Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 561: What Would Eddie Claypool Do? (and BONUS Goals, Hopes, and Hitlists)

Transcript

Ep. 561: What Would Eddie Claypool Do? (and BONUS Goals, Hopes, and Hitlists) · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern whitetail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyon,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and this week on the show we're joined by d
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I Y bow hunting guru Eddie Claypool, plus a bonus goals,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: hopes and hit list chat with the one and only
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Dan Johnson. All right, welcome to the Wired Dune podcast,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: brought to you by First Like. Today, we've got a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: great episode for it. This is a two parter of sorts.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We are continuing our what would you do? Series? We
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: started that last week with Grant Woods. Talked a lot
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: about management and private land hunting and some cool stuff there.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Today we're keeping at it and we've got Eddie Claypool
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: who is a d I Y and public land focused
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: deer hunter, so we're gonna get into that side of things.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Eddie has been a longtime contributor to Peterson's Bow Hunting
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and a staple in the hunting kind of media world.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: He's a terrific white tailed deer hunter. He gets done
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: in tough situations, he speaks his mind freely, He's got
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a different perspective than a lot of people on this
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So if you're hoping to figure out
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: a way to kill deer on you know, small properties
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: or private land by permission or public land, I think
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Eddie is gonna have some ideas that can help you.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: He also has kind of been going through a little
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: bit of a change in mindset and changing goals with
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: his hunting, which is very interesting to talk about. So
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: as I describe and I walk him through these different
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: hunting snarrows as we do in this series, right, I
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: tell him, Okay, imagine this situation in this place on
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: this day. You know what would you do? You know,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Eddie is is changing what he folk this is on
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: as a deer hunter. So he's actually bought his first
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: piece of private lands, so he's actually learning a little
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: about that kind of thing. He's also changing what he
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: wants to shoot and what his goals are going to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: be for hunting. So we get into that side of thing.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: We talked through a bunch of interesting, challenging deer hunting
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: scenarios which are great want to learn some and uh,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: we also kick this episode off with a totally different
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: kind of well, I take that back, it's not totally
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: different because the the what would You Do episode with Eddie,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned, we get into his changing mindset, we
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: get into his changing goals. Well, that's something we also
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: talk about in Part one of this podcast. Part one
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of this podcast, the first hour, actually is with my
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: good buddy Dan Johnson. He was my co host here
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: on the Wireton podcast for many years when we first
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: kicked this thing off. He now runs his own podcast network,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Great Deer Hunter from All Iowa. And what we've done
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: every year, I think the beginning is we've done a
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: podcast together where we talked through what our plans are
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: for the upcoming hunting season, what our goals are, what
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: we're hoping for, if there's any specific bucks were after.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So we decided to tack that onto the front of
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: this podcast. So Part one of this episode is me
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and Dan talking through all that stuff, and we actually
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: discuss the same kind of transition that Eddie's going through.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: We discuss how our goals are changing, how our hopes
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and expectations for hunting has changed as well, and in
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: a big way. I've been going through this shift this year.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: If you've listened throughout the last twelve months, you've heard
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: about kind of this this wild hunting season I had
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: last year and my burnout afterwards, and how I'm kind
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: of shifting and changing a little bit of what I'm doing,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and so me and Dan get into that a lot,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: as well as kind of preview some very exciting hunts
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: we have coming up this year. Some bucks were after
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I saw a really nice Michigan dear the other day.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that dear and uh and basically
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: everything you need to know to get ready to follow
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: along with our two seasons. So jam packed episode. It's
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a long episodes over two hours. I'm guessing this thing
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: is gonna come out to so stick around for the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: full thing. Part one. That first just under an hour.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Right around that first hour is me and Dan. If
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you don't give a rip about me or Dan, you
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: can fast forward if you want two hour number two,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in which we do though what would Eddie Claypool do? Section?
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: So that is the game plan. I appreciate you tuning in.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: I'll give you one plug. We talked about this over
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks. I'm just gonna remind you
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: again one more time. I put together a recent selection
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: of my top gear recommendations that we've got over at
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the Mediator Store for this late summer early season time period.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I've got some of my recommended targets, some of my
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: shooting supplies, the clothes I like to wear for summer
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: scouting or summer shooting, and then also my early season
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: white tail kit from First Life, the shirt I like,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the pants I like, uh. I think I even included
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the face mask I used for the early season. All
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: that stuff is on my new gear recommendation page. You
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: can find it at store dot the meat eater dot
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: com slash mark. So go to the media to store
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: slash mark, store dot the meat Eater dot com slash mark.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: That's gonna be my gear recommendation. We're hopefully gonna have
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you know, that's gonna be a rotating list of things.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: So if you're in the market for something new as
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: far as hunting gear and you're trying to figure out
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: what a good option might be, I'm gonna put some
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: things on there that I personally use and like, we
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: stock a whole lot different hunting gear now on the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Mediator Store. It's not just first Like gear now, it's
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: not just our Phelps game calls. It's not just the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: fh F by no harnesses. We're selling all sorts of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: things now vortex optics, six sour optics. Uh YETI cooler's targets, uh, shirts,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: water bottle. I mean, I don't know. The folks on
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: that business side of things are just really getting after
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: building uh the Mediator's store into into quite the quite
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the machine and all of that. What's cool about that.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I know nobody wants to hear about buying stuff, But
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the cool thing about what metators doing there with the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: store and everything is that allows people like me to
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: do these podcasts, to film these TV shows, to write
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the articles, to do all this stuff and put it
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: out there for free for you guys. Uh. So, hopefully
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: that helps you out of ton is stuff that's helping
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: you learn, inspire you, entertain you, whatever it is, I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: hope it's stuff that you're finding a lot of value in.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So thanks again for checking that stuff out, Thanks for
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: tuning in today. I am fired up. I am fully
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: two thousand percent ready for hunting season, very excited, very
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: excited for this conversation today. Me and Dan had a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: blast catching up. If you are a longtime listener, this
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: is gonna be like Mama's apple pie. This is gonna
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: be some comfort food for you here in part one.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I think you're gonna enjoy it. And if you are
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: not a long time listener, maybe hearing me and Dan
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: will inspire you to go back to the beginning and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: listen to some of those episodes in the early days
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: where me and Dan were just figuring this stuff out
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and we were knuckleheads. We didn't know what we're doing.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: We're sharing the ups and downs and having fun along
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the way and uh, probably making fools of ourselves. But
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: it's been a good ride. So thanks for being along
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: for it, Thanks for tuning in, and let's get to
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: part one with me and Dan Johnson talking through goals,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: hopes and hit lists, and then as soon as that
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: wraps up, we will jump right to my chat with
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Eddie Claypool. All right now with me on the show.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Back from a long I don't know what the right
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: word is along, Uh yeah, whatever that is. We've got
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Dan Johnson by long time. I just had to get
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it out there. Wired Hunt co host, my great buddy
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: and the Emperor of the Sportsman's Empire, Dan, Welcome back
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: to the show. Hey, Hey, thanks for having me, Mark,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: It's good to hear your voice. Man. I know, especially
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: like this time of year, I just need some Dan
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Johnson in my life to to bring me back to
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the bringing back to earth, get me re excited. Uh yeah,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that's just the doctor ordered. What's all this running bullshit
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: that you're doing? Are you trying to be Cam Haynes. No,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get it quite that far, but just
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: trying to make sure I don't turn to Dan Johnson.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: So oh dude, I stepped myself up for that one.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: That was hilarious. Dude, that was hilarious. Yep. Yeah, just
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: just trying to just trying to maintain a decent fitness.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: So yeah, man, been doing I've been sticking to the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: running and did that racist spring and that was cool.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: So first first race of any kind of done since
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: like middle school cross country, so it fell out of you.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I was. I was proud to I finished
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: my first half marathon and did pretty good, so that
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: was that's cool. Yep. Yeah. I wish I had something
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: physical that I could tell you I've accomplished in the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: last couple months or or this summer or anything like that,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: but it's not. I don't have. I'm like, my knees
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: hurt a little bit less than normal this week, but
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: other than that, the rest of my body hurts. So
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Well,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: here's one thing I did want to ask you about
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: from the last few months. This happened like earlier this summer,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I think, but I introduced you as the Emperor of
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the Sportsman's Empire. Yeah, so, so why the name change
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and and plug Sportsman's Empire and everything you've got going
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: on these days? Because you're just going like gangbusters. And
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: since the last time we were on the show, I
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: think you've added another like five podcasts or something. So
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: what's what's new with your business world? It's not like
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I don't I I still don't understand it, right, Like
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I don't understand how something that I have done has
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: turned out to be as successful as it is, right. So,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and what I mean successful, I don't mean like I'm
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a millionaire. I mean I'm actually getting to do this
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: for a living, right, So, Like it started off with
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the Nine Finger Chronicles and that was great. Then the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Sportsman's Nation happened and then basically to avoid uh, I
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: don't know. Uh. You know, sometimes in the business world
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: there's some bullshit, right, some bullshit popped up, and uh,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I instead of going to bat and trying to fight it,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: which I did for a little bit, I decided just
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to flip it just by one word and go with
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a Sportsman's Empire. And uh and now I'm safe and
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the Sportsman's Empire, and and I could sit here and
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I could tell you that, uh it was it was planned.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: It wasn't planned. It was just you know, sometimes crazy
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: things in business happened, and I needed an adjustment. So
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I made the adjustment, and uh, we're still firing on
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: all cylinders. So it was a seamless transition into the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: from the Sportsman's Nation to the Sportsman's Empire, and uh,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: things are good. And I don't know, man, we we
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: just we continue to put out really good content from
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: some really really good content providers. And it's like a
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: family over here. Man. It's pretty cool. That's awesome. So
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: if there was like, no, I don't want you to
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: offend any of your family members, but if you had
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to recommend for for people that listen to Wired to Hunt,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: so for folks that you know, you know, the folks
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that listen to Wired to Hunt if they wanted to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: try out some of the shows over in your crew,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: who would be like a couple of the top shows
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: they should check out. That would be like a good
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: fill in the gaps when they don't have any Wired
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Hunt and listen to. Yeah, so that's a great question.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: And so the good thing about the Sportsman's Empire is
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of podcasts in there that are state specific.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: For example, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Michigan coming very soon, Wisconsin,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and uh, I think there's one more Oklahoma. Okay, so
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: if you're living those states, we have state specific content
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: coming out for you, all right. But you know how
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: me and you were Midwestern guys, and so we don't
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: really know too much about the strategies and tactics of
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the South. Um My buddy Parker McDonald over at the
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Southern Ground podcast he is, uh, he's killing it with
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Southern focused content. He's the man you and you've hung
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: out with him before too, so um and then for
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: someone who wants to do something a little different, and uh,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and I could sit here and talk about all these podcasts.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's so much, there's so much good content.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: If you're a habitat guy, if you're a a d
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I Y junkie, like, we have stuff for that. But
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna go way out of the box
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: here and I'm gonna say there's a there's a podcast
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and it is probably it is the biggest sporting dogs
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: podcast out there. It's called The Houndsman XP podcast. These
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: guys are die hard coon hunters and competitive coon hunting.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: They talk about dog breeding, they talk about that lifestyle
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and things like that's very interesting. It's uh, it's one
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of the top performers on on the network. And because
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: you know, just like just like all the podcasts, the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: people behind it are real passionate about what they do
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and that you can just feel that through the their
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: their their podcast. Sweet, I love it. We'll glad, You're glad.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: It's going on all cylinders man. And my only question then,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: is is all of this business success and crazy work.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I know it's one of those things like you do
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: you took this job, like you chase this dream so
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: you'd have time to go hunt and stuf off. But
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I know sometimes it ends up being the opposite and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: that we get so obsessed with our business work and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that there's so much to do and all the pressures
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: on you that you then don't get outside as much.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like leading into this hunting season, are
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: you in a good place to get out in the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: woods or are you gonna be slammed and sitting at
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the computer the whole series. So I just hired a guy.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: So and Josh, if you're listening, I mean this with
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: all due respect, I hope he slammed in, not me,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Uh Um, But no, I
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: hired a guy to help me out, and uh so,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: that's that's a win right there. As far as the
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: business side of it is concerned, yes, man, it it's
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: it's taking up a lot more time, and I the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: prep work for the seasons, I'm behind right like I'm
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: behind on trail cameras, I'm behind on any type of scouting.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I'm behind on the tree stands, setups and things like
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: that that I've done in the past, which in the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: past I've relied a lot on that, but in the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: recent past I found success doing the you know, the
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: mobile you know in first time in best time in
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: type scenarios, just like last year, and a lot of
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: focus on Western hunts where you can't you can't scout
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: throughout I mean, I I'm not I'm not gonna make
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a trip out west just to scout, you know, during
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the summer months or the fall. And but so that's
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the negative part of it. But the positive part of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: it is is the brownie points have been at a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: all time high this year as far as being the
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: little league coach, you know, being the soccer coach, um,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: doing things with a family, doing things with a wife. Right.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I just got back from uh, a husband wife trip
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: from UH from Nashville, Tennessee, and uh so the brownie
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: points they're stacked this year. And I am gonna use
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: every single one of them this this fall, like I'm
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: planning on I'm going ben Anna's. And I think my
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: wife knows that and so far she's cool with it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens. Did you get her name
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: tattooed on your butt cheek? I saw you got a
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: new tattoo the other day. No, I got a. I
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: got a picture of you on my forearm. I would
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: I would die happy man, that was the kid. No
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I got a. I got my kids initials H A
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: A M K on my on my forearm, and I
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: got a pretty cool on my other forearm. I got
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: a cool looking arrow. And you know I didn't I've
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I don't have any hunting related tattoos. And it was time.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I was feeling it and I was like, you know what,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I'm here in Nashville. Why don't I get get an arrow?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: And uh? And so here's the cool thing though, I'm
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: getting this tattoo, and my tattoo artist he's killed one deer.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: He's from New York City, he moved to Nashville. He's
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: dating a girl from Nashville whose parents own a ranch
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: in Montana, and he went out there and he shot
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: his first deer. I think it was last year or
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the year before. And so we had these this awesome
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: conversation while I'm getting fresh tattoo about hunting and you know, like,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: what's the next step if I want to do this?
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, I'm gonna need a bigger tattoo
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: because this this conversation doesn't take you know, isn't a
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: quick conversation. So it was that that that portion of
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: it was cool because he he really wants to get
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: into more hunting. So that's sweet, just sending the sports
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and his empire. Do you get that? Do you bust
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: out that business card? Oh? Yeah, dude, I I sent
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: it to him. I I showed him some picks. He
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: showed me some picks, and and uh, I think I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: think we're gonna probably stay in contact and and hopefully uh,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I don't. I didn't want to say a mentor because uh,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I told him, Hey man, I know people in Tennessee.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I know people in northern Alabama or in this general area.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: So if you're looking to be more educated, I said,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I'll hook you up anyway I can, so that you know,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I did my part to try to get this guy
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: to stay in hunting and uh and spread his wings
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: into archery. Very cool. Yeah, I love it. Tattoos for you?
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Any new tattoos? Yeah? Have you gotten a tattoo? No?
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Do you have the tattoos? I did not do not.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Are you ever going to get a tattoo? You know?
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I actually have been considering it. Um My wife is
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: really into tattoos, so she she wants to get some
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: new ones. She's got I don't know, five or something
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: like that, and she's threatening to get something new, and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: so I've got to thinking maybe I would go and
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and get my first one. Um, it would probably have
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to be your face on my forearm. So yeah, dude,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: that would be sweet. We should get we should get
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: matching tattoos my face on your forearm, your your face
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: on my crotch inside of my thigh or something like that. Yeah, man,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: that that sounds pretty cool, sounds good. Yeah, I don't know, man,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I thought all serious, its like maybe a tattoo on
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: my upper arm or forearm, and have to be something
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: like hunting, fishing, outdoor related, something that just basically like
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: stamps me forever, like this is my thing. Um, I said,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: have figured out what that right thing is, so we'll see.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: So I got a I got an idea. This is
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: what I think my next tattoo is gonna because after
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I got this tattoo, it looks pretty sweet and it's
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: very simple, but I want something with meaning. And I
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: thought about getting of a pretty cool uh tattoo of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: tapo lines and in that this topo line is going
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to have a little star in it somewhere and it's
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: going to be the location of like my favorite tree
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: stand to hunt, and you can look at and go man, like,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: look at all the memories I can see just on
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: these topic lines so or or like GP coordinates or
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: something like that. That is that is cool and something
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: like you like only you would be able to learn
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: out about and like look at and be able to
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: see all the detail and remember what those little lines
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: actually stand for. That's yeah, that's a cool idea, Dan, Yeah, ah, man,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I like it. Well, here here's how's the boys. The
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: boys are crazy. I mean they're they're two and four now,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: so you know what those ages are like, Um, they're
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: a blast. We just got back from Idaho, so we
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: were out there for the last three months and uh,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: they were just wild mountain men. Did a lot of camping.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I think we camped like seventeen eighteen nights and um
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: did a lot of hiking and a lot of a
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: lot of water time this year because the kids are
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: just very very into catching critters now. So my oldest
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: has become like he has my d NA, no doubt
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: about it. Like he is obsessed. Like he will sit
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: by the creek with his net and catch minnows. He
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: would literally do it for eight hours straight. Like he
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: can focus and wants nothing else but to catch an animal.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: So he's been This year was the first year he
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: really was able to put all together and start doing
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: all the stuff on his own. So he's catching minnows,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: he's catching like big sculpting, he's catching crayfish, he's catching frogs,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: um and tadpoles, and so he's just like, that's all
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: he wants to do is catch these things. So he
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: we had we did a lot of that, more and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: more fishing. Um. Everett caught his first fish on a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: fly rod by himself this year, so it was pretty sweet.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Um and uh yeah, I mean just did a lot
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of exploring, a lot of climbing bowlers and just being boys,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: boys being boys. So it was great summer, had a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: lot of fun, caught a lot of fish and uh
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and now though like everyone's brain is switching to white
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: tails in a big way. We're back in Michigan. The
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: boys are playing right now. Literally just before I started
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: this podcast, the boys came crashing in my office and
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: said we need our rattling andlers. And they came in
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: here and got rattling andlers and the two year olds
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: got his like orange beanie on his head. Everett's got
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a buy no harness on his chest like you guys
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: are nuts. They're uh, they're really into it. So they
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: they play hunting all the time and they shoot their
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: bows and it's it's super fun. The whole brother dynamic
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: has really gotten to a new place now that now
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: that Colt's bold enough that they can really engage like peers.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: So they're just terrible toesome and uh, luckily they're they
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: seem to be into the stuff that I'm into right now,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and we're having a lot of fun sharing it together,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: so that I'm excited for this fall hopefully more blood
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: trails and stuff. I think I told you last time
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: that Everett is just like he doesn't have the color
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: blindness issue that I have, so he is like my
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: blood trailing savior. He can see the blood. He's my
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: new trailing dog. So he just goes out there like
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: there's blood, there's blood, there's blood. So it's very very handy.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. That's awesome. So so I think that's a
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: great segue into like the main thing that I was
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: hoping we could talk about today, which is like what
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: our hopes are for the year, Like you know how
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: every I think every year we've done like a goals,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: hopes and hit lists conversation. I've gotten a request the guy,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: some some guy hit me up on Instagram the other
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: day and he's like, Hey, what are you and Mark
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: gonna do another one of these? These are my favorite episodes. Yeah, exactly,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I've gotten I've gotten some list too. So we had
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: to do it. We had to get get caught up
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and get caught up on you know, what's what we're
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: doing this coming to year, what our hopes and goals
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: are for the year, if we have any specific hit lists, bucks,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. So I figured out would
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: be the perfect time since the since the ramp up
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: is in full speed now, So are your game? Your
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: game for that? I'm down. Let's get it started, all right?
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: What do you uh? Let's first like cover plans, like
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: just like where are you hunting? And I'll do the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: same too, because I haven't talked about this either, So
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: what's your yeah? Man? So about a month ago, my
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: slate got flipped up on what I thought was gonna
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: happen in here in Iowa. Al Right, So I didn't
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: really I didn't kind of know that if you asked
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: me a month ago, how what the fall was gonna
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: look like. It would have been uncertain. I don't I
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: don't know what would have happened. Right. I have my
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: main farm where I killed my buck last year in Iowa,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: still there. But I lost, Uh. I lost the farm
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: that I hunt that's really close to me, right. The
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: landowner passed away and the kids are gonna sell it. Yeah,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: so uh so I'm down. I'm down that property. And
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: then the previous year I lost, uh I lost uh
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: what was it like a hundred and sixty acres? So,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: but I I didn't do anything off season to kind
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: of try to find anything new per se for, you know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: to find new property. I've just been leaning towards the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: public side of things, all right, So I was a
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: little uncertain. Well, here's the very short story of it.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I got connected with a guy who owns like I
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: want to say, just under two I think it's somewhere
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: around two hundred acres in a different county here in
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Iowa that nobody hunts. And he's like, well, my my, uh,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: my cousin hunted it. Uh he passed away two years
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: ago and no one, no one hunts it anymore. And
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: if you would like to you know, you're more than
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: you're more than welcome to comment hunt it, and so
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: that intrigues me. Yeah. So, uh, it's a lot of
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: egg ground, but it's in a really good neighborhood. And
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: so I kind of just fell into this property. I
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: had some help from another another guy and who lives
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: in Wisconsin. He's like, man, I can't hunt Iowa every year.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: You know, why don't you take a look at the
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you know, take a look at this property. Let me
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: know what you think. And when I draw an Eyowa tag,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: maybe you can show me the ropes. And I'm like, yeah, dude, absolutely,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: let's do it. So I I picked that piece of
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: property up and I think Sunday, this upcoming Sunday, I'm
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: gonna be heading down there to throw up some trail cameras,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: do a quick summer push for scouting, and and then
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: hopefully come back in a month or so check the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: trail cameras and just see what's living on this property.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: The guy says, Now, I don't know the definition of
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: good deer is different for all people. So I don't
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: know what good what he means by good dear. You know,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: my definition might be different from his. Cousin's definition. Um,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: he said he's found some good antlers shed hunting it before,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: So I don't know, we'll see, we'll see what happens, Um,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: But I'm I'm I'm jack to go start the process over.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: It's been a couple of years since I've gotten a
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: new property, and it's so yeah, exact, I love that,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you know, starting a fresh chess game on a new
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: board and you know, playing playing the game. And we'll
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: see what happens on there. But I'm going to South
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Dakota for sure, more than likely going to be going
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: to Nebraska. And let's see Nebraska in September. I think
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: October I'm gonna go to South Dakota and depending on
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: how what October looks like, Dude, I'm gonna try to
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: get down to Oklahoma and possibly Missouri this year. Yeah,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: so you add in that's what That's what I'm saying, Mark.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: The brownie points are at an all time high, and
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna be able to get away with it.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I'm and I'm burning the bridge down to and I'm
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: gonna and then after the season's over, I'll rebuild it all.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Put the brownie points back in the pot and and
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: start all over again. It's an annual cycle. What I know,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: you're Nebraska and South Are you doing the same kind
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: of stuff You've done in Nebraska and South Dakota, same areas,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: same general type of hunt. Yeah, somewhat. There's been some
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: changes is recently with units and tag allocations in Nebraska,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: so that part has to be will be changed. But
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: South Dakota probably going to one of the same areas
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: that I've gone to, not last year, but the year before. Um,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be a mule deer focused trip. Oklahoma will
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: probably be it will be a white tail however, they
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: got some They got some mule deer in western Oklahoma too.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Don't know what I'm gonna do there. And then Missouri
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: will be a probably like one of those four day
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: hunts where I popped down there during the week, hit
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: him up and uh, you know, hit a piece of
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: public up. See what I can do closer to late
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: October and uh. And then if I do good in
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Iowa and I connect right off the bat like I
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: did last year, then I'll drop down and go somewhere else.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Uh down, back down to Oklahoma or back down to
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Missouri or something like that. So the Oklahoma Missouri stuff
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: is that is that both public land and you're just
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: like just winging it against trying to find something or
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: have you like scouted and found spots you like already
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: or what's what's the progress? Yeah, yeah, so I've got
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: most of it's just been digital scouting, right looking for
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: water access. I'm like one chin hair away from buying
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: a beater beater boat that I can use to pull
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: down there and some of some of these properties and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: access public ground through waterways, right, So I don't know,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: we'll see. It's uh, some of that stuff still up
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: in the air, guaranteed for sure, because I already have
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the tag is South Dakota, but how the rest of
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: those three states lay out because they're close, you know,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: And and way on the back burner is also Minnesota
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and Wisconsin because yeah, just just and that's way on
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: the back burner because of how close everything is to Iowa.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: And so if you know, some of those aren't gonna happen.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: But if I if I have one of those dream
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: years that everybody talks about, and you just you show
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: up someplace, shoot a deer, show up someplace, shoot a deer,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: show up someplace, shoot a deer, and uh, I have
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: all my tags filled and I still have time. Well,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: then I'm gonna use that time this year, and uh,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go do some exploring and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: have a little adventure this year. What what happened to you?
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Because I remember a few years ago, Dan, I was
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: always bitching at you, like, go hunt some other places,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: hunt some other places, and you said, why would I
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: ever leave Iowa When everywhere else I go I know
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: won't be as good as this? So why would I
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: leave here? What happened, Dan? How other than the fact
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: that you have a lot more flexibility with your job,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: what changed in your brain? And now all of a
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: sudden you're wanting to go chase public land, dear, on
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: all these other states where I'm telling you one thing, Dan,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: I know from experience, it will not be as good
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: as your stuff in Iowa. No, no, no, And dude,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: there's been a I think we've even talked about this
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: in one of the episodes, and I can't remember if
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: it was me on yours or yours on mine. But
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: you know, you have this awakening where you really kind
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of what is important type of deal and and yes,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I'm all it's awesome for me to be able to
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: go chase big bucks in Iowa. And my standard in
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Iowa is higher than anywhere else. I really I realized
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: that now, and I realized that I can go out
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: and and killing my buck in South Dakota last year
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: was a perfect example. He's not a giant, he wasn't
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the even the biggest dear that I saw or attempted
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: to hunt, but I got him and it was an
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: amazing experience and I had so much fun doing it.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, dude, if I can fit this in
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: other places, I'm gonna go do it. And so it's
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: not about like it's in Iowa. Yes, it's about trying
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: to locate the biggest, baddest buck, right, but there's so
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: much other adventure out there. Uh, landscape changes, just the
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: experience behind all of it. That's what I want now.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: And I want to be able to go, you know,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: talk to my kids or my grandkids or some buddies
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: at a trade show or or you know, at a bar,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: me like, oh, dude, I'm hunting Nebraska. Oh yeah, I've
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: hunted there. Yeah, I've hunted there too. Oh yeah, I've
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: hunted there. That's a great place. I like that state,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you know that kind of stuff, And so it's just
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: more about realizing that, dude, nobody lives forever and if
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: you want to go do some of this right now
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: with the time to go do it. Yeah. Yeah, man,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: you are speaking my language right there with you. It's
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: a it's awesome stuff. Man. I'm glad to hear you're
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: gonna have a fun season. Yeah, it's gonna be It's
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: gonna be a blast. And um, I don't know, man,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: we'll we'll see what happens. What about you, dude, are
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: are you? Uh? I know that what last year was
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: a full schedule for you? Yeah, So what's what's on
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the docket this year? Yes, the last year was nuts,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: And as you and I talked about this spring on
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: your show, it like forced me into like rethinking a
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff and pivoting and kind of refocusing on
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: what matters to me, like you said, and what makes
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: me happy and satisfy with all this kind of stuff.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: So so this year, I think it's going to be
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: a pretty different year in a lot of regards, and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm very fired up and excited about it. Again.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: But it took me a while to get here. Like
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I had a long period this winter and spring where
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: I just didn't want to think about any of the
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: stuff or do any of the stuff. I had a
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: serious burnout issue this year. But I'm back and uh
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and stoked about so we can talk about some of
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: that stuff. But as far as like this literal plans
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: where I'm going, I'm gonna do the Idaho public land
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: thing again for white Tails. Basically, I've got you Furthers
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: coming up, so I'm hoping I was hoping to weasel
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: my way in there and be like, oh, first, can't
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: come Well, I know someone who might go, well, you
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: give me a show if you want to come along
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: one of those times. There's there's lots of stuff out there. Um,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a it's a tough it's a
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: it's a weird situation. So it's a tough spot. But
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: also like there's good opportunity and it's kicked my tail
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years, and uh, me and further
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: just want to like get it done at least once
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: before we explore anywhere else. So exactly, so we're gonna
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: do the Idaho thing. And then in October basically what
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I did, Like last year, I had like nine different states,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: I think, and there was like periods where I was
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: gone like three weeks out of four and it was
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: just too much, way too much travel, way too much,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: just like anxiety around every one of these trips and
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: what we were trying to get done, you YadA, YadA, YadA.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: So this year I've just tried to scale back a
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff and and do things that are just
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: like for fun. I'm just choosing places and doing hunts
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: now that are like something I'm gonna be excited about
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: to go to this place or to be with this
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: person or something like that, versus like, oh, I gotta
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: go to the spot because I'm gonna kill a hundred
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: six buck or anything like that. It's you know, when
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: we get to our goals, I'll talk about that more.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: But basically, like the Idaho hunt is fun because me
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and Further go there and there's this place and we
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: can fish and we can hunt and it's cool. So
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: then in October, me and our buddy Tony Peterson are
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: going to do a hunt together in North Dakota, and
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: that one's gonna be fun because it's an area that
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: we both just think super pretty, super cool and hopefully
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: we'll kill a deer there and that would be like
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: where to go out camp there, hunt public land and uh,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: you know, not high standards, shoot whatever we can shoot,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: but that'll be cool. So that's my October trip. Um
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: in November, I'm doing I am filming a hunt in November,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: and that is for our one Week in November show
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: that we did last year. We're doing a season two
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: of that, and I'm filming that hunt in Nebraska first
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: week in November, and that one's gonna be another one
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: that I chose just because like it's a super fun area.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to kill one with a handheld decoy
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: again because I tried that last year for the first
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: time and I didn't get it done, but I had
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: a riot, Like it was a lot of fun and
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I want to give a shot again. So we're gonna
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: go do that. So it would be a very different
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: kind of rut hunt, right, I will just be run
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: around chasing stuff and uh, just enjoying myself. So that's
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: my November trip. And then in December, I'm gonna go
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and hunt with do you know the guys from the Element,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Tyler Jones and Casey Smith. You do, Yeah, I've I
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: don't think i've met him in person, but I've talked
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: to him. Yeah. Cool dudes, And um, they're doing some
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: stuff with us, and so I'm gonna go hunt with
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: them in Texas on some public land down there, which
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: sounds like it'll be gnarly, just like spiny thorny cactus
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: e crap. And uh, we're gonna try to kill a
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: white tail down there in public. So that is the
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: that's the for sure plan. So like one trip a
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: month versus like three trips a month, so I think
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: it'll be much more manageable from the travel front. And
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: then of course I'll be hunting at home in Michigan
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: on my Michigan places, and then I'll be throughout all that.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: And then there's a there's a chance. I'm still kind
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: of working on it, but I might have access to
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: some stuff in Ohio and if that ends up coming through,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: that will be kind of like my I'll go for
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: a day this week, I'll go for two days next week.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: They'll just kind of here there since that's relatively close
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to home. Um, So that's that's what my twenty two
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: season looks like it's uh what, Idaho, Dakota, Nebraska, and Texas.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: It's all public land, I guess as far as all
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the traveling hunts, but Michigan and Ohio would be private. Um.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: So good mix of stuff, good mix of the country. Um.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: And you know, last year, as you know, I was
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: filming those two shows, and one of those shows was
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of that travel, and it was just like
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: it was just it's it's gonna be nice this year
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: to not be filming as much. Not that I don't
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: like to film, but filming just adds something that just
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: makes it more difficult and more stressful. It's not quite
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the same kind of experience. And so this year scaling
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: back a little bit on it, and I think that
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: will be nice, just a little reset button for me
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: and doing some some fun different hunts, but fun or
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: fun in the way that I can just like go
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: out there, experience them, have stories to tell from them,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: but not necessarily the same in that the camera brings.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's what I've got on schedule. I'm
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: pretty excit about him. Let me let me ask you this,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: after a burnout season, like you mentioned, how how and
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: when does that recovery go from burnout to the fire
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: started again? What's that look like? So for me, it
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: really was like all like you know, my season ended
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: like January twelve or something like that, and from January
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: until like the summer, I really was not too into,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you know, getting serious about deer stuff. It really was
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: like four or five six months. Not that I wasn't
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: doing things. I was still writing about deer stuff. I
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: was still doing a few things here and there, um,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't like I was throwing on a deer
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: hunting show on YouTube or something. I was not consuming
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: dear content for fun. I wasn't like texting buddies about
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: deer for fun. Um. I went the opposite, and I
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: like just removed myself from it in a big way
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: and went hard on like the other things I like.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: So I have I probably had my fishiest year ever,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Like I fished more probably than ever before. Really you know,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: continue diving down that wormhole and have had a blast
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: doing that. Um, really really really enjoy that. And that's
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: like zero pressure, zero expectations, just like just fun, nothing else.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: And and I've needed that, like I've needed that thing.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I can like uh, dive into without any of the
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: other like strings attached and and so that's been a blast.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: But then like you know, June May and June probably
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: starting to get the itch, and then July like all right,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: like I was fired up, and now that August is here,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: like now I'm I'm full blown obsessed mode where like
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: every night I'm watching some kind of video at night,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: or I'm reading some kind of article, or I'm going
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: back and listening to old podcasts. I'm staring at my
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: maps and all that kind of stuff. But it took me,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: you know, it took me a good chunk of time
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: to get back there. Um, and I'm glad I'm back there.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: And I've had like a lot, uh, Like we had
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: a really good conversation to spring, you and I talking
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: about this stuff, and I've had a couple of those,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: and I've had to kind of like just like last
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: year was really like a breaking point for me in
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: like a lot of different ways, and just like what
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: I want to do with this in this world? You know,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: what's what what are my goals for myself with with
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: this thing I've been doing, And who do I want
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: to be and who do I not want to be.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: I haven't been chasing like something that's maybe not really
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: what I want, and I've kind of landed in a
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: place that has me feeling better than I have in
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: a long time, just basically like a big middle finger
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: two to the expectations of what other people might want
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: of me or what other people are doing. I think
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: that the saying is like comparison is the death of
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: joy or something like that. And I think I've realized
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: that for too long, I've allowed myself to be too
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: worried about how I compared to other people, or how
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: my performance compares to other people, or how my success
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: or my numbers or whatever. I think. I'm very as
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: people know, I'm very goal oriented, very achievement oriented, and
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I sometimes have let that like get into my head
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: too much. And I finally kind of sound like I
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: don't need to be I don't need to be Mark
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Dreary or Andy may or Levi Morgan. I'm not gonna
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: be like I. I can be a very happy deer hunter,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: and I think I can still be successful in this
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: line of business just being what I am, which is
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: someone who loves this stuff, someone who's a pretty good storyteller,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: but someone who's you know, a decent but average hunter.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Like I screw up a lot. I don't always I'm
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: not always going to be killing big deer, and I
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: don't always want to do that. I don't want my
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: life to be one percent nothing, but you know, managing
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: and growing deer and shooting two hundreds every year. Maybe
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to be a person who loves the
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: fish and hiking camp too, and really loves the deer
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: hunt and gets out there and kills a good one
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: ever a few years, but also screws up every few years,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: and good or bad, he's gonna tell a fun story
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: about it that you can relate to, Like, I think
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: that's the only thing that has led to me being
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: successful in any kind of way. And rather than fighting
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: to be something different than that, I think I'm just
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: coming in terms of being who I am and what
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: I am and embracing that and enjoying that versus like
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: punishing myself because I'm not killing four big bucks a
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: year because I don't have as successful of a video
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: series of somebody else, Like forget all that stuff. I'm
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: just sick of worrying about that kind of thing, and
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: uh and all that I think kind of I had
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: to have a year like last year where I kind
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: of realized, like, you were just killing yourself for a
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: stupid thing, get back to the fun of it. And
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: so that's that's where I am this year, I think.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: And um, I think also last year, like I killed,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I had a tough year in so many different ways.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: But another thing I did, which was kind of freeing,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: as I killed a couple of young bucks and you know,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: it was actually fun and I don't really feel bad
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: about it. And I think that also changed my perspective
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: on what I can do and what I should do
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: and what I will do as well. So I'm not
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: gonna feel bad if I go out on these public
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: plan hunts and you know, tag a smaller buck or
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: younger buck if that's if that gets me excited, if
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: that would be something I'd be pretty pumped about. Um,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of done with comments on YouTube or
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: what people send me on d ms on Instagram or
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: what someone at work says or whatever. I'm just gonna
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: do me And uh, I think that's gonna I think
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: that's gonna work pretty well. Hey, you go get it,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: like I love that. I Uh, dude, I'm I'm in
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the same boat. Man. The best part about all that
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: you can kind of boil it down is is, uh,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: I stopped giving a ship about what other people thought
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: about me a very long time ago, and uh um,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: it's free to be able to do what you want
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: and enjoy your own success the way you define it,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: not someone else. So uh, dude, I hope that whatever
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: you're looking for, you find it and you slay it.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Nice buddy. So let's let's talk about that a little more.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Let's talk goals. So I'll just briefly expand on what
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: I just said there. My my, my season is very
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: different than maybe like six seven years ago when you
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: and I did one of these episodes, because back then
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: or even five or six years ago, we would have
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: these goals hopes, some hit list conversation and I beg,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: all right, my goal is to kill a five year
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: old buck in Michigan or like a four or five
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: year old buck in Ohio. And I want to kill
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: only Holy Field in Michigan. And I got a fill
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: a tag in this day in this stick. You know,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I was very that this year I only have two goals.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Goal Number one is just is just keep it fun,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Like I just want this year to be fun. And
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: that's like anytime I'm in a tough spot or um
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: debating what to do, or I'm sitting there and I'm
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: starting to stress out about shooting hunt here or there,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna remind myself, is this fun? And I'm
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: gonna do what's what's fun this year. And I'm actually
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: betting that that's probably gonna make me more successful too,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: or at least okay with whatever success comes by, because
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: as you've you've heard over many years, I allow myself
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: to get pretty stressed out during the hunting season. So
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: this year, it's like I keep on telling myself, it's
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: gonna be my season of joy, Like that's what it's
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: gonna be about. So that's goal number one, and then
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: goal number two is shooting. I just want good, clean shots.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I don't want any more rush shots. I don't want
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: a gut shot, I don't want to miss. I just
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: want good shots. So this spring, this is one thing
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: I have been doing all year, more than I have
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: in the past. I've kept shooting all through the whole
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: year pretty much. And in April I met with a
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: shooting coach, had a really good time with him, and
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: uh kind of tore down my whole system again and
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: rebuilt it. And I've been shooting since April all the
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: way through the summer, and I'm feeling better about my
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: shooting than ever before. So I'm excited about that and
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I just want that to continue this year. So if
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: I can have fun all year, and if I can,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you can't control the situation. But if
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I can feel like I had in control shots as year,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: where I know I did my part right at least,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: then this year is going to be a success. I
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: don't care what I shoot. I don't care if it's
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: five big bucks or nothing. If I can do those
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: two things, this is gonna be a very successful year.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: So those are my two goals for this year. Now
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: I do have other hopes, but those are my two goals.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: So that's that's what I got there. What do you
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: go from a goal standpoint? Man, I'll tell you what
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: it's like. The more I do this, the less I
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: want to make goals because something always happens, or something
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: changes so quickly before a moment of success or before
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: a moment of failure, you find yourself going you know,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: that's not even what I wanted in the first place.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: But your mind changed, right. So if I you know,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: right now in Iowa, and I'm after a big, fat,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: mature buck, right, that's that's what I want. I want
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: a four four year old or older five year old
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: or older. Um, I don't know if he's got big fat,
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: If he's got big antlers, that would be awesome. Um no,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: lie there. But on on top of that, you know,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: on my out of state hunts, it's gonna be any
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: I llegal, any legal buck. Uh. And then as those
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: vacation time or as that that trip starts to wind down,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be any legal deer. So I don't know, man,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: it's I'm I. I like to go into these things
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: with absolutely zero expectations now and just go with the
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: flow and let whatever happens happens. And I think that
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: if if you start to what what I My goal
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: is to learn how to hunt animals in different environments.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: And so when I go out west to Nebraska, completely
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: different landscape than what I hunt in Iowa or South
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Dakota or you know this year Oklahoma, these are different landscapes.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: So in order for me to be successful, I have
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: to learn, and I can't. I can't just say, hey,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for any legal buck, because hell, I don't
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: even know where any legal buck lives out there right now.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I have to go educate myself on how to hunt
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: in these environments and and use the principles from how
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I think dear move and other scenarios, or what I've
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: learned in the shorter period, you know, a short period
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: of time in some of my other Western hunting experiences
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: or out of state hunts, and and really go and
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: try to focus on you know, focus on what how
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: how they move through the terrain, and just learn about
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: dear behavior and other environments. And and once I can
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: do that, then I feel like I can go. Okay,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: my goal this year is this because I know how
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: they live out here now, and and honestly, man, I
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: wish I could say I do know how they live,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: but I really don't. It's it's just I'm not. I'm
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: still in data collection mode and education mode on my
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: oddest date hunts, and in Iowa, I'm in a completely
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: different mode. I'm in you know, I'm in locate a
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: big deer and try to kill him mode. So two
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: completely different Uh, like a set of expectations to different goals,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: you know all that stuff. So yeah, that's my goal.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: I get that. Now you mentioned Iowa being different. Do
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: you have any bucks that you hope made it to
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: this year from the from last year that you know
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: and have history with or is there any of that
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: you actually know for sure based on a picture cell
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: can't picture anything yet, Like, do you have any specific
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: deer that you know would tickularly your fancy if they
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: showed up? Yeah, there's only this year, only one, because well,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: I lost the main property the we're I think I
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: told the story about I was one ridge over all
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: last year from a really big deer. Lost that property, right, However,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: it's next to some public so I might be able
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: to backdoor in there and uh maybe see if it's
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: running that core area as well. I might throw a
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: trail camera up in there. Uh come you know, come September.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: But outside of that, I really do think that, um,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: outside of that man one buck, I think there's one
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: deer that showed up last year that was well excuse
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: me too, both of them eight pointers. One was a clean,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: clean four year old. I mean he was pretty, he
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: was pretty wide. He was pretty tall. I mean he's
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: like a giant eight and then another eight pointer not
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: as big of a frame, but he had junk all
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: over the place, like junk on the base, is junk
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: coming off the g twos and things like that. And uh,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: the first one that I mentioned, I didn't get any
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: pictures of him after the season, but the the eight
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: pointer was junk that owed up. He showed up late
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: January after the season is over, so but I haven't
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: had any pictures of him yet so far. However, all
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: my trail cameras are out late. I have one cell
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: camera up in that area and it's not catching anything
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: too serious. I did. I did have one mature buck
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: on camera so far, only one. He's an eight point
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: or two, but he's not right on that cusp of
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: do I want to put my tag around him or not?
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: So we'll see. Um. So as far as just to
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: answer your question, probably just one deer so far that
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: I have any type of history with, well, does that
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: does that make you nervous at all? Or do you
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: feel like you know, you've had years like this in
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: the past and September October they'll be there. Yeah, dude,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: that's why I try not to get so jacked up
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: anymore because I look at look, you know seven years ago,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: you know when we started the uh the Wired to
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, and we would have these conversations and I
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: would a mark, Dude, I got seven shooters on the
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: property right now, and every year, guess what would happen
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: at September the old shift? They're gone, you have the
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: old September shift, and so that I know it's coming,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: so I know sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: So I don't even get my hopes up anymore until
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: it's time to go actually hunt those properties. And so
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: sometimes I may not even I may not even really
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: get too hype about anything anymore until October or like
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: late October, I mean, And so who knows who like,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: who knows what's gonna what's gonna happen, And a lot
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: of it has to depend on my first my first
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: card poll before the the process starts, if that makes sense, right,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: locating a deer via trail camera, trying to triangulate his
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: position and then hop into a really good terrain feature
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: where he's at at that time, and hopefully, uh, I
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: don't know, man, hopefully get have an encounter with a shooter. Yeah,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: it's come a long way, haven't we. Things have changed, Yeah, yeah,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: and I think it's all for the better too, write
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I find myself enjoying the time spending the tree stand
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: more these days then you know even five years ago
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: where it was. Man, you know, I gotta shoot a buck.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: I gotta shoot a buck now, I know what I
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: need to do. I just you know, if a deer
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: show like I just I just need the deer to
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: show up, and you can't. You can't sit there and
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: stress like, oh my god, a deer it's not showing up.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm so frustrated. Well, they're You're wasting your energy
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: at that point, right, You gotta you gotta start over again,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: and then you keep you keep going through whatever process
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: works for you. And that's that's what I'm trying to do.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: I wonder if like this, like that trajectory, if that's
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: tied to age, or if that's tied to like your
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: journey along with the path as a deer hunter, Like
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: is there something to be said like this, like stress
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: and comparison all that is yet just because we are
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: younger and now we're aging out of that or is
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: it actually like we've come into our own as hunters,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: and we for a long time we are still just
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: there was so much to figure out, there was so
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: much to really get our heads around. And now like
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: we both are confident in our experience and what we
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: know and how to do it. And now it's it's
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: it's it's different. Now, it's like, Okay, we know what
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: to do, and if if it doesn't work out, it's
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: not because we're idiots, it's because it didn't happen today.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: But we, you know, we're confident in the path. And
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: and I wonder if that's part of like this shift
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: in our mindsets in recent years. Um, I don't know, yeah,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: And and so I can't speak for you, but I
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: can speak for me, alright. So let's see here sixteen seventeen,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen. So I'm on a seven year run in
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: in Iowa, right, and so as far as my skills
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: are concerned, I'm confident. I'm not shaky, like you know,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: like there's a difference probably between a rookie going to
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and Tom Brady going to the super Bowl,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Now, I'm not trying to
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: sit here and compare myself to Tom Brady. But I've
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: been around the block now a couple of times, and
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: I know that I know how this thing works. Right
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: If if they don't show up, there's no reason to
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: get stressed about it. You have to do your job
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: and do what has worked in the past. And you
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: can do that without getting stressed or worked up about it.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: Just do what you do what you do. Just just
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: put the plan into process or into you know, into
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: go mode, and it just it just kind of happens
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: at that point. And when it happens, then I feel
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: like it's more pure, and it's uh, it's less like
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: reading a textbook and more like catching the ultimate wave
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: like uh, like body from point break. God, that's great.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: You had to somehow get a point break reference and
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: hell yeah, I don't know, man, it's just um, it's
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: just this this thing that I love to do, you
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like it's it's not it's not
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: frustrating like running, it's like walking. It's as like it's
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: not as I don't know how to put it without
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: sounding and kind of arrogant. But I feel like I've
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: figured certain things out, especially in Iowa. Right, But you
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: remove me from what I feel very comfortable and confident
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: in on the farms that I hunt in the terrain
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: in Iowa. And now I'm a different hunter right because
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: of the different scenarios and the different environments and things
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: like that. So I'm two different people in in and
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: out of certain worlds. So in Iowa, man, I'm confident
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: like I can go into I could go into an
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: area and I can say, well, of all the other
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: places I've hunted, this, this is a good. This place
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: looks like big Buck would live here, and I would
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: either throw a trail camera in there or I would
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: hunt it a couple of times. And I bet you
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: that I'm gonna I'm gonna find the deer that live
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: in this area if I give it enough time, A
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: good deer in whatever area I'm hunting. And you take
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: me out of that, Yeah, it's different. Yeah m hmmm,
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: I um, I get that, hundredson, Get that. And I
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: will say, kind of rewinding the tape a little bit
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: and just jumping back into kind of how I have said,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: you know, here in my local stuff, I'm not it's
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: worried about you know, specific deer or anything. I still
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: do get excited though, to possibly see one of these deer,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: you know again, Like yeah, for a lot for a
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: few years, there is you know very well. I was
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: like upset with specific deer right and it was like
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I gotta kill this one deer and it was like
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: that deer or bust um. And and now I feel
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: like I'm still excited for a couple of deers show
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: up and hopefully get a crack at them. But I'm
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: also like I've just kind of come to the terms
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: of the fact, back to what we've been talking about
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: the whole time, Like nobody cares if I kill this
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: deer or not, Like nobody really cares. Why should I
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: care that much? I mean, this is not like for death.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: This is just we're just out there chasing, as our
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: buddy Tony likes to say, rabbits with antlers with a
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: stick and string, and there's no reason to do it
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: except to have fun and to put meat in the freezer.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: So why am I out there freaking out about whether
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: or not someone's gonna kill my buck quote unquote or
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: if it's gonna happen. Like I'm gonna go out there
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna hope to see one of these deer
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna, you know, keep tabs on them as
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: best as I can, and I'll study the patterns and
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: I'll do the thing because it's fun. But if it
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: just doesn't happen, I'm just I'm just sick of getting
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: all frustrated about it. So yeah, in that world, there's
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: only one person. It's me. Yeah, you know, you're you.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: You are in your world. I'm not in your world, right,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: And so that's that's where I really think a lot
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: of people get frustrated in is because they're not they're there.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: There's too much into the equation. They're putting too much
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: into the equation where the equation is quite simple if
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: you can figure it out. And once you figure it out,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh man, this is this is awesome and
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: and it's it's okay to let people into your world sometimes,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: but when it comes to defining success and actually having success,
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: you're you're in control of that, nobody else is. So
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: one last thing I gotta I gotta drop in here
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: before we wrap it up, which is just uh, the
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: hopes I have for a few deer in my Michigan
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: spots because most of my honest state stuff saw that
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: I saw the velvet, the velvet video you posted. I mean,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: anythink about that one? Is that compare him to some
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: of the deer that you've gotten the past off that property.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: So this is in that general area. Um, so this
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: is down in my local. I've got some different Michigan spots,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: and in that area, I've killed some you know, some
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: pretty good deer. You know, bucks, uh four to six
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: years old, And I killed my biggest Michigan buck, which
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: is like a hundred sixty five in ten pointer, and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: then I've got a couple others that are like one
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: thirty one forty. Um. So I got eyes the other
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: day on a buck that's probably the middle of the
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: pack on that one. He's the kind of deer that really,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: if you gave him another year, you know, he'd be
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: like a mega giant. Um. But there's no way I'm
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: passing like a hundred forty five hundred fifty thirteen pointer
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: or something. So so yeah, I got eyes on a
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: really nice buck. Um. He's got splits off both of
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: his brow times and both of his G two's, So
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: like one G two is a really deep split and
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: the other G two is more of like a hook
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: coming off of it, and then on his brow times
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: there's like a small split coming off both brow times
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: and actually a little tiny like sticker drop or almost
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: coming off the main beam. And otherwise he's a main
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: frame eight. So he's an eight with all that stuff. Um, so,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: really really cool deer. We don't get like nontypicals like that,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: at least in the areas I hunt very often. So
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: that's a very uncommon set of characteristics. So that's just
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: exciting to see a deer like that. Um. I actually
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: got footage of him. I saw him again when I
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: was out glassing last night too. Um I there's a
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: possibility he's a buck that I no. I never saw
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: this buck last year, but I got a lot of
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: pictures of him. He had split brow times last year.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: And again, like I said, we don't get those kinds
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: of deer. Um. So it's the only split brow time
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: buck I've had on camera. And I don't know years,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: three or four years, and now this buck comes back
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: has splits, but more junk. It's not a perfect match.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Like you know, sometimes the bucks you can see like
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: it's obvious for sure, like they just got bigger, but
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: all the same characteristics. This buck is like ish like
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: kinda so I don't know, maybe maybe not, but super
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: cool buck. Um. I did see another buck for sure.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: That is a deer from last year. I found this
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: bucks shed two years ago. He was a wide eight pointer.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: Last year he popped a ninth point, so he was
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: a nine points a three year old last year saw
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: him like everywhere was passing him. And this year he's back.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: He's a ten pointer now but otherwise it looks exactly
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: the same. And so he'll be a four year old
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: this year and a deer I've seen a lot and
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: super cool, so he'd be one I take a crack
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: at would be excited about. Uh. So he's the wide
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: nine and then the the number one buck. I have
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: yet to see him, but I know he made it
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: through the season. Um, he's a deer. I was calling Jr.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Because two years ago, two or three years ago, whenever
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: it was that, I was still in tran Um. This
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: buck looked like him, but like a junior version of him,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: like a miniature version of him, and like every time
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I see him coming through the woods of like, oh
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: ship's tran And then I realized it was not it
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: was the little guy. Um, so I passed him a
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: bunch that year, and then last year he was a
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: deer I would have shot as a four year old
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: last year and he was like just a big, really
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: big eight pointer, um, and never got a crack at him,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: made it through. I don't know if he's still around
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: this year, but he was around as of like late
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: January or February. So knock on wood, hopefully he'll be
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: around this year. And my guests that he'll just be
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: a really big eight again and a five year old,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: so he would be a deer I'd be I'd be
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: stoked to see as well. So so there's Junior, there's
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: that non typical dude, there's the Y nine, and then
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: there was another just like solid eight pointer last year
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: I saw around quite a bit in one of these
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: areas and um, and I passed on him as well,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: and I was like, kind of if he, like God,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: he might be might be a four year old I have,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: but probably a three year old, and so I never
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: really tried to get after him, but I thought about it.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: And so if he's around this year, he would be
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: a definite shooter too. So yeah, so there's a handful
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: of good Michigan deer run around and you never know
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: what might show up. There's always the chance for a surprise.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: But um, I do love still having some places I
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: hunt year after year where you do get to know
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: some of the deer year after year, because that going
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: back to the fun, like it is fun to see
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: these deer and see how they change, and to try
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: to look back at what do they do on camera
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: last year? And what did I see last year? Will
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: they will they do that thing again? Um? I love
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: like the public land new hunting kinds of places, But
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: there's something to be said about having some history like
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: that is a fun puzzle to work through too, So
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about that. I definitely want to be able
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: to do that someday. Right to own the property or too,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man like be in control of something
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: because I've I've never had that. I've never had a
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: property where I could go in and you know, be
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: in control where it's just me or my fami, my
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: hunting right because if I always share it with someone else,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: they go and do their things. There's never really any
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: conversations about what to shoot or not to shoot. Um
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: And thus the days for me of really trying to
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: identify and follow along with a single deer. Are almost
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: all but over until I you know, get get that
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: opportunity someday hopefully. Why don't you go buy that farm
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: those landowners, those kids are selling. Yeah, dude, I live
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: in the most expensive county in Iowa. Unfortunately, and unless
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: I had a million dollars just kind of sitting in
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: my back pocket, uh, it's not gonna happen. All right, folks,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: here's what we gotta do. We all gotta start. We
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: got all gotta go and start buying Dan Johnson. Let's
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: give him some uh Iowa farm. No, we're gonna We're
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: all gonna go and like put your podcast on repeat
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: so that your number skyrocket to like ten million downloads
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: an episode, and then you can charge a million dollars
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: for your sponsors next year and buy farm and then
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: invite me to hunt the next year. I draw right there,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: we go, Hey, all right, if that, I'll tell you
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: what If that works, you know, let's let's give it
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: a try. All right, All right, man, this is uh.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: I think this is a good place to wrap it
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: up and get to part two of my podcast today.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: But thank you, this is uh, this is too this
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: is this is too long and coming again, and I
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: think we got to try to figure out a way.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: Schedules are tough these days with both of what we
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: got going on. But if we can somehow figure out
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: a way to do like a check in like this,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like once a month or something through
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: the hunting season, it's just so much fun to get
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: to talk about what's going on in our lives in
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: the hunting season and like foul along, like I missed
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: that if if we can see it, we should try
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: to do that this year. Absolutely, And let me say
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: good luck to you Mark man, I hope you slay,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: and good luck to everybody who's listening. Man. I I
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: love when I see success from other people man, whether
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: it's someone like Mark or you know, regular Joe who
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: you know put in sixty hours on the factory line
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: and got out then got it done. So I enjoy
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: all that. Yeah, so true. Agreed. All right, thanks buddy,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: alright back with me on the show for your third appearance.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: I think Eddie, we've got Eddie Claypool. Welcome back, Eddie,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: thank you glad to be here. These uh, these are
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: always some of my favorite chats. So I appreciate coming
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: on every every time I start thinking about, you know,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: wanting the chat in the weeds on something d I
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: y bow hunting. My buddy Tony Peterson always reminds me,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: you gotta call Eddie. You gotta call Eddie. And when
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: we were when we were talking about doing this series,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: you popped into my mind before Tony suggested this, So
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: I got ahead of him on this one. I said,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: we gotta talk to Eddie. So I'm glad you're able
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: to make it happen. Thank you for doing this well.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you. If you want to get some redneck
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: you know Amphiles, you're you got the right guy what
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: we're looking for. And uh, you know, with the season
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: about to kick off, I know you're hitting the road
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: here soon and me too. We're doing this little mini
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: series Eddie where I'm calling out to what would you
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: do format in which you know we were basically, I'm
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: gonna run you through a bunch of hypothetical hunting scenarios,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: gonna take you through some doozies. It's gonna be a
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: little bit of a gauntlet here and there, and uh,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: I just want to hear how you would handle it.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: How you would deal with this challenge or this situation,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: What would you be thinking about, what's the kind of
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: what are the other things you'd want to know to
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: better make a decision? Um? You know, I think we
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: can just have an interesting conversation about these different possible
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: scenarios and uh and learn a little bit about how
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: Eddie Claypool makes it happen in the woods. So are
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: you game to go down this path? Yeah, I'm I'm
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: interested see how what comes out of my mouth too.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: I'll probably be learning about myself. That sounds good to
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: me than Eddie. So I think in the interest of
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: just scratching our white tail, that's as quickly as possible.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: How about we just jump right into the first scenario.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: And in this one, Eddie, I want to imagine that
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: you have got to go back to your public land roots. Now.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: I know that recently you you picked up, you bought
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: a piece of property yourself, but let's let's imagine that
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: you couldn't hunt it this year for whatever reason. You
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: can't hunt your home for your home farm, so you
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: gotta hunt public land. And you unfortunately realize this in August.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: It's late and you're like, oh, man, I gotta hunt
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: some new public land. You only are going to have
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: one weekend in August to prepare for this brand new adventure.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you one weekend, so you've got two days.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: How would you spend your only two days of public land?
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: Whe tell prep if that was the situation you were in,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: what would you do over the course of those forty
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: eight hours to maximize your preparations and scouting to hunt
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: this public peace? Now, I got a point one of
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: the things. This would be a new piece of public
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: land you're hunting. This can't be somewhere you've been before.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: So that's the situation. What would you do it? Well?
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: Now on what I got to get done, you know,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: in the season, and only having those two days to
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: on ground, I'm going to spend a lot more time
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: outside of those two days on maps and Google Earth
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: and stuff, you know, looking at it from aerial and
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: and I'm I'm gonna the during those two days. The
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: main thing I'm gonna do is drive the roads, learn
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: all the access points, and you know how to get
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: around in the place and get a feel for the
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: lay of the land, and you know what's there in
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: the way of the habitat, but mainly now a days,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: I'm going to use technol ergy to scout that I'm
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: going to get above it and look down on it,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna want to know where the roads are
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: for the main access or any access points are. I'm
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: gonna mark them all, and then I'm going to look
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: for the most inaccessible spots on that public land. There's
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: gonna be some spots somewhere that has some serious problems
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: obstacles about getting a warm body to them, and those
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: are the few that I'm gonna mark, and then I'm gonna,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: you know, take it to the next level that any
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: normal whitetailed guy would do is figure out what winds
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna need to hunt them, how I'm going to
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: get to them. If that means, you know, if I've
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: got to get watercraft involved something, Usually there's you know,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: um water, you know, creeks, rivers, lakes, something, and there's
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: usually spots along them that are like a long way
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: from a road. And so water access is an important
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: thing I've used over the years, either chess waiters to
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: wait you know, creeks that the average guy is not
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: going to try to even think about getting across or
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: putting in a little small canoe or something. But the
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: two days I'm going to be there in the summer,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not really big on putting myself out in that
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: habitat and walking around in it. I don't know what
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: to gain them and accept a lot of ticks and jiggers,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: and it may be a snake bike. But I'm gonna
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my scouting from above at home a
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: lot outside those two days, and then the two days
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to all the work to learn all
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: I can learn about the road and water access points,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: and um, look at the land in comparison to what
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: it looks like from above, in other words, to compare
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: the fields. See what's being farmed this year versus you
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: know an open field on Google Earth. That the imagery
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: could be a year old, you know, and it might
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: be a fallow field this year's grown up in weeds
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: or something. And I want to learn what I can
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: from the roads. But mainly the two days, it's not
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: gonna be me out there beating my brains out through
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: that habitat looking for anything dearer. Wise, UM, I just
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: don't put a lot of stock and needing to do
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: that in August. I would like to have had those
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: two days back the previous um January or February. You
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: know where I where I could have got in there
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: when everybody's out, the woods are open and the signs
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: still there. But if I've just got two days in August,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: it's going to be learning where I'm gonna mount my
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: attack from figuring out where everybody else is probably gonna
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: mainly be and what they're gonna be doing, and then
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: trying to get around, you know, to where they're not
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: none of them going to be getting to, and then
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: you're planning to be once the season kicks off. That's
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: when you'll really get boots on the ground in the habitat,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: in setting stands and and figuring it out as you
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: go in season. Is there right? Exactually? And then really
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of you know, I I know, I'm kind
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: of narrow in my scope on light till I've never
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: really been an excellent early season might kill hunter. Um,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not real good at figuring out how to kill
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: those big mature bucks in early October, all of them
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: I've ever dealt with. That is one of the least
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: likely times you're gonna kill them now, I do know
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: the hunting community has figured out how to short circuit
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: that now by you know, the grow your own, feed
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: your own, um, you know, cornering them and stuff. You
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Yeah, I'm not that if you
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: want to hunt them straight up to fair Chase, I'm
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: not gonna really plan on killing my buck in early October.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: I probably won't plan on really hunting them seriously until
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: the third week of October, uh earliest. I'm a rud hunter.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: That's money what I've always just honed in on with
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: catching bucks when they're out prowling. And uh so I'm
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: going to go in there in early October and soon
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: as you know, the temperatures are inductive and I can
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: get around, and I'm going to go ahead and put
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: my you know, feet on the ground and learn a
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: lot of things I learned. Then are you know old
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: signed like signpost drubs areas where you see, you know,
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: where the big bucks have rubbed their horns in past years.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: But I'm not really planning. I'm looking more for pinch points,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: if you want to get technical. I'm looking at the
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: lay of the land and the way the vegetation and
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: it all comes together and the and the pinch points
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: can be very subtle things that you know, maybe early
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: on bow hunter may not really recognize that is a
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: pinch point just because of the certain changes in vegetation. Um,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: you've got to kind of get some you know, experience
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: under your belt to figure out how those bucks like
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: to move through different types of habitat. Just an edge
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: between a you know, a real grown up field and
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: an open woodlot can be a pinch point if if
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: if you know, you know, if it's if it's in
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: the rights and area, So it doesn't have to be
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: that classical hour glass pinch point. I'm looking for like
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: between two big blocks September with a little, you know,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: narrow tree line in between them. But um, I'm gonna
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: go in there in early October and I'm gonna I'm
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: gonna get a real good feel for where a few
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: of these points that I think these rutting bucks are
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: gonna walk through when they're going from point A to
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: point B. And and that's a lot of what I
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: do on the aerial scouting. You can you can figure
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: where the bigger blocks the cover at in relation to
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: the food, and you can kind of put a pink
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: by numbers together and figure out, well, you know a
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: lot of the feedings going on here, a lot of
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: the bettings going on over here. So all I got
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: to figure out is how are they getting between those
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: two points and get right in the middle there in
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: a in a bit of a pinch point and hunting
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: during the rut. And I know that may not be
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: the number one best way to do it, but it's
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: what I've done. And you've got to dance with the
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: one that brought you so um, I've just always done that.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: And because of the time that I usually put in
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: and the patience I usually put in, I I have,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: you know, feathered my nest with a lot of good
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: bucks during that light October to light November period, you know. Yeah,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: So a question for you, and I know that you've
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: been hunting public land white tilles for a long time
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: and you saw what things were like, you know, twenty
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: plus years ago, and you've also seen what public lands like,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: excuse me, in the last couple of years. And I
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: know that recently that you've had some frustrations with you know,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: all the hunters and the pressure and how that's changed things.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: I'm curious have you had to have you had to
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: seek out some of those more subtle pinch points more
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: recently in these newer days because the obvious pinch points
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: are becoming you know, a spot that everybody goes to now,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: is that those subtle spots become more important now in
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: recent years because of the fact that public land hunting
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: is gained popularity and those obvious pinch points are becoming
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: obviously popular. Oh. Absolutely, that's just a no brainer right there,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: because I mean twenty years ago, when I was hunting
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: public land hardcore, I I didn't even hardly it didn't
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: seem like public land because I I just didn't have
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of problems with people. Uh, you know, I
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: don't know. To me, see, I've been at this like
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: forty plus years now, and I've seen a pretty broad
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: spectrum of what the hunting industry has been through, and
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: I've watched the game departments evolved. I've watched the hunting
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: industry evolve, and I've seen and I know that sometimes
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: I'm called a negative Nancy, but I'm not gonna lie
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: to you. Over the you know, the past forty and
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: especially the past twenty years, I haven't seen a whole
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: lot of positives and um, the hunting world, populations of
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: the animals, the mature animals, the access to the hunting um.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: A lot of things have gone backwards. Um. And I
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: don't mean to be negative, but I'm just telling you
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: what I have seen. And yeah, nowadays, if you go
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: try to hit the most obvious pinch points, you might
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: as well to sco play golf because there's gonna be
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: a guy or two or three that's already set in there.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: And uh that I don't deal with. I I have.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: I started my hunting career out west in the late
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: seventies and I was a wilderness fanatic and I'm just
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: not a endo. I don't like dealing with people. I'm
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: my only child, and I'm not socially good and i
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: don't like dealing with people. And God forgive me for it,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to go to probably the most worthless
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: sort of spot if necessary, to get away from people.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: But then again, that's the greatest thing you can do
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: in public plan because any any buck worth is, you know,
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: white gold is gonna hide out where people ain't tromping
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: him up and stomping him up twice a day. He's
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: gonna figure out where in his home that he can
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: hide out and have some security. And of course I
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: figure that same thing out because that's where the you know,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: you've got to figure out where the people aren't getting to.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be some nooks and crannies on all public
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: lands that for some reason, and it can be a
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: multiple to the reasons, but there will be some reasons
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: why they're overlooked. And you know, there might still be
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: a guy or two getting into him once in a while.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: But but if that old buck doesn't get bumped but
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: once ever so many days versus he's you know, going
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: through this pench point and he gets killed the first
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: time he walks through it or shot at or wounded.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: I mean he's gonna be back there in that thicket
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: that you know, eight foot tall Johnson grass thicket that's
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: ten acres that nobody in the right mind walks through it,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: because I mean it's eight foot tall Johnson grass, right,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: And so you know, I mean, those bucks, unless they
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: just totally light out and go for a no new
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: home range, they're going to have to be in those
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: areas where the people aren't. And so that's what I do.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: In the last twenty years. Gosh almighty, ever since the
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: advent of the video era of the hunting world. See
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm so far before the advent of video hunting,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean TV, and I mean back
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: in them days, it was just utopia. It was just
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: too good to be true. Living through that era and
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: then having to live through this one is just enough
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: to make you want to shoot yourself because you know
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: the difference between the way it used to be in
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: the way it is, and it haunts you. And sometimes
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: I think ignorance would be blessed. In other words, maybe
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: I just started bow hunting twenty years ago and didn't
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: even know the way it used to be. So yeah,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: on public land nowadays, don't don't go here's another thing,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: elk too out west. I've watched what's happened to the
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: elk thing. If you go to any of your classical
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: elk cabitat the stuff that they want to live in
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: and that they do live in all year except hunting season.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: If you go to that anymore on public lands, and
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: then across the counter type of hunt, you're you're just
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: you're out of your mind. You gotta look for the
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: hell holes and just go right straight to them. Because
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: after the first day season or two out west all
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: of Elk pile off and and canyons and and living
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: and blow down cliff the areas where nobody goes. And
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: it's the same way with our public land. White tells
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: you just gotta get don't park, it's the normal trail heads.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: Don't walk the normal you know, routes in and get
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: in the normal pinch points, get your top blow out
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: or not taplow anymore. That see that. That dates me
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: right there. But get your aerials or get on Google
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: Earth and and pick out the most inaccessible spots on
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: public lands and the thickest, nastiest ones. I mean, I've
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: got some spots on public plan that I have worked
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: on two or three winners in a row, trying to
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: get them where I felt like I could shoot a
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: deer if it come by. You know. Um, I'm talking
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: stuff that's so thick that you I often don't see
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: a deer touch within twenty yards of me, you know.
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: And that's where they spend their days. And uh, you know,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: you get back in there and they get to chase
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: them those around and that during the day, and it
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: can be quite a little freak show going on around
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: you in them in them hell holes on public land sometimes.
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: But anyway, it's it's just a matter of common sense
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: to me. I don't know if if I call it that,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: because I've been doing it for forty plus years, but
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: if if it's a new guy, beginner, don't go with
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: traditional thoughts, don't go with traditional advice. Get outside the
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: box and and just dive in and you're gonna figure
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: it out. Um, you know, don't go fish fight with
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: everybody over the traditional pinch point to get a wife
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: from them. Let them have them. Those big old bucks
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: won't walk through them probably and the douled anyway, Um,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: get back in their hoard or just staging an arc,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: you know, and those stickets and get away from the
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: traditional good spots and and and take your chances on
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: that and you'll be better off. So so then kind
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: of jumping off of them, I've got another scenario because
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: I want to I want to pitch or I want
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: to pivot to a different situation. Let's imagine that you
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: instead of being the hunter that you are, and instead
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: of you know, having the experience that you have, let's
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: imagine that instead you are a newer hunter. Well, how
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: suld I frame this? Basically, you're someone who is hunting
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: not for a trophy buck. You're not trying to hunt
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: them mature buck. You're just trying to get any buck.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: It's a meat crisis. You need food, your family is
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: desperately hungry. And let's say you've got a day job,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: so you don't have a lot of time either. So
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: it's like a your weekend warrior who's just trying to
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: get a deer and yeah, just a bohn and you're
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: hunting public land. So how would your advice change on
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: public land given that now I'm talking, I need any deer.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to kill it on the weekends. I just
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: gotta eat. How would you approach things in that case?
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Is it the exact same advice you just gave or
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: something different? Now? Not at all? Not really? I mean,
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't worry about doing what I just said. That's
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: kind of a trophy buck scenario. I've been locked in
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: on antlers for I don't know how long. I even
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: back when I didn't know how to get him, I
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: was infatuated with him and I But if you're just
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: wanting to hunt to get a deer and fun. You
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: can take a lot of the pressure off and a
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: lot of the work. Now you're going to have some
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: people problems. Get ready for that and get mentally psyched up,
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: but you know that's okay. Don't worry about it. Just
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: go and have some fun. Um, get in the traditional
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: spots that fine. People will be coming and going here
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: and there's something there, but they're gonna move the deer.
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: They'll run dose by you, they'll run the small bucks
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: by you. Just get used to it, be happy with it.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: Shoot one of them when you can. Don't get anal
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: about it. Um. Like a trophy hunter does you know
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: when that stuff gets all messed up for him, he's
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: just he's ready to go cork off and tear the guys.
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've been out there set and have guy
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: put a tree stand up forty yards from me. You
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: know what I'm like. But the way I mean, no,
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: just take the traditional advice there on public land, like
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: for instance, in October. One of the very best ways
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: I used to kill deer, and I'm we're when we're
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: talking about just killing deer, you know, of any kind, shaped,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: size or sex. Um. October can be really good for
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: that because um it's cooling down a little. The masked crop,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: the acorn crop is usually falling. So what I would
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: do is I would go to the public land and
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: if it's any kind of traditional Midwestern stuff, it's usually
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: got acorn producing trees, and or another big one is
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: per simmons. Um, if you're in habitat has per simmons
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: and or acorns that are falling in October, go and
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: start your scouting. Spread down with bug crap. Get get
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: out there, find out where there is some good acorns
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: hitting the ground or per simmon thickets that are starting
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: to drop, and set up on them. And you know
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: that time of year in early October, I don't know,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't think you're gonna get overrun with people.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: Then it seems like the madhouse begins around the last
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: week of October when everybody from out of state comes
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: and the population of hunters quadruples, you know what I mean.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: And uh so get out there early and just hunt
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: some food sources if you can scout, like if it's
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: a public lanned area that they do the share cropping
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: in the farming in get out there in glass in
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: September and spout some spots where the hung deer are
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: coming out into some bean fields, or you know, something
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: like that. But master trees have been good to me.
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: In October, I can walk through a lot of country
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: and look at a lot of oaks, and there will
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: be certain ones that everything's just right. And when the acorns,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: usually the white oaks, are hitting the ground in October,
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: them deer will concentrate on that hard core. And all
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: you gotta do immediately if you see an acorn crop
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: hitting the ground with a lot of you know, tracks
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: around it and droppings and stuff, and maybe a few
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: of them little early season rubs, just back off down
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: wind or where you want that set a tree stand
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: real quick and get out of there, you know, and
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: slip back in there, usually for an evening hunt's been
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: the best to me. Um, get in there early early
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: evening and get set up and let them come in
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: there to feed in the evening and and fill your
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: tag and have some fun. Yeah. Great, great advice. I
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: think there's a lot of newer hunters who get into
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: this and by default have to hunt public land. But
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: when they go out there seeking out public land information,
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: it's it's mostly a bunch of people like you and
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: me who are obsessed with big deer and stuff, and
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: then this new hunter is thinking, oh my gosh, this
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: sounds like a death march, and they're doing this and
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: this and this and this and this, and I think
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: I think you're I think your example is perfect and
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: it's a great reminder that if you're just trying to
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: kill a deer, the opportunities are out there and you
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: don't need to kill yourself to do it. Just a
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: few things have got to go right to get that dough. Yeah,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: it's just spend so long since I thought outside the
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: big antler box that I just kind of you know,
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: I remember in my early days I have public planned
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: a lot and I killed you know, plenty of dear
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: early season, and you know, I actually get better in
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: October and I did November then, Um, but yeah, I mean,
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: get out there, have fun and do your thing and
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: then lay the November to the nuts like us, you know.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: So so I know that because of some of like
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: the just the NonStop bumping into people and all that,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: I think part of that was what led you to
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: eventually wanted by your own play, right, And from what
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: I understand, you correct me, if I'm wrong, but I
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: think you're entering your third year with that property, is
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: that right? Yeah, this will be my third fall on it.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know, getting old is a learning experience,
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: and I think I went from you know, early age
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: to about fifty five. It seems like before I realized
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: that you finally do get old. I made a lot
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: of good years through my forties and fifties, hardcore, still
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: just going and not feeling any let up. But in
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: the past about five to eight years, you know, age
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: is catching up with me. And I'm going through such
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: a time, a metamorphosis of change and and mental and
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: physical and emotional that I don't hardly know myself anymore.
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: And you were correct in the fact that part, definitely,
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: part of the reason why I invested my life savings
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: in a piece of ground was to kind get away
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: from the maddening crowd of the public lands. Though I
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: also because of that that's been my mantra is the
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: public land. It's really almost prostitutional to go to what
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: I'm doing, because you're turning your back on your roots,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: You're turning your back on everything that really feathered your
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: nest and made you feel like a man. And taught
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: you everything, because there's nothing any harder than consistently killing
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: big bucks off public land with a bow. I mean,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: that's right up there, high at the top of the
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: challenge pile. And now, but what I found that recently
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: was more than the fact that I wanted to get
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: away from public land. That was a little bit of it.
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: But the main thing I have found out is that
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: with age, my priorities have changed. They I mean, it's
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: been like pulling teeth because I've been siding down a
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: slippery slope, clawing all the way to stay at where
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: I've been, and I haven't got it done. I've just
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: slowly slid down the slope. And now I'm a new creation.
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: And basically what I want now, what I want now
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: out of my bow hunting time doesn't really have much
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: to do with those big trophy bucks anymore. It doesn't
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: have to well, it doesn't have to do with having
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: to prove my macho is m too to everybody by
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: killing them off public plan. I mean, you've got to admit,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: through the most of your life there is some and
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: this is a taboo subject with guys. We don't like
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: to talk about our egos and we don't like to
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: admit we got them, but we do. We love to
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: accomplish something. It's the challenge. It's put in the mail,
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: you know, in the mail being he wants to be
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: a good you know, and so. But when you get older,
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: you you just that fades away. I have gotten to
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: where I could literally care less about what anybody else
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: knows that I do, thinks I do what I do.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: I am out there now. The reason I got this land,
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: I call it my old man place. It's the place
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: that I'm gonna just take my time and enjoy. I
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: I get so much fun I'd have going and pulling
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: trail camera cards and looking at the deer and just
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: watching them, um throughout the year, watching their whole year,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: how they you know, everything changes. Um Now I don't
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: have to work. I used to work, you know, solid
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: straight nine months, six seven days a week, to get
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: off in the fall and hunt. You know, now I don't.
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: I get to watch them all year. I watch him
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: shed graantlers, I watched him start growing new ones. I
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: see them come and go. I'm learning so much about
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: deer right now that I didn't know outside of the
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: three months I used to spend on them, you know.
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: And uh, I just have a ball out on that property.
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: It's so peaceful. I'm out in the middle of nowhere
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: that of course that fits me. You know, I don't
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: want to be around. I can't hear a car all
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: day long. I don't see or hear a human thing
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: all day long out on that place. And uh, it's
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: peace and quiet and uh and oinman, I guess that's
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: what you you mature into. I think after forty years
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: is that pad money go and pile and a pile
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: of antlers up that would fit in a dump truck.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: I'm ready just to just take it. I haven't even shot.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not shot a much a good big buck off
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: my place the first two years hunt it it. I
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: just I didn't shoot one. So let me ask you
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: this then, eddie back to like kind of some scenarios here.
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: I know that you've you've hunted two years there now.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: I also understand that you've started doing some habitat work
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: and some of that kind of stuff too. If you
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: could rewind the clock back to the offseason or like
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: just before your first season hunting this place for the
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: first time, you could rewind the clock then and change
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: one thing that could either be change one of the
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: habitat projects you did, or change hunting strategy you end
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: up trying, or change a stand location or anything that
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: you can go back two years and change one thing.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: What would that be and why? Well, boor that's a
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: good one. I almost pulled a blank or not with
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: I've made some mistakes, nothing big. I'm learning as I go.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: I paint my numbers. I haven't took a bunch of
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: courses or had any big shots come in and teach
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: me habitat management. I'm one of these old cusses that
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: wants to do everything on his own, make his own
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: mistakes and learn. And i haven't done everything right. But
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: I've got enough common sense. I'm probably pretty good biologists,
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. After my life outdoors, I
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: could qualify as a biologist, except I can't spell with
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: scientific names. But anyway, I wouldn't change a lot of
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: anything that I've done. I had cattle in the place
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: the first year, and that's probably the biggest thing I
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: would change. I am turning my place into it just
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: basically it's gonna be a hole in the ground that's
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: gonna be a wildlife mecca. I'm gonna let it go natural.
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: It's had cattle on it since the beginning of time,
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: and it's been burned off. All acres got burned off
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: slick off every year for for as long back as
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: you can see. I stopped the cattle this year. I
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: stopped the burning this year. I'm gonna, you know, do
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: selective burning in the future. But you know, I wouldn't
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: change a lot in the habitat except let it go
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: natural a year quicker because not having the cattle in there,
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: it's making a big difference in my prairie. My grasslands
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: are growing up and the prairie itself to bloosh them.
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: It's already about four ft tall this year, when everybody
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: around me is at two ft because the cows keep
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: it eight. And it's gonna make a lot of difference
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: in the number of deer I have. They're gonna bed
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: in my prairie now. And I don't care if I
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: kill a deer on that place for the rest of
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: my life. I almost don't want to kill one, because
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna walk up to it and look
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: at it and go, why ow, there's another dead deer.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: Um If it's a hundred and typical. I'm still not
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: going to be thrilled about killing it. Um. I've gotten
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: where I'm more into the providing him with the place,
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: and I get a whiz off of looking at him
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: on the camera. But I am not going to get
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: a whiz out of killing him. Does that make sense?
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: I I mean it sounds a little bit crazy, but
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: also crazy in like the way I may I understand it,
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean that I can see where
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: you're at, and I can also I too in a
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: different scale, But I too have gotten to know local
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: deer and and it is it's almost sad when you
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: do walk up on a deer that you watched for
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: three years and you're never gonna get to chase him again. No,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: he's gone for good. And I know that's fine. We're
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: hunting a renewable resource and I get it. UM. I
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: don't plan on probably ever not killing UM. I eat
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: it and I utilize it. But I also have gotten
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: so far from I was a fetish on antlers. I
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: mean I would walk naked backwards across the United States
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: to kill hundred forty inch deer at one point, and
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, that's insane. I worshiped it to
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: the point it was an idol to me. I literally
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: sacrificed my existence for it. And uh, I guess I've
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: kind of come full circle now and I'm ready to
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: give something back. I want to let him have a
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: quiet place to live, good food, good habitat, watch him
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: come and go, watch him do their lifestyle. And then
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I've got a buck on there
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: finally this year. Finally, that's a pretty pretty exceptional animal, uh,
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: for the area. Sure, And I've been thinking about it.
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: What am I gonna do if that thing comes walking
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: right by me here in the fall? Am I going
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: to kill that? And here's the deal. He's a world
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: class genetic, dear, He's a probably a four and a
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: half year old's what he appears to probably be. And
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: given two more years, this buck will probably would probably
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: eclipse two hundred inches. And I don't care about that.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: But what I do care about is having a deer
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: like that on my property. It gives me an extreme
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: sense of satisfaction to know that I'm providing him with
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: the place to live in security. And of course he
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: ain't totally secure because he don't just stay on me
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: all the time. You know, he he may get killed
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: by one of my neighbors, you know what I mean.
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: But if I had my brothers, I wouldn't even pull
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: a string on that, dear. I'd let him go two
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: more years, just so I could say, one day before
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: I croaked, I had a two inch plus deer on
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: my property one time, you know, And then I'd be happy.
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: You could put me in my pine box. That would
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: be pretty cool. That would be pretty cool. Now, okay,
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: put him on my wall. I really don't. I mean
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: I don't. I used to would have. I would have
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: done anything to have that dear. Well, I've spent forty
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: years and I've not killed a two deer. And now
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: though I can say with all honesty and I do
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: not expect you to understand it, I don't expect anybody
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: under about sixty to understand it. But there's somebody out
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: there gonna be listening to this that's gonna understand this.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: It finally becomes not about the killing, but more about
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: the doing. I do. I do get that. Let's let's
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: imagine then. Let's imagine you've got a friend of yours
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: who you have decided to let hunt your home farm
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: with you. I don't know if that's something that you
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: plan to do or have done, but let's just imagine
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: I've actually finally started thinking about that, because I mean,
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie to you. Most of my white
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: kill honey life, I've been a pretty selfish guy. I
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: just tended to my own needs, and didn't you know,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: I wasn't a real sharing person. I just I mean,
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: you know how that works. You can't share everything or
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: you ain't gonna have nothing. Does that make sense? I
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: mean I kind of did my own thing and kept
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: it quiet. And when I first got this place, I
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: was still a little bit in that rut, and I've
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: slowly gotten out of it. I wasn't going to consider
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: letting somebody come in there and kill one of my
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: big one of Did you hear what I just said?
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: One of there? Okay, so there's a problem right off
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: the bat. But anyway, nowadays, yeah, I'm I'm actually I've
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: actually woke up in the middle of the night with
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: it on my mind and realized what I was thinking
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: about and just have shaped my head going, Wow, you
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: mean you'd bring somebody in there and let them kill
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: one of them big bucks? And you you just not
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: even care that you'd be happy for him, and you
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: know that. I guess that's my new evolution process to
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: get to where that's the new challenge to quit being selfish.
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: I guess right, that makes sense. Yeah, it does easy,
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: easier said than done. I know from first for my
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: own spirit. I mean, if I was in my thirties
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: or forties, it never entered my mind. It would have
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: just been me me, may you know? And that's it. Well,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: let's play this out a little bit. Let's say you
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: decide you're gonna invite a buddy out there to hunt
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: your home farm, and we'll say that a buck catches
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: your buddy's eye, not not your future, but another really
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: really nice one. And he says, man, Eddie, if you're
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: okay with it, I would love to take a crack
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: at this deer and really try to figure him out.
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: And you say, yeah, absolutely, Tony, go go go chase him.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: And uh he comes to you though, he says, hey, man,
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: I've never really targeted a big, mature buck like this before.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: I've never really been trying to figure him out. And
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: he says, I know that trail cameras are all the
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: rage how would you recommend how would you go about
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: teaching your buddy or showing your buddy how you would
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: use trail cameras on your home farm to pattern a
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: buck like this, Like what would your take be on
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: figuring out that deer in a place like what you
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: have there? Well, you know what I'm about to say
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: may not go along with the mainstream very well, And
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: I get it. I do get it. I do know
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: how some of these guys take this big buck killing
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: to an art. I've talked to him and and really
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: figured out, like, for instance, they've got some ground that's
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: got these big bucks on them, and they trail camera
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: all year, usually cellular wise, so that monitor these dear
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: year round. It's home. I'm not gonna lie to you,
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: and I don't. I don't. I don't have a lot
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: of friends and honey industry, and I don't really care
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: because I don't. I'm not real politically correct. I just
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: say the way I believe it. I don't care if
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: I step on some toes. But the way they do
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: some of this stuff anymore, to me, it's just killing,
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: it's harvesting. There is very little hunting to it. To me.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: In my book, um, they monitor this buck all year,
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: they know everything that's going on with them. They get
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: a set up and they will not go in there
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: and hunt almost till the day they plan on killing
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: that deer. And there is often not always, but in
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: some states, especially Kansas, they're baiting, involved in different things.
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: But they will get this down to such a given
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: that I've had one guy from Iowa has killed so
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: many big ones I don't even But anyway, he said
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: he usually only has to hunt to maximum of three
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: hunts in a year, and he will kill his target
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: buck every year. And I'm like, that don't even sound
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: interesting to me. That that's just I don't know what
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: would be exciting about that. I I I go hunting
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: because I want to hunt all the time. I want
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: to hunt all I can hunt, and I want to
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: goof up and not do things right, and I just
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: want the whole rounded experience. I couldn't give less of
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: a hoot. I had one fall in my whole life
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: that I had to work. I've never worked from September
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: through the end of December in my adult life except
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: one fall. Now that's quite a statement because how many
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: people would like to live that lifestyle. Right. But but
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: in that one fall, I only got to get out
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: and hunt three days. I was working seven days a week,
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: and I begged from Peter to pay Paul and took
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: off work a few days. And I killed two really
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: good bucks in three days a hunting that year, and
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: felt like I had done nothing. I was a nervous,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: dang wreck because I didn't get to go hunting but
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: three days a week. I was almost sick all year,
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And it wasn't about that
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: I'd killed two good bucks that year in three sets.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: I saw right then and there that with me, it
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: was more about the bowl hunting than it was about
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: the killing, you know. And uh and so nowadays, you know,
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: I'm like, these guys get this down to such an art.
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: So if I had a guy that was coming to
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: my place won't know how to kill on those bucks,
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: what would I tell them? I would tell him, don't
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: do none of this baiting, don't do none of this patterning,
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: don't do don't I don't even use trail cameras ever
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: in relation to my hunting. Does that make sense? Yeah?
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: But to fare what's out there, that's it. I just
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: like to see the deer. And the only thing a
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: trail camera will do for me that even profits me,
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: I think, is if there's a particular, really exceptional specimen,
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: it'll tell me that he's around, so that I can
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: then decide if that matters hood or not. I'm going
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: to hold out for that, dear. But I don't use
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: cameras to pattern nothing. I just use it to observe deer.
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: And what I do is I still hunt away. I
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: always did, even back. You know, I know this may
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: sound weird, but half of my hunting life was spent
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: pre trail camera. Does that make sense? I mean girl cameras,
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: the first trail cameras I remember coming in that I've
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: even saw. If I'm not mistaken, I'm going to say
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: around two thousands. Uh. I mean, I don't think I
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: ever owned the trail camera to weigh into the two
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: thousand's um, so I I had already cut all of
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: my hunting teeth before any ability to use trail cameras
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: to help you hunt. And no Google Earth, no uh,
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: no real aerial photography. I mean I I come from
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: the generation of where you just went out there and
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: you figured out how to deer hunt on your own.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: And uh, that's what I tell them. Nowadays, I'm not
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm not gonna get I don't know how to
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: tell them to use trail cameras. I don't know how
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: to tell them to use Google Earth on a on
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: a big buck. I mean, I just go, like I
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: said earlier, find those pinch points, set on them during
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: the rut. And it's probably the dumbest way to try it,
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: but I will tell you this, if you put the
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: time in and have the patients and are in it,
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: you're in one of these pass through spots. If there
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: is a big buck within a mile or two of
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: you somewhere at some point, he'll walk right straight through
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: that during November. And you just gotta be willing to
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: figure out if you're willing to put in the time
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: and the sacrifice to set there. Because I set in
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: some off the wall places that probably ain't never had
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: a bow hunter set in them. I'm talking to some
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: ignorant looking places that our way out in the middle
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: of nowhere, in these fence lines now and these little
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: finger draws out in the prairie that no human in
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: the right mind usually I can't even like to find
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: a tree to get in that makes sense, you know,
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: and go out there and said all day, and I'll
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: set there ten twelve hours sometimes and not see a
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: single deer sometimes. But I've learned if I sat there
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: a week during the right time in November, if somewhere
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: within him one mile radius to me is a big
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: buck excuse me, big buck, there is a very very
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: very good chance that's going to walk through. This hilarious
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: because you know, I've got a good ability to see
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: these these uh I call them passed through spots, big
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: buck travel corridors. Does something make sense? Uh? And and
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: and then things they don't Always they're not where the
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: normal there are those big mature deer don't hang out.
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: We're all the normal dear are hanging out and they
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: don't walk through the same spots until they get out
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: of their mind once they start breeding and mid the
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: late November, then you might catch us a big one
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: doing something normal. But before that you better be h
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: out on the fringe of normal. Um. Well, of course
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: I'm talking more like a blue collar d I y
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: guy that'shunting public planned again, I'm not talking like these
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: guys like um for instance, Um, you know some of
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: these guys that have have got these big spreads in Iowa.
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: The people that are on TV. I mean, they custom
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: grow those deer and know everything about them, and they
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: go kill him, you know what I'm saying. But a
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: guy like me, a guy like you that's doing it
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: the old fair chase on our own with with with nothing,
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: no silver spoons. You just got to get out there,
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: put a lot of time in. And you know, if
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: a guy come to my property, I'd say, listen, here's
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: what you do. You get out there and you figure
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: out how to kill that here. I I don't even
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: want to try to tell you because I don't know
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: how to kill it. Get out there and do it
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: on your own. You'll be much more satisfied. And um,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: I don't care how they do it. I wouldn't put
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: any stipulations on a guy because I mean, I wouldn't
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: let them come in there and start dumping a big
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: old pilot corn out and setting over it. You know
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: what I mean. Uh, that's a little bit. That's a
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: little bit over the line for me. And see I
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: hunt up there in Kansas for baiting. It's a it's
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: a prevalent thing. I've often made the statement the Kansas
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: owners wouldn't know how to kill a deer if they
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: took their cornerways on them, which I know that really
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: right there is gonna red really get me in find standing.
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: But anyway, anyway, um hey, corn don't sure nothing, but
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: it's sure can um it can do some things that
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: I call it the golden corowl. You know that, the
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: golden nuggets. Um. Then pour bucks, Oh my god, I mean,
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: all you gotta do dump a bag of corn out
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: October and put a camera on it. You know, you
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: know every buck that you got within a half mile
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: in every direction within a day. You know, I don't
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: know how they find it and how they prone in
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: on it, but uh I went to end them places
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: in Kansas dump a bag of corn out and put
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: a camera on it, and within two days have pictures
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: of every mature deer almost virtually within quite a distance.
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And I mean it's everybody's
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: always trying to make the process easier, I guess, And uh,
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, when you
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: get my age, you finally figure out it ain't about easiness.
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: It's more about satisfaction of doing it on your own
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: and either winning or losing. Yeah, So let me ask
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: you about one of these examples you just shared, and
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: it ties into one of the scenarios I wanted to
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: throw at you. Um you mentioned you'd like to sit
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: these pass through areas. It's kind of off the beaten
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: path pass through spots. So let's imagine you're sitting in
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: one of those. It's November, hunting the rut. You're sitting
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: in one of these great rut spots, these these pinch
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: points that you like that should be a good quality
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: rut travel corridor. The problem is you've hunted all week
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: and nothing's coming through. You've not had one good buck
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: come through. My question for you is how long will
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: you stick it out in one of those spots before
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: eventually saying, well it just it's just isn't the spot?
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: Or do you ever find a spot like that and say,
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: come hell or high water. If I sit here seven days,
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: he will eventually come through. I have that much confidence.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: What's your approach and how do you know when you
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: finally have to pull up stakes or not? Well? I
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: think the best way to answer that would be what
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: I know about the area in general and how much
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: experience I have in it. If it's a fairly new place.
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to go down with the ship on
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: a spot like that. If it's if it's not getting
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: a job done. If I go by feel, I've often
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: said this, I hunt by feel feel. I don't even
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: know how to explain what feel is other than that
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: we small voice in your head. But like I said,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: a place like that and things ain't feeling right, things
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: ain't happening. If it's a fairly new place and I
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: don't know what you know is going on around, I
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: will I will abandon it. I would say about three days.
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: It's about what I'm going to give a spot like
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: that if I if I'm not getting anything going on now.
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, if it's a time proven place
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: and or I know the habitat around it and the
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: deer that's living in that habitat, and I know there's
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: some big ones around, and maybe I have some previous
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: knowledge of this place, Ben you know what, I think
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: it is a pass through, then I'm going to set there.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna wait because if I know there's some
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: big ones around, you know, on both sides of me somewhere,
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: and um, this is where that they're gonna walk At
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: some point, I'll give it up to I'll give it
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: till I I lose my mind. What you have, I've
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: actually lost my mind and just run naked brains. But
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: I mean once in a while, once in a while
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: I've got burned, not a lot. And it just depends
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: on how large your deer you're hunting too, because I
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: mean I've often led hundred forty to fifty bucks walk
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: in those places, and you know, I don't know whether
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: that's good or bad, but um, I have rarely, if
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: ever set those places in November that I couldn't kill
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: a good solid, you know, trophy buck of some size.
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: I I've been greedy and not take you know, hundred
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: and deer because I was wanting a bigger one and
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: thinking one bigger one would show up. And then there's
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: been times on the flip side where I've broke down.
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: Finally I've sat there long enough, I'd just be getting
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: sick of the whole thing, about to go crazy, and
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: here comes a hundred and fifty deer, and I know
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: that there's a bigger one around. I know there is,
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: and I just would go ahead and harvest the thing,
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: and um call it good and and sometimes actually for
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: a season be wondering, you know, did I make the
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: right decision? But there ain't no pad answer to none
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: of this stuff. It's everybody's an individual and they've got
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: to do what they're comfortable with. And uh, I've been
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: through the ringer on every scenario possible of learning what
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: what you can, can't, should shouldn't do, and uh, I'm
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: kind of I'm kind of past it. Finally. Now I'm
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: out into the clear where I don't put that kind
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: of pressure on myself. I don't have to make myself
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: answer those questions anymore. I go out, I said, as
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: long as I want, I see what I see, I'm happy.
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: And that's pretty much it. I go back to the
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: camp and talk to the wife. From pet to dog,
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a good place to be. Well. Let
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: me let me throw another November situation at you, and
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: this is this is another thing that I've frequently been
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: confronted with and bounced back and forth on. So let
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: me let me paint this picture. Let's say again, it's
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: November and you're kind of looking for a great spot.
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: Like we just described, you're kind of working through a
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: new area and you end up coming across just a
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: dynamite rut spot. Let's say it's it's kind of a
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: pinch point that is also downwind of some betting habitat.
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: So you've got those two things that seemed great. The
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: problem is that there is no great tree that's just
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: perfectly in range of where those trails converge, where that
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: pinch point converges beneath the betting year. So there's there's
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: two options. You get here ready. There is one tree
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: that is twenty yards from this pinch point and from
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: the convergence of trails, but it's a pencil thin bean
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: poultry you're gonna stand out in it. And there is
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: one other, you know, relatively well trod down trail on
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: the downwind of that tree as well, So there's also
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: this risk that you might get winded by some deer
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: as well. Or there's there's a second tree and it
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: seems perfect as in, it's it's big, it's gnarly, it's
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: like a branchy oak tree of some kind. So you
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: can climb up in there and disappear, and there's there's
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: nothing there's nothing downwind of it at all, because it's
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: right in the edge of a Let's say it's down
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: wind or sorry, just on the edge of a pond.
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: Let's say, so there's nothing that's gonna get beneath you.
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: The problem is that one is gonna put you forty
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: one yards from the trail convergence. So do you take
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: the lousy tree with some stuff downwind of it still
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: but you'll have a perfect twenty yard shot if they
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: come through in that spot. Or do you take the
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: farther away tree but it's super safe from win perspective
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: and you'll will be very nicely hidden. Which tree would
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: you pick? I have hunted both those trees numerous times,
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: so I can relate to this. I had a spot
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: in Illinois one time that presented me with the first scenario,
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: the little spendy tree right where you wanted it right.
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: I tried it a few times. I got nailed twice,
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: and I was at the point of I knew I
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: had to quit it or something. And I actually bought
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: a top and bottom of gray sweatsuit, went got some
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: rich dye, put black lines to it, made my own
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: self the homemade set of tree lined camel. I was
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: the color of the sky, except had the dark limbs
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: through me you know, so I could get up in
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: that and try to not stand out, in other words,
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: and I will be dog gone. The very first time
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: I got in it like that, a hundred sixty in
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: deer come through there did not see me, which the
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: two previous sets I'd had big bucks come in. I'd
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 1: set the thing three times. The first two times I
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: had big bucks come in and nail me in the
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: tree and run off. All of the bucks were different bucks, um,
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: so I guess I educted. I don't know if I
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: educated the first too too bad, or if I was
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: just lucky that the third one that hadn't been there
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: come through the third time, but he didn't see me
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: and I killed him. Then I had another spot that
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: had that same scenario. Did not think I wanted to
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: go that route, so I got back off to the side,
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: off away from the action. Because I could get in
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: that tree without figuring I was bumping deer getting there,
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: I could get out without bumping deer going out. I
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: had a good safe wind. I felt comfortable over there,
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: but I was not right where I needed or wanted
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: to be, and I ended up in the long run
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: killing more deer. Out of that scenario, and setting it
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: way more often and feeling way more comfortable setting there
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: because I called a number of deer over to me,
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean with grunt calling stuff. And
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: uh so I usually would opt for the UM does
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: the better um. In other words, are you going for
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: a one shot deal? If you're going for a one
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: shot deal, planter or end in that little scrawny tree,
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: set there all day, run through fourm off and hopefully
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: get one shot. Right. Um. If you want to continue
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: to hunt that spot repetitively, get in the safe tree
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: and you can. You can hunt it repetitively and not
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: run all your deer off. Probably not what. They're not
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: gonna wind you. They're not gonna see you, you know.
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: And so I guess it's what your goal is that day.
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: If you want to go in there and go for broke,
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: get in there and a little spinley tree, stand up.
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: I'd stand up and I'd be real calm and not
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: be moving all day long. You maybe have my bow
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: in my hand, you know what I mean? And uh
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: and to where it's a one shot deal, because you're
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: gonna do some damage. You're gonna have some come down
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: wind w that day and snort and run off. You
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: may have a buck shooting there on you before you
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: can get ready, and you may not. But I mean,
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: if you're going for a one shot deal, get right
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: in the middle of them and go for broke. If
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: if you want to hunt there, repetitively take that other
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: tree all day long and come back and hunt it
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: numerous base under right conditions. Don't educate your deer. And
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: if a buck comes through there, that's prowling real hard
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: in the rut, nine chances out of tendue. Hit him
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: with a grunt and he'll he's lively, especially maybe if
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: you stick a decoy out behind you you know, or
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: something you know, and uh, maybe he'll come right over
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: to you and let you kill him. So I think
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: that's just a matter of your I've hunted both those
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: scenarios and the one that seemed to be best for
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: me was staying out of the middle of the hub,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: staying off to the side of the hub and hunting
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: longer and seeing more dear and if a few get
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: through there that I know it eats you alive. To
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: have a good buck come through there, you don't get
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: your bow shot at him, but hey, you're better to
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: do that than to have one run right in there,
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: look at you in the tree, or come down wind
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: of you on the one trail and smell you're right,
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: you know, And so um, I think everybody, everybody should
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: just do what they feel they want to do that day.
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: If it's a one shot hunt, jump in the middle
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: of and go to swinging and uh, if you're wanting
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: to hunt that spot a lot in the rut, you
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: better get off to the side, make sure you're entry
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: and exit safe and your wind safe, and you're covered
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: up to where they help see you. Yeah. Yeah, I've learned.
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: I've been in the same scenario and been burned a
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: few times too. But but sometimes it also pays off
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: you just you just never know. So so here's one
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: last here's one last quick scenario for you, Eddie. Let's
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: let's play out this last example a little bit further.
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: Let's say you you pick one of those trees. Let's
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: say you you went for broke with the closer one.
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: Let's hypothetically say, and you're sitting there and you're on
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: public land, and that too, d buck that you have
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: not been able to get before in all your years
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: hunting public land and chasing these big deer. That two
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: duck is coming in. He's walking right down this trail.
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: He's gonna cross in front of at that pinch point.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: Tell me, Eddie, what do you do in this situation
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: in the next thirty seconds or sixty seconds as he approaches.
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: What are you doing to ready yourself, to calm yourself.
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: What are you saying inside your head to get yourself
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: mentally prepared for this once in a lifetime opportunity. The
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: first thing when you said that is the absolute biggest
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: thing is I'm never taking my eyes off that deer. Period.
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: I've got to be subconsciously prepared to pull this maneuver off.
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: Whatever that is. Get up out of the seat, get
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: the boat, get the I gotta be able to do
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: that subconsciously, So you better be pretty well trying. But
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: I am never taking my eyes off that deer. I
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: am not moving when I'm not looking at him in
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: the eye. I'm gonna be watching him like a hawk
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: to see what I can get away with and what
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: I cannot get away with. Do not be trying to
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: do something on automatic pilot, because I mean, if he's
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: walking towards you, you know he's You've got to just
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: get away with what you can in the next thirty seconds.
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: You've got to pray to God that you're going to
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: be able to get yourself up and get your bow
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: drawn without him seeing that. And the only way you're
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: gonna hope to pull out off his watch his eyes,
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: watch his head, if he turns his head, or if
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: he stops her second and looks back over his shoulder.
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: You better be getting something done. Do not be doing
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: it when you're You know you're gonna have that little
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: guy in your head saying, oh my god, this thing
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: is looking You know, he's looking right towards me as
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: he's coming. And you know, I've actually had to literally,
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: I've actually had to let him walk past me before
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: I ever even started moving. I've got caught with my
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: pants down and watched them come in, knowing that if
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: I tried to get up, I'm gonna blow this. And
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: I've had to let him walk under me at five
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: yards and start to walk away before I ever started
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: even getting up out of my seat. Now, you hope
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: to not be in that position. You'd like to thank
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: you if you could have just already been standing when
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: he started coming in your way ahead of the game,
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But but I'm just gonna
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: watch that deer like a hawk to see what I
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: can do and what I can't. And I'm just, if necessary,
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to do a thing until he walks
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: past me and starts to go away when I can't
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: see that big old google eye looking back at me
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: from the side, you know. And I've had to kill
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: a few out at thirty yards as they were leaving,
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: and I've got burned a time or two and let
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: him walk by me. But I just go with at
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: the moment what I think to be good hudsmanship. And
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: if I do not think, I've also tried to push
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: my luck, of course, and Adam see me and stop
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: slam to stop and stare at me in the tree
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: because they caught me moving a little bit. So just
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: watch them and learn x exercise great woodsmanship in that
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: thirty seconds, make good decisions. And if you're on automatic pilot,
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: which is called buck fever, if you're going through motions,
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: it never works out. I did that for years. I
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: just would try to do something and not really and
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: realize that I wasn't even thinking about and it doesn't
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: work out well. You gotta keep your head and have
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: a rational thought process of what you can do and
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: what you can't do. Don't get excited about that buck
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: until you shoot it, because actually, until you've killed that deer,
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: you haven't done nothing but be a glorified nature observer. Um,
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: there's nothing to get excited about setting a tree and
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: watching deer, right, So don't just be a watcher. Don't
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: get excited until you shoot it and kill it. Then
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: you can leap out the tree and jump up down
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: and scream. You know. Um. Buck fever is a debilitating thing.
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: My wife suffers from it NonStop and never makes any
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: good decisions. When deer show up, she goes brain dead
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: and literally it's able to throw her bow out the
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: tree at the thing or something. And I did it
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: for many years in my early career, but I finally
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: got a grip on it and said, you know, if
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: I don't stop getting buck fever, and if I don't
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: start making good decisions, I'm never going to get good
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: at this. And finally I just something happened in my
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: head and I said, Okay, I'm not going to be
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: a glorified nature observer today. I'm gonna be a dear killer,
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: you know. And so I don't know if I'd answered
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: the question very well or not, but anyway, it did.
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: It did if you could know this is one of
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: those easier seven done things. But if you had to
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: give someone who's dealing with that same buck fever issue
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: that your wife has, if you had to give them
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: one like a single line of advice for how to
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: actually snap out of that, Like I understand that you
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: have to snap out of it, but like, how do
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: you reclaim control mentally? If you could give him like
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: a one line, two line like do this, what would
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: that one simple idea be. Well, what I always tried
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: to tell someone, if they've getting buck fever that bad
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: all the time on bucks, they need to start quit
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: hunting them for a while to start killing deer. Go
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: out and start shooting a bunch of deer. Learn to
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: take your goo out and kill deer. Start shooting though,
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: start shooting as manny go just kill deer. Once you
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: get subconsciously trained to kill those deer, I think. Now,
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, the antlers. If you're an antler fanatic,
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: antlers will always skyrocket you, you know, out of your skin.
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: But if you're if you're if you get once. I
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: finally got to kill a deer with my bows early
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: on and got to where I was killing meat deer
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: and quite a few deer. It become a lot easier
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: for me to stay under control because I knew then
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: and there that I had it within my ability to
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: kill this deer and the fact that it had huge
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: antlers or something would freak me out. It would, I
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: would freak out, and I mean, I ain't gonna lie
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: to you. I've had a couple of times, even as
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: a old man, that I pulled. I don't know. I
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: I can have a relapse of buck fever. I had
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: one in Kansas a few years back with the biggest
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: buck I've ever had in bow range in my life,
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: and it caused me to not get the deer. I
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: lost a one killed on the largest sandlers white tail
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: I've ever had in bow range because buck fever come
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: that day. I hadn't had it, and I don't even
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: know ten or fifteen, twenty years, but because of that
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: it got me. So I don't really feel like there's
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: anything you can do about it. It's gonna happen. My
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: wife's had it for twenty straight years. I've done every
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: human thing I know to try to get her past it,
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: and I've not been able to get her past it.
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: And so I can't give a guy advice other than
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: kill a bunch of deer with your bows. That ought
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: to help. And then when the antlers show up, like
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: when you turn and you see this giant rack coming
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: at you, you've just got to turn your head and
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: take a deep breath and go Okay, now that freaked
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: me out, that did, But I can do this, and
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to look at them antlers again. I'm
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: gonna ease my head background and watch that deer come in,
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to pretend I'm I. I have a
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: really good ability to once I see one that I
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: want to kill, I blankets antlers out. I don't know
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: if that's normal, if anybody else can do that or not,
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: but I literally can have a two inch deer walk
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: in on me, and once I turned that initial turn
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: and see him, if he's big and I know he's
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: a shooter, I won't be able to tell you whether
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: he's a hundred and fifty inches or two hundred and
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: twenty inches. I I don't even realize they have antlers
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: on him, one side to side. I'm gonna shoot them,
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: and uh so, just you know, if you get freaked
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: with buck fever, just kind of close your eyes a
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: second and take a deep breath and go, Okay, it
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: ain't about these antlers. I can kill this dear. I've
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: been killing a lot of deer. This is a dear. Now.
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: Just ease back around there and watch him come on
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: in and do what you gotta do. And don't don't
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 1: look at his antlers again. If you can, just look
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: watch his watch his face, watch his eyes. I get
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: fixated on their eyes. If I can see their eyeballs,
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: that's all I ever watch. I watched their eyes, and
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: that's where I get my readings of what and when
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: to do things, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: those those eyes can definitely tell a lot of the story.
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: Oh well, and I have got I have got to
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: wrap this up. And the way we wrap this up,
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: and and I've thoroughly enjoyed this, the way we wrap
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: these up is with a quick, rapid fire set of questions.
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you six really quick questions here, one
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: after the other, and I'm just looking for a one
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: word answer. Yes, or no that kind of thing, and
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: then we'll we'll send you on your way and off
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: to deer hunting season. That sounds like it's going to
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: be a lot of fun. So ready for the last
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: few here? Yeah, go ahead, all right, Eddie. Does the
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: moon matter to deer movement? Yes? Or no? Yes? Would
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: you take a fifty yard shot at a white tail
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: with your bow? Yes or no? Yes? If you could
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: only have one of these tools for the rest of
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: your year's deer hunt, would you pick rattling antlers or
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: grunt tube? Two expandable or fixed blade broadheads? Exploit? Should
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: you stop a walking buck with a sound before shooting?
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: Yes or no? No? Which state has better deer hunters?
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: Kansas or Oklahoma? Did you say deer hunters or deer
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 1: deer hunters? Which state has better deer hunters? Kansas or Oklahoma?
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: Um boy, I'll go with my home state. I'm just
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: trying to I'm trying to get you in trouble here, ready,
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: And that's and that's all I got for you. You.
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: You've survived the gauntlet and given us a lot of
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: really interesting, interesting stories and in ways to think about
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: this stuff. And I particularly have enjoyed getting to hear
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: about your your evolution and growth in these in these
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: later years of hunting. So thank you for sharing that. Well,
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: thank you. It's my privilege and God bless you. And
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: I've talked to you down the line. Sounds great and
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: that is a rap. For those of you who stuck
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: through all two hours. Thank you appreciate that perseverance. I
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed this one. I hope you laughed. I
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: hope you learn something, and I hope that you are
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: as fired up as I am right now. I've been
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 1: out there getting after stuff. I just got back to Michigan,
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: but I've already been hanging trail cameras. I've already been
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: working on food plots, trim and lanes and prep and
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: tree stands. It's time to get after it. Although I
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: do have to say I forgot how miserable it is
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: to do that kind of white tail work in humidity.
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: Holy ship, the humidity here in Michigan is awful. That
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: is one nice thing about spending time out West is
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: as nice and dry and cool. I just about died yesterday.
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: I was soaked from head to toe. I literally came
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: in the house. My wife made me take off my
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: clothes and pants because I've got like burrs and poison
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: ivy and stuff on me, and even my boxes were
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: silking wet. She didn't understand how that's possible, but I said,
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: do you get out there hanging tree stands or trimming
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: lanes in August in the Midwest, you will get it.
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: And I'm telling you what, there's a lot more to do.
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: So my wife better used to uh soaking wet boxes.
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: But I don't know where this is going. This is
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: quite the tangent to wrap it up. Let's just end
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: this sucker now. Thanks for being here, and until next time,
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: stay wired. Don