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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for

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Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three

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Speaker 1: and eleven, and today in the show, we're gonna be

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Speaker 1: talking about pre rut hunting strategies and then we're joined

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Speaker 1: by two new hunters to discuss some close buck encounters

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Speaker 1: and our recent mentor hunt in Michigan. Welcome to the

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Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx. Today,

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Speaker 1: we've got a fun show, We've got an interesting show,

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Speaker 1: a couple of different things we're gonna be covering. Joining

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Speaker 1: me here shortly is Josh further Hilliard and two new hunters,

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Speaker 1: Dan Jo Joe and Mike Romine, who joined us recently

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Speaker 1: for a Field to four event here in Michigan. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is a program ran in this case jointly by

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Speaker 1: the Quality Deer Management Association and back Country Hunters and

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Speaker 1: Anglers in which we trained up eight new hunters and

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Speaker 1: paired them with mentors for a weekend of hunting and camaraderie.

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Speaker 1: And I was privileged to get to be one of

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Speaker 1: those mentors. So today we're going to recap that event,

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Speaker 1: and here from Mike and Dan about you know, what

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Speaker 1: brought them to hunting, what brought them to this event,

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Speaker 1: the challenges they've faced trying to learn how to do

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Speaker 1: this whole thing, and this whole experience they had this

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Speaker 1: past weekend meant to them, and how it hopefully helped

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Speaker 1: arm them for the future. And I just gotta tell

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Speaker 1: you the at least for me, the experience was was awesome. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I'm just I'm gonna be doubling down on doing

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Speaker 1: this kind of thing and trying to help mentor more

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Speaker 1: people because I just can't tell you how much fun

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Speaker 1: it was to share my love of hunting with someone

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Speaker 1: who was actively interested in learning, like craving a learning

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Speaker 1: opportunity and just not having anyone else to go to. UM.

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Speaker 1: It was great. It was very fulfilling, and it's a need.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of people out there who want to

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Speaker 1: learn who don't have a friend or a family member

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Speaker 1: or a place or a resource to help get started.

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Speaker 1: So I hope coming out of this you will I

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Speaker 1: don't know, I think after you hear from these two

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Speaker 1: guys who both had really cool close encounters, I think

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Speaker 1: once you hear they're they're raw motion from these experience,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. It just brought me back to my

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Speaker 1: early days and I loved it. So that's what we're

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Speaker 1: gonna chat about here in a second. But before we

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Speaker 1: get to all that, I do want to make sure

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Speaker 1: we talk some deer hunting strategy because when this podcast drops,

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Speaker 1: if you're listening to it on the day it comes out,

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Speaker 1: that's October nineteen, and that's basically what I consider the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the pre run for most parts of the country.

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Speaker 1: That means things are going to be getting real good

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Speaker 1: here soon. So I want to make sure I'm arming

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Speaker 1: you all with at least a few ideas or reminder

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Speaker 1: as we head into these important hunting dates. Um, So

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Speaker 1: I thought I would give you kind of a real

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Speaker 1: quick cliff notes set of advice to keep in mind,

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Speaker 1: kind of a compilation of high level pointers that that

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Speaker 1: I picked up over my years hunting, or from the

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Speaker 1: many conversations we've had with so many great hunters on

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Speaker 1: this podcast. So you know, if you listen to the

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Speaker 1: podcasts all the time, this isn't brand new stuff. This

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Speaker 1: is reminders. But hopefully we can put it together an

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Speaker 1: assistinct way here to to make sure we're thinking about

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Speaker 1: the right things as we get into the we're really

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Speaker 1: approaching it, the super Bowl, the white tail season, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's getting good. So some quick ideas to keep in mind.

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Speaker 1: Number One, this upcoming time time frame, let's say October

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Speaker 1: through the thirty one or so Halloween time frame, This

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Speaker 1: can be one of the absolute best times of year

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Speaker 1: to kill an old mature buck that's local to your property.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you've got a home buddy bucket deer

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Speaker 1: that maybe you've seen a bun or you know he

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Speaker 1: spends a lot of time in your farm, or maybe

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Speaker 1: it's a deer that you're always getting on camera all

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Speaker 1: over the place, but it's always after dark. This is

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Speaker 1: possibly your best chance to kill him because in the

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Speaker 1: coming days two stosterone levels are really going to be

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Speaker 1: getting high for your local bucks, and they're gonna be

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Speaker 1: feeling real frisky. But the does probably won't be ready

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Speaker 1: to breed yet, at least not in any kind of

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Speaker 1: really high numbers. So what you're looking at and what

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have is a mature buck that wants to

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Speaker 1: get on his feet a little bit earlier than usual.

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Speaker 1: To scope out does. But he's not going to be

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Speaker 1: going full bore yet. He's not gonna be cruising all

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Speaker 1: over the country. He's gonna be sticking close to his

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Speaker 1: local stomping grounds. And if you know what the buck's

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Speaker 1: usual routine is, or at least no some of the

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Speaker 1: like the key stopping points along the way, you can

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Speaker 1: really take advantage of that knowledge right now and catch

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Speaker 1: him when he's just a little bit more vulnerable. But

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Speaker 1: if we wait, and if you're not doing this, if

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Speaker 1: you're not getting after it right now, if you fast

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Speaker 1: forward two weeks and we're into November, man, all bets

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Speaker 1: might be off. I mean that buck could be chasing

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Speaker 1: does all over the place. He could take a mile

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Speaker 1: sojourn in a new direction and maybe never makes it back.

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Speaker 1: You just can't predict what these deer will do with

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Speaker 1: much certainty once the rut gets cranking. So the point

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Speaker 1: of all this is to say that if you have

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Speaker 1: a homebody buck right now and you've got him nailed down,

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Speaker 1: if you know where he's bettered, or if you know

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Speaker 1: where he's feeding after darker, some kind of intel like that,

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Speaker 1: this is a really good time to get aggressive. So

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Speaker 1: if the conditions are right, get after him hard. But

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Speaker 1: but remember you still want to hunt this deer on

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Speaker 1: October patterns, So you want to be intercepting him going

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Speaker 1: to his bed or leaving it or heading out to feed.

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Speaker 1: And you're not going to be shifting into those full

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Speaker 1: bore rut strategies yet. Now Number two, speaking of conditions

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Speaker 1: being right at this time of year, if you get

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Speaker 1: a good cold front pushing through, it is game time.

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Speaker 1: I mean, cold fronts are exciting any time of year,

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Speaker 1: but it just seems like a big cold front, and

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Speaker 1: late October just takes things to a whole different level.

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Speaker 1: If I'm seeing a front hitting during that last week

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Speaker 1: of the month or so I'm looking at is just

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Speaker 1: as good as anything happening in November. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: canceling work, I'm rushing to get all my chores done, uh,

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Speaker 1: putting the out of office email up, turning off my phone.

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Speaker 1: I'm getting in the tree. No matter what. You just

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Speaker 1: gotta be out for there for those days and aggressive

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Speaker 1: because you can definitely get it done. Um, So keep

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Speaker 1: that in mine. Number three, as we're trying to build

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Speaker 1: the strategy further and we're looking at the conditions. Yes,

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Speaker 1: conditions are good, the time of year is good. That

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Speaker 1: boxing me a little bit more vulnerable now. Number three,

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Speaker 1: look back on trail camera pictures from prior years to

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Speaker 1: help predict what's going to happen over the next few days.

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Speaker 1: If there's a buck that you're after this year and

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Speaker 1: you've had pictures of him from previous years, you've got

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Speaker 1: a hugely important tool at your disposal. Use those pictures

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Speaker 1: to inform your future strategy. They don't just tell you

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Speaker 1: what he did, they can also help tell you what

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Speaker 1: he's going to do. Bucks oftentimes have kind of an

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Speaker 1: annual pattern in which they'll start visiting the same general

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Speaker 1: areas at the same time each year, or they'll start

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Speaker 1: moving in daylight right around the same time each year. Um,

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Speaker 1: there's it's not hard and fast rule, but oftentimes we

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Speaker 1: see this trend. So look for that and use it

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Speaker 1: to predict when and where to hunt that buck over

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Speaker 1: these final October days, you know, because things are gonna

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Speaker 1: get wonky soon. So use that past intel to tell you. Okay,

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Speaker 1: maybe you can look back at all the pictures of

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Speaker 1: of your big eight pointer and the big eight point

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Speaker 1: maybe last year the first daylight pictures of them were

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Speaker 1: October and the year before that, the first daylight pictures

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Speaker 1: were October. If you see that man, you sure his

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Speaker 1: heck better being a tree during that time period. This week, um,

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Speaker 1: if everything lines up, so look at that stuff. Think

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Speaker 1: about that stuff. Number four. Another thing to think about

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Speaker 1: at this time of the year is we're transitioning. Is

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Speaker 1: that calling can start working very well. Right, everything's ramping

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Speaker 1: up to stop thrones rising, Females are edging closer and

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Speaker 1: closer to being an estrus. Uh. Tensions are just really

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Speaker 1: high in the woods. So if you see a buck

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Speaker 1: out of range, it's definitely time to consider making some noise. Now.

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Speaker 1: I personally like to start with something light, like a

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Speaker 1: little contact run just a little, just to try and

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Speaker 1: get a box attention, to see if I can get

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Speaker 1: him curious. Now, if that doesn't work, and if his

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Speaker 1: body language seems okay, he's not getting spooky, next I

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Speaker 1: might try snort. We'se Now, this is a really aggressive call.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like this that's basically like walking into a bar,

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Speaker 1: pushing a guy in back and flipping him the bird.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's a it's fighting. If it's a real

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Speaker 1: big old buck, you know he's probably or at least

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Speaker 1: hopefully going to come in for a fight. But if

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Speaker 1: it's a wimpy little guy or a little buck, he's

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Speaker 1: probably in a tocktail and run. So so make sure

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Speaker 1: you keep in mind that's not something to do if

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Speaker 1: you're trying to call in a year and a half

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Speaker 1: old buck. Now, finally, it also might be worth trying

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Speaker 1: to rat, you know, smashing antlers together simulate a fight.

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Speaker 1: But I do think this really depends a lot on

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Speaker 1: where you hunt. You know, here in Michigan there's there's

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Speaker 1: a ton of hunters and there's relatively few mature bucks

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Speaker 1: compared to other places. So here I don't like to

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Speaker 1: prattle very much at all, especially not early. Um, but

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Speaker 1: if you're in a state like Kansas or Nebraska or Iowa,

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Speaker 1: one of these states where the fewer hunters but many

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Speaker 1: more mature bucks, you definitely can try cracking the antlers

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Speaker 1: because man, there's no doubt there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: real fights happening at this point. Now, the biggest thing

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Speaker 1: to keep in mind, uh, if you're gonna do this,

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Speaker 1: if you're gonna try some kind of calling, whether it's rattling, grunting, whatever,

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Speaker 1: doble eats. Bucks almost always want to approach a sound

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Speaker 1: they hear a call from the downwind side, if it's possible,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna try to circle down wind of view, So

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Speaker 1: be really careful about that when you choose to call.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you've got a buck that is close

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Speaker 1: to being down into for you, but not quite there

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Speaker 1: and isn't walking in that direction, if you grunt all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're going to trigger him to turn

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Speaker 1: and get down wind of you. You're gonna four him

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Speaker 1: to get down wind of you, and he's gonna wind

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Speaker 1: you and run away. So don't call him that situation.

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Speaker 1: So either try to call when he's way up wind

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Speaker 1: of view, or if you have some kind of barrier

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Speaker 1: behind you that's gonna keep him, you know, keep him

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Speaker 1: from winding your Maybe that's a river or some nasty

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Speaker 1: tangle that a buck's just not gonna get through, make

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Speaker 1: sure you're thinking about that wind uh Number five. If

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Speaker 1: you're ever wanting to use scrapes within your hunting strategy,

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Speaker 1: now is the time. Research has shown the buck visitation

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Speaker 1: to scrapes peaks and late October. So if you're new

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Speaker 1: to hunting and you're not familiar with I'm talking about. Basically,

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Speaker 1: scrapes are these big kicked up patches of dirt that

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Speaker 1: you're gonna find out in the woods, maybe the size

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Speaker 1: of I don't know, like a computer desk kicked up.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna see this big patch of dirt and there's

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Speaker 1: gonna be a branch hanging over top of it. This

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Speaker 1: is where a buck will come in. He's gonna kick

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Speaker 1: that I was gonna make that sign. He's gonna take

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Speaker 1: a leak, he's gonna pee in that dirt. He's gonna

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Speaker 1: rub his head on that overhanging branch. He's gonna deposit

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Speaker 1: a bunch of scent. He's essentially leaving a message for

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Speaker 1: other deer. And now oftentimes these visits they're happening after dark,

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Speaker 1: but at this time of year, late October, that's been

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Speaker 1: shown to be the top time for them visiting the scrapes,

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Speaker 1: and it's probably your best opportunity to catch one of

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Speaker 1: those visits during daylight. So especially if you find a

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Speaker 1: fresh scrape that's way back in the cover, it's in

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Speaker 1: some thick stuff, it's in the timber, that can be

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Speaker 1: a dynamite location. UM I personally don't set up very

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Speaker 1: often just to hunt a specific scrape. But what happens

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Speaker 1: for me a lot is I'm in an area for

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Speaker 1: another reason. Maybe I know this is a transition between

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Speaker 1: betting and feeding. I've got pictures of a deer stepping

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Speaker 1: out of this piece of timber or whatever it might be.

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Speaker 1: If I'm in the zone of interest and I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to find the spot within the spot, that's where a

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Speaker 1: scrape comes in really helpful. If I can find that scrape,

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Speaker 1: that helps me zero in on the specific location I

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Speaker 1: want to be within range of. So keep that in mind. Finally,

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Speaker 1: number six, when you're heading out for your next hunt

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Speaker 1: or your next couple hunts here hopefully this week sometime

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Speaker 1: or this weekend, I want you to head into the

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Speaker 1: field thinking and believing that you're going to send an

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Speaker 1: arrow Think through your plan set up with attention to detail.

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Speaker 1: Don't just go out to a random spot for says

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Speaker 1: and giggles. Really try to think it through. Think about

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Speaker 1: you know, what's the wind doing, where do I think

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Speaker 1: the deer betted, Where do I think that they're going

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Speaker 1: to go feed? What do I know from previous sightings,

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Speaker 1: What do my cameras tell me? What do the conditions

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Speaker 1: make me think is going to happen tonight? Think through

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Speaker 1: all that, look at all the data. Put together a

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Speaker 1: well informed, confident hunt. A few well planned hunts like

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Speaker 1: this are just worth so much more than a whole

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Speaker 1: bunch of Willie Nearly hunts. And when you do head

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Speaker 1: in for a hunt with with this kind of background

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Speaker 1: in preparation and place, you're gonna have this sense of

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Speaker 1: confidence and anticipation. That's that's both really exciting and really

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Speaker 1: helpful because when you go in with us old plan

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Speaker 1: and that confidence you get this it's it's like a

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Speaker 1: self fulfilling prophecy effect. You're gonna walk into a little

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Speaker 1: bit slower and a little bit more quietly to your stand.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna be just a little bit more careful moving

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Speaker 1: in the tree stand. You're gonna scan with your binoculars

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Speaker 1: just a little bit more. Your senses are just gonna

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Speaker 1: be cranked, and you're gonna be mentally ready for whatever

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Speaker 1: steps out and that mental readiness that can absolutely make

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Speaker 1: or break your hunt. So get out there over these

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Speaker 1: coming days, be confident, be prepared, and have fun. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is what we've waited all year for. This is

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Speaker 1: this is it, and I, for one and stoked. So

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Speaker 1: with all that said, the rest of our conversation today,

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Speaker 1: it's about introducing other people to this thing we just

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Speaker 1: talked about. I mean, how how lucky are you and

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Speaker 1: I that we get to hunt and enjoy experiences like

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Speaker 1: this and geek out over laid Tower strategy and dream

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Speaker 1: about November. I mean, this is this is living, but

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Speaker 1: a lot of people never get introduced to it or

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Speaker 1: they're intrigued, they're interested, but I don't know how to

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Speaker 1: get started. They don't know how to do it on

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Speaker 1: their own. That's where mentoring comes in. And and I think,

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Speaker 1: and I hope that after hearing about this mentor hunt

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Speaker 1: experience that I just had that these guys just had,

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Speaker 1: and hear how pactful it was for these new hunters,

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Speaker 1: I think maybe a few more of you will will

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Speaker 1: hopefully be as energized as I am to keep introducing

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Speaker 1: more and more people to this crazy thing we love

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Speaker 1: so much. So that's the game plan. I'm thinking. We

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Speaker 1: take a very quick break here and then we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get right into it all right here with me. Now,

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Speaker 1: I have the infamous Josh further Hilliard, I have Dan

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Speaker 1: jo Jo and I have Mike Romind. Thank you guys

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Speaker 1: all for hopping on to do this chat after we

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Speaker 1: just spent so much time together over the weekend. Absolutely

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Speaker 1: thanks for having us. Yeah, definitely thank you. Hey, it's uh,

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Speaker 1: it's it's my pleasure. I mean, this whole experience we

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Speaker 1: just had, at least for me, was a whole lot

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Speaker 1: of fun. But I like getting to have this kind

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Speaker 1: of debrief opportunity, Like we just had an experience of

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Speaker 1: the last three days, and it's easy to sometimes just

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Speaker 1: get caught up in life and just running forward to

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Speaker 1: whatever the next thing is. And having this podcast afterwards,

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Speaker 1: at least for me, is giving me a nice opportunity

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Speaker 1: to kind of reflect back on it and think about, Okay,

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Speaker 1: why was that such a cool thing, Why would I

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Speaker 1: want to do that again? What did I learn? Um?

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Speaker 1: What could I have done better as a mentor? Um?

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Speaker 1: So I've had an opportunity to do that, and maybe

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Speaker 1: this will give each one of you a little bit

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Speaker 1: of an opportunity to do that too, and hoping maybe

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Speaker 1: folks listening will either learn something or be inspired or

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Speaker 1: get intrigued by what we have to say. So I

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Speaker 1: think I think we're gonn need to start then, Josh,

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Speaker 1: is a quick cliff notes on what this whole thing is,

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Speaker 1: because just before this I had I introduced the basic concept,

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Speaker 1: but we need to hear from you on on what

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Speaker 1: field the fork is. We had a podcast all about

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Speaker 1: this earlier in the year. There's an episode on Mediator

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Speaker 1: where we did a great job explaining this. But for

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Speaker 1: those that haven't heard those, what was this thing that

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Speaker 1: just happened over the weekend? Yeah, so, UM, this was

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Speaker 1: a this is a it's actually a joint UM event

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Speaker 1: this weekend with UH Michigan Chapter of back Country Hunters

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Speaker 1: and Anglers and then Quality Deer Management Association UM. And

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Speaker 1: it was our Field of Fork program UM and b

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Speaker 1: h A has a similar program called Hunting for Sustainability UM.

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Speaker 1: Very similar programs I'll talk about like our Field of

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Speaker 1: Fork program though, UM it's basically what was modeled after UM.

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Speaker 1: So we started this program a few years ago now

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Speaker 1: down at our our national headquarters just outside of Athens, Georgia, UM,

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Speaker 1: where Hank Forrester, who's our Hunting Programs or Hunting Heritage

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Speaker 1: Programs manager UM, and one of his colleagues, UM, Charles Evans,

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Speaker 1: got together and and UH this this program had been

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Speaker 1: out there, and they said, hey, I think we can

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Speaker 1: kind of take this to the next level. UM. So

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Speaker 1: their plan was to go to farmers markets and try

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Speaker 1: to you know, hand out venison samples and then uh

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Speaker 1: kind of use that as a lead into asking people

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Speaker 1: if they would ever um consider hunting or be interested

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Speaker 1: in learning how to hunt UM. And then they would

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Speaker 1: take these people that they signed up with the farmers

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Speaker 1: market and they put him through training UM about dear

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Speaker 1: behavior in the biology and uh hunt shot placement and

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Speaker 1: ethics and UM hunting one on one stuff, just trying

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Speaker 1: to give them a good baseline knowledge of of what

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Speaker 1: they're getting themselves into. And they spend a lot of

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Speaker 1: time at the archery range for this. For this particular program,

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Speaker 1: most people are using cross bows UM just from a

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Speaker 1: proficient see standpoint UM. And then they take them out

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Speaker 1: on a on a hunt UM at some properties that

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Speaker 1: we have at a national headquarters. And it was it

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Speaker 1: was a program that was targeted at adults who are

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Speaker 1: interested in sourcing you know, their own protein or their

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Speaker 1: own local, you know source of food UM. And we

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Speaker 1: kind of thought, what better way or what better resources

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Speaker 1: out there than a lot of these deer in people's

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Speaker 1: backyards for people to have a sustainable source of protein UM,

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Speaker 1: and it was really a big hit. It kind of

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Speaker 1: just took off right away. We had waiting lists for

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Speaker 1: the events that we were putting on in uh in Georgia,

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Speaker 1: and we really piloted it down there for a year

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Speaker 1: or two, and we're starting to expand it out across

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Speaker 1: the country now UM in states where we have branches

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Speaker 1: and a good q DM, a volunteer base in certain states,

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Speaker 1: and I think this year we're gonna have between twenty

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Speaker 1: and of these Field of Fork events across twelve states UM.

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Speaker 1: And again it's it's an adult focused program where we're

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Speaker 1: we're focusing on adults UM who can then go out

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Speaker 1: and replicate UM this type of hunt on their own

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Speaker 1: UM without somebody taking them or without needing to call

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Speaker 1: someone for a ride, or you know, who may have

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Speaker 1: disposable income where they can go purchase gear UM, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: So that's kind of a really high level overview of it. UM.

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Speaker 1: Is that good for for this discussion? Mark, you want

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Speaker 1: me to go into a little bit more detail. No,

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Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's perfect. So, so essentially,

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Speaker 1: what we have here is you and in your partner

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Speaker 1: over at b h A helps set up a version

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Speaker 1: of that kind of event here in Michigan, um where

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Speaker 1: we had eight hunters and eight mentors I think was

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Speaker 1: the number, right, Josh Um and we did that pretty

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Speaker 1: cool situation, rented some cabins in a local state park

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Speaker 1: I guess you would call it, and a bunch of

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Speaker 1: public land all around there, and we were all able

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Speaker 1: to get together for the weekend for the weekend of

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Speaker 1: hunting and camaraderie and all that kind of stuff. And

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Speaker 1: two of the hunters that were there were Mike and Dan.

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Speaker 1: So for you too, what I wanted to hear to

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Speaker 1: start is a little bit of your background because you

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Speaker 1: both have different situations, different circumstances that led you to

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Speaker 1: meeting us this weekend. Um So, I kind of want

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Speaker 1: to just dive into that a little bit because I

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Speaker 1: think it's a it's an interesting thing for for us

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Speaker 1: experienced hunters to be reminded of, you know, how other

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Speaker 1: people might you know, be looking at hunting, how other

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Speaker 1: people might be intrigued by hunting but not knowing where

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Speaker 1: to go to figure out how to do it. Um. So, Dan,

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Speaker 1: do you want to kind of give us a little

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Speaker 1: bit of your background, how you developed an interest in hunting,

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Speaker 1: What the things were, you know, what other outdoor activities

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Speaker 1: maybe brought you into this kind of world and and

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Speaker 1: all that. Yeah, definitely definitely. So. I grew up in

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Speaker 1: southeastern Michigan. I guess you could call it the metropolitan

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Speaker 1: Detroit area. UM. Not really coming from a hunting family, UM,

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Speaker 1: not really having any peers or friends that really got

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Speaker 1: into hunting at an early age. UM. But what I

402
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Speaker 1: did have was some brothers that got me into fishing. UM.

403
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Speaker 1: So I was kind of always into fishing, and then

404
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Speaker 1: as I got older, it started kind of expanding my

405
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Speaker 1: interest in the outdoors to you know, mountain biking, backpacking, hiking.

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Speaker 1: So UM. Kind of developed that interest early on of

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Speaker 1: just being outside and exploring nature. But I always had

408
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Speaker 1: a curiosity around, you know, the hunting realm of things,

409
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Speaker 1: and always thought it was something I could see myself

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Speaker 1: getting into, but I didn't necessarily have any avenues to

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Speaker 1: really pursue it with elders that could show me the

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Speaker 1: ropes or friends or friends parents that could take me along.

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Speaker 1: I guess staff forward to uh, the college I had

414
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Speaker 1: hated a girl that her family had some property in

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Speaker 1: northern Michigan and uh lucky enough to have her dad

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Speaker 1: take me out on a couple of hunts, um, which

417
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Speaker 1: I thought was super cool and super interesting, and um

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Speaker 1: immediately you know, started to develop that interest of you know,

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Speaker 1: really seeing myself doing this in the future. UM. Kind

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Speaker 1: Of around that same time, I uh, you know, I

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Speaker 1: kind of fell into inheriting a bow from um a

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Speaker 1: brother's friend, and uh, right there, I started shooting it

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Speaker 1: and having some fun with it and kind of saw

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Speaker 1: it as a tool to maybe enable myself to you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe pursue hunting. And at a later point in time, UM,

426
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Speaker 1: you know, graduated college. Long story shirt short, didn't end

427
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Speaker 1: up with that girl, so UM, I couldn't really pursue that.

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Speaker 1: Having for hunting, moved to Chicago, kind of got away

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Speaker 1: for from all my outdoor activities that I did for

430
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,359
Speaker 1: a little bit. UM. A couple of years later, actually

431
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 1: moved back to Michigan and kind of picked up where

432
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,840
Speaker 1: I left off with fishing and hiking and backpacking. UM.

433
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,480
Speaker 1: So you know that kind of started to develop my

434
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,199
Speaker 1: interest back into you know, shooting my bow again and

435
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:14,399
Speaker 1: maybe seeing if I could pursue hunting again. Um. You know,

436
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,199
Speaker 1: I think it was one weekend I came across the

437
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: Mediator show on Netflix, and I think I binge watched

438
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,040
Speaker 1: all the season like a weekend. So that kind of

439
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:27,000
Speaker 1: inspired me right there to maybe really take it seriously.

440
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,880
Speaker 1: Um you know. With that, I also ran into your podcast, Mark,

441
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,080
Speaker 1: so I thought that was a cool resource to maybe

442
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,280
Speaker 1: learn a few things about, you know, some things in

443
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:38,520
Speaker 1: my area, being that you're a white tail hunter, you're

444
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 1: from Michigan, and maybe pick up on some things there.

445
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:44,600
Speaker 1: But what I found was I was getting really excited

446
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 1: when I listened to your stuff. I was also getting

447
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 1: really frustrated at the same time, because it just made

448
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,359
Speaker 1: me realize that my situation was super difficult to maybe

449
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,880
Speaker 1: have a friend tag along or maybe run this by

450
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 1: this question I had by you know, uh, an older,

451
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: more experienced person than I was in the whole hunting

452
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 1: um realm, so um, you know kind of stuff. Stuck

453
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,120
Speaker 1: with it, kept shooting my bow and then um um.

454
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 1: I think it was probably a month ago I ran

455
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: into that Mediator podcast that I think you had mentioned earlier,

456
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 1: and they were talking about the fielding Board program. I said, well, well,

457
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:23,359
Speaker 1: this could be a cool opportunity for me to maybe

458
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:26,119
Speaker 1: learn some things. They meet, some new people, got on

459
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 1: the website. I had emailed that emails excuse me, Hank

460
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: Forrester and uh, Keith asked my contact information belonged to Josh,

461
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I talked to Josh a little bit.

462
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:42,080
Speaker 1: Josh told me he had a couple of opportunities, and

463
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,119
Speaker 1: you know, I figured I'd take him up on it,

464
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:46,120
Speaker 1: kind of get out of my comfort zone and maybe,

465
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:49,320
Speaker 1: you know, spend a weekend trying to learn and absorbed

466
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 1: as much as possible. And uh, you know, that's kind

467
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: of what what led me to this weekend and meeting

468
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,879
Speaker 1: you guys and having some some cool, cool experiences and

469
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:04,920
Speaker 1: with some cool memories. And now you're on the podcast itself. Hey,

470
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:09,199
Speaker 1: there you go, man um out it is. Uh so,

471
00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 1: what about you, Mike. I know you've got a pretty

472
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,160
Speaker 1: different set of circumstances than that um, but you still

473
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:17,199
Speaker 1: ended up in the same place. Give us, give us

474
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: your story. Yeah, my background is basically the opposite of his. Um.

475
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:26,400
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, so I grew up in a totally hunting

476
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 1: family and big time fisherman. I mean, we were outside

477
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: all the time, and I grew up hunting rabbits and

478
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: squirrels and trapping stuff and you know, all kinds of stuff,

479
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 1: a lot of gun sport, um, all that kind of stuff.

480
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:43,800
Speaker 1: But long story short, UM, I took on a career

481
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:47,360
Speaker 1: as a professional chefs and later a restaurant tour and um,

482
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:49,920
Speaker 1: you know, nights and weekends work, you know, eighty nine

483
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: hours a week and basically, um, living the life of

484
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:55,679
Speaker 1: a restaurant tour it doesn't leave you a lot of

485
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 1: opportunity to get up at four o'clock in the morning

486
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 1: because you just went to bet it too. Um. And

487
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,920
Speaker 1: so it's a it's a tough thing to be able

488
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,639
Speaker 1: to fit that time in, I guess while you're in

489
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:11,119
Speaker 1: that mode. So here I am fifteen years later, and

490
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:13,880
Speaker 1: my life is a little bit different, and now I'm

491
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,440
Speaker 1: kind of seeing to myself, let me work to live

492
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: instead of live to work, and let me make some

493
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: time to get back to the things that I love.

494
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,399
Speaker 1: And one of the things that really interested me about

495
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 1: this program is that when I was growing up, I

496
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of what I would call technical

497
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 1: training from my dad. You know, he took us out there.

498
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 1: But you know, I have my two brothers and myself,

499
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:38,159
Speaker 1: So he was trying to sill us all at the

500
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: same time, and it was more like, here's a spot

501
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 1: in a bucket, sit on it, and wait for a

502
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:45,719
Speaker 1: deer to come by kind of training. And so I

503
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: was looking forward to that one on one kind of

504
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: you know, talks about, you know, how did the deer live,

505
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 1: how do they move, why do they move? How do

506
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,119
Speaker 1: I choose a good spot to hunt? How do I

507
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: how do I be a more technically advanced hunter as

508
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:04,880
Speaker 1: opposed to, you know, throw a bag of corn out

509
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:06,680
Speaker 1: there and wait for them to come by. I think

510
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: we can't throw a corn out there now, but you know,

511
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:11,679
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, that's how it was. So

512
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,639
Speaker 1: that's kind of my story. And you know, it was

513
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 1: an awesome opportunity to get back to my roots and

514
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:21,520
Speaker 1: to learn and to just you know, I'll never give

515
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: up a good opportunity for a weekend in a cabin.

516
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: So it was awesome, awesome experience. Yeah, yeah, it's really

517
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: cool because one of you came from a hunting background,

518
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: one of you came from no hunting background. But the

519
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 1: end result was that neither one of you was was

520
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:39,480
Speaker 1: a hunter, right Mike, you had an opportunity early on,

521
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 1: and just you know, there wasn't the the experience and

522
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,719
Speaker 1: someone to help teach you along the way, and so

523
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: you kind of fell fell away from it. Career got

524
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: in the way, and then still no outlet to then

525
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:52,679
Speaker 1: learn how to get back into it. And then with

526
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,160
Speaker 1: Dan increasing increasing interest in the outdoors and then an

527
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 1: intrigue and hunting, but no way to really get any

528
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:01,919
Speaker 1: hands on experience, no one to show you what's what.

529
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 1: Um So the point being, I think for me at

530
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:06,760
Speaker 1: least when I got to meet you guys and hear

531
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,640
Speaker 1: your stories and hear the stories from all the other

532
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 1: hunters there in camp, was there's all these different all

533
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: these different backgrounds of people come from, and there's all

534
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:23,640
Speaker 1: these different challenges that might keep them from being interested

535
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 1: in hunting to actually becoming a hunter. Like that jump

536
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 1: from interested to actually being a hunter is a big one,

537
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: and there's a bunch of obstacles in the way. This

538
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: isn't like, I don't know, This isn't like getting into

539
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 1: fantasy football, right, I mean, if you if you're interested

540
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 1: in fantasy football, you can go online read a couple.

541
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 1: I don't read a couple of articles, watch a YouTube

542
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: video and basically know how to do it, how to

543
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,239
Speaker 1: get involved, sign up for a league. You don't need

544
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 1: to have friends that are into it, you don't need

545
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 1: to have anybody who can share with it you anything.

546
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:54,719
Speaker 1: You just sign up and do it, and you've got

547
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: a whole new hobby and there you go. You're a

548
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:01,040
Speaker 1: fantasy football person. If you develop an interest in hunting

549
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: just from watching Mediator or having some family that used

550
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 1: to do it, but now you don't know how to

551
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 1: get back into it. You know, if you're in that situation,

552
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: how the heck do you get going? There's so much

553
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: gear you need, there's the channel of trying to find

554
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 1: a place to go. There's a challenge you brought up, Mike,

555
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 1: which is, even if you've been out there before, if

556
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: no one's actually showed you and shared with you the

557
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 1: details of what you're trying to do and how to

558
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 1: do it, you know, that's a frustrating situation too. Um So,

559
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 1: I think it's really easy for people like me or

560
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: Josh who have been hunting for a long time to

561
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 1: take all that for granted, which is which is why,

562
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: at least for me, this weekend was was a really

563
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: important reminder that you know, it's it's not a given.

564
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 1: It's not easy for someone to get into it. Um. Now,

565
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 1: you kind of both alluded to a couple of these things,

566
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: but especially maybe Dan, especially both of you, really can

567
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: you elaborate a little bit on what some of those

568
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: frustrations were, Like you said, it was frustrating Dan when

569
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 1: you developed this like interest in hunting. You started listening

570
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: to the wire Time podcast a little bit, but then

571
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:07,520
Speaker 1: it was frustrating. Um, can you just elaborate on the

572
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 1: on that a little bit Like these things I just mentioned,

573
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 1: is that basically the gist of how you were feeling

574
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: or or what was it that was making it hard

575
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: for you to take that next leap and actually get

576
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 1: out there in the woods doing this. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So,

577
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:22,840
Speaker 1: I mean some of the frustrations I had, you know,

578
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: you spoke on it a little bit, Mark, was you know,

579
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 1: knowing what gear to get get into, right. I Mean,

580
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 1: you look at the market and there's a ton of

581
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: different things you can you can spend your money on,

582
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: from tree stands to to UH to jackets to you know,

583
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: our free equipment calls. I mean, you name it. So

584
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 1: you know when when people would talk about, you know what,

585
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:46,240
Speaker 1: I got this tree stand that helps me do this,

586
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: I don't really know what exactly they're talking about. I

587
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: don't have a friend that maybe has this type of

588
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: tree stand versus a ladder stand that I could ask, well,

589
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: what do you think is better? What would you think

590
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 1: would be more applicable to my certain situation where I'm

591
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 1: hunting state land versus private land? Um? Some of those

592
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: frustrations that I couldn't just readily breach out to somebody

593
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: and ask, um, there was that aspect of it. Um,

594
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 1: there was the whole strategy aspect of it to where

595
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: you know, some of the the podcast would talk about,

596
00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: you know, a certain wind direction that you would need

597
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 1: to be cognizant of, two different food sources that you

598
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: would need to pay attention for, and and getting out

599
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 1: there and trying to find and locate and identify those things.

600
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,360
Speaker 1: Um was certainly something that I could probably go do

601
00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:36,479
Speaker 1: by myself, but it would almost be like a guessing

602
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 1: game out in the field where I'd point out, okay,

603
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 1: well this is an acorn tree, and then you know,

604
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 1: I can see I think what looks like maybe he's

605
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 1: a rub I'm not really sure. So you know, I

606
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 1: can pull up a Google image of what that might

607
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:51,360
Speaker 1: look like, but you know, at the end of the day,

608
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna always question myself to definitely say, like, you know,

609
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: I think I saw one, but not totally sure if

610
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,720
Speaker 1: I really did. So, I found myself like just super

611
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: frustrated with that kind of situation that you know, I

612
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 1: just you know, wanted to do something about it. And luckily,

613
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,479
Speaker 1: you know, I got involved with a great program and

614
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 1: was fortunate to have like a great mentor take me

615
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 1: out and point out all those specific things and say,

616
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: you know, this is the rub, this is a scrape,

617
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: this is the wind direction that we're dealing with. We're

618
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 1: going to approach the strategy this way. I just thought

619
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: was just invaluable to me, you know, something that I

620
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,120
Speaker 1: didn't have before. That kind of opened up my my

621
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 1: whole perspective of Okay, this is what I need to

622
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: do now. So yeah, that's a great that's a great observation.

623
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 1: You know something else that I think it was Nick,

624
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 1: one of the other mentees, had brought up when we

625
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: were all chatting over the weekend. He said that one

626
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: of the big things that had kind of been intimidating

627
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: to him as he decided he wanted to get into hunting,

628
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: but was kind of worried about was the whole dealing

629
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 1: with the deer after you shoot it, like the all

630
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 1: like the whole idea of like, Okay, now I just

631
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: I just shot this deer. What the heck do I do?

632
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 1: I mean, you can watch a YouTube video, you can

633
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:09,959
Speaker 1: see it on mediator, you can read an article about it,

634
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 1: but it's it's very different there in person. Is that

635
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 1: something that kind of weighed in the back of your

636
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:16,720
Speaker 1: conscious two? Did you ever look at that and say, Gosh,

637
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: how the heck am I going to handle that? Oh?

638
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 1: Exacinitely definitely. I mean staring at, uh, you know, an

639
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: animal that I just shot and thinking, Okay, I know

640
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: I need to do something with that's not exactly sure

641
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:31,239
Speaker 1: what and then the fear of messing something up and

642
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: having you know, things go wrong, and um, you know,

643
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 1: I just was a total unknown to me and um

644
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 1: unfortunately didn't tag anything this weekend. But I mean having

645
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 1: somebody there to kind of help you out, walk you

646
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 1: through the whole process is I think so important to

647
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 1: learning your way and and figuring out how figuring out

648
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 1: how to do things the right way. Yeah, Mike, was

649
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 1: there anything else for you that stood as a challenge

650
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: for you to get back into hunting, or anything that

651
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: you were getting frustrated with or or something that eventually

652
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 1: led you to point where you thought, you know, damn it,

653
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta find someone who's gonna help me,

654
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: and that led you to this program. Yeah, Well, it's

655
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting because I really have, you know,

656
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 1: have all all the equipment that I need, and I

657
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:20,759
Speaker 1: have all the stuff that I need, and I even

658
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 1: have some of the background, I guess, at least to

659
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,880
Speaker 1: do the tough type of hunting that I was familiar

660
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 1: with from before. Um. However, when I came across this program,

661
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,319
Speaker 1: it was just like, man, I really need to do that.

662
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 1: I need to get out there and I need to

663
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:38,640
Speaker 1: learn a little bit more. And it's just like how

664
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: sometimes in life you just kind of get stuck in

665
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 1: a rut where you have things that you want to do, UM,

666
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,799
Speaker 1: but you just don't necessarily know how to get up

667
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:51,080
Speaker 1: and running. And sometimes all you need is just that

668
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:53,600
Speaker 1: little bit of a jump start UM that gets you

669
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 1: move in. And I think one of the things for

670
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 1: me that was really important was that I have these

671
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:03,040
Speaker 1: places that are kind of near where I live that

672
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: I've hunted before, and I feel like at any point

673
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: in time, I could get up and go there and

674
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,960
Speaker 1: hunt those places because I've done it before, because somebody

675
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:13,479
Speaker 1: set me up there, because I knew what to do.

676
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: But right here in my backyard, less than ten minutes

677
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 1: from my house, I have a huge piece of state

678
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:21,279
Speaker 1: land that I could hunt at any time. But but

679
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,359
Speaker 1: how do I do that? How do I go in there?

680
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 1: Where do I where do I look to to find

681
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:27,879
Speaker 1: the best spot? It was like, how do I get

682
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 1: started doing that? I don't really want to drive two

683
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:34,279
Speaker 1: hours to and from where I'm going to hunt. UM,

684
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 1: So that to me was really pretty important. And just

685
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 1: to tag a little bit onto what Dan was saying,

686
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: what you guys are talking about with UM dealing with

687
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: the deer afterwards. Interestingly enough, my job, I'm a professional butcher. UM.

688
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 1: We own a butcher shop. UM. I still get calls

689
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:57,840
Speaker 1: every season from people that are experienced deer hunters that

690
00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:01,480
Speaker 1: still don't aren't SUP We're comfortable with how to deal

691
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,200
Speaker 1: with it afterwards. So I think it's important to note

692
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:06,800
Speaker 1: that the network that's built from this event is also

693
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:10,719
Speaker 1: really important just to have someone that you can, you know,

694
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,520
Speaker 1: shoot a text to or send a picture too, and

695
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:15,440
Speaker 1: and kind of come back and say, hey, does this

696
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 1: look right? Just that reassurance I think is pretty powerful,

697
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,839
Speaker 1: very very true. I think that ultimately that might be

698
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 1: the greatest win out of this whole thing, Like it

699
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: was a great weekend, but hopefully the the final outcome

700
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,560
Speaker 1: is long term relationships between all the different mentors and

701
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 1: the different mentees and the fact that yeah, like if

702
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 1: you Mike or Dan or any of the other folks

703
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:41,920
Speaker 1: have a question, or you hit a deer and you

704
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:43,919
Speaker 1: need to help tracking or anything like that, you now

705
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 1: have people you can call. You now have folks who

706
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 1: can help you, or you can chat in the phone

707
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: with you and walk you through things. And that's probably

708
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 1: harder to come by then, we realize, especially if you

709
00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:55,640
Speaker 1: if you're in a situation where you're not around a

710
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:57,320
Speaker 1: bunch of other hunters, Like if you live in Metro

711
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 1: Detroit and you're not from a hunting background. Um, I'm

712
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 1: I'm guessing Dan, you don't have a whole bunch of

713
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 1: buddies that are hunting that could help you do this

714
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,880
Speaker 1: kind of stuff right based off what you're saying. UM,

715
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,120
Speaker 1: So whether you know, whether you're in that case with

716
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:16,719
Speaker 1: no hunting family or friends, or in Mike's case where

717
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:18,719
Speaker 1: you had that background, but you just need someone to

718
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:20,479
Speaker 1: actually show you how to do it on your own

719
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:24,360
Speaker 1: and not just to sit there and do a Dad said, UM,

720
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,560
Speaker 1: that's why I think this is pretty cool. So let's

721
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 1: get into what happened over the weekend. So you guys

722
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 1: found the program, you signed up for it. We all

723
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 1: got together Friday night at these cabins that Josh had rented. Um,

724
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 1: I'll give like a really quick rundown of the basic

725
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:42,440
Speaker 1: situation and then anyone of you guys can jump in

726
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 1: here and provide more detail or something. But basically, we

727
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 1: had these cabins for the weekend. Friday night, we all

728
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 1: got together and just you know, have some beverages, talk,

729
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: you know, just tell our stories, introduce each other, just

730
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 1: get to know each other. Um. And then we cooked

731
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:02,319
Speaker 1: a bunch of wild game. We had, Oh gosh, what

732
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 1: all do we have? Someone made venison shank, someone made

733
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 1: a pheasant stew. I think, um, I made some heart

734
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 1: some squirrel yeah maybe that was it was a squirrel stew. Yeah,

735
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 1: I think squirrel stew like venison, tortellini, um, some venison, summersauts,

736
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Um. The goals to have

737
00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:24,879
Speaker 1: kind of like each mentor bring like a little dish

738
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: to pass and h preferably wild game. And I think

739
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:31,799
Speaker 1: it was all wild game that night. I think. Yeah. Um, Now, Mike,

740
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,239
Speaker 1: I know you'd had venus in the past, but Dan,

741
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:38,160
Speaker 1: had you had venison before that? Yeah? I have a

742
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 1: few times just through um, you know my my friend's

743
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 1: parents that hell yeah, presented that. Yoh no, have you

744
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:50,600
Speaker 1: have venison? Heart? No? I think I missed that this weekend,

745
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 1: didn't You didn't even get it this weekend? Man? No,

746
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:57,800
Speaker 1: all right, yeah you missed out because it was a

747
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: damn good Sure. I'm sure I had some of the

748
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 1: bad chefs, so so that definitely I could say that

749
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:09,080
Speaker 1: was pretty good. That's good. I'm gonna take your comment,

750
00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:12,960
Speaker 1: Mike and hold that close because you're being a professional chef.

751
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 1: I'm quite proud that a professional chef thought my heart

752
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 1: turned out well. Yeah, I was honestly super great. I

753
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:24,280
Speaker 1: was impressed by all the food that was there that night. Um,

754
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 1: you know, I've had a lot of wild game and

755
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,799
Speaker 1: that they are may not always be good. Um, but

756
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:34,480
Speaker 1: this group had a really nice, nice output. Good. I'm glad.

757
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:36,640
Speaker 1: The pressure was on. You know, you don't want to

758
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 1: cook something up for new hunters and then make it

759
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:40,440
Speaker 1: terrible and they're like, oh, what the heck am I

760
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 1: here for? Yeah, especially one of those new hunters as

761
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 1: as a professional chef. Yeah, exactly. So, but Alton turned

762
00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 1: up pretty good. And um, we had a bonfire and

763
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:55,200
Speaker 1: everyone hung out and had a good time that night,

764
00:39:55,840 --> 00:40:00,160
Speaker 1: and we all almost everyone stayed at the cabin's over right,

765
00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:03,799
Speaker 1: So we had very full bunk house of dudes and

766
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:07,759
Speaker 1: a lesser full cabin of quite a few. I guess

767
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: it was. I don't know what was the split, Josh.

768
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,960
Speaker 1: There was six women and twelve guys had so we

769
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 1: had five guys and three gals of the hunters, um,

770
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:23,319
Speaker 1: and then we had each of them paired with a

771
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 1: mentor of the same sex. So I guess we had

772
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:29,920
Speaker 1: we had ten guys and what had have been six ladies,

773
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:31,840
Speaker 1: So I think I think nine guys were at the

774
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: cabin and five ladies were in the women's cabin. Yeah,

775
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: a lot of room to spread out, they did. We

776
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 1: were you and we had to share a futon a

777
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:45,640
Speaker 1: bunch of folks and a bunch of folks and bunk beds. Um.

778
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,640
Speaker 1: But you know, I gotta say for taking that many

779
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:53,040
Speaker 1: different people who have most almost everyone hadn't met before. Um,

780
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:57,759
Speaker 1: and everyone bunking up and hanging out for three days. Um.

781
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 1: I feel like it went surprisingly you well, like everyone

782
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 1: got along. It seemed like everyone was really included in

783
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: conversations and having a good time. UM. I don't know,

784
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:09,800
Speaker 1: how did you guys feel, Mike, Dan, did you feel

785
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: comfortable pretty quickly? Was it? Or was it really awkward?

786
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 1: I mean, how did it feel? Oh? I thought no, great.

787
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: I mean it's just like it takes me back to

788
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:21,839
Speaker 1: deer camp, you know, my childhood memory. So everyone's there

789
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,440
Speaker 1: for the same purpose. Everyone's there too to teach and

790
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:29,360
Speaker 1: be taught. And um, it was an awesome group. Yeah.

791
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,600
Speaker 1: What do you think, Dan? Yeah, no, I thought it

792
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:34,799
Speaker 1: was great. I think that first night it came in

793
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:37,719
Speaker 1: a little late, and I told you guys straight out, like,

794
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:41,080
Speaker 1: you know, definitely out of my comfort zone a little bit.

795
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:43,239
Speaker 1: I'm just about to spend a couple of couple of

796
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:46,320
Speaker 1: nights with a bunch of dudes. I've never met before. UM,

797
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: but it turned out really well. I mean we all

798
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:52,400
Speaker 1: gathered with a with a common interest in mind, and UM,

799
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 1: I think all the conversations that we had and all

800
00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 1: the things that we did was just a ton of

801
00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:01,200
Speaker 1: fun until I think it worked out for a Yeah,

802
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 1: that's that's stuff. And I was feeling too, it was

803
00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:06,759
Speaker 1: it was just fun. I mean it was legitically fun,

804
00:42:06,800 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 1: which is a which is a nice thing. Um. And

805
00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 1: the next morning, though unfortunately, we had to wake up

806
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:14,720
Speaker 1: very early, which I just I hate those early mornings.

807
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 1: That's the only thing I don't like about hunting is

808
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,440
Speaker 1: waking up early. But we did. We got up early,

809
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:22,319
Speaker 1: we went out and hunted, and and I'll kind of

810
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,080
Speaker 1: fast forward through most of the hunt. Um, I want

811
00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:28,760
Speaker 1: to kind of zero in on your guys specific experiences.

812
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 1: But uh, we were a hunting public land. Everyone was

813
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 1: spread out different places. Almost nobody had hunted here before,

814
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 1: so we're all kind of trying to figure out stuff

815
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:41,920
Speaker 1: as we went. UM, and we all had our own challenges,

816
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 1: I guess, like that first morning, me and Mike we

817
00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 1: headed out, UM try to get in one place. It

818
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:49,319
Speaker 1: was too wet and flooded, so we had to go

819
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 1: to another spot, had to come from a different route

820
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 1: that I didn't really like, and we got in there late.

821
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 1: Didn't see anything, UM and what that first morning? I

822
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: don't think anyone did anone't see any here the first morning?

823
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 1: Or are there a few doughs sided off in the distance,

824
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:05,279
Speaker 1: do you remember? I think there's a I think there's

825
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:07,719
Speaker 1: a few doughs that were UM sited. Had a couple

826
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:10,520
Speaker 1: of people UM bumped here I think on the way

827
00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:14,840
Speaker 1: in UM. But yeah, no, like real close calls or anything.

828
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:17,759
Speaker 1: That first morning. There's a little hectic though. I mean

829
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:20,160
Speaker 1: we had people getting ground blind, set up in the

830
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:22,280
Speaker 1: dark and all that kind of stuff. So it definitely

831
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 1: wasn't an ideal morning. Yeah, you know what you should mention,

832
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:27,439
Speaker 1: Josh explain Also like the gear situation, Like you guys

833
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:31,080
Speaker 1: had all sorts of gear for people, right, Yeah. So

834
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,520
Speaker 1: so UM this is kind of where like a lot

835
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:37,640
Speaker 1: of the partnerships of the other organizations come into play UM,

836
00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 1: at least here in Michigan. We're very fortunate we have

837
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 1: a couple of trailers that have been UM kind of

838
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:50,840
Speaker 1: purchased by different organizations, UH Michigan United Conservation Clubs, UM

839
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:56,360
Speaker 1: MWTF for National Wild Turkey Federation, Pheasants Forever UM Michigan

840
00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: DNR has us learned to Hunt program. So we've got

841
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:03,719
Speaker 1: a couple of trailers that through Pittman Robertson dollars UM

842
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,280
Speaker 1: and grants and stuff like that, we've been able to

843
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:13,000
Speaker 1: to stock these trailers with crossbows and ground blinds and

844
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:17,879
Speaker 1: camo UM and really anything that a new hunter would need,

845
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:21,040
Speaker 1: um to to go through a program like this, whether

846
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 1: it be deer or they use those trailers for turkey

847
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 1: hunts or pheasant hunts. UM, they do a small learn

848
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 1: to hunt small games. So we've got all the tools

849
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:33,960
Speaker 1: that um, these people need. Uh, they just really need

850
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:35,719
Speaker 1: to show up with some you know, if it's gonna

851
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:39,240
Speaker 1: be it's pretty cold this weekend, so some like cold gear, um,

852
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 1: you know, keep their hands and feet warm, things like that.

853
00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:46,359
Speaker 1: We've we've got basically everything else for uh, these these

854
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 1: new hunters to use. So we're fortunate here that's not

855
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:54,480
Speaker 1: available everywhere. That's just um through some partnerships that we've

856
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:59,279
Speaker 1: made here in Michigan and organizations working together uh for

857
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 1: the same effort. Yeah, that is that was really nice

858
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 1: to have. So nobody had to worry about. You know,

859
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:06,160
Speaker 1: if you didn't have a bow, or if you didn't

860
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:08,520
Speaker 1: have a crossbow, you could still participate. If you didn't

861
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:11,200
Speaker 1: have camouflage, you can still participate. If you didn't have

862
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:17,919
Speaker 1: whatever we had you covered. Um, that was great. Now, um, Dan,

863
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:22,960
Speaker 1: you brought your own crossbow and you got to at

864
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: least consider using it on that night's hunt. Walk me

865
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:31,880
Speaker 1: through your second hunt of the weekend. You were with Jason.

866
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:36,719
Speaker 1: Jason Meekoff from back Country Hunters and Anglers was your mentor? UM,

867
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:39,440
Speaker 1: Walk me through that night you guys headed in and

868
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 1: I had a pretty exciting hunt, right, Yeah, No, it

869
00:45:42,239 --> 00:45:44,759
Speaker 1: was awesome. So so, like you said, I would have

870
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 1: the opportunity of bringing my own com pombo and UM,

871
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:52,960
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure you know, Josh and Jason

872
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,480
Speaker 1: are comfortable with me using it before I went out

873
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,320
Speaker 1: in the field and tried to shoot something with that. UM.

874
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:01,640
Speaker 1: But it was a cool opportunity for me to use

875
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:06,160
Speaker 1: what I've been practicing on a real life experience like this. Um.

876
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 1: So Jason took me out. First thing he told me,

877
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 1: he said, Hey, I've never hearnded the spot before, but

878
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:15,600
Speaker 1: I think it looks pretty good. And I told him, Hey,

879
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,240
Speaker 1: my trust is in your hands. So we went out.

880
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:22,800
Speaker 1: UM got set up and what looks like a really

881
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:27,359
Speaker 1: good spot. There's a lot of deer signs, UM got

882
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:30,839
Speaker 1: on the ground. Uh. You know, I I had all

883
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:33,880
Speaker 1: my gear ready to go. Um Josh had let me

884
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 1: a really awesome jacket that I that I took out

885
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 1: in the field with me that had a built in

886
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:43,200
Speaker 1: face mask, and I was using it to cover up

887
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,840
Speaker 1: my face to give me a little actual camouflage. But

888
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:48,480
Speaker 1: what I found was as I was breathing through the

889
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:53,359
Speaker 1: face mask, my glasses a fog off. So UM, I figured, well, hey,

890
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:56,800
Speaker 1: I can't really see anything, so I'll take my glasses off.

891
00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 1: Fast forward to about maybe, Uh can I put real quick?

892
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:06,359
Speaker 1: Let me I gotta ask I gotta ask you one

893
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 1: thing before we get to what you're about to tell

894
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:13,200
Speaker 1: us about. Just describe for me how you felt and

895
00:47:13,239 --> 00:47:15,320
Speaker 1: maybe maybe I should maybe this is in the morning,

896
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:18,359
Speaker 1: but just described to me what was going through your

897
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 1: mind when you got out for your first hunt. So

898
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 1: maybe this is in the morning when you went out

899
00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:24,399
Speaker 1: because or no, you didn't go out in the morning

900
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:26,360
Speaker 1: because you were shooting your bowl and stuff like that.

901
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,080
Speaker 1: In the morning. Yeah, so this was your first hunt

902
00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:31,799
Speaker 1: with Jason in the evening. Okay, so you sit down,

903
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 1: you settled, it gets quiet. Where's your head? Are you

904
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:37,880
Speaker 1: just like, oh my god, I can't believe this is happening,

905
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,680
Speaker 1: or are you holy crap, I'm nervous? What if a

906
00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 1: deer shows up? Like? What are you thinking at this point?

907
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:48,239
Speaker 1: So first thought is it's definitely a little cold. Um.

908
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:51,960
Speaker 1: But I mean I was just excited and it was

909
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:55,480
Speaker 1: just kind of the realm of the unknown at that point, right,

910
00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:59,840
Speaker 1: So what am I expecting? What should I look out for?

911
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 1: I mean, my my brain kind of turned off, um,

912
00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:06,359
Speaker 1: you know, to only really focus on the matter at

913
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: hand was let's see some deer. So it was a

914
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:11,759
Speaker 1: mixture of a lot of different emotions between you know,

915
00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:16,000
Speaker 1: not knowing what to expect to you know, okay, if

916
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:18,880
Speaker 1: I see a deer, what do I do? Um? Making

917
00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:22,840
Speaker 1: sure I stay cool, calm and collected. Um. So it

918
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:26,760
Speaker 1: was a mixture of a lot of different things. Yeah, okay,

919
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 1: so now with that in mind, now we know what

920
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 1: your mindset was. Now you got fogged up glasses, you

921
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:37,520
Speaker 1: can't see anything. You take them off. What's next? What's next?

922
00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 1: I was just kind of scanning the woods that were

923
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,000
Speaker 1: in front of me, and I think I noticed a

924
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:48,319
Speaker 1: change in the landscape, and I couldn't really tell what

925
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:50,520
Speaker 1: it was. I wanted to say it was a deer,

926
00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:52,960
Speaker 1: but I didn't know if it was my mind playing

927
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:56,839
Speaker 1: tricks on me. So I spent about five minutes trying

928
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,239
Speaker 1: to convince myself what I was really looking at. And

929
00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:02,840
Speaker 1: I finally just gave up and said, you know, excrew this,

930
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw the glass back on and see what's

931
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:09,719
Speaker 1: out there. I fumbled around through my glasses back on,

932
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:13,640
Speaker 1: and then what I was looking at once I threw

933
00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:16,719
Speaker 1: him back on was a deer staring me right in

934
00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:22,279
Speaker 1: the eyes, and I immediately said deer. Um, And I

935
00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:25,399
Speaker 1: guess where I was oriented. I had like a little

936
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 1: window between some trees where um, Jason wasn't really able

937
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:32,840
Speaker 1: to see what I was looking at because he was

938
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:35,279
Speaker 1: sitting kind of behind me and to the right, so

939
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 1: he was looking at a pile of woods. And then

940
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:42,719
Speaker 1: I was looking through this window at this deer. And

941
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 1: what proceeded was probably a staring contest that seemed to

942
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:54,160
Speaker 1: have lasted an eternity, and I became overcome with just

943
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:58,640
Speaker 1: a roller coaster of different emotions from being nervous to

944
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 1: being excited to being cold attack. Um, and I you know,

945
00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 1: couldn't really control myself and I just started shaking, started shaking. Um.

946
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:15,680
Speaker 1: You know, I had the fear of failure in my

947
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:18,799
Speaker 1: mind here that I would would have gotten busted and

948
00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:22,719
Speaker 1: spooked off the deer. Um. At one point, I think

949
00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:24,680
Speaker 1: the deer put it put its head down, and I

950
00:50:24,719 --> 00:50:27,839
Speaker 1: became a little more comfortable, thinking, oh, you know, all right,

951
00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:30,759
Speaker 1: I think we're okay, but the only to have her

952
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:33,520
Speaker 1: pop her head back up and can continue to stare

953
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 1: right into my eyes. And I think at one point

954
00:50:36,080 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 1: I told Jason, I think I think she's staring into

955
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:46,360
Speaker 1: my soul. Man, it's crazy. Yeah, And that that proceeded. Ye,

956
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: So that proceeded to happen for about twenty minutes. Um.

957
00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: She shipped it off to the right to where what

958
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 1: seemed to be my shooting RNE and I took that

959
00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:01,280
Speaker 1: as an opportunity to maybe get into this and um,

960
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 1: right when I did that, I guess what we didn't

961
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:06,360
Speaker 1: notice was that there was deer over off to our left.

962
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:10,560
Speaker 1: So when I shifted, I had spooked some deer over

963
00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:14,839
Speaker 1: off to our left, and um, we heard the deer

964
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,239
Speaker 1: kind of bust out of there and started, you know,

965
00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:22,160
Speaker 1: I think, blowing at us. Um. And then as I

966
00:51:22,200 --> 00:51:25,360
Speaker 1: waited to have the other dough that was uh, you

967
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:28,319
Speaker 1: know in frontomy pop up into my shooting lane, I

968
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:31,880
Speaker 1: think ended up walking off. So although we didn't get

969
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:34,239
Speaker 1: a shot at, you know, the deer that was in

970
00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:37,680
Speaker 1: front of us, it was still just a crazy set

971
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:41,799
Speaker 1: of events that occurred and a set of emotions that

972
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:46,920
Speaker 1: I'd never never really experienced before, right, just them adrenaline,

973
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:50,799
Speaker 1: adrenaline rush that I can't really explain very well. And

974
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 1: you were telling us that night, you know, you've you've

975
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:55,400
Speaker 1: done all these other things that have given you a

976
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 1: rush of excitement, Like I don't remember what your examples were,

977
00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 1: but you've done a roller coaster ride, You've done this thing,

978
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:04,040
Speaker 1: you've done that thing, and nothing else was this type

979
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:07,480
Speaker 1: of feeling, right definitely. Yeah, Like I've been out west

980
00:52:07,760 --> 00:52:11,279
Speaker 1: snowboarding has been you know, the decent amount of my

981
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:15,640
Speaker 1: mountain biking, I've caught a ton of fish, But what

982
00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 1: I felt that night was was I can't compare it

983
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:23,680
Speaker 1: to anything else. Yeah, that's that's pretty awesome. That's just

984
00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:25,800
Speaker 1: hearing like when you came back and shared that story

985
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:28,520
Speaker 1: with us, that was, you know, one of the highlights

986
00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:31,439
Speaker 1: for me, just hearing about the excitement that you had. Um.

987
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:34,719
Speaker 1: And that night. That night ended up being doubly exciting

988
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:39,560
Speaker 1: because we had some some interesting things going on, me

989
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: and Mike on our hunt. UM. So we had several

990
00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:47,799
Speaker 1: interesting things happened. First off, Mike and I went and

991
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:50,480
Speaker 1: head back to the same chunk of ground with Hunt

992
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:53,320
Speaker 1: in the morning, only to find two trucks parked in

993
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:56,400
Speaker 1: the parking lot there. So I'm thinking, well, you know what,

994
00:52:56,440 --> 00:52:59,479
Speaker 1: we passed by another little spot that didn't have any

995
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:01,600
Speaker 1: trucks parking lot, and I looked at the map as

996
00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:03,360
Speaker 1: we were driving. I was like, oh, I like that too,

997
00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 1: So that was kind of in the back of my

998
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 1: head already. So when we got to the parking lot

999
00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:08,239
Speaker 1: and saw two other people, I thought, you know what,

1000
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:10,240
Speaker 1: let's just turn back and go to this other spot.

1001
00:53:11,239 --> 00:53:13,960
Speaker 1: So we go to this other spot park, we get

1002
00:53:13,960 --> 00:53:16,879
Speaker 1: all set, we start hiking in and this was there

1003
00:53:16,920 --> 00:53:20,840
Speaker 1: was a crop field up front and then a bunch

1004
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:23,880
Speaker 1: of nasty swamp behind it, with a couple of pockets

1005
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:26,839
Speaker 1: of islands and high ground out in that swamp, and

1006
00:53:26,880 --> 00:53:28,480
Speaker 1: I thought there was a couple of regions that we'd

1007
00:53:28,520 --> 00:53:31,200
Speaker 1: be able to sneak way back in there and get

1008
00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:33,680
Speaker 1: in between where deer might come off of those islands

1009
00:53:33,680 --> 00:53:37,359
Speaker 1: where they'd be bedded coming towards that crop field. Um,

1010
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:40,279
Speaker 1: and Mike, you got tall boots or did you have

1011
00:53:40,320 --> 00:53:42,440
Speaker 1: boots by then? No, you were still rocking the hikers,

1012
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:47,080
Speaker 1: I guess, Um, yeah, so we had hikers, but I

1013
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:50,520
Speaker 1: thought we could get in there. And we're walking down

1014
00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:52,799
Speaker 1: the field edge and there's a lot of sign like,

1015
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:54,839
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a whole bunch of tracks, weren't there.

1016
00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:57,759
Speaker 1: I mean, quite a quite a lot of sign. Um,

1017
00:53:57,840 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 1: So I was feeling good about that. There were definitely

1018
00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:02,640
Speaker 1: dear eating in this field, probably after dark, I figured,

1019
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:05,160
Speaker 1: But if we got in the right intercept zone, we

1020
00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:07,719
Speaker 1: catch these doughs coming out. So we get to the

1021
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:10,239
Speaker 1: point where I want to cut into the woods, get

1022
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 1: kind of the inside corners field, and I'm looking at

1023
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:14,560
Speaker 1: my phone to look at the map, and I'm looking

1024
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:15,880
Speaker 1: at the ground, and look at my phone, look at

1025
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:17,800
Speaker 1: the ground, and I look up and there's another hunter

1026
00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:19,440
Speaker 1: sitting a tree right in front of us, just like

1027
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:24,359
Speaker 1: waving like crap. I don't know what you were thinking

1028
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:26,520
Speaker 1: at that point. We two hunters in one place. Now

1029
00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:30,399
Speaker 1: there's another guy. What were you thinking at this point? Well,

1030
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:33,880
Speaker 1: you know, we saw hunters everywhere, so I wasn't really surprised.

1031
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:36,880
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, all right, well, this is another opportunity to

1032
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:39,759
Speaker 1: see where else we can fit in. So I mean,

1033
00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:42,880
Speaker 1: from my perspective wanting some technical learning, I got a

1034
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:46,120
Speaker 1: lot of good a lot of good options of where

1035
00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, I guess you. I guess you learned

1036
00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:52,799
Speaker 1: how the necessity of being able to adapt we had

1037
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:55,800
Speaker 1: to attach to a lot of stuff. Um, yeah, a

1038
00:54:55,840 --> 00:54:57,920
Speaker 1: lot of changing, Yeah, a lot of changes. So then

1039
00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:00,319
Speaker 1: I slipped back to where we had seen so the

1040
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:02,800
Speaker 1: tracks coming to the field, because I liked that area too,

1041
00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 1: and I could see in the map that there was

1042
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:07,560
Speaker 1: a cluster of of high pieces in the swamp with

1043
00:55:07,640 --> 00:55:10,280
Speaker 1: these oak trees out there, so I thought there's probably

1044
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:12,359
Speaker 1: dear betted out there as well. So we slipped into

1045
00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:15,080
Speaker 1: the swamp, worked our way towards those and got set

1046
00:55:15,160 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 1: up in another zone. Sat there for maybe forty five

1047
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:20,440
Speaker 1: minutes or an hour, and then we heard a cough.

1048
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:24,120
Speaker 1: Do you remember that? Do you remember the cough because

1049
00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:26,359
Speaker 1: I turned to you, I hear the cough, like, oh,

1050
00:55:26,400 --> 00:55:28,560
Speaker 1: that's a deer. That sounded like a deer cough, because

1051
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,960
Speaker 1: deer cough just like that. Um. But then in the

1052
00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:33,840
Speaker 1: back of my mind, I'm like, or it's a hunter.

1053
00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:37,279
Speaker 1: Let's hope it's not a hunter. And and then I

1054
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:39,719
Speaker 1: don't know, another fifteen minutes later or something like that.

1055
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:41,560
Speaker 1: I kept thinking about it, kept thinking about it, and

1056
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:42,919
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I better just take

1057
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,080
Speaker 1: a peek. So I got, I got around the corner,

1058
00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:48,319
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I walked like five yards and

1059
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:51,440
Speaker 1: then there's another guy sitting on the ground like fifty

1060
00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:55,759
Speaker 1: yards away from us. So that was frustrating. So it's

1061
00:55:55,800 --> 00:55:58,040
Speaker 1: all right, we gotta move again. And so now I

1062
00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:00,839
Speaker 1: decided to move further into the swamp, but got up

1063
00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:03,680
Speaker 1: wind of that guy and trying to kind of cut

1064
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:05,759
Speaker 1: the distance between these two hunters and trying to find

1065
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:08,560
Speaker 1: some zone where there might be deer moving that weren't

1066
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:11,479
Speaker 1: impacted by these other people. And we just slipped along

1067
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:14,360
Speaker 1: the side of this island, getting closer and closer to

1068
00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:16,720
Speaker 1: like a really wet cat tailed part of the swamp,

1069
00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:20,000
Speaker 1: and it found us about where several trails all came together.

1070
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:23,239
Speaker 1: You could see two different edges of habitat types, and

1071
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:25,200
Speaker 1: it seemed like probably the best we could get. And

1072
00:56:25,239 --> 00:56:27,080
Speaker 1: it was down to the last hour or less of

1073
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:29,960
Speaker 1: daylight at that point, so figure this is the best

1074
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:33,759
Speaker 1: chance we could have, and we settled down. UM. So

1075
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:36,680
Speaker 1: tell me this though, Mike, before we get to the

1076
00:56:36,800 --> 00:56:40,320
Speaker 1: end of that hunt. UM. One of your big goals

1077
00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:43,080
Speaker 1: for this experience, it seemed from our conversation and for

1078
00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:45,239
Speaker 1: what you said here, one of those things that you

1079
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:47,520
Speaker 1: really just wanted, like that next level of knowledge, like

1080
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:48,960
Speaker 1: how do I do this on my own? How do

1081
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 1: I actually make sense of what I'm seeing? Um? So

1082
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:53,440
Speaker 1: you can go out there and do this without you know,

1083
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:56,680
Speaker 1: the family saying, oh, sit in that bucket. Uh. Do

1084
00:56:57,040 --> 00:56:59,719
Speaker 1: you feel like? Do you tell us about what you learned?

1085
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:01,680
Speaker 1: Tell about if any of that stuff was helpful that

1086
00:57:01,719 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 1: I was saying and sharing with you. UM. Did you

1087
00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:07,040
Speaker 1: come away from this experience with some new ideas and

1088
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:10,839
Speaker 1: ways to look at it? Oh? Yeah, absolutely. UM. One

1089
00:57:10,840 --> 00:57:13,959
Speaker 1: of the tools that I think is really cool and

1090
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:16,800
Speaker 1: I'm sure you will appreciate this because I think they're

1091
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 1: your sponsor, is the on X map. UM. That thing

1092
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:25,640
Speaker 1: is really awesome to get that kind of UM, high

1093
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:29,160
Speaker 1: level overview of of looking at it. And you know,

1094
00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:32,640
Speaker 1: I could say firsthand that as we moved around out there,

1095
00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:35,200
Speaker 1: you know, that map was out all the time, and

1096
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:38,720
Speaker 1: it was really helpful to keep track of where we

1097
00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:41,440
Speaker 1: were and where we were going. UM. And you showed

1098
00:57:41,480 --> 00:57:43,680
Speaker 1: me another of different times like the things that you're

1099
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:46,960
Speaker 1: looking for on the map UM, and that was really

1100
00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:50,000
Speaker 1: cool to see not only from the map, but then

1101
00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:53,400
Speaker 1: to see it also in real life and connect the

1102
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:56,520
Speaker 1: theory to to the real life action and how that

1103
00:57:56,600 --> 00:58:00,400
Speaker 1: worked UM. Looking for those edges of different and types

1104
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,640
Speaker 1: of habitat, looking for the feeding ground versus the betting

1105
00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:09,280
Speaker 1: ground UM, and kind of keeping in mind the direction

1106
00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:12,520
Speaker 1: of the wind while trying to get in between those

1107
00:58:12,560 --> 00:58:15,680
Speaker 1: different areas. One thing that was really interesting to me

1108
00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:21,080
Speaker 1: that I've never heard before really is sitting in different

1109
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:25,840
Speaker 1: areas if it's the morning versus if it's the nighttime. UM,

1110
00:58:25,880 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 1: you know, whether they're moving from betting habitat to feeding

1111
00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:32,920
Speaker 1: habitat or the reverse, and how UM you need to

1112
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:39,960
Speaker 1: adjust your basically your entrance and exit based upon that UM.

1113
00:58:40,080 --> 00:58:43,120
Speaker 1: And so all those things to me were really interesting,

1114
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:46,320
Speaker 1: and we did them firsthand. So you know, I think

1115
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:49,120
Speaker 1: that's the kicker. It's one thing to hear about it

1116
00:58:49,240 --> 00:58:51,880
Speaker 1: or listen to it or think about it. It's another

1117
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:55,280
Speaker 1: thing to be doing it. Um So at this point,

1118
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:58,840
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like, um, I can absolutely go

1119
00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:02,160
Speaker 1: find a piece of UHUD that I've never been to

1120
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:06,960
Speaker 1: before and at least getting get a good starting point. Yeah,

1121
00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:09,680
Speaker 1: that's you sound like a pro, Mike. I gotta tell you,

1122
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:12,920
Speaker 1: whoever taught you really knows what they're doing. Yeah. I

1123
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:16,160
Speaker 1: think it's probably the training though that he had before

1124
00:59:16,240 --> 00:59:22,040
Speaker 1: this weekend that probably well further helped out there too. Probably.

1125
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:26,320
Speaker 1: Um So it's okay, I'm very glad to hear that

1126
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:29,200
Speaker 1: that stuff stuck and that that it made sense. Especially

1127
00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:31,080
Speaker 1: it's it's a great point to think about the fact

1128
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:35,040
Speaker 1: that these concepts are interesting in theory and interesting here about.

1129
00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:37,640
Speaker 1: But it's really hard for to hit home until you're

1130
00:59:37,640 --> 00:59:41,280
Speaker 1: actually in the field and can confirm all those things. Okay,

1131
00:59:41,280 --> 00:59:43,600
Speaker 1: so we moved to the new spot. How about you

1132
00:59:43,600 --> 00:59:47,360
Speaker 1: walk me through then how the hunt ended. Yeah? Absolutely,

1133
00:59:47,400 --> 00:59:51,080
Speaker 1: so we're thinking in this final spot. I think that

1134
00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:54,560
Speaker 1: was our fourth spot for the day. For the evening

1135
00:59:54,920 --> 00:59:58,800
Speaker 1: the night spots that night yep. And um, you know,

1136
00:59:58,840 --> 01:00:02,480
Speaker 1: we sat down there. It was pretty thick area, lots

1137
01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:06,080
Speaker 1: of lots of tall ground um, and so there's not

1138
01:00:06,240 --> 01:00:09,400
Speaker 1: a whole lot of line of fight going on. And

1139
01:00:09,840 --> 01:00:13,840
Speaker 1: we sat there for that last hour so UM, and

1140
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,919
Speaker 1: just as it was starting to get dark, we could

1141
01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:22,640
Speaker 1: hear the crunching UM, and that was the moment where

1142
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:25,920
Speaker 1: you know that's either a deer or a hunter. So

1143
01:00:26,000 --> 01:00:29,080
Speaker 1: we kind of just sat there and we perked up, UM,

1144
01:00:29,120 --> 01:00:30,960
Speaker 1: and you get ready, you know, you get into that.

1145
01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:34,320
Speaker 1: For me, it's like you get into that kilmo. You know,

1146
01:00:34,440 --> 01:00:37,439
Speaker 1: you try to be deadly quiet and just really sit

1147
01:00:37,560 --> 01:00:42,080
Speaker 1: still and really listen hard. UM. And it was so amazing.

1148
01:00:42,200 --> 01:00:45,040
Speaker 1: You know, you can almost steal the sticks crunch and

1149
01:00:45,120 --> 01:00:48,160
Speaker 1: it's moving um. And we could tell it was really

1150
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:51,600
Speaker 1: really close and and you could see a market sea

1151
01:00:51,800 --> 01:00:54,080
Speaker 1: from where he was sitting. But I couldn't see it.

1152
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:57,800
Speaker 1: I never even did see it um the whole time. UM.

1153
01:00:57,840 --> 01:00:59,840
Speaker 1: And it was it was so exciting, but it was

1154
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:03,080
Speaker 1: at last, you know, eight ten minutes before the end

1155
01:01:03,120 --> 01:01:05,480
Speaker 1: of shooting light and you know, I couldn't see it

1156
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:08,040
Speaker 1: at all. And then unfortunately it was just too dark,

1157
01:01:08,120 --> 01:01:11,240
Speaker 1: and there's nothing we could do about it. But you

1158
01:01:11,280 --> 01:01:15,360
Speaker 1: know what, sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. UM.

1159
01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:19,919
Speaker 1: For me, even that experience, just being so close and

1160
01:01:19,920 --> 01:01:24,560
Speaker 1: and just you know, it's such a multisensory experience. It's

1161
01:01:24,600 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 1: just really amazing, uh, to commune with nature in that level. Yeah,

1162
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:31,400
Speaker 1: it was. It was really exciting for me. I mean

1163
01:01:31,440 --> 01:01:34,919
Speaker 1: I was pumped. Um. Like you said, we could hear

1164
01:01:35,080 --> 01:01:38,400
Speaker 1: we could hear a deer approaching. And you know, as

1165
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:41,800
Speaker 1: you mentioned, very tall swampy grass. So I just slowly

1166
01:01:41,960 --> 01:01:44,760
Speaker 1: stood up out of my seat to try to see

1167
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:47,080
Speaker 1: over these grasses. And as I stood up, I could

1168
01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:50,560
Speaker 1: just see antlers and it was a buck walking down

1169
01:01:50,560 --> 01:01:52,960
Speaker 1: this trail right to us. And the way it was

1170
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:56,480
Speaker 1: set up, as we were positioned with a trail running

1171
01:01:56,480 --> 01:01:59,200
Speaker 1: across like right and right barely in front of us,

1172
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:01,080
Speaker 1: and then there was a trail that I was running

1173
01:02:01,560 --> 01:02:04,840
Speaker 1: perpendicular to that um on our left, and then there

1174
01:02:04,840 --> 01:02:08,520
Speaker 1: were some trails perpendicular crossing to our right. And this

1175
01:02:08,560 --> 01:02:10,880
Speaker 1: deer was coming from the left side, coming right at us,

1176
01:02:11,000 --> 01:02:12,960
Speaker 1: and all he had to do was keep walking, and

1177
01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:16,280
Speaker 1: he'd crossed the path that was across in front of us.

1178
01:02:16,280 --> 01:02:19,040
Speaker 1: And you could shoot straight down that to this deer.

1179
01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:22,880
Speaker 1: And so when I stood up and saw him, I

1180
01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:24,760
Speaker 1: saw this buck walking right down the path and he

1181
01:02:24,840 --> 01:02:27,160
Speaker 1: was only like by the time he stopped, he was

1182
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:30,680
Speaker 1: probably three steps away from getting into that. And I

1183
01:02:30,720 --> 01:02:32,880
Speaker 1: was just like, he's right here, He's gonna step right

1184
01:02:32,880 --> 01:02:36,640
Speaker 1: in that, like ready, get ready, um. And then you know,

1185
01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:39,880
Speaker 1: he stopped and froze up. Whether he heard me whispering

1186
01:02:39,880 --> 01:02:42,479
Speaker 1: because I was so excited, or the wind had died

1187
01:02:42,480 --> 01:02:44,160
Speaker 1: down at that point. There was like no wind, so

1188
01:02:44,200 --> 01:02:46,400
Speaker 1: our wind might have settled or swirled. He might have

1189
01:02:46,440 --> 01:02:49,760
Speaker 1: caught our scent um, any number of things might have happened.

1190
01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:52,680
Speaker 1: But he froze up and just didn't move, didn't move,

1191
01:02:52,680 --> 01:02:54,760
Speaker 1: didn't move. And I am looking at my phone and

1192
01:02:54,800 --> 01:02:56,560
Speaker 1: seeing how much time is left with shooting light, and

1193
01:02:56,560 --> 01:02:59,720
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, oh man, we're down to four minutes, down

1194
01:02:59,720 --> 01:03:02,040
Speaker 1: to three minutes, down to like whatever it was. It was.

1195
01:03:02,120 --> 01:03:03,200
Speaker 1: Right at the end, I was like, you know what,

1196
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:04,919
Speaker 1: I just gotta throw a hail Mary. So I tried

1197
01:03:04,960 --> 01:03:07,560
Speaker 1: just a little contact grunt. I pulled my grunt to

1198
01:03:07,680 --> 01:03:10,600
Speaker 1: just to give a little just on like the off chance,

1199
01:03:10,840 --> 01:03:13,280
Speaker 1: like in the last minute, he might take two more

1200
01:03:13,320 --> 01:03:14,960
Speaker 1: steps because he was curious and what the heck was that?

1201
01:03:15,640 --> 01:03:18,040
Speaker 1: And that didn't work. He didn't move for another minute,

1202
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:21,320
Speaker 1: and then he bounded off, and I don't bounce, bounced

1203
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:23,840
Speaker 1: ten yards away and then kept walking again. And it

1204
01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:27,720
Speaker 1: was after shooting hours, but it was it was exciting.

1205
01:03:28,880 --> 01:03:32,400
Speaker 1: And he was really close, right, like, how how far

1206
01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:37,880
Speaker 1: would you say? Oh, yeah, less than ten yards? I

1207
01:03:37,920 --> 01:03:43,040
Speaker 1: mean the ground was super wet, and so you could

1208
01:03:43,160 --> 01:03:47,320
Speaker 1: literally hear those hooks going in the mud, squishing in

1209
01:03:47,400 --> 01:03:50,080
Speaker 1: the bud. I mean it was, it was that close.

1210
01:03:50,160 --> 01:03:52,800
Speaker 1: It was. It was very cool, Yeah, it was. It

1211
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:55,240
Speaker 1: was fun for me. What was really kind of especially

1212
01:03:55,240 --> 01:03:59,240
Speaker 1: cool um, or at least on my side personally, was

1213
01:03:59,280 --> 01:04:02,080
Speaker 1: that I hunt so much and I've seen so many

1214
01:04:02,160 --> 01:04:04,520
Speaker 1: deer that sometimes, and I hate to say this, but

1215
01:04:04,640 --> 01:04:07,400
Speaker 1: sometimes I take it for granted, you know, seeing a

1216
01:04:07,440 --> 01:04:10,360
Speaker 1: buck or seeing a dough um, because I've been very

1217
01:04:10,360 --> 01:04:13,800
Speaker 1: fortunate to have many of these encounters. But being in

1218
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:16,640
Speaker 1: this position with someone who is a newer hunter, who

1219
01:04:16,720 --> 01:04:18,760
Speaker 1: who hasn't killed a deal with the ball before like this,

1220
01:04:18,800 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 1: and who I know so badly wants to get this opportunity,

1221
01:04:22,240 --> 01:04:25,280
Speaker 1: it made me so so so excited to have a

1222
01:04:25,320 --> 01:04:26,960
Speaker 1: year and a half old buck walking in. I mean,

1223
01:04:27,000 --> 01:04:29,000
Speaker 1: I was just as excited about as when I killed

1224
01:04:29,040 --> 01:04:33,320
Speaker 1: my first dear. So from the mentors side, like that's

1225
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:36,680
Speaker 1: a really fun thing too. It brings new joy to

1226
01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:39,240
Speaker 1: things that you've done the past, but you're doing it

1227
01:04:39,240 --> 01:04:42,040
Speaker 1: in a new way. And and that was that was

1228
01:04:42,040 --> 01:04:45,600
Speaker 1: pretty cool. So that takes us to the end of

1229
01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:48,919
Speaker 1: night number one. No one killed a deer. A few

1230
01:04:48,920 --> 01:04:51,720
Speaker 1: other people saw a few, but tough sledding again. The

1231
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:55,160
Speaker 1: next morning we go out, you mean, Mike Man, we

1232
01:04:55,160 --> 01:04:56,680
Speaker 1: put in the work. We hyped in more than a

1233
01:04:56,720 --> 01:05:00,640
Speaker 1: mile for every hunt, um, but we didn't not see anything.

1234
01:05:00,680 --> 01:05:06,040
Speaker 1: The next morning, Dan, you have a story for the

1235
01:05:06,160 --> 01:05:09,760
Speaker 1: last morning you were. You and Jason found a little honeyhole,

1236
01:05:09,760 --> 01:05:15,040
Speaker 1: didn't you. Yeah, I was sure did. Definitely what happened, definitely,

1237
01:05:15,120 --> 01:05:18,400
Speaker 1: So we so we went back to the same spot.

1238
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:22,480
Speaker 1: UM figured we'd set up in the same location, and

1239
01:05:22,640 --> 01:05:26,280
Speaker 1: UM got in pretty early, UM maybe an hour and

1240
01:05:26,320 --> 01:05:31,080
Speaker 1: a half before UM legal shooting hours, and UH kind

1241
01:05:31,080 --> 01:05:37,880
Speaker 1: of waited it out, I think, UM probably around eight am.

1242
01:05:38,000 --> 01:05:43,560
Speaker 1: UM just kind of doing my normal scan. UM looks

1243
01:05:43,560 --> 01:05:46,800
Speaker 1: to my lapt and I see what looks like a

1244
01:05:46,840 --> 01:05:51,400
Speaker 1: book staring right at me. So once again, UM, kind

1245
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:53,640
Speaker 1: of that whole slew of emotions kind of overcame me.

1246
01:05:54,160 --> 01:05:58,600
Speaker 1: But this time I kind of knew, you know, it's

1247
01:05:58,600 --> 01:06:02,240
Speaker 1: showtime now, so I got up. I gotta make sure that, um,

1248
01:06:02,280 --> 01:06:06,440
Speaker 1: I'm cool and I do everything right here to potentially

1249
01:06:06,440 --> 01:06:10,840
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to get a shot off. Um. Luckily

1250
01:06:10,920 --> 01:06:14,360
Speaker 1: Jason spotted it as well this time. Um. He gave

1251
01:06:14,360 --> 01:06:16,360
Speaker 1: me a range. He said it was about twenty five

1252
01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:19,760
Speaker 1: yards out, and I said, all right, cool. Um, But

1253
01:06:20,280 --> 01:06:22,200
Speaker 1: what I needed the book to do was maybe take

1254
01:06:22,840 --> 01:06:27,000
Speaker 1: one step out behind this tree to get my my

1255
01:06:27,040 --> 01:06:29,840
Speaker 1: shooting lane, and I would have had a perfect broadside

1256
01:06:29,840 --> 01:06:35,360
Speaker 1: shot at him. So um, I stayed put. Um. Being

1257
01:06:35,400 --> 01:06:37,480
Speaker 1: that the deer kind of saw me, I think he

1258
01:06:37,600 --> 01:06:40,000
Speaker 1: was pretty curious as to what was kind of moving

1259
01:06:40,040 --> 01:06:44,000
Speaker 1: around out there. Um. He ended up turning away actually

1260
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:48,240
Speaker 1: for a quick second, and Jason brought a grunt tube

1261
01:06:48,440 --> 01:06:52,040
Speaker 1: and gave out a grunt and the deer came right

1262
01:06:52,040 --> 01:06:55,760
Speaker 1: back right back to the same spot, put his head down,

1263
01:06:56,120 --> 01:06:59,479
Speaker 1: and I took that opportunity to pull my bow back

1264
01:06:59,520 --> 01:07:02,760
Speaker 1: at full ter off. So I was ready to go.

1265
01:07:03,360 --> 01:07:07,520
Speaker 1: Um gear picked his head back up, and I was

1266
01:07:07,560 --> 01:07:10,800
Speaker 1: looking at this thing for my people, just ready to

1267
01:07:10,880 --> 01:07:16,000
Speaker 1: let it loose once he took that extra step um. Unfortunately,

1268
01:07:16,840 --> 01:07:19,560
Speaker 1: the dear did exactly the opposite of what we wanted

1269
01:07:19,600 --> 01:07:22,480
Speaker 1: him to do, took a step back and ran up.

1270
01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:27,680
Speaker 1: But what seemed to be you know, like what felt

1271
01:07:27,720 --> 01:07:32,360
Speaker 1: like five minutes, that thirty seconds of what went down

1272
01:07:32,560 --> 01:07:36,400
Speaker 1: was just absolutely incredible. It was so exciting for me

1273
01:07:36,480 --> 01:07:39,840
Speaker 1: to be able to use what kind of I've been

1274
01:07:39,880 --> 01:07:42,000
Speaker 1: taught and what Jason was letting me know what to

1275
01:07:42,080 --> 01:07:46,280
Speaker 1: do and call my emotions and and you know, get

1276
01:07:46,320 --> 01:07:49,200
Speaker 1: myself ready mentally was just so cool. And then I

1277
01:07:49,440 --> 01:07:52,320
Speaker 1: also to have my bow out there and be at

1278
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:55,960
Speaker 1: full draw at a book was just was so cool.

1279
01:07:56,080 --> 01:07:58,440
Speaker 1: It was it was an amazing experience. How do you

1280
01:07:58,480 --> 01:08:02,280
Speaker 1: feel like you handled the emotions compared to the night before.

1281
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:05,440
Speaker 1: Was it a similar rush in shaking or were you

1282
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:08,000
Speaker 1: able to you know, to expect and it wasn't quite

1283
01:08:08,000 --> 01:08:10,480
Speaker 1: the same or what was that like? Yeah, I mean,

1284
01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:13,480
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely had it at first, and I

1285
01:08:13,520 --> 01:08:16,280
Speaker 1: felt that Russian emotions coming, but you know, I put

1286
01:08:16,320 --> 01:08:18,280
Speaker 1: myself in the check and just said it's game time

1287
01:08:18,520 --> 01:08:22,320
Speaker 1: and let's go. Um. But uh, you know, once the

1288
01:08:22,360 --> 01:08:24,519
Speaker 1: deer and off, it was weird. It was like that

1289
01:08:24,600 --> 01:08:27,559
Speaker 1: those same emotions came rushing right back. I started shaking

1290
01:08:27,560 --> 01:08:31,000
Speaker 1: again after, you know, the deer head ran off. But um,

1291
01:08:31,040 --> 01:08:33,920
Speaker 1: you know, I put myself in the position where I

1292
01:08:33,960 --> 01:08:37,080
Speaker 1: knew what to do. I got the opportunity to pull

1293
01:08:37,160 --> 01:08:39,400
Speaker 1: my bow back and and I was just I was

1294
01:08:39,439 --> 01:08:43,240
Speaker 1: just ready to go, you know, I was, you know,

1295
01:08:43,439 --> 01:08:46,960
Speaker 1: putting that position to succeed. And Jason did everything that

1296
01:08:47,000 --> 01:08:50,639
Speaker 1: he could. Unfortunately didn't work out our way. But um,

1297
01:08:50,680 --> 01:08:55,000
Speaker 1: it was still just to have that and be so close.

1298
01:08:55,320 --> 01:09:01,840
Speaker 1: Was um just so cool to be um be out there. Yeah, yeah,

1299
01:09:01,880 --> 01:09:04,720
Speaker 1: that's that must have been very, very exciting. And like

1300
01:09:04,760 --> 01:09:08,000
Speaker 1: we were saying yesterday, you know, the first time I

1301
01:09:08,080 --> 01:09:11,200
Speaker 1: drew back on a buck, I knocked my arrow off

1302
01:09:11,280 --> 01:09:13,719
Speaker 1: the rest and the deer right away. The second time

1303
01:09:14,280 --> 01:09:16,479
Speaker 1: I drew back on a buck, I drew back and

1304
01:09:16,600 --> 01:09:18,880
Speaker 1: was so out of my mind that I released without

1305
01:09:18,880 --> 01:09:22,160
Speaker 1: fully aiming, and I hit a tree. Um, so you

1306
01:09:22,240 --> 01:09:26,840
Speaker 1: handled it much better than I did. So nobody ended

1307
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:29,160
Speaker 1: up shooting a deer, but at least most of the

1308
01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:31,920
Speaker 1: hunters saw some Most everyone had a little bit of

1309
01:09:31,920 --> 01:09:34,800
Speaker 1: an a counter. Um. So what I'm curre about now

1310
01:09:35,080 --> 01:09:40,880
Speaker 1: or curious about now is what things do you still

1311
01:09:40,920 --> 01:09:45,640
Speaker 1: see as challenges or areas where you still wish you

1312
01:09:45,680 --> 01:09:48,800
Speaker 1: had more help? Um? I mean, Dan, do you think

1313
01:09:48,840 --> 01:09:50,760
Speaker 1: that you are armed and out to go out into

1314
01:09:50,800 --> 01:09:53,120
Speaker 1: the field and hunt on your own, or there's still

1315
01:09:53,120 --> 01:09:55,200
Speaker 1: some obstacles You're like, gosh, I wish I could still

1316
01:09:55,200 --> 01:09:57,240
Speaker 1: get help with this, or I hope someone could come

1317
01:09:57,240 --> 01:10:00,679
Speaker 1: help me with this other thing, or what about that? No, yeah,

1318
01:10:01,120 --> 01:10:03,439
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely feel inspired to get to get

1319
01:10:03,439 --> 01:10:06,559
Speaker 1: out there on my own. Um. I definitely feel confident

1320
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:09,639
Speaker 1: enough to to at least make the initiative to go out.

1321
01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:12,880
Speaker 1: I think what I would be a little unsure about

1322
01:10:12,960 --> 01:10:15,599
Speaker 1: is making sure that the spot I'm setting up at

1323
01:10:15,800 --> 01:10:19,120
Speaker 1: and the strategy that I have in mind considering everything

1324
01:10:19,800 --> 01:10:24,679
Speaker 1: that we talked about this weekend is robust, um, making

1325
01:10:24,680 --> 01:10:28,000
Speaker 1: sure that I'm playing the win correctly, making sure that

1326
01:10:28,479 --> 01:10:31,479
Speaker 1: I'm picking a spot where I think dear betted and

1327
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:34,800
Speaker 1: would probably go out and feed. I think might need,

1328
01:10:35,120 --> 01:10:37,320
Speaker 1: you know, I might need to run that by somebody

1329
01:10:37,400 --> 01:10:40,800
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, this is what I'm working with and

1330
01:10:40,880 --> 01:10:43,880
Speaker 1: this is what I'm thinking my strategy is what does

1331
01:10:43,920 --> 01:10:46,479
Speaker 1: it sound like to you? UM? So I think that

1332
01:10:46,479 --> 01:10:49,280
Speaker 1: would probably be the biggest thing for me. UM. But

1333
01:10:49,360 --> 01:10:53,719
Speaker 1: I'm definitely I'm definitely sold on. I'm taking on the challenge. UM.

1334
01:10:53,760 --> 01:10:55,640
Speaker 1: I think that's what I like about it most is

1335
01:10:55,680 --> 01:10:59,080
Speaker 1: there's so much um, There's there's so many different layers

1336
01:10:59,120 --> 01:11:03,800
Speaker 1: of complexity and different aspects of hunting that I think

1337
01:11:03,840 --> 01:11:07,120
Speaker 1: it's it's it's super super cool to maybe take on

1338
01:11:07,320 --> 01:11:10,080
Speaker 1: and and try to figure those things out. I think

1339
01:11:10,120 --> 01:11:13,880
Speaker 1: that's what's so attractive about the whole sport to begin with. Yeah,

1340
01:11:14,000 --> 01:11:17,040
Speaker 1: I definitely can relate to that. What about you, Mike,

1341
01:11:17,240 --> 01:11:20,400
Speaker 1: what are there any things that are still holding you back?

1342
01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:23,360
Speaker 1: Or do you feel armed and inspired to try it

1343
01:11:23,400 --> 01:11:26,000
Speaker 1: on your own? Like where's your head out? Well? I

1344
01:11:26,400 --> 01:11:30,479
Speaker 1: definitely feel like I'm I'm ready. I'm prepared to get

1345
01:11:30,520 --> 01:11:33,040
Speaker 1: out there and try it on my own. As far

1346
01:11:33,120 --> 01:11:36,439
Speaker 1: as like finding a location and picking you know, how

1347
01:11:36,479 --> 01:11:39,200
Speaker 1: I'm going to go about it. I definitely agree with

1348
01:11:39,320 --> 01:11:41,960
Speaker 1: Dan it would be great to have um that kind

1349
01:11:41,960 --> 01:11:45,240
Speaker 1: of soundboard where you can toss some ideas back and

1350
01:11:47,760 --> 01:11:50,599
Speaker 1: now the thing that I'm thinking about next is like, Okay,

1351
01:11:50,640 --> 01:11:54,080
Speaker 1: once I found my spot. Um, once I pick out

1352
01:11:54,200 --> 01:11:56,360
Speaker 1: kind of a game plan, I think there's some more

1353
01:11:56,800 --> 01:12:01,040
Speaker 1: learning that maybe isn't necessary to get started, but things

1354
01:12:01,040 --> 01:12:04,439
Speaker 1: that I want to learn, Like, Um, you know when

1355
01:12:04,479 --> 01:12:07,760
Speaker 1: we were out, you pulled out your grunt to try

1356
01:12:07,800 --> 01:12:09,519
Speaker 1: to get that buck to come in just a few

1357
01:12:09,520 --> 01:12:13,200
Speaker 1: more steps. Jason zusing his grunt kind of for the

1358
01:12:13,280 --> 01:12:14,880
Speaker 1: same thing to get him to move a little bit.

1359
01:12:14,960 --> 01:12:17,719
Speaker 1: It's it's those types of things now that I'm looking

1360
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:20,360
Speaker 1: to learn a little bit more about. We all know,

1361
01:12:20,520 --> 01:12:23,600
Speaker 1: you can pop into a hunting and shooting story. You

1362
01:12:23,600 --> 01:12:29,120
Speaker 1: can find thousands of calls and trinkets and sent this

1363
01:12:29,320 --> 01:12:32,240
Speaker 1: and you know, spray that. I mean, there's so many

1364
01:12:32,320 --> 01:12:35,000
Speaker 1: different things out there, but just that kind of next

1365
01:12:35,120 --> 01:12:41,240
Speaker 1: level knowledge about you know, what are the fundamental UM toolkit.

1366
01:12:41,880 --> 01:12:44,479
Speaker 1: I guess that that you need just to make those

1367
01:12:44,680 --> 01:12:48,840
Speaker 1: next level decisions. Yeah, that's a great point. Well, it's

1368
01:12:48,840 --> 01:12:51,120
Speaker 1: good to hear. Like, I'm glad that you guys both

1369
01:12:51,160 --> 01:12:55,479
Speaker 1: feel like you least have a starting point um and like,

1370
01:12:55,479 --> 01:12:57,600
Speaker 1: like I talked about with both of you, and I

1371
01:12:57,640 --> 01:13:00,200
Speaker 1: think many of the other mentors did as well. It's

1372
01:13:00,240 --> 01:13:02,680
Speaker 1: our goal as part of this program not to just

1373
01:13:02,760 --> 01:13:04,760
Speaker 1: have a weekend with you, but to have like a

1374
01:13:04,800 --> 01:13:09,240
Speaker 1: long term connection. And so you know you got my

1375
01:13:09,240 --> 01:13:11,160
Speaker 1: phone number. Now if you want to pull up on

1376
01:13:11,400 --> 01:13:13,360
Speaker 1: X and mark away point and say, hey, I'm thinking

1377
01:13:13,360 --> 01:13:16,160
Speaker 1: about hunting here, share that with me, asked me what

1378
01:13:16,240 --> 01:13:18,439
Speaker 1: I think, Like, I'm here for you. I can talk

1379
01:13:18,520 --> 01:13:20,200
Speaker 1: you through like, hey, I think there might be deer

1380
01:13:20,200 --> 01:13:22,160
Speaker 1: in this spot, in this spot and just make sure

1381
01:13:22,200 --> 01:13:24,880
Speaker 1: you access it from the west. Um. Like, those kinds

1382
01:13:24,880 --> 01:13:26,880
Speaker 1: of conversations are so much fun for me and for

1383
01:13:26,960 --> 01:13:29,680
Speaker 1: most other hunters, Like we love seeking out about the strategy.

1384
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:33,439
Speaker 1: Um So, I think that's probably the coolest thing. And

1385
01:13:33,479 --> 01:13:36,240
Speaker 1: you guys both alluded to this, having that sounding board,

1386
01:13:36,320 --> 01:13:38,599
Speaker 1: having that connection. Now, who can help you think through

1387
01:13:38,600 --> 01:13:42,120
Speaker 1: these things? Um So I said it before I said again,

1388
01:13:42,200 --> 01:13:45,160
Speaker 1: please utilize me in that kind of way. Josh too.

1389
01:13:45,200 --> 01:13:46,680
Speaker 1: And I know all of your other all the other

1390
01:13:46,680 --> 01:13:49,200
Speaker 1: people who met many of them probably said the same things.

1391
01:13:49,800 --> 01:13:52,360
Speaker 1: Um and Mark, that's I mean, that's really the only

1392
01:13:52,360 --> 01:13:56,320
Speaker 1: way this program succeeds. Um. You know, Dan, You're you're

1393
01:13:56,360 --> 01:13:58,760
Speaker 1: no different than anybody else going through the program or

1394
01:13:58,800 --> 01:14:01,720
Speaker 1: saying hey, I I feel like inspired to get out there.

1395
01:14:01,720 --> 01:14:04,240
Speaker 1: But there's still so many different aspects of it. To

1396
01:14:04,320 --> 01:14:07,519
Speaker 1: do it all on your own as daunting, Um, you've

1397
01:14:07,560 --> 01:14:11,240
Speaker 1: got to have that mentor follow up and in that um,

1398
01:14:11,320 --> 01:14:13,760
Speaker 1: you know, relationship where you can still get help because

1399
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:16,400
Speaker 1: you're gonna need it. Um. So that's that's and that's

1400
01:14:16,400 --> 01:14:18,559
Speaker 1: why we try to pair mentors with people that are

1401
01:14:18,840 --> 01:14:21,479
Speaker 1: at least somewhat close to them where they could, um,

1402
01:14:21,600 --> 01:14:23,479
Speaker 1: you know, come out and hunt with you or whatever. Um.

1403
01:14:23,560 --> 01:14:25,559
Speaker 1: So that's really the only way this this this type

1404
01:14:25,560 --> 01:14:27,920
Speaker 1: of program succeeds as if you have that mentor follow

1405
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:31,960
Speaker 1: up and um, continuing on that relationship, did you have

1406
01:14:32,160 --> 01:14:34,200
Speaker 1: did you help? How did it work out for you, Jess?

1407
01:14:34,320 --> 01:14:36,880
Speaker 1: Did you have a good mentor some number of years ago?

1408
01:14:37,600 --> 01:14:40,160
Speaker 1: That's funny that yes, because I actually wanted to ask Mike,

1409
01:14:40,720 --> 01:14:43,400
Speaker 1: um how it was being mentored by you, because we

1410
01:14:43,560 --> 01:14:46,040
Speaker 1: we've both now kind of had you as a mentor,

1411
01:14:46,080 --> 01:14:49,400
Speaker 1: and I'd be I'd be interested that For some reason,

1412
01:14:49,439 --> 01:14:52,320
Speaker 1: I feel like Mike's experience is probably much much different

1413
01:14:53,320 --> 01:14:58,160
Speaker 1: than my experience. Yeah, yeah, probably way nicer. So I

1414
01:14:58,200 --> 01:15:00,760
Speaker 1: wanted to know them, like what was like marks like

1415
01:15:00,800 --> 01:15:03,840
Speaker 1: blood pressure doing when you kept running into people out there,

1416
01:15:03,920 --> 01:15:06,800
Speaker 1: like could you just kind of like see like steam

1417
01:15:06,880 --> 01:15:08,640
Speaker 1: starting to come out of his ears or kind of

1418
01:15:08,680 --> 01:15:11,400
Speaker 1: what was his what was his makeup? As you guys

1419
01:15:11,479 --> 01:15:13,800
Speaker 1: kept running into people. I can only imagine how it was,

1420
01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:17,000
Speaker 1: but I'd like to hear it. I mean, honest to god,

1421
01:15:17,120 --> 01:15:20,920
Speaker 1: he was pretty calm and collective. Uh, he didn't really

1422
01:15:20,960 --> 01:15:23,640
Speaker 1: get that flighted up. A couple of times He's like,

1423
01:15:23,640 --> 01:15:26,479
Speaker 1: oh man, there's still more people, and I'm like, yeah,

1424
01:15:26,560 --> 01:15:28,920
Speaker 1: it's okay, We'll just go find another spot, like, no

1425
01:15:28,960 --> 01:15:34,720
Speaker 1: big deal. Well he was pretty calm about it. I

1426
01:15:34,880 --> 01:15:36,720
Speaker 1: know something's happened with Mark. I think this year. I

1427
01:15:36,760 --> 01:15:43,679
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. Father, That's what it is. Yeah,

1428
01:15:42,360 --> 01:15:46,160
Speaker 1: you could he like he like yell at you and

1429
01:15:46,160 --> 01:15:48,160
Speaker 1: stuff when that deer was come of like don't move

1430
01:15:49,040 --> 01:15:51,800
Speaker 1: like shoot shoot, Like what was like that going? Like

1431
01:15:51,840 --> 01:15:55,120
Speaker 1: what was his directions like when that deer was coming. No,

1432
01:15:55,360 --> 01:15:57,640
Speaker 1: I mean he didn't yell at me at all that

1433
01:15:57,760 --> 01:16:02,240
Speaker 1: even while before we now he took the time to

1434
01:16:02,280 --> 01:16:04,840
Speaker 1: ask me kind of like what are my what are

1435
01:16:04,880 --> 01:16:07,719
Speaker 1: my goals? What am I here to learn? What? Why

1436
01:16:07,760 --> 01:16:11,360
Speaker 1: am I you? And he addressed those things really head on.

1437
01:16:11,520 --> 01:16:14,120
Speaker 1: I mean the whole time I told him I was

1438
01:16:14,160 --> 01:16:17,320
Speaker 1: like to learn technical stuff and and he just kind

1439
01:16:17,360 --> 01:16:20,599
Speaker 1: of spewed information for the rest of the trip. So

1440
01:16:21,040 --> 01:16:23,960
Speaker 1: it was great. He really did exactly what I asked

1441
01:16:24,040 --> 01:16:26,840
Speaker 1: him to do. So it was a great experience, man.

1442
01:16:26,960 --> 01:16:30,080
Speaker 1: And no yelling mom, that's that's great. I'm happy to

1443
01:16:30,120 --> 01:16:31,599
Speaker 1: hear that. I'm happy to hear you had a good,

1444
01:16:31,600 --> 01:16:39,280
Speaker 1: positive experience. It sounds like, Josh, maybe you're the problem.

1445
01:16:40,320 --> 01:16:44,280
Speaker 1: It's too sensitive. No, I will say though. I remember

1446
01:16:44,280 --> 01:16:47,639
Speaker 1: when that buck was coming in. I was like not yelling,

1447
01:16:47,640 --> 01:16:50,040
Speaker 1: but I was like forcefully whispering to try and make

1448
01:16:50,040 --> 01:16:54,400
Speaker 1: sure you heard me. I'm like, he's right here, get ready.

1449
01:16:54,600 --> 01:16:58,640
Speaker 1: I was pretty excited. Um yeah, but yeah, it was.

1450
01:16:58,960 --> 01:17:00,680
Speaker 1: It was a good time, and I'm glad that you

1451
01:17:00,720 --> 01:17:03,880
Speaker 1: guys had a positive experience. And um, I think the

1452
01:17:03,880 --> 01:17:06,400
Speaker 1: final thing I just want to run through is for you, Josh,

1453
01:17:06,800 --> 01:17:09,639
Speaker 1: for those people listening, just once again, and I've tried

1454
01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:11,200
Speaker 1: to share this a lot of places, but can you

1455
01:17:11,240 --> 01:17:13,840
Speaker 1: just run down one more time how people can get

1456
01:17:13,840 --> 01:17:16,519
Speaker 1: involved with this, whether they want to be a mentor

1457
01:17:16,640 --> 01:17:18,920
Speaker 1: and help folks out and volunteer, or if they whether

1458
01:17:19,000 --> 01:17:21,200
Speaker 1: they want to be a mentee and want to get

1459
01:17:21,240 --> 01:17:24,080
Speaker 1: help with this program. How can people do that? Yeah,

1460
01:17:24,280 --> 01:17:26,920
Speaker 1: no for sure. So so we've got a like a

1461
01:17:27,040 --> 01:17:31,439
Speaker 1: landing page on on qdma's website that's basically everything Field

1462
01:17:31,439 --> 01:17:34,920
Speaker 1: the Fork UM. Any of the podcasts like this one

1463
01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:38,880
Speaker 1: that we've done UM about Field of Fork is house there.

1464
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:41,280
Speaker 1: We've got the video or the film that we just

1465
01:17:41,360 --> 01:17:44,280
Speaker 1: launched on Field to Fork a few weeks back. That's

1466
01:17:44,320 --> 01:17:46,120
Speaker 1: that's on there. It's got a bunch of the articles

1467
01:17:46,120 --> 01:17:49,360
Speaker 1: that have been written written about UM the Field of

1468
01:17:49,439 --> 01:17:51,759
Speaker 1: Fork programs. If you just go to QDMA dot com.

1469
01:17:52,080 --> 01:17:55,280
Speaker 1: I believe it's forward slash Field of Fork UM. It

1470
01:17:55,320 --> 01:17:59,080
Speaker 1: takes your right to that UM from a national standpoint.

1471
01:17:59,080 --> 01:18:01,920
Speaker 1: If you'd like to to get in touch with someone

1472
01:18:01,960 --> 01:18:05,960
Speaker 1: at q d M a um uh, whether you're a

1473
01:18:05,960 --> 01:18:09,200
Speaker 1: new hunter or someone who wants to mentor reach out

1474
01:18:09,200 --> 01:18:13,479
Speaker 1: to Hank Forrester. UM. H Forrester at QDMA dot com

1475
01:18:13,560 --> 01:18:16,240
Speaker 1: is his email. The market Street could probably put that

1476
01:18:16,320 --> 01:18:18,920
Speaker 1: on your show notes or something like that. UM. And

1477
01:18:18,920 --> 01:18:21,679
Speaker 1: then if you're if you're in Michigan or Indiana or

1478
01:18:21,720 --> 01:18:25,839
Speaker 1: like western Ohio, definitely feel free to reach out to me. UM.

1479
01:18:25,880 --> 01:18:28,480
Speaker 1: I can get your pointed in the right direction hopefully,

1480
01:18:28,920 --> 01:18:31,160
Speaker 1: UM or really, if you're anywhere you can, you can

1481
01:18:31,160 --> 01:18:33,040
Speaker 1: reach out to me and I can get you where

1482
01:18:33,040 --> 01:18:35,559
Speaker 1: you need to be. UM And my emails is j

1483
01:18:35,800 --> 01:18:41,000
Speaker 1: Hilliard at q dm A dot com. Perfect all right, well,

1484
01:18:41,080 --> 01:18:44,880
Speaker 1: highly highly. I can't highly recommend enough for those of

1485
01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:47,040
Speaker 1: you that do hunt. For those of you out there

1486
01:18:47,040 --> 01:18:49,040
Speaker 1: listening to the podcasts that love to get on the

1487
01:18:49,040 --> 01:18:51,680
Speaker 1: woods and love to be out in nature and learn

1488
01:18:51,720 --> 01:18:53,880
Speaker 1: about deer and hunt deer and feed your families and

1489
01:18:53,920 --> 01:18:58,080
Speaker 1: feed your friends. If you've had that privilege in that experience,

1490
01:18:58,960 --> 01:19:01,439
Speaker 1: you owe it. And I don't mean to be preachy here,

1491
01:19:01,479 --> 01:19:03,760
Speaker 1: but you owe it to everyone else to give it

1492
01:19:03,760 --> 01:19:05,639
Speaker 1: back a little bit and to make sure that other

1493
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:09,080
Speaker 1: people get to experience that joy and that powerful connection

1494
01:19:09,120 --> 01:19:13,439
Speaker 1: to it's too simply put, it's too awesome of the

1495
01:19:13,479 --> 01:19:15,800
Speaker 1: thing that we have to not share with people. So

1496
01:19:16,680 --> 01:19:19,439
Speaker 1: I can tell you that, go ahead, Josh. No. And

1497
01:19:19,600 --> 01:19:22,280
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, and it doesn't have to

1498
01:19:22,360 --> 01:19:25,559
Speaker 1: be a program like this to get someone new out there, right.

1499
01:19:25,560 --> 01:19:28,559
Speaker 1: I mean, if you know a friend or a family

1500
01:19:28,560 --> 01:19:30,519
Speaker 1: member or a neighbor, just take them out with you.

1501
01:19:30,560 --> 01:19:33,519
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be like a formal program like this.

1502
01:19:33,560 --> 01:19:35,400
Speaker 1: I mean, these are a lot of fun, they're they're great,

1503
01:19:35,439 --> 01:19:37,559
Speaker 1: but you know, to really move the needle, it's it's

1504
01:19:37,600 --> 01:19:39,760
Speaker 1: got to be hunters that are just willing to take

1505
01:19:39,800 --> 01:19:42,120
Speaker 1: somebody out with them. So, even if it's not through

1506
01:19:42,120 --> 01:19:44,320
Speaker 1: a program like this, just just take someone with you,

1507
01:19:44,400 --> 01:19:47,599
Speaker 1: even if they just sit with you to to experience it. Um,

1508
01:19:47,880 --> 01:19:50,680
Speaker 1: it can definitely make a difference. Very true. And what

1509
01:19:50,760 --> 01:19:54,120
Speaker 1: about final thoughts from you guys, Mike, how about you?

1510
01:19:54,160 --> 01:19:56,240
Speaker 1: If you if you were to be able to let's

1511
01:19:56,280 --> 01:19:59,240
Speaker 1: say there's an auditorium full of people that you're standing

1512
01:19:59,240 --> 01:20:02,160
Speaker 1: in front of and they're all folks like you guys.

1513
01:20:02,160 --> 01:20:04,200
Speaker 1: Either they've never hunted before, or maybe they had a

1514
01:20:04,240 --> 01:20:05,960
Speaker 1: little bit of hunting experience in the past, but they

1515
01:20:05,960 --> 01:20:07,960
Speaker 1: fell away from it and now they're considering trying to

1516
01:20:07,960 --> 01:20:10,400
Speaker 1: get back into it again. If you had that group

1517
01:20:10,439 --> 01:20:12,720
Speaker 1: of people in front of you, Uh, what would you

1518
01:20:12,760 --> 01:20:15,719
Speaker 1: tell him right now about trying hunting again, or about

1519
01:20:15,760 --> 01:20:18,719
Speaker 1: this programmer or anything that you learned over the weekend. Well,

1520
01:20:18,760 --> 01:20:22,880
Speaker 1: I just think that it's such a powerful experience and

1521
01:20:23,200 --> 01:20:26,720
Speaker 1: for me, it's about so much more than just the

1522
01:20:26,840 --> 01:20:30,640
Speaker 1: deer just to kill. It's really, you know, it's the

1523
01:20:30,640 --> 01:20:34,400
Speaker 1: whole experience, Like when do you get an opportunity to

1524
01:20:34,520 --> 01:20:38,840
Speaker 1: go sit in the woods, Like I was telling you, Um,

1525
01:20:38,880 --> 01:20:41,479
Speaker 1: you know, after our first hunt. One of the times

1526
01:20:41,479 --> 01:20:44,840
Speaker 1: that I liked the most is after that first forty

1527
01:20:44,920 --> 01:20:48,519
Speaker 1: five minutes or so, when the rest of nature forgets

1528
01:20:48,560 --> 01:20:51,160
Speaker 1: that you're there and everything comes back to life and

1529
01:20:51,200 --> 01:20:52,560
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the squirrels are out, and the

1530
01:20:52,640 --> 01:20:55,439
Speaker 1: chipmunks are out, the birds. Um, we had a great

1531
01:20:55,520 --> 01:20:59,040
Speaker 1: experience with red bill hawk. Um. You know, we found

1532
01:20:59,080 --> 01:21:02,000
Speaker 1: a bunch of really awesome mushrooms out there for a

1533
01:21:02,120 --> 01:21:05,320
Speaker 1: Simon chef, so I I seek out about the forage

1534
01:21:05,360 --> 01:21:07,680
Speaker 1: and you know, we talked about the fact that you

1535
01:21:07,720 --> 01:21:10,160
Speaker 1: can eat cat tails and like all kinds of stuff.

1536
01:21:10,280 --> 01:21:14,960
Speaker 1: And so for me, it's that whole nature experience. It's

1537
01:21:15,000 --> 01:21:17,360
Speaker 1: like it's like going to church. Man. You get a

1538
01:21:17,400 --> 01:21:20,280
Speaker 1: time to sit there with your thoughts and to be

1539
01:21:20,400 --> 01:21:24,360
Speaker 1: a smaller part of a bigger world. And um, hopefully

1540
01:21:24,400 --> 01:21:28,439
Speaker 1: you get the opportunity to to experience with the kill

1541
01:21:28,560 --> 01:21:31,599
Speaker 1: and the stocking of a of a beautiful animal. So

1542
01:21:32,360 --> 01:21:36,240
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's really something that everybody should take.

1543
01:21:36,560 --> 01:21:38,720
Speaker 1: You just got out there and try. You just have

1544
01:21:38,800 --> 01:21:42,640
Speaker 1: to try it. It's a great, great experience. And what

1545
01:21:42,720 --> 01:21:46,280
Speaker 1: about you, Dan, what would you tell to that auditorium. Yeah,

1546
01:21:46,320 --> 01:21:49,080
Speaker 1: I means similar to what Mike said. I I mean

1547
01:21:49,120 --> 01:21:51,200
Speaker 1: just being out there. It was just such a great

1548
01:21:51,240 --> 01:21:56,120
Speaker 1: way to disconnect from all the other pressures and and

1549
01:21:56,280 --> 01:21:58,280
Speaker 1: things going on in your day to day life and

1550
01:21:58,360 --> 01:22:01,320
Speaker 1: just turn it off and and focusing on you know,

1551
01:22:01,400 --> 01:22:04,040
Speaker 1: what's going on around you out in the field. It's

1552
01:22:04,080 --> 01:22:07,120
Speaker 1: just such a fun experience, whether you see Dear or not,

1553
01:22:07,960 --> 01:22:10,439
Speaker 1: just to take a step out and and find some

1554
01:22:10,680 --> 01:22:14,560
Speaker 1: find some land, maybe find some friends, like like minded interests,

1555
01:22:14,560 --> 01:22:17,680
Speaker 1: and and head out there and just enjoy enjoy the

1556
01:22:17,760 --> 01:22:21,479
Speaker 1: resources that you have right in front of you. And um,

1557
01:22:21,520 --> 01:22:24,680
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely have a lot of respects for

1558
01:22:24,760 --> 01:22:27,000
Speaker 1: what you know, you guys are doing with this programming.

1559
01:22:27,120 --> 01:22:29,920
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's it's bigger than just teaching

1560
01:22:29,960 --> 01:22:32,479
Speaker 1: people how to hunt, right, I mean, I know, Mark,

1561
01:22:32,520 --> 01:22:35,519
Speaker 1: you've talked about how the number of hunters are on

1562
01:22:35,600 --> 01:22:39,920
Speaker 1: the decline, and getting people out there and introducing them

1563
01:22:39,960 --> 01:22:42,960
Speaker 1: to this sport is uh, you know, there's a longer

1564
01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:45,120
Speaker 1: term goal with all of this. It's it's it's going

1565
01:22:45,160 --> 01:22:49,320
Speaker 1: to help protect you know, our wildlife resources, the money

1566
01:22:49,320 --> 01:22:53,559
Speaker 1: that's spent towards you know, different management of habitat. It's

1567
01:22:53,640 --> 01:22:56,280
Speaker 1: it's bigger than just taking us out. It's it's ensuring

1568
01:22:56,360 --> 01:22:59,559
Speaker 1: the future of what we have and making sure that

1569
01:22:59,640 --> 01:23:04,120
Speaker 1: you know, tomorrow is is protected. So UM, it's it's

1570
01:23:04,160 --> 01:23:06,880
Speaker 1: a great it's a great program, and it's you know,

1571
01:23:07,000 --> 01:23:09,120
Speaker 1: definitely a lot of a lot of respect for what

1572
01:23:09,680 --> 01:23:12,479
Speaker 1: um these programs are doing and any mentor that goes

1573
01:23:12,479 --> 01:23:15,439
Speaker 1: out and helps get new people involved in the sport.

1574
01:23:15,520 --> 01:23:18,639
Speaker 1: I think it's it's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, well I couldn't

1575
01:23:18,640 --> 01:23:21,400
Speaker 1: have said it better. Um, you guys have got it nailed.

1576
01:23:21,400 --> 01:23:23,560
Speaker 1: I might need to hire you to be um to

1577
01:23:23,680 --> 01:23:32,120
Speaker 1: be spokespeople for this. Yeah, you guys are very true. Yeah,

1578
01:23:32,320 --> 01:23:34,600
Speaker 1: let me know, Well, this is this is great. I

1579
01:23:34,600 --> 01:23:38,120
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys coming out and taking a leap and

1580
01:23:38,160 --> 01:23:41,280
Speaker 1: trying something new and getting out of your comfort zone

1581
01:23:41,360 --> 01:23:44,040
Speaker 1: and um joining us for this experience. It was so

1582
01:23:44,120 --> 01:23:47,439
Speaker 1: much fun, I think for everyone, and I'm I'm excited

1583
01:23:47,439 --> 01:23:50,680
Speaker 1: and reinvigorated to keep at it and hopefully share this

1584
01:23:50,760 --> 01:23:53,559
Speaker 1: kind of thing with more people. So I will leave

1585
01:23:53,600 --> 01:23:58,040
Speaker 1: you guys with one uh, piece of homework, just one

1586
01:23:58,120 --> 01:24:01,000
Speaker 1: to do list, and that is that you both need

1587
01:24:01,000 --> 01:24:04,760
Speaker 1: to go out and hunt again, and you both need

1588
01:24:04,800 --> 01:24:09,240
Speaker 1: to either call me or text me beforehand and after

1589
01:24:09,479 --> 01:24:11,439
Speaker 1: to talk about what you're going to try to do

1590
01:24:11,640 --> 01:24:13,920
Speaker 1: and how it went, so we can have some strategy

1591
01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:17,680
Speaker 1: debrief sessions. UM. Selfishly, that's probably my favorite thing during

1592
01:24:17,760 --> 01:24:20,160
Speaker 1: hunting season and maybe it'll help you guess a little too.

1593
01:24:20,360 --> 01:24:24,639
Speaker 1: So can you do that? Yeah? Hell, yeah, absolutely, man,

1594
01:24:25,120 --> 01:24:27,880
Speaker 1: perfect alright, Mark, Can I just kind of just say

1595
01:24:27,880 --> 01:24:31,360
Speaker 1: one more thing here before we wrap up. I just

1596
01:24:31,400 --> 01:24:33,760
Speaker 1: want to give a big shout out and thank you

1597
01:24:33,840 --> 01:24:37,960
Speaker 1: to um all the mentees that that did come out,

1598
01:24:38,120 --> 01:24:40,960
Speaker 1: the new hunters that came out UM for this weekend,

1599
01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:43,360
Speaker 1: and I also did one last weekend in the Lansing area,

1600
01:24:43,439 --> 01:24:46,839
Speaker 1: So between the two weekends we had sixteen new hunters

1601
01:24:46,840 --> 01:24:49,680
Speaker 1: out in the woods. UM. So a huge thank you

1602
01:24:49,720 --> 01:24:52,280
Speaker 1: to all of all of these new hunters that signed

1603
01:24:52,360 --> 01:24:55,559
Speaker 1: up and actually showed up to do it. And another

1604
01:24:55,600 --> 01:24:57,920
Speaker 1: big thank you and shout out to all the mentors

1605
01:24:57,960 --> 01:24:59,960
Speaker 1: who came out. I mean, we can't do these types

1606
01:25:00,120 --> 01:25:04,439
Speaker 1: programs without dedicated volunteers and people really taking the time

1607
01:25:04,479 --> 01:25:07,160
Speaker 1: out of their own hunting schedule, um to come out

1608
01:25:07,280 --> 01:25:10,400
Speaker 1: and and and help out with these types of programs.

1609
01:25:10,479 --> 01:25:14,639
Speaker 1: And um, you know we had mentors, you know, sixteen

1610
01:25:14,640 --> 01:25:17,360
Speaker 1: mentors for each weekend, so um we had a couple

1611
01:25:17,439 --> 01:25:20,320
Speaker 1: even double up that did both weekends. So huge. Thank

1612
01:25:20,360 --> 01:25:22,840
Speaker 1: you to all those guys and gals that took time

1613
01:25:22,840 --> 01:25:25,479
Speaker 1: out of their schedules that I'm sure they're busy and

1614
01:25:25,479 --> 01:25:27,400
Speaker 1: and wanted to give back to a program like this.

1615
01:25:27,439 --> 01:25:29,599
Speaker 1: So so thank you to all of you who went

1616
01:25:29,600 --> 01:25:32,040
Speaker 1: through this program. It was it was awesome putting both

1617
01:25:32,080 --> 01:25:34,240
Speaker 1: of these on. And um, it's a lot of work,

1618
01:25:34,280 --> 01:25:37,200
Speaker 1: but man, it is well well worth it, and I

1619
01:25:37,200 --> 01:25:39,080
Speaker 1: guess I should say well done to you two further,

1620
01:25:39,240 --> 01:25:42,439
Speaker 1: that's a lot of work, so good job organizing it.

1621
01:25:42,439 --> 01:25:44,240
Speaker 1: It turned out great. You did a day and good

1622
01:25:44,320 --> 01:25:47,680
Speaker 1: job and um and I think on that note, we

1623
01:25:47,680 --> 01:25:50,160
Speaker 1: will wrap it up. So good luck Mike, good luck Dan,

1624
01:25:50,960 --> 01:25:54,560
Speaker 1: and let's stay in touch. Sounds good. Thanks, It was

1625
01:25:54,600 --> 01:25:57,439
Speaker 1: an honor. Thank you, Thank you guys, thanks for having

1626
01:25:57,520 --> 01:26:01,160
Speaker 1: us and that's gonna do it. Folk, thank you for listening.

1627
01:26:01,439 --> 01:26:03,439
Speaker 1: I hope this gives you just a little bit more

1628
01:26:03,439 --> 01:26:07,240
Speaker 1: information or a little bit more of kicking the behind

1629
01:26:07,560 --> 01:26:10,519
Speaker 1: to introduce new folks to this wonderful thing that we

1630
01:26:10,560 --> 01:26:13,240
Speaker 1: get to do, which is hunting. Uh. And hopefully those

1631
01:26:13,240 --> 01:26:15,400
Speaker 1: tips at the front end on hunting the pre rut

1632
01:26:15,439 --> 01:26:18,040
Speaker 1: we're helpful as well. I'm excited for you guys, I'm

1633
01:26:18,040 --> 01:26:21,160
Speaker 1: excited for my own hunts. UH. Next time we chat,

1634
01:26:21,720 --> 01:26:23,799
Speaker 1: I'll be back from the boundary waters with an update.

1635
01:26:23,880 --> 01:26:27,080
Speaker 1: Hopefully there's some stories to share there, and the rut

1636
01:26:27,200 --> 01:26:30,840
Speaker 1: will basically do haunahs, so holy smokes, hope you're ready

1637
01:26:30,920 --> 01:26:35,040
Speaker 1: hold onto your seats. So until next time, good luck

1638
01:26:35,120 --> 01:26:38,760
Speaker 1: hunting and stay wired to hunt.