Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #142: PJ Reilly & Whitetail Lessons Learned Hunting the Northeast

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #142: PJ Reilly & Whitetail Lessons Learned Hunting the Northeast · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire 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 Wire to Hunt Podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyon, and this this episode number one
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: two Tan the show. We are joined by outdoor writer
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: p J. Riley, and we're discussing his white tailed lessons
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: learned while hunting deer in the Northeast. Hello everyone, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, brought to you
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: by sit Ka Gear and Tan the Show. We're joined
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: by p J. Riley, a super serious white tail hunter
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and an outdoor writer hailing from the great Stay of Pennsylvania.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: And PJ has written for North American White Tailed Magazine,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Game in Fish mag dot Com, Lancaster Archery Supply, and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: many other publications. And we're gonna be chatting with pg
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: today all about hunting white tails in the Northeast, a
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of different things related to that region of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the country, and we're also going to touch on some
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: things related to archery, and then just a whole bunch
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of other lessons learned that pigs had when it comes
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: to chasing deer across the country. So I think that's
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: gonna be really interesting. I'm excited to talk to PJ.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: But before we get that conversation going, we need to
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: pause here briefly for our weekly parenting advice segment from
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: my co host Dan Johnson. Right, I guess, I mean,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: it's funny that you bring this up because I just
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: had of course, I was really excited to talk about
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: like deer hunting, right, or shed hunting or something like that.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: But funny you bring that up because I just had
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: a conversation with my daughter and her question to me.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: She comes, I have this little office, it's next to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the bathroom, and she was going to the bathroom and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: she came in. She she came out of the bathroom
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and her pants were down, and I said, Eva, what
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: are you doing? She's like, oh, dad, um, why do
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I have to wipe my butt after I poop? And
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: it's like, you know, I don't know how to answer
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that really, So I just did what I always do,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: no matter what. I always say, oh, because of germs,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: now go wash your hands or you know whatever. So
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that's it's almost like I need advice sometimes, do you
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: do you need advice on why you need to wipe
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: your button? Well, because you know, it's like I told Am,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I'm like, because you don't want to be known as
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the girl at preschool with stinky butt. You know, we
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: all know that one person and who had stinky butt
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: growing up, and we Yeah, you don't want to be
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: that person. You don't want to be that person. I
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: can think of that person in my head right now
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: from Mike school. Yep, I don't want to be that guy.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: It's the same guy that. It's the same guy or
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: gal that had to wear the poop your pants pants. Yeah,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the extra the extra pants that were sitting in your
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: in your classroom that if you pooped your pants, you
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: had to wear the poop your pants pants. And everybody
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: at that point whoo poop their pants because they were
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: usually like some nineteen seventies swede just I'll crow. I
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: don't know anyway. Sound it sounds like it sounds like
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you really know what these pants look like and felt
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: like and all that kind of stuff. Dan, Yeah, there's
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: this kid named Brock in my oh yeah all the time.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Sure it wasn't a Dan. No, I never pooped my pants. Man. Well,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I'm glad we got that out of the way. Dear dear,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: like you said, dear, So what's up? You find a
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: shed yet? Dude? You know I live in Michigan. I
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: haven't found a shed. I've done a little walking, I think,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I think since we last talked. UM, I picked up
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: a new piece of shed hunting permission. I walked that
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and I thought it would be well. I thought there's
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a decent chance because I've been seeing a lot of
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: deer feet out in this cut bean field and there
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: were some some kind of brushy draws and some timber
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and then a cut bean field right next to it,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: and I was kind of excited to walk that. I
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: walked it last week, maybe Wednesday or Thursday, for a
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: couple of hours and didn't find a thing. But later
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: that night I happened to be nearby and and saw
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: out there in the field that I've walked three antler bucks.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: So the deer here seemed at least those were still holding.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna try again maybe next week there and
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: UM and see if maybe those antlers dropped. And I'm
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: gonna try to get permission on the properties to properties
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: that are adjacent to this one UM to have a
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: little or cover and UM and maybe maybe pick one
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: up there. One of the bucks is was pretty nice
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: for a for a Michigan deer. He was just a
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: good two year old, I guess, so that'd be a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: nice set if if that could happen to find him.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: So that's about all that's been going on for me
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: so far. I uh, I'm just excited. I leave tomorrow
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: morning brighton to go to Iowa. Nice sounds like your boy,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Ross Hossman's probably Hassman Hossman, Ross Hossman. I like to
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: call him Ross has Hassman, but it's house is the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: cosman correct pronunciation. Alright, R S R H alright, right,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: all right, all right. Anyway, he's probably found all the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: sheds already if there is any, because I went I
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: went on a drive with my kids on Sunday night.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: We drove around. Dude, I bet you I saw close
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: out in the fields, you know, an hour before the
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: sun was going down. No antlers, but they all looked
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: like does right. You know. So this time time of year,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you can typically tell if they're a buck because they're
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: tarsal glands might be stained a little bit more than
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the normal the normal animal. Uh So that's one way
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I can tell if it's a buck and maybe it's shed,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: it's antlers. However, I turned around this corner and I
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: saw seven bucks all holding their antlers still except for one,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and he was the biggest one and he had already
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: shed one side. So um, there they were all still
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: holding and uh, yeah, there's that. Yeah, it seems like,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: excuse me, I've been hearing from a lot of people that, Um,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: it just seems maybe maybe they're holding a little bit
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: longer this year. So I'm hoping that by the time
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: we're down there, you know, hopefully there's going to be
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: some antlers on the ground. But but Ross has been
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: has been walking some of his properties already and found some,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: so they're on the ground. It's just a matter of
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you know, being out there at the right time, in
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the right place. So we've got we've got a handful
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of properties to my knowledge, haven't been walked yet. Um,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: so hopefully those will be a pretty big group of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: us and um hopefully we'll come up with something between
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the between the group. So we're heading out tomorrow morning,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: me and my buddy Dustin, and we're gonna walk some
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: property I have permission on tomorrow and then my buddy
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Corey is going to meet us tomorrow night and maybe
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Ross too, and then we're in a camp and then
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the next day all of us plus Peter another friend
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: are gonna be walking and then I think you possibly
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: will be meeting us on Friday, right, yeah, I think
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I'm taking a half day off work and uh uh
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: be there between ten and eleven. Nice, So we'll all
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: just some walking and then um, we'll be camping out
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and camping Friday and Saturday and shed hunting Saturday and Sunday,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and I don't know, it's gonna be a lot of fun,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of good times, a lot of laughs, and
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: hopefully as mantlers. So you say, did you say Corey
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: fall was coming? Yeah, he'll be there Thursday night, all right?
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So is he gonna be walking on one of the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: lanks or do you put him in the dead the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: middle of the line. I don't know. I don't know
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: if the proper placement would be. Do you have any advice?
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I just I don't want to be the guy to
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the left or right of him. So so the planned
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: then is, um, I actually have got a set up
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: for us to record a podcast all together while we're there.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So maybe Friday night, when we get done, you and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: me and the rest of the guys, we can all
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: sit down on the campfire and do a podcast talking
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: about the day's ship hunting exploits. So we'll get to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: give Corey some crap in person, which will be fun.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Mm hmmm. So looking forward to it. Yeah, yeah, I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: am too. Anything else new for you, not really, man,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: just uh. I think this weekend I might go take
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: a couple of shorter walks with the wife, as AB's
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: going to a birthday party and I got a babysitter
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: for Saturday, like a sleepover type situation, so I'm getting
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: rid of one kid, so I figured I might get
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: someone to watch the other kid and spent some time
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: with a wife and get her out stretched the legs
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: a little bit. And maybe if I'm good Sunday and
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: have enough Brownie points built up, I might go on
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: another big one down south. But this weekend is also
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the Iowa Deer Classic, which is kind of always fun
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: to go to. However, I think I like shed hunting
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: just a little bit more. Yeah, I do want to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: go to the Classic one of these years. But were
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: you at before the Iowa Classic? Before I've never been
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to the Iowa show. Mm hmm. I think the first
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: time I was was that at the Michigan show the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: first time I ever met you. Maybe, I don't know.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe I thought maybe the first time we met was
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: that one of the film schools way back in the day.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: But I could have maybe could have been I don't know. Blurry. Yeah,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: those are blurry for me. Yeah, for multiple reasons. Hey,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: you know what, I have another random piece of exciting news.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I just I just they just paid for and um
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: because of well, I believe it's guaranteed. I just paid
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: for and got my Montana deer hunting license for the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen season. Oh badass. Yeah, I talked with Randy.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I talked with Randy Newburgh a while back on the phone,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and he's like, Dan, you gotta get out here sometimes.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: So one of these days, Yeah, it's maybe next maybe
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: two eighteen. I'll go there you go. You just gotta stop,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: you gotta stop popping out all these babies, Dan, you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: got to make sure you got time to get out
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and hunt. Well. I don't think that announcement has been
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: made on this podcast. What announcements that the announcement that
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I'm having a third kidd October. I wasn't trying to
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: force that. I don't know if that was that was
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: okay yet, but I made the announ smith what on
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the podcast that I had this past uh this past
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: week so um or on the nine Finger Chronicles podcasts.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And because I was talking with my buddy Justin's oar
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: from bow hunting dot com and he's got three kids
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: now and his kid was born October, so he kind
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: of had a different type of rut. At least my
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: kid will be quote unquote established at that point. Okay,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: so tell me this. Well, first off, when's the approximate
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: due date? Uh? Based off of the first doctor's visit,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the due date is or September. Okay, So here's my question.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: What do you think is better for the doe date
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to be or for the baby to be born at
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: that point, you know, sometime in September. But then you're
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: gonna have like a four week old or a six
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: week old or a seven or eight week old during
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the heat of the hunting season October and the rut.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: You know, when it comes to the rut, you're gonna
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: have a six week old or whatever. It's gonna be Um,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that sounds tough. So is that is that better or
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: worse than having no baby in October but then having
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a born you know, nove ever tenth or something right
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: during the rudin. Well, I think that after the baby comes,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I might be able to, you know, sneak away to
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the main farm. Now, if the baby hadn't come yet
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and it was getting close, I would feel obligated to
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: stick around closer to home, right, still go still go
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: out and hunt, but but not you know, make it
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: down to the main farm. Once the baby is already here.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: You know, I can have Grandma come up, or I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: can have somebody come up. Now. The only the thing
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: that I'm kind of playing around with is the very
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: first week in September, I had I had planned to
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: go to Colorado for an elk hunt. And typically if
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: it's all good, the see my my daughter went three
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: days early ahead of due date, and my son, I
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: think he went six five or six days early instead
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: of a due date. So if for some reason, the kid, like,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I don't think the kid's gonna come fifteen or uh,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: you know, fifteen days early. So I think I'm still
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: gonna be able to squeeze this dude, this ELK trip in.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: The Only problem is, you know, my wife's gonna be
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: thirty thirty three weeks pregnant, thirty four weeks pregnant. Uh
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: when I'm out ELK cunning. So wow. So here's a
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: question for you, because you own your own business and
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I'm starting to get some you know, some sponsorship dollars
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: coming in for the nine finger chronicles. Do I take
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: some of that money and buy a date, like a
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: babysitter to come to the house at that time so
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I can actually get out and hunt and is do
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: you think that is? A tax writer? I think that's
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the best investment you can make. Right nowadays, you can't.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: We can't. We can't have a November three, November three
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: end of season date again. We've gotta we gotta pay
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: for the babysitter, get out there and hunt and do
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: this stuff. Because yeah, I think that's smart, right that right?
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: That stuff off? Do it? I wanna try. I'm gonna try.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Do you have an accountant yet? I don't. My accountant
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: is usually me. And you know it's it's like that
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: little that little voice in your head, it's like, yes,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you should buy another pair of hunting boots or yes,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: you definitely need more Sitka gear or whatever. So it
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: sounds like a very wise advisor. I'm good during good
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: happier in good hands. He's he's belligerently drunk most of
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the time. Well, you might want to look at getting
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: a real accountant because things get a little bit complicated
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: as as your business grows. Right, I'm rolling the dice
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: right now, all right, I I that sounds right on
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: par with basic Dan Johnson one on one. So that's right.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: So here's a question, nam Um. What the listeners don't know,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: but you and I know is that you actually aren't
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: able to join us on the interview with p J
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: because that interview actually happened yesterday and you couldn't go
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: because your power well right, right, So, so the conversation
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that I have with p J is about hunting deer
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: in the northeast. I want to know, since you didn't
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: get to listen to that, what do you think or
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: what kind of advice do you have for hunting deer
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in the northeastn like north northeast Iowa, Well, like Maine,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: this is like northeast US. But you you feel free
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to spin it however you want. Well, I tell you,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: if I'm going to give advice on a place I've
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: never hunted before, I'm gonna make an assumption that there
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: are also a lot of people, a higher population of people,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: which means more pressure, which means the hunter should probably
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: um not go into their properties um as much. If
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: you run trail cameras, let your trail cameras do the
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: scouting for you, and um pick the best possible days
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to to be aggressive with. You know, if and if
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: you have the opportunity to do a run and gun,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: do a running gun in first time, in best time
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: in type scenario. That's pretty good, Dan, That's pretty good.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: That's a that's an assumption. Now, you know, there's a
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: lot of guys out there right now probably going Dan
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: is a dipship and I will never take advice from him.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: So so whatever, Well, I've talked to some guys. I've
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: talked to some guys out who who hunt out there,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: and it's cool. It's it's just straight different because, um,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: I talked to a guy who hunts in Maryland and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: he hunts in basically a housing development in his His
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: biggest piece of property is three acres yeah, everything else
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: is smaller that crazy, right. I Interestingly, I killed my
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: first buck ever with a bow, and I've told the
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: story of years ago, but the first deer I ever
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: killed was on a three and half acre property. So right,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: so there you go. That was that was my experience
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: at the very beginning to So um, Dan, one final thing,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: we're really going along with this intro, but we uh
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: we talked on your podcast, I think it was last week,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and speaking of this whole topic that we're talking about
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: right now, on that podcast, you said that if ever
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: you're able to quit your day job and go full
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: time with the nine Figure Chronicles, then you will come
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and hunt Michigan and experience this type of of world
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: that we have in Michigan and Pennsylvania, New York and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: other states like that. So can you just reaffirm that
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: here to the Wired Dhunt audience. Right, I'm gonna look
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: for this, uh, this awesome ranch. It's called the Kenyan Ranch.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: It's up in Uh. I'm after this one butt called
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: holy Field. I'm not sure if he's alive yet, but no, Yeah, dude,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: if I like, I guarantee it, I'll put the Dan
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Johnson name on it. If that holds anything, that's probably
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: like child child paste for arch and crafts. But um,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: if I ever am able to quit my job and
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: you know, go nine Finger Chronicles full time, I will
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: come and do some form of a hunt in Michigan.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: You heard it right there, folks. Dan is going to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: leave Iowa and come to Michigan. So, so support the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Nine Finger Chronicles, right, yeah, that's right, all right, yeah, right,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: you know. So it's just like, yeah, let's cheer for
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Dan just so we can feed him, you know, just
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: just so we can put him in a bad situation.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: That's That's exactly what I want. So I would love
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to do that. It would be fun. So, hey, I
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: got a question for you. Last question. I'm sorry, now
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you're good. What would happen if you're like Dan, you
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: can come in hunt on my property and holy Field
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: stepped out. What would happen? Well, two things. Number One,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't let you. Number two, I'm gonna kill holy
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Field next year, so we won't be around when you
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: get here. Oh amen, So that's your fingers crossed. Probably
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in likely home. Man. I'm actually working on my film
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: right now, kind of telling the story of holy Field.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: This year this past year, and um, and I'm excited
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: about that. And uh and speaking of speaking of that,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: we need to take a break now to pause for
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: our sickest story and then um, we're gonna get rid
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of Dan and we're to bring in PJ then after
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: that and we'll get this show on the road. So,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: like I just said, you know, I'm working on this
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: holy Field film, and I thought for today's Sikest Story,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I could actually share a story of my own and
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a preview of that film here
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: to come in the next few weeks, hopefully. So my
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: sickest story today is an interview that I recorded just
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: after my first close call with holy Field during this
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: past season. Holles smocks. That was a crazy, crazy night.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: As you might have seen. The last photos I had
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: was holy Field walking in the food plot. A snort
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: wised him in. He came to the food plot and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: then he started pushing the dough across it. I'm self shaking,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: started pushing do across it. He ran across my shooting lanes,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: stopped behind a bunch of branches, and then I thought, reason,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: come on, I started to sitting. So I started to
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: slowly sit down my chair and when I sat and creaked,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: so he was frozen there for a while, and then
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: he walked right out, just fine. But top I drew
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: back on him, and it was just too dark. It
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: was right last night. I just could not see my
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: pins and he was too far out. He's probably forty
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: yards if he was a twenty, and maybe it could
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: take the shop, but at fort you, I just I
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: couldn't do it. So crazy night, I saw the five
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: different ture bos. I saw a holy Field. Not only
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: did I see him when it drew back on him,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: but then he went back in the field Jason does
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and disappeared for a long time, and then I sat waiting,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and then he came back in like twenty minutes later
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: after dark. I hadn't gotten other tree. I just saw
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: dear come back in the food black here is twenty yards.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I can see him my baculars. But wow, I saw
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: holy Field. I saw that big nine and them calling Fraser,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and three other nice bucks. I'm not sure which ones
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: they were. I think one was Mayweather. Um just a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: crazy night, crazy crazy night. It was indeed a crazy
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: crazy night, And that was a sick story. In fact,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: on that hunt I was ware is sick of Fanatic
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: hoodie and shack it and the stripes pants. So if
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you would like to learn more about Sick of Gear
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: for yourself, you can visit gear dot com. And now
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: we will get back to the show in our conversation
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: with p J Riley. All right with us. Now on
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the line is PJ Riley. Welcome to the show. PJ. Hey, Mark,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: how you doing? Thanks for having me. I'm doing really
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: well and uh, and thank you for joining us. What
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: about you? How how's your day going? Uh? Not too
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: bad today. We're we had a nasty weather last week
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and now it looks like it's like sixty some degrees here.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: I'm in Pennsylvania seventies tomorrow and then it's supposed to
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: drop in last week that made like tornadoes in the area,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: so tomorrow shouldn't be a very good day. How crazy
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: has this weather been this winter? Just insane? And me personally,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I'm a winter person, so I feel like I'm kind
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: of cheated because I don't expect in August I'll get
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: any forty degree days. So true, that's true. My issue
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: with it is that I feel like we're getting these
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: like false expectations like, we're getting these sixty degree days
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and it's gotten excited for spring now. But I know,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: like you said, that cold weather is going to come
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: back in and it's gonna stomp all my hopes and
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: dreams out. So I think it's I mean, it's supposed
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: to be seventy tomorrow and I think we're supposed to
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: get snow on Friday. So there you go. Yeah, that's crazy,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. So I have been reading your articles for
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: a long time now, UM, but for those for those
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: who aren't familiar with what you do, can you just
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about what does you do
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: now and maybe a little bit about your background in
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: hunting and how you got to this point. Sure? So, UM,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: I full time. I am a technical writer for lank
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Store Archery Supply. UM. We are the world's largest dealer
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: of target bow hunting and three D archery. UM. If
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: it has to do with archery, we sell it. Uh.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: And we're you know, everybody here is fanatical about archery. UM.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: We're into tournaments, we're into bow hunting, We're into it
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: all UM. And so I work um mainly on the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: company's website, our social media pages. UM. I do a
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: blog UM for the site you know about anything and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: everything archery. UM. So that's what I do full time. Uh.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: And then also in addition to that, UM, I've been
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: UM a magazine writer for I don't know twenty some
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: years for UM. Currently the bow hunting editor for buck
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Masters Magazine. I write for bow Hunter Peterson's Bow Hunting Sports,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: a Field, North American white Tail, YadA YadA. There's a
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: whole host of things that I do that for and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: so that's that's what I do. I'm like you, I'm
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: kind of immersed in it each and every day. UM.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And it's just something that I always wanted to do. UM.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: UM kind of a self taught hunter. I didn't come
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: from a hunting family, so once I get out of college,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I sort of found my way and being you know,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: as we'll get into it. Being where I live, if
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you want to hunt deer, you kind of have to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: be a bow hunter. That's just because of the density
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of the population here. That's your best bet for if
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: you want to get permission to hunt private property, you've
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: got to be a bow hunter. So UM, that's kind
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of how I got to where I am. What was that?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: What was that process like? Learned teaching yourself to hunt,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: you know, years overall that was I mean, it was fun.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you my first in you know, training
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: to learn how to hunt. I started out doing three
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: D shoots. I remember vividly going to my first three
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: D shoot with twelve arrows and I came home with none.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: So that is kind of how things went. And and
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: you know, from the same thing within the woods. I mean,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: I'd go out in the woods kind of with my
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: bow and I'm kind of like, now what do I do?
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: You know, and just kind of walking around, didn't know
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: about tree stands. Um. So it was a it was
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: a long process, but I enjoyed it, you know. Eventually
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: then I started making friends and they started showing me things,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and um so that's kind of how it progressed from there.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Do you remember now, I'm addicted. I think that I
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: was going to ask, do you remember your first dear?
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you do, Oh absolutely, Can you tell us
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: about that? Yes, it was a button buck and I
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: shot it with my boat. My very first dear was
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a bow kill. And I remember distinctly. Way by this
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: is I think the back then, the lighted sight pins
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: that they had were Actually it was a fiber optic,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: so it kind of shine back at you, not not
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: like today where the pins were illuminated, so it was
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: getting sailing light. I turned on this pin and it
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: was like a spotlight right in my eye, so I
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: couldn't see very well. And I remember, you know, I
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have done it, but I remember my pin just
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: getting close, and I just cut loose and had had
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: no idea where I was aiming, and fortunately it hit
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the right spot. That sounds a lot like my first
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: kill two. Oh yeah, you know you don't, because that
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: first one you don't really know what to expect um
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: if you've never done it before, it's it's all foreign.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: It's amazing what you learned. Then you know about dear
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: body language and you know, okay, shoot no shoot situations,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: but early on it can be rough. Yeah, that's the truth.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: You know. Something that we we talked a lot about,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about on past episodes, myself and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: and Damn my co host who's usually with us, is
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: is that that moment there at the very end where
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: you are dealing with that moment of truth. And we
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: kind of go through this debate between the two of
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: us sometimes where the people that are really good at
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: handling the moment of truth and handling buck fever. Is
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that like a are you born with that? Are you
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: just a stone cold ice in the veins type you
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: can handle that? Or is it one of those things
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: that just comes with experience? What from your perspective is it?
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: And what have you? For me? And being primarily a
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: bow hunter, what I always noticed, what I noticed after
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: a while is before I mean, that first one was crazy,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: but I had been shooting competition archery for two years
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: before I got to that point, so I could shoot
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: a bow. And after that, what I remembered was because
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it was so familiar with shooting in a boat, when
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: it came to that moment, I would kind of like
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: blank out, just go on autopilot, I would. It would
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: just muscle memory would take over. I would do what
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: I needed to do and boom, you know, next thing
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: I know, I'd be like, oh, that was a good shot. Um,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: but I I you know, but then as soon as
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: it was past, boy, you know, the knees start shaking
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: and the heart starts something. But when it came time
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to shoot, and still, you know, when it comes time
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: to shoot. It just things just happen on their own. Yeah,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: and more often than than not, fortunately they turn out
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the best. Don't always happen that way, but you know,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: usually more often than not that happens. Yeah, I can relate.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I too, you know, fall into the autopilot. But for me,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: I've actually been able to transition. From early on in
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: my hunting bow hunting career, I would go into autopilot,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: but it would be autopilot in a bad way in
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: that you know, it would just it would just happen,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and I wasn't able to be settled in or taking
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: my time, so I'd rush a lot shots. Um, But
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I've been I've been able to progress now where you know,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: like you said, mistakes still happened, but for the most part,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: I'm in that kind of business mode, autopilot mode. But
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: now the process is smooth and I don't need to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: think about it, and you know, knock on wood, it's
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: been going pretty well. But it is interesting how that
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: kind of comes from experience and practice and all that. Well.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I've found here lately is
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: for the last several years, you know, I, like many hunters,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I went through the progression to where shooting a lot
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: of deer was what was important. UM. And so I
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: would get lots of dough tags that hunt multiple state,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: shoot every you know, everything I could UM. But then
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the last several years I kind of I've switched back
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to where now I'm hunting mature bucks. And one thing
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I found is I actually got out of that that
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: killer mode, if you will, to where because I'm not
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: shooting a lot of deer regularly. I've had some problems
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years. I've had some hits that
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: were bad that I thought, man, I should I should
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: have held that dear um. And then after it happened
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: a cold time, I was like, you know what, it's
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: because I'm not shooting as made dear as I. So
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not familiar with the situation. So there's I actually
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I did an article last year about that. I was like,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: you know, three ds are great for practice, but it's
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: not the same thing. Shooting alive dear is a unique
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: experience and the only way to get good at it
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: is to do it a lot. Yeah. So, so was
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: there any other adjustments you made or was it just
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: going back to shooting more does and that kind of
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: thing just to keep that going. That was it, Yeah,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that was it. It just um, I just had a
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: couple where I was like, man, I that should have
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: been a gimme. I mean that should have been you know,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: inside inside thirty yards, nothing in between me and the deer.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: That should have been a gimme. And somehow I screwed
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: it up. So I thought I was rushing. You know,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not taking my time. I gotta fix that. So yeah, yeah,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to shooting more. Dear, speaking of
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: the other type of shooting you do, you mentioned you
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: were doing a lot of three D shooting and some
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: tournament stuff. How has that helped you as a as
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a bow hunter and is that something that that you know,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: more more people should consider getting involved in. Yes, totally.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And actually I've been working on a series of articles
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: about this to where the very most basic thing I
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: would say is the more you shoot your bow, the better.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, whatever you shoot it at, shooting your bow
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: is better than not shooting your bow. It's just there's
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: so many things that happened with muscles that just are better.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: If you are shooting a lot um then kind of
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: fine tuning that if you only shoot three D s
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: or paper animals or something where you're not aiming at
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: a dot. What I've noticed is you your form won't
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: be as solid, but you won't know it only through shooting.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: You know, if you mix in dots as well shooting
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: bulls eyes, you'll you'll know if you're not holding steady
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: right away, you'll know. But if you're aiming at the
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: vitals of the deer, you figure that's about the size
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: of a pipe plate. There's a lot of margin for
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: error in there inside that pipe plate. Versus if you're shooting.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: You know, a typical vegas type target you're tendering is
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: about the size of a silver dollar. You're gonna know
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: if your hand is kind of wandering. So mixing those
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: two together, you know, with the target archery, you learn
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: precision aiming, you learn um to fix your form flaws,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: because if you have form flaws, they're gonna stand out
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: um So, and then going over of course, you don't
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: want to be dependent on a niming dot. When you're
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: hunting deer. You may not have one. You may just
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: have to aim at a patch of brown. So shooting
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: at three D then with the two together, you can
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: really uh find to make yourself, you know, the best
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: bow hunter you can be. Yeah, you know, continue on
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: this topic now that we're talking about this, is there
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: are there any other in addition to what you just
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: mentioned there, you know, switching up between three D and
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: you know, specific targets and stuff. Are there any other
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: things you suggest to people at this time of year,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: this offseason winter early springtime period that people should be
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: considering to you know, um implement within their kind of
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: practice regimen, anything different or exercises or anything that helps you. Yeah. Obviously,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: you know, any cardiovascular any muscular training you can do,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: all of that helps, um, but none of it helps
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: like shooting your bow. I'm always amazed. We'll have you know,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: I'll be working in our shop and there will be
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: a big, huge guy come in and you know he's
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: obviously he can probably bench press three hundred pounds. You know,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: he's a super strong guy. I'll hand him my seventy
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: pound bow and he can't pull it back. It's not
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: that he's not strong enough, it's that he doesn't have
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the coordination. Which that's what you get through, just like
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I said, just shooting that bow over and over and
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: over again you develop that coordination. So um, you know,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: the training cardiovascular, Um, that's always good because that helps,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: you know, anytime your bow hunting, hiking back in and
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: of course muscle training that's going to make it easier
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: for you to hold your bow, etcetera. But wintertime, boy,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: that's a great time to shoot indoor leagues. Just shoot
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: a lot, yeah, just lots of arrows and build that
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: muscle memory, right exactly exactly. It's nice with this these
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: warmer days, eveenably get outside and do some shooting when
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: usually just be you know, in the barn or something.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: It's nice to be catching some some sun rays and
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: uh that's not common in February, yeah, for sure. And
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: one of the things that we like to do, you know,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: with with training for our trade shooting distance. You know,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: I may not, um shoot a deer at seventy or
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: eighty yards, but I'll shoot targets at that distance all
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: day long, just because it makes you better at thirty
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: and forty yards. Yeah, any twitch of your hand at
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: eighty yards in that hour is going to be several
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: inches off targets, so it just really fine tunes your form.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we like getting outside, so we could shoot distance.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: We're going down a wormhole here, but oh yeah, you've
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: got this is this is my fault feature because I'm
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: interested in this stuff. I want to talk about deer,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: but I want to I want to understand a few
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: things too with this. Since you've got shots expertise, you know, Okay,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Let's let's say you're you're shooting at seventy or eighty
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: yards because you're trying to really fine tune things. How
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: do you start self diagnosing what the issue is? So
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: let's say whether it's at seventy or it's at thirty
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: or whatever, you start seeing that you're you're off. How
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: do you begin the process of self diagnosis? Self diagnosis
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: is probably be pretty difficult. What what I would say
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: that you should diagnose is that you have a problem.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: You may not know what that problem is, but if
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: you just can't be consistent, know that and tell yourself, hey,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I got a problem here, and then go to your
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: shop and have somebody watch you shoot nine times I'll
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: say times out of a hundred. Even what we see
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: at Lankester archery is issues with people how they hold
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: the bow. That hands down the most common issue we
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: see that bow grip looks like something you should grab
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: like a pistol. But if you hold it like that,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: you're going to have problems, especially at distance, because you're
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: going to tork the bow and at seventy yards you're
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: going to see that. So just if you're shooting seventy
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: yards and you just can't hold a tight group seventy yards,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: it's not you know, eventually you should be able to
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: have all your arrows, you know, in in a circle
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the size of a coffee cup. That's you know, even
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: though it's seventy yards, that's not unheard of today's bows.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: They're perfectly capable of doing that. If you find that
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: your group just isn't getting any smaller, tell yourself, hey,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: I got a problem, and then go find an expert
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: who can help you figure out what that problem is.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: It could be something with equipment. You know, you never
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: um if you're shooting an arrow that's too weak of
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: a spine at twenty yards, you're not gonna notice. That's
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: not going to be a problem you start backing up.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Now that's going to be an issue. So it could
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: be many things. But somebody at your local pro shop
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: they can help you figure that out. Yeah, that's good advice,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: and it takes some and I gotta say I am
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: guilty of just always pushing off the trip to the
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: pro shop because I don't want to make the drive
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: or I don't want to deal with waiting or hour
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But it's such a you know,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: it's it's a good idea to get in there and
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: talk to people that have experienced this kind of stuff
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: because to your point, it's really tough to figure out
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing on your own. You know it is,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: and there's unfortunately, and that's one of the reason Rob Calfld,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: he's our owner, that's one of the reasons that he
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: hired me and he hired a we now have a
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: full time cameraman too, was just to get information out
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: there because unfortunately, there is a lot of bad information.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Just within the last six months. I won't say who,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: but I saw a well known figure do a video
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: where she was saying that the way you grip your
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: bow doesn't matter, that you hold it anyway you want,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: and you know that's the way to do it. I thought, Man,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: if she would talk to a coach, I guarantee you
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: there's there's a reason Levim Morgan, Jesse Broadwater and all
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: the top archers. If you look at their hand position,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: it's all the same. That's not by accident. There's there's
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: a right way to hold it and there's a wrong way.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately there's lot of misinformation out there. But if
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: you get to your pro shop, I guarantee you there,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: you know somebody there's going to know the right information. Yeah. Yeah,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: that's that's a good reminder for all of us. I
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: actually need to go to the pro shop to get
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: my peeps that moved on a new both, so I
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: need to make that trip too. Yes that will help, Yes, yes,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: it definitely will. Um. So, so let's let's shift. Let's
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: shift gears here, p J. Let's talk to you. Um
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: And you have this unique perspective of of hunting and
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: living in Pennsylvania and some experience in the Northeast. And
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: that's something we haven't actually got to talk about as
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: much as we probably should have here on the podcast.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I would say the a unique
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: perspective or some kind of curse that I was born here.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it feels like that. I think we're I can
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: feel your pain there little because I like to I
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: like to milk the curse of hunting and living in Michigan. So, UM, yes,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: there's similarities there, but you definitely feel my pain. So
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: so let's talk about that pain though, PJ. What where
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: all have you hunted in the Northeast and can you
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: just kind of give us a high level overview for
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: those that don't hunt in that poor country? What what's
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: unique about it? What's you know? What's that like? Um,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I've hunted obviously, Pennsylvania my whole life. I've hunted, uh,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia. UM, pretty
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: much everything right around Pennsylvania. UM, and here in the Northeast.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: And basically the two main issues are the hunter density,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: well in Pennsylvania in particular hunter density, then just density
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: of people who live here. And then the third thing
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: I would say is the relative size of properties here
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania. I personally don't know anyone who has access
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: to one thousand acres of private property, you know, contiguous land.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: They I mean, such places exist here, but they're pretty
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: rare where where I live. UM, if there's a farm,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: it's usually under a hundred acres, So you know, I
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: may have access to my seventy acres you know of
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: my farm. Well, then there's another guy right next door
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: who has access to the next forty acres, and then
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the next guy down the street he's hunting that thirty
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: acres um, you know, and all down and actually right
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: around my house. It's even less than that. It's you know,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I got six acres here, the neighbors got eleven. Other
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: guy's got five. So that's a that's a totally different
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: perspective than someone who has the run of four hundred,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: five hundred, six hundred acres um. There's only so many,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: only so many trees you can put a stand in
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: on six acres. Yeah, that's something I can definitely relate
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: to here in Michigan too. Yeah. So it's just a
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: different it's a different experience. I think you have to
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: have different expectations. But certainly, I mean, I go to
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Illinois every year. I've been hunting there for I don't know,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: fifteen years every year, and it's it's different, Um, just
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: because you're so confined here. It's it's just a different thing.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: And and one of the um misconceptions can be I
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: live in a very suburban area and a lot of
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: people think, oh, that's great hunting down there, you know,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: because access is so hard to get. It's hard to
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: get if you're from the outside. That doesn't mean nobody's
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: hunting there, because I can tell you pretty much around me,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: if a place can be hunted, someone is hunting it.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: That's the pencil. I'm sure that's the same in Michigan.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: One of the good things about hunting in Pennsylvania is
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: it's an accepted way of life. I think more so
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: we don't see a whole lot of the anti hunting um.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: You just don't run into that that much. Yeah, I
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: want to go back to what you mentioned a second ago,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: being expectations. And if you are if you're someone who
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: hunts in Pennsylvania or Michigan or New York or you know,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Virginia or some of these other states that aren't necessarily
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: like the the Midwest, top tier white tail states that
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: we see on TV or see in the magazines and everything.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Why why do you think setting why our expectation is
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: important to that type of hunter? And can you can
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: you help us but understand you know, what we should
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: be thinking about when trying to set proper expectations in
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: a situation like that. Sure, if if you if you
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: go to if I go to Kansas, d and fifty
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: inteers a very real possibility here in Pennsylvania. I've been
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: hunting here since I'm in my seventh year. I don't
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: know that I've ever I think I've maybe ever seen
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: one deer of that size. Ever, I've never shot one
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: like that. A friend of mine killed it. Um, So
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: it's it's not it's not that it's not realistic for
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: me to expect that. Well, it is really unrealistic for
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: me to expect that. But if that's my goal and
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I don't achieve it, I can't really be upset because
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: the odds of that here are pretty slim. But if
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: I know that, well, then hey, that's okay. Um. But
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: if you go out every year and you're like, oh man,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I want to kill a one forty, you can't really
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: be upset when you don't, because it's just it's you know,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: just I'm for the longest time before Pennsylvania changed its
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: deer management program and two thousand one, the biologists said, hey,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania hunters kill on average of the year and a
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: half old deer every year. That does that doesn't leave
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: a lot left to get to two and a half
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: then let alone three and a half, four and a half,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: five and a half. We've since moved that scale a
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: little bit to now where we don't kill as many
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: a year and a half. I think we're above fifty
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: percent that they're at least two and a half were older,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: But the biologists will be the first to tell you
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: they're pretty much now we're just killing two and a
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: half year old deer. So that's still you know, you're
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: that's a heck two and a half year old deer
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: that gets to one fifty, that's a that's a heck
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: of a deer that's going to be pretty rare. Yeah.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: So do you do you set your expectations in Pennsylvania?
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I guess how do you personally set your expectations? Is
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: it based on your trying to kill a certain size
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: antler buck? Or is it age or the just shoot
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: whatever one makes you excited? Or how do you how
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: do you think? You know what? You know what my
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: thought is. My thought is I don't want to shoot
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: one that I can clearly see is one and a
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: half or two and a half, you know, the small
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: deer with the skinny neck. Um. Those deer kind of
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: stand out. I don't want to shoot one of those.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: That's me personally. And then for antlers, it's you know,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: if it's definitely not in that age class, I'll shoot it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: There's there's a deer that's been living behind my house
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: that is actually a giant six pointer. This thing has
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: an enormous frame and I can tell I've have several
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: pictures of that deer. He's at least three and a half. Now,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: this deer wouldn't score for anything. I would love to
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: kill that deer. He is just unique. Um. I just
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: think he's an awesome deer. So that's kind of my
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: expectations and I and those are I think those are
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: realistic expectations. Don't kill a deer every year, but you know,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: I do pass up ones that are legal, dear um,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: And I'm okay with that. But that's that's fine with me.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: I don't you know, I don't have to shoot. But
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm probably like a lot of hunters. My
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: basement is full of the exact same eight pointer fourteen
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: fifteen inch eight pointer hundred and twelve hundred fifteen inches.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: I probably got ten fifteen of those, Do I need
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: to shoot another one? No? Personally I don't. But that's me,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: you know somebody else I get it. They may have
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: limited time, you know, they get out a couple of days.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: They want to shoot the first legal buck. Good do it.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: That's your business. Knock yourself out. I don't have any
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: problem with that. Um. But like I said, for me,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: you know, that's kind of how I set my goals
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: going into a season. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: So so, okay, you mentioned two of the unique factors
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: there in a place like Pennsylvania are small properties and
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: very high density of other hunters and people. So how
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: do you tackle those two issues? How do you deal
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: with the heavy hunting pressure and how do you uniquely
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: deal with small properties? How does that change your hunting strategy? Well,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: first off, I should say we do have we are
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: fortunate here to have a lot of public land in Pennsylvania.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: There is a lot just our State Game Commission, which
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: is comparable to d n R in other states. Just
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: our State Game Commission owned. I think it's one and
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: a half million acres. On top of that, we've got
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: State Forest, We've got the Allegheny National Forest, which it
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: alone is five hundred and some thousand acres UM, so
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: we've got probably I think the last number I saw
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: was it was pushing three million acres of public hunting land,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: which in a state beside of Pennsylvania, that's pretty signal
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: skin because I think we're fourth in overall population in
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: the country, so we're not a big state, but we
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: got a lot of people. UM, So there is a
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: lot of public land out there. Unfortunately, it hasn't always
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: been um managed in the best way, and so there
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: are you know, you'll have one tract of state game
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: lands that might be acres, and boy, you can spend
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: all day and have trouble finding one. Dear Um. That's
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: but that is an avenue if you want to go
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: back in. We've had many studies here the show the
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: guy who's willing to really hoof it in and get
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: more than a mile from the road, you can find
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: you can get away from the crowds. Will you find dear, Well,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: that's the next hurdle, But you can get away from
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: the people on public lands. UM. Where I live, I
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: live down in southeast basically between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. UM.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: If people are familiar with that, that's where I live,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: we don't have a lot of public land, and the
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: public land we do have really gets pounded, so I
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: stay away from that. UM. My strategy is more trying
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: to get onto smaller private properties or we have, UM,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: we have some public land that allows limited access to
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: certain groups. You know, you have to pass tests and
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: things like that, and with them being smaller properties, I
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: just try to line up several of them so you know,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: maybe I have six acres I can hunt here, ten
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: acres over there, you know, fifteen here. UM. That's kind
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: of my strategy versus having one good place, I have
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: several smaller places to hunt. That That's kind of been
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: my strategy. It's we're very fortunate here. We have groups
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: like Natural Lands Trust that UM they come in and
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: fortunately they're eager to buy up places in Pennsylvania because
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: they want to preserve it before it gets developed. And
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: they understand the value of hunting, so they allow hunting
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: and they run these hunting programs. You have to pass
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: a test to get in. So I'm in two places
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: like that, UM, where it's it's public land public hunting land,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: so the number of hunters is pretty limited and and
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: it's decent it's it's not great, but it's pretty decent.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of how that that's kind of a
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: strategy I take. I don't like to I don't have
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: my brother in law has a camp in the mountains,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: but I don't go up there much for deer hunting,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: just as soon hunt around home before work, after work
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: on weekends, that kind of thing. So one of the
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: things that I think about, and I'm hearing about your situation,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: you know, hunting a series of these small properties, um,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: at least for me and my hunting, you know, in
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: my hunting experiences, one of the things I'm always concerned
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: about the most is being really careful about when I
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: hunt a spot to keep that pressure low and you know,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: trying to make sure and trying to make sure I'm
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: not going either too much or things like that. And
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: that's and that's a consideration, you know, even when I'm hunting,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: you know, eighty or ninety acre pieces, let alone a
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: six acre piece. So how do you how does that
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: factor How is hunting pressure? You're hunting pressure factor into
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: how and when you hunt these little pieces. I kind
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: of call that taking the temperature, Taking the temperature of
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: the property, you because they are these small properties. You know,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: a deer we know has average home range of about
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: a mile, Well, how am I going to catch him
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: when he's on that six acres? I can hunt? You
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: And from what I've seen over the years is deer
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: kind of have a cyclical pattern and you kind of
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: have to stay on top of what's happening on your
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: properties to know when they're going to be there to
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: hit it right. You know, you can do that with
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: trail cameras. Um, maybe hunting it, you know, one morning
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: one day a week, hunting a you know, or hunt
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: a morning on Monday and hunting evening on Friday. I
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: found by doing that I can usually then figure out, okay,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: I need to be here at this time between that
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: and my cameras. Um. But yeah, you're right, because I
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: have seen you know, obviously I learned through trial and error.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: I'd go in and hunt the same stand day after
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: day after day, and then the deer sightings would just dwindled, dwindled, dwindle,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: and then I wasn't seeing anything. Um, it was pretty
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: clear what was happening because I couldn't move, the deer moved. Um.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: It's pretty simple science there doesn't take a genius to
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: figure that out. But um, yeah, that's that's kind of
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: how I go about it. And to be honest, there
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: will be periods like, um, the second week, second and
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: third week of October. I don't think I've ever killed
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: a deer in Pennsylvania. Um So because of that, I
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: don't invest too much time then. I mean, I understand
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: anything's possible. The deer of a lifetime could walk by then,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: but my history has shown those aren't the best times.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put a lot of effort then first week,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: and then once you start getting around Thanks Halloween and
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: then on into November, then I'm going to start putting
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: more effort in Yeah, yeah, I've I've found a similar
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: thing to be true too for me, when you know,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: for that same basic reason trying to keep pressure low,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: I'll hunt early the season, the first few days in
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: the season, that first week, and then layoff it and
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: then wait till that pre rut type of activity starts,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: and then the odds of that movement rises up. And
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: so it's worth the risk of going in there and
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: putting pressure on those deer because the opportunity is so
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: much greater and and Interestingly, I moved to a new
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: place two years ago, so this year was my second
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: season um living where I am, and I can hunt
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: right around my house. And one of the unique things
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: I noticed is, for whatever reason, the best rut activity
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: around there is November six to two years in a row.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: The exact same thing happened. I was out in Illinois
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: hunting and my wife's at home and she's telling me, PJ.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: There's these big bucks running around the wood here like crazy,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: you know, all day, and I'm gone, and you know,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: I was hunting, you know, figuring. Oh, first week in November,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: that's awesome. I'm sitting in my treestand seeing nothing but
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: doze and little bucks, Like, what the heck is going on? Well,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: you know I've read up about this that um deer
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: on a local basis will have their sweet spot for
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: activity like that. You know, they tell you the rut. Oh,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: it's from you know, Halloween into the third week of November.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: That's and and there's a bell curve. It is what
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: I've seen a picture of. Well, your individual location, the
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: peak of that bell curve can move. It can be
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: you know, sixteen to where I am and ten miles
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: away it can be the fourth to the eighth, you know. Um,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I know there was another property I hunted for a
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: long time and I knew that if I was in
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: my tree stand November seven, eight nine, something was going
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: to happen. Those were the days on that property. UM. So,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: just experience cameras, you know, observations, things like that. It's
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: what you learn over time. Yeah, it's interesting how there
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: are th local variances that that to your point, I
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: think every place is a little bit different and that
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: experience you start to pick up on that. Um So,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: speaking back to um kind of the different observations you're
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: able to make on these propers you mentioned using trail cameras,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: UM and hunting and observing. Can you elaborate a little
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: bit on on how you scout these properties, both the
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: details of what you're doing with trail cameras and any
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: on the ground scouting you do off season, in season,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: anything like that. One of the one of the good
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: things I guess about hunting the small properties, Like I
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: said it, there's only so many places you can be
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: UM and it's usually okay. If finally got six acres
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: to work with, finding the main deer path is really
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: all I can do. It may not be the best
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: place in the area, but it's all I have access to. Um,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: you know, I will find these trails, hunt him a
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: few times, you know, and you can see what the
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: deer doing. Just paying attention to when they move and
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: where they move. You can fine tune your adjustments like that.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Then for trail cameras, what I like is to just
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: pick up on daytime deer movement. UM, I don't have
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: to see them, you know from my stand if if
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: I'm getting consistent daylight pictures of bucks, Okay, now I know,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: all right, I need to be out there. You know,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: will the will a deer that I want to come by?
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Who knows, but I can tell. Now, Okay, this is
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: a time, And like I said, both times are the
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: last two years. I have several mature books on my
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: cameras in that time period. November one of them. This year.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: It was my first day. I had been in Illinois
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: for eight days. My first day back, of course, I
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: had to go to work. It was a Monday. But
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: at three thirty this giant eight pointer walked about thirty
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: yards from my house, past my cameras, chasing it. Dough
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: and I was at work, so I thought, oh, you
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: gotta be kidding me. That's brutal. And I had never
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: seen that dear before. He hung around for three days,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: I never saw him again. Isn't that crazy? So you know,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: it's just a deer that I'm sure a hot dough
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: brought in and then he was gone. You know an
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: interesting thing that that a number of people have shared
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: with with us here in the last year or two
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: is that some people, and you've probably maybe seen some
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: people talk about this, UM and some of the magazines
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: you've written for two where they're talking about some of
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: these kind of annual patterns. Were a buck like that
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: that maybe goes on a three or four day little
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: trip might tend to do the same thing every year
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: at the same time. UM. I wonder if that's something
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: that might be happening there too in your situation. I
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: could totally see that. You know, Um, there's um during
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: the summer. Uh, there was a uh ten pointer that
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: I knew was only two and a half years old.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: He was just a young deer, but boy he had
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: a beautiful ten point rack. I was probably I'm going
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: to say he was probably about and I was like, oh, man,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: I hope that deer lives. You know, I knew, Hey,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to shoot that deer, but man, he's
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: an awesome deer. I had pictures of this year every day,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: um in July and August, and then one day he
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: just he disappeared and I never got another picture of
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: him again until December. I was sure he was dead,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: you know, somebody killed him. He hung around for one
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: day gone. I never saw him again until two weeks ago.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: You know, to what what is that deer doing? Who knows?
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: But I mean, to be so stuck to a pattern,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: day after day after day after day. My wife would
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: see him, you know, in the field at night when
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: she would come home, and sure enough, once it got dark,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: he would come through our woods. He'd be on the camera.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: How how can he be so stuck to that pattern
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: and then completely disappear for what three four months? I
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: don't know, but you know, so clearly they have things
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: that they do, and so I can totally see where
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: a buck would come in. Hey, it's November fifteen, Time
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: to go through this piece of woods. It's it's miss
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: mysterious and fascinating all at once, that's for sure, for sure.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Back to back to this time period. We're talking about
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the rut and there's November time period. Um, how is
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: hunting in the Northeast different during the rut compared to
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: some of these other places you've been. I mean, I
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: think a lot of times when we talk about hunting
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: the rut in popular media, when you're reading about the Midwest,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: everyone's crashing antlers together and they're hunting little little pinch
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: points between crop fields and stuff. Is is that stuff
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: working for you in Pennsylvania or is it very different
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: at that time? I have me personally, I have never
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: had luck rattling alers in Pennsylvania. Any time I have
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: tried it and had deer within sight, it scares the
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: heck out. That's that's been my experience. I don't know
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: what's happening that does that. If there's well, I have
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: an idea. I've sat in my tree stand enough and
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: heard the neighbor's calling. You know where my goal with
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: calling is. I want whatever I'm doing to be absolutely,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: like barely audible. I don't want to make I can't
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: get any of my calling quiet enough for my taste.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: But then to sit there and hear a guy that
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: I know is two fifty yards away, and I can
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: hear as grunts as clear as day. You know, deer
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: are hearing that as well, and so I personally I
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: believe that has an effect. I don't think I think
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: you're calling has to be completely different. You know. Then
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: when I go to Illinois, heck yeal, I'll bang antlers together.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: My grunts will be loud, I'll use the canned dough
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: calls all that. Pennsylvania, I might do one quiet grunt,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: you know, just something that's as quiet as can be. Um.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: That's what I have found work. And I actually have
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: called in several deer over the years, but it's always
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: been Subtlety is my is my main thing, which you know,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: now we have all these calls coming out the growler,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: the hyper growl, calls that are very loud and aggressive.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: It's actually hard for me to find one that's quiet enough.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: So and I've been in the woods and her deer
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: come through and it's very subtle. I've never heard aloud
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: grunt in p A. If I hear it, usually I'm like,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: what was that a tree creaking one? I mean that
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: sure sounded like a grunt. And then you look over
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: and you see the deer and boy, it's just real
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: quiet man. Man. Yeah, it's just not that aggressive stuff
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: you'll hear out West or Midwest. So, so what's the situation,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: what's the situation in Pennsylvania, um? Or the type of
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: situation where you have been able to use one of
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: those soft grunts to get a deer? And is that
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: a situation where there's deer close and news needed him
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: to come into range just a little more, or what's
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: that specific circumstances where it might work in that area.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: There's two things I like to do. One of the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: things I like to do, because I am anchored to
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: small properties, is I like to do a lot of
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: blind calling. I'm I'm within calling distance of other people's properties,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: even doing it quietly. Um. You know, if I'm on
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: a three piece, the neighbor's property is fifty yards away.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: So I do like to do a lot of blind
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: calling where I am just a little bit louder um.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: But in those situations I'm very short. I might do
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: three grunts, you know, moderate volume, definitely not loud. Three grunts,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: and then I may do a doe call and then
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: that'll be it for at least forty minutes. That's usually
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: my time frame. I go by and you'll be surprised,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: you know, after twenty minutes, one will come in. Um
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: the other. The other scenario is, yes, where I see one,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: and then if I can see him, if I can
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: see a book, I don't care how far it is,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: you know, he could be well. Obviously, if he's like
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: thirty yards the way, I'm not calling at him. But
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: if he's outside, you know, sixty to two yards, I'm
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: going to start out being absolutely as quiet as possible
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: until I know he heard me. That's the only whale variant,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: and then as soon as he hears me, I'm not
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: calling again, because I've seen even where you know, I'm
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: sure lots of hunters have been there to where you
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: get the deer's attention and they don't really show interest.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: The next time you call, that thing takes off for
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: the next county, and it's even though they're not really
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: paying attention to you. You know, there, that's not the
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: deer you're going to bring in. That deer is not
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: in the right mood. Um. If you get the one
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: that's in the right mood that first call, he's gonna
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: somehow start angling even if he's going to circle to
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: get down wind, he's angling towards you, and you'll you know,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: you'll know it. But interestingly, twice this has happened to
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: me to where I've had a hot dog come through
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: with the buck, and the buck's grunting like crazy, crazy, crazy,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: and of course my instant reaction is to pick up
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: the grunt call. And I've just learned through doing this
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: a couple of times, and two times it worked to perfection.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: I switched and started calling the dough. I just picked
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: up my can call. And because they're in that that
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: heavy chase I found, it doesn't matter that I'm doing
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: it over and over and over and over again. Eventually
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: that dough both times has worked her way right to
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: the base of my tree, and I killed both of
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: those bucks. And you know, I think I saw one
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: time um where the dough came in. There was one
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: hot dough with a herd, and that buck was doing
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: everything he could get that dough away from the herd,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: and all that dough wanted to do was get with
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: the herd. So I just started doing do call and
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: do call and do call, and eventually she came over
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: and I killed the buck. So you know, there's obviously
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of situational baseball there, but in general,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: whatever I do, I'm trying to do it as quiet
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: as possible. Yeah. In that in that specific instance with
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: the dough situation, Um, were you just using a dough
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: and estrus can call that kind of thing, or you
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: were reasoningly that was what you were doing? Okay, I
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: had the I had the basic um, dough and heat
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: primos can't call just turning it over and over. And
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: I mean the two deer were making such a racket anyway,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: crashing through branches, they were running through the stream, the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: bucks grunting. I mean, it was loud even without me,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: and I just you know, I don't know certainly at
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: some points they're not hearing me. Um, But eventually the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: dough was like, you know, hey, there's some relief over there.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: That's interesting. Um. Speaking one final question the calling topic, Um,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: are you just using those types of calls in Pennsylvania
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: during the rut or will you ever use that type
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: of soft grunting type of thing in the early season
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: or later in the year and everything? Yeah, I have, Um,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: there's one call I have, Man, I've had it for
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: about fifteen years. I love it. It's this little it's
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: a real tiny short mouth call, um that I can
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: move a rubber band on and so I can take
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: a buck grunt and make it a little bit higher pitched,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: so it's not quite as aggressive. And I've had luck
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: with that in you know, early October, just you know,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: just be sitting there and just give a nice man.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: And I've had Bucks come into that. You know. I
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's just a social thing or if
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: it is some sort of pre rut behavior, um, but
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: I have had Bucks answered that in the early season. Interest.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: I'll use that anytime. But again, like I said, it's
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: not going to be that low pitched, more aggressive grunt.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a little higher pitched. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. So we're we're we've been talking about
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: all these different types of adaptations from your calling standpoint
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: or how often you hunt a property, and it's all
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: kind of because of hunting pressure. How that changes dear
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: behavior and everything. Um. Has that has that unique issue
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: that you deal with there in Pennsylvania or the Northeast.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: Has that changed at all? How you think about stand placement,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: you know, where you put your your tree stander, how high,
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: or what kind of stuff you do or think about
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: when you set it up, it has um. Incidentally, when
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: you just mentioned how high, I am a height freak.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: Nobody likes to hunt from my stand because they're going
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: to be at least I basically a lot of the
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: woods I hunt our toolip poplar. It's just a great, big,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: huge forest of telephone poles. It's hard, dear no to
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: look up and you stick out. And I've just found
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: if I can get in the in the ft range
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: that seems to be out of their normal line of
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: sight or at least where they're not expecting danger. Um.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure that's just from running into lots of
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: people in tree stands, um, and in walking through the
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: woods and finding other people's tree stands. I've noticed other
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: people don't do that, So I figure if I'm doing
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: something everybody else isn't, that's got to be better for me. Yeah. Now,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: obviously because of that, I'm also a safety nut. You know,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: if I got to hang on stand, it's got a
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: lifeline running down. If I'm using my climber, I'm attached
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: from the ground up. So I don't want to be
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: a statistic so is there is there anything else that
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: you're doing, just in general, whether it be in the
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: northeast or elsewhere, just to you know when it comes
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: to those stands and how you're situating them or anything.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: Another thing is when in doubt, I just get into
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: thick stuff. Um. I know that the kind of the
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: common thinking is stay out of the thick stuff, because
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: that's the betting area where I am dear. Don't like
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: the open woods, those tool of poplar forests. If they're
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: in them, they're moving through them with a purpose. Um.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: And I've just found if I can get into the
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: thick stuff, that's where I'm going to find deer that
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: are calm, more calm and settled down and doing more
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: of their natural thing. Um. And again I'm sure that's
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: because of pressure. Um. But and even like as the
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: season goes on, Okay, Um, late September a big standard
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: tool of papers, you got lots of green on the ground.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: That's not so bad come November. There's there's some stands
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: where I don't even hunt there because I know I'm
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: never going to see a deer in there. Um. It's
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: just too open um. So I think that's one of
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: the other things too, because of pressure getting the thick
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: stuff that that never seems to be a bad idea. Yeah,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: you may dump them or you may bump them from
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: a betting area, but you know what else are you
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: gonna do? I'll take that chance, you know. Um. Fortunately,
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: one of the good things is there is a lot
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: of thick stuff, so maybe I can come into one
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: side of a thicket when I know the deer at
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: the other. There's actually a one place that I hunt
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: where it took me four years. I knew the deer
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: were in the thicket, and it took me four years
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: to figure out how to get in without chasing them
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: all out. And then once I did, it was awesome.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: You know. I had a couple of years where I
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: killed deer and then unfortunately, this this being Pennsylvania, I'll
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: never forget this. I shot a ten pointer in there.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: I was dragging it out, and um, I took my
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: cart all the way out to my truck, put it
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: on the back, and I went home. What I didn't
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: see was there was a guy coming down the hill
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: the other way. He saw me with that deer on
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: his on my truck with the cart. He followed my
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: tracks back to my tree stand. And next year when
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: I went into hangingstand, no one had ever had a
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: tree stand. And there when I went in there there
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: was a tree stand ten yards away from the one
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: I usually put mine in, and he had taken two
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: of my bright eyes off the tree and marked his tree.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: Now he he had from the reason I know all
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: this happened is I then saw him and I said hey.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: I said, uh um, you know no, I said, sorry,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: you know I'm in here. I nobody ever had a
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: tree stand in here besides me. And he told me,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: he said, oh yeah, last year I saw you got
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: that buck. It was a nice one, he said. So
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: I followed your tracks because this would be a good
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: place for me to hunt. I mean he straight out
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: told me. So that's awesome. But he had permission to
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: be there. Just nothing I could do about it. So
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: I actually I moved. I figured this isn't worth it,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: you know, I'll go find my I'll find another place.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: What was yeah, what was it that you were able
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: to do to get in there? You know, you mentioned
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: that you'd figured out a different way to get in
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: so you could hunt it. What specifically wasn't that you changed?
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: So the the obvious route, there was a trail going.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: The part of the problems was is there were two
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: property lines that I couldn't cross, so it kind of
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: forced me in through this one area. And I kept
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: going through there and I kept bumping deer and I thought, man,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: this is killing me. So what happened was is I
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: went and found one of the landowners posted the land
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: solid and it took some convincing, but I told him.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: I was like, look, I'm not hunting your property. I
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: just want to walk around through here. And he had
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: his his land bordered this stream, and so what I
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: did was I just wanted to get in the stream
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: and take that and so that I could come actually
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: from the back side of this tree I was hunting,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: rather than the front. It was a little more open
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: because the stream was there, etcetera. That's not where the
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: deer were. They were on the other side. So that
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: was how I finally figured out how to get in there.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: But with all the postage signs the guy had, you know,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: for the first three years, I was intimidated. I thought
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: he's just gonna yell at me. I don't want to
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: deal with it. Finally I saw him one day and
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, just by any chance. He no, no hunting,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: no hunting. And I said, well, I don't want to hunt.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: Would you have a problem with me just cutting this
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: slight corner here to get in the stream, And he said, well,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: I guess that's not a problem. That's awesome. Well perfect.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: It's amazing how x us in in tweaking your access
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: in some ways can totally change how plays hunts. It's
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: so important. Oh it did. And and see the problem
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: was is the new guy who then moved in, he
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: came in the obvious route, so I knew he was
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: just killing that spot, so I moved. That's brutal. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: So speaking of um hunting the thick stuff like that,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: um and how that's kind of necessary where you're hunting
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: to get on these deer and see them moving in daylight.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: That's one of those things though, when you when you
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: hear someone who is is hunting in Illinois o Iiowa,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: maybe a lot of guys might say, oh, stay out
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: of your thick stuff, keep that a sanctuary, just hunt
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: outside of it. What what other things like that that
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: we here recommended for hunting in the low pressure big
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: buck states in the Midwest? What other things they recommend,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: do you find not to work in Pennsylvania that Northeastern
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: guys need to ignore that advice and do something different.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: One of the actually one of the best is getting
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: in close to houses. Um. The deer know that that's
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: a safe place to be, especially during gun season. They're
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: going right for the houses. UM. So fortunately here in
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: p A we have a UM there's a hundred and
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: fifty yards safety zone around any house unless you get
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: that homeowners permission, then you can violate that hundred fifty yards.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: But with a bow, it's only fifty yards. So that
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: opens up a lot more places in closed houses. Which
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: if I'm going to Illinois, I'm getting as far away
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: from any house I see, um, you know as I can.
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: But here in the Northeast, those if you get a
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: little wood lot tight to a house, that's where you're
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: gonna find your deer. So so you just kind of
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: have to kind of that's that's always tricky. UM. I
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: like to think, um conscientious on the homeowner's behalf. I'm
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: not if I'm in that situation, UM taken pretty much
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: only a short thing shot. I'm not launching arrows. It's you.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: I just don't want anything to go wrong, so very
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: conscious about that. Yeah, have you ever had that uncomfortable
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: situation where a deer you shot has ran through someone's
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: yard or something like that knock on wood. I have not, Fortunately,
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: I have never had one. You hear the horror stories.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: I shot this deer and it ran right up into
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: the backyard and fell over under the kids swing set,
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: something like that, knock on wood. I have not ever
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: had to deal with that situation. Yeah, that would be tough.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: It's Yeah. One of my good buddies this past hunting season,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: um had a deer run into his yard and die
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: leaning up against his garage. Um with an arrow still
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: in it. Oh man. Yeah, so that was Luckily he
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: was a hunter and so he was understanding that kind
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: of thing. But I imagine there's some people who some
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: people who weren't so comfortable with seeing a dead deer
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: might have been pretty shocked by that. Yeah. I mean
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: you can just imagine, you know, what if the what
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: if you know, ten year old kid happens to be
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: looking out the window right then It's just that's tough.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, to be honest, I've had shot situations that
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't take because I was afraid that was going
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: to happen. Um, you know, if the deer is on
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: that side of me, I might not shoot it. Yeah,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: so it may be a combination of luck and just
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: I haven't put myself in that position, right right. I.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: I actually my very first year, speaking of first year,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: as we were towards the beginning of our conversation, the
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: very first year I ever shot was with a bow,
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: and it was on the little piece of property that
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: my parents house is on, which was a three and
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: a quarter acre piece and kind of in a neighborhood
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: sort of deal. And I shot that deer and when
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: it ran off, and I was all excited and so
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: pumped up, and I went upstairs or went up the hill,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: um to to get my dad afterwards. And unfortunately, instead
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: of being excited about, you know, me having shot this deer,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: all my mom and dad were worried about was, oh, jeez,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: did did the deer run in to the neighbor's yard?
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? Unfortunately, unfortunately it didn't, but
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: it caused a little bit of stress there at the outside. Yeah,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: that can make an impression and yeah, and I it
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: can be I mean, there can be bad situations. I
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: was with a friend who shot a deer with his
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: shotgun and it ran. It was a nice bucket, it
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: ran into this property. We did everything. We went and
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: found the landowner and he flat out told us if
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: that deer's in there, did he's staying in there? Did
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: you know? I mean nothing, nothing we could do. That's
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania. The landowner um has all the power. They
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: can just tell you, well, sorry, you're not going in there. Yeah,
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: it's the same in Michigan, in Ohio and those of
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: I've had situations like that where I've been afraid that
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: would happen, and that's just the worst feeling ever is
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: to to to to imagine being right there and you
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: can't and you can't go retrieve it exactly. I think
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: I believe, you know, you can call the game warden,
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: and the game warden has a little more leeway, But
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: I I've I'm not sure totally the first off for
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: us to get a game warden um that would take
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: forever anyway, if they would come out at all, because
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: there aren't many of them. But I still don't think
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: even they can go in because that's not a I
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: know they can go on property when they have probable
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: cause for a crime. But that's not a crime. So, uh,
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: a tough one. It's a tough one. Yeah, yeah, it is.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: Now PJ, I want to I want to reverse kind
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: of what we've been talking about here for a second. Um,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about, you know, guys hunting in
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania or the Northeast and what they need to do
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: differently than what we hear about in the media. But
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: what about for someone who hunts in the Northeast, lives
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: in the Northeast, that's all they've ever known, Um, and
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: now they're gonna go out for their first trip to
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: the Midwest. Um, I know you've done that a lot.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: What what kind of things we do recommend for that person?
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: That's heaven for that person. First of all. Yeah, my
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: first thing is is hey, just sit back and enjoy it.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: Don't shoot the first one that runs up, because it's yeah,
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: it's it's totally different. I mean, I still get a
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: kick out of it that I'll go out there, you know,
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: I'll sit all season in p A and maybe see
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: three books and then I'll go to Illinois and see
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: ten in my first sitting. Um, So it's yeah, it's
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: it's a different The guy I hunt with and Illinois
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: has gotten to be a friend of mine. He's from
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: Connecticut originally and he moved to Illinois. So I like
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: his philosophy. He has a lot of Northeast hunters, and
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: so you hear about oh, you know, you shoot anything
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: under one forty, it's fine, blah blah blah. He doesn't
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: go by that. His thing is, I have a lot
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: of guys from Massachusetts who have never seen a hundred
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: and thirty deer. Why am I going to tell that
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: guy not to shoot that, dear. So his thing is, hey,
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: if you want to shoot this thing, go ahead shoot it,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: and um, which is a good mindset. But I said
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: I My thought always is, hey, unless it's you know,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: the real holy crap dear, you know, don't shoot that
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: first one, just so you can enjoy the experience, because
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: you know, with the right weather, there's going to be
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: more common. Um. So I like to see people get
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: to see that, you know, sit there and see in
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: Illinois rut where one dough comes into heat and all
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: of a sudden there's five six, seven bucks running through,
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: you know, chasing checking the scent all that stuff. Um, yeah,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of That's kind of what I like
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: to tell people, just to you know, and and also
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: to say, hey, even in Illinois, you know, hundred and
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: sixty inches aren't behind every tree. So don't you know again,
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: be realistic. If you see you know, if the outfitter
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: doesn't have any rules on it. But if you see
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: the biggest buck you've ever seen, why not shoot it.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: It's bigger than anything else you've ever shot. Two point expectations.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: Expectations are important no matter where you're hunt they are
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: because I see so many people who go out there,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: you know, in hunting with my friend, who just have
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: this expect of a hundred and fifty hundred and sixty
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: inch here. Oh that's what. That's all I'm gonna shoot.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna shoot. You know, It's not that
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: that can't happen. I've I've certainly been out there with
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: hundred I have not shot, but I've been there when
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: other people shot him. And but to be ruined by
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: that expectation, I think that kind of stinks. Um. You know,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: anytime you can go sit in the woods and see
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: lots of deer and see some books, I think that's
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: a good day. Yeah, very true, very true. Well, p J,
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: I unfortunately have to wrap this up because of a
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: hard stop on my end tonight, unfortunately. But this has
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: been fun. It's been neat to get to hear the
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: Northeast perspective and um, I think there's a lot of
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: people who can relate to that then enjoy this too.
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: So if people want to yeah, yeah, if people want
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: to learn more about you know, what you're doing or
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: where you're writing, where can they go online or find
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: some stuff we Our website is Lancaster Archery dot com. Uh,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: and when you're on there, you'll see a little tab
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: on the right side that says articles and videos we do. UM,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: we have no boundaries. Anything to do with archery you
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: may find on there. That's you know, we found the
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: simplest stuff to the most complicated. UM. We try to
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: provide it all. So UM, that's where you'll find the bulk. UM.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: We have a YouTube channel as well, Lancaster Archery. UM.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: They can find videos there. So that's that's probably the
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: best place to find all that information. Awesome. Well, I'll
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: make sure to link to all that so if anyone
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: listening wants to see some those things. We will have
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: links on the blog as well. And PJ, thank you
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me Mark,
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: I sure appreciate it. It's a lot of fun. Good
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: luck this upcoming season. Hey, thanks you too, And that's
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: going to do it for episode number one two. Before
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: we shut it completely down though really quickly, I want
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: to thank our current partners who have made this podcast possible.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: So big things to sit gear YETI Coolers, Ozonics, Matthews Archery,
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: Maven Optics, White Tail Institute, North America, Carbon Express and
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: Hunt Terror Maps. And finally, big big thanks to you guys.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you so much. Thanks for listening. I hope
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: you've got some big sheds in your future, and I
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: hope you'll stay wired to Hunt