WEBVTT - Ep. 877: Foundations - The Deer That Change Us

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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<v Speaker 1>to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,

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<v Speaker 1>creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.

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<v Speaker 1>First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

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<v Speaker 1>Tony Peterson.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

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<v Speaker 2>which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,

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<v Speaker 2>Tony Peterson, and today I'm going to talk about the

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<v Speaker 2>deer that change us and why those encounters matter so much.

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<v Speaker 2>I've been thinking about this topic for a while, and

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<v Speaker 2>it was during a January dough hunt with one of

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<v Speaker 2>my daughters where I got hit upside the head with

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<v Speaker 2>the reality that some deer just changes Some deer encounters

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<v Speaker 2>just change the arc of our hunting. I hadn't figured

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<v Speaker 2>out why it really matters or what to say about

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<v Speaker 2>it before then, but sometimes the pieces just fall into

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<v Speaker 2>place and the picture becomes so much clearer. So what

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<v Speaker 2>I'm going to talk about now are the moments with

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<v Speaker 2>deer that alter the course of me as a hunter,

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<v Speaker 2>and why you should think about this stuff too, because

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<v Speaker 2>there's something important to be learned from this thought exercise

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<v Speaker 2>that will make you a better hunter. My daughter and

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<v Speaker 2>I walked across a mostly snowless wheat field in southwest

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<v Speaker 2>Wisconsin in the middle of January. Our destination was a

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<v Speaker 2>redneck blind on a clover plot that was situated on

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<v Speaker 2>the top of a bluff above the Mississippi River Valley.

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<v Speaker 2>You'd really have a hard time drawing up sort of

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<v Speaker 2>dreamier deer country than that. I think there is one

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<v Speaker 2>hell of an important education to be had in the outdoors.

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<v Speaker 2>So I had pulled her out of school that day

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<v Speaker 2>to try to get her on a dough or two

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<v Speaker 2>before the clock ran out on the late season there.

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<v Speaker 2>And when we crested the rise and the plot came

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<v Speaker 2>into view, I realized we were about to spook a

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<v Speaker 2>whole herd of them. It didn't matter that they all

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<v Speaker 2>ran off, because I knew that a bunch of them

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<v Speaker 2>would probably come back. The deer density there and that

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<v Speaker 2>part of the state is real high, and they are

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<v Speaker 2>the kind of babysat deer that shake off getting spooked

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<v Speaker 2>pretty easily. To me. It was most meat mission where

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<v Speaker 2>I expected a specific outcome that I really don't expect

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<v Speaker 2>on most of my hunts. We settled into the blind

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<v Speaker 2>opened up one of the windows and my daughter practiced

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<v Speaker 2>aiming with her crossbow. She had a buck tag and

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<v Speaker 2>a dough tag, but the goal was just a good

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<v Speaker 2>shot on a dough now. Naturally, the first year to

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<v Speaker 2>show up were bucks, a button buck and a little

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<v Speaker 2>five pointer. I texted my buddy to gauge his interest

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<v Speaker 2>in her shooting the buck, and he gave her the

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<v Speaker 2>green light, but I also knew that it would probably

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<v Speaker 2>be better if she just shot a dough. Well, the

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<v Speaker 2>bucks made the decision for us anyway, when they spooked. Later,

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<v Speaker 2>a whole bunch of doughs came out and they got

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<v Speaker 2>super close to shooting range, and then all spooked from

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<v Speaker 2>something that we just didn't understand. Later, the floodgates opened

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<v Speaker 2>and we had probably about fifteen of them munching on

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<v Speaker 2>the clover and heading our way. It was truly candy

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<v Speaker 2>land hunting and honestly, just not really my thing. But

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<v Speaker 2>she didn't know that, and after only seeing a handful

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<v Speaker 2>of deer all season in northern Wisconsin and our hunts

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<v Speaker 2>in Minnesota, she was just enjoying every second of being

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<v Speaker 2>snowed in with deer. We were two feet apart, having

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<v Speaker 2>a totally different experience now. When we finally had a

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<v Speaker 2>mature dough feed into her range, I gave her the

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<v Speaker 2>thumbs up and watched as she made an absolutely perfect

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<v Speaker 2>shot that cleared the field except for four doughs that

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<v Speaker 2>didn't seem to have the best survival instincts. I managed

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<v Speaker 2>to get the crossbow cocked again, but they were far

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<v Speaker 2>enough to the side of the blind that she couldn't shoot.

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<v Speaker 2>So she looked at me and she said, you should

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<v Speaker 2>shoot them. It really hadn't occurred to me to do that,

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<v Speaker 2>mostly because I was in the guide mindset, but I

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<v Speaker 2>thought it'd be really nice to cap off our season

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<v Speaker 2>with two more doughs from a property where the deer

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<v Speaker 2>could stand a little thinning than just the one that

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<v Speaker 2>we already had shot. The dough spooked, and I didn't

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<v Speaker 2>really care. We had done what we set out to do,

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<v Speaker 2>and that's about all you can ask out of any hunt.

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<v Speaker 2>She was bummed, and it occurred to me how different

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<v Speaker 2>the experience was for her than me. So when a

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<v Speaker 2>lone dough popped up literally out of nowhere at twenty

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<v Speaker 2>yards and practically begged me to shoot her, my daughter

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<v Speaker 2>looked at me and she said, Dad, you have to.

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<v Speaker 2>So Dad did, and that dough died maybe twenty yards

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<v Speaker 2>from her dough. She was ecstatic, and she said, other

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<v Speaker 2>than the buck we decoyed in last year together, that

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<v Speaker 2>was the coolest hunt she's ever had. Now that kind

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<v Speaker 2>of floored me, honestly. But she doesn't know the same

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<v Speaker 2>challenge as I know, and she isn't wired the same

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<v Speaker 2>way I am. And quite honestly, what I want out

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<v Speaker 2>of a hunt and what she wants out of a

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<v Speaker 2>hunt are just different. That deer, or I should say

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<v Speaker 2>those deer. They didn't represent any real hunting challenge to me,

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<v Speaker 2>but to her it was incredible. And I'll say this

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<v Speaker 2>before I looked like too much of an asshole. The

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<v Speaker 2>whole trip down there to my buddies was so fun

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<v Speaker 2>with her. We made some cheeseburgers that night, watched a

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<v Speaker 2>few hunting shows on TV, and spent the next day butchering.

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<v Speaker 2>On the way home, we stopped at her favorite fast

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<v Speaker 2>food place, which is Arbi's, where they couldn't have screwed

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<v Speaker 2>up our order anymore if they tried, But that didn't matter.

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<v Speaker 2>It was a good weekend for her and for me.

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<v Speaker 2>Even if we got vastly different things out of it.

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<v Speaker 2>The deer she shot and the deer she watched me

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<v Speaker 2>shoot will change her forever. Now you might be thinking that, well,

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<v Speaker 2>no shit, man, when you kill a deer, it's a

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<v Speaker 2>good thing and it changes you for the better. But

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<v Speaker 2>that's not where I want to go with this episode.

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<v Speaker 2>I think about the deer encounters I've had throughout my

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<v Speaker 2>career that put me in a different space and help

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<v Speaker 2>me level up my skills, or made me take blood

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<v Speaker 2>tracking more seriously, or made me feel like absolute shit

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<v Speaker 2>as a human and as a hunter. I think about how,

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<v Speaker 2>in a matter of two seasons I killed two different

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<v Speaker 2>doughs in Minnesota because someone else bumped them directly to me.

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<v Speaker 2>One was a farmer on an ATV that put a

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<v Speaker 2>doll right in my lap, and another was a woodcock

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<v Speaker 2>hunter on public land here in the Cities that pushed

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<v Speaker 2>a trio of doughs from nearly out of rifle range

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<v Speaker 2>to twenty five yards out in broadside, which made me

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<v Speaker 2>think about how often I think of someone else messing

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<v Speaker 2>up my hunts, but never about how they might actually

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<v Speaker 2>do me a favor. About the first time I really

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<v Speaker 2>patterned any deer with trail cameras, and how the first

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<v Speaker 2>morning I hunted acrossing in a swamp here in central

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<v Speaker 2>Minnesota and I saw a specific dough coming that had

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<v Speaker 2>been like clockwork on my camera, it all sort of

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<v Speaker 2>became clearer that this tool that was mostly an interesting

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<v Speaker 2>novelty to me up to that point, could actually be

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<v Speaker 2>much more. You see, we think it's the big bucks

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<v Speaker 2>we killed it matter the most, that changes the most.

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<v Speaker 2>But I don't think so, at least not always. There

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<v Speaker 2>is a tendency to be dismissive about DOES in general,

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<v Speaker 2>often because the biggest trophy hunters out there have places

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<v Speaker 2>where killing DOES is like going to the grocery store.

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<v Speaker 2>But for a lot of us, it's not so simple,

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<v Speaker 2>and it's not so easy. I've talked about this a

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<v Speaker 2>few times, but back in twenty seventeen, I spent six

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<v Speaker 2>days in northern Wisconsin hunting the big woods with a

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<v Speaker 2>buck and a dough tag in my pocket during what

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<v Speaker 2>should have been somewhat of a chase fest. Well, you

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<v Speaker 2>don't get much of a chase fest where there aren't

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<v Speaker 2>very many deep but I did manage to see a

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<v Speaker 2>handful of bucks and doze every dough that got anywhere

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<v Speaker 2>near me busted me, and it started to give me

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<v Speaker 2>kind of a complex. I couldn't get it done with

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<v Speaker 2>quite a bit of time and a lot of whatever

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<v Speaker 2>it is that helps me get it done in other places.

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<v Speaker 2>So when I sat down on my second to last night,

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<v Speaker 2>twenty yards from a pounded trail on the edge of

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<v Speaker 2>a public land creek bottom, and I finally heard the

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<v Speaker 2>footfalls of deer coming, I drew the instant I saw

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<v Speaker 2>a flash of brown in the brush. That old doe

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<v Speaker 2>walked out, looked right at me, and was about to

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<v Speaker 2>spook when I shot. She was more of a challenge

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<v Speaker 2>than most of the big Bucks I've killed, and it

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<v Speaker 2>was a good reminder to me that how we present

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<v Speaker 2>hunting to the masses is rarely a true view of

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<v Speaker 2>what it is actually like out there. For most folks.

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<v Speaker 2>It's not always the deer you kill that change us either.

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<v Speaker 2>We all have the ones we missed that haunt us.

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<v Speaker 2>Adam Moore just wrote a piece for the Mediatter Dot

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<v Speaker 2>about this, which highlights some of our crew's biggest white

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<v Speaker 2>tail misses. They involve, as I'm sure you'd expect, shooting

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<v Speaker 2>at big Bucks. Mostly missing big Bucks sucks a lot,

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<v Speaker 2>But what that teaches us usually is that we have

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<v Speaker 2>buck fever and we just don't want to admit it. Now,

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<v Speaker 2>I know that's not all that newsworthy. There are other

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<v Speaker 2>misses or times when you get caught drawing that sting

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<v Speaker 2>just as much, and that can change you as a hunter.

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<v Speaker 2>There are times when you don't shoot that do as well.

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<v Speaker 2>One of those deer that taught me a real valuable

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<v Speaker 2>lesson was a nice two and a half year old

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<v Speaker 2>eight pointer that was as big as any deer I

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<v Speaker 2>had shot at that time in my life. I was

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<v Speaker 2>in a stand in a poplar tree when he walked

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<v Speaker 2>by during an early morning sit in October. I didn't

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<v Speaker 2>draw or shoot, even though I wanted to kill him badly.

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<v Speaker 2>But I was sitting there with a recurve in my hand,

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<v Speaker 2>and the year before I had killed a doe in

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<v Speaker 2>a very similar buck with it. But the year before

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<v Speaker 2>I shot a lot, and by that I mean a lot.

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<v Speaker 2>I was prepared for that season with that trad bow,

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<v Speaker 2>and the results showed it, but I hadn't practiced enough

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<v Speaker 2>the following season, so when that buck walked through, I

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<v Speaker 2>was terrified to shoot because I expected to screw it. Up.

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<v Speaker 2>That is not a good way to go about the

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<v Speaker 2>whole hunting thing. But that buck arcing into and out

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<v Speaker 2>of my life, and the feeling that I hadn't done

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<v Speaker 2>enough to be confident in a totally doable shot situation

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<v Speaker 2>stuck with me in a way that gives me anxiety

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<v Speaker 2>to write about even now. Nearly two decades later, when

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<v Speaker 2>I first got into the hunting industry and the free

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<v Speaker 2>gear started to show up and the invites to media

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<v Speaker 2>hunts started coming in, I didn't know anything about how

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<v Speaker 2>most of the industry really operated. The first white tail

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<v Speaker 2>and I did for work was in Texas, and it

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<v Speaker 2>was so easy that I could scarcely believe it. I'm

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<v Speaker 2>not saying it wasn't fun, because it was. I saw

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<v Speaker 2>more bucks and more rod activity in one sit that

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<v Speaker 2>I'd seen in an entire season back home. But the

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<v Speaker 2>buck I killed meant really nothing to me, and worse,

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<v Speaker 2>it made me realize how many deer were killed like

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<v Speaker 2>that by people who hadn't worked for them to present

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<v Speaker 2>the image that they really knew what they were doing

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<v Speaker 2>with hunting. Maybe that sounds too harsh, but that first

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<v Speaker 2>Texas buck I killed, and the others that I saw

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<v Speaker 2>come back to camp and Dusty side by sides made

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<v Speaker 2>me realize that the whispers I heard from the audience

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<v Speaker 2>were justified. We were doing things that were easy and

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<v Speaker 2>yet presenting them as something else. It sparks something in

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<v Speaker 2>me that still burns to this day, and I owe

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<v Speaker 2>that to those tiny bodied, big racked Texas deer that

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<v Speaker 2>knew nothing other than to go right to the feeder

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<v Speaker 2>when it turned on. The deer we encounter teach us

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<v Speaker 2>a lot, and if we are open to their lessons,

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<v Speaker 2>we can become better hunters, not just in the skill department,

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<v Speaker 2>although that's undeniably true, but also when it comes to

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<v Speaker 2>our personal ethics. There is nothing that says you have

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<v Speaker 2>to blood trail deer until you're brain dead from exhaustion

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<v Speaker 2>and staring at the leaves for the tiniest, slightest little

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<v Speaker 2>pin prick of blood that tells you he or she

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<v Speaker 2>went this way or that way. You can give it

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<v Speaker 2>a half assed quick grid search the minute things get tough,

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<v Speaker 2>and you're not gonna get arrested. It's not like that.

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<v Speaker 2>Just like you can take the shot when it's a

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<v Speaker 2>half a minute before legal shooting light ends and maybe

0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.319
<v Speaker 2>it'll work out. But maybe it won't. No one's gonna

0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.520
<v Speaker 2>stop you, and no one will really care. But if

0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:39.960
<v Speaker 2>you find yourself looking at an arrow covered in gut

0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.480
<v Speaker 2>material when you know you have to go to work

0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.760
<v Speaker 2>in the morning, that almost dark shot takes on a

0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.960
<v Speaker 2>different feel, and that can change how you operate from

0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.160
<v Speaker 2>here until it's time to hang up your bow forever.

0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.520
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes it's just the deer we see do something that

0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.560
<v Speaker 2>challenges our thoughts to change us. I've watched fawns hide

0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.160
<v Speaker 2>in the grass while dogs and people walk by, and

0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.400
<v Speaker 2>they've always made me think about how often mature deer

0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.200
<v Speaker 2>must do that to me and other hunters. Does that

0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.240
<v Speaker 2>change how I hunt? I don't know. Probably not, but

0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.520
<v Speaker 2>it makes me think about this stuff more. So, maybe

0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.160
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't. I don't even know it. The bucks that

0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.560
<v Speaker 2>we encounter pheasant hunting almost always teach me something about

0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.080
<v Speaker 2>how important cover is to them and how much of

0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.640
<v Speaker 2>a survival mechanism it is to tuck themselves away into

0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:29.000
<v Speaker 2>that good wind blocking geothermal cover and then sit so

0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.680
<v Speaker 2>tight you would bet real good money they aren't there.

0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:33.920
<v Speaker 2>And then when you and your buddies and the dogs

0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.679
<v Speaker 2>are about thirty yards past, you hear them get up

0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.640
<v Speaker 2>and run like greyhounds out behind you. There are some

0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.600
<v Speaker 2>lessons there that will probably would help me if I

0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.040
<v Speaker 2>was more of a bed hunter, but maybe they help

0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.920
<v Speaker 2>me anyway. I know it doesn't hurt us to learn

0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.720
<v Speaker 2>about the quarry we hunt, and those lessons carry a

0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:52.760
<v Speaker 2>hell of a lot more weight than a series of

0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.920
<v Speaker 2>trail camera photos usually do. But there are lessons obvious

0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.640
<v Speaker 2>and not so obvious in that type of scouting too.

0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.319
<v Speaker 2>This will come as no surprise to anyone who regularly

0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.200
<v Speaker 2>listens to this show that I sometimes don't know where

0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.040
<v Speaker 2>I'm going with these episodes, and the aha moment just

0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:13.520
<v Speaker 2>hits me in time with this one. The biggest takeaway

0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.160
<v Speaker 2>I can give you is a parallel to something I

0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.720
<v Speaker 2>talk about a lot. If you do the same thing

0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.680
<v Speaker 2>over and over, you might kill deer, but you won't

0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.520
<v Speaker 2>learn about hunting nearly as much. To many of us,

0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.520
<v Speaker 2>that doesn't matter at all, and that's good enough. But

0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.640
<v Speaker 2>if you want to get better, if you want to

0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.920
<v Speaker 2>meet up with the deer that might teach you something real, valuable,

0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.600
<v Speaker 2>you often have to do something a tiny bit outside

0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.560
<v Speaker 2>of your comfort zone. The obvious route is to travel

0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:41.440
<v Speaker 2>to hunt, but I'm not going to talk about that here.

0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:43.480
<v Speaker 2>You know how I feel about that and why I

0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.439
<v Speaker 2>think it's valuable. Instead, I think it's better to look

0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.280
<v Speaker 2>at the year ahead and try to identify those opportunities

0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.280
<v Speaker 2>in which you can meet the deer where they'll be

0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.320
<v Speaker 2>in a way that you normally wouldn't If you only

0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.880
<v Speaker 2>ever run cameras to scout, you might want to get

0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.280
<v Speaker 2>out the summer and glass hunt the big woods up north,

0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.280
<v Speaker 2>or you're a Southern white tail hunter down in the

0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:07.360
<v Speaker 2>swampy grounds in Louisiana or Florida, Alabama, wherever you might

0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.520
<v Speaker 2>not have easy fields to glass, then trail cameras are

0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.120
<v Speaker 2>probably a big part of your process, but so should

0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.880
<v Speaker 2>winter scouting be, and just walking through the woods at

0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.280
<v Speaker 2>any point in the air. If you always sit the

0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.880
<v Speaker 2>same three tree stands all fall across your fingers that

0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.640
<v Speaker 2>a buck will come by, you have so many options

0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.640
<v Speaker 2>to learn something about the deer and encounter them in

0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.440
<v Speaker 2>a different way. One of the main reasons I push

0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:30.960
<v Speaker 2>this point is because I don't think most of us

0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.280
<v Speaker 2>understand how well the deer actually pattern us. Now. I

0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.240
<v Speaker 2>know that's a cliche, but as a rabid pheasant hunter,

0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.680
<v Speaker 2>something struck me this year while following my labs around

0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:46.080
<v Speaker 2>the cattails. Pheasants are masters at patterning most hunters. This

0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.040
<v Speaker 2>tiny brain disco chicken of a bird that spent most

0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:54.640
<v Speaker 2>of its evolutionary journey in China, of all places, completely

0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.080
<v Speaker 2>understands where the hunting pressure originates from and how it's

0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.480
<v Speaker 2>going to proceed through their home turf, and those pheasants

0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:06.320
<v Speaker 2>react accordingly to survive. You think deer don't do that better,

0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.520
<v Speaker 2>I promise you that they do, and they do it

0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.400
<v Speaker 2>to the same level, which might seem crazy until you

0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.800
<v Speaker 2>realize the winning result is just them surviving and avoiding us,

0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.280
<v Speaker 2>and whether it's a rooster who does that or one

0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.360
<v Speaker 2>hundred and forty inch buck, that result is them winning

0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.640
<v Speaker 2>and us not making a plan to sit in a

0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.480
<v Speaker 2>ground blind or still hunt, or find a new property

0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.600
<v Speaker 2>that comes with a whole new set of riddles to

0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.640
<v Speaker 2>figure out, or traveling across state lines the first time

0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.520
<v Speaker 2>to wade into unfamiliar habitat will eventually expose you to

0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.200
<v Speaker 2>the deer that will take what you think you know,

0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.840
<v Speaker 2>squat right over it, and piss away. If you're a

0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.200
<v Speaker 2>student of the game, that lesson will stick and it

0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.360
<v Speaker 2>will usher you into some new phase of hunting and

0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.120
<v Speaker 2>of being a better hunter. Not only is that a

0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.760
<v Speaker 2>good way to get better at killing deer, but is

0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.080
<v Speaker 2>probably the most overlooked and easiest way to learn to

0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.400
<v Speaker 2>enjoy the whole thing just a little bit more. So

0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:03.520
<v Speaker 2>think about that and think about coming back next week,

0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.080
<v Speaker 2>because I'm gonna talk about stress, which is something we're

0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.200
<v Speaker 2>all dealing with in our lives right now, but I'm

0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.600
<v Speaker 2>gonna relate it to deer hunting and how we can

0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.800
<v Speaker 2>help ourselves relax a little and enjoy hunting more throughout

0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.840
<v Speaker 2>the year. That's it. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been

0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.080
<v Speaker 2>the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to

0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.000
<v Speaker 2>you by First Light. I want to say thank you.

0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.360
<v Speaker 2>I do this every week because I mean it. All

0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.480
<v Speaker 2>of your support, all your loyalty. You know, when I'm

0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.280
<v Speaker 2>at a shields somewhere and I see somebody in a

0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.800
<v Speaker 2>beargreas hat or a meat eater's shirt, whatever's it truly

0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.400
<v Speaker 2>means the world to us that you guys show up

0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.240
<v Speaker 2>and you support us and we're all kind of on

0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.000
<v Speaker 2>the same team together. So thank you for that. If

0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.680
<v Speaker 2>you want some more content, you know, maybe you want

0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.880
<v Speaker 2>to watch a video of I don't know, clay hunting

0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:56.000
<v Speaker 2>mountain goats, maybe Steve hunting something somewhere, mark, whatever the

0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.960
<v Speaker 2>meeteater dot com has you covered. While you're there, you'll

0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.720
<v Speaker 2>see a ton of art articles, recipes, and have access

0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.000
<v Speaker 2>to our whole network of podcasts where there is a

0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.960
<v Speaker 2>ton hours and hours and hours of stuff you can

0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.000
<v Speaker 2>listen to, whether on your drive to and from work,

0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.159
<v Speaker 2>maybe taking a little road trip to scout somewhere, or

0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.040
<v Speaker 2>whatever the mediator dot com has you covered.