Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 262: Overanalyzing our 2018 Hunting Seasons

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Ep. 262: Overanalyzing our 2018 Hunting Seasons · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan in this episode number two and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: sixty two, and today we're beginning a two week series
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of reflection on the two eighteen hunting season, and today
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: it starts with Dan and I over analyzing our past year,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the mistakes made and the lessons learned. All right, welcome
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to the first episode of the Wired Hunt podcast, brought
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to you by Onyx in the year two thousand nineteen.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And as we do typically at the end of each season,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: me and and are back together for our postseason review,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: kind of auditing the past hunting season, talking through what happened,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: what we learned, what we screwed up with, what we
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: want to do different, uh, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. That's kind
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: of what I want to do here today, Dan, So
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I guess number one. Are you up for that? I'm down, dude,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I'm ready. Number two. Then, before we get to get
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: to how we're the holidays, do you have at least
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: one Dan Johnson family disaster story that you can share
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I feel like it wouldn't be a podcast without one
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: of those. These these days, disasters are every day. I mean,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: just like the kids and their attitudes. And my youngest
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: he's like he's been walking for a while now, but
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: now he can, like he can chew gum and walk
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to you know what I mean. So not only can
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: he walk, but he can climb and he can start
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: pulling the the safety guards out of the electrical outlets,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and he can like get up on end tables and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: try to pull the TV cord out and all this stuff.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: And it's just it's almost like you need to have
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a little room, a padded area just to put him
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: in because he's, I don't know, he's like a mouse.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: He can get into anything. Oh man, I'm I'm learning
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: about that now too. It's a whole new world. So
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: can knocks walk yet? Oh yeah, yeah, So that's that's
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: what word. We're right on the precipice of that. Everett
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: is standing now and he can take a couple of steps.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: He just took his actually he took his very first
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: steps this morning. So that was pretty exciting. Yeah. So
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: he took like two steps and then fell, But it
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: was very cool. Um, but he's definitely climbing up on everything,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: like you said, trying to pull out plugs, trying to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: yank down things. I mean, it's just got us thinking like,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: how in the world can we handle two kids, let
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: alone three? Right, I'll tell you what. It's crazy because
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: from the moment they're born, there's all these these goals
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: in life or the these steps in childhood development, and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, man, I can't wait till they start walking.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: They're gonna be so much fun. And then when they
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: start walking, all you want to do is just have
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: them not walk anymore and just like sit down. And
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: then you're like, okay, cool, Now they can start talking.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But when they start talking, they don't stop talking. This
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: is no This is no joke. This is not a joke.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: We were in a car over the holidays for a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: period of time that was two straight hours. My daughter
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: talked from the time we pulled out of my driveway
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to the time we pulled into the driveway of where
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: we were going. She was talking the entire time. I
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: thought she was gonna black out from oxygen deprivation. And
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: was anyone talking back to her? It was it just
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: her stream of conscious to herself. This is how it goes.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: You have to talk back to it because if you don't,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: you or you have to talk back to her. Dad. Dad, Dad, Dad? Dad?
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: What a dad? Uh? I saw a coward there? What
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: What do you think that cow's name is? Uh? But
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know? Okay, okay Dad, okay, hey Dad? Did
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: you know that on the bus yesterday? Um? This boy
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: he said a bad word? Oh that's not very good? Dad?
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: What dad? Dad's like? Now? Times that by two whole
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: two whole hours? Oh? Man, Yeah, I love him. I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: love him. I and I bitch about the kids a
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: lot right on this podcast, but I tell you I
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: love them to death. They're very there there. I love
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: him so much. But man, being a parent is is
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a pretty hard thing. I'm not gonna lie. It's work. Yeah,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: that has been. If we're reviewing two thousand eighteen, that
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: was definitely my biggest lesson learned was family changes things,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: that's for sure, But like you said, it's it's the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: best thing ever. Right. Um, So it's kind of fun
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: to complain about it once in a while, but I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: certainly wouldn't change it, that's for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, Man,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: it's funny. Every year speaking of season and review kind
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: of things. Um. Usually the last day of the hunting
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: season each year here in Michigan, that's January one, yesterday. UM,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: So every New Year's Day, I typically go out and hunt,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and I just find it to be like a nice
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: way to end the year. I always sit somewhere where
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I can just be by myself, and I usually just
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: kind of I don't know, I'm not as focused on hunting.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I'm usually just kind of sitting there sometimes just close
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: my eyes and try to like soak in the surroundings
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and the sounds and the smells and the moment and
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: just for that last time of the year, just soak it.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Just soak it all in, appreciate it, and then think
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: back on the season, kind of think through sometimes in
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: my head, just go back to the first day and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: try to remember each hunt, each cool experience. Just kind
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: of go through that story in my mind and remembering
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: all the highs and the lows and think through what
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I did right. Kind of kind of try to do
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: that like self review each year. Uh So, I was
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: gonna do that last night yesterday evening, um, but ended
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: up getting close to the time I was going to
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: go out, and I thought, you know what, Um, my
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: wife had been busy with them taking care of Everett,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and I've been working throughout the day. I thought maybe
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: maybe it'd be a good idea to take Everett with me.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: So I grabbed him, put him in the front pack,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: put on some blaze orange, went out to the property,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: one of these properties that could hunt, and we just
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: took a walk together, and um, you know, we we
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: He doesn't know what I'm saying, but the whole time
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: we're walking, I'm like talking to him about the stuff
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I usually talked about in my head. But I kind
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of told him the story of my season. I told
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: him about you know, well you were doing this and
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: you know that day that you had chicken pox. Well
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: that's when Daddy was in Nebraska, and uh, kind of
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: going through that whole thing. Then I we went and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: checked the trail camera. I went and showed him all
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: these big rubs and told him the story of Frank
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: and showed him, well, this is a spot I saw Frank,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and this is this rub he was making when I
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: saw him that one time. We walked through and kind
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of scouted through a little um patrol ground where he
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: had been breeding a dough, and um, it was just
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: it was just kind of a fun thing to do.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Um to kind of cap off the year. I thought
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: it was a very fitting way. As I was doing,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I thought, you know, this is this is the way
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: to end the season, because this season was so defined
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: for me by this new stage in life, you know,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: and getting to share that with you know, getting to
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: spend that last day with the reason why I'm in
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a new stage of life, and and and leading to
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: this new year, sharing this part of my life with him.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously he had no idea what was going on.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It was just a fun thing to be outside for him, probably,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: but but for me it was it was a cool
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: thing to to be able to share with him. And
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it just gets me a lot, um just even more excited,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I guess about two thousand nineteen, because I think, you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: this year, it's still he's still really young, but he's
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: gonna be a walk and run around and follow me
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: in the woods is coming season and all those things
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about. So that was a good way in
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the year. But I still haven't got to do my
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: serious audit of the season. So that's that's what we
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: need to do here. I really need to do the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: serious breakdown of of things. And have you picked my
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: brain and tell me what I did wrong? Um? So
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: it's it's a good and looks of it, you didn't
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: do too much wrong. Man, Well, it was a good
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: It was a good year. I can't I can't complain
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: about that. UM. Question for us before we talk about
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: my season though, Um, last time we talked, well, I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: guess past that we exchanged a few text messages a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: little while back about something that had you excited about
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the end of year season. And we really haven't got
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to talk about how much of your December hunting season
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: activities at all. Um. So my season is done. Everybody
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: kind of knows how it ended. I killed Frank in
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: December early December, and then after that I took a
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: bunch of time away from hunting, and then you know,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I will tell you later. We can get to this later.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: But I did have a really cool end of the season.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: The last like five six days of the season. Um,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: we tried to hunt one of these properties for doughes
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a bunch and got to share some fun time with
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: friends and family. UM. I had a really cool dough
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: hunt myself. So, uh don't don't don't let me forget
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to mention that. But but what I'm trying to say
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: in a really long roundabout rambling that away, is to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: tell me how your season has ended. Is it quite
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: done yet? Well, I'll tell you what. Technically no, because
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: it's still season here in Iowa, right, it's late season
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: muzzle loader or late season archery here in Iowa. And
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: so if I wanted to, or if I had the time,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I could most definitely go out. But it's not gonna happen.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I'm just too busy, you know. I'm to a point
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: now where I feel I've already had a really successful season.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: And although I didn't get the opportunit ney to fill
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: fill the freezer like I usually do, I'll be able
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to rely on family to get some meat because my
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: stepdad had a really good season and he he was
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: able to go out and fill the freezer, uh like
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: more than enough for you know, to share with everybody.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: And uh so I could I could have gone out
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and you know, went to try to harvest a dough
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: or something like that, or even a second buck if
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I wanted to, but I felt it was honestly in
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: my best interest to focus all that time on my
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: business and really end two thousand and eighteen strong so
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: that I could continue that momentum going into two thousand
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and nineteen. And that's just what I've really been focusing
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: on lately, is just the growth of growth of the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: business side of things and um. But other than that, man,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. My wife went out for her
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: very first ever shotgun. I took her out shotgun season
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and we went out and she had it in her
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: brain that, you know, she did not want to to
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: shoot a dough. Um. She has some kind of connection
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: with them, I guess, And and she she passed up
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: a couple opportunities. Was it you? Was it you who
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: once knocked on someone's door for permission and they said
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: that deer were the spirit animal. Wasn't that? Yeah? The
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: lady said. The lady said, well, a white tailed dough
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: is my spirit animal. And I said, back to our
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I go, you gotta be kidney, because the white tailed
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: buck is my spirit animal. Did you really think of
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: that on your toes? Yeah? I did. And uh, she
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: let me shed hunt it, which got me access to
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the farm, but I couldn't hunt it, so so a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: white tailed dough, Is is your wife's spirit animals? Well,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's, uh, it's I don't know
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: if it's a white tailed dough, but it might be
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: like a white what's the most ferocious animal in the world.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: It's got to be like a mother grizzly bear. Right,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I would say that's definitely a strong candidate. Yeah, I'm
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna say she's more of like a mother
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: grizzly bear. So so Mama Grizzly didn't want to shoot
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: a doll, right, that's right. So she didn't want to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: shoot a doll. And the two days that we had,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: like the three days we had set aside it the
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: weather was bad one of them, and we came, uh,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: we came out hunting on the main farm. Once she
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: passed the dough. Went out two days later back at
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: my local farm that I have near the house. Passed
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: on a couple of doughs. But it's funny, right as
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: we're walking in, it butts right up next to public ground,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: boom boom. So it was like we walked into the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: timber and I just basically had to keep her positive,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you know. Instantly we heard those gunshots, and her her
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: attitude went downhill from that, like, oh, now we're not
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: going to see anything. I'm like, hey, you never know,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: with all this chaos, deer could be running around trying
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to have different hunting parties and what not. So we
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: just sat on the top of the hill and overlooked
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: this little valley. Uh, really good pinch point, and uh
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: we saw one dough work through there at a long distance.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: And then on we left a little bit before daylight,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: before nightfall, last shooting light, walked back to the truck
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: in a cornfield and there was three or four does there,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and uh, she didn't want to shoot at the does.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: So uh, that's that was a rap on on her
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: shotgun season. And then, like I said, then the holidays
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: hit and and then just been full bore work for me. So, man,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: so have you actually hunted yourself since you killed your buck?
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I have not November? I think, well I shot him
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: on the shot him on the fourth, recovered him on
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the sixth. Wow, So you haven't hunted since November four.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So I expect then, with all that time away from hunting,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: that any day you're announcing that you're quitting your dat JA.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I have working full time at Sports Nation, all that
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: business time, right, Oh man, I hope that would be nice.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: W wasn't it? I know, simply because I want to
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: hunt with you in Michigan. Dude, I you have no idea.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: You have no idea how bad I want to hunt Michigan. Yes,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I do know what that tells me. So I got
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: my fingers and toes crossbrey man um. Okay, so that well,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: before we shift, then why didn't you, I know, well,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: why didn't you go after the one buck that you
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: got pictures of? Did you just just end up having time?
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Or well, did you not think it's killable? I just
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I don't, I you know how? Yeah, I don't. I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: don't even really know how to explain it. Like I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: get into a groove right in between, like before the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: season starts, before the rut starts, you're gathering data from
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: trail cameras, you're you're you're looking at mine. You get
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: into this groove right where it's just like you're all
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the data that you've collected now becomes like fluid and
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: then you just go with the flow. Right, Okay, I
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: got this wind, I gotta sit here, or I got
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: this data from this show camera and there's a good
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: trailer rub right here. I got historical data from last year.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: From here, you could you get into this this flow
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: where things become automatic almost And I was not feeling
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: that at the end of the season, you know, I
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I was more concerned with some other things like family
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: and uh uh, trying to get my wife prepared for
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: shotgun season, and you know I did have I went
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to check my trail cameras and then Gnarlie Charlie showed up,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and uh, I don't it sounded like you got excited
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and like, man, I gotta put together strategy. I'm gonna
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: go after him again, right, Yeah, So what happened was
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I I got a picture of him, right, and then
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I ended up putting a um a dirt like right
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: at shotgun season. So honestly, I went in taking my
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: wife into the best possible spot where I thought he
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: might come through, because he showed up the day before,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the night before. So we went in there, set up
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: a ground blind in some real thick trees, and uh
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: went in there after him, and you know, just that
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: one dough showed up. But it's one of those things
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: where then I didn't really know what to do because
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I had already taken my trail cameras down from previous years. Uh,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: you know, there was hunting already still going on in
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: that farm. And then we had to come back home.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I had to go back to work, and well, I
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: guess while I was there, I set up a cell
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: phone camera, a cell camera, and I started getting relay,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: you know, pictures back from this camera. And then all
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, like oh man, it might have been
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: part of right after your second season Shotgun ended. He
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: shows up, but it's completely nocturnal on this camera because
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: there was a standing bean field. Well, that bean field
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: got harvested, and it must have stirred up something, because
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: he showed back up the the night that they that
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: they ended up during the day they combined it. That
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: night he showed back up and came back into the timber.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: And then he showed up two more times on that
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: same exact trail leading into this bean field. And then
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: something happened. There was like a day or two with
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: no pictures. I think it got real warm, and then
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I think, to be honest with you, I think he's
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: already shed his antlers. You've gotten pictures that you think
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: are him. I got pictures of really big bodied deer. Um,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: multiple deer actually, so I think there's multiple shed bucks
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: on on this area, and I think one of them
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: is him. Just it's a gut feeling that I have, like, okay,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: that he was coming through here three or four, like
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: three out of four days, all nocturnal, right ten eleven
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: o'clock at night. But the next day the same geer
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: came through just had no antlers on it, So I
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: think he he already shed his antlers. Interesting, well, yes,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: it certainly happens when we UM. Oh, I don't think
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: you weren't on the podcast when I mentioned this, But
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that one buck survivor that I've been watching in the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: past couple of years, he got killed by neighbor, and UM,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the neighbor while tracking that buck across the property that
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I hunt, UM actually found a shed from an early
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: shed buck. So that I've got my first shed of
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the year because he gave that to me. UM. And
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I've been hearing some other people across a number of
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: states saying the same thing. So I know what happens
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: every year. Um, it's always surprising that what it does. Yeah,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I mean every once in a while I mean, just
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: like Spencer, right, he shot that buck and antlers popped off, right,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: I've heard numerous stories of that already, and it's just
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: one of those things where I think, now that I
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: know he shed his antlers, I just have this really
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: good feeling that he's gonna make it through winter and
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: I'll be chasing him next year. That would be knock
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: on wood. Yeah, I know that. I know that feeling
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the excitement of hoping that one of those bucks will
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: be back the next year and what that can mean. Uh, Galie,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: are you going to share pictures if he comes back
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: next year? We'll see you, dude. I mean, this is
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: just I mean, we've we've talked about this, right, I mean,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the same reason that you just decided not to share
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: pictures is the same part of the same reason that
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I decided not to share pictures. And although you know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: there's probably people lots of people who listen to this
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: podcast in my podcast who live in the area, I
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: don't know, and they would have a hard time being
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: able to hunt the property that I hunt. It's just
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: that I don't know. I just I'll share it when
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I'm ready, know, I think that's a good that's a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: good thing. Yeah, it was kind of nice to keep
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: a little bit private, you know, like we talked about
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: with Frank, it's kind of nice to ever once in
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: a while have some stuff that's just kinda for you
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and some things that we share. And um, I think
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: there's a there's a there's a balance needed there sometimes maybe.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: So that's good man. I I then want to know
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: before we're talking about two nineteen and Narie Charlie. Um, right,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: you hunted elk and then you hunted October into early November,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: if you had to, like now that you look back
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: on your season satisfaction level with the season on like
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: a one to ten scale, or however you want to
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: quantify how you feel about your two thous eighteen season,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: how would you how do you describe that? How would
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you rate? Dude? I don't know if it could get
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: much better. I mean I come from Iowa, right, so
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I just see corn fields and then when the corn
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: comes out of the fields, it's flat ground. And I
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: mean there's some great views and great terrain in Iowa. However,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: I went to Colorado, dude, and I got up to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: like eleven thousand three feet one day, and I saw
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: these spectacular views and I was able to hunt in
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: some very remote places you know for the lower as
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: far as the lower forty eight is concerned, that would
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: be very hard to get to for anybody. And we
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: went in and worked our balls off and had a
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: crack at an elk and I saw some you know,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: we saw elk. I saw my first bowl elk up
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: close that wasn't in like Rocky Mountain National Park and
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you know, public land d I y just another unique
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: experience as far as a Western hunt concerns. So it
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: just it's hard to put a number on it. But
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: that's a win for me. If if I never killed
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: an elk but had that same experience every year, it's
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a success in my book. Yeah, when you get those
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: hunts for elk where they're screaming up close all that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: stuff like you had, that is that is hard to beat.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I don't blame you for being excited about that, and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: it was. It's crazy, and I'm sure you are aware
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: of this feeling, but you get to a point where
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you're just completely exhausted and it sucks climbing up the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: mountain and these verticals and over the dead fall and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: you're just like, oh God, this sucks. But the second
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I got in my car and drove off that mountain,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be back doing it again. And it
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: was it was like, and that's all I think about now,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: elk elk. Yeah, really yeah. I mean, it's it's crazy,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's interesting because I and I either said
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: this on this podcast or someone's podcast. I don't remember
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: where I said this, but um, I have this like
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: ebb and flow of non white tail interest. And usually
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: usually it's like right about now, I usually get kind
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: of burnt out on white tails. I need like a
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: month and a half or so, or at least a
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: month maybe where I kind of step away from white
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: tails and I get really excited about elk again. This
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: is when I always end up like planning in my
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: elk hunts or whatever western the I'm gonna do, and
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I'm reading my backpacker magazines and my vehicle magazines and
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: my fly fishing magazines and all that kind of stuff, like, oh,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I do this adventure and this trip and that thing
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and this thing and that thing, and that you know
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: happens in the winter. But then, without fail, every year
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: gets to like late summer and it's leading into all
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: those trips, and I should be getting excited about those things.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: And I am excited about those things, but I always
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: find myself like I should be scouting for white tails
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: or I should be checking that camera. I should be,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and I always end up just I'm just too I'm
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: too addicted to white tail like and and and in
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: this year for the first time, it's January two, and
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not burned out on white tails at all, Like
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I'm already like in full blown, like July
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: excited for the next season mode right now. Um. So,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I'm more energized and refreshed than I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: usually am. Um. So it's funny to hear that that
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: you're in the opposite side of it. You're more focused
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: on the on the different species now, where I'm more
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: focused back on the usual. Well, I tell you what,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say I'm more focused. I would say
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I'm equally as intrigued because like right now, I'll be honest,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: my focus is on work and family right now, Like
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: like I haven't put too much thought into going out
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: West again. I mean, I'm gonna do it, but I
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: just haven't put too much thought into it as of
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: right now, just looking back and reflecting on the season, Like,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the experience I had with the elk hunt was almost
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: greater than and I don't want to say greater, because
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I shot my biggest buck I've ever shot this year, right,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: and it was a five year old, big mature white tail.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: From a from a score standpoint, I guess you could
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: say it would have scored bigger than any other buck
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that I've shot. But the impact it had on me
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: was almost greater going out west than it was shooting
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: my biggest white tail. I get that. It's that. I mean,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: it's just such a different I mean, that was your
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: first really cool elk experience, Like our elk hunt experience
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was just like a physical backpacking trip. We didn't get
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the elk side of things that. I mean after my
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: first like elk hunt, where is awesome? Like that, I
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: felt the exact same way you didn't. So I totally
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: get that. I mean, that is amazing. It's amazing. So
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: so it has me. It has me thinking about priorities
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: from a hunting thing. From a hunting standpoint, it's like, Okay,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I have this full time job. I'm only a lot
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: of X amount of days I can. I'm gonna be
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: able to deer hunt until I'm sixty in Iowa or
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: you know, in my sixties, if not older, depending on
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: how healthy I am. Right, I may not be able
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: to do the run and gun crazy things like I
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: do now. But uh, there is a limited window for
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Western type hunts, especially the extreme type hunts, right And
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I think in the next ten years, I really I
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: think I'm going to focus heavily on putting a lot
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: more time into these Western hunts and maybe even cutting
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: back a little bit on the white tail side of things,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and maybe only taking up a week vacation as opposed
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to a two week vacation, right and and maybe dedicating
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: some more time out west. Just you know, That's what
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about right now, Like where should my time go? Yeah? Yeah,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: that's choices. Yeah, It's all about choices. So are you
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: saying that you're that you're gonna go back someday or
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: you're definitely gonna do a Western hunt again until the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: nineteen Oh yeah, it's I'm going I'm going on a
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Western hunt. It's probably gonna be the same elk hunt
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: again with the same group of guys, but I'm thinking
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: about adding that Nebraska mule deer, white tail deer, antelope
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: hunt as well. So yeah, man, that's that that's some
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: fun stuff out there. Yeah, now that I've got some
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: taste of that country. Yeah, that sandhills you mean? Yeah, yeah, dude,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I tell you, I'm not sure what it is, you know,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: like you're you. I think we've had this conversation before
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: that you're really drawn to the mountains. Like there's something
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: about the wide open prairie, the rolling hills of the prairie,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the sand hills in Nebraska more specific that I am
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: just drawn to. I don't know. I absolutely love the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: feeling of being completely alone and knowing, and that feeling
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: makes me It's like there's a second dairy feeling of
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: insignificance and how small you really are in the grand
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: scheme of things, that it just wakes you up and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: it realizes that maybe you're not as important as you
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: think you are, you know what I mean about. That's
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: something I always enjoy about any time I get out
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in these big wild places. That's exactly exactly one of
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the things I'm thinking about, which which that hunt that
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I had in western Nebraska was was definitely that kind
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: of thing that was just like you said something about
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the wide open prairie in those rolling hills and the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: just horizons that are never ending, that that really becomes
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: apparent in a very visual way that you're very small,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and uh, that's invigorating in some fashion. So yeah, man,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: if if I had to look at my season, um
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: from like a satisfaction standpoint, um, a lot of things
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: you just mentioned, they're factored into it for me too, UM,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: because I had a couple of these hunts that were
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: very much, um adventures in different kind of ways. The
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: public land hunt in Montana was just a ton of fun.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I love those solo kind of sleep in the back
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: of my truck hunts, and like that was an adventure
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: white to hunt for sure, are slogging up and down
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: rivers back into canyons. It was just a cool hunt
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and to be able to pull it off on my
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: own that was very rewarding. Um. And then fastwards to
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the Nebraska hunt. You know that we just talked about
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: that same kind of thing, just totally different than any
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: other white tail hunt I've ever done, big wild place.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, even though that wasn't public land, it was
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: it was. It was more like a public land hunt
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: and more wild and vast and unpeopled than any public
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: land hunt I have done. So that was that was
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: really cool. Um. So did you miss you know, staying
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: on the topic of Western hunts, did you miss not
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: elk hunting this year? Well? I did do the elk
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: hunt two Remember I took Oh that's right, you went
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: solo for what like a four days five days. I
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: was solo for two days and then I met up
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Callahan for four or something like that. I
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: forgot about that. That was kind of like a I
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: kind of forgot about it too. It kind of just
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: slipped away into the memories of my hunting season that
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: was during that member, Like my September was just nuts
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: um and the elk hunton was just it was. It was.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: It was fun trip from like a social aspect. Was
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: great to hang out with the guys and hiking the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: mountains and stuff, but it was just not productive at
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: all from an animal standpoint. Um. And it was just
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: a physical a physical grind, unlike any of my other
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: el concert caribra hunt or anything. I mean, that was
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: just it was a lot of up and down. Um.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: So that one was a little bit brutal, but but
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: still cool to get out there, cool to spend a
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: lot of time in these places. Um. And then of
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: course the at home season was, as we discussed, was
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: a pretty special one this year, going from you know,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: disappointment of holy Field being gone and that whole kind
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: of for your build ending with nothing no ending to
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the story, to then, uh, the surprise of of everything
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: that came about with with Frank showing up and everything,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: so very very special season to have all that happened,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Like when it looked act all that I had my
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: best shed hunting year ever, found more sheds by far
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: than I ever had. I had like some of the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: coolest fishing and backpacking adventures and stuff like that during
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: the summer, and then had this incredible hunting season, and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: all of this happened, um, you know, on a year
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: where I thought that all these things would probably suffer
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: um because you know, I've got a family now, a son,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and to have all those things kind of happened at
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the same time as having my son and getting to
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: spend so much awesome time with him and getting to
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: take him out to Montana and all these different places
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: with us. UM. It just made for this being without
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: a doubt, the coolest year of my hunting life as well,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: um you know, looking outside of just tags field, it was.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: It was just a super cool set of experiences. So
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know, Man, we gotta pinch ourselves or knock
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: on wood or do something so that we don't lose
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: this mojo, because it's gonna be hard for two thousand
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: nineteen to top this one. Real quick before we move on,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: I want to take a quick second here to think
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: our partners at White Tail Properties and they just dropped
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: a new land Beat video. I've been telling you us
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: about these for the last I don't know, six seven,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: eight months something like that, and this most recent one
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: is with one of my favorite characters, Dr Craig Harper,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and he walks us through in this one the three
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: basic tools that every habitat manager needs. And these are
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: tools that you can use without ever having to plant
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: a seed. No food plots, no big crops. These are
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: three simple tools that you can do lots of things
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: with at a very relative low cost. So check that out.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: If you have a property, you can manage any capacity.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Craig Harper has got some great ideas for some tools
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: that will help you do that. You can check that
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: out over at the white Tail Properties YouTube channel or
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: you can learn more but what they've got going on
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: at white Tail properties dot com. Yeah, you know, And
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I think I think a lot of what made this
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: for me such a successful year was I don't know
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: if it was being so busy even going into it,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: or maybe not like caring so much about what the
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: outcome was and just to join the overall experience because
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: I felt like going into this season, I wasn't near
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: a stressed out um. And I'm speaking for the white
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Tail because I had absolutely no expectations on my on
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: my elk hunt, right, I said to myself, dude, like
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I think the area, the area for that was or
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: the success rate for that unit was like five percent
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: with a bow, So you know, statistics alone, I'm not
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: gonna shoot an elk right and plus public ground really
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: high up, you know, the the quantity, the numbers aren't
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: there like other areas, you know, just really like we
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: saw some good quality bowls. I see, I saw a
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: couple of cows and that's really it, right, not not
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: a ton, but with low expectations, I was able to
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: enjoy myself, not putting any pressure on I have to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: kill an animal. And then the same kind of the
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: same kind of feeling transferred over into my white tail hunt,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: where I really didn't go into the season with any
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: really high expectations or I didn't put any pressure on myself.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I just kind of released all that and went in
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: for the pure enjoyment of it. And I don't know
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: if it was like the mojo the way I was feeling.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I was feeling calm and loose and just going with
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the flow, like you said, that put me in the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: right spot at the right time. I got lucky. And
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I just I felt I just
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: ended up feeling good before I even shot that buck
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and that not and then after I shot him and
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: found him, I feel good too. Do you think that
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: you're gonna do you think that's gonna carry over in
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the future years? I mean, do you think that you're
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: gonna go into chals with you know, not not very
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: goal or in kind of just like go into it
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: to see whatever happens. Is that something you think that's
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: a trend? Yeah? I really like that because I used
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to I used to take these trail cameras really like
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: almost use them too much and rely on you know, like, hey,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I have all these big bucks on trail camera. They
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: were here in September. That shift happens that we always
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: talk about. And and so I'm sitting there with these
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: expectations of hey, this deer, this deer. You know, these
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: deer are supposed to be coming through here. It's the
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: best spot. Why aren't they here? What's going on? Blah
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: blah blah, And you you get in your own head
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: in a way, and this year, with the trail camera
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: stolen in that area, I didn't put any back out
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: and I went in there hunting not a buck, but
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: hunting the best possible spot right and not not not
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: over micromanaging my tree stand locations, which I believe led
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: me to putting myself in the right position at the
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: right time, with what in the right conditions to where
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: this buck used those terrain features and those wind conditions
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: and the weather conditions like a big buck would. And
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I was just in the right spot at the right time.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: So so you did a bunch of things right there,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: um that led to that success, whether that be the
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: fact that you just let go of some things and
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: focused on the right things versus maybe over analyzing pictures
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: or specific deer whatever might be. Um, but do you
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: think you made any mistakes, Like do you look back
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: and say, like, Okay, this is something that I definitely
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: screwed up, or this is something I learned from or
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: anything like that. Yeah. Man, I make mistakes every year,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: and I'll be the first to admit that, right. I mean,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: no one hunts perfectly, And for me, I made some mistakes,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: probably getting too aggressive before, like during the pre d times,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: like I bounced into some real, some really good spots.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Probably in that October time frame. I remember having like
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: a three day window where I was able to go
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: in and hunt that when you thought you could hunt
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Naralie Charlie's bedroom right right, Yep. I went in there,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: and I think I just went in a little too early.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I think they were still on that. You know that
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: bed to feed patterns still nocturnal. Um. There wasn't a
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: ton of sign compared to other years, and I didn't
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: really read that as the deer are here. You know,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: we had we had really high water almost all of September,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: and I think that pushed the deer out. I think
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: he was in there at that time. But I think
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: I bumped him out at some point, either adding additional
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: trail cameras or going in on some of these aggressive
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: hunts too early, and I bumped him out and he
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: didn't And I think I remember telling you that I didn't.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't get any truil camera pictures of him until
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: oh man, I want to say November eight, And I
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: think that's how long it took him to feel comfortable
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: coming back into that farm. Yeah, so a two week
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: maybe two and a half week window where he disappeared
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: and he went he went north to farm, and then
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I think he came back after that, after like to
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: like a day or two after I shot my buck.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: So I don't know. I uh. I think I think
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I got him figured out, though, and I just have
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: to get in there and use my head, knowing what
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: I know about this one specific pinch point that leads
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: up to a field, and if I can figure out
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: how the wind acts in there, I think I'm gonna
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: have a really good shot at if let's say, you know,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: like if all things were equal to this year, and
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: he uses the same pinch points and same travel corridors,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: I think I'll put I could put myself into a
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: position to where somewhere around the tenth, eleventh, twelfth of October,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: I could put myself into a position of maybe seeing him,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: or getting a crack at him, or maybe adding a
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: different trail camera in there and checking it when I'm
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: doing my rut thing and you know, finding out more
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: information that would put me in a position to intercept
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: him hopefully. So now that you've been after him for
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: a year, kind of a little bit off and on here,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: how like, how invested do you think you'll be in
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: the next year. Is it gonna be a situation where
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: you know, you'll do a few things this pinch point
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: and if it happens, it happens, but you're gonna keep
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: hunting all over the place. Or is it going to
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: be the point where you're gonna Now, I guess you
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: already answered this because you said you're probably gonna go
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: into this with not a whole lot of goals. But
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: do you think at any point you're gonna be like,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: holy smokes, this is a special deer. I wanna focus
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: more on this or you're done with that, we'll see. Um.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I I think the lack what what this past year
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: really taught me is things change and in the woods
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: and with nature, you know. And this deer could get
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: hit by a car, he could be eaten by coyotes,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: he could die from an infection. It could snow a
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: foot uh and freeze and get real cold, and he
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: could starve, you know whatever. And I think, if you start,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: what I don't want to do is I don't want
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: to get into a ship rook a ship recor rut again.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is I don't want
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to be so invested in a specific deer that I
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: passed the opportunity at something that I've never shot before,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: right right, Yeah, it's interesting you say that. I kind
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: of had a similar conversation with Spencer last week because
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: he was talking about how he doesn't like to target
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: specific box or get too focused on that, and he
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: kind of said by default he has to because he
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: doesn't see the same deer often, um, but that he
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: didn't really like to do that because some of the
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: things you mentioned there, um. And then you just mentioned that,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and right, we've over the years, we've talked about each
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: of our our own special situations that we've had kind
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: of like this, you with shipwreck, me with holy Field
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: and some other deer of the years. Um, it's interesting
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that YouTube had that same thought over the course of
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: this time period. Now and I feel like I'm going
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the opposite direction, Like I get I'm getting more and
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: more and more just fascination with like getting into a
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: specific deer like that has just become so much fun
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: for me. And I don't feel like, you know, during
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: the moment, like during the hunts for holy Field, Like
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: if anyone's heard these podcasts, they've heard me talk about
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: how stressed I was, how I was getting you know,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: down on myself about things blah blah blah blah blah.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: And yes there were times when I felt that way,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: But like if I look at things over the long
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: run and if I zoom like if I zoom out
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: and look at the thirty thousand ft overview of like
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: my experiences hunting, that's always like those kinds of experiences
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: where I had the multiple years of encounters with holy
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Field or multiple years with with these different deer that
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: of that have happened to hunt. Now this this couple
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: of years of experiences with Frank and the way this
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: all went like that is just I don't know, I'm
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: finding myself more and more interested in these really detail
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: oriented pursuits versus the filling of tags. Like I. You know,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: after holy Field disappeared at the end of well, you know,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: he never he never appeared again. But after I came
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: to terms of the fact that he had disappeared, you know,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: it's late October. I think I was like, I don't know,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: just before Halloween the twenty nine or something. I remember thinking, okay,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: this is it, Like he should have shown up by now.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: And I kind of had like this sit and think
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: time period of myself where I was like, man, you
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: had a chance to shoot him, um, and you chose
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: not to In two thousand and sixteen. A lot of
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: people give you crap about that. Was that a mistake? Um?
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: You know you made mistakes in two thousand and seventeen
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: that kept you from shooting him. Are you upset it
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: yourself about that? Um? And when I look back, I
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: was like, you don't know, Like I don't care. That
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: didn't fill my tag if you told me right now,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: that could have if I could, like if I rubbed
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: the bottle or what do you call it, genie and bottle,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: So you rub a bottle or whatever. Is it a bottle? No,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: it's a what a what are genies in? Yeah? Genie
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: and a bottle Christina Aguilera song, I think it's I
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: think it's a lamp, Yeah, lamp, bottle, vase can. It's
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: all the same. So if I could rub a bushlight
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: can and get a wish, I could get a wish
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: and in the wish, like my options were that either
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I could choose to have taken the shot at holy
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Field in December of two sixteen and got to put
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: my tag on him, or had the experience I had
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: and seen him more in sixteen and seen him a
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: bunch in seventeen but never got to kill him find
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: a shed in eighteen, I would without a doubt take
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: what happened, Like I just loved that that experience. Just
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know I what I what I am how
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: I what I would say has changed for me is
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: that I am not or at least I'm trying. I'm
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: trying not to get as caught up with the end results,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: so like I really want the end result. I'm like
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: during the moment like it's never gonna change. But I
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: don't think I'm just so goal oriented. I just get
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: obsessed and I really dig in on these things. But
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I do that because I love it, like I just
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: love I love becoming infatuated with with a goal and
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: a task or a mission and trying to learn as
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: much and dive into the details as much like that
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: just like turns all my gears on, um so so
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: that I don't see changing. I'm getting more I can.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: I can remember now looking back at like when I
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: was doing Shipwreck, you know, I was really doing the
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: same thing that what you're talking about right there, and
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: getting really focused on one specific buck only hunting uh,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: one specific buck going in only when I thought this
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: dear would would go and I and I passed a
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: ton of great deer to one fifty class four year
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: olds at times, right, And that's crazy to me now, right,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: I look back and I became obsessed with something. And
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm also kind of like a status statistics person,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: you know, what are the best odds? And I'm also
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the kind of person who I don't give a shit
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: about antler size. Antlers are rare, right, A big antler
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: two inches whatever, that's rare, and it would be awesome
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: to shoot. But if a five year old hundred fifty
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: four inch nine pointer like what I had this year
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: shows up again next year. Man, I'm gonna take him.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, because a five year old hundred fifty four
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: inch five year of five year old hundred fifty four
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: inch buck is still a really good representation even in Iowa. Hell,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: it's an awesome buck. Um. Yeah, dude, I I think that.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: I think there's definitely I think both of you have
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: have like had this evolution over the years as we've
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: been growing as hunters, figuring out what it is that
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: we love about this, figuring out what kind of goals
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: or desires we have out of a season, And and
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: I think we're both kind of like figuring that out
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: and kind of coming to nice little equilibriums a little bit. Um.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: We certainly had our bumps on the road, but but yeah, man,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: I'm right there with you. It's it's so much more
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the experience. For me. It's it's what you know, I
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: said in the Frank thing. You know, Frank was huge,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and that's awesome. It was really cool, and I knew
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: I was like watching a deer that's so so unique
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: to my area that that was like such a thrill.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: But I would have been just I mean, just as
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: excited if it was a hundred and thirty five hunter
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: and forty five year old running around there that I
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: was having all these cool and cooluns like guaranteed, I
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: would have been just fired up. I would have been
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: staying up late thinking about it and waking up early
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: thinking about it. I mean I would have been just
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: as cranked up. And that for me, is what I
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: want to keep doing. It is like having these cool
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: experiences that challenged me, that pushed me to try to
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: figure these things out and get better and learn more
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: about these animals, whether that's a buck or a hundred
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: seventy in buck, whether it that's close to home or
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: out in Nebraska or wherever. I love. I think it's
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the challenge. I think that's what it comes down to.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: I love being challenged within like the within the context
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: of hunting white tail deer. And so sometimes that's China,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: hunt this one deer. Sometimes that's like going to a
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: brand new place in Montana and Nebraska or wherever and
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: figuring it out and and shoot whatever. But the challenge
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: is there because of the new situation. Um, I don't know.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I just feel like more and more That is where
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: my satisfaction rating comes from. It's from was there this challenge?
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Did I have fun tack attacking that challenge? And? Um,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: you know, did I feel like I at least did
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: I feel like I put everything I had into it?
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: That I think is where I'm deriving satisfaction now. Less
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: so on did I fail at tag this year? I
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: filled a bunch of tags. Next year I might not. Um,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: But if all those other things I just listed end
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: up being true for next year, I think I'm gonna
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: be pretty damn satisfied still. Yeah, And I mean, we
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: just keep coming back to it, dude, It's not It's
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: not the destination, it's the journey of it all. Yeah. So, okay,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: so you maybe got too aggressive on Narlie. Charlie and
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: October were pushed in there too much. Um, any other
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: mistake you want to mention before I jump into a
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: couple of months, you know, not really? I mean I
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: hunted so little this year with a bow that I
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: just kind of went about. I got into the flow,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: got into the routine, and it happened earlier rather than later. Uh.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: And I didn't really have enough time to make a
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: ton of mistakes. I mean I made them little things,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: you know, like maybe being too aggressive on wind direction,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: playing the wind just a little too hard. And you know,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not a guy who likes to get into a
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: stand or you know, get into you know, have an
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: access route that's really killer, and if the wind is
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: shifting a little bit, I like to sit there and
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: write it out. And I did bad a couple of
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: times this year when I maybe I should have got
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: out of the stand and went to a different place
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: just to not ruin that specific betting area. Yeah, I've
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: I've had those same dilemmas. That's a tough one. I
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: know a lot of guys who say that they get
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: up a move right away, and I have done that.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I have bailed on a spot right away. But
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: then there also been times where I did the same
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: thing you did, where I'm thinking, well, I'm already here.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: I already made whatever kind of impact I was gonna
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: make getting in here. Um, you know, how good is
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: my prediction of where I think these deer are, where
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: the're gonna go? You know what percent of the time
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: do they do something completely opposite of what you actually think? Um,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: so I hear you on that, that's a tough call.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, all right, so your mistakes? Yeah, so I
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: think my my biggest mistake centered around being in a blind.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: That was that was the biggest thing. I did it right.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many comments I got um
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: from people after seeing the film. Oh speaking which, I
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: released the video of my hunt for Frank this week.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: So if you haven't seen that yet, going over to
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: the wire YouTube channel UM or the Mediator dot com
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: you'll see that there. Um. But so many people saw,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: you know, there are all these things, all these people
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: are saying like, oh, on inside of view of the
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: poop blind, this is awesome. You didn't record that part,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: did you? No? I did not record that part. By
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the way, before we get back into being serious again,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: you get you have a lot of listeners on this podcast.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: So of all those listeners, I need one of you
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: to create a meme Mark Kenyon rubbing a bushe light
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: can and having a Genie pop out of it. Okay,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: that's all I want. That's that's your guys task for
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: this week. That would be an awesome T shirt. I
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: would wear that T shirt. Um. So, So what was
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: I talking about? Your biggest mistakes? Oh? Biggest mistakes. So,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: but how did that relate to the poop plan? Right? Oh,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: most people don't poop in their blinds and that's kind
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: of a mistake, right, Yeah, yeah, that that's what I
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: was gonna say. Okay, So dear uh dear biggest mistakes. Yes,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: so biggest mistake I think related to this new area
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: that I got permission hunt this past year, because coming
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: into two eighteen, one of my big goals supposed to
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: have more places to hunt, right because I've found myself
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: sometimes like my local Michigan spots. Um, I get to
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: two stuck on this one spot that's been historically pretty good,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: and I always have like handful of other places I
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: can hunt, but some years it's been um a small
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: property that I lost, so that a couple of years
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: ago I had a really nice little secondary spot when
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: I lost permission there. Um a couple of years I've
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: had permission on properties with friends, but I could only
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: hunt them when I'm with those friends or situations like that. Um.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: So this year I was like, you know what, I
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: need to put myself in a position to have a
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: much better set of plans B C and d UM.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: And I thought I had that situation where I got
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: permission on this large property on the west side of
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: the state through a friend and UM, and it was
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: a really good property, like it we talked about in
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: the spring in the summer, like it's a great spot.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of deer, and because it's a larger property,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: and because the landowner is managing it for deer, there's
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of older bucks, much more than any other
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: place I got to hunt. So going into this year,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: I was thinking, man, of anywhere I'm gonna hunt, I
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: bet you that's my best lock to like fill attack
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: to have success. Like I know there's gonna be mature
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: bucks there. Um, I thought that was gonna as much
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: as a mature buck in Michigan might be. I thought
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: that would be my I don't want to say guarantee you,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: but like my best chance. Right now, I feel like
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: I just made a bunch of mistakes around that number one. Um,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't get to put as much time into prepping
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: that property as I wanted. Just you know the same
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: thing you talked about. Just time. Time got away from me.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: I was traveling a lot, a bunch of new career
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: things going on, had a baby, trying to manage the
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: small property that's local, trying to do some work up
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: on our North Michigan property, all these things. All these
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: things are excuses, I know, Um, but just simply did
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: not get to put as much prep time as I
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: wanted into this new area. So that was one thing
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: that led to a couple of missed opportunities me simply
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: not prepping things quite right. Um. Number two, I think
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: that I went into those hunts assuming it was better
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: than it was. So by that, I mean all of
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: a sudden, I've got permission on a property that's like
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know what it technically is,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: but I think I just just something like six d
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: acres or something like that. I mean, that's way, way,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: way bigger. Most of the properties that can hunt our
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: forty or nineties stuff like that, nothing like this. So
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking, Wow, that's huge property. Um, the people that
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: own it are managing it for deer. It's gonna be great.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: This is gonna be like hunting, you know, one of
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: these Midwestern states where the pressure is much lower and
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: where I've gone in the Passing, Ohio, Iowa. Whatever that
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: It's just you can just get away with different things
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: you can hunt things differently than I can in Michigan,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: and you can still see mature bucks and get shots. Right.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of the way I thought I was
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: gonna go, and I hunted it that way. I was
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: hunting very low impact stand sites. I wasn't being aggressive
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: at all. I had this week long period scheduled to
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: go hunt there, uh with the mediator crew, and I've
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: been able to prep some stuff for that. And then
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: also that the guy that owns the property, he and
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: his his friend were able to prep a bunch of
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: stuff there for that property. He's got a guy that
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: helps out in this proper do with him, so they
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of things prepped. But all of these
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: stands that the collectively we had prepared, they kind of
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: were all low impact, safe stand sites that you would
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: hunt on a big, banaged property yum. And the issue
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: I found from the time I spent there was that
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: even though this is a pretty big property, even though
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of good things going for it had
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: great habits to all those things being the case, it
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: was still Michigan and it's still what ended up happening
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: was that the deer, even with all those things still
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: behaved the way that they do on the forty acre
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: property hunt locally or the ninety acre property hunt around here.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: They still did not want to move past those things
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: in daylight. They still were not daylight active nine in
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: the time. They still couldn't be killed in these ways.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: And I just did not get aggressive enough. I stuck.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: I got I just stuck with it. I don't want
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: to say it was account. It wasn't necessarily that I
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: didn't know that. I think it was a situation where
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: or I was afraid to step on toes I think
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: a little bit, or to like to divert too much
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: from like the party line. I don't if that makes sense.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: So basically, it sounds to me like a decision that
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: you would make if you were hunting by yourself was
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: a different decision because you were hunting with additional people exactly.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: And you know, I don't want to piss anyone off,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: I don't want to overstep my boundaries. I you know,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: I think because of that, and because I was still navigating,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: you know, the relationship of hunting this property with these guys,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: it was just there was a lot of new things,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: and I didn't because of that, I didn't hunt the
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: way that now I know I should have hunted, and
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: in the moment I knew I should have hunted, And
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I think that led to the fact that that it
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: was a great opportunity. There's a lot of good bucks
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: on camera. Um, I should have failed a tag there.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: I had a week there in the rut. I should
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: have killed a buck, no doubt about it, and I didn't. UM.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: So from like a tactical standpoint, that was a tactical mistake. Um,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: And then to a very specific tactical mistake. I told
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: you the story of right were you in the episode
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: where I told the podcast the story about where I
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: had this buck at twenty yards and couldn't get a
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: shot at him because of a trim shooting a lane
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: that wasn't cut. I know that. So so that was
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: like a very specific example of because this is a
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: shared property with these other guys, this is a spot
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: that I had tried to go in to hunt a
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: stand that I had. I've been scouting the property in
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: the spring. I noticed an old ladder stand when I
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: was out scouted in the spring, and in my head,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: I thought, Okay, that's a good spot to hunt, you know,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: but I never end up getting back to it, never
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: ended up messing with it, never ended up doing anything there.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: So then on this morning, I see the wind, I
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: look at all the things I knew. I was like, okay,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: I want to try to go. I think, I think
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: I want to go to that area. And I remember
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: there's like an old ladder standing there. I'm gonna sneak
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: in there and try to hunt him. So I go
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: trying to sneak into that spot with a cameraman running lay.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: You know, everything's a mess already. And we get in
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: there and it's dark and I cannot find the stand.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: I can't find the stand and walking around and I'm
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: getting frustrated and piste off it's not there. And then
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: we find like an old like tripod that someone had
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: put out there, who knows how long ago. And then
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, is that what I saw? And
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: my memory was that it was a ladder stand, but
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: actually it's like a tripod that, you know. I don't
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: know what to do with this. So in a moment
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: of panic, um, I don't know if it was panic,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: but I texted the other guy. I was like, hey,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: you know, is that ladder there? Um, and he's like, oh, no,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think so, but you know there's this other
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: one down the way. You could try that. So this
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: is a long way of getting to the fact that
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: I end up going to a stand that I had
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: not prepped myself, that I didn't know about. I knew
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: that there was a stand sim around there, but that
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: I didn't personally do anything with. I went to that spot.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: It ended up being in a great spot, um, and
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: I liked it so much, like hunted there several days afterwards.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: But because I didn't put enough time in the summer
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: to prep all these spots myself, I was dependent on
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: other people, which I hate being. And because of that,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: a spot that should have been a cutting lane cut
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: there wasn't, and that buck was standing there twenty yards.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: This would have been before Frank. It would have been
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: my biggest buck ever in Michigan, very close to one
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: of my bigger deer ever, a great Michigan deer. Um.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: And he was there at twenty yards easy peasy shot
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: can't get it because of all these limbs, And that's
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: no one's fault but mine. So um. That was a
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: very specific example of not putting in the time and
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: taking care of all the details. And dude, I think
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: you're beating yourself up on that, because how how many
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: times have you done a running gun set and not
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: necessarily saying a big deer came through. Let's just say
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: any deer came through and you didn't have a crack
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: at it because it came from some crazy awkward angle. Right, Yeah,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I mean that's just that just happens. Yes, I mean,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: yes it does. And I guess I just feel and
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: maybe you're right, maybe you're right. I'm just and this
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: is kind of just what I do. I mean, right,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: I over analyzed things and I nitpick, but that I
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: guess this is a situation where the nitpicky, the nitpicky
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: part of me can point to a very specific little
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: thing that kept me from a very specific outcome, and
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: that like, that's you know, it's like a thorn of
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: my crawl um that I keep looking back, Like I know,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to watch that clip on some future
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: episode of a show and I'm gonna sit there kicking
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: myself piste off because this really cool buck is right
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: there and I couldn't get a shot, And that's gonna
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: be a that's gonna be a bummer. Um. But but yeah,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I mean it could have happened in any kind of scenario,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: could have happened on a run agun hunt. I've had
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: similar things happen. Um. I just wish that in that scenario,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: like it was a prepped tree, you know, it should
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: have been you should have had a lane cut to
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: each one of these directions where they could come from.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't. So that was disappointing. But but you're right, Um,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: that was one thing that just stood out. Though. The
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: second mistake or challenge that stood out to me was
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: related to travel. We talked about this earlier in the year,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: but I had, like, all, I'm traveling more in general
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: because of stuff with with the new company and everything. Um.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: And then that is layered on the fact that I've
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: got more responsive abilities at home with a son and
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out a way to balance that, and
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: that just kind of made this year tougher in in
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: ways obviously you know about as you're talking about this
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: thing yourself. Um. And so my big mistake happened that
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: I kind of I don't know, I didn't recognize how
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: tough that would be right out the gate. So in September,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: I had like an eleven day period where I was
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: gonna hunt in Montana, and then it just kind of
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: get kept getting stretched. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: go from Montana hunt, and then Josh was going to
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: go to North Dakota, so I was like, well, I
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: can stretch out and hunt in North Dakota to when
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: I'm out there, and then there's business meeting in in
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: some folks that that I worked with, like, hey, why
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: don't you stick around for another day or two since
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: you're alreadynna be out there. So all of a sudden,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: like what I thought was gonna be a seven day
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: hunt became like an eleven day hunt. Um. And then
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: I got the invite to do this out hunt and
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: that kind of stretched out to more. So all of
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: a sudden, I thought I was gonna hunt seven days
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: in Montana in September, and by the time September was done,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: I ended up being gone for twenty days or twenty
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: one days or something of the month. And that was
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: a mistake. I mean, that was just way too much
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: put on put on my wife and way too much
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: time away from Everett. And I was you know, right
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: after that, I was like, go, wow, I don't want
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: to do that anymore. I did not like being gone
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: that much. Um. And so you know, we talked about
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: I canceled one of my trips in October UM and
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: didn't travel a whole lot after that. The rest of
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: the season. I had the six or seven days or
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: whatever I was out on this other property that I
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: just talked about, and then I took a couple of
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: short trips, like two days up to our northern Michigan
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: cabin a couple of times um. And then I guess
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: it's in Nebraska, but that was that was tight trip
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: that was forward and a half days or something. UM.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: So I think that I don't know if it was
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: a mistake, but it was like it was a mistake's
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: last challenge that I identified. And now I know I'm
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: kind of skipping ahead to things I want to do differently,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: but based off that. Now I kind of know that
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: as much as I possibly can, like as much as
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: I have control over it, I'm now you know, getting
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: invited on things and being a part of trips that
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: I can't control as much. UM, Like I'm taking off
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: from for Mexico here in a couple of days, and
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be gone for eleven days or twelve days,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: and that's gonna be really tough. I'm not I'm looking
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: forward to the trip itself and appreciative of that opportunity,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: but I'm really not looking forward to being gone that
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: away that long from the family. Um. So, as much
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: as I can control these things, I want to try
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: to find a way to to still travel a lot.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: Like that's that's an important part of what I do,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: and I really enjoy that, but I want to I
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: think the way to do that, to be more family
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: friendly is is spread out and short. So instead of
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: like doing two weeks a two week straight trip or
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: something two weeks straight for vacation or whatever it might be,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: I think what I'm gonna try to do now is
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: a four day trip here and then I'm home for
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: three weeks, and then a four or five day trip here,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: and then I'm home for several weeks, and then a
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: three day trip here. Like doing maybe more trips, but shorter.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: Um at least, that's what I'm thinking, is Like, it's
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: the it's the long time spans where it gets really tough. Um,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: do you kind of have the same thing with your
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: with your wife, Like like for three or four days,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: maybe it's okay, but when you get to day five, six, seven, eight, nine,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: like that gets really challenging when there's no break from
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: the kids. Yeah, man, I'll tell you what. I just
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: wish I had more advice on that on that note,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: because for me, I'm not in the position yet where
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: like for you you have a little more flexibility on
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: you can go out for a four day hunt, come
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: back and go out for another four day hunt out
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: west or or to a different date or whatever. For me,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: that has to be big chunks of time, right because
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I can't do the multiple trips, you know, because because
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: travel time counts, and I want to be able to
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: hunt as much time as possible. So you know, and
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: and there's more. There's more hunting in my future. I
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: know it because I'm gonna make it happen. So and
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: this this is going on for me in two thousand
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: and nineteen as well, is to be able to a
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: include my wife and children into more of these quote
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: unquote adventures or be take care of the planning. So
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: my wife has some assistance in some of this, you know,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: and help maybe she has a mother or father in
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: law or my dad or mom come and help out
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: for a day or two just to relieve some of
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: that stress and or put myself in a position to
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: where she has less responsibilities. So maybe I can pay
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: off some debt. Like for me, a real big thing
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: in two thousand nineteen is finances, right, I gotta, I
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: gotta get some debt down. I gotta, um, you know,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: find ways to be more lucrative and all avenues pay
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: off some debt, which means that she also has to
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: work less in one of her jobs, and then she's
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: not as stressed. You know, She'll still have to watch
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: the kids when I go on these trips, but at
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: the same time, she won't have to be multitasking as much. Yeah,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: so so let's keep going down that road then, Um,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: things we want to do differently in two thousand nineteen.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: So it sounds like both of us have some thoughts
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: around how do we how do we better balance travel
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: and family obligations. So I'm right there with you two.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: In addition to trying to do for me, I can
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: do the short trips, so I'm trying to do shorter trips.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: But I am I have been thinking about the same
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: things as far as trying to put my family in
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: a better position while I'm gone, So lining up more help,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: um trying to make it so that you know, the
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: responsible is at home or not as great anything like that,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: because and this is nothing new, and we know this,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: but like we put when we leave, when when when
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: we're not around to help out with the family, right,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: we're putting a big burden on everybody else, on our wives,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: a burden on our kids even and and just you know,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: not being around him sucks too. Um So, so yeah,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: I think obviously for me, that's something I'm just gonna
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: be facing more and more, especially if we have another child,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: you know what, that's gonna change and short changes things.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: So all these things are definitely definitely top of mind.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: But but this year was definitely a good learning experience
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: around that in that regard. Yeah, I just want to
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: be able to like hunting is such at times can
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: be selfish, right because I'm gonna go on this Elk
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: trip and I'm gonna go on it's gonna be intensive.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: So unless my wife trains and decides she wants to
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: come with me on something like that, it's just I mean,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: she she is not as dedicated to hunting as I am. Right,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: she likes to be Chaufford to the turkey blind and
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: Schouford to the blind, and she needs she likes to
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: be told what to do and when to do it.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: She she does like to learn along the way. But
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: it's not it's not her it's not her identity like
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: it is it's my identity, you know. So so, but fishing,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: like if I can include the family and all these
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: other activities that I plan on doing that are hunting,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Let's say, like I think this year my daughter is
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: gonna be able to come turkey hunting with us. Uh,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: We're gonna do a lot more fishing this year with
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: the whole family and involve everybody so that when the
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: time comes for me to go on one of these trips,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: it's you know, I've put in the family time, you
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. It is time. It's time for
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: the It's time for the cowboy, cowboy to go Rome,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: if that makes sense, you know what I mean. And
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: it's just as much hope that that's what you tell
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: your wife when you walk up the door. Well, see, honey,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: it's time for the cowboy to room. You know and uh,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, right right, well, it's just
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: it's one of those things that I feel with my
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: wife and me and the kids, there's three or four,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: maybe five more years of this really frustrating type where
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: as my children get older, it's going to become easier
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: for her to handle all of them. But right now
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: they're all in just the age group where it's very difficult,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: and you know, she takes care of them most of
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: the time anyway, because I have to go to an
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: office and I have to sit in the back room
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: and do do this job. But with but I think
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: as time goes on, it will become easier. But until then,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's no way to there's no way to
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: cut it and make it sound like, hey, I guess what,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: You're gonna have the kids allto yourself for eight days,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: you know, like she doesn't like that straight up. So
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know, well to that point, you know another thing,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: and I don't know if this is something that you've
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: thought of. I mean, you you kind of have done this,
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: and I've done this to varying degrees. But this year
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: one of the one of the other things I want
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: to do a better job of a nineteen and I
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: alluded to this earlier, is getting a getting more high
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: quality options really close to home, so so that I'm
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: not having to travel to still have quality hunts. You know,
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: right now, I've got like a spot or two close
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: to home that are pretty good. If I want to
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: do anything better than that that I'm traveling a minimum
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: of like two hours minimum. UM, I need a bunch
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: of good spots really close to home so that, UM,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: I can still have quality hunting experiences. I can still
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, it's part of my job, right
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: so I need content. I need to be out doing
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: these things. UM I need to be able to those
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: things without needing to travel to Iowa or without need
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: to travel to Kansas or Ohio or whatever. I'm still
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: going to travel some, but as I mentioned, shorter trips
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: and maybe not as much. So that's one of my
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: big goals for this year is locked down some more
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: spots close here so that UM quality can still be good,
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: but quality time at home can still be good. Being
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: able to you know, when I can do that when
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: I'm home and still hunting, it's it's it's it's you know,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: much less of a burden on my family, So that's
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: one of my things. Yeah, that's difficult, man. I I
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: did the same thing this summer, knocked on a couple
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: of extra doors, you know, got nos all the way around,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: and um, I don't know. It's just at the same time,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not worried about it right now because I do
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: have plenty of options and I know that I have
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: to put in my brownie point, especially if I want
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: to do additional you know, if I want to take
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: an additional trip to Nebraska next this next year, this
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: next season, there's a good chance I'm not even gonna
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: try to October for white tails, you know what I mean.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: So it's just making sure that like the scale gets tipped,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: and it's gonna get tipped, but never to the point
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: where the load falls off. So what are you envisioning
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: them for these trips? You're envisioning a September Ltcome, you're
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: envisioning a when are you gonna do this Nebraska hun? Um? Yeah,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it's gonna be like the last
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: week of September or the first week of October. Um,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: that will be a shorter trip, maybe like a I
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: don't know, a four day trip. You know, a day
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: to travel for three or four days to hunt, uh,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: and then a day to travel back. So it's like
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: an eight hour trip from where I live too out
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: there and I don't know, just try to and it's
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: gonna be play it by here, right. I mean, if
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: I the good thing about Nebraska and some of these
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: other states like Colorado, it's over the counter tag. So
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: if I you know, like I have a lot of
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: preference points for Wyoming, I'm gonna turn those in someday.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: And when I turned those in, they take years to calculate,
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: you know, to to build up. And when that hunt
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: comes and I draw a good unit, I'm going and
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: I'm going to spend a good amount of time there, right,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: because I've invested heavily in in this hunt. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: I hear you're there. Um. Interesting, So that Elk hunt
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: is that early September. Yeah, that's the first week of September.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: So you're kind of doing like what I was talking
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: about a little bit, and that you've got early September
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: early October, then I'm sure you're gonna take a week
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: for early November or whatever, however much time you can write,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: so at least kind of spreading them out to give
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: the family time between that. That's sounds like that works
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: for you to huh yeah, yep, that's the goal anyway.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, it would be awesome if I could take
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: a week long trip every month, right, maybe even late August,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: take an antelope hunt. September take an elk mule your hunt.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: October take a different hunt. November, take a different hunt.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: And that way I can come back hyper focused family,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: get everybody in good graces again, and then burn all
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: the bridges off on another western hunt and then come
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: back and start the healing process all over again. And
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: it sounds like a stressful way to live. Well, I mean,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: the A T A show is coming up next week
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: and I got well ship. I'll be traveling one day,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: and I got meetings when I get in, I got
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: three days of meetings, and then I got another day
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: to travel back. So again, I can already feel the
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: stress in the family knowing that she's gonna be solo
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: for that many days. And I don't know, it's not
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: only is it like, not only is it stress that
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: she has to do it with, but it's stress that
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: I have to deal with two you know what I mean?
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: Like that stress carries, and so I have to find
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: ways to make that stress either go away or find
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: ways to reduce the stress. And you know, I don't know, man, Yeah,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: well this is a big theme of our whole episode.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: It sounds like his uh, his family and balance, um,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: anything else you do differently, I've got two more on
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: my side. Let me see, I think from a you know,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: from an actual I don't know. I just I feel
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: like two thousand nineteen is gonna almost be Yes, I'm
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: gonna take these trips and I'm gonna still deer hunt,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: but it's gonna be a secondary focus for me. Hunting
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: is I'm gonna do it. It's my passion, but I'm
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: not going to be concerned with the outcomes as I
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: am as in the investment of the Sportsman's Nation, you
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. So like it's gonna be very
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: work oriented. Two thousand nineteen is so basically you're telling
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: me that our podcasts are gonna be really boring next
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: year because every update's gonna be well, I spent seven
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: hours on my computer, more like fourteen, but he's counting,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: all right, Well, all right, I'll try to I'll try
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: to make up the difference trying to I'm gonna I'm
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: still gonna hunt, right, but it's gonna be like I
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: don't know, you know, like if the weather conditions aren't
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: good to hunt, I'm not going to force it anymore,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Just save it, save it
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: for the right the right time, the right conditions, and
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: if it's not good, just don't go out. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, hey, I understand that for sure. I've been
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: in the same same shoes and that's that's typically how
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: I operate to UM. Interestingly, though, one of the things
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: I want to do differently, and this is something that
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: I talked about doing last year didn't do a good
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: enough job because I kind of I thought this other
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: property was gonna solve this problem, but it didn't. So
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: I talked about the fact one of my big goals
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: this year is to get more local spots UM. The
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: second part of that change is that I want to
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: take my scouting to the next level. UM, like really
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: put in a whole bunch more time this year. Like
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: I just talked to more and more of these of
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: these people that are super consistent, you know, like my
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: buddy Andy just I mean, he just is a scouting machine,
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: and I think I need to crank that up for
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: myself a little bit more so, just just doing a
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: better job. Like every year, I go into each season
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: like saying I want to do this and do that,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: and and every year I do a little better but
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: never hit quite the goal I set for myself. Well,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: this year, I want to crank it up again as
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: far as finding more properties, fixing more of these off
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: season tweaks, just getting more and more detail oriented. I'm
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: definitely fine tuning things i've I've I've definitely reached a
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: level of comfort with a lot of my setups, so
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of the places I do know that I hunt.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: I've got a much better idea of how I like
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: to approach new properties. I'm definitely getting better at picking
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: out spots in a new area. Like I've I've pretty
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: much demonstrated to myself now that I can come into
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: a new spot and have a decent chance of figuring
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: it out and feeling and feeling comfortable with that. But
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: I just want to keep tweaking it, minimizing the mistakes,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: getting better at scouting in the off season, and then
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: also really getting comfortable with like in season scouting So,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: for example, I want to start paying attention to tracks more.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: I haven't done a good enough job of that, but
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: that's something I think I can focus it on. I
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: can key in on that a little bit better. UM.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: And then the big thing, well, I don't know if
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: it's the big thing, but another big thing is going
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: back to archery and UM taking what I tried to
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: do this past year, which was trying to start UM
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: developing a back tension style shot sequence. But I tried
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: to do that with a finger in the next Finger release,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: and that I thought was working better, but I got
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: into the season and I found myself still making a
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: couple of mistakes with it. So this year I'm breaking
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: down everything and started from the ground up again. So
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: I bought an actual tension style release. So there's no
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: trigger punch, there's no thumb button to push, there's no way,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: there's no way to release my bow except to pull
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: through and UM. So that's what I've got the release.
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna start working with it and that will
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: hopefully make a big difference for me this year, and
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sure i'll I'll share everything that happens with that,
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: But but really just want to keep on trying to
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: find ways to minimize any chances of air when it
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: comes to my bow hunts, and just constantly trying to
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: get better. So that's that's gonna be a big way
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: to do it. Hopefully we need to pause again here
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: one last time to think our partners at Onyx and
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: Onyx is the producer of the Onyx Hunt app. That
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: is the mobile application that I'm using to get my
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: maps when I'm out there hunting, whether it be in
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: public land or private land. It shows me the property borders,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: it shows me public land, it shows me I don't know.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: I can measure distances in areas, I can mark way points, um,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: I can share way points with friends. And you know,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: one of the things I've been talking about here a
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: lot recently is the fact that I want to get
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: access to more properties this year, and I'm gonna be
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: using Onyx exclusively probably to do that, because I need
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: to figure out who owns certain properties, which properties are
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: broken into which parcels, and then who owns those so
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: that then when I go to do my door knocking
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: this spring, I'm gonna know, Okay, this property is owned
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: by Mr Johnson, and this property is owned by Mr
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: Smith and this property is owned by Mr Whatever. And
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: I can put together this whole list of properties, go
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: find their addresses, and a lot of times you can
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: get the address right there on Onyx when you click
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: on the property owner information, I know exactly where to go,
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: knock on their door, know their name, no, their property borders.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: Everything I need is right there. So it's a tremendous
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: tool if you were out there trying to get some
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: new private land access. Then of course, if you just
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: want to hunt public, it's gonna show you all that too.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: So check out on x if you're interested, over at
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: the mobile app store of your choice or onyx maps
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: dot com. That's awesome. That's awesome. I I need to
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: do the same thing, man, just I mean, I love
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: bow hunting and I'm still not where I need to
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: be as a so I mean there's always room for
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: improvement there. Do you. I know you tried it last year, right, um,
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: two years ago. I tried it two this year. I
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: had no like, just no time. It was a miracle
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: that I even got my both sided in before this,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: before I started hunting on that Elk trip. So, so
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: what do you anticipate for this year. I just, dude,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: we time management is a huge thing. And I like
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: working every single day at my job and then working
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: at home for multiple hours and then you know what,
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: when like, right now it's too light, it's dark to shoot, right.
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: I got like ten minutes after I get out of
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: here to maybe go shoot some marrows, but I can't
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: because I haven't been home all day and I have
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: instantly come home. I come here and I spend an
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: hour and a half, two hours in here. Then I
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: get out and now my kids are like, Daddy, what
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: are you gonna do? So I have to play with them, right,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: and then it's dark, So I don't know time manage,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: I will say. And this is just as much me
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: saying this to me as it is to you, um,
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: but just paying like Devil's advocate as a friend giving
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: you a helpful nudge. Here. Just don't forget how shitty
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: it was in November when you had that situation and
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: you didn't think you're going to find that buck, and
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: and remember that because it might be worth trying to
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: wake up fifteen minutes early in the morning. And then
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: again I'm saying this, I'm preaching to myself too. I
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: needed I needed. I need to always remember that too
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: and try to find that extra ten minutes. And I
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: don't always do a good enough job, but I'm I'm
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: trying to find some way to squeeze in that extra
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: time because because of all the things we do, if
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: we can't if we can't make that final moment as
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: as as ethical and quick and clean and as as
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: removed from error as possibly we can, what are we
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: What do we spend all this time doing? Anyways? So
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: that's something I need to keep reminding myself of. And
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: and uh, I'll be I'll be a friendly, annoying person
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: who will budge you about that intense to fair. Um.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: So with that said, I don't know, man, that is
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: what I've got on the books for nineteen as far
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: as changes. Is there anything anything else in your mind? No, man,
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you can hear it or not.
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: But the uh, the time limit for this podcast is over. Yeah, man,
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: I had to. I had to shut the microphone off
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: to yell at my kids to not stop pounding on
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: the door. So I wish you kept it on. Do
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: you remember that one time that Ava tried to come
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: in and you had to like walk out of the
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: room and give her spiel and I kept it in
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: the podcast. That's that was one of my favorites. Or
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: the time where the dog started barking and I didn't
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: you threaten to kill it or something on the air,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: buried alive or something, I don't know. Those are always
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: great moments. So uh yeah, let's wrap this one up
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: so you can get out there and focus on what
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: was both of our number one goals for nineteen, which
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: is balancing family in jobs and hunting and all that stuff.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: So I think I think the only thing else worth
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: saying is, Man, I just want to give you a
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: big fist bump, congrats on a great season, and h
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: here's the two thousand nine and that's a rap. Thank
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: you guys for listening. A couple of little plugs. I
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: haven't mentioned this in a while, but if you have
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: not yet, if you're a relatively new listener and you
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: have not yet gone over to iTunes and left a
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: review of the wire Hunt podcast, man, that is a huge,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: huge help we had. I don't know what it is.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: I haven't checked in a while, but more than two
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: thousand reviews. Almost all of those are five stars. It's
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: it's such a It's such an honor that so many
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: people are enjoying this. I appreciate that so much. But
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: if you haven't shared your feedback yet, we would love
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: to see it. Also. Final plug, if you haven't checked
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: out my video of of that Frank hunt that I
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: was talking about, I definitely would recommend doing that. You
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: head over to the wired dot YouTube channel to watch.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: What was it? I think a pretty darn cool story.
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: I was really happy with it. Um just just a
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: special year and I think that um My buddy Wade
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: did a really nice job of editing it together, and
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: um it tells a compelling story. So check it out.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Check out the wire dont YouTube channel. Subscribe there, subscribe
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: to this podcast, and I will stop asking you to
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: do things now and I will simply focus on thanking
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: you for spending this time with us today. If you're
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: still hunting, keep at I keep seeing people laying down
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: box on Instagram and Facebook. There's still success to be had.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: And for the rest of us, it's scouting season. It's
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: time to get excited for shed hunting and uh all
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: sorts of good stuff like that. So thank you again
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: and stay Wired to Hunt.