Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1069: Goals, Hopes, and Hit Lists for 2026 with Dan Johnson

Transcript

Ep. 1069: Goals, Hopes, and Hit Lists for 2026 with Dan Johnson · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired2Hunt podcast.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: This week on the show, I'm joined by Dan Ninefingers-Johnson
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: to discuss our goals, hopes, and hit lists for the
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: 2026 hunting season. All right, welcome back to the Wired2Hunt
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: podcast brought to you by Moultrie. This week in the show,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I am joined by my longtime friend and one-time co-host,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Dan Johnson, from the Nine Finger Chronicles these days. Previously,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: if you are a longtime listener, of course, you know
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Dan from the early days of Wired2Hunt. And we are
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: back again today to preview our upcoming deer hunting season.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk through each of our goals for
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the season, our plans, the trips we have going on,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: the different things that we're looking forward to or maybe
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: worried about. planning for, and then finally any particular specific
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: bucks we're after or projects we're tackling or real stretch
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: goals that we're chasing.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: So this is a fun one.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: This one's going to get us all ready for the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: hunting season that's kicking off for all of us here either.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Already or very quickly. So enjoy this show.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Hopefully this will inspire some thinking of your own, some
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: goal setting of your own, and get you ready for
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: hunting season to kick off for yourself as well.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: So thanks for joining us. Here we go.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: All right, with me now on the line is Mr.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Dan Johnson. Welcome back to the show, buddy.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: How you doing, dude? Long time no talk, my friend.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm good. I'm glad we're doing this.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: It means really good things are ahead when we sit
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: down for our annual goals, hopes, and hit list chat.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: So thanks for making time for it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: First thing I think we should really address is for me,
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: I don't know about you, but for me, all I
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: had to do was click on a link and it
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: opened everything up for me, was not complicated at all.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: And yet Tony Peterson is having trouble logging into this meet.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: He should be here, but two, so that tells me
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: two things. He doesn't want to be here, right? He's
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: chosen not to do this. He's got something else that
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: he wants to do. Or, uh, you know, by hiring
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: him needed or check some kind of box to get
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: for a tax return or something like that.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It's an age, it's an age requirement.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: We had to get one octogenarian on the show and, uh, yeah, man,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: he's getting old and senile. He can't even get a
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: link to a podcast recording to work.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: So what would have.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Been all three of us instead will be, uh, we'll
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: be you and me, but that's all right.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: The, uh, the OGs reunited.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Do you, uh, do you.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Feel ready for the season?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Cause when we're talking, it is the day before September,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: this will be going out in like a week.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Um, it's here. I can't believe that. Do you feel prepared?
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Uh, let's see. How do I answer that? Kind of.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: Right. And so, so here's, here's a very quick recap
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: of what happened in March.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Yes. March was a huge month for me knowing I
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: was going to have a knee replacement surgery in late March.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: I spent the first part of March like organizing all
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: of my hunting gear.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: I went to my farm.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: I moved tree stands around that I knew I needed
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: to because I feel like this year I'm going to
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: be a little less mobile in my approach and rely
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: heavily on pre-hung stands. I think I'll still be able
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: to do some run and gun when necessary.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Excuse me.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: But, um, but then I had my knee surgery and
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: all of April, May, June was.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Pretty sedentary for me. I didn't do too, too much.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Uh, and then as July started rocking and rolling and, um,
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: and then now August is behind us.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: I feel really good. Like my knees feeling better.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Uh, and so I, I told myself, Hey, listen, I'm
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: not going to do any Western hunts this year. just
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: in case my need didn't heal. Like I thought it
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: was going to heal or whatever. And so now really
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: fast forward to now, all I'm doing is I got,
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: I got a new set of arrows. I got a
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: new string on my bow and I'm just shooting, getting
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: ready for myself and for the upcoming youth season.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: So it's a.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Big year of transition for both of us.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Um, you got a new knee. I got a new house,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: new home state.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Um, so a lot of, A lot of change here
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: for the old Wired to Hunt guys. I haven't actually
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: talked about it on this podcast yet, but as you know,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: and as anyone following me on social media knows, I
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: did move.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I moved to Montana.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: We finally, you know, we've talked about it over the years,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: you and I, many times, all my summers out here
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and the things I do and how much this has
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: become a part of our life. And yeah, finally decided
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: that We better give it a shot. Otherwise, I'll be
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: looking back my whole life with the what ifs. So, yeah, we.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It's just kind of consumed my whole year.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: It seems like the move trying to sell our Michigan place,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: trying to sell our cabin in Idaho, trying to find
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: a place in Montana. It's just been all encompassing. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I do not feel as prepared as I typically am.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: because it just seems like there's been this other thing,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: this other set of things that has just eaten away everything,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: all my extra time, all my mental headspace.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So that has happened.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: We're here, but that also not only has that kind
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: of made my time and available like bandwidth to do
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: other things very different, but it's also put me in
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: a like wildly different hunting position this year. So it's
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: just going to be a big, set of new experience,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: some old experiences, some new, but just, it's going to
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: feel really, really different.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: This is crazy because everybody's like Midwestern Mark Kenyon, whitetail hunter, right?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: Michigan, Ohio, other States that you've hunted in, in the past.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: And now you're out West, West has the whitetails. So
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: now are you going to be that non-resident who's coming
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: back to experience the rut every year?
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Or is that not happening anymore?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Midwest or Mark Kenyon will still be a thing. Do
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: not worry.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I will still be, I will still be doing big
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: chunks of time in the Midwest for the rut and
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: for different parts of the year. So yeah, you know,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: the way I've kind of looked at it is in
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the past we would go out and spend, you know, two, three,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: four months a year out West and then the rest
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: of the year back home in the Midwest.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Now I'm just going to kind of flip flop it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: So we're going to spend most of the year here
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: in Montana and, but then we're going to be coming
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: back for a month or so in the summer. And
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I'll probably over the course of numerous trips, probably about
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: a month in the fall. Um, yeah.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: So, so yeah, that is still going to be a
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: big part of, of every year.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: This year will be kind of the first of trying
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: to figure out what that looks like and feels like,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: but yes, I'll still be doing.
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Now I have, we'll talk about that. Yeah. I have
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: a real life question for you. Okay.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Your family, the four of you, they, you, you left
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: family somewhere along the lines, right? And what's that like,
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: like packing up, going and living your own life and
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: then having to step away from the closeness and comfort
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: of family. Yeah.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Um, that has been the hardest thing and the thing
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: that has kept us from moving for the longest, um, has,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: you know, just been the fact that our family connections
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: and all of that does matter so much. Um, And
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: so what we've just decided is that we've decided like, okay,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: we're going to try this new thing. And A, it
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: doesn't have to be forever. We can give it a shot.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: And if it doesn't feel right, and if we're not
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: able to maintain those family connections, then we can always
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: go back. But B, you know, just solving for those problems.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: So figuring out like how do we utilize that, you know,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: we're really fortunate to have flexible like work situations, my
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: wife and I both, right? So we can both work
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: from home.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: So yeah.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: You know, we're going to come back and spend a
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: summer or spend a month every summer back with family.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: And we're going to come back and do a big
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: chunk of time in the winter. I'm going to be
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: able to come back myself and with my boys for
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: big chunks in the fall to still do stuff with
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: the family. And then we're also going to have like
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: an open door policy here in Michigan or here in
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Montana for visitors. So for example, my mom and dad
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: are actually arriving today for like a three week period
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: out here.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Oh, nice.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: So, so yeah, hopefully, you know, we're going to be
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: able to make that work, but it's going to be different. Um,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: and I'd be lying if I told you, I haven't,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: you know, worried about that some, but, but we're hoping
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: that all the, all the positives and, and those things
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I just told you about, hopefully that's going to make
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: up for it.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: Dude, it's, it's a new life experience. And at some point,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: like everybody goes through it, right? Everybody goes through, if
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: I don't do it now, I'm never going to do it.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: And so you just got to pull the trigger on
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: it and, and, uh, hope it works out, dude.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: That's what it came down to.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, I always said like, I wanted to raise
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the boys out here, like around this culture and the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: opportunities here and like the lifestyle here. I always thought like, man,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: that would be what I think the best opportunity for
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: my kids would be. Um, and then all of a
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: sudden hit me. I've been saying that year after year
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: after year. And that's like, Oh, someday we will someday
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: we will. Then I realized, you know, my, my oldest
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: is almost nine. So he's almost halfway through his 18
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: years here with me.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And then he's you know, he's gone.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: So if I don't do it now, um, it's not
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: going to happen.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, I mean, that, that life has hit that
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: part of life has hit me like a ton of
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: bricks lately.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: And it's something I think about.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: And I, you know, I've talked in the past about
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: like the midlife crisis, uh, era that I'm currently in
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: right now, but it's definitely hit me hard. You know, like,
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: when grandparents are slowly going away, parents are getting older,
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: kids are getting older. And I'm just like, Oh my God,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: what is going on? And so I just, I don't know,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: just something I think about a lot.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Cool, buddy. Yeah.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Somehow we have all of a sudden grown old. I
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: remember many, many years ago doing like, I think, well,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I won't even say, but there was, there was some
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: fun stuff going on.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: At, Oh yeah.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: The Pringnets, uh, home, big, big chin digs and good times.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Parties and ATA shows would get rowdy. Now it's just
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: early bedtimes, dude.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I know you, you admitted to me off air that
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: you were drinking at a farmer's market and realized that
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: was too hardcore for you these days.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: Oh, no, no.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: I wasn't drinking.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I wasn't watching other people.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: I was watching other people drink. That's what I, that's
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: what I do for fun. Now is just go out
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: in public and just people watch.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: A new world, buddy.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: But anyways, we still, we still have enough blood pumping
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: through our veins that we can deer hunt and we've
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: got some good hunting plans this year. So as we
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: do every year, I was hoping to kind of run
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: through both of our sets of plans for the year.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: You know, what we're going to do, you know, for
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: both of us, it's going to be a little bit
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: of a different season based on what I just, what
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: we just talked about.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: So what are we going to do? Where are we
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: going to go? What are our goals? Do we have any,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Particular goals or particular bucks or anything like that, that
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: we're really excited about. That's, that's what I want to
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: run through today. Um, kind of set the stage for
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: the season. And then, you know, you and I were
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: going to try to get together another time or two
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: this fall to kind of check in, you know, to
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: keep people up on the story of our seasons, what's
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: happening so far.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: So this kind of is, is, is day one of that.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: So yeah, How about, how about we start with you, Dan,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: walk me through, what does your hunt schedule look like
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: on this first post new knee year?
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: So, um, I, you know, I told, I've already said
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: that there's no Western hunts this year, right? I was,
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: I didn't know how the knee was going to be.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: So I didn't schedule anything. I didn't want to buy
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: any tags, uh, just so that I couldn't use them.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: So it is all. hands on deck in Iowa.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: And that starts.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: In roughly two and a half, three weeks for the
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: youth season here in Iowa. So I'll go high level
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: real quick.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Youth season priority, three weekends, two weeks.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: Uh, so there's going to be a couple weekends dedicated
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: to just the youth. My, my oldest kid, my daughter
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: is just, I don't think she's into killing deer. to
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: be honest with you. I think she is a turkey gal.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: I think she's okay with that. Deer are just too
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: precious and cute for her. Now, my oldest boy, watch out. Like,
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: he's not in football this year. All he wants to
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: do is fish. All he wants to do, like, yesterday,
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: he comes up to me.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: He goes, hey, dad. He looked at a calendar.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: Like, it's funny how, like, you go to school and,
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: or like my, I'm sure my parents felt the same
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: way you go to school and it's like, Oh, you
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: can't do the simplest tasks at school.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: My son got, uh, we got an email from.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: His teacher day four of school this year saying, Hey,
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: he's goofing around.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: He's not paying attention, all this stuff.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, buddy, it's the fourth day of school
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: and we've already got, you got to calm down, dude.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: but he's still intelligent enough to look at the calendar,
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: go to his phone, find when youth season is, or
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: go to the tablet, find when youth season is come
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: to me. He's like, Hey dad, uh, youth seasons in
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: three weeks, we need to go to the gun range
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: and start targeting. You know, I need to start practicing
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: with a gun because this year, if I want to
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: kill a buck, I gotta, I gotta be on for
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: my gun with a gun.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: And so I'm just like, all right, buddy.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: Like, he's taking it's he's serious enough in it where
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: he wants, he's like, he's ready to go.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. Being proactive.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: Now the bad part is, is he thinks he deserves
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: the daddy bucks that I have on trail camera this year.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: So he's like, so I'm, I always show him the
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: reveal trail camera pics. So I'm like, Hey, check this out,
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: check this out. He's like, I'm going to shoot that guy.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: I'm like, no, no, no, you're not. I'm not going
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: to have you be that kid who shoots some giant,
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: buck right out of the gate and then not hunt
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: because there's no giant bucks to shoot. I'll get this buck.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: And I scroll down to like a 90 inch, like
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: a 90 inch two-year-old. I'm like, how about you shoot
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: this buck instead? I guess, you know, whatever. But if
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: that buck shows up, can I shoot him? I'm like, yeah,
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: if he shows up, you can shoot him by itself.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: You got to start gar, gar hole on your kid.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: I know exactly. I'm not going to share information with them.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: I'm only going to show up. I don't know where the, Oh,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: he just showed up out of nowhere. I don't know
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: where he, Where is that? Yeah, it's weird. I don't know.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: So youth season is going to be a priority big
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: time this year. And so, I mean, other than that,
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: the high level part of my hunting is going to
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: be taking advantage of all of the tags that.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Iowa offers and shooting more does.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: And just kind of realizing that groceries are so expensive
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: these days that yeah, the, the, the gas money to
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: go hunt and the gas money to, to drive around
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: and the, the, the processor costs to make the sausage
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: and stuff may not, but it's still like this year
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: for us, man, it's still cheaper than a, you know,
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: a pound of ground beef.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: And so, dude, I'm going to, I'm going to fill
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: tags this year. That's, that's my goal.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: And, and, Are we still focusing on the two main,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: your old main farm and then that newer main farm?
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Are those the two spots?
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Yep. Those are the two spots as of right now.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: Um, there might be some public land adventures that happen
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: just because like I, because I'm not in football and
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: because my kids are in activities and there's like, there's
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: going to be times where I'm going to be able
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: to pass the transportation onto my wife. on certain days
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: of the week and just be like, Hey, I'm going
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: to go sit on the ground out here in public,
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: see what happens. Or I'm going to take my boy
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: out there and just be like, okay, let's, uh, let's
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: just see what happens. And, and maybe even the neighbor
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: boy and just bounce, bounce on this public and, and
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: almost kind of like a, a school, right? Like, Hey,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: get your buddy and I'm going to go teach you something.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Maybe it's not even about trying to kill a deer.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: But hey, check this rub out. Oh, there's another one.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: Why are the deer walking in this line and have
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: those types of conversations? What about this terrain or why is,
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: why is a deer bed here? Or why are we
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: seeing deer here? And then have those conversations. And I've
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: always said, this.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Is my goal.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: My goal is to be able to hunt with my
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: kid when they're an adult.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: So we can pull into wherever we're at. He goes
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: his way. I go my way.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: And at the end of the night, we're meeting at
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: the truck and we're, we're swapping stories. Like that's the
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: ultimate goal. And so, but you can't have that unless
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: you somehow build or educate, uh, uh, someone who loves
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: to hunt.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: So that's my goal.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: So what's the setup like for youth season?
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Do you have an area that you think is going
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: to be, you know, set up well for mid September, uh,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Is there a game plan kind of put together yet
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: on where you think you might sit if the wind's right?
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Like, what does that look like?
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's all historic data, right? Historic spottings and things
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: like that. It's just pinch points. It's not a ton
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: of like current information because most of the stuff that
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: I'm going to bring him to are, is river bottom ground.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Now I will say this, the last.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: Three years, there's been one buck, Who's bedded and I'm
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: not joking in the exact same spot. And on the
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: first time I ever hunt that with my bow, he
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: stands up out of the same bed and he walks
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: away from me three years in a row.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: So my gut tells me this buck is still there.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: He's in that same little peninsula of tall, crappy grass
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: and like deadfall and things like that. And I'm going
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: to try to get in there with my boy. and
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: set up on him to where if he stands up
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: in September, he could shoot, he could shoot a decent buck.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Like last year, I think he was like 145 inch
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: nine pointer.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: And so I don't know what he's going to be
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: this year.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: I think probably a five-year-old if I had to guess same,
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: but anyway, that's just like, it's a betting area. We
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: can re we don't have to get so close like
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: I would with a bow because we have the gun.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: And so if we just kind of creep in there,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: crawl underneath of a tree and just kind of wait
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: for him to stand up I think something fun could happen.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: So is that the game plan for all the youth
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: is like kind of on the ground, sneak around spots,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: set up something like that?
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't have any tree stands that I feel
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: comfortable with him climbing up into. And we don't have
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: any type of tower blinds. We have a ground blind,
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: but if you're going to walk in and set it up,
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: I just feel like you might as well just sit
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: on the ground. Maybe last year we just hinge cut
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: some small saplings or some branches hanging down and kind
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: of built our own little thing, but the deer came
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: from behind us anyway.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: So I don't know.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: And is your youngest son going to get out and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: hunt something you think too?
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: I think he's going to just, he's going to piggyback, right?
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: So he's nine and he's not the biggest kid. So
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: I think if I just bring him with, um, I
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: might buy a tag for him if my older boy
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: tags out, but it might just be another season of
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: us getting into the woods. And that's what I made
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: my oldest boy do was, Hey, you got to come
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: with me. I need to see that you can kind
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: of sit still. And even last year was a little
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: bit of a struggle. But my oldest boy, he's like, dad,
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: I want to come.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: I want to come.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: And here's what I have learned as a dad right away.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of kids or a lot of dads
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: who are like, I'm taking you with me as soon
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: as possible. I have almost found that if I keep
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: them at bay a little bit, and they see me
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: getting out and going and having fun, they want to,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: they want to come and I don't have to say, okay,
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: get up now.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: It's time to go. They're like really looking forward to
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: youth season. Hey, we got to go. It's on the calendar.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: You know, they're, they're talking about it and not letting
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: them hunt right away and then letting them come to
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: me and say, Hey dad, I'm ready to go.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: So I don't know. I found that's what, that's what
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: works for me anyway.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Um, So there's this big old possible five and a
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: half year old buck that maybe, uh, maybe the little guy,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: he's not so little anymore, but maybe your son gets
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: to take a crack at, are there any bucks that
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: you think have made it? Have you seen, you know,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: confirmation of any deer from previous years? Like who's, who
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: are you after you?
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: Oh, dude, dude, I got two bucks on camera and
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: right now. And one of them is like, uh, uh,
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: mainframe eight, but he has 11.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Total scorable points. Um, he is beautiful, right?
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: He's probably a five-year-old as well. This is, this is, uh,
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: on a completely different farm. And, uh, let me see
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: if I can pull a picture up real quick while
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: we're talking, but we have that, that guy, he's a
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: returning customer last year. He had a great body, but
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: he is just a freak. I think he maybe got injured.
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: And so he was like a giant two by like a, a,
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: a two by three or something like that. Just like a,
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: a five, six pointer, really weird looking deer. But then
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: I have a, a, another 10 pointer. Who's probably in
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: the one sixties that is back. No, no complete freak
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: giants like, um, years past, nothing over one 70 that
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: I haven't seen yet. Actually, I take that back. There's
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: one 10 pointer who I have on camera. He is
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: a freaking giant. He was one 70 last year. The neighbor,
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: all I know is that the neighbor found his shed.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: I actually, actually, I don't have him on camera, but
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: I know the neighbor found his shed. And I also
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: know that that buck comes through multiple times during late October,
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: early November to check the does that bed. He doesn't
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: live in this area, but he checks the does that bed.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: So I'm going to try to put myself one of
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: those tree stands that I mentioned that I moved in March.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: is now in a spot where if he comes through,
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: you never know. I could, I could have a shot.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: So right now there's three deer that I'm thinking about.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: And then the fourth one would be the, the one
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: that I'm going to, I think we're going to try
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: to attack early season for youth season.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: And are you, are you still at the point where
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: like any one of those bucks is fair game? Or
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: do you feel like that big, big giant, if he
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: starts showing up, would it, would it be a situation
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: where it might hold out for him or.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: It is so stupid. I'm so stupid. I am that.
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: So last year I had two, like I had a
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: really good buck running around the farm. I saw him
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: from the stands and one day, 120 inch, three-year-old, 125 inch,
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: three-year-old showed up and I smoked him just because I
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: was in kill mode, dude.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: I was just like, let's go.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And I remember that.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: And, uh, and so, um, I, I had this conversation
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: with myself every day is an adventure. with me because
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: I'll pass 145 inch 10 pointer some days. And then
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: the next day I'll shoot 125 inch, you know, so
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: I'm shooting deer.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: I should pass and passing deer. I should shoot.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: And maybe someday like, Oh, I feel like it's prime rut.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: Let me go shoot a doe right in the best
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: bedding area. Like my mind these days is so whacked out.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: I'm just like, I'm just going out and trying to
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: have as much fun as possible and be like, Ooh, Ooh,
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: look at this.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: I'll let him walk. Let's see what he turns into.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: And then, then the next year that walks by is
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: a deer with great potential. And I shoot him. Yeah, exactly.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: Like what is going on with me?
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: I'm this midlife crisis is, is carrying over to my
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: deer hunting decision-making.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: So that's the way it should be though. I love that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I agree.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Just like maximum enthusiasm for the moment and having fun.
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Let the rest of it, let the rest of the slide.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, buddy, look at that thing.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: For anyone who's not watching on YouTube, we're talking stickers
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: off both twos? Or is that, what's going on on
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: his left side?
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Is that?
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's, no, that's, so he's got double stickers on
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: his G2s, and then he's got a double brow tie
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: on one side. And I think, and so, yeah, he's gorgeous.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: And then let's see if I can find the other one.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: Here's the other one.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Oof. So wide.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Like 20, 20 inches wide or something.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah. 20 to 20 to 23 inches wide. Like he's
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: a great buck too.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: Now here's the bad, the thing that I'm, we share
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: a property border where I'm sure these deer are walking
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: through at some point last year or two years ago,
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: I had two really good bucks just like this on
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: camera and somebody else I'm sure got to them before
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: I did. And they were there all through October. And
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: when I was like, okay, they're going through this pinch
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: point every single day. And I'm like, okay, it's game time.
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: I got the right wind. Let's go in.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: And then I went in and hunted, didn't see them.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: No big deal.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: Came back home and not another picture of them to
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: the point where one day I was in a tree
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: stand and there were drones flying over my head.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: And I'm assuming they were looking for these deer.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: So I don't know.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Well, what about you, dude? What about you?
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Different kind of year.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Like I, like I was saying at the top, um,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: I don't have a resident deer hunting license.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Can you get one? No, you can't.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Not this year. I have to wait till next year.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: So I can't hunt deer close to home this year,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: which is very strange.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: What is the cutoff?
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: How many days do you have to be a Montana
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: resident to get a Montana resident license?
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: I think it's six months, but I knew I was
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: nowhere close to it, so I haven't double-checked what the
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: exact timing was. But I believe it's six months. So
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: I did apply for a non-resident Montana tag, and that
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: didn't come through. So what I do have, though, is
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: a couple of sort of close options still. I have
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: an Idaho elk hunt. So I got an Idaho elk tag.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: We're going to do a kind of late September bow
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: hunt down there with my buddy Josh and Ross. So
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: that's going to be a super fun hunt. And if
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: I don't fill a tag there, I can go back
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: later in the year because that becomes like a gun
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: tag later in the year. So I can keep doing that.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: So I can try to kill an elk not too
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: far from home. And then I also drew a Wyoming
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: deer tag. in an area with white tails. And that
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: is about as close as I can get in Wyoming
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: to where I live in Montana, like three or.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: So hours away.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: So I have that to do local, um, the way
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: the schedule is kind of shaken out. It's probably not
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: going to be till October that I get to do
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: that hunt. Um, so I can, I'll be able to
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: hunt elk in September, Wyoming deer in October. And then
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: in late October, I'm going to go and do a
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: really big, long kind of rutcation back home in Michigan.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to do like two weeks. And my
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Michigan priorities this year will be different, though, than past years.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Because of the fact that I just can't be local
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: like I used to be and managing my old spots
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: the way I used to be, i have opened up
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: my old michigan place like my place was relatively close
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: to where i used to live um the spot where
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: so many of my deer hunting stories have come from
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: i have opened that up to a couple buddies to
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: kind of take over while i'm gone And I'm still
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: going to be a part of it and still going
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: to drop in for hunts here and there a little
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: bit and be a part of it. But, but now mostly, um,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: mostly I pass it on to Josh and, uh, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: so I've still got cameras out there. I'm still keeping
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: track of what's going on, but you know, on a
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: day to day basis, him and my buddy, Andy will
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: probably be the ones there killing the most deer. So
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be a little bit of a secondhand
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: hunter on the old, uh, wired hunt acres spot.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: We call it the dirt farm. Um, which Josh, dude,
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: you know, what's going to happen.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: There's something about that guy where he's going to walk
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: in and kill the biggest deer that's ever been killed
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: on that property.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I hope so. And you know what happened?
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: It's looking so good. Like I don't there, I set
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: them up really nicely, right? Their spots cleared out for
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: food plots. There's all my pre-hung stands, all my trail cameras.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: I showed them where I used to do a this
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: is what they do here. This is what they do here.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Here's my pre-hung locations here. Spots like to hunt with
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: this kind of wind. I have cameras up for them, uh,
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: and they're just getting a waltz in there.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: And, uh, yeah, it's like.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: He's going to an outfitter. Uh-huh.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: So, uh, I mean, I'm, I'm kidding a little bit.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: They're going to have to do their own work, but, uh,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: but it is a little bit strange watching it from
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: afar and knowing that I'm not going to be there
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: every day, but, uh, but at least I can still,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: you know, live vicariously through them and I'll still get
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: to go there and hunt a little bit. Um, and
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: and hopefully fill some doe tags but uh but i'm
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: glad that at least it's like in the family still
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: yeah and i'm still a part of it and we'll
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: get out there and do some turkey hunt probably in
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: the spring and some doe hunts in the winter but
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: uh it's looking really good there's a there's a bunch
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: of deer good deer on camera there um i think
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: it's gonna put josh and andy in a really really
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: good position this year and uh i'll be enjoying following
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: that through the group text but The reason I'm not
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: going to hunt there a ton is because I've decided
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: that if I'm going to be only able to hunt
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: two weeks in Michigan, I should probably be doing that
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: at my family deer camp, be up there with my dad,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: and really make sure that that place is getting the priority.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: So my big.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Rutcation for the first time ever will be entirely spent
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: up north at the Northwoods deer camp. Um, so my,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: my number one goal this year is going to be
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: to kill my first buck up there in a long time.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Um, and so, you know, usually I go there gun season.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: I've gone there once or twice kind of in the rut. Um,
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: like doing the stuff with my dad, trying to help
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: him get a deer, but I've never gone during the
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: rut for like just me before. Never like taking my
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: bow seriously. Um, hunting that late October, early November time period.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's going to be, that's going to be
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: the big new thing, trying to kill one of those
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: deer up there. There are a couple mature bucks showing
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: up on trail camera right now.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, good four year old or older bucks probably,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: you know, they, they usually.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Don't get huge antler wise.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: And we're talking maybe like one 15 to one 25
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: kind of bucks.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: But man, if I could kill, if I could kill.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: One of those deer with my bow, um, that would
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: be the coolest, like maybe my most meaningful Michigan buck
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: to kill one up there. Low deer density, tough country,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: tons of history. Um, I I'll be hunting our little 40,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: but really probably some of the public stuff around it's
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: even better. So I'll probably be hunting a bunch of
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: public too. Um, so that's going to be the really big,
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: interesting one is trying to figure out how to kill them.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: you know, it's probably a lot of long, slow days
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: without seeing much, but then if you put in the time,
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: one of these deer have got to cruise through eventually.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: So yeah, this kind of reminds me of, uh, us
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: talking about all the strategy that we have in the past, right?
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: It's like, Oh God, the wind direction has got to
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: be this time of year is so important. I got
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: to stay out this time and attack on this time
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: and all this stuff. And, And so now with you saying, Hey,
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: I'm my number one goal is to go kill a
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: deer in a low density area. And who knows what's
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: going to happen? Like throwing curve balls to, to ourselves
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: this year. And I'm glad you brought that up because
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: one of the things that I feel like I'm going
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: to do this year is learn my deer herd again.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: I feel like it's been 10 years. over 10 years
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: in cert on certain farms. And there's not one deer
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: who's still alive that I was hunting 10 years ago. Right. Or,
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: or even 15 years ago. So there, there, there might
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: be doing something different. And one of the things that
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: I felt like I want to try to do this
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: year is I want to go in and be aggressive
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: in like my best tree stands right away in the season.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Hmm.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: And just like, see what happens.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Right. Early in the actual season or early in your rotation.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: Like October, first week of October, when I normally am
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: coaching a football team or I'm just staying out of
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: the woods to let it be, you know, nice for
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: the upcoming season. I almost want to take two or
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: three days and just do a cycle the first week
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: of October and, and just go right into the best
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: pinch points, right into the big wood spots that are
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: traditional rut, like downwind of, of bedding areas. And just
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: see if anything has changed early season, because I've always
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: said to myself, dude, don't go in and, you know,
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: don't do it.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Don't go hunt early season. The best time is yet
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: to come.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: But then I've, I talked to all these guys over
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: the course of my life. You have to, And they're
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: just like, dude, I get the job done the first
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: two weeks of October every year.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: Like, I kind of like that. I want to try that.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: I want to see.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: And so I'm going to just like maybe do stuff
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: this upcoming year because my schedule allows that I normally
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: wouldn't do.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: It's so easy to get kind of set in your ways,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: kind of locked into the way that you know works
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: for you. And then you just, you just settle into
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: that and that's what you do. Or you settle into
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: like what everybody says.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: You should do.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: And then you go that way.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Um, but I do think that there's, there's a, something
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: very fun in breaking the convention and trying something new.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: And then B, we're probably going to learn a ton.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: When you, when you flip the script, when you go
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: and just try new things and maybe seem crazy, that's
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: probably an oftentimes is, is when you learn the very most.
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: Um, and so I think that's, you know, I think
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: for some people who are just figuring it out, like
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: maybe they need to kind of stick with what they
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: learned a little bit.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: From last year and then like figure it out.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: But for those of us who've done this a long
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: time and who have found what works, it's not a
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: bad idea to sometimes find a new thing that works.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: Like just, just totally tip over the apple cart and
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: see what happens. And then maybe you'll learn a brand
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: new thing that works as well and a whole new
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: way of doing things. Um, so yeah, you make a
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: great point and I'm, I'm definitely going to be in
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: that same boat too. Like I, I, You know, for example,
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: one thing over the last decade, you and I've talked
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: a lot about, it's like, you know, being mobile, moving
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: around a lot, finding where the action is right now, right?
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Adjusting, getting in deep, being aggressive.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that approach is going to work
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: in a big woods, swampy, low deer density area. I
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: know a lot of guys I've talked to, and as
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: I've done a little bit of this, right? I go
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: up there for a few days at a time. You know,
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: sometimes it might be that sitting in the same place
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: over and over and over and over again actually might
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: be the best way to do it where you just
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: you know that hey there's not going to be a
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: buck that rolls through every day but if you wait
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: four days he will eventually come through you just have
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: to make sure you are there on that fourth day
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: or fifth day when he finally does yeah um.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: You know how hard that is to do when you
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: grew up going bananas run and gun like probably moving
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: around too much to all of a sudden going, well,
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: this spot is good for a reason. I need to
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: give it more time. And then you start to shoot
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: a couple of deer out of that using that method.
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: Then it seems like you're not doing enough those three
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: days that the deer aren't coming through. And then on
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: that fourth day, then your shooter finally shows up. And
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: it almost messed, that success almost messes with your head
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: a little bit. Yeah.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Like I fully expect this to be a massive mental challenge.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: I think I'm, I'm going to really struggle with it
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: and I'm going to be sitting there thinking, am I
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: in the right spot and I just need to wait
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: my time or am I in the wrong spot and
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know it and I'm screwing things up and
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: not take it.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: So I don't know.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a whole new thing. Um, but
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: it will be, it'll be really cool if I can
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: finally make it work. And because of that, you know,
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to be terribly picky. Um, To kill
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: any deer up there in that situation with a bow,
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: I think I will view that as a success. Would
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: I love for it to be one of these couple
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: nicer bucks I'm seeing so far?
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Sure. But who knows? I might go Dan Johnson mode
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: on November.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: 7th, and there might be a two-year-old, and I'm like,
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: you know what? That buck would make me really happy today.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: You just get bloodthirsty. I mean, I don't know what
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: it was.
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: Last year, this buck shows up, and I knew– And
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: I knew he was small and I knew he was
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: young and I knew all those things. And I just
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: did not care. That was the day. That was the day.
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: And I said, well, sorry, bud, but I choose you.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with that. I bet you that deer tasted
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: dang good too.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: Oh dude.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: So yeah, man, sometimes, you know, I think we've gotten
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: to the point. We're both very fortunate that we've both
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: killed a bunch of great bucks. We've both had plenty
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: of success that I like this new phase where we
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: can define our own.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Version of success.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: I don't feel beholden at all anymore to what I
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: used to think or what other people would think. Now,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: I swear, if I kill a 110-inch three-year-old with my
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: bow out there in the big woods on the edge
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: of the swamp and I hang him on the family
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: buck pole, I will be more proud of that than
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: just about anything.
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: And that would be so fun.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: There's, there's parts of me. I almost wish I could
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: go back and like issue a press release. Cause the
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: version of me 10, 15 years ago, like even at
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: the beginning, when I started, uh, started when we started
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: wired to hunt, I was just like saying some almost
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: arrogant things. I look back and I'm like, dude, why
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: did you say that? And maybe that was truly the, the,
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: the way that I hunted or in between that timeframe, uh,
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: you know, I said things about, uh, but at the
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: end of the day, what you come to realize is
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: everybody has like this different version of what they want.
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: Everybody wants the big buck.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: But I think as of right now in this culture
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: that we've, that has happened and guys like us as
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: maybe even created the, I feel like big, the, the,
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: there is still a huge emphasis on the big buck,
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: but I think that is slowly starting to come recede
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: just a little bit. And people are realizing like, Hey dude,
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: maybe chasing the big buck.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Isn't what I need to do.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: Maybe I just need to get outside and take some big, fat,
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: deep breaths of air and just go out and have
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: as much fun as humanly possible.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: And that looks different for everybody.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: I do think that there is that, I don't know
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: if it's backlash, but there's a growing movement of people
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: being like, Hey, there, you don't have to do it
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: this one way.
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: It doesn't success.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Doesn't have to be just like this one thing we're
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: seeing on social media or TV that that's definitely a
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: shift is, is on the way, which is a good thing,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: I think. So, so yeah, man, that's the, that's the
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: Michigan game plan is going to be to try to
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: kill one up North, to put one on the buck pole,
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: spend some time.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: With my dad. Um, And then I will be getting back.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Hopefully some more in the winter, do some doe hunts
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: down on the dirt farm with Josh and Andy, take
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: my boys out over Thanksgiving or Christmas, some of those periods.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: And then I do have one other out-of-state whitetail hunt
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: that tentatively the game plan is that myself and a
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: few other folks from Meteater are going to go do
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: a January rut hunt in Mississippi.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: Oh boy.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Which could be Super cool.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: Never done, you know, I've done some, I guess it
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: would have been December in Alabama, which was sort of
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: variety for that part of the state. But January rut
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: hunt will be very different and cool. And suppose this
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: is an area where there could be some pretty good deer.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: So, I don't know. That one will be kind of
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: a wild card. I don't know what to expect.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: We're going to show up, cold turkey, and just try
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: to figure out this area and just see what happens.
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: So that's the season, Idaho elk, Wyoming deer.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: So Wyoming elk in September, the goal there is just
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: like have fun on that one. I don't have, you know,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: because I'm now in Montana starting next year, I'll be
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: able to have a resident elk tag every year. So, um,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: going into this one, I don't, I don't have a
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: whole lot of pressure on it. I'd rather see Josh
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: or Ross get an elk.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Um, if I happen to get the shot, great, but
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: probably I'll be putting them, you know, they can be
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: the main priority shooters most of the time and I'll
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: call and just have a good time. And, um, so
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: that's gonna be a blast. And then Wyoming deer, like
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: I said, will be October and that one, um, you know,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: I'm probably gonna have like a week to just try
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: to figure out a new spot. That'll be, that'll be
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: public land. Um, and another wild card and then, uh,
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: and then the Michigan stuff.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: So very, very different.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: And then also, you know, I'm just so, going to
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: be trying to figure things out here in montana i
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: am doing a lot of like glassing driving around glassing
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: um i don't have permissions on any places yet so
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: that's a thing that i'm slowly trying to start building
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: some relationships and hopefully get access to like one of
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: these different kind of river bottom ranches or properties where
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: i can you know next year really dial in a
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: local whitetail game yeah um but that's that's kind of
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: going to be a year-long process so There's definitely some
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: deer around and seeing some nice white tails in the,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: in the neighborhood.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: So I just got to get some, some access.
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: Is that Elkhart anywhere close to where we went all
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: those years ago? I think 2014.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: I'm taking them right back there, Dan.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, buddy.
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: No, that was, that was a very unique, uh, very
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: unique spot, man.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: I felt like the, just the drive in there was awesome.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: Like beautiful.
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, when you cross the border there and then you
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: drive all that way in, dude, it was so much fun.
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: And then you think there's going to be pressure there
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: like there has been?
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: Have you been back to that area since?
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: I went back one time since.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: So I think that very next year, I think I went,
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: or two years later, something like that, one time. And
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: when you and I were there, did we bump into
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: other guys? I don't think we did, did we?
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Or was there one person in there?
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I can't remember.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: There was.
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: two trailers that people would hike in every single day.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: Then we, then we went in and we backpacked and
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: remember that first morning or.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Was it down by the Creek?
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: Was that, no, we went to go get water and
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: we looked up and there was a guy on a
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: horse pulling out at elk, a bull elk.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: I totally forgot about that.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: So he, he, he was on, uh, we, we got
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: up there and we're like, Hey, this is where it
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: all happens. And then there was like, it was all flat.
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: Like there had been tents and horse string horse strung up.
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: And then that guy starts coming down or we, we
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: start walking up and that guy was pulling out, uh,
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: when we went down to go get water for the
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: first night.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah. Who knows?
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: I have no idea what the pressure will be like
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: this year. I do know that the whole elk, tag
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: thing is different this year you know in idaho because
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: they moved to um you know you have to it's
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: like the randomized drawing now you can't show like there's
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: some people that you could show up in person in
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: line to buy a tag and like have a better
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: chance of getting one now none of that's possible so
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: yeah you know talking to some people who live in
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: idaho and have like kind of seen how things have
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: gone the last few years. They, it just seems it's
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: going to be a big reshuffling of the deck for people.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, so I don't know.
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: There's a couple of people who I know, uh, that were, uh,
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: on the Western rookie podcast. I was emailing or, um,
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: talking with guys who had went out to Idaho for
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: like 20 years in a row. And now, uh, they
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: can't do that anymore. It shifted how, how they, how
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: they do their, their elk camp every year. And so
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: they have to find new ways to go do the
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: same thing or go to a different state or something
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: like that, which at the end of the day, I
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: think of things like that. And I'm like, it's probably
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: for the better, right? Everything's a little bit more structured.
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: Everything's a little bit more organized for, for that. And yeah,
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: maybe you don't, maybe the non-residents don't get to come
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: in and have as much uh, take of those tags
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: as they have in the past, but I feel like
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: it's better for everybody.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: I hope, I hope that there's a way that folks
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: can kind of figure out that proper balance, you know,
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: between giving folks opportunity, but then also doing what's right
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: for the resource and.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: The animals and the experience too.
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: Like that's the thing that people are constantly trying to
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: wrestle with is like, how do we give people opportunities,
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: but then also to have a circus out there.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Um, So, yeah, we'll see. But I haven't gone elk
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: hunting in almost 10 years.
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: Oh, wow.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It's been a long time. About the same for me, too.
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: About the same for me.
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: So that's another big goal I have in the next
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: handful of years is to get this knee back in shape,
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: get my body back in shape, and then start exploring
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: out west a little further than what I have been.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Well, now you've got a buddy who lives on the ground.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I know, right? Elk stuff. So maybe put them for
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Montana elk tack here soon, man.
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: There you go. I like that idea.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: I like that um i'll do some scouting for you
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: we'll hit the mountains together it's been uh it's been
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: too long since you wore trash bags for reindeer.
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: Oh my god i cannot believe how crazy that first
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: hunt was that was i will i will remember that
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: forever just like just like The sadness in my voice
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: and the confusion in your voice when I woke you
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: up in the middle of the night and was like, dude,
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: can I come into your tent?
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: Like a one man tent. It's like, are you serious?
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, dude, I have an inch of water
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: in my tent.
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: Can you, can you let me in please?
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: That would have been funny if you're like an asshole
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: and you're like, take my keys and hike back to
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: the truck in the middle of the night while it's.
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: Raining, you know?
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: That was legendary. That will never, that store will never
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: get old.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: No, it won't. No, it won't.
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: So outside of that, um, uh, for a while there,
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: the saddle hunting thing, right.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: Was, was big. Like, are you still into the saddle
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: game as much as you, because.
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: Everybody seems to go big time saddle and then they
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: recede a little bit to where there's, they're now.
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: A mix of tree stand saddle.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say that I had gone to, well,
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: I had regressed a little bit to what you just said,
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: which is like tree stand and saddle. But even when
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: I'm in tree stands, like pre-hung stands, I've now switched
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: to always still wearing my saddle as my safety harness.
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: Because you can use, you know, you can use this,
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: basically your tree stand becomes a platform for, And then
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: you can still take advantage of the saddle, giving you
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: different shooting positions and leaning out around branches and spinning
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: around the tree and stuff. So that's kind of the
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: middle ground I found is like in the spots that
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: I have preexisting stands. It's nice to have those things
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: already up there and not having a running gun on
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: every single hunt. So I use those still a lot,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: but the saddle gave me some more flexibility in them.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: Now this year it's going to be weird because I
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: don't have a bunch of pre-hung stands up North at
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: deer camp. Cause that traditionally was always a gun season spot. Um,
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: so I'm gonna be running, gunning there. And then the
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: Wyoming deer hunt, that'll probably be saddle slash ground hunting. Um,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: and then Mississippi is again, like a showing up and
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: figuring out as I go.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: So that'll be saddle just by necessity. So just because of.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: The weird year I'm having, I'm going to be doing
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: a lot of running, gunning. Um, But eventually, once I
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: get some places on lockdown again locally, and probably next year,
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: when I go back for the summer for some Michigan time,
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: I'm probably going to take what I learned this fall
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: about the rut up north and then probably hang some
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: permanent sets for that for the following years.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: But it's kind of a mix.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: I do think that a mix has been what's right
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: because it's great to have the flexibility of saddle hunting
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: and mobile hunting. But man, it can wear on you
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: if you have to do that every day, tearing down
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: a new set, hanging a new set, finding a new spot,
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: putting it up, picking it down over and over. Some days,
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: it's just nice to have a place that you can
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: sneak in quietly, climb right up, sit down, and be
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: there and be hunting.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: So I like the mix. What about you?
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: It's the same.
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: Essentially, my saddle is my safety harness. And I'll admit,
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: getting older, I can't sit down for too long. I
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: can't stand up for too long. Like, or my knees
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: will get jacked up. But I mean, with the knee
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: that I have now is much better than my old knee.
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: So I don't really have to worry about, I don't
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: even have a knee anymore.
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: It's fake.
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: So there's not going to be like the only thing
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: that's going to really start to get maybe sore would
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: be the muscles that surround it.
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: So I feel like I'm.
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: Going to be able to hang out of a saddle
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: a little bit more. but that doesn't mean that I'm
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: going to be using a platform more. It just means
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: I'll be able to be a little, you know, like
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: if I get bored of sitting down, I'll lean, I
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: can stand up, I can do whatever I need to.
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: And then if I need to go in and make
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: some kind of surgical strike on some whitetail buck in
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: a corner of the farm that I, you know, don't
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: have a tree stand in, I'll be able to do
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: that too. So.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: So, so wrapping this up one, one last thing to
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: think about one thing this coming season, that you want
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: to do differently than you did last year? What's one
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: change you think you're going to make for this coming season?
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: I think there's not really too much of a change
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: from the strategy standpoint. There is going to be a, uh,
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: a change from the, I feel like the tag filling,
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: like I want to, I just want to shoot more deer.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: Fill the freezer, fill the freezer, changing the goal.
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: So, so the goals this year are, kill more deer,
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: get your son a buck and then kill one of
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: those mature deer.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Is that right?
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: And if I wake up someday and I see down
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: the trail, a two-year-old, one-year-old coming right at me that
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: has a ton of potential that I know next year,
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: he's going to be Boone and Crockett. I might just
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: shoot him too. So like, I don't know, like this is,
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: this is what I do know. that plans change and
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: every year we have this conversation and every year something
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: different happens, right? Like I'm always like, Oh dude, I'm
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: going to, I'm going to, I'm going back to 2007, 2008,
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: Dan Johnson at that doesn't happen.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: And Oh, I'm going to fill, I'm going to, I'm
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: going to go. If it's Brown, it's down. I'm filling
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: my freezer to the limit this year. That's not going
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: to happen. Yeah.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: Like I'm only hunting.
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: Mature bucks that's not going to happen right so it's
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: a day by day moment by moment and i don't
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: know if it's like my age or the amount of
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: sleep i get or it's like if i didn't get
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: good sleep the night before i just want to get
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: it over with and i just want to shoot the
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: first buck that walks by or if i'm fully rested
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: and i'm willing to put in a ton of energy
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: and effort into the next day i don't know have
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: fun with my boys and or whoever wants to come
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: hunting with me and that's like That seems to be
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: the permanent change in direction that I'm going in.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: Sounds like a pretty good one. I'm right there with
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: you on a whole bunch of that stuff. I think
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: that reserving the right to define success the way you
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: want is about as good of a goal as I
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: could set for this year. And yeah, going to try
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: to get a deer up north, have fun the rest
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: of the season, get the boys out for some new things.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: One thing I didn't talk about, but considering getting a
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: fall bear tag, I can get a bear tag over
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: the counter. So I could, you know, take the boys
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: out in the mountains here, local and, and just be
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: up there, you know, seeing deer, seeing elk and maybe
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: shoot a black bear and have an opportunity for them
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: to be out there on a hunt.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: That'd be cool.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: Um, so yeah, it's just, this is a year of
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: just doing new things. And that's the goal is experience
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: all the new things, learn new places and.
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: See what happens.
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: And at some point be as, uh, just try to
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: live up to Tony Peterson's expectations to where he would
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: want to come be on this podcast and not ditch
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: us like he did.
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, man.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: We apparently are missing the boat there because he ghosts
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: us hardcore. But that's all right.
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: We had fun without him. That's right. We don't need him.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: And I appreciate you making the time and using your
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: technical savviness, Dan, to make this work.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: So thanks. Thanks for joining me, buddy.
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem. Anytime, bud.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: And for the rest of you, thanks for joining.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: And until next time, good luck out there in the
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: woods and stay wired to hunt.