Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 407: Non-Resident Woes, Shed Antlers, and 2021 Hunting Plans with Dan Johnson

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Ep. 407: Non-Resident Woes, Shed Antlers, and 2021 Hunting Plans with Dan Johnson · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: oh seven, and today in the show, we are taking
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a break from hardcore strategy and deer hunting deep dives
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and instead sith like kicking back catching up with longtime
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Wired Hunt contributor and deer hunting madman Dan nine Fingers Johnson.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: All Right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to you by on X Today. Um, we're doing something
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: that at least I personally need pretty darn bad. Um.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: You know, it's February, it's cold and nasty here in Michigan.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: For the last I don't know month or two, our
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: restaurants and coffee shops and all that stuff's been closed,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: so you know, there hasn't been the opportunity to do
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the thing that that I sometimes like to do, which
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: is go get breakfast with a buddy or get a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: coffee with a friend. I haven't gone to get a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: beer with friends in years because of kids. But that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: sounds pretty nice. But with everything shut down and stuff
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: being weird. It just seems like I'm missing just catching
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: up with a friend about some stuff, and maybe some
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: people out there are in the same boat. So my
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: plan today is to take a break from the hardcore
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: strategy and all the note taking and the lessons and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the serious strategy and whatnot, and instead just just catch
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: up with my good buddy, one of the weirdest people
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I know, one of the most important people ever here
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: on the Weird Podcast, Mr Dan Johnson. Whoa, that's that's
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that's the energy need. Do you have any sleeping kids? Man,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: they're both sleeping right now. They're both sleeping. You can't
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: do a flare wou right now. I can't, But I
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: can do a serious fist pump in silence. Give me hey,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: how about you give me? Do you know who Randy
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Mashuman Savages? No, I don't know his his His claim
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: to fame was like, oh yeah, give me an Oh yeah, yeah,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: that's what I like. Dude. Set the tone. This is
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: gonna be an awesome podcast. I'm bringing the A game
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: out today, good man. I need that. I really need
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: it right now because I'm I'm I'm dragontail a little bit.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I'm dragontail. It's been like it's been a rough week
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: here in the Kennon household. I mean, we're we're all
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: healthy and safe and it's all okay, but otherwise like
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: kind of just need that pick me up. So you
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: got it, brother, I'm here. You are the antidote to
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: my woes. Dan, how the hell are you? I'm doing
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: good man. I haven't had any major kid debacles, you know, like, uh,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: glitter in the dryer. You know, we have the occasional
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: fiec fec smeared on the toilet, but that's you know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you come to expect that when you got a young man.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: He's got a child growing into a man, right and
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you gotta and we have a lot of flushable wipes
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: in the house, and uh so it's like it's it's good.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: How about you. That's good man. I I don't know,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: We're not quite there. I had I made a big
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: dad mistake about a week ago and was wrestling with
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: both of my boys and basically my youngest fell off
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the bed and hit his head. That yeah, And so
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: that was a real doozy and like a scary situation
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: there for a little bit. But everything's okay. But it
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: was a very stressful event in the moment that happened.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And then my older son got sick and was puking
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: all over the house and puked all over my books
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: and my wife's computer and all that stuff. So that happened.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Uh God, there's something else that happened too. But it's
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: just been like a bunch of stuff like that every day.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: It just seems like there's some other small catastrophe that's
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: just kind of kept us from being as focused we want.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: It just seems like every day has been a little
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: bit of a ship show. So yeah, that's that's just
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: kind of like the world we're in right now. But
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: it's it's all right. It could be worse. Um, I'm
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: just ready for sunshine and like getting out to do
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: stuff that's not zero degrees and nasty. I bet you
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: there's close to two ft of snow on the ground
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: here in Iowa, and I went to go pull it
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: trail camera the other day and I was hiny in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it through you know, eighteen inches to two ft of snow,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and I'm starting, honestly, I'm starting to get worried about
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the white tail herd in this area. We're not that bad.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: But it's snow and cold, are you? Are you saying
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that just because of how cold it is and then
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that depth of snow, Well, it's not even like the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: snow per se, because I've seen I've seen winners where
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the snow accumulates over the over time and we get
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: like right now, we're experiencing a real deep cold front.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Like I think the high yesterday and the town to
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the north of me was negative one. So not only
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: do we have the frigid temperatures, but we got the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: snow layer of ice snow kind of combination going on.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And I just the deer can't get to the egg fields.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Like when I went out there, I saw I saw
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a couple of deer beds, but not really any uh
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: any activity in the egg fields. So wherever they're at,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: they're sitting real tight to their food source and they're
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: not moving at all. Yeah, And I guess that makes sense.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: There's there's probably a lot of those deer they're thinking
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: just weather, just just use as little energy as possible
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: right now and pushed through it. It is. It is
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: crazy what they what they lived through. Yeah, And and
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: most of the time thrive there. They're quite the they're
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: quite the animal. That's what I couldn't do it. Do
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you guys get very much ice up there where you're
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: where you're at, we get a decent bit, yeah, I
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: mean yeah, we we definitely had it. Gosh, I don't
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: know what it was we got. I know, seven to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: ten days ago we got that pretty good ice storm.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Let's say that maybe that's the same time you got it. Yeah, yeah,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: so you know right now, the conditions that we have,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: it's just deep snow, right and I'm I'm sure there's
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: you know, some kind of vegetation that they can munch on,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: whether it's buds or bark, or leave some of these
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: trees that kind of stayed green all year, or maybe
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: even finding some standing egg if if that's possible. Well,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the year, I think it was like three years ago,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: maybe four years ago, we had this incident where it
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: snowed a whole bunch and then it got warm for
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: two days and all of it melted and then it
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: froze hard for like another two days. And that year,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: while shed unning, I found probably the most dead deer
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: that I've ever found. And I think a lot of
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: it had to do too with that that incident where
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the ice on the ground really kept them from getting
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: anything out of it. Yeah. That makes for a bad combination,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that's for sure. So you said you got out and
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: saw some beds where you just scouting or what. Yeah,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: so I had Yeah, well I was. I always like
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: to go out for one kind of quick trip this
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: time of year, uh, late January, early February, because some
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of the bigger sheds that I've ever found have been
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in late the late January time frame once that season
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: has been over. So I had a I had one
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: trail camera still out soaking since I want to say
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: late October, and I ended up pulling it, you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: hiking in it through all the snow. And while I
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: was back there, I said, well, I might as well
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: go walk this ridge that's notorious for holding a doge,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: you know, betting. It's a betting area pretty much. And
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I went over there and I saw some beds, but
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the snow was so deep and if if they did drop,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: it was like three days prior and we had a
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: big snowstorm, so if it did drop, it within that
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: three day period. I was really hoping to just kind
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of walk up to where these beds were at and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: see a shed laying down in the bed. But no luck.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Did you uh between that camera pull or any others?
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea of of what Bucks made it? No,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I don't have any intel right now of any deer
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I pull ever since you know, all the thievery that's
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: been going on on the properties that I hunt, I
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: pulled my I pull my trail cameras before shotgun season
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: is over. So it sucks because then that kind of
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: limits me. But I'm thinking about going out and dropping
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of corn out on some of the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: farms I have access to, just to get kind of
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: not only help them out, get him some feed, but
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you know also the intel that comes with it. Yeah,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I hear you. Um, I'm no expert on this, so
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: you should go to some reading. But I remember a
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: handful of years ago when we had this mega polar
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: vortex cold weather stuff going on. I remember reading some
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: stuff where they were saying that the and I might
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: get the details here, but basically there it was a
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: warning from Kip Adams. I think writing about in the
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: cold weather, a lot of people like to put out
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a bunch of food, but putting like a whole bunch
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: of a different kind of food than they're eating all
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: in one spout all at once can actually throw things
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: off for them and actually cause them more harm than good.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So it's either like you should have consistent food all
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the way through that you're providing or none at all. Um.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I think that's what I remember, but I could be wrong,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: and I think I think what he was saying was,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: if you're throwing a whole bunch of corn down on
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the ground, the calories that are um consumed through the
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: corn are not necessarily as nutrition. It's it's uh, I mean,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: it would get them by. But if it's just if
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: they're just eating corn, the protein or the nutrients isn't
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: there as opposed to other things that they could be eating.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: And therefore they're just eating the corn for one reason,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and that's convenience, and and then that's keeping them from
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: doing the other stuff they should be doing. Yeah, I'll
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: go find that again and post that. I know how
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about. But yeah, cold weather not great. But
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: these credits are survivors, that's uh, that's for sure. Um,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So you don't know what's running around there out right now.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I happened to get eyes on my main spot the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: other day. This is about a week or ten days ago,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: maybe out in the evening. I was watching it about
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: the last half hour of daylight. And this spot usually
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: has you know, good food sources on it even into
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the late season. But as as you and I've talked
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: about over the past couple of months, they disked everything up,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: so it's a bunch of dirt fields. So there's every
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: time I go out there and look, there's been pretty
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: much zero dear. Ever, but this one night I spotted
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: three big bodies, bigger bodies, and it actually ended up
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: being all three of the bucks that I was consistently
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: seeing out in this area throughout the hunting season other
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: than so the two three year olds and then a
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: two year old, all three of which I passed I
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: don't know, almost dozens of times. I feel like, um,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: they all made it. So so that's cool, um and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a good sign. And you know what is that it
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: was probably the beginning of February, so at least those
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: three bucks made it to the beginning of February. And
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: if those two three year olds make it to next year,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I'd be I'd be really excited. So that was a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: good sign. Do you have enough food on your property
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to get them through the winter, you think, definitely, not
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: not on not on the spots that I can hunt,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: but they must be spending time, you know, on these
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: other properties. I'm guessing just for all I know where
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: they're going. They were heading across the dirt field that
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: is on the property I can hunt, and they're heading
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: towards some farms on the other side of the road
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: where there is some cut corns, so they're heading there.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: So I think that they might be still betting in
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: early some of the times, still betting in the main
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: area that these bucks have been, but they're traveling different directions,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you know. Like when I killed Tran, most of the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: deer movement was heading east when usually goes west. So
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing most of that still happening because there was
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: food on that side of a square mile, So I
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: think they're they're just adjusting because there's essentially zero food
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: on the spots that I that I hunt between the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: crop fields being all tilled up and then the food
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: plots that I planted are just nothing, there's nothing left
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: of them. So um, so yeah, that that's the situation there.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Next year hopefully be a different story. And if these two,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: especially two three year olds, if they make it, you know,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: things change of worse. But those two were We're regular,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: they were consistent. I've got a better idea of what
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: they're doing than I've had for many deer in the past.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: So if either one of them is around, there'll be
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: a the'll be a good target. There's that. There was
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: one buck who looked just like a miniature version of
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Tran He's just a tall eight point with really long
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: g twos um because he's a cool deer passed on
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: him a bunch. And the other one was this nice
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: tent pointer and we don't usually get like good looking
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: tent pointers like that is three year olds around here
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: too often. And uh, I was in my head, I
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: was kind of referring to him as rookie of the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: year because he was like the new one this year
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and like, dang, he's going to be a stud. So yeah,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: he reminded me of myself. Um, so he'll he's the
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: kind of buck that you know, he could he could
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: blow up, you know, for a Michigan buck at least,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: So it'll be it'll be interesting to see if they're
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: here again in one what what they look like, So yeah,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: I'm little bit optimism. It's not really even if I
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: did dump a ton of corn on the properties that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I hunt. The farm that I hunt that's closest to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: my house maybe, but the farm where I spend most
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: of my rut and where I shot my buck this year,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I don't. You know, once and we talked about this
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: May and ever since the beginning of this podcast, that
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the deer after the shotgun season just to leave the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: farm and they don't come back until spring. So once
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: the shotgun hunters push them out, it doesn't really rebound
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: until uh, you know spring. And depending on certain years,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: it also impacts the shed hunting. I mean last year, man,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I walked the whole farm found one shed on it,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: and that was in prime time, you know. So yeah, Plus, oh,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I don't I think I told you this too. I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: lost my main shed hunting farm that borders I can't
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: hunt it. In the past, I couldn't hunt it, but
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I could shed hunt it, and that that was my
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: go to clean up spot when I want to go
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: find sheds, I would every year. It's just like that
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: perfect egg thermal cover late season, you know, habitat and
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I would just clean house on of the sheds and
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: um guy, the guy told me, Um, you know, hey,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: my kids want to start shed hunting, So yeah, bummer
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: here it is. Yeah, but whatever, I got a lot
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: of public around here that I think the snow is
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: gonna be on the ground for a while, so shed
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: hunting might be difficult this year. The one good thing
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I've always thought when it comes to these snow years,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: as it concentrates the deer. So you know, it's a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: fact they're they're gonna If you can find where they
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: are concentrated, like where that very best winter food is
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: or that very best thermal cover, I think you'll have
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: a lot more dear packed into those best spots. And
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: so yeah, I mean, you know, you and I have
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: talked about this in the past. When you get that
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: snow melting, you find a couple of those core spots
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: that where they can stack up. So I guess I
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: think me and you had a couple of experiences like
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: that was a couple of years ago when we when
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that group came down to Iowa and we were shed
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: hunting and we had those uh those buffer strips that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: we were walking and ship I think we found like
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: twenty sheds between I don't know, there was quite a
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: few people, but within a hundred acres of all this this,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: all these buffer strips, and it was money. You find
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: your little honey holes, and there they are. Do you
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: have speaking of that kind of thing, do you have
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: your plans laid yet for when you're and start doing that?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: You know, um, here in a couple of weeks, my
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: daughter is having a sleepover birthday at the house, and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna take the boys down to my mom's and uh,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and I think I might go out for a quick
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: shed hunt while the kids are hanging at my mom's,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: just to go check the farm out. I might. I
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: might dump a little corn, just to see what's up.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: But other than that, you know, walk a couple of
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: betting areas, walk some field edges. Other than that, man,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I just don't think I'll be doing anything until early March. Yeah,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: So it seems like with the snow, I uh, I
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: haven't really figured out my plans entirely either, but I
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: think I am going to head to Iowa in March
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: once it snow drops, because because I'm gonna I'm gonna
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: hunt Iowa this year, So I want to get some
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: scouting in and uh some prep on these spots that
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: I'm on a hunt. So how many points, uh bunch
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: three or three or four or four? Now I think four,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Well four should get you the unit that I live in.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: I know that's true, but I don't have I don't
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: have the spots to hunt there. Well, you got call
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Andy May. Andy May's got some spots. Tell him I'm
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Mark Canyon and just let him, you know, put a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: little pressure on him. See what he says. Yeah, that's
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: that's a good idea. And maybe and maybe we just
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: maybe we do the other thing, which is we just
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: talked about him on this podcast and try to peer
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: pressure him through through our audience to make that happen
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: so he'll finally spill the beans on his public land
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: hot spot. And no, I think I'm gonna I think
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna hunt that area I've hunt in the past
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: because between some stuff that Raws and Peter have and
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: some stuff that I've hunted in the past, I think
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: I can get a good situation lined up. So that's
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: where I'm That's where I'm leaning. But we'll have to
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: talk to details when I figure that out, and and
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: see if maybe there's some way to get together at
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: that point. Yeah. If anything, I uh, I'll just I'll
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: just make my way. If I've already shot a deer,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: potentially I might just make my way up towards you
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and just hang and shoot a doll or two. Yeah, definitely.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Um speaking of that, have you figured out your have
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: you thought at all about what's happened in you with
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: your hunting plans? I saw you put in for Wyoming,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: elk is that is that finally happening up? Six points?
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I applied on like the last day of January, and uh,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I'm heading out. No, I don't know yet, I've put
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: in the crazy thing. I talked with a guy from
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: go Hunt and he was telling me that the unit
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: that I applied for is really volatile. So in twenty
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I I applied with, I applied with six points. Okay,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I thought it was seven, but it's actually six. How
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that however that works? But um ah, that unit last
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: year was five points and you're geting, you know, like,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: if you applied with five points, you're in. So I
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: have six so I'm thinking, okay, well that's good. But
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: he said in twenty nineteen you had to have ten
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: points to get in. So I'm still new to how
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: all these draw odds work and the fluctuation and point
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: creep and all that stuff. So I put in, thinking, oh, dude,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: six points, I'm guaranteed to hunt. But it's not. It
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't work that way, So I guess I gotta wait
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: till May to see if it's a percent or not.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I kind of I don't, kind of, I really do
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: not like how complicated this stuff has gotten in a
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: lot of states out there. It's it makes it, especially
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: for new people, borderline impossible to get into this stuff
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: when it's so damn complicated just to fare out how
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to get a tag? Um And did you see did
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: you see the news about what's being proposed in Montana
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: for non residents? Uh? That just made my like head
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: hurt when I heard that that that is the most
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: political bs and the like, how how do these people?
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Number one? How do how do outfitters? And I have
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: nothing against outfitters, but what gives them the right to
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: get first DIBs on tags? So the tags are sold
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to the outfitters, and then in order to get a
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: nonresident tag, you have to go through an outfitter. That's
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that's ridiculous to me, And I'm not exactly sure if
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: that's maybe maybe you are sure about that. I can't
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: remember the specifics. All I know is that six of
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the tags that would be available for non residents have
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to use an outfitter UM. So that just means like
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: for people that want to d I Y, there's very
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: little opportunity now to actually draw a tag and do
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: that yourself. If that happens now, I would be I
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised at all if that gets shot down,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: because I know a lot of people were you know,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: letting their thoughts be known on that. So I'm hoping
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: that doesn't happen. But already, like I shoot, six years ago,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I was hunting Montana every year, and the last three
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: years I haven't been able to draw UM. So as
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: it stands, already, you know, it's become much harder to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: get a tag there, let alone if our chances of
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: or if our pool of available tags was you know,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: dried up considerably. And and that it's especially if a bomber,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: because Montana has always been one of those opportunity states,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: you know, like Idaho, Colorado for certain things you can
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: get over the counter tags Montana for deer and certain things.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of general hunting opportunities, so it was
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: always nice that there were handful of states where you
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: could go and still get a tag somewhat easily and
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: have a chance to just have a fun hunt. You're
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: not necessarily going to be in one of these quote
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: unquote trophy regions, but you could get out there and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: then if you want to go after that, you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Mega Bowl or whatever, you could go through all the
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: regular role of New Mexico or Utah or Arizona or
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: one of these spots where that's more complicated some of
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the Wyoming Wyoming units like you're talking about, But now
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: it's like, jeez, everything's getting tough. Idaho just really increase
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: their prices. They just significantly reduced allocations for nonresident stuff.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: They're making you. Um, you know, when it came for
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: deer in Idaho, you could buy a white tail tag
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that would be good for the state. Um. Now you
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: have to pick one specific unit, and these aren't like
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: big units, like how Iowa has eight units. There's like
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: sixty units, So I'd have to pick like a little
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: couple square mile region almost for some of these places.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Um So, there's just I don't know, and they're just
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: really reducing quotas for each one of these spots. Like
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the place that I had an ELK tag for last
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: year sold out, you know, the day that tags were
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: made available back in January, while in previous years we
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: used to buy our tags the day we arrived in
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Idaho on in September. And now they're sold out in
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: January and they're only given out like a hundred of them.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Um So, stuff is changing. Man, I don't know. I
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: don't know what that means for the future, but it's, uh,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: it's a little concerning. You know. I hate to say
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: this because it just makes me sound like that you
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: know that guy. But everything is just leading towards this,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: you know, the everybody says it the rich Man sport
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: type of thing again. You know. Iowa just recently, um
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: you know, and I got backlash from this for voice.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: In my opinion, I live in Iowa and I feel that,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: you know, Iowa has a really good thing going, and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: so they wanted to propose this law that says a
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: nonresident landowners can get a tag every year, an archery
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: tag every year. Well, what that's gonna do. And this
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: is my opinion, is UM out of states with a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: lot of money are gonna come in. They're gonna buy
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: up all the land and they're going to you know,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: all the non residents will be displaced. And Iowa is
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: already is either forty or fiftieth in the United States
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: for public land like we have. We have less than
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: two percent of our state is public land to hunt. Now,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that's all that's gonna do is just gonna drive all
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: these nonresidents to public land. It's gonna get overrun. And
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I don't care what you can say whatever you want
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: about Iowa. You know it must be nice. It's not Michigan.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Public land in Iowa gets pounded, period and just like
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: any other state. So I I don't know. And then
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I hear this thing about these this law in um
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: being proposed in Montana, and it's just like, man, why
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: like why can't a guy make the decision if he
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: wants to go through an outfitter or not? Like a
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: hunt just became gas money and uh and the tag
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: now it's gas money tag and an outfitter, and it's
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: gonna jack up the price of a hunt. If that's
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: something you want to do by anywhere from three thousand
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to six thousand dollars, depending on what species you want
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: to hunt. Yeah, it's uh, I don't know. I don't
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: know what the answer is there, but there definitely are
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: these trends that are concerning and it's you know, some
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: of it is driven by demand. If there's increasing demand,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: they're going to have to, you know, change things like
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I think with like at least an Idaho or something
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: like that, when there's more and more people coming in
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: there getting pushed back from residents saying, hey, we're getting
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: overrun with people. You've gotta slow down. So there's probably
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: something that going on. There's some weird political stuff probably
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: going on. There's I don't know, I don't know what
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the answer is on it. It's it's so it's let's
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: talk through this once because now I'm curious. Um, the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: demand would be that the outfitters are getting all these
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: calls from people saying, I want to hunt your state,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: but they don't have the tags to give them or
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: they're at capacity because of what reason. Like once a
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: person gets a tag, they can do whatever they want
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: with it, right, they can go. So where is the
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: demand is the demand for people wanting to uh use outfitters,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and the outfitters are saying, well, we can't. You know,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: we were full, we don't have enough tags, because I
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: thought the tags went to the people and then the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: people determine how they want to hunt. Yeah, And I've
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: got no clue on where the Montana thing came up
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: came through, and that that sture seems like a lobbying
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: thing or some some politician who wants to say this
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: is better for the economy of the state or something
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: like that. I don't know, um But but I think
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the general demand issue is more like why you're seeing
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: prices rising in certain states, or why you see quotas
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: going down for non residents in some states like Idaho,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: or why it's becoming more complicated in some places. Because
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I think there's just there are more people wanting to
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: do this kind of hunt than there used to be.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Um So, so I get the fact that management maybe
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: needs to change a little bit because of that to
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: make sure like the resources still being managed properly and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that we can handle the increased number of people out
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: there without ruining the experience and ruining the wildlife herds
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: and and all that. But but I'd like to be
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: more confident. That's because of good, you know, scientific reasons
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: versus you know, getting more dollars in somebody's pocket. That's
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that's the part that I am less confident in. And uh,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't know you know the details of
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: anyone of these situations well enough to speak, you know,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: too confidently on that. But um, but it's something to
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: keep an eye on, you know. I think if nothing else,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: like we all as hunters should just keep our finger
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: on the pulse of what's going on out there. And
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: when we see something like this like the Montana deal,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: let's use our voice. Let's say, hey man, that's that's
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: not okay. Let's let's keep this from being the rich
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: man's game. Let's keep this is something that's available for everybody, um,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: especially you know, we've got a cool little opportunity going
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: on right now with actually new people trying to come
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: into the fold after the whole COVID year, you know,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: new hunters finally coming into this thing and trying it out.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: And wouldn't be a shame if there are these people
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: that came in and were interested and then they got
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: confused or overwhelmed or frustrated with all the stupid laws
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: and crazy prices and draw odds and all this stuff
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and said that it's not worth it and then never
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: gave another shot. That would be that'd be a shame. Yeah,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: it's almost like all you know that it's a blessing
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: in disguise, right because there's a spike of license sales
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and whatnot. But um, you know, they get to the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: point where they start to get excited and then there's
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: just this wall that they can't even get. It's like, well,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: I could just go back to doing what I was doing,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: you know, instead hunting. Yeah, I'm sure there's there's I'm
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: sure there's been people like that who who hit that
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: and say not worth the headache. So I guess all
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: we can do is, you know, I just said, try
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to keep tabs on things and then try to lend
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: a hand to those new folks when we do hear
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: from them when they're looking for a little bit of
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: advice on what the heck do you do about this?
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Or how do you get a tag? Or what does
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: this mean? Or what's this law? Or how do we
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: get points? Or I suppose that's one thing we can
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: all can contribute a little bit on is is try
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: to help the people along the way, and not that
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: it's an easier for us. We're all half half the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: time confused too, But I guess do what you can, um.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was just talking about this with Kip,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: speaking of Kip talking about this the other day with
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: him that it just seems like today in one and
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: going forward, all of us like if you want to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: be a hunter, you can't just be a hunter anymore.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: You also have to be an advocate. Like it's just
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: we're in a different world now. We can't just say
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: I go out there, I shoot my gun and I
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: kill a couple of deer and have a good time,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: and like that's all you do. I think that now.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: It's there's just so many different pressures on this thing.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: There's so many different possible you know, folks that want
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: to stick a knife in the back of the hunting
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: world or wildlife or wild places that if we're not
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: also realizing that, Okay, if I hunt, I also need
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: to do this, which is pay attention and make sure
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I'm up to speed on what's going on. It is
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: making sure I speak up to make sure we protect
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: this right and protect these things. It is, you know,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: giving back on occasion, whether that's donating to an organization
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: or going out there and picking up trash like and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: you and I have had conversations like this over the
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: last six years plenty of time. Times like I just
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: think that it now should be it's it's a good
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: requirement if you want to keep this thing going. I
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: think we all have to just make that a part
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: of our our identity. Yeah, it's it really is tough
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: because I I know I shouldn't say I feel I
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: said I should say. I know that there are people
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: that will carry the weight, you know what I mean.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: They will, they will be the advocates, They will spread
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the good word. They will do what me and you
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: do on a daily basis. And I think, although that's
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: not uh enough, I feel like it helps move the
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: needle a little bit. Um. Now, if everybody was an
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: advocate and everybody had on the right shoes and they
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: did the work and they spread their you know, spread
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the right message, um man, that would be awesome. Uh
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Is it necessary? I don't know, Probably not, you know,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: but it's a good mindset to have. Well, Hey, I
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: hear what you're saying, and I think that it would
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: certainly be better if more people at least and and
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: if we can redefine, you know, if if five years
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: from now, we could redefine what it means to be
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: a hunter, a deer hunter, like if if you're gonna,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna take this thing seriously, if this is
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: a part of like who you are. If what that
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: meant wasn't just I kill Bucks, you know, if instead
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: being a serious deer hunter saying like I'm a white
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: tail addict or I live this lifestyle, if that also
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: meant within our community, like oh yeah, I like the
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: deer hunter. Ton I killed big Bucks And oh yeah,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I always you know, I'm a conservationist too, Like it
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: wasn't just I'm a trophy hunting big Bucks shooting sound
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: of a gun, it was also like this and that
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: they go together. Like if somehow that became just part
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of our DNA, we'd be in a day am good place.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Um So maybe I'm maybe I'm just smoking the pipe
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: here and wishing on a dream, but I can wish, right.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: I hate to bring this up, man, but there's a
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: there are a couple of things out that are going
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: on right now, or we're going on and art and
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: going on anymore. I don't. I don't even know what
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: the proper words to use are. But there are people
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: within the hunting industry, I'll say, or the hunting community
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: who have very large followings and have been charged with
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: wild game violations and are either in the process of
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: the that you know, of going through the legal system,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: or have somehow beat the legal system or things. You know. Uh.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: One example that I've been following is um. I don't
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I want to say his name to call him out,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: but I won't. But this, you know, the dude baited illegally. Okay,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: you know that's not a major one, but still you
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: gotta follow the laws. Then he shot a deer, then
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: he uh took a picture with it, then he put
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: it on social media, and then he left it in
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the woods without taking any of the meat off. And
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: he didn't even take the rack off of it, just
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: shot it and and did the Instagram thing with it
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and then let it lay, went got charged with it.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I followed along for all this time, and now the
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: case has been dropped and sealed, so then now there's
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: no more information about what's going on. Yet this person
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: is still in the hunting industry and promoting brands and
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: going about business as usual, and it drives me insane,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Like I I'm angry about this. And what I'm getting
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: at is we have we have certain people who are
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the bad apples in this industry but have a very
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: big following, and they are still allowed to go out
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: and do what they do even though they have this
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: this this backstory or these things that have happened to
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: them that I don't know just get swept under the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: rug and it and it really upsets me. Yeah, that's crazy.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if I know that specific
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: example you're talking about. That's that's wild that somebody could
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: get away with that. I can't wrap my head around that.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, I mean that kind of stuff that
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: there's just no place for that anymore. You can't, you can't.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: That's just not okay. Obviously it's it's and especially from
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: someone who has a platform and who you know, people
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: look to as a role model, that's that's just really
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: discourage um. They represent us, and if that kind of
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: stuff gets out to the wrong hands, it's just more
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: fuel for anti hunters to come in and use that
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: as an example of why other people should join them
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: in the fight to ban hunting. I mean, you're seeing
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: it all over the bear hunting in California, right, the
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: bear hunting out in uh I think out east in
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: New Jersey or something like that. So all these it's
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: just one small step at a time, all these emotional
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: decisions are being made, they're ignoring logic. And then some
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: dipship does does something like this, and it's he's just
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: stabbing us in the back to right, and yeah, agree,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: And that's exactly why. You know, we may not be
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: all control what this bozo does or whatever weird cork
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: in the legal system. Let him get away with it.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: All we can do, I think, is you and I
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and everyone listening. We've got to be the example of
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: the right way to do stuff. We've got to be
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: the advocate. We've got to do the right thing even
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: when no one's looking. We need to be the positive
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: example so that enough nine hunters out there see the good,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: see the value in what we're doing, see that the
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: vast majority of us are upstanding and and want to
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: do this thing the right way and want to take
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: care of the resource. We just have to make sure
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: that more of us are those positive examples, because like
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: you're right, if if enough bad apples get out there,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: we're gonna lose this right. We're gonna lose our privileges,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: We're gonna lose our opportunities. We're gonna lose the places
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: and the critters and the firearms and all the different
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: things that allow us to do what we want to do.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: That's none of us guaranteed unless we are doing the
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: right stuff and standing up for it so that that
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: parts that parts on you and me. Now I'm fired up, Mark,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Like I hate poachers. I hate people like that do
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: disgusting stuff like that, and it just I want to
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: fight him. I tell you what I will. I don't
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you're talking about how you know? You were saying like
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: maybe you and your kid don't have the brains, but
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: you got the braun. Uh. I don't have the braun.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe I've got some small amount of brains. But if if,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: if you and I could be combined into like an
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: anti poaching superhero of sorts, we could really take them down. Man.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Not only do we like quote the law of Verbatim
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: to him, but then we just kick out and we
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: have and we have mutton shops and a badass goate
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: can you can you imagine like your side beard combined
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: with my peach fuzz goatee, what that would look like? Yeah? Yeah,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: and it would It would almost be like have you
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: ever seen the cartoon Megamind? Has your kid watched that? No?
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: But I know what it is. He's like, he's super
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: he's like a super villain. But he goes up against
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: this character who's this big, brawny, you know, like Mr
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Clean looking superhero and he's the villain and it's just
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: like got this big head, skinny arms and legs. So
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, remember gosh, over the years, we've
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: had a whole lot of these random I don't even
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: know what we used to call him. But we're having
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: one of those whatever we used to do, we're having
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: one of those again. What's the here here's the here's
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: the real question? Right? Okay, So we combine into this superhero.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: What would our weakness be? Because we got it? We can't.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Let's the weakness get out? Kryptonite is Superman? Yeah? Okay, um, Godlee,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: what is our weakness? Everybody listening that the five people
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that are still listening probably are thinking of themselves. It's
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: so obvious, you dip shits. Uh, I know what one
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: of them would be, but maybe they would cancel it out.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: It would it would be like, okay, here's some does
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: coming through. Let's say we're in a tree stand right,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: here's some does coming through. We're doing a steak out,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: and it might be all day long that we have
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: to sit, and it's just like eleven o'clock and it's like, well,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I don't sit all day, so I gotta go. And
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: then well, maybe we'll be here when we come back. Yeah,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I mean I think it could be your knees and
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: like my over analysis, like we'd have like some bad
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: guy charging at us and I would sit there. Well
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: we could do this, or maybe we should do that,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: but that said, maybe we should go the other way
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: and then we get our ass caves. Yeah, and then
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: it's no, And then it would be like dumb luck
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: where the guy like trips on a stick and and
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: then we're got you you know there you go. Oh man,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: that would be a hell of a superhero. Or we
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: would just be a dynamic duo right where we each
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: play ourselves but in an an enhanced version of ourselves,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: and then our weaknesses cancel each other out exactly exactly.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: That might be the better way to go versus some
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: strange man baby combination of us. Right, so, as it's
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: as eleven clock is um coming, you know, and I'm like,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: oh man, we gotta get out of the tree. Mark,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: I'm starting to starting to get antie. And then you
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: just go on some filibuster where it's just like an
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: hour long speech of why we shouldn't do it, and
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: and by the that time, it's suns coming down, and
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: you know, well, I gotta stay out here another thirty minutes,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: that's true. And I'm so fired up and upset by
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: the end of it and stressed out, and I'm about
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: to get piste off and leave. And then you're like, Mark,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: we just gotta have fun. We gotta enjoy this, you
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: gotta focus on it, you just gotta we just gotta enjoy.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: And then you bust out some bush lights and then
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I think that's probably how the show ends. Bush lights
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: in a tree stand. Yeah, I don't know. I just
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: kind of had this feeling fantasy world. I like where
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: you're going. I just kind of like that would be
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: what you'd have in your tool chest in my backpack.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: And like, Mark, shut up and drink this. It just
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: seems like, you know, Batman had the belt with like
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: those little Batman Numchuck like stars or whatever. Like you
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: would have several fanti pack an American an American flag
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: fanny pack that I opened up, and it's got like
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: an Alan wrench, spare broadheads and then a couple of
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: bush lights. Man, we've gone to an interesting place. Yep.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: You said that you had a few other big things
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: in your mind bringing laiding into this. Is there anything
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: else that we haven't covered on that front? One second? Um,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: I got it. I thought I made a note here Mark,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: let's see. Here are gear hunts stories. Okay here, um
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: gear all right. I went to the store the other
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: day and I shot Uh. I shot four different bows
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, well, I gave my phone to
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: my boy and we uh, I don't know, he sat
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: there and while I shot a whole bunch of bows.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: And I must say I'm pretty impressed with so let
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: me let me back up a second. I shot Uh.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: I went to the A T. A Show in nineteen
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: went to the A T. A Show in twenty and
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I shot a lot of different bows. But in twenty,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: I was there more for work than I was to
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: actually just walk around and enjoy the show. So um,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't get to shoot as many as I as
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: I liked. So in nineteen and twenty I shot the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: same bow okay, so like throughout the whole hunting season.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: So now I'm in this, uh do I want to
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: go out and get a new bow? Mode? Right? So
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I went to this sporting good story called Shields in
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: um in Iowa City, and I ended up going and
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: shooting through all these bows. And I'm gonna say this, man,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: it is so hard these days to pick uh the
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: bow that you want because all of the bows that
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: are being manufactured, especially the top tier brands, are really
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: difficult to really break them apart, you know what I mean,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and and find find something like there you can go
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: out and kill the deer with any bow on the market. Yeah,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think you can make a bad
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: decision when it comes to any one of the brands.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: I mean you might. There's certainly like little differences and
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: certain things are certain styles. They're like how long about
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: you get or how much weight you choose to draw
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: by those types of things that could be right for
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: one person, wrong for the other. So I do think
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: there's like a fit, like what's the right fit for you,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: But as far as like quality and the make of
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: all these things, you're you're still right. It's really impressive
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: what everyone's doing these days. Yeah, I'm pretty I'm pretty excited.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna go um on a little bow
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: tour here pretty soon. And I shot four brands. Let's see.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: I shot a Matthews, I shot a Prime, I shot
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: at Hooit, I shot a bow Tech. I want to
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: shoot an elite. I want to shoot an expedition. Um.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I want to shoot an obsession. Uh. Those are the
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: three that I can think of that I haven't shot
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: yet that I want to shoot, but um yeah, man.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: And then I want to go test out some crossbows
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: because I want to get something simple for my kids
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: to mess around with. Nice. So those things are deadly, Yeah,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: things are very deadly. I certainly got some experience with
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: like the various new hunters we brought out to the
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: back forty and man, they can get set up on
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: those things and shooting accurately really fast. Yeah. Yeah, so
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: that's a it's a great option for the young ones.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: That's for sure. Any type of and it doesn't have
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: to be necessarily bows and arrows and stuff like that.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: But is there any type of I don't know, equipment
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: that you've been looking at, whether it's for a western
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: hunt sleeping out of your truck or or a white
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: tail hunt? Man. Um, As you were saying this, I
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: was starting to ask myself that same question, and I'm
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: kind of I'm kind of you know. The one thing
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at experimenting with a little bit is um
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: climbing sticks. UM. I started using these Timber Ninjas last year.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: They're really sweet and mean. I really really liked them. UM.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: But I also got the new sticks from Tethered UM.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen those. They're called the
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: tether One sticks, I think, UM. And so I've got
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: some of those and haven't used them yet. So that's
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: one thing. I'm definitely gonna test those out and see
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: what I what I'm liking there. I really want to
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: just keep on fine tuning my mobile set up up.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: I felt really good about what I did this past year.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: It was definitely the best I've ever done with that,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: and I felt really comfortable. UM. But you know, I'm
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: gonna just keep on trying some different things on that
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: front and just keep tweaking it because I think that
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: having that dialed is really important when you move as
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: often as you know, as you do and as I
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: do now. Um, just having that down to the tea
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: is a big thing. So that's something I'll be looking at,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: um you know. Otherwise, I just kind of sticking with
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: what works. I'm happy with my boat set up. I'm
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: happy with my saddle set up. Um. You know, optics,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: all that stuff, same old, same old, um Man. I
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: don't know. Um, I bought a boat, you bought a boat?
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: About a boat? What kind of boat? A drift boat
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: for out west? And I might use that to access
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: some new places when I do some deer hunting out
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: there in Wyoming or Idaho or Montana. Um. So that's
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: mostly more of like a fishing and family purchase. But
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: I did have in the back of my mind that
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: that would be sweet to access some of these river
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: stuff and and usually all of my white tail hunting
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: I do is you know, in river corridors out there.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: So now with this boat, I'll be able to get
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: to those tough to reach spots or get to these
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: spots that, um, you know, you could coming from one way,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: but you're it's much more risky as far as what
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: you're gonna bump and this way can come in from
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the back and slip in with the water on my
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: side and uh and not spook those deers. So that's
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: something that's gonna help me with some modest state hunts. Um.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about that. Um that those might be the
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: biggest things. Um. Otherwise it's gonna be in My upcoming
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: year is gonna be a crazy one, Um I am,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: because of some new projects coming up that are still
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: in the work. So I don't want to spill all
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: the beans, but I'm probably going to hunt my main
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: usual Michigan stuff almost like I don't know, like less
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: than I usually do. I'm gonna hunt very little close
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: to home and a whole lot of honest state stuff
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: this year. Um. Yeah, I thought that was something different.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Like I thought the last time we talked, you were
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: thinking about or you didn't know what your schedule was,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: and you thought you were going to be staying home
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: a lot more. No, it is the opposite. It's it's
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: the fact that I'm gonna be gone so much that
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: I don't think I can add anything else to it.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: That's so I think so tentatively, I could be hunting Iowa, Maine, Arkansas, Nebraska, Texas, Missouri. Um, well,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: what else is on this possible slate? All white tails?
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: All white tails? Yea? This year? This year, man, how
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: are you going to pull that off? Just A don't know.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: That's that's the same question I'm asking myself. But it's
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: basically going to be the short, like week long trips
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: for this project. Um, where you're gonna go in and
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: out on a on a location and we're doing some stuff.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: And so yeah, I'm gonna try to Virginia or Washington,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Washington like DC or Virginia, one of that right around there. Um,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: So it's gonna be I'm gonna try to stretch it
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: out over a long period time, So start some of
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: these hunts like in August and continue into like January
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: or February, so that I don't have more than a
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: week or two of travel in any given month is
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: my hope. Um, but it's gonna be it's gonna be
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: a doozy. It could be a year where I'm just
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: gonna be drained like never before. Um, or it might
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: be a year that I don't know. Maybe because I'm
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: just hitting up different spots and seeing new places, maybe
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: that will be energizing. I don't know. I might kill
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: seven deer, I might kill zero. It's gonna be a
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be a crazy one, but it'll be once
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: we get all fine tune. We'll have to talk through
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: all the details of we just place in what we're doing.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: But um, long story short on that is it going
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: to be a different kind of year for me. So
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: those three bucks I was telling you about on the
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: main Michigan stuff, even if they're around, I don't know
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: how much I'm gonna be able to, you know, spend
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: on them. So I don't know, it's gonna be a
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: weird deer. Maybe maybe I'll get lucky and kill one
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and you know a handful of random day hunts I'll have,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: Or maybe I won't even want to hunt when I'm
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: back in Mischigon because I'm just gonna be catching up
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: and arresting and trying to catch up on family time.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: And these deer just might get a free pass next year.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: And then I'll have a couple of big old guys
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: to Chase. I don't know. I'm it's gonna be a
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: new kind of thing this year, so we'll see. Well,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: good luck, man. I think that's like, uh kind of
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: going back to the beginning of the conversation here. I
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: got September, I got elk, I got October will be
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: mule deer in South Dakota, or maybe even to be
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: honest with you, first week in November. Uh, we'll be yeah,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: November November, try to catch the first part of the
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: mule there rut out there and um, and then what
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: else and then obviously Iowa for the rut, and then
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: depending on what happens in October and South Dakota, I
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: may go back in December again like I did this year.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: That was fun. And then January actually um like a
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: little bird landing on my shoulder and told me that
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: I should go to Arizona to try to hunt cou'se
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: deer in mule Dere. So January even might be uh
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: kind of a week long deal there too. We will
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: have to see what the wife says about that. But
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you this, man. One thing that I've noticed
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: is instead of going like back to back weeks, if
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I could have a week in September, I don't really
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: do anything until the next time, which would be a
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: week in uh, a week in October, don't do anything
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: until my rut vacation, right, and then you know it
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: took me this year, it only took me seven days
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: compared to last year it took me fourteen days to
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: get the job done. Um, that's good, you know, So
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: a week in Iowa. And then if I do like
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: a weekend September, October, November, December, and potentially January, and
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: you spread it out all the right way and you
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: got all your bases covered, I think that might work
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: for me. So my wife didn't complain as much. And
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: this sucks to say, but she didn't complain as much
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: as she did in previous years. So hey, take it,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: and I think you're smart with this. The spread it out.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: That just that seems to work better than a whole
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: It's just it always, at least from my experience too,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: it's always been like when a lot of days stack up,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: that patience and it just wears thin and it grinds on.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: You know, it's to be on parenting on your own
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: for a long period time. I'm sure like that that's
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: that's not something I would be terribly thrilled about doing either.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: So are you Are you heading back out west for
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: um uh for the summer. Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna be
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: out there. We're gonna head out sometime in April and
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: stay through the end of July. So a big, big
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: chunk of our time will be out there this year.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: And then I don't know, i'd like to still I
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's gonna be possible or not, but
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: I'd like to still hunt deer there locally too, by
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: our place. Um. But so I'm trying to have that
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: in the schedule to do that deer hunt there in September.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: I just don't know with all the other things I
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: just described if I'll be able to do that. So
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll be there a little bit September. Maybe not,
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: um but yeah, looking forward to doing a bunch of
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: hiking and fishing and camping and and all that stuff.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: I'm really really looking forward to that. I'm serious cabin
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: fever right now. Yeah, I feel you, man. Um I've
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: scooped my driveway like thirteen times in last five days,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: so I I'm ready to get out and do some
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: mushroom hunt and some shed hunt and get on the
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: water or do some fishing and uh, man, I don't know. Man,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: I I'm pretty optimistic about this upcoming year. I feel
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: compared to other years, man, I feel really good about
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: how everything is played out, especially South Dakota, where you
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: know I have I've had one to three trips out
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: there now in the last two years and really gained
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: a ship ton of knowledge of that animal and how
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: they work through the terrain. And I think, Uh, this
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: next trip that I go out there will be the one.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: This is gonna be the year. Now are you going
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: to adjust goals, expectations, anything like that now in year three?
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: Like so, because you just said you've got it more dialed,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: are you gonna be more picky or are you gonna
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: go into it knowing that I've done this three times?
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: It's hard. I haven't had opportunities. I'm gonna shoot that
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: dough or that first spike or something like what are
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: your where's your head at the moment? I can't. I
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: can't say that because I don't know yet, But I
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: have a feeling it's going to be that sliding scale
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: where you know the first three days or however many
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: days you're out there, Let's just say I'm I'm there
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: for eight days. The first three or four days, I'm
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: gonna probably try to hold out for a buck, probably
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: pass a dough if I have to. And then the
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: second four days, um, maybe flip that script a little
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: bit and take first opportunity. So um, that didn't necessarily
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: work too good for me this last trip, But what
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: I've learned, like the even the last two days of
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: the hunt from December, I learned a ton of how
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: they bed and where they lay down and all this stuff.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: And I really think that that two days worth of
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: knowledge is gonna help me. Yeah, you gotta tell you.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: I was pretty jealousy on that trip. I was watching
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: it on Instagram and uh, just it's so it's so
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: awesome out there, So go you gotta come. You have
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: to come with me something I really want to do it,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: I really want to do like it's it's it's I
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: love though great plains and the buttes and the little
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: coolies and all those huge wide vistas like that is
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: just that's good stuff. That's good stuff. And I hate
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: how close you are to like you you're so close
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: to that stuff. Yeah you could you could be in
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: that stuff in a handful of eight hours to that
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: spot and really like to get to the beginning of
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: It's probably less than that. Even if you were a
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: head straight west the second I the second I crossed
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: the Missouri River, I can start hunting. Yeah, with that
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: with the tag that I get so um yeah, man,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: I uh we dude, we've we talked about this ship
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: too much about getting a hunt, going on a hunt
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: again together. Right, No, we haven't done it. It's been
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: six years really, yeah, two thousand fourteen is when we
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: went on that elk hunt. Right, yeah, six years. Wow.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: I thought we were closer than that mark. But we
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: sort of hunted together last year. Um, you at least
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: came down to Michigan for a little bit. But you're right,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: You're right. Well did I not hunt? Know? You played hospitality.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: You were like, here's some pizza. Uh, here's a bed,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: and I said, oh, thank you. And I really appreciated that.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: And uh what you your sentiment is right, your we
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: do you need to this is uh? Yeah. It's funny
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: how when hunting becomes like your job all of a sudden,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: like doing the hunts like you would usually like get
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: in the plan and become harder to do. So I'm
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: in like a weird place right now. But at some point,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: as we were talking about the other day, like I'm
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: in a season of life of craziness and soon, you know,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: someday it'll be less crazy, and I uh, I'm gonna
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: be looking forward to to this specific hunt very much.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: So all right, let's let's hey one second here. What
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: is you said? Potentially Washington, d C. Or Virginia obviously Michigan.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: What were the other states that you're potentially gonna be
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: hunting this year? Arkansas, Iowa, Texas, maybe Nebraska, UM, maybe Idaho. Uh,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: there's even the Canada possibility. Um. And then whatever whatever
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: you depending on when you go through Iowa, if you
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: do this Nebraska hunt, just pick me up and I'll
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: and I'll try to make it work and and we'll
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: go and I'll just drop me off somewhere you go.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, we'll have a base camp and you can
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: go do whatever you want to do, and I'll just
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: you know, long range bombs, I don't somewhere careful, careful,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: what you ask for, I'll do it. I'll throw you
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: in the bed of the pickup truck and we'll just
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: go What do you do you think that's gonna make
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: me mad? I didn't after me? Oh no, I gotta
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: go on a deer hunt. Yeah, I guess. I just
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm more worried about Sarah trying to murder me.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Is more. If she hasn't left me yet, she's never
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: gonna leave me, So I guess that's true. She's pretty
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: well committed. Uh man, it's uh it's that time of year. Man.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: It's like the dreaming. And literally every night when I
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: fall asleep, like I always read before I go to sleep,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: but then when I finally closed my book, I lay
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: there in bed and start like dreaming some hunting or
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: fishing scenario. So it's like I literally will be like
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: envisioning myself grabbing my stuff out of the back of
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: my truck, close the tailgate, start walking down the trail
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: or something, and and then I just drift off like
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: that's how every night begins. I'm just so how I
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: fall asleep at night. This is the same way that
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: you think, Okay, it's maybe something that's not okay to
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: talk about in the podcast A candle, What were you
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: gonna say? I wait, you bed close my eyes, and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: I literally envision walking access routes to my tree stands
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: or the tree stands that I had up from previous years.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: So like I just envisioned, you know, getting out of
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: my truck, walking across the c RPU field, diving down
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: into the slow spot, heading straight north, and as I
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: come to this edge of vegetation, I take a ninety
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: degree left up the ridge to my tree stand that
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: is right on this perfect spur ridge that leads into
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: a bedding area. And it's money and that's what. And
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: then I get down and I walk out, and I
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: even envisioned my head lamp on right and then the
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: next thing, and then I just cycled through tree stands
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: until I fall asleep. And then every time you're walking
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: that trail, in your mind, you're also feeling like that excitement.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: Oh man, what's what's gonna happen? I just think of
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: that part because then i'd probably be up later, right like,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: oh there, get out my on X because I gotta
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: go check to see if if that's a northwest wind,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: well then hey, I might not be able to use
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: that access route, and you know, just go off on
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: a I don't know how boring I think about this awfully.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: How boring would life be if if we didn't have
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: like this kind of stuff that just keeps us fired
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: up and thinking about the next thing, and keeps us
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: planning and dreaming and putting things on the calendar, not
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: not to you know, not to minimize the very important
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: stuff of daily life and family and work and all that.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: But I mean, man, I just I'm just so thankful
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: that we've got this thing that we're passionate about. Yeah. Absolutely,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: man Um. I don't know what I would do if
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: I didn't bow hunt, right, We've we've had this talk
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: about let's just say Thano snaps his fingers and there's
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: no more bow hunting. And we we didn't even know
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: there was bow hunting in the first place, right, so
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: we're completely blind to the fact that there there was,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: but now there isn't bow hunting. Like, I don't know
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: what I would do. I would probably be a lumberjack.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah that sounds about right. Um. I'm sorry to interrupt,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: but have you ever chopped down a whole tree with
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: an ax um? Using just an ax I think I
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: have chopped down like little trees with a hatchet. I
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: have done that okay, but yeah, I'm talking big tree,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: big acts. I'm gonna tell you what it is. One
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: of the most manly rewarding things that a guy can do,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: just like rolling up the sleeves, just starting to chop
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: that son of a gun and then watching it fall over.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but it is awesome.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: It is an awesome feeling, So highly recommend it. What like,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: when are you doing that? Like for what purpose are
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: you doing that that you can speak from this experience? Okay,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: So my buddy owned a piece of property, uh west
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: to here. He doesn't live there anymore, but and we
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: had this tree that had this weird lima on it,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: and we're standing there and I said we should just
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: chop it down. He's like, if you wanted to do it,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: go do it. So I picked up an axe. I
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: walked down to the where this tree was and I
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: just started swinging. It took me about it took me
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: about forty five minutes or an hour to get it
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: all the way down. So nobody had a chainsaw. Nobody
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: had well, he had a chainsaw, but I wanted to
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: do it with an axe. Man, Good for you. I
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: did have a blister on my hand because I didn't
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: wear gloves. I guess that's gonna be added to my
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: bucket list of things I gotta do before I die
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: so that I can so I can live that that
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: manly moment. Until then, I'm probably gonna use the chainsaw.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: But I'm inspired for some day, all right. Man. Well,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: I think, uh, we're good. I think we're good. I
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm recharged. I feel like I got the
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: the escape that I needed. Um, and I'm just ready.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: If if I could just get rid of these zero
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: degree temperatures and see a little green grass, then I
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: would be, then I'd be where I need. Yeah, you
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: can't get it all, yep, I need. I'll tell you.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: We'll end it here. Or I need one of those
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: shed hunting days where you just pound ground all day long,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: from like eight in the morning until it starts to
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: sun starts to come down. You go home, you have
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: like a big bowl of chili that's been just sitting
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: there stewing all day long, and you start you eat that.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: You cracked a couple of beers watching TV, and you
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: fall asleep with the beer on your stomach and you
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: know it's time for bed. When you wake up and
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: you're shaking that beer spills on your shirt. That's the
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: kind of shed hunting day I need. That's the sign
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: of a good day, right there. Oh man, Yes, I
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: give me, give me that kind of day. That just
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: that good fatigue, that good burn. We're just like you're
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: you're whooped, but you're so happy about it like that.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: I can't beat that, can't beat that. And uh and
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: I think that will be my going to sleep dream tonight.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna dream about one of those days, all right, man,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Thanks for thanks for catching up. Always a pleasure man,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: always always a good time. And that is it for
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: us today. I just want to give you one quick
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: heads up. If you are still listening to this, you
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: are someone who obviously has been a long time listener
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: of Wired to Hunt. You followed along and and you
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: must be interested at least a little bit in the crazy,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: strange stories that you get from Dan and I on occasion. Well,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: if that's you, and if you are so dedicated to
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: this podcast and die hard of a deer hunter that
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: you would do that, you really ought to be subscribed
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: to our newsletter. This is our white Tail weekly newsletter.
• 1:06:55
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  Speaker 1: Mediator goes and that's where some exciting announcements will be
• 1:07:03
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• 1:07:08
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• 1:07:10
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• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: every week with a quick update all the links to
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: our latest information and news like I just mentioned. So
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: thanks for doing that. Appreciate you following along and stay tuned.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: Some cool things coming down the line. We've got a
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: lot of projects in store and I'm excited for you
• 1:07:41
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• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: next time, stay wired to hunt.