Ep. 945: Goals, Hopes, and Hit Lists for 2025 with Dan Johnson

This week on the show I'm joined by Dan Johnson to review our 2025 hunting plans, goals, hopes, and hit lists.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
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

(00:41):
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

(01:03):
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

(01:24):
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,

(01:46):
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

(02:08):
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

(02:28):
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

(02:51):
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

(03:12):
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

(03:34):
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

(03:56):
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

(04:24):
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.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
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.

(05:01):
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

(05:22):
that day.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
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

(05:43):
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

(06:04):
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.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
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.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Now.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
One thing that I have been trying to do is.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
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.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Is that that's a thing that happens to you.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
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

(07:18):
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.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
That's kind of been what's on my mind lately.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
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.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Have, Dude, my gut feeling, my gut feeling tells me
that you're the weird one here.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
I don't know why.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Okay, okay, maybe.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Okay, maybe you're right.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
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

(08:31):
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?

Speaker 2 (08:44):
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?

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Well, I'll be honest, Mark, I, I struggled with it
early on in my life.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
I tried to do it, and I gave up on it.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
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.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
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.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Day.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
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

(09:57):
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.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Well, I guess the last time. It's Pete. Right, he's
the older guy. He's the old one.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
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.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
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.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Shout out Pete.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
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

(11:04):
we hop right into our plans.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
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,

(11:30):
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.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
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,

(12:09):
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

(12:30):
them busy. But finally I'm going to get seven hours
of quiet time of day.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
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.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
The other thing is what Monday was.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
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,

(13:13):
you know, now what? But then you got it, you know,
you got an hour little law period and then it's.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Boom, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
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

(13:43):
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

(14:05):
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,

(14:26):
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.

(14:48):
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

(15:08):
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

(15:30):
a good start, just kind of little crazy colt things
and eating double breakfasts and.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
Well that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
What's gonna happen next?

Speaker 4 (15:37):
That was the thing with us.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
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.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
What is going on?

Speaker 3 (15:48):
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

(16:10):
skin and bones.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
I'm just like, where do you guys put this?

Speaker 2 (16:13):
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,

(16:36):
what's on the hunt calendar for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
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,

(17:03):
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

(17:26):
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.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
Then I'm setting it down.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
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

(17:59):
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

(18:22):
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.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
That's that's step number one.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Same general area you've hunted there in the past.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Yeah, same place I killed my mule there last year. Yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
And week long? Do you have like a set time
or does it stay as long as you need.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
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.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
With that said, usually it's eight days. Two of those
are drive days.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
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

(19:31):
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

(19:52):
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

(20:15):
on a single you know, in a single area.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
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.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
But off and on.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah about that, right, seven, This will be my seventh
year in a row going to South Dakota.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Okay, and you kill the white tail out there in
twenty twenty one.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
I think so, I think so, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
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

(21:02):
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?

Speaker 3 (21:14):
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

(21:37):
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,

(22:03):
and then make a good shot.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
Man. That's all. That's all you can really ask for.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
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.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
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.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
I probably should, but.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
I think we can all guess where you thought it.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
Exactly. What I'm getting at is like it's different, it's exciting.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
It's because it's something that I can't do every weekend
during the hunting season.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
I can't drive.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
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,

(23:16):
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.

(23:37):
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,

(23:59):
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

(24:21):
some of these.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
States, well guess what I'm doing.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
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.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
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,

(25:00):
my first hunt of the year comes up even sooner.
I'm leaving in six days, okay for my first hunt
of the year.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
And where you got.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
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

(25:35):
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

(25:58):
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

(26:20):
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

(26:41):
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

(27:03):
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

(27:24):
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

(27:45):
that and do it like guilt free on both sides,
which I think will be a nice change.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
And you're going with a group like a couple other dudes.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
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.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
Yeah, that's I I'd prefer that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
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

(28:38):
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

(29:02):
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

(29:27):
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

(29:49):
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.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
That'll be fun.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
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.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
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.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Okay, so we'll see.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
I would make front of you if you were wearing
some Wisconsin shit.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
No, I can't do it.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
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,

(30:55):
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

(31:18):
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.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
I quit drinking, Mark, Did you really?

Speaker 3 (31:31):
I'm done? Really really, I'm really serious. It's been over
one hundred days since I've had my last drop alcohol.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Good for you?

Speaker 3 (31:39):
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.

Speaker 4 (31:50):
Well.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
I was like, holy shit, maybe I should quit drinking. Anyway,
I digress. Right, let's talk about have you tried athletic beers?

Speaker 4 (31:59):
Yes? I have.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
I still Yeah, athletics pretty good like it. It tastes
like a beer.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
My my new kick is Corona Light. Nay, all right?

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Uh so that's our September.

Speaker 4 (32:13):
September, October, October.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Are you kicking off some Iowa on October. Are you
waiting till November?

Speaker 3 (32:19):
So, like I've said, uh, October, the first week of
October first eighth is the muleer hunt.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yes, sorry, I was saying Secember, but I know you're October.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
But so, one thing that I have noticed about this
newer farm that I've picked up.

Speaker 4 (32:34):
This will be my.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
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

(32:58):
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.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
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.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
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,

(33:42):
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.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
It's it's like a flash flood zone.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
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

(34:20):
with some kind of cold front.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Maybe that works, maybe it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
I'm I'm not a huge believer in like mid October
cold fronts, but i am a believer in.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
Trail camera data.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
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.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Do you have a deer out there yet that you're
excited about?

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Dude? Only one, only only one.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
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.

Speaker 4 (35:13):
One.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
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,

(35:39):
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.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, let's see it.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
I'm saying, one fifties.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
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.

Speaker 4 (36:10):
And I think he's a I think he's a ten.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
I think that's on the.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
Main or the new that's on the new farm, new farm,
new farm.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
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,

(36:44):
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.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
And I'm sure there's a disruption in the deer movie.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
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.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
So I'm hoping there's a rebound.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
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

(37:37):
I right that those people are not there anymore?

Speaker 3 (37:40):
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

(38:03):
guy after he bought it the.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
Keys to the Royals Royce, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
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

(38:29):
deer in the.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
River bottoms that showed up the last two years.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
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

(38:53):
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.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
So what do you think? What's the goal this year
for Iowa then, given limited limited inventory?

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Yeah, the goal is to go out, have as much
fun as possible and shoot a deer.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
That makes me happy.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Ye, that makes me go oh yes, And so Dan
Jackson trademark right, And if I get excited about it,
I'm shooting it.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Right.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
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.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
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

(40:20):
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

(40:42):
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

(41:03):
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?

Speaker 4 (41:11):
Mark?

Speaker 3 (41:11):
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

(41:32):
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.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
Okay, small body, Like I put my thumb over his antlers,
and you're just like.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
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

(42:19):
in the late nineties and early too.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Oh dude, Pike County. I got a farm in Pike County.
I got at least in Pike County.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
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

(42:47):
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

(43:07):
one forties all all year.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
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

(43:32):
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.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
I know guys.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
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

(44:05):
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

(44:26):
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

(44:47):
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.

(45:12):
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

(45:33):
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,

(45:53):
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.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
But to the bigger guys who are running way.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
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.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
They've never done that.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
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

(47:01):
like that their baseline is this, and so.

Speaker 4 (47:06):
Yeah, very interesting.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
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.

(47:29):
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

(47:51):
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

(48:14):
more land and more land and more land for less
number of hunters. So the hunter per acre disparity is
real in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
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.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
I've seen some of those trail campicks. Dude, you got
some decent deer.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
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

(49:05):
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

(49:26):
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,

(49:47):
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

(50:07):
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

(50:28):
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.

(50:51):
I'd be excited to get a crack out.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
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?

Speaker 4 (50:59):
This year?

Speaker 2 (50:59):
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

(51:20):
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

(51:43):
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

(52:03):
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.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
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.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
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.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
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

(53:09):
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

(53:31):
buck my first year, I missed a buck the second trip,
and I missed a buck the third trip.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
So you forgot to add the word giant into one
of those as well, a giant missed a giant buck.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yes, I missed a giant buck. So I've got a
little bit of a curse that I needed to shake off.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
Here this year. That's right, you'll get her done, You'll
get her so.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
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

(54:17):
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

(54:38):
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

(55:00):
and getting to watch him, But anyone of this deer
would be cool to see again.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
That's awesome. Man, you're gonna try to shoot a dough
while you're here too.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
I should, Yeah, I should.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
Yeah. So yeah, that's one thing that's on my list.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
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,

(55:34):
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

(55:54):
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.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
I probably had to give away.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
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?

Speaker 4 (56:21):
Whatever?

Speaker 3 (56:22):
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

(56:43):
was like meat Santa coming up to your door and
hand like.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
I handed a whole bunch of stuff.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
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.

Speaker 4 (56:57):
I want to shoot a lot of beer this year.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
And de freezers make good hunters.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
Yes, that's what fast they do.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Are you hunting Kansas again this year?

Speaker 4 (57:07):
Nope? A lot of preference point? Okay. So I bought
my preference point for Kansas.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
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.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
That's exciting.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Uh Are any of your kids getting a deer tag
this year?

Speaker 3 (57:34):
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

(57:55):
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

(58:16):
ready to go again.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
My youngest boy, he wants to go again too.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
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.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
I gotta find.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
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

(58:57):
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

(59:19):
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.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
That's exciting. Yeah, that's going to be so fun.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
Yeah, so I'm looking forward to that. Your oldest boy,
you ready to go.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
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

(59:56):
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

(01:00:16):
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

(01:00:37):
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.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
Dan.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
I don't know if we ever talked about it, but.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
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.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
This is a great great, great great great here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
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

(01:01:28):
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

(01:01:49):
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

(01:02:10):
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

(01:02:32):
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

(01:02:55):
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

(01:03:15):
weird spot right now.

Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
OK.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
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

(01:03:40):
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.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
All of them were shed bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
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

(01:04:20):
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

(01:04:41):
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

(01:05:02):
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

(01:05:24):
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

(01:05:47):
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,

(01:06:08):
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.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
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

(01:06:40):
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

(01:07:03):
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?

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
You know, like excessively checking the weather report.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
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.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
Boom. I don't know. There's something about this time of
year it is.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Fall is my favorite time from a college football standpoint
to the hunting standpoint to the weather and.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
Family aspects of all of it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
It's like when I die and go someplace, it's going
to be fall every day.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
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.

Speaker 3 (01:07:46):
That's pull, man. I'm looking forward to hearing the ends
of these stories.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
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

(01:08:13):
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.

(01:08:35):
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.