Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to the White Tail Woods presented by first Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on the show, I'm joined by my longtime co hosts Dan Johnson and Tony Peterson to discuss our twenty twenty four goals, hopes and hitlists. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light and their Camel for Conservation initiative in the brand new White Tail line that just came out this summer.
All sorts of exciting stuff on that front.
But we are excited to be here today because if you're listening to this when it drops, it is the end of August, which means hunting season is basically here. The three of us here on the show today have hunts kicking off relatively soon. We're excited and we are here to do our annual goals, hopes and hit lists show. So joining me is mister Daniel Johnson and Tony Peterson, my two longtime partners in crime brothers from another mother
bad influences on me. They've brought me down for years, still doing it today.
Thanks for joining me. Guys.
Wow, Well, if we were brothers from another mother, you would have been an accident because we're so much older than you, so you were you would have been an unplanned pregnancy.
Well that explains a lot, I would say, and we.
Can all agree that Mark was probably an accident in right.
And also, how are you in any way surprised by me saying that you guys have been bringing me down?
Like, how can you act shocked by that?
Listen? Mark, I don't know if the listeners know this or not, but you have altered the course of my life since April with that deer poop video that we made. And I'm at first they were all going after you, and I was like, this is perfect. I'll just lay a low. And now I have people coming out of the woodwork and they're like, I saw this video you guys eating deer poop, and I'm like, oh my god.
I had someone the other day come up and say, hey, man, my brother told me about this video and he asked me if you were actually eating deer poop or not.
You weren't really eating deer poop?
Were it?
I'm like, man, how do so many people not get the joke?
My father in law does not even have an email. I mean, that's where he's at in life. And I sat next to him at one of my daughter's softball games the other night, and he's like, Hey, this guy that I used to work with sent me a text and said he saw a video of you eating deer poop. And it's like, how do you explain that to a guy who doesn't have you know what I mean?
But I was like, ah, yeah, So.
Basically what we're getting at here is I'm the only one on this episode that has not had deer poop in their mouth.
Hey, Dan, don't kink shame us. It's twenty twenty four, buddy. Yeah, I wouldn't call this kink shaman. Buddy.
Can you can do whatever you want now, buddy? In Mark's case, I would anyways, to be clear with anyone who's listening who did not see this video, we did not really eat deer poop. We opened a video pretending to eat deer poop. It was just chocolate covered raisins. I told a funny story about how I've been I've been like told this joke before and then we revealed
at the end of the video. But I think a lot of people just saw the social clip or they watched the first part of the video, but they didn't see the very end. So we may now tony and not be known in the history books as the hosts of a pretty decent hunting podcast or being half decent writers, or or doing some films. We're just gonna be those guys that ate the deer ship.
Yeah, so that's what I've been telling everybody career defining moment, Marcus. Yeah, who to throw away video that we did for fun. Now, that's who we are. That is who we are. Mark, You're like the male version of that hawk to a girl.
Now, So I don't even I don't this is this is a sad mission maybe, but I don't know what the hawk to a thing is.
All right, well we probably shouldn't talk about it. Then, Well here's what it is, idiot. No, I'm just.
I've seen people like say those words, but I've not seen the original impetus for the the meme or whatever.
So all right, we'll do that. I'll trust you on that.
Are you guys, where's your temperature, Dann, we talked about this earlier this week. But where's like your guys's temperature on the hunting season? Are you feeling ready? Are you feeling excited? Is this like full amped up? Are you still on the rise? Where do you stand?
Kick it off? Tony? Didn't I thought Mark? Didn't you just asked Dan that question?
No, I said me and Dan. Me and Dan talked about this a little bit earlier this on his podcast. So I'm curious about where you're at today, Tony. Where my temperature is at?
Yeah?
Not very warm, buddy? Uh might it might change after this week? And I'm heading over with the girls to bait some bears and put up some blinds for some deer. But I don't know what happened. All the bucks I was getting on camera are just gone, and they've been gone for like a week, and a lot of natural bear movement showed up. So something changed for me. I don't. I don't think it's acorns. I've been out a little bit.
I don't. I don't get that vibe. But maybe there's a lot of apples hitting the ground or some kind of soft mass situation going on. Uh So I would say if it's like a one out of ten. I'm at like a read right now, although I do have a really big bear to work, so I know that doesn't do as much good for this podcast, but maybe that brings me to four.
Okay, four for you Dan, what about you?
Well, the second that my kids stepped on the school bus today, the temperature jumped right and so I was basically, you know, a seasonal depression basically from the last day of school until the first day of school hits. And now the kids are on the bus, I can start focusing. I can go organize my garage, get my gear ready, shoot my bow more, start planning my first hunt in October, and I guess, start putting the pieces of the puzzle together,
and temperature is rising. I'm not going to give it a number, but I'm gonna I'm just saying it's going up and up and up.
Nice, I'm gonna I'm gonna say that. I guess I'm a little ahead of the game on you guys. I'm I've got a pretty high temperature. I'm pretty amped. I just just wrapped up my whitetail prep on most of my at least my main zone. I did my last project. Got my last projects done yesterday, so I'm feeling good about that. I've got one other new property, I've got a scout and do a little bit of work on. I got to go up to Deer Camp next week and get some stuff done there. But once that's done,
I think I'm ready. So I'm I'm excited. I'm excited for Whitetail, So I'm like at a six seven in rising And then I'm had like a low underlying stress for my Alaska trip coming up, which will which we'll
get to and talk about more. But I'm I do not feel ready for that, and I feel just like an underlying low grade ambient stress level all the time now whenever I think about that, like between my son, well, my oldest son with a broken leg, he's been like waking up in the middle of the night like crazy itching, and then last night a random like my young son woke up just like saying he was hungry and then
just crying. And so when every time I've been woken up in the middle of the night, when I go lay back down in bed, I all of a sudden start having these like are you ready for this thing?
Did you plan for this?
Thing.
Do you have that thing packed? Do you even know what to do in that situation? Is that figured out?
All?
For this the last thing?
So I'm trying to get excited, but mostly just panicked on that front.
Yeah, I dude, if I were you, I would be panicked too, because that's a I would not be comfortable where you're at right now. Hard to call an outfitter, Mark, that's all you're doing? Right?
No?
Okay, all right? I think it was just a phone call or not. Man man kidd, he likes to scratch, uh huh. But well we'll we'll we'll get to my Alaska stuff in more detail. But I want to lead with you guys, and and that the idea here with this podcast for anyone who hasn't heard one of these,
is that we just want to get everyone listening. Everyone in our audience is up to speed on our plans for the coming year, What our goals are, you know, what particular adventures or experiences or deer we're chasing this year, what we're what we're going after. Kind of setting the stage so as we, you know, go through the hunting season, they kind of know what we're getting after and hopefully something to look forward to hearing about So, Dan, yes,
do you want to open this up? Do you want to give us a rundown of the Daniel Johnson hunt schedule this year? Okay, it's real simple.
This year is October first first trip South Dakota looking for mule deer.
This met this dude online, and I'm.
As all good stories start.
Met this guy online.
Actually, he reached out to me via Instagram and he's like, hey, man, my crew that I go with doesn't want to go or can't go this year, and we hunt relatively in the same areas, UH. And he's like, dude, you want to team up and and go and try something different?
And I was like, yeah, let's do it.
And hold on, hold on, before we go any further. How do you.
Not fact check but like creep check this dude, Like, how do you know you're not getting to a situation We're gonna come home married to a new person.
Yeah.
So I go to the uh sex offender's website and basically check his address and see if he like, if he lives there, and that's pretty much my only check.
That's it. He clears that bar. We're up.
Yeah, Yeah, he clears that bar. We're good to go, and then it just pulled, I'll get in a car with a stranger. I don't care, Okay, I mean, especially if you promised me good dear honey.
Mark. Doesn't this feel like this is going to show up on a dateline episode?
Oh for sure? This is how those documentaries start.
Dan, Yeah, as long as Keith Morrison is the narrator, I'm all good, dude.
Be a hell of a way to go.
Okay, So what if I'm I'm and maybe because I'm like socially, I'm more just paranoid about getting the weird situations. But have you ever thought about, like, are there strings attached? Are there weird obligations that you're going to feel like now become a thing because of this? Is there anything weird about him being like knowing everything about you and knowing you and your world and and you not knowing anything about him?
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah?
I get It's that kind of thing, right.
Yeah, I get it. And so.
It's just all about expectations, right, Like, So the first thing, the first conversation that we had was Hey, man, I would love to come out with you. We can go bounce on your spots. We can go bounce on the spots that I've accumulated, and we can. There's so much public land out in South Dakota west of the Missouri that it's really for me. It's not a huge issue. It's not like and as we all know, there's no real secrets in blick land anymore. And so there's spots
that are better than others. In some years they're good, and especially out in South Dakota, Man, there's years where the rain is good, the grass is tall, and the deer there. And then there's other years where there's a cattle rotation and all those same things happen, but the cattle rotation hits that parcel and it's not good anymore.
And so.
One thing that I've found out, especially in those scenarios, is you can scout as much as you want, but you don't know cattle rotations. You like, you can check the rain, you can maybe talk to some locals that are out there, but once you get there, you're starting from scratch anyway. Get to the point, start glassing, Get to the point start glassing, and then you've got to
just go where the deer are at. And so I'm not too concerned about the sharing a spot and then him telling his buddies, and then him telling his buddies because I went to spots that people told me about and I didn't see anybody there, and so I don't know, I'm not really worried about that.
But as far as setting expectations are concerned.
You know, we went out, we're gonna you know, we're gonna go to a couple spots if that he has that are closer, like in the central part of South Dakota. But then after that, if we don't run into anything, we're gonna bounce further west and go to some of the spots that I've kind of accumulated over the years. And I just set the expectation like, hey, dude, I'm willing to do this, no big deal. I'm willing to
try anything with anybody. Really, but there's I can't, like Tony, shut up, dude, but I can't like, I can't promise you you're going to be able to come hunt on any farm that I have in Iowa, right, so, like I'm not doing that trade and so but most of the people that I've done this with, this is the second guy, like, like I met another guy on I met an I met another guy on Instagram, right, and we went out to Nebraska one year.
We had How lucky is Dan that he didn't have Instagram back during his college years. Can you imagine what kind of trouble he might have gotten.
Dude, I'd have like thirty kids.
And some other stuff.
Yeah. I just want you to keep going, buddy.
Yeah, keep going.
For Mark and I these social clips that are just going to be cut to me talking about meeting dudes on the internet. Yeah, but anyways, right, yeah, yeah, so you know, just manage expectations. We talk about what we're looking for, and he's like, you know, here's what I've got, and then I say, here's what I've got.
Balance it out.
I'm not sure if we're driving together yet or if we're meeting out there, because if it sucks, we could possibly split up and go different directions. But uh, I'm to the point now in my attempt to kill a mule deer that I'll do just about anything because I've gone out there and I've struck out.
Jesus, Tony, dude, can you can you shut his video off? No, I'm just buddy, yeah, man, Hey, So, but sirius.
But on a serious note, like I am really looking forward to going and hunting meal deer by Yeah, got a phone call, guys, gotta go.
Tell me this Dan?
Yeah.
Uh?
Is there any big learning you've taken from these? How many times five or six years you've gone out now?
Hm?
So what's the big like aha thing you're bringing to the table or big change? Is there anything that you're saying like this year, I'm going to do this differently.
You know, I got over twenty years in a tree stand hunting white tails, right hop in a tree, you know, the scent and stuff like that. Here's where I go wrong.
Mule deer hunting every year.
Spot something. I've started to learn that you can't just spott a deer and move in on it. You have to look for all the deer in the area. Okay, so I know that. But the thing about this terrain that these deer are hunting in are you go on approach? Okay, you got the deer locked in, you see the other deer, you put a plan together in and then you you
drop down in. You're sneaking around and then there's four other does standing there already on their feet looking at you that you have never that you never saw because you can drop down three feet, turn behind you and see exposed terrain that you did not see while you're standing in that location because of the grass, because of it.
Just like I don't know.
It's it's crazy out there, and so I'm learning, like I'm learning how to get close to them without getting busted. Now, if there's no other deer around, I can get close and then usually it fails some somewhere around the getting into shooting range type of scenario. But when it comes, I am I am fam right now because I'm not seeing deer that I need to see before I go on approach.
Are you dann what's your like, what's the smallest deer, like, what's the lowest standard meal deer that you would stalk? Legal?
Any anything, any any legal deer out there. I'm putting an arrowin. You can't hunt what you can't hunt mulder dose in the zone for non residents that I that I go to, So that's out of the question. But outside of that, any legal mule deer buck is now on the table. Nice, do you do you know what I would tell you?
Having hunted out there, hunt like I've spotted in stock meal deer out there. Some I'd try really hard to go find one of those little groups of like year and a half two and a half type bucks, and I would figure those deer out. Yeah. Yeah, So they kind of tend to do their own thing a little bit, and they can give you a little bit to work with, yeah sometimes.
And I've tried that, honestly, I have. So I don't know about what you have seen out there, but I get out there, I spotted deer. I'm like, I don't care what it is, but they're still in some kind of bachelor group. And usually the time of year that I go, the bachelor groups have a decent mature buck and now I'm not talking to giant antler wise, but like an older deer that is experienced. And it seems to me that these younger deer are hanging around this
older buck for some sort of reason. And so the perfect example was last year, spotted a herd of bucks. I mean there was a bachelor group of bucks.
This was late.
October, no doze, and the big, mature, old, large antler, large body deer sat on this knob and all the other I guess younger bucks sat in a circle around him. So how the hell am I supposed to stock in on that?
Right? And they're in it?
There are so everybody says, mule deer dumb, but they are so smart with where they bed that they it's it's often times impossible to even get in unless you're shooting a hundred yards and I'm not shooting a hundred yards.
Have you ever thought that maybe like this style of hunt just isn't in the cards for you, Dan, because I just I gotta I gotta imagine like a Yukon Cornelius character the size of an offensive lineman trying to sneak in on a bunch of deer. Maybe just it's not You're just not made for it, buddy.
Next question, I think you're made. I think you're made for dude, spotting in when you're a white tail hunter and going out and spotting stock at critters is hard. I mean, most of us usually just get there and kill a bunch of stuff. But you you probably will too, Dan.
Some Yeah, yeah someday. Like I've been close, dude, I've even arrowed deer. I've my first year out. I you know, all I knew back then was get down wind of them, or and if they're in a position where you can get on top of them and shoot down at them. That's that's all I knew, and so that's what I tried, and I've gotten really really close to deer that way. However,
it's either my mistake or the wind shifts. I don't know how many times right at the time where deers start to get on their feet at the end of the day, there's been a gust of wind hit the back of my neck and I'm I'm toast. And it's as simple and as quick as that.
I'm in. I'm in, I'm in, I'm in. I'm in toast. How about this fellow you met on Tinder or whatever? Has he killed in me? Yes?
He has, Tony He's yeah, he's I think it's grinder. Anyways, anyways, I'm very to hear how this hunt goes.
Dan.
I think it's going to be great for you culturally and hunting wise, and.
I think event it's really just going to be like social media clips of me at gas stations filling up gas and eating food. That's really all you're going to see, will it as well? Or you know, pictures through a spotting scope at like six hundred yards away.
In all seriousness, my olk hunting partner is a phenomenal Western hunter, and I've mule deer hunted with him, and one of his things that really makes a difference on meal deer hunts is he is so meticulous about finding
one in the middle of the day betted. Oh yeah, because you always want that first couple hours, in the last couple hours, but then you have a lot of deer moving and on their feet, and he is like, he has really taught me how to sit there and pick apart drainages and go find that betted deer because if you find him betted at eleven o'clock in the morning, that deer might not move, like really might not move
for like four hours or five hours. So you you know, but it's so hard you just get you get into that mode where you just overlook them. And I mean, that's that's kind of something that when I hunted with him, I was like, man, I've been doing this wrong on every spot in stock and I've.
Had yeah, and and yes, I like, I get up, I go and I'll take a little break throughout the day maybe, but I'm going from one drainage to the next or or walking to a high point, picking everything apart, and I do that all day long.
Okay.
Here's another issue that I've run into with spot and stock, and this is something that I am still really green at, is first and second beds, right with Neil Deer. I don't know how familiar you guys are with this, but I've been doing a little reading on this and like researching and listening to guys out there like Marlon Holden. Do you guys know who he is. He's a dude.
He's just a straight mual deer slayer, Okay. And so he talks about first and second beds a lot, and you'll see, like, Okay, he comes, they come out, they bed down, it's like eight nine in the morning. You go to make a stock on them, but when you get into rains, they're not even there anymore because the sun hit them. They moved up for their for the second bed of the day into a place where now it's going to be a little more shady all day.
And so I've ran into that issue a lot, and so you start to read up on some of this stuff, like these mule deer guys won't even stock them on their first bed, they'll wait till they stand up and go to a second bed, and then they're they're there for six hours or whatever the case may be. So it's it's just a learning process, that is all it is. It's just a hard one for me at this point.
Uh what about Iowa. Well, you've got more than you've got two white tail trips, right.
Right, right?
I got Iowa this year, and I'm really starting to get frustrated with this property, that this new property where I've killed the deer the last what two years now, and so now there's I went and put my cameras out. Deer there, great deer. They're ghost town just kind of like what Tony was saying, it's ghost town now, just a couple of doze. And then the dog issue again, right, neighboring dogs, And like, I'm starting to get extremely frustrated with this I got. When I go down to this farm,
I'm driving three hours to get there. Two yeah, two forty five, three hours to get there. You go hunt and then some dogs run through blow it out. And I don't care what people say about dogs as far as long term effect on the landscape, but short term, if I'm in a tree stand and dogs run through. They they scare the deer away, and that ruins that particular hunt. Now I gotta do something because I called the sheriff, I called the conservation off Sir. I've been
in touch with the landowner. It's just not nothing's changing. So I think, what that what I'm gonna take. I don't know if you guys saw what Bomar did or said on one of his podcasts. Yeah, but just chill tony.
Uh.
But I'm gonna put him in my truck and I'm gonna drive him back to my hometown and I'm gonna put him in the pound. And so they have to drive three hours to come get that dog, you know what I mean. So I don't I gotta do something. I can't kill him because they're collared, and so I've done my due diligence. Now it's time to take some action.
So what's the Hey, Mark, just quick, We've gone very quickly from worried about worrying about Dan getting kidnapped to Dan getting in trouble for dog mapping. Yes, this is uh.
I'm so glad that we opened with Dan.
Yeah, me too. Yeah.
Uh, So what's the plan for catching a dog in this situation are you are you bringing treats?
Do you have some way to do you bring cage for the back of your truck or is he gonna sit in the front seat with you? Rode shotgun.
So when I went what not last year, but the year before, I believe it was. You know, it took me a while to find that that deer, right, it took me a day to find that deer. The when I was out grid searching, that dog was there. German shepherd was there, and I was like, come here, boy, you know, and he seemed friendly, and so I was like, get out of here, get out of here. This year, if I see him, I'm just gonna coax him and just be like, come here, take a leash time to
a tree up at the farmhouse. And then when I leave, I'm taking him with me.
So, okay, I just want to make this very clear. Number One, I am supportive of any and all No, no, not supportive. I am accepting of any and all choices you make with your life, Dan, But I also do not condone criminals kidnapping dogs.
Just so we're clear, is it kidnapping?
Is it kidnapping? Though, like I have.
I have been in contact with every single person that I need to be in contact with. Right, those dogs are on a property that they should not be in right, And although I'm not the landowner, I have I have responsibilities to that property through the landowner. And so, like, I don't know what to do. So let me ask
you a question. Same thing happens to you, and you're driving to another state, to another county, and these dogs are ruining every single hunt and all the hard work that you've done, and and nothing is done about it, and you can't do anything about it. In Iowa, they have a law that says if this dog does not have a collar on it and it is a nuisance, you can shoot it. But both of these dogs have collars on them, so I can't shoot these dogs, but they are a nuisance, And so I don't know what
the next step is. I mean, I've done my due diligence. I've communicated to these people that this is causing me problems, and nobody cares about it. Nobody's doing anything about the landowner. The dogs are still running on these properties for the past three years now, and I'm done with it, and so I'm gonna I'm gonna take them, and I'm gonna go put them in a pound somewhere.
I think that catching a stray random German shepherd is going to be a great way for you to have the eight fingers chronicles here pretty soon.
They're not stray though. They belong to a neighboring farm.
Yes.
Have you talk to those people? Yes, own the dogs.
Yes. So Dan Weirdly, one of my buddies who lives down in Iowa. He has a lease down there, and the last two years he's had the same problem, two dogs running through their blowing deer out constantly. He called Sheriff CEO the whole thing, and I think the sheriff came in with traps to get those dogs. I think that how it ended up going might have been the conservation officer, but he had the same problem and it
was all season long. You know, those dogs are on trail camera, those deer we're not on trail camera anymore. Blew it out. It's a really bad deal, honestly, I just look at it.
From the conservation or the sheriff's time, like, right, so in Iowa, there's like one conservation officer for every two counties, right, So in the butt, like, Okay, hey, I need you to take time out of stopping poachers and trespassers and all this stuff to take care of a couple of dogs. It's probably really low on their priority list and it's not going to get any attention however. And you know, I don't make my money. I mean I make my
money somewhat in this space, right. I don't film my hunts, so it's not like I'm losing out on any content per se, but it pisses me off. I'm trying to do the right thing and now it's time to take action period.
One way or another. There will be good stories coming out of this, so I'm appreciative for that.
Yeah, I'll fight a dog if I have to, I'll bite one. I'll bite a dog, Mark, I wouldn't put it past you. So that's Iowa.
On my main farm, I don't have any I don't have any trail cameras out yet. I'm way behind on that farm. I think I told you about that last year where I had a ton of really good deer show up last year, and I think it's because actually they introduced cattle into these back pastures now that had been dormant for so many years, and the deer are now having to skirt around the pastures.
They're not in the.
Pastures, they're not crossing through the pastures. They're skirting it, which is where I hunt, and a lot more deer activity. So I'm really looking forward to getting some cameras out there and seeing what's going on there.
Is there on either one of the properties.
Is there a buck that you're hoping is going to be back or that you know of that you're extra excited about it, deer like that, anything in particular.
Yeah, So on the farm with the dogs, there's three deer that I've already identified as shooters four years older or older. They're all about that one forty five or higher type frame.
My main farm this year.
Last year had a stud clean ten and he he was like one sixty plus last year. This year we're looking at you know, I don't have I don't have any knowledge of what's on that farm right now, so I'm guessing he makes a jump, he'll be booner status clean ten. There's a couple other deer that their body is going to get them killed. They are like a one thirty class eight pointer, but they're they're that two fifty two seventy five body size, and so giant bodies
just like bodybuilder type bucks. And and i'd shoot one of one of them as well. So as far as deer bucks are concerned, it's not like it used to be. But there are really good dear that I would shoot nice yep, Kansas, Kansas, I mean, just e scouting. At this point, I'll be calling my uncle who lives down there here in a little bit. He has access to like a couple thousand acres down in Kansas, but thousands of acres in Kansas and thousands of acres in Iowa
are mean something completely different. So he lives in cattle pasture ground you know, you know, crick systems is where really all the trees are at. So I might have access to one of the farms that he hunts on. It's still debatable because he shares that with another guy. And so I don't necessarily want to just say, hey, I'm your nephew, I'm gonna come, I'm want to come hunt your property. I just want him to have a conversation with his buddy and see if it's cool if
I come there. I mean, I'm sure, there's gonna be expectations of what I can and cannot shoot, Like I probably won't be able to shoot extremely young, up and comer deer. But if depending on how if I get access and this guy's cool with me going there, there's places I can go, there's places I can't go. And if that falls through, I've scouted walk in Cora engineer ground and I'm gonna start bouncing around through all those places that I've scouted.
Nice, simple, just that easy, Just that easy.
So you know, outside of you getting some restrictions placed on you by your uncle or other hunter, what do you think your goals are going to be for that trip?
Otherwise?
I mean I'd like to run into a one of some caliber. Like with any out of state hunt that I take, I can't compare it to what I have here, right, And so I have some really good ground here in Iowa. I understand that, and that dude, I'm not opposed to
shooting a three year old who walks by. I'm down for the experience at this point, and I want I want a good deer with a good story and a good experience, and that might be a one twenty class who walks through on the first morning, or that could be an accidental, accidental booner, you know what I mean, just anything that comes within shooting range. I don't I don't ever really say to myself, here are especially on out of state, here are my goals. I'm gonna only live up to this one thing.
It is. It is really hunt by hunt morning, hunt afternoon, hunt? Am I tired?
Am I hungry? Like all these things come into play, and if it comes by and I'm in the mood to kill, I'm gonna kill.
Like the infamous White Knuckle Productions video where you said that fuck made me say, oh.
So I shot him? Yep, sure did, Yeah, sure it did.
Uh well, that's exciting, and that'll be like I'm looking specially, it sounds like your uncle's stuff, like much more open country.
It sounds like, yeah, why pretty cool, wide open.
And I don't necessarily want to bait per se, but if things get hairy out there or I'm struggling, bait baiting might be in the cards because it's legal in Kansas, So I'm not I don't know, I've never done it before, but it's it's it's a it's a what I would throw as like a hell Mary type of deal.
Well, speaking of bait ah tony or are you baiting bears this year?
I am yeah.
What's uh, what's your year look like?
Man?
I uh, I'm gonna spend September trying really hard to get the girls on some deer and a bear. Obviously, I am gonna I am gonna for the first time in a couple of years get a chance to hunt for myself in Minnesota on Opening Week, So I'm kind of excited for that. And I don't know, you know, I kind of mentioned earlier that my trail cameras have been I don't I don't have a lot of trail
cameras out right now, but my bucks disappeared. But randomly this year, I've had big deer, like big deer on most properties I'm hunting, and so it's kind of cool. Like I sent you that picture mark of that one in Wisconsin and that year, I have a November plan for that deer and I'm going to ride out some time for him because he's you know, like Dan talked about those two hundred and seventy five pounders that year, looks like right now he would dress over two hundred
no problem, you know. But really I'm going to try to get the girls on some deer, maybe try to get myself on one. And you know, Minnesota this year, our gun season doesn't open till like November ninth, which is really late for us. So if I can wrap up my eye with situation, I still have some time to during the rut. So I'm kind of just I don't know, I'm kind of just playing it cool in Minnesota. In Wisconsin, I'm not like really gung ho to get out there for myself yet, you know, like I really
want to get the girls on something. But I do have mid October North Dakota hunt. It's just going to be fun. I'm going to go head over onto the western side of the state, try to glass one up and kill one on a river bottom. And then I drew Iowa and I'm going to go down and try to kill a big one on public land. And I have a have a plan for that one, to try to decoy one, because I think I have a few spots where if I sit out all day with a dough decoy out, I think I can make it happen.
And that one as me real excited.
Now you're taking in one of the full with the full big body do decoys that you used last year from Dave Smith. How are you going to get that deep into public land? He's going to strap that to your back. I don't know yet do all it in because it's not really a portable decoy.
Right. The spot that I'm hoping to use it the most is not that far of a walk. It's just not that fun of a walk, and so I think it'll just be I think what I'll have to do is go in in the daylight, you know, maybe a midday deal first, get it up there, set it up, and then just dash it under my tree or something or I don't know. I don't know yet how I'm
going to play that. But that is like a real concern, right because especially you know, you're going in for an all day sit and carrying everything that you need and then you got to carry that sucker in. But I think it'll be worth it, and so I'm gonna have
to figure it out. I'm gonna have to the Last time I was down there this spot I'm thinking about, I kind of mapped out a route to get up there that wasn't like terrible, and so I you know, it's easy to think about when you're sitting in your office and not trying to sneak through the woods with a full body decoy. But I'm going to figure it out because I just think it's going to be so fun and I think it'll work. I'm sorry, Mark, how much success have you had decoying in the past. Not
very much. But last season we used this decoy twice in a row and killed two bucks with it. My daughter killed one and I killed one, and it was
like a magnet. And so November, yeah, so I'm heading down to Iowa probably like October twenty sixth, twenty seventh, somewhere around there, so i'll be you know, like maybe a little bit early, but I think, I don't know, I think it'll work, and it just, you know, seeing how that decoy worked last year kind of changed how I view this because I always looked at decoys like they really weren't much of an option for me, Like it wasn't something that I was going to build into
a plan in any meaningful way. But last year I was like, we just got to try this, and I think it'll work. And it worked so well, and I tried it again and it worked exactly the same way, and it kind of opened my eyes. This year, I'm thinking more not only about Iowa, but if I do rut hunt Minnesota, I have some spots where I'm like, I think I can go ride it out all day, put out that decoy and have a chance there too. So it's it's going to be a bigger part of
my season. I don't know if it'll work out or not, but I'm definitely going to try.
So we talked about this a little bit last season, but just you know, for folks that are new or to this, you know, the popular thing is to use a buck decoy, but you are using a dough decoy. How how are you using it in this situation? And why do you think the dough is going to help you more than the traditional buck option.
Well, the original reason that I asked for the dough is, you know, like where I'm hunting in northern Wisconsin, there's only like eight deer per county, right, So I'm like, if I put out that Dave Smith buck that's bigger than any deer that's probably going to come in, and any dough that sees it is not going to be happy with it. And so I'm like, I'm going to try this little dough uh. You know it's I mean, I kind of look at it as a difference of
when you turkey hunt. You can put out a full strutter and you will get in certain birds, right, But some birds are like, Nope, I'm going to skirt that and I'm going to show off out here in the field. But I'm not coming into that. But you put out that quarter strut jake and push him low to the ground. Now every bird is like, I'm I'm gonna take a swing at that, And I just look at the doe decoy. I'm like, I think dose will wig out less on it because I know, especially in Iowa Minnesota where I'll
use it, does will see it. And I think I'll have less of a negative reaction from a doe decoy standing there. And it's just going to allow it. Just in my opinion, you open yourself up to every buck, not just the one who looks at that big postured up buck and wants to come in and fight it. You know, like I don't. I don't want to exclude bucks like if deer, if deer would potentially come in and sniff that decoy's butt. I want that to happen,
and I don't want to push them off. And so I really think the buck decoy thing, especially that Dave Smith, the way it looks like that's sending a pretty clear message. And you're not gonna have a little deer come into that, you know what I mean, Like you're that that's the kind of decoy that could probably push off a three year old, you know, like the right three year old, or even even a bigger dear that's just not feeling the fight. And I just don't see that with a dough.
Interesting this area, this public spot, you had like a really good buck there before, right, that's the same zone.
Yeah yeah, yeah, so helps and I think he's still there, you know, I don't know. I mean I had an encounter with him. I hit him in twenty twenty. Never found him, and I sent my buddy in there because he drew last year and he he had one come in that he thought was one pint eighty and he was describing it. It's the same spot and he missed
it at twenty five yards, totally fell apart. And it's kind of to me, I mean, who knows, Right, that's a couple of years apart, but it was a typical mainframe giant and he had the same thing come out. He's like, it looked like the way he described it was perfect. He said it looked like the final boss in a video game. When I looked up, you know, and I just think in that little area like that are what are the odds? Right?
Like?
What are the odds? There's a typical booner on public land in this spot when I'm there and then still there or also there when my buddy goes in.
Although it is Iowa, aren't those behind every tree there?
They are? Yeah, it is the easiest place to hunt.
Okay, So you told me, like a few weeks back, we were together and you said something along the lines of you might maybe I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure you said that you were thinking of like holding out for a really really big buck in Iowa. How serious are you about that? Because usually you're, you know, relatively flexible with your standards based on the situation everything. How serious are you about passing you know, good bucks to hold out for that buck or something like it?
Will I hold out for that buck? I'm not sure, but I want a big one down there? You know. I mean, I partially just because I want to spend the time. The last time I drew that was when we did the back forty and so I had to hunt in October and not November, so I didn't get to experience that spot during the rut. And the other two times I drew, IOWA, I did. I just did a rut hunt, you know. So yeah, I don't know. I want, I want a good one. It'll be I'm I'm going down there to have some fun, love it.
So IOWA high standards, exciting decoy North Dakota, doing your standard North Dakota thing. Ah, any particular goal out there other than you know.
She would get well. The last time I was there, it was pretty dismal, and that was I think two years ago, and so I'm kind of just curious about the numbers. But you know how it is, you can get out there and glass them up and figure out pretty quickly, you know, kind of kind of quantity wise what you're dealing with and quality wise. So I don't I don't have a I don't have a lot of hope for that one because I don't think the numbers
out there are very good. So that might be kind of like Dan South Dakota thing where you're like, get a legal deer in front of me. You know. I just I don't know till like out there, but I will say this, it's pretty interesting this year. And I don't know if you're seeing this or not, but I feel like the quality of bucks in general this year
is just a little bit higher after last winter. And you know, like I talked about this before, but you know, we've been fishing a few tournaments and just like it, even in Turkey season, shooting jakes like they were heavier
than they usually are. The fish are weighing heavier than they usually do, and it seems like there's a lot of good antler growth out there, and I just wonder if it's just correlated to how mild of a winner we had last year and how how little stressed those critters had on top of a really wet and plentiful spread.
Right, Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
I mean I've seen more fonds on trail cameras this year than ever before with twins and triplets. I just don't know what that means, but I think I think the amount of rain that we've had this year is gonna there's gonna be some giants coming out of places this year.
Yeah, I do too, Yeah, I do too, so hey, Mark, The other thing I'm going to do for the first time in a long time is I'm going to rifle hunt Wisconsin this year with one of my daughters.
Nice at the at your Wisconsin properties up north.
Yeah, yeah, sweet, I am gonna this weekend. I am going to go poke around a little bit on some public land because I might spend a mid day day rifle hunting there, or I might bow hunt it too. But yeah, I'm kind I'm kind of excited for that. I've really only rifle hunted like a few times in my life, and it's been probably ten years since I rifle hunted a deer, so I think that'll be kind of cool.
Does it set up well up there for rifle hunting or is it pretty tight? I mean, like my Northern Michigan stuff. You even with a rifle, it's like fifty yard shots are closer.
It's it's tight. It's like it's like bow hunting with like a little advantage. Yeah, you know, but that's cool though. Yeah, And honestly, I am not a very good shot, so I don't want to be sitting on like a power line where I can shoot them three hund yards awa, because I'm just gonna miss him anyway. Yeah, so I want them in bow range when I have a rifle. Yeah.
I'm not too far from that either.
So Minnesota, you've got some closer to home stuff that you are hoping to target with an archery season, right, yep. And Wisconsin is where the bigger bucks though have shown up. The big body buck is Wisconsin, right.
Right, But I do I will say this. I have a little twenty five acre chunk that I picked up last year close to my house, and they are two big deer in there, like really really good deer. But it's it's twenty five acres, you know, like and it's and it's suburban stuff. So there's sanctuaries everywhere. And so I you know, is that the farm with the fruit tree in it?
Right?
Yeah? Okay, yeah, yeah, there's a there's some apple trees in there that are real popular, but a lot of I mean this year in you know, over in Wisconsin where we're at too, we have some apple trees over there, and there were so many apples earlier, and I'm already starting to see a lot of them hitting the ground. In fact, one of the routes I run here by my house, I see apple trees in people's yards and
I kind of pay attention to them. And just we've had pounding rain and a lot of wind lately, and it seems like already a lot of the apples around the ground. So I'm kind of like, I don't I don't know if that's going to be a pattern that lasts two through our opener or not. It might be over.
So, yeah, a lot in your plate Tony Minnesota, Wisconsin rifle Hunt, archery hunts, Iowa high Hopes, North Dakota flyer hunt. What would be like a success if you had to like put one thing, if you could check a box that's to one thing for this fall, that would give you like the yeah, this is a success. What's the one thing of all of these things you hope to put the check bart next to?
Man, I I just I'm to the point now where i just want to hunt places. I know I'm going to have a ton of fun. And so really, you know, last year, last year, we had a really good year with the girls, and I had a good year, and so kind of at the end of the season. When I look at it, if I have like five six seven deer in the freezer, and my daughter's got some deer, and I had some you know, had some opportunities, I'm like,
that's that's pretty good for me. I'm not you know, I'm not really going down the hit list route just because of the places I hunt, Like, I just can't. That's just not like a great way to go about it for me. So I don't you know, it's not like I got to get three big bucks or it's
a failure. You know, Like that North Dakota thing. There's a lot of places I could go that would be better, I think, But I just love it out there, you know, you know that terrain, and like it's just it's kind of the same thing the reason that Dan keeps going to South Dakota. It's not it's not because it's just like an easy kill.
It's not just killing anything, dude.
It's because the terrain. The terrain is so cool and it's just different from what you're used to. And I I'm to the point now where I just like I want as many hunts like that because I just love being there, you know.
Yeah, yeah, I get that. That's awesome. Okay, well, I guess that brings it to me. So I'll run you through the schedule real quick.
As I alluded to earlier, I've got the big Alaska trip in which first part of that trip is a blacktail hunt there in Southeast Alaska, doing an interesting story film up there about some changes going on in that part of the world and why it's happening and why some different critters are showing up in places they never used to. So that's an interesting one. And then a few days I'm spending days after that doing some salmon fishing, which would be cool.
So that's like an almost two week trip, big excursion.
Like I mentioned earlier, I feel, you know, there's so many question marks around that it's got me a little anxious, but also it's going to be one of those very special experiences.
So excited about that.
What's your bear defense plan for that trip?
Well, I'll have bear spray and I have a ten milimeter a sig P three twenty I think is what it is. So I'll have a ten mil on the bino harness and bear spray underneath. And then there's also a friend going with me. Who's very experienced in the area and actually does like bear what he leads, like bear watching trips and all that kind of stuff up there. So the dudes like very Alaskan bear brown bear savvy.
So I feel really comfortable in grizzly country like here in the lower forty eight, you know, spend a lot of time and so I feel fine with that. But this does feel like slightly different. So it would be nice to be with someone for that part of the trip who's experienced with that version of a grizzly And.
Can you be real honest here, how much time have you spent standing in front of the mirror pulling that pistol out of the holster and aiming it quickly because I know it's not zero?
Yeah, with my shirt off and face painted underath my eyes. You're a tough man, you're big, you're strong, Mark. Yeah, not not zero at all. That's that's a daily occurrence here. My wife's really loving it. Yes, okay, yeah, so uh yeah, super dense grizzly brown bear population so big old suckers, I understand. I'd love to I'd love to see some, you know, like I love I think they're incredible animals, So I'd love to observe from afar.
I just don't want anything too close.
Is this a rifle or a bow hunt rifle? Rifle?
Okay, yeah, so I will have plenty of firepower.
I talked with some of the Vortex dudes who went on that well I think it was last year or the year before or something like that, and they had they had an absolute blast.
Yeah, looks looked incredible.
So yeah, I think it'll be one of those lifeless trips, you know that I'll be able to look back on and have a great story.
And I have an experience.
So I'm trying to trying to get past the little bit of anxiety and just be like, hey, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be an amazing thing. I will tell you though, Honestly, the thing that I'm thinking I'm dreading the most about it is and this sounds so cheesy, but you guys will get it. It's a long time away from the kids. Like it's a very It's about as long of a trip as i'd ever want to do.
I like a few years ago, I think I set my max like, man, I'm not doing any trips more than like ten days, like seven days is really what
I prefer. But this one has had to stretch out because there's all these travel like I had to hop on so many different planes, and there's all these travel logistics, and then tack and on the there's the film, there's a black Tail, the Blacktail Hunt, and then I'm also doing this this salmon thing for a project, and so there's no way I could do two separate trips to do all that. So the only way to do this
is that for just to be a big trip. So it's going to be like twelve or thirteen days, which is going to be tough.
So well, and that's the kind of trip that could turn into longer just by weather for some of the flights you have probably huh.
Yeah, yeah, that's a fair point. You're at the mercy of You're at the mercy of the conditions. So yeah, I don't know, it's gonna be a it's a little hard to feel sorry for you. Yeah, I'm not asking for any pity, not asking for any pity. It'll be great. So that one's early September, and then I'm gonna do a Kentucky public land hunt, which will be cool. But I have low expectations as far as like deer. That's for a project about we're telling a story about the
working for Wildlife tour. I've been doing so all these different public land habitat improvement volunteer days I've been going on, and we did one in Kentucky and so we filmed that and then we're gonna come back and do a hunt in that area too, so we're able to tell that story and explore you know, that project, which would be really cool. But it's like big woods, big hills, no egg, you know, just tough situation for trying to kill deer. So my hopes on that are just any
legal deer. Probably unless I get out there, it's it's probably going to be November. Yeah, I think that's probably I can't do in September because I'm gone for two weeks already with Alaska. And then October, you know, I want my first couple of days for Michigan like I always do, and then you and me, Tony, we've got
to go to Louisiana for this meteor fishing thing. So that's like a big chunk of time in the middle of October, and then late October is usually my best spot again, my best time again for Michigan, just one of my one of my main zones here, like for whatever reason, like late October is like when stuff really kicks off a little bit earlier than other places I hunt.
So I think it makes sense to push the Kentucky thing in November, both because of those things I just describe, but then also because this hunt is probably gonna be like a terrain thing, like sitting terrain funnels, and that's obviously a rout thing. So probably that'll be the game plan for Kentucky is find some kind of saddle, find some kind of you know, funnel, some kind of topography that pushes whatever deer travel is there into a smaller zone, and ride it out.
So you might get on a water thing down there too.
Yeah maybe, I guess I never thought about that at that time of year, but yeah, and I'm sure you know I'll find the oaks too, So that's Kentucky. I picked up some surprise kind of access in Illinois recently, so I'm gonna be going down to Illinois in November as well. And this is a situation where got access to a bunch of properties through a meet through a friend of a friend who is, you know, being very generous with me and a couple of friends to go and hunt their spots.
We're gonna help him with like some marketing stuff that he wants some help with.
And it's an interesting one because it's all new, but it also is probably better than most anything I've I've hunted in the past as far as like potential, because this is you know, primo Illinois ground that's not being heavily hunted. And then we kind of have free rein on we do have free rein a bunch of this. So part of me just wants to be like, hey, you know, you're not gonna a ton of time, just shoot a decent buck.
A part of me says, though, Geese, like, you don't have to shoot a buck.
You could just kind of like you're saying, Tony, it's like, it's just fun to hunt in the area where you have the chance to see something like extra special that I just would never see in my usual places. And this is the kind of spot, like it's not unheard of that I could see one hundred and eighty inch buck or something.
I could see the biggest dear of my life down here.
So part of me just wants to be like, hey, let's just ride it out, see what happens, because you could see a giant and I haven't had a chance to like hunt really big deer for a number of years now, just haven't had the place that's got that, so I might just kind of see see what comes through and have some fun with it and try to like see the thing like enjoy the Illinois kind of like the Iowa, you know.
Experience.
So so I'm excited about that, but don't have a whole lot it's all new. So i'd got like one day I went down there a week or two ago and just did like a speed scout, like drove around glass, checked out these properties in the road, did a quick run through of five different parcels. They're mostly like there's like a twenty, there's like an eighteen, there's two twenties, there's an eighty.
There's a couple other ones that are bigger that we can access earlier in the year and late in the year, but not in November.
So there's there's kind of a collection of a bunch of different spots, and I just try to get like a quick idea of like what's the lay of the land put out a few cameras. The cameras have been dead so far, so I have no idea what might be out there eventually, but I imagine there will be something exciting once we get into the season.
So that's Illinois, is it. Were you down there with Tyler and Casey? Yeah, yeah, So you're gonna watch those guys burn through twenty acre property in eight minutes.
It's funny.
Casey said to me, He's like, you know, it's gonna be great hunting with you because I know you're not gonna go mess something up for me. I'm like, yeah, you're gonna be the one messing up for me. I recognize that. Fortunately, there's enough like different little spots, like I think we're gonna be able to spread out and.
You know, have some fun.
And again, like I've got not low expectations, but I'm not like worried about it. I'm not super stressed, Like I don't have a lot into it yet. So this is just like, hey, go have a fun adventure, see what's possible out there, learn these new places, try and have a good time with it. So that's Illinois, and then of course Michigan. The family deer camp. Gonna be going up there.
For gun season with the kids and my dad and uncles and friends.
So excited about that. One continue to see that place improve. Last year, you know, we put a lot of time into improving it and did not have the success hunting. Didn't see much hunting, but we had pictures of more mature bucks than ever before in daylight, Like all around us. There was like there's a giant one hundred and ten yards or one hundred and forty something away from my dad while he was out there hunting, so like we're
in the mix. They're around like three or four or five different mature bucks all there at the same time. Never ever have had that, and like deer, not just mature deer, but like deer that I would shoot anywhere caliber deer.
So that's exciting.
Hold on, so hold on, isn't it? I think there's an interesting case study here where you talk about going to a brand new place in Illinois and the trophy potential there and what you can run into and the focus on that and how fun that'll be, and then at the same time you're like, we've got this up North Michigan property that in your head you kind of think of as being like a way lower quality place, but now you have good, good deer there, but you
wouldn't prioritize that over Illinois, you know what I mean, Like even though you know you have this little pocket of big ones, it's like that that pole of the premiere white tail state so hard to get over for.
Sure, and it's and it's uh, there's still like a deer density thing too, Like knowing there's some mature box up north has been very exciting, but still like I went the entire hunting season there last year.
Seeing one deer.
And I'm not a horrible deer hunter, and I saw one deer up there, even though like yeah, maybe, oh so it's I'm I'm I am still living on like hope and pictures up there, right, so we're making progress.
The photos are.
I know it will happen eventually for someone We're gonna get a deer up there. It's gonna be amazing, But it's still like a slog, you know. So my hope is that we're gonna get to a point where we can go and sit with the kids and like have a decent chance of seeing deer, just making exciting for the kids, and for my dad to be able to shoot something up there would all be would be great.
So that's the hope.
And and yeah, we're gonna be going up there here next we probably and do a little bit of final prep work there, but but yeah, we'll see what happens.
Fingers crossed. And then southern Michigan.
That's where a lot of my attention has been recently, just getting ready on the local stuff. And then kind of the two big stories there are. I lost one of my big permission farms this year, but I also picked up some new permissions. On one of those new permission pieces, I'm particularly excited about. It's sixty acres, of
which fifty six of it is cornfield. But the four acres of cover are tucked up next to a big swamp system in an area that I've always known has good deer, Like I drive around here a lot summer evenings looking for deer, So for years I've known this zone has some good deer because you know, usually swamps are where deer get age in Michigan because you can just get away from hunting pressure. And so a number of years ago I knocked on a bunch of doors
around here, try to get. At one point, I did get a permission that lasted a year, saw a really good buck, lost permission the next year, but finally picked up a new access just four acres. But those four acres, like I said, there's some oaks, there's like super tall grass, brushy, nasty stuff. I went there and scouted. When I was slipping in their scouting, I saw and bumped like a probably a three year old eight pointer that was just feeding in the standing corn that didn't see me until
my wind swirled. And then I bumped another buck that was at least a three year old if not older, bedded in the tall grass, like one hundred yards from there. So just when I walked through there saw two bucks that were probably three year older.
I put up two.
Cameras, which is pretty dense for four acres, but I put two cameras on two different good looking kind of entries off that swamp into this corn. And I have one slammer mature buck that's like he has at least twelve inch prow times if not taller, like really cool, another like really solid eight pointer, a twelve pointer that's not like a huge antlered one, but like a lot of points. I'm like a cool deer. He's he's three or four, so like at least three deer that I'm
pretty interested in taking a shot at. And I wouldn't be shocked if you know. There's plenty more that roll through once you get later into the season too. So excited about that little Heidi Hole spot. And there's a couple other zones that I have to still scout and explore on these new accesses. There's another piece that's a little bit bigger that I'm hoping to check out next week. And long story short, would be fun to have some
success on one of these new spots. And then there's the local area I've hunted for many years where I've got these deer I've gotten to know over the years. And big story there is there's two bucks back from past years. There's the deer my oldest son named Bulldozer passed him a bunch as a three year old, passed him last year as a four year old. During gun season. We found his match set. This spring, my youngest son,
Colt found well. I found it first and pretending not to know he was there, and went back got Colt brought him out. He got to find it, pick it up, super sayings. He's a five year old huge body deer, like really really big body buck. He's blind in one eye, got injured in the fight last year, seems like, and he's just like a solid nine pointer, so he's one of the bucks that'd be interested in taking a crack at.
And then the second one is a four year old who passed a bunch last year and my youngest son decided to call him Bear Deer, so Bear Deer blew up.
He is big.
He's a really big, main frame nine pointer with an inside tye off of his right G two, so tech me.
He's got ten.
Points, tall, great time layth like a like a big deer, biggest Frank big close. He's probably the closest I've had to that since Frank. He's pushing towards that mark. So that's another interesting one. And both of them, I've been able to glass them this summer. I've got lots of pictures of them. They're they're they're hanging out a lot
right now. Over the past two years. Both of them were pretty homebodyish during the season, so I have decent expectations of them hanging around, and I feel like pretty well dialed on. You know, they're always they always three curveballs. So I know I'm not too confident in anyone playing, but I've got a decent sense of how I want to approach it and excited about that.
Both the boys are super excited.
You know.
This is an area that they've been able to scout with me, that they've been able to be unhunted with me in the past.
They've seen these deer in the past.
So what I like about this area is like the family has been very involved in it and that makes it fun in a different kind of way. So that's the season. That's what I've got on the on the on the docket. You know, would love to shoot one of those two bucks in Michigan. Would love to kill a buck either up north or one of one of these bonus properties with lower standards. Any deer in Alaska, any deer in Kentucky, Illinois will kind of see how it is. Like I said, I might want to just
ride it out and see what's possible. And biggest goal though, above all of those things, is this has been the
same thing the last two years. But I just want to keep it fun, avoid the stress, avoid you know, the downside of die hard deer hunting, like just keep it fun, enjoy myself, and everything seems to work out better when I'm doing that, rather than over analyzing, over stressing, overworking myself up about this because I think maybe you were you know, I were talking about this, Dan, but like, we're not caring cancer, we aren't rocket scientists, We're not
doing anything that's that important. We're out there hunting deer. It's not the end of the world. If something goes wrong, it's not the end of the world. If the plan's not going right, it's not the end of the world. If I make a stupid mistake, just enjoy it, soak it up, enjoy time outside, get out there with a family, you know, try to pursue my goals, but do it in a way that is, you know, like filling my cup, not draining it. So that's that's the focus again this year.
I can agree with that.
But there's something, especially when I go out to South Dakota and Tony you mentioned it about the environment, that I just love the plane states Man. There's something about sitting on top of a hill and looking for infinity until your eyes just can't work anymore. There's something about
that that I love. But there's also this aspect of that that I feel, especially you really feel it when you go on an elk hunt, especially at higher elevations, where your body is just wasted by the end of the day, okay, And there's something about falling asleep before your head hits the pillow in your sleeping bag that I know I did something right, whether I felt like it or not, because of the physical energy that I put into that those hunts. And so there's something about
that that I don't get with white tail hunting. And so to me, when I feel that and i'm I'm walking up the last hill to my truck of the day, my legs are just screaming at me, or I'm I don't know, I'm exhausted and all I want to do is stuff my face before I fall asleep, then then that's a successful day for me, right, And so it's different.
It's different for white tail because I've been doing it along and it's it's I don't want to say it's easy, but i'm I'm I'm knowledgeable about it, which makes it easier for me. And then there's there's a lot less of that guessing involved. So so that's why I love going out West, because you're guessing at sometimes like shit, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just gonna go, and because you have to go. If you don't go, then then you're just sitting in your truck and I don't know.
That's I love that. Well, dude, those those hunts, like you're talking about that meal deer hunt, I think that's like the most fun you can have with a bow. Go hunt, break the terrain, go spot and stock meal deer. So fun, all all day, fun, all day.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Final words of wisdom or a final thought you want to leave folks with as we're about to kick off hunting season, is there any last thing before folks start hitting the woods, start hitting the mountains, start hitting the planes, whatever it is, what do you want to leave them with?
Dan?
You lead us off.
I feel, especially for bow hunters and all new hunters, shoot as many deer as you have tags for. If you if you're a new hunter, or you're you are a even somewhat experienced hunter, fill your tags, shoot your shoot your rifle, shoot your bow, fill the freezer. Right, I don't know That's something that I don't want to say I regret, but it's something that I wish I did when I was first starting out, because I skipped a whole bunch of steps and went right into hunting
big mature deer. And I wish there for a couple of years. I want I would have went into and it's brown its down type mode. And so my suggestion for anybody out there, especially if you're even even experienced guys, just shoot a couple dose, man, Just let the arrows fly, let the bullets fly, stack some bodies, and then after that's all over, then get into like the chess match stuff you can you can do both.
You can do both. And my goal this year is to put more meat.
In the freezer.
Love it.
What about you, Tony Man?
I think I think the thing that keeps me going, that I think we're are messaging from top down in the white tail space is be super cautious, preserve your spots, you know, wait till that buck's daylighting on the cell camera, then go in and hunt him. And we have all these rules kind of like unspoken rules built in to keep us out of the woods and not try new stuff, like not risk things, and I'm to the point now where when I try new stuff, that's the most fun
I have. So like the decoy thing last year when I really don't have like a ton of faith in it, but I'm like, I'm gonna go down this path or that muzzloader hunt I did last year in western Minnesota and the cattails louse. That was the most fun I had last season. I didn't kill a deer, but that new environment that kicks my ass and forces me to
solve new problems. I think. I think we go into a season and we're like I want the hunt to happen, like I want it to happen where I want it to happen in the whole thing, and you know, oftentimes it doesn't. But also when we have that mentality, we stay out of the woods or like we're like, well, I you know, I'm not going to hunt October tenth when I could wait and it's gonna be October twenty fifth with a cold front. I'm like, man, you're just
not gonna hunt. And so I'm like, find find ways to hunt and try new stuff, like still hunting, like stalking them whatever, killing one from the ground. You know, like we always talk about our goals, and everybody defaults to like I want to buck bigger than one I've ever killed, or I want a one forty class or I want a mature buck. And I find myself sometimes where I'm like, I'm going to try to kill a dough from the ground in the big woods. And you know,
it's like a little goal, right. It puts me in a situation where I'm trying new stuff and it just changes it for me. It like changes how I view the season, and it changes how much I want to go all the time. Because when you have something like that, you know, if you're like I'm going to go do that in the beginning October on some kind of big woods acorn pattern or whatever, you know you're not gonna
kill a big one. Probably you're probably not gonna you might not even be within the same section as a big one. But you're still actively hunting and trying new stuff. And man, like you said, when you're when you're having fun out there and you're enjoying it, the things just
fall into place. Like you run into big deer where you're not supposed to and you kill deer in cool ways, and it's just like it's a different kind of season than being ultra cautious just to like try to have a couple of hunts where your odds are the highest. Like that's I'm going the other way on that stuff.
Yeah, I like that.
I definitely have found the more I've experimented in those kinds of ways, the more the more confidence you build than that. I think a lot of it comes from like just feeling, oh, I can't do this kind of stuff because you didn't have experience with it, you know, the confidence everyone tells you not to do that. But as soon as you try a couple of these things and you realize like, oh this is possible, Oh this led to a good thing, it opens up the doors for so much more. So, Yeah, I can attest to
that as well. I think my final thought would kind of tag on a little bit to something you mentioned there, which is, you know, just hunting your hunt, your own hunt this year. And this is something we've talked about for years, but I continue to need to hear it myself and I continue to want to share with other people because it's just so important. You know, Comparison is the thief of joy, right, That's a great line. I think, I don't know where who that came from, but comparison
is the thief of joy. As soon as you start comparing yourself to other people and worrying about how big a deer you shoot compared to this other person, or how many deer you shoot compared to the other person, or if this thing's better than this thing, or that guy's better than you. As soon as you start doing that, you start losing the fun. You start stressed out, You start doing things for the wrong reasons. You start going down a path that just doesn't take you anywhere good.
And I've been down that path before, and I want to avoid that as much as possible myself.
Keep it fun.
Hunt for your own reasons, have your own goals. Don't feel like something you see on Instagram or something you heard on a podcast has to be the same way you do things. You know, pursue things at the level you're at. Like Dan said, like don't jump straight to try to hold out for big giant bucks. If you've never killed any buck, right, hunt some does. Hunt young bucks. Do it shamelessly, be proud, enjoy it, be you know it.
Take all of those experiences for what they are, and if you never want to try to kill a big giant buck, great, no big deal. If you do, that's fine too. If you fail, a whole bunch along the way happens to us all do things for your own reasons. Enjoy it, learn, try new things, and remember we're not saving the world here, we're deer hunting, so have fun with it. Get out there with your friends and family.
Don't do the thing that I have done a lot in the past, which is like skip breakfast with your buddies or miss out on something important just because you're so obsessed with trying to you know, not make one possible, tiny mistake. Yeah it's important, work hard. Yeah, it's important to do things the right way, but also give yourself a little bit of grace and enjoy yourself. At least that's the advice that I've needed, so for whatever it's worth. Hopefully,
hopefully everybody has a great season. I'm excited to see how it goes for you too. I hope Dan survives as South Dakota Adventures and we'll be able to come here at the end of the season and have some very interesting stories to share. Thank you, guys, Good luck, guys. All right, and that's going to wrap it up for that one. I hope you enjoyed that, a lot of laughs, a lot of uh. It's exciting for all three of us. I think to start imagining what this upcoming season might hold.
And as you heard, a lot of adventures coming up, a lot of opportunities for some good stories, some lessons learned, and you know, a little bit of the unexpected certainly. So thanks for being here. I hope you've got some exciting adventures coming up here soon. I'm wishing you the best of luck if your season is kicking off here soon. And until next time, stay wired to hunh