00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast, your guide to the whitetail 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.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. This week on the show, I’m joined by my longtime prior co host, Dan Johnson to discuss our goals, hopes, and hit lists for the twenty twenty five Seasonally all right, welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light and their Camera for Conservation initiative. And today is a fun one. We’re kicking off the twenty twenty five hunting season as we do every year, which is with a review of the upcoming hunting season. And I’m joined by my buddy Dan Johnson. He was my co host on this show for many years early on. Now he’s off doing his own wonderful work over with the Nine Finger Chronicles and Sportsman Nation. But today Dan and I are going to talk through our hunting plans for this year. We’re going to talk through our goals, dreams and hopes for the hunting season. We’re going to talk through any specific bucks we’re after, any specific storylines that we’re particularly interested in, any changes in our hunting plans or perspectives coming into the year, all that kind of stuff. So if you have historically followed along with our stories, this is definitely one you want to tune into to prepare for what’s to come. But even if you haven’t, I would encourage you to listen to this episode not just thinking about what me and Dan are going to do, but really thinking about our discussion as a template for some thinking that you can do about your very own hunting season, you know, without getting too nerdy here, I do think that leading into this new phase of the year, it’s worth having a little bit of reflection, a little bit of thought put behind what you’re about to do. We spend so much time working, preparing, buying our gear, spending our time and energy and our dollars on this pursuit of ours. We owe it to ourselves to really think about why we’re doing what we’re doing, how we’re doing what we’re doing, and what exactly it is we’re trying to get out of this next few weeks and months. Are our goals simply about acquiring food? Is it about the experience. Is it about the people we’re spending time with. Is it about our impact on the landscape and managing the deer herd. Is it about a specific buck we’re hunting, or just trying to get better as a deer hunter. Whatever it is, your experience of the season will greatly depend on the expectations you bring into it, the plans and goals you bring into it. That can wildly change your experience. So think about that a little bit. Listen, Dan and I listen. Especially for those of you who have listened to us over the years, I’d encourage you to think about and maybe compare and contrast the discussion that Dan and I have today compared to what we talked about five years ago or ten years ago. I think you’ll notice some changes for us with our values and our goals and the way we approach hunting season. Not that that’s something that you have to follow along with, not that you have to care about the same things that you need to have the same goals. But I do think you’ll see that our thinking has evolved, as I think all of us evolve in our own way, as we get deeper and deeper into this as our lives changed as our goals and values change all that kind of stuff. So that’s a long winded, roundabout way of saying I hope you enjoy this one. Dan, as you know, is a good friend. He’s a wild character. We have some laughs, we discuss some bizarre things, but we also get into some important conversations that hopefully you can find relevant to yourself as you kind of put yourself into our shoes and consider your own hunts and your own plans. So, without further ado, let’s get the twenty twenty five edition of our Goals, Hopes and Hit listens all right here with me now on the line for year don’t Infinity twelve maybe your infinity, mister Daniel Johnson, We’re back for another one of our Goals, Hopes and Hit Lists check ins, and I appreciate you being here, buddy.
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, dude, I’m excited to be here. My Every once in a while, I’ll have I’ll have to do in life, or in a conversation, or in a friendship, or in anything in life, I’ll do something called a hard pivot where you just have to go different direction. And so so like I was coach Dad, Coach Dad, family, coach dad, family, coach dad, family, hard pivot deer hunting. And so finally I got a whole bunch of stuff done deer wise in the last two weeks, and that has made me a happy man. I feel more comfortable going into a season, and I’m sure we’ll get into that day.
00:05:23
Speaker 2: That’s good, that’s good news. I’m glad that you were able to. I feel the same way. It’s like all these other life things sometimes put deer on hold or or different things on hold, right, and then you have like seasons of life or seasons of the year where you get these moments where it stepped away and then moments where you go really really hard. And I feel like I’m in the same one as you. So we had a lot to talk about, right. I want to cover what our hunting plans are for this year. I want to cover what our hopes and our goals and how we’re thinking about this coming season, how all that stuff is shaping up for twenty twenty five. You teased me with like some interesting news before we start recording that I have zero idea what this is about, right, but coming from you, I’m intrigued, to say the least. So I don’t know what is it you want to talk about? This is off topic but of interest.
00:06:16
Speaker 3: Okay, so this is something that Okay, everybody goes to the bathroom. Every every human being goes to the bathroom. Okay, I can’t wait to see what this bunckle your seat belt mark. Okay, everybody goes to the bathroom.
00:06:34
Speaker 2: Now.
00:06:34
Speaker 4: One thing that I have been trying to do is.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: Time my pee and flush times to where I’m not ending my pee too soon or flushing too early, and then I’m still peeing, so I have to eventually flush twice.
00:06:55
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:06:55
Speaker 2: Is that that’s a thing that happens to you.
00:06:58
Speaker 3: Well, see, I’m trying to tie right, So I’m it’s like a game I play with my with myself. And so as I’m peeing, I am trying to have my thumb on the hand toilet plusher and as i’m I know I’m draining and i’m i’m I’m getting ready to be done peeing, I hit that button so that as the last bit of toilet water goes down, my pea stream is done and it’s like a swish into there and it’s gone and the new water comes in without any additional p.
00:07:30
Speaker 4: That’s kind of been what’s on my mind lately.
00:07:33
Speaker 2: So so I just gotta wonder, like, what is You’ve never done that? No, I’ve never done that? Who well, what is what’s missing in your life right now that you are so desperate for entertainment that you have had to develop a game around perfectly timing your pee and your toilet flush. That’s maybe the larger question here, Dan, I.
00:07:54
Speaker 3: Have, Dude, my gut feeling, my gut feeling tells me that you’re the weird one here.
00:07:59
Speaker 4: I don’t know why.
00:08:01
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, maybe.
00:08:07
Speaker 2: Okay, maybe you’re right.
00:08:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, my gut feeling tells me that of there’s thousands of people who listen to this podcast every single week, and please, just please, I want everybody that does the same thing that I do to flood Mark Kenyon’s Instagram uh messages or Facebook comments or comments whenever he posts this reel or something like that, to flood the comments and say that he’s the weird one and that everybody does what I am doing. The p flush timing is there?
00:08:44
Speaker 2: Has there has this been like an evolution? Have you seen progress and you’re in your skill at being able to time it properly?
00:08:52
Speaker 3: Well, I’ll be honest, Mark, I, I struggled with it early on in my life.
00:08:57
Speaker 4: I tried to do it, and I gave up on it.
00:09:00
Speaker 3: And recently I said to myself, you’re not getting any younger, and it’s time to make a comeback, because I felt like there was a time where I had it mastered, and now the older I get, the more uncertainty my my urinary and bowel movements are that. It’s it’s been challenging, and I’m trying to get back on my horse and I’m trying to nail it again.
00:09:22
Speaker 2: Man, I’m proud of you for always trying to appreciate that and improve things that You’re like that this maybe isn’t the first place I thought you’d apply that kind of growth mindset, but I’m glad to see that it’s it’s happening in one way or another.
00:09:34
Speaker 3: Day.
00:09:37
Speaker 2: I was in Iowa this weekend with my buddies Pete and Ross, as you know, and I realized that we’re getting really old. And I realized that we’re getting really old because one of them is getting particularly old, so much so that he was calling you Dennis Johnson. Dennis, over the course of an evening He’s like, yeah, I was listening to Dennis, and I’m like, who the heck’s And then later we realized he was. He was talking about Dan Johnson.
00:10:06
Speaker 3: Well, I guess the last time. It’s Pete. Right, he’s the older guy. He’s the old one.
00:10:10
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker 3: By the way, I gotta send a shout out to him, one of the best in the woods. Like that time we were all shed hunting together, he gave me that spinal alignment in the at the on the tailgate. Dude, I don’t know if I’ve had a better spinal alignment since then.
00:10:30
Speaker 2: That’s a specialty, is tailgate adjustments when when folks are getting together to hunt or shed hunt, do that kind of thing. So he’ll be very excited to hear that. Yeah, Peter Lynch, great chiropractor.
00:10:42
Speaker 4: Shout out Pete.
00:10:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I’m just kidding giving you a hard time about Dennis Johnson. He listens to all these episodes. He’s a he’s a faithful, great listener to all of our stuff. Dan, So shout out to Pete. Uh So, other than timing your peas and finally getting into serious white tail stuff, anything major new in the world of Dan or should we hop right into our plans.
00:11:07
Speaker 3: I mean there’s always stuff new from like what I’m doing in the business world. But now school’s back in session, right, and so that means school’s back. I’m coaching Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then when games start Sundays, so I’ll have five days a week I’ll be doing something related to football, and then that’s gonna wind up. Oh that’s gonna be done like the third week of October, and then I just go hard pivot deer hunting, and I leave my family and disappear for a couple of weeks.
00:11:45
Speaker 2: So I’m like the opposite of you. And then you’re entering this really this period of time where you’re gonna like no time to focus. And I’m entering a new phase of renewed focus because my youngest is starting kindergarten this year, started last week. Yeah, so for the first time in seven years, I’m going to get a full work days because every single day for seven years now, I’ve had a kid at home with me for at least a part of the day. And last year he was going to preschool, but we had to take him. All the kids go like outside of the district. So I have to drive them to school. So I have to drive one of them to school for their full day, and then middle of the day, someone has to drive the other one to their different school somewhere else, and so there’s all this back and forth and whor there’s someone home with you and you’re constantly trying to keep them busy. But finally I’m going to get seven hours of quiet time of day.
00:12:35
Speaker 3: That seems amazing, amazing, that’s amazing. So I can remember when that happened. Is when my business, literally when my youngest started going too kindergarten, is when I was able to put more time into my business and I could see it go up.
00:12:48
Speaker 4: The other thing is what Monday was.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: Our first day of school and we had I was working this summer till like eleven o’clock at night some nights, just to get everything done for the next day. Now that the kids are out of school, dude, I got done Monday with all of my work at like four o’clock in the afternoon. I was like, now what, yeah, you know, now what? But then you got it, you know, you got an hour little law period and then it’s.
00:13:18
Speaker 4: Boom, it’s a beautiful thing. Yeah.
00:13:21
Speaker 2: So so my youngest. I gotta tell quick story. He uh, you know, he’d been in preschool previously. Now he’s starting kindergarten and he’s just like a he’s like a goofy, fun, wild soul. He’s you know, typical second born, has no fear, just kind of like sends it right, yep, just just goes for He’ll just leap off into the deep end. So he gets home from school and my wife picked him up from school that day and she asked, you know, Cole, how was how was your first full day of school? And he says, oh, I ate so much food. Like that’s the thing that led me. I hate so much food. So what are you talking about. He’s like, well, yeah, I ate two dinners. And she’s like, you ate two dinners? The first off, he sometimes does this thing where he’ll call the wrong meal by the wrong name, so like he’ll just I don’t know because he’s silly. So he was talking about breakfast. But she’s like, well, tell what what in the world happened? What do you mean you ate so much food? You ate two Dinners’s like, well, I walked into my class and my teacher asked me, you know, who needs to go to breakfast, right, and at our school. I don’t know if this is every school, but I think most schools probably have like a like a you know, they have a breakfast program for people who who are in need to have like provided breakfast. Right, our son is not in need of that. But he hears like, hey, who needs to go to breakfast? And he’s like, ah, I love breakfast. So he raises his hand and so he goes to this breakfast. He’s never been to the cafeteria before. He’s never gone through a lunch line before, right, he just had been in preschool. But he somehow goes down to the lunch room. He somehow figures out the lunch line, goes to the caffeteria, loads up on cereal and chocolate, milk and all this other junk sits done by himself, a little five year old dude by himself, eats his food. He gets done, someone asks, hey, do you need you know, help to get to your classroom? Do you know where you’re going? He’s like, oh no, I’m good. Yeah, But then he walks out and Kylie, well, how did you find your way back to class? Because again he’s never been there before. He’s like well, I stood in the hallway for a really long time and he’s like, and then I just thought I’d go this way, and he went that way mysteriously somehow found his class. But yeah, he’s off to a good start, just kind of little crazy colt things and eating double breakfasts and.
00:15:35
Speaker 4: Well that’s the thing.
00:15:36
Speaker 2: What’s gonna happen next?
00:15:37
Speaker 4: That was the thing with us.
00:15:38
Speaker 3: My wife would put money into the school account and then like by the end of the week, it’s like, geez, I put enough in for like this month.
00:15:46
Speaker 4: What is going on?
00:15:48
Speaker 3: And then finally she got an email was like you’re you know your your account is low again, and so she was reaching out. She’s like, boys, what our lunch is more expensive? She’s like, no, we eat breakfast and lunch there. So they were eating breakfast here, going to school, eating breakfast again, and then having lunch and they’re still skin and bones.
00:16:11
Speaker 4: I’m just like, where do you guys put this?
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Oh crazy? This is crazy? Oh kit man kids they are they are their trips something else. Yeah, so, uh, okay, we should get back on focus. We did pretty good. It only had twelve minutes of crazy goals, hopes, hit lists, hunting, plans the whole nine yards. Let’s let’s start with you, Dan, what’s on the hunt calendar for twenty twenty five.
00:16:40
Speaker 3: Well, first thing, and this is one hundred percent related to my hunts, is let’s say today’s Wednesday, right, So, yes, Thursday, I go for a shoulder injection. Uh, Friday, I go for a knee injection. And those in those steroid injections, cortizone inject are going to get me through the hunting season, right, So like you are getting I was talking to one of my buddies, CJ from Montana Decoy today and he’s like, Dude, you’re like an old bulldozer, just getting greased up before it’s time to you know, time to go hunting. And so I got to get looped up because I am literally struggling shooting my bow right now. And I think once I get that in I can start getting back into some heavier reps. Right now, I’m only shooting like maybe fifteen arrows a day, ten fifteen arrows a day.
00:17:37
Speaker 4: Then I’m setting it down.
00:17:39
Speaker 3: And so the good news is is I think I told you this earlier in the summer. I was thinking about getting a new bow. I did not get a new bow, and so everything for the most part is still in place. I’m only shooting at Yeah, I’m only shooting at like twenty yards right now. That’s my max right now. But I’m just trying to get reps in building the muscles up. Once I get lubed up in Greece s up, then I can start shooting some more more higher reps. I’m increasing right now my workouts so that I am I have roughly thirty days. I think it’s like October second or third. I think it’s one of those days I leave for South Dakota. So I got to get the heart rate up, I got to get the lead legs more conditioned. I got to probably drop you know, ten pounds. I can do that in a week and get ready for a hopefully pack out.
00:18:37
Speaker 4: That’s that’s step number one.
00:18:40
Speaker 2: Same general area you’ve hunted there in the past.
00:18:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, same place I killed my mule there last year. Yep, yep.
00:18:47
Speaker 2: And week long? Do you have like a set time or does it stay as long as you need.
00:18:51
Speaker 3: Or what’s your Yeah, I mean I’m coaching, so I have assistant coaches taken over for me that week with and then I try I had to schedule a bye week for football that week.
00:19:04
Speaker 4: With that said, usually it’s eight days. Two of those are drive days.
00:19:09
Speaker 3: So what I’ve been doing is I’ve been leaving on like a Friday at about noon, driving driving halfway maybe at six maybe six hours, and then getting a hotel room, doing some work, some final work for the trip, and then driving the rest of the time, putting me there somewhere about noon the next day and so, and then get set up, maybe go glass that night, and then that’s the deal. The other thing is is what I’m also thinking about doing is potentially leaving the last day of September and getting there for the opener and just doing a ton of glassing and moving around until the guy I’m hunting with gets there to try to get on, you know, find where these these deer are located, and then make a move. And that way I can go, Hey, you go here, I’ll go here, or vice versa, or maybe we don’t find anybody anything, and then we go to you know, we team up and cover more ground on a single you know, in a single area.
00:20:18
Speaker 2: So yeah, so you’ve been you’ve been working the South Dakota or Nebraska thing for ten years maybe now give or take with a few years off.
00:20:26
Speaker 4: But off and on.
00:20:27
Speaker 3: Yeah about that, right, seven, This will be my seventh year in a row going to South Dakota.
00:20:32
Speaker 2: Okay, and you kill the white tail out there in twenty twenty one.
00:20:37
Speaker 4: I think so, I think so, yes, yeah.
00:20:40
Speaker 2: And then last year you got your first mule there, right, that’s correct? Yeah, okay, So this has been like this quest that I feel like you have been on for so many years, and you kill the white tail, but I still felt like after that year, were still like, wow, I really want y Yeah, I didn’t quite count, but now you finally killed this mule deer. Where is your head going into this year? Do you have is it like, oh, pressures off whatever? Or do you now have this hope to Okay, now I want to get like a really big one or something different. Yeah, what’s what’s the goal? Now?
00:21:14
Speaker 3: The cool thing about this is I’ve been within shooting range of a lot of mule deer over the course of the seven years. This time I sealed the deal and so I’ve been there. Yeah that makes sense, Like you’ve been there, and so now I am. I’ve been there. I’m just trying to repeat, you know, what I mean, my goal is still any legal buck. I’m not waiting for anything. I’m lucky enough to where I would say what I shot was great for a first mule deer, and I’m looking to repeat that same thing. I’ll go smaller than that, I’ll go bigger than that, but I’m going for the most opportunities that i can possibly get in that six day window. And then once I’m there, then and I get just play it slow, play it, calm, and then make a good shot.
00:22:05
Speaker 4: Man. That’s all. That’s all you can really ask for.
00:22:08
Speaker 2: How would you compare like this experience that you that you have out there with your Iowa whitetail stuff? Is it? Sometimes when I hear you talk about it, I almost think you like it more.
00:22:19
Speaker 3: You’re probably right, I mean, I mean, I wouldn’t say I like it more. I like it different, right. I can’t say that I got that. I had this idea pop in my head, and I’m just like I’ve been edited on this podcast before.
00:22:36
Speaker 4: I probably should, but.
00:22:39
Speaker 2: I think we can all guess where you thought it.
00:22:42
Speaker 4: Exactly. What I’m getting at is like it’s different, it’s exciting.
00:22:49
Speaker 3: It’s because it’s something that I can’t do every weekend during the hunting season.
00:22:54
Speaker 4: I can’t drive.
00:22:55
Speaker 3: It’s like I can drive an hour and go do something white tail related if I really really want to. I can hop on some public you know, ten minutes away from my house if I really really really wanted to. But the excitement of this is because it’s completely different, right, I Mean, the terrain is different, the animals are different, the way they move through the terrain is kind of the same, but where they bed in the shade, just like all of this stuff is completely different than sitting in a tree stand and waiting for a white tail. And I love it. I just absolutely love the challenge. I love the different aspects of it. I love the potentially. You know, it’s like, all right, well I’m gonna move. I’m gonna move forty miles from here. I’m gonna sleep in my truck tonight, and then I’m gonna go hit this piece of a walk in or public or something like that, and really mark what it is about. It is about the freedom of so much public land out there that you can do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. In Iowa, that is that is almost an impossibility. Yeah, right, it’s that that is taken away in Iowa because you have to have private access or you you’re or you’re gonna be bumping into somebody on pride right out there, dude, you want to you bump into somebody on public out and in some of these.
00:24:21
Speaker 4: States, well guess what I’m doing.
00:24:23
Speaker 3: I’m just going to take a couple of backwards steps, go in a different direction, walk one mile and then there’s more public land to hunt. And so I don’t know, it’s it’s it’s exciting because it’s different.
00:24:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally get that, totally get that. Well, I’m excited for you. Now you kind of have like you’ve got a system. You know, you say you’ve been there, you know what you’re doing. So what about you? Well, my first hunt of the year comes up even sooner. I’m leaving in six days, okay for my first hunt of the year.
00:25:10
Speaker 4: And where you got.
00:25:12
Speaker 2: Western white tail hunt public land. I’m keeping location kind of like quiet, trying not to spot burn, but yeah, western white tail public land hunt. Trying to get the monkey off my back. I have I’ve not killed a western white tail and like seven years now while but I’ve had like three or four trips where I’ve been like close calls or something goes wrong, and so going back again after I took a year or two off, so excited about that, but doing it a little bit different this year. I’m you know, this is kind of a theme that we’ve talked about over the last year or two, but just trying to like find ways to inject kind of like you said, inject diversity or or or just a different kind of fun. And so this I decided with this trip, like when I’ve done the Western white tail hunts in the past, sometimes it’s been like just white tails and just like trying to kill a good buck. And then a few years it was like, all right, let’s do a couple of different things, like let’s we’ll do a little bit of fishing but mostly hunting, and then I feel guilty about like the times I was fishing, and then I wouldn’t really enjoy it because of that. This year, we’re going into it one hundred percent. Let’s just have this incredible like cast and blast fun trip split fifty to fifty. So the first half of the day we’re gonna go and fish the coolest places we can find, like hike into these back country spots, go on an adventure and these really cool public land places where you can find great trout, great fish and and see this stuff, like do the things I’ve never had time to do. Was never willing to like put the time towards because I felt like I have to be you know, you got to do everything you possibly can do to kill a big deer. I’m allowing myself, We’re allowing ourselves to have a great different kind of experience for the first half, and the second half of the day will be like do everything you can in that half of the day to have a great deer hunt in these spots. And so it’s going to be a white tail and trout cast and blast fifty to fifty and just you know, having a really fun, cool experience, not being super picky with you know, what deer I would shoot. I’d like to kill it. You know, a somewhat mature deer, like a three year old or older would be my hope. But we’re just gonna find out what we can find and just explore, explore new spots, explore new areas, and have some fun kind of like you said, just uh, there’s a lot of freedom to roam out in these states, and I’m excited to do that and do it like guilt free on both sides, which I think will be a nice change.
00:27:51
Speaker 4: And you’re going with a group like a couple other dudes.
00:27:54
Speaker 2: Just further just Josh, just coming mm hmm. So we haven’t done we haven’t done trip together in several years. So that’ll be fun for sure. That’s the that’s the first time in the year. Looking forward to that. Is that a film hunt No got filmed, so also fun.
00:28:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, that’s I I’d prefer that. Yeah.
00:28:17
Speaker 2: I think we’ll be you know, I’ll be capturing some stuff, you know, just solo, you know, cell phone, social media. We’re gonna do a podcast. We’ll share the full story, but able to do something a little different. So very much looking forward to that. I’m racing to get all my final tea’s crossed and dots or I’s dotted, trying to wrap up everything back home to be ready to leave for that, because once I leave for that, then I’m gone for you know, ten days or something between travel and the hunt and I come back and then I’ve got an event in Wisconsin the following week. We’re opening a store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Meetia there is on August September nineteenth if you are in Wisconsin. Store opening in Milwaukee August September, sorry, September nineteenth, So I’m going to be there doing a meet and great with folks on the nineteenth. And then on the twentieth, September twentieth, mediators doing this tailgate tour across the country and there is there’ll be a bunch of us from Meat there at the Wisconsin Badgers Maryland football game, oh Okay on September twentieth, So I’m going to be there for that hanging out. So if people are going to that game, they should look for us as well. And then after that, I’m going to go to the Boundary Waters for a few days to do maybe some grouse hunting, but definitely some fishing. So that’ll be cool. There’s been a never ending array of craziness going on with that place. They’re trying to open it back up to the mine and removing the protections that we recently got there that you know, I’d been talking about for years when I did my first trips. So going back there and continue to talk about what’s happening. So that’s my September schedule. Yeah, is those two trips.
00:30:07
Speaker 4: That’ll be fun.
00:30:08
Speaker 3: I would say, Hey, maybe I’ll come up to Madison and uh and hang out and say hi. But I don’t know if I’d walk across the street to watch the Badgers play football.
00:30:17
Speaker 2: Man, Well, it’s it’s all about the pageantry and the experience and the tailgate fun. I’m gonna wear my I’m gona wear a Michigan State hat.
00:30:27
Speaker 4: Okay, so we’ll see.
00:30:29
Speaker 3: I would make front of you if you were wearing some Wisconsin shit.
00:30:33
Speaker 4: No, I can’t do it.
00:30:34
Speaker 2: I’m not gonna I’m not gonna cave. Yeah, my son, my son’s teacher in kindergarten is a huge Michigan fan, and obviously we’re Michigan State fans, and like her whole classroom is like covered in uh in like U of M Maze and blue colors and stuff like Tom Brady posters, like the entire door of the bathroom. So my kids, I guess they said, like if you’re I can’t remember, what if you do something right, if you answer quest right, I can’t. There’s something that you do and the reward is you get to wear a Michigan jersey to school, Like why the hell when I want that happening. So we’re trying to figure out like our family resistance plan to this indoctrination to his teacher is trying to have He’s gonna start wearing Michigan Steak you every day there or something. But I digress. Yeah, yes, September. Yeah, if you want to come over and have a beer, I’ll head on over to Madison.
00:31:28
Speaker 4: I quit drinking, Mark, Did you really?
00:31:31
Speaker 3: I’m done? Really really, I’m really serious. It’s been over one hundred days since I’ve had my last drop alcohol.
00:31:38
Speaker 2: Good for you?
00:31:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, weird. It’s weird because I used to crush bush Lights. Dude, Oh I know, I mean not in Berg. And then I was like, one morning I woke up and my knees didn’t really work out.
00:31:50
Speaker 4: Well.
00:31:50
Speaker 3: I was like, holy shit, maybe I should quit drinking. Anyway, I digress. Right, let’s talk about have you tried athletic beers?
00:31:59
Speaker 4: Yes? I have.
00:32:00
Speaker 2: I still Yeah, athletics pretty good like it. It tastes like a beer.
00:32:05
Speaker 4: My my new kick is Corona Light. Nay, all right?
00:32:10
Speaker 2: Uh so that’s our September.
00:32:13
Speaker 4: September, October, October.
00:32:15
Speaker 2: Are you kicking off some Iowa on October. Are you waiting till November?
00:32:19
Speaker 3: So, like I’ve said, uh, October, the first week of October first eighth is the muleer hunt.
00:32:26
Speaker 2: Yes, sorry, I was saying Secember, but I know you’re October.
00:32:29
Speaker 3: But so, one thing that I have noticed about this newer farm that I’ve picked up.
00:32:34
Speaker 4: This will be my.
00:32:37
Speaker 3: Fourth year there, fourth year, this will be my fourth season hunting it. And one thing that I have noticed is there is this one pinch point on the farm, only one, and it’s actually on a west wind, which makes everything real easy for me. That they start to daylight at about four three to four right in this little pinch point they stand there. It’s I wouldn’t it’s like a staging area, but it’s just a chill out spot like the bucks will take.
00:33:11
Speaker 2: A pond about that pond spot. I feel like I remember you talk, am I right, that’s that property right, there’s a pond like a big levee yep.
00:33:20
Speaker 3: But it’s further it’s further down the creek then where the pond’s at. But so you know, I’ve I’ve had a trail camera there for what three years now going on four, and there are our deer in this pinch point every single day all year round, somewhere about eight to nine in the morning, and also about you know, from four you know, somewhere around that three four five timeframe too, as they’re kind of moving through and they just kind of hold up right on this little crick crossing. What happened is there was there’s a big bend in the creek and it floods.
00:33:57
Speaker 4: It’s it’s like a flash flood zone.
00:33:59
Speaker 3: So when it range real hard, it comes up and it deposits sand and then the grass grows up a little bit in it, and then it deposits sand and it grows, you know whatever. And now it’s created this little flat area with all this like knee high vegetation. So I put a camera there, and I’m going to hang a tree stand there and I’m going to hunt probably one or two nights, hopefully like pair it up with some kind of cold front.
00:34:22
Speaker 4: Maybe that works, maybe it doesn’t.
00:34:23
Speaker 3: I’m I’m not a huge believer in like mid October cold fronts, but i am a believer in.
00:34:30
Speaker 4: Trail camera data.
00:34:31
Speaker 3: So I’m going to try to set a stand up in there some way wait for a southwest west north probably not northwest, but southwest west wind and see what I can do that’s exciting.
00:34:45
Speaker 2: Do you have a deer out there yet that you’re excited about?
00:34:49
Speaker 4: Dude? Only one, only only one.
00:34:55
Speaker 3: Picture. Now here’s what happened. I put out some cameras on my main farm and put a little fresh you know, fresh in the mineral sights out and uh, a tree branch came down in front of one in blue and blue and blue. Thousands of pictures of that, right, batteries are now dead.
00:35:13
Speaker 4: One.
00:35:14
Speaker 3: I put a block like this mineral block out in this pasture. The only horse that’s left came up and in twenty four hours ate the whole mineral block and stood in front of my camera for three days straight and took all these pictures of horses. There were deer involved in that time frame, but like nothing, nothing that’s shocking, right, But I just was it yesterday or the day before. Let’s see if I can pull this. This is just a good picture. Here, I’ll pull it up. See what I got here? Yeah, I’ll show you here.
00:35:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, let’s see it.
00:35:58
Speaker 3: That’s it.
00:35:59
Speaker 4: I’m saying, one fifties.
00:36:01
Speaker 3: I don’t know if you can see right here, he’s got a like a big frontel of an elk type of deal coming up.
00:36:10
Speaker 4: And I think he’s a I think he’s a ten.
00:36:12
Speaker 2: I think that’s on the.
00:36:14
Speaker 4: Main or the new that’s on the new farm, new farm, new farm.
00:36:18
Speaker 3: And that’s it. That that deer. There’s one other deer who looks like he could before. This guy’s definitely mature. I don’t know other than that, I haven’t seen anything. But here’s the other kicker, is that since I have hung trail cameras up, was it last week today? One week could go today, maybe even a little later. Anyway, they have mowed it, they have raked it, they have turned the hay or the grass, and then they put it in big bales and then they came in and got it out. So all summer long I procrastinated and then they come in and start to work right after I do all my stuff there.
00:37:02
Speaker 4: And I’m sure there’s a disruption in the deer movie.
00:37:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, now that they got those bails, the big bails out, there should be a period of time where there’s nothing going on in September at all on this farm.
00:37:13
Speaker 4: So I’m hoping there’s a rebound.
00:37:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I’m sure there will be now back back to your main farm. Historically, you had a neighbor that like hyper managed. They had like incredible, incredible food, incredibly managed property, and there was always a bit of your You had always thought like, ah, they’re sucking a lot of deer away from me for big parts of the year. Am I right that those people are not there anymore?
00:37:40
Speaker 3: No, they they’re not. But there is the new owner of that property. I’m I’m almost sure he’s picking up right where they left off. Okay, it’s from a from a management standpoint, maybe not as high of management, from a trigger control standpoint, but from a food plot, from a timber management. I mean, they pretty much handed this guy after he bought it the.
00:38:05
Speaker 4: Keys to the Royals Royce, you know what I mean.
00:38:07
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:38:08
Speaker 3: And so however, there’s multiple farms in between the one that I hunt and their farm. But it’s not necessarily a it’s not a long distance at all. It’s just there is some separation. But I will say this that there there there’s one good farm, or there’s one good deer in the.
00:38:30
Speaker 4: River bottoms that showed up the last two years.
00:38:32
Speaker 3: Other than that man, that the farm is just not the same as as it has been in previous years, so I don’t know what it is. I know that they’re rotating cattle into some of these pastures now, which could play a little bit of a role in it. I know that there’s a shotgun crew that comes through and crushes it multiple times, like a first season and second season, and that’s always been a thing, but from a deer size now. The other thing is it’s corn up top and beans on the bottom. So I don’t I don’t have any cell cameras down there because I sell cams don’t work in the bottoms, So I don’t know really what’s going on down there.
00:39:16
Speaker 2: So what do you think? What’s the goal this year for Iowa then, given limited limited inventory?
00:39:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, the goal is to go out, have as much fun as possible and shoot a deer.
00:39:27
Speaker 4: That makes me happy.
00:39:29
Speaker 3: Ye, that makes me go oh yes, And so Dan Jackson trademark right, And if I get excited about it, I’m shooting it.
00:39:38
Speaker 4: Right.
00:39:38
Speaker 3: If that’s a that’s a five year old one hundred and twenty inch er, you’ll get an arrow. If that’s a one hundred and sixty five inch three year old, he’s getting an arrow. Like ude, I just want to go out and fill some tags, have some fun and go after the top tier deer on any farm I have.
00:39:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it’s funny. You know, I’ve spend some time in Iowa, as I have over the years, and got to know a good number of people there. You meet a certain segment of the Iowa deer hunting population who starts to get like jaded by the situation there, Like they become so used to seeing one forties and one fifties and one sixties and even one seventies. They’re not even excited about like one hundred and sixty five inch five year old you know, it’s got to be booner or they’re like, mah whatever, or they’re you know, I’ve met people who like, man, if it’s not one seventy five or something, they just kind of no big deal. They’re not They’re they’re disappointed, they’re bummed out. They say Iowa sucks now because there’s not as many two hundred inches as they used to be, you know, fifteen years ago or whatever. Yeah, have you, and you’re a little bit different than that. I feel like you, at a time, like maybe ten years ago, you were more obsessed with like a booner, and now you’re kind of back to like ow, you know whatever. I know, that’s a little bit with your own family life where you are as a as a dad and everything. But talk about that a little bit and have you seen that with your friends or anyone else around you?
00:41:11
Speaker 4: Mark?
00:41:11
Speaker 3: As you know, for all species of all animals and all calibers of deer, access is everything. Access is everything, right, And so if you have access to a large acreage and you’re one of the only people hunting it, and you are have the ability to pass four and five year old deer to get to the point where a deer can reach one seventy or the fact that you know, don’t get me wrong, I have a two year old three year old on one of these farms who’s going to be a genetic break right, he’s probably a one forty eight pointer this year, and he’s probably walking around one as probably a two year old.
00:41:54
Speaker 4: Okay, small body, Like I put my thumb over his antlers, and you’re just like.
00:41:57
Speaker 3: That’s a dough type of deal, right, the people and this might get me in trouble or this whole concept of Iowa is what the whole concept of Pike County used to be, like Pike County, Illinois was the spot in the late nineties and early too.
00:42:20
Speaker 4: Oh dude, Pike County. I got a farm in Pike County. I got at least in Pike County.
00:42:24
Speaker 3: You know, I know guys who hunt Pike County, right, And what has happened is there are the people who are don’t get excited about one fifties and sixties or seventies anymore. Are the people who have the access. They are the people who are able to control the environment basically, right, whether that’s three hundred acres and their neighbor has one hundred acres, that’s just one person hunting and another person hunting. You will see that when you talk to the people in Iowa who are don’t have that availability and don’t have that access to those farms, their life really hasn’t changed much. Right, They’re still like one forties. They’re shooting one forties all all year.
00:43:09
Speaker 4: Right.
00:43:10
Speaker 3: It’s the people that you’re talking to, and I’m just I’m just guessing here. They are in it in the industry some way, shape or form. Maybe it’s through that they’re they’re actually in the industry, or maybe it’s second hand. But I will tell you this that I know guys who are passing two hundred inch three and four year olds. I know guys who are passing and this is this is you know, like once a deer gets to two hundred.
00:43:43
Speaker 4: I know guys.
00:43:44
Speaker 3: You’ve had them on your podcast, right, I know guys who have passed one ninety inch four year olds. And he told me I should have shot the doe he was following. So he didn’t that that he didn’t go on the neighbor’s farm and then get shot, right, So is that realistic to anybody other than the one percenters who are actually doing this? No, they’re not right. And I’m not sitting here trying to bet like shit on that. But I think that there is this huge gap in between what is a quality deer, right, Like, what is a quality deer? To me, a quality deer is something completely different than the people who have access to hundreds and hundreds and potentially thousands and thousands of acres managed farm, putting money into these farms and things like that, right, And it’s just a do they live in a different world than what the average joe lives in? And so to say that now, I will say this, Iowa is not the same in their defense, it’s not the same. But at the same time, it’s not the same to them because I’m guessing their surrounding neighborhoods are shooting more of the higher caliber bucks. You add trail cameras into some things, you know, the whole back in the day when less people were running cell cams and trail cameras. You’re taking the biggest buck that walks by your tree, not the biggest buck that’s on your trail camera. Those are two completely different things. And so when you have two let’s say you own or you manage, or whatever the case is, two hundred acres three hundred acres, and you have a one sixty class or a one to seventy class on camera, he’s your top top tier deer. You’re not going to shoot those one forties because you know you have time to try to make the rest happen. Right, A guy who has five days of PTO, he’s going to take any opportunity to shoot any deer he can. But if you’re in the industry, you obviously, like both of us, we have the ability to hunt way more daisy year than the average guy. And so to the average guy, I doubt that they they have seen much of a change.
00:46:14
Speaker 4: But to the bigger guys who are running way.
00:46:18
Speaker 3: More trail cameras and sell cams and have a really good dot on their property, they’re seeing, they’re seeing maybe less deer over one seventy but I’ll tell you this, they’re still passing the top ten percent of deer to get them to the next stage. And a lot of people just are still not doing that.
00:46:38
Speaker 4: They’ve never done that.
00:46:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would guess there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying. Yeah, but you know, it’s interesting some of the people that I’ve heard talk like this are you know, they’re not industry at all, just just you know, regular hunters who just grew up in the Promised Land and have never known anything else, you know, And I think when you only have known that, you know, it’s like that their baseline is this, and so.
00:47:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, very interesting.
00:47:07
Speaker 3: I will say that, yes, it has changed, like I mean, because I think, you know, in the early days Wired to Hunt, I would tell you about some of the stuff I saw, or some of like the glory days of the late nineties, first seven years of the two thousands, like just the ridiculous amount of deer that I have seen. Now you have all these changes that have happened. There are way more bow hunters in the woods now than there ever has been. Not necessarily more hunters, but there’s way more bow hunters now. The people who Here’s what I’m I’m saying is that there is the gap is widening. You know, like you hear about the wage disparity gap in this country, Yeah, there is a buck dispared disparity gap too, because as this gap widens, there’s more people coming on the bottom end of this scale. There’s more people coming into the smaller acreages that are already being hunted where the landowner gives everybody permission or more people permission, while meanwhile, while the guys on the top are getting more land and more land and more land for less number of hunters. So the hunter per acre disparity is real in my opinion.
00:48:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, it’s hard to hard to deny that. Yeah, Well, with the better that said, for better or for worse, I am hunting Iowa this year myself, yep. And I don’t care if it’s like it is now or like it was fifteen years ago. It’s still pretty darn good as far as I’m concerned.
00:48:41
Speaker 3: I’ve seen some of those trail campicks. Dude, you got some decent deer.
00:48:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got some decent deer got and some more new pictures. I went up last week for two quick days just kind of like whirlwind scouting, trail cam, hanging stand prep, glassing fields at night, you know, the whole nine years, and got a bunch of stuff done and super fun evenings like the deer were out on one of the properties that I’ve got permission on. We had had some pictures of like three bucks that were probably mature and a fourth it was like a maybe. And the first beanfield we drove by, like well before dark. We stopped on this little knoll and you can see down to this little dark corner and bam, there’s one of them, and then they look more left, Oh there’s another one, and then a little like, oh, there’s the other one. All four of the bucks we’ve been getting pictures of over the summer, we’re all out in this one field. So it was very cool to get to see him and you know, in real life and get some footage of them and stuff. And then we went to another zone kind of on the other side of the block with this on the other side of this property, and there was another beanfield that had three different bucks that all I would shoot any one of them. So I saw like six, you know, at least four year old bucks surrounding one of these pieces that I can hunt, you know, in like a half hour period. So that was very exciting, all you know, just super nice maturity or you know one you know, one thirty to one sixty type bucks. Yeah, so exciting there. And then the other farm I can hunt is I don’t know, maybe like five miles away, and we didn’t see any driving around, but put some cameras up and already we’ve gotten pictures of oh another probably two bucks that I would shoot down there. And then a neighbor, a buddy of ours who’s who’s got cameras on his farm nearby, has another like probably three different other really good bucks again like all like four year old plus again like one forty to one sixty type deer. So no shorge of deer. I’d be excited to get a crack out.
00:50:52
Speaker 3: And this is all on like permission that you’ve gathered from people. Are you going into public at all or just a private permission?
00:50:59
Speaker 4: This year?
00:50:59
Speaker 2: Yes, so this year private permission and my permissions have gotten easier to get because my buddies who we used to all be just getting knocking on doors getting permissioned, and then two of my good friends now have slowly over time. First it was permissions, and then we had a couple of leases that we chipped in on, and now both of them actually have bought a farm. So I’ve got permission through friends now, which is very nice. So gives you just you know, the added benefit of not just like a place to hunt, but also one of my buddies there’s like an old house on the property they’ve been slowly trying to fix up and improve and so that it’s a place we can all stay at. So we’ve got like a deer camp, which is uh which is super fun. And you know when I hunted there last time, last time I hunted Iowa was three years ago, four years ago, and I think I told you guys about I think we talked about this this spring a little bit, but you know, all my buddies were down there. A bunch of folks from Michigan have drawn that year two and the guys from Iowa are there, and you know, they were you know, going out to lunch in the middle of the day together, having a fun late breakfast, so they’d go out to dinner and night and they enjoying deer camp together and doing the thing. And I was so obsessed with, like, I have to kill a big giant buck. And I never left the woods. I was out there form you know, two hours before daylight till hour after daylight, you know, hiking in, hiking out, and just you know, being a crazy person. And I missed out on like all of the social side of it.
00:52:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:52:25
Speaker 2: And and this year, I’m not going to do that. This year, I’m going to enjoy the full experience. And uh and you know, see the thing, do the you know, I want to see. I want to experience Iowa. I don’t want to like try to conquer Iowa, you know what I mean.
00:52:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you have dates in mind of when you’re coming. Are you going to pop in for like an October hunt or are you just going straight rut.
00:52:49
Speaker 2: I think I’ve got the first week of October blocked off from my big trip. But then I think I might pop in for an October weekend hopefully, yeah, again, just to kind of like have more time out there. I think if I come in October, I would I would be picky. I would, you know, not want to end it in October unless it was just like a unbelievable deer that you can’t not shoot. But I would love to just like experience and just hunt these areas and have a chance to see deer that I usually don’t get to see, and see stuff that usually don’t get to see. So so hopefully can get out from October for a little bit, get out there for a fun week in November and see what happens. I’ve had, you know, three times of hunted Iowa. I killed a buck my first year, I missed a buck the second trip, and I missed a buck the third trip.
00:53:36
Speaker 3: So you forgot to add the word giant into one of those as well, a giant missed a giant buck.
00:53:43
Speaker 2: Yes, I missed a giant buck. So I’ve got a little bit of a curse that I needed to shake off.
00:53:49
Speaker 4: Here this year. That’s right, you’ll get her done, You’ll get her so.
00:53:53
Speaker 2: Uh So that’s my Iowa trip. The goal there is to kill a mature buck and and but not rush it. So I want to just I’d love to be there a bunch and see a bunch. But I’m not gonna be crazy picky either. I just want the full Iowa thing, So something gets excited. No specifics that I did, Like I saw, like the biggest buck we had seen on trail camera on one of those farms was in that field that I mentioned to you where I saw all four of them together. And the next day we went back and checked out that field and he was out there again, And so I decided, you know, I’m gonna sneak in on the back side of the property and see if I can sneak up close, get behind him and maybe be able to get some up close I can get up close to you of him. And I was able to do that, and I snuck up and I got within one hundred yards of him and got to watch him for the last half hour of daylight and got like just gorgeous pictures and video, like really really cool to like see a buck that big, you know, pretty darn close just doing his thing. Yeah, so I’m definitely a little smitten by him after like that encounter and getting to watch him, But anyone of this deer would be cool to see again.
00:55:04
Speaker 3: That’s awesome. Man, you’re gonna try to shoot a dough while you’re here too.
00:55:07
Speaker 2: I should, Yeah, I should.
00:55:09
Speaker 4: Yeah. So yeah, that’s one thing that’s on my list.
00:55:11
Speaker 3: I don’t know if I told you this, but I ended up having so this summer. My kids or a neighbor boy or somebody went into my garage got some popsicles out of my freezer. Well, when they took the popsicles out of the freezer, the popsicle box blocked the door and it didn’t shut the freezer all the way, and so I lost. So I walk out there two days, like a day and a half later, because I think it was on the weekend, so I didn’t come up here to the office, and I’m seeing this pool of water on the ground. I’m like, what the hell did they spill something? I come outside, I look around the corner where my freezer’s at. Doors tried to open probly six inches and the whole freezer was Everything in there was soft but still cool, right, So I pulled all That night we had a huge fish fry for the entire neighborhood.
00:56:11
Speaker 4: I probably had to give away.
00:56:15
Speaker 3: It was either cook it now because I don’t really know what the rules are per se of if something gets thought out, should you freeze it again?
00:56:21
Speaker 4: Whatever?
00:56:22
Speaker 3: So I got on my golf cart. We live in a golf cart community. Got in my golf cart and I drove around to everybody I know in the UH in my community who answered their door, and I handed them two or three packs of sausages or salami sticks or big chunks of ring balogne, and and just it was like meat Santa coming up to your door and hand like.
00:56:47
Speaker 4: I handed a whole bunch of stuff.
00:56:48
Speaker 3: Out, said hey, you got to cook this this week and h and so now I have an empty freezer and so that to me is a blank canvas and I’m gonna shoot.
00:56:57
Speaker 4: I want to shoot a lot of beer this year.
00:56:59
Speaker 2: And de freezers make good hunters.
00:57:02
Speaker 4: Yes, that’s what fast they do.
00:57:05
Speaker 2: Are you hunting Kansas again this year?
00:57:07
Speaker 4: Nope? A lot of preference point? Okay. So I bought my preference point for Kansas.
00:57:12
Speaker 3: I bought my I bought my eleventh Wyoming elk point, my eleventh antelope point, and my ninth deer point for Wyoming. So here, pretty soon I’m going to start cashing some of that stuff in.
00:57:29
Speaker 2: That’s exciting.
00:57:30
Speaker 4: Yep.
00:57:31
Speaker 2: Uh Are any of your kids getting a deer tag this year?
00:57:34
Speaker 3: Yes, And that’s one thing I was going to talk about real quick before we shut her down or whatever. But like, I have two kids who are now what I feel, old enough to go on a youth hunt out their their youth hunt. My daughter went last year. I think she had a little bit of panic or some sort of something happened. The deer were right in front of She said she couldn’t see him. I didn’t know what the deal was. Long story short, we ended up she didn’t get thee any deer. They were literally twenty yards in front of them. That blew out. She didn’t want to go back the next night, But now I guess she had some time to think and she’s ready to go again.
00:58:17
Speaker 4: My youngest boy, he wants to go again too.
00:58:20
Speaker 3: So now I got to try to find a grandpa my stepdad take one of them, or find a spot close to here to get some kids out on a dough or something.
00:58:32
Speaker 4: I gotta find.
00:58:33
Speaker 3: I got to go into because all of my stuff is set up for bow hunting in November, all the crops are still in, so that makes it a little more difficult to kind of find a way like to just sit on the ground and do stuff in Blaze Orange in late September, early November or October. But the cool thing about what has happened in Iowa is they have changed the law that allows if you buy a youth tag, you can use it in youth season, but you can also use it in any season that is currently open. Meaning if my daughter and my son, if I felt comfortable then with bows and arrows, they could use that during the archer season. I can use that during shotgun season with a shotgun. That’s going to be an option. That’s great late season muzzle loader, so there are options if we don’t get the job done in September.
00:59:29
Speaker 2: That’s exciting. Yeah, that’s going to be so fun.
00:59:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I’m looking forward to that. Your oldest boy, you ready to go.
00:59:35
Speaker 2: He says he is. He probably could be, yeah, but I want him to wait a little bit longer. Yeah. He’s a great shot with a rifle. He killed his first turkey this spring. He’s pretty die hard, so he’s like, yeah, I’m ready to shoot it dear dead for sure. But I think he needs to be a little bit more like emotionally mature or something. I’m looking for a little bit more maturity from him before I let him take that next step, so he’ll definitely be going out there with me. My youngest has been expressing more and more interest. He’s hunting with me the last two years, you know, handful of times every year, and he’s getting more and more excited about it. So that’s a big goal this year is just to get both the boys out there more often. And you know, that kind of segues beautifully into my Michigan plans because I want to make sure they get up to our deer camp a couple of times this year. For sure. I had an awesome hunt last year, and Josh killed a buck at our deer camp last year when both of my boys were there and his son was there, so like, that was really fun with the kids. Would love to repeat. So I was actually just up there yesterday doing work up there, prepping blinds and making sure everything’s ready for the kids and ready for my dad and good for the family the family trips. So that’s looking good. There was an absolutely enormous deer there last year.
01:00:57
Speaker 4: Dan.
01:00:58
Speaker 2: I don’t know if we ever talked about it, but.
01:01:00
Speaker 3: You mentioned you meant I think you might have even sent me a picture of him, Okay, and he was you’re like, for northern Michigan.
01:01:06
Speaker 4: This is a great great, great great great here.
01:01:08
Speaker 2: Oh yeah it was. It was one seventy plus in northern Michigan. Yeah, our neighbor killed him. Okay, but we saw him. Me and my dad saw him. I was hunting with my dad in early November, and uh, he came in following a dough and installed at like seventy five yards something like that. But but just insane to see a buck like that in freaking northern Michigan, big woods swamp habitat and here is a giant you know, Iowa buck. Yeah, so cool. But then yeah, he got killed opening morning. But all that’s to say, you know, anything’s possible there, So that’s that’s kind of that was an exciting thing to see. Yeah, to kind of change the expectations just a little, of course, not counting that happening again. But it’s fun and when I have the kids out with me more hunting down southern Michigan. I have picked up a couple of new permissions this year in Michigan, so continuing to diversify. Last year I had a piece I’ve got permission from the same landowner and a couple other spots. They’re not like, they don’t look amazing. There’s spots where you’re you’re hunting, like a couple acres of cover on the edge of the field. But I’m gonna, you know, keep tabs in all these places just in case something pops up. I killed my buck in Michigan last year on one of those spots, like two three acres of cover, so it’s possible. I picked up permission on a piece this year with a buddy of the buddy picked up permission invited me to hunt with him. It’s like a campground. It’s a private campground that also has a bunch of kind of open ground and and the owner of this campground wants someone hunting it, and so there’s human activity a lot. There’s a lot of activity right now around it. I think it’s the fall progress is that activity would probably go down. So it’s gonna be very interesting to see how de you use it. There’s a deer out there, but mostly does right now. So hopefully during the run some bucks start moving through. So that’s going to be an interesting new thing to learn and figure out. And then the old faithful properties. My longtime standbys that have hunted forever are in a weird spot right now.
01:03:16
Speaker 4: OK.
01:03:18
Speaker 2: Last year two I had two bucks last year who were like deer I’d known for multiple years. I was very excited. One was definitely five, one was four or five big, And they both disappeared at the beginning of the season, and one of them turns out got killed down the road. One of them, I still don’t know what happened. Talked to one of the neighbors the other day and his grand killed his grandkids killed two ten pointers. I don’t know any more details other than that. And then he also told me that he killed three dos during late season that ended up being shed bucks.
01:03:55
Speaker 4: All of them were shed bucks.
01:03:57
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I was like, oh my gosh, that is brutal. So all that’s to say that I think a lot of stuff got got mowed down last year. I don’t have a single buck that I’ve seen yet this summer that I’m you know, excited about. Necessarily. There’s two bucks that I’ve gotten one picture of each that are maybe three maybe four. I saw them last year when they were like two or three. This year they’re three or four. I don’t know. I’ll have to get a better look at them and get a better sense if they’re four and they’re big and big bodied, you know, in the fall, maybe well let’s see what the situation is like. But as of right now, I’m like, I don’t know. It might just be the year that I shoot a bunch of doughs and take the kids out a lot and do that kind of thing. Yeah, so yeah, that’s Michigan, and the one other hunt I’ve got this year after that would be It’s kind of up in the air exactly where, but we are I’m gonna tease something to the folks listening who watch our hunts. We should be it’s almost signed dot actually happening. I think we’re going to be doing a new season of One Week in November this year, which is that show we did in the past, but it’s gonna be in January, so it’s gonna be one week in January. It’s going to be down south, so we’re gonna be hunting the southern rout somewhere maybe like Alabama or Mississippi or something. And on the past seasons, like the whole gist, the format of the show is, it was like five of us all hunting a different place around the country for the same seven days of November, right, and so it was like balancing from me and Iowa to Tony in Wisconsin to Clay in Arkansas or whatever. Yep, this season three, we’re gonna make the two change. One change was we’re all gonna be hunting. Well, sorry, it’s gonna be in the South and we’re all gonna hunt together for this one. So we’re we’re all gonna hunt. We’re gonna have like a deer camp somewhere. We’re all gonna hunt the same property and then going to be following us all in our different spots on that property, hunting in our own unique styles and ways, but in the same area. So, barring some kind of unforeseen change, the plan is to film that sometime in January, So that will be fun and something kind of different doing the whole Southern rout thing. But that’s that’s my year.
01:06:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, dude, it’s always. It’s always that you take some of this stuff for granted, I think a lot of us do, where You’re just I don’t think I understand even how important this hunting stuff is for me at times where like I love I love it so much, Like the hunting aspect of it, not the point last week where I was stomping through chest tied grass with chiggers and mosquitoes biting me all over the place, not that far, but like the sitting in the cool October and November air, you know, stepping outside, sipping a cup of coffee in the October weather checking like ooh, new buck on camera, All right, how am I going to get this son of a gun?
01:07:10
Speaker 2: You know, like excessively checking the weather report.
01:07:12
Speaker 3: Exactly like sorry, hey, no, no, give me my phone back or let me see the iPad. I got to check out the weather forecast.
01:07:19
Speaker 4: Boom. I don’t know. There’s something about this time of year it is.
01:07:22
Speaker 3: Fall is my favorite time from a college football standpoint to the hunting standpoint to the weather and.
01:07:30
Speaker 4: Family aspects of all of it.
01:07:32
Speaker 3: It’s like when I die and go someplace, it’s going to be fall every day.
01:07:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I’m with you on that, man. It’s a beautiful time of year, best time of year. And uh sounds like both of us have got some exciting adventures to look forward to.
01:07:46
Speaker 3: That’s pull, man. I’m looking forward to hearing the ends of these stories.
01:07:50
Speaker 2: Yes, dittoh, let’s uh, let’s touch base again in season. Get some updates up there. I always appreciate catching up with you, seeing what you’re up to. So best luck, my friend, best of back at you, all right, And that’s a wrap for another one of our episodes here today. I appreciate you joining me. You might be hunting as we speak. Hunting seasons are kicking off across the country, so I want to wish you luck if that’s the case. I want to encourage you to stay safe, to keep it fun, to share time with your friends and family, to do your part as a steward of our wild life and our wild places. And I just will tell you that I appreciate you. I appreciate you tuning in. I appreciate you being a part of this community. It’s gonna be a wild hunting season. I can’t wait to share it with you. I can’t wait to hear from you. And until next week, stay wired to hunt.
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