Ep. 561: What Would Eddie Claypool Do? (and BONUS Goals, Hopes, and Hitlists)

We are continuing our what would you do? Series? We started that last week with Grant Woods. Talked a lot about management and private land hunting and some cool stuff there. Today we're keeping at it and we've got Eddie Claypool who is a d I Y and public land focused deer hunter, so we're gonna get into that side of things. Eddie has been a longtime contributor to Peterson's Bow Hunting and a staple in the hunting kind of media world.

He's a terrific white tailed deer hunter. He gets done in tough situations, he speaks his mind freely, He's got a different perspective than a lot of people on this kind of stuff. So if you're hoping to figure out a way to kill deer on you know, small properties or private land by permission or public land, I think Eddie is gonna have some ideas that can help you. He also has kind of been going through a little bit of a change in mindset and changing goals with

his hunting, which is very interesting to talk about. So as I describe and I walk him through these different hunting snarrows as we do in this series, right, I tell him, Okay, imagine this situation in this place on this day. You know what would you do? You know, Eddie is is changing what he folk this is on as a deer hunter. So he's actually bought his first piece of private lands, so he's actually learning a little

about that kind of thing. He's also changing what he wants to shoot and what his goals are going to be for hunting. So we get into that side of thing. We talked through a bunch of interesting, challenging deer hunting scenarios which are great want to learn some and uh, we also kick this episode off with a totally different kind of well, I take that back, it's not totally different because the the what would You Do episode with Eddie, like I mentioned, we get into his changing mindset, we

get into his changing goals. Well, that's something we also talk about in Part one of this podcast. Part one of this podcast, the first hour, actually is with my good buddy Dan Johnson. He was my co host here on the Wireton podcast for many years when we first kicked this thing off. He now runs his own podcast network,

Great Deer Hunter from All Iowa. And what we've done every year, I think the beginning is we've done a podcast together where we talked through what our plans are for the upcoming hunting season, what our goals are, what we're hoping for, if there's any specific bucks were after. So we decided to tack that onto the front of this podcast. So Part one of this episode is me and Dan talking through all that stuff, and we actually discuss the same kind of transition that Eddie's going through.

We discuss how our goals are changing, how our hopes and expectations for hunting has changed as well, and in a big way. I've been going through this shift this year. If you've listened throughout the last twelve months, you've heard about kind of this this wild hunting season I had last year and my burnout afterwards, and how I'm kind of shifting and changing a little bit of what I'm doing, and so me and Dan get into that a lot, as well as kind of preview some very exciting hunts

we have coming up this year. Some bucks were after I saw a really nice Michigan dear the other day. We're gonna talk about that dear and uh and basically everything you need to know to get ready to follow along with our two seasons. So jam packed episode. It's a long episodes over two hours. I'm guessing this thing is gonna come out to so stick around for the full thing. Part one. That first just under an hour.

Right around that first hour is me and Dan. If you don't give a rip about me or Dan, you can fast forward if you want two hour number two, in which we do though what would Eddie Claypool do? Section? So that is the game plan. I appreciate you tuning in. I'll give you one plug. We talked about this over the past couple of weeks. I'm just gonna remind you

again one more time. I put together a recent selection of my top gear recommendations that we've got over at the Mediator Store for this late summer early season time period. I've got some of my recommended targets, some of my shooting supplies, the clothes I like to wear for summer scouting or summer shooting, and then also my early season white tail kit from First Life, the shirt I like, the pants I like, uh. I think I even included the face mask I used for the early season. All

that stuff is on my new gear recommendation page. You can find it at store dot the meat eater dot com slash mark. So go to the media to store slash mark, store dot the meat Eater dot com slash mark. That's gonna be my gear recommendation. We're hopefully gonna have you know, that's gonna be a rotating list of things.

So if you're in the market for something new as far as hunting gear and you're trying to figure out what a good option might be, I'm gonna put some things on there that I personally use and like, we stock a whole lot different hunting gear now on the Mediator Store. It's not just first Like gear now, it's not just our Phelps game calls. It's not just the fh F by no harnesses. We're selling all sorts of things now vortex optics, six sour optics. Uh YETI cooler's targets, uh, shirts,

water bottle. I mean, I don't know. The folks on that business side of things are just really getting after building uh the Mediator's store into into quite the quite the machine and all of that. What's cool about that. I know nobody wants to hear about buying stuff, But the cool thing about what metators doing there with the store and everything is that allows people like me to do these podcasts, to film these TV shows, to write the articles, to do all this stuff and put it

out there for free for you guys. Uh. So, hopefully that helps you out of ton is stuff that's helping you learn, inspire you, entertain you, whatever it is, I hope it's stuff that you're finding a lot of value in. So thanks again for checking that stuff out, Thanks for tuning in today. I am fired up. I am fully two thousand percent ready for hunting season, very excited, very excited for this conversation today. Me and Dan had a blast catching up. If you are a longtime listener, this

is gonna be like Mama's apple pie. This is gonna be some comfort food for you here in part one. I think you're gonna enjoy it. And if you are not a long time listener, maybe hearing me and Dan will inspire you to go back to the beginning and listen to some of those episodes in the early days where me and Dan were just figuring this stuff out and we were knuckleheads. We didn't know what we're doing. We're sharing the ups and downs and having fun along

the way and uh, probably making fools of ourselves. But it's been a good ride. So thanks for being along for it, Thanks for tuning in, and let's get to part one with me and Dan Johnson talking through goals, hopes and hit lists, and then as soon as that wraps up, we will jump right to my chat with Eddie Claypool. All right now with me on the show. Back from a long I don't know what the right word is along, Uh yeah, whatever that is. We've got Dan Johnson by long time. I just had to get

it out there. Wired Hunt co host, my great buddy and the Emperor of the Sportsman's Empire, Dan, Welcome back to the show. Hey, Hey, thanks for having me, Mark, It's good to hear your voice. Man. I know, especially like this time of year, I just need some Dan Johnson in my life to to bring me back to the bringing back to earth, get me re excited. Uh yeah, that's just the doctor ordered. What's all this running bullshit

that you're doing? Are you trying to be Cam Haynes. No, I'm not gonna get it quite that far, but just trying to make sure I don't turn to Dan Johnson. So oh dude, I stepped myself up for that one. That was hilarious. Dude, that was hilarious. Yep. Yeah, just just trying to just trying to maintain a decent fitness. So yeah, man, been doing I've been sticking to the running and did that racist spring and that was cool.

So first first race of any kind of done since like middle school cross country, so it fell out of you. Thank you. I was. I was proud to I finished my first half marathon and did pretty good, so that was that's cool. Yep. Yeah. I wish I had something physical that I could tell you I've accomplished in the last couple months or or this summer or anything like that, but it's not. I don't have. I'm like, my knees hurt a little bit less than normal this week, but

other than that, the rest of my body hurts. So I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Well, here's one thing I did want to ask you about from the last few months. This happened like earlier this summer, I think, but I introduced you as the Emperor of the Sportsman's Empire. Yeah, so, so why the name change and and plug Sportsman's Empire and everything you've got going on these days? Because you're just going like gangbusters. And since the last time we were on the show, I

think you've added another like five podcasts or something. So what's what's new with your business world? It's not like I don't I I still don't understand it, right, Like I don't understand how something that I have done has turned out to be as successful as it is, right. So, and what I mean successful, I don't mean like I'm a millionaire. I mean I'm actually getting to do this for a living, right, So, Like it started off with

the Nine Finger Chronicles and that was great. Then the Sportsman's Nation happened and then basically to avoid uh, I don't know. Uh. You know, sometimes in the business world there's some bullshit, right, some bullshit popped up, and uh, I instead of going to bat and trying to fight it, which I did for a little bit, I decided just to flip it just by one word and go with

a Sportsman's Empire. And uh and now I'm safe and the Sportsman's Empire, and and I could sit here and I could tell you that, uh it was it was planned. It wasn't planned. It was just you know, sometimes crazy things in business happened, and I needed an adjustment. So I made the adjustment, and uh, we're still firing on all cylinders. So it was a seamless transition into the from the Sportsman's Nation to the Sportsman's Empire, and uh,

things are good. And I don't know, man, we we just we continue to put out really good content from some really really good content providers. And it's like a

family over here. Man. It's pretty cool. That's awesome. So if there was like, no, I don't want you to offend any of your family members, but if you had to recommend for for people that listen to Wired to Hunt, so for folks that you know, you know, the folks that listen to Wired to Hunt if they wanted to try out some of the shows over in your crew, who would be like a couple of the top shows they should check out. That would be like a good fill in the gaps when they don't have any Wired

Hunt and listen to. Yeah, so that's a great question. And so the good thing about the Sportsman's Empire is there's a couple of podcasts in there that are state specific. For example, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Michigan coming very soon, Wisconsin, and uh, I think there's one more Oklahoma. Okay, so if you're living those states, we have state specific content

coming out for you, all right. But you know how me and you were Midwestern guys, and so we don't really know too much about the strategies and tactics of the South. Um My buddy Parker McDonald over at the Southern Ground podcast he is, uh, he's killing it with Southern focused content. He's the man you and you've hung out with him before too, so um and then for someone who wants to do something a little different, and uh, and I could sit here and talk about all these podcasts.

I mean, there's there's so much, there's so much good content. If you're a habitat guy, if you're a a d I Y junkie, like, we have stuff for that. But I'm gonna I'm gonna go way out of the box here and I'm gonna say there's a there's a podcast and it is probably it is the biggest sporting dogs podcast out there. It's called The Houndsman XP podcast. These guys are die hard coon hunters and competitive coon hunting. They talk about dog breeding, they talk about that lifestyle

and things like that's very interesting. It's uh, it's one of the top performers on on the network. And because you know, just like just like all the podcasts, the people behind it are real passionate about what they do and that you can just feel that through the their their their podcast. Sweet, I love it. We'll glad, You're glad. It's going on all cylinders man. And my only question then, is is all of this business success and crazy work.

I know it's one of those things like you do you took this job, like you chase this dream so you'd have time to go hunt and stuf off. But I know sometimes it ends up being the opposite and that we get so obsessed with our business work and that there's so much to do and all the pressures on you that you then don't get outside as much. Do you feel like leading into this hunting season, are you in a good place to get out in the woods or are you gonna be slammed and sitting at

the computer the whole series. So I just hired a guy. So and Josh, if you're listening, I mean this with all due respect, I hope he slammed in, not me, you know what I mean? Uh Um, But no, I hired a guy to help me out, and uh so, that's that's a win right there. As far as the business side of it is concerned, yes, man, it it's it's taking up a lot more time, and I the prep work for the seasons, I'm behind right like I'm behind on trail cameras, I'm behind on any type of scouting.

I'm behind on the tree stands, setups and things like that that I've done in the past, which in the past I've relied a lot on that, but in the recent past I found success doing the you know, the mobile you know in first time in best time in type scenarios, just like last year, and a lot of focus on Western hunts where you can't you can't scout throughout I mean, I I'm not I'm not gonna make a trip out west just to scout, you know, during the summer months or the fall. And but so that's

the negative part of it. But the positive part of it is is the brownie points have been at a all time high this year as far as being the little league coach, you know, being the soccer coach, um, doing things with a family, doing things with a wife. Right. I just got back from uh, a husband wife trip from UH from Nashville, Tennessee, and uh so the brownie points they're stacked this year. And I am gonna use every single one of them this this fall, like I'm

planning on I'm going ben Anna's. And I think my wife knows that and so far she's cool with it. So we'll see what happens. Did you get her name tattooed on your butt cheek? I saw you got a new tattoo the other day. No, I got a. I got a picture of you on my forearm. I would I would die happy man, that was the kid. No I got a. I got my kids initials H A A M K on my on my forearm, and I got a pretty cool on my other forearm. I got a cool looking arrow. And you know I didn't I've

I don't have any hunting related tattoos. And it was time. I was feeling it and I was like, you know what, I'm here in Nashville. Why don't I get get an arrow? And uh? And so here's the cool thing though, I'm getting this tattoo, and my tattoo artist he's killed one deer. He's from New York City, he moved to Nashville. He's dating a girl from Nashville whose parents own a ranch in Montana, and he went out there and he shot his first deer. I think it was last year or

the year before. And so we had these this awesome conversation while I'm getting fresh tattoo about hunting and you know, like, what's the next step if I want to do this? And I'm like, man, I'm gonna need a bigger tattoo because this this conversation doesn't take you know, isn't a quick conversation. So it was that that that portion of it was cool because he he really wants to get into more hunting. So that's sweet, just sending the sports and his empire. Do you get that? Do you bust

out that business card? Oh? Yeah, dude, I I sent it to him. I I showed him some picks. He showed me some picks, and and uh, I think I think we're gonna probably stay in contact and and hopefully uh, I don't. I didn't want to say a mentor because uh, I told him, Hey man, I know people in Tennessee. I know people in northern Alabama or in this general area.

So if you're looking to be more educated, I said, I'll hook you up anyway I can, so that you know, I did my part to try to get this guy to stay in hunting and uh and spread his wings into archery. Very cool. Yeah, I love it. Tattoos for you? Any new tattoos? Yeah? Have you gotten a tattoo? No? Do you have the tattoos? I did not do not. Are you ever going to get a tattoo? You know? I actually have been considering it. Um My wife is really into tattoos, so she she wants to get some

new ones. She's got I don't know, five or something like that, and she's threatening to get something new, and so I've got to thinking maybe I would go and and get my first one. Um, it would probably have to be your face on my forearm. So yeah, dude, that would be sweet. We should get we should get matching tattoos my face on your forearm, your your face on my crotch inside of my thigh or something like that. Yeah, man,

that that sounds pretty cool, sounds good. Yeah, I don't know, man, I thought all serious, its like maybe a tattoo on my upper arm or forearm, and have to be something like hunting, fishing, outdoor related, something that just basically like stamps me forever, like this is my thing. Um, I said, have figured out what that right thing is, so we'll see. So I got a I got an idea. This is what I think my next tattoo is gonna because after I got this tattoo, it looks pretty sweet and it's

very simple, but I want something with meaning. And I thought about getting of a pretty cool uh tattoo of tapo lines and in that this topo line is going to have a little star in it somewhere and it's going to be the location of like my favorite tree stand to hunt, and you can look at and go man, like, look at all the memories I can see just on these topic lines so or or like GP coordinates or

something like that. That is that is cool and something like you like only you would be able to learn out about and like look at and be able to see all the detail and remember what those little lines actually stand for. That's yeah, that's a cool idea, Dan, Yeah, ah, man, I like it. Well, here here's how's the boys. The boys are crazy. I mean they're they're two and four now, so you know what those ages are like, Um, they're

a blast. We just got back from Idaho, so we were out there for the last three months and uh, they were just wild mountain men. Did a lot of camping. I think we camped like seventeen eighteen nights and um did a lot of hiking and a lot of a lot of water time this year because the kids are just very very into catching critters now. So my oldest has become like he has my d NA, no doubt about it. Like he is obsessed. Like he will sit by the creek with his net and catch minnows. He

would literally do it for eight hours straight. Like he can focus and wants nothing else but to catch an animal. So he's been This year was the first year he really was able to put all together and start doing all the stuff on his own. So he's catching minnows, he's catching like big sculpting, he's catching crayfish, he's catching frogs, um and tadpoles, and so he's just like, that's all he wants to do is catch these things. So he we had we did a lot of that, more and

more fishing. Um. Everett caught his first fish on a fly rod by himself this year, so it was pretty sweet. Um and uh yeah, I mean just did a lot of exploring, a lot of climbing bowlers and just being boys, boys being boys. So it was great summer, had a lot of fun, caught a lot of fish and uh and now though like everyone's brain is switching to white tails in a big way. We're back in Michigan. The

boys are playing right now. Literally just before I started this podcast, the boys came crashing in my office and said we need our rattling andlers. And they came in here and got rattling andlers and the two year olds got his like orange beanie on his head. Everett's got a buy no harness on his chest like you guys are nuts. They're uh, they're really into it. So they they play hunting all the time and they shoot their

bows and it's it's super fun. The whole brother dynamic has really gotten to a new place now that now that Colt's bold enough that they can really engage like peers. So they're just terrible toesome and uh, luckily they're they seem to be into the stuff that I'm into right now, and we're having a lot of fun sharing it together, so that I'm excited for this fall hopefully more blood

trails and stuff. I think I told you last time that Everett is just like he doesn't have the color blindness issue that I have, so he is like my blood trailing savior. He can see the blood. He's my new trailing dog. So he just goes out there like there's blood, there's blood, there's blood. So it's very very handy.

That's awesome. That's awesome. So so I think that's a great segue into like the main thing that I was hoping we could talk about today, which is like what our hopes are for the year, Like you know how every I think every year we've done like a goals, hopes and hit lists conversation. I've gotten a request the guy, some some guy hit me up on Instagram the other day and he's like, Hey, what are you and Mark gonna do another one of these? These are my favorite episodes. Yeah, exactly,

I've gotten I've gotten some list too. So we had to do it. We had to get get caught up and get caught up on you know, what's what we're doing this coming to year, what our hopes and goals are for the year, if we have any specific hit lists, bucks, all that kind of stuff. So I figured out would be the perfect time since the since the ramp up is in full speed now, So are your game? Your game for that? I'm down. Let's get it started, all right? What do you uh? Let's first like cover plans, like

just like where are you hunting? And I'll do the same too, because I haven't talked about this either, So what's your yeah? Man? So about a month ago, my slate got flipped up on what I thought was gonna happen in here in Iowa. Al Right, So I didn't really I didn't kind of know that if you asked me a month ago, how what the fall was gonna look like. It would have been uncertain. I don't I don't know what would have happened. Right. I have my main farm where I killed my buck last year in Iowa,

still there. But I lost, Uh. I lost the farm that I hunt that's really close to me, right. The landowner passed away and the kids are gonna sell it. Yeah, so uh so I'm down. I'm down that property. And then the previous year I lost, uh I lost uh what was it like a hundred and sixty acres? So, but I I didn't do anything off season to kind of try to find anything new per se for, you know, to find new property. I've just been leaning towards the public side of things, all right, So I was a

little uncertain. Well, here's the very short story of it. I got connected with a guy who owns like I want to say, just under two I think it's somewhere around two hundred acres in a different county here in Iowa that nobody hunts. And he's like, well, my my, uh, my cousin hunted it. Uh he passed away two years ago and no one, no one hunts it anymore. And if you would like to you know, you're more than you're more than welcome to comment hunt it, and so

that intrigues me. Yeah. So, uh, it's a lot of egg ground, but it's in a really good neighborhood. And so I kind of just fell into this property. I had some help from another another guy and who lives in Wisconsin. He's like, man, I can't hunt Iowa every year. You know, why don't you take a look at the you know, take a look at this property. Let me know what you think. And when I draw an Eyowa tag, maybe you can show me the ropes. And I'm like, yeah, dude, absolutely,

let's do it. So I I picked that piece of property up and I think Sunday, this upcoming Sunday, I'm gonna be heading down there to throw up some trail cameras, do a quick summer push for scouting, and and then hopefully come back in a month or so check the trail cameras and just see what's living on this property. The guy says, Now, I don't know the definition of good deer is different for all people. So I don't know what good what he means by good dear. You know,

my definition might be different from his. Cousin's definition. Um, he said he's found some good antlers shed hunting it before, So I don't know, we'll see, we'll see what happens, Um, But I'm I'm I'm jack to go start the process over. It's been a couple of years since I've gotten a new property, and it's so yeah, exact, I love that, you know, starting a fresh chess game on a new board and you know, playing playing the game. And we'll

see what happens on there. But I'm going to South Dakota for sure, more than likely going to be going to Nebraska. And let's see Nebraska in September. I think October I'm gonna go to South Dakota and depending on how what October looks like, Dude, I'm gonna try to get down to Oklahoma and possibly Missouri this year. Yeah, so you add in that's what That's what I'm saying, Mark. The brownie points are at an all time high, and I think I'm gonna be able to get away with it.

I'm and I'm burning the bridge down to and I'm gonna and then after the season's over, I'll rebuild it all. Put the brownie points back in the pot and and start all over again. It's an annual cycle. What I know, you're Nebraska and South Are you doing the same kind of stuff You've done in Nebraska and South Dakota, same areas, same general type of hunt. Yeah, somewhat. There's been some changes is recently with units and tag allocations in Nebraska,

so that part has to be will be changed. But South Dakota probably going to one of the same areas that I've gone to, not last year, but the year before. Um, it's gonna be a mule deer focused trip. Oklahoma will probably be it will be a white tail however, they got some They got some mule deer in western Oklahoma too.

Don't know what I'm gonna do there. And then Missouri will be a probably like one of those four day hunts where I popped down there during the week, hit him up and uh, you know, hit a piece of public up. See what I can do closer to late October and uh. And then if I do good in Iowa and I connect right off the bat like I did last year, then I'll drop down and go somewhere else. Uh down, back down to Oklahoma or back down to

Missouri or something like that. So the Oklahoma Missouri stuff is that is that both public land and you're just like just winging it against trying to find something or have you like scouted and found spots you like already or what's what's the progress? Yeah, yeah, so I've got most of it's just been digital scouting, right looking for

water access. I'm like one chin hair away from buying a beater beater boat that I can use to pull down there and some of some of these properties and access public ground through waterways, right, So I don't know,

we'll see. It's uh, some of that stuff still up in the air, guaranteed for sure, because I already have the tag is South Dakota, but how the rest of those three states lay out because they're close, you know, And and way on the back burner is also Minnesota and Wisconsin because yeah, just just and that's way on the back burner because of how close everything is to Iowa. And so if you know, some of those aren't gonna happen.

But if I if I have one of those dream years that everybody talks about, and you just you show up someplace, shoot a deer, show up someplace, shoot a deer, show up someplace, shoot a deer, and uh, I have all my tags filled and I still have time. Well, then I'm gonna use that time this year, and uh, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go do some exploring and have a little adventure this year. What what happened to you?

Because I remember a few years ago, Dan, I was always bitching at you, like, go hunt some other places, hunt some other places, and you said, why would I ever leave Iowa When everywhere else I go I know won't be as good as this? So why would I leave here? What happened, Dan? How other than the fact that you have a lot more flexibility with your job,

what changed in your brain? And now all of a sudden you're wanting to go chase public land, dear, on all these other states where I'm telling you one thing, Dan, I know from experience, it will not be as good as your stuff in Iowa. No, no, no, And dude, there's been a I think we've even talked about this in one of the episodes, and I can't remember if

it was me on yours or yours on mine. But you know, you have this awakening where you really kind of what is important type of deal and and yes, I'm all it's awesome for me to be able to go chase big bucks in Iowa. And my standard in Iowa is higher than anywhere else. I really I realized that now, and I realized that I can go out and and killing my buck in South Dakota last year

was a perfect example. He's not a giant, he wasn't the even the biggest dear that I saw or attempted to hunt, but I got him and it was an amazing experience and I had so much fun doing it. And I'm like, dude, if I can fit this in other places, I'm gonna go do it. And so it's not about like it's in Iowa. Yes, it's about trying to locate the biggest, baddest buck, right, but there's so much other adventure out there. Uh, landscape changes, just the

experience behind all of it. That's what I want now. And I want to be able to go, you know, talk to my kids or my grandkids or some buddies at a trade show or or you know, at a bar, me like, oh, dude, I'm hunting Nebraska. Oh yeah, I've hunted there. Yeah, I've hunted there too. Oh yeah, I've hunted there. That's a great place. I like that state, you know that kind of stuff, And so it's just more about realizing that, dude, nobody lives forever and if you want to go do some of this right now

with the time to go do it. Yeah. Yeah, man, you are speaking my language right there with you. It's a it's awesome stuff. Man. I'm glad to hear you're gonna have a fun season. Yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be a blast. And um, I don't know, man, we'll we'll see what happens. What about you, dude, are are you? Uh? I know that what last year was a full schedule for you? Yeah, So what's what's on

the docket this year? Yes, the last year was nuts, And as you and I talked about this spring on your show, it like forced me into like rethinking a lot of stuff and pivoting and kind of refocusing on what matters to me, like you said, and what makes me happy and satisfy with all this kind of stuff. So so this year, I think it's going to be a pretty different year in a lot of regards, and I'm I'm very fired up and excited about it. Again.

But it took me a while to get here. Like I had a long period this winter and spring where I just didn't want to think about any of the stuff or do any of the stuff. I had a serious burnout issue this year. But I'm back and uh and stoked about so we can talk about some of that stuff. But as far as like this literal plans where I'm going, I'm gonna do the Idaho public land

thing again for white Tails. Basically, I've got you Furthers coming up, so I'm hoping I was hoping to weasel my way in there and be like, oh, first, can't come Well, I know someone who might go, well, you give me a show if you want to come along one of those times. There's there's lots of stuff out there. Um, it's it's a it's a it's a tough it's a

it's a weird situation. So it's a tough spot. But also like there's good opportunity and it's kicked my tail the last couple of years, and uh, me and further just want to like get it done at least once before we explore anywhere else. So exactly, so we're gonna

do the Idaho thing. And then in October basically what I did, Like last year, I had like nine different states, I think, and there was like periods where I was gone like three weeks out of four and it was just too much, way too much travel, way too much, just like anxiety around every one of these trips and what we were trying to get done, you YadA, YadA, YadA. So this year I've just tried to scale back a lot of stuff and and do things that are just

like for fun. I'm just choosing places and doing hunts now that are like something I'm gonna be excited about to go to this place or to be with this person or something like that, versus like, oh, I gotta go to the spot because I'm gonna kill a hundred six buck or anything like that. It's you know, when we get to our goals, I'll talk about that more. But basically, like the Idaho hunt is fun because me and Further go there and there's this place and we

can fish and we can hunt and it's cool. So then in October, me and our buddy Tony Peterson are going to do a hunt together in North Dakota, and that one's gonna be fun because it's an area that we both just think super pretty, super cool and hopefully we'll kill a deer there and that would be like where to go out camp there, hunt public land and uh, you know, not high standards, shoot whatever we can shoot,

but that'll be cool. So that's my October trip. Um in November, I'm doing I am filming a hunt in November, and that is for our one Week in November show that we did last year. We're doing a season two of that, and I'm filming that hunt in Nebraska first week in November, and that one's gonna be another one that I chose just because like it's a super fun area.

I'm gonna try to kill one with a handheld decoy again because I tried that last year for the first time and I didn't get it done, but I had a riot, Like it was a lot of fun and I want to give a shot again. So we're gonna go do that. So it would be a very different kind of rut hunt, right, I will just be run around chasing stuff and uh, just enjoying myself. So that's my November trip. And then in December, I'm gonna go and hunt with do you know the guys from the Element,

Tyler Jones and Casey Smith. You do, Yeah, I've I don't think i've met him in person, but I've talked to him. Yeah. Cool dudes, And um, they're doing some stuff with us, and so I'm gonna go hunt with them in Texas on some public land down there, which sounds like it'll be gnarly, just like spiny thorny cactus e crap. And uh, we're gonna try to kill a white tail down there in public. So that is the that's the for sure plan. So like one trip a month versus like three trips a month, so I think

it'll be much more manageable from the travel front. And then of course I'll be hunting at home in Michigan on my Michigan places, and then I'll be throughout all that. And then there's a there's a chance. I'm still kind of working on it, but I might have access to some stuff in Ohio and if that ends up coming through, that will be kind of like my I'll go for a day this week, I'll go for two days next week. They'll just kind of here there since that's relatively close

to home. Um, So that's that's what my twenty two season looks like it's uh what, Idaho, Dakota, Nebraska, and Texas. It's all public land, I guess as far as all the traveling hunts, but Michigan and Ohio would be private. Um. So good mix of stuff, good mix of the country. Um. And you know, last year, as you know, I was filming those two shows, and one of those shows was a lot of that travel, and it was just like it was just it's it's gonna be nice this year

to not be filming as much. Not that I don't like to film, but filming just adds something that just makes it more difficult and more stressful. It's not quite

the same kind of experience. And so this year scaling back a little bit on it, and I think that will be nice, just a little reset button for me and doing some some fun different hunts, but fun or fun in the way that I can just like go out there, experience them, have stories to tell from them, but not necessarily the same in that the camera brings. So yeah, that's that's what I've got on schedule. I'm

pretty excit about him. Let me let me ask you this, after a burnout season, like you mentioned, how how and when does that recovery go from burnout to the fire started again? What's that look like? So for me, it really was like all like you know, my season ended like January twelve or something like that, and from January until like the summer, I really was not too into, you know, getting serious about deer stuff. It really was like four or five six months. Not that I wasn't

doing things. I was still writing about deer stuff. I was still doing a few things here and there, um, But it wasn't like I was throwing on a deer hunting show on YouTube or something. I was not consuming dear content for fun. I wasn't like texting buddies about deer for fun. Um. I went the opposite, and I like just removed myself from it in a big way and went hard on like the other things I like. So I have I probably had my fishiest year ever,

Like I fished more probably than ever before. Really you know, continue diving down that wormhole and have had a blast doing that. Um, really really really enjoy that. And that's like zero pressure, zero expectations, just like just fun, nothing else. And and I've needed that, like I've needed that thing. I can like uh, dive into without any of the other like strings attached and and so that's been a blast.

But then like you know, June May and June probably starting to get the itch, and then July like all right, like I was fired up, and now that August is here, like now I'm I'm full blown obsessed mode where like every night I'm watching some kind of video at night, or I'm reading some kind of article, or I'm going back and listening to old podcasts. I'm staring at my maps and all that kind of stuff. But it took me, you know, it took me a good chunk of time

to get back there. Um, and I'm glad I'm back there. And I've had like a lot, uh, Like we had a really good conversation to spring, you and I talking about this stuff, and I've had a couple of those, and I've had to kind of like just like last year was really like a breaking point for me in like a lot of different ways, and just like what

I want to do with this in this world? You know, what's what what are my goals for myself with with this thing I've been doing, And who do I want to be and who do I not want to be. I haven't been chasing like something that's maybe not really what I want, and I've kind of landed in a place that has me feeling better than I have in a long time, just basically like a big middle finger two to the expectations of what other people might want

of me or what other people are doing. I think that the saying is like comparison is the death of joy or something like that. And I think I've realized that for too long, I've allowed myself to be too worried about how I compared to other people, or how my performance compares to other people, or how my success or my numbers or whatever. I think. I'm very as people know, I'm very goal oriented, very achievement oriented, and I sometimes have let that like get into my head

too much. And I finally kind of sound like I don't need to be I don't need to be Mark Dreary or Andy may or Levi Morgan. I'm not gonna be like I. I can be a very happy deer hunter, and I think I can still be successful in this line of business just being what I am, which is someone who loves this stuff, someone who's a pretty good storyteller, but someone who's you know, a decent but average hunter. Like I screw up a lot. I don't always I'm not always going to be killing big deer, and I

don't always want to do that. I don't want my life to be one percent nothing, but you know, managing and growing deer and shooting two hundreds every year. Maybe I'm just going to be a person who loves the fish and hiking camp too, and really loves the deer hunt and gets out there and kills a good one ever a few years, but also screws up every few years, and good or bad, he's gonna tell a fun story about it that you can relate to, Like, I think that's the only thing that has led to me being

successful in any kind of way. And rather than fighting to be something different than that, I think I'm just coming in terms of being who I am and what I am and embracing that and enjoying that versus like punishing myself because I'm not killing four big bucks a year because I don't have as successful of a video

series of somebody else, Like forget all that stuff. I'm just sick of worrying about that kind of thing, and uh and all that I think kind of I had to have a year like last year where I kind of realized, like, you were just killing yourself for a stupid thing, get back to the fun of it. And so that's that's where I am this year, I think. And um, I think also last year, like I killed, I had a tough year in so many different ways.

But another thing I did, which was kind of freeing, as I killed a couple of young bucks and you know, it was actually fun and I don't really feel bad about it. And I think that also changed my perspective on what I can do and what I should do and what I will do as well. So I'm not gonna feel bad if I go out on these public plan hunts and you know, tag a smaller buck or younger buck if that's if that gets me excited, if

that would be something I'd be pretty pumped about. Um, I'm just kind of done with comments on YouTube or what people send me on d ms on Instagram or what someone at work says or whatever. I'm just gonna do me And uh, I think that's gonna I think that's gonna work pretty well. Hey, you go get it, like I love that. I Uh, dude, I'm I'm in

the same boat. Man. The best part about all that you can kind of boil it down is is, uh, I stopped giving a ship about what other people thought about me a very long time ago, and uh um, it's free to be able to do what you want and enjoy your own success the way you define it, not someone else. So uh, dude, I hope that whatever you're looking for, you find it and you slay it. Nice buddy. So let's let's talk about that a little more. Let's talk goals. So I'll just briefly expand on what

I just said there. My my, my season is very different than maybe like six seven years ago when you and I did one of these episodes, because back then or even five or six years ago, we would have these goals hopes, some hit list conversation and I beg, all right, my goal is to kill a five year old buck in Michigan or like a four or five year old buck in Ohio. And I want to kill only Holy Field in Michigan. And I got a fill

a tag in this day in this stick. You know, I was very that this year I only have two goals. Goal Number one is just is just keep it fun, Like I just want this year to be fun. And that's like anytime I'm in a tough spot or um debating what to do, or I'm sitting there and I'm starting to stress out about shooting hunt here or there, I'm just gonna remind myself, is this fun? And I'm

gonna do what's what's fun this year. And I'm actually betting that that's probably gonna make me more successful too, or at least okay with whatever success comes by, because as you've you've heard over many years, I allow myself to get pretty stressed out during the hunting season. So this year, it's like I keep on telling myself, it's gonna be my season of joy, Like that's what it's gonna be about. So that's goal number one, and then goal number two is shooting. I just want good, clean shots.

I don't want any more rush shots. I don't want a gut shot, I don't want to miss. I just want good shots. So this spring, this is one thing I have been doing all year, more than I have in the past. I've kept shooting all through the whole year pretty much. And in April I met with a shooting coach, had a really good time with him, and uh kind of tore down my whole system again and rebuilt it. And I've been shooting since April all the way through the summer, and I'm feeling better about my

shooting than ever before. So I'm excited about that and I just want that to continue this year. So if I can have fun all year, and if I can, you know, sometimes you can't control the situation. But if I can feel like I had in control shots as year, where I know I did my part right at least, then this year is going to be a success. I don't care what I shoot. I don't care if it's five big bucks or nothing. If I can do those two things, this is gonna be a very successful year.

So those are my two goals for this year. Now I do have other hopes, but those are my two goals. So that's that's what I got there. What do you go from a goal standpoint? Man, I'll tell you what it's like. The more I do this, the less I want to make goals because something always happens, or something changes so quickly before a moment of success or before a moment of failure, you find yourself going you know, that's not even what I wanted in the first place.

But your mind changed, right. So if I you know, right now in Iowa, and I'm after a big, fat, mature buck, right, that's that's what I want. I want a four four year old or older five year old or older. Um, I don't know if he's got big fat, If he's got big antlers, that would be awesome. Um no, lie there. But on on top of that, you know, on my out of state hunts, it's gonna be any I llegal, any legal buck. Uh. And then as those vacation time or as that that trip starts to wind down,

it's gonna be any legal deer. So I don't know, man, it's I'm I. I like to go into these things with absolutely zero expectations now and just go with the flow and let whatever happens happens. And I think that if if you start to what what I My goal is to learn how to hunt animals in different environments. And so when I go out west to Nebraska, completely different landscape than what I hunt in Iowa or South Dakota or you know this year Oklahoma, these are different landscapes.

So in order for me to be successful, I have to learn, and I can't. I can't just say, hey, I'm looking for any legal buck, because hell, I don't even know where any legal buck lives out there right now.

I have to go educate myself on how to hunt in these environments and and use the principles from how I think dear move and other scenarios, or what I've learned in the shorter period, you know, a short period of time in some of my other Western hunting experiences or out of state hunts, and and really go and try to focus on you know, focus on what how how they move through the terrain, and just learn about dear behavior and other environments. And and once I can

do that, then I feel like I can go. Okay, my goal this year is this because I know how they live out here now, and and honestly, man, I wish I could say I do know how they live, but I really don't. It's it's just I'm not. I'm still in data collection mode and education mode on my oddest date hunts, and in Iowa, I'm in a completely different mode. I'm in you know, I'm in locate a big deer and try to kill him mode. So two completely different Uh, like a set of expectations to different goals,

you know all that stuff. So yeah, that's my goal. I get that. Now you mentioned Iowa being different. Do you have any bucks that you hope made it to this year from the from last year that you know and have history with or is there any of that you actually know for sure based on a picture cell can't picture anything yet, Like, do you have any specific deer that you know would tickularly your fancy if they

showed up? Yeah, there's only this year, only one, because well, I lost the main property the we're I think I told the story about I was one ridge over all last year from a really big deer. Lost that property, right, However, it's next to some public so I might be able to backdoor in there and uh maybe see if it's running that core area as well. I might throw a trail camera up in there. Uh come you know, come September.

But outside of that, I really do think that, um, outside of that man one buck, I think there's one deer that showed up last year that was well excuse me too, both of them eight pointers. One was a clean, clean four year old. I mean he was pretty, he was pretty wide. He was pretty tall. I mean he's like a giant eight and then another eight pointer not as big of a frame, but he had junk all over the place, like junk on the base, is junk

coming off the g twos and things like that. And uh, the first one that I mentioned, I didn't get any pictures of him after the season, but the the eight pointer was junk that owed up. He showed up late January after the season is over, so but I haven't had any pictures of him yet so far. However, all my trail cameras are out late. I have one cell camera up in that area and it's not catching anything too serious. I did. I did have one mature buck

on camera so far, only one. He's an eight point or two, but he's not right on that cusp of do I want to put my tag around him or not? So we'll see. Um. So as far as just to answer your question, probably just one deer so far that I have any type of history with, well, does that does that make you nervous at all? Or do you feel like you know, you've had years like this in

the past and September October they'll be there. Yeah, dude, that's why I try not to get so jacked up anymore because I look at look, you know seven years ago, you know when we started the uh the Wired to Hunt podcast, and we would have these conversations and I would a mark, Dude, I got seven shooters on the property right now, and every year, guess what would happen

at September the old shift? They're gone, you have the old September shift, and so that I know it's coming, so I know sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad. So I don't even get my hopes up anymore until

it's time to go actually hunt those properties. And so sometimes I may not even I may not even really get too hype about anything anymore until October or like late October, I mean, And so who knows who like, who knows what's gonna what's gonna happen, And a lot of it has to depend on my first my first card poll before the the process starts, if that makes sense, right, locating a deer via trail camera, trying to triangulate his position and then hop into a really good terrain feature

where he's at at that time, and hopefully, uh, I don't know, man, hopefully get have an encounter with a shooter. Yeah, it's come a long way, haven't we. Things have changed, Yeah, yeah, and I think it's all for the better too, write I find myself enjoying the time spending the tree stand more these days then you know even five years ago where it was. Man, you know, I gotta shoot a buck. I gotta shoot a buck now, I know what I

need to do. I just you know, if a deer show like I just I just need the deer to show up, and you can't. You can't sit there and stress like, oh my god, a deer it's not showing up. I'm I'm so frustrated. Well, they're You're wasting your energy at that point, right, You gotta you gotta start over again, and then you keep you keep going through whatever process works for you. And that's that's what I'm trying to do.

I wonder if like this, like that trajectory, if that's tied to age, or if that's tied to like your journey along with the path as a deer hunter, Like is there something to be said like this, like stress and comparison all that is yet just because we are younger and now we're aging out of that or is it actually like we've come into our own as hunters, and we for a long time we are still just there was so much to figure out, there was so

much to really get our heads around. And now like we both are confident in our experience and what we know and how to do it. And now it's it's it's it's different. Now, it's like, Okay, we know what to do, and if if it doesn't work out, it's not because we're idiots, it's because it didn't happen today. But we, you know, we're confident in the path. And and I wonder if that's part of like this shift in our mindsets in recent years. Um, I don't know, yeah, And and so I can't speak for you, but I

can speak for me, alright. So let's see here sixteen seventeen, eighteen nineteen. So I'm on a seven year run in in Iowa, right, and so as far as my skills are concerned, I'm confident. I'm not shaky, like you know, like there's a difference probably between a rookie going to the Super Bowl and Tom Brady going to the super Bowl, you know what I mean. Now, I'm not trying to sit here and compare myself to Tom Brady. But I've been around the block now a couple of times, and

I know that I know how this thing works. Right If if they don't show up, there's no reason to get stressed about it. You have to do your job and do what has worked in the past. And you can do that without getting stressed or worked up about it. Just do what you do what you do. Just just put the plan into process or into you know, into go mode, and it just it just kind of happens

at that point. And when it happens, then I feel like it's more pure, and it's uh, it's less like reading a textbook and more like catching the ultimate wave like uh, like body from point break. God, that's great. You had to somehow get a point break reference and hell yeah, I don't know, man, it's just um, it's just this this thing that I love to do, you know what I mean. Like it's it's not it's not

frustrating like running, it's like walking. It's as like it's not as I don't know how to put it without sounding and kind of arrogant. But I feel like I've figured certain things out, especially in Iowa. Right, But you remove me from what I feel very comfortable and confident in on the farms that I hunt in the terrain in Iowa. And now I'm a different hunter right because of the different scenarios and the different environments and things like that. So I'm two different people in in and

out of certain worlds. So in Iowa, man, I'm confident like I can go into I could go into an area and I can say, well, of all the other places I've hunted, this, this is a good. This place looks like big Buck would live here, and I would either throw a trail camera in there or I would hunt it a couple of times. And I bet you that I'm gonna I'm gonna find the deer that live in this area if I give it enough time, A good deer in whatever area I'm hunting. And you take

me out of that, Yeah, it's different. Yeah m hmmm, I um, I get that, hundredson, Get that. And I will say, kind of rewinding the tape a little bit and just jumping back into kind of how I have said, you know, here in my local stuff, I'm not it's worried about you know, specific deer or anything. I still do get excited though, to possibly see one of these deer, you know again, Like yeah, for a lot for a

few years, there is you know very well. I was like upset with specific deer right and it was like I gotta kill this one deer and it was like that deer or bust um. And and now I feel like I'm still excited for a couple of deers show up and hopefully get a crack at them. But I'm also like I've just kind of come to the terms of the fact, back to what we've been talking about the whole time, Like nobody cares if I kill this deer or not, Like nobody really cares. Why should I

care that much? I mean, this is not like for death. This is just we're just out there chasing, as our buddy Tony likes to say, rabbits with antlers with a stick and string, and there's no reason to do it except to have fun and to put meat in the freezer. So why am I out there freaking out about whether or not someone's gonna kill my buck quote unquote or

if it's gonna happen. Like I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna hope to see one of these deer and I'm gonna, you know, keep tabs on them as best as I can, and I'll study the patterns and I'll do the thing because it's fun. But if it just doesn't happen, I'm just I'm just sick of getting all frustrated about it. So yeah, in that world, there's only one person. It's me. Yeah, you know, you're you.

You are in your world. I'm not in your world, right, And so that's that's where I really think a lot of people get frustrated in is because they're not they're there. There's too much into the equation. They're putting too much into the equation where the equation is quite simple if

you can figure it out. And once you figure it out, you're like, oh man, this is this is awesome and and it's it's okay to let people into your world sometimes, but when it comes to defining success and actually having success, you're you're in control of that, nobody else is. So one last thing I gotta I gotta drop in here before we wrap it up, which is just uh, the hopes I have for a few deer in my Michigan spots because most of my honest state stuff saw that

I saw the velvet, the velvet video you posted. I mean, anythink about that one? Is that compare him to some of the deer that you've gotten the past off that property. So this is in that general area. Um, so this is down in my local. I've got some different Michigan spots, and in that area, I've killed some you know, some

pretty good deer. You know, bucks, uh four to six years old, And I killed my biggest Michigan buck, which is like a hundred sixty five in ten pointer, and then I've got a couple others that are like one thirty one forty. Um. So I got eyes the other day on a buck that's probably the middle of the pack on that one. He's the kind of deer that really, if you gave him another year, you know, he'd be

like a mega giant. Um. But there's no way I'm passing like a hundred forty five hundred fifty thirteen pointer or something. So so yeah, I got eyes on a really nice buck. Um. He's got splits off both of his brow times and both of his G two's, So like one G two is a really deep split and the other G two is more of like a hook coming off of it, and then on his brow times there's like a small split coming off both brow times and actually a little tiny like sticker drop or almost

coming off the main beam. And otherwise he's a main frame eight. So he's an eight with all that stuff. Um, so, really really cool deer. We don't get like nontypicals like that, at least in the areas I hunt very often. So that's a very uncommon set of characteristics. So that's just exciting to see a deer like that. Um. I actually got footage of him. I saw him again when I

was out glassing last night too. Um I there's a possibility he's a buck that I no. I never saw this buck last year, but I got a lot of pictures of him. He had split brow times last year. And again, like I said, we don't get those kinds of deer. Um. So it's the only split brow time buck I've had on camera. And I don't know years, three or four years, and now this buck comes back has splits, but more junk. It's not a perfect match.

Like you know, sometimes the bucks you can see like it's obvious for sure, like they just got bigger, but all the same characteristics. This buck is like ish like kinda so I don't know, maybe maybe not, but super cool buck. Um. I did see another buck for sure. That is a deer from last year. I found this bucks shed two years ago. He was a wide eight pointer. Last year he popped a ninth point, so he was a nine points a three year old last year saw

him like everywhere was passing him. And this year he's back. He's a ten pointer now but otherwise it looks exactly the same. And so he'll be a four year old this year and a deer I've seen a lot and super cool, so he'd be one I take a crack at would be excited about. Uh. So he's the wide nine and then the the number one buck. I have yet to see him, but I know he made it through the season. Um, he's a deer. I was calling Jr. Because two years ago, two or three years ago, whenever

it was that, I was still in tran Um. This buck looked like him, but like a junior version of him, like a miniature version of him, and like every time I see him coming through the woods of like, oh ship's tran And then I realized it was not it was the little guy. Um, so I passed him a bunch that year, and then last year he was a deer I would have shot as a four year old last year and he was like just a big, really big eight pointer, um, and never got a crack at him,

made it through. I don't know if he's still around this year, but he was around as of like late January or February. So knock on wood, hopefully he'll be around this year. And my guests that he'll just be a really big eight again and a five year old, so he would be a deer I'd be I'd be

stoked to see as well. So so there's Junior, there's that non typical dude, there's the Y nine, and then there was another just like solid eight pointer last year I saw around quite a bit in one of these areas and um, and I passed on him as well, and I was like, kind of if he, like God, he might be might be a four year old I have, but probably a three year old, and so I never really tried to get after him, but I thought about it. And so if he's around this year, he would be

a definite shooter too. So yeah, so there's a handful of good Michigan deer run around and you never know what might show up. There's always the chance for a surprise. But um, I do love still having some places I hunt year after year where you do get to know some of the deer year after year, because that going back to the fun, like it is fun to see these deer and see how they change, and to try to look back at what do they do on camera last year? And what did I see last year? Will

they will they do that thing again? Um? I love like the public land new hunting kinds of places, But there's something to be said about having some history like that is a fun puzzle to work through too, So I'm excited about that. I definitely want to be able to do that someday. Right to own the property or too, I don't know, man like be in control of something

because I've I've never had that. I've never had a property where I could go in and you know, be in control where it's just me or my fami, my hunting right because if I always share it with someone else, they go and do their things. There's never really any conversations about what to shoot or not to shoot. Um And thus the days for me of really trying to identify and follow along with a single deer. Are almost all but over until I you know, get get that

opportunity someday hopefully. Why don't you go buy that farm those landowners, those kids are selling. Yeah, dude, I live in the most expensive county in Iowa. Unfortunately, and unless I had a million dollars just kind of sitting in my back pocket, uh, it's not gonna happen. All right, folks, here's what we gotta do. We all gotta start. We got all gotta go and start buying Dan Johnson. Let's

give him some uh Iowa farm. No, we're gonna We're all gonna go and like put your podcast on repeat so that your number skyrocket to like ten million downloads an episode, and then you can charge a million dollars for your sponsors next year and buy farm and then invite me to hunt the next year. I draw right there, we go, Hey, all right, if that, I'll tell you what If that works, you know, let's let's give it a try. All right, All right, man, this is uh.

I think this is a good place to wrap it up and get to part two of my podcast today. But thank you, this is uh, this is too this is this is too long and coming again, and I think we got to try to figure out a way. Schedules are tough these days with both of what we

got going on. But if we can somehow figure out a way to do like a check in like this, I don't know, like once a month or something through the hunting season, it's just so much fun to get to talk about what's going on in our lives in the hunting season and like foul along, like I missed that if if we can see it, we should try to do that this year. Absolutely, And let me say good luck to you Mark man, I hope you slay,

and good luck to everybody who's listening. Man. I I love when I see success from other people man, whether it's someone like Mark or you know, regular Joe who you know put in sixty hours on the factory line and got out then got it done. So I enjoy all that. Yeah, so true. Agreed. All right, thanks buddy, alright back with me on the show for your third appearance. I think Eddie, we've got Eddie Claypool. Welcome back, Eddie, thank you glad to be here. These uh, these are

always some of my favorite chats. So I appreciate coming on every every time I start thinking about, you know, wanting the chat in the weeds on something d I y bow hunting. My buddy Tony Peterson always reminds me, you gotta call Eddie. You gotta call Eddie. And when we were when we were talking about doing this series, you popped into my mind before Tony suggested this, So I got ahead of him on this one. I said, we gotta talk to Eddie. So I'm glad you're able

to make it happen. Thank you for doing this well. I appreciate you. If you want to get some redneck you know Amphiles, you're you got the right guy what we're looking for. And uh, you know, with the season about to kick off, I know you're hitting the road here soon and me too. We're doing this little mini series Eddie where I'm calling out to what would you do format in which you know we were basically, I'm gonna run you through a bunch of hypothetical hunting scenarios,

gonna take you through some doozies. It's gonna be a little bit of a gauntlet here and there, and uh, I just want to hear how you would handle it. How you would deal with this challenge or this situation, What would you be thinking about, what's the kind of what are the other things you'd want to know to better make a decision? Um? You know, I think we can just have an interesting conversation about these different possible scenarios and uh and learn a little bit about how

Eddie Claypool makes it happen in the woods. So are you game to go down this path? Yeah, I'm I'm interested see how what comes out of my mouth too. I'll probably be learning about myself. That sounds good to me than Eddie. So I think in the interest of just scratching our white tail, that's as quickly as possible. How about we just jump right into the first scenario. And in this one, Eddie, I want to imagine that you have got to go back to your public land roots. Now.

I know that recently you you picked up, you bought a piece of property yourself, but let's let's imagine that you couldn't hunt it this year for whatever reason. You can't hunt your home for your home farm, so you gotta hunt public land. And you unfortunately realize this in August. It's late and you're like, oh, man, I gotta hunt some new public land. You only are going to have one weekend in August to prepare for this brand new adventure. I'm gonna give you one weekend, so you've got two days.

How would you spend your only two days of public land? Whe tell prep if that was the situation you were in, what would you do over the course of those forty eight hours to maximize your preparations and scouting to hunt this public peace? Now, I got a point one of the things. This would be a new piece of public land you're hunting. This can't be somewhere you've been before. So that's the situation. What would you do it? Well?

Now on what I got to get done, you know, in the season, and only having those two days to on ground, I'm going to spend a lot more time outside of those two days on maps and Google Earth and stuff, you know, looking at it from aerial and

and I'm I'm gonna the during those two days. The main thing I'm gonna do is drive the roads, learn all the access points, and you know how to get around in the place and get a feel for the lay of the land, and you know what's there in the way of the habitat, but mainly now a days, I'm going to use technol ergy to scout that I'm going to get above it and look down on it, and I'm gonna want to know where the roads are

for the main access or any access points are. I'm gonna mark them all, and then I'm going to look for the most inaccessible spots on that public land. There's gonna be some spots somewhere that has some serious problems obstacles about getting a warm body to them, and those are the few that I'm gonna mark, and then I'm gonna, you know, take it to the next level that any normal whitetailed guy would do is figure out what winds I'm gonna need to hunt them, how I'm going to

get to them. If that means, you know, if I've got to get watercraft involved something, Usually there's you know, um water, you know, creeks, rivers, lakes, something, and there's usually spots along them that are like a long way from a road. And so water access is an important thing I've used over the years, either chess waiters to wait you know, creeks that the average guy is not going to try to even think about getting across or

putting in a little small canoe or something. But the two days I'm going to be there in the summer, I'm not really big on putting myself out in that habitat and walking around in it. I don't know what to gain them and accept a lot of ticks and jiggers,

and it may be a snake bike. But I'm gonna I'm gonna do my scouting from above at home a lot outside those two days, and then the two days I'm gonna go to all the work to learn all I can learn about the road and water access points, and um, look at the land in comparison to what it looks like from above, in other words, to compare the fields. See what's being farmed this year versus you

know an open field on Google Earth. That the imagery could be a year old, you know, and it might be a fallow field this year's grown up in weeds or something. And I want to learn what I can from the roads. But mainly the two days, it's not gonna be me out there beating my brains out through that habitat looking for anything dearer. Wise, UM, I just don't put a lot of stock and needing to do that in August. I would like to have had those

two days back the previous um January or February. You know where I where I could have got in there when everybody's out, the woods are open and the signs still there. But if I've just got two days in August, it's going to be learning where I'm gonna mount my attack from figuring out where everybody else is probably gonna mainly be and what they're gonna be doing, and then trying to get around, you know, to where they're not none of them going to be getting to, and then

you're planning to be once the season kicks off. That's when you'll really get boots on the ground in the habitat, in setting stands and and figuring it out as you go in season. Is there right? Exactually? And then really I'm kind of you know, I I know, I'm kind of narrow in my scope on light till I've never really been an excellent early season might kill hunter. Um, I'm not real good at figuring out how to kill those big mature bucks in early October, all of them

I've ever dealt with. That is one of the least likely times you're gonna kill them now, I do know the hunting community has figured out how to short circuit that now by you know, the grow your own, feed your own, um, you know, cornering them and stuff. You know what I'm saying, Yeah, I'm not that if you want to hunt them straight up to fair Chase, I'm not gonna really plan on killing my buck in early October. I probably won't plan on really hunting them seriously until

the third week of October, uh earliest. I'm a rud hunter. That's money what I've always just honed in on with catching bucks when they're out prowling. And uh so I'm going to go in there in early October and soon as you know, the temperatures are inductive and I can get around, and I'm going to go ahead and put my you know, feet on the ground and learn a

lot of things I learned. Then are you know old signed like signpost drubs areas where you see, you know, where the big bucks have rubbed their horns in past years. But I'm not really planning. I'm looking more for pinch points, if you want to get technical. I'm looking at the lay of the land and the way the vegetation and it all comes together and the and the pinch points can be very subtle things that you know, maybe early on bow hunter may not really recognize that is a

pinch point just because of the certain changes in vegetation. Um, you've got to kind of get some you know, experience under your belt to figure out how those bucks like to move through different types of habitat. Just an edge between a you know, a real grown up field and an open woodlot can be a pinch point if if if you know, you know, if it's if it's in the rights and area, So it doesn't have to be

that classical hour glass pinch point. I'm looking for like between two big blocks September with a little, you know, narrow tree line in between them. But um, I'm gonna go in there in early October and I'm gonna I'm gonna get a real good feel for where a few of these points that I think these rutting bucks are gonna walk through when they're going from point A to point B. And and that's a lot of what I

do on the aerial scouting. You can you can figure where the bigger blocks the cover at in relation to the food, and you can kind of put a pink by numbers together and figure out, well, you know a lot of the feedings going on here, a lot of the bettings going on over here. So all I got to figure out is how are they getting between those two points and get right in the middle there in a in a bit of a pinch point and hunting

during the rut. And I know that may not be the number one best way to do it, but it's what I've done. And you've got to dance with the one that brought you so um, I've just always done that. And because of the time that I usually put in and the patience I usually put in, I I have, you know, feathered my nest with a lot of good

bucks during that light October to light November period, you know. Yeah, So a question for you, and I know that you've been hunting public land white tilles for a long time and you saw what things were like, you know, twenty plus years ago, and you've also seen what public lands like, excuse me, in the last couple of years. And I know that recently that you've had some frustrations with you know, all the hunters and the pressure and how that's changed things.

I'm curious have you had to have you had to seek out some of those more subtle pinch points more recently in these newer days because the obvious pinch points are becoming you know, a spot that everybody goes to now, is that those subtle spots become more important now in recent years because of the fact that public land hunting is gained popularity and those obvious pinch points are becoming

obviously popular. Oh. Absolutely, that's just a no brainer right there, because I mean twenty years ago, when I was hunting public land hardcore, I I didn't even hardly it didn't seem like public land because I I just didn't have a lot of problems with people. Uh, you know, I don't know. To me, see, I've been at this like forty plus years now, and I've seen a pretty broad spectrum of what the hunting industry has been through, and

I've watched the game departments evolved. I've watched the hunting industry evolve, and I've seen and I know that sometimes I'm called a negative Nancy, but I'm not gonna lie to you. Over the you know, the past forty and especially the past twenty years, I haven't seen a whole lot of positives and um, the hunting world, populations of the animals, the mature animals, the access to the hunting um. A lot of things have gone backwards. Um. And I don't mean to be negative, but I'm just telling you

what I have seen. And yeah, nowadays, if you go try to hit the most obvious pinch points, you might as well to sco play golf because there's gonna be a guy or two or three that's already set in there. And uh that I don't deal with. I I have. I started my hunting career out west in the late seventies and I was a wilderness fanatic and I'm just not a endo. I don't like dealing with people. I'm my only child, and I'm not socially good and i

don't like dealing with people. And God forgive me for it, but I'm going to go to probably the most worthless sort of spot if necessary, to get away from people. But then again, that's the greatest thing you can do in public plan because any any buck worth is, you know, white gold is gonna hide out where people ain't tromping him up and stomping him up twice a day. He's gonna figure out where in his home that he can

hide out and have some security. And of course I figure that same thing out because that's where the you know, you've got to figure out where the people aren't getting to. There's gonna be some nooks and crannies on all public lands that for some reason, and it can be a multiple to the reasons, but there will be some reasons why they're overlooked. And you know, there might still be a guy or two getting into him once in a while.

But but if that old buck doesn't get bumped but once ever so many days versus he's you know, going through this pench point and he gets killed the first time he walks through it or shot at or wounded.

I mean he's gonna be back there in that thicket that you know, eight foot tall Johnson grass thicket that's ten acres that nobody in the right mind walks through it, because I mean it's eight foot tall Johnson grass, right, And so you know, I mean, those bucks, unless they just totally light out and go for a no new home range, they're going to have to be in those areas where the people aren't. And so that's what I do. In the last twenty years. Gosh almighty, ever since the

advent of the video era of the hunting world. See I'm I'm so far before the advent of video hunting, you know what I mean TV, and I mean back in them days, it was just utopia. It was just too good to be true. Living through that era and then having to live through this one is just enough to make you want to shoot yourself because you know the difference between the way it used to be in the way it is, and it haunts you. And sometimes

I think ignorance would be blessed. In other words, maybe I just started bow hunting twenty years ago and didn't even know the way it used to be. So yeah, on public land nowadays, don't don't go here's another thing, elk too out west. I've watched what's happened to the elk thing. If you go to any of your classical elk cabitat the stuff that they want to live in and that they do live in all year except hunting season.

If you go to that anymore on public lands, and then across the counter type of hunt, you're you're just you're out of your mind. You gotta look for the hell holes and just go right straight to them. Because after the first day season or two out west all of Elk pile off and and canyons and and living and blow down cliff the areas where nobody goes. And it's the same way with our public land. White tells you just gotta get don't park, it's the normal trail heads.

Don't walk the normal you know, routes in and get in the normal pinch points, get your top blow out or not taplow anymore. That see that. That dates me right there. But get your aerials or get on Google Earth and and pick out the most inaccessible spots on public lands and the thickest, nastiest ones. I mean, I've got some spots on public plan that I have worked on two or three winners in a row, trying to get them where I felt like I could shoot a

deer if it come by. You know. Um, I'm talking stuff that's so thick that you I often don't see a deer touch within twenty yards of me, you know. And that's where they spend their days. And uh, you know, you get back in there and they get to chase them those around and that during the day, and it can be quite a little freak show going on around you in them in them hell holes on public land sometimes. But anyway, it's it's just a matter of common sense

to me. I don't know if if I call it that, because I've been doing it for forty plus years, but if if it's a new guy, beginner, don't go with traditional thoughts, don't go with traditional advice. Get outside the box and and just dive in and you're gonna figure it out. Um, you know, don't go fish fight with everybody over the traditional pinch point to get a wife

from them. Let them have them. Those big old bucks won't walk through them probably and the douled anyway, Um, get back in their hoard or just staging an arc, you know, and those stickets and get away from the traditional good spots and and and take your chances on that and you'll be better off. So so then kind of jumping off of them, I've got another scenario because I want to I want to pitch or I want

to pivot to a different situation. Let's imagine that you instead of being the hunter that you are, and instead of you know, having the experience that you have, let's imagine that instead you are a newer hunter. Well, how suld I frame this? Basically, you're someone who is hunting not for a trophy buck. You're not trying to hunt them mature buck. You're just trying to get any buck. It's a meat crisis. You need food, your family is desperately hungry. And let's say you've got a day job,

so you don't have a lot of time either. So it's like a your weekend warrior who's just trying to get a deer and yeah, just a bohn and you're hunting public land. So how would your advice change on public land given that now I'm talking, I need any deer. I'm trying to kill it on the weekends. I just gotta eat. How would you approach things in that case? Is it the exact same advice you just gave or something different? Now? Not at all? Not really? I mean,

I wouldn't worry about doing what I just said. That's kind of a trophy buck scenario. I've been locked in on antlers for I don't know how long. I even back when I didn't know how to get him, I was infatuated with him and I But if you're just wanting to hunt to get a deer and fun. You can take a lot of the pressure off and a lot of the work. Now you're going to have some people problems. Get ready for that and get mentally psyched up, but you know that's okay. Don't worry about it. Just

go and have some fun. Um, get in the traditional spots that fine. People will be coming and going here and there's something there, but they're gonna move the deer. They'll run dose by you, they'll run the small bucks by you. Just get used to it, be happy with it. Shoot one of them when you can. Don't get anal about it. Um. Like a trophy hunter does you know when that stuff gets all messed up for him, he's just he's ready to go cork off and tear the guys.

I mean, I've been out there set and have guy put a tree stand up forty yards from me. You know what I'm like. But the way I mean, no, just take the traditional advice there on public land, like for instance, in October. One of the very best ways I used to kill deer, and I'm we're when we're talking about just killing deer, you know, of any kind, shaped, size or sex. Um. October can be really good for that because um it's cooling down a little. The masked crop,

the acorn crop is usually falling. So what I would do is I would go to the public land and if it's any kind of traditional Midwestern stuff, it's usually got acorn producing trees, and or another big one is per simmons. Um, if you're in habitat has per simmons and or acorns that are falling in October, go and start your scouting. Spread down with bug crap. Get get out there, find out where there is some good acorns hitting the ground or per simmon thickets that are starting

to drop, and set up on them. And you know that time of year in early October, I don't know, you know, I don't think you're gonna get overrun with people. Then it seems like the madhouse begins around the last week of October when everybody from out of state comes and the population of hunters quadruples, you know what I mean.

And uh so get out there early and just hunt some food sources if you can scout, like if it's a public lanned area that they do the share cropping in the farming in get out there in glass in September and spout some spots where the hung deer are coming out into some bean fields, or you know, something like that. But master trees have been good to me. In October, I can walk through a lot of country and look at a lot of oaks, and there will

be certain ones that everything's just right. And when the acorns, usually the white oaks, are hitting the ground in October,

them deer will concentrate on that hard core. And all you gotta do immediately if you see an acorn crop hitting the ground with a lot of you know, tracks around it and droppings and stuff, and maybe a few of them little early season rubs, just back off down wind or where you want that set a tree stand real quick and get out of there, you know, and slip back in there, usually for an evening hunt's been

the best to me. Um, get in there early early evening and get set up and let them come in there to feed in the evening and and fill your tag and have some fun. Yeah. Great, great advice. I think there's a lot of newer hunters who get into

this and by default have to hunt public land. But when they go out there seeking out public land information, it's it's mostly a bunch of people like you and me who are obsessed with big deer and stuff, and then this new hunter is thinking, oh my gosh, this sounds like a death march, and they're doing this and this and this and this and this, and I think I think you're I think your example is perfect and it's a great reminder that if you're just trying to

kill a deer, the opportunities are out there and you don't need to kill yourself to do it. Just a

few things have got to go right to get that dough. Yeah, it's just spend so long since I thought outside the big antler box that I just kind of you know, I remember in my early days I have public planned a lot and I killed you know, plenty of dear early season, and you know, I actually get better in October and I did November then, Um, but yeah, I mean, get out there, have fun and do your thing and then lay the November to the nuts like us, you know.

So so I know that because of some of like the just the NonStop bumping into people and all that, I think part of that was what led you to eventually wanted by your own play, right, And from what I understand, you correct me, if I'm wrong, but I think you're entering your third year with that property, is that right? Yeah, this will be my third fall on it. And uh, you know, getting old is a learning experience, and I think I went from you know, early age

to about fifty five. It seems like before I realized that you finally do get old. I made a lot of good years through my forties and fifties, hardcore, still just going and not feeling any let up. But in the past about five to eight years, you know, age is catching up with me. And I'm going through such a time, a metamorphosis of change and and mental and physical and emotional that I don't hardly know myself anymore.

And you were correct in the fact that part, definitely, part of the reason why I invested my life savings in a piece of ground was to kind get away from the maddening crowd of the public lands. Though I also because of that that's been my mantra is the public land. It's really almost prostitutional to go to what I'm doing, because you're turning your back on your roots, You're turning your back on everything that really feathered your

nest and made you feel like a man. And taught you everything, because there's nothing any harder than consistently killing big bucks off public land with a bow. I mean, that's right up there, high at the top of the challenge pile. And now, but what I found that recently was more than the fact that I wanted to get away from public land. That was a little bit of it. But the main thing I have found out is that

with age, my priorities have changed. They I mean, it's been like pulling teeth because I've been siding down a slippery slope, clawing all the way to stay at where I've been, and I haven't got it done. I've just slowly slid down the slope. And now I'm a new creation. And basically what I want now, what I want now out of my bow hunting time doesn't really have much

to do with those big trophy bucks anymore. It doesn't have to well, it doesn't have to do with having to prove my macho is m too to everybody by killing them off public plan. I mean, you've got to admit, through the most of your life there is some and this is a taboo subject with guys. We don't like to talk about our egos and we don't like to admit we got them, but we do. We love to accomplish something. It's the challenge. It's put in the mail, you know, in the mail being he wants to be

a good you know, and so. But when you get older, you you just that fades away. I have gotten to where I could literally care less about what anybody else knows that I do, thinks I do what I do. I am out there now. The reason I got this land, I call it my old man place. It's the place that I'm gonna just take my time and enjoy. I I get so much fun I'd have going and pulling trail camera cards and looking at the deer and just watching them, um throughout the year, watching their whole year,

how they you know, everything changes. Um Now I don't have to work. I used to work, you know, solid straight nine months, six seven days a week, to get off in the fall and hunt. You know, now I don't. I get to watch them all year. I watch him shed graantlers, I watched him start growing new ones. I see them come and go. I'm learning so much about deer right now that I didn't know outside of the three months I used to spend on them, you know. And uh, I just have a ball out on that property.

It's so peaceful. I'm out in the middle of nowhere that of course that fits me. You know, I don't want to be around. I can't hear a car all day long. I don't see or hear a human thing all day long out on that place. And uh, it's peace and quiet and uh and oinman, I guess that's what you you mature into. I think after forty years is that pad money go and pile and a pile of antlers up that would fit in a dump truck. I'm ready just to just take it. I haven't even shot.

I'm not shot a much a good big buck off my place the first two years hunt it it. I just I didn't shoot one. So let me ask you this then, eddie back to like kind of some scenarios here. I know that you've you've hunted two years there now. I also understand that you've started doing some habitat work

and some of that kind of stuff too. If you could rewind the clock back to the offseason or like just before your first season hunting this place for the first time, you could rewind the clock then and change one thing that could either be change one of the habitat projects you did, or change hunting strategy you end up trying, or change a stand location or anything that you can go back two years and change one thing. What would that be and why? Well, boor that's a

good one. I almost pulled a blank or not with I've made some mistakes, nothing big. I'm learning as I go. I paint my numbers. I haven't took a bunch of courses or had any big shots come in and teach me habitat management. I'm one of these old cusses that wants to do everything on his own, make his own mistakes and learn. And i haven't done everything right. But I've got enough common sense. I'm probably pretty good biologists,

you know what I mean. After my life outdoors, I could qualify as a biologist, except I can't spell with scientific names. But anyway, I wouldn't change a lot of anything that I've done. I had cattle in the place the first year, and that's probably the biggest thing I would change. I am turning my place into it just basically it's gonna be a hole in the ground that's gonna be a wildlife mecca. I'm gonna let it go natural. It's had cattle on it since the beginning of time,

and it's been burned off. All acres got burned off slick off every year for for as long back as you can see. I stopped the cattle this year. I stopped the burning this year. I'm gonna, you know, do selective burning in the future. But you know, I wouldn't change a lot in the habitat except let it go natural a year quicker because not having the cattle in there, it's making a big difference in my prairie. My grasslands are growing up and the prairie itself to bloosh them.

It's already about four ft tall this year, when everybody around me is at two ft because the cows keep it eight. And it's gonna make a lot of difference in the number of deer I have. They're gonna bed in my prairie now. And I don't care if I kill a deer on that place for the rest of my life. I almost don't want to kill one, because I know I'm gonna walk up to it and look at it and go, why ow, there's another dead deer. Um If it's a hundred and typical. I'm still not

going to be thrilled about killing it. Um. I've gotten where I'm more into the providing him with the place, and I get a whiz off of looking at him on the camera. But I am not going to get a whiz out of killing him. Does that make sense?

I I mean it sounds a little bit crazy, but also crazy in like the way I may I understand it, You know what I mean that I can see where you're at, and I can also I too in a different scale, But I too have gotten to know local deer and and it is it's almost sad when you do walk up on a deer that you watched for three years and you're never gonna get to chase him again. No, he's gone for good. And I know that's fine. We're hunting a renewable resource and I get it. UM. I

don't plan on probably ever not killing UM. I eat it and I utilize it. But I also have gotten so far from I was a fetish on antlers. I mean I would walk naked backwards across the United States to kill hundred forty inch deer at one point, and I'm like, you know, that's insane. I worshiped it to the point it was an idol to me. I literally sacrificed my existence for it. And uh, I guess I've kind of come full circle now and I'm ready to

give something back. I want to let him have a quiet place to live, good food, good habitat, watch him come and go, watch him do their lifestyle. And then you know, I mean, I've got a buck on there finally this year. Finally, that's a pretty pretty exceptional animal, uh, for the area. Sure, And I've been thinking about it. What am I gonna do if that thing comes walking right by me here in the fall? Am I going

to kill that? And here's the deal. He's a world class genetic, dear, He's a probably a four and a half year old's what he appears to probably be. And given two more years, this buck will probably would probably eclipse two hundred inches. And I don't care about that. But what I do care about is having a deer like that on my property. It gives me an extreme sense of satisfaction to know that I'm providing him with

the place to live in security. And of course he ain't totally secure because he don't just stay on me all the time. You know, he he may get killed by one of my neighbors, you know what I mean. But if I had my brothers, I wouldn't even pull a string on that, dear. I'd let him go two more years, just so I could say, one day before I croaked, I had a two inch plus deer on my property one time, you know, And then I'd be happy. You could put me in my pine box. That would

be pretty cool. That would be pretty cool. Now, okay, put him on my wall. I really don't. I mean I don't. I used to would have. I would have done anything to have that dear. Well, I've spent forty years and I've not killed a two deer. And now though I can say with all honesty and I do not expect you to understand it, I don't expect anybody under about sixty to understand it. But there's somebody out there gonna be listening to this that's gonna understand this.

It finally becomes not about the killing, but more about the doing. I do. I do get that. Let's let's imagine then. Let's imagine you've got a friend of yours who you have decided to let hunt your home farm with you. I don't know if that's something that you plan to do or have done, but let's just imagine I've actually finally started thinking about that, because I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you. Most of my white

kill honey life, I've been a pretty selfish guy. I just tended to my own needs, and didn't you know, I wasn't a real sharing person. I just I mean, you know how that works. You can't share everything or you ain't gonna have nothing. Does that make sense? I mean I kind of did my own thing and kept it quiet. And when I first got this place, I was still a little bit in that rut, and I've

slowly gotten out of it. I wasn't going to consider letting somebody come in there and kill one of my big one of Did you hear what I just said? One of there? Okay, so there's a problem right off the bat. But anyway, nowadays, yeah, I'm I'm actually I've actually woke up in the middle of the night with it on my mind and realized what I was thinking about and just have shaped my head going, Wow, you mean you'd bring somebody in there and let them kill

one of them big bucks? And you you just not even care that you'd be happy for him, and you know that. I guess that's my new evolution process to get to where that's the new challenge to quit being selfish. I guess right, that makes sense. Yeah, it does easy, easier said than done. I know from first for my own spirit. I mean, if I was in my thirties or forties, it never entered my mind. It would have just been me me, may you know? And that's it. Well,

let's play this out a little bit. Let's say you decide you're gonna invite a buddy out there to hunt your home farm, and we'll say that a buck catches your buddy's eye, not not your future, but another really really nice one. And he says, man, Eddie, if you're okay with it, I would love to take a crack at this deer and really try to figure him out. And you say, yeah, absolutely, Tony, go go go chase him.

And uh he comes to you though, he says, hey, man, I've never really targeted a big, mature buck like this before. I've never really been trying to figure him out. And he says, I know that trail cameras are all the rage how would you recommend how would you go about teaching your buddy or showing your buddy how you would use trail cameras on your home farm to pattern a buck like this, Like what would your take be on figuring out that deer in a place like what you

have there? Well, you know what I'm about to say may not go along with the mainstream very well, And I get it. I do get it. I do know how some of these guys take this big buck killing to an art. I've talked to him and and really figured out, like, for instance, they've got some ground that's got these big bucks on them, and they trail camera all year, usually cellular wise, so that monitor these dear year round. It's home. I'm not gonna lie to you,

and I don't. I don't. I don't have a lot of friends and honey industry, and I don't really care because I don't. I'm not real politically correct. I just say the way I believe it. I don't care if I step on some toes. But the way they do some of this stuff anymore, to me, it's just killing, it's harvesting. There is very little hunting to it. To me. In my book, um, they monitor this buck all year,

they know everything that's going on with them. They get a set up and they will not go in there and hunt almost till the day they plan on killing that deer. And there is often not always, but in some states, especially Kansas, they're baiting, involved in different things.

But they will get this down to such a given that I've had one guy from Iowa has killed so many big ones I don't even But anyway, he said he usually only has to hunt to maximum of three hunts in a year, and he will kill his target buck every year. And I'm like, that don't even sound interesting to me. That that's just I don't know what would be exciting about that. I I I go hunting

because I want to hunt all the time. I want to hunt all I can hunt, and I want to goof up and not do things right, and I just want the whole rounded experience. I couldn't give less of a hoot. I had one fall in my whole life that I had to work. I've never worked from September through the end of December in my adult life except one fall. Now that's quite a statement because how many people would like to live that lifestyle. Right. But but in that one fall, I only got to get out

and hunt three days. I was working seven days a week, and I begged from Peter to pay Paul and took off work a few days. And I killed two really good bucks in three days a hunting that year, and felt like I had done nothing. I was a nervous, dang wreck because I didn't get to go hunting but three days a week. I was almost sick all year, you know what I mean. And it wasn't about that I'd killed two good bucks that year in three sets.

I saw right then and there that with me, it was more about the bowl hunting than it was about the killing, you know. And uh and so nowadays, you know, I'm like, these guys get this down to such an art. So if I had a guy that was coming to my place won't know how to kill on those bucks, what would I tell them? I would tell him, don't do none of this baiting, don't do none of this patterning, don't do don't I don't even use trail cameras ever in relation to my hunting. Does that make sense? Yeah?

But to fare what's out there, that's it. I just like to see the deer. And the only thing a trail camera will do for me that even profits me, I think, is if there's a particular, really exceptional specimen, it'll tell me that he's around, so that I can then decide if that matters hood or not. I'm going to hold out for that, dear. But I don't use cameras to pattern nothing. I just use it to observe deer. And what I do is I still hunt away. I

always did, even back. You know, I know this may sound weird, but half of my hunting life was spent pre trail camera. Does that make sense? I mean girl cameras, the first trail cameras I remember coming in that I've even saw. If I'm not mistaken, I'm going to say around two thousands. Uh. I mean, I don't think I ever owned the trail camera to weigh into the two thousand's um, so I I had already cut all of my hunting teeth before any ability to use trail cameras

to help you hunt. And no Google Earth, no uh, no real aerial photography. I mean I I come from the generation of where you just went out there and you figured out how to deer hunt on your own. And uh, that's what I tell them. Nowadays, I'm not I'm I'm not gonna get I don't know how to tell them to use trail cameras. I don't know how to tell them to use Google Earth on a on a big buck. I mean, I just go, like I said earlier, find those pinch points, set on them during

the rut. And it's probably the dumbest way to try it, but I will tell you this, if you put the time in and have the patients and are in it, you're in one of these pass through spots. If there is a big buck within a mile or two of you somewhere at some point, he'll walk right straight through that during November. And you just gotta be willing to figure out if you're willing to put in the time and the sacrifice to set there. Because I set in some off the wall places that probably ain't never had

a bow hunter set in them. I'm talking to some ignorant looking places that our way out in the middle of nowhere, in these fence lines now and these little finger draws out in the prairie that no human in the right mind usually I can't even like to find a tree to get in that makes sense, you know, and go out there and said all day, and I'll set there ten twelve hours sometimes and not see a

single deer sometimes. But I've learned if I sat there a week during the right time in November, if somewhere within him one mile radius to me is a big buck excuse me, big buck, there is a very very very good chance that's going to walk through. This hilarious because you know, I've got a good ability to see these these uh I call them passed through spots, big

buck travel corridors. Does something make sense? Uh? And and and then things they don't Always they're not where the normal there are those big mature deer don't hang out. We're all the normal dear are hanging out and they don't walk through the same spots until they get out of their mind once they start breeding and mid the late November, then you might catch us a big one doing something normal. But before that you better be h

out on the fringe of normal. Um. Well, of course I'm talking more like a blue collar d I y guy that'shunting public planned again, I'm not talking like these guys like um for instance, Um, you know some of these guys that have have got these big spreads in Iowa. The people that are on TV. I mean, they custom grow those deer and know everything about them, and they

go kill him, you know what I'm saying. But a guy like me, a guy like you that's doing it the old fair chase on our own with with with nothing, no silver spoons. You just got to get out there, put a lot of time in. And you know, if a guy come to my property, I'd say, listen, here's what you do. You get out there and you figure out how to kill that here. I I don't even want to try to tell you because I don't know how to kill it. Get out there and do it

on your own. You'll be much more satisfied. And um, I don't care how they do it. I wouldn't put any stipulations on a guy because I mean, I wouldn't let them come in there and start dumping a big old pilot corn out and setting over it. You know what I mean. Uh, that's a little bit. That's a little bit over the line for me. And see I hunt up there in Kansas for baiting. It's a it's

a prevalent thing. I've often made the statement the Kansas owners wouldn't know how to kill a deer if they took their cornerways on them, which I know that really right there is gonna red really get me in find standing. But anyway, anyway, um hey, corn don't sure nothing, but it's sure can um it can do some things that I call it the golden corowl. You know that, the golden nuggets. Um. Then pour bucks, Oh my god, I mean, all you gotta do dump a bag of corn out

October and put a camera on it. You know, you know every buck that you got within a half mile in every direction within a day. You know, I don't know how they find it and how they prone in on it, but uh I went to end them places in Kansas dump a bag of corn out and put a camera on it, and within two days have pictures of every mature deer almost virtually within quite a distance.

You know what I mean? And I mean it's everybody's always trying to make the process easier, I guess, And uh, I think at the end of the day, when you get my age, you finally figure out it ain't about easiness. It's more about satisfaction of doing it on your own and either winning or losing. Yeah, So let me ask you about one of these examples you just shared, and it ties into one of the scenarios I wanted to throw at you. Um you mentioned you'd like to sit

these pass through areas. It's kind of off the beaten path pass through spots. So let's imagine you're sitting in one of those. It's November, hunting the rut. You're sitting in one of these great rut spots, these these pinch points that you like that should be a good quality rut travel corridor. The problem is you've hunted all week and nothing's coming through. You've not had one good buck

come through. My question for you is how long will you stick it out in one of those spots before eventually saying, well it just it's just isn't the spot? Or do you ever find a spot like that and say, come hell or high water. If I sit here seven days, he will eventually come through. I have that much confidence. What's your approach and how do you know when you

finally have to pull up stakes or not? Well? I think the best way to answer that would be what I know about the area in general and how much experience I have in it. If it's a fairly new place. I'm not going to go down with the ship on a spot like that. If it's if it's not getting a job done. If I go by feel, I've often said this, I hunt by feel feel. I don't even know how to explain what feel is other than that

we small voice in your head. But like I said, a place like that and things ain't feeling right, things ain't happening. If it's a fairly new place and I don't know what you know is going on around, I will I will abandon it. I would say about three days. It's about what I'm going to give a spot like that if I if I'm not getting anything going on now.

On the other hand, if it's a time proven place and or I know the habitat around it and the deer that's living in that habitat, and I know there's some big ones around, and maybe I have some previous knowledge of this place, Ben you know what, I think it is a pass through, then I'm going to set there.

I'm just gonna wait because if I know there's some big ones around, you know, on both sides of me somewhere, and um, this is where that they're gonna walk At some point, I'll give it up to I'll give it till I I lose my mind. What you have, I've actually lost my mind and just run naked brains. But I mean once in a while, once in a while

I've got burned, not a lot. And it just depends on how large your deer you're hunting too, because I mean I've often led hundred forty to fifty bucks walk in those places, and you know, I don't know whether that's good or bad, but um, I have rarely, if ever set those places in November that I couldn't kill a good solid, you know, trophy buck of some size. I I've been greedy and not take you know, hundred and deer because I was wanting a bigger one and

thinking one bigger one would show up. And then there's been times on the flip side where I've broke down. Finally I've sat there long enough, I'd just be getting sick of the whole thing, about to go crazy, and here comes a hundred and fifty deer, and I know that there's a bigger one around. I know there is, and I just would go ahead and harvest the thing, and um call it good and and sometimes actually for a season be wondering, you know, did I make the

right decision? But there ain't no pad answer to none of this stuff. It's everybody's an individual and they've got to do what they're comfortable with. And uh, I've been through the ringer on every scenario possible of learning what what you can, can't, should shouldn't do, and uh, I'm kind of I'm kind of past it. Finally. Now I'm out into the clear where I don't put that kind of pressure on myself. I don't have to make myself

answer those questions anymore. I go out, I said, as long as I want, I see what I see, I'm happy. And that's pretty much it. I go back to the camp and talk to the wife. From pet to dog, you know, it's a good place to be. Well. Let me let me throw another November situation at you, and this is this is another thing that I've frequently been confronted with and bounced back and forth on. So let

me let me paint this picture. Let's say again, it's November and you're kind of looking for a great spot. Like we just described, you're kind of working through a new area and you end up coming across just a dynamite rut spot. Let's say it's it's kind of a pinch point that is also downwind of some betting habitat. So you've got those two things that seemed great. The problem is that there is no great tree that's just perfectly in range of where those trails converge, where that

pinch point converges beneath the betting year. So there's there's two options. You get here ready. There is one tree that is twenty yards from this pinch point and from the convergence of trails, but it's a pencil thin bean poultry you're gonna stand out in it. And there is one other, you know, relatively well trod down trail on the downwind of that tree as well, So there's also this risk that you might get winded by some deer

as well. Or there's there's a second tree and it seems perfect as in, it's it's big, it's gnarly, it's like a branchy oak tree of some kind. So you can climb up in there and disappear, and there's there's nothing there's nothing downwind of it at all, because it's right in the edge of a Let's say it's down wind or sorry, just on the edge of a pond. Let's say, so there's nothing that's gonna get beneath you. The problem is that one is gonna put you forty

one yards from the trail convergence. So do you take the lousy tree with some stuff downwind of it still but you'll have a perfect twenty yard shot if they come through in that spot. Or do you take the farther away tree but it's super safe from win perspective and you'll will be very nicely hidden. Which tree would you pick? I have hunted both those trees numerous times,

so I can relate to this. I had a spot in Illinois one time that presented me with the first scenario, the little spendy tree right where you wanted it right. I tried it a few times. I got nailed twice, and I was at the point of I knew I had to quit it or something. And I actually bought a top and bottom of gray sweatsuit, went got some rich dye, put black lines to it, made my own

self the homemade set of tree lined camel. I was the color of the sky, except had the dark limbs through me you know, so I could get up in that and try to not stand out, in other words, and I will be dog gone. The very first time I got in it like that, a hundred sixty in deer come through there did not see me, which the two previous sets I'd had big bucks come in. I'd set the thing three times. The first two times I had big bucks come in and nail me in the

tree and run off. All of the bucks were different bucks, um, so I guess I educted. I don't know if I educated the first too too bad, or if I was just lucky that the third one that hadn't been there come through the third time, but he didn't see me and I killed him. Then I had another spot that had that same scenario. Did not think I wanted to go that route, so I got back off to the side, off away from the action. Because I could get in that tree without figuring I was bumping deer getting there,

I could get out without bumping deer going out. I had a good safe wind. I felt comfortable over there, but I was not right where I needed or wanted to be, and I ended up in the long run killing more deer. Out of that scenario, and setting it way more often and feeling way more comfortable setting there because I called a number of deer over to me, you know what I mean with grunt calling stuff. And uh so I usually would opt for the UM does the better um. In other words, are you going for

a one shot deal? If you're going for a one shot deal, planter or end in that little scrawny tree, set there all day, run through fourm off and hopefully get one shot. Right. Um. If you want to continue to hunt that spot repetitively, get in the safe tree and you can. You can hunt it repetitively and not run all your deer off. Probably not what. They're not gonna wind you. They're not gonna see you, you know. And so I guess it's what your goal is that day.

If you want to go in there and go for broke, get in there and a little spinley tree, stand up. I'd stand up and I'd be real calm and not be moving all day long. You maybe have my bow in my hand, you know what I mean? And uh and to where it's a one shot deal, because you're gonna do some damage. You're gonna have some come down wind w that day and snort and run off. You may have a buck shooting there on you before you

can get ready, and you may not. But I mean, if you're going for a one shot deal, get right in the middle of them and go for broke. If if you want to hunt there, repetitively take that other tree all day long and come back and hunt it numerous base under right conditions. Don't educate your deer. And if a buck comes through there, that's prowling real hard

in the rut, nine chances out of tendue. Hit him with a grunt and he'll he's lively, especially maybe if you stick a decoy out behind you you know, or something you know, and uh, maybe he'll come right over to you and let you kill him. So I think that's just a matter of your I've hunted both those scenarios and the one that seemed to be best for me was staying out of the middle of the hub, staying off to the side of the hub and hunting longer and seeing more dear and if a few get

through there that I know it eats you alive. To have a good buck come through there, you don't get your bow shot at him, but hey, you're better to do that than to have one run right in there, look at you in the tree, or come down wind of you on the one trail and smell you're right, you know, And so um, I think everybody, everybody should just do what they feel they want to do that day.

If it's a one shot hunt, jump in the middle of and go to swinging and uh, if you're wanting to hunt that spot a lot in the rut, you better get off to the side, make sure you're entry and exit safe and your wind safe, and you're covered up to where they help see you. Yeah. Yeah, I've learned. I've been in the same scenario and been burned a few times too. But but sometimes it also pays off you just you just never know. So so here's one

last here's one last quick scenario for you, Eddie. Let's let's play out this last example a little bit further. Let's say you you pick one of those trees. Let's say you you went for broke with the closer one. Let's hypothetically say, and you're sitting there and you're on public land, and that too, d buck that you have not been able to get before in all your years hunting public land and chasing these big deer. That two duck is coming in. He's walking right down this trail.

He's gonna cross in front of at that pinch point. Tell me, Eddie, what do you do in this situation in the next thirty seconds or sixty seconds as he approaches. What are you doing to ready yourself, to calm yourself. What are you saying inside your head to get yourself mentally prepared for this once in a lifetime opportunity. The first thing when you said that is the absolute biggest thing is I'm never taking my eyes off that deer. Period.

I've got to be subconsciously prepared to pull this maneuver off. Whatever that is. Get up out of the seat, get the boat, get the I gotta be able to do that subconsciously, So you better be pretty well trying. But I am never taking my eyes off that deer. I am not moving when I'm not looking at him in the eye. I'm gonna be watching him like a hawk to see what I can get away with and what

I cannot get away with. Do not be trying to do something on automatic pilot, because I mean, if he's walking towards you, you know he's You've got to just get away with what you can in the next thirty seconds. You've got to pray to God that you're going to be able to get yourself up and get your bow drawn without him seeing that. And the only way you're gonna hope to pull out off his watch his eyes, watch his head, if he turns his head, or if he stops her second and looks back over his shoulder.

You better be getting something done. Do not be doing it when you're You know you're gonna have that little guy in your head saying, oh my god, this thing is looking You know, he's looking right towards me as he's coming. And you know, I've actually had to literally, I've actually had to let him walk past me before I ever even started moving. I've got caught with my pants down and watched them come in, knowing that if

I tried to get up, I'm gonna blow this. And I've had to let him walk under me at five yards and start to walk away before I ever started even getting up out of my seat. Now, you hope to not be in that position. You'd like to thank you if you could have just already been standing when he started coming in your way ahead of the game, you know what I mean. But but I'm just gonna watch that deer like a hawk to see what I

can do and what I can't. And I'm just, if necessary, I'm not going to do a thing until he walks past me and starts to go away when I can't see that big old google eye looking back at me from the side, you know. And I've had to kill a few out at thirty yards as they were leaving, and I've got burned a time or two and let him walk by me. But I just go with at

the moment what I think to be good hudsmanship. And if I do not think, I've also tried to push my luck, of course, and Adam see me and stop slam to stop and stare at me in the tree because they caught me moving a little bit. So just watch them and learn x exercise great woodsmanship in that thirty seconds, make good decisions. And if you're on automatic pilot, which is called buck fever, if you're going through motions,

it never works out. I did that for years. I just would try to do something and not really and realize that I wasn't even thinking about and it doesn't work out well. You gotta keep your head and have a rational thought process of what you can do and what you can't do. Don't get excited about that buck until you shoot it, because actually, until you've killed that deer, you haven't done nothing but be a glorified nature observer. Um, there's nothing to get excited about setting a tree and

watching deer, right, So don't just be a watcher. Don't get excited until you shoot it and kill it. Then you can leap out the tree and jump up down and scream. You know. Um. Buck fever is a debilitating thing. My wife suffers from it NonStop and never makes any good decisions. When deer show up, she goes brain dead and literally it's able to throw her bow out the

tree at the thing or something. And I did it for many years in my early career, but I finally got a grip on it and said, you know, if I don't stop getting buck fever, and if I don't start making good decisions, I'm never going to get good at this. And finally I just something happened in my head and I said, Okay, I'm not going to be a glorified nature observer today. I'm gonna be a dear killer, you know. And so I don't know if I'd answered the question very well or not, but anyway, it did.

It did if you could know this is one of those easier seven done things. But if you had to give someone who's dealing with that same buck fever issue that your wife has, if you had to give them one like a single line of advice for how to actually snap out of that, Like I understand that you have to snap out of it, but like, how do you reclaim control mentally? If you could give him like a one line, two line like do this, what would

that one simple idea be. Well, what I always tried to tell someone, if they've getting buck fever that bad all the time on bucks, they need to start quit hunting them for a while to start killing deer. Go out and start shooting a bunch of deer. Learn to take your goo out and kill deer. Start shooting though, start shooting as manny go just kill deer. Once you get subconsciously trained to kill those deer, I think. Now,

don't get me wrong, the antlers. If you're an antler fanatic, antlers will always skyrocket you, you know, out of your skin. But if you're if you're if you get once. I finally got to kill a deer with my bows early on and got to where I was killing meat deer and quite a few deer. It become a lot easier for me to stay under control because I knew then and there that I had it within my ability to kill this deer and the fact that it had huge

antlers or something would freak me out. It would, I would freak out, and I mean, I ain't gonna lie to you. I've had a couple of times, even as a old man, that I pulled. I don't know. I I can have a relapse of buck fever. I had one in Kansas a few years back with the biggest buck I've ever had in bow range in my life, and it caused me to not get the deer. I lost a one killed on the largest sandlers white tail I've ever had in bow range because buck fever come

that day. I hadn't had it, and I don't even know ten or fifteen, twenty years, but because of that it got me. So I don't really feel like there's anything you can do about it. It's gonna happen. My wife's had it for twenty straight years. I've done every human thing I know to try to get her past it, and I've not been able to get her past it. And so I can't give a guy advice other than kill a bunch of deer with your bows. That ought

to help. And then when the antlers show up, like when you turn and you see this giant rack coming at you, you've just got to turn your head and take a deep breath and go Okay, now that freaked me out, that did, But I can do this, and I'm not going to look at them antlers again. I'm gonna ease my head background and watch that deer come in, and I'm going to pretend I'm I. I have a really good ability to once I see one that I

want to kill, I blankets antlers out. I don't know if that's normal, if anybody else can do that or not, but I literally can have a two inch deer walk in on me, and once I turned that initial turn and see him, if he's big and I know he's a shooter, I won't be able to tell you whether he's a hundred and fifty inches or two hundred and twenty inches. I I don't even realize they have antlers

on him, one side to side. I'm gonna shoot them, and uh so, just you know, if you get freaked with buck fever, just kind of close your eyes a second and take a deep breath and go, Okay, it ain't about these antlers. I can kill this dear. I've been killing a lot of deer. This is a dear. Now. Just ease back around there and watch him come on in and do what you gotta do. And don't don't look at his antlers again. If you can, just look watch his watch his face, watch his eyes. I get

fixated on their eyes. If I can see their eyeballs, that's all I ever watch. I watched their eyes, and that's where I get my readings of what and when to do things, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, those those eyes can definitely tell a lot of the story. Oh well, and I have got I have got to wrap this up. And the way we wrap this up, and and I've thoroughly enjoyed this, the way we wrap these up is with a quick, rapid fire set of questions.

I'm gonna ask you six really quick questions here, one after the other, and I'm just looking for a one word answer. Yes, or no that kind of thing, and then we'll we'll send you on your way and off to deer hunting season. That sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. So ready for the last few here? Yeah, go ahead, all right, Eddie. Does the moon matter to deer movement? Yes? Or no? Yes? Would you take a fifty yard shot at a white tail

with your bow? Yes or no? Yes? If you could only have one of these tools for the rest of your year's deer hunt, would you pick rattling antlers or grunt tube? Two expandable or fixed blade broadheads? Exploit? Should you stop a walking buck with a sound before shooting? Yes or no? No? Which state has better deer hunters? Kansas or Oklahoma? Did you say deer hunters or deer deer hunters? Which state has better deer hunters? Kansas or Oklahoma?

Um boy, I'll go with my home state. I'm just trying to I'm trying to get you in trouble here, ready, And that's and that's all I got for you. You. You've survived the gauntlet and given us a lot of really interesting, interesting stories and in ways to think about this stuff. And I particularly have enjoyed getting to hear about your your evolution and growth in these in these later years of hunting. So thank you for sharing that. Well, thank you. It's my privilege and God bless you. And

I've talked to you down the line. Sounds great and that is a rap. For those of you who stuck through all two hours. Thank you appreciate that perseverance. I hope you enjoyed this one. I hope you laughed. I hope you learn something, and I hope that you are as fired up as I am right now. I've been out there getting after stuff. I just got back to Michigan, but I've already been hanging trail cameras. I've already been working on food plots, trim and lanes and prep and

tree stands. It's time to get after it. Although I do have to say I forgot how miserable it is to do that kind of white tail work in humidity. Holy ship, the humidity here in Michigan is awful. That is one nice thing about spending time out West is as nice and dry and cool. I just about died yesterday. I was soaked from head to toe. I literally came in the house. My wife made me take off my clothes and pants because I've got like burrs and poison ivy and stuff on me, and even my boxes were

silking wet. She didn't understand how that's possible, but I said, do you get out there hanging tree stands or trimming lanes in August in the Midwest, you will get it. And I'm telling you what, there's a lot more to do. So my wife better used to uh soaking wet boxes. But I don't know where this is going. This is quite the tangent to wrap it up. Let's just end this sucker now. Thanks for being here, and until next time, stay wired. Don