Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 400: New Years Resolutions and Late Season Firearm Advice

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Ep. 400: New Years Resolutions and Late Season Firearm Advice · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyon, and this is episode number four
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: hundred and today I'm joined by my buddy Josh Hilliard
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: for some New Year's resolutions and end of year reflections,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and we're also going to get into some late season
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: firearm considerations with Luke Torkinson. All Right, welcome to the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt Podcast, brought to you by Onyx. It
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: is New Year's Eve when this episode is dropping, so
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: first and foremost happy New Year's Hope you guys have
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: got some fun plans in store for today, or if
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you're listening to this later, I hope you did have
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: a good time. Um, what I want to do today
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: is is kind of have a two parttern. We've got
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: my buddy further, Josh Further Hilliard on the line here
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: momentarily because we started the hunting season with Josh. The
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: very first episode of my two thousand hunting season was
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: with Josh talking about our upcoming hunt and some of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: our hopes and dreams of the year, so it seemed
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: appropriate to end it with him as well. We're gonna
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: wrap up the year talk about some of our highs,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: some of our lows, our toughest moments are our most
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: proud moments. Josh is gonna walk you through his season,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: which he hasn't shared yet here on the podcast this year.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Um So you're gonna get to hear some cool stories there.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I had an amazing, really cool experience with my son
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the other night. I took him on his first track
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: job for a deer, So I want to tell you
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: guys about that story. Um So that's part one. We're
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: gonna wrap up the year with some stories and some
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: reflection on what a despite a lot of challenges in um,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: at least Josh and I are able to find some
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: silver linings with our hunting season that we wanted to
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: talk you through. And then secondly to wrap it up
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: slightly different take. But you know, the is that time
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of the year when a lot of us, Josh and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I included, are out there trying to kill does with
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: our guns. There's a lot of people with late firearm seasons,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: late ant lotoists, firearms seasons, stuff like that, and and
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I personally have not done a good enough job talking
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: through firearm gear, firearm practice, firearm maintenance, that kind of
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: stuff that's especially important come this time of year when
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the weather can get things kind of wonky. So I
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: found I pulled in who I think is gonna be
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a great resource to talk about this. His name is
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Luke Torkleson. He works at Weatherby, and he's gonna walk
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: us through a bunch of things to be thinking about
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: when you're out there using a gun in cold, nasty weather. So,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: how to make sure we're not surprised by any weird
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: malfunctions because of the weather. How to take care of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: your gun immediately after coming in off of a nasty
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: snowy hunt in January or December. Um, what to do
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: when you're done for this season, and putting away that
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: gun to make sure that it stays in good working
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: order and is ready to rock and roll when you
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: pick it back up next year. So that's what we're
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: gonna cover in part two. It's a far rangine conversation
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: across those two, but I think we'll give you a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: couple of laughs and a couple helpful pieces of information
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: to uh close out your year. And the final thing
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I'll say is this is episode four hundred, four hundred. Um.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: That's pretty wild that this podcast has been going on
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: for that long, for that many episodes. And the only
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: reason that's the case is because all of you, Because
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: all of you've tuned in and listened and supported this
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: show and supported me and what we're trying to do.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And I want you to know that I don't take
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that for granted. I really appreciate that. I appreciate your time,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: your tension, your interest, and I can also tell you
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that I am ready to take it to another level.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: That's coming year is gonna be a really big one
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: for Wired Hunt. We've got some new things in store.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: We've got I don't know, Uh, We've just got a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: lot of cool stuff coming up. And we are really
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: going to try to take what we've built here with
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Wired Hunt and scale it so that we're able to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: help more people, introduce more people to hunting, help more
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: current hunters take their hunting to the next level. Um,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and do it in a way that's a whole lot
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: of fun too. So stay tuned. It's gonna be a
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: great year. We're all going to grow together, we're gonna
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: have fun together, and sure as hell hope we're gonna
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: kill some deer too, and with that we'll wrap it up,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: send it to my conversation with further and then soon
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: after that you'll hear from Luke. All Right, man, Josh,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for being here for this one.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: It seemed appropriate that you should be here for this
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: podcast because something like four months ago you and I
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: recorded our first podcast Hunting Season in I don't know,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: one of the first couple of days September, and and
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: now it's the very last episode of season when this
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: episode is airing, Josh is actually New Year's Eve, so
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: this is this is the New Year's Eve podcast that
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: we're doing. Uh, So it seemed fitting that further be
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: here at the beginning of the end. Well, hey, I
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: appreciate it, thanks for having me on. I can't believe
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: that was four months ago already that we were on Idaho.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: It's crazy, right, It's uh, it's been a wild ride.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, looking back on that that first
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: week of the season, I was just thinking about this
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit ago. Um. Even though during that hunt
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: we were both a little frustrated with how the hunting
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: was going at times, that was a damn good trip. An.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I was just looking back at pictures of fishing and
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: some of the hunting, you know, some of the pictures
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: we took. It was a lot of fun. We had
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a great time. I wouldn't mind being back there right now. Um, yeah, sure,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it's beautiful the snow. I was, I was thinking back
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: on that that episode and um, and it got me
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: thinking a lot about I guess between that episode and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: then what naturally happens at this time of year, which is,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you know, it's New Year's Eve, we're thinking about the
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: new year. It seemed like this would be a good
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: chance to do some reflecting back on the season, on
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: some things we learned on you know, some things that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: are rememberable. Um. And I haven't gotten to have you
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: on the show. I don't think you've been on the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: show since that, since that trip. So I figured we should, uh,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: we should hear a little about your season. UM. So
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: that said, do you remember that first one we did
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: at the very beginning of the trip. It was I
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: called the ten Steps to the Best Season of your Life?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Remember that? Yep, yep, yep, I remember that. So here's
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the quiz, and this is this is gonna be a
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: test of how well you pay attention. Do you remember
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: any of the steps that were listed in that episode? Oh? Man, Um,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: probably one about like having a positive mindset and trying
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to overcome adversity because you're gonna face that at some
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: point during the year. That's gotta be one. Okay, I'll
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: give you, I'll give you credit for that, but no, Okay, man,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: There's been a lot that's happened between now and then.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I'm remember our conversation, a lot of things we talked about,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't tell you that that the ten things
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: or whatever. Yeah, that's fair. I was going to ask
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: you if you could remember any of them, if you
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: could remember any any of those things that ended up
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: actually helping you. Do you think that anything that we
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: talked about in that episode actually helped you over the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: course of the season. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they did.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they did. You know, probably, Um, not even
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: thinking about them at the time, but I'm just ingrained
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in me that they probably did help me. Um, just
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: kind of thinking about back how my season went, you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: it was it was starting off really slow and just
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: keeping at it and trying to to stay positive. I
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: think definitely helped me. Um helped me to where I'm
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: at right now with how I'm feeling about my season.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: How do you feel about your season? Oh? Man, I'm
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: feeling pretty good. I'm feeling pretty darn good about it
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: at this point. So, Um, I didn't I didn't think
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I'd be saying that a couple of weeks ago. Um,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: just how things had gone up to that point. But
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: things should have changed in a in a in a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: short amount of time. That's h in a nutshell, right,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: there isn't all it all can change and just the
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: matter of seconds, and so can you can you keep
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: at it and stay focused and stay positive till that does.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: That's It's one of the toughest things to do every year,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: that's for sure. Yep, yep, for sure. Well let's let's
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: just talk about that. Let's let me let's hear the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: story of the season. Um. I mean it started off
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of optimism, excitement, whether Idaho trip um and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that first night you saw like two deer and like
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: nineteen different shooter bucks or something, and You're like, Oh,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: that's gonna a piece of cake. Sure, I'm gonna shoot
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a booner tomorrow. Yeah, you set me up for failure.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I think that the podcasts are required because the one
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: thing that the one thing I do remember from that podcast,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: as you given you know, hey, how confident are you tomorrow?
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: You're gonna kill that buck? And I get a stupid number.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I thought that that's the one thing I can change
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: about my season. That might be going back and and
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: putting a much lower because I think I think that
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: jinks that's done for for the rest of that trip. Yeah, thanks,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: interesting after that, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but no, a lot
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: of optimism kind of deer That first night had like
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: a borderline shooter and range. Um, yeah, I saw like
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: twenty different bucks or something like that, and it was
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: it was it was a wild night and then uh,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: just kind of steadily headed down after that. Yeah, we
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: had our we had our challenges. Um, we didn't end
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: up filling our tags on that trip, which we were
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: counted in the podcast we did at the end of it,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: which I think was something about like the trials and
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: tribulations of publicly and deer hunting. I think that's what
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I called it. Um, it's a fun trip, but it
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: ended up being tough. And then what it was it
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: was Michigan from there and out for you. Yeah, I
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: just I just hunted Michigan and the rest of the season.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: So we had a you know, a few weeks when
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: we got back there from Idaho to kind of regroup
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and lick our wounds and and kind of getting the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: right mindset for for a Michigan season and and honestly,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: things just we're slow here for me. Um all of October. Um,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't have very many encounters at all. Um. Early season,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: spent some time doing some of our Field of four
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: hunts and got out with some new hunters and didn't
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: really focus too much on myself early in the season.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: And um, I'm sure that kind of cut into some
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of my personal hunting time. But you know, I started
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: to get to mid to late October and started to
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: be in the woods more and and uh man, yeah,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: just nothing was happening, seeing seeing some does and seeing
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: some young bucks, and passed a couple of a couple
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: of different two two and a half year old that
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: were that were nice, dear, but just weren't quite what
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I was looking for. And um, yeah, October was October
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: is a little rough in terms of just overall sighting
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: seemed to be down to from what I've been seeing
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: at my primary spot, I hunt. How did the field
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: of fourk ones go? The field the fort mentor hunts?
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Did you do one of those? Two of those? How
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: many this we ended up? Yeah, we ended up just
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: doing one. We we canceled one of them because of
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: covid um just weren't able to do it with like
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: some of the lodging things that we were hoping we
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: could do. So we just did the one um the
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: one event at the beginning of October, and that went
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: really well. We got um, we got one of the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: hunters in that program their first buck. Um. So we
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: did have a deer to kind of show some some
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of the new hunters how to you know, feel a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: dressed the animal and we we skinned it out and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: quartered it there for people to see how to do
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that and just try to make them more comfortable with
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: that whole experience. And um, so that was great. Now,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: that was that was a really good event and um yeah,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I wish we could have done more this year for sure. Yeah.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Do you think or do you have you heard from
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: anyone coming out of that anyone keep keep going out
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: on their own, keep trying. Yeah. Yeah, actually had a
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I got a text from one of the one of
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the participants. I think it was like the second day
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: a gun season. I got a text from him with
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: a picture of a dough that he shot and said, Hey,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: he went out and went out and I got it
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: done all by myself. Thanks for all the thanks for
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: all the help. So um, that was cool to get
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: that text and know that he's stuck with it and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: we gave him at least a little bit of a um,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: you know, at least a little help and giving him
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the confidence to get out there by by himself, and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: he made it happen. And um still I've been talking
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: with the guy I hunted with him. We're trying to
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: get him out here. Hopefully by the time this airrors
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: will have a deer down for him, or at least
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: get him out another time. So nice trying to think
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: that happen. Where are you gonna take him? Uh? To
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: be determined? To be determined. Get got a couple of
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: leads on some places we may be able to get
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: him to to go. Um have an opportunity at a
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: hopefully a dough on on private land where we can
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: still use a gun here in the late season. Well,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: we should talk. We should uh, we should talk off
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: air and maybe see if we can work the schedules out,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: because you could bring him down to my other Michigan spot.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I think, I think I think we could try to
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: get him done, get him one Huh. I was going
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to try to get Dan out here again to get
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: him another shot. Yeah. So as you know Dan, or
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: as you know Josh, our mutual friend and now Dan Joe. Uh,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: he did the Feel the Fork hunt last year that
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: both you and I were at, which is where we
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: met him. Um and and that's what led me to
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: invite him out to the Back forty this year. And
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: he did all that work this summer and then came
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: out for the hunt opening weekend a gun season um,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and then ended up you know, he got a shot
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: of buck but missed and that was you know, an
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: exciting experience, but of course the let down. UM. So
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, I've been super just impressed with
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: him though, because he's been still getting after it, trying hard,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: still you know, giving it a shot. And and we're
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: gonna try to link up after Christmas and uh and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: and get him another chance. So yeah, maybe we can
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: time all that to get your your guy out there too. Yeah, No,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that'd that would be great, that'd be great. It's uh,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: it's it's been. It's been really cool to see examples
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: like that, you know, where these people have an interest
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and then get that chance to take the next step.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: It just seems like every every time I've seen it
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: where they get to go out with somebody and and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: have that little extra guidance, especially if the shots taken
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: and they get to see what to do after that,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: or how to gut or how to butcher deer. It
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: just makes such a big difference, um, which you know
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: as as you know, which is which is why we're
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: so gung ho about the field of fort program and
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: everything that the National Deer Association and you guys are
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: trying to do. Um, which is ultimately why we decided
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: to do what we're doing with the back forty. So
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I'm I just don't think that you know, doing the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: stuff that you and I doing that everyone listens does,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: which is get to deer hunt a lot and have
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: a great time and then have it be a part
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of your life. We're just not going to have that
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: around if hunting numbers continue to plummet and uh, we've
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: got to find ways to get new folks out there
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and introduce people to this and and and make sure
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: that they have the opportunity to see what a great
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: thing this can be, or a great lifestyle this can be,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: with a great activity this can be. What a great
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: way to feed your family this can be. UM and
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: um feel the field the FORK program, it's it's doing
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: that better than anything I've seen. So yeah, no, and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: hey man, can't can't thank you guys and media enough
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: for the for the for the donation, and and uh,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: we're definitely gonna make sure we put it to good
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: use and and try to introduce as many new people
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: as we can. UM. You know, it takes places like
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: that to uh to be able to have the resources
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and and you know, places to to to introduce new people.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And then we're thrilled. So thank you guys. Well yeah,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: you know, you're welcome to everyone at the organization. And
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: you know, out of conversations that we've that we've had
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: both yourself and and Nick and Madden, everyone from the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: National Deer Association, I've heard from you guys that um,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: you know, one of the challenges has always been like
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: finding good places to do these events right. You can
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: do public lan and that's great, but you know, it's
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: it's not nearly as guaranteed of a of a good
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: opportunity to see deer, actually get a shot at deer,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: as opposed to a private piece that's managed and you know,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: set up nicely for new hunters. So, you know, when
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: we were thinking about what are we gonna do with
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: this thing, um, it just seemed like it just seemed
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: like it would be a shame too to have this
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: piece of property and then you know, do everything we're
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: trying to do and then have it turned into condos
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: or someone building a housing complex on on it or something.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: So you know, when we originally purchased the property, we knew,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: like we have to, we're gonna give it away. We're
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: not going to keep this thing for us forever. We're
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna use it to educate and helping the people.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: We're gonna tell this story, we're gonna improve as much
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: as we can, and then we're gonna pass it on
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: to someone in some way. And you know, and I
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: guess I want to provide a little more context here because, um,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: after we announced the plan earlier, this you know earlier
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: this month explaining what we were doing, I got a
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: decent not a ton, but a handful of comments where
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: people felt um upset or or misled that we weren't
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: doing like a sweepstakes. Some people thought that we were
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: doing a sweepstakes where you know, a listener or a
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: fan was going to win the property. UM and so
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I wanted to make it clear to people that you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: that was never our intention to mislead people into thinking
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: that was the case. What we were doing was from
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the beginning, we we wanted to announce two things. Number One,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: we announced we're doing the hunt giveaway. That was a sweepstake,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: So we're giving away a hunt with me and Steve
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: on the property. So that was the competition, not the competition,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: but that was the giveaway sign up that people gave
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: us their email and their information for UM and Dana
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Savada one that and he came out and hunted with
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: us in November this year. There was never a sweepstakes
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: thing for the property. We did say that we're giving
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the property away, but we just simply couldn't provide all
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the details at that point when we announced everything because
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: it is a long process to figure out exactly how
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to be able to give this to an organization and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: how to have a plan in place to make sure
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: that the right things are done with it. Like that
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: took a long time, a lot of process there, so
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: you know, we shared as soon as we could share
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: the plan um and and it's a plan that I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: think is really really good for the larger hunting community.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: It's good for everyone, it's good for new hunters. It's
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: good for the future of this thing, because now this
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: property is not going to be used just by me
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: and a couple of friends, or me and my dad
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: or or whoever. It's not gonna be used just by
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Steve and Janice. It's gonna be something that you know,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: through the stewardship of the National Deer Association, is going
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to open the doors this property to too many new hunters,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: and and not just to hunt, but actually to come
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: out there in the spring and learn about year and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: learn about habitat, and to come out in August and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: do some work and learn about habitat management and native
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: prairies and wetland species and all this kind of stuff
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: that's that's hard to learn about unless you've got a
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: great classroom well, the back fort can be that great
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: classroom for dozens and dozens and dozens of people, um,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and then actually take some people out for hunts too,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: And and that's it's just something that we're really excited
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: about because it's gonna let the mission of the Back
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: forty continue on. It's not just a two year thing now,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: this is something that you know, people can benefit from
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: this thing for a long time. And and I'm I
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: don't know, I'm just genuinely thrilled and really confident that
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: this is the right thing to do and and a
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: lot of people are gonna benefit from it, and we're
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: also really excited. I don't know if you know this, Josh,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I think you know this, um, But we've we've put
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: a plan in place to continue documenting the property in
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: some different ways next year. UM. And we're actually going
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to have an opportunity for people to sign up or
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know, sign up the right word. The official
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: legal documentation will be announced sometime in So don't quote
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: me on this because we're still getting all that fine
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: print figured out, but in in generalities, what we're basically
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: going to do is have an opportunity for people that
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: are part of the Mediator community, listeners of the podcast
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: and everything. You'll be able to sign up to possibly
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: win a chance to come and be a part of
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: one of these mentorship events next year. So we're gonna
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: give away the chance for someone to come to the property.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I think we're trying to have it be like a
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: winner and a guest. Maybe um that's still being sorted out,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: but a winner and a guest or something like that
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: is gonna come out to the property with us. We're
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: gonna do a series of educational events and then an
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: opportunity to come out in the fall and and have
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: a mentored hunt out here. Just like what Dan got
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to experience and and what Dane the Hunt winner got
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to experience. We're gonna do something like that for somebody else,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: um as well as a bunch of other people probably
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: that will just be here as part of the local
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: field the four programs that that you guys put on UM.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: So again, we want to share this place. We want
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: people to get a chance to to learn from and
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: experience it. And and that's a long winded way of
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: me saying I'm I'm really excited. So good stuff ahead
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: for the back forward and hopefully good things for for
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of new hunters too. Yeah, we're we're really
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing where all this goes and and
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: like you said, being able to showcase it and let
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: other people see it and and show what we can
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: do on it and get some new people out there.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we're we're super excited and and just really
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: looking forward to see when where this all goes. Yeah,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: it's uh, it's good stuff, man. So so back to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: your season though, You're your early season was kind of
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: taken over with planning and executing on your field of
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: fork hunt, and then October goes along and you're hunting
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the public land I remember, and then you're also hunting
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the main spot. Yep, yep, so hunting some public land.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I've I've had a uh antaly list tag here for
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the unit I'm in the d m u UM for
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: public land for a number of years and I just
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: have never filled it. You know. I spend a lot
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: of time in the early season, you know, trying to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: maybe get on trying to pattern a book or something
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that's some of my primary spots, and just get caught
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: up in that and just don't spend as much time
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: trying to fill that tag as I should. And I
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: decided I was going to try to give a couple
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: of a good hunts early in the year to try
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: to fill that tag. And had one night where um,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I had set up and had two doughs come out
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: of this swamp and into this point of timber, and man,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I needed her to take like one more step. And
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: this this little peninsula there was a ladder stand at
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: in it end. Like last year, there's a ladder stand
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: at the end of this point. And I swear she
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: came into those that little patch of timber there and
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: look was starting to look straight up in the trees,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and I was I was maybe twenty yards maybe down
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: from that, and they just knew something was up, and um,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I needed about one more step and and what I
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: had a like a ten fifteen yard shot something like that,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and uh they buggered out of there, and uh that
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: was that. I didn't I didn't have another encounter in
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: that spot. I tried going back there maybe once or
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: twice more, but nothing happened so close. But no cigar there.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And and that was I guess maybe towards the end
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: of October when when that encounter happened. And then I
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: really shift focused to trying to trying to get on
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a good buck down at my um my primary spot
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: that I hunt of private land. So it's it's a
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: forty acre spot right here, your main chunk. Give me
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: the give me the cliff notes. What was what are
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: the high notes there? As far as like the memorable
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: things that happened, because it seemed like it was a
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: little tougher this year the previous years, Um, what was
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: what was the story there? What are the highlights? Yeah,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I mean the memorable stuff was that there was not
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: very much memorable stuff, which was different than the year before.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I had. I had seen quite a bit of mature
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: buck activity on that a farm um early and often,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: like I first night I ever hunted it, I had
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: a I had a a shooter buck at at twenty yards,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: but I he was behind some thick stuff and walked
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: straight away from me. I never had a good opportunity.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: And it was just like it seems like every time
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: when I was out there, something that was happening um
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: or ear least there was some excitement. This year was
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: you know, I saw a lot of dose um some
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: young bucks. Um man. It just it was not there
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't hardly any sign in the woods up there. Um
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: just it was just very interesting as running trail cameras
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't getting much on. I had had a bunch of
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: pictures like early um like late August, early September, and
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: I just really, um really kind of shut off. UM.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: So I don't know what was going on out there. Um,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: but it was like that really all the way through um,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: even even the first couple of weeks in November. Um.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: I was the first buck, the first mature buck I
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: saw out there was uh November, remember this Friday, Um,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: and uh kind of mumbled up an opportunity and and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: just spook that deer and and that was that. So
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I was, you know, two days away from gun season.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: That was really the only good encounter I had the
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: entire first thirteen days in November. And I've been out
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: quite a bit. Um you know again some some young
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: bucks and pasta, and I think what would be a
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: good deer next year. Um saw one shooter like way
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: off a couple hundred yards like to neighbors properties over
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: that I could see in a field. Um. But man, yeah,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: it just it's a weird year, weird year out there.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Just not much happening, all right. I want to cover
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: for both you and I two things. Toughest moment of
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: your season and the best moment of your season. I'll
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: answer mind first and explain that, and then I'll let
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: you you share whatever you want from years. And I
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: think I know where your highest moment is. I've setting
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: you up here to to share your high moment. But
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: but my toughest moment would have been right around the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: same time when you just described your Friday the thirteenth encounter.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I think mine was Thursday the twelve, which is the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: much discussed miss of Tran when I had been grinding
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: out all season and having all these close calls, couldn't
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: get a shot, couldn't get a shot, and then I
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: finally have him coming into range. He gets into that
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: thick cover, and I felt this pressure to to to
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: force a shot, and I made a stupid mistake and
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: took a shot I just shouldn't have and uh, and
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I missed him. That was definitely my low point of
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the season, I think, Um, yeah, I got I mean,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: without a question, that was my low point of the season. Um,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: But I will tell you it did give me a
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: chance to practice what I preach, which which I discussed
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: an episode whatever it was when we did the ten
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Steps to the Best Season of your Life, I had
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to I had to ex on one of those things,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: which was control which you can and relax on what
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: you can't. And so in that moment, I remember, it
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: was really shitty and I was very upset after it.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: And then later that day I said, all right, man,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: you it happened. Like you can't control that anymore. So
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: there's no point like kicking yourself about it, or hating
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: yourself for it, or um stressing about anymore. It happened.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: All you can do is is figure out where to
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: go from here. And so I'm pretty proud of myself
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: for turning that around pretty quick. And I kept at
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: it and uh, and you know I was able to
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: turn things around later in the year. Um. If I
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: look back on my season and try to think about
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: what my highest points were, um, I've got three of them. Um.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: One was the one to end up killing Tran uh
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: ten days later. So that was an obvious high point
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: culmination of three years and you know that it's actually well,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I guess it wasn't the next hunt, but um, yeah,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I mean it was. It was definitely a clear outcome
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: of being able to turn around and keep at it
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: and adapt and push on. So I was, I was.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: I was happy about how that all came together. But
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: then the other two high points were related to, oh,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: you know what, I've been another low point. I would
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: say that another low point, maybe worse honestly now that
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: I think about it. Um, the trans miss was a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: major low point, but I probably felt even crappier when
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Dan missed his deer on when I was mentoring him.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I felt so horrible about that whole situation about you know,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: just especially because I thought after the shot, I swear
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I saw him go down once he got into the timber,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and and I even looking back on the footage, you
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: can see he gets in the timber and that it
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: looks like he falls down. And that's that was the thing.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I remember seeing my buy notes, and it almost looks
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: like it was like a big berm and he went
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: over berman underneath it, and it almost looks like he
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: does like trip and fall. Um. But but obviously you know,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: after everything, you well, no blood, no nothing, it was not.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: But I I feel the worst about the fact that
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: after the shot he was kept saying, I'm nervous about
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the shot. I'm not sure about the shot, and I
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: was like, you got him, you got him. I was
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: so pumped, and I was trying to get him excited,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: and like, you know, I was so thrilled for him,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: and I was hyping him up and then ended up
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: getting his hopes up. So when it all came down
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: the way it did, I just felt super bad, super bad,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and just you know, just I didn't want that to
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: be something that would detract from him wanting to keep
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: doing it, you know, like you're mentoring something like that.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: And even before the hunt, and one of the things
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: he was most worried about was like, gosh, I just
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: want to make sure I get a good shot. I
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: don't want to wound something. I don't want to miss something.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: And then his greatest fear ends up, you know, happening
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: he misses the beer. Um, my greatest fear was like,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I don't want this thing to happen. And then it
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: turned him away from wine and hunt again the few sure,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I don't want him to have such a negative experience
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: that he won't keep trying. So that was that was
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: That was a low point. But fast forward to what
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: then I'm talking about the things I'm excited about. I'm
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: proud about it. I was proud about me getting the
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: shot tramp, but then back to helping someone else. So
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: super super high point of the year was getting to
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: help my dad get his first year with the crossbow.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: That was that was that was such a great experience
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: and such a great memory for us, um and just
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: seeing how excited he was for that. Dear, I love
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: getting to watch that video now I can like relive that.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: And then my son really likes watching He always wants
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: to see Grandpa's bucks. We watched that video, and I
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: love when my dad's like, and you know how how
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: dead is with like points. He's like he's like, oh, yeah,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: that's a that's a nice six point. All right, Mark,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: that's a nice six pointer. Like, yeah, Dad, it's a
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: great six pointer. Just you know, just Dabby and Dad
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: and he was so excited the whole way and me too,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: and um man, haven't that come together? You guys have
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: that picture you guys have that was at the end
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: of the episode, and see both of you guys with
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: that with that dear, that that's such an awesome picture
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: that should be in a frame in both of your
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: guys in's house. That was that's a great memory. Yeah,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: I agree. That's uh the Life for Life list right there. Um,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: which brings me to the final high point, which just
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: happened last night, which is, uh, last night I killed
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: the doll and and so last night when people listening
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: to this, this this will be about two weeks ago. But
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I killed the doll and. Um, I was able to
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: track her and find her pretty close. And it was
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: a situation where it was early enough that I could
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: get my son Everett, who's too and take him out
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: to go and try to recover it for himself. So
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I went and got ever brought him out. Um. It
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: was just a good situation. We didn't have to go
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: too far. And um it was the coolest thing. Man
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: he is, you know, he's like super amped on everything hunting.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: He wants to watch all the hunting every night. Like
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: he doesn't want to watch Sesame Straight or Mickey Mouse
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: or something. He wants to watch Chasing November or Back
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: forty or some deer hunting show, and then he will
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: every day. His main thing is he's hunting. He's hunting.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: He's got to fake guns and he's got a fake
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: bone arrow and he's constantly playing out different hunting scenes,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: like all day. He's this kind of thing he's doing.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: So he finally got to go out in his first
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: real track job, and we got him out there and
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: he was like super excited. As soon as I got
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: out of the UTV, turn on the flash that got
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: a head lamp on him, and first thing he says, DADN,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: where's the blood. Damn, where's the blood? And so I
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: get him on the trail and then right away he
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: starts seeing it and he's like, look, look, there's more
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: and and and he he is honestly better at tracking
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: blood than I am. Dude, he's I mean, that's that's
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: not too hard to You don't have to bar set
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: very high on the blood track. Yes, yes, I know.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Admittedly he's not not color blind, so he's got that
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: going for him, which I do not have going for me. Um,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: but it got me really excited for future future track
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: jobs because he can see it so much better than me. Like, honestly,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: this two year old was like, there's some, there's some,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and I wasn't saying that. Um. So we we tracked
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the deer back to where I had left her and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: U and it was the first, you know, dead deer
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: he had seen out in the woods, first time he's
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: ever been like out walking around the woods after dark two,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: you know. So it was a whole bunch of is
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: he gonna be scared of the dark out here? Is
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: he gonna be scared of seeing this dead deer in
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the ground and and everything. He was just like a
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: pro He was just excited. It wasn't scared when he
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: saw the deer. He was so excited, like yelling an excitement,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and I wanted to touch her and look at her,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and and then he's like, Dad, let's take the dear
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: made out? Can we take the dear maid out? So
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't going to get the deer in
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: front of him. I was worried, like maybe that's too
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: soon to do that. Some idea was to drag the deer,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: get the deer into the UTV, and then not bring
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: ever back and then come out there myself later and
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: gut her. Um. But I couldn't lift her up into
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the canyn and she was just big, big deer full
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: of all the guts and stuff. I was like, I
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: can't I can't big her up. Maybe I could have
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: forced it, but I decided, you know what, I'm just
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: gonna gut her and make this easier. And so I
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: had ever sit up at the front of the deer,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: like up by the head so he wouldn't see too
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: much gory stuff. And the whole time of Daddy, I
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: want to see, Daddy, I want to see show me
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the deer, Danny. And so he sat up there and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: then he kept standing up and trying like walk towards
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the back and see what's going on. Um, and he
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: saw a little but uh, but you know, at no
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: point did he get like grossed out or worried. I
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: kept saying, was like, hey, if you don't like this,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: we can stop. I'll take you home. Um. You know,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: you let Dad know, You let Daddy know if you're
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: cold or anything. And that's the whole time. He was
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: just just wanted to be a part of it, wanted
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: to see, I wanted to touch, wanted to help. He
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: helped me drag it. He helped me quote unquote lift
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: her up into the u TV and all that stuff.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: It was just it was the coolest thing he was.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: He was just so into it, and uh, came home
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: and had to show mom the pictures, and you know,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: he wanted a picture of him holding the deer's head
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: like Daddy does with a buck. So we did all
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: that and it's just, oh man, it's got me so
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: excited for the future with him. That's fun. It's great.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: And then you know, we do this thing with elf
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: on the shelf. You know that Christmas deal a lot
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: of people do, right, and so so our ELF's name
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: is Eddie. And so this morning, whenever woke up, he
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: has to go look for Eddie the Elf in the morning.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: And he went into the living room and then a
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: blood trail began, and then he followed the blood. He
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: followed the blood trail to the table where Eddie the
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Elf was gutting a doll. So I had a little
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: dear figuring flipped upside down in a knife, a fake
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: knife taped to Eddie's hand, and he was working on
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the deer. Ever came run. I was like, look ed,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: he's gotten the dough too, getting the dear me. That's great,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: that's great, that's a lot of fun. Yeah, I was,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I was ecstatic. I was. I was really riding the
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: high last night after all that so that those are
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: my three highest some some some big ones there. So
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: now now it's your turn. Lowest moment, highest moment, all right, yeah,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: I mean lowest moment would be a day after your
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: lowest moment. Um. Yeah, I think I even texted you,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: like in our group chat, I said, I don't worry,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I'll screw up for something tomorrow to to make you
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: feel better or something like that, just joking around. And
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: sure enough, you know, one of the first year I
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: see in the morning is it is a good buck
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: and just totally screwed that whole situation up, just just
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: dumb and uh so, yeah, I stepped in and helped
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: take some of the some of the pain off you
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and put it all on me. And that was my
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: lowest moment that Friday. And now again, are you are
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: you willing to like how you can describe it all? How? Yeah?
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I haven't. I haven't said anything to anybody about this.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Don't You don't need we can cut this out. You
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: don't need to, but if you want to, I'd be
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: happy to. It would be a good therapeutic exercise, I
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: think here, but I had a very similar situation actually
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: had had a nice buck come in from um an
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: area where I didn't think he would come from. And
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: he's just I had to get kind of all twisted
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: around and in my saddle to try to get a shot.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: And he was going through my really the only good
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: shooting lane that I had, and Um, I just rushed
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the shot. And there's a there's some brush in in
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: the way that I had had not seen, and and
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: my arrow deflected off of it, and then it deflected
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and missed it behind him. Um the arrow ended up
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: like behind a tree. I couldn't even see it. Um
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: from where I was. Um, you set up. So I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: had a pretty good deflection there, and and that deer
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: trotted off and looked back at me, and I just
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: saw my season, you know, trotting out of my life again, right,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, just up over the hill. And and I
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: thought that was that. You know where we're at in Michigan,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: we don't get too many opportunities at hat um, you know,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: mature deer. Um there are few and far between. And
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: you know, just how is the process coping with that?
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's horrible because um, of course I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: had a miss last year too, So it's just like
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I need to I need to really kill a doe
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: with my bow and just kind of get some of
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: that confidence back, um, because I'd be lying to you
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: if I said, I'm I'm still not a little shaking
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: with the whole bow and sit in the backyard and
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: shooting and feel super confident with it, and and I
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: just got to get that back. I don't know what's
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: going on with me, So definitely some some things to
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: still work on here in the off season and try
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: to get some of that confidence back. Um, I don't know,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: but um yeah, man. So I just like I was
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: just sitting there. I was planning on sitting all day,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: and this happened like first thing in the morning, like
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes twenty minutes after first light, and I was like,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: oh my god. So I just like I had to
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: sit there all morning. Just I just replanned that over
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: in my head again and again and again, and and
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: you know, there's another slow morning. He saw a couple
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: of dolls and falls after that, and I was like,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm getting down. I'm gonna go back
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: to the truck. I'm gonna regroup, I'm gonna have some lunch,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: give my wits about me. And I went back out
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: that sat that afternoon and and again no luck. So
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I just I was just down. I think I hunted
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: the morning that next day. Is that the day before
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: gun season? Actually, I don't even think I hunted that
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: next morning. I think he's like, I'm just gonna I'm
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: just gonna try to regroup and get get mentally better
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and and uh so done. Opening day gun season rolled around. Um,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: I went back out to that general area. Again, I
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: didn't see anything like the first two days of gun season.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Just a couple of bikes, a couple of couple of doughs,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: and that area gets a lot of hunting pressure and
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: there was some there was we had that really bad
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: windstorm on remember that. It was like yeah, yeah, it
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: was dead. Um that morning, very few shots. Um, I
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: saw two trees come down. I was like, okay, I
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: get not hear this, Like one was like within fifty
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: yards and he was like, all right, this is probably
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: not not safe. I hundred a couple of hours that
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: morning and then bailed. And and then the next couple
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: of days of the same kind of story with just
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: about the weather just slow, heard quite a few gunshots,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: but just nothing is really moving. Um, nothing is really
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: getting pushed around and and uh man, I was just um.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I remember I was driving down my my som running late.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I had a bunch of work to get done. That
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: took me longer than I thought it would. I'm driving down,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: I called you, and that's like, yeah, I don't know.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about still hunting through these these pines. Is
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: betting areas a few days after gun season. They may
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: be in there, and I'm running late. I don't have
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: time to go hang a set um windows wrong for
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: this little ground blind that I wanted to sit, and uh,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: without saying you basically said you're an idiot. Don't do that.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: So I'll give you some some credit for what happened,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: because I ended up just going to sit that ground blind.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: You know, the wind was supposed to be like kind
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: of like a southwest, and it was definitely not southwest.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: It was south and that was I could have got
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: away with the southwest. Um, but once I got into
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: blind it kind of switched up and and I was like,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Jesus is terrible. I'm blowing right into this these pines.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: But just describe this, describe the set up a little
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: bit more before you continue, because I think one question
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people would have is, all right,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: you're hunting a forty acre piece and you find you've
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: founded a decent amount um and you talked about how
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of hunting pressure all around. So a
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: lot of people struggle in situations like that. So, so
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: what I want to know is, you know, how how
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: did you manage to put yourself in a position where,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: you know, a week earlier you gotta shout him mature
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: buck on a forty acre piece surrounded by lots of hunters,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: and now you're back in there again and you're about
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: to tell me something good's going to happen. Uh, how
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: did you? How did what's the set up? Where'd you
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: find them mature buck in this kind of situation on
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: a little piece of property? Yeah? Yeah, So a little
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: piece of property. Um, it's a really kind of an
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: interesting spot. Um, it's a little piece of property. And
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: the house on the property is like back towards the
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: back of the property of this forty acres on top
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: of this little ridge. It falls off into this creek bottom.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: And so there's this two lane you know, basically the
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: driveway that cuts all the way kind of winds around
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: all the way through this property. UM and it's a
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: bunch of it's just real open timbers really all it
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: is UM with some some ridges and stuff, some little
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: rolling hills in it, UM that breaks up the topography
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: a little bit. UM. But it's really just a big
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: open woods with a bunch of hickories and a few oaks.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: And then in the in the what would be the
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: northwest corner is this heavily um I shouldn't they have it,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: But it's a it's a about an eight to ten
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: acre patch of like pines and conifers that the landowner
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: planet years ago, just real thick, nasty um vetting stuff
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: that I think a lot of the deer just pile
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: into um because it's the best security cover around um
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: And and really that's where I focused. The majority of
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: my hunting is is on the outskirts of that little
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: chunk of pines that seems to be where all the
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: activity is. UM. So, I think UM had this This
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: general section has not this general property has not been
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: hunted much in the past. UM. So I think they're
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: used to some human disturbance in there with you know,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: cars going and out all the way through the property.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: You know, the the landowner box or dog along the
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: along the road and and the lanes. I think they're
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: used to a certain amount of human um no presence um.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I just try to still be really careful and calculated
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: about how I get in there and out of there
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: and when I'm hunting it, because it can get blown
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: up really quick to just being a small little property
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, I mean you have been careful. I
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: remember a couple of times during the rut and like
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: we're all on the group text exchanging text messages of
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: where you're going, what are you doing? And there were
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: some days that you weren't even hunting on your best
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: spot and and we're like, what are you doing? Man?
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: But you know the fact that there's really just one
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: little courier that's your very best and the best. You've
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: had to get careful. And this this this early November
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: was so weird with the weather. I mean it was
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: so hot, um relatively speaking for like November, and we
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: we had so many days of the same like south
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: southwest winds that it's really difficult to hunt that property
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: in that wind um like like this day, Like if
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: it was if it was both season, I probably would
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: not have gone down there to to hunt that that piece,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: but given that it was a gun season, I was
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: being a little bit more. I don't not as conservative
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: as I would have been. I was just like, you
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: know what I need, I need to be in there
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: and hunting that. You never know during gun season, who's
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: pushing stuff around and what's happening, and um, you know,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: throw caution to the wind a little bit. And I
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: and I ended up sorry, I was just gonna add
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: one more piece, which was I remember on that phone
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: call you you were pretty down and kind of frustrated stuff,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: and and you were talking about like just walking through
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the pine still hunting it and stuff. And I think
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I think what I remember telling you was kind of
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: what ended up helping me kill a deer later, which
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: was you know, sometimes you just gotta like, are there
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: still does there? He said, yes, Are you still seeing
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of doughs moving through? And he said yes, Okay,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: well then you haven't overpressured that chunk would cover too
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: much yet then, and right now these bucks could be
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: all over the place. If you've got the dos there,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: just keep hammering that best place until either a buck
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: does come through or the does tell you that you've
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: pressured it too much, um, because I remember you thinking
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: that maybe I've been mucking up, mucking it up too much.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: And and when you said that you were still seeing
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: all those doughs. I was like, man, you just got
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: to keep on, just keep doing the right thing, and
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: then finally you'll get lucky, which is the thing I
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: kept having to tell myself. And it kind of worked out.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: But that's that's what you end up doing. You end
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: up going to that corner where you thought you see
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: the worst dos, right, yep, exactly, That's exactly what happened.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: I ended up going to that um that same spot
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: little ground blind I had sat opening. I guess it
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: was not opening day. I said that the second third
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: day of gun season. UM. And I just said, I'm
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: going back and going back there and we'll see what happens.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: And and uh man. I wasn't set up for more
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: than minutes, and I saw Spike come out of the
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: pines and go up over the uh the lane, and
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: he was there's a food plot in the neighbors. I
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: was kind of set up between my um, the betting
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: on on my property and then the food plot out
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: of the the neighbors. Almost in a straight line, and that's
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: where that buck was huddled. Um. And a couple of
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: minutes later he crunch, crunch, crunch, coming back and the
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: other way as I got here, coming back. So I
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: scooped him and I look out and I just see times. Um,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: I got up. That's a shooter. And I just kind
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: of went into all the pilot mill. I can't even
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: tell you that everything. I don't even remember if I
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: stopped him or what, but um, he stopped and and
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: I shot and hit him, hit him a little back,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: and he kind of bounded into the um kind of
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: the first oral pines there and started walking down back
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: in my direction and gave me a little spot where
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: I could squeeze one more off at him, and and
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: I ended up dropping him right there, right in the pines.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: And and uh, I didn't have any blood tracking to do,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: which was nice. So that was that was definitely the high.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: That's the first buck in Michigan I've killed in a
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: number of years and by far my best Michigan buck.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: And and that, like I said, you can all change
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: in a second, and totally changed how my outlook was
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: on my season. Yeah. So after so that all happened
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: did so. So sometimes after you have like a conclusion
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: like that where where the season ends in one way
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: or another, um, you're able to see other things that
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: led up to that in a different way or more clearly.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: So when you look back on your season now after
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: you had that happy ending, um, do you look back
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: and say, oh, you know what, I did do some
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: things right that I'm proud of or there you know,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: even though it was tough of him that moment, you know,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: actually I was doing something that I can learn from. Uh.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: I guess what I'm trying to say is when you
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: look back in your season, what are you most proud
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: of or what can you point to as being like, oh, yeah,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: this was I was doing this right right? Yeah, I think, um, yeah,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: that's a good question. And I thought about that a
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: little bit. And you know, not even just this season,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: but like for the last several years, it's kind of
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: really like, um, doing the right things and making sure
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: that I'm preparing right and all that kind of stuff,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: because it can, you know, it can change in a second.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: And I think in past years and they've been down
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: and maybe not just hunting as much, and and um,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: you know, I think The one thing that I did
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: do right on that piece was for the most part,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: being somewhat conservative on it and not hunting it in
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: bad conditions, not being done with my access, um you know,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: making sure that deer we're still comfortable around there, um,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: you know, not walking all over it and checking jail cameras.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: It's it's so easy to want to go check chail
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: trail cameras. But I was very cautious about that, maybe
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: too cautious. I wish I would maybe do it a
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: little bit more, have a little bit more like you know,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: valuable recent and for um, But I just I haven't
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: done that. Um. So I think that's one thing I'm
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: very been very smart about limiting my my pressure on
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: that property, um to where I haven't ran a bunch
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: of deer out of there. Yeah, it certainly seemed to
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: make a difference. I mean, the fact that you still
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of deer they're hanging out there three
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: or four days in the gun season. Uh, that was
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: that was key. That was key, and daylight acted and
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: that were daylight active too. I mean that was like
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: three thirty I think something like that when I shot
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: that deer well before shooting. Like, remember getting the phone
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: call from you. We talked a few hours earlier, and
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: then you're calling me again. It's like four o'clock or
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: something like that, and I'm like, man, he this phone call.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I remember seeing the phone and I was like playing
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: with the kids, and I saw the phone call come through,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: and I thought one or two things. Either number one,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: he just shot a buck and he's called because he
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: shot a buck, or number two or number two he
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: was so frustrated he decided to call off the hunt
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: completely and turned round. That may have been me in
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: the past, you know that, that may have been what
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: I've done in the past, like screw it, you know,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not going in there. Winds bad and just bailed.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: But um yeah, I just yeah, it's one of those
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: things where, yeah, I've been smart about it. Maybe that
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: wasn't the smartest spot to be sitting that day with
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: that wind, but I think because I had been smart
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: other times of the year, I think that was that
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: ultimately benefited me for that particular hunt. Yeah, yeah, Sonny,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: how it all works out sometimes like that. Um yeah, yeah, man,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: that's awesome. That's uh. That was definitely my That was
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: definitely my high and then I did have another really
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: awesome hunt this past weekend shot. I ended up filling
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: my public land aunt with this tag. Um on a
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: on a fun little hunt with somebody's that we you know,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: went and bumped around a little bit of a few
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: betting areas and some public and some real marshy stuff.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: We had eads on. We're we're wading through like waist
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: deep stuff and get into some of these little islands
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: and pockets of bedding and uh it, it it has a
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: lot of fun. We had a we had a blast
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: um and ended up getting lucky and filling my dough
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: tag midday um the last day of muzzle lotter season,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: So that was a lot of fun. Did anybody else
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: see any deer? Were you the only one to see that?
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Those are the only that was the only deer we
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: saw the whole day. And it wasn't even any of
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: our group that push that deer. We had just gotten
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: set up and they were taking up we had like
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: a boat and so they took the boat around the
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: other side. There's actually a couple of trappers that pulled
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: up onto this little um marshy area where there were
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: some I think some muskrat dens that they were gonna
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: set some traps on. They started, you know, they got
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: their axes out and hacking down some stuff, and I,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I guess there's two. I only saw one, but they
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: popped out right there, and and man, it was crazy
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: to see where they were betted at, Like um you
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: had to have water access to to get in there
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: to see them, and they were sitting there where they
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: could see everything coming in. UM. So it's pretty pretty
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: cool to see where they came from and how they
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: were using that little piece UM at this point in
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: the year when there's been so much pressure on him.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Did those trappers did you talk to him afterwards? Did
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: you scare the crap out of him? I probably did.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I probably didn't scare him, but I knew right where
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: they were and it wasn't it wasn't in their direction,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: so it all worked out well. But um, we ran
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: into them at the boat launch and and we just
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: kind of told him we're gonna be out there, and
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: they told us the same, and and so they we
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: had just dropped off um myself on one of the
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: other guys, uh, right by them where they were, so
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: they knew we were up in there, So it was.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: It was all good. But I'm sure they sure they
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: need to check their underwear after that. Yeah, that's awesome,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: that's we do. It must have been a chore getting
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: her out of there. Do you have to uh float
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: her out in the waiters or just throwing the canoe? No,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: it's actually we Yeah, we put her right in the boat.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: We killed her in like the edge of the timber
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: in the marsh and and uh just drugger to the
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: We could drive the boat right up to that marshy
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: stuff and and loaded her in and and got her
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: out pretty easily. So, um, it was. It was a
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: pretty good, pretty good set up. But you know, like
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: like you were talking about Whateverett, like, man, haven't now
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: have wade to see a couple of deer? Um, he's
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I think he's gonna love it. Man, he's, Um, I
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: got that doe hanging in the garage right now. And
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: every time someone goes in the garage, dope dope just
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: imitates like that dough and then you know dough and
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: then buck and so he's he's all about it, and
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: he'll touch the deer and check him out, and everything
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: to him right now is no it gets like very
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: animated about it. But like I think a lot of
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: times there's no means yes, and so just no no,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: no no. He was like you want to touch it? No, no, no,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: But then he touches it right like so he's just
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: like loving it and and uh yeah he's he's Uh.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be very much like Everett and
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: wanting to go and track jobs and do all that
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So I'm excited about that. Yeah, it's
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: it's the best. It's the best. Oh man. Um, So
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: let's let's wrap up with this. It's New Year's Eve
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: when it's coming out, so let's uh, let's lay out
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: a new Year's resolution for each one of us. You
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: have anything in mind? I had, I had something that
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: I was thinking about, So maybe I can go first
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and give you a second. Um. I think for me,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: my New Year's resolution, UM, is to practice what I preach.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: This what I preached a lot this year, and that
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: the past couple of years I've been trying to do
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: better at But I think next year is gonna be
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: harder to do. Which is I want to keep up
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: the mentorship. I don't want to be a couple of
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: years and done type of thing. Even though the back
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: forty is gonna be wrapping up next year. UM, I
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: want to make sure to find a way to fit
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: that into my schedule. So gonna hold me accountable next year, Josh,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I need to mentor I need a mentor two at
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: least next year, so I know I'm gonna do at
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: least one on the back Ford through the program that
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: we're putting together, but I need to do at least
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: one more at a minimum, if not more. So that's
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: gonna be my years resolution. UM, do that help some
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: more people out share those experiences? UM, I gotta make
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: sure I keep I gotta keep that up. So that's
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: gonna be mine. Um yeah, that's that's that's my goal.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: I can, I can. I can say that. You know,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: looking back on this past year. Last year, I think
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: my resolution was to get better at handling um you know,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: moment of truth shots and then also to become more
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: adaptable my hunting style, and and I sort of achieved those.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I definitely got way more like adaptable mobile. I if
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: I'm proud of myself or anything this past year, it
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: was that I was more aggressive and mobile and and
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: quick to adapt to change than I've ever been by
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: long shots, So that year or this this year, that's
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: the big thing. I'm proud of, the moment of truth thing.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: I've had my win, I've had my good, my bad.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: I missed tran, but I got a good shot with
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: my boat the drop time back on the back forty um,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: and then killed two deer with my gun now um,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: which both went pretty decent. So um So I'm gonna
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: give myself a B on that and an A on
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: being adaptable, and I need to get an A plus
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: on mentorship next year. That's that's my end of year
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: assessment there. What do you got? Yeah, a couple a
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: couple of resolutions for I've got a few things I
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: want to make sure I do. One similar to you
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: is keep up the mentorship. Um. I want to make
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: sure I'm getting people out. I've taken several people out
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years through our programs, and
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: I actually have not set with anybody who's kill a
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: deer yet. So I'd really like to um get a
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: hunter their first year, UM being their personal mentor so
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: that that would be awesome. UM. So I need to
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: to make sure I'm doing the things I need to
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: do there to make that happen. UM too, I need
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: to get my mental game right with my bow. Um
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: whether that's changing some uh maybe it's a release, maybe
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: it's um some other aspect of my shooting. I need.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: I need to get that figured out and really dive
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: into that and see what's going on there. UM. And
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: number three, I'd like to I'd like to kind of
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: force myself to to maybe make a few um, kind
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: of put together a little bit more of a of
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: a habitat plan for um, this little chunk of property
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: that I hunt, that little forty acres the landowner has
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: that I can do some some minor improvements to us.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: So I'd like to um kind of challenge myself to
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: think outside of the box. They're and not really having
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: a ton of tools at my disposal of in terms
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: of like equipment and stuff like that, but using the chain,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: so I'll use use some hand spreaders, UM, do a
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: little bit of a maybe a small food plot, carbon
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: a small food plot, or or do some sort of
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: habitat improvement project down um at that place and make
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: it a little bit better. Um. I'm have a test
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: side of things. Nice. I love it, so yeah, you
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: got your you get your work cut out for you, buddy.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: I do, I do, I do. Well, that's what the
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: end of the year is all about, is uh, setting
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: setting high hope so the next year and then very
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: quickly failing, right, get kicked off and right away I'll
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: screw it up somehow. Yeah, exactly. Need I need to
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: write those things down now and put them like I'm
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: a computer or something like a sticky note on a computer.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: Some seen it every day, so I don't let myself
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: fail on them. Yeah, that's a very good point, man.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's let's wrap this up so people
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: can get to their New Year's Eve festivities and send
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: the year out hopefully on a really high note. Um,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: it's good to end the year with you, buddy, it's
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: good to begin it. It's good to end it. And
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: uh and let's uh, let's hope is uh better for
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: a number of reasons for for everyone, So hopefully hopefully
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: we get the year started off good. Agree with that,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: thanks man, Yeah, thanks for having appreciate it, all right,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: and now we're gonna hop over to my conversation with
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Luke Torkleson over at WEATHERB talking late season firearms all
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: right with me. Now on the line is Luke Torkleson. Luke,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show. Hey, thanks glad to be here. Mark,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you are to this is uh, this is
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: that time of year when a lot of people are
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: are busting out the rifuler shotgun or whatever it might
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: be in their state and area and heading out for
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: some fun late season hunts, you know, around the holidays.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: I know, for me, this is my favorite time of
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: year to fill dough tags. So it seemed like we
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: really need to get an expert on that kind of
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: stuff on here. So so thanks for making this happen
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: so close to the holidays too. I know it's a
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: busy time of year for you. It is a busy
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: time of year. It's a it's a crazy busy time
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: generally for the firearms industry, but especially in this crazy year.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: So I'm happy to be on with you though. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: that's that's for sure. So real quick, before we dive
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: into some of the kind of the information piece of this,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: can you just give us a little background as far
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: as your story. You know, how you got to do
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: and what you're doing within the firearm industry and what
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: exactly you do now today? Yeah, great question. I'll probably
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: start with where I'm at and work backwards a little bit.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: But UM, I'm the vice president of sales, Marketing and
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: product development and that also entails customer service here at
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Weatherby and UM I've been here about two and a
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: half years, UM with super fortunate to get to move
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: to the great state of Shridan, Wyoming. UM. If you
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: don't know, UM whether we moved to hear it and
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: uh they announced their move at the beginning of two
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: thousand eighteen. UM as one of the first part of
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: the new team hired. And we've built a new team
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: here and shared in from about eighteen team members that
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: moved with company from California to share it in and
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: we're about a hundred strong now. And uh. Then it's
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: been a crazy wild ride. But UM my foray into
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: the outdoor industry started uh quite a few years ago,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: UM with Coleman the outdoor Company. UM I came up
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: through the product management product development side of things and
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: originally was in the construction products industry. And I just
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: always loved being outside. I actually didn't grow up hunting.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: I just always had been a gear head. UM I
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: grew up outside and college as a whitewater rafting guide
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: and just love being outdoors and really hunting became more
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: of a passion just to spend more time outside. Really
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: decided I wanted to work in an industry where I
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: was able to play, and uh I got into Coleman
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: the Outdoor Company. Went from Coleman to Bear Archery, Bear
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: Archery to Walter Arms, and now Walter to Weatherby, and
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: uh man, I feel like I'm home here in Wyoming
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: and with Weatherby, it's been awesome. Yeah, it seems like
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: at least from every dancing social media you have made
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: up for lost time when it comes to hunting with
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of pretty uh pretty awesome hunting adventures.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: It looks like over recent years, huh I have. I
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: I've been crazy fortunate. This year has been one for
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: the record books for me personally. I've never been to
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: Alaska before and got to go twice this year. I
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: got to do a e I y caribou hunt up
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: on the North Slope and then went back months later
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: on a moose hunt um and was able to score
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: both times. And just yeah, and it just that was
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: getting just getting started for the season. Able to feel
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: pretty much all my tags in Wyoming this year and
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: a couple of other states as well. So no complaints
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: this year, that's for sure. Yeah. The hunting, uh for
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: for those of us who had good seasons, it made
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: up for a weird and a lot of other ways.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: So uh, what about the what about the white tail
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: side of things out there? By you guys? I know, um,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: I know that there's actually some pretty good deer in
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: that neck of the woods, isn't that the case? Yeah,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: maybe not compared to some of the Midwest white tails,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: but um, I think that there are some pretty good
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: to you here. I think the best deer shot this
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: year that that we know about. I actually just got
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: the Wyoming um Outfitters Journal yesterday, and I believe the
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: best white tail shot in the state this year was
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: like a one seventy. Nice. It's a good buck, a
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: great luck. I think thrilled the shoot of one seventies
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: most would, um, but right here where we're at and
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: shared in um, if you if you see a one fifty,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: you better you better be pumped to pull the figure
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: right away. Um, we've got We're we're right on the
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: edge of white tails really being a problem here because
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: of the mule deer population. That's why everybody wants to
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: see thrive. And as you know, the white tail are
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: quite a bit more aggressive and prolific than the mule deer.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: And so we've got we've got some private land here
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: that if you drive out on some roads any given
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: evening you could see it's it's not an overestimate state.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: You could see thousands of white tailed deer in an
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: evening on the field like it's it's ridiculous. So, um,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: we've kind of got an issue with private land versus
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: public land and access uh and and how that all
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: works out. But man, there's there's tons of deer. There's
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: almost too many white tails. It's it's becoming an issue
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: for sure. C w D is creeping into and it's
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: it's problematic. Yeah, that's a good point. I was about
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: to make light of it and talk about how I
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: wouldn't mind that that many deer, But but you're right
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: for in a more serious note that the yes, there
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: are some serious management disease implications. So I guess that
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: the point being that I probably needed other and help
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: out and try to call some of the population. No
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: doubt that buck hunting can be a little bit tricky
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: because they like to hang out in the flattery areas
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: for whitetail anyway, where where it's a lot of private land.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: But after buck season's over, it's pretty easy to get
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: permission if you're just on a meat hunt. I want
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: to go shoot some doughs, and it's pretty easy to
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: get access for for for dope patrol, Yeah, which is
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: which is a whole lot of fun. That's that's exactly
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: what I'm on right now here in Michigan. It's still patrol.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: And and put my first one down a couple of
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: nights ago, and I guess it's it's got me thinking
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: about this whole topic that I wanted to bring up
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: with you, which was late season firearm hunting. Um, you know,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: I've I've I've done it with rifles and muzzleloaders and
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: shotguns and everything in between. And regardless, it just seems
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: like things seem to go haywire on occasion when stuff
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: is really cool or when it's yeah, just inclement weather, snow,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: when frigid temperatures. It just seems like these variables can
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: can throw off a hunt and nobody wants this thing
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: they've worked all year towards to then get botched because
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: of some weird equipment issue or something they hadn't thought
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: about as far as how weather or or whatever could
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: impact things. So I was just kind of curious if
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: this is something that you or anyone at weather be has,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: you know, spent some time thinking about as far as
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: special considerations to think about at this time of the year,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: whether it be in that you know, zero degree, whether
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: or whether it be in really windy blizzards, or anything
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: that jumps to mind that you guys think about as
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: far as that kind of situation when you're out there
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: with a gun. Yeah, there's a couple of things. So
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: I think there's actually two parts to it. There's UM
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: in the field and then after, and I think they're
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: they're both important. UM, especially after if you're in UM
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: wind driven rain or or heavy snow, Potentially I get
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: water into places in your in your rifle that it's
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: not been before, and it's going to require a lot
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: more meticulous cleaning, even if it's a stero coated You
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: know that we were like man Sarracoa's great corrosion protection,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: but man, even when you're applying seracode. At the manufacturing
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: level it is it can be tough to get it
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: in the smallest nooks and cranny inside the trigger group
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: and all that. And when you start getting forced elements
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: in there where they don't belong and you you put
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: a gun away, or even worse, you you leave it
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: in a soft gun bags, like in your car for
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. UM you're asking for some corrosion
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: problems in the field. UM. I think that just taking
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: an extra level of precaution around how you're carrying your gun,
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: UM goes a really long way. Uh. We do a
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: lot of back country hunting here in Wyoming in the
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: Midwest that might look a little different, but um Man,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: just trying to cover up as much as you can.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: Most people want to cover their scope obviously, but if
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: you can cover up the action area and and you're trigger,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: I mean where the trigger shoe comes out of the action,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: there's generally a pretty big gap in every rifle on
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: the market. UM. And if you get junk in there,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: even just moisture, you may not have the desired effect
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: or the normal trigger feel that you're used to. UM.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: I have one freeze up on me A couple of
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: years ago where I was crossing a creek and I
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: kind of took a stumble and splashed some water up.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: Didn't think anything of it, but then that water froze
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: and actually didn't get up in my trigger group. But
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: just like the way I was holding the rifle, the
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: water hit the trigger. It's just like perfectly unfortunate. But
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: the drip, imagine the rifle be in vertical and then
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: water dripping off the back of the trigger, and it's
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: it's like blocked. It froze and then blocked the trigger
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: from being able to pull back far enough to actually
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: break this fear, and so it almost rendered the rifle
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: and nert And so you just gotta be extra careful.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: I think on how you're carrying your gun is really important.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: M what about the the muzzle, the opening at the
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: end of the barrel itself. A lot of people will
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: put tape over the end of the muzzle. Is that
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: something that you think is worth doing or is there
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: any worry with how that might impact anything downrange? I
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: am a big fan of covering the muzzle. Um, I
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: think it should be done. I do it no matter
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: the weather. Again, that country hunting, whether it's pine needles
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: or whatever else that might get in there. But if
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: you get moisture in there, water water doesn't compress, So
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: if you get enough moisture inside the barrel, you it
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: could get dangerous. Number one. But number two, even if
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: it's not an actual safety concern, um, it could affect
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: how your bullets traveling, and so keeping keeping your bore
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: free of obstruction is is I think it's paramount, so
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: speaking about you know, shooting in those situations, so keeping
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: them clean that makes sense, keeping anything from getting down there.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: What about the impact of cold temperatures on ballistics or
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: the impact on a bullet I've read I don't know
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: much about this stuff myself, but I've read and seen
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: some things about how ultra cold weather supposed we can
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: have some impacts on that. Is that something that your
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: average hunter needs to think about when it comes to
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: this kind of thing. I think every rifle is a
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: little different. Um, how how you're done reacts to temperature
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: is probably best not left to chance, right, So it
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: may not be possible, but if it is possible, I
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: think it's a great idea to experiment in different temperatures. UM.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: If a if a massive cold front. First one of
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: the season is moving through and you haven't had a
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: chance to go mess with your particular rifle. UM, I
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: think you need to be aware of your shot distance.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: I think out to a hundred yards you're probably not
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: going to see a massive variation. But if you're talking
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: about shots from a hundred to three and beyond, then
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: I think you really need to understand what what's happening
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: with your particular firearm. UM. Even gun to gun, same model,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: you could see a slight variation. Every every barrel is different.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of science behind it, but I'd like
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: to say there's a lot of voodoo too, And I
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: don't think even the best ballistic expert can understand the
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: exact voodoo. Why one barrel that's come off the exact
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: same production line, the exact same rifling, everything is the same,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: may may react completely different. It's wild. So if given
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to um shoot or or test your your
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: weapon in a sub zero environment, it's not fun, but
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: head to the range if you can, and to just
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: see what's happening. UM. I think it's I think it's
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: wise to do that, especially if you're you're chasing out
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: big buck and you don't want to leave anything to chance, right, No, no,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: you don't. You definitely don't want that to be the
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: thing that ruins the hunting there at the end. That's
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: for sure. Now, what about another thing that might come
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: up at this time of year, which is, you know,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: when you get that nasty cold coming through, it's it's
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: usually paired with a storm. So you've got the snow
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: blowing and you've got some significant wind. Maybe yeah, but
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: you're a trooper and you're still out there, Uh what
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: what speed wind? Do you start worrying about wind deflection?
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: And or what distances as far as your target being?
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: Do you worry about that at a hundred fifty yards
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: or how many? That's so I almost would say that's
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: the how long is a piece of string? Question, which
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: is like, you got it. You need so many more
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: inputs to solve that blistic solution. I mean, are we
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: talking about like a three fifty legend where you're sending
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: a pretty low BC bullet at a at a at
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: a low velocity, then you're going to see substantial wind
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: variation versus like a weather b If you're shooting our
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: six three hundred with a HIGHBC hundred and forty grain
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: bullet at almost per second, I would say, yeah, don't
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: don't worry about wind out to two yards almost no
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: matter what it's blowing. Um But if you're if you're
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: using a bigger, slower bullet, for sure you can see
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: some deflection um even at a hundred yards. Hopefully not
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: enough that it's going to affect hitting the kill zone
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: at a hundred yards, but um man, anything's possible depending
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: on how stiff that wind is. And really the blistic
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: coefficient of the bullet and and the velocity I think
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: are the two most important factors there. So so really
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: knowing your rifle and knowing your what you're what you're
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: putting through it, and exactly how it's going to react.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, so much this comes down
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: to the specifics that something that I'm lt I sometimes
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: is wanting to stick too simple and not dive into
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: the details when it comes to firearms though, and really
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: getting the very most out of out of your cartridge
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: and your and your rifle that's you need, you really
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: should go deep into it. Yeah. I am not a
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: professional sniper by any stress of the imagination, um, but
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: I do recommend to people that I think it's good
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: to to train or practice at at nearly double the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: distance that you're comfortable harvesting an animal at. So if
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: if you're only gonna feel comfortable shooting to three yards,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: I want to be or have the guy I'm hunting with,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: I want them shooting at six and understanding what what
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: they're guns doing at six yards because it just completely
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: increases the confidence that you're going to have a three D. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: that makes this makes a lot of sense. And the
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: same same principle, same theory applies to bow hunting lots
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: of times, right you if you want to shoot a
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: deer at forty yards, you better be practiced at sixty yards,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: and then that forty yard shot is a piece of cake.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Exactly the same obviously magnified greatly by by archery, but
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: exactly the same principle for sure. Yeah, that that training
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: and pushing yourself in training just it's it's never a
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: bad idea, it's never it's never gonna hurt you in
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: the long run. Um okay, So, so, cold temperatures and
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: winds certainly can impact you depending on your setup, even
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: when you're hunting in white tail country, shooting a hundred
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: yard shots or two hundred yard shots. But what you
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: alluded to this in the beginning, but a lot of
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: a lot of making sure your gears and working order
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: is taking care of it afterwards. Um you mentioned, you know,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: don't put it in a soft case and leaving your
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: truck for two weeks or something like that. What are
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: the what are the things that somebody should do immediately
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: like that they come in from the hunt and before
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: they put it in the truck or the house or
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: the case or whatever. It is. It as simple as
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: just just wipe it down with a dry rag or
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: is there anything else on there? Do this immediately checklist
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: when they're coming in after a cold, snowy day. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: It depends on the rifle. Again, if if it's a
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: stainless steel rifle, or if it's Sara coated, or if
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: it's carbon steel that's been blued. Um, it all looks
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: a little bit differently, but I think at the core
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: it depends on the conditions. If you were out and
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: it was um when they and any form of moisture,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: snow or rain, you need to get the bolt out
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: and do your absolute best too at a minimum, clean
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: throughout that action the best that you can and apply
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: some oil so that there's some protection there. I like
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: to leave mine out for a little while before I
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: do that, so that any moisture that was in there
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: can dry a little bit um and then go through
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: the cleaning process. You're not going to get a lot
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: of oxidation in just a few minutes. We're the super
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: dry climate here in Wyoming, so keep that in mind.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: If you're down in Louisiana and you're like humidity, it's
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: probably not going to dry and you need to You
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: need to take a little extra steps to get every
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: bit of water out of that action area that you can.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: I mean the way that the lugs of every rifle
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: are gonna fit, with the mating lugs, with the barrel
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: or the action. You have got to make sure that
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: you get all the water out of there or you're
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: gonna run into problems down the road. Um, and then
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: the board I think is super important. If you hadn't
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: protected the muzzle end and you get any moisture down there.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: Even on most serracoated rifles, there's still gonna be a
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: carbon steel barrel. There's no stereocoat inside the actual bore
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: of the rifle. You need to be running some rods
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: through there with with a patch with that's got some
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: protectible oil on there, or you're gonna build up some
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: some corrosion that's going to affect your bullet performance down
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: the road. Putting the gun away dry is critical. If
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: you don't do that, you're asking yourself for problems. Yeah,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: Now what about going from different temperature zones? So by that,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: I mean you're outside hunting it's freezing cold, and then
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: what if you were to bring it inside the house
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: where it's warm, and then I I you worry about
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: condensation and stuff like that. Do you recommend anything around that.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Should you leave it outside for a while, Should you
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: bring it in and then wait an hour and then
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: dry off and everything? That? Is that something you think about.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: I like to bring my gun inside and then you know,
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: take care of my other stuff first, um, whether if
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: there's meat involved or clothes, whatever, try to get that
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: stuff taken care of. It would be a pretty extreme
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: instance that condensation is gonna build up on your on
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: your gun like it would on a on your your
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: coker beer can, Right, But if it was in the
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: bed of your truck and it's sub zero and you
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: come in and it's seventy degrees and you've got the
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: fireplace going. Yeah, it's possible, especially if it's in a
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: soft case. Um. It seems to we get most of
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: our service call are on rifles that have been blued
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: that gets stored in the soft case where they come
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: back in any bit of moisture just kind of it's
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: like it's like wapping, wrapping your barrel and a wet rag.
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: It's like it's just it makes it worse, and you
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: get these oxidation issues in a beautiful blued rifle. It's
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: it's brutal. So I to get it out of the
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: stop case as quick as you can, if there's any
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: way to get some air circulation on it to bring
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: it up to kind of room timp then clean it
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: and then store it. Okay, that that makes a lot
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: of sense. And then I guess the final thing then
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: is we're doing that. We've we've filled their dough tags
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: or a last buck tag. We've put a couple of
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: deer in the freezer. The season ends, I know a
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: lot of folks will just shelf the gun. I've been
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: guilty of this in past years. I shelf it, and
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: then I kind of forget about it because I've moved
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: on to all these other things. And then six months
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: passes by or ten months passes by, and then it's
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: September and I'm thinking, I got a gun hunt coming
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: up soon. I better get that out. And then I
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: realized that I didn't do my end of your maintenance
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: on it, or I didn't do something quite right, and
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: there's there's some rust or or something goes wrong. I
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: am guilty of that, I admit it, and I hate
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: myself for that. Um, can you walk me through what
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: the correct postseason process would be as far as cleaning, storage,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: any maintenance related thing to make sure that we are
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: doing this one right. If so, I would just say,
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: there's a precursor to this question. If the last shot
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: that you fired hit where you wanted it to hit them,
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: in your confident and you're set up, then then go
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: through just like I said before, get everything dried up,
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: cleaned up, and then I'd say, apply a pretty liberal
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: amount of oil into the bore of the barrel or
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: on a pat or two through there so it's got
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: a protective coating. Be a little more liberal in that
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: bolt and um action mating surfaces so that you're good.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: You can store that thing for years if need be. Now,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: if you weren't confident in the last trigger, poole, if
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: the bullet was like, man, I don't know that that
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: impacted where it was supposed to impact. I recommend you
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: go and get that sorted before you put the gun
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: away for the season, because you don't know. If you
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: hopefully you remember to get your gun out before next season,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: then and get it dialed again. But I like to
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: put it away with confidence so that if a buddy calls, like, man,
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: I'm having a coyote problem, you want to come toot
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: so kyotes with me, Like, I don't have to worry
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: about anything, Like I know, I'm confident in the condition
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: of the gun when it's put away. Yeah, that's that's
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: a good forward thinking move that I will aspire to
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: be on top of it as well as you are, Luke,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: I to like that. That's that's good. Um okay, So
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: get it all taken care of in that kind of way,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: and then um put it in the safe and and
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: call it good. Huh. That's it. Yeah, I like said,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: I like to know the condition of every firearm that
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: I've got so that they're we're talking about uh when
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: it hits the fan type of moment, or if we're
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: talking about UM, an impromptu hunt or opportunity to go
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: to a shoot that I know with be on the
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: shadow of a doubt that I have to pick up
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: in your rifle in my safe and it's dialed and
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: ready to roll, and the next time I pull a trigger,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: I know where that bullets going to go. I think
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: that's I think that's important. Yeah, well, you know it's
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: It's so in line with almost everything else with deer hunting.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: It comes down to the details and executing on all
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: the little things you know you need to do. And
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: if you pay attention to those little things and you
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: follow through on them, whether it be properly taking care
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: of the gun while you're out there in the field,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: or maintaining it afterwards, or double checking your zero before
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: the end of the year, all that stuff adds up.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: When you allude to the beginning, there's a lot of
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: stuff we can control. So if this is one thing
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: we can you gotta you gotta check that box. You
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: have to. I think having confidence in your tools, all
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: of them is just so critical. I did one hunt
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: this year, UM where I took a gun that I
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: hadn't had a lot of trigger time, and I had
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: a good buck just passed what I was comfortable with
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: with that rifle because I I wasn't a thousand percent
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: confident in my setup. It was, you know, as a
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: as a marketing side at whether it be I get
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: to do some cool events and I was invited on
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: this hunt. I had to take a firearm that I
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: hadn't hunted with yet and with a round I wasn't
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: familiar with, and I got a little bit of arranged time,
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: but I didn't have it dialed. If I had had
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: a gun I'd been hunting with all season with me,
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: I would have shot a better buck than ended up
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: shooting because I just wasn't confident to pull the trigger
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: at the distance when I encountered this this great white tail.
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: I still got a good one, but it just it
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: bothered me so much that I wasn't a thousand percent
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: confident in my setup that UM, I was like, I'm
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: not doing it like this again. I've got to make
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: sure that I'm full confident in the tool that I have.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: Because everything else worked out, I could have executed in
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: my shooting ability, but I wasn't competent in my tool
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: and that just hurked me to no end. Yeah yeah,
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: that uh that one will linger, I know how that is. Well, look,
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: this is this is really this is really helpful stuff
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: and in a perfect way for us to wrap up
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: the year. I think there's there's a lot of people
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: that will be putting this kind of stuff into play
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: over the next few weeks, So so thank you for that.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: And if people want to either follo along with anything
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: you've got going on, or whether it be in general,
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: is there anyone online they can connect or or learn
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: more you bet um, whether it be inc on Instagram,
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: whether be dot com, personally um Luke Torque on Instagram,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: and um yeah, we're happy to have people come and
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: follow and and see what we've got going on. I
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: think I think as whether be we do a pretty
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: good job with a personal connection to the brand. Adam
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: weather be Um respond to a ton of our Instagram
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: messages and if you've got any questions messages there, send
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: us an email to marketing at Weatherby dot com. Whatever
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: we can do, We're we're accessible and try to respond
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: to everyone. That's awesome. I'll add another plug. Adam was
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: on one of the recent seasons of the Mediator TV show,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: and my my two year old has been really into
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: watching Mediator on Netflix over the last couple of months,
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: and that episode the Adam was on. The mule deer
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: hunt is one of his favorites. So we frequently will
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: try to play out that hunt and Adam seeing that
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: buck and going in after him, and so my son
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: effort will go running down the hill and then get
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: his gun, his fake gun up and then said, I
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: see antlers. I see antlers, So go go watch that one.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: That is a good one. That was the two parter too,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: I think I remember right, and it ends in a
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: crazy fashion with a bit of a old fashioned drive. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: they made They made for some interesting, uh some interesting hunts.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: The that always it's always an adventure of with Steve
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: and Joanny and crew, so uh it it worked out
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: well for him. They put some nice bucks on your ound,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: no doubt. And I was pretty fortunate back in October
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: to have Steve and Yanni host them down here in
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: Wyoming on an antelope hunt with surprise guest Luke Holmbs,
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: which was which was an amazing experience, really cool trip. Yeah,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: I've heard from at least Yanna, So that was a
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: really good time. Do you guys had an enjoyable hunt
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: and successful hunt? It looked like, yeah we did, and
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: I believe that will be on the next next year's
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: uh Netflix episodes, But we we did. We had a blast.
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: Luke Holmbs was awesome, better than expect. You never know
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: what you're gonna get with some of those you know,
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: quote unful celebrities, right, but yeah, he was about as
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: normal a guy as you could get. Um that has
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: a fleet of tour buses, you know what I mean,
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: Like you said, that could be you just never quite
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: know where that could go. So I'm glad it worked out.
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: I was talking to I remember sitting in the grocery
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: store parking lot talking to you honest on the phone
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: just before that hunt, and he expressed the same thing
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: as like, you know, I hope this works out, but
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: you just you just don't know. Yeah, we're gonna write
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: it out and see what happens. It's good. All right. Well,
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: look I'll let you get back to all the end
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: of year craziness, but thank you again, and uh, I
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: hope one of these days I'll make it out there
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: to Wyoming and see the see the headquarters and everything,
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: because i've heard it's pretty incredible. Thanks Mark, You're welcome anytime. Alright,
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: and that's a rap. Thank you again for tuning in.
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: Hope you enjoyed this one. A little bit of story time,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit of info. I like that mix. That's uh,
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: that's usually kind of makes me try to hit. We
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: just took two different people to do it today. But
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it. Have a great New Year's Eve,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: New Year's Day, the first couple of weeks of the year,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: whatever it might be. Thanks for tuning, and until next time,
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: stay wired to hunt. W do you that