Big Buck Success

On this episode of The Nomadic Outdoorsman Dan talks with Terry Kilmer about his success hunting whitetail in his home state of Wisconsin as well as on the road.

Terry Kilmer is a 22 year old from Northwestern Wisconsin. For Terry, hunting has always been a big part of his life. He was blessed to have a dad who took him hunting and taught him much of what he knows about the outdoors. One of Terry’s main goals is to be able to excite and inspire the younger generation about hunting the way so many in the hunting community did for him.  Terry hopes that he can teach and share hunting through social platforms and content creation. Dan and Terry talk all about hunting stories and adventures from the past few years.

[00:00:00] All right guys. Welcome to you today's show. And joining me on the show today is Terry Kilmer. Now Terry is an avid outdoorsman and absolutely loves chasing after big bucks, and so we're gonna talk all about that. I'm super excited for this episode because he's traveled and had some really good success.

I actually just watched his video on this hunt that we're about to cover, and it's pretty gnarly. This buck is a tank and I don't wanna spoil too much of it. But before we hop into the episode, I've gotta let you know I was driving home last night. My house sits on the corner of two roads. And when I made a right hand turn my headlights flashed out in the field and I saw five sets of eyes out there and I was like, no way.

That's awesome. Five deer hanging out right in a spot where I plan to put a food plot. And so I'm over the moon. I can't wait to hunt here this year. And I also, after talking with him, plan to do some more traveling for whitetail. I travel a lot for different types of hunts, [00:01:00] but whitetail, I don't spend a lot of time traveling different places, and I need to get up to Wisconsin for sure and hunt the rut up there this year.

So maybe that's on the agenda for 2023. Either way, I'm excited to not talk about Missouri Whitetail, but talk about big bucks in Wisconsin and other places that Terry has traveled. So let's jump into this episode, like he was doing things that were just badass. That was one of the coolest moments of my life. I was really scared, but knowing that Dan had the gun, I did have the rifle, like we would be Okay.

All right guys. Welcome to you today's show. And joining me on the show today, I've got Terry Kilmer. Now Terry is from Wisconsin, which it's always good and it always feels good to say they're from Wisconsin because there's a piece of my heart still in Wisconsin. But Terry, thanks for hopping on the show, man.

I'm excited to chat. [00:02:00] Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me on. I'm excited to be here. For sure. Before we jump in, why don't you share with people maybe where are you from in Wisconsin and what kind of outdoor activities you're involved in up there? Yeah, for sure. So I'm actually from Hayward, Wisconsin, which for those of you who aren't familiar is the north, in the northwestern part of the state.

It's a really cool area actually. I've lived about 98% of my life here. But yeah I grew up in a hunting family. My dad and grandpa Hunters, my dad is really the main reason I hunt though. He was a huge influence on my life showing me the way around the woods. And yeah that's really how I got into it.

And it's been a passion of mine ever since I was, ever since I can remember really two or three years old used to go with him. Rifle season is as is a holy week here. So yeah, that was the most anti, that was the most anticipated week of the year.

Still is, but yeah. We would always Dad would kick mom out of the bed [00:03:00] night before opening day and I would get to sleep with dad, as a kid and we would go out and so yeah it's it's definitely been a lifelong passion of mine. It got a little put to the background and, oh, through my high school years cuz I was playing baseball and that was my passion through those years, but all the way up to that point.

And, ever since then, once I realized that I wasn't good enough to play beyond high school, then I shifted my focus back to hunting. Yeah that's what I got to that. That's awesome. So at what point did you get to start going out with him? Because, I know for me growing up it was 12 years old that you could legally hunt, but now that age. I don't think there's an age restriction at all in Wisconsin. As long as you're with an adult or a mentor hunter, I think they call it. At what point did you start going out and if not hunting, Sitting in the woods with him. Yeah, I was pretty young. We didn't used to do like the all day sits until I was probably about, I think nine years old was the first time I went and sat [00:04:00] with him all day for opening day rifle.

Okay. But he used to take me scouting when I was probably six, seven squirrel hunting. That was another thing, which my dad is pretty much strictly a deer hunter. But for my sake he would, take me to TRAs around the woods. And so yeah, nine, nine, I think nine years old was the first all day sit I did with him.

And then they actually changed the age restriction. The year I turned 10 I'm not sure if they might have taken the age restriction away completely now, but they had changed it to 10 years old for a while and it actually changed the year I turned 10. So that was, I remember I very distinctly remember that morning, it was sometime in the summer, and dad came up to my room and woke me up and he said, you'll never guess what they just did.

And that's when he told me they changed. I was, I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear so that I was able to hunt. I still thought I had, two years left so I could hunt at all. And yeah, I was super stoked yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. I remember growing up my cousins, I had a couple cousins that were older than me.

I had three older sisters that all got [00:05:00] into hunting, and I remember that night before opener, I'm like, man, what can I help with? What can I help with? My dad's having me get ammo. My mom's having me grab hand warmers gra passing out orange gloves, trying to figure out who's or who's, and I always wanted to be part of the Hunt, and it was like, man, yeah.

I was too young, but I felt like I could go, I had so much practice shooting birds with BB guns at that point. I could kill anything and then all of a sudden that. I'd turn eight and I'm like, man, four more years. How am I gonna make it ? Three more years. Luckily they did.

They started letting me come and sit with them beforehand, like before I was old enough to hunt. And that definitely scratched the itch a little bit. But that feeling of being out there for your first time with a gun in hand, there's nothing like it. Yeah, no, for [00:06:00] sure. There, there is really no feeling.

I wish I could replicate that feeling every time that, that first time out with a gun is definitely something special. But you made me think of something when you said there about shooting birds of a BB gun. I got my first BB gun when I was eight, and that was another surprise cause my dad had originally told me he wanted me to be a little older than that.

And so he surprised me on my eighth birthday with the BB gun. And then after that I just went on a tear as far as, I pretty much shot anything that was. I was able to kill with a BB gun. It was a little daisy a daisy bucket was called the lever action BB gun. And I chipmunks became my main target.

And so that was my, that kept my summers preoccupied pretty. Oh yeah. Pretty much completely. So that was what I grew up doing. And then, but once I got into deer hunting, I forgot about all that. See, it's good practice. I feel like everybody who wants to hunt should just be given a BB gun, taught how to use it properly.

And then you just go and it's free rain. Kids are gonna be kids, they're gonna shoot things that move anyway better an animal than a person. Yeah I feel like I was a better [00:07:00] hunter having stock songbird on my mom's bird feeder and, sat there waiting for ground scrolls to pop up out of a hole.

I don't know. I feel like. It teaches you the patience. It teaches you the aim, it teaches you to get back on a target quickly. , there's a lot of benefits to it. . Yeah. I can't imagine. Yeah, definitely Wisconsin DNR is just gonna let us have free reign on songbirds though. Yeah. No, I don't think so.

But yeah it is funny you say that too, because my dad didn't grow up with a BB gun and he can't shoot for anything with iron sights like at all. And it's funny because I remember one time when I was pretty young it was a red squirrel up in a tree and dad wanted to try hitting with my BB gun, and he literally shot at this thing probably 30 or 40 times with this BB gun and did not hit it a single time.

And I'm pretty sure, if I remember right, I hit it on the first shot and I was like eight or nine years old. That's awesome. But, and he still can't, he just can't shoot with iron sight. And[00:08:00] he could, if he practiced, but he didn't grow up with a BB gun like I did. Yeah I definitely think it, it helped me.

in more ways than one, but for sure shooting. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. See, I've never had any formal, like shooting training. I wasn't in the military. I haven't taken any long range classes, although I would love to. That sounds awesome. . But what's funny is, growing up with a BB gun and before that it was a Nerf gun and Airsoft guns before, I think they were even called Airsoft guns, I had a little pump shotgun that shot these plastic beads out of it, and it was, I feel like it was quite a while before the Airsoft craze. But yeah having grown up around firearms or firearm, like toys that I just got comfortable with it and I feel like it's paid off in spades now because I remember going up to a ranch in Wyoming and I was doing some pretty long range shooting with some people that I knew and. They [00:09:00] had a two mile range out there and they had targets, every 50 yards, then every a hundred yards out to a thousand, and then every 200 to 250 yards out to a mile.

And so I remember getting out there and we were shooting, people were shooting all day long and I was just planking around at closer targets to 300 yards. And finally I was like, Hey man, do you mind if I shoot long range? And they're like, yeah, go for it. So I start shooting at 500, then seven 50, then a thousand, then 1250.

And finally I was like, what's next? And they were like, Hey, the miles next after the 1500 yard range. And I was like, man, a mile. That'd be awesome. They were like, yeah, nobody's hit it yet. It turns out I ended up getting on target at a. Hit it like four times in a row, which was one of the coolest feelings Wow.

Of my entire life. I was like, this is insane. Yeah. And I'm using their equipment, I didn't have, I didn't have a gun or a scope or [00:10:00] the ammo that could poke out that far at that point, but they had super nice rifles, great ammo. And anyways, I hit it four times and the owner of the Range Wow. Was like, Hey, did you hit a mile?

And I go, yeah, that was shot number four on the mile in a row. And he is dude, you're the first one to hit a mile. This isn't new range. We haven't shot a lot, but you're the first one to hit a mile. The other guys have been trying all day. And I was like, oh, cool. I was like, dude, hop on the table.

Like it's your range, you shoot the mile. Yeah. So he shoots like three or four times isn't connecting at all. Then the guy who like gets all their guns set up and makes sure the range is cleared and. Basically takes care of everything on the shooting range. He's oh, you mind if I give it a go?

So he hops behind the rifle and he shoots twice and nothing. And I'm like, oh man, that's interesting. Like it was on a second ago. And then the owner goes, all right sniper, let's see you do it now. [00:11:00] And so I get back on the rifle and I just settle into it, pull the trigger, and I hear the spotter go, impact.

And the owner of the ranch, he was like, get outta here. And he like pushes me off this stool. He is , get back up back to the back of the line. And I was just laughing cuz all these other guys were trying and he ended up getting on. And then one at a time, we walked people in to a mile, at that.

If you, if the trigger's on the wrong part of your pad on your finger, like you're gonna be pulling it one way or another. , pulling or pushing. There's so many things that can go wrong at that distance, but we ended up getting, I think everybody who wanted to, was able to shoot the mile by the end of the day.

And it's funny. Oh, wow. Because I was like, man, that it felt really good to be the guy who first got on and then to do it multiple times in a row. That, yeah. And I'm not talking, this isn't like a 12 inch target we're talking probably like a two foot by three foot chunk of steel. So it's a pretty [00:12:00] decent size.

Yeah. But still, yeah, but a mile away though. . Oh yeah. The farthest I ever shot at a deer up until leaving for high or after high school, I think it was probably like 70 yards. And so shooting a mile wasn't even in my vocabulary at that point. Yeah. That's incredible actually. And I like, that's exactly what I was thinking too, like with the woods, like up here in northern Wisconsin.

You're doing really good if you're seeing a deer a hundred yards away. That's pretty unusual. Yeah. And yeah, I, almost everything I've ever shot is here anyway, is inside of a hundred yards, probably inside of 50. And I've never even attempted to shoot that far. So that's really impressive.

That's crazy. It's fun. I've fallen in love with shooting long range. Both rifle and bows. And that was another thing, the western people, like anybody out west, they're dialing their bow in for 60, 70, 80, up to 120 yards. And I'm like, what in the world? How did you even yeah.

I didn't even know bow sides could be dialed that far.[00:13:00] I think my farthest pin when I was in high school, my farthest pin on my bow was like 45 yards, maybe 50 yards. and that was like, I'll never shoot at something that far away. And these guys are taking cracks at yeah. Deer and elk and antelope.

It's 75 plus pretty consistently. And so I don't know if it's just a mindset, if it's what gener, generationally, maybe we've put like limits on each generation. Oh yeah, we don't shoot anything past this. Or just because where we hunt in Wisconsin, you're probably not gonna have a shot opportunity that far.

Yeah, definitely. And that's something that I've realized too. Like I, I've never been out west to hunt yet. I'm hoping to really badly here in the next couple years, but that's something I've noticed too, that I'm gonna have to start getting a little more deadly at long distance. Cause I'm the same way.

I very rarely have shot over 50 yards of the boat, even in practice, and I, I do enjoy shooting long range. I [00:14:00] just haven't done it that much. Cause like you said, you don't really need to, you don't really need to here. But I have hunted in Missouri quite a bit now, and even there you can, there's a lot, at least the area we hunt is a lot more potential to shoot longer distances.

I, but like you're saying too, though, I, I am a little bit hesitant to shoot long ranges. Like my dad's kind of one of those, like it has to be inside a 30 or he is not taking a shot. But I have a little bit of that in me too, where it's hard to be like, I could shoot him if he was at 50, but yeah.

So no, I totally get that for sure. Yeah. What what was hunting like growing up? So you had mentioned starting to go out around nine, all of a sudden, boom, you're able to hunt at 10. Did you start out just with , did you start out doing the gun deer season up there and then get into bow hunting, or how is that progression for you?

Yeah, so it was for the first, I think till I was 14, it was the first time I bow hunted. So for the first few years it was all just rifle season. and up here, deer drive is the big thing. So we would [00:15:00] sit Saturday, Sunday of opening weekend, and then we would do deer drives Monday through Saturday. So that was okay, like every year that's what we would do.

So I got, that and I actually, I love doing deer drives. It's so much fun and I know a lot of people aren't super into 'em, but it's, I grew up doing it, so to me it's, it's just fun. But yeah, I never, I didn't bow hunt till I was 14. And that was, that's when you can legally hunt by yourself, like completely without a, without being an earshot or eyesight.

And so I did shoot my first deer that year with a bow. Nice. It was just a dough. And then like I mentioned earlier, once I got into baseball, I, I did bow hunt, but not near as much as I, I had before. Hunting in general, just took a little bit of back burner, still rifle hunted.

Still had some pretty fun years in there, but my main focus definitely became baseball. And then after that I got back into it. But through those years we we actually started going over to Western Minnesota to rifle on a piece of private there that a good, a really good family [00:16:00] friend of ours, it's his wife's brother gave us permission there.

And so we, we had some really good success. I think I killed six bucks and six years there. Dang. So it was a, yeah, it was a yeah. And a couple of 'em were smaller. But when I was younger, I obviously didn't care as much about waiting for bigger deer, but I did end up killing a couple pretty nice ones over there too.

But it was a square mile piece of private that we had access to hunt. So it was pretty sweet. And most of it was ag, but, and every year, because it was his farmland, every year he kept clearing more brush and putting more fields in. So now, The whole square mile was just field, but it was like a deer paradise when we first got there.

Cause half of it was still brush and woods. It wasn't much standing timber, but it was such a nice piece for the first few years we went there. Dang. I want to unpack a couple things that you talked about, cuz you said you hunt Missouri. Now what part of Missouri are you coming down to? . Yeah. So I was actually gonna ask you about this too. It's southwest Missouri. Cuz [00:17:00] my wife is from southwest Missouri actually. Oh, nice. She's from Carthridge. Yeah. I don't know if you know where Carthage is or not. Yeah. It's real close to Joplin and yeah, my wife is, grew up and is from there.

That's not, yeah, we actually live there. Yeah. We're on the west side of Heard seen on your Instagram. Yeah, we're on the west side of Springfield. So closer to Joplin than Springfield. And yeah, Southwest. Missouri's a cool place. Like we're on that corner. You can get to Kansas pretty quickly, Oklahoma pretty quickly, Arkansas pretty quickly.

And so if you're the type of person that wants to hunt multiple states, there's opportunity for that. But honestly, the deer hunting here is pretty good. And it's funny because I think it's underrated not only by non-residents, but also by the people who live close. I had a guy that I worked with yeah. And it was when I was first trying to get into hunting here excuse me moving down here. There was a short amount of time where I didn't really do a [00:18:00] whole lot of hunting here. But then , I started getting back into it. And this guy at work was like, good luck, man. He's there's yours that I go out all season and I don't even see it, deer.

And I'm like, whoa. What? Like the deer hunting sucks that bad here. No way. And then after a little while, I just realized that he was doing it wrong. And . . There's actually a lot of deer here and some pretty good ones. But it's funny. Oh yeah. Hearing people talk about it and they're like, man, I'll go all season without seeing anything.

Good luck, man. I haven't shot a deer in five years. And I'm like, dude, . I don't know if you're just drinking in the stand all day, what you're doing maybe road hunting isn't really paying off for you, but I don't know. I don't know how you go that long. Especially in a place like this because there's deer numbers here.

It's not like an a Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa situation. But it is pretty good still. Yeah, it's really good actually. And I know the deer numbers are better in the southern half of Wisconsin, but up here and it's partially cuz of it's all big woods, so it's hard to see [00:19:00] 'em. But like the deer densities up here are not very.

I've been hunting Missouri, I think for four years now. We, me and my wife started dating in 2019. We got married in 2021. Yeah, 2021. And so I've been hunting there since then and I actually really like it cause you can actually see down there. Yeah. And so Northern Wisconsin boy going down there and I'm seeing 15 deer in the evening.

I'm like, this is great. And I actually killed my biggest buck ever there last, or not last year now I guess 2021. I shot a pretty nice deer on a small piece of public, but e grossed 1 56 and five eight, so that's, dang that was pretty sweet. Yeah. Yeah. That's a heck of a little plane here.

Public anywhere. Yeah, I was super stoked and I shot it with a muzzle loader. Cause as a lot of the public pieces down there, you can't rifle hunt on. So it was the second day of rifle season there. And yeah, my little brother was with me. He's, he was nine years old at the time. He was actually trying to film for me, but he freaked out when the deer came in [00:20:00] and he zoomed in too far.

So there, there's no footage of the shop, but it's, it, I couldn't get upset at him cuz he is only nine years old. So it, it was totally fine, but it would've been sweet to have on film. Cause it turned out, it happened pretty cool. Man. Yeah. But it was pretty sweet to get him. That's sweet, man.

I, yeah. Hearing people have success on public land like that, I like huge props to you for that because I know how it is hunting public land. It's challenging. You're dealing with a lot of other people who you don't under, you don't know what their hunting tactics are, if they have any tactics at all.

, I've heard of people, just walking around the edges of a lake before hoping to kick a deer up and shoot it on the run. There's some pretty wild strategies and techniques that I've heard people around here using in order to kill a deer. But what I want to talk a little bit about, you had mentioned doing deer drives and how that's a big thing.

You'd hunt Saturday, Sunday, and then[00:21:00] Monday through Saturday you'd do deer drives. Break that down for people, because I think there's a lot of places where people aren't really familiar with what a deer drive is, or it's something that maybe their grandparents did, but it seems like generations are getting away from that.

But that's something I grew up loving. I thought deer drives were the greatest thing ever. . Yep. So why don't you break that down for people. Maybe what your guys' strategy for a Deer drive is and how that's worked. Okay. Yeah, for sure. So basically we usually had about, probably between 10 and 15 guys.

I know some way more than that, but to your point about like the generations changing, like we're having in the last few years, we've had a lot more trouble getting guys because the guys my age. I'm 22 years old, but a lot of my, the guys my age don't want to either hunt at all or do deer drive.

So it as time goes on, it's getting harder and harder. Yeah. But we, what we would do is we have a group of guys and one of my favorite parts as a kid was we'd always go out for [00:22:00] breakfast beforehand. Cuz obviously you wait till it gets light. Yep. And so wherever, whatever area we were gonna be driving in and it was almost a hundred percent public land too.

Almost completely not quite there. Every once in a while we had a private piece to push out. But and it really helped too cuz our main leader Weldon Hershey, I mentioned it before, a really good family friend of ours. He's almost like a second dad to me, but he's a logger. So having logged all these different pieces through the years he knows the land really well around here.

And so he would instruct us, on, on how the piece is laid out. And, when we started hunting, or when I was 10 years old, when I first got into it, we didn't have onyx and stuff like that, like we do now. Yeah. So it was more, it was a lot of taking a bullet and drawing in the dirt where he wanted us to go.

But basically we just have a group of standards that would line up in the direction that we were gonna be pushing the piece out and then a group of standards and we'd, sorry, drivers, and we'd out and push a piece, walked towards the standard. And oftentimes we, we always have walkie-talkies to [00:23:00] communicate with each other and whoops and stuff, or yells, however, whatever you wanna do to keep yourself lined up with the other drivers.

But a lot of what we did was clear cuts. . That's a lot of times our deer hole up during rifle season. Yeah. Just cause of the, the pressure up here is just out of this world during rifle season, . So it's crazy. But I guess we're partially to blame, I guess people would say the same thing about us too.

But so we would, a lot of times we ended up pushing clear cuts, which are just an absent pain to walk through, but that's where the deer are. So we do it and we've had a lot of success through the years doing that. My dad, and this is when I was very little, my dad killed his biggest buck ever on a deer drive.

He almost went Bo and Crockett, just shy of Bo and Crockett. Geez. So really big buck. But yeah, it's I don't know. It's just something that I'm very passionate about it. I wish the guys my age would be more, into it still, so we could actually get group. But there are a couple younger guys too, like my little brother's into it and a couple of, couple other younger guys coming up or are getting into it too.

So it looks like we have a little bit of hope for the next few years at least, but, [00:24:00] and we have a few faithfuls too that always show up every year, including my dad. So that's nice. But yeah. With that many guys, I think anything I'm missing with that with that many guys, how big of a piece are you pushing at one time?

Boy, I don't know. An acreage amount, but not too crazy big. And they all varied too, cuz let's say we were pushing a clear cut out. Totally depends on the size of the clear cut. Man, I'm trying to get a, I'm just trying to take a guess here. I would say probably actually about 40 acres at a time.

That, that would be my best guess. I would say. Pretty decent size, but not, not too little. And then there were too that were a lot bigger. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I see. See here the day go. I know back in the day, like in the nineties, my dad said people weren't near as picky about the private land thing.

Dad said, you could pretty much hunt anybody's land you wanted to, as long as it wasn't specifically posted. And I think they had a drive [00:25:00] that was like seven miles long as they used to do. Like they would just, they would push a chunk of it out and then the standards would become drivers and the drivers would loop around and become standards and they would just keep doing it.

They'd hop road, and obviously not shooting on the roads, but they would cross roads as they're going. And in total the drive was like seven miles long, so we don't do anything like that anymore. But you couldn't, yeah, that is, that's quite a chunk. No, I figured it'd be about 40, 40 acres at a time.

Just trying to think logistically how much land you could push. In one given time, because growing up we knew that the neighbors did deer drives my . Once there were enough of us kids, or like teenagers, my parents started, entertaining. The idea of doing deer drives it. We did more of like the deer creeping.

I don't know if there's actually a term for it. Okay. But we would basically just walk. I'd get bored. My cousin would get bored, whoever would, and it was like, all right, we're just gonna slow walk to my dad's stand or your dad's [00:26:00] stand, and then just try to stir the woods up a little bit. . Yeah.

And so we did a lot of that. But then as there were more of us as teenagers in the woods, it was like, oh, you know what? There's actually quite a bit of standing corn down in the valley. We could go drive that. And yeah, my dad and my uncle would be the sitters. And then the kids, we would all just walk through the cornrows and try to push stuff out.

. And to me, I'm like, man, especially on wet years, there's years. 40 to 70% of the corn is still standing during deer season, during gun deer season. . And that really hurts the big woods because it's perfect cover. They've got the food, they've got the cover. All they really need is water, which they can find that typically fairly close and yep. That really hurts hunting, thick timber on those years. And so I feel like deer drives are an awesome tool. And like I said, it seems like people are shy away from it. But then I do talk to [00:27:00] people and it's no man, we'll always do deer drives. I know Pennsylvania, that state seems to be really big into using that strategy.

Yeah, for sure. I just saw, I don't know if you watch, I don't know if NIC does East Me Sweat meets West Hunts podcast and he just had to seek one guys on with him and he was showing them how to do drives and stuff. I thought that was super cool, but I actually didn't know. Drives were a big deal in Pennsylvania.

And so that, that's really cool to me. Now I want to go out there and do drives there, so I know, and it is funny too cuz a lot of people, like you said, don't either don't know about 'em or aren't sure what's going on. Cuz like my wife growing up in Missouri and her family hunted, but not real seriously, just more of go out and get some meat things.

And she had no idea what deer drives were when we first met. And so I had to kinda introduce her to 'em and for people that are first starting it, and I understand this I, like I said, I didn't think about it because I grew up with it, but the safety issue, it makes sense.

There's a legit concern there. Oh. But as long as you're, everybody's using common sense and, you keep track of where we're at. It can be [00:28:00] safe. We've never even had really any remotely close calls up to this point. But we always hunt and we have a really good group of people that we've always hunted with.

Oh, that makes a big difference. Because I have heard stories about other groups doing drives and I'm like I don't think I would do drives with them, just because it's like. Not shooting or shooting at stuff when you don't know what's, and you don't even see it. You just hear something like that's a little sketchy.

But you do have to use a lot of common sense because there is a, definitely a heightened level of risk there with what you're doing. But as long as you, are smart it's pretty safe overall, I would say. Yeah. And it's interesting to hear different like we mentioned different states or different places doing them.

I know Pennsylvania, I got an invite to go and do a drive for bears. Apparently they actually use that same technique to push bears. And so I'm like, man, that'd be pretty wild, being a stander and all of a sudden you, blackbird is sprinting towards you. And then I listened to an episode of the Meat Eater pretty recently, I wanna say it [00:29:00] was like three or four days ago.

And Giannis went back to Latvia, or sorry, Yeah. Latvia and he did a hunt there. . And they're really big into drives. And so they go out and they're going for Really? Yeah, they're going for deer and moose and stag. And he's man, anything that comes through, you shoot, you could shoot a moose or a I think it's road deer that they were going after.

Oh, yep. And hogs. , he's there's no telling what's gonna come running through the woods towards you, but he is they take it very serious. Not only the hunt, but the safety side of it. And so they'll put you in a spot if you're a stander, you get to put, you get to be in one spot.

And from that spot you can only take two steps. They you cannot take Oh, wow. More than two steps from your spot. Because now if you do that, people aren't gonna know where you are that are driving the other standards aren't gonna know where you are. . And so you really have to stay put. [00:30:00] And so to have something, some type of good safety system implemented that way.

Nobody's getting shot. It's not dangerous for anybody to be out there. I just , it's wild to me, man. I love finding out about the different techniques and strategies that people use for hunting. Especially the ones that go back generations. . Yeah. Yep. That's crazy though.

That, that would be quite the deal to be able to just shoot whatever comes by. I can't imagine what doing a Moose Drive would be like. That'd be pretty fun. Yeah. Moose. Man, I anytime you get a big animal like that, because deer, typically a grown man's gonna weigh more than a deer than most deer, I should say.

Yeah. Yeah. But then once you start thinking about several hundred pound bears or, 800 to 1200 pound moose, No, that's a different level. And those animals aren't hard or aren't easy to kill. So to, to shoot a moose on the run and you're standing there I don't know if I'd want to [00:31:00] be in front of that thing.

Yeah, that would definitely bring another aspect to it of that, that's, there's another safety concern when you got moose running around, I guess that, yeah, you don't really think about with deer . But yeah, that, that would be pretty intimidating. But I actually, that just brought something to mind. I was talking about moose.

This was going back to Minnesota and dad was actually doing a little drive to me, I think it was the first year we were over there, so it would've been like 14 years old. And he's pushing out this little chunk of woods in the middle of a field and I saw a flash of brown coming through the trees and I just assumed it was a.

And all of a sudden around the corner of the field, a cow, moose and a calf came cruising around the corner. Oh geez. And I wish so bad somebody had been there. I wish somebody had been there to film me, cuz I don't know what my face did, but I didn't know there was moose over there. And so I'm thinking my flashing right.

Like my first thought after I thought wasn't here was bear. But I'm like, that's not bad. I was like, oh crap, it's a moose. And I, yeah. I was so stunned. Just talking about moose made me think of that. It was crazy. [00:32:00] So yeah, there are moose in Western Minnesota. For anybody who doesn't know , that would be nuts.

Yeah. In, in, so I grew up in Wisconsin and or in Eau Claire. And I'm farther south than you are, but not far from us in Elk Mound, somebody got a picture of a moose and it made the papers and it's like there's a moose spot in Elk Mound. And I'm like, no kidding. . I had friends that live there.

That's not far from me at all. But it seems like with all the animal reintroductions. And then obviously with cities expanding, there's gonna be more human wildlife interactions and encounters that are outside of the normal. Yeah. Yep. It's just, I don't know, man. There's certain animals like that, and I think size plays into it.

The larger the animal for some reason, the more majestic, the more of a, like an awe factor they have. And so yeah. , when you're talking moose and bear and elk, there's, it's a different level. But[00:33:00] I watch videos on YouTube all the time of the different hunts and Yeah. Over in Europe, when you watch them like chasing stag through the woods or like doing drives and there's hundreds of them running through the woods.

Or deer or moose hunting with hounds. I've seen videos of that. That seems pretty wild also. Oh wow. Yeah. In fact, I think on that we use episode they use Ho. Okay. Huh? Yeah. That's crazy. I I definitely wanna shoot a moose at some point. I actually pretty recently listened to that podcast.

Again. I can't remember his name now, but the the guy from Maine that you were talking to about moose hunting there. Oh yeah. And that got me, that got, yeah, it was, yep. And I'm actually, I'm definitely gonna be applying for a moose preference point there now, cause of that I didn't even, I didn't know non-residents could hunt moose there.

So that's definitely gonna be something. I think registration opens today actually on February 1st, I think is when it opens. So yeah, that's, so I'm gonna be putting in stock, hopefully getting in [00:34:00] getting a, the next, I guess it could take a lot of years, but that's okay. But moose is a huge bucket list of mine.

My kind of ever since I was really little. I, along with, growing up in hunting family, Watched hunting videos religiously. That was such a big thing. And Realtree used to have a series called Monster Bulls, I don't think if you've ever watched that. Oh, yeah. But it was caribou, moose, and Elk.

So ever since I was 3, 4, 5 years old, and however young I was when I started watching them, that is in my three main bucket list animals to Kill the bow is specifically, if it doesn't work out with the bow, that's fine, but that's something I've definitely started planning and putting in the works.

Yeah, I don't know. Those three animals right there are something I definitely wanna get done in the near future. Yeah. The days of VHS hunting videos are . I wish every kid grew up that way where it was like, oh man, yeah, there's, yeah, there's a new video out by, the Primo's Brothers, or the Waddell's, or the juries, or whoever it is. [00:35:00] That was like the greatest thing. Cuz my parents never bought those VHS tapes. They never did. . And it drove me crazy because they were really into hunting on the other hand. Yeah. Yep. My, my uncle, my mom's sister's husband, he would always buy them.

And so he had the primos speak the language or the truth about deer hunting or the Truth series videos. Every time I would go over there, he'd have a new one and a new one. And I just remember I was always the one that had to get up and go and change the tape out. So I'd have to put a new VHS in, take the old VHS out, put it in the like, speed, rewind deal and yep. Yep. We would just watch one after the next. And it was just wild to watch these guys, these like hunting celebrities that would pass these bucks that were like 140, 150 and were like, what's wrong with you? I will never pass anything like that. Look at these idiots, who do they think they [00:36:00] are?

And then all of a sudden, this like 180, 190 inch buck walks out and we're like, oh, okay. Yeah. No, it all makes sense now. Yeah. Yep. All right, guys. If you've been listening to the podcast, I'm sure you've heard me talk about the helicopter hog hunt that I did down in Texas. Now, I went down there with rope Texan Outfitters and Landon and Brandon, the owners put us on the animals.

We killed 150 pigs in 19 coyotes, just from the air. On top of that. We went out thermal hunting at night and got up close and personal to more hogs. I didn't have to worry about bringing guns or ammunition because all of that was provided for me, and it is to this day, the most action-packed day of hunting I've ever had.

I stand by what I've said in the past, and that's that helicopter hog hunting is the funnest thing that you can do with pants on. In addition, they offer Sandhill crane hunts, and predator calling. So if you're looking for the most exciting hunt of your life in something that you're gonna want to come back and do year after year, go check out rogue [00:37:00] texan.com and book your hunt today.

Yep. Yep. And then, and as a little kid you're like, yes, this is what it's gonna be like when I grow up. And then you remember that , you grow up and realize that you live in northern Wisconsin and it doesn't happen like that at all. But that's okay. I know a lot of people rip on those videos because of that.

They're like, oh, it's unrealistic. But I honestly don't really care. I just love watching them. I still do like monster bucks. That was a big one. Like you said, like the juries, we didn't have a whole ton of them. Cause my dad was the same way. And it actually was mostly DVDs by the time it got to, that was born in 2000.

So it was mostly, oh shoot. So shoot, we did have a Qva test. No, that makes sense. Yeah, but we had probably five or six different ones, maybe a couple more. And so Dad was, he enjoyed watching 'em, but for some reason, like he didn't really buy the new ones every time they came out. So we had these, and I probably watched those tens.

Oh man. I don't know how many times. It's just a huge amount. But my favorite one was Real Tree Road Trip Season one. [00:38:00] Because Michael Waddell was like my hero as a kid. That's, I wanted to be just like him and that he was just yeah, he's such a hero to me. I actually got to meet him a couple years ago at Bo Fest here in, in Superior, Wisconsin.

Oh, nice. I didn't get a chance to talk to him for too long, but yeah, he is way taller than I thought he was gonna be. For some reason he's taller than I expected, but he, yeah he's such a cool dude. And I, yeah, I just, he was my hero growing up, but, and a lot of the others were too. There's, I'm not even gonna start naming cuz there's too many, but yeah I do.

I wish every kid that, enjoyed hunting, had a chance to grow up watching those videos cuz Yeah. I don't know. They just made hunting look so much fun to me, and that's and we can get into this a little more later, but like the starting a YouTube channel, that's where I went ahead with that and with being able to inspire younger generation cuz I know how they made me feel when I was five, six years old and even older than that, even still now in a way Yeah.

I just it's just so cool to me. Yeah. And really, YouTube is it's the new version of the hunting tapes. You're the hunting DVDs and [00:39:00] Yeah. Now anybody with a phone can actually make a pretty decent video and camera equipment's way cheaper. You don't have that giant shoulder mounted camcorder that you have to lu around with you, you can go pretty small with it and make really good content.

And so I think that's a great transition into YouTube and exactly. , what you're planning on doing with that, how you're going about it. Because to see those people, there's a whole generation that is phasing out, and I'm not saying that they're not relevant.

But Michael Waddell, , yep. Isn't necessarily a household name anymore. When he used to be like the guy I remember watching him on a caribou hunt one time, and this caribou a lot of caribou are running right through the woods, like right in front of him. He's sitting on a log and one of 'em stops like three feet from him and he is Hey, what's up?

And it just scares the crap out of it. And then he loses it. He starts laughing so hard. But, not a lot of the younger [00:40:00] generation necessarily know those people, but they might know who the Hushing guys are or the meat eater crew is, or who the seat guys are. And so I feel like there's this space now where not only can you make good content, but you can get it out to the masses really quickly.

And it only takes a couple videos or a video to go viral and now all of a sudden you're kinda in the main hunting spotlight. Yeah, definitely. It's funny cuz I was actually just telling somebody at work today like being a kid and watching these hunting personalities or celebrities, whatever you wanna call 'em, it like you always I always wanted to that's what I wanted to be.

But also in the back of my mind, I knew like the chances of me ever having a TV show were very low. But now as YouTube has become a thing, it like you're saying, it does give everyone a chance to have their own TV show, quote unquote, and it is a really unique and cool opportunity that we have now that, you wouldn't, I wouldn't have had if I was 22 in, 2003 or something like that, that you, [00:41:00] from what I've heard, you pretty much had to either go work for somebody or, cause equipment was a lot more expensive back then.

Yeah. And it just, yeah, it was just a different era. So now we do have a pretty cool opportunity to be able to produce content the way we can. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild. I talk to people all the time because obviously with social media becoming something that everyone has in their pocket at all times podcasts.

, they're getting huge. I talk to people all the time who are wanting to start and they're wanting to get into this space and there's no, there's never been opportunities for it like there are now. And as time goes on, the market's gonna get flooded, but it doesn't even matter.

, it doesn't matter if you end up with a TV deal or a major sponsorship or not. There's people who just post their everyday stuff or they just post about food plots or they only talk about Turkey hunting and, you can get that following, whether it's a couple [00:42:00] hundred people or several thousand people in a short amount of time if you stay consistent.

and it's on Yeah. Yep. The consistency thing is something that I talk to people all the time about, and honestly, for anybody listening to this podcast who might be thinking about getting into the outdoor media space, consistency is gonna advance you farther than literally anything elses. It Sure. If you kill like a state record buck, you're gonna get into the national spotlight immediately, but Yeah.

Yeah. For, all but one person every five years, you have to find a different way to get out there. And it might just be starting with talking about how you hunt on your family's 20 acres, or chasing after public grand deer. Or strategy and techniques or gear reviews or whatever it is. Find that thing and run with it, and then stay consistent and it's gonna happen.

Yeah, definitely. And I think that's one [00:43:00] thing that I put a lot of pressure myself to be able to. Have good quality hunts on film to be able, to produce and to have that consistency. But like this past year, I only killed one buck with, or only one deer. And so it's man, like how can I be consistent if I'm only putting out one video a year?

And that's the, I put this pressure on myself and I just gotta relax a little bit and maybe I have to, do some scouting videos or something like that to try and be more consistent. But you look at the guys who are successful, like on YouTube and Yeah.

Look, the hunting public Yeah. And see how many videos they post throughout a year. And obviously they're not all kill videos, but there's that consistency there, like you're talking about. Yeah, there definitely is. And the kill videos are great, don't get me wrong. But even with podcasting, I'm not on here every time talking about a new kill.

A lot of times it's just talking strategy, talking new opportunities, and. People like to follow a story, and so even if you don't kill every year, some of my favorite podcasts are [00:44:00] from Dan Johnson or from Mark Kenyon, and it's hearing them year after year. It might be in September or October or November that they start rehashing a certain deer that they've been after for three or four years.

And it's obviously they ha yeah. They haven't had success with it because they're still chasing after it. But I love following that story. And so that might be, doing deer drives what encounters you had. , close calls, misses, and even meat eater again, has done a great job of that, Steph, where they'll go I think I watched one meat eater, maybe it was a couple seasons ago, where they went and did the flintlock hunt in Pennsylvania and they were doing deer drives.

Okay. Just like we were talking about. And multiple times they had opportunities at Whitetails and something malfunctioned on their flint lock, and so they never got one. Yeah. Like they never shot one. And the whole episode was about them [00:45:00] hunting, about the relationships they were making, about the opportunities that they had and about the equipment malfunctioning.

And they still made an episode about it. And so that's what I love now, because you are getting into the you're getting into the realm now of YouTube where, there's something on YouTube for everybody and there's plenty of people who really are going to appreciate just being R raw and open and honest with the struggles that you have with hunting, even if it's not great.

And then when you do have success, they're gonna be like, dude, awesome. Great job. I saw you posted this or that. But to let people know. Yeah. Yep. It's not all roses, you're not shooting, you're not shooting a Boer or a Poping young deer or elk or bear or anything Every time you go out. At least I haven't heard anybody making a podcast or a YouTube video where they have that kind of success.

Yeah, definitely. And I actually talking about going stretches out [00:46:00] deer, I actually went 82 sits in between killing a buck with my bow until I killed my one this past year. So I usually keep track pretty well. And I think that number's on, I think between maybe it within one or two anyway.

And yeah, I think it was about 82 sits in between killing a buck with my bow. So yeah there's definitely some stories I could be telling in between that was like, that was a span of three or four years. , and that's maybe what I need to get into more is just getting a little more in depth with kind of what we do and how we do it and the storytelling.

And one thing I thought about too, when you were talking there with the deer drives that I forgot to mention earlier is the camaraderie of deer driving was by far my favorite part of it as a kid. And still is. Yeah. That was what I looked forward to more than anything. And ki, I talked about it with going out for breakfast every morning and stuff, but it was just so much fun to me to be around other people and, we're all there for the same reason.

And it's always, always lighthearted good time and just, traveling through the woods and what more can he ask for, , dude, there's [00:47:00] nothing better than it. You get all these people together. No. And everyone has their own variation of the same story, oh, I saw this book and then it ran past him and then he shot and missed it and it came back and I shot, hearing all the stories and just hearing the interaction year after year.

All the buddies giving the one guy a hard time who missed a deer or whatever. There's nothing in my mind that beats the camaraderie. As much as I like success, I would trade. , I would trade a lot of successful solo hunts where I like go out by myself, don't talk to anybody. Nobody's there to experience it with me.

For one good hunt with a bunch of my buddies, even if we don't shoot as big of an animal or as many animals. Honestly, one of my most memorable hunts of the year was me and some buddies, and we went out and sat all morning and we killed one goose, but my buddies truck kept breaking down on the way home.

His dog did not do what it was supposed to do. We all gave each other a hard [00:48:00] time, like everything seemed to go wrong that day, but I had some really close buddies with. Yeah, and it made it all worth it. Yeah, definitely it, having buddies around can pretty much take any situation that would otherwise probably be really frustrating and annoying and just make it fun, and that's why this past year we went out, me and my really good friend and hunting buddy, Joe Yoder we went out to North Dakota for the first time and we spent nine days out there and we actually were both able to kill bucks, which was, we did not think that was gonna happen, but it was pretty sweet.

But just having him there, just being together and hunting there and just, it wasn't much of a hunting camp. It was just a 10 yard, but it was still, it was so much fun. So yeah. Were you guys going after Whitetail or Mul Lee? Whitetails. Yep. Oh, sweet. Yeah, man. What? Yep. I actually go ahead.

Oh, I was just, I I actually just finished the vi the YouTube video for that hunt yesterday morning. So anybody listening who wants to watch that? [00:49:00] We have both. We actually got both kills on film, actually. It actually worked out, so yeah, I got that video done finally. Took me forever to finish, but I got it done.

That is, if anybody's interested, they can go check that out. Yeah, that's a great spot to pitch that where can they go and follow along and check out your videos. So the channel name is Knox for bucks, like Knuckles for Bucks. So just to explain that name real quick. My dad has been saying this phrase for years already, and when I was starting a YouTube channel, I had no idea what to call and I was like, I didn't call Terry Kilmer outdoors.

I'm like and nothing wrong with that, but I was like, I wanted something a little more origin. And so I was like, Hey, why don't I just use this phrase that dad's been saying? We, right before we left the truck to go to our different spots, you just go kn bucks, give each other a fist bump.

And so that's the name of the channel. So just type in kn bucks on YouTube and it should come up hopefully. So yeah. Nice. Yeah, that's awesome. I, Hey, I will say Terry Kilmer Outdoors isn't bad because then you've got the [00:50:00] abbreviations tko and, oh, I hadn't even thought of that.

That could be pretty good also, but just save that for when you get so big that you have to start a second YouTube channel. . Yeah. I guess we'll burn that bridge when we get there, but at least I know my name for now, at least I know my channel team's gonna be . Yeah, there you go. I'll give you a shout out for making me of that.

Oh yeah, definitely. For sure. It's definitely not as, I'm not to the place yet where I can produce the level videos I quite want to, yet I'm still learning the whole editing thing, which by the way, for anybody who hasn't edited yet, it's awesome, but it sucks to learn . I it has been a nightmare.

It has been a nightmare for me trying to figure it out and thank God for YouTube, because that's basically where I learned everything. But I'm, slowly learning and I feel like I'm definitely getting the hang of it more, but I want to be able to produce videos that people actually enjoy watching.

I don't I definitely have a standard for myself [00:51:00] that I would, like to be able to meet at a certain point. And that comes with time, obviously. So I understand that my videos now aren't gonna be as good as they are in five years, but I did try my best. So Yeah. Hopefully people enjoy it.

Yeah. I'm pumped to lay in bed and watch that tonight. I always yeah, definitely. Just watching, I like watching raw stuff, obviously like the more aesthetically appealing things are with high quality editing and high quality videography that's all fine and good. But there's sometimes where I'm just like, man, gimme the most raw, like home video hunting story on YouTube.

And I'll sit there and watch it and I'll dive down rabbit holes where I just find people where their logo's not great, their page isn't great, and I'm like, dude, I just like watching good old boys get after it and kill things. And what's funny is , at least up until recently, it seemed like the guys who were having the most success in killing big animals all over the place weren't very tech savvy.

So their video quality was not good. Unless they had some type of big time [00:52:00] partnership. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I enjoy those videos as well too. And I'm sorry, go ahead. I cut you off. No, you're good. Yeah, I was just gonna, I was just gonna see what is in the future for you, obviously continuing to hone in your videography skills, editing.

Have you entered any film festivals at all, like hunting film festivals? I haven't, no. I have heard about them a little bit, but I don't actually really know what goes on with them. But so I haven't done that yet, but if it's something that I, if you think I should do that kind of thing I have thought about it.

I just need to learn more about 'em for sure. I know that a lot of these I haven't done anything for myself because I always buy really new and fancy video equipment. I get out there and 90% of the time I don't hit record. I just went to Georgia hunted pigs for three straight [00:53:00] days.

The whole trip I think was about six days. I barely got it. I think I averaged like one video a day and I could have had some really good content on that trip. And so I struggle with it. But yeah, I do know that, they do film festivals all over the place. I was just at ATA and they had a big film festival where everybody got together and watched the videos.

Unfortunately, I was at a network dinner and so I didn't get to go see it. But like hearing the new things that are coming out, people who are up and coming in YouTube or that win, the film festival, you can get really good stuff. But as far as like the competitive side of it, for people who are competitive it's gonna push you to be better at editing, at storytelling, at getting good shots, and making high quality content. Especially when you go and sit in a room and everybody's watching. Yeah, definitely. That was, that is, I definitely need to check that out then and see. Cause I think just meeting people that really know what they're doing would be a huge [00:54:00] help in networking like that.

Because like I said, YouTube is pretty much the only way I learned. And just to clarify something I said earlier, I said it sucks. Learn, edit. It does, but do it like everybody wants to. You can figure it out. Trust me, I'm not a tech savvy person at all and I'm figuring it out. So yeah, you definitely, anybody who wants to definitely should do it.

It is a lot of fun and it get, it actually gets a lot more fun as you learn to do it more too, cuz then you're not every single action you're trying to do, as they're editing, you don't have to look it up. You can, you just know what to do. So it definitely gets better. I really wish I knew somebody like personally that was really good at, or even just knew how to do it, that I could have went.

So if you have somebody you know, definitely go to them. I'm sure they'd be willing to help. Is that would definitely help a lot. But it is a really cool thing to do. So just wanted to clarify that. Why I said it sucks. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, . No, and honestly, we're spoiled as a generation to have the tools and the, I guess the educational [00:55:00] material at our fingertips, the way that we do like YouTube Academy yeah. Is unbelievable. You can learn more on YouTube in a couple hours than some schools are gonna teach you in a full semester because you can see all of these different editing styles and you can go through and find the people that you really like, the way that they video the way that they edit.

And then, they might also have a tutorial video out, or you watch multiple videographers and editors. And you just pick and choose which ones you want to be more like, you can pick different styles from multiple people and craft your own out of that. But yeah, sitting on YouTube, you, the other nice thing is you can get very specific with it in a hurry.

If you want to change the, for sure the exposure on your camera, you can look that up and figure out exactly how you want your stills to look or what image size you need to be shooting in for a hunt versus [00:56:00] like an evening hunt versus a midday hunt, versus a Turkey hunt versus a waterfowl hunt.

It's just really insane how much information is out there that we could all be taking advantage of and that you can learn from in a hurry. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent it, that is, it is very educational for sure. I. I it definitely made it easier being able to look that stuff up. I don't know what I had done without it, to be honest, but yeah, you can get very specific with it and that def it definitely helps a lot because yeah, like I said, I can't tell you how many times it went and like how to replace a video that you deleted already.

How do you get it back? Or like how do you undo an action or just anything. How to add music, how to upload to YouTube is just any, anything you want to find out. It might take some things you have to do a little more digging to find, but for the most part, simple search and you've got it. Yeah. See, I think if I were ever to really dive into it, honestly, I'm to the point now where I realize I'm probably not going to become a great editor or [00:57:00] videographer.

Just because no matter what I buy, no matter how much I try to convince myself that I'm gonna do it in the moment. Like getting the shot opportunity always trumps getting the video of the shot. And it might change if I have a couple good, successful shots on video. But at this point I'm like, I just need to get somebody to come video and edit for me and then we'll go from there.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't, there's times where I wish I was a videographer turned hunter versus the other way around . Yeah. You, yeah, that would definitely be a good place to start, but I was gonna say, if I'm ever in Missouri when you're going out hunting, hit me up. I would love to come video for you.

So I'm, I would definitely be down for that if you want somebody to sit behind a camera for you. Hey, speaking of videoing, and I will, I'll take you up on that if you're coming down. And you want to get out. And even if we just hunt together and maybe we bring a camera maybe we don't. I'm all about [00:58:00] that. But when you were talking earlier about having all these hunts and not having success on them, I can't tell you how many times I'm sitting there and going, man, I wish I ha I had a cameraman just because the shenanigans that happened between me and my hunting buddies or the pranks that we played.

Yeah. Oh hundred. Or like this last hunt, I had a guy named Nick and he fully passed out behind me while we were hog hunting. Like song logs right behind me, . And I didn't even wake him up. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. And I took a video with my phone of it and I'm like, man, I wish I had a film crew out here for all of these awesome moments.

That's what I feel like people get into as far as content goes, because if it's only about the kill shot they can go and watch one of those YouTube videos where it's 126 kill shots in 98 seconds. Yeah, those are cool. But yeah. With black and back by ACDC playing in the background, you get to get the whole Yeah, exactly.

or, yeah, another one Bites the dust. [00:59:00] And it's just insane to me. It's insane to me, like how that used to be all that it was about is that one second where they pulled the trigger. But there's a lot of hunting media out there that they're telling more of a story now. And I really do appreciate that from people in the industry that are taking the time sharing strategy, sharing what it means to them, sharing like the B roll and the outtakes and just the goofy camaraderie that happens with most hunts.

Once, once you get a bunch of dudes in a room or on a trip together, something weird or funny or dangerous is gonna happen. . And so to get all of that a hundred percent try to capture all of that in one video. I feel like that's where the real magic is. And that's where Yeah. You can set yourself apart.

Yeah, definitely. And I a hundred percent enjoy watching the videos that are more geared that way than the [01:00:00] others. Cuz there's plenty of, people out there that, they just want their videos to be extremely serious and this is a, this is serious what we're doing and hunting is serious. I agree with that.

But going back to what I grew up on, I don't know if you watched much real road trips, but that's all it was just a good time. Oh yeah. Like that. I think I've heard people talk about that was the first show that was like showing more than just the kill shot. It was them traveling them at camp playing wiffle ball, and that as a kid, that's what I loved was that. And and I still do. And so that, that is definitely the direction that I would like to take the channel and also, The people I watch I love watching when guys are just being dudes around a campfire, wherever it is. And just because that's how it is in real life, we're not all just standing around, we're deer hunting man, so no laughing, no smiling, just do it to it.

But, so I feel I'm a hundred percent for the messing. Yeah. I feel like people, I feel like people want to go and hunt and be around the, they're, they wanna hunt with and be around the people [01:01:00] that are relatable and that like to have fun. And, yeah. Maybe they're stone cold killers. Maybe they find a way to get it done, but they also like to screw around and joke and this and that.

I can't imagine somebody sits there and watches some old white dude who all he wants to do is just be serious. Hey, shut up. Don't talk. You gotta use this site, type of site control. No, if I'm in the woods. Yeah. And I don't miss opportunities at deer because I'm screwing around with my buddies.

Maybe I'm taking myself too seriously. And , there's probably people who are listening, they're like, no way, dude, I don't do that. That's just it, it might not be as extreme as sitting in the woods joking around and scaring deer off, but just having a good time. Having a good time with friends.

Yeah. Trump's being successful in my opinion. Yeah, I agree. And you can still have fun and take it seriously too. You don't, you can, like when me and my buddies hunt, we, it's always a, it's always a party, but, when we're in the stand [01:02:00] we still, we probably talk too much.

It's a nice break cuz I do hunt by myself a lot. So whenever I have somebody to stand, whether it's my wife or a buddy, we always end up whispering, like the whole time. And it's really fun to do. A lot of people would say, don't do that in the deer stand. And like you said, maybe we scare some deer off, but hey, if you're smart about it, you probably, you can usually get away with a little whispering anyway, but, It's just fun.

It's just fun to do. It's fun to have somebody to treat with you and just messing around. Yeah. At Elk Camp the main Elk camp that I go to, I bet you the inappropriate joke to elk kill ratio is through the roof. Probably a hundred to one , but we still go out there and get it done.

We still have fun, you know when you're out there when it's time to be serious, but also, yeah, a hundred percent. Yep. We'll sit there, there's times you get bored sitting on a mountaintop. Blasting an area, not seeing anything, and then we play games and we make stupid bets like, Hey, whoever's farthest away on the range of that rock all the way across the valley has to do some dumb [01:03:00] task that day.

Or, they have to get beers for everybody when you get back to camp. And we will, we'll sit there. Yeah. There's times we've spent an hour and a half just glassing random objects and guessing how far away they are. And it's fun, man. That's that's stuff that I don't forget that like I, I still remember certain ranges that my buddy ranged a rock across the valley and I was the closest one, or I was so far off it was embarrassing

That's the type of stuff that, that I live for, that I really look forward to. And, I like pulling the trigger also. Yeah, definitely. No, that, that sounds like a game that I would like to play for. I never even thought about that. Cause we don't glass much up here, but in Missouri or places like North Dakota, we definitely could do that.

I like stuff like that too. It's just stuff to pass at time, but it's also, just fun to do. And speaking of guessing that, I made me think of something that I was telling you about my Missouri buck from 21. Yeah. When I shot that buck, my dad was there and he's standing over the deer looking at it on the ground and he goes, I think it's gonna [01:04:00] score about 1 56 and five eights.

And I know I already told you, but we got back to the house and the next day we put a tape on it and it was literally to the eighth of an inch. And it was just a guest. I was like, what in the world? Like I don't need how that's possible, but I was shocked. Dude. Your dad's rain man for white tails?

Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. That's, I wish I had that ranging game though. See I've got a pretty decent net ranging but yeah, the whitetail scoring deal, I've never really scored a ton. In fact, this this year. It was after, or I guess it was still during archery season. My buddy and I put tape on a couple bucks that we had hanging in his shop, and that was the first deer that I've ever actually scored.

And I was like, man, this is fun. I could get behind this. And then at a few different shows and like outdoor events that I went to, they'd have a buck hanging on the wall. And it was like guess the score. The winner gets like this e-bike. Or [01:05:00] they get this whole hunting package and. I am so far off, I need to get much, much better at scoring deer because there were times where I, like I, I mean I was like 20, 20 to 30 inches off and I'm like, okay,

I thought I had, I never thought I had a great idea of scoring, but , but I was like, . I didn't think I was that bad. So that's one thing that Yeah, I'm definitely gonna work on. Yeah, for sure. It's funny because my little brother's actually better at guessing than me. Cuz like in the Monster Buck videos, they usually tell the score.

The score, after they're behind the deer. Yeah. And so we would always play the game watching him try to guess the score before it pops up, and I mean I grew up watching those and I think my 10 year old brother is probably better at guessing than I am. It's pretty funny actually. . I don't know how he would do or how I would do in a, seeing a deer in person, like on a shoulder mount or something.

Guessing I probably wouldn't be quite as good. But it's just funny that [01:06:00] he's really good at guessing him already. See, maybe I just need to kill more, 170 inch plus deer and then when I go and guess these ones on the wall at a show I'll be a lot closer. I just don't have a lot of experience with that size.

Deer up close and personal. . Yeah. Yep. Yeah, neither do I. My dad's buck, he shot when I was like two years old. That's the biggest one we have in our family. But deer bucks are hard to come by. Big bucks are hard to come by up here. My little brother when I was just talking about Dustin, he actually shot his first buck this fashion in Wisconsin youth season.

I have the, a little clip of it in the video that I made, but it grossed I think 1 69. It is his first buck. Geez. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. I'm like, seriously, dude? This is your, I think second year hunting or first year hunting and this is the first buck. I told him he just gotta hang it up now.

I don't know how you go on for that. I've been hunting for 12 years now. I haven't even seen a buck that big in the woods. Yeah. I didn't even know Buck got that big in buck. I guess I thought that was only on ranches. Yeah. . . [01:07:00] Yeah. High fence in South Texas. That's where you gotta go to get there.

Yeah. Hand fed Whitetails they're snorting protein. That's right. Dang man, that's, yeah, that's an impressive deer. Dude, I, yeah, I feel like we could continue talking for hours and I hate to cut this short, but I know it's getting late and I wanna respect your time. Before we go, I've got a question for you because we already covered where people can find you, where they can watch your YouTube.

My final question for you is number one bucket list hunt. And this is gonna come down to what species where, and you don't have to give like a specific location, but like a general, if it's Alaska or Florida or Africa. . And then what weapon would you use? So my number one dream hunt is for sure bow hunting caribou in Alaska somewhere.

I don't even know where to go for Caribou, Alaska, but I'm actually, I've been looking to it more and more, and that is for sure my [01:08:00] number one bucket list is yeah, to shoot a caribou with a bow. I've been dreaming about that for so long and I can't wait for the, can't wait for the day to actually be able to make it happen that, that just seems.

Insane to me, being up there and seeing these animals, because that's the type of animal that I've only ever seen on TV and in hunting shows. . But the places that you go to hunt them are so remote, and that alone is intriguing. Like I would go up to those places, just a camp, but then to think you could have a shot Oh, yeah.

In caribou, especially a big migration of caribou. And to see that on the craziest landscape in the most remote place in the us Yeah. I could see why that's number one for you. Yeah, a hundred percent. Especially growing up here in northern Wisconsin, to be able to see 3000 animals, like you're trying to hunt, going the same.

I don't even know what I do. This doesn't feel real, yeah. But yeah I can imagine that not feeling the Alaskan. Yeah, the Alaskan landscape is, looks [01:09:00] just so beautiful that yeah I'm the same way I would go up there for anything, doesn't have to be hunting, but to be able to pursue an animal like that, as cool as caribou are.

Yeah it would be unreal. Yeah, man. So you said you've been looking into it. Do you have a timeframe of when you're, you think you're gonna make it happen? I don't know yet. Exactly. I'm hoping two years from now. That's two. I'm hoping I can make it happen by then. It's definitely an expensive hunt for sure.

If you do it yourself, which is probably what I'm gonna end up doing it's definitely cheaper. But I would just listen to a podcast recently and they were saying how transport services are booked out, like years already. So I'm like, shoot, I didn't really need to get on this and I might not be able to go, for three, four years based on transportation.

But the other place I'm actually been looking into is Greenland. Oh, apparently they have a lot of caribou there and it's decently cheap. Cheap is relative term I guess, when it comes to this kind of stuff. It's cheaper than a lot of other places. And I think it's over the counter tag. So my dream is definitely an Alaskan caribou, [01:10:00] so I guess to be a bearing ground caribou, I believe.

But if they say it's something where I couldn't go cause transport's booked out till 2027 or something that, which I don't think it'd be that drastic, but Greenland is an option for caribou sooner. I don't think they're nearly as packed out as Alaska. That brings up a great point. And it's the transportation side of things, because I've always just viewed the transportation as being expensive. I'm like, oh yeah, it's gonna be an expensive Yeah. Yep. Deal. But to think about them being booked out towards it doesn't matter if you have the money for it. Like they're booked. I'm gonna have to look into that also. Exactly. Because I'm planning on doing a moose hunt here in the next couple of years.

Every year I'm like, I'm gonna do it this year and then it doesn't work out. But realistically, in the next two to three years I plan on going up there. But yeah. , you've made a good point. I'm gonna have to look into transportation and make sure I can even get a bush pilot to drop me off.

Yeah. Yep. And that's something that I didn't know about either. But there [01:11:00] again, listening to east Me West, man, I can't even, I dunno why I can't say that tonight. I bushed it three times already. East meets West. There we go. He had a guest on Boton. I had a guest on named Kyle Hanson. And he works for a service that that books, I think he works through Outfitters or something like that.

And I've already checked his website out. I haven't contacted him yet, but I also need to save up money for this on too. So I gotta plan a little bit more for it. But that's what brought to my attention this booking. Issue. So I'm really glad I listened to that cuz I've, I otherwise probably wouldn't have heard about it.

Yeah, man, you've got my wheels turning now. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have some research to do. I've got a hunting video on YouTube to watch tonight, and then some research to do on getting some getting a pilot booked. Man, thanks again for hopping on and yeah, for real. You're not that far away when I go up to Wisconsin.

I'm not that far away when you come down to Missouri, so we definitely need to make a hunt happen soon. Yeah, absolutely. Just hit me up on [01:12:00] Instagram or anything. I guess I didn't mention my personal Instagram is K tasers, that's K T A Z E R underscore 22. That's my personal Instagram. So yeah, feel free to hit me up anytime.

And anybody who listens to this, who has interest in hunting northwestern Wisconsin, hit me up. There's so much public land around here. I would be more than happy to show up some guys around to give 'em a chance. I'm not promising you'll see anything , but might see a wolf before you see a deer.

But I would love to show you around. So my mom makes some mean rice and bean the chicken, so he got that to look forward to if we go over their place for supper, dang man. Yeah, that, that sounds like a good time. And we'll have to have your brother tag along that way he can get on Yeah, get us on a hundred and almost 70 inch steer.

Oh yeah. Oh, he would love that . You're like, no I've got first dibs. Also, if my brother shoots another one that size, I'm gonna shoot my brother. Yeah. Just about. I'm gonna, I'm gonna ban him to be my permanent cameraman. . There you go. Just make sure he starts [01:13:00] getting the shots all of them.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Man, thanks again for hopping on. I really do appreciate it. And You have a good, you have a good evening and I'm excited to hear how that caribou hunt goes here in the future. Yes sir. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me honest. It was really fun. I really appreciate it.

And that is gonna wrap it up for today's show, man. What a great chat with Terry. And I encourage all of you guys go check out his video. I have watched it now. He smokes a monster. In fact, they double up on really good bucks, and it's definitely worth giving a watch. If you guys haven't traveled to hunt, I would highly recommend it.

If you've been listening to me for any amount of time, I talk about it all the time, going out, trying new things, trying new hunts, going different places, and there's something just totally different about it. And you never know what you're gonna come across. You could stumble into just a killer hunting spot, whether it's for [01:14:00] ducks or bass fishing, or deer hunting, or elk or moose or who knows what.

But you're never gonna know until you get out there and give it a go. So I highly recommend it. I'm gonna be traveling more this year. I hope to get back to Wisconsin. I spent a lot of time. Traveling and hunting other places. But Wisconsin is a place that I need to focus some more time on, especially with my boat.

So that's gonna be on the agenda this year, but enough about what I've got going on. You guys should be getting out there chasing after sheds. You gotta find some. I gotta find some. That's what I should be doing. I need to end this podcast. We're going to. So that's it. Until next time, guys, always choose adventure and God bless.

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