Cole Cannon of Buckventures

Cole Cannon of Buckventures hops on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast this week. Cole is the chief producer and editor for Buckventures, and he and John have a really cool chat about what it's like to be involved with a major outdoor television show. Before they jump into the ins and outs of the television world, Cole tells a quick story about a really nice buck he was able to take last December with his bow in Kansas. Having picked up the farm after hunting season had already begun, Cole and his boss and host of the show Jeff Danker were left with the cards they had been dealt by the previous land owner. Even with the deck stacked against them, Cole was still able to take a really nice Kansas whitetail buck.

After the story, John and Cole get into the hunting industry a little bit. Cole talks about how an internship led into a full time position, and eventually to him being the producer and editor of a major television show. Cole shares what makes the job so enjoyable and how it really is an amazing opportunity. It's not all fun and games, but the good tends to outweigh the bad. Cole also gives a few tips to anyone who may have a similar dream, and some advice on how to maybe get your foot in the door. 

[00:00:00] Hey guys and gals, welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, brought to you by Arrowhead Land Company. Here you'll be educated, entertained, and equipped to get more out of your outdoor experience. So hold on tight because here we go.

What is up? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. I am your host, John Hut Smith, and we got a really good show ahead of us. But before we get there, want to give you guys a quick little update with what's going on in my world. I have had this weekend circled on the calendar for at least a month, probably six weeks.

The stars were aligning. My wife has a girl's weekend plan. She's taking the baby with her. My brother said I should be good with all the equipment and everything like that. And so my plan for this [00:01:00] weekend was to plant food plots. I'm planning to do about five acres of soybeans and two different plots.

I got one big one in the back. I got a little bit smaller one in the front of a ridge. And I have, like I said, I've just been waiting for this weekend for weeks, and of course it looks like Mother Nature is going to screw with my plan. The, but the worst part is I'm not sure if she's gonna screw with my plan or not.

We're in that awkward, like 50 to like 55, maybe 60% chance of rain. I can't plan on it raining. I also can't plan on it, not raining. And so I just don't know what to do. So I'm gonna go ahead, I'm gonna pick up the seed head out there because I know if I don't do that and it ends up not raining, I'm gonna be really angry.

So I'm gonna go ahead and pick up the seed head out there and and hope that I'm able to at least get the seed in the ground. One good thing soybeans are roundup ready. And so if it, is wet and I can't spray, at least I can go ahead and get the seed in the ground and just spray later.

So that's one good thing.[00:02:00] But in a dream scenario, I'd get to spray and then plant, and then, I could spray again later if I needed to. But like I said, I'm just having to, I'm having to just deal with the cards that I'm dealt. At the very least I did pick up a new protein feeder a few weeks ago and I'm planning to get that up and going.

I set it out last, or, last time I was up there, which has been over a month now. But I haven't got to fill it yet, so I'm gonna get that running. I'm not buying actual protein cause I can't afford that, but luckily, that's one of the good things of being in the ranching business is we have all kinds of ingredients because we make our own feed for our calves.

And so I don't even know what we have at the moment, but we have usually have some kind of. Corn, either whole corn or d G, something like that. Some kind of filler soybean holes or something like that. And then some other, usual type of protein like roasted soybeans or cotton seed, something like that.

So basically, whatever we got, I'm just gonna mix it together. My brother and I a couple years ago bought an old seed box for [00:03:00] filling feeders so I can mix up a little ration, put it in the seed box, pick it up with the forks, and then take it out there and fill the protein feeders. Again, I think, I think it'll do some good for the deer as far as health is concerned, but almost more than anything I'm really doing it just to create like a feeding station.

I just want the deer to have every reason in the world to spend time. On my property, and so gonna get that up and rolling. I still have a few of my old feeder pins open from when the guys came down, went hog hunting a few weeks ago. So gonna go ahead and close those off. And and I need to trap some raccoons also while I'm out there.

That's one good thing, like even if it does rain, I can at least still, probably trap some coons and probably get the protein feeders running also, unless it just comes a huge rain, which I don't think it's going to. But like I said, in a perfect world, I also get the food plots planted, so we'll just have to see what happens.

But cross your fingers for me cuz I would love to get some seed in the ground. Cause I. Don't get it done this weekend. I honestly am not sure [00:04:00] when I could get it done, yeah, cross your fingers for me. But yeah, that's enough for me. Let's go ahead and get into this week's episode. We have a really good one.

This week we are talking to Mr. Cole Cannon of Buck Ventures. He's the chief producer and editor out there for Buck Ventures. And come to find out. Cole and I actually have a connection together, which I didn't realize until he killed a really nice buck this fall. Anyway, so just random day. My buddy Randy sends me a picture and he's Hey, my buddy Hunter, his brother killed this buck.

And I was like, okay, that's cool. Like I, I knew Hunter. I've met him several times and then The next day I'm on Instagram and just scrolling through and I see that same picture. And come to find out it's Cole and he works for Buck Ventures. I didn't know that up until this time. So yeah. Fun little connection there.

We were able to meet up at the Backwood show, exchange information and everything, and he agreed to come on the show and we talked about a couple different things. He tells the story of his buck and. We get to hear that. But if I had to really say what this episode is [00:05:00] about Cole gives a really cool insider's look of what it's like to be in the hunting industry, which I think is something, if everybody's honest with themself, I think that's something that all of us really strive for or at least dream about at some point in our lives.

I know me, when I was younger, I dreamed of being on television. I watched all the guys on TV getting to hunt all the time and travel all over the world, and, killing. 10 or 15 bucks a year and always dreamed of doing that type of stuff. And Cole's not quite there yet, but he's working his way up and he has just a really cool view of being in the hunting industry.

So he spends a lot of time behind the camera. He now gets to spend some time in front of the camera. And so he just talks about all that. The good, the bad the hard work it's way, way harder than most people realize. He talks about all the time it takes to put an episode together, the hours upon hours in the stand, and, a lot of those hours he's not getting to hunt.

He's just along for the ride. But he talks about his passion for that side of it too. The videography the [00:06:00] photography and everything like. That. He does a great job telling about how he got into the industry. He talks about or gives some tips for, people if you're looking to get into the industry, some things you could do.

And and just, it's just a really good conversation. And so I hope you guys enjoy this. I sure did. I think it's a really good one. Hopefully Cole can come on a few more times in the future. And so yeah, that's what we got this week. So we're gonna hear a real quick word from our partners and then we're gonna get into my interview with Cole Cannon right after this deer season is over.

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Bravado Wireless, the power of connection. Hey everybody, welcome to today's show, and today we got a special guest With us, we have Mr. Cole Cannon. How you doing Cole? I'm good, man. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. We had some technical difficulties getting started here, but I think, and hope we got 'em worked out now, so we'll see if we can get this thing done, yep, yep. Let's do it. All right, man. Cool. To start things off why don't you just tell everybody a little bit about yourself. Yeah my name's Cole Cannon. I am I'm 26 years young. [00:08:00] I'm gonna say young. I feel kinda old now, but I'm Uhhuh gonna go with Young. And I've currently I work for Buck Ventures outdoors, which is a national television show.

It's been on since 2003. And I to make myself sound important I'm the chief producer and editor. Awesome. So I'm in charge of all the production of Buck Ventures. And we actually have another show now called The Woodsman that's gonna be on the Sportsman channel, this coming this summer.

So yeah. Got a lot going on, but been a blessing to be a part of it and, do something that I really love. Yeah. Man, that's awesome. And yeah, being so young and so far into the industry already that's gotta be really cool. So I'm, hopefully, yeah, hopefully you got a bright future ahead of yourself.

Yeah. As long as I don't screw up and as long as I don't punch the record button on 180 or something I, hopefully I could last for a while. Yeah. And man I definitely want to touch on some of that stuff and talk to you about, Just how you got into the industry and being in the industry and all that stuff.

But but before we get there you were able to kill a really nice buck this year and everybody [00:09:00] likes a buck story. So if it's all right with you I'd like to talk about that just for a minute. Yeah, absolutely. So I guess the deer talking about my Kansas deer, I'm assuming. Yep. Yep. Real quick, before you get going, I gotta tell you a quick little snippet here.

We, I didn't put this together till later, but I, your older brother and one of my good friends, our good friends, and so I was sitting there one day and I got a text from my buddy and he's Hey, Hunter's brother, killed this nice buck. And I was like, oh, that's cool, but didn't think much about it.

And then I can't remember if it was that same day or the next day. I'm scrolling through Instagram and I see the same picture on the Buck Ventures, Instagram page. And I was like, hold on a second. It started Putting things together and asked Randy, and he was like, yeah, he works for him.

I was like, oh man. Yep. So right away I knew I wanted to have you on the show and it just so happened that we finally met each other at the Backwood show and and exchanged information. And I'm just now getting around to actually contacting you to have Yon, but anyway, I just had to tell that quick little, it's a small world story before we get into this, it's, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah, [00:10:00] this deer So this is, it's in Kansas. It's on one of Jeff's farm. So Jeff Danker, he's, he's kind, he's been the host of Buck Ventures and the owner of it for, since it started. And he he owns a couple farms up there. The funny thing is, going into this season we actually had a farm.

It was, we call it Caddy Shack Farm. It was like 300 acres and we had four or five shooters on it. One was like a, upper eighties deer, and these were deer we could have shot every day, and I think it was two, two days before season closed or season opened, sorry, two days before season opened.

He ended up selling that farm. And we had all these intentions of going to shoot these bucks and all that and he sold the farm. But ultimately he rolled that money from that farm into this current farm where I shot my deer. That we had actually been wanting for a couple years.

It was just, they we felt like they had it overpriced, at the time. But he's you know what, forget it. It's gonna be really good. He is gonna hold onto it for a while. So anyway, that's kinda how the season started. Got cameras out on this new farm and, had some decent deer.

Nothing that would [00:11:00] really, really got us excited. We focused our attention on his other couple farms. Yeah, when season started, I had. I had some good deer. I was hunting, I had a probably 155 inch eight point, which I would be tickled with. My books that I was chasing and actually saw 'em probably, I don't know, eight or nine different times just couldn't get 'em within bow range and we were just hoping something would pop on this farm that Jeff had bought, a few days after selling, the farm I was talking about.

Season rolls on I'm hunting there, here and there, it's not my job to hunt. It's more to film, that's what I'm paid to do filming Jeff and we're traveling all over and he finally got some deer on the ground. It started slow, but we got some deer on the ground and. I believe it was December 10th.

Yep. December 10th. We got a picture a cell cam pick popped up on our phone and there's this deer didn't know him from Adam but knew it was a big deer and I guess from there until, oh, I think I ended up shooting him December 22nd. So he showed up December 10th and started showing [00:12:00] up pretty, Consistently.

Not necessarily in the daylight, but consistently. And tried to put together a game plan of how to go in and hunt this deer. He wasn't quite in the best spot. We had one stand where he was showing up that you just had to have a perfect win or it wouldn't work just cause there was so many deer that came out into this field.

And I'll never forget, I think it was December 18th we actually had our office Christmas party. And, but it just so happened to be a day that it was like, it was deer hunting, weather big temperature drop pressure was through the roof, had the perfect wind to go hunt that stand, everything lined up.

But we had our office Christmas party. I'm like, yeah, he's probably gonna daylight today. And sure enough an hour and a half before dark. He we get a picture of him. I'm like, yeah, of course. As soon as our Christmas party was over, we loaded up, I headed to Kansas hunted him that next day.

Didn't see him, saw a bunch of deer just not him. And then after that, the next two days, the weather turned like super hot, especially, for December. You needed to be a little cooler, deer starting to come back to food, that [00:13:00] kind of stuff. I actually opted out to hunt the next two days.

We basically just hung out the house, shot bows, went and checked other cameras, just messed around. And then December 22nd we got another little front. Pressure through the roof and had a perfect wind to go in. And he he came in or he, we saw him, I don't know probably an hour and a half before dark.

He came in with another buck and. 32 yards and I, it should have been a chip shot. And you know how it goes. I ended up basically almost screwing it up. Shot him way back, shot him high. Thought it was guts. I figured the deer was, he was gonna, expire but thought it might be a while, and then wanted to check the arrow and it was just covered in blood.

And come to find out, I think I hit I either hit the. Aortic artery, that runs along there. Or I caught his kidney. But we still, we left him overnight. Just didn't want to, push it went in the next morning, actually called the dog just in case we, we know somebody up there who has a really good dog and.

Ultimately he didn't need her. But the deer went 115 yards and [00:14:00] yeah, just very very lucky, very blessed that it's my biggest buck ever is like 177 inches. And just to be honest with you, he's, he is probably only a four year old. We, what we do is we try to let him get to at least five.

But this deer is one, he wasn't ours. He was a neighbor's deer. And I thought Jeff was gonna call me off of him. Before I went to hunt, but he said, go ahead and, thankfully it, it kinda all worked out and yeah, it was a big blessing for sure. Yeah. Man. Lot to unpack there.

Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot going on. Yeah. You called it a neighbor's deer, and this was pretty late season. So is this just, the way y'all had the farms set up, probably having a bunch of food. I'm assuming that y'all just when things got tough and things started getting cold that y'all just happened to draw off the neighbors, that kind of what, how you'd describe it.

Yeah. That's how, we, everybody talks about growing big deer. We try to do that, but our. What works best for us is literally stealing the neighbor's deer, and it's usually with food. And the other main thing is a lack of pressure. We just, we do not pressure our [00:15:00] farms hardly at all.

Maybe, the rut, we push in maybe a little more than normal. Other than that, we just let 'em sit. We don't go in and out trying to check cameras, even if our cell cams are dead, we might just let it sit for a while and just, Know that they're probably there.

But yeah, this deer just showed up. He was unpressured and basically I hunted him hunted him twice and ended up killing him that second day. So yeah, food's definitely a big factor. And then pressure is probably, if not more important. I feel like Yeah. A combination of those two things.

So you said y'all bought this farm basically right before the season started, correct? Yeah. He actually didn't, yeah, he closed on this farm. Actually, I think a couple days after season started. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. U usually going into a season we have our farms all planted and, set up the way we want.

This one, we didn't really get to do that, yeah. We just kinda had to go with what it was and the previous owner had cattle all over it and just eat down to nothing and they were in and out all the time. So yeah, a lot changed on that farm between, September when [00:16:00] he closed on it and then when I killed it.

Just, there was a big difference in it. Yeah, that, and that's kinda what I was getting to. Did y'all, even though season had started, did y'all still get in there and, plant some food plots and get some food on it? Or did y'all just kinda let it, basically pull the cows, let it grow up and it was what it was?

Yeah, we just kinda let go, as it was there was, now the farm already had it, had some crops on it. Just from the previous owner, he still had the farming rights, but it didn't do much. It, we had no rain. It's like a severe drought. It was supposed to have beans on it.

There was very little beans, that, that made it, but really I think the pressure we, yeah, we didn't get much now. Now, right now we're going in right now and doing exactly how we went with some food plot architecture and milo and beans and that kind of stuff. So it should be even better this year.

But yeah, going in the last year didn't get to do Nearly what we try to do to a farm, heading into season. Yeah, man I got the opposite problem right now, or at least I think the opposite problem down in southeastern Oklahoma. [00:17:00] I I'm actually hoping to plant some food plots this coming weekend, but, there's 60% chance of storms every single day, and I wish it would just, I wish it would either storm or be dry. Like one of the storms would benefit me, but these little light rains like, like I'm afraid this is gonna be just wet enough that I can't. To get it in the ground, but yeah.

Yeah. That's different story for a different day. Yeah. We, yeah, we actually, we just yesterday and today we got some seed in the ground and hopefully. There's chance rain the next three days. So we're praying that it actually happens. Yeah. But we'll see.

Yeah. All right. I wanna shift gears just a little bit, but I just thought of this question and it's gonna be a bridge between the hunting and the industry part. So like you said, you're producer, editor and stuff, so obviously your main thing is. I'm assuming filming Jeff and editing the shows and content and everything like that.

But it sounds like you do get to do some hunting. So what is like, how much, I guess I'm asking how much freedom do you have? Like if Jeff can't hunt one day, are you allowed to go? Do y'all have specific [00:18:00] deer that are Jeff only and, you get the management side or I guess I'm just kinda asking how that relationship works.

Yeah. So basically my hunting time is, Pretty much solely dependent on how Jeff's season's going. If we get off to a fast start and he's shot a couple deer, pretty quick, I'll get to hunt more like last, or I guess the 20, 21 season. He started off quick. We, he shot three bucks, a couple over 180, pretty early.

So I think I hunted probably close to 30 something days in 2021. Now, last year we started slow. I probably hunted a total of, close to 20, so still got in some days. But yeah, it's usually depending on how Jeff's going. And as far as the deer goes Jeff has first pick.

He's the boss man, and yeah. So it's, if I'm hunting his deer, there's something wrong. Yeah. But we usually, we, thankfully we've got some good ground and we usually have some other, good deer out. They're not really, I wouldn't say they're management deer, cuz they're, yeah. For me it's a trophy.

A lot of people would be a [00:19:00] trophy. But yeah, it just kind depends. I'm definitely not hunting Jeff's buck. Usually if Jeff hadn't killed his buck, he's hunting anyway, so it's, yeah. I'm still filming again, it just varies. It varies by state, oklahoma, Kansas. Yeah. If he wants to take off, he's, he's getting to the age where he wants to spend more time with his family at home and that gives me an opportunity to go do some more hunting. Now, not that I'm gonna be hunting the biggest deer on our farm. I'll usually have a good deer, at least one 50 yesterday and above to go hunt and I'm, I'm more than happy to go shoot a one 50 day of the week. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. Spare one 40 or one 50. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Yeah, I was just curious how that worked and everything yeah. All right. Yeah, like I said, definitely, wanted to ask you some kind of more industry type questions.

My, when I was younger, I dreamed of being on TV and, grew up watching, all the old. TV shows and everything like that. And, I carried a camera around with me for a while cause I thought I was gonna be, YouTube famous and stuff, and grew outta most of that somehow wound up doing a podcast.

But[00:20:00] but I know there's a lot of young people out there, or maybe not even young, a lot of people that. Dream of, doing what you do or becoming the ne the next Jeff and everything. I guess my first question is just how did you get into it? How did you wind up with the job that you have now?

Yeah. Growing up I, I always had it, or my, at least my dad always had a camera. When we were out hunting or playing sports, whatever, he just always filmed everything and As I got into college I decided not to play sports and went into college and had quite a bit of free time, and that's when I really just got into the filming video side of thing and photography side of things, and Just fell in love with it.

And we, I had more time to hunt so I was really out, filming my hunts and that kind of thing. And I like, just like you, I grew up watching all these shows, watching Jeff and Real Tre Monster Bucks and Major League Bow Hunter, all these things. And I was like, yeah, I wanna be a part of that or somehow find a way to do that, and I guess it was my senior year of college or going, actually the summer [00:21:00] before my senior year of college buck Ventures and Jeff, they actually opened up a pro staff. And I applied to be a part of it cause somehow, some way I wanna be associated with it. Just cuz what, what they stand for, it's Christ first and then hunting.

And I just really like that. And obviously they shot Big Deer, which was just a plus. But anyway, applied for the pro staff. Got accepted and that was, I believe the meeting that pro staff meeting was June of 2018. And went to it, and my going into it, we were, I just thought, Hey, I'm gonna film and maybe I can give 'em some content, to show on the show or something like that.

And so that was June. And then my senior year of college, I had to have an internship to graduate and basically, my, my major at a and m, I went to Texas a and m. My major was sport management. I was gonna work for the Cowboys or the Rangers or Mavericks or something, that sort. And but my main love was hunting and filming.

That's what, if I could find a way to do that, awesome. But again, like you said, it's not an easy [00:22:00] thing to do. But anyway, I had to have the internship and I basically just called Jeff and said, Hey, I need an internship to graduate. Is this something y'all? Y'all do. And he said not really but come on out and we'll figure it out.

And somehow, some way I got my department to sign off on it. I don't know if they knew that I, what I was coming to do. I don't think they knew I was coming to hunt and film and do that kind of stuff, but they signed off on it. And that was in January of 2019. Did my internship until oh Probably April, whenever I graduated, it was I think April or May.

And basically they just told me not to leave. That's kinda how I got into it, a. Right time, right place. I knew 'em a little bit just from the pro staff meeting and getting to shake their hand and they knew me. But, it's not like I just grew up, knowing Jeff or any of these people.

It was just a, a blessing to get connected with them and then to have this opportunity, there's a lot of people who are, I'm sure way better than me at editing and filming. Out there, but it's how they say it's who you know, not what you know.

And that kind of [00:23:00] held true in my case as well. Awesome, man, that's a cool story. Yeah, that's good. Awesome. Let's say, oh man, I got two questions here. Trying to figure out which one I wanna do first. Yeah. I'm gonna do this one first. When I, back when I was, interested in being in it and carrying a camera around with me and stuff I always had people give me a warning and I haven't had people reiterate this when I started the podcast, that, if you really love hunting, you need to be careful making it your job.

Because it's, it's easy to get burnout. I've had people say the same thing about people who wanna become a game warden or something like that. Is that something that you've experienced or know people has experienced where you finally kinda, you hit, you know what you've been shooting for this whole time and all of a sudden you're like, man, like waking up at 4:00 AM every day and going and sitting in the cold is not all it's cracked up to be.

Did you ever have kind of a moment like that, or are you still pretty gungho about it? Yeah, I'd say I'm still pretty gung ho and I will say this, I've been doing it for, this is, I think my fifth or sixth year. I don't even [00:24:00] know, but it is, and people don't, probably don't realize it, but it is a job.

To a degree now it's still, it's what I love to do. And I thoroughly enjoy it, but yeah, there's times you're like, man, this is, this ain't all what I thought it was gonna be. Now that's very minimal or minimal and I, I love it, so I can push through that. But yeah, there's times, especially after a full deer season, especially if it's been a long one, it's been rough and not too successful.

Once Once January gets here, I think our season here in Oklahoma is in the 15th. Once the 15th hits I'm ready for a break. But the funny thing is, I'm, I'll be so worn out and, and then seasonal end and two weeks later I'm like, okay, it needs to be hunt season again.

Cause I, I'm ready to go. But yeah, I wouldn't say no. I had not burnt, been burned out. Yeah I just, I really like it. And again, we go at our own pace. We go at it hard. But if we need a to rest for a day or so, we'll do that. Unless we got a big buck, daylight and Yeah.

We push through. But no I would not say I'm, I've been burned out. It's just, yeah, you get tired, just like [00:25:00] everything. It doesn't matter if you're a professional athlete or whatever. You get tired at points. But If it's what you love, you can keep pushing through and then that's what we do.

Yeah I keep a note on my phone every year and I wish I did it. A little bit more, but like last year I kept track of how many hours I spent leading up to the season, and then I keep track of how many sits I do, and I'll usually keep track of mature bucks and stuff like that. And I've always wanted to do, Hours. I just basically always forget, to ask that two hours or three hours or whatever. And I'm sure it'd be hard to give an exact number, but if you had to guess, if you're counting, filming, and hunting how many hours you spend or you could even do days if that's easier, how many days or if you had to guess, hours, would you say you spend hunting every year?

Hour. I don't know. If I could do hours, I could probably give you a approximate on base. And then people can just do the math, on hours. But we probably hunt in the fall, from, usually we start around September [00:26:00] 1st. Go up north somewhere. We know they got an early season and then it ends January 15th.

So I, we probably hunt A little over a hundred days a year or a hundred days in that timeframe. Maybe more. It just depends, like I said when Jeff's not hunting, I'm usually out hunting. I'm, compared to him I probably hunt a little bit more just cuz you know that's my time to go out on my hunt.

And then yeah, I'd say between a hundred and 120 days a year is the guess. And again, it depends on if things are going good. You don't have to, you don't have to get out and grind as much. But if it's rough, which usually trying to hunt big gear, it's usually rough. Yeah. You get, you can get some, definitely a lot of hours in a tree or in a stand.

But again it's a job. When you think about, I could be doing a desk job or something. Right now it's hard to complain cause there's a lot of people who I know would. Love to do what I do. And I will say it's probably more work than they think it is. But it's still, it's it's a fun, it's a fun work for the most part, if that makes sense.[00:27:00]

Yeah. And man I've always thought this cuz a again, I've, tried to do some filming on my own and I've done some self filming and stuff. I've always thought in order to be a cameraman for a television show like you are, You have to at least equally, if not more, love the videographer side as you do the hunting side.

Because going, going through all that, when you don't even get to pull the trigger I imagine there has to be still a draw to that. Is that accurate or would you say the hunting side drives the filming side? I would say it's both. I love filming and I especially, If you can get a big buck on film kill with just some epic stuff.

I, that's what I live for. Now there are times where we're sitting there and we're hunting a big gym. I'm like, man, I do wish I was the one pulling the trigger or releasing the arrow. But no I love it. It's Especially what we do, it's a team effort. Me and Jeff, for me and Daniel or whoever it is whether Jeff shoots it or I shoot it, I, in a sense, I feel like I've shot it.

I've, and make the shot. But I love the [00:28:00] film side of it. I can't say I love it more than the hunting side. Cause I still like to get out and hunt and be the one that shoots, but There is something special about, especially when we take some kids and maybe some people with disabilities and being able to film that for 'em and document it that's a pretty special deal.

That's, I really enjoy. But yeah, it's a love for both sides of it. I still enjoy getting, behind the bow or the gun, but I really love, Putting together a story or capturing a story, and a, I guess to me it's a cinematic way, it's just how I like to see things and enjoy it and hopefully people can see that through our episodes or YouTube or whatever it may be.

Gotcha. What about this is the other side of that when if, when it's your day to hunt, are you still taking that camera with you or are you using that hey, This is my time. I just wanna sit here, relax and not have to worry about the cameras or you still taking the cameras with you?

No, we're, yeah, cameras with us all the time. I try my best. We've got other people here in the office, so if I go hunt, [00:29:00] I try my best to have somebody else filming me. Just cause, used to self filming that, that's what I live for, was to self film my own hunts, but now I'm to the point I'm like, I want somebody to just film me and I'll just hunt, yeah. Just to take right from the camera. But no, the camera's always with us. Always, the way we do it we film like we're gonna kill every day, whether we kill or not. We still gotta get all the same shots, going into the hunt after the hunt, that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Camera's always with us. I try my best to have somebody there film me Now, if I. Just have to self film, I'll do it. I just, I try to, I've been here somewhat long enough, so I try to talk some other people into coming to film me, yeah. And yeah. You touched on one other thing that I wanna make sure we, we hit cause I, I don't think a lot of people realize.

The work that goes into every single hunt when you're trying to do this filming, not just the extra equipment and everything like that, but the interviews, the B-roll. Talk about that a little bit. Just what goes into, an episode when y'all shoot a buck in just the [00:30:00] everyday ha hu hustle of it.

Yeah. Anybody or I feel like anybody can go out and maybe fill a film, a kill of a deer, whatever it may be. That's, I don't wanna say that's the easy part cause it's not easy, but that's just one aspect of it, especially for a TV show. We, there are shows that just kinda show all the kills and that, but we, Jeff told me, Hey we want to tell the story of everything that goes into it, whether it's from our farm work that we do in the summer or, act the actual hunts or whatever it may be.

So we, we try to document everything. And yeah, you're pretty much constantly thinking, especially during season, I've gotta get, I've gotta get the B roll shots for this hunt. Whether it's walking to the stand or after a hunt, filming, doing interviews in the truck or at the lodge.

And once the actual hunt is over and it's just say in the evening, then you gotta come back and dump all the footage and keep it organized. It's a lot of work. I, I. I think I do well at it cause I'm a very organized person. Like I don't like things out of, outta sorts.

It just comes naturally to me. But we're trying to document everything. [00:31:00] Whether it, I don't know exactly how many hours of footage we use for an episode, but it's all gotta be condensed down into basically 22 minutes. So there's a lot of stuff that nobody will ever see that we filmed.

Usually you just see the good stuff on tv. But yeah it's pretty much constant work. There's a lot of thinking and trying to be creative and have your own style goes into it. Everybody's different. But yeah it's a lot of work now. It's fun work, but it is work.

Yeah. Yeah, I I think I've told this story on here before, what really put a bad taste in my mouth with the filming. One season I kind of dedicate, I was like, all right, this is the year I'm gonna take the camera. Every single time, I don't know how many times I took the camera with me, had the camera, arm, and everything.

And finally it was November Rut nice eight point, came in perfectly centered, got the shot off, was so excited, got it all on film. But when I was tracking him, I tracked him, found the buck, set the camera up, did the whole interview and everything, and then gutted the buck and got him all cut up and everything.

[00:32:00] When I went to review the footage while I was tracking him, I guess a limb caught the cord for my microphone. And it, it didn't pull it all the way out, but it pulled it out enough to where like it wasn't recording through the microphone or the camera. So all the audio that I did was just, scrapped and so basically, the footage was essentially worthless cuz there was no audio to it.

And man, that I was so mad, I think the next year, I don't think I carried the camera a single time. I was like, I'm done with it. I've gotten to where now I, I carry it. Basically, if I think I have a really good shot of killing something, I'll carry it. And that's more just for Instagram and the podcast and stuff.

I'm not trying to do anything professional. Yeah, it's, I actually just I shot a Turkey last weekend and I had my GoPro with me and I set it up to where my deco is on the left side, cuz I just knew this bird was gonna come from the right. And of course he circled around then came in from the left.

And so I did get the shot on film, but I didn't get any of the strutting or action or anything like that. Yeah, man, it, it's [00:33:00] tough. Yeah, as you're just constantly, constantly having to thank and make sure everything's right. I think Jeff actually tells the story his, I can't remember what year it was.

It was back in the early days. He it was the first one 70 plus that he shot on film. And shot it, it was all good. They went and did the recovery and right before Jeff was about to, gut the deer and cut 'em all up, they, the producer at that time checked it and realized that the entire recovery and everything didn't have didn't have audio.

And so basically they had to pull the buck back outta the truck and go redo everything. And that was actually the first buck that Jeff was on Monster Bucks and was on the cover of Monster Bucks and changed his career for people to know, know who he is and that, so if, yeah, if they wouldn't have They wouldn't have caught that and had cut the deer up and all that and lost all that it, it coulda almost could have changed everything his whole career and set.

So yeah, it's just constantly making sure things are right and if something is screwed up, you just gotta go back and redo it. [00:34:00] Which is the power of editing. Yeah. Yeah. You have the right to the best wireless service. Bravado Wireless provides the best mobile, wireless, high speed internet, latest devices and customer service at prices.

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All over the world. Bravado, wireless, the power of connection. Really just got one more for you and it's, I think it's gonna be hopefully an easy one. But let's say somebody's listening to this and they say, man, I want to do that. I want to be on TV or involved with it. You got any tips or pass or suggestions for somebody who wants to actually get into the industry?

Yeah. I don't know if there'll be good tips. I can recommend some stuff. Yeah. But first [00:35:00] of all, make sure you love it, which I know about everybody does. You gotta get, I'll just say if you're trying to do the filming aspect of it, you've gotta, you gotta know how to edit.

There's a lot of people that can go out and film. There's only a handful that can edit and edit well. To make your, to make yourself more valuable, especially in a already small industry. Having the ability to edit and edit well is a big plus, just makes you more valuable.

If you can do both. As far as getting into it, I can't say one way is better than another. I do know there, there's several shows out there like Midwest Whitetail and Hunting Public and all these that, that offer internships. Honestly, that's probably one of the best ways to. Try to get in the industry.

I'm not gonna say it's easy cuz there's probably a lot of people who apply. But you really, you just gotta get your foot in the door go to shows and meet people and see if they could use some help. Even if you just go film. A couple hunts a year for 'em, as a freelance guy, [00:36:00] that's one way to, to get your name out there and, maybe it'll turn into something, full-time.

But internships again, that's how I started. That's how we got two other guys here in the studio. That's how they started. We started a little internship program. Cause we always need help and, free or cheap help is the best help. So we got some intern or in, we had interns and now they've turned into to full-time people.

And then freelancing for outdoor companies, not necessarily, maybe it's not necessarily hunting shows, but outdoor brands. They have, especially today, you've gotta have a lot of content. It's a content media driven world. And people are always looking for freelance videographers or photographers.

But again, you gotta ma I don't wanna say you have to master it completely, but you gotta know what you're doing. Cause there's a lot of people out there who are good at taking photos and videoing and editing and I can tell you they're probably a lot better than I am. But thankfully I, I got my foot in the door with Jeff and them.

That's norm and got lucky. So I don't know if that helps cuz there's, it's, it is a small industry in a sense. And it's [00:37:00] not easy, but if you can just get your foot in the door, that's all you're looking to do. That's, that's probably the best ways to, internship's a great way to do it.

I'm sure there's other ways around it. But that would be my number one, recommendation. Awesome. Hopefully that makes sense. Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. Cool, cool. Man, I want to give you a chance. I know you got a lot of things to shout out here. Where can, where all people can find you and your shows and your work and everything?

Man, just start rattling 'em off. If people are interested in seeing Buck Ventures or the show stuff on YouTube, Instagram, just start rattling them all off. Yeah. Yeah, I got a lot of 'em. So you can follow me if you want. Personally, I just, I I just try to poke some cool stuff every now and then on Instagram.

It's just at underscore colek underscore, I think that's Instagram and all that. Yeah, so Buck Ventures we've been on Sportsman channel for. 19 years. This is actually our 20th year anniversary this year. And we are moving to outdoor channel. So we're pretty pumped about that. So we're on outdoor [00:38:00] channel.

Our anchor time, which is, we're on it now. I think it's currently like Thursdays at six or 7:00 PM in the afternoon or in the evening starting here. On June 29th, that's when our new season airs. We'll be on outdoor channel at seven 30 Eastern. And there's a handful of other airings, but that's our main airing, seven 30 Eastern on outdoor channel.

We've got another show called the Woodsman, which is our Buck Ventures Pro staff. It's made up of 300 people all across the country filming for a show called The Woodsman. It's gonna start airing that same time. I think it's June 28th at eight o'clock eastern sportsman channel. Now Buck Ventures has YouTube.

We've got TikTok social, Instagram is just that bug venture. Same on Facebook and Twitter. Yeah, we just try to. Post some good content. We one of our, or Jeff's big things is to, help educate people. So we try to help educate people as best we can. And yeah, I don't know.

We got a [00:39:00] podcast. I'm gonna just gonna plug our own podcast on this podcast. We just started it, oh, not too long ago. It's called Between the Brows. It's pretty much. Deer hunting related there, there's times we just get onto something random, but kinda what we're up to, tips and tricks.

We've actually coming up, we've got some really good Good guest coming on. So between the brows, it's on Spotify, apple we actually do a video podcast on our YouTube channel, so yeah, I know there's a lot there. So we're all over. We stay busy which in today's world you gotta stay relevant in the sense.

So we, we try to have as much as we can and hopefully people enjoy it. Awesome, man. I really appreciate you coming on. Yeah. Anytime we can get some big buck stories and some good info about the industry all in one episode, I call that a win. So Good hear. Yeah. Sweet man. I will let you go.

Like I said, I really appreciate this and until next time, we will talk to you later. All right, thanks man. Thanks for having me on. Yep. And there we have it. Great [00:40:00] conversation with Mr. Cole Can and of Buck Ventures. Huge shout out to him for coming on the show. Man, lots of good stuff there, especially for you young folks of who may dream of one day being on the big screen, being on television, chasing that dream.

Really good stuff. So thank you Cole, for coming on. Thank all you guys for listening. Again, I just, I could not do this without all of you, so lots of good content coming throughout the summer. We got a lot of good shows ahead of us. And I think this is the first time I'm gonna say this, but man hunting season will be here.

Before you know it. Really we're just a couple months away. Turkey season's over. We got a little time to do some fishing here over the summer. And September October's gonna be here before you know it. So get to shooting your bow, shoot your rifle, shoot your muzzle loader, whatever you plan on chasing stuff with, get out there, practice with it.

Hone your skills. And that is going to do it for this week. So until next time, I will see you guys right back here on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast.[00:41:00]

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