Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
Speaker 1: the Whitetail Woods. Present it by First Light, creating proven
Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light,
Speaker 1: Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast.
Speaker 2: This week on the show, I'm answering your questions on
Speaker 2: everything from the key traits that the most successful deer
Speaker 2: hunters share, to my take on the top three days
Speaker 2: to be in the white Tail Woods and more. All right,
Speaker 2: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
Speaker 2: by First Light and First Light Spector Whitetail Pattern, which,
Speaker 2: if you don't know, is a part of the Camo
Speaker 2: for Conservation program. Every purchase of a specter gear piece
Speaker 2: of gear from First Letter or anyone else, a portion
Speaker 2: of those proceeds go to support the National Deer Association.
Speaker 2: So good stuff there. As we talked last week, we
Speaker 2: chatted with Matt Ross from the National Deer Association and
Speaker 2: we are on this whole topic about looking back on
Speaker 2: the last ten years. This month we've kind of done
Speaker 2: this retrospective of sorts. We are ten seasons deep into
Speaker 2: the Wired Hunt podcast. So today I want to do
Speaker 2: something that I've never done before. I don't think anything
Speaker 2: like this has happened over these ten years, which is
Speaker 2: that I am doing a completely solow podcast answering your questions.
Speaker 2: So we're going to do a Q and A style episode,
Speaker 2: which we have done, but today it's just going to
Speaker 2: be me, no sidekick, no Dan Johnson, no Tony Peterson,
Speaker 2: no Spencer Newhart, no further, just me and you. And
Speaker 2: I kind of like this opportunity because this has been
Speaker 2: a ten year journey. This has been a ten year
Speaker 2: ride between me and you folks listening on your headphones
Speaker 2: in the car on a run, doing the dishes, whatever
Speaker 2: it is you're doing. We've got to form, you know,
Speaker 2: some kind of relationship here. I don't want to sound hokey,
Speaker 2: but I am appreciative of that, this opportunity that I've
Speaker 2: had to get to know so many of you and
Speaker 2: to share this thing that I love so much with you,
Speaker 2: and hopefully you've been able to learn from that, this
Speaker 2: passion that I've had for deer and deer hunting and
Speaker 2: the outdoors and learning about all this kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, over these last ten years, my goal has
Speaker 2: been and I think anyone who's listened should know this
Speaker 2: hopefully has been to take you along this journey with me.
Speaker 2: You know, from the outset. When I started Wired to
Speaker 2: Hunt fifteen years ago. You know, my, my, the thing
Speaker 2: I had to offer to the world was not that
Speaker 2: I was an expert. It wasn't that I had all
Speaker 2: the answers or any of the answers on how to
Speaker 2: become a great deer hunter or how to do any
Speaker 2: of this kind of stuff. It was more so this
Speaker 2: basic premise. The premise was that I love deer and
Speaker 2: deer hunting and the outdoors, all these kinds of things,
Speaker 2: and I so badly want to learn more about it.
Speaker 2: I want to dive into this world. I want to
Speaker 2: be consumed by it. I want to consume everything I
Speaker 2: can to be enriched by it and become better at
Speaker 2: these things. And I wanted to take you along that
Speaker 2: journey with me, and we could learn together about all
Speaker 2: of these things and explore these new ideas and these
Speaker 2: new people and these new ways of going about this
Speaker 2: hunting stuff. And that's what I've tried to do in
Speaker 2: the fifteen years of What You're Hunting, the ten years
Speaker 2: of this podcast, that's been the journey, and man, we
Speaker 2: have come a long ways. For those of you who've
Speaker 2: listened for a long time, I hope you feel like
Speaker 2: you've been along for that evolution and that you've grown.
Speaker 2: I can't speak for you, but I can speak for myself,
Speaker 2: and you know, kind of reiterate with Dan and I
Speaker 2: were talking about, you know, a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: which is I feel like I've learned so so much.
Speaker 2: I've learned so many different ideas about deer, hunting, about deer,
Speaker 2: about wild places, conservation of these places, and animals. I
Speaker 2: feel like I'm a totally different person now, and none
Speaker 2: of that would be possible, I really truly believe if
Speaker 2: it weren't for this platform and this opportunity to talk
Speaker 2: to you guys every week, to share my thoughts, to
Speaker 2: share my stories, to share my questions, to talk through
Speaker 2: my ups and downs. I mean, you've heard about some
Speaker 2: of the lowest points in my outdoor journey. You've heard
Speaker 2: about some of my best moments. You've heard about my struggles.
Speaker 2: You've followed along with my peaks and valleys, and together
Speaker 2: we've we've been through something. So for all of that,
Speaker 2: this is a long winded, typical Mark Kenyan w of
Speaker 2: getting to a simple statement, which is that I want
Speaker 2: to say thank you, thank you so much for being
Speaker 2: along for this, for you know, for for gifting me
Speaker 2: your attention, which is arguably our most valuable asset, more
Speaker 2: valuable than money. Time is something we can ever get back.
Speaker 2: That is not a renewable resource. We can't earn more
Speaker 2: of it. It's here and then it's gone. And over
Speaker 2: these years, you know, I don't know, this is like
Speaker 2: six hundred and sixty seven regular Wired Hunt podcast episodes,
Speaker 2: maybe plenty of other you know, offshoots and miniseries and
Speaker 2: different things like that. So I mean we're talking hundreds
Speaker 2: and hundreds and hundreds of hours that we've spent together,
Speaker 2: and so thank you for that and everything that has
Speaker 2: come from this. I hope it's been as beneficial for
Speaker 2: you as it has been for me. And I think that's,
Speaker 2: you know, something that can't be It can be easily
Speaker 2: forgotten sometimes. I think, at least I can get wrapped
Speaker 2: up in the what do we have to get done
Speaker 2: this week? What are we trying to do this year?
Speaker 2: What's the new goal, what's the new project? And this
Speaker 2: kind of retrospective is just a helpful thing to take
Speaker 2: a step back and look at what we've done, look
Speaker 2: at this path we've been on, and to appreciate it.
Speaker 2: So this is me appreciating it the journey in you guys,
Speaker 2: and today, as I mentioned, what I want to do
Speaker 2: is answer some of your questions. You know, tackle some
Speaker 2: of the topics that you the listeners still have questions about.
Speaker 2: We've tackled a whole lot over the years when it
Speaker 2: comes to deer hunting and other outdoor activities, but the
Speaker 2: questions never end. So that is one nice thing is
Speaker 2: that there's no shortage of folks that still want to learn.
Speaker 2: And I think that's a key thing, is to always
Speaker 2: be learning, and that's what we try to showcase here
Speaker 2: on the podcast. So with that said, we've got a
Speaker 2: whole slew of different questions, lots of great submissions from
Speaker 2: the audience. We're going to tackle some things that are
Speaker 2: very core to the podcast. I'm going to take some
Speaker 2: time to answer a question about the key traits that
Speaker 2: the best deer hunters in the world share. I want
Speaker 2: to answer a question about what I think the top
Speaker 2: three days to be in the white Tail Woods are.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about summer white tail scouting. Going
Speaker 2: to answer some questions from new hunters who are just
Speaker 2: trying to wrap their head around you. How do you
Speaker 2: get started? How do you take all of this new
Speaker 2: information and drill it down to those core elements. I
Speaker 2: need to start finding deer and you know, getting my
Speaker 2: tag on one. I'm going to answer some questions about,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of continue on the topic of the
Speaker 2: podcast a couple of months ago about introducing kids to
Speaker 2: the outdoors. We have a few more specific questions on
Speaker 2: that topic, a question or two about fishing just for
Speaker 2: shits and giggles. We've got, oh some questions about conservation
Speaker 2: and how we can be more effective, some habitat related questions.
Speaker 2: Really a little bit of everything. So, if you like
Speaker 2: to hunt, if you like the outdoors, if you're a
Speaker 2: wired hunt listener, this podcast should be right in your wheelhouse.
Speaker 2: But before we get to the questions, since there's nobody
Speaker 2: else in the podcast and it's just me, I can
Speaker 2: kind of do whatever I want here. So I've got
Speaker 2: a cup of coffee and I would encourage you if
Speaker 2: you are listening to this in the car, maybe you know,
Speaker 2: have a cup of coffee or a bottle of water.
Speaker 2: If you're sitting at home in a safe place, have
Speaker 2: a cold beverage, have a beer, a whiskey, whatever's appropriate
Speaker 2: for your age range, and let's kick back and talk
Speaker 2: through a couple other things too. You're gonna hear me
Speaker 2: take nice, long, drawn out SIPs of coffee as I'm
Speaker 2: going to kind of bask in the luxury of zero pressure,
Speaker 2: no other people to talk to. I'm kicking it, and
Speaker 2: I should paint the picture for you since I have
Speaker 2: the luxury of doing so. I'm recording this in the
Speaker 2: office of my cabin out in Ida, And the office
Speaker 2: in my cabin is not really an office. It's my garage.
Speaker 2: I've got a desk and a computer setup down in
Speaker 2: the garage. It's cold out right now, so I've got
Speaker 2: like a jacket and a hood on. There's a little
Speaker 2: electric heater down here that I would usually turn on
Speaker 2: to stay warm, but my podcast editor frequently yells at
Speaker 2: me if I have any kind of little white noise
Speaker 2: kind of thing going on. So when I'm in Michigan,
Speaker 2: he'll make me turn off my heat, or he'll make
Speaker 2: me turn off the fan. And when I'm in Idaho
Speaker 2: freezing my tail off and the garage. I have to
Speaker 2: turn off my electric space heater. So this is for you, Hayden.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm drinking coffee and I want to touch
Speaker 2: on two things before we get to our questions. One
Speaker 2: of those things is a quick rundown of an article
Speaker 2: I wrote over on the Meat Eater website about volunteer
Speaker 2: opportunities out on public lands. This is something you've heard
Speaker 2: me talking about. This year I launched the Working for
Speaker 2: Wildlife Tour. I hope you're familiar with that concept. What
Speaker 2: I'm hoping to do, and what I know you've heard
Speaker 2: me say, is we're trying to put attention, bring attention
Speaker 2: to the many different volunteer opportunities that there are out
Speaker 2: on public land places, times when you can get out
Speaker 2: there on a piece of public and do something good.
Speaker 2: Clean it up, fix it up, improve the habitat for wildlife,
Speaker 2: improve access for future hunting opportunities, make these places better
Speaker 2: for you and your families and your friends and other
Speaker 2: hunters or anglers who want to take advantage and enjoy
Speaker 2: these places. So the chance to do something good, but
Speaker 2: it's also a chance to do something fun with other
Speaker 2: like minded folks. I can't emphasize that enough. That's what
Speaker 2: I've been enjoying on my working for wildlife tour events
Speaker 2: so far has just been like the good vibes and energy.
Speaker 2: So I did this article over on the Mediatory website
Speaker 2: called the best public land Volunteer Events for Hunters and
Speaker 2: Anglers this Summer. And what I tried to do is
Speaker 2: I did a whole bunch of searching online, a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of looking through various conservation organization websites and databases
Speaker 2: and random things like that, trying to find a selection
Speaker 2: of interesting, particularly the unique volunteer habitat opportunities this summer
Speaker 2: that I thought people like you and me would get
Speaker 2: a kick out of. I want to run you through
Speaker 2: a few of those events that are coming up, because
Speaker 2: they're coming up quick. There's some cool things on the
Speaker 2: horizon and you might want to get involved in them.
Speaker 2: So you can find this article that has links to
Speaker 2: each of these event pages and how to register all
Speaker 2: that stuff. If you go to the media website or
Speaker 2: if you just google, you know, best public land Volunteer
Speaker 2: Days for Hunters and Anglers something like that, you'll find
Speaker 2: the piece. So let me give you just a quick
Speaker 2: rundown of what some of these events are coming up.
Speaker 2: There is another conservation event with the Michigan United Conservation
Speaker 2: Clubs Group, who I did an event with earlier this
Speaker 2: year on June twenty fourth, planting native wildflowers and shrubs
Speaker 2: for turkeys and a number of different other types of
Speaker 2: wildlife on a twenty four acre native prairie restoration project.
Speaker 2: June twenty fourth, from June twenty eighth to July second
Speaker 2: is a really cool one. This is a one with
Speaker 2: backcountry hunters and anglers and they're Armed Forces Initiative. They're
Speaker 2: sponsoring a multi day backpacking trip into the Bob Marshall
Speaker 2: Wilderness up there in northern Montana. This is an incredible
Speaker 2: place and they're bringing a group of I think it's
Speaker 2: like seven to ten people something like that to work
Speaker 2: on clearing and maintaining trails. So if you want an
Speaker 2: opportunity to go into a wild place and do some
Speaker 2: good stuff, this is it. You're running out of time.
Speaker 2: It's coming up here in just a couple of weeks,
Speaker 2: but if you sign up, you can head on out
Speaker 2: into the Bob, get some really cool experience under your belt,
Speaker 2: clean up this place, get it ready. For future hunters
Speaker 2: and anglers. Another interesting one. This is another not your
Speaker 2: usual just one day project. This is something that is
Speaker 2: available to participate in between July first and Otober first,
Speaker 2: and this is a project where you can do some
Speaker 2: citizen science with the National Park Service and the US
Speaker 2: Forest Service over in Washington State. So if you're on
Speaker 2: the West coast, or if you are planning on doing
Speaker 2: a trip to Mount Rain International Park or North Cascades
Speaker 2: National Park this summer, the Park Service and Forest Service
Speaker 2: are looking for folks to help them capture and identify
Speaker 2: butterflies and wildflowers in these different ecosystems to help them
Speaker 2: monitor the health and progress of these species out in
Speaker 2: these landscapes. So this is a really cool opportunity to
Speaker 2: do some citizen science and a great excuse to go
Speaker 2: out into a stunning mountain environment. Check that one out.
Speaker 2: We've got a Missouri River cleanup in South Dakota on
Speaker 2: July twelfth, and then there's gonna be a couple working
Speaker 2: for wildlife tour events. We mentioned these last week with
Speaker 2: Matt Ross, so I will not give you too many
Speaker 2: details on this again, but July twenty ninth up in Idaho,
Speaker 2: and then we've got August no September twenty third in Mississippi,
Speaker 2: and then October fifteen, I think it is in Kentucky.
Speaker 2: More details about that on the website as well. And
Speaker 2: then finally, here's a very interesting volunteer opportunity catching and
Speaker 2: eliminating invasive pythons in southern Florida. If you're in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama,
Speaker 2: anywhere down there in the southeast and you want to
Speaker 2: go on a hunt of sorts, is actually going to,
Speaker 2: you know, really help a lot of species from a
Speaker 2: conservation perspective. It is a chance to get out there
Speaker 2: and help knock down this very aggressively growing invasive population
Speaker 2: of pythons in and around the Florida Everglades region. There's
Speaker 2: like a contest going on. It's the twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: Florida Python Challenge, going on from August fourth through thirteenth,
Speaker 2: and they're looking for volunteers people to go out there
Speaker 2: find these snakes. And you know, I think the words
Speaker 2: that they use are gosh, wish I could find out
Speaker 2: what the word is, capture and humanly kill. There's a
Speaker 2: different word they use for in there on their own website.
Speaker 2: But yeah, an opportunity to do some reptile hunting that
Speaker 2: will help the small mammal species and another number of
Speaker 2: other critters out there in Florida who are just being
Speaker 2: gobbled up by these pythons. Speaking of this whole issue,
Speaker 2: this is a random aside, but there is a podcast
Speaker 2: called shoot I think it's called The Wild or something
Speaker 2: with Chris Morgan. I'm gonna find it because it's interesting
Speaker 2: and it's related to this, and since there's nobody waiting
Speaker 2: on me, you can take the five ten seconds to
Speaker 2: wait for me to find it. It is called The Wild. Yes,
Speaker 2: that was right, The Wild with Chris Morgan, and he
Speaker 2: did a two part series on the invasion of the
Speaker 2: Burmese pythons. So it talked all about this invasive species
Speaker 2: issue in southern Florida and what people are trying to
Speaker 2: do to deal with it. One of the things I
Speaker 2: talk about is the huge number of volunteers they have
Speaker 2: out there trying to eliminate these snakes to save the
Speaker 2: ecosystem and all the other critics. So very interesting. If
Speaker 2: this one catches your eye or your ear, I guess
Speaker 2: it'd be check out that podcast to learn more. I
Speaker 2: think that's it. The Working for Wildlife Tour events, as
Speaker 2: I mentioned, you can get those details here on that
Speaker 2: article page or the Working for Wildlife Tour article page
Speaker 2: on the site as well. Again, get out there, have
Speaker 2: some fun. I hope to see you at those events,
Speaker 2: and just want to run you through those specific opportunities
Speaker 2: coming up. Because what I always found is that I
Speaker 2: wanted to do this kind of stuff I talked about,
Speaker 2: I gotta do more volunteering. I got to get out
Speaker 2: there and get my hands dirty. But I never, at
Speaker 2: least I didn't frequently hear about opportunities when I could
Speaker 2: actually get out there and do it. You had to
Speaker 2: really work to find these things. So I wanted to
Speaker 2: try to make that just a little bit easier for it,
Speaker 2: which is why we took some time today to talk
Speaker 2: about it now. Point number three. I'm a big reader.
Speaker 2: If you follow me on Instagram social media, you know
Speaker 2: that I'm really into reading. I share a monthly recap
Speaker 2: of the best or really I recap all the books
Speaker 2: I've read and then talk about, you know, a few
Speaker 2: of my favorites. And I thought, since we've got a
Speaker 2: chance to do it, I would plug a couple books
Speaker 2: that I've read recently here in the podcast, since that's
Speaker 2: something I don't usually get to do one of them.
Speaker 2: I just want to reiterate. This is something we talked
Speaker 2: about a few weeks ago with Steve but Ronella's new
Speaker 2: book Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars just came out
Speaker 2: a few days ago. It's our new kids activity book
Speaker 2: published you Know with you Know from the media team
Speaker 2: and Steve it brought. It breaks down a whole slew
Speaker 2: of different activities that your kids or any kid could
Speaker 2: go out there and try to develop outdoor competencies, to
Speaker 2: have fun in the natural world, to learn to hunt
Speaker 2: and fish and forage and navigate the wilderness and do
Speaker 2: all these different things that are foundational in building a
Speaker 2: young outdoors person. So I can't recommend that enough. My
Speaker 2: kids love it. They've already been testing out and participating
Speaker 2: a number of these activities and it's been a fun
Speaker 2: thing for the family too, So want to mention that.
Speaker 2: And then secondly, I am almost done with a book
Speaker 2: that I know I'm going to look back on. Is
Speaker 2: one of the most interesting, important books I've read in
Speaker 2: a while. It's called The Song of the Dodo by
Speaker 2: David Kwaman. And this is a book for anyone who
Speaker 2: is who is like a wildlife conservation junkie. So you know,
Speaker 2: if that route to Gate doesn't seem to your cup
Speaker 2: of tea, then don't worry. This book isn't for you,
Speaker 2: no big deal. But if you are like really interesting,
Speaker 2: really interested in understanding how wildlife gets to be where
Speaker 2: it is and what causes wildlife to disappear, and you
Speaker 2: want a d understanding of that, this book is for you.
Speaker 2: This book is a very very thorough exploration of the
Speaker 2: evolution and the extinction of species. So how do critters
Speaker 2: evolve and what then sends critters to extinction? And it
Speaker 2: uses this idea of island biogeography, which is the study
Speaker 2: of biology the study of life on islands. It uses
Speaker 2: that as a tool to understand how these things happen
Speaker 2: everywhere in the world. So the unique thing about islands
Speaker 2: is that they're just a microcosm of the world. Things
Speaker 2: happen in isolation there, so it's easier to study, and
Speaker 2: it's easier to see and it's easier to notice trends
Speaker 2: in populations because they happen on this smaller piece of land.
Speaker 2: But the same kinds of concepts. The same trends do
Speaker 2: happen on the mainland, and we are actually creating islands
Speaker 2: on the mainland. So if you can image and there's
Speaker 2: an island in Hawaii, let's say, and all sorts of
Speaker 2: things can happen to populations on islands that can result
Speaker 2: in the evolution of new species or the extinction. And
Speaker 2: there has been this. You know, we talked about this
Speaker 2: this spring with Doug Chadwick and a number of other
Speaker 2: folks were in the midst of at disproportionately high rate
Speaker 2: of extinctions across the world, and this is happening notably,
Speaker 2: very quickly on many islands over the last handful of decades.
Speaker 2: We're losing a lot of species on islands. But then,
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, we are creating islands here on the
Speaker 2: mainland by a way of habitat destruction and fragmentation. So
Speaker 2: if you look at something like Yellowstone National Park, one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty years ago, Yellowstone National Park was this
Speaker 2: big chunk of protected land, but all around it was
Speaker 2: more open wildlife habitat. It was privately owned, it was ranched,
Speaker 2: it was you know, whatever was done with it was logged.
Speaker 2: But you know, largely still open wild habitat that critters
Speaker 2: could use. Now increasingly more and more and more and
Speaker 2: more houses and buildings and businesses and drilling wells or
Speaker 2: oil wells and all these different things are built around it.
Speaker 2: And it's increasingly being surrounded by civilization and effectively becoming
Speaker 2: an island. And that's happening to parks and forests and
Speaker 2: wilderness areas and all sorts of things all over the world.
Speaker 2: We're creating these islands of wildlife habitats surrounded by human habitat.
Speaker 2: And this book looks to help us understand what that's
Speaker 2: going to mean for wildlife, for deer, elk, bears, pronghorn,
Speaker 2: all sorts of species that are effectively being crowded more
Speaker 2: and more into these islands. What's that going to mean
Speaker 2: for the next ten, twenty thirty years, And are we
Speaker 2: going to start seeing these species will away and die off?
Speaker 2: So this book has given me, and this is stuff
Speaker 2: that I've paid a lot of attention to over the years.
Speaker 2: This book has given me a profoundly more thorough understanding
Speaker 2: of how that happens, like the ecological mechanisms of how
Speaker 2: it happened. And so if any of that intrigues. You
Speaker 2: highly recommend the Song of the Dodo. If not, If
Speaker 2: that sounds like maybe too much scientific garbleygook, then yeah,
Speaker 2: it definitely is a lot of scientific garbley goop, and
Speaker 2: it is not for anyone who is not committed to
Speaker 2: really getting into the nitty gritty on this stuff. So
Speaker 2: that is my book spiel for the day. We've covered
Speaker 2: twenty two minutes now and I haven't answered a single question.
Speaker 2: But I've talked about books, I've talked about public land volunteering,
Speaker 2: and I've talked about the podcast in our ten year journey.
Speaker 2: And I did not expect this to take so long.
Speaker 2: So let's get into some questions and answers on the
Speaker 2: main topics of the day. Let's see here coffee break. Okay,
Speaker 2: at them asks, how do you use summer trail camera
Speaker 2: pictures if the patterns change before hunting season? Great question,
Speaker 2: and it is true, and it's something that if you
Speaker 2: are relatively new, it's an important concept to make sure
Speaker 2: you've got locked into your brain. The fact that what
Speaker 2: deer do in the summer is dramatically different than what
Speaker 2: they do in the fall. Food sources change, betting areas,
Speaker 2: change behaviors, change, Hunting pressure changes. So when we talk
Speaker 2: about a deer's pattern, that being like some kind of
Speaker 2: consistent movement, what they're consistently doing in July and August.
Speaker 2: When a lot of us like to start scouting with
Speaker 2: our trail cameras, it's going to be a lot different
Speaker 2: than what they're doing in October. So I look at
Speaker 2: my summer trail camera pictures and scouting not as a
Speaker 2: core piece of hunting intel, like it's not going to
Speaker 2: help me develop an actual hunting strategy because my hunting season.
Speaker 2: And then I should preface this, it depends on when
Speaker 2: your hunting season opens. But you know, in Michigan, my
Speaker 2: home state, my hunting season doesn't open to October first,
Speaker 2: So July and August patterns are very different than October
Speaker 2: first patterns. If your hunting season opens in late August
Speaker 2: or early September, like some states do, then your summer
Speaker 2: pictures can be very helpful. Those patterns can stay consistent
Speaker 2: through the end of the August, through the end of
Speaker 2: August through early September. You know, they tend to stick
Speaker 2: to those general bedding to feeding summer movements for most
Speaker 2: of that period. It's not till velvet peels off, which
Speaker 2: can happen somewhere in that first you know, anywhere in
Speaker 2: that first maybe ten twelve days of September in that ballpark,
Speaker 2: most bucks in most parts of the country peel their velvet,
Speaker 2: and then you start getting some relocation happening. Some bucks
Speaker 2: shift to a fall range. You start seeing food sources
Speaker 2: change in dramatic fashion in that mid September window. So
Speaker 2: you can use your pictures up until that point pretty confidently.
Speaker 2: But for those of you that start in late September
Speaker 2: or October, I would approach summer pictures in this way.
Speaker 2: Number One, it's just getting a general sense of what's
Speaker 2: the deer heard like in that area, because even though
Speaker 2: there will be some deer that move in the fall,
Speaker 2: what you see in July and August will give you
Speaker 2: a general census of, like, what's the general thing here.
Speaker 2: What's the quality of deer? Are there A lot of deer?
Speaker 2: Are there? Not a lot of deer? Are there? A
Speaker 2: lot of bucks? Are there? Not? A lot of bucks?
Speaker 2: Are there? Does this have a fairly even age class?
Speaker 2: By that, I mean like, are there mature bucks here?
Speaker 2: Are there? Medium age bucks? Are there? Young bucks? Those
Speaker 2: are the kinds of things that I would like to
Speaker 2: know when learning a new hunting area, if you have
Speaker 2: goals related to killing a mature buck or something like that,
Speaker 2: these summer pictures can go a long ways towards telling you,
Speaker 2: you know, is that even in the cards in this
Speaker 2: zone or no. Now, you got to remember you might
Speaker 2: have a piece of habitat that has high quality summer
Speaker 2: food that might draw mature bucks in in July, and
Speaker 2: then it might not be present though in October, so
Speaker 2: you might lose those deer or vice versa. You might
Speaker 2: have a property that you know does not have high
Speaker 2: quality summer food, so you get no good pictures in
Speaker 2: the summer. But then in the fall, if you were
Speaker 2: to stick around, there is high quality you know, late
Speaker 2: fall habitat, food, dough habitat, whatever might be, and those
Speaker 2: bucks might come cruising through. So don't jump to conclusions
Speaker 2: too much based off summer pictures. Again, it's giving you
Speaker 2: a general idea, it's giving you a hint of what's
Speaker 2: to come. But probably the biggest thing for me is
Speaker 2: just getting you know, some number of bucks on camera
Speaker 2: that helped me develop you know, a target list of
Speaker 2: sorts of the bucks that might be around that fall
Speaker 2: that I'm hoping to hunt that year. And you know,
Speaker 2: especially in places that you've hunted year after year, you
Speaker 2: can start seeing like, Okay, this buck is a buck
Speaker 2: that's back from last year. Like you can recognize this
Speaker 2: deer year after year. You can see how they've grown,
Speaker 2: you can see how you know, you can start to age,
Speaker 2: start to get a guess of Okay, you know last
Speaker 2: year this year really looked like a two year old
Speaker 2: or maybe a three year old. And now looking at him,
Speaker 2: now he's back again. Okay, I feel pretty confident. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's probably still he's probably three, so last year was two.
Speaker 2: You can start putting together an idea of you know,
Speaker 2: is this a buck I want to hunt this year?
Speaker 2: Is it not? And just you know, start putting those
Speaker 2: early pieces together. I would guess. And this depends on
Speaker 2: how large a property is in your area. But for me,
Speaker 2: you know, most of the places I hunt are less
Speaker 2: than one hundred acres, and on average, I would say,
Speaker 2: let's stay with that rough area of one hundred acres
Speaker 2: that maybe two thirds of the bucks that I have
Speaker 2: on camera in the summer will still be around in
Speaker 2: the fall. But I lose about a third. By that,
Speaker 2: I mean they shift to a new range in the fall.
Speaker 2: So that said, though you know, fifty to two thirds
Speaker 2: of the bucks I get on camera likely still be
Speaker 2: deer I can hunt that fall, so it is worthwhile
Speaker 2: to get pictures of him in the summer. It's worthwhile
Speaker 2: to study to see how they've grown, to help start
Speaker 2: to put together an idea of age. And probably the
Speaker 2: most important part is just confirming that this buck is
Speaker 2: back around, because I again, if you're hunting an area
Speaker 2: where you've hunted in the past, you will hopefully have
Speaker 2: been kind of putting together data on these deer. By that,
Speaker 2: I mean you know, recorded all of your stings of
Speaker 2: that deer, different encounters you've had with that deer, trail
Speaker 2: camera pictures of that deer from past years. So going
Speaker 2: into a new season, you know, I would be thinking,
Speaker 2: you know, for example, there's a buck I'm hunting this
Speaker 2: year called the Wide nine, and going into this coming
Speaker 2: hunting season, you know, I've seen him for three years,
Speaker 2: so I have a whole lot of information about where
Speaker 2: this deer has been in the past, what he's done
Speaker 2: in the past. So this season, if I get confirmation
Speaker 2: that he's alive, that all of a sudden changes my
Speaker 2: plans heading the year, because now if I know that
Speaker 2: the Wide nine is alive, if I get some pictures
Speaker 2: of him in July and August now and okay, the
Speaker 2: Wide nine is back, now, it's like all systems go
Speaker 2: for operation how to hunt the Wide nine. So I'm
Speaker 2: gonna know, Okay, based on what I know he did
Speaker 2: last year, I really need to move this stand in
Speaker 2: that stand, and based on the fact that he disappeared
Speaker 2: in November was back in December. You know, I know
Speaker 2: that I need to have more of my stands or
Speaker 2: more of my plans focused around a late season strategy
Speaker 2: or whatever it is. If you get that confirmation of
Speaker 2: him being alive leading into the year, it allows you
Speaker 2: to start to focus your efforts in this kind of way.
Speaker 2: On the flip side, if you don't run summer pictures
Speaker 2: and you start doing you know, your prep and you
Speaker 2: have no idea if he's back or not, you're all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, maybe wasting your time because maybe he's
Speaker 2: not back, maybe he's dead, and you're wasting out your
Speaker 2: efforts putting together the specific plan for him, or vice versa.
Speaker 2: Maybe there is some other buck that is back that
Speaker 2: you could have been focusing on, but instead you were
Speaker 2: just hoping for this one deer that isn't even around anymore.
Speaker 2: So your summer trail camera pictures can help you prioritize
Speaker 2: your efforts and start to get that early list of Hey,
Speaker 2: these are the deer I'm interested in targeting, and this
Speaker 2: is how I'm going to do it. So this is
Speaker 2: only relevant though if you are you know, someone who's
Speaker 2: going to target mature bucks or specific box or something
Speaker 2: like that, you certainly don't have to do that. I
Speaker 2: guess maybe the last thing worth mentioning is that it
Speaker 2: is just fun, and maybe that's maybe that you know,
Speaker 2: maybe I just wasted the last five minutes of your time,
Speaker 2: because really, more than anything, summer trail cameras are just fun.
Speaker 2: It is fun to see what's out there. It's fun
Speaker 2: to follow along with these deer as they grow their
Speaker 2: antlers and you get to see what they're doing. At
Speaker 2: this time of the year, it's just that time of
Speaker 2: year when our own excitement is growing, and so to
Speaker 2: parallel that with getting pictures, the first antler pictures of
Speaker 2: the year, that is just exciting. So if for no
Speaker 2: other reason, do it for a good time. All the
Speaker 2: rest of this is gravy on top. So that is
Speaker 2: question number one. Next question it's from Tommy and he asks,
Speaker 2: what is it that you think all successful big buck
Speaker 2: killers have in common? So what are the traits? What
Speaker 2: do the best deer hunters in the world have in common.
Speaker 2: It's a great question. It's something I thought a lot about,
Speaker 2: mostly because we've had the opportunity here on this podcast
Speaker 2: to talk to many of those best deer hunters in
Speaker 2: the world, and we've got to talk to so many
Speaker 2: different folks, and one thing that I think is really
Speaker 2: important to note is that many of these people do
Speaker 2: things in wildly different ways. So there's a lot of
Speaker 2: things that are not consistent. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: things that they do not have in common. There are
Speaker 2: people that are really, really, really good at deer hunting
Speaker 2: that disagree with each other vehemently. Like if you took
Speaker 2: one of our podcast guests who's killed a lot of
Speaker 2: deer and another podcast guests who's killed a lot of
Speaker 2: deer and put them on the podcast together, some of
Speaker 2: these folks might just sit and argue the whole time
Speaker 2: about how they think the other person is a knucklehead. Okay,
Speaker 2: so there are people with very divergent ways of doing
Speaker 2: this stuff. What's nice about being in my position, in
Speaker 2: your position as the listener, is that we've gotten to
Speaker 2: hear from all these different people and we've realized and
Speaker 2: seeing that they're all having success. They're all doing it,
Speaker 2: and they're doing it in different ways. So I just
Speaker 2: want to emphasize, you don't have to do it any
Speaker 2: one way. It's not a black and white thing. It's
Speaker 2: not a you know, this person's way or this person's way,
Speaker 2: and you're wrong if you're in the other camp. That's
Speaker 2: just not true. So you know, I won't name names,
Speaker 2: but uh, there's a whole lot of petty arguing in
Speaker 2: this community, unfortunately, between some of the leaders I guess
Speaker 2: in this space successful hunters about who's better or who's
Speaker 2: doing it right, or who doesn't know what they're doing.
Speaker 2: And I would just like to step in and simply
Speaker 2: say that it all works. There's many different ways to
Speaker 2: skin this cat. Let's stop arguing about who's better, or
Speaker 2: who's got the right way, or who's dumb or who's
Speaker 2: not right, whatever it is. There are many, many, many
Speaker 2: ways to be a successful deer hunter. Now, all of
Speaker 2: that said, I do think there are a few common
Speaker 2: traits that all of these different people with different specific
Speaker 2: strategies do have in common, like three foundational elements. I
Speaker 2: think one of them is that all of the successful
Speaker 2: deer hunters that I know, that everyone we've had in
Speaker 2: this podcast that has demonstrated consistent success is always learning.
Speaker 2: They never stop learning about deer, deer behavior, the habitat.
Speaker 2: This is a lifelong process. They are always digging in.
Speaker 2: They are always trying to understand what's going on right now,
Speaker 2: and a key thing here, why is this happening? This
Speaker 2: is something Tony I talked about a couple weeks ago,
Speaker 2: is a key question. Always ask why. The best deer
Speaker 2: hunters in the world are always asking why and trying
Speaker 2: to answer that question. Anytime you're in the woods and
Speaker 2: you see something, whether it's a deer setting or a
Speaker 2: piece of sign on the ground, a rub on a tree,
Speaker 2: a track crossing the creek, a buck running off from
Speaker 2: the distance out of a brush pile you just walked by,
Speaker 2: always ask why why did this happen? Why was he here?
Speaker 2: Why did he walk through here? Why did he run away?
Speaker 2: Why did this work? Why did this not work? Why
Speaker 2: am I not seeing what I thought i'd see? Why
Speaker 2: am I seeing more than I thought i'd see? Always
Speaker 2: always ask why? Never stop learning. The best deer hundreds
Speaker 2: in the world are constantly doing that. They are constantly
Speaker 2: digging deeper, They are constantly immersing themselves in this world
Speaker 2: and trying to understand the underlying questions of why is
Speaker 2: this happening, how did this come to be? What can
Speaker 2: I learn from it? That is absolutely essential. Don't ever
Speaker 2: sit back on your haunches and think you got it
Speaker 2: all figured it out. Don't kick back and just let
Speaker 2: stuff happen. If you want to become a better deer hunter,
Speaker 2: you constantly have to be taking in your surroundings, taking
Speaker 2: in the situation and processing it, analyzing it, thinking it through.
Speaker 2: Deer hunting, and really all hunting is basically a data
Speaker 2: collection game and analysis. It's taking in a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of information and then trying to make the best possible
Speaker 2: decision based on all that information. That process that underlies
Speaker 2: all of that is this asking why what does this mean?
Speaker 2: Why this? What does that do? How does this work? Ask? Ask? Ask, search, search, search,
Speaker 2: keep on learning. Rule number one of being a successful
Speaker 2: deer hunter right there. Number two and a coffee break here,
Speaker 2: real quick number two. I think all consistent deer hunters
Speaker 2: have to be adaptable. By that, I mean they have
Speaker 2: to be able to read the current situation and adjust.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of subpart deer hunters go into
Speaker 2: a hunting situation with a plan or with a you know, play,
Speaker 2: a thing they're gonna do, and they just do it.
Speaker 2: They've got their favorite tree, well, I'm just gonna go
Speaker 2: to my favorit tree and sit there. Or they've got
Speaker 2: that blind that they love and it's comfortable and it's dry,
Speaker 2: and they just go and sit that. Or they maybe
Speaker 2: have this one general idea, which is, hey got a
Speaker 2: lot of trail camera pictures of the old mossy horns,
Speaker 2: and he's always hitting the corn feeder. So I'm hunting
Speaker 2: the corn feeder and I'm hunting daylight till dusk for
Speaker 2: the next seven days, and uh, you know that's gonna
Speaker 2: be what's gonna be. The best deer hunters do not
Speaker 2: do that. The best deer hunters have a plan going
Speaker 2: into a hunt or going into a season, or going
Speaker 2: into a day, but they also have a plan B
Speaker 2: and They also have a Plan C and Plan D,
Speaker 2: and they know that every time you go into the woods,
Speaker 2: or every time a hunting season starts, or every time
Speaker 2: you head out on a trip, you have an idea
Speaker 2: in your head of what might be coming up, and
Speaker 2: then when you get there on the ground, you then
Speaker 2: get to see what the actual pieces on the ground are.
Speaker 2: And you also recognize that those pieces on the ground,
Speaker 2: the realities you have in front of you, they might
Speaker 2: change today tomorrow, in the middle of the hunt or
Speaker 2: the middle of the season. The best deer hunters in
Speaker 2: the world constantly are assessing what is the landscape? So
Speaker 2: what's happening? And how do I adjust to it? What's
Speaker 2: changing right now? How do I adjust? What's different than
Speaker 2: I thought it would be? How do I adjust? They
Speaker 2: are adaptable, They are capable of adjusting to change. This
Speaker 2: is something. This is, you know, an incredibly useful trait
Speaker 2: in daily life. The only consistent thing in life is change, right,
Speaker 2: And I think that's very true in the world of
Speaker 2: hunting as well. Stuff is fluid, stuff's changing. Surprises are inevitable.
Speaker 2: The best deer hunters in the world know how to adjust,
Speaker 2: They know how to react. They don't get stifled by change.
Speaker 2: They don't see something new and get paralyzed by it,
Speaker 2: or ignore it and just bullheadily plunge forward with their
Speaker 2: original plan. If you want to be consistent, if you
Speaker 2: want to be successful, you have to be willing to pivot.
Speaker 2: You have to be willing to climb up in your
Speaker 2: tree stand in the morning, and then as that morning
Speaker 2: progresses see six, seven, eight nine, deer all pass on
Speaker 2: that crete crossing that you didn't think they'd be using. That's,
Speaker 2: you know, seventy five yards away from your stand, and
Speaker 2: you realize, well, crap, I made my guests wrong. They're
Speaker 2: not using this spot, they're using that spot. The subpar
Speaker 2: deer hunter stays in that tree stand because it's hard
Speaker 2: to yank down your set and move to the new place.
Speaker 2: That takes work and it's inconvenient. The consistently successful deer
Speaker 2: hunter adjusts based on what they're seeing on the ground.
Speaker 2: They see deer doing something different than what they thought.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna adapt. Let's pull do my set,
Speaker 2: move to the place the best deer hun there's the world.
Speaker 2: We're head off on a week long trip to some
Speaker 2: public land that they scout in the spring, and they
Speaker 2: got to know it well and they get out there
Speaker 2: and they're excited because they saw great sign the spring
Speaker 2: and they start hunting and they all shoot. Day one,
Speaker 2: there's two other trucks there. Day two, three trucks. Day three. Man,
Speaker 2: I tried this other side of the property. There's people
Speaker 2: here too, There's people all over the place. The hunting
Speaker 2: pressures dramatically change the deer activity. Hmm. Do you stick
Speaker 2: with that plan you made back in the spring. You
Speaker 2: invested time and scouting it and figuring it out, and man,
Speaker 2: now it's just not what you thought it was going
Speaker 2: to be. Subpar Deer hunters going to say, Wow, I'll
Speaker 2: just keep doing what I'm comfortable doing. The consistently successful,
Speaker 2: the elite, the best of the best, the better than
Speaker 2: the average hunter is going to say nope, news out
Speaker 2: of circumstances on the ground, I'm pivoting. I'm going to adapt.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try something new. I'm gonna try a
Speaker 2: new area. I'm gonna think about this in a different
Speaker 2: kind of way. I'm going to adapt to the realities
Speaker 2: in the ground. I'm gonna analyze this new situation and
Speaker 2: then figure out what I need to do to find
Speaker 2: success in this new situation. That is core foundational trade
Speaker 2: Number two. Of those best deer hunters last, the best
Speaker 2: deer hunters in the world, consistently successful deer hunters all persevere.
Speaker 2: They are all hard workers. They persist through hard times,
Speaker 2: they persist through challenges, They persevere through the low points,
Speaker 2: they get through the valleys to reach those high points.
Speaker 2: You will not find a good deer hunter out there
Speaker 2: that I know of that cannot push through and put
Speaker 2: in the time, the effort, the stick toitiveness to actually
Speaker 2: be out there, to actually put in the time to
Speaker 2: learn to actually suffer through whatever challenges there might be
Speaker 2: that will eventually get you through to the other side
Speaker 2: where success lives. You have to persevere, you have to
Speaker 2: be willing to put in the work in the time.
Speaker 2: It's just non negotiable unless you will, you know, unless
Speaker 2: you're not hunting and you're just shooting. If you just
Speaker 2: want to show up on some outfitter or some preserve
Speaker 2: or something like that and be carted out to your
Speaker 2: spot and sit up there and just pull the trigger,
Speaker 2: sure you can do that without perseverance. In my book,
Speaker 2: that's not really hunting. If you want to be a
Speaker 2: real successful out in the real world diy hunter. You
Speaker 2: have to be able to push through some crap. You
Speaker 2: have to be able to weather the inevitable tough times,
Speaker 2: the bad weather, the early mornings, the long days, the mishaps,
Speaker 2: the speed bumps. There's a lot of stuff that's going
Speaker 2: to go wrong. There are going to be a lot
Speaker 2: of moments where you think, man, I don't know what
Speaker 2: to do, or I don't know how I managed to
Speaker 2: screw up, or I can't believe that I screwed this
Speaker 2: up for the tenth time, or how come everybody else
Speaker 2: seems to make this look so easy, but for me,
Speaker 2: I just can't figure it out. Or maybe you have
Speaker 2: figured it out, and then today, of all days, you
Speaker 2: get the chance of a lifetime and you blow it.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is, those best deer hunters push through it.
Speaker 2: They look at these obstacles and they say, Okay, the
Speaker 2: way is through it. You gotta get to the other
Speaker 2: side of the obstacle to get to the things you want.
Speaker 2: That is what the most successful deer hunters have in common.
Speaker 2: They never stop learning. They're always quick to pivot and adapt,
Speaker 2: and they persevere through the tough stuff. There's a whole
Speaker 2: lot of other extraneous things around that that you can
Speaker 2: do differently. You can hunt food plots, or you can
Speaker 2: hunt in the saddle. You can hunt in the ground blind.
Speaker 2: You can hunt public land or private. You can manage
Speaker 2: habitat or you can scout for seventy five days. You
Speaker 2: can use trail cameras or zonax. You can use scent
Speaker 2: wis or no wis, or synthetic based layers or old
Speaker 2: based layers. You can do all the cent control in
Speaker 2: the world, or you can ignore it all and throw
Speaker 2: it to the wind. Whatever it is you want to do.
Speaker 2: There are many, many, many, many different ways to do this,
Speaker 2: but you need to always be learning, always be asking why.
Speaker 2: You have to stay adaptable. You gotta be quick on
Speaker 2: your feet and pivot when you need to, and you
Speaker 2: need to persevere. You gotta push through the swamp to
Speaker 2: get to the other side. If you can do those
Speaker 2: three things, heck, you might not even need this podcast.
Speaker 2: At this point. You've listened to all the different little ideas,
Speaker 2: strategies and tips, and then if you can live those
Speaker 2: three core foundational principles. If you can live those things,
Speaker 2: you are gonna fill your tags. You're gonna fill your freezer,
Speaker 2: you're gonna feed your family, You're probably gonna put some
Speaker 2: bone on the wall. And uh, that's all I gotta
Speaker 2: say on that. So question number two in the books,
Speaker 2: let's move through these a little more quickly. I realized
Speaker 2: when I'm the one talking, I can be quite long winded.
Speaker 2: Justin ask what are your top three days to be
Speaker 2: in the White Tail Woods every year? I Am going
Speaker 2: to answer this question partly from an effectiveness standpoint, partly
Speaker 2: from a fun standpoint. So number one, I always want
Speaker 2: to be out there opening day. So whatever state that is,
Speaker 2: and we'll just say Michigan since that's my home state,
Speaker 2: I want to be out there in October first, no
Speaker 2: matter what, a opening day is just so much fun.
Speaker 2: It's that day you've been looking forward to. You've been
Speaker 2: dying for the season to kick off, so you can't
Speaker 2: miss opening Day. But number two, it is I believe
Speaker 2: one of your best chances to kill a deer, because
Speaker 2: up to this point, as long as you haven't been
Speaker 2: out there screwing around, mucking it up, spooking the deer,
Speaker 2: as long as you've left it alone leading an opening day,
Speaker 2: those deer on opening days should not be too pressured.
Speaker 2: They should not be caught onto what's happening yet, so
Speaker 2: they're going to be sticking to their patterns, hopefully still
Speaker 2: moving in daylight, and still going to be doing stuff
Speaker 2: that you can take advantage of as a hunter, one
Speaker 2: of your best chances to catch them unaware. So I
Speaker 2: will not be miss the opening day. And I like,
Speaker 2: you know, opening nights. I don't like to go in
Speaker 2: the mornings often, at least the places that I have
Speaker 2: I do have great morning locations for early season that
Speaker 2: don't really risk messing up your evening hunt. So opening
Speaker 2: evening is like one of my favorite hunts of the
Speaker 2: entire year. Now after that, I think I'm torn between
Speaker 2: either giving myself two days during the rut or one
Speaker 2: day in peak rut and then one day in late
Speaker 2: season with certain conditions. So I don't know if that
Speaker 2: is allowed. I'm gonna answer the question both ways. So first,
Speaker 2: if i'm just picking dates, I'm taking October first, and
Speaker 2: then I'm gonna take November first and November ninth. And
Speaker 2: so what I'm going for here is I'm yeah, maybe
Speaker 2: November seventh or eighth, November one I want because that's
Speaker 2: like the rut is just ramping up. The deer out
Speaker 2: there seeking chasing. They're definitely not locked down yet. They
Speaker 2: shouldn't be locked down yet, but there's a lot of
Speaker 2: that travel going on. And really October thirty one, November first,
Speaker 2: right around there, you're probably still gonna have Bucks, you know,
Speaker 2: hanging out in their local areas. So if you know
Speaker 2: an area, if you know a deer, well, you still
Speaker 2: have a chance of taking, you know, taking advantage of
Speaker 2: that knowledge you have before Bucks start really widely ranging
Speaker 2: beyond their territory doing things that are out of character.
Speaker 2: If you're out there on the thirty first of the
Speaker 2: first and you're in a bucks core home range that
Speaker 2: you know, well, there's a good chance he's still there,
Speaker 2: but he's moving in daylight more so, that's a great opportunity.
Speaker 2: And then I do want that November eighth, We'll say
Speaker 2: I'm gonna cut the difference. I'mna say November eighth. I
Speaker 2: like that time period because now you're peak rut. Now
Speaker 2: you're like fully revved. You're almost to when they're all breeding,
Speaker 2: but you're not quite to lockdown. There's Bucks running from
Speaker 2: all over the place. You know, it's hard to beat
Speaker 2: that seventh, eighth, nine time period when you've just got
Speaker 2: a lot of chaos going on in the woods. Hopefully
Speaker 2: if you've got the right weather, if you're in the
Speaker 2: right zone near some dough betting man, great time to
Speaker 2: be in the woods. So those are the three dates.
Speaker 2: Probably the only exception I would add is like if
Speaker 2: I could pick you know, December twenty fourth, with like
Speaker 2: two degrees and a foot of fresh snow on the ground,
Speaker 2: and if I had like an amazing winter food source,
Speaker 2: like maybe the farmer couldn't, you know, harvest the back
Speaker 2: two acres of beans or something like that, so I've
Speaker 2: had standing beans and those conditions, that would be an
Speaker 2: incredible day. I'd want that. George asks, when you're introducing
Speaker 2: younger kids to hunting, how long do you think is
Speaker 2: a good length of time out in the woods for
Speaker 2: those first hunts and what are some key snacks or
Speaker 2: activities to bring to keep them occupied when times are slow? So, yeah,
Speaker 2: great question. Something I've been dealing with in recent years
Speaker 2: here taking my oldest not hunting so far, my youngest
Speaker 2: has not been deer hunting yet, but my he was
Speaker 2: four last year, he was really into it. Took him
Speaker 2: on a lot of hunts. I think we did eight
Speaker 2: or nine days hunting. Some of those days were morning
Speaker 2: hunts and evening hunts. Some of those days were just
Speaker 2: evening hunts. But what I found was that, you know,
Speaker 2: two hours was about the max I was shooting for
Speaker 2: for a four year old, and you know, I was
Speaker 2: trying to take him in, you know, at least for
Speaker 2: those evening hunts, like places where I knew we'd be
Speaker 2: able to see some stuff. So even if there might
Speaker 2: not be much in range, there was going to be
Speaker 2: opportunities to see deer. So I wanted to make it
Speaker 2: like exciting from that perspective, So an hour or two,
Speaker 2: making sure he's warm and comfortable, making sure there's a
Speaker 2: chance to see some critters, and then just trying to
Speaker 2: keep it fun. So I did bring tons of snacks.
Speaker 2: Snacks were an absolute critical part of the puzzle. It
Speaker 2: was like every twenty minutes, maybe less, maybe fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: it was like some new snacks I was bringing, you know,
Speaker 2: granola bars, cookies, little pieces of candy, goldfish, apple sauce packets,
Speaker 2: yogurt packets. I brought a thermisful hot chocolate. So just
Speaker 2: lots of stuff. Like that that you know, not necessarily healthy,
Speaker 2: but in this case, the thing is like, I want
Speaker 2: to give him these fun little treats throughout the day,
Speaker 2: you know, to help, you know, continue that positive association
Speaker 2: between you know, going out with dad to do this
Speaker 2: cool thing and then you also get to have these
Speaker 2: fun little treats along the way. Just makes the whole
Speaker 2: thing a little bit more special, and you know, it
Speaker 2: helps them pass some of that time, you know, in
Speaker 2: which you know, sitting quietly for two hours for a
Speaker 2: four year old is not easy to do, so food
Speaker 2: was key. I also brought books and so I would
Speaker 2: kind of whisper read to him books. On occasion. I
Speaker 2: let him bring little animal figurines so he could play
Speaker 2: with his animals down beneath the edge of the blind,
Speaker 2: different things like that. Brought his own binocular so he
Speaker 2: could scan and search. You know. Something I did one
Speaker 2: day which was a pretty cool idea was I have
Speaker 2: an old camcorder that I don't use much anymore, but
Speaker 2: he's really he thinks it's really cool to take pictures
Speaker 2: or videos, and so I gave him this little camcorder
Speaker 2: to try to video some of the critters we were
Speaker 2: seeing and again, that's like giving him a job, giving
Speaker 2: him like a role, And I think that helps a
Speaker 2: young child, you know, feel invested in the activity and
Speaker 2: gives them some ownership, makes it a little bit more exciting.
Speaker 2: So doing something like that was kind of a cool
Speaker 2: idea that I think helped. So those are the things
Speaker 2: that I've done so far. I've tried to avoid, you know,
Speaker 2: placating them with a screen, you know, on one hunt.
Speaker 2: I feel like there was one night where I really
Speaker 2: wanted us to make it to the end of the night,
Speaker 2: but he was struggling, so I'd let him watch something
Speaker 2: on my phone. I felt really guilty about that afterwards.
Speaker 2: So I've been trying to find if he if they
Speaker 2: can't be fully watching what's going on, having to do
Speaker 2: something that's still you know, positive other than some kind
Speaker 2: of technology that's just me. I think being out there
Speaker 2: is better than not being out there. So if you
Speaker 2: have to bring a little tablet or something that's that's
Speaker 2: you know, it could be worse, I certainly think. But
Speaker 2: I do think there's plenty of options of things to
Speaker 2: play with, things to do out there in the blind,
Speaker 2: sitting on the ground, whatever it is. They can keep
Speaker 2: them engaged and happy and excited without having to resort
Speaker 2: to that. So can't tell you how much fun that
Speaker 2: was to have my son out there with me this
Speaker 2: past year. He's very excited this year to come again
Speaker 2: in his younger brother, who's now three, seems like he
Speaker 2: wants to come out and join the party. So it's
Speaker 2: gonna be very interesting this year with a three year
Speaker 2: old and a five year old. Yeah, let's see here.
Speaker 2: Next question is from z Minton. This is a quick
Speaker 2: as he asked me about some fly fishing stuff. What
Speaker 2: right rod do I use? And for what fish species?
Speaker 2: So I do love fly fishing. That is my second
Speaker 2: love after white tail hunting, and been getting after pretty
Speaker 2: hard these recent years. So I primarily use a five
Speaker 2: weight in a seven way. So my five weights are
Speaker 2: my all around you know, do everything trout rod so
Speaker 2: dry fly fishing, nymphin small streamers, stuff like that. That's
Speaker 2: like if I'm gonna grab any one rod, it's that,
Speaker 2: you know. I've even used it for pan fishing and
Speaker 2: stuff back east. It's effective for a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2: You could fish for small mouth, you could fish for
Speaker 2: all sorts of things. So I've used it for just
Speaker 2: about all of those small to medium size critters. I
Speaker 2: do have a couple seven weights that I have been
Speaker 2: using for saltwater fishing and big streamer fishing. So if
Speaker 2: you're fishing, you know, for big browns up in northern
Speaker 2: Michigan early in the year or late in the fall
Speaker 2: and you're just you know, houckin' streamers, a seven weight
Speaker 2: is a pretty good option for that. I've also used
Speaker 2: that fishing down in Florida for saltwater species snook, and
Speaker 2: even hooked into a handful of tarpain last year on
Speaker 2: my seven weight as well. So those are the two
Speaker 2: that I use the most for the you know, for
Speaker 2: those syts of species. Question here from Jack, how do
Speaker 2: you judge a conservation group's effectiveness? It's a really interesting question,
Speaker 2: and you know, I think there's a couple of things
Speaker 2: you can do. Many organizations put out a report that
Speaker 2: kind of showcase where their money goes and what their
Speaker 2: impact has been. So if you are, you know, trying
Speaker 2: to prioritize where you want to donate your time or
Speaker 2: your money, your membership dollars, your advocacy efforts, whatever it
Speaker 2: might be, I certainly think it's a good idea to
Speaker 2: go and look at their impact report and you know,
Speaker 2: read up on the things that they are reporting back
Speaker 2: to their membership as having done. How do they spend
Speaker 2: their money? Most organizations, you know, spend a very small
Speaker 2: amount of their money, at least the best organizations spend
Speaker 2: a small amount of money on their you know, overhead,
Speaker 2: like just running their staff and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: and the vast majority of their funding should go to
Speaker 2: the resource, should go to, you know, whatever kind of
Speaker 2: advocacy or education or work on the ground that they're doing.
Speaker 2: I think I think it's fair to say most that
Speaker 2: I can think of, as I'm thinking back on these
Speaker 2: that I've read, probably ninety percent or more of their
Speaker 2: funding usually goes to that kind of stuff. I think
Speaker 2: that's a pretty good benchmark. I would tell you that
Speaker 2: I look at a conservation group and I look at
Speaker 2: the impact they have on a couple of different fronts.
Speaker 2: Number one, Now, every different you know, conservation group is
Speaker 2: going to have a different mission and model of what
Speaker 2: they're doing. Right, There's some groups that are primarily just advocacy.
Speaker 2: There's some that are primary you know, on the groundwork.
Speaker 2: There's some that are primarily educating, so understanding you know,
Speaker 2: what's this organization trying to do? But I want to
Speaker 2: see like real world impact. I you know, there's some
Speaker 2: groups that talk a lot. I want to see a
Speaker 2: group that actually leads to changes happening in the world.
Speaker 2: So I want to see an organization that is doing
Speaker 2: something that tangibly changes either the landscape or the resource.
Speaker 2: So an organization that is doing something that I can
Speaker 2: point to that has helped public lands or wildlife or
Speaker 2: the protection of wild places on private land. I want
Speaker 2: to see an organization that is either physically doing getting
Speaker 2: people out to be out there doing the work, or
Speaker 2: if not physically, I want them to be an organization
Speaker 2: that is doing something, whether it's giving money or time
Speaker 2: or advocating for work that has those things being protected
Speaker 2: in some way. Secondly, I think, you know, I would
Speaker 2: judge a conservation group effectiveness by how, you know, well
Speaker 2: it can rally public action and support. I don't think
Speaker 2: many conservation groups that operate in a silo get much done.
Speaker 2: So if a group just you know, has their staff
Speaker 2: members doing the work, that's fine, but I would not
Speaker 2: call that a terribly effective organization. The best conservation organizations
Speaker 2: are those that can have an effective staff, but then
Speaker 2: rally a grassroots community to do something together. So you know,
Speaker 2: that might be an organization getting a bunch of volunteers
Speaker 2: to come out and do work on public land. That
Speaker 2: might be an organization rallying the public to all go
Speaker 2: and you know, show up at the capitol and you know,
Speaker 2: hold up signs saying, you know, don't do this or
Speaker 2: please do this, or whatever it might be. It's an
Speaker 2: organization that can move a larger group of people to
Speaker 2: make change happen. That is an effective conservation group in
Speaker 2: my mind. And then I do think that, you know,
Speaker 2: as part of that, having influence on decision makers. So
Speaker 2: I want a conservation group. Most all conservation groups have
Speaker 2: this as part of their mission, that being to influence
Speaker 2: those people that hold the keys, that hold the purse, strings,
Speaker 2: that hold the gavel, whatever it might be, that have
Speaker 2: the decision making power to you know, influence on a
Speaker 2: high level. So conservation group is most effective if it
Speaker 2: has influence, if it has inroads, if it has the
Speaker 2: ability to influence a senator to vote you know, positively
Speaker 2: towards some kind of conservation legislation, or if it has
Speaker 2: some form of influence on a fish and Game Commission
Speaker 2: or a state game agency or you know, the Forest Service,
Speaker 2: whatever it is. Those most effective organizations are able to
Speaker 2: throw their weight around, are able to rally their membership
Speaker 2: to get big decisions made that influence hunting or fishing
Speaker 2: or wildlife or wild places. So there's a lot of
Speaker 2: different ways of doing these things. You know. The groups
Speaker 2: that I support the most and that I think do
Speaker 2: a really good job of this include organizations like Backcountry
Speaker 2: Hunters and Anglers, Trout Unlimited, the National Deer Association, the
Speaker 2: Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which is unique in that it's
Speaker 2: you know, they're really an organization that rallies a bunch
Speaker 2: of other organizations and partners together to do this kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. But they do a very good job of
Speaker 2: leading in that way. You know, those are a few
Speaker 2: of my favorites. There's you know, no shorte of others.
Speaker 2: I think Pheasants Forever is another really cool example of
Speaker 2: an organization that has, you know, has a strong grassroots
Speaker 2: community and then does a ton of really good work
Speaker 2: on the ground. Like their habitat first model I think
Speaker 2: is super strong. You know, RF Turkey. There's a bunch
Speaker 2: of different you know organizations that are doing this thing.
Speaker 2: So it's a matter of finding, you know, what's your passion,
Speaker 2: what's your you know which one of these resonates with
Speaker 2: you the most. But I think those three main silos
Speaker 2: of efforts that I mentioned are what I look at
Speaker 2: when trying to figure out where do I really want
Speaker 2: to put my money, time, and energy. All Right, Plank
Speaker 2: asks what kind of tree is your favorite to put
Speaker 2: a stand in? It's a great question, and uh, I
Speaker 2: would say this. My favorite tree to put a stand
Speaker 2: in is the tree that gives me a close range
Speaker 2: shot at a spot that should funnel deer into for
Speaker 2: many different reasons, and that keeps me well covered with
Speaker 2: safe wind. So that is the perfect tree that doesn't
Speaker 2: exist in many situations. And I know that's not exactly
Speaker 2: what he was asking for, but if I had my drothers,
Speaker 2: I would have a tree in a location like that,
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, having lots of cover. So because of that,
Speaker 2: my favorite kinds of trees are usually like a good
Speaker 2: oak tree. Oak trees tend to have a lot of branches,
Speaker 2: so there's a lot of cover up in the tree.
Speaker 2: They hold their leaves later into the year, so there's
Speaker 2: a decent chance you're still gonna have some leaves up there,
Speaker 2: and then the bark is not too terribly loud. It's
Speaker 2: not ripping off the tree, you know, like some of
Speaker 2: those hickories and different trees like that, or birch or
Speaker 2: you know, certain cottonwoods with like a bajillion dead branches
Speaker 2: on them. There's certain trees that have sound issues or
Speaker 2: clearing issues if you want to get that cover. But
Speaker 2: oak seems to be pretty silent and pretty good for cover.
Speaker 2: You know, pine trees, cedar trees, those types can be
Speaker 2: great for cover as well. And if you have a
Speaker 2: tree like that that you can prep in the off season,
Speaker 2: that can be great. You can get very very hidden
Speaker 2: up in an evergreen tree. The only reason why I
Speaker 2: would pick an oak over that would be, you know,
Speaker 2: thinking through a running gun situation, because you know, if
Speaker 2: I'm going to set up a new set right now,
Speaker 2: the damn hunting, I don't want to have to cut
Speaker 2: down a lot of limbs. And that's the nice thing
Speaker 2: about oak trees is usually that's say just enough cover,
Speaker 2: but not so much that you have to cut fifteen
Speaker 2: limbs to be able to have a way to climb
Speaker 2: into the tree and clear out a spot to sit
Speaker 2: and have a few shooting lanes. It's like that sweet spot.
Speaker 2: A lot of pine trees, cedars, stuff like that. They
Speaker 2: tend to be on the other side so much cover
Speaker 2: that you have to carve out a path for you
Speaker 2: to climb up into it and carve out a window
Speaker 2: for you to sit and see. So great if you
Speaker 2: can do that in you know, spring or summer, but
Speaker 2: on the day of the hunt, not as ideal. So
Speaker 2: that's that's why I'm going to pick the oak as
Speaker 2: my absolute favorite. Schrader Asked in a bar fight, who
Speaker 2: is your sidekick, Dan Johnson or Tony Peterson. Well, there's
Speaker 2: no right answer here because whoever I pick the other
Speaker 2: one's gonna be pissed. But let's weigh the cost benefit
Speaker 2: analysis here with Dan. Dan's like the bull in the
Speaker 2: china shop, right, Dan's wild, Dan's big. Dan is boisterous
Speaker 2: and full of passion. So in a bar fight, those
Speaker 2: are helpful things to have that could be good on
Speaker 2: the flip side. On the flip side, you know, he he,
Speaker 2: he might have a little bit of reckless abandon in him,
Speaker 2: to put it, I guess nicely, And so you know,
Speaker 2: He's probably the one that would start a bar fight.
Speaker 2: Would be the problem here. I think Dan would be
Speaker 2: the type, like you're out there like he might be
Speaker 2: the one. And I know for sure he has started
Speaker 2: bar fights in the past, so you know, he'd be
Speaker 2: a good guy to have with you if you're on
Speaker 2: the receiving end of it. But he's also a risk
Speaker 2: in starting one. And I just do feel like he
Speaker 2: would get this like hysteria, like bloodlust, and he'll be
Speaker 2: just swinging and spinning, and there could be some collateral
Speaker 2: damage too with Dan, like you might get knocked over
Speaker 2: by him, So that's a risk. Uh So Tony, here's
Speaker 2: the thing with Tony Tony, uh is is like an assassin.
Speaker 2: So I think he would be dangerous in certain situations,
Speaker 2: and that he's very tactical, he's thoughtful, he's smart about
Speaker 2: what he's doing, and so I think, you know, Tony
Speaker 2: would not start a fight Tony though, you know he's
Speaker 2: in good shape, like he he he does his thing,
Speaker 2: so I think, you know, he could be dangerous in
Speaker 2: a certain situation. Probably Tony is that I think he's
Speaker 2: also a flight risk. Like I think Tony likes to
Speaker 2: talk a big game, sometimes and he's the class clown,
Speaker 2: but the pinch he's gonna be like, I don't really
Speaker 2: want to be around this, So I don't know. It's
Speaker 2: a really tough call, and I might just cheat here
Speaker 2: and say I'd like to have both of them because
Speaker 2: they both bring something to the table and they both
Speaker 2: present some risks. Uh So if we really diversify and
Speaker 2: have all three of us together, there's a chance like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the mediator and or
Speaker 2: you know, the thought leader on this, and then Tony
Speaker 2: is gonna be like, my, all right, we need a
Speaker 2: quick jab in here, and then let's get out of here.
Speaker 2: And then Dan is like, if you've got to release
Speaker 2: the pit bull because shit's really hitting the fan, all right,
Speaker 2: then we unleash Dan, and uh, you know, all hell
Speaker 2: is gonna break loose. That's that's my take on this one.
Speaker 2: And that's that's all I've got to say on that.
Speaker 2: Let's see Brett asks, what is my recommended best first
Speaker 2: like kit for winter and fall? So I'll I'll kind
Speaker 2: of shorten this up and give you like my if
Speaker 2: I could only pick like one kit for you know,
Speaker 2: the hunting season in most places I would buy. I'd
Speaker 2: start with your outer suit, like your outer layer, which
Speaker 2: I would do the Solitude jacket and bib. That's like
Speaker 2: the mid season the main mid season piece from First Light.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be something you can wear, you know, with
Speaker 2: light based layers underneath it. You could start wearing that
Speaker 2: in like the fifties or something like early fall, and
Speaker 2: you could be okay and comfortable. You know, it's wind proof,
Speaker 2: it's DWR treated, it's super quiet, there's lots of smartly
Speaker 2: designed pockets. It's got insulation in it, but not so
Speaker 2: much that you're gonna die from heat in the fifties.
Speaker 2: At the same time, you can wear it right on
Speaker 2: down to like the most cold stuff like I've worn
Speaker 2: it down to like the single digits basically, and just
Speaker 2: layer stuff underneath it and you can wear it so
Speaker 2: you can be running it from early fall right through
Speaker 2: the late season. It's incredibly versatile in that way because
Speaker 2: it's that outer shell, wind proof, good insulation, but not
Speaker 2: too much. It really works well as a versatile all
Speaker 2: around kit. If I was adding some stuff underneath it.
Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of the Origin hoodie. That would
Speaker 2: be my main mid layer piece. That you could wear
Speaker 2: in the early season as well without the jacket if
Speaker 2: it's too warm, I'd get some wick bas layers as
Speaker 2: that next to body you know sweat management system. It's
Speaker 2: you know, naturally odor resistant because it's marina wool. It's
Speaker 2: gonna wick away the moisture. It's gonna kind of help
Speaker 2: you moderate the climate inside of your outer shell and suit.
Speaker 2: So that would be my first set of gear i'd
Speaker 2: be looking at, would be those things there. If you
Speaker 2: want like late season stuff, if you're trying to layer
Speaker 2: up to wear your solitude into the later parts of
Speaker 2: the year, you could add the source jacket, which is
Speaker 2: like the super lightweight, packable, silent puffy jacket. That would
Speaker 2: be a piece you could layer underneath. You could layer
Speaker 2: in the furnace, long John's or hoodie which is a
Speaker 2: great late season layering piece. Any one of those things
Speaker 2: would would really set you well for for a long season.
Speaker 2: What calls do you bring to the stand, Crundle asks, Well,
Speaker 2: I always all always bring a grunt tube. If I
Speaker 2: can only pick one call, it's gonna be a grunt tube.
Speaker 2: I use the Phelps Beta Pro right now and as
Speaker 2: a great grunt really nice consistent, deep guttural sound. It's
Speaker 2: got the rubberized bellow tube, so you can move it,
Speaker 2: manipulate it with your hand to get different sounds and tones.
Speaker 2: But whatever brand you choose, I don't care. I like
Speaker 2: a grunt tube that has like a deeper, solid tone.
Speaker 2: I don't like the crappy, super cheap, flimsy plastic ones
Speaker 2: that sound like like I don't want that rattle. I
Speaker 2: want them give me that. I also want to be
Speaker 2: able to make a snort wheeze, whether you do that
Speaker 2: with just your mouth or with like a amplifying tube
Speaker 2: on the side of a grunt tube. This doesn't require
Speaker 2: you to bring anything extra. It just requires that you
Speaker 2: know how to make a snort wheeze. The basic sound
Speaker 2: is that is this very aggressive, like flip in the
Speaker 2: middle of middle finger kind of call to another buck.
Speaker 2: It's a great call to use during that, you know,
Speaker 2: anytime during the rutting period of the year. That is
Speaker 2: a very effective kind of challenge call that can get
Speaker 2: a mature buck to come your way. So grunt tube
Speaker 2: is the only thing that I always always bring, whether
Speaker 2: it's early season, late season rut, I always have my
Speaker 2: grun tube. When you get into the rut. I will
Speaker 2: oftentimes add rattling antlers or rattling bag if I'm in
Speaker 2: a relatively low pressure area with high mature buck density.
Speaker 2: So by that I mean I don't really rattle ever
Speaker 2: in southern Michigan because there's not a ton of mature bucks,
Speaker 2: but there are tons of hunters. I've never I think
Speaker 2: I can say that I'm pretty sure that I've never
Speaker 2: rattled in a buck, a mature buck, at least in Michigan.
Speaker 2: I've tried. Early on, I tried, and more often than
Speaker 2: not just scared deer. So I've stopped in the super
Speaker 2: high pressure places I hunt. But I do rattle in
Speaker 2: those lower pressure places Iowa, Ohio, you know, the Dakotas, Illinois,
Speaker 2: those kinds of places rattling can be effective. Texas use
Speaker 2: it effectively down there, so I'll tag. I'll bring that
Speaker 2: along in those situations and then a can call. I'll
Speaker 2: sometimes bring a dough bleat. Honestly, I don't use it
Speaker 2: a lot, but I will occasionally bring a dough bleat
Speaker 2: call of one form or another in that you know,
Speaker 2: sweet spot of the rut, and I have called in
Speaker 2: a few bucks with it. One of my first second second, buck,
Speaker 2: I think ever I killed with a can call, so
Speaker 2: that doan estrius bleat you know, can be effective in
Speaker 2: certain situations, but really grun tube. If if I only
Speaker 2: ever had a grun tube, I'd still be perfectly happy.
Speaker 2: Let's see what's next. Top five pieces of gear for
Speaker 2: getting your kids outdoor. This is a question from Brent
Speaker 2: so top pieces of gear for getting your kids outdoors? So,
Speaker 2: I mean it's obviously age dependent, but I'll just tell
Speaker 2: you for the ages my kids are right My kids
Speaker 2: are three and five right now, And the items that
Speaker 2: they enjoy the most and they give them the most enjoyment.
Speaker 2: The first thing that comes to my mind is a net.
Speaker 2: I mean, a net is just gold for getting kids
Speaker 2: outside because kids love chasing stuff and trying to catch stuff,
Speaker 2: and that is like such an easy thing to do.
Speaker 2: Almost anywhere you can be in Massachusetts or Texas or
Speaker 2: Michigan or Montana, there's something for kids to chase and
Speaker 2: try to catch with a net, and it helps them
Speaker 2: engage with the natural world and have fun and feel
Speaker 2: like they're like actively participating in it. And it doesn't
Speaker 2: require any kind of training, right, It's like you don't
Speaker 2: need a train to shoot a ball. You don't need
Speaker 2: a train to shoot a gun. Every kid can use
Speaker 2: a net. So you know, my kids are the two
Speaker 2: little nets. They're catching frogs, they're catching minnows, they're catching grasshoppers,
Speaker 2: they're catching butterflies, they're catching turtles, they're catching snakes, They're
Speaker 2: chasing everything and just having a blast. So I think
Speaker 2: right there, nets like that is such a great, such
Speaker 2: a great option. Man. I would tell you that a
Speaker 2: little like kid bow is a great thing because again,
Speaker 2: like you can start really small those things. They can
Speaker 2: shoot like a suction cut bow in the house or outside,
Speaker 2: and then as they get older they can start shooting
Speaker 2: you know, a real wheelbow of sorts. There's even like
Speaker 2: tiny compound bows that kids like five six years old
Speaker 2: can shoot comfortably that adjusts down of very low drawwights.
Speaker 2: And that's like a pretty darn safe, pretty fun way
Speaker 2: for a kid to feel like they're an adult, to
Speaker 2: feel like they're doing something that mom or dad does.
Speaker 2: My sons have really gotten a kick out of using
Speaker 2: their bows. They bring them along our hiking trips, are
Speaker 2: camping trips, hunting trips of course, And again I think
Speaker 2: it's any time when they can feel like they're a
Speaker 2: grown up and they can feel like they're doing the
Speaker 2: same thing when they're a real participant. That's been great.
Speaker 2: So getting you know, a young kid age bow has
Speaker 2: been great. And our kids had little bows, like the
Speaker 2: tiniest bows when they're like one year old, and then
Speaker 2: at like two or three we got them like this
Speaker 2: little plastic bow with suction cup arrows, and then whenever
Speaker 2: it turned four, I think is when I bought him.
Speaker 2: It's like a bear spark bow I believe is the
Speaker 2: one he uses right now, which has got like a
Speaker 2: whisker biscuit and a little simple metal site pin and
Speaker 2: he shoots field tip arrows and that can stick in
Speaker 2: the target. And so he's out there shooting with me.
Speaker 2: And now I think this year or next year, I'll
Speaker 2: probably buy one of those small compounds. There's one I
Speaker 2: think from Diamond that I've heard good things about that
Speaker 2: I want to look into more. So those are a
Speaker 2: couple options. Trying to think here, what are other pieces
Speaker 2: of gear for kidding your kids at door? I mean,
Speaker 2: a simple fishing pole. That's another key thing, you know,
Speaker 2: not worry about getting too fancied, just the simple five dollars,
Speaker 2: ten dollars wal Mart kids. But real it's just you know,
Speaker 2: get them out there catching blue gills or little panfish
Speaker 2: of whatever type in your area, little little trout, whatever
Speaker 2: it is. Man, he can't go wrong with that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: We've gotten my kids these cheap binoculars, and that's another
Speaker 2: fun thing for them. They love, even though I don't
Speaker 2: know how. I mean, I know they don't work terribly well,
Speaker 2: it's another piece of gear. They feel like, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is like what dad has. He's got binoculars. I've got binoculars.
Speaker 2: And then they kind of learn how to use them.
Speaker 2: They can feel like they're a little bit more up
Speaker 2: close to the animals. They can see stuff. That's been great.
Speaker 2: So those are I guess some items that I think
Speaker 2: are useful. But maybe as I'm saying this, the big
Speaker 2: thing I'm thinking about is that the gear doesn't matter
Speaker 2: that much. It's really the thing, like just taking them
Speaker 2: to these places. The place matters more than the gear.
Speaker 2: So just getting them outside with you matters more than
Speaker 2: the tools you bring with you. Because I'll tell you what,
Speaker 2: I can have all the fancies toys and stuff and
Speaker 2: hunting gear or fishing gear or whatever. And if I
Speaker 2: just sat them down in my garage, they're gonna get
Speaker 2: bored real quick. But if I take them to the creek,
Speaker 2: if I take them to the mountain, if I take
Speaker 2: them out into the woods walking around the fields with me,
Speaker 2: whether or not I have some piece of gear or not,
Speaker 2: they're gonna find something that's fun. There's so many things
Speaker 2: out in nature that enthrall kids. You just have to
Speaker 2: get them out there. So do that, and I think
Speaker 2: you're well on your way. Oh boy, let's do one more.
Speaker 2: And then we're gonna wrap it up. And the last
Speaker 2: question here is how can you make this from Sam?
Speaker 2: How can we turn more hunters into hunter conservationists. It's
Speaker 2: a great question, Sam. It's something I think about a lot,
Speaker 2: and I think it just comes down to a realization
Speaker 2: for each and every one of us personally that this
Speaker 2: thing we love, whether that's hunting, fishing, exploring nature, whatever
Speaker 2: it is, none of it got here by accident. We
Speaker 2: didn't just get a pile of white tails in our
Speaker 2: area by happenstance. The only reason why we have great
Speaker 2: deer hunting today is because there are a whole lot
Speaker 2: of other hunters and anglers and conservations before us, that
Speaker 2: we're willing to stand up for it, that we're willing
Speaker 2: to work for it, that we're willing to advocate for it,
Speaker 2: that we're willing to protect it. We will not have
Speaker 2: these places in the future. We will not have these
Speaker 2: animals in the future unless we become those people not today,
Speaker 2: that are willing to stand up for that, are willing
Speaker 2: to go out of our way and convenience ourselves sometimes
Speaker 2: to advocate, to work, to volunteer, to vote, to do
Speaker 2: whatever it takes to make sure this stuff is around
Speaker 2: in the long term. It's on us. I would contend
Speaker 2: that if you are a hunter, you should also We
Speaker 2: must be hunter conservationists by default if we want to
Speaker 2: keep doing this stuff in the future, because it just
Speaker 2: won't be around. There's so many pressures. There's so many
Speaker 2: other people, other things going on in the world that
Speaker 2: are nipping away at these opportunities, that are paving over
Speaker 2: these places that are polluting or destroying or whatever. There's
Speaker 2: so many things going on with wildlife in America in
Speaker 2: the world that's negative. If we want to have these
Speaker 2: opportunities and places and animals in the future, we have
Speaker 2: to be that positive. So that's the message that you know,
Speaker 2: I need to continue to remind myself and I think
Speaker 2: we each as individuals can try to live that ourselves
Speaker 2: and share that story with others. Remind our dads, our moms,
Speaker 2: our friends, our uncles at deer camp, our mind folks
Speaker 2: say hey, man, I love this opening I love this
Speaker 2: opening day deer camp thing we got going on. But
Speaker 2: guess what, there's this thing going on. It'd be great
Speaker 2: if all of us could show up and you know,
Speaker 2: sign this petition or man, just make sure you know
Speaker 2: about this issue, because this is going to be pretty
Speaker 2: important for the future of this piece of public plan
Speaker 2: that we're all hunting here today. If we can start,
Speaker 2: you know, sharing that with other people, that leads to
Speaker 2: this larger trend of people starting to recognize what's going on,
Speaker 2: understand the issues, understand our obligations, and recognize like, hey,
Speaker 2: we have this amazing thing. We get to hunt, we
Speaker 2: get to fish, we get to have these wildlife in
Speaker 2: these places. Now, what do we need to do to
Speaker 2: keep them around? Because it's on us. They can't speak
Speaker 2: for themselves. The animals can't speak for themselves. Nobody else
Speaker 2: is running from the big cities to come protect this stuff. Right,
Speaker 2: there's all these other things going on in the world,
Speaker 2: a lot of people trying to make money, trying to
Speaker 2: do their thing. We are the ones living this, We
Speaker 2: are the ones living outside. Our lives revolve around it.
Speaker 2: We got to stand up for it. So it's on
Speaker 2: us and that is going to be it for me today.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you tuning into this podcast. Kind of a random
Speaker 2: rambling Q and a episode of sorts, but I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: Thanks for being here with me for my morning coffee break,
Speaker 2: for sticking with me for ten years now as we've
Speaker 2: done this podcast, and here's ten more years, huh. Thanks guys,
Speaker 2: and until next time, stay wired till hut