Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 452: Perfecting the Run-N-Gun Whitetail Strategy with Greg Godfrey

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Ep. 452: Perfecting the Run-N-Gun Whitetail Strategy with Greg Godfrey · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
0:05
Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
0:10
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
0:14
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and today on the show, I'm joined by
0:16
Speaker 1: Greg Godfrey to discuss all the different things we've been doing,
0:20
Speaker 1: whether it be gear or hunting strategy, to improve, perfect
0:24
Speaker 1: and fine tune our mobile running gun hunting approach. All right,
0:39
Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
0:42
Speaker 1: by Firstly, I've got Greg Godfrey with me here on
0:45
Speaker 1: the show today. He's one of the co founders of Tethered.
0:49
Speaker 1: That's a mobile hunting company, a saddle hunting company. But
0:52
Speaker 1: we're not talking about products. We're not talking about his company. Really,
0:56
Speaker 1: we're not going to do any big product plugs. Don't
0:58
Speaker 1: worry if you're not a set idle guy, If for
1:00
Speaker 1: not a Tethered guy, this episode is still for you.
1:03
Speaker 1: This podcast is all about Greg's experience over the decade
1:07
Speaker 1: plus that he's been diving deep into becoming a more
1:11
Speaker 1: mobile deer hunter. How to become a more effective deer
1:14
Speaker 1: hunter by moving around a lot, by using this kind
1:17
Speaker 1: of running gun approach. Some people call it hanging bang
1:20
Speaker 1: running gun mobile, whatever you want to call it. You
1:24
Speaker 1: can use a set of sticks and a mobile tree stand.
1:27
Speaker 1: You can use sticks and a saddle. A lot of
1:30
Speaker 1: options out there, and today we cover them all. We
1:33
Speaker 1: discuss different ways to fine tune your equipment. We discussed
1:36
Speaker 1: different ways to fine tune your process of getting set
1:39
Speaker 1: up in a tree, climbing a tree quieter more efficiently. Uh.
1:43
Speaker 1: We talk about different things to think about when you're
1:45
Speaker 1: scouting out a property about to hunt it on a
1:47
Speaker 1: running gun hunt. We talk about when to set up
1:50
Speaker 1: and when to keep looking. We talked about when to
1:51
Speaker 1: move and when to stick it out in the tree
1:53
Speaker 1: you're in, and all things in between. If you do
1:57
Speaker 1: any kind of hunting like this, or if you have
2:00
Speaker 1: been hearing me talk about it, or whole nine Fingers
2:03
Speaker 1: Johnson talk about it, or many many of our guests
2:05
Speaker 1: talk about this kind of thing. But you've been kind
2:07
Speaker 1: of that sounds like a lot of work, That sounds
2:10
Speaker 1: like it wouldn't be a lot of fun. I kind
2:12
Speaker 1: of like sitting in my ladder stands in my pre
2:14
Speaker 1: hung stands um But at the same time, you've got
2:18
Speaker 1: this little voice in the back of your head that says, well,
2:20
Speaker 1: maybe I should check it out. Well, this is the
2:24
Speaker 1: episode of listen to to find out if if you
2:26
Speaker 1: really should and if you decide to take that plunge,
2:29
Speaker 1: where to give you the tools and ideas and uh,
2:33
Speaker 1: you know, lessons learned to get that into action and
2:36
Speaker 1: get started. So I think this is one that a
2:39
Speaker 1: lot of people can benefit from. With seasons either starting
2:42
Speaker 1: or very soon to start, you know, it's not too
2:45
Speaker 1: late to try something like this. You can go and
2:47
Speaker 1: get a little mobile tree stand and a set of
2:50
Speaker 1: sticks or saddle and some sticks, and you know, spend
2:53
Speaker 1: a night or two out in the backyard, learn how
2:55
Speaker 1: to use this stuff, and then go hunt. I remember
2:57
Speaker 1: the first time you use the saddle. Now, I've been
2:59
Speaker 1: using sticks and mobile tree stands for many years before that.
3:01
Speaker 1: But the first time I got a saddle, I got
3:03
Speaker 1: it like three days before I was gonna leave for
3:05
Speaker 1: a week long hunt. And in those three days I
3:08
Speaker 1: got out into a tree a couple of times, and
3:10
Speaker 1: that was enough to feel comfortable and was able to
3:12
Speaker 1: have a successful hunt. So you can totally turn this
3:15
Speaker 1: around quickly. That said, I guess I should stop rambling.
3:19
Speaker 1: Let you get into this one. I hope you enjoy it.
3:21
Speaker 1: I hope you find it valuable and stay tuned. There's
3:25
Speaker 1: much more to come on how I'm using this kind
3:28
Speaker 1: of hunting style. Because next week knock on Wood, assuming
3:32
Speaker 1: there's been no weird things going on with technology or
3:35
Speaker 1: our game plan, uh, we'll be telling me about how
3:38
Speaker 1: my most recent public land white tail hunt went in
3:41
Speaker 1: which I was using this kind of hunting approach using
3:44
Speaker 1: my saddle and sticks, as well as a buddy of
3:46
Speaker 1: mine doing the same thing to to run and gun
3:48
Speaker 1: it on public land and try to kill a buck.
3:51
Speaker 1: So hopefully we'll have a success story for you describing
3:54
Speaker 1: exactly how this thing can work and without other way.
3:58
Speaker 1: I guess let's just get into it all right with
4:01
Speaker 1: me on the line. Today, we've got the one and
4:03
Speaker 1: only Greg Godfree. Greg, welcome back to the show. Thanks
4:08
Speaker 1: Mark's been a while since we had a pot podcast chat.
4:12
Speaker 1: I know, I'm glad we get to do it, uh,
4:13
Speaker 1: And I want to. I want to dive into a
4:18
Speaker 1: style of white tail hunting that both you and I
4:20
Speaker 1: really like, uh, and I know you have. I feel
4:24
Speaker 1: like I'm pretty heavy into it, but you're even heavier
4:26
Speaker 1: into it because not only is it seemingly your preferred
4:29
Speaker 1: way of hunting. It's also your career. You've built a
4:31
Speaker 1: company around this style of hunting. Uh. But what I
4:34
Speaker 1: want to try to do is I want you to
4:36
Speaker 1: take off your tethered I run a company that's a
4:41
Speaker 1: mobile hunting company. I want to take off that hat,
4:43
Speaker 1: and I want to put on your just I'm a
4:45
Speaker 1: die hard mobile hunter hat today and see if we
4:50
Speaker 1: can get into your mind and pull out every little stinking,
4:56
Speaker 1: juicy bit of insight when it comes to how to
4:59
Speaker 1: be a more effective running gun hunter or hanging bang
5:03
Speaker 1: hunter or mobile hunter or whatever you wanna call it,
5:05
Speaker 1: whether you use the saddle like you do, or a
5:08
Speaker 1: lightweight mobile tree standing like a lot of people do. Um,
5:11
Speaker 1: I know that the things you're doing could apply to
5:14
Speaker 1: a lot of these styles. So that's the that's the
5:17
Speaker 1: high level idea. Does this sound like it's in your wheelhouse? Okay?
5:23
Speaker 1: All right, So this is how I want to start.
5:25
Speaker 1: Let's imagine that you and I were on a high
5:27
Speaker 1: school debate team. All right. I don't know if this
5:30
Speaker 1: is something. I never actually was on a high school
5:32
Speaker 1: debate team, so I don't really know exactly what I'm imagining.
5:35
Speaker 1: But let's say we're standing up on a stage and
5:36
Speaker 1: there's two podiums. I don't know, would you wear a
5:40
Speaker 1: bow tie? You might wear bow tie. Um, and let's
5:45
Speaker 1: let's say we're up there and your your job is
5:49
Speaker 1: to convince the judges and me, I'm on the opposite side,
5:53
Speaker 1: will say, your job is to convince us of one thing,
5:55
Speaker 1: and that one thing I need you to convince us
5:57
Speaker 1: of is that the running unapproached to hunting white tails
6:02
Speaker 1: is the best way to kill white tails. And we're
6:06
Speaker 1: gonna begin with an opening statement. You get to lay
6:08
Speaker 1: out your general argument. Uh, you're setting up the whole
6:12
Speaker 1: thing right here. What would your opening statement be? Wow,
6:19
Speaker 1: putting me on the spot? Bow tie and all? Okay,
6:22
Speaker 1: I can do this. I have preached this, and I
6:27
Speaker 1: this is not an original idea I've I've seen lots
6:31
Speaker 1: of white tail hunters that I look up to over
6:34
Speaker 1: the past twenty years, thirty years talk about the concept
6:39
Speaker 1: of first sit, best sit, and there's so much truth
6:43
Speaker 1: to that in my hunting. I guess career if you
6:46
Speaker 1: want to call it, or as long as I've been
6:48
Speaker 1: hunting the folks that I've hunted with my friends colleagues.
6:53
Speaker 1: There's something about being in the spot. It's fresh, hasn't
6:58
Speaker 1: been pressured, especially when you're talking about a mature buck. Now,
7:04
Speaker 1: if we're talking any deer, young deer, doze, that's a
7:08
Speaker 1: different story. But if we're talking mature buck, a deer
7:13
Speaker 1: that has lived through several seasons in highly pressured states
7:17
Speaker 1: like Michigan and the southeast right hunt, he has more
7:19
Speaker 1: than likely been shot at and maybe even wounded. Those
7:24
Speaker 1: deer are a different animal. And to get into his
7:28
Speaker 1: home turf the first time without giving him any notice
7:33
Speaker 1: that you're there, that I think, in my opinion, is
7:37
Speaker 1: the biggest advantage any hunter can have. And whether, like
7:41
Speaker 1: you said, that the tree stands that it doesn't matter.
7:43
Speaker 1: We're not even talking about gear. We're just talking about
7:45
Speaker 1: location and being in that spot where you believe he
7:49
Speaker 1: is without disturbing it in a prior event. To me,
7:54
Speaker 1: that is the number one thing. And there's lots of
7:56
Speaker 1: folks that preach that Ebra Harten John and Dan in
7:59
Speaker 1: Fault Rather and you know ore for an anime, lot
8:02
Speaker 1: lots of people I can name, I can name fifty
8:04
Speaker 1: people that believe in that that concept. To me, that's
8:07
Speaker 1: the number one thing. First, Sit, best, sit, And the
8:11
Speaker 1: more often you go into an area, the more you
8:14
Speaker 1: contaminate it, and the more you alert a mature buck
8:18
Speaker 1: that he's being hunted. Well, that sounds all well and good. Greg.
8:24
Speaker 1: Now I'm the opposing viewpoint here that all that sounds great.
8:27
Speaker 1: But going in and hunting a new place all the
8:32
Speaker 1: time like this, that sounds like a lot of editing convenience.
8:36
Speaker 1: That sounds like a pain in the butt. That sounds
8:38
Speaker 1: like a ton of work. Uh. My deer hunting supposed
8:41
Speaker 1: to be fun. This is my time to relax and
8:44
Speaker 1: enjoy myself. Why would I want to go in and
8:46
Speaker 1: set up a stand in sticks or something every single
8:49
Speaker 1: darn time. That sounds miserable. What do you say to that?
8:52
Speaker 1: It is it's not fun all the time, especially when
8:58
Speaker 1: you consider that not out at ten hunts, you're gonna
9:01
Speaker 1: come home empty handed. It's not fun. That's why I
9:04
Speaker 1: made the distinction in the in my opening argument that
9:08
Speaker 1: we're talking about trying to hunt a trophy mature buck. Now,
9:11
Speaker 1: if you're just trying to have fun and you want
9:15
Speaker 1: to see deer and you want to shoot, you know,
9:17
Speaker 1: a dough you know, if you don't if if size
9:20
Speaker 1: of animal or age of animal isn't isn't important to you, uh,
9:25
Speaker 1: which I'm not making a judgment calling whether that should
9:28
Speaker 1: be or not. Just different types of hunters care about
9:30
Speaker 1: different things. I don't think that that guy is probably
9:36
Speaker 1: going to hunt mobile for very long because it is
9:39
Speaker 1: especially early season. It's hot, it's buggy, it's a pain
9:43
Speaker 1: to do it. It's annoying to to uh climb up
9:47
Speaker 1: and down a tree that hasn't been prepped, so you're
9:49
Speaker 1: taking your sticks in and out with you and you're
9:51
Speaker 1: hanging your your tree stand or your saddle on every
9:54
Speaker 1: single hunt. Yeah, it is a pain in the butt.
9:56
Speaker 1: So uh, I don't know that I would recommend that
9:59
Speaker 1: style for someone that just wants to go out see dear. Now,
10:03
Speaker 1: the flip side is, if you do hunt that way,
10:05
Speaker 1: you will see you know. I think I believe more dear.
10:09
Speaker 1: But it's a different system, and I think that it's
10:14
Speaker 1: best suited to hunting a a mature animal. Okay, let
10:20
Speaker 1: me keep the challenges coming. I actually am the kind
10:23
Speaker 1: of hunter Greg who does want to kill mature dear.
10:26
Speaker 1: I'm die hard. I love this stuff and I'm willing
10:29
Speaker 1: to take some of the some of the crap that
10:31
Speaker 1: comes along with it. Okay, but here's the problem I'm
10:34
Speaker 1: all about, you know, really focusing on the details. And
10:38
Speaker 1: I know that deer have a tremendous security system built
10:41
Speaker 1: into their ears, their eyes, and their nose. And when
10:44
Speaker 1: I hear you talking about going in and setting up
10:47
Speaker 1: in a new place every day or so often to
10:49
Speaker 1: get all these first sits, it sounds like that's a
10:52
Speaker 1: lot of noise. It sounds like that's a lot of commotion.
10:54
Speaker 1: It sounds like you're walking around a lot, and that
10:58
Speaker 1: makes me think that you're spooking deer. I don't want
11:00
Speaker 1: to spook dear. I want to have my stuff set
11:02
Speaker 1: up seven months ahead of time, so I don't make
11:03
Speaker 1: a single sound. Uh, what do you tell me about that?
11:07
Speaker 1: I would say, if you have the ability to do that,
11:10
Speaker 1: it's a it's a absolutely phenomenal option. Um. One of
11:14
Speaker 1: my mentors in hunting is John Eberhart, and that's pretty
11:18
Speaker 1: much the way he has killed. I'll butcher his stats,
11:21
Speaker 1: but something like fifty record book bucks in the most
11:24
Speaker 1: heavily pressured state in the country, in Michigan, and that's
11:27
Speaker 1: his entire tactic. He goes in in the spring, he
11:30
Speaker 1: identifies sign. He uses his historical knowledge of the area
11:35
Speaker 1: and where he's encountered bucks in the past, and he
11:37
Speaker 1: preps all of those spots well in advance, and then
11:40
Speaker 1: he doesn't go in there again until it's time to kill.
11:43
Speaker 1: He's very surgical about it. And if you are the
11:47
Speaker 1: if you have access to the type of land where
11:50
Speaker 1: you can do that, maybe your public land you're allowed
11:52
Speaker 1: to leave stuff in the in the trees for you know,
11:55
Speaker 1: an entire season, or you have access to private land
11:58
Speaker 1: where you can set up a tree in advance. I
12:00
Speaker 1: think that's a phenomenal, phenomenal tactic. The where people get
12:05
Speaker 1: caught up is they'll go in and they'll set up
12:07
Speaker 1: one or two spots and then they're just committed to that.
12:10
Speaker 1: That I think is a is a terrible option. Um,
12:14
Speaker 1: if you can at all avoid it, because these deer
12:16
Speaker 1: they get accustomed to it. Everybody knows that when you're
12:19
Speaker 1: uh to you know, hunting the back forty you know,
12:21
Speaker 1: not not necessarily your show mark, but just in general
12:25
Speaker 1: the back forty. Uh, it's a it's a thing, you know.
12:29
Speaker 1: I talked to hunters all the time all around the country,
12:31
Speaker 1: and they say, you know, I used to hunt the
12:33
Speaker 1: back forty at Grandpa's farm and we had an old
12:35
Speaker 1: oak tree with a stand that's been there for twenty years.
12:38
Speaker 1: And you know, we don't ever see any big bucks,
12:39
Speaker 1: but we see a lot of deer. Well that's pretty common, right,
12:42
Speaker 1: because the deer they know it's there and they're used
12:44
Speaker 1: to it. So I think that type of hunter, even
12:47
Speaker 1: if you even if you um or rather if you
12:50
Speaker 1: have access to land where you can do that, I
12:52
Speaker 1: think it's I think it's phenomenal. I I used to
12:55
Speaker 1: be on a lease here in Georgia and I had
12:57
Speaker 1: about ten spots set up, and I would only hunt
12:59
Speaker 1: each of them maybe twice a season. I would just
13:01
Speaker 1: bounce around to the right spot. So if you can
13:04
Speaker 1: absolutely do it, you're quieter, it's faster, you're not gonna
13:09
Speaker 1: get as sweaty. I think it's I think it's fantastic
13:12
Speaker 1: as long as you still keep that idea of of
13:16
Speaker 1: mobile and bouncing around as opposed to I'm gonna sit
13:20
Speaker 1: the same tree every time, and if I sit there
13:22
Speaker 1: long enough, I'm gonna kill a big buck, which they
13:25
Speaker 1: obviously happens, but I don't think the odds are in
13:27
Speaker 1: your favor the more time you hunt us hunt tree.
13:30
Speaker 1: What if I can't do that? So what if I
13:33
Speaker 1: don't have the places too to have twenty five different
13:38
Speaker 1: places pre prepped? Um? But I still want to try
13:41
Speaker 1: to take advantage of some of the things you're saying,
13:44
Speaker 1: So I do have to go in every time you're
13:47
Speaker 1: telling me I can do without scaring every day in
13:49
Speaker 1: the counting I'm telling you can. I think that that
13:52
Speaker 1: is the more typical guy, right. I think most guys
13:56
Speaker 1: are hunting public land or small parcels and of private land.
14:00
Speaker 1: And and I could I could list you know, five
14:04
Speaker 1: or ten hunters that are very successful in doing that.
14:07
Speaker 1: One of one of another one of my um mentors
14:11
Speaker 1: is is Dan in Fall. You've had on the show
14:13
Speaker 1: many times and a lot of people understand his tactics.
14:16
Speaker 1: But that's that's exactly what he's doing. He's not necessarily
14:20
Speaker 1: hunting a new spot every time. A lot of the
14:23
Speaker 1: places he's hunting he has historical data that support that
14:27
Speaker 1: there is an animal there, right, So he's hunting spots
14:30
Speaker 1: that that he's killed bucks in in previous years and
14:33
Speaker 1: that he's had encounters with in previous years. So it's
14:36
Speaker 1: not always It doesn't always have to be a brand
14:40
Speaker 1: new spot, but it might be a spot that you
14:42
Speaker 1: hadn't been in for two years or the it's just
14:45
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you've only hunted in September and now
14:47
Speaker 1: it's mid November, so it's been six eight weeks and
14:51
Speaker 1: there's been no pressure there. So I think it's very doable.
14:55
Speaker 1: And I do that on public land all around the country,
14:59
Speaker 1: bounce around on it. Sometimes I'll hat the same spot twice,
15:02
Speaker 1: but as much as I can, I like to I
15:06
Speaker 1: like to keep it fresh. All right, I'm convinced, correct you.
15:10
Speaker 1: Uh you've changed my mind? Um, all right, No, I
15:15
Speaker 1: did that did? To be honest though, marked the boat
15:18
Speaker 1: ie Hell the boats I was actually the best thing
15:20
Speaker 1: you had going for you. So if if you didn't
15:23
Speaker 1: have that, this might have turned out differently. But that
15:25
Speaker 1: definitely was the edge that gave me the rationale to
15:30
Speaker 1: just give you a break and trust you on this one.
15:35
Speaker 1: So it was a good fashion choice. Yeah, that's that's
15:37
Speaker 1: what I think too. So you you made it through
15:40
Speaker 1: debate debate class here and uh, of course I agree
15:45
Speaker 1: with all the same things that you're talking about. I
15:46
Speaker 1: love this way of hunting. I think it's super effective,
15:50
Speaker 1: but I do think that there are a lot of
15:51
Speaker 1: people who have these hang ups. A lot of people
15:54
Speaker 1: worry about the noise and the challenge and the extra work,
15:57
Speaker 1: or they worry about not having pre set access trails
16:00
Speaker 1: or pre hung sticks or pre cut shooting lanes, and
16:03
Speaker 1: there's there's all these possible hiccups that I think keep
16:07
Speaker 1: people from trying this, or you know, maybe people do
16:11
Speaker 1: try but after trying it a couple of times, like, ah,
16:13
Speaker 1: this is just too much. Um. So what I want
16:17
Speaker 1: to try to do here now is to break down
16:20
Speaker 1: all those barriers. Talk through all these different challenges and
16:24
Speaker 1: how you've kind of pushed through them, how you've perfected
16:27
Speaker 1: your system or your setup or your thought process. Um,
16:30
Speaker 1: because I know you've you've been fine tuning this, You've
16:32
Speaker 1: been dialing this in for a long time. I mean,
16:35
Speaker 1: before Tethered, you were still doing this kind of stuff. Uh.
16:38
Speaker 1: And now, of course you're doing it with a whole
16:40
Speaker 1: bunch of people that are really good at this in
16:41
Speaker 1: addition to yourself, So you're seeing all sorts of new
16:44
Speaker 1: ideas from people both on your team and customers. And
16:48
Speaker 1: you know, the all the hunters that we run in
16:50
Speaker 1: the same circles with that, are, you know, giving us
16:53
Speaker 1: new ideas to try. So that's that's where I want
16:56
Speaker 1: to go next. And I want to get into details
16:59
Speaker 1: first of kind of your setup, because that's like step one, right,
17:03
Speaker 1: is having the right equipment and stuff to get out
17:07
Speaker 1: there and use. Uh. Now, you know, like I said,
17:10
Speaker 1: full disclaimer, you make a lot of this kind of gear.
17:12
Speaker 1: So as best as possible, let's try to talk generically
17:16
Speaker 1: enough that we this could be applicable to anyone whether
17:18
Speaker 1: they're standard saddle guy. But you know, we can dive
17:20
Speaker 1: into each as appropriate. But but first talk to me
17:23
Speaker 1: about this. Let's walk through the the details of the
17:31
Speaker 1: qualities that you need in your mobile set up. So
17:34
Speaker 1: I think everyone listening knows I need some kind of sticks,
17:36
Speaker 1: probably I need a standard sale right, but give me
17:40
Speaker 1: like the nitty gritty, like to perfect a really great
17:43
Speaker 1: mobile system. What are the things that you need to
17:46
Speaker 1: be thinking about when picking each of those things? And
17:49
Speaker 1: then also the second part will be once we have
17:52
Speaker 1: our basics, how have you gone about or how have
17:55
Speaker 1: some of the best people you know gone about modifying
17:57
Speaker 1: to make those things even better? Well? I like this topic.
18:02
Speaker 1: This is kind of right in my wheelhouse. Uh. I
18:05
Speaker 1: don't claim to be the world's greatest hunter. I don't
18:09
Speaker 1: claim to be a big buck killer. Like some of
18:10
Speaker 1: the folks that we've talked about previously, like eber Harder
18:14
Speaker 1: and Fault or Andy May or some of those other guys.
18:16
Speaker 1: They're they're way better at killing big bucks than me.
18:19
Speaker 1: I think my niche is helping hunters think about here,
18:25
Speaker 1: think about tools, think about the way in which those things,
18:31
Speaker 1: the gear and the tools that they use, can support
18:33
Speaker 1: the tactic of being a mobile hunter. So first of all,
18:39
Speaker 1: you really need to think about what it is that
18:44
Speaker 1: you're trying to accomplish, and then you need to tailor
18:46
Speaker 1: your tools to that goal. If you're trying to kill
18:49
Speaker 1: meat for the freezer, I would say you don't need
18:52
Speaker 1: to spend a bunch of money on really super quiet,
18:55
Speaker 1: really high end, really well thought out here. I think
19:00
Speaker 1: you can get away with with you know, much more
19:03
Speaker 1: middle of the road solutions if that's not your goal.
19:07
Speaker 1: If your goal is to kill a big mature bug,
19:11
Speaker 1: I think you need to put the resources, both financial
19:16
Speaker 1: resources and resources of your time by way of practicing,
19:21
Speaker 1: thinking through your gear and really coming up with a system.
19:26
Speaker 1: It is repeatable and perfectible. Right in the in the
19:30
Speaker 1: army as active duty for ten years, and we used
19:33
Speaker 1: to say, you know, you don't train until you get
19:35
Speaker 1: it right. You train until you can't get it wrong.
19:38
Speaker 1: And this is something that is very very important with
19:41
Speaker 1: your mobile hunting set up. You want to have it
19:44
Speaker 1: so dialed where everything is always in the right place.
19:48
Speaker 1: You pack it up and you pack it away the
19:51
Speaker 1: same way every time, so you're not losing your gear.
19:54
Speaker 1: So when you're at the tree, you're not fumbling around
19:56
Speaker 1: for the next item. Which can you know, it can
19:59
Speaker 1: cause you to get a It can cause you it
20:00
Speaker 1: can cause anxiety, you know, oh you know, crap, what
20:03
Speaker 1: did I do with my release? You don't want that
20:05
Speaker 1: in the woods. You want to focus on what you're doing.
20:08
Speaker 1: You want to be You want to focus on being quiet,
20:10
Speaker 1: being stealthy and slipping in and out of the woods
20:14
Speaker 1: without alerting anything you're there, uh, without alerting any deer
20:18
Speaker 1: that you're there. So I would say the first thing
20:21
Speaker 1: that you need to do is to think about what
20:23
Speaker 1: your goals are and then taylor your system around that. Okay,
20:30
Speaker 1: so that's that's Let's let's then assume my goals. So
20:37
Speaker 1: let's say my goal is which which it is is,
20:40
Speaker 1: you know, going on these public land hunts or private
20:43
Speaker 1: stuff that I do hunt, depending on where I'm at.
20:45
Speaker 1: You know, three and a half four and a half
20:47
Speaker 1: year old buck is what I'm going for. So I
20:49
Speaker 1: want to kill what's mature for the area. Uh, and
20:53
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out for it hard. In that kind
20:55
Speaker 1: of case, I'm willing to spend the extra money and
20:57
Speaker 1: I'm willing to try to perfect my sister. Uh, walk
21:01
Speaker 1: me through. Let's let's talk a cent first, right, walk
21:05
Speaker 1: me through some of the things you're thinking about when
21:07
Speaker 1: selecting the right kind of stick set up. You know,
21:10
Speaker 1: there's there's length, there's weight, there's double there's double step,
21:14
Speaker 1: one step, there's ropes, there's straps, there's steal strips there.
21:19
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many different things to think about. Um,
21:22
Speaker 1: can you just walk me through some of the general
21:25
Speaker 1: types of things that we're thinking about, the reasons why
21:28
Speaker 1: one thing might be better than the other, and any
21:30
Speaker 1: details on that front, so we can kind of nail
21:32
Speaker 1: down away people can think through choosing the right ascent system. Yes,
21:38
Speaker 1: that's a great question. And what's cool about when we're
21:42
Speaker 1: having this discussion, is that in the last five years
21:46
Speaker 1: there has been an absolute boom in high quality products
21:51
Speaker 1: tailored specifically to this this style of hunting, which is awesome.
21:56
Speaker 1: I mean ten years ago you'd have had to fabricate
21:58
Speaker 1: your own stuff. Now you can look at five or
22:01
Speaker 1: six different companies and they all make awesome products. So
22:04
Speaker 1: that's really cool. There's lots of options. Now, what I
22:07
Speaker 1: think about for me, this is gonna vary widely for
22:10
Speaker 1: for different folks. I care about weight bulkan noise, so
22:16
Speaker 1: when I'm talking to climbing system and weight bulkan noise
22:19
Speaker 1: are the very first things that I consider. After that,
22:23
Speaker 1: it's gonna be ease of use and installation. I don't
22:25
Speaker 1: want to have to deal with heavy, bulky items climbing
22:29
Speaker 1: a tree. Um. I think it's it can cause safety
22:33
Speaker 1: concerns if you're lugging up heavy stuff if it's not
22:37
Speaker 1: well designed and simple. As far as like an attachment method,
22:41
Speaker 1: there's lots of different attachment methods out there, Like I mean,
22:44
Speaker 1: you've got daisy chains, you've got rope methods, you've got
22:46
Speaker 1: dinalog systems, you've got buckle and strap systems. There's all
22:50
Speaker 1: kinds of different systems. I prefer simplicity, simple, quiet, noise, right,
22:57
Speaker 1: So I like a rope system. Uh. There's several different
23:02
Speaker 1: versions out there. I like something that I can just
23:04
Speaker 1: loop around and knod it off. To me, that's way
23:07
Speaker 1: more simple than having a buckle with a web like
23:11
Speaker 1: a webbing strap. I think when you have heavy buckles
23:14
Speaker 1: they can introduce noise. They're much more fiddly in the tree.
23:18
Speaker 1: So I like a stick that has a rope style attachment,
23:21
Speaker 1: and there are several good options out there. I also
23:24
Speaker 1: like a stick that has a double step. I will
23:28
Speaker 1: not use any climbing stick that doesn't have a double step.
23:31
Speaker 1: And for me, the reason why that's important to me
23:36
Speaker 1: one for safety. I feel like I'm safer when I
23:38
Speaker 1: have both feet at the same level on the tree. Uh.
23:42
Speaker 1: And two I use aids in my climbing system. UH.
23:47
Speaker 1: For those that don't know, an aider is basically a
23:51
Speaker 1: webbing ladder. For lack of a better terms or or
23:55
Speaker 1: lack of a better description, it's borrowed from the mountain
23:57
Speaker 1: climbing industry. They're called big wall aiders and climbing entry as,
24:02
Speaker 1: but it's basically a mountain climbing product that that hunters
24:06
Speaker 1: have poured it over to to here to make us
24:08
Speaker 1: a little bit lighter. So to me, that's very important
24:12
Speaker 1: because I'm only five ft seven, so if I just
24:15
Speaker 1: carried sticks, I'd have to carry six of them to
24:17
Speaker 1: get up to twenty ft high, and I'm just not
24:19
Speaker 1: willing to do that. So I use aiders in my
24:23
Speaker 1: climbing system. And because of that, I need a dual step.
24:28
Speaker 1: So there's lots of reasons why I like a dual step,
24:30
Speaker 1: mostly safety, and it allows me to get maximum height
24:34
Speaker 1: out of each climbing stick. Beyond that, didn't you know,
24:39
Speaker 1: after you've got a simple, easy to use, lightweight stick,
24:43
Speaker 1: you know, I think there's lots of good options and length.
24:46
Speaker 1: For me, I'm a short guy, so I like a
24:48
Speaker 1: short stick. If you're Mark Kenyon and you're over six
24:51
Speaker 1: ft tall, you could get a long stick and then
24:53
Speaker 1: you get you get more height. You know, it's it's
24:56
Speaker 1: it's really just a personal preference thing at that point
24:59
Speaker 1: in time. But it the other thing for me is
25:02
Speaker 1: I'm only going to carry three. So I have gone
25:05
Speaker 1: through probably every stick on the market, and with with
25:09
Speaker 1: the goal in mind of creating a system that I
25:12
Speaker 1: can get to twenty ft. That's my standard. If I
25:15
Speaker 1: can't get to twenty ft, it's not good enough. So
25:17
Speaker 1: I have to get to twenty ft and I can
25:19
Speaker 1: only do it with three sticks. Now a tall guy
25:21
Speaker 1: like you, Mark, it's a lot easier for you. It's
25:23
Speaker 1: harder for me. So I've had to be really selective
25:26
Speaker 1: about my gear. And what I have settled on is
25:29
Speaker 1: a climbing stick that's about twenty inches tall, that has
25:33
Speaker 1: a double step at the bottom and the top, and
25:36
Speaker 1: then it has a system of eight ors either that
25:38
Speaker 1: you move up with you or that is on each step.
25:41
Speaker 1: That's what works for me. Doesn't work for everyone, but
25:44
Speaker 1: that's what that's what I did for my system to
25:47
Speaker 1: get to that magical twenty ft number with only three sticks. Yea,
25:50
Speaker 1: and and that's You make a good point in pointing
25:52
Speaker 1: out the difference in height, Like if you can do
25:54
Speaker 1: that at your height, uh, you know that certainly seems
25:58
Speaker 1: achievable for folks that might a little bit taller than
26:00
Speaker 1: that too. Um, tell me a little more detail about
26:04
Speaker 1: how you're using your aider or aids. I'm not sure
26:06
Speaker 1: if you use multiple if you've got you know, I
26:08
Speaker 1: know some people have one on every stick. Some people
26:10
Speaker 1: just have one, you know, multi step eider that they'll
26:13
Speaker 1: use on their bottom stick and that's just it. Or
26:15
Speaker 1: people will take it and move it up each stick
26:17
Speaker 1: as they go. What's the most efficient, safe, effective method
26:22
Speaker 1: you've found for doing that? And I think the detail here,
26:25
Speaker 1: I think is pretty important because I think aids get
26:27
Speaker 1: talked about it is like this this term that's floated.
26:29
Speaker 1: But then if you're not, if you haven't actually used
26:31
Speaker 1: one yourself or actually seen it being used, it sounds
26:34
Speaker 1: a little bit ambiguous and I think intimidating sometimes for people.
26:38
Speaker 1: So give me the full scoop on what you're doing
26:40
Speaker 1: with that these days. Okay, that's a good question, and
26:44
Speaker 1: you're right it can get for the for the uninitiated,
26:48
Speaker 1: it can be quite overwhelming. So first of all, I'm
26:50
Speaker 1: gonna say there's two categories of aids. There is a
26:53
Speaker 1: carry as you go aider, and there is a fixed dater.
26:56
Speaker 1: So you're fixed dater is something that is permanently attached
27:01
Speaker 1: to your climbing stick. So maybe it's a it's a
27:05
Speaker 1: wire aider that some companies make, or maybe it's a
27:08
Speaker 1: webbing ladder style aid that I prefer, but regardless of
27:12
Speaker 1: what style it is, it's fixed to your step. It
27:14
Speaker 1: doesn't come on and off. That is a fixed dater.
27:17
Speaker 1: The other the other option which I use is a
27:20
Speaker 1: carry as you go AID, So that would be one
27:23
Speaker 1: AID or that you attached to the stick. You use
27:26
Speaker 1: it to climb, and then as you're standing on the
27:28
Speaker 1: stick you remove the aid and carry it up with
27:32
Speaker 1: you to the next stick. Now, the there's pros and
27:35
Speaker 1: cons to each method, right, Uh. Weight and bulk is
27:40
Speaker 1: something that's very very important to me. So I choose
27:42
Speaker 1: to go with a carry as you go AID because
27:45
Speaker 1: it's less weight and it's less bulk. The downside is
27:48
Speaker 1: it's harder to use. You can imagine a fixed aid
27:52
Speaker 1: if you had three climbing sticks on attached to a
27:55
Speaker 1: tree and each one of them had you know, two
27:57
Speaker 1: or three steps webbing steps hanging down down from him.
28:00
Speaker 1: That's much easier to deal with in the tree. The
28:04
Speaker 1: carriers you go option, you save some weight, you save
28:06
Speaker 1: some bulk, but you pay the price in ease of use.
28:09
Speaker 1: So something to think about there. Now. You also have
28:12
Speaker 1: to be pretty realistic with with yourself. If you're not
28:17
Speaker 1: an athletic guy, if you're maybe overweight, uh, you're you know,
28:23
Speaker 1: you've got a little bit of junk in the trunk,
28:25
Speaker 1: you really need to consider if the aider method is
28:29
Speaker 1: right for you, because I mean, I'm not gonna lie.
28:32
Speaker 1: It does introduce an element of of risk in into
28:37
Speaker 1: the climb. It's it's not a fixed metal item. It's
28:41
Speaker 1: a webbing or or you know, a movable item that
28:44
Speaker 1: can shift on you much easier than a climbing stick
28:47
Speaker 1: can shift. So it takes practice and and it also requires,
28:51
Speaker 1: you know, an element of risk that you have to
28:53
Speaker 1: be okay with. So that's the two main categories of aiders.
28:58
Speaker 1: Carries you go, take it up with you as you climb,
29:01
Speaker 1: or a fixed eater that you you attach on every stick.
29:05
Speaker 1: What I find, if I had to say, I would
29:08
Speaker 1: say my method a carry as you go multi step
29:11
Speaker 1: eight er because I use four steps. There's four rungs
29:15
Speaker 1: in the ladder on my aider, And again that's probably
29:18
Speaker 1: as risky as it gets and now and I'm taking
29:21
Speaker 1: it up as I go, So it's not something that
29:23
Speaker 1: I recommend for people that are are new to this.
29:27
Speaker 1: What is probably if you want to dip your toes
29:29
Speaker 1: into the eight er game, which I highly recommend it
29:33
Speaker 1: because it saves you a ton of it could well,
29:36
Speaker 1: first of all, saves your money. You don't have to
29:37
Speaker 1: buy six steps anymore. You can just buy three and
29:41
Speaker 1: use your eiders. But a fixed eight er, specifically on
29:45
Speaker 1: your very first stick, that's a really safe option for guys.
29:49
Speaker 1: You know, and now instead of getting three ft off
29:52
Speaker 1: the ground from your first stick, now you can get
29:54
Speaker 1: six or seven ft off the ground and your very
29:57
Speaker 1: first move, which is which is a big deal. And
30:00
Speaker 1: then you know, maybe a single step eight er fixed
30:03
Speaker 1: eighter on each stick. That's that's not terribly risky, it's
30:06
Speaker 1: pretty safe. I've used those before and I would say
30:09
Speaker 1: most hunters out there are gonna feel perfectly comfortable with that.
30:13
Speaker 1: And then as your risk tolerance goes up, I would
30:16
Speaker 1: say you could consider adding multi steps to your to
30:19
Speaker 1: your sticks and then maybe something that you carry up
30:21
Speaker 1: with you. But it's not something you want to do
30:24
Speaker 1: in the dark on your first hunt. This is something
30:27
Speaker 1: where you need to set it up in the backyard.
30:29
Speaker 1: You need to learn your system, and you need to
30:31
Speaker 1: make sure you can do it in the dark and
30:33
Speaker 1: you're very comfortable with it. Don't just go out and
30:36
Speaker 1: and try it on your first hunt. The other thing
30:38
Speaker 1: is very very important with aiders is if you're using
30:42
Speaker 1: a saddle system, you're gonna have a Lineman bell system
30:45
Speaker 1: built into that. So that's good, it's absolutely it must have.
30:47
Speaker 1: If you're a tree stand guy, I'm sorry, but you
30:51
Speaker 1: also need to have your safety harness on so you
30:54
Speaker 1: can use that Lineman belt. Okay, it's very safe, very
30:58
Speaker 1: very important for safety, and it's also very important for
31:02
Speaker 1: just having both hands free to attach your next stick.
31:05
Speaker 1: It just makes everything easier. So make sure when you're
31:07
Speaker 1: doing this you're you're using either a saddle system or
31:10
Speaker 1: a safety artist. Yeah. Great, great point. And I'll second
31:14
Speaker 1: something you mentioned about that kind of intro to eight
31:17
Speaker 1: or kind of first step that being used it on
31:19
Speaker 1: your bottom stick. Yeah, that's that's what I do. I've
31:22
Speaker 1: got a four step web eight er that I will
31:25
Speaker 1: just attach to my bottom step, and that allows me
31:28
Speaker 1: to put that bottom step really high and then I
31:31
Speaker 1: can climb up the webbing to get to that, and
31:33
Speaker 1: so I basically have the equivalent of at least one
31:37
Speaker 1: extra stick, maybe a stick and a half of extra
31:40
Speaker 1: length that I get out of that four step webbing.
31:42
Speaker 1: And then I get to my main stick, and then
31:44
Speaker 1: I put my two sticks up, one of which has
31:46
Speaker 1: a fixed one step eight er um. And never do
31:50
Speaker 1: I feel uncomfortable because, yes, like you mentioned, the eight
31:52
Speaker 1: er is a different thing, right, it's a different level
31:55
Speaker 1: of stability, not as stable as a real stick. But
31:58
Speaker 1: if you're doing that when you're only two ft off
31:59
Speaker 1: the round, you know, the downside of swinging off the
32:02
Speaker 1: side or something is super minimal um. Which brings me
32:06
Speaker 1: to the last thing I mentioned when it comes to
32:08
Speaker 1: using eights um. One like technique thing I found when
32:12
Speaker 1: you're putting your feet in those eights is and I'm
32:16
Speaker 1: curious if you do this or if you found any
32:18
Speaker 1: other trick to just doing it in a way that
32:20
Speaker 1: keeps you stable. But I always put my foot through
32:22
Speaker 1: the webbing so into the step and then press my
32:25
Speaker 1: toe against the tree and use that to stabilize you.
32:28
Speaker 1: If you were to just put your foot in that
32:31
Speaker 1: webbing but then let it, you know, be on either
32:33
Speaker 1: side of the tree, you can get swung uh. And
32:37
Speaker 1: you know if your sticks not tached well, you know
32:39
Speaker 1: it could even possibly pull your sticks. So make sure,
32:42
Speaker 1: at least with with the things I've used. I always
32:44
Speaker 1: make sure to put my foot through, put my toe
32:47
Speaker 1: against that tree, holding myself in position on the tree,
32:50
Speaker 1: and then that keeps everything straight underneath the sticks, keeps
32:53
Speaker 1: you stable, and then you keep stepping up. Is that
32:56
Speaker 1: similar to what you do greg you nailed it. Brry
33:00
Speaker 1: that toe into the tree as dead center and the
33:03
Speaker 1: tree as possible. And then you also want to get
33:06
Speaker 1: that webbing what's called a rung, the rung of the ladder,
33:09
Speaker 1: because that's easy to visualize. If you want to get
33:11
Speaker 1: that rung is deep into your boot as possible. Right
33:16
Speaker 1: if the if the wrung is way up close to
33:18
Speaker 1: your toe, it's gonna lend to swinging around and it's
33:21
Speaker 1: not going to be a stable But if you can
33:23
Speaker 1: get that wrung deeper towards the heel of your boot,
33:26
Speaker 1: it's gonna be way more stable and you're not gonna
33:29
Speaker 1: feel You're not gonna feel uncomfortable at all. Um So
33:33
Speaker 1: that's very So where do you stand on the batship
33:49
Speaker 1: crazy notion of one sticking? You know, I gotta be
33:59
Speaker 1: careful with this because because some of my best friends
34:01
Speaker 1: in the world love it and it's really caught on recently,
34:06
Speaker 1: and you know, if when you here. So here's the thing.
34:10
Speaker 1: When you watch someone that's really good at it, and
34:14
Speaker 1: I can think of two people off the top of
34:15
Speaker 1: my head. Carl Kasu, who is the Michael Jordan of
34:18
Speaker 1: sewing um, he is really good at it. And then
34:22
Speaker 1: my friend Garrett Praul, the d i Y sportsman on YouTube.
34:26
Speaker 1: He is really good at it. And when you watch
34:29
Speaker 1: those guys do it who have their system dialed in,
34:33
Speaker 1: it makes you believe it that this is really a
34:36
Speaker 1: thing and that you can do it. Now. I've tried it.
34:40
Speaker 1: I've I've hunted that way. I've done it in the
34:44
Speaker 1: backyard a whole bunch. I don't really care for it personally,
34:49
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna knock it because I I've hunted
34:53
Speaker 1: with Carl in North to actually North Dakota. Last year,
34:56
Speaker 1: I was climbing sticks. I had three sticks with an
35:00
Speaker 1: aider that I moved up I carry as you go
35:02
Speaker 1: aid or I took it up with me as I climbed,
35:05
Speaker 1: and Carl used as one stick method. He was just
35:10
Speaker 1: as fast as me going up the tree, and he
35:14
Speaker 1: was probably about faster coming down the tree because he
35:20
Speaker 1: was able to repel down and he didn't have to
35:22
Speaker 1: worry about wrapping up sticks. So I think someone when
35:27
Speaker 1: you when you see it the first time you're a hunter,
35:30
Speaker 1: is gonna think, man, that's really slow, Man that looks
35:33
Speaker 1: really wonky, or man that looks like a lot of effort,
35:36
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get super sweaty. And I would say, yes,
35:39
Speaker 1: that's true in the beginning. But if you if you
35:43
Speaker 1: really value lightweight and a fulk free climbing system, it
35:50
Speaker 1: absolutely can be done. And if you're willing to put
35:53
Speaker 1: in some time in the backyard and really dial in
35:56
Speaker 1: your system, I promise you you can be just as
35:59
Speaker 1: fast and just as efficient as any other climbing method
36:03
Speaker 1: out there. And I've not seen it firsthand, so I'm
36:06
Speaker 1: not just blowing smoke, and and I don't choose to
36:09
Speaker 1: use that method, so I have nothing to gain from it.
36:13
Speaker 1: So it's it is a it's a viable method. You
36:16
Speaker 1: really can do it, but you have to be willing
36:18
Speaker 1: to put in some work. I think it requires more
36:21
Speaker 1: work than a traditional climbing stick and an eight or system. Yeah,
36:26
Speaker 1: it's definitely intriguing. You know. I've watched the videos seeing
36:29
Speaker 1: people do it, and I'm like, okay, like I see
36:32
Speaker 1: it could happen. It could work, and I like the
36:33
Speaker 1: idea of only taken one stick, um, but I don't
36:36
Speaker 1: know if I'm there quite yet. So well so it
36:40
Speaker 1: also for a tall guy like you, Mark, it would
36:43
Speaker 1: be phenomenal. You could do like three moves and be
36:46
Speaker 1: at Now me at five ft seven, I probably have
36:50
Speaker 1: to do five moves to get up that high. So
36:53
Speaker 1: being again, being tall is an advantage, you know, screw
36:56
Speaker 1: me here, but the other benefit it So I'll use
37:01
Speaker 1: Carl again because he's probably the most efficient one stick
37:04
Speaker 1: climber I've ever seen Carl's entire kit from his he
37:09
Speaker 1: uses the saddle, so no no tree stand. But with
37:12
Speaker 1: his saddle, his platform, his ropes, his one stick is
37:16
Speaker 1: repelling gear. Everything he said like eight pounds and it
37:20
Speaker 1: all fits on his hip and he can climb any
37:23
Speaker 1: tree in the woods that he can get his ropes around.
37:27
Speaker 1: That's pretty significant. If you're a guy that goes really deep,
37:31
Speaker 1: or you're crossing water, or you have to you hunting
37:35
Speaker 1: the mountains where you going up and down and you're
37:37
Speaker 1: you're covering a lot of elevation, it's something that you
37:40
Speaker 1: should really consider because you could cut your entire weight
37:44
Speaker 1: by two thirds at least, So there is a lot
37:48
Speaker 1: of merit to it if you're willing to put in
37:49
Speaker 1: the effort. Yeah, yeah, I ye. I'm gonna keep on
37:54
Speaker 1: exploring it. I'm probably gonna try it at some point
37:56
Speaker 1: and see how it goes. And we'll see. But let's
38:00
Speaker 1: timewhere in Michigan. I'll get Caral, I will we'll come
38:03
Speaker 1: up and we'll hang out with you in Michigan and
38:04
Speaker 1: I'll get called through the ropes and I mean, he'll
38:07
Speaker 1: probably he'll probably make a believer out of you. I probably.
38:09
Speaker 1: I can't doubt it, because every time I find myself
38:12
Speaker 1: thinking I don't know about that thing, as soon as
38:14
Speaker 1: I finally try it, when it comes to anything mobile,
38:17
Speaker 1: every time I've finally give it a shot, I'm like, oh, yeah,
38:19
Speaker 1: of course I should do that. So so yeah, to
38:24
Speaker 1: piggyback on that point, you've been a saddle hunter now
38:27
Speaker 1: for a couple of years now, and I know, yeah,
38:31
Speaker 1: so I got to imagine that you probably had the
38:35
Speaker 1: same resistance or hesitation when you started seeing saddles. You
38:41
Speaker 1: were probably like, man, you know, I don't know, So
38:45
Speaker 1: I would say that it's probably akin to the same thing.
38:48
Speaker 1: There's gonna be resistance and hesitation, but it really is.
38:52
Speaker 1: Once you try it and get used to it, it's
38:53
Speaker 1: a it's a viable system. Yeah yeah, and then you're right.
38:56
Speaker 1: That's exactly how I felt for a long time. And
38:59
Speaker 1: then once I finally try rid it, I thought to myself,
39:01
Speaker 1: what an idiot? You could have been doing this for
39:03
Speaker 1: five or ten years longer. Uh so, yeah, just twenty
39:07
Speaker 1: pounds of metal out of my setup. Yeah, I don't
39:09
Speaker 1: know how you can argue against that. So it's been
39:12
Speaker 1: It's been good for me, I know for a lot
39:14
Speaker 1: of guys. But uh, let's let's take the next step
39:17
Speaker 1: in our process. If we've we've spent a lot of
39:19
Speaker 1: time talking about the right gear four years scent, but
39:23
Speaker 1: then there's something to be said about having the right
39:25
Speaker 1: process for getting up in the tree. And this is
39:27
Speaker 1: something everyone has a little bit different way of doing it. Um.
39:30
Speaker 1: I know that you saw the video I posted recently
39:33
Speaker 1: kind of highlighting the basic approach that I take. Um,
39:36
Speaker 1: But this is one of those things that you know,
39:39
Speaker 1: some people again struggle with when they're thinking about the
39:41
Speaker 1: fact they've got to put these sticks up every time
39:43
Speaker 1: and haul up their tree stand or haul up their
39:45
Speaker 1: saddle in their backpack and their bow and YadA, YadA, YadA. Um.
39:49
Speaker 1: I remember when I first started hunting with a mobile
39:52
Speaker 1: tree stand, and I did not have a thought through process.
39:55
Speaker 1: I used to climb up and down the tree like
39:58
Speaker 1: three times because I climbed down get some stuff, put
40:00
Speaker 1: the first stick or second stick, then I climb back
40:02
Speaker 1: down get my bow or whatever. I'd have a really
40:05
Speaker 1: heavy backpack, so I wouldn't want to be in the tree,
40:07
Speaker 1: you know, climbing with that. So I come all the
40:09
Speaker 1: way down and get my backpack and it was just
40:11
Speaker 1: inefficient as I'll get out. Uh, it's a much better
40:14
Speaker 1: system I have now. But I'm curious about your process now,
40:18
Speaker 1: because again you've been doing this as long as anyone almost. Um,
40:22
Speaker 1: what does your process of getting everything into the tree
40:25
Speaker 1: look like? Like? Where do you hang your sticks on
40:27
Speaker 1: your body? How do you what do you use to
40:29
Speaker 1: bring your bow up? Uh? Where's your platform? YadA, YadA YadA.
40:34
Speaker 1: Give me the detailed specifics on that front, because it's
40:37
Speaker 1: I know, it's a fine tune system now. It is
40:40
Speaker 1: a finely tuned system, and I've been working on it
40:42
Speaker 1: for about a decade and I pretty much have it nailed.
40:47
Speaker 1: And your video that I saw on YouTube was absolutely phenomenal.
40:51
Speaker 1: You pretty much covered everything that someone needs to know
40:54
Speaker 1: as far as what you should be thinking about UM,
40:57
Speaker 1: as far as I guess, let's first us talking about
41:00
Speaker 1: it conceptually. UM if I can be a nerd here
41:04
Speaker 1: for a moment, but there's a lot of truth to
41:06
Speaker 1: the cliche or the saying an ounce of prevention is
41:10
Speaker 1: worth a pound of cure, right, so you would be amazed.
41:17
Speaker 1: I guess. I have this conversation with hunters all the time,
41:20
Speaker 1: and we help them lighten their loads and think about
41:23
Speaker 1: their gear more efficiently, So I know this is true
41:26
Speaker 1: that if if a hunter will go out with their
41:29
Speaker 1: system in the backyard or on their nearest piece of
41:31
Speaker 1: public land and just spend half an hour going through
41:35
Speaker 1: it and really thinking about the process and each step
41:40
Speaker 1: of the climb for themselves, and then think through how
41:44
Speaker 1: they can make it better, you can really dial in
41:47
Speaker 1: your system and just a couple of just a couple
41:50
Speaker 1: of tries. It's not that complicated. It's just about putting
41:54
Speaker 1: the effort in ahead of time looking for that ounce
41:56
Speaker 1: of prevention, and it will pay big dividends on the
42:00
Speaker 1: back end. So I tell people that all the time,
42:02
Speaker 1: please go out in your backyard and practice this stuff,
42:05
Speaker 1: because you'll be amazed at the things that you'll be
42:08
Speaker 1: able to solve. But to get into my system. So
42:12
Speaker 1: we already talked about sticks. So I use three climbing
42:14
Speaker 1: sis and I use an eighter on each stick, and
42:17
Speaker 1: that goes up with me. So now I'm at the tree.
42:20
Speaker 1: I've got my bow, I've got my sticks. I normally,
42:24
Speaker 1: depending on the hunt, I will carry my bow in
42:26
Speaker 1: my right hand and I'll carry my climbing sticks in
42:29
Speaker 1: my left hand. And that's how I walked to the tree. Now,
42:32
Speaker 1: if I have if I have to cross a creek,
42:35
Speaker 1: or if I've got a long walk and or i
42:37
Speaker 1: gotta climb hills and it's gonna be you know, sweaty
42:40
Speaker 1: or something, I'll generally strapped the sticks to the back
42:43
Speaker 1: of my pack. But what I want to do, and
42:46
Speaker 1: the reason why I carry my bow in my hand
42:48
Speaker 1: and my sticks in my hand, is because when I
42:51
Speaker 1: get to the tree, I don't want to have to
42:53
Speaker 1: take off my pack. I don't want to have to
42:55
Speaker 1: fiddle with my gear. I want to have it all
42:57
Speaker 1: ready to go. So I literally find in the tree
43:00
Speaker 1: and I immediately start climbing. So when I'm looking at
43:03
Speaker 1: the tree, I found it. It's in the right spot.
43:06
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful oak tree that's dropping acorns, and there's
43:09
Speaker 1: five scrapes within twenty yards. I'm like, Okay, this is
43:12
Speaker 1: a spot. This is the tree. I put my bow
43:14
Speaker 1: down and I start attaching my sticks. The first stick
43:18
Speaker 1: goes on at ground level and the other two sticks
43:20
Speaker 1: get hooked onto my saddle. How do you attach them
43:24
Speaker 1: your settle? I have a um a loop of paracord
43:31
Speaker 1: and I basically just loop it around the sticks, or
43:35
Speaker 1: I use a rubber gear tie and and tie it
43:38
Speaker 1: around the six I can't remember what's on my saddle now,
43:40
Speaker 1: but I think it's a gear tie right now. But
43:43
Speaker 1: there's lots of ways you can do it. You don't
43:45
Speaker 1: have to spend money, it doesn't have to be complicated.
43:47
Speaker 1: You're just connecting your and there's even some some commercial
43:50
Speaker 1: products out there that you can use for that. So
43:53
Speaker 1: there's lots of ways to do it. But essentially, I
43:55
Speaker 1: just attached my my next two sticks onto my hip
43:59
Speaker 1: and they're going up with me, so I don't leave
44:00
Speaker 1: anything on the ground for my bow. Pull up rope.
44:03
Speaker 1: That's the next thing that I do is I attach
44:05
Speaker 1: my my bow rope to my bow, so I don't
44:09
Speaker 1: forget it. Uh. I just use a length of I
44:12
Speaker 1: use thirty ft of of parachord. Nothing fancy. Another good
44:17
Speaker 1: option that I know a lot of folks use is
44:20
Speaker 1: the Doyle's Hunting Hoist, or there's maybe another brand. I'm
44:24
Speaker 1: not totally sure, but basically it's a self retracting chord.
44:27
Speaker 1: So after you pull your bulb, you can release it
44:30
Speaker 1: and then the cord comes up. You don't have to
44:31
Speaker 1: wrap it up. I use UM simple. So now my
44:37
Speaker 1: bow is attached to my saddle. I've got two climbing
44:40
Speaker 1: sticks on my hip. My platform is on my back
44:44
Speaker 1: in my backpack. UM on the outside of it so
44:47
Speaker 1: it's easy access. I don't have to dig through my
44:49
Speaker 1: pack to get at it. And I have one climbing
44:52
Speaker 1: stick on a tree with an ad or. I climbed
44:55
Speaker 1: the first stick. I put my limban belt around the
44:58
Speaker 1: tree and connect it to my saddle or your safety
45:00
Speaker 1: harness if your tree stand guys, so you're safe. Um.
45:03
Speaker 1: And then I just pop off the next stick and
45:05
Speaker 1: attach it and up I go. That goes all the
45:08
Speaker 1: way to hunting height, and when I'm at hunting height,
45:10
Speaker 1: that magical twenty ish feet for me. Attached my platform,
45:14
Speaker 1: which is super easy because it's it's on the back
45:17
Speaker 1: side of my Basically, just reach behind my back and
45:20
Speaker 1: pull it up. I don't have to do anything special.
45:22
Speaker 1: I attached that. Climb up onto my platform, get all
45:25
Speaker 1: tied in so I'm safe, pull my bow up and
45:28
Speaker 1: hang it on my either my hook or my gear
45:30
Speaker 1: strap or whatever it is that I'm gonna use. So
45:31
Speaker 1: my system is super super simple. I also like to
45:36
Speaker 1: keep all of the necessary safety items on my saddle,
45:40
Speaker 1: so we call them ciss hollers, and they're just little
45:43
Speaker 1: pouches that live on your saddle. But there's lots of
45:45
Speaker 1: things you can get. You can make your own, you
45:47
Speaker 1: can buy military surplus. There's lots of companies that make them,
45:50
Speaker 1: so that's a really easy thing to find. But I
45:53
Speaker 1: like to make sure that all of the nint things
45:55
Speaker 1: that I need for a hunt they live right on
45:57
Speaker 1: my saddle. So my two ropes, my tether, and my
46:00
Speaker 1: lineman belt live on my left hip, and then my eider,
46:04
Speaker 1: my carry as you go eider, and my gear strap
46:07
Speaker 1: that lives on my right hip, and my boat rope
46:10
Speaker 1: is is lives on my right hip as well, not
46:13
Speaker 1: in the pouch, but it lives separately and it's always there,
46:17
Speaker 1: so I can't forget every anything. I have everything that
46:20
Speaker 1: I need attached to my hips. As I climb, I
46:22
Speaker 1: don't have to dig through my backpack. I don't have
46:24
Speaker 1: to fiddle in my pockets. I know where everything is
46:27
Speaker 1: and it's simple. Then when I come down, everything goes
46:31
Speaker 1: back in exactly the same pocket in the opposite direction.
46:35
Speaker 1: So my gear strap comes off and goes in the
46:37
Speaker 1: bottom of my bottom of my pouch, and and vice versa.
46:41
Speaker 1: Lineman belt comes on, attaches to the tree, and tether
46:44
Speaker 1: rope goes into the into the pouch on my left hip,
46:46
Speaker 1: so it's right where it's supposed to be. Nothing goes
46:48
Speaker 1: in my pack. Ever. The only thing I carry in
46:50
Speaker 1: my packs are accessories and changeable things that I might
46:54
Speaker 1: use on different hunts, like if I need layers or
46:57
Speaker 1: rattling horns or whatever. All the all the accessories live
47:01
Speaker 1: in my pack, But the stuff that I absolutely must
47:04
Speaker 1: have that I can't hunt without, they all live on
47:07
Speaker 1: my saddle and they're in the exact same spot every
47:10
Speaker 1: single time, dialed absolute dialed dial And I can do
47:15
Speaker 1: this uh very very quietly without making hardly any noise
47:22
Speaker 1: uh to about twenty ft in about ten minutes. That's
47:26
Speaker 1: taking my time. That's that's focusing on making slow, methodical movements.
47:31
Speaker 1: So I'm not waving my arms and acting crazy in
47:34
Speaker 1: the tree. So I'm going slow. I'm being very quiet,
47:37
Speaker 1: and I'm really focusing on what I'm doing, so I'm
47:40
Speaker 1: not gonna I'm not gonna be unsafe. Right, it's about
47:43
Speaker 1: ten minutes. It's not about speed, that's not the point.
47:46
Speaker 1: I'm just just letting you know that it doesn't take
47:49
Speaker 1: that long to do this, and you know it doesn't
47:52
Speaker 1: take you thirty minutes to get set up. You can
47:54
Speaker 1: do it. If I was really hustling and I didn't
47:56
Speaker 1: care about noise, I could probably be set up in
47:58
Speaker 1: five six minutes. It's super fat. Yeah, So I want
48:02
Speaker 1: to get into one last set up related thing. Um,
48:06
Speaker 1: And this is just like how you're actually set in
48:10
Speaker 1: the tree for the hunt. Um. And I know you're
48:13
Speaker 1: you're obviously saddle hunting, so this is gonna be a
48:16
Speaker 1: little bit saddle specific. But maybe there's some things you
48:19
Speaker 1: can point out that might be relevant even for the
48:21
Speaker 1: stand folks. Um, and we did. I'll point out for
48:24
Speaker 1: anyone listening to this. I mentioned this at the very
48:27
Speaker 1: beginning in my introduction. I'll mention it again now if
48:29
Speaker 1: you didn't listen to our Ultimate saddle Hunting roundtable that
48:33
Speaker 1: I did with Greg and John Eberhart and Ernie and
48:36
Speaker 1: Andy and oh there might have been someone else in
48:39
Speaker 1: there too. Um, that was episode. We got into a
48:42
Speaker 1: lot of detail in these things with saddle specific setup. Um,
48:46
Speaker 1: so I don't I don't want to spend too much
48:48
Speaker 1: time on that, but but real quick, if there's anything
48:51
Speaker 1: different now, Greg, that you've changed with how you're setting
48:54
Speaker 1: up your actual saddle set up when it gets to
48:56
Speaker 1: being in the tree and or this is the part
48:58
Speaker 1: that thinks relevant to anyone, is your accessory set up,
49:02
Speaker 1: Like how you hang stuff where you hang stuff? Um,
49:05
Speaker 1: I like how you've got this little custom bow hanger
49:07
Speaker 1: on the side of your bone. Now that might be
49:09
Speaker 1: something worth mentioning. Is there anything on that front that
49:11
Speaker 1: we just need to touch on before moving on when
49:15
Speaker 1: it comes to in the tree. Yes, Um, so, first
49:19
Speaker 1: of all, I'm i I'm gonna I'm gonna plug a
49:23
Speaker 1: tethered product. But you don't have to buy it from me,
49:26
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna plug it because it's so super important.
49:28
Speaker 1: It's about five or six years ago before tether was
49:31
Speaker 1: even a business, and I was just in the Army,
49:33
Speaker 1: just hunting all over the country in the Army. I may.
49:36
Speaker 1: I used to make these gear straps in my garage
49:39
Speaker 1: out of old ratchet straps, and now that has turned
49:41
Speaker 1: into a product called the His Strap. But and it's awesome.
49:45
Speaker 1: I think every I think every public land hunter should
49:48
Speaker 1: use it. It's the best way to hang your gear
49:50
Speaker 1: in my opinion. Low no weight, no bulk, whatever. But
49:53
Speaker 1: you can make it. You don't have to buy it.
49:55
Speaker 1: You can. You can make it on your own. You know.
49:57
Speaker 1: I think I actually did a video on how to
49:59
Speaker 1: make it, so you should. Everyone should look at that.
50:02
Speaker 1: But it's it makes it makes your gear in your
50:06
Speaker 1: tree so incredibly easy. Uh. The bow hook that you
50:09
Speaker 1: talked about, that's another thing you can make it yourself.
50:12
Speaker 1: I bought a some Kaidex for those of you that
50:16
Speaker 1: don't know what kaidex is. It's a it's a it's
50:18
Speaker 1: a hard plastic that when you heat it up it's
50:21
Speaker 1: it's moldible and what it's typically used for is making
50:25
Speaker 1: custom gun holsters. So you will mold the kaidex around
50:29
Speaker 1: your gun and then you can make that into a holster. Well,
50:32
Speaker 1: I make these little hooks, and there is a video
50:35
Speaker 1: where I show it on the G two Outdoors YouTube
50:38
Speaker 1: channel UM on how to make it. It's essentially an
50:41
Speaker 1: upside down jay And what I do is I attached
50:45
Speaker 1: that it looks like a candy cane, and I attached
50:48
Speaker 1: that that candy cane or jay hook or whatever you
50:50
Speaker 1: wanna call it. I attach it to my bow. I
50:53
Speaker 1: attach it to my quiver. And Mark, did I send
50:57
Speaker 1: you any of those? I don't think so a kay,
51:00
Speaker 1: I'll send you a couple. I made a bunch of them,
51:02
Speaker 1: like two weeks ago. Actually, I sent a couple of Janice.
51:05
Speaker 1: He asked me for a couple, so I sent him
51:07
Speaker 1: a couple, so I said, I'll send you a few.
51:09
Speaker 1: But they're they're they're stupid easy as far as attaching
51:12
Speaker 1: your bow, and I haven't found anything else in the
51:16
Speaker 1: world is easy. Is hanged for hanging your bow and
51:19
Speaker 1: other other items as this little jay hook. And I
51:22
Speaker 1: don't even know if you can buy it. Maybe somebody
51:23
Speaker 1: has made them. I don't know. I'm make it myself.
51:25
Speaker 1: But anyway, Yeah, that's really cool system. I've used that
51:29
Speaker 1: for the last two years. I used to hang my
51:31
Speaker 1: bow on some commercial products. It's called the clipped or
51:36
Speaker 1: the hero clip, and it's basically a big hook. That's
51:39
Speaker 1: probably what you use Mark. It's a big caribbean or essentially,
51:42
Speaker 1: and you just you put that on your gear strap
51:45
Speaker 1: or you're a branch or whatever you have a hunting night,
51:48
Speaker 1: and that's how i'd hang my bow. And I've I've
51:51
Speaker 1: switched away from that and I'm using these jay hooks.
51:53
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, my system as far as gear in
51:56
Speaker 1: the tree is pretty simple. Again, it's repeatable. I do
52:00
Speaker 1: it the exact same way every time. I'm a saddle guy.
52:03
Speaker 1: So my backpack gets hung on the right hand side
52:06
Speaker 1: of the tree at about knee height, and then all
52:09
Speaker 1: of my accessories that I want if I'm gonna hang
52:11
Speaker 1: my bonos or a grunt call or whatever, that kind
52:14
Speaker 1: of gets hung in front of me off of my
52:16
Speaker 1: gear strap, so I have it available. A lot of
52:18
Speaker 1: guys will keep that stuff in their pack and just
52:21
Speaker 1: kind of sift through their pack if they need it.
52:23
Speaker 1: But you know, that's kind of to each his own.
52:26
Speaker 1: They're not not anything major um to mention other than
52:30
Speaker 1: that Jay Hooker. That thing is really awesome. So check
52:34
Speaker 1: that out and you can make it. You can make
52:36
Speaker 1: it yourself and it's not hard to do. Yeah. Yeah,
52:38
Speaker 1: I like that, especially the fact that it's silent. Right,
52:41
Speaker 1: there's no introduced metal. You've just got this plastic clip
52:44
Speaker 1: on your bow and then you're just slipping into the
52:46
Speaker 1: loop on your gear strap versus you know, taking the
52:50
Speaker 1: metal cam of your bow and possibly clinking that on
52:53
Speaker 1: a bow hold or something that's also made a metal. Um.
52:57
Speaker 1: So anytime you can remove metal out of the system,
53:00
Speaker 1: I'm a fan. Agreed. Uh So, let's let's get into
53:06
Speaker 1: the hunting element of the running gun approach because gear, obviously,
53:10
Speaker 1: gear and setup is this huge kind of barrier to
53:13
Speaker 1: entry for a lot of people. But now let's say
53:15
Speaker 1: we've got our system in place, we have the basic
53:17
Speaker 1: elements of gear, and now we're actually gonna start hunting
53:20
Speaker 1: this way. We're gonna go pack in our stuff, find
53:22
Speaker 1: a new place to hunt, set up at the moment,
53:26
Speaker 1: and then you know, repeat over and over again. Um,
53:31
Speaker 1: let's say, it's the beginning of a hunt in a
53:34
Speaker 1: new place. We're traveling just like you are here soon
53:39
Speaker 1: to North Dakota, just as soon as I am. And
53:42
Speaker 1: you're beginning to hunt with no pre hung stands right,
53:45
Speaker 1: it's all on your back and you're gonna be figuring
53:47
Speaker 1: out as you go. Talk to me about your day
53:50
Speaker 1: one thought process and you know actual actions you will
53:55
Speaker 1: typically take on day one of a running gun hunt
53:59
Speaker 1: like this. What's that look like for Greg Godfrey? Okay,
54:02
Speaker 1: so I've done that. I really have to two methods
54:05
Speaker 1: that I use and and let me preface this answer
54:08
Speaker 1: with I do not claim to be the world's greatest
54:12
Speaker 1: big buck killer. Uh, I feel like I'm much better.
54:16
Speaker 1: Kind of gear is my thing. For whatever reason, I
54:19
Speaker 1: felt like I'm an expert in that arena when it
54:21
Speaker 1: comes to killing big giant bucks. There's way more successful
54:24
Speaker 1: people out there. But I think it probably does help
54:28
Speaker 1: to get different opinions right, because nobody, nobody is the
54:30
Speaker 1: perfect hunter. So my opinion of being a very average
54:34
Speaker 1: dear big buck killer is I kind of used two
54:38
Speaker 1: methods and I've been successful at both, so I guess
54:41
Speaker 1: it really depends on the area and how much time
54:43
Speaker 1: I have to hunt for to choose which one I'll do. Uh.
54:47
Speaker 1: Two years ago, uh, two or three years ago in Missouri,
54:52
Speaker 1: me and my brother went to Missouri for the first time,
54:55
Speaker 1: never hunted there out of state, and we hunted a
54:57
Speaker 1: big chunk of public land. We had. We had seven
55:00
Speaker 1: or eight days to hunt. We have both taken time
55:02
Speaker 1: off work. We spent the first two days scouting. We
55:09
Speaker 1: we didn't really I don't think we hunted at all.
55:12
Speaker 1: I think we scouted all day and we may have
55:15
Speaker 1: possibly gone in and hunted in the afternoon. I can't remember,
55:18
Speaker 1: but regardless, the focus was scouting. We both had opportunities
55:24
Speaker 1: at mature Bucks, and I killed one that really paid off.
55:30
Speaker 1: I've also gone in and gone straight up run and
55:33
Speaker 1: gun and showed up to the area, put all the
55:36
Speaker 1: you know, put everything, got my kid together on my back,
55:38
Speaker 1: and gone in and just hanging hunt, found somewhere to hunt,
55:41
Speaker 1: and I've killed deer that way. So I don't know
55:45
Speaker 1: if there's one superior. I know that if I have
55:50
Speaker 1: multiple days to hunt, you know, call it. Let's let's
55:52
Speaker 1: say seven days. Is that that magic number We're all
55:55
Speaker 1: transition into spending a day or two just learning the
55:59
Speaker 1: area us scouting, and that's not all just boots on
56:02
Speaker 1: the ground walking through the woods. A lot of it
56:06
Speaker 1: is scouting access scouting where other people are scouting. What
56:13
Speaker 1: where some maybe some private land that might give us
56:16
Speaker 1: an access. Maybe we knock on a door and try
56:19
Speaker 1: to get access to in a creative way to the
56:21
Speaker 1: land that we can hunt. So it's not just walking
56:25
Speaker 1: through looking for rubs and scrapes. That's not the only
56:27
Speaker 1: type of scouting I'm talking about. I'm talking about an
56:30
Speaker 1: overarching get a lay of the land. And really you
56:33
Speaker 1: only have to do this the first time you've been
56:34
Speaker 1: to an area. The next the next year we went back,
56:37
Speaker 1: we didn't do this. We only you know, we basically
56:39
Speaker 1: jumped right into hunting because now we had this bank
56:42
Speaker 1: of spots that we knew were good. Yeah. So that's
56:46
Speaker 1: a method that you can take spend some time scouting.
56:48
Speaker 1: I learned that from John Eberhardt Um and it is
56:52
Speaker 1: paid off for me. No, what about the other one,
56:55
Speaker 1: the other one where you you kind of rig up
56:57
Speaker 1: day one and you're gonna kind of work your way
57:00
Speaker 1: in and I'm assuming kind of scout your way in
57:02
Speaker 1: until you find a spot that you want to hunt. Um,
57:05
Speaker 1: that's definitely something I've done too, And it introduces this
57:08
Speaker 1: tricky endeavor though, where you've got everything you need to
57:11
Speaker 1: hunt anywhere, but you also have this, at least I do.
57:16
Speaker 1: As you work your way along, there's always the what's
57:18
Speaker 1: over the next hill question? Right, what's around the next corner?
57:21
Speaker 1: It might be better just over there. And so I
57:25
Speaker 1: find myself finding sign or finding something or good looking spot,
57:28
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wow, this this looks pretty good. This
57:30
Speaker 1: could work, But I really like the way that thing
57:33
Speaker 1: looked on the map or whatever. And so that's a
57:36
Speaker 1: challenge that I've certainly faced, trying to figure out what's
57:38
Speaker 1: good enough to stop, what's not good enough and I
57:41
Speaker 1: should keep going? Uh. When you are working your way
57:44
Speaker 1: in on a hunt like that, can you talk to
57:46
Speaker 1: about your thought process and what is enough to stop
57:51
Speaker 1: and hunt right now versus and I gotta keep looking.
57:55
Speaker 1: That's a fantastic question. Normally, the first day, I'm so where,
58:00
Speaker 1: I'm picking a terrain feature on a map or some
58:04
Speaker 1: sort of maybe not necessarily terrain, but some sort of funnel,
58:08
Speaker 1: or I'm picking up spot on a map, and I'm
58:11
Speaker 1: I'm going there and there's not too much that's gonna
58:13
Speaker 1: deter me normally now, and I have had instances where
58:18
Speaker 1: that didn't happen. And perfect example is last year in
58:23
Speaker 1: North Dakota, I killed a buck. I was planning to
58:26
Speaker 1: walk three quarters of a mile into this public area
58:28
Speaker 1: and hunt this thick river oxbow, and I found a
58:34
Speaker 1: stupid amount of sign right by my truck, and I
58:38
Speaker 1: made the right call. I followed my gut and I
58:40
Speaker 1: hunted that spot and I killed a really big buck
58:43
Speaker 1: right by a truck. A matter of fact, I could
58:45
Speaker 1: see my truck forty yards from the truck, so that
58:50
Speaker 1: that's hard to do for me. I think there are
58:52
Speaker 1: other hunters that are better at that. My friend Jared Schaefer,
58:56
Speaker 1: he's really good at fine and sign like at and
59:00
Speaker 1: kind of altering his plans. I tend to be a planner.
59:03
Speaker 1: Maybe it's my military background, where you plan and plan
59:06
Speaker 1: and then you follow the plan. But I tend to
59:08
Speaker 1: pick a spot on a map, and I don't get
59:10
Speaker 1: deterred too much unless it's just unless you know it's
59:14
Speaker 1: idiot proof signed. Then in that regard, you know even
59:17
Speaker 1: I can figure it out. But I'm not real smart,
59:19
Speaker 1: so I just tend to stick to my plan. What
59:23
Speaker 1: about your military background or how has that helped with
59:27
Speaker 1: that planning? Like, what have you taken from that background
59:30
Speaker 1: and applied to your deer hunting you know, your game
59:33
Speaker 1: plan for a public land hunt or for a given day.
59:37
Speaker 1: Uh does that translate in a big way? Absolutely? Absolutely so.
59:42
Speaker 1: As I was, I was an officer in the military
59:44
Speaker 1: for ten years in the army, and primarily what an
59:48
Speaker 1: officer does in the army is plan that's your that's
59:52
Speaker 1: your primary objective. And most jobs in the Army as
59:56
Speaker 1: an officer your planning, and you're typically planning with other people.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: So you're looking at a problem, doesn't matter what it is,
1:00:04
Speaker 1: You're looking at it from every possible angle, and then
1:00:07
Speaker 1: you're throwing scenarios back and forth amongst your group, and
1:00:10
Speaker 1: then you're planning on how to solve that variable. And
1:00:14
Speaker 1: then another variable comes into it and you're planning and
1:00:16
Speaker 1: you're learning how to plan on that variable. So I
1:00:19
Speaker 1: really think it it Uh, it translates well into hunting
1:00:24
Speaker 1: new public land for me, because I I mean a
1:00:26
Speaker 1: lot of guys have this. I'm not saying I'm special,
1:00:28
Speaker 1: but I do feel like I can look at a
1:00:31
Speaker 1: piece of property and analyze it from a lot of
1:00:34
Speaker 1: different angles. And I've been very fortunate, lucky, blessed, whatever
1:00:38
Speaker 1: you wanna call it to to have that work out
1:00:41
Speaker 1: for me. Um. You know, the flip side is to that,
1:00:45
Speaker 1: the con right, because there's pro and con to every system.
1:00:47
Speaker 1: The con to that is sometimes you can find yourself
1:00:50
Speaker 1: getting you know, analysis paralysis, and you can overthink things.
1:00:54
Speaker 1: And I can do that as well. Um tends to
1:00:57
Speaker 1: not happen as much as I've gotten older and more experienced.
1:01:01
Speaker 1: But yeah, the planning side of the military, I think
1:01:05
Speaker 1: it translates very well into specifically the run and gun
1:01:10
Speaker 1: mobile style of hunting, where you have to figure out
1:01:13
Speaker 1: an area very quickly. So speaking of analysis paralysis, I
1:01:30
Speaker 1: I am frequently infected by that disease. And UM, one
1:01:35
Speaker 1: of the places, one of the situations where I find
1:01:38
Speaker 1: myself in that kind of moment. And if people were
1:01:41
Speaker 1: to ever watch me in the woods, they would know
1:01:43
Speaker 1: that I'm in this situation when they see me stopped
1:01:45
Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle of the woods, looking up to
1:01:47
Speaker 1: the left and then looking to the right, and then
1:01:49
Speaker 1: looking ahead of me, and then walking three yards this way,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: then looking at my phone for about a minute and
1:01:53
Speaker 1: shaking my head and then looking back up to the
1:01:55
Speaker 1: left and looking to the right. And what I'm doing
1:01:58
Speaker 1: is trying to pick which damn tree I want to
1:02:01
Speaker 1: hunt because I found the spot, but I want to
1:02:04
Speaker 1: find the spot within the spot, the perfect tree for
1:02:06
Speaker 1: this general zone I'm hunting. UM. I think you know
1:02:10
Speaker 1: there's an art to this. UM. I'm curious what your
1:02:13
Speaker 1: thought process looks like when picking the tree. What are
1:02:16
Speaker 1: the most important criteria? What do you rank as the
1:02:20
Speaker 1: most important when you're looking at the different criteria, um?
1:02:23
Speaker 1: And how do all the different things we just talked
1:02:25
Speaker 1: about when it comes to ascending a tree and having
1:02:28
Speaker 1: a good setup in the tree, how does all that
1:02:31
Speaker 1: impact what you pick as well? Oh? Well, I I
1:02:35
Speaker 1: mean I don't think there's any mobile run and gun
1:02:38
Speaker 1: guy out there that doesn't it doesn't pick the tree
1:02:41
Speaker 1: in the same way. I mean, I do the same thing.
1:02:43
Speaker 1: In a perfect world, you would get to your spot
1:02:46
Speaker 1: and there's a beautiful oak tree with the perfect amount
1:02:49
Speaker 1: of cover, it's the right diameter, it's not leaning one
1:02:53
Speaker 1: way or the other, and it's set up to where
1:02:55
Speaker 1: that scrape is fifteen yards away, and you've got a
1:02:57
Speaker 1: ton of back cover. I mean, that's just rare really happens, right,
1:03:01
Speaker 1: So you're thinking of of all of these things, and
1:03:04
Speaker 1: it can be difficult. I mean you're thinking, Okay, is
1:03:08
Speaker 1: the tree leaning one way or the other. Is that
1:03:09
Speaker 1: going to cause me to be uncomfortable or or is
1:03:12
Speaker 1: it going to cause me to have to take a
1:03:13
Speaker 1: weird shot angle? Is it facing the right way? Am
1:03:16
Speaker 1: I going to be able to look the right way
1:03:18
Speaker 1: for the right wind. There's you know, a thousand factors
1:03:21
Speaker 1: that come into picking the right tree. This is one
1:03:24
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I ended up changing over to
1:03:27
Speaker 1: a saddle system. Nothing as tree stands. I'm not saying
1:03:30
Speaker 1: they don't work, that's not the point. I'm just saying
1:03:32
Speaker 1: for me personally, the way I hunt, I have found
1:03:36
Speaker 1: it in the in the mobile style of hunting that
1:03:40
Speaker 1: I can get into more trees more easily with the
1:03:44
Speaker 1: saddle hunting system. And that's just me. But I mean
1:03:49
Speaker 1: you could have ten other guests on here that would
1:03:51
Speaker 1: say the opposite, that the tree stand is more easy
1:03:53
Speaker 1: to use. So I'm not really making a claim either way.
1:03:56
Speaker 1: It's just that for me, that's my opinion, that's what
1:03:59
Speaker 1: works best, and I found that it makes that that
1:04:02
Speaker 1: decision a little bit easier because I typically will find
1:04:07
Speaker 1: two or three trees that will work. And then usually
1:04:11
Speaker 1: what I find in the as the last criteria is okay,
1:04:13
Speaker 1: well I can kill I can hit the spot I
1:04:15
Speaker 1: want to hit with. You know, these three trees. So
1:04:18
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick the one that looks the most comfortable,
1:04:21
Speaker 1: and that's usually I guess the final deciding criteria. You know,
1:04:25
Speaker 1: if I don't have to trim any limbs, or one
1:04:27
Speaker 1: gives me a little bit more cover, I'm gonna I'm
1:04:30
Speaker 1: gonna pick that one just because it's ease of use.
1:04:33
Speaker 1: But I wish there was a magic formula that I
1:04:35
Speaker 1: could give to to make picking a tree easier. But
1:04:39
Speaker 1: I find that I'm in the same exact boat as you.
1:04:41
Speaker 1: And then I'm looking around and and then you're always
1:04:45
Speaker 1: second guessing yourself too. Right, you start climbing up a
1:04:47
Speaker 1: tree and you're like, oh, man, but look at that one.
1:04:50
Speaker 1: There's a poplar over there that just looks perfect. Maybe
1:04:52
Speaker 1: I should get in that one. And you know, typically,
1:04:55
Speaker 1: in me fashion, I typically just stick with my first choice.
1:04:58
Speaker 1: And you know, most times you're go with your gut,
1:05:01
Speaker 1: your I think, what what do they say when you're
1:05:03
Speaker 1: taking like a standardized test that like most of the
1:05:05
Speaker 1: time your first guest is the right guest. So maybe
1:05:08
Speaker 1: that that translates into hunting picking a tree as well. Yeah,
1:05:12
Speaker 1: you mentioned shooting lanes. What's your philosophy and shooting lanes?
1:05:16
Speaker 1: Do you? Uh? I know there's some people even on
1:05:19
Speaker 1: mobile hunts, where they just have to make sure they
1:05:22
Speaker 1: get a handful of good lanes and they'll they'll do
1:05:25
Speaker 1: the extra work to do that. Other guys are like, Nope,
1:05:28
Speaker 1: I don't want to make an extra sound. I don't
1:05:30
Speaker 1: want to make a single extra movement. I'm just gonna
1:05:33
Speaker 1: live with whatever the tree gives me and maybe just
1:05:35
Speaker 1: you know, push something to the side right next to
1:05:37
Speaker 1: you in the tree or whatever. Um. And we're making
1:05:40
Speaker 1: an assumption that cutting student lanes is legal wherever you're hunting, right,
1:05:43
Speaker 1: some public land spots can't do that, but in the
1:05:45
Speaker 1: places that you can. What's your take. I tend to
1:05:49
Speaker 1: be the second guy. I tend to be the guy
1:05:52
Speaker 1: that doesn't want to make any noise. I don't want
1:05:55
Speaker 1: to break limbs, I don't want to cut lanes. I
1:05:58
Speaker 1: tend to be the guy that is willing to trade
1:06:02
Speaker 1: fewer shooting lanes for more cover and concealment. That's just
1:06:07
Speaker 1: me not saying I'm right. Um, that's what I do though. Okay,
1:06:12
Speaker 1: I found myself getting that way more and more. Here's
1:06:15
Speaker 1: another challenge, you know, if like the flip side John Eberhart,
1:06:19
Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt, but John Eberhart's kind of the opposite, right,
1:06:22
Speaker 1: and he's one of my hunting mentors. He goes in
1:06:25
Speaker 1: preseason and he'll cut lanes to make sure he can
1:06:27
Speaker 1: shoot to every area it's possible, eat you know, where
1:06:30
Speaker 1: it's legal. Um, And I think he does that even
1:06:33
Speaker 1: on a on what does he call it a freelance hunt. Um,
1:06:36
Speaker 1: he'll he'll do the same thing. He'll cut lanes, and
1:06:39
Speaker 1: he's way more successful than me. So I don't know
1:06:42
Speaker 1: that there's necessarily right answer. I just tend to be
1:06:45
Speaker 1: a little bit more cautious when I'm getting in a
1:06:47
Speaker 1: tree and I don't want to make noise. Yeah. So
1:06:50
Speaker 1: if if shooting lanes are one potential challenge with hunting
1:06:53
Speaker 1: mobile right and just having that balance between quiet and
1:06:57
Speaker 1: quick versus opening more shooting opportunities, another their potential challenge
1:07:01
Speaker 1: with the running gun approach that I've found at least
1:07:04
Speaker 1: is that the flexibility that you have when you're running
1:07:09
Speaker 1: gun hunting has like an evil step brother side to it.
1:07:15
Speaker 1: So if the if the angel on your shoulder of
1:07:18
Speaker 1: the running gun white tail approach is the fact that
1:07:20
Speaker 1: you can have a first set every day, you can
1:07:22
Speaker 1: see something and you can move on it the next
1:07:24
Speaker 1: you know, an hour later and be hunting in that spot.
1:07:27
Speaker 1: Right you can get where you gotta go. That's the
1:07:30
Speaker 1: angel on one side, that's the beautiful side of this.
1:07:33
Speaker 1: On the flip side is that that sometimes maybe can
1:07:37
Speaker 1: go too far and you might find yourself jump into
1:07:40
Speaker 1: this spot to this spot, to this spot, to this spot,
1:07:41
Speaker 1: and then you're chasing your tail and uh, maybe you've
1:07:46
Speaker 1: overdone it. It is is that something you've experienced. Is
1:07:50
Speaker 1: there something to that, Can you go too far with
1:07:52
Speaker 1: being mobile or do you think that no, that's that's fine,
1:07:55
Speaker 1: go for it. What's your take there? No, I I
1:07:59
Speaker 1: think that I can tend to fall into that category
1:08:02
Speaker 1: where I moved too much. Um that happened to me
1:08:05
Speaker 1: last year. I was hunting in Missouri and I don't
1:08:09
Speaker 1: think I hunted the same tree twice and you know,
1:08:12
Speaker 1: good or bad. You know who's to say. But I
1:08:16
Speaker 1: think that I can fall into that trap of always
1:08:19
Speaker 1: thinking the grass is greener, right, I mean you said
1:08:21
Speaker 1: it earlier. What's over the next hill? What's over the
1:08:23
Speaker 1: next hill. I'm the same way, and I always think
1:08:26
Speaker 1: that the grass is greener or the acorns are fatter
1:08:30
Speaker 1: in another part of the woods. And I think you
1:08:33
Speaker 1: have to find that balance, right, I mean life is
1:08:36
Speaker 1: about finding balance and all things. And I don't I
1:08:38
Speaker 1: don't know why that wouldn't apply to running gun hunting
1:08:42
Speaker 1: if it should. You know, if you're in a spot
1:08:44
Speaker 1: and the sign is there and you sit at one
1:08:47
Speaker 1: time and you don't see a big buck, well, you know, yeah,
1:08:54
Speaker 1: maybe you should give it two or three more hunts.
1:08:56
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's I don't think there's any hard
1:08:58
Speaker 1: and fast rule where I would say would something that
1:09:02
Speaker 1: would A scenario that would make me think twice about
1:09:05
Speaker 1: moving is access If there's a spot that I find
1:09:08
Speaker 1: and the access is bulletproof. You know, maybe I get
1:09:11
Speaker 1: to walk through a creek ditch where there's a very
1:09:14
Speaker 1: low probability of getting winded or the deer getting on
1:09:17
Speaker 1: my ground set, or you know, whatever it is. If
1:09:20
Speaker 1: if access is there and it gives me an advantage, um,
1:09:26
Speaker 1: then I have no problem finding, you know, hunting that
1:09:29
Speaker 1: spot and and kind of camping out on it, because
1:09:32
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm not giving myself away to to
1:09:36
Speaker 1: a mature deer. Now, if I have to walk through
1:09:39
Speaker 1: and I'm covering a lot of ground and there's lots
1:09:41
Speaker 1: of opportunities for the deer to send me both my
1:09:44
Speaker 1: wind and and my ground sent then I'm probably gonna
1:09:47
Speaker 1: think maybe it's maybe it's not worth a second try.
1:09:50
Speaker 1: But those those unicorn places where you can get in
1:09:53
Speaker 1: and out of it undetected and the sign is there, Man,
1:09:57
Speaker 1: those spots can just be die to mine. Yeah. When
1:10:01
Speaker 1: you when you find that diamond and the rough, sometimes
1:10:03
Speaker 1: you really gotta you gotta baby and take advantage of it.
1:10:07
Speaker 1: I agree. I agree. I want to wrap it up
1:10:10
Speaker 1: with a final look at challenges here because there are some, uh,
1:10:18
Speaker 1: and you you do these events all over the country
1:10:21
Speaker 1: now where you're meeting with people that are interested in
1:10:24
Speaker 1: saddles and mobile hunting, and so I think maybe more
1:10:27
Speaker 1: than almost anyone else out there, you've probably talked to
1:10:30
Speaker 1: more mobile hunters or aspiring mobile hunters than maybe anyone else.
1:10:35
Speaker 1: So my question for you is this, what is or
1:10:39
Speaker 1: what are the biggest mistakes that you see people making
1:10:43
Speaker 1: when it comes to trying this approach to hunting, Like,
1:10:46
Speaker 1: what's what's the big one that we just gotta fix
1:10:48
Speaker 1: that if more people did this right, or if more
1:10:50
Speaker 1: people didn't think this way, or whatever it is, would
1:10:54
Speaker 1: make a whole lot of mobile hunters more effective. Is
1:10:56
Speaker 1: there anything that comes to mind? Yeah, there is, and
1:11:00
Speaker 1: and I think it goes back to practice. I don't
1:11:04
Speaker 1: think hunter's practice. Um, anything you want to be good at,
1:11:08
Speaker 1: you have to practice it. And we talked to people
1:11:11
Speaker 1: all the time that even though we tell them not
1:11:14
Speaker 1: to do this, they buy their gear and they get
1:11:17
Speaker 1: it in the mail and they're jacked. Or they buy
1:11:20
Speaker 1: tree stand and you know, they buy somebody this awesome
1:11:23
Speaker 1: new ultral tree stand and it's it's amazing, and they
1:11:26
Speaker 1: go out and they hunt with it, and they don't
1:11:28
Speaker 1: go in their backyard and they don't nail down their
1:11:32
Speaker 1: system and they just go out and hunt. And then
1:11:34
Speaker 1: what happens is they get to the tree and it's
1:11:37
Speaker 1: a cluster, right because the ropes are in the wrong
1:11:40
Speaker 1: place and they don't have the straps attached to their sticks,
1:11:43
Speaker 1: and they they fold down the climbing the tree stand
1:11:46
Speaker 1: and it bangs and it makes a bunch of noise,
1:11:48
Speaker 1: and they're like, this is b s But it's not
1:11:50
Speaker 1: the gear's fault, and it's not. It's not that they
1:11:53
Speaker 1: had the wrong strategy. They didn't take the time to
1:11:56
Speaker 1: train themselves in the practice ahead of time. I full
1:12:00
Speaker 1: believe that to thirty minute sessions in the backyard are
1:12:04
Speaker 1: on any piece of public land where it's legal, that
1:12:08
Speaker 1: can pay huge dividends. When you're talking about a mobile run,
1:12:12
Speaker 1: a gun set up, and I don't care if it's
1:12:14
Speaker 1: saddle treat I don't care what what your gear is.
1:12:17
Speaker 1: If you go out and you spend some time, some effort,
1:12:20
Speaker 1: just like you go out and practice in your backyard
1:12:22
Speaker 1: with your bow. People shoot all summer long, they're dialing
1:12:26
Speaker 1: in their bow. But how many people take out their
1:12:28
Speaker 1: tree stand or their saddle and they make sure it's
1:12:31
Speaker 1: not making noise. They make sure to hit the metal
1:12:34
Speaker 1: parts that are banging around with stealth strips or some
1:12:36
Speaker 1: other silencing material. How many people take the time to
1:12:40
Speaker 1: spray paint and knock off the really shining areas you
1:12:43
Speaker 1: have to pay attention to your gear. Probably in this
1:12:46
Speaker 1: style of hunting more than any other style of hunting.
1:12:49
Speaker 1: You really have to pay attention to your gear. You
1:12:52
Speaker 1: have to dial it in, and you have to practice.
1:12:54
Speaker 1: There's just there's there's no other way to to get
1:12:58
Speaker 1: to the level of efficiency and order to make this fun,
1:13:01
Speaker 1: because if you don't, if you aren't efficient with it,
1:13:04
Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of a cluster, it's not gonna
1:13:06
Speaker 1: be fun, and you're gonna quit, and you're gonna go
1:13:09
Speaker 1: on Facebook and you're say Greg Godfrey and Mark Kenyon
1:13:12
Speaker 1: are full of it. Their liars. They said I was
1:13:14
Speaker 1: gonna kill big Bucks, and all I did was make
1:13:17
Speaker 1: a bunch of noise and scare off every deer in
1:13:19
Speaker 1: the woods. And it's not Greg and Mark's fault. It's
1:13:22
Speaker 1: your fault. You didn't go and practice. Can't argue that. Man.
1:13:27
Speaker 1: I have been the victim of not practicing early on
1:13:30
Speaker 1: when I was trying this stuff, and uh, I learned
1:13:32
Speaker 1: very quickly that you gotta do it. You gotta get
1:13:35
Speaker 1: comfortable with it, because it's always harder when you're actually
1:13:39
Speaker 1: out there in the field and you think there's deer
1:13:41
Speaker 1: hundred yards away or it's pitch black or whatever like
1:13:44
Speaker 1: always in the field's harder to do. Uh, So practice
1:13:48
Speaker 1: ahead of time, so that's as close to second nature
1:13:50
Speaker 1: as you can make it, and you will you will
1:13:53
Speaker 1: never regret that time spent, that's for sure. Oh we
1:13:57
Speaker 1: had a it was a thing. Commanders in the Army
1:14:00
Speaker 1: used to always say. You know, their mantra was always
1:14:02
Speaker 1: trained as you fight. And what that means is that
1:14:05
Speaker 1: you know, you put yourself in the most realistic scenario
1:14:08
Speaker 1: as you can. And that's why the Army does these big,
1:14:11
Speaker 1: big exercises where everybody goes out, they set up all
1:14:14
Speaker 1: their gear and they go through scenarios and they try
1:14:17
Speaker 1: to make it as realistic as possible. Because when you're
1:14:21
Speaker 1: used to that and you're training like you would actually fight, well,
1:14:24
Speaker 1: when when the fight comes, then it's second nature and
1:14:27
Speaker 1: it's much more easy to deal with. It's the same
1:14:29
Speaker 1: way when you're learning a new tactic and a new
1:14:32
Speaker 1: strategy like mobile hunting. If you will go out there
1:14:35
Speaker 1: and you will practice just like you would be on
1:14:38
Speaker 1: November one, and you've set up your gear and you
1:14:41
Speaker 1: you know where your stuff is and you've got your
1:14:43
Speaker 1: system down down, I promise you, You're gonna enjoy it
1:14:45
Speaker 1: a lot more. Yeah, that's that's great. Train as you fight,
1:14:49
Speaker 1: it brings to mind something like I love these little
1:14:52
Speaker 1: mantras a little. Just sayings like that that kind of
1:14:56
Speaker 1: distill really important reminders that you just need to kind
1:15:00
Speaker 1: of have in your head to just like trigger Okay, yeah,
1:15:03
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta rever do this for me. The
1:15:05
Speaker 1: last couple of years has been slow as smooth smooth
1:15:09
Speaker 1: is fast, because I have this tendency to always feel
1:15:11
Speaker 1: like I'm behind. I always feel like I need to
1:15:13
Speaker 1: rush to the next place. I'm always walking a million
1:15:15
Speaker 1: miles a minute like everything I do. Uh My buddies
1:15:18
Speaker 1: complained that I'm just like almost running everywhere I try
1:15:21
Speaker 1: to go, and that kind of filters into my hunting
1:15:23
Speaker 1: to whether it's trying to get up a scen of
1:15:25
Speaker 1: the tree or trying to get set up in the
1:15:27
Speaker 1: tree or picking the tree or whatever it is. I
1:15:30
Speaker 1: always feel like I'm behind. I gotta go faster, and
1:15:33
Speaker 1: so I need to remind myself slow as smooth or sorry, smooth,
1:15:37
Speaker 1: slow as smooth, smooth is fast, So just slow it down.
1:15:39
Speaker 1: If you slow it down, you actually end up making
1:15:43
Speaker 1: fewer mistakes. You actually end up going faster because you're
1:15:46
Speaker 1: not stumbling on yourself trying to rush through process. So
1:15:49
Speaker 1: for me, that's become a little bit of internal mantra
1:15:54
Speaker 1: of sorts. Through a lot of my run and gun hunts,
1:15:56
Speaker 1: I find myself saying that all the time. It's four
1:15:58
Speaker 1: in the morning, I'm worried about the sun gonna come
1:16:01
Speaker 1: up too soon or whatever, and I'm not quite set up,
1:16:03
Speaker 1: and um, maybe it's not forward, probably six thirty or something.
1:16:06
Speaker 1: But I'll just be slowest smooth, just like chill out, Mark,
1:16:09
Speaker 1: Just just keep doing the next step, next step, don't worry.
1:16:12
Speaker 1: And that helps me when when you think, do you
1:16:16
Speaker 1: find anything like that for yourself? Is there some kind
1:16:19
Speaker 1: of mantra you have, or any kind of one liner
1:16:22
Speaker 1: or or just anything like this that's with you on
1:16:25
Speaker 1: your hunts or as hunting season picks up that you
1:16:28
Speaker 1: take from your military background. Maybe, UM, I don't know,
1:16:32
Speaker 1: does any of this bring anything to mind for you?
1:16:35
Speaker 1: I I use the same one slowest, smooth, smooth is fast.
1:16:39
Speaker 1: It's uh, that's something we also talked about in the
1:16:42
Speaker 1: army specifically, Um, you know when we're doing whatever it
1:16:46
Speaker 1: was lots of exercises when sergeants and CEOs and and
1:16:50
Speaker 1: would would would repeat that mantra, and I use the
1:16:53
Speaker 1: same exact mantra when I'm climbing the tree. I just
1:16:55
Speaker 1: think to myself over and over again, slowest, smooth, smooth
1:16:59
Speaker 1: as fast, and it's it's it's about safety, it's about stealth.
1:17:05
Speaker 1: It just really makes a big difference. I use exactly
1:17:09
Speaker 1: the same thought processes you um trying to think. If
1:17:13
Speaker 1: there's anything else that I think through, Um, off the
1:17:17
Speaker 1: top of my head, I can't really think of anything else.
1:17:19
Speaker 1: But I'm glad to hear that great minds, great minds
1:17:24
Speaker 1: are there. Greg, We're on the same page. Um well,
1:17:27
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, being the co founder of a
1:17:33
Speaker 1: mobile hunting company, you've done an amazing job of not
1:17:36
Speaker 1: being tempted to plug your own products throughout this entire thing,
1:17:39
Speaker 1: which I think a lot of people would think that
1:17:40
Speaker 1: would happen. Uh So, so thank you for making this
1:17:44
Speaker 1: relevant and applicable to anyone, no matter what style of
1:17:47
Speaker 1: hunting they use or what products that choose to use.
1:17:51
Speaker 1: But all that said, we are going to wrap it up.
1:17:53
Speaker 1: I'd be remiss if I didn't give you a chance
1:17:55
Speaker 1: to tell people where to go to learn more about
1:17:58
Speaker 1: the stuff that you actually build and put out for
1:18:01
Speaker 1: these types of hunters. So where can people go if
1:18:04
Speaker 1: they want to see the stuff that you actually use
1:18:06
Speaker 1: and recommend. Yeah, So we started we started a company
1:18:11
Speaker 1: with a bunch of mobile hunters that we all met
1:18:13
Speaker 1: online in a forum. Believe it or not, we started
1:18:15
Speaker 1: that about three years ago and it's kind of it's
1:18:18
Speaker 1: taken off and it's a whole thing now. But we're
1:18:20
Speaker 1: Tethered Nation and we made the world's best saddle hunting gear.
1:18:24
Speaker 1: In my opinion, I'm I'm biased, but there's a there's
1:18:27
Speaker 1: a lot of options out there now, which I kind
1:18:30
Speaker 1: of alluded to this earlier. Uh. The cool thing about
1:18:33
Speaker 1: since we've launched Tethered and you know some of the
1:18:35
Speaker 1: tree stand guys have taken that off, there is no
1:18:38
Speaker 1: better time in history to be to get into mobile
1:18:42
Speaker 1: hunting now, or get into mobile huntington right now, because
1:18:46
Speaker 1: you have options. I don't care if you if you're
1:18:48
Speaker 1: talking saddles or tree stands or I don't care what
1:18:51
Speaker 1: it is. There's options now, something that we didn't have
1:18:54
Speaker 1: five years ago. So do your research. There's lots of
1:18:57
Speaker 1: great resources on YouTube and social media. Mark has a
1:19:01
Speaker 1: whole bunch of content that's awesome talking about mobile hunting.
1:19:05
Speaker 1: I've got stuff on my channel, Tether's got stuff on
1:19:08
Speaker 1: their channel, so there's no reason not to be able
1:19:10
Speaker 1: to find the best stuff that you possibly can. And uh,
1:19:14
Speaker 1: you know, I happen to think our stuff is pretty
1:19:16
Speaker 1: great at Tether. I am a fan too. I can't
1:19:20
Speaker 1: I can't deny that. So Greg, thanks so much for
1:19:22
Speaker 1: taking the time and sharing this, uh, this insight. And uh,
1:19:27
Speaker 1: even though I've been doing this, you know with a
1:19:29
Speaker 1: stand I did it for probably the last ten years.
1:19:32
Speaker 1: In the last four years have been with the saddle,
1:19:34
Speaker 1: and I did do it more and more and more
1:19:36
Speaker 1: and more every year. It's uh, it's absolutely changed how
1:19:39
Speaker 1: I hunt. So I'm glad we get this chance to
1:19:41
Speaker 1: to dive into it specifically and hopefully help some people out.
1:19:45
Speaker 1: So I appreciate everything you're doing. Greg. Thank you, Thanks Mark,
1:19:49
Speaker 1: and that is it. Thanks for listening. Like Greg mentioned, uh,
1:19:54
Speaker 1: there's lots of great options out there for this kind
1:19:56
Speaker 1: of equipment, but I certainly, um, I certainly do love
1:19:59
Speaker 1: my Tether stuff. So for whatever that's worth, their one
1:20:01
Speaker 1: to check out and otherwise I would just encourage again
1:20:05
Speaker 1: to give it a try. This is an effective way
1:20:08
Speaker 1: to go about things. It's not for everyone, definitely not
1:20:10
Speaker 1: for everyone, but it might be worth a shot. It's
1:20:14
Speaker 1: worked for me, and UH hopefully it's something you can
1:20:17
Speaker 1: find some value in as well. And with that, I
1:20:20
Speaker 1: think we will shut her down. We'll send you guys
1:20:23
Speaker 1: out with another best of luck salutation I suppose what
1:20:29
Speaker 1: they call it. And UH, until next time, stay wired
1:20:34
Speaker 1: Ton