Archery Hike with Justin Ross

On this week’s show, Andrew sits down with Justin Ross, founder of Archery hike and member of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry.  Justin has been on the show in the past, and is an avid outdoorsmen.  Justin’s passion has taken him the avenue of helping to give back to the Ohio community with feeding local families in need with FHFH.  One way that Justin helps with this is by running Archery Hike.  This is a 25 shot course down in the Hocking hills.  Justin tells us all the details of the event this year being held July 7-9.  You can find out more at archeryhike.com or finding them on social media.

Around the state the final turkey numbers are in. Ashtabula county coming in #1!!!  Congrats to the folks up in the NE part of the State.  Across the state, turkey harvests were up almost 4,000 birds from last year.  Great news for the states turkey population. A few other news stories from around the state and just a good old fashion conversation with Justin.

Have a great week and enjoy the O2 if you get out into Ohio’s great Outdoors!

[00:00:00] All right. What's up everybody? We are back on the Ohio Outdoors Podcast, the O two podcast. Tonight, Paul is traveling. Imagine that off into doing some Turkey stuff down south. But I am joined with our special guest, Mr. Justin Ross, who I don't know, Justin. How many times have you been on here now?

Two or three. Yeah, a handful. Something like that. So yeah. Yeah. Justin is a friend of the show and, a colleague in the industry that I work with. But he also has a very deep passion for hunting and everything else along the way. So we'll get into that here in a second. Justin, we're, you're gonna be the, you're the co-host tonight.

Unless Paul hops on here. Then we'll get him on give his 2 cents. But we'll start with our our news around the state here. I do have, oh, I was gonna say, Hey, we love Go [00:01:00] wild. Everybody go wild.com. Yeah. Okay. There we go. See, you're good at this. You'll be, you'll fit right in. Yeah. We love you Paul.

Paul was, I think he's gonna be on the Go Wild. Their podcast, that was one of his stops down south. Time to go wild.com. If you guys aren't on there, that is a great place to be. Check out pictures. Lots of fishing pictures being put up nowadays. So it's your online social media area for hundreds and anglers.

Hop on there. You could follow us. Oh, two podcast. Justin, are you, what's your name on there? Is it Justin Ross? Oh, and on Go Wild. I'm not on. Good. Wild. What? I've never set it up. Oh yeah. I've never, gosh, never set it up. Hold on. We need to go back and edit this. Cut. No, I'm just joking. I'm just joking.

We are gonna get you set up and get you talking about archery hike on there. Yeah. Coming up here soon. Oh man, where am I at? I want to find the final Turkey numbers. I think this is the last report I have. It was a good [00:02:00] year. It was a good, real good year. It was a good year. So this is through May 28th.

I can't wait to hear what Mark Wiley has to say after he goes through the numbers, absorbs what the harvest was and then can digest that for a while. It's, he's gonna have a lot to talk about. Yeah. And it was one of those things leading up to it, he kept telling us, we've had a couple good PT ears, couple good PT ears, and it's until you get those harvest numbers, it's hard to really believe.

I don't know if, it's hard to believe what he's saying, it that really solidifies it and justifies what he's been saying to us. Yeah, we've had some down years, but as the last couple years we're seeing more and more birds. So it, it seemed to actually, it all made sense this year.

So it looks like in total, Through the 28th. I don't know if I have a more updated one, I'm just, sorry. 15,673 birds. So that was up from last year. It looks like the total is about 11,872. So up almost [00:03:00] 4,000 birds and the top 10 counties, we do this every time, but number 10 was Washington nine, Jefferson, eight Adams seven Koch.

Six. Belmont. Five. Tuscarora four was Monroe. All right. Do you want to try to guess the top three? Justin? I cheated cuz I've read the, I've read the last report. All right. We'll, but I know who the winner is. Go ahead. Muskingham County is number three with 420 Gallia with 4 28. And the folks up in Ashtabula.

Yes. Coming up strong. I don't know. That was a late push. I think if I went back and I should go back and look at that, but, oh, we live in the Northern zone. We hunt really late. Yeah, they, and they killed the most birds. They did their work. That's for sure. 454 birds up there in Ashtabula County, so congratulations to them.

Yeah, good year. Good year there. What else do we have? We've got some results from the [00:04:00] Sandhill Crane survey. Observers reported 357 Sandhill cranes in Ohio during the volunteer driven Midwest crane count on Saturday, April 15th. So let's see. It was over 30 pre-selected counties and Ohio's growing breeding population of Sandhill cranes is what they're monitoring.

Six counties with the most crane sightings during the count. Or Wayne, Lucas, Gaga, Ottawa, Logan, and Williams. I did see a report the other day it popped up that there was a I don't know if they're called chicks maybe, or if there would be Pulse, but there was a like two baby Sandhill cranes, about an article they found here in Ohio off a breeding pair.

That's awesome. That is awesome. Let's see. The Conco family donates 177 acres to the Division of Wildlife. So that's very nice. Marion and Fred [00:05:00] Conco Wildlife Area lies in Pike County about five miles southeast of Waverly. The new wildlife area is off straight Creek Road, south of State Route 3 35.

So some more land out there for the state to work with. Oh man. I think that's That's about all the notable stuff there. So real quick we talked about Go Wild Half Rack. We had Josh on, was it last week? From Half Rack. That was a good one. Go back and listen to that if you haven't.

half-rack.com. Ohio Outdoors 15 is your code. All kinds of fun stuff from them. Justin, you got any half rack stuff over there? I want that. I want that meat lug. That meat lug, man. It's, everybody wants the meat lug, right? He said by the end of June the fir, the one size will be out. So we should. Be seeing those soon, and we'll definitely have some type of giveaway that comes with that, but get on there and check it out. What else we got? First light. Thank you guys. First light [00:06:00] Midwest Gun Works Ohio Outdoors. Five as the code there for any of your gun needs, ammo, parts, all kinds of fun stuff. Really knowledgeable. Ask 'em if you've got questions. They'll steer you in the right direction.

Super pumped to work with those guys. For all you guys that are listening and can't see. Andrew's got a nice first light sweatshirt on. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's cold, so it's 85 degrees outside or whatever, but my basement is an ice box all year long and so yeah, I always have to have a sweatshirt on at some point.

But let's see, ex vision ex visions optics.com. Thanks to Sawyer and the guys over there. Have you ever been out thermal with the thermal stuff, Justin? No. And we've talked before and I think it would be a ball, but no I haven't and everything. I've got a buddy up in Northern Ohio that does it all the time, him and his friends for coyotes and it.

It's gotta be fun. It's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. The other night I went [00:07:00] out and I didn't have any luck with the coyotes. Different reasons, but the I snuck in and set the call up and I snuck back out and I was in this grassy area that was just too, it was too high. I couldn't see in there real well, but I must, I bet I snuck within 20 yards of a couple beded deer.

And so by the time I got back to my post and I like set up and I was looking, I was like, holy crap. Those deer are right there. And that was just really, it was interesting and cool to, to see that, but I can't believe I got in that close talk about playing the winner. But anywho so yes, ex vision thanks to those guys.

Appreciate it. Check them out. If you've got any questions, reach out to us and we'll try to steer you down the right direction there too. Alright, Justin, what's new man? It's busy, just like you know in your world. My world's pretty much the same, just a different side of that industry, and it's nonstop right now.

The weather, obviously we've had just wild weather like we always have in Ohio, [00:08:00] but we went through that kind of hot stretch, what February and then wet and cold and now it's just hot and dry. And in my world, for people that don't know, I sell equipment in the golf and sports turf world and production was slow there for the last couple years and it's still a little slow, but all those orders are picking up now or catching up.

So it's just constant deliveries and it's still, people spending money and. Phone rings all the time. It's just constant. It's never ending for all of us that like to get out and shoot blows or travel around, it's a hard time to do that right now for us in this industry. It's definitely I'm right there with you.

And so I don't know if I've ever really talked about it, but in, in our industry, the sports and golf and lawn care and stuff, Justin sells the equipment and I do like grass seed and fertilizer and that kind of stuff Whenever, we've had a real busy spring and lots of grass seed going in the ground and all that kinda stuff, but I tend to sleep better at night when the grass is green, [00:09:00] growing healthy, like I don't have a million issues going on, but the drought or the lack of rain and stuff causes grass to die potentially.

So there's this like flip side of this fall. Will this add more business to. The book if the Grass Dies and I don't know, I don't I think I'd really rather trade the sleep in or have that, that peace of mind going to bed every night, that the grass is healthy and there are no issues.

But then again, if it helps to stay busy in the fall, so be it. Yeah. Yeah. Hey all, we can't control Mother nature, but we can find solutions, right? That's definitely something you have to learn quick in this industry. But in your spare time I know that you do a lot, man, and we've been on before talking about farmers and hunters feeding the hungry.

So we can recap that a little bit. But basically, you guys are collecting meat through different. [00:10:00] Butchers and stuff around the state and donating it to families in need. It's a good cause, right? Paul and I both donated dear last year to the cause and proud to do that. And I think it, it's a good thing to do and works out well for everybody.

But then you also do archery hike, right? Correct. All right. Little arch hike. So give us, let's get the rundown, the from the horse's mouth. We've been talking about a little bit here and there. But all the details and what people need to know and expect. Yeah. First and foremost, I appreciate you guys talking about it so much.

Obviously you were down shot last year. And hopefully we get Paul down this year. I know Archery's not his forte, but I'd love to see him down there and climbing the hills of h or climbing the hills in the Hawking Hills and, putting yourself in these real life scenarios that we have on archery, hike.

And for folks that don't know, archery, hike is a 3D archery, I call it an experience. I guess you could call it an event. It's essentially [00:11:00] combining a hike through the Hawking Hills and shooting at 3D targets. It's not an open 15, 20 yard type archery shoot or trail. It's more of a hike to put you in these real life situations that animals and that they would be in, in their real environments, whether that's turkey's strutting out in the food plot or a bison out in the, out in the grass feeding, grazing bear Elk.

Predators with Wolverines, cougars, et cetera. But we've got all kinds of targets and we, we try to set 'em up in real life situations. So as you go through the hike, you'll have a trail guide, which you'll typically have when you're hiking, and that trail guide will give you an idea of what's coming up on the trail at that trail marker.

And then you have to assess the target. And make the shot. It's not a competition. It's, it can be if you wanna have a competition with your buddies, but we don't give away prizes, or nothing like that. It's more just a fun event for you to hang out with your buddies and shoot, get a little bit of exercise and [00:12:00] just enjoy being outside this year.

It's bigger and better than it was last year. We're roughly a mile plus hike. We're gonna be over two miles this year. We've got some surrounding property around our property that we're able to use, so we can change it up a little bit. Target wise, we'll have a few more targets than we did last year.

I've pushed 25. We might end up having a few more than that. I've got the course somewhat laid out in my head, but, nothing's technically laid out yet. It's all subject to change, but you'll get, definitely get 25 targets. And again, it'll be roughly, two, two plus mile hike through, through the woods, creeks, bottoms, valleys, uphills, downhills shots from 15 yards.

I think last year the closest target was 15. It was a Alina, pretty much straight down in a valley and a bottom. And then we had the farthest target, I think was the elk or the bison. They were out there about 80. The bison was in the open, food plot area, like it was grazing on grass, and the elk was, up at [00:13:00] the head of a holler in a bunch of hardwoods.

You're bringing back lots of memories of things, both good and bad. Out of that day, on that sweltering Friday, 90 some degree humidity and, 90 some degrees, and then humidity was damn near a hundred percent, but that javelina shot, people that came Saturday and Sunday would disagree, right?

Until you had it great Saturday, Sunday. They were just in a guie washer, right? They got that humidity in a different form, but the yeah. The hike itself, like you said, you have a guide, but the guide you gave it to us and it was a pamphlet. And at first I didn't really, you saw you're like, follow the pamphlet.

Follow the pamphlet. I'm like, typical me. I'm like, I can't read anyways, so I'm not gonna pay attention to this. I figured out about the second shot, the second. Stop that. I, okay, you really need to pay attention to this because you did a very nice job of writing up, an explanation of what you're looking for.

It wasn't like walk up to the, the next sign and look and shoot an elk. It was, this is a majestic, the majestic beast of [00:14:00] the west that you know, is whatever, some of the best meat, I don't, you had just had this very eloquently written. Description of what we were going after and it was great.

And then to look around and you had to find the animal. It was not just okay, very clear, beaten down path up to this elk. It was, you gotta search and then you might see multiple animals and you're like, okay, this talks about something that sounds like an elk, but that's a black bear.

So I don't think we're shooting at that one this time, maybe the next time around, but You still had to go find it and then once you did, it was ranging it out. It was figuring out what you know, how you're gonna approach it and all that kind of stuff. Not to mention that you are up and down hills.

Last year, that was right when I had torn my meniscus and my knee, so I did all that on a bad wheel. But It definitely was a strenuous hike. And you need to follow the tape too. That was the other one by that cougar where I went down in the canyon and then back up. And you weren't really supposed to, you're supposed [00:15:00] to go like around.

Yeah. And follow. It's more fun to go down enough. It's just really hard. But you could have taken the easy route and just went around and pulled your errors and went to the next trail marker. But the yeah man, you did such a great job with that. And the difficulty of the shots, you talked about that halina up.

15 yards. I don't think I missed that one, but I sure as hell didn't hit it where you're supposed to. Because it was like straight down. It was weird. That was definitely not something I was prepared for. So the other thing too that I wanted to achieve in this is that in a competition setting, you got broadside shots cuz you're trying to shoot spots.

But in real life it's not really that way. So you got quarter and two quarter in a way and. I wanted the or what we try to achieve is to provide an opportunity where you make that double lung shot. If you're out there, wanna shoot spots, you got your range finder binoculars, that's great.

Go ahead and do that. But use this time during archery hike to, prepare for those hunts this fall and learn where those vitals are. Whether you're shooting the opposite, the opposite leg or [00:16:00] whatever, but learn where those vitals are and trust your equipment.

That's the biggest thing. There were a few shots we set up last year that were, I would say, a little more technical. Maybe there was a limb in the way, or maybe even a hillside. There was an animal that was just below the hill and you essentially were aiming at the hill. But it was far enough your error was gonna go up over that.

And you had to know, just trust your equipment, that the arc of your arrow will go over that hill. And we'll, trying to achieve that. Some technical shots that make you feel that, hey, in that situation, you can't step up any further because you're gonna present yourself to the animal. Then he knows you're there and he's gonna, bug you out of there.

But if you trust your equipment, we're okay. I, if I aim right here, that's the kill zone. The arrow, hit its mark and that's what we're trying to achieve with archery, hike. Get guys outside, get a little bit of exercise and learn your equipment and just have a good time. Yeah, that was great.

Which one was that? Which one was the one where you had to shoot over? Was that mountain? The bighorn sheep where you trying to Yeah, the doll sheep that was sitting down in the rocks [00:17:00] during that big rock boulder ledge. That was tough. Yeah, and I think it was at. Was it 52, 49, 52 yards, something like that.

But I know if you made a good double lung shot on that, your arrow was a few inches over top of that hill, going down over there. But it was extremely possible to make. It wasn't hard. You just had to trust to not shoot high. If you what, again, this is for fun. So if you don't trust that, you move closer.

And shoot the shot you wanna make, you don't have to shoot from the trail marker, but the trail markers are set up for you to make that shot. That's probably harder than an harder shot you've e than you've ever taken before. But please feel free for, to move closer. We always, it's in our rules, move closer if you don't feel comfortable.

If you wanna shoot all of 'em at 20 yards, then, move up to 20 yards. But that's what the type of thing we're trying to achieve with archery hike. Definitely. And. This is it was just it. It was cool to me because I have my 3D deer in the back and I shoot at that and it gets boring [00:18:00] after a while.

But that's you. It's a whitetail deer, because that's what I hunt more than anything. But you had such an array of. Different animals that, and a lot of things will never actually be out bow hunting like the alligator in the creek. That was sweet. The buffalo that was sweet. What was the one we were just talking the doll sheep the cougar.

Yeah, a couple bears. There was just so many different fun animals to shoot at that you just, probably not gonna have that opportunity at least. If you do, it'll be rare. So that was definitely cool. So you got, do you have any new targets this year? No. No, but I didn't have all the targets I have set out last year either.

Oh, okay. So depending. I, again, I've got an idea of what I want to put out, but when we get to that time, I'm gonna be like, ah, this seems like this is a, an elk shot and this is gonna be a sheep shot, or this is gonna be, an alligator shot. Or I can guarantee you one thing, you're not gonna have an alligator up in the pine thicket.[00:19:00]

That makes sense. The I'll tell you, that's another thing, when you're walking the trail and walking the course and shooting, you're like, man, this is good exercise. But after you talk to Justin and you find out that he halt that elk up on his back in three different pieces and it's the furthest from anything, I was like, holy crap, man.

Like that, that had been a workout in itself, just getting the course set up. It's a perfect segue into our new challenge this year at Archery Hike. Go for the Hike Heavy Challenge. What is the Hike Heavy Challenge? So the Hike Heavy challenge this year. Let's back up real quick. So when you register for Archery Hike, You are automatically entered into the giveaways.

So last year we had a Matthews bow we gave away. This year we have an elite bow plus a bunch of other stuff that I've gotten to just have random giveaways. So you are automatically registered into those giveaways by registering for the hike. An add-on to the shoot is called the High Heavy Challenge.

And again, we wanted to. [00:20:00] Provide something different for the guys that wanted to go hard and really be prepared for out west. So the Tyke heavy challenge is it's 25 bucks and you have to carry a 50 pound pack. The whole way through the shoot, just once. And something we'll probably talk about again is once you register, you can shoot this course as many times as you want through the day.

It's something that we wanted to provide to people that we only let so many people shoot. So you can walk at as many times that you can stand at one trail marker and shoot that target all day long if you want, the course is yours all day by registering. But back to the hike Heavy challenge. You need to carry at least a 50 pound pack through the whole hike.

Shoot the whole hike. And what that gets you is you're going to be entered into a hike heavy challenge only giveaway where we're gonna give away an outdoors man's pack with an Atlas trainer on it. So you can look that up at Outdoors Man's Pack. I think it's outdoors Man's pack.com. And they build packs for, western [00:21:00] frames, external frames with big packs.

The Atlas trainer is a bolt on fixture where you can put 2 45 pound weights on the pack. So it'll carry up to 90 pounds. And, for essentially preparing for whatever you might be trying to get into 90 pounds on your back. Is that normal? A lot does. I've not been out west. Is that normal?

Those guys when they kill, if you think of a, so I've killed two cow elk and you think of, I, the one was probably 3 50, 400 pounds and a he and quarter on that thing. It's a hundred pounds probably. Yeah. It wasn't de-boned, it was just a whole high and quarter. So yeah, I don't, it's not out of the realm.

It. That makes sense. I was thinking like when you're packing in, but yeah, that's, that, that makes perfect sense. So you just gotta wear you bring your own backpack or whatever, and throw a 50 pound dumbbell in there or something and go, yeah. Yep. So when you sign up or when you [00:22:00] sign up for archery hike, you can add that on, which we've got a, a fair amount of those already, which I'm excited for.

So all of those people that register for that will be in their own drawing and we're giving away an outdoorsman, Atlas trainer. I think it's like a $350 value. And that pack frame, you can buy a pack and that pack frame, you take out West, you can go wherever with it as well. But that trainer will, obviously, you can put 45 pound weights on it or any size, weight.

Additional to that, you'll get another entry into all the giveaways. So if you do the hike heavy challenge, you'll end up having two entries in for the bow. The elite bow we're giving away this year and all the other giveaways. That's the additional that you get with that, you gonna have a scale out there to wa weigh people's backpacks.

Yep. So when you guys, once you'll register, obviously you come up to the cabin to check in, we'll check in and we'll have a like an airline. Scale, be like the way, it be, like the opposite of the guys up there on Lake Erie that were packing their fish full of weights and stuff, make sure everybody's, got it. Heavy enough. Not lightening loads and [00:23:00] dude, you're 49 and a half here, take this Snickers bar with you, or whatever. Yeah, throw that in your pack. But anyways it's a good way for the guys that are that. Or training for whatever, out west, or maybe they're training for the Savage Race or something.

They're just trying to get that additional weight on their back. And it's a way for them to do that in the Hawking Hills while they're shooting, shooting a bow. There was a fair amount of guys that came last year that were, they were all prepared anyways. They had Paxil and they weren't loaded down, but maybe they had rain gear, they had water with them, so they were carrying weight anyways.

So we just wanted to amplify that and, see who the tough guys are out there. I'll be signing up for it. I don't know if I'm a tough guy, but I'll be signing up for it. Anything else new this year? Up there at the course? Oh man. Nothing. No, just really, it's just bigger and bad.

Just, a little bit longer and a few more extra targets. And the high heavy challenge. So when you start talking about, laying out the, I always wanna call 'em holes, like it's a golf course, but the [00:24:00] course itself and the shots, when will you start actually like, putting on the map.

This is where the elk goes, this is where the doll sheep's gonna go. And really setting that up. I've got it laid out on Onyx already. Okay. By looking at a topo. And just dropping spots to where I know where interesting features are to make an interesting shot. And, you know how Onyx is, you can measure things out and so I've just dropped way points and then line tracked that through, up and down and around and wherever and came up with a general course.

But I probably won't maybe here here in June. Take a walk or two and, say, Hey, I think this is gonna be, a wild hog. This is gonna be a raccoon or, whatever. And so I probably by the end of the month I'll have that kind of set. And then, as we lead into that week I'll pretty much know where things are going.

There might be some last minute changes, but for the most part, because I gotta type the trail guide as well, so I need to get it pretty dialed in to where that final week, I can [00:25:00] type those trail guides. So you guys will have those. It's a lot of work, man. It's a lot of work. We, it's fun. Appreciate it. It's fun.

Yeah. It's a labor of it's fun. And honestly, at the end of the day at the end of the day, which we haven't talked about, but we're raising money. It's a fundraiser. We're raising money to give back to these nonprofit organizations that are in the conservation effort. And last year we were able to give a little bit of money back to Whitetails Unlimited and farmers and hunters feeding the hungry.

And at the end of the day, I guess That's the purpose of it is just to find a way to, to have a fundraiser. That's fun. Awesome. And what are the dates and where can everybody go get registered? The dates this year are July seven, eight, and nine. So it's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, just like last year.

You can shoot one day, you can shoot two days or three days. If you go to archery hike.com to register. There'll be a dropdown. You can pick which day you want to sign up for. Friday, the course is open from 10 to six Saturday eight to five, and Sunday eight to [00:26:00] four probably, an hour ahead of time.

We've got a practice range with some bag targets that we'll set up and people can show up just to try to get people checked in. And so when that course opens, guys can start going somewhat like golf. They'll be the way the course is laid out, if we get a mass amount of people. Showing up right away, I can take 'em to another hole, or not a hole, but another target or trail marker, to get 'em started to where they can move and hopefully everybody gets going and we don't have a big backlog and we don't want that.

We want people to be able to just enjoy the day and get as many shots in as, as they want or feel comfortable with. And let's see. I'm just trying to think if. You need to bring family down. What else is in the area for maybe the wife and kids to do while you might be shooting the course?

The sh so the ch shoots held at Tuck wake cabin. It's at 59 20 Berham Road right outside of [00:27:00] Logan. It's about three miles outside of Logan right off of State Route 93 just south of Logan. And for any of you that haven't been to the Hawking Hills area or around Logan, there's all kinds of food options.

Obviously hiking with old man's caves, state Park. You've got Wayne National Forest around, you've got multiple state forest and just public areas. So family-wise. If you're wanting to camp Andrea, I know you guys were camping last year. There's a lot of camp grounds or camping opportunities around that.

If the family wants to hang out there, you can do that. Or like I said, if you want to go, to millstone, millstone barbecue and eat there's multiple breweries and wineries and so forth. It's just in that whole Logan area. We're just a few miles outside of Logan. Yeah, definitely a beautiful area.

And you just brought up the memory to me of our campy trip last year. That was, it was, one of those things that road to Hell's paved with good intentions My plan was Friday, go down and shoot the course. And actually, I think I, I was planning on coming back Saturday, maybe.[00:28:00]

My knee was bugging me, but I was like, Nope. And I, the family was meeting over at Bur Oak State Park, which is a little bit of a drive, but had that all set up. They met me down there, brought the dog, everything. All right. So once we got camp set up, it was just gonna be fine. Everything was gonna be good.

And then that night, the dog would not settle down in the tent, and he was just having a hell of a time my knee was bugging me. Then it started raining, which I don't even think that was really in the forecast, but then it didn't stop raining for the next, I don't know, 36 hours. We made the executive decision that Saturday morning, just pack it up and go home, and it was probably one of the best decisions.

I felt like a puss at the time, but I was like, No, I'm not doing this. Like it was so miserable. Nobody was having fun. It's one thing when you're by yourself and it, it's miserable when you get wet or not even yourself, but when all your stuff gets wet. But man, when you got a family with you, it's just not, it's just not good.

And we wouldn't have been able to go swimming or fishing or anything fun cuz it was [00:29:00] just such a mess. But, Anywho. Yeah. And when you're laid up in a tent that's soggy and just full humidity and it's just not fun. No. We are definitely looking forward to archery hike. Justin, I don't, how did your season turn out last year?

Deer wise? I know we had talked probably off, off podcast, but I had that one buck I was going after and actually my buddy's the only one that saw him on the hoof. I had all kinds of pictures, was going after him. Never saw him though, or got an opportunity, but at the end of the day, I was hunting pretty hard for him.

My wife was like, Hey, you're gonna have to kill some deer. We're not gonna have any meat. So finally had to not throw in the towel, but. Get a little more lenient and probably, end up exposing myself, spooked my, spooked him off. But ended up killing three doughs, which was great.

Kill three doughs. That's about what we go through is three decent doughs a year, that, that amount of meat, and so it'll all. All worked out well, but I didn't end with that. Any antler any antlers this year? That's all right. That's good. You can't eat those anyways. The now I'll have to ask cuz [00:30:00] Paul's not able to join us tonight, but did you Turkey hunt at all this spring?

I did. But is that work thing? Why is work getting away of Turkey hunt? Do we pick? Period And so much fun. I pretty much love Turkey hunting as much as Paul does. But I don't have time. I used to hunt Kentucky a lot. I've hunt in Virginia before. But I don't ha, I don't have a lot of time. And now we're this one bird limit for last few years.

You try to get after it and you try to get that opportunity. But this year it just didn't work out. I never, I didn't fill a tag. Did have birds goblin. And the fun part was though, like I tell, we talk, if you find success only in the harvest, you're missing a point. A lot of people don't feel that way, but there's so much fun in the process.

That's what you gotta, enjoy. And in the springtime when you can get up and you go out and that sun, it's not, the sun's not even up, but man, that sky's just starting to light up and you can hear them birds chirping. That's what it's all about. And it's just gonna be a good morning.

And then the turkeys don't play alone. And then [00:31:00] it becomes not such a good morning anymore, and then your phone starts ringing and you're helpless out in the woods. Yes, I get it. Yeah. It just, it's constant. And so I did get out I got out a handful of times this year and it was good. Birds were gobbling and stuff and I got close, had some opportunity, but just, I just couldn't get the tag filled.

And so happened one to onto this fall. Yep. Now, are you going west at all this fall? No, I'm not this fall. But I do, I again, we've talked a lot, but this, the Alaska trip's happening this year, it's full bore. Oh, good. It's been in the works for years really. And then Covid had a, had an issue with it and getting postponed among a bunch of other things.

But it is on, so September 6th me and some buddies are heading north for a week, seven day drop off, unguided. Here you go. See you in a week. Go try to kill caribou. So make sure you get all your equipment orders in before then. Yeah. Actually, if you didn't have 'em in before that, you ain't gonna get it by then anyway.

So you shoulda have had 'em in last year. Oh shoot. Justin, I appreciate you come [00:32:00] on and filling us in about archery hike. Look forward to that event and then obviously good luck the rest of the season. We'll get you back on and at some point to talk more about. What's happening in the farmers and hunters feeding the hungry world.

But yeah, man. Looking forward to July 7th. Coming down. See ya, see what you got going. Thanks. Thanks. I will say real quick on the F H front Josh Wilson and I, he's the executive director of the national chapter out in Maryland. Him and I are working together. Just got the new donor pen ordered for this year.

So we'll be getting those in. Any of you guys out there that are listening that donate deer? Talk to your chapter coordinators. If you don't, if you don't know what the donor pens are, it's a way of us giving back to you for giving to us, and we give those donor pens out. It's an annual pen. It changes every year with the day or the year on it.

And this will be the 14th year we've done it. So talk to your chapter coordinators if your butchers don't have 'em, cuz typically when you drop a deer off at the butcher, they will give you a donor [00:33:00] pen. And they've been become quite collectible. So we've got the new ones ordered. They're gonna be more gray with a black edge this year.

We haven't had that look to the pen, but we'll be getting those soon, get those to the butchers for this fall. Awesome. They're sharp Mine's in the dashboard of my truck, just where I can see it every day. So cool. Cool. Trying to think back real quick. Archery, hike. We talked about the days, the times, and again, I just wanna recap that.

If you register, just know you'll have the course all day long. You'll have plenty of time to walk it, shoot it, g leave, go to Logan, eat lunch, come back, shoot it again, hang out, go shoot, whatever. You'll have all the time in the world to shoot as much as you want to. If you shoot a crossbow or a long bow or a recurve, you know what?

Feel more, we're more than welcome to take you. We want you guys out, you guys hunt and shoot as well. We do have a max 350 feet per second cap for the crossbow guys because a lot of these targets won't hold up to some of those new crossbows. And quite frankly, you'll just bury your bolt [00:34:00] in the target and you won't get it out.

But we would like to see some crossbo guys out and some, traditional shooters. Technical wise, like I talked about, if you're not comfortable with that shot, again, just move closer. It's not a competition, it's a competition amongst yourself. You're more than welcome to, Get as close as you want.

And I think that's really about it. Just know you're gonna be hiking in the woods. It's not a mode path. This is straight up in the woods through creeks. So you want your footwear, you probably want long pants. Your, you might need a thermic cell or some bug spray sunscreen if you're, there's gonna be a couple of open areas.

You might need some sunscreen when you're in the open for sun, but just plan on being out in the wilderness for the day. And you'll have a fun experience with archery, hike and water. Bring water, right? Yeah. Cause you get up there, it gets hot and thirsty and yeah. Prepare for that. I'm trying to think.

Range finder, I'm trying to think what else we brought last year. Handful of arrows in case you break one on a rock or something, but rangefinder binoculars are completely [00:35:00] welcome. Bring them along again. Whatever you are gonna be using in the field. In real life bring with you in this situation or in this shoot.

If your kids, spouses, girlfriends, whatever, want to come along, we're more than happy to, as long as you can keep 'em corralled. We don't want 'em running around because of safety concerns. But if they want to go along and just enjoy the hike and be, it's a family outing, absolutely.

Bring 'em along. It's not gonna cost him anything. She's gonna cost the shooter. That's it. Awesome. Justin, appreciate it, man. We will talk to you soon and Man, if I don't see you before then we'll see you down there. July. July 7th. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk soon real quick. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Archery Hike.

I think we were approaching 700 followers or something. I think there's I. I don't know, 600 and some likes or something. But man, I'd love to, let's topple over 700 here by the time the shoot happens and yeah, just go find us on Facebook or Instagram at archery hike.

Email us archery hike gmail.com and if you have any questions, reach out to us through email [00:36:00] or just go to archery hike.com and you can get all the info for the shoot this year. Beautiful. Beautiful. All right, man. We'll have a great night. We'll talk to you soon. Sounds good, Paul. You're lame Next time.

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