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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,

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Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.

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Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

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Speaker 2: which has brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about kind of

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Speaker 2: premier deer tags. It was primo tags that you have

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Speaker 2: to draw and whether they are really worth the way

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Speaker 2: and the cost of admission. The deer hunting landscape has

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Speaker 2: changed quite a bit in the last twenty years in

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Speaker 2: a lot of different ways. One is that there aren't

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Speaker 2: as many true premier destinations as there used to be,

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Speaker 2: mostly because the secret is out on how to grow

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Speaker 2: big bucks every state with deer, and it is, you know,

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Speaker 2: kind of pretty much churning out giants in certain places.

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Speaker 2: It's mostly because we know how to facilitate the growth

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Speaker 2: of big deer. Now, no, that doesn't mean that South

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Speaker 2: Carolina is the same as hunting Iowa. However, there are

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Speaker 2: still premier destinations and you could still get a tag

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Speaker 2: for them, but are they really worth it? That's what

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Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about right now. When my daughters

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Speaker 2: were five, we took them to Disney World. I know

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Speaker 2: a lot of people have different opinions on Disney as

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Speaker 2: a company and Disney World specifically as a vacation destination. Now,

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Speaker 2: I didn't grow up in the kind of family where

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Speaker 2: that was even a remote option, so it felt kind

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Speaker 2: of cool to book the trip and surprise my daughters

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Speaker 2: with it. I was actually pretty agnostic on the whole thing.

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Speaker 2: You know. I knew it would cost about a billion

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Speaker 2: dollars and I'd probably stand in a lot of long

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Speaker 2: lines in the Florida humidity while the sweat rolled down

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Speaker 2: my ass crack, and I thought a lot about how

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Speaker 2: much I missed drinking. All of those things were true,

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Speaker 2: but it was also kind of an amazing trip. Five

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Speaker 2: year olds believe in everything because they are really stupid,

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Speaker 2: But that also makes a place like Disney World super fun.

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Speaker 2: Every princess, at least to them, was an actual princess.

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Speaker 2: All of the characters blew their little minds, and the

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Speaker 2: whole experience was honestly so much better than I expected. Now,

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Speaker 2: being the people we are. We stayed in the cheapest

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Speaker 2: hotel that Disney offers for the bulk of our trip.

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Speaker 2: What I didn't know was that my wife had booked

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Speaker 2: us a few nights at a mid priced hotel, complete

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Speaker 2: with giraffes and other African game visible right off of

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Speaker 2: our hotel room deck. It was cool, but also kind

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Speaker 2: of not. The folks who can afford a six hundred

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Speaker 2: dollars a night hotel room are not people I have

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Speaker 2: much in common with. There was a weird vibe at

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Speaker 2: the pools and at the restaurants, where everyone kind of

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Speaker 2: kept to themselves, and honestly, the cheaper hotel was just

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Speaker 2: so much more fun. We realized afterwards that it just

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Speaker 2: wasn't our crowd. I've always been kind of a scrub

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Speaker 2: that way. If you get me the option to hunt

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Speaker 2: a diy tag on public land somewhere while staying in

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Speaker 2: a tent over some kind of guided whitetail hunt with

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Speaker 2: cushy accommodations, I'm going to always choose the tent route,

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Speaker 2: even when I don't have to pay for the luxury hunt.

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Speaker 2: It's just who I am, and I can't really say why.

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Speaker 2: I think that's part of the reason I feel at

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Speaker 2: home while staying in some random tiny town in Nebraska

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Speaker 2: or Oklahoma versus talking to the average suburb dweller up

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Speaker 2: here in the Twin Cities, who, while we live in

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Speaker 2: the exact same spot, are often just a totally different

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Speaker 2: species of human from me. You've probably been in situations

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Speaker 2: like that in your life. All of this leads me

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Speaker 2: to the topic of the day, which is premieer deer tags.

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Speaker 2: Next week I'm going to talk about guided hunts and

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Speaker 2: whether they are worth it, should you do one, and

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Speaker 2: all that jazz. But right now, I just want to

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Speaker 2: talk about premier tags and you know, premier destinations, because,

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Speaker 2: after all, who amongst us hasn't spent a little time

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Speaker 2: daydreaming about hunting Southern Iowa on about November seventh, when

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Speaker 2: all hell has broken loose and all day sits fly

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Speaker 2: by in the blake of an eye. The thing I've

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Speaker 2: learned about this stuff is that what we think about

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Speaker 2: in our heads is often not even close to what

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Speaker 2: actually happens when we do this stuff. It's okay, though,

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Speaker 2: life is mostly like that, and it's not a good

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Speaker 2: excuse to not try new things, but more of kind

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Speaker 2: of a reality check we should give ourselves when we

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Speaker 2: need it. So to frame this whole thing up, should

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Speaker 2: probably hop in the way back machine and look at

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Speaker 2: how this all got started. When I was a younger

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Speaker 2: lad eager to shoot any deer and really bad at

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Speaker 2: shooting any deer, the buzz was all about Buffalo County, Wisconsin.

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Speaker 2: The deer world was absolutely obsessed with this spot in

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Speaker 2: southwestern Wisconsin because it was ground zero for you know,

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Speaker 2: kind of modern trophy management. And yes, back then we

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Speaker 2: felt okay calling big bucks trophies, even though we weasel

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Speaker 2: word it now and pretend that mature bucks are somehow different,

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Speaker 2: as if the right age class doesn't also happen to

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Speaker 2: come with the biggest racks. A group of landowners in

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Speaker 2: Buffalo County decided they were done shooting scrappers, and after

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Speaker 2: many years, they started shooting big deer. Actually it wasn't

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Speaker 2: that many years. It was only a few years. That's

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Speaker 2: kind of it in a nutshell, and it got a

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Speaker 2: lot of attention. You couldn't find an outdoor writer at

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Speaker 2: the time who wasn't getting an all expense paid trip

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Speaker 2: to some outfitter in Buffalo County to shoot a big

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Speaker 2: one and sing the editorial praises of the region. People

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Speaker 2: had been obsessed with big bucks since way before that,

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Speaker 2: but Buffalo County put trophy management on the map. It

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Speaker 2: changed how we look at deer and how we look

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Speaker 2: at areas. Now pretty soon you had Pike County, Illinois

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Speaker 2: coming up in conversation for the same reasons, and after

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Speaker 2: a while it was about whole states like i Wan Kansas.

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Speaker 2: Now you won't hear me argue that either of those

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Speaker 2: states isn't a great place to hunt, but there is

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Speaker 2: a hell of a lot of marketing that has gone

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Speaker 2: into this whole thing. Now you might not guess this,

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Speaker 2: but just about any state or region that is really

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Speaker 2: known for big bucks is often pretty light on tourist destinations.

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Speaker 2: Out of state money isn't just flowing into these places,

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Speaker 2: or it wasn't, but the appeal of hunting giant deer

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Speaker 2: turned things over in that respect. State game agencies certainly

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Speaker 2: noticed the demand and they reacted by marketing their hunting

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Speaker 2: as worth every penny. And this is an exclusive to

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Speaker 2: whitetail hunting. Either. If you don't believe that, go talk

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Speaker 2: to a Native Colorado resident about elk hunting, or maybe

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Speaker 2: a Native South Dakota resident about pheasant season while I'm

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Speaker 2: being a bit of a passive aggressive businatche here. The

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Speaker 2: truth is that all of these opportunities weren't just flashy

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Speaker 2: marketing methods for roping in some extra revenue. You can

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Speaker 2: shoot a giant in Buffalo County or Pike County, or

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Speaker 2: some parts of Texas where the racks are as wide

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Speaker 2: as the Senderos, or in southern Iowa or central Kansas.

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Speaker 2: The question is is it really worth it for the

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Speaker 2: average hunter to try to spend a little time in

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Speaker 2: any of these places. That really depends I talk to

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Speaker 2: a lot of hunters every year, and the typical thought

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Speaker 2: process around primo destinations is simply that it's a conduit

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Speaker 2: to kill a big deer. We can't help ourselves. But

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Speaker 2: this is how we look at these opportunities. It's less

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Speaker 2: about the chance to have an amazing experience that you

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Speaker 2: just can't get in your home deer woods, and more

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Speaker 2: about some magical score like one hundred and fifty inches

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Speaker 2: or whatever we deem big enough for the price of admission,

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Speaker 2: And the price of admission is kind of steep, at

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Speaker 2: least compared to most of our hunts. If you want

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Speaker 2: to go to a county or a region known for

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Speaker 2: big deer, you will likely have to pay to hunt.

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Speaker 2: There's some public in Buffalo County, for example, and some

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Speaker 2: public and a few neighboring counties that are dang near

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Speaker 2: as good, but you'll have your work cutout for you.

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Speaker 2: Whole states are a better option, and whether that's Ohio

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Speaker 2: or Illinois, or Iowa or Kansas or wherever, you'll have

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Speaker 2: to figure out the tag game. In Iowa, even in

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Speaker 2: the worst parts of the state, you're looking at one

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Speaker 2: or two year weight while buying points. If you want

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Speaker 2: to shoot a buck that might wander off the Lukowski's

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Speaker 2: farm or maybe the Drury's farm, you're in for a

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Speaker 2: much longer wait. You'll be into that tag for a

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Speaker 2: minimum of about seven hundred bucks before you even get

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Speaker 2: the chance to hunt, and then you have to find

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Speaker 2: a place to go to some people that's a deal

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Speaker 2: breaker in and of itself, which I totally get. That's

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Speaker 2: a lot of money for a deer license, but it's

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Speaker 2: also a ticket to a hunt, maybe a different kind

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Speaker 2: of hunt than you're used to now. I've drawn Iowa

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Speaker 2: four times in my life, and I will keep drawing

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Speaker 2: until I can't get a tag. It's not because I'm

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Speaker 2: obsessed with shooting a giant, because I'm not, and I

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Speaker 2: don't really care about that a whole lot anymore. But

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Speaker 2: what I like is the whole month of November to bowhunt.

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Speaker 2: In my home state of Minnesota, our gun season always

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Speaker 2: opens up in the first week of November, which is

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Speaker 2: a huge kick to the old knackers. Being able to

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Speaker 2: leave here and go to someplace where the gun season

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Speaker 2: won't open for a couple of weeks is really nice

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Speaker 2: and it's worth the cost to me. But it's also

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Speaker 2: not a terrible drive, and I've found some public land

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Speaker 2: that I really like hunting. Plenty of other white tail

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Speaker 2: heavy states open up their gun seasons in November, with

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Speaker 2: a lot of them starting in the middle of the month,

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Speaker 2: and there's still a lot of rut left after that.

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Speaker 2: So what I would say it can be a good

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Speaker 2: reason to leave home and go spend some time working

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Speaker 2: some new ground where you don't have the looming threat

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Speaker 2: of the Orange Army hanging over you if you want

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Speaker 2: to kill them with a boat. Is that enough for

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Speaker 2: most people to buy some points to play the waiting game?

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Speaker 2: Probably not. I had my worst hunt ever in Iowa

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Speaker 2: last year, and it was still worth every penny. I

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Speaker 2: still killed a buck, got to see some really cool

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Speaker 2: running activity, and woke up in a tent for several

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Speaker 2: days in a row with the only chore on the

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Speaker 2: list being find a buck and shoot him. I don't

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Speaker 2: want to give the eye with DNR any more ideas,

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Speaker 2: but I'd pay more for that opportunity, although I'm pretty

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Speaker 2: sure they know that Kansas is another option. I've only

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Speaker 2: deer hunted Kansas once and it was pure bonkers. I

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Speaker 2: saw giants, I saw so much running activity, and I

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Speaker 2: had a great time. I was planning on applying down

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Speaker 2: there this year, mostly out of a weird desire to

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Speaker 2: hunt someplace new, but I didn't find anything while I

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Speaker 2: was turkey hunting down there that convinced me I should.

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Speaker 2: I got about halfway to a decent plan, so that's

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Speaker 2: to be continued, I guess. But I also should say this.

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Speaker 2: I did find a heck of a lot of quail

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Speaker 2: and roosters on public land down there, so I think

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Speaker 2: I'm going to head back there maybe December or January,

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Speaker 2: hunt those birds with safe and maybe see if I

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Speaker 2: can find something that really trips my trigger deer wise. Now,

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Speaker 2: one of the reasons that I didn't apply for Kansas

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Speaker 2: tag is something that all of us probably run into

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Speaker 2: when we consider a primo tag. The pressure. Now I'm

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Speaker 2: not talking about hunting pressure. Now. I know that might

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Speaker 2: sound crazy, but having an expensive tag that you've waited

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Speaker 2: years for is both exciting and sort of low grade torture.

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Speaker 2: I'm stuck in this kind of mentality with my wyoming deer,

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Speaker 2: elk and antelope points. I have a lot of each

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Speaker 2: and have come to realize that I'm only ever going

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Speaker 2: to get one truly amazing elk hunt in my life.

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Speaker 2: Ditto for a high country meal Deer hunt. Antelope are

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Speaker 2: a little bit different of a story, but I still

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Speaker 2: have the same anxiety around those points, even if it

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Speaker 2: isn't quite as discombobulating as the elk and deer points.

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Speaker 2: I'm almost terrified to burn those points because then the

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Speaker 2: pressure will be on. If life happens and I can't

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Speaker 2: carve out the time I think I need, it will

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Speaker 2: kill me. If I go and something sucks and I

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Speaker 2: get thrown a curveballer three, the pressure will increase immensely.

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Speaker 2: You don't want to burn like twenty years of points

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Speaker 2: on a tag and then eat it. But again, that's

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Speaker 2: not the best way to look at it. Those points

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Speaker 2: are a ticket to a hunt I just can't get

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Speaker 2: any other way. And spending time in the mountains where

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Speaker 2: the prospect of googling in a bunch of bulls is real,

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Speaker 2: is not a bad thing. Just like when that IOA

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Speaker 2: tag shows up and you realize that it's now time

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Speaker 2: to get serious, the pressure gets real and I'll never

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Speaker 2: forget something Randy Neuberg said to me one time about this,

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Speaker 2: which was basically that when you get an amazing tag,

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Speaker 2: you still have to put in a commensurate amount of effort.

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Speaker 2: In our day dreams, the one hundred and seventy inch

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Speaker 2: bucks come easy, but in reality they just don't, not

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Speaker 2: unless you have about fifteen grand to spend and don't

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Speaker 2: mind killing one that is in a pen. Anyway, free

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Speaker 2: range giants of any species, even on tightly contra old properties,

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Speaker 2: aren't all that easy. And if you think going from

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Speaker 2: shooting one hundred inch bucks in Georgia every fifth season

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Speaker 2: to being a stone cold killer, the moment you rattle

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Speaker 2: in a one sixty in Pike County is going to

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Speaker 2: be easy. It probably won't be. There's a lot of

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Speaker 2: pressure to the premier tags, premier region thing, and it

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Speaker 2: kind of sucks. Everything in life seems kind of weirdly

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Speaker 2: to balance out. Or maybe that's just how I look

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Speaker 2: at things. But if you think about the prospect of

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Speaker 2: hunting an area with more big ones than anywhere else,

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Speaker 2: you know, at least anywhere else you've ever set foot,

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Speaker 2: the balance to that whole thing is that there will

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Speaker 2: be far more pressure to actually kill that big one

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Speaker 2: than on some of your home state hunts. That can

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Speaker 2: be motivation to really do a lot of scouting, or

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Speaker 2: to figure out how to buy your way into a

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Speaker 2: sweet lease or something, or it can be just what

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Speaker 2: you need to never apply and never build up the

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Speaker 2: points and to only sit there in daydream forever. I

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Speaker 2: think this is where we often get things wrong about

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Speaker 2: these kinds of once in a lifetime, or at least

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Speaker 2: once not very often tags. We focus on the prospect

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Speaker 2: of a giant but not how to enjoy the opportunity.

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Speaker 2: In fact, most folks would probably have way more fun

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Speaker 2: if they took that big deer money and spent it

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Speaker 2: on a hog hunt down south. Now I know that

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Speaker 2: sounds like a joke, but it's actually not. Almost everyone

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Speaker 2: who doesn't live where hogs are prevalent thinks about hunting

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Speaker 2: pigs and how fun it would be, and they are right.

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Speaker 2: A pig hunt is often about ten thousand times more

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Speaker 2: enjoyable than your average deer hunt, But that comes with

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Speaker 2: a lot of qualifiers that I don't really want to

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Speaker 2: get into. The point I'm trying to make, maybe poorly,

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Speaker 2: is that these primo dear tags are a great option

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Speaker 2: for a certain kind of hunter, but not all of us.

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Speaker 2: If the biggest appeal to it all is that you

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Speaker 2: might kill a buck that scores I don't know, thirty

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Speaker 2: inches more than your personal best, there's a lot to

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Speaker 2: consider a hunt might be worth it, but for that

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Speaker 2: reason alone. For some of us it is, and some

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Speaker 2: of us it isn't. Now, if the appeal is that

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Speaker 2: the prospect of a big one is real and the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to hunt some timeframe or some way is just

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Speaker 2: too interesting, now you're onto something different. I know a

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Speaker 2: few guys who live around an awful lot of timber

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Speaker 2: who can't hunt the Kansas grass lines enough. If you

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Speaker 2: don't have high deer density in your world or high

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Speaker 2: visibility deer in your world, then going to a place

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Speaker 2: with either or both can be so much fun. If

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Speaker 2: you have to stay out of the woods while the

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Speaker 2: gun hunters take their turn, and you really want the

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Speaker 2: chance to witness bang and run activity, then a primo

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Speaker 2: region hunt might just be the ticket. And here's the

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Speaker 2: last thing I'll say on that if your mentality is

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Speaker 2: in the right spot and you put in the work,

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Speaker 2: the odds are very high that you'll feel that the

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Speaker 2: money and time are worth it. This is something I've

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Speaker 2: realized about Iowa. I just enjoy the people in the

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Speaker 2: land and the deer hunting a whole hell of a lot.

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Speaker 2: I thought after I drew my first tag, I'd never

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Speaker 2: pay up to hunt there again, and then I thought

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Speaker 2: the same thing after my second tag. Now I don't

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Speaker 2: ever look at it like it'll be a one and

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Speaker 2: done deal for me. I look at it like every

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Speaker 2: couple of years, I'll get my chance, and if the

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Speaker 2: schedule works out, I'm gonna load up my camping gear

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Speaker 2: and I'm gonna head south. I don't expect to kill

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Speaker 2: a giant, and I won't be patient enough to facilitate

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Speaker 2: that anyway, But I don't care I just enjoy the

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Speaker 2: hunting there, and that makes it worth the investment. Someday,

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Speaker 2: probably next year, honestly, I'll roll Kansas into the potential

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Speaker 2: mix just because of the same reasons, and someday I'll

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Speaker 2: get the stones to burn through those wyoming points and

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Speaker 2: just take the ride. How those hunts will end up

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Speaker 2: is anyone's guess, but I highly doubt I'll regret any

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Speaker 2: of those opportunities. So that's what I'm gonna sign off with.

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Speaker 2: There are still places you can go where the odds

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Speaker 2: are better than most that at some point a good

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Speaker 2: one is going to work his way towards you. Whether

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Speaker 2: that's worth it or not is a totally subjective thing,

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Speaker 2: but I can tell you that it probably will be,

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Speaker 2: and that those opportunities are going in one direction, and

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Speaker 2: that is not in your favor. Pay a lot now

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Speaker 2: or pay more later, wait a while now, or wait

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Speaker 2: longer later. The way things are going, the opportunities might

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Speaker 2: almost entirely go away as well, which is a scary

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Speaker 2: thought and might be enough motivation to take the plunge.

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Speaker 2: And if you do, you might want to consider booking

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Speaker 2: a guided hunt, which is what I'm going to talk

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Speaker 2: about next. Week. That's it for this episode. I'm Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 2: This has been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which

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Speaker 2: is brought to you by First Light. As always, thank

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Speaker 2: you so much for listening and for all of your support.

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Speaker 2: If you want some more hunting content, you know where

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Speaker 2: to go the meeteater dot com. You can check out

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Speaker 2: sweet hunts from Clay and Brent and the whole crew,

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Speaker 2: tons of podcasts there. We're dropping new content every single day.

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Speaker 2: Go check it out at the meadeater dot com