Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 401: Dan Jajo Killed His First Deer!

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Ep. 401: Dan Jajo Killed His First Deer! · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: oh one and today's show, I'm joined by a new
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: hunter you've heard on this podcast several times now, Dan
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Ja Joe, who just recently took the huge step of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: killing his first dear ever. Alright, welcome to the Wired
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to Hunt podcast. We have got a really cool episode
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: for you today. It's a store that I'm so glad
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that we can share. It is the story of how
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Dan Ja Joe has killed his first dear. We had
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Dan on the show for the first time last fall,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: so two thousand nineteen, after I met him at a
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: q d M a Field to Fork Mentors hunt event.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: This is an event that that paired something like a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: dozen new hunters with a dozen mentors, had him spend
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the weekend together and teach him everything they know. So
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I was a mentor on that hunt. Dan was a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: guy I met there and and since then we've stayed
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: in touch and I invited him out to the Back
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: forty this year. UM and hopefully you've heard the stories
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: about how that went. He came out in the summer.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: He helped us work on the farm, planning food plots,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: planting trees, um. He then came out in the fall
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: for a hunt. That hunt was featured on the Back
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: forty TV show, which you can see on the Meat
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Eater YouTube channel. So if you were to watch episode
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: two of that show, you would see Dan out there
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: in the summer working with us. If you watch episode
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: six of the show, you'd get to see his hunt.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: We had a really fun hunt that you know, I
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of ups and downs and ultimately though
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: we were not able to get him his first deer.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: So that was disappointing, but but you know, that's hunting.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And over these subsequent weeks, though Dan kept after it
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and just recently on his own, the guy's h a
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: tremendous example of persistence. He kept after it. He he
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: wrote out a couple more storms and was able to
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: get the job done. Dan killed his first dear. He's
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a tremendous example of of you know, what's possible for
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: new hunters, and his story I think is a great
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: example for experienced hunters like myself so I think you know,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: even if you're a new hunter, I think this is
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a story to listen to, Beads. I think you will
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: be really encouraged by it. I think you'll be inspired
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: by the journey that Dan has been on that has
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: ultimately led him to now becoming you know, you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: he's been a hunter, but now he's he's successfully filled
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: his first tag. So I think if you're new, they've
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: got to listen to this story. It's gonna give you
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: some some wisdom and some encouragement that I think will help.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: If you are an experienced hunter though already, I think
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you need to listen to the story because it's gonna
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: help you see the fruits of your labor in mentoring.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: This is something I'm trying to do more of this year,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: taking the time to help other people show them what
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: this thing is all about that we love so much.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Let's let's help other people experience that too. I think
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: you're gonna even be inspired by what Dan has to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: share about his experience and how important mentorship was for him.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: The impact that mentors had on his trajectory is huge,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and and I think this is evidence of the kind
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: of impact that that YouTube could make. So give this
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: one to listen. I hope that it will maybe maybe
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: cue some thinking, Maybe it will trigger you to think
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: about you know, who is there in your life that
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: maybe has expressed some kind of interest in hunting, but
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: you know you never followed up with, Or who do
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: you know out there that that could use some new
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: access so they could get their first year, or or
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: maybe you don't know anyone like that, but how could
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you seek out and find people who do want help,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of them. Guys, more than a
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: lot of us have realized there are people out there
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: in the world who have never hunted, but in the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: back of their minds are thinking, you know what if
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I you know, if I, if I ever had the chance,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I might do that. I'd like to get some meat
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: in the freezer and know exactly how it got there.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I might be willing to give that a try. But
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: they don't know anybody in their family or their circle
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of friends who can show them how to do those things,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: so they never do, and they go through the rest
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of their lives never having hunted, never having experienced this
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: thing that's so transformational that that we're so lucky to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: get to do every year. So listen to the story.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: It's a quick one, it's a fun one, it's it's
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: at least for me, really damn inspirational. So let's get
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to the story of how Dan killed his first dear
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and let's just enjoy. This is a great way to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: start the new year and as a a really important
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: bedrock for me at least when it comes to what
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I want to achieve this year, which is making these
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: stories happen more often. So, without further ado, here's Dan
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Jo Joe and the story of his first dear. All
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: right with me on the show today. On the other
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: line is the wise and powerful Dan jo Jo. Dan,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: welcome back to the show any mark. I wouldn't say why.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: It's been powerful, but thank you, thank you, thanks for
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: having me back on. Well, hey man, you've got a
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: lot to be excited about lately. You you got engaged.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Congratulations on that, Thank you. You killed your first deer,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: congratulations on that, Thank you man. And most importantly, you
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: finished up your year of pies? Right did you finish
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: up the year pies? You gotta leave at all plumb.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I'm throwing it to the bus here. But when for
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: everyone listening, when Dan and I hunted together this November.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: He mistakenly, Uh admitted the fact that his his girlfriend
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: now fiance was doing this Year of Pies where every
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: month she made a different pie and she made Dan
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: taste test it, and then she instagrammed every time he
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: tasted the pies, and and I forced him to let
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: us watch all these Instagram videos. So please tell me
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that's done right. She's not gonna do it to again.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: She was. She was conspiring for another year's resolution, of
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: another year of something, but I had to put the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: brakes on it. I couldn't handle it. Though it was
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: she did a nice shot. Oh man, Well, I'm glad
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: we get to talk because we actually haven't talked on
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the phone about the hunt itself. We first off, you
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: texted me and said that you got it done, you
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: killed your first deer. And then I said, can we
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: can you tell me the story? And you said, no,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I gotta get this dear. Gutted, I was talking about it,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: so so then I realized, that's a good idea. Let's
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: not hear the full story until now till we're on
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the air, and Uh and I can enjoy it for
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the first time with everybody else. I'm so excited for you.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: It's been a hell of a journey. I know, it's
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: been really cool to be able to follow along with
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: it the last two seasons now. And what I wanted
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to do today, man, was is is kind of recap it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: So start at the beginning again and kind of briefly
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: get everybody up to speed on on what led you
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: down this path, what got you here and then and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: then dive deep into the the final weeks of your
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: season and what ultimately led to this very exciting conclusion. So, um,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: you feeling good about that? That sound good? Yeah, yeah,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that sounds great. I'm happy to share the story. Cool.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Are you as excited about this as I am? That
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: this happened? Dude? I was pumped, man. I mean when
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: when it all went down, I was just so so
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: happy and just so like, I don't know, I don't
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: know if relieved is the right word, but just the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: fact that I got it done and I was just like,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you know, all this work, all this time, so that
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: it was just like came down to that moment. I
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: was just pumped. So so yes, I can I can
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: only imagine. Man. Well let's let's let's rewind the tape
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: a little bit and just get everybody caught up if
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: they hadn't heard. You know you you joined me last year,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I guess for a podcast after we met at one
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: of these mentor hunts that the quti May puts on
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: through their Field of Fork program. So that's how we met, um,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and since then we've been in touch. And then we
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: hunted together this fall, did some work together this summer.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: But but real quick, can you just re how how
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: this whole crazy journey started for you? What? What was
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the center down this path? Yeah? Man, so I mean
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: growing up, I I I did a lot of fishing
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: with my older brothers, and I've always had an interest
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in the outdoors, um, but never had really much involvement
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: in hunting. Um. As I started to get older, I
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: started doing other things outside, you know, snowboarding, mountain biking, etcetera. Um,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: but hunting still really never never came into the picture. Um,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you know, fast forward, I don't know, A couple of
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: years later, I got my hands on a compound bow
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: and I started shooting that and having a lot of
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: fun with it, and um, you know, I saw it
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: as an avenue to get into hunting. But just didn't
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: really know how to actually you know, put it to work,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: or or where to go or you know, have other
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: people in my my friend group or peer group that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: could show me the ropes. Um So, so that kind
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of led me into getting you know, starting to try
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to figure it out myself. Um. Obviously started doing research
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: on my own. I caught window meat Eater, started watching
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: episodes on on that you know, caught your podcast, started
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: listening to to what you had to say, and it
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: was all great information, but just found that I just
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: kind of didn't have the real, i don't know, motivation
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: or encouragement to really just start doing it on my own.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: And I had had a friend at the time that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: had some property up north, and they took me on
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: a uh, you know, my first couple of hunts up there.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Um and that kind of um just got me just
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: my my my fingers kind of in there. And I
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: don't know, it was just a start to what I
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: thought could be a lot of fun and a new
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: activity that I could I could pursue. Um So, so yeah,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I you know, as I started to get more interested,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I found the field of fork program and um, I
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: met yourself and I met Josh and Jason and you
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: guys were all all, you know, like minded guys that
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: had a lot of experience in hunting, and I kind
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of took the leap of faith to to get get
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: with you guys, and we did a couple of hunts
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: at the program and they all went really well. Um,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: and then from there it was just kind of like,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: all right, well, now I gotta start, you know, figuring
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: this out on my own and doing more research and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and you know, keep going and um yeah, and you
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: know that's that's that was last year, right, So fast
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: forward to this year. I started to you know, really yeah,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: before before you go too much further to two questions
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: about that first year and those those years or months
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: leading up to it. Number One, you got the bow,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you liked fishing when you started thinking about hunting. Was
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: it the activity itself that you thought like, hey, this
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: would be a one thing to go do, Like I
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: like the fish, I like to pursue fish, I probably
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: like to pursue animals, or was it I really want
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: to get a bunch of meat. Like which side of
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: hunting was what really drew you in or was it
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the whole package? Were you thinking the whole picture at
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that point already. Yeah, it was definitely the whole picture.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I mean I'd like, I like the whole kind of
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: adventure aspect of it of you know, going out in
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the woods and trying to figure out how I can
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: put myself in position to get a to get a deer.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: But then also on the flip side of things, I
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: also was very excited to get a bunch of meat obviously, Um,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously through fishing and just growing up fishing
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: my brothers and I would I would love to get
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a good haul of while I or perch and have
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a you know, a fish for with family and friends. Um.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I just saw this as another way to get you know,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: some some food on the table as well, and and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and enjoy it with family and friends like like I
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: do with you know, with the fish that I get
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: with my brothers. So it was definitely the whole, the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: whole package there. Okay, what about the flip side then?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Was there anything early on that you were worried about?
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I know in past conversations you told me that some
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: things that have have worried you have been like just
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: being able to get the final act done properly, getting
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: a good cling kill that kind of thing. Um, but
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: were you ever apprehensive about, I don't know, could you
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: kill an animal? Were you ever apprehensive about what would
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: your friends or family think did Was there anybody who thought, oh,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: hunting's something you shouldn't do, anything like that, or something
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: else that gave you worry as you started going down
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: this path um a little bit. I mean, you know, I,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: like I said, I don't really have many friends or
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: any friends really in my immediate friend group that that hunted.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: So when when I kind of started getting into it,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: they you know, naturally as friends do you you just start
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: ripping on you for stuff that you're doing. So you
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: know that that was always kind of in the back
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of my mind, you know, just I didn't let it
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: bother me too much. I was going to keep doing
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: what I was doing because I liked it. Right. Um,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: My family was pretty supportive of it. I mean, any
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: time that I was telling them that, you know, we
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: could have a bunch of meat here, they're they're all
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: about it. So so they were they were gung ho
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: um for me to kill an animal. You know that
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: that lingered in the back of my mind. I knew
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: it was just part of hunting, so I wasn't gonna
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: let it bother me too much. And the fact that
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: you know, like I feel like it's it's it's the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: best way you can connect to your actual food versus
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: going to the grocery store and and and just completely
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: removing yourself from from that from that kill or or
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: or the harvest of that animal. I just thought it
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: was it was if I was going to do it,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: this is the best way I could have food for
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: myself and potentially for my family and friends. So so yeah,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: that that was kind of what was going through my mind. Okay,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: did you ever end up having um, you know, you
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: you weren't. You weren't worried about any negativity. It sounds
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: like you never you ever got any of it your friends,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: other than giving you as a good natured hard time,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you haven't experienced any any negativity around it. No, not much.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, for the most part, you know, it was
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: it was pretty supportive. Um. I never really had any like, oh,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't be doing that, or you shouldn't go out
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and kill an animal. Um, you know, and and if
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and if I ever did, you know, I would kind
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: of explain the whole sustainability aspect of it, of how
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: you know this this is really kind of like the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: best way you can go out and get your meat.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: You know that that deer lived its best life in
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and its natural habitat. Um. I found that it was
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: it was, you know, quite okay to go out and
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: take take an animal from from from their habitat and
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: a sustainable way where that population is being managed, and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you know it was okay to do so. So, I mean,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I I did my research. It was of what I'm
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: trying to say, and just made sure that if I
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: ever did come across that I was I was prepared
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to have that conversation. Yeah. Well, you certainly seem that
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: you've given us some thought, which which I love. UM.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: And and this is just another example of of what
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I saw this year and that I can just see
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: that you've This wasn't something that you're like, oh, I'm
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: just gonna give it a shot and just gonna go
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: out there and kind of walk around like you've really
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: dove into it, You thought about it, You've done a
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: lot of preparation, You've you've worked hard. Um. And then
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: that first year, you know, at least last year where
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: you you start taking those next steps and you reached
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: out and you you met up with us. Uh, what
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: was it last year that maybe there wasn't Maybe I'm
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: just making assumptions here, but was there something last year
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: that was that like tipping point for you where this
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: went from this thing like you're kind of curious about
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: til like, all right, I'm going into this and I'm
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: really diving into it, um because it seems like you're
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: in a totally different place than you were a year ago.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Is it was there something like that? Yeah? Well, I
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: think the first thing was my hunt with Jason last year,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: where I think we were about a step away from
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: launching an arrow at a box. And I think that
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: moment was just like holy cow, that that actually almost happened.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And I, you know, I had that small taste of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: you know, I quote unquote success and and I think
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: that just kind of launched me down this this black
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: hole of Okay, I I have to figure this out.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I was almost there, and you know, it's it's going
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: to happen eventually. I just got to figure out, you know,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that last bit of whatever I need to do to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: really get it done. Um. So that was the immediate thing,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and then part of it is I'm I don't know, man,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of a head case, and when when I
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: can't figure something out, I just kind of go crazy
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and just try to do my research and do my
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: work to to figure it out eventually. Um. I just
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I just like, I like challenging things, and I mean
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: hunting is is by no means easy, And I just
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: thought it was just something that I really wanted to
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: pursue and you know, figure out and and you know,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: add it to my list of bobbies that you know,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: it seems to be growing every day. Um So, so yeah,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: that was kind of what I was thinking. What about
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that you mentioned that experience that Jason Um and I'm
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: just curious and we talked about this a little bit
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: last year. People should go back and listen to this
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: full conversation just after that mentor hunt. But what and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: you've also experienced it this year to what aspect of
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: spending time with a mentor like that did you find
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: most helpful because you finally had someone to sit with
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: you and and talk through some things and show you things. Um,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: was there anything that you can point to that was like, oh, yeah,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: this really made a difference, or this this is where
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I needed help or or maybe it didn't get it,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: and and and you found yourself still having questions. But
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: anything like that stand out. Oh yeah, definitely. I think
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: just having somebody out there with me showing me kind
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: of what to look for and and and you know
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: what what's good sign versus bad sign? Um? You know
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: what hunting pressure looks like? Um, what where the deer
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: might travel through? Pulling up maps, shown me you know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: different terrain features on on X or whatever. Um. You know.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Jason also showed me this different resource, this other resource
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: through the Michigan DNR where it shows all the different
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: um I guess trees in a given public plan area
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: and where you can point out oaks which are good
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: food sources for the deer. I mean it was just
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: uh a breath of knowledge that Jason was able to
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: provide that you know, had I been trying to figure
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it out on my own, could have taken me, like
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: you know, weeks or months or or even years to
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: try to nail down. So the the intel and the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: knowledge that he had and he was able to give
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: to me, it was just so valuable. Um in that one,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I think it was it was two hunts that we
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: did together. And then you know, the hunt that I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: did with you this year was I mean, you know,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I had had kind of got the foundation like Okay,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: this is what betting area looks like, and this is
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: what you know sign looks like. But from from the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: hunt we did together, now it's like, okay, now we
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: we have a legitimate chance of seeing some deer. What
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: do we do now? Um? And and you kind of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: guided me through the whole process of Okay, you know,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: take a deep breath. We don't need to rush a shot. Um.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: You know, we want to make sure that the deer
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: is is in a good spot to take a shot.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And I mean that alone, you know, you can, you
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: can coach yourself to do it, but you know, um,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: it's it kind of takes that that that other guy
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: right next to kind of help you and give you
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: those mental cues to really to really help you do
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: do something well. And unfortunately we didn't get it done
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: in that hunt. But like I mean, you know in
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: my other hunts that that's that's like ingrained in my
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: in my mind. Now it's like, don't rush a shot,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: you know, calm down, just breathe, you know, it's it's
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: it's those things that that have really helped me. Yeah.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: So so between year season one or last year and
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: this year, um, heading into this season, well, I guess
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: would be last season now for us technically, but um,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: what what kind of things were you wanting to work
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: on or did you come into the year with I'm
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: doing this different and this different and I'm gonna do
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: this better or was there anything that you brought into
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: two thousand twenty as as a to do or goal
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: or or something you were going to focus on. Yeah. Yeah,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I had a list of things, and um, I kind
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of started. I started pretty early in the springtime, and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: my first thing was, Okay, I gotta find I gotta
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: find other places to hunt. Um because last I guess,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you know, the season it was just kind of me
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: like kicking public land spots and me just kind of
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: walking out and just trying to figure out what looks
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: good and you know, setting up shop right there and
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: then um with not much, with not much you know,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: rhyme or reason this this upcoming season or I guess
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: this as season. Um, I wanted to be a little
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: more methodical about where I went and you know, have
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: have a purpose as to where I was setting up. So, um,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I started, you know, doing some research on ONYX and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: just trying to find public land spots that just looked
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: good to me, just you know, different terrain features that
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I thought would hold deer, um you know, where I
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: could find different food sources that they liked. Um, where
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I where I thought, you know, pressure wouldn't be. So
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: that was my kind of early season start. And then
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: once the weather started getting good, I did a couple
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of boots on the ground trips just to check out
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the spots to make sure that what I was seeing
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: online was really legitimate and if I thought, uh, you
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: know the spots that I found, we're worth my while.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Um So I did that, and you know, some of
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the spots that I found online ended up turning out
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: you know good, and I ended up hunting them, and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: then other spots I was just like, all right, this
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: isn't what I thought it was. So from that aspect,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I definitely have some some work to do in terms
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: of like e scouting and what I think would be
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: worth my time actually scoping out. Um So that was
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the scouting aspect of it, and then I wanted to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: get a lot better with my bowl. So I shot
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: my bow probably I don't know I started. I think
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I got a little late start. So I started in
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: this I don't know, midsummer UM leading up to leading
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: up to the fall, and I tried to shoot, you know,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: three to four times a week. It wouldn't happen every week,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: but I tried to get it in even if it
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: was only like, you know, five or six arrows. But
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I tried to shoot my bowl regularly, regularly, regularly, you know.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: And that that was just all part of like, Okay,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: if I if I am presented an opportunity, I want
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to make sure I'm I'm making a good shot. I'm
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: not you know, wounding the deer, hurting an animal. So
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: that was that was the second big thing. And then
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: lastly I wanted to get my gear situation figured out. UM.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And when I say gear situations, since I am hunting
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: mostly public land, UM, I didn't really have like a
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: set stand that I would go up and and and
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: hunt UM. And I had bought late in that first season.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I bought like a kind of a mobile stand that
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I would you know, towed around um different my different
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: hunting spots. And I just found that I wasn't really
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: good at setting it up. It would take me a
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: really long time to get up and down the tree.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I was really uncomfortable with it, you know, I was
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: really clumsy with it. So I wanted to figure something
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: else out. So I ended up looking up different saddles
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: that I could made me try out, and I finally
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: settled on getting a saddle, and UM practiced a few
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: times in the summer, just getting up and down trees,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: but I really didn't get super good at it until,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: you know, until I was doing it in the season
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and you know, UM, really figuring out my process to
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: get up and down a tree and my process to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: set up. But no means my super smooth. And I
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: mean I still drop stuff and you know it happens
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: to Yeah, man, I'm still clumsy with it, but I
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: just I'm I'm way more comfortable than that than I
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: was um last year with with with my my tree stands.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: So I know, those were my three or four things
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to work on over the summer, and um,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: you know, I think there's still work to do, but
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I think that was a good start to my season,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: my season leading up to this year. Yeah, so did
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: those did those things? Did those areas of focus end up? Um?
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Helping you once the season once a year two began,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, how did that all come into play? And
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: what did you two look like as you get started? Yeah,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I mean year two was was great. I mean, I'm
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: not going to downplay it. Um. The early part of
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: the season, when I started hunting all my public plan spots, um,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I mean it was pretty rough. I didn't really seem
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: many dear, to be honest with you. Um, I think
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I saw a total of maybe two dear that whole time,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: amongst you know, a handful of hunts. So it was
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: pretty challenging. My my spot didn't pan out like I'd
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: like them to, unfortunately. M A memorable moment was I
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: was hunting one more morning and one of my public
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: land spots and I had a group of like forty
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: people on horseback just tropped through the field I was hunting,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: and I was just so rattled by what was going on.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: So um, so that was interesting. Um and uh yeah,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: like I said, I mean, the public plan spots then
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: pan out like I'd like them to. I mean, just
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: dealing with with hunting pressure and just really you know,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: deer that are really on edge. I just I didn't
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: really think it was a a success, but I mean
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I did learn a lot that. I mean, I gotta
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: take that away, you know, I gotta do things differently
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: for next year if I'm going to keep hunting public land,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: which I probably will. Yeah. So then that that took
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: you to the back forty hunt, right, Yeah. And so
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the back forty hunt. We talked about it, you know,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: a month and a half ago or two months ago,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: whenever we did that last podcast. Um, we had three
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: days out there. We saw, you know, a handful of
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: deer every hunt usually um, and I remember in my head,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I was thinking, ah, man, this sucks. We're not seeing
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: more dear. Dan's probably really bummed. And then I remember
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: at one point, You're like shaking with excitement, and we
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: saw a couple of dolls, and you know, this is
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: more dear than I've seen all year. And it was
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: such a great reminder for me that I can sometimes
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: get jaded because as because I've been able to do
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: this for so long, and I have been super blessed
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: to be in some really great situations. I've got to
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: see the tippy top of the mountain um in a
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: lot of cases, and it's easy to forget and and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: shame on me for not remembering to take joy in
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: in seeing a couple of deer. Uh. You know, that's
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. That's a great thing, and for
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: a new hunter especially, that's not an easy thing. Uh.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: So that was a huge takeaway from me from our
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: shared hunt together. Um that not only is that something
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: to be enjoyed, but that's also something that so many
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: people don't necessarily get to do every day. And and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: that's another reason why I want to try to do
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: more of what we did, which is bring new folks
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: out there to places where they can see those deer. Um.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Because tell me if I'm wrong. But getting to go
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: out and spend a couple of days in the back
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: forty as a new hunter who hadn't been able to
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: see a lot of deer, who hadn't been able to
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: be in many positions like that, was that a pretty
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: special thing? And was that a great opportunity just to
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: be able to live through those moments? And you know
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: you kind of alluded to it, like learn what to
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: do when you're seeing dear, learn how to spot dear,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: learn how to get ready for a shot. Those are
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: things that you hadn't really been able to do much before,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: and then over the course three days we had a
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: bunch of it. Um am I right on that. Yeah, absolutely, man.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I mean just just the property alone is such a
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: cool thing to see for somebody that just doesn't have
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: much experience with with deer or or or just property
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: management in general. I you know, everything is done, you know,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: all your food plots, all your all your different you
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: know cover screens that you guys planted, everything is done
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: with reason. And I just thought that was so cool
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to see something like that, you know, be worked on
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: over the summer and then come to fruition in the fall,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and then have somebody out you know, hunting it and
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: you know, had those things all come together. Just from
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: that aspect, just to see a piece of property like
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: that was was really was really fascinating to me. And then,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: like I said, having all those things come together and
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: work and you know, you guys are seeing deer now
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: and we're getting actual you know, opportunities at deer. I
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: think that that's just such a neat thing to see
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: as a new hunt hunter, just to see what's what's
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: possible out there, right, Like you out and hunt public plan.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: But this is a whole another realm of what you
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: can do with a piece of property. That's that's uh.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I just thought that was that was pretty cool. Yeah.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: So so we had their hunt. We saw some deer,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: We got a shot at one. You got a shot
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: at one. We were counted that whole thing last time,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: so folks know, uh, you know, I made the mistake
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of thinking it was a hit based off of what
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: I saw through my binoculars. And then we you know,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: went through this whole roller coaster of emotions where we're
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: excited we thought you got him, and then we started tracking,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: couldn't find any blood, couldn't find anything, got a tracking dog,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: spent all night trying figure something out. And long story short, uh,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: we believe it was a clean miss now and and
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: that whole thing happened. That was a tough deal. But
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the next day you kind of dusted yourself off, grabbed
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the gun again. We shot um, got you, you know,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: just making sure everything felt good with a gun again,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: went out for one more hunt, ended up almost getting
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a shot at a dobe, but she had another deer
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: right behind her um and it didn't end up panning
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: out but we we didn't. I didn't get to hear
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: from you after that hunt on the podcast because we
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: recorded that podcast the morning or no, the day, No,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know what it was. It would have been
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the afternoon before that last hunt, I guess. So with
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the whole hunt behind you now, and and like that
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: week after the hunt, when you looked back on the
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: back ford the experience. UM, I know you've already mentioned
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: a couple of things that that you learned that you
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: enjoyed experiencing. But did you learn anything about yourself coming
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: out of that experience, having the man us, dealing with that,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: everything that went on. Um, what was your big takeaway
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: from that experience? Yeah? Yeah, I mean the just so
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: the experience overall was was incredible, man. I mean, you
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: guys did a great job. You and Justin did a
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: great job of just kind of coaching me through everything
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: and and helping me out. And you know, I'm gonna
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: remember that, you know, for the rest of my life obviously. Um,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: the big takeaways from that from that was, you know,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: ship happens, right, so so I can't I can't let
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: myself or you know, a mistake or a miss or
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: even a bad hit really really get to me. Um.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: And obviously just being you know, I like to wear
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: my emotions on my shoulder every now and then, and
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: and you know, I really can't let that get to
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: me too much, right like when when something bad happens,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: you know what's good? You know, how are you going
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: to get better from it? Um? I think that was
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: a huge takeaway of what I learned. And and you know,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: those those things happened, and I'm sure you know, like
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: you guys said, happened to to every single person that
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: hunts out there, whether it's dear or something else. Um,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: you know, and you know, it's just it's just all
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: part of all part of the hunt and all part
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: of the pursuit. So you know, you really can't let
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: that beat you up too much and let that deter
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: you from what you're trying to accomplish eventually, is you know,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: make a make a clean shot and get put some
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: meat on the table. So what happened from there? Yeah, yeah,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: we sent you on your way off in your own again.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: And uh, and I didn't know, I didn't know if
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: you were gonna be done hunting for the year or
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna still keep after it or what um,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: But but what did you do? No? Man? I mean
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I think after that hunt, after that last hunt, and
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: how close we were to to to get in one
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: of those dose um, that kind of like lit a
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: fire inside of me on you know, into Okay, I
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: got I gotta, I gotta keep going. I gotta, I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: gotta get this done this season. I you know, I
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: feel like I feel like this is this is going
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: to happen. Um. So so I think in one of
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: our hunts, you know, we were talking, you know, just
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: just different strategy, and I was asking you questions you
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: were going to be some some good feedback, and you
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: had mentioned, you know, um, because I was hunting a
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: lot of public land, and you had mentioned, you know,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: you should you should think about tapping your network and
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: just seeing if you possibly can get access to whatever
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: private land properties, if you know a family friend, if
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: you know, um, you know somebody that might have some
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: some some property you can hunt. And I took that
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: as kind of like my my takeaway and just started asking,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: you know, asking around. Well I didn't really ask too
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: many people. I asked my immediate family and m yeah,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and you know my dad had actually mentioned this. You
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: know earlier in the season to me, but I brushed
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: it off. He has a friend that owns this small,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: like ten acre property, um, just north where I'm living now. Um,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: it's probably like a fifty minute drive from from where
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I live. Um. He you know, they had bought the property,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: like you know, a year ago. None of them hunt.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: And he said, hey, like if you want, if you want,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I can give you their number and you can you
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: can reach out and see if you can if you
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: can hunt that property. And I had dismissed it, and honestly,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: I kind of forgot about it, just thinking, Oh, it's
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: it's ten acres like whatever, Like I'm not going to
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: see anything on a ten acre piece of property or
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I'd rather go out and hunt public land
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: where it's like I'm working with like hundreds, if not
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: thousands of acres of land. UM. And I just kind
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: of said, whatever, maybe maybe this property has something something
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: that I'm not really you know, seeing here. So I
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: reached out. Um. This was actually the Sunday after our hunt,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: so I think, Um, we wrapped up our hunt on
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: the back forty I don't know, it was like Tuesday
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: that that week, and then the following weekend. UM, I had,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: you know, reached out and just said, hey, I'm gonna
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, my name is Dan, I'm Um,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: I'm Frank's son. I'm gonna swing by and and you know,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: maybe I can you know, hunt your property. I went,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: They're kind of explained to them, like the whole hunting
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: thing and why I'm out here and what I'm trying
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: to do, because they really just didn't have much of
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: an idea. And UM, the the owner and my dad's
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: friend UM and her son, UM walked me around like
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the whole property and would be the property line. And
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I said, oh great, this is this is awesome, like,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: thank you so much. And UM, I just figured i'd
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: hunt that day. So I had all my gear in
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the truck, got it out, you know, suited up. UM.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: And then just by the looks of what, you know,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: where they took me around and what kind of onyx
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: was showing, there was one real spot that I was
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: just super interested in hunting on that that ten acre
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: piece of property. UM. Obviously my first idea was I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: want to get away, you know, as far away from
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: the house as I can. UM. And then I end
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: up found finding this little corner of the property where
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: some terrain features kind of all met on this little
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Uh I don't a low section. There was a few
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: trails that intersected, and there was this really big oak
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: tree that I thought was, you know, a good food
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: source for the deer, at least where the deer felt.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: I felt like the deer were coming back and forth
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: from UM. And then you know, I went out there.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: I got in my in my saddle and as I'm
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: up in the tree and just kind of scoping out
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: the surrounding surrounding areas. UM and uh. I think within
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: an hour of my sit I see, you know, three
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: deer pass to my right, and UM, I'm like, okay,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: well that's that's a that's a great start, you know,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: not thinking I was going to see anything right off
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: the bat, I'm seeing I'm seeing three deer kind of
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: trot trot right next to me. Um. From there, you know,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I saw some turkey. It was. It was really fun hunt.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: And then UM, I think probably thinking to yourself, dang,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: why didn't I do this two months ago? Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: I was definitely thinking that, um, just because it was
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: a cool area. It was it was easy to get to.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: And you know, I saw three deer right off the
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: bat that was that was more than I had seen
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: all season just hunting the public land. Um. So, I
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: don't know, it got to about five o'clock and I
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: see this dough by herself, just kind of coming my way,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: and she's coming my way. She's coming my way, and
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: she's she's by herself, and she's looking behind her, and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, like this is this is
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: going to happen. Um. And she's kind of quartering right
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: towards my shooting lane and I'm getting ready, getting ready.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: She's probably like, you know, five yards from where I
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: need her to be. And then as she takes a
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: couple more steps, right behind her as a as a buck,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh my god, you know that, you
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: know there's a buck right there. He's doing this thing
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: with a dough. This is like obviously some good rut
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: activity happening right in front of me. Um. And right away,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of like, Okay, what what do I
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: do in this situation? Um? I'm thinking in my mind,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: like I just want to shoot a deer, you know,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I know this this this buck is right there. But
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: like I would be happy to take this dough. So um,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: they keep working my way, and finally the dope gets
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: in my shooting lane and I'm like, okay, I'm I'm gonna,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna, you know, pull back and take a shot.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: So um, that day, I was getting some snow coming down,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: and um, my bow was all wet. So as I
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: started to draw back my there was there's this little
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: rubber piece on my wrist and it made this loud
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: squeak and it was like, so as I did, it
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: made that squeak. Dude, it was like I lit a
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: firecracker and and let it off right in front of
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the deer. She spooped so hard and I was just like,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: no freaking way, Like, no way did that just happen.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: So she spooked and I thought she was going to dart,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: but she didn't. She spooked around my the oak tree
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: that I was kind of sitting right in front of,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: and um, she ended up going to the trails that
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: kind of intersected right behind the oak tree, and the
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: buck just followed her. The buck just followed her. So
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: at this point I'm like, Okay, I don't think I
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: completely blew it. I think I might still have a chance. Um,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: this is a little further of a shot that I'd
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: like to take, but I'm just gonna kind of wait
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: it out now. So, um, you know, she kind of
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: did her thing behind this oak tree, and they kind
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: of started working my way. However, the way that, you know,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the direction that they were coming was just directly down
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: wind of where I where, you know, where my scent was.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: So I just knew like at any point, like I'm
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: going to get winded. So anyways, they kept doing their thing,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: and eventually the do went into this kind of brushy area.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: But the buck was right in my white right in
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: my range, um, and he was right behind this tree,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: and I thought, okay, well I don't really have a
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: shot at this dough, but I have a shot at
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: this puck, so I'm gonna try to get ready here. Um.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: So I just kind of got myself prepared, and I
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: got myself, you know, mentally worked up to try to
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: make a shot. And he he was kind of lingering
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: there for a couple of minutes, um, but but I
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: just wanted to be patient. And then he took another step.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: He's in my shooting wane. Now now I'm ready to
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: take a shot. All of a sudden, right under me
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: comes this like uh, this this spike, and he's freaking out.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: You know, he knows, he knows there's a doe over there,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: and um, but he's right under my tree and I'm like,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: oh my god, what do I do? Like so it's
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: just like pandemonium in this this one hunt that I
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: just you know, it was my first hunt there. I
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: had no idea it was gonna go down like this.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: So I said whatever, I'm just gonna ignore the spike.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna draw back. And as I draw back, the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: spike under me spoops, the dose spooks what the buck stays.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: So the buck stays and I'm like, okay, he's looking
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: right at me. He's stomping his feet, but I'm just
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: gonna try to stay as calm as I can. He's
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: twenty five yards, this is this is in my range.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: I put I put my sight on him, and I
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: let it rip. I let it rip, and I shot him. Um.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: You know, I I kind of heard this like thump
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: that went into went into his body and right there
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: and then I just knew I hit him. Um, And
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I was just kind of completely out of my mind
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: at that very moment. After I shot him, I tried
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: to see where he went. Um. I think he darted
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: out into the neighbor's property and I saw him like
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: fall um. But then he just kept going and I
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: was just you know, my my first reaction was, you know,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I gotta get down out of this tree, um, you know.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: And I started trying to tear down my set. I'm like,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: hold on, wait, wait, wait, I don't want to fall
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: out of this tree. I gotta take until of minutes
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and just relax. Um. So I gathered myself and got down. Um.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: I went to the side of impact and I didn't
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: see any blood, and I immediately just got super worried.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: So I kind of walked. I didn't I didn't want
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: to completely ruin my track job, but I walked probably
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: like I don't know, twenty yards from where I thought
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: I shot him, just following his tracks. We had snow
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: on the ground so it was easy to follow. And
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I found my my arrow and my air had been
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: it looked like it had been broken off. So um.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: There was a little blood on my arrow and it
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: looked like it got broken off, and there was probably
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: like five inches or so gone from my arrow. So
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I had immediately just kind of like thought like, what
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: what happened? Like did it pass through? Did it not? Um?
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: You know, my fletchings weren't bloody, So I was like,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: I don't think it passed through. Maybe it got broken off. Um,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: maybe I maybe I hit his arm or something. Um,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure. So I just got I got really
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: kind of down on myself on that moment, like, God,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't make a clean shot. I didn't. I didn't
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: do the right thing here. Um. But like in the moment,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I thought like I did everything that you know, I
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: had practiced over the summer. I thought I made I
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: thought I made a really good shot. So I just
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: kind of kept telling myself that, and I pulled out
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: my My first thing to do with just get permission
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: on the neighbor's property to go track the deer. Um.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: So that was my my first my first step got permission,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: that was golden um. And then I called my brother.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: I was like, hey, man, like I might need some help,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: like can you come out. Luckily he was only like
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes away. Um, So he came out. And then
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: my third thing was like, Okay, I don't know if
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: I made this clean shot, excuse me, I should probably
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: try to get get ahold of a tracker and just
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: see if they could maybe come out and help out
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: with the track job. Just trying to be safe, and
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: you know, rather than myself and my brother who don't
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: really know much about tracking animals, maybe they could give
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: me some help. So I took some pictures of the
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: arrow and kind of what had happened, and I got
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: ahold of a tracker and um, kind of explained the situation,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: sent him the picture. Um it was like a Sunday night,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: and I felt really bad bothering this guy. But you know,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: he said, you know, just from what I had told him,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: he said, well, I'm thinking this is probably a shoulder shot.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: And if you only got four or five inches of penetration,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't think you really hit a longer
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: major artery. So I'm not really sure if you have
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: a dead deer on your hands here. Um, so I'm
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: not really sure if it would really be worth it
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: for me to you know, come out and do the
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: do the do a track job for you. You know,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: it was snowing and it was kind of like it
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: was dark at that point. I felt bad. So I
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: kind of was just like, you know what, no problem,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: and he's like, well, you should definitely give it a
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: shot yourself. And UM, you know, if you think that
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: it's really worth it for me to come out, then
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: you know, give me a call and I'll see what
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I can do for you. So at that point, it
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: had been like two hours from the shot, and we,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: you know, my brother and I kind of set set
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: off and just try to track it ourselves some Being
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: that there was snow on the ground, we could we
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: could you know, you know, clearly identify some blood. So we, um,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: we picked up on a blood trail pretty quickly. And
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: the blood trail I thought was pretty good. Um, you know,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: we were seeing drops of blood here and there. But
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: then we would, you know, every fifteen twenty yards or so,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: we would kind of find this like almost like a
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: little pool of blood where you know, we thought that
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: we had maybe gotten a lung or something. I wasn't sure,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: so I now, I kept taking pictures of everything and
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: just try to keep track of what we were seeing.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: And we kept following this blood trail man for probably
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: like three hundred yards three or yeah, three or four
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: hundred yards and finally I found where where the buck
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: had bedded down, and he had bedded down right next
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: to the swamp, and and it is bad. I could
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: see like or blood just kind of like pulling up
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: right there. And I just I just didn't know what
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: to do at that point, Like did I bump the
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: buck out of his bed? Is this thing gone now?
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: And you know, just completely in the next county or something,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know. And then I saw tracks across the stamp.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: So I called the tracker again and I you know,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: sent him the pictures and sent him everything that I had,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: and I just I just said, hey, man, like this
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: is the situation. I've tracked this thing now for like
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: three or four yards. I think we bumped him out
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: of his bed. We saw these tracks across the swamp. Um,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: you know, do you feel like it's worth it to
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: come out? What are you thinking at this point? And
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: his feedback to me was like, just by the looks
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: of blood and what you're seeing the fact that you've
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: tracked him now for four hundred yards, I really don't
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: think he made a lethal shot on him. And you know,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: I probably would have pulled out on the track job,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, a while ago, so um, just
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: me not having that experience, I was just kind of like, oh, man,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: like this is terrible, Man Like, this is just such
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: a bummer. So um my brother and I just kind
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: of called it, and you just said, like, you know,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: hopefully the bucks survived and he's out chasing does somewhere
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: and we can kinda let him do his thing and
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: not disturb the areas, you know, any any more than
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: we did. So that was that was a really really
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: big low point for me at you know, just just
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: having that shot wounding the animal and just the fact
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: that I didn't didn't kill him was just like, you know,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: at that moment, just just awful. You know, it was
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: really bad. Yeah, man, I you went through a rough
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: spell there between that and the back forty hunt, and
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: and you had some some high highs and some low lows.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: But I gotta give credit you then reached out to
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: me after that and explained what happened. And and I
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: I think that Tracker was a little too negative on
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: you and that um, you know, with that kind of
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: blood trail, Yes, it definitely sounded like a potential shoulder
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: blade hit. And and yes, uh, there certainly was a
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: good chance he was going to make it. But at
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: the same time, you you had blood for a long time,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: you had tracks. Um. Him telling you that he would
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: have pulled out before the end of the blood trail
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: is insanity to me. So I you know what I
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: told you was, hey, man, you might want to keep looking. Um. Yeah,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: there's there's certainly a good chance that the deer's out
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: there fine, but you gotta check that swamp. You gotta
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: check the larger area because there's There's also been many
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: times that I know people had thought a deer, you know,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: kept going and kept going and kept going like, oh,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: we'll never find this thing, and then you do. So
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: to your credit, you went back out there. I don't
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: know if it was the next day or two days
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was, and you went out there and
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: you grid searched and you kept following it after we
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: talked about some things, and you gave it a serious,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: serious effort, um in the middle of the night. I
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: know you were out there late after work or whatever
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: it was. So you kept after it and and I
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: really commend you for that. And you didn't find the deer,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: and that deer probably is just fine. But these deer
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: always deserve, you know, our very very best shot to
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: recover that. And if we're gonna, you know, if we're
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: gonna take that shot, if we're going to do that,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: we we deserve those animals, deserve our respect to take
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: it through the end and give it everything. And you
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: did that. Um, for the sake of time. I've got
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: so many questions. But for the sake of times, I
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: know you've got a hard stop in fifteen minutes. We
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: gotta now move on to the final piece of this
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: of the season. I know that happened. We talked about
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: things you mentioned like I need to take a little
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: time off. I gotta kind of process all this. So
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: you took a week or two or whatever it was off,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: and then you finally got back out there. UM, give
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: me the epic finale. Yeah. Yeah, So so that all happened.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: Like you said, I took some time off just to
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: kind of regather and just you know, I was super
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: bummed out about it, and you know, I took my
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: time to to you know, do my thing, and I
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: was just like, you know what, maybe maybe I'll give
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: it another shot. Um. I decided to get so we
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: my brothers and I will share the shotgun that we've
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: had for for ages, and we have a slug barrel
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: that you know, nobody's ever used. And I got it
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: out last year and I you know, I shot it,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: you know once last year, and then I just figured, okay,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: let me let me get it out again this year
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: and let me just put the bow down and then
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: maybe do a late antler less hunt, um and see
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: if I can, if I can get into something. UM
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: took it out shot at a few times. I thought
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: I was good with it. By the way, there's no
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: scope on this thing. It's it's got an iron sight
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: on it. I just figured I'm just gonna roll with it.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna take too far a shot.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Something comes in with like forty yards, that's gonna be
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: my max. Um. So yeah, man, it was gosh, it
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: was what was it? It was the day after Christmas
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and I was just like, all right, I'm just gonna
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: try to get this hunt in real quick. Saturday night.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Beyonce wants to hang out, but I'm just gonna, you know,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna do this real quick. Just you know,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: it's all good. Um. So yeah, so, um, I had
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: a head a couple, you know, at one more hunt
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: before that, where I was in that same tree where
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: I shot that book, I just got blown up by
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: a few doughs and I just knew, I gotta, you know,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: they're onto me at this point, I gotta figure out
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: a different setup. So UM ended up setting up like
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: in a different tree fifteen yards where I was, you know,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: I was originally was Um this tree had a little
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: more cover for me, had a few trees behind me,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: so it kind of like broke up my silhouette a
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: little bit, and I just felt I felt like, Okay,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a way better chance than this tree
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: just being a little more stealthy. UM. So gotten the
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: tree probably like two o'clock. UM, I think I was.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: I was ready to go by like two fifteen, and
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: man like not fifteen minutes later, I saw four dough
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: cruising the neighbor's property to my left, and I was
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: just like, oh my god, this is this is happening
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: way too early. I'm not ready for this to be over,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Like what is going on? Um? So these four dough
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: are cruising this, you know, the neighbor's property, and there's
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: this little betting area that butts up right against the
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: property I hunt, and but it's in the neighbor's property.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: And they go straight to that betting area and um,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: all four dough just they just sit down and they're there.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: They end up betting in this little this little thick,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: nasty stuff and all of this is in my range,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Like I can see everything with my buyos, and I
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: see them just kind of all sitting down and just
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: just hanging out, and I'm like, okay, like holy cow,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Like you know, if they if they you know, end
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: up getting up and work my way, I'm going to
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: have a legit shot at one of these deer. So
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: it's like two fifteen, and man, they were betted down
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: for what I thought was like eternity. Um, I think
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: it finally got to like four thirty and they started
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: to move around and two dough started working my way. Um,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: they were still in the neighbor's property. So I didn't
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: want to take a shot just yet. I wanted them
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: to wait, wait over till you know the property that
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: I was on. They start working my way, start working
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: my way very slowly, and then finally like they're in
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: the shooting lane that I knew I could take a
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: shot through. Um. But there was two dough. There was
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: a big dough and there was a little dough, and I, obviously,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: you know, just of the two, I wanted to take
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: a shot at the big dough. Um. So I got
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: set up, I got my my gun ready, and I
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: have my my sight on, you know, in the general
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: direction of where the deer are. However, the big dough
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: is locked off by a patch of these little trees
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: that didn't want to take a shot through. Um. But
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: the the little dough was kind of like in my sight. UM.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: So I'm just kind of getting ready and get ready.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: She's kind of just doing her thing, not moving. All
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, behind me, I hear a blow and
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: I'm like what, like, where did that come from? Like
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: there must have been deer behind me, or deer over
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: to my right that I didn't see that may have
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: picked me off with, you know, the way that the
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: wind was blowing. And I hear blow, and immediately I
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: get nervous and I'm like, okay, like I'm busted. Like
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: I could just completely blow this thing right here. Um,
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: but the deer didn't spook, and I'm just like waiting
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: for this The big dough to step out, and then
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: I hear another blow, and that one got the deer's attention,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, Okay, now I have to make a decision.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Do I wait for this big dough to step out,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: or do I just take a shot at the little
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: dough just for the sake of getting a deer and
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: just you know, getting some meat on the table. And
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: then I heard another blow and I was like, all right,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not going to take another risk here.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to take this shot at the little dough.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: And I did. I let it rip. You know, I
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: felt good right off the bat um took the shot,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: the deer ran off. Um, she ran off into the
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: neighbor's property, and UM, you know, I just knew right
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: from the start. I was like, I think that was
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: a really good shot. Just by the way the deer reacted,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: it looked like I had gotten a decent hit, and UM,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: I was just kind of like it's just overcome. Was
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: just like, oh my God, a sense of relief and
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: just like thank you, Like I think I think this
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: is this is happening. So UM, I gave it some time.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: I think it gave it, like you know, half hour
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: or whatever. I just took my time, tearing down my
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: my saddle and um, I went down and um. At
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: this point, I had already gotten the neighbor's permission to
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: you know, um, you know track a deer if I
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: if I had, you know, if they had gone over
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: to the property. And man, it was snowing that day,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: and the blood trail was great, and you know, it
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: was just not twenty yards later. Man, I saw I
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: saw it laying down, and I just, um, I just
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: got so happy. Man. I think I went over to it,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: and quite honestly, I did feel a little remorseful just
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: seeing it there and just seeing it kind of you know,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: I had just taken a shot at an animal and
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: it and then it expired right there in front of me.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: It's just like, you know, I feel like it's it's
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: kind of a natural thing for for you to feel
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: a little remorseful there. And I did get you know,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: I did get a little sad whatever, but it was
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: just quickly overcome with with happiness and uh excitement, and
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: I was just I was just pumped, man, I was
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: just pumped. It was a good day. It was it
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: was a great time. What I mean so many, so
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: many questions and did it so? So from there you
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: you you enjoyed the moment, you gott of the deer,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: you brought it home. Yeah, you eventually butchered the deer,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: I think, right. Yeah, So looking back on all that,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: what is the A? Was it what you expected? Or
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: did you get out of this what you're hoping you're
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: going to get and be? How do you sum up
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: your feelings about everything? Now? Oh? Man? Um? Was it
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: what I expected? In the moment? It was not what
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: I expected? I I don't know. I feel like I
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: feel like it all happened so fast. Um, but really
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: looking back at it, I you know, I think it
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: was like over like five or ten minutes that I
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: was kind of been the standoff of those two dear. Um,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: it just I think it just happened so quickly, and um,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: you know, I really wasn't expecting to feel remorseful, like
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: I said, I just thought I was it was going
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: to be all kind of like happy and like, oh
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: my god, like I did it like but no, it
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: was just kind of like whoa Like I just took
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: I just took a you know, I just took an
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: animal's life here and and you know, naturally I just
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: kind of felt felt weird. Um, but no, I mean
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: eventually that the happiness did come. Um, I mean just
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: the whole season in general, man, was such a grind.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: I think I told you earlier in the season where
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: after I shot that buck, it was like, you know,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: right now, it seems like the worst season ever, but
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: probably gonna look back at this and and think like
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: this is probably gonna be one of the best seasons
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: I've ever had, so um, So from that aspect, yeah, man,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: it was. It was just kind of like so many
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: different things happened and none of which I had any
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: idea We're going to happen, and I just kind of
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: had to roll with the punches throughout those months, and
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: I did and ended up all coming together and I
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: was just so so happy. So has this several year
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: journey of ups and downs and work and challenges and
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: learning and frustration and excitement. Has Has it all been
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: worth it? Oh? Man? Absolutely? Man, I think, you know,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: just like the taste of success was just so great,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: and then just the excitement that I've gotten from you know,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: my family and you know just you know, obviously you
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: guys and you know Jason and everybody else have been
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: so pumped for me. I think that was that that's
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: been really cool. Um. And then you know, we got
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: we got the whole family involved in butchering the deer
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: and that was a lot of fun. Like my brothers
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: and their kids and my dad came out and he
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: showed us a finger too, because he used to do
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: his own butchering, um, you know, back when he was younger.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: So he showed us a bunch of stuff, and um,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: the meat is incredible. Um. You know, I've I've had
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: a few meals now from from the deer and it's
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: it's just been awesome. And then um, just being able
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: to share it with with my brothers and my family
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: and I've I've given them meat and they've been so
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: happy with it and just saying like thank you, like
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: this is great, Like you gotta go get another deer
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: right now. No, it's not a season. I gotta wait
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: til next season. So so it's been it's been awesome. Man,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: it's been great. That's that's so cool. I I couldn't
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: be more excited for you. Uh So it sounds like
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: I already know the answer to this question, but I
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: have to ask it. Uh, is there gonna be a
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: year three? Oh? Yeah, definitely, man, definitely going to be
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: a year three or three for sure. I'm very I'm
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: very happy to hear that. Okay, I know you've got
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: to leave here, probably some important stuff to do with
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: work or life or something more important than this. But
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: but two really quick questions. Number one for other new
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: hunters out there listening, who haven't killed their first dear yet,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: who are where you were a year or two ago,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: what would be your piece of advice for someone who
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: who was in the shoes or who isn't the shoes
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: that you were in not that long ago. Yeah, a
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: piece of advice would be, Um, you know, don't be
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: afraid to get out of your comfort zone. Um. You know,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, I take this with anything
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: I do. If I'm not if i'm if I'm feeling
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: too comfortable with something I'm not, I'm not really learning anything.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: So don't be afraid to get uncomfortable and reach out
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: to like your local q d m A or I
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: guess now it's the d n d A, right, Um,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: your local NBA chapter and just try to tap some
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: resources that you wouldn't normally tap um and see if
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: you can, if you can find a mentor that would
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: be willing to guide you through the hunting process, even
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: if it if it is something that you wouldn't normally do.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: I think that that knowledge and the things you learn
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: just hunting with some someone is is invaluable, right, Like
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: it's just you can learn so much um in in
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: such a small amount of time, UM, And I really
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: feel like that that can really help you out in
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: your journey me to have some success. I think that's
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: kind of like the biggest thing for me, right. It's
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: like if you're if you want something you've never had,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: you've got to do something you've never done before. So
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: so don't be afraid to get out of your comfort
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: zone and take a take a leap of faith and
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: you know, do something like that. So that would be
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: kind of my my big lesson or you know, my
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: big my big thing for a new hunter that's just
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: trying to get into it. It's great advice and any
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: I can you imagine how different your life would have
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: been if you hadn't you know, emailed qtum after listening
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: to that podcast, UM. A whole bunch of things came
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: out from that because you reached out to Josh right
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: after listening to the Mediator podcast and sent you down
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: a crazy road. Huh yeah, man, it's been a it's
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: been a journey, and you know, I gotta thank you.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: I gotta think, Josh, I gotta think. You know, Jason,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: you know, you guys are just such, you know, good
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: examples for I guess this up and coming generation of hunters,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: and you guys are doing the right things. You guys
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: are saying the right stuff, and you know, you guys
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: help more than you really know. So I gotta really
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: thank you guys for everything that you guys are doing. Um,
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: Like I said, setting that good example is just so
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: important for the guys and girls that are coming up
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: and really protecting the future of our you know, of
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: hunting and our habitats and our dear population all these
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: other things. Man, it's just big things to you guys, right,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: you guys, I feel like deserve the credit and don't
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: get it enough. So big thanks. Thank you for saying that. Dan,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: And uh, I know we gotta let you go. So
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: just congratulations again, my friend. It's been an honor to
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: get to be a part of it and to see
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: it and watch it and and see your your progress.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: I'm very excited for you, and uh great, great work
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: pushing through all the ups and downs and coming out
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: the other side. You are You've been a hunter all
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: this time, but but now you are a hunter with
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: with meeting the freezer and that's an important step. So
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: well done in Congrats, Thank you so much, man, I
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. And you know, thank you for having
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: me on again. It's awesome, man, Thank you so much.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: All Right, and there you go. Congrats again to Dan.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: What what a story. I wish we had a little
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: more time he had he had to run off and
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: do some things, but gosh, there's so much that I
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: would love to dive in further too, about how he
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: experienced and and dealt with all these moments after the hunt.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: You know where his head is at now. It's just
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: it's a lot. And maybe maybe I'm just really excited
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: because I've seen what Dan has has worked through and
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: and the struggles he overcame in the experience he had,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: and gosh, it's just it's really cool to see a
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: story like this kind of get wrapped up with a
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: happy ending. So I'll say this to all the listening um.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: If you're a new hunter, take Dan's advice. Reach out
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: to someone, reach out to an organization, reach out to
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: a friend or family member that you know hunts, and
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: and put yourself out there a little bit. It can
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: really pay off. And then number two, to those of
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: you who are already hunters and you want to try
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: to help some people like this out if you'd like
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: to take that next step and you're hunting journey and
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: become a hunting mentor. Number one, the most simple thing
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: you can do, but something that a lot of us
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: don't think about, myself included, is simply offer an invitation.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: If you know someone who maybe is into some other
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: kind of adjacent outdoor endeavors. Just in conversations, say hey
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: you like to fish, or hey you like to camp,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: or hey you like to I don't know, you like
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: to shoot guns. Would you ever be interest in hunting?
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: Because I'd love to take you out and show you
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: around sometime. Just do it. Just put it on your
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: list this year, you're gonna ask someone, You're gonna invite someone.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: It's it's a really simple thing to do, and yes,
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: takes a little bit of sacrifice once you go out there,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: and spend a day or two with somebody. But it's man,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: it's not just a good thing to do. It's also
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun and I can attest to that
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. It is so fulfilling
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: to share this thing that we love with other people.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: Number Two. Another great way you could do this is
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: reach out to an organization like the National Deer Association
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: which runs these field to fork mentorship programs. Reach out
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: to them and say, hey, I'm interested in being a mentor.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: They need more mentors. I'm talking to these guys frequently.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: They've they want to scale this program to other parts
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: all around the country where you can help educate new
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: hunters and spend a little time with him out there
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: in the woods. They need people, they need you, So
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: go to the National Deer Association website. You're gonna find
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: contact information there to get ahold of folks. Hank Forrester
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: is the guy who who's running these programs. So get
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: ahold of Hank Forrester. He's going to help point you
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: in the right direction or touch base with your regional contacts.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: Someone like Josh Hilliard, who was on the podcast last week.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: He's one of the regional directors for the National Deer Association.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: If he manages your area, reach out to him and
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: he can help connect you with people that are running
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: these programs. It's it's a great way to get involved,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: it's a great way to make a difference, and it's
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: a great way to make sure that this thing we
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: love continues far into the future so that our kids
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: and their kids and future generations can enjoy wild places
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: and wild animals and the privilege to hunt them and
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: to fill our freezers with the best damn meat that
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: money can't buy. So that's all for me. Thanks all
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: for listening, thanks for your time and your support. Is
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: gonna be a good year. This is gonna be a
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: great year, guys, and I'm excited to share it with
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: you and to be a part of this community. So
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: until next time, thank you, and stay wired to hunt.