
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: so there's a there's a margin there that that we
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: could get away with. And I thought that was kind
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: of an interesting thing to learn as well. Um, I
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: don't think it's a great margin, but but it wasn't. Uh,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: it wasn't so you didn't have to drop out of
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: a helicopter basically, is what I'm getting at, um and
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: to get back there. And so those were lessons learned
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and we but we still took a long way to
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: get to the blind. It was an elevated blind. Um
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: when we got in it, we realized there was no
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: carpet in it. So we we were doing a quick
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: check in and and and figuring out how we can
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: position ourselves so we wouldn't make a lot of noise
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: if we had to turn um and then we got
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: right into it. We got right into you know, running
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: through the scenarios and which which ended up being you know,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: the most critical part and and and and what you know,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: what made that so critical and elevated the level, uh
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: was the fact that we could easily make noise if
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: we turned a certain way or um drop something. So
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: it was a total uh check and balance of Okay,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: this is the scenario, this is the way the DearS something,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? Where's where's mark going to go?
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Where's the other marking to go? Where are you gonna go?
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: How you know? Can you see? Can you turned? Can
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: you even shoulder the firearms? Um? And So there were
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: several angles. I think there was really three angles in
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: which we could you know, have a pretty decent chance
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: of not only seeing dear but get a shot at
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: them and uh and and we had just kind of
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: walked through that and I think we figured out really
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: good positions for each one. And how long were we talking?
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Like fifteen minutes after that? Yeah, I feel like I
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: feel like it was a ten or fifteen minute kind
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: of thing and then bam, yes, we just started, uh
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the kind of okay, you know, the business part of
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: the stunt, like let's have a conversation, let's chat and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: and and then your face just turned like I my
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: back was to this part of the blind. You're facing
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: out that window, um, looking onto this this trail that
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: butts up to some woods about forty five fifty yards out,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: and you're it just stopped in your and you raise
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: your hand and you just point, You're like, that's here,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: that's and I was like, I was kind of like, well,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: you know, because it's like five o'clock in the afternoon
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: at this point, and earlier than that, right exactly, it
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: was super early in the afternoon, and uh so we figured,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: you know, we had a couple of hours to just
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: sit around and and and chit chat. And so all
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: of the sudden it was this game on and this dough,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: this nice mature dough, was cruising down this trail. And
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the trail, uh was a warrant trail that led right
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: in front of our blind and then cut through this
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: little um you know this this this basically, if for
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: lack of a better term of funnel between you know,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: so the wood line where we were kind of butted
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: up to, and then a woodline on the other side
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: near the honey of bowl, and there was this there
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: was a food source right there, and that's that's where
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: she was headed. She was cruising fat and so the
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: first move was to just like you know, turn without
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: spooking her, without too much movement, without too much sound. Um.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: But you know, her head was up. She was krugan,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: So you know, we had to be very cautious and
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: careful about not making two sudden of a movement. And
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: she came right up to the blind I mean, we're
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: in an elevative line. She came up within five yards
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: of it. And that's when she decided to okay, sums up,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: kind of spooked, turned and and and ran up the
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: ran back up the trail. And at this point I'm thinking,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: all right, that was cool. Like, man, there's tons of
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: deer out here, like we're done for you know, for
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: a minute, and you're like, get your gun up, you know,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: get in position. She's gonna stop. She's gonna get right
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: to the top of that hill and stop. And as
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: if like you could like see that in the future,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what she did. She she went in forty
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: yards back up the trail, broadside stop and she stopped
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: for so long that I got the gun mounted, I
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: got set up, I got my sticks on, I mean everything,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: and and it seemed like an eternity, although I'm sure
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: in hindsight it wasn't that long. But um, it was
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: just picture perfect. And you said, you said, if you're comfortable,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: take the shot, and uh, I said, I'm gonna take
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: the shot. And the shot rang, and that parts kind
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: of a blur for me. I really relied on you
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: and Mark to tell me like like did it look good?
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Like did it look like you know it? And um,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: and it was, I mean, and after that it was
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: just just shitters and shakes and emotions and I mean
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: just just utter disbelief, Like I don't know that I've
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: ever had that much disbelief all at once. It was
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: pretty It was pretty crazy, even for me. I remember
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: just being I was shaking. I was shaking. I was
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: so excited it was. That was awesome and uh, and
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: so well fast forward, you know, I don't know, I
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: can't remember how long we waited. We didn't wait too
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: terribly long, because um, we felt good about the hit.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: And we went back there and she ran I don't know,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: fifty some something like that, fifty yards something on those lines,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: and we found it right there in the honey hole.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: What was that like walking up to that deer and
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: seeing that you'd actually did this thing? It was, it
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: was It was a huge relief in so many ways.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, there was so much pressure built up to
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: this point by prior hunt and you know, um, the
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: hours in the in the dollars that were invested, um,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: and the time that was put in you know, selfishly
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: my own, but then by others as well. I mean
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: there was you know, it just felt it all of
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: a sudden felt like it was doable. It all of
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: a sudden felt like this this happens, and this can happen,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and this is a real thing, and and and it's
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: and and it's right there and and and there was
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: this very um she was she was pretty, I mean,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: she was very she was a very like regal and
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: majestic animal and and uh and it didn't feel um
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: as as sad. I don't know, like you know, there's
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: there's a there's a part of it that's you know
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: the part that there's it's the harvest. Can you know,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't know how I feel about that, um, because
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I hadn't done it, and I'm an animal lover and
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: and I know we all are, and and we get
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: into the sport. But I didn't know how exactly how
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: that would feel. But it it didn't feel. Um. It
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: was more grateful than any sort of sadness than it was. Um.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: It was just an overwhelming experience and and I was
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: basically speechless. And I think back to it often and fondly.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Um and and it was just it was inspiring and
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: it was just and and honestly, it was fun. It
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: was it was a lot. It was fun. It was
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: so much. It was so much fun. It was it
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: was energetic. It was real energy there. That's that's ah,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: that's really well said. I mean it was it was
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: all those things, even for me, which is what's kind
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: of crazy and pretty darn cool about this pursuit, is
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: that I've been doing this for thirty years and getting
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: to just be with someone experiencing those things for the
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: first time was was so incredibly rewarding. And it just
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: feels it's so yeah, for lack of a better term,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: cool to to see someone getting to step into this
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: world and and get to experience these things that I
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: found so rewarding and profound and you know, uh so satisfied.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: So it was just it was an awesome, awesome day.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: It was so cool to see it work out for you.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: And you know, even though that hunt specifically went really
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: really fast. You know, he said, you had been trying
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: for a long time, You've been working hard to try
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: to figure these things out yourself, and so it felt
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: like this really great, ah, moment of a fruition where
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: all that work finally did pay off. And uh, and
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: I was just very happy for you, Evan, and uh
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: and great shooting too. Oh yeah, no, I mean it
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: was it was awesome. I mean all three of us
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: were freaking out. I mean it was it was truly
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: like you know, you're feeling Mark dealing to Miami. They
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: were all super genuine. I mean it was we had
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: set out to do something and and and I mean
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: it must have been a great feeling to uh, to
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: to to see the back forty do what the back
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: forty you know, was meant to do as well, and
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: and so quickly, yeah, crazy, and then and then you
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: were able to go back out the next morning with
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: a different set of men tours and reinvent the wheel
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: all over again. You did it two days in a row. Yeah,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: that was nuts. Yeah, we we I got to go
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: out with the xavier Um the next morning and and
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: uh and of course at this point, like you know,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: pressures off, like you know, the feelings is, you know, like, hey,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: I'm here, let's do it. Let's go see what we see.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: And we we get out there well before first light.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: We get up in a different elevated box line and nothing.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, we were overlooking the field and and uh,
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: we're having a good time. We're you know, we're we're
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: chatting it up and and we're looking around. But you know,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: we didn't have a great line of sight where we were.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: We were looking over some really tall grass and he says,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: he goes, you know, I really think that if they come,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: they're gonna come down this. They're gonna come down this
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: area over here, which was a trail that was cut
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: there for for power you know, foam holes and power
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: lines and things like that. And so he kind of
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: knew it well enough to know that if anything was
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: gonna happen, it's gonna happen over that way, and it
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: was about sixty five yards so uh, once it got
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, light enough that you could kind
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: of see what you were doing in there, we ran.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: We did the same thing. We ran through the motions like, okay,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: you know, unlikely scenario, they come here, but still it's
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: still a lane. Let's try it, let's try it, let's
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: try it. And thank god we did, because you know,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit of fatigue were setting in about nine thirty.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: You know, we're kind of like you know, people are,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: you know, we're starting to communicate with others and talking
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: about when we're gonna wrap it up. And all of
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: a sudden, right down that trip, just like he thought,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: you know, right down that trailer, we see a head
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: pop out and it's a it's a line of dough
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: and another mature dough really pretty much equal in size
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: to the one the day before. And he threw out
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: a call, you know, he he gave her a you know,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: a map to to stop her. She stopped roadside, and
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: while he was doing that, I was getting set up.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: And because we we had the plan and played it
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: went quickly, even faster than the day prior, and got
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: a shot on her and she went. You know, I
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: went to probably twenty thirty yards. Hank came out, Um,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Pink came out to help with that one, and uh
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: and it was just I just couldn't, I mean again,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: just just under utter disbelief. Two deer in two days.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Not bad, my friend, not that at all. So so
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: let's let's jump over to you force and fast. For
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: a couple of months. You had to put your aspirations
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: on hold because of the because of family obligations, which
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: is a good call and a good man move, so
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: kudos to you. Um. But we get to December and
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: we hosted another hunt for anyone who wanted to come
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: out and try again, or anyone like in your case,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: where you hadn't mail to hunt or hadn't maimal to
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: get a deer yet. Um, same kind of thing. Everyone
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: came came out, a bunch of mentors came out. We
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: all split up to hunt in different places. Group of
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: us went to different locations on the back forty Um,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: because I guess I got first DIBs on locations. I
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: picked the honey hoole again for us, And that's what
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: we're gonna do. So Forest, can you can you do
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: for us what Evan just did, kind of fill us
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: in on how you're feeling leading up to the hunt.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Can you walk us through what happened and in your
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: perspective on on that whole experience. Yeah, So, leading up
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: to the hunts, it was um, uh typical mid December
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Michigan day, super overcast, some snow on the ground, kind
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: of melting. Um, you know in between that thirty two
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and thirty three mark where I would like to see
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: some snow rather than some freezing rain. And you know
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the weather alone was um a little bit of already
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: a mental challenge for me thinking, um about going through
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: in my mind about am I gonna get super cold?
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Is this? Um? You know, am I going to be
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: shivering when I try and take the shot? And and
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing, and running through scenarios in my head,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Um what questions should I ask? And that type of thing.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: And once we once we all met up, and uh, Mark,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: you and I when we just started walking, you just
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: started pressing me for everything and giving the heads up
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do, just like Evan was
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: talking about before, and getting the you know, starting to
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: walk to the blind and the heart rate just started
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: to kind of elevate hair with excitement, and um, you know,
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: I kind of felt like it was like when you
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: stood on a roller coaster and you're just when you
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: when you get in the seat, and then all of
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: a sudden, you're just start climbing like up. I mean
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: like you're at cedar point or something and you're like, okay,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not turning back now, I'm not walking away, and
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: here we go. So um, yeah I got into the blind.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: It was still kind of missing. Um you know, there
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: was ice on the on the on the ladder steps. Uh,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: yeah it was. And um, you know, it wasn't really
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: bright out, real low clouds. Um. And I'm thinking, oh man,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: it might get dark before before our shooting hours or
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: even are approached, you know. And um, but from there
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: once he started talking us through the if the deer
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: comes from this direction and that direction, that's what we're
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: gonna do. Okay, now let's practice and do you feel
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: comfortable and you know that kind of thing, and and
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: then um, just the initials sit down and holding the
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: rifle and looking out. Um was a pretty surreal experience.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Like here I am, I'm you know, officially doing it
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: in my mind, and um, yeah, that was that was
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: a huge it's so of it sounds it was a
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: very big experience because there's a reflection of everything that
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: had come up to that point. And um, so we
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: sat there and talked about where there could be showing
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: up from. And I don't know, I think an hour
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: went by and nothing happened, and I think another hour
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: went by and nothing happened, and we entered the our
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: prime time and I think, um, shooting hours ended. I
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: think around five thirty one, I believe, and um, I
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: think right around uh five, right right around five o'clock.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: I start thinking to myself, okay, all right. I started
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: talking through thoughts and had like this, probably I could
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: that happens. That's okay. I would like to say that's okay.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: That kind of thay and and just and hearing from
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: Mark and the other guys in general, like it can
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: happen back, it can happen with snap of the things.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: And you know that that was the optimism, you know,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: my mind I was combating the negative thoughts with and
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: so we were just sitting there and it was it
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: was just I think five tennis and then Mark, I
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: believe you yeah, you spotted the first yeer. Oh there's
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: a deer way asked over the first hill, and I
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: believe it was. Yeah, it was out of range. There
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: were two of them, and we moved into position right
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: and put a scope. I believe it was. I know
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: it was at least one dough. I don't know if
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: it was you If you remember there was a spike
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: in a dell and they were they were like one
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: hard to get to position that we'd had to practice,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: like I would have to get out of my chair,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: moved to the other side of the blind, you'd have
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: to move forward. But like you said, we'd practice like, okay,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: if this scenario happens, we've got to do this whole thing,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: and we figured it out. M hmm. Yeah, that was
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: That was crucial because you were sitting to the right
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: of me and that was the window I needed to
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: shoot out of. And without practicing that, I mean, something
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: kind of dropped or a scuffle or some kind of
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: noise potentially ruined it. But so yeah, get the scope
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: on the dough and you ranged ranged her, and I
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: believe it was just out a hundred yards a little
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: bit out of my comfort zone for you know, pretty
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: much being a novice marksman, if you will, And and um,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: I believe they just kind of started quartering away and
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: just kind of fading, walking back further and further in
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: the opposite direction, you know. And from there it was like, okay, well,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: all right, there there was the opportunity. That's that's cool.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: I'm happy, I'm good, you know. And um, I believe
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: Mark cameraman brought his camera back in and Mark, I
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: think you were just I don't know, I just think
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: something or but not looking out and I was just
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: on the scope and all of a sudden, from the right, Um,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: it's just it was like Christmas morning I saw. It's
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: like that first image of presence. It was like ten
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: those just started walking very very gracefully right right from
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: the other side of the field, and um, I was
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: just like, oh now this is the first sure And
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: it was I feel like it was half the distance.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: It was twice as close as the as the first
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: year I saw. And I'm like, okay, here we go.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: And now it was when I talked about the Mither coasters,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: like now I'm just like I feel like I could
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: just scream, but I can't. You gotta focus now, you know,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: and um that was that was the image that I
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: play almost every day since. Um in my mind that
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: and um seeing those you're walking so slowly and with
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know, five seven ten minutes left of shooting time,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: and um key. Then on the first I think there
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: are two or three that first rolled in and then uh,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: Wanda Kian on the largest dough, and I think it
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: was like the second or third one, and then they
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: started to overlap after getting the scope, Um, the bigger
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: of the two or three, and then it's like, okay,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: we're just waiting, and then I think there's another five
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: six seven more. Uh. What appeared to me was very
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: like larger mature dough. And I'm like, oh man, I
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: just gotta wait for this to break up and and
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: go from there. And Mark, you are talking me through it,
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: and you know all the minor details like hey, do you
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: you like talk to hammer? No? Not yet, okay, and
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: then what's confirming that we were both on the same
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: page with the range and the exact dere Um I
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: was gonna take a shot at you know, it was
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: I just remember, you know, taking the breath, and I
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: remember still being nervous but not shaking. Nervous and I
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: was surprised by that and and took the shot and
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: I remember actually seeing seeing the dope get hit and
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: I thought it was too high. Um, it looked like
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: it's the shot hit the spines potentially. UM. But luckily
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: having market cameraman there to kind of replay and see,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: you know, possibly upper upper long shot, you know, we
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: should be okay and that kind of thing. And UM.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: From there it was yeah, all the pure adrenaline rush
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: and and shaking and not being able to stop smiling
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: and yeah, that was that was you know, just you
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: see on all the TV shows and whatnot and hear
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: about UM. I was unsure about how I would feel,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: um taking the shot UM on an animal that I,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: you know, I love and like I haven't mentioned being
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: animal lover and that kind of thing, but taking the
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: lifetile different thing. I'm going to feel about that? And
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: amazingly enough I did not. I did not have those
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: kinds of thoughts for feelings, UM. And I kind of
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: attribute that maybe to just human nature, I don't know,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: for for survival or whatnot. But yeah, so that was
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: that was the shot and UM decide what we waited
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: there for. I don't know. I cannot remember how long
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: we would feel like it was about forty five minutes
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: or so an hour, and I know I remember it
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: was it was definitely dark, like the headlamps throughout everything
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: like that. Um, other mentors came over to our field
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: and began the tracking process, and UM, that was something
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: that I didn't I didn't um really think through previous
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: that that would be actually kind of a challenge And
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: another thing later in retrospect I'm really grateful for because, UM,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: when I when I read or try and educate myself
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: about checking deer, it's like, oh, yeah, it's fall the blood, okay,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: you know, just mark reeve then and just follow it.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: But then when we started to track the deer and
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: finding the blood and then finding the next drop and
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: finding the next drop, and then we hit kind of
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: a wall there and even though it was only like
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: ten minutes, it was that feeling was not fun. That
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: was that was yeah, that's so that that's when that's when, UM,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: I started to feel concerned, but not like oh I
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: might not find the deer, but almost a concern like uh,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: a responsibility almost like you you let somebody down almost,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: And from there I'm like, oh my gosh, there's there's
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: the I think that was the first time to me
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: of the connection was formed with the animal. And then
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: walking up and finding the blood trail again and then
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: um uh seeing seeing the deer, seeing the dough and
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: discovering it was was just absolutely amazing. I felt attached
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: to the deer. I felt like it was almost like
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: my pet. And then there I had that melancholy thought
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: of but I just I just took it to life.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: But the beauty of the deer and um and just
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: the whole the whole process of the finding. It was
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: a sense of relief and now I felt like, um,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: kind of I've completed the process and now I want
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: to do whatever it takes to take the ultimate care
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: of this of this self. Right. So yeah, from there, um,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: that was that was when I think a switch was flipped,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of like having a kid or getting
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: married or any any major accomplishment or just something that
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: triggers you to change your mindset. What did you think
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: about the field dressing process You mentioned that is one
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: of the things before getting to go on the mentor
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: experience that was you know, was concerning to you. You
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: wondered if you'd be able to do it, if you
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: know how to you can figure it out. How difficult
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: it would be. Um, you know we we walked through
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: that together. Um, and you completed the job. How did
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: that go? Anyway? So I was right, that was the
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: part of the whole process that really kind of waunched me.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I'm the whole you know, seeking mentors and whatnot. And
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: I was I'm the kind of person that gets kind
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: of queasy around um, animals being dissected. And I didn't
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: do well in biology class. I had to stand in
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: the hall because I could handle it. And so and
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: that was like my big, my big, Okay, this is
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: where I'm I'm confronting. I'm going I'm leaving my comfort
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: zone and I'm gonna start cutting into this animal. And
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: I just hope I don't throw up or make make
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: a fool out of itself. And um, you know when
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: people would say it's not as bad as you think,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: it was not as bad as I thought. You know,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: the initial cut into the skin mark, you shown me
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: exactly where to start and um, and just start making
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: the incision and whatnot. Um. I was I was amazed
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: at how how clean and um simple of a process
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: that it was. And um, but I saw that here
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: in my mind like when I get to the stomach
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: part and stuff starts falling out everywhere, am I going
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: to lose it? And um, I don't know if it
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: was the adrenaline or not, but I kind of feel
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: like it was just that connection, Like I'm it didn't
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: even cross my mind cutting across the belly, going through
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: getting everything out, making cuts you know, um in certain
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: areas that you're pointing to do. Um was a lot
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: lot easier than I thought. I think I was expecting
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: like blood to be gushing out everywhere, or you know,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: arteries with blood like flattering everywhere and things. But it's
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: not that at all. And that was a big That
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: was a big relief for me, and um it went
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: quick as than I thought, and um it was. It
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: was a big sense of accomplishment and a big confidence
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: booster for Okay I I I definitely feel like I
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: can do this on my own now, And that was
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: the big thing, like can I do this on my own?
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: And I felt like I had that after leaving that
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: even though Markie helped me with so much on where
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: and how it was getting my hands in there and
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: physically doing it. That said that, that gave me the
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: confidence to say that, yeah, I can do something own.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: To do it, well, I need to refer to some
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: things and how like what cuts and where to make
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: it again. Yeah, but I can. I can look that
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: up and they say, oh, yeah, okay, that's what I
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: have to do. But I'm not apprehensive about going to
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: field and harvesting a deer because I might get i
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: don't know, gross out or screw up something, um with
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: the dressing. That would make for a really bad experience. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear you feel that way now after
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: having done it, and I think your experience and your
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: apprehensiveness leading into it was Yeah, that's not uncommon. And
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: so to your point, it's you just got to get
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: in there and do it once and then once you've
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: crossed that bridge, it's a whole lot easier to to
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: walk it again in the future. Um. So, so what
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: I want to know next is about what happens next
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: for both of you guys. But before we get to that,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: I want to kind of hit pause on your personal
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: stories and and and put a little call to action
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: here for anyone listening, who has found themselves in your shoes,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: Anyone who's listening, who has been intrigued by hunting, who's
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: hunting curious, who who maybe has tried it and been
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: getting started but it is struggling. Or maybe this is
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: someone who's never done it ever before but kind of
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: has this little voice in the back of their mind
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: that makes them think, man, I should try it. And
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: somehow they stumbled on this podcast and they would love
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: to get a chance to go through what you guys did.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: If there's anyone listening who's in the those shoes, Hank,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: my friend, can you drop in from your expert perspective
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: where people can find these opportunities, how they can find
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: these opportunities? Can you can you give us that right
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: now rather than at the very end of the show.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that right now. Also, because I know, Hank,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: you might need to leave, and I want to make
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: sure you get to say this before you do. Where
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: can people just find this? Yeah, just Dear Association dot
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: com slash ft um. You'll find my email on their
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: Hank and Deer Association dot com. We also have Dear
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Association dot com slash new Hunter. And if they're a
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: new hunter, it will um, you know, we asked it
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: for their personal information, we can plot them on a map.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: It'll send them some resources, most of them free, and
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: advertise a couple paid ones, but it will put us
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: on the map. And that's how we notify individuals of
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: a new programs coming online or other opportunities around them.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: We really try to keep these programs states specific because
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: of licensing and that kind of thing. UM, and we
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: want to teach people how to hunt where they come from.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: So UM, if you'll go to any of those contact us,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: fill out that New Hunter survey. UM. It just lets
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: us figure out where you are and will will contact
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: you with opportunities. We also have a mentor sign up
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: for potential mentors out there if they're willing to mentor
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: for us, and and it's built to do the same
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: thing from the opposite side to connect those mentors with
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: new hunters and programs we have. So I appreciate that,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: mark UM, if you, if you'll allow me, I'd like
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: to roll back a couple things before we move on
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: to what's next for these guys, Just a few comments
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: and stuff. UM. Well, first off, for us said something
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: just a minute ago about having the confidence to continue.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: And really that's what it comes down to here. That's
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: all we're doing is we're given these new hunters the
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: confidence to realize that this is attainable and something that
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: they can bite off and chow. And that's really what's
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: happened here. They've they've managed to be successful, which is great.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: They got their hands dirty, um, but it's really about
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: just building that confidence. And and yes, the gutting is
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: often a very daunting, monumental things that they need to
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: figure out because you know, just like forests, a responsible
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: person isn't gonna go out there and take that shot
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: if they can't take care of it. But lastly, just
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: you know, answering the question that I am a hunter
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: is just a confidence level. It's just saying that's something
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: I can do and I'm gonna do it. And so
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: coo to those guys, I hope, I hope we got
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: you there. But there's there's a lot more to it.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: And and they told their stories, and they told about
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: how they found the program and that stuff and the
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: and their stories are not unique. I mean we I
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: see hundreds of these every year and and and their
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: stories are very common. Um, you know, what you guys
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: have done at Meat Either. There's been a lot of
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: negative press about our three programs and sharing on social
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: media recently, UM, and it's it's really sad, but you
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: know what you've done at Meat Eater and the responsible
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: approachable you know, just awesome view of hunting and that
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: lifestyle just what both of them attested to, um, you know,
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: just a little while ago. And and that being on
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: Netflix has offered entirely new generations and people who have
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: never run into hunting in such a responsible and beautiful light,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: but they're seeing it on their TVs that, you know.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: And so it really is this Netflix effect that I
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: think as we're seeing a little bit of growth and
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: hunting right now, not enough to celebrate. We've seen a
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: lot of societal trends that are helping, but um, we've
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: been able to find these new potential hunters through um,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: non traditional avenues and really break out of our traditional
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: hunting spheres and circles and culture and that kind of stuff.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: So that's a lot of what has happened here. I
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: also want to say that you know, we've learned a
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: lot from these new hunters, and that's something we didn't
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: talk about I mean the first uh, the first evening
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: on the back forty Um, I was sitting in my
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: truck when you all shot you. That was the first
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: year of this field the Ford program, but also the
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: first year on the back for you and very fitting
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: the year were the mentor. So it was exciting for
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: me just sitting in my truck in the parking lot. Um.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: But but you showed him how to clean the deer
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: that night. We've got great photography we had. It was
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Uh. You know, we had that
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: camaraderie of deer camp, even just as a group out
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: there in the field and meeting up after the hunt. Um.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: And you know, we can learn stuff from these new hunters. Evans.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: Evan led the butchering demonstration the Sunday morning after he
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: shot his second hear And believe me, I tried to
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: put him somewhere that I didn't think even harvest the
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: deer on Sunday. But he must just have good luck.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: But um, you know I helped him. But he's he's
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: a chef. He knows how to break down the animals,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: and he he has skills that I don't have. So
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: we can learn a lot and we can gain from
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: him taking these new hunters afield. And then lastly, I'll
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: say that we had a culinary social after the December
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: hunt and Evan cooked for the group. Um, so he's
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: a better chef than I am. I appreciate the nice comments,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, we didn't bring
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: somebody who didn't have something to offer back to us.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: And so, UM, we selected these candidates based off a
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: lot of different reasons. And we we have a selection panel,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: a group. I don't select them personally, UM, but we
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: we we read through their profiles, their survey, UM answers,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: and we selected these candidates based on you know, a
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: panel and voting. But UM, you know, we we debated
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: this um Forest was like the prototypical candidate he founded
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: on first flight social media. I mean, um showed up
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: in a first light hat for our training day. I
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: mean just you know, it's just an amazing candidate. And
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: and then Edvan and his sister both appla it as
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: he alluded to. And you know, we're sitting there thinking,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: you know, one of them could mentor the other if
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: we took one of them. And you know, we take
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: adults because they can mentor for us. The next weekend.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: They can you can advocate and become better advocates for
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: hunting than we ever can in their in their own
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: circles and peer groups. So it just really there's a
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: reason we do this, and it's the efficiency of the model.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: But we decided to take both Evan and his sister
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: because we decided, you know, Evan might not be able
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: to teach us sister it's wrong too, or vice versa.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: If we if we took Emily, she might not be
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: a good teacher. You know, like we've run into this
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: with husband and wife pairs where like, god, can you
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: imagine if you had to learn from your significant other,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: they might not be the best one. But we ended
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: up you know, selecting these people for very different reasons.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: But we get all that information on the front end,
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: and uh, and we we try to make our best
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: educated decision. But you know, um, Evan's gonna mentor for
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: us next year. I hope for us will will still
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: be a part of the program. But I mean, we
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: we can take new hunters, take them a field. They
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: can they can cook medicine better than we can. They
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: can advocate for hunting better we can, and honestly, they
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: can mentor the next weekend, or take their friends or
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: their uh you know, family kids whatever. I mean, Forest
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: has four kids. I expect he'll take them a field
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: in the future. And then, um, you know. Lastly, I'll
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: just say that there was also follow up hunting opportunities
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: and that's why we trained everyone on guns and crossbos
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: as We've really encourage people to get back out on
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: the property during the duration of the season outside of
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: our kind of organized events, and I note a number
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: of hunters took advantage of that. Yeah, it was really
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: cool to see all those different opportunities arise and see
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: the group of people out there have this experience. And
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: tell me this, Hank, I think of our hunters, all
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: but one ended up killing, you know, having success killing
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: their first year over the course of these two hunts.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: Am I right on that, that's correct. We finished the
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: season nine for ten. Um, just we didn't get a
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: success well, but I don't think that's how we judge success.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: But but we did have nine out of ten hunters
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: harvest their first year this fall. Yeah, that's that's pretty incredible.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: And the back forty, I think we we took four
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: off the back forty. Does that sound right. I sat
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: just three three to the first organized hunt won the second. Evan,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: you were out there as much as I was coming
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: up from North Carolina. But I think just three off
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: the Back forty this fall, and then I think there
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: was a couple of opportunities misses. There's things like that,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: So there was there was opportunities. I guess, Um, so
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: point being, I might be biased, but you tell me
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: if I'm wrong here. I feel like the Back forty provided.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: I feel like the Back forty was a great hosting
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: around and training ground for these new hunters. Absolutely, I
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: think that's been our tagline. Yeah. Sure, So so let's
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: get back to YouTube that Evan and Forced. I'm curious
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: to hear about your thoughts moving forward. Evan, where's your
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: head been at since that experience? Um? Are you gonna
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: keep hunting? Have you kept hunting? What do you think
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: the future holds for you when it comes to this
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: this pursuit? Yeah, I will keep hunting. I have kept hunting. Um.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: And and on top of that, I'm I'm going to
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: you know, develop more. Anybody who is interested in in
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: my circles wants to hunt. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: carry the carry the torch. So after after the September hunt, Um,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: Corey was kind enough to get my sister and I
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: back out on the backboard. E uh several times. Um,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: there was There's not been a point where I've been
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: on the backboard counting that I haven't seen. Dear, I'm
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: not getting like, you know, maybe not an opportunity for
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: a shot every time, but we I've never not. You
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: know what, It's unbelievable. You're you see deer every time
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: and so um so they you know, he gave up
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: some prime hunting time, I mean real prime hunting time
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: to take us back out. Um, tain't kept following up
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: like got again Emily on a deer. Uh you know
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: you've got too many, you know, we gotta get I'm
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: your sister one, you know, just choking around and having
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: a good time with it. And um so there you know,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: that was a lot of fun and I got a
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: little bit of a taste of of what it was
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: like that sort of be a mentor. It was much
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: more about her hunts than my hunt, you know in
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: those times. Um. And then another trip out there. Uh,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: you know, Corey and I we went on a hunt,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: but but it ended up just being a training session
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: on saddle, and I am I'm so comfortable and confident
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: in a saddle that during the rut, I uh, I
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: got up in a tree and I went out on
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: my own a public land and private land. UM had
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: some I got on deer the first time, like first time, huh,
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: on my own, completely on my own, and without even
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: scouting other than just the scouting UM and using on X.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, I got out there. And the first very
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: first hunt I saw, I saw deer, and I mean
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: as all of these things, Oh my gosh, it was unbelievable.
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: And and the and then the crescendo of of that
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: trip was the final day I was deer hunting. Uh.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: I actually had uh an eight point buck come within
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: fifteen yards of me. I never got a shot at him.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: He never showed me anything about his eyes and his antlers.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: But we had this really unbelievable, like hour and a
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: half exchange where there was a field full of dos
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: in front of me. I was grunting, he was paring
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: the woods to the ground. He was so angry that
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: some other buck was out there with his dose. But
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: he would not step out. He would not step out
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: he just wouldn't do it. But it was. But I mean,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: you know, all of those things that we were taught
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: and and we were told, I mean, you know, to
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: be applied and and put into practice, and went from
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: years of not seeing deer and putting in the same
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: amount of time in the same amount efforts. Um. So
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, using sticks and being
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: in the saddle, and being in a tree, and and
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: and seeing deer on on most fits, and or even
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: having an encounter with it with a true um, you know,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: with a true buck. And and so uh um, I'm hooked.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: I'm totally hucked. They're definitely turning back for me. Um
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: and uh and and so I'm taking my sister and
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: a buddy out turkey hunting. It'll be their first time
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: really going out on a turkey hunt. We're gonna do that.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: And and uh I've started dabbling in duck hunting last
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: season and uh so you know we're figuring that out
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: and and we're just gonna We're gonna continue to do
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: I want to I want to look at get my
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: niece and nephew out there. Um. And then just I've
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: got a bunch of buddies that come from the hospitality
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: and culinary side of things, all of us fish. But
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: they've they've expressed you know, uh, they've expressed interest. Um.
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: But again, you know, like myself grouping the suburbs and
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: and maybe didn't have the you know, the experience growing up.
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: And and so now I feel confident enough that that
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: you know, we can get out and we can we
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: can do some stuff and and be talking to friends
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: and at works and colleagues and and people have been
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: just so gracious about opening up their their land to
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: to let me hunt and to let others and it's
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: just it's, I don't know, it's like it really. I
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: think it goes back to what Hank said about the
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: confidence and once you have the competence, um, doors really
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: start to open. So the biggest hurdle is certainly just
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: getting started. But once once you're through that, it gets
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: a lot easier. It does, and in some ways it
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: gets harder. But I think that the the initial I
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: think the initial step is the hardest, you know, And
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: and once you get through that, um, the confidence starts
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: to set in and people people see that, and so
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: uh um for to night, we're actually talking about this
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: last night and we've coined ourselves the mentees of Mark.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: We're we're still we're still working out what the matching
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: tattoos are gonna look like, but we're heading down the road.
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: It's like something like, you know, your face like a
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: Joe Rogan type thing. We'll figure it out. We're looking
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: up probably, but but yeah, we were we're playing in
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: a hunt, you know, we're we're we're already uh playing
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: on putting, putting our skills together and seeing what we
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: can do. That is, uh, that is so cool, so
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: cool to hear. Except for the tatoo part, I think
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: that would be that sounds terrifying. Get my face on
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: your shoulder. But outside of that, I'm excited to hear
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: all that. Uh so for sort of about what about
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: from your perspective, what have your thoughts been in the
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: days and weeks after that? In where do you think
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: things are going to go from here? Yeah? So you know,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: immediately the next day after the hunt, it was, um,
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: it was about two and a half hour drive from
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: where I live from where Backboard he is and in
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: West Michigan, and from there it was how do how
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: do I get this thing processed? There's a processor in
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: the nearby town. But I don't want to some half
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: hours back, you know too, But in have to to
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: pick up a my process, dear, and UM, you know,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: that was another thing that I wasn't really expecting to
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: have to kind of work through. UM was okay, I'm
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: at I just I just harvested the deer. It's in
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: the back of my car. I'm in a hotel room
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: by myself. UM, it's late. What do I do tomorrow
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: morning with this deer? You know? Um? Luckily Xavier Austin
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: gave me a recommendation to a processor. Back I'm in
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: West Michigan, closer to where I live, and UM, bringing
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: that deer to the processor, meeting the processor, UM, telling
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: him about the experience, and it was just it was
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: a feeling of elation still and almost like I don't
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to describe it. It was just
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: it was lingering, UM joy and um. You know. Immediately
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: after that, it was it was how do I what's
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: the best way to cook this? UM? Wonder how much
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: what my yield is gonna be? How much meat I'm
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: gonna get? Um, is my wife's gonna like to eat venison?
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: Or my kid's gonna like the venison, and so my
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: mind shifted to kind of like the consuming part of it.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: And um, after getting the deer back um and bringing
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: it home and um, I have the I had the
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: processor keep the hide for me because I said, I
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: you know, I know it's type flies, like the typ
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: of splies. Is this to commemorate you know the events?
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: And like oh yeah. And I walked in with the
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: with the boxes meat and my wife was there in
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: the kitchen and I had the hide wrapped up in
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: the back and she she had this big smile on
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: her face and she went up and touched the high
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: um on um on my shoulder and she's like, oh,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: that's such a great blanket. Did you get that for me?
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: You know? This is the deer's Like okay, I'm good
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: with this. And I told her all about it, but
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: it was it was a really neat feeling to have
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: the kids come around and you're like, oh my god,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: dad shot it here there it is and have them
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: see that and have have that um that additional like
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: joy kind of come into life that this is a
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: really cool thing, not just for me that you know,
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: other people are are into it too, and so you
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: know moving forward has ha cooked some things. Evan has
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: helped me great that he knows so much about culinary thing.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: So when I'm like, hey, they quick question on what's
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: the port, what's the fat to meat ratio? If I
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: want to do that, that kind of thing. And so
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: we've been keeping in touch Evan and I through a
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: bunch of text messages and then this last night, I
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: think I had another cooking question for him as I'm
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: getting ready to do the attended line meal, and um,
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, can we just talk. Last night we
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: thought for over an hour about what we're gonna do next.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: So really really excited already again you know, for for um,
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: for the next the next thing, and looking forward to
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: giving back as working with the with the program again
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: next fall and helping out we're needed and that kind
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: of thing. So um, pretty much immediate next actions are
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: kind of like buy the book, like, hey, let's start scouting,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: let's figure out what tools we need, let's start putting
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: some dates out there, let's you know, and that kind
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: of thing. So I think I think you guys kicked
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: this off. We're we're off and running. Yeah, I'm like
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: a proud dad sitting over here just smiling from ear
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: to ear. I gotta tell you, I mean it's you
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: talked about that joy that's lingering. You know that you
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: mentioned force, and I'm feeling the same thing over here.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: And I can't emphasize enough for anybody listening that is
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: a current hunt. Two just how much fun it is
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: to help other people in this kind of way. I mean,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: it's it's just as satisfying and exciting and um fulfilling
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: as being on the other side. So I thank you
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: both for for taking a shot and taking a chance
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: to pursue this thing. Thanks for the courage to explore
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: this new pursuit, and and then for following through with
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: it and sharing your experience now and for committing to
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: to helping other people in the future. I just think
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: it's it's incredible, and you have both helped re energize
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: me and help remind me of why I do what
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: I do. So thank you, Thank you, Thank you and
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: uh as as mentees of Mark as I as I
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: mentioned back in December, and that it didn't pan out
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: this year, but I do this and I will do this.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: As mentees of Mark, you are an exclusive club that
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: does have invitations to future hunts on my properties I
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: hunt here in Michigan. I'm gonna get a mentee group
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: hunt together. I think we should try to make it
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: happen this year where we can all get out and
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: hunt one of my spots that I still hunt, and
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: uh see if we can all get back, get nostalgic
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: about all of our early hunts together and uh and
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: do it all over again. So let's make that happen.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: All right. That's awesome, awesome, thank you, thank you. Unbelievable.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: I'll do the food it it sounds good. Hank, do
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: you have any final words you want to leave us with.
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: I really don't. I think I think they've said it.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, um, their testimonials are a lot more than
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: um I could ever convey to anybody. But I appreciate
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: you guys. I appreciate you being a part of the program.
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: I'm glad we found you and and I appreciate you
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: taking your time to tell your stories here. Absolutely. Thank you, Hank,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: all right, and of course Mark and the rest of
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: the crew. We can't thank you enough. This wouldn't have
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: happened without your generosity, So thank you. Well. You are
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: all very very welcome. It's been it's been my pleasure.
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: It has been our pleasure. It's been a cliche to say,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: but it's been uh, it's been our privilege. It's been
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: very very, very very cool. So with that, one thing
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: I should say is we did film these hunts, as
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: we alluded to, and we will be releasing this content
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: in the coming months. I kind of forgot about that
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: what's the game what's the game plan? Is this gonna
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: be like what do you what are you putting together?
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: Can give you guys to be uh just you know,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: hit and mark the other mark you know, um no, no,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: But we wanted to uh, you know, kind of show
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: the process. You know, we've we've done it before, but
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: it was a unique opportunity and opportunity to kind of
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: highlight a community based filled the fork and and so
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: we wanted to document the program and tell and show
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: what we've done and hopefully inspire others just like this,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: uh this podcast, we hope though. So we're just gonna
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: put out some summary content and uh and use some
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: of the educational bits that we recorded in the in
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: the you know, in betweens of the hunts. But we're
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: looking forward to getting that content out and let in
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: the world. See it very cool. I look forward to
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: that as well. Forest and Hank appreciate you taking the
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: time of your today. Let's all get together and chat
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: again sometime soon, right, okay, yeah, thanks guys. All right,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: and that is a rap. Thank you for tuning in.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: I'll just reiterate what Hank said. Please go to the
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: National Deer Association website and find out more. If you
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: want to become a participant in the field of fork program,
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: you can be mentored by folks like we talked about
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: today or on the flip side. If you want to
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: be a mentor and there is the need for more
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: people like you and I to help out, please do.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: I tell you from my perspective as a mentor, it's
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: one of the absolute best things I did last year
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: and the year prior and the year prior to that.
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: It's it's just as rewarding, if not more rewarding for
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: us as the mentor. I'm telling you, I'm not both
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: shitting you. You're gonna enjoy it, So go ahead and
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: give a little time, give a day or two. I
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: think you will absolutely not regret it. So check it out.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: Go to the National Deer Association website to learn more.
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. I appreciate you, enjoy yourself,
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: Stay safe out there, and until next time, stay wired
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: to