Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 952: Foundations - The Reality of Rabbits with Antlers and the Fun Factor of Hunting

Transcript

Ep. 952: Foundations - The Reality of Rabbits with Antlers and the Fun Factor of Hunting · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
0:09
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
0:14
Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
0:19
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
0:23
Speaker 2: brought to you by first Light.
0:24
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Tony Peterson.
0:26
Speaker 2: Today's episode is all the books, kind of just like
0:28
Speaker 2: staying in our lane when it comes to deer hunting,
0:30
Speaker 2: so that we can all have a little more fun
0:31
Speaker 2: this season.
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Speaker 3: It's pretty hard.
0:35
Speaker 2: To put yourself in someone else's shoes or, in this case,
0:38
Speaker 2: I don't know, knee high hunting boots, I guess, but
0:40
Speaker 2: we should all try because the truth about this stuff
0:43
Speaker 2: is that if you love deer and all that comes
0:45
Speaker 2: with hunting them, you kind of have an obligation to
0:48
Speaker 2: try to treat others with a similar mindset the same
0:51
Speaker 2: way you'd like to be treated.
0:52
Speaker 3: The Golden rule.
0:53
Speaker 2: You know, this might seem like wishy washyps, but what
0:57
Speaker 2: we do affects others, and we do have the power
1:00
Speaker 2: to ruin other people's hunts with just our words.
1:03
Speaker 3: You know, let alone our actions.
1:05
Speaker 2: I think we can do better, and that's what this
1:07
Speaker 2: podcast is all about. A couple of weeks ago, I
1:17
Speaker 2: finished up a workout and walked into the locker room
1:21
Speaker 2: and changed up, walked out to the steam room. I
1:24
Speaker 2: generally keep my earbuds in when I'm in there because
1:27
Speaker 2: just often enough, someone, usually an older fellow who doesn't
1:31
Speaker 2: seem to have a lot on his plate for the day,
1:33
Speaker 2: will want to talk politics. The earbuds protect me a
1:36
Speaker 2: little bit from random strangers striking up a conversation that
1:39
Speaker 2: I don't really want to get into. You know, talking
1:41
Speaker 2: about some political thing that happened with strangers in a
1:44
Speaker 2: tiny room that is one hundred and sixty degrees is
1:46
Speaker 2: about as appealing to me as it would be to
1:48
Speaker 2: pass a gulf ball sized kidney stone while hornet stick
1:51
Speaker 2: me in the nostrils. No thanks, any huski. When I
1:55
Speaker 2: sat down, there were two people in there. One of
1:57
Speaker 2: them happened to be a woman that I used to
1:59
Speaker 2: see quite a bit and who always said hi, but
2:01
Speaker 2: who I never actually talked to in my life. I
2:04
Speaker 2: immediately noticed that she looked kind of unhealthy, skinny, and
2:07
Speaker 2: thought to myself, man, she looked super deconditioned. I figured
2:12
Speaker 2: she'd just taken some time off and hadn't been working out,
2:15
Speaker 2: which seemed pretty logical in my brain. But then we
2:18
Speaker 2: started talking and she almost immediately offered up the reason
2:21
Speaker 2: why she hadn't been to the gym in months. It
2:23
Speaker 2: turns out the weekend of Mother's Day, way back in May,
2:27
Speaker 2: she was driving along on a highway with her two
2:29
Speaker 2: year old son when a car that was supposed to
2:31
Speaker 2: stop at a stop sign didn't, and she got t
2:34
Speaker 2: boned on the driver's side by a vehicle going fifty
2:36
Speaker 2: five miles an hour. The impact pushed her car into
2:40
Speaker 2: someone's yard, where it was headed straight for a power
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Speaker 2: pole when a septic mound slowed them down enough to stop.
2:46
Speaker 2: Now that collision broke both of her arms and her
2:49
Speaker 2: sternum and her collarbone, and she had a fresh semicircle
2:54
Speaker 2: scar on her cheek where she received thirty stitches. She
2:58
Speaker 2: said her son ended up bruised up but fine. Now
3:01
Speaker 2: was only because two days before that she had moved
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Speaker 2: in from directly behind her to the middle seat. She
3:07
Speaker 2: then said that the scariest part was that when she
3:09
Speaker 2: was two, her dad died in a car accident in
3:12
Speaker 2: a very similar way after hitting a telephone pole. Think
3:16
Speaker 2: of that what you will, But it dawned on me
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Speaker 2: that I had filled in her story for why she
3:21
Speaker 2: looks so skinny and honestly just not super healthy, and
3:24
Speaker 2: had chalked it up to kind of being lazy and
3:26
Speaker 2: just not going to the gym for months. That realization
3:29
Speaker 2: did not make me feel great. It's pretty hard to
3:32
Speaker 2: imagine not only having two broken arms, but a busted sternum,
3:36
Speaker 2: which has to be horrible amongst a bunch of other injuries. Now,
3:41
Speaker 2: around that same time, I got a phone call from
3:44
Speaker 2: a young hunter I know who was trying hard to
3:46
Speaker 2: kill a public land buck without help from anyone, who
3:49
Speaker 2: seemed less concerned with the process of finding and shooting
3:52
Speaker 2: a deer than shooting the wrong deer. Now, as you
3:56
Speaker 2: probably know about me, I don't give a shit if
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Speaker 2: you shoot a giant or a spike, or a dough
4:02
Speaker 2: or a button buck. I don't know where anyone is
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Speaker 2: on their hunting journey outside of a couple of close friends,
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Speaker 2: and it's not up to me to decide what is
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Speaker 2: worthy of someone else's tag. That young hunter on the
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Speaker 2: public land quest tiptoed around this, But a big reason
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Speaker 2: for all the anxiety was the shit storm that shooting
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Speaker 2: a small buck and posting it on Instagram would draw.
4:22
Speaker 2: My solution to that was to just hunt for whatever,
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Speaker 2: shoot what you want, and don't post it. But that
4:27
Speaker 2: isn't a reality for a lot of hunters these days,
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Speaker 2: which is a shame. I can tell you this. I
4:33
Speaker 2: know that hunter situation and shooting a small buck on
4:36
Speaker 2: public land would be as big of a feat as
4:38
Speaker 2: shooting a really big deer on some of the heavily
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Speaker 2: managed properties I've hunted, but that doesn't seem to matter.
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Speaker 2: Nor does it matter that this hunter has exactly one
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Speaker 2: bow kill on the old resume so far. That alone,
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Speaker 2: to me, would be a green light to go try
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Speaker 2: to earn a high odd shot without focusing on trophy
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Speaker 2: potential too much. But you can't argue there isn't social
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Speaker 2: pressure to shoot bigger deer. I'll never forget one of
5:01
Speaker 2: the first public land bucks I arrowed, which was an
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Speaker 2: eight pointer down in Nebraska that came into a decoy.
5:07
Speaker 2: That hunt was fun, it was a lot of work,
5:10
Speaker 2: and after a few days of close put no cigar,
5:13
Speaker 2: that buck came in and I shot him poorly.
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Speaker 3: The blood trail was a grind.
5:18
Speaker 2: I ended up making a follow up shot and it
5:20
Speaker 2: all worked out in the end. But it was one
5:22
Speaker 2: of those core memory hunts that contained a hell of
5:25
Speaker 2: a lot of good moves on my part and a
5:27
Speaker 2: couple of really bad ones. That deer taught me a lot.
5:31
Speaker 2: And I wouldn't say it is a straight up good memory,
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Speaker 2: but it is a very valuable one to me. Now,
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Speaker 2: I was in the hunting industry as a freelance writer
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Speaker 2: at the time, and I had a lot of industry contacts.
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Speaker 2: I sent the kill photos to the bow company that
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Speaker 2: had sent me the bow I used, and they posted
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Speaker 2: a picture on their Facebook page. The very first comment was, dang,
5:52
Speaker 2: that buck is tiny. Mind you, it was a buck
5:56
Speaker 2: that wasn't a giant, but it was a pretty solid
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Speaker 2: two year old deer that was out to his ear.
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Speaker 3: Meant a lot to me.
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Speaker 2: It was a throwaway comment on social media with a
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Speaker 2: picture in a most zero context. An instant judgment thing,
6:08
Speaker 2: you know, is something that we have all done in
6:10
Speaker 2: our lives, and a lot of us still do it.
6:13
Speaker 2: We probably always will because of human nature. But we
6:16
Speaker 2: should think about this and we should think about how
6:18
Speaker 2: we view our own hunting. I rarely run across hunters
6:23
Speaker 2: who will admit their hunting is easy, just like I
6:26
Speaker 2: very rarely run across people who admit that their dogs
6:29
Speaker 2: aren't well behaved. Think about this, though, how hard you know?
6:34
Speaker 2: Do you think that your hunting is? Because I can
6:37
Speaker 2: bet you you know, if I wanted to, I could
6:40
Speaker 2: pick apart a lot of your arguments and evidence for
6:42
Speaker 2: why your hunting isn't actually that hard simply by comparing
6:47
Speaker 2: it to how hard I think my hunting is.
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Speaker 3: But would that make me right?
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Speaker 2: Well on the surface, maybe if you hunt private land
6:55
Speaker 2: and I hunt public maybe, But if that private land
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Speaker 2: is in Tennessee and my public is in Iowa, not
7:02
Speaker 2: so simple. It's still may be true, but it's getting
7:05
Speaker 2: a little muddy anyways. Now, what if you hunt with
7:08
Speaker 2: a crossbow and I hunt with a compound. Now I've
7:11
Speaker 2: got you because your weapon is without question easier to
7:14
Speaker 2: use than mine.
7:15
Speaker 3: Check mate. But maybe not.
7:19
Speaker 2: What if you have a job that demands long hours
7:22
Speaker 2: is a physical nightmare, And not only do you just
7:25
Speaker 2: not have a ton of free time to hunt, you know,
7:27
Speaker 2: like I do, you're also wore out when you do
7:30
Speaker 2: have that free time, you know, And then you got
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Speaker 2: me just pounding on a keyboard and drinking coffee while
7:35
Speaker 2: I plan a whole falls worth of time in the
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Speaker 2: woods in multiple states. Who really has the advantage here.
7:41
Speaker 2: Let's take that a step further. Maybe you have killed
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Speaker 2: a dozen deer with a bow in your career, while
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Speaker 2: I've killed over one hundred. Would it be cool for
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Speaker 2: me to judge your success based on mine or disregard
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Speaker 2: how lucky I've been to hunt as much as I
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Speaker 2: have and rack up such an amazing and awe inspiring resume.
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Speaker 3: I mean, it pales in comparison to.
8:01
Speaker 2: Some people I know, But those folks have a lot
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Speaker 2: more money than me because their grandpa started a business
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Speaker 2: and created generational wealth. So even though they have more
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Speaker 2: and bigger deer on their walls, mine just somehow become
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Speaker 2: better because I'm not rich and I earn them. That's
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Speaker 2: a solid way to live until I acknowledge how many
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Speaker 2: people would kill to have the opportunities I've had, and
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Speaker 2: if I conveniently forget that, there are quite a few
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Speaker 2: people out there who are more concerned with finding a
8:25
Speaker 2: job or keeping their jobs than they are about killing
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Speaker 2: deer that some stranger would approve of. This shit all
8:43
Speaker 2: gets super muddy in a hurry, And you know what
8:45
Speaker 2: it means that we can't really understand other people and
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Speaker 2: the lives they are living. Some folks, you know, they
8:52
Speaker 2: make bad choices, and some folks just have bad choices
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Speaker 2: made for them. Some folks are born with a huge
8:58
Speaker 2: head start, others not so much. That might not seem
9:01
Speaker 2: like it has anything to do with deer hunting, but
9:03
Speaker 2: it absolutely does. The trends of greater society bleed into
9:08
Speaker 2: deer hunting in so many different ways. You and I
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Speaker 2: are losing hunting opportunities every single year to other hunters
9:15
Speaker 2: because we've been othered really well in this space, and
9:19
Speaker 2: if you live across the state line from me, you
9:21
Speaker 2: are lesser than I am. We can defend stuff like
9:24
Speaker 2: that easily because we want to be right and we
9:27
Speaker 2: want to have easier hunting for ourselves. But let's not
9:30
Speaker 2: pretend that we aren't totally okay with removing hunting opportunities
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Speaker 2: from our fellow hunters because we can generalize them and
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Speaker 2: shit on them very easily. Now, that might not be
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Speaker 2: an exact replica of how divided we are as people
9:43
Speaker 2: right now. But it's close enough and it isn't doing
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Speaker 2: us any favors.
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Speaker 3: Now.
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Speaker 2: That mindset also demands some level of cognitive dissonance to maintain.
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Speaker 2: I had a conversation with an outfitter from Nebraska one
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Speaker 2: time who bitched about non residents killing all of the
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Speaker 2: young deers so there weren't any left for them residents.
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Speaker 2: Never mind the fact that the outfitter has over ten
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Speaker 2: thousand acres of ground locked up, which keeps non paying
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Speaker 2: residents and non residents out of some really awesome stuff,
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Speaker 2: Or never mind that the state's resource there is being
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Speaker 2: hoarded to produce as much income as possible for that person.
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Speaker 2: The argument about booting non residents in that case was
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Speaker 2: that the value of the hunt for residents was reduced.
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Speaker 2: But how do you measure that against one person paying
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Speaker 2: to keep over fifteen square miles of good ground out
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Speaker 2: of the hands of everyone who isn't willing to fork
10:32
Speaker 2: over a lot of money to set foot on it. Now,
10:35
Speaker 2: I'm not saying non residents should have equal access to
10:37
Speaker 2: the animals that residents do, anymore than we should just
10:40
Speaker 2: shut down all the outfitters out there. I don't believe
10:43
Speaker 2: either thing I just use those points to illustrate how
10:45
Speaker 2: easy it is to feel justified in our actions when
10:48
Speaker 2: it comes to hunting, actions which definitely impact our fellow hunters.
10:54
Speaker 3: It's hard to put yourself in someone.
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Speaker 2: Else's shoes, you know, or, in this case, like I said,
10:58
Speaker 2: hunting boots. The world is full of people who are
11:01
Speaker 2: miserable projecting onto other people because it's easier to try
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Speaker 2: to blow out someone else's candle than to try to
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Speaker 2: get ours to burn a little brighter. I don't know
11:09
Speaker 2: why I think this, but I just do, And as hunters,
11:12
Speaker 2: I just think we can do better, and I think
11:14
Speaker 2: we should try. So how do we do this well?
11:18
Speaker 2: We can try not to be pricks to each other.
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Speaker 2: That's about as simple as I can put it, and
11:22
Speaker 2: I guess maybe that's as simple as it needs to be.
11:25
Speaker 2: It's kind of like something I heard once in the
11:27
Speaker 2: fitness world where someone said they could write the shortest
11:29
Speaker 2: and most true dieting book ever, the only line in
11:33
Speaker 2: it would be burn more calories than you consume, or
11:37
Speaker 2: something to that effect. In a nutshell, some stuff actually
11:41
Speaker 2: has an easy solve, but that's generally only true if
11:43
Speaker 2: you don't take into account human nature, which is pretty
11:46
Speaker 2: hard to not account for when you're talking about humans.
11:49
Speaker 2: So the next best thing is to step outside your
11:51
Speaker 2: comfort zone and try something new. You know how much
11:54
Speaker 2: I love to preach about hunting somewhere different, some foreign
11:57
Speaker 2: deer ground somewhere, because I do think it's one of
12:00
Speaker 2: the best.
12:00
Speaker 3: Ways to level up as a hunter.
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Speaker 2: I believe that, But I also believe that it's sort
12:04
Speaker 2: of the antidote to becoming overly xenophobic and myopic when
12:08
Speaker 2: it comes to deer hunting. The more you go to
12:10
Speaker 2: different places and meet different people and put yourself in
12:13
Speaker 2: a situation where you have to figure things out on
12:15
Speaker 2: the fly and you have to learn or you'll fail spectacularly,
12:19
Speaker 2: the easier it is to start to understand other people's
12:23
Speaker 2: or in this case, other hunter's perspectives. I know that's
12:26
Speaker 2: easy to say but hard to do. A great example
12:29
Speaker 2: in my own life is that I can't understand why
12:31
Speaker 2: so many vertical bow hunters immediately by a crossbow when
12:34
Speaker 2: they become legal. But that's kind of the same thing,
12:38
Speaker 2: you know, I feel when I get into my buddy
12:40
Speaker 2: Adam's truck and he plays the worst country music known
12:42
Speaker 2: to mand. He's not my decision to make for someone else,
12:46
Speaker 2: and I just like different things. I get why people
12:49
Speaker 2: want an easier weapon. It kind of only makes sense.
12:53
Speaker 2: Some people don't enjoy shooting bows a whole lot, or
12:55
Speaker 2: have the time or whatever. Some people just want more
12:58
Speaker 2: confidence that when it does walk in, they're actually going
13:02
Speaker 2: to kill it. I can't really fault anyone for that,
13:05
Speaker 2: even though that's my initial impulse quite often. I also
13:09
Speaker 2: can't really fault someone for liking the music they do,
13:11
Speaker 2: because the hell of a lot of the people in
13:13
Speaker 2: this world would absolutely hate the music I love, and
13:15
Speaker 2: I understand that. I think it's better to recognize that
13:19
Speaker 2: people find value in their own taste of music, just
13:21
Speaker 2: like the guy who shoots a crossbow can walk into
13:24
Speaker 2: the woods for the same reason I do and walk
13:26
Speaker 2: out feeling the same way, and evenings spent hunting deer
13:30
Speaker 2: really does for me. I had a recent conversation with
13:33
Speaker 2: a hunting buddy who lives where I grew up, and
13:36
Speaker 2: he told me a few stories about people I used
13:38
Speaker 2: to know from my hometown who are into the trophy
13:41
Speaker 2: deer thing in a major way. He said it made
13:43
Speaker 2: him not want to talk to hardly anyone about deer hunting,
13:46
Speaker 2: and I get that, but I don't think it has
13:49
Speaker 2: to be that way. And I think, as woo woo
13:51
Speaker 2: as this sounds, it starts with all of us as individuals.
13:55
Speaker 2: We can come together to try to keep public lands
13:57
Speaker 2: in the hands of the general public in an amazing way.
14:00
Speaker 2: I think we can make the decision to recognize that
14:02
Speaker 2: we are hunting rabbits with antlers, and it's cool if
14:05
Speaker 2: someone wants to do it in a way that doesn't
14:06
Speaker 2: appeal to us. I think to put a fine point
14:09
Speaker 2: on this, I'll tell you what I've said to a
14:11
Speaker 2: few random strangers over the years, including some lady at
14:14
Speaker 2: Target a few years ago who was losing her mind
14:18
Speaker 2: over a mispriced item. It clearly wasn't the checkout lady's fault,
14:22
Speaker 2: and she was trying to sort it out.
14:24
Speaker 3: But this woman was just so over the top about it.
14:26
Speaker 3: It was gross.
14:28
Speaker 2: So I said to her, we know a woman who
14:31
Speaker 2: had a baby that was born with cancer. I didn't
14:34
Speaker 2: even know that was a thing until it happened to
14:36
Speaker 2: someone in our little world. Imagine that for a second.
14:40
Speaker 2: Anyone who has had a child knows that the fear
14:43
Speaker 2: you have one that is always riding shotgun with all
14:46
Speaker 2: the positive thoughts, is what if something is wrong, like
14:49
Speaker 2: really wrong. So this woman looked at me and she
14:52
Speaker 2: said so, and I said so, this isn't that big
14:56
Speaker 2: of a deal, not big enough to act this way.
14:58
Speaker 3: It's not that important.
15:00
Speaker 2: And I can tell you that I've said this very
15:02
Speaker 2: thing to a few people in my life. None of
15:04
Speaker 2: them looked at it like they wanted to hear it.
15:07
Speaker 2: But it doesn't make it untrue. I know that I
15:10
Speaker 2: go on these rants from time to time, and I'm sorry.
15:13
Speaker 2: I just think that we are damn lucky to do
15:15
Speaker 2: what we do and we should just try to treat
15:17
Speaker 2: each other with some decency. This feels important to me
15:21
Speaker 2: when the example from our favorite politicians all the way
15:24
Speaker 2: down to rando strangers on the internet is to just
15:26
Speaker 2: be nastier and nastier by the day. So that's all
15:30
Speaker 2: I want to say on this and next week I'm
15:32
Speaker 2: going to talk about something I think helps people kill
15:34
Speaker 2: more big Bucks than anything. And I think if you
15:37
Speaker 2: listen to it and you follow the advice I'm going
15:39
Speaker 2: to give, you will kill more big Bucks.
15:42
Speaker 3: It might take a few years, but it will work.
15:45
Speaker 3: And it's not magic.
15:46
Speaker 2: It's damn close when you really put it under the microscope.
15:50
Speaker 3: That's it. I'm Tony Peterson.
15:51
Speaker 2: This has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which
15:54
Speaker 2: is brought to you by First Light. As always, I
15:56
Speaker 2: want to thank you for all of your support. It
15:59
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Speaker 2: you guys just show up for us. Without you guys
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Speaker 2: were nothing, So thank you for that. If you want
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16:28
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16:37
Speaker 3: Thank you,