Deer Season Special: Clint Campbell

On this week's episode of the Pennsylvania Woodsman Mitch is joined by fellow podcaster Clint Campbell.  Clint is a Pennsylvania native and diehard bowhunter who is no stranger to the challenges of hunting high pressure states.  Clint discusses some encounters over the past few years and the learning experiences that resulted.  We also touch on how stepping away from bowhunting whitetails throughout the year and having a healthy outlet can actually aid with your focus each fall.  We close the episode discussing some of the guests with the biggest influence on Clint's bowhunting through his years as a podcast host. 

Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

Mitchell Shirk: [00:00:00] You're listening to the Pennsylvania Woodsman Podcast Deer Season Special. These bonus episodes revolve around deer hunting stories and experiences from a host of deer hunters. These whitetail hunting BS sessions will be launched every week during the 2023 hunting season, adding fuel to your fire in the deer woods.

Be entertained and hopefully learn something along the way. The title sponsor of the Deer Season Special Series is Vantage Point Archery, home to the toughest machined one piece broadheads made in the USA. VPA products are built to last, which is why they have a lifetime warranty. And if you're not completely satisfied, you can send it back, which I highly doubt will occur.

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The Pennsylvania [00:01:00] Woodsman is also brought to you by Radox hunting home of the Emcor cell camera. Stick and pick camera accessories, and much more also brought to you by Vitalize Seed. A one two planning system designed with diversity and biology in mind, making it the best food plot available. And lastly, by Huntworth Gear, quality hunting clothing at an affordable cost.

Makers of heat boost technology. This week's guest is Pennsylvania native and podcast host Clint Campbell from the Truth from the Stand Deer Hunting Podcast. After a couple of technical difficulties. Clint and I had a smooth sailing conversation, discussing all things around hunting philosophy in Pennsylvania.

We talk about the challenges he's overcome over the years, hunting in a state with high pressure. We talk about the lessons learned of many bucks recently. that he unfortunately did not kill, but taught him lessons in order to proceed for the future. And they seem to have paid dividends as Clint has already filled his tag out for Pennsylvania this year on a great buck.[00:02:00]

We talk about hunting Kansas, and we talk about a couple other philosophical questions, such as, who are the people that have had the biggest impact in your hunting? From the podcasting standpoint, great conversation with a great guy. Who's well thought out and well spoken. Hope you enjoy this episode.

Joining me today on the Pennsylvania woodsman podcast. I've got a fellow podcast hosts troops from the stand. Mr. Clint Campbell. How you

Clint Campbell: doing Clint? Good, man. What's going on? Appreciate you having me on buddy. What's going

Mitchell Shirk: on? I've been jam packing. All of my season preparations into like weekends, like I've been, I feel like I'm cursing and I'm beating a dead horse because I've said it so many times, but between house projects and family and stuff, like just pushed it off, push it off.

And I feel like I'm studying for an exam for college. I wait till the last minute and I'm just going to cram it all in and right at the last second before go

Clint Campbell: time here. I'm I can commiserate with you there. And what I've finally done is I've just thrown in the towel as far as like on preparation and [00:03:00] just realize I'm as prepared as I'm going to be.

And we're just going to have to let her rip this season. And that's just going to be what it is because I've had it's been I guess it started probably like in March, like just had a bunch of family stuff that came up, like in the spring, whenever I like to do all my scouting and stuff like that, late winter, early spring And then had some shit weather that just didn't cooperate with me on the weekends that I had free time to get out and stuff like that.

And then we got into the summer and vacations and stuff like that. I've got all my cameras out and I scouted, the, I'll say what, I will call the minimal viable product of scouting, like the baseline of what I would want to do in a season. That's all I got done this year, which was basically just making it back to a lot of places I've either hunted in the past.

Maybe I didn't hunt last year, but I've hunted. In the past several years and just pulled cameras from those general areas, scouted those general areas to see where the sign was laid down, what sign was in the area, look for some sheds in those areas. And that was about it. And then got my cameras back out, and that was and that was essentially it.

So I feel like I'm behind like this whole year. And then I just finally, at one point got [00:04:00] good with it and was like, you know what? It is what it is means we're just probably gonna have to have a little bit more boots on the ground and just be more precise about things whenever the, when the season actually gets here, so that's my plan now.

Yeah, I,

Mitchell Shirk: when I was when I was thinking back to my seasons, I went on a, I went on a, like a four year streak where I shot a pretty good buck every season and then 21 2021. I didn't kill a buck. I should have killed the buck I messed up on, but like I was thinking about that. Like I just put, I just couldn't get over how much pressure I put on myself to try to fill a tag.

And then going into the following season, I kept that pressure on me so hard. And when I finally killed the deer, there was at some point, I was like, It's really not as big of a deal as I make it out to be. And I don't know what, what comes to me and putting that pressure. But speaking of pressure, filling a tag, I put the same pressure on me to get prepared to try to fill a tag.

And it's a hard balance. How have you dealt with that over the years?

Clint Campbell: Man, it used [00:05:00] to eat me up to be honest with you. And then, it made it a little easier when, I realized that no one gives a shit but me, right? Essentially, right? And or maybe one or two buddies are going to ever are going to remember.

And, even though I run a podcast, a hunting podcast and stuff like that, it's I'm still a working guy, like So it's not like I do that for a living and that's all I do, and so I still have to work around a work schedule and I have some flexibility, which I'm fortunate with that, but still doesn't mean I get out all the time when there's a good weather day or whatever, like a Wednesday whenever there's a 15 degree temperature drop and I got a north wind and I want to go hunting.

It's if I have stuff to do at work, it's like I just can't get out. It is what it is. And I travel every year somewhere, and so for me to try to. To get something done, just at least in Pennsylvania specifically, I really got like four weeks to get it done. And if you think about it in terms of I don't usually take, but maybe one or two like personal days during the year, I'm relegated to weekend.

And so we came on Sunday. So I got those four Saturdays plus I'll [00:06:00] take two days off. And so you're talking about six days and maybe I'll sneak in a morning or, one or two mornings or one or two evenings throughout the course of the year of October, if I get in before work and just hunt a morning, or I'll get out a little bit early from work and hunt an evening.

All

Mitchell Shirk: right. Picking up back where we left off here. We had some connection issues. We were talking about the transition with with. Balancing work schedule and stuff. It's stressful. I go through it every single year. I put too much stress on myself. And you said it perfectly in the beginning.

Nobody cares other than me. I could have a wall full of boners and at the end of the day, nobody's going to care other

Clint Campbell: than me. What I was saying was I really. I don't want to say pressure, but like I probably focus more on the out of state hunts more than anything. That's probably where I feel the most that tag costs money and, if I'm going to Kansas or Iowa or wherever, it's, it was a long drive from Eastern PA, and so that's probably where I get I won't say frustrated, but where, I don't even want to say pressure cause it's not the right word, but like [00:07:00] I feel the.

This overwhelming drive to uncover every stone, and there's also an element of excitement because I'm not familiar with those areas. And so I always just, I always joke with my buddy, Tony Peterson, I'm a much better out of state hunter than I am an in state hunter. And I think part of that is, is because.

I go in with a lot less information and I'm just hunting on the fly, reading sign and I'm also focused on it because I'm hunting every day, like I'm there to hunt because as much as I try to, compartmentalize things when you're home and stuff like that, like there's still like this part.

Part of me whenever I'm out on the hunt, it's man, you should be hanging out with the kiddo, or the wife tonight, or whatever the case is, or there's, chores that you should be doing instead of being out in the woods, or whatever the case is, and it's hard for me to separate those things, but whenever I get to travel and hunt.

And I'm able to be focused. It's I'm just a different, almost like a different hunter on those trips. But regardless we'll make do and try to figure out how to make things happen locally. I probably just need to, that might be a blessing in disguise as you're writing.

Get the scout as much. It's I know a little less than I usually [00:08:00] do, and maybe maybe stupidity is my is my is my superpower.

Mitchell Shirk: Are you like me in a sense, and you suffer from paralysis by analysis in a sense with the information you collect via scouting and cameras?

Clint Campbell: I wouldn't say paralysis by analysis, cause I've, used to for sure.

I think that I still overthink some areas as opposed to just follow my gut. You know what I mean? And it's like I can make a decision. I usually make a decision pretty quickly. But I usually probably take the wrong intel if that makes sense. , maybe I look for deeper meaning in something that really isn't there where whenever I'm on a travel hunt somewhere and I see deer do one, do something twice, I'm like they're gonna do that.

And then I just execute on what I just saw. As opposed to, some of the areas that I hunt in PA, it's I'm like I've hunted it often enough, or I've scouted it often enough to where I've seen them do this, I've seen them do this on, on these different winds or these different weather patterns or whatever the case is.

And I try to like to finally thread the needle, so to speak, right? And then end up in a position where it's the past two [00:09:00] years are a great example an area that I was hunting and two years in a row, I saw my target buck. In the middle of October and in both years, I never got an arrow off.

And in both years, last year, the deer was within 40 yards and he bedded down in front of me at 40 yards and I just watched him for two hours and then watched him walk away. And then the year in the year before I had my target deer at 18 yards. But he slipped in on me in a direction I really didn't think he would, that he would come from.

And by the time I realized that he was there, he was too, there wasn't enough breakup between he and I for me to get drawn. And if I didn't want to spook him, I had to just sit and watch him. And then, but like he never showed up again. Like I never got him on camera. I never had a visual of him.

Like it was that one shot, like one opportunity and then never again type of deal. Yeah. But even in a situation

Mitchell Shirk: like that, Clint, sorry to cut you off, but even a situation like that, it's still almost like a win because you were in twice and you saw a target deer both time and that's big.

Clint Campbell: Yeah. And it was actually the same [00:10:00] day, same exact date, both years, and, back to back years. It's just like a little spot that I've had figured out. In terms of like dates and like primary scrape dates and stuff like that. But yeah, it's I certainly count it as a win.

Cause I, I won the chess match to a degree, and it's all public lands, and it's where I live, it's heavily pressured, just cause I live in and around a larger metro area. Any air, anywhere you hunt in this area, it's just going to, there's going to be people, all there is to it.

And so even seeing a mature animal and both of those deer were four year olds. And so even seeing a mature animal getting that, getting, beating them at their own game, not getting an arrow off is still somewhat a feather in your cap, but it's just, it was frustrating both occasions because I played all my cards right.

And this year was doubly frustrating because in the back of my mind, and this is where it goes in to what we were talking about where. There's another tree. I thought I should have got into, but I was like, nah, I was like, man, they'll pass through here because, they're going to want to make their way to the scrape or whatever.

I've seen so many deer do that. And on camera or whatever. And and [00:11:00] so I didn't listen to my own my gut was telling me to move. 20 yards of this other tree. And had I moved 20 yards of the tree, like I would have shot that deer in the bed that he laid down it, it's just one of those things where, my gut was telling me to move. But academically, everything that had seen, and stuff had told me that I was in the right spot. But. The gut one out on that one. I've

Mitchell Shirk: been there before. You talked about out of state hunting and the focus you have, cause you, you go with less information and you pounce.

I'm, I have a new property this year here in Pennsylvania. This is the second year I'm hunting it. And last year I didn't really even do anything with it until two weeks before the season I got permission. I did a quick speed tour and, hunted it like twice and learned quickly that it was, it's a good property, but I spent some time here recently running a, I've been running a little bit more cameras and looking at it on boots on the ground and looking at it.

I keep overthinking everything because it's, I have a [00:12:00] spot picked out where it's this is where I need to be. I see it pinched down the way I want it. I, we've got plenty of daylight pictures of it. It just seems in a sense, it's too good to be true. And I keep second guessing myself. Is this truly the spot that I, is this truly the tree I need to pick or am I getting too aggressive?

And I think my problem is I always think of the season from a season long perspective beginning October one, all the way through late archery, I'll hunt any day to try to fill my buck tag. And I always do that second guessing of I don't want to go too early. Cause if I bust it out, I might ruin this.

Particular property or section for quite a long time. Whereas like a week long hunt It's boom or bust kind of deal. I think that's where I get hung up I don't know why I struggle having that confidence to just go with my gut. You know what I mean?

Clint Campbell: Yeah, and then you hit the nail on the head because what you were talking about that's what i've Decided this year and you know again Maybe it's a blessing that I didn't get to do all the scouting that I usually like to do and have a little less information [00:13:00] Because, I play that game like you were just saying, where it's I'll have like my prime spots that I know are historically going to be good at some point.

And one of them I won't go into until the middle of October. It's just it's been too good for too many years in a row in a general area around the same dates to where it's it just. Unless I know for sure that there's a deer that's killable in there before that I'm just not going to go in there.

And there's a deer, what was it, three years ago, I think and he was a good deer. He was probably, he was a really good deer for Pennsylvania standard. He was probably close to 150 inches, and he was just really weird. He had, his rack had he almost had a, he almost had a double, he was, had a double G3 and a double G2 on both sides.

Like not a split, but like double, like two antler, two G2s coming off the main beam side by side and two G3s coming off the main beam side by side, right? And just a really cool, weird looking, funky deer. And I [00:14:00] knew where he was, in general. Like I had some early season pictures of him and there was a good acorn crop that year in this particular area.

And I went in and I checked the camera like right before the season started. Because my season starts September 16th, like Special Regulations Unit. Yep. So I do get two extra weeks or whatever. And usually in the past, like I had a, if I have a good deer early season around here because I get those extra two weeks, it's I usually will get aggressive.

That's usually what I'll try to do. Just because... Shifting and being gone anyway, like another week, after the season opens is pretty good, pretty high. If he's still in an area from summer and I can get a crack at him. If I blow him out of there, chances are he was leaving in like another week anyway, just like to shift like for the fall or whatever.

And so that's usually what I try to do, but it's not often I have a good year, like that time of year that like doesn't shift and is already out of and I'm re refinding like what good bucks are going to be in the area now for the fall or whatever. It's usually what that part of the year ends up being.

But [00:15:00] this particular year I had that really good deer and he was consistent all, all summer for the most part. And I went in and checked the camera right before the season opened. I want to say it opened that year on just say the 15th or 16th. I don't remember exactly. And I went in and checked and it say it was like the 12th or something like that, that, that I checked cameras and stuff like that and he he had been daylight active three days in a row with 15 minutes of daylight left, or I'm sorry, like just 15 minutes into daylight, essentially, or shooting light three days, three consecutive days in a row. And so in my mind, I was like, man, I should be in there like the first day.

In the morning, which is sacrilegious, right? And, some people would say, for early season to hunt a morning, but I'm like, man, he's going to be in here. He's can't be bedded far from here. And I had an idea where he was bedded and, but I was like, you know what? I'm going to let it cool off.

I'm going to wait and see if I can't, pick him up like a slightly different area because the [00:16:00] access in that area is tough. And so I basically tried to nip at him from around the edges of where I knew he was bedded. And, What ended up happening was like, I never saw him on those edges when I ended up checking that camera again, had I gone in there within the, I think it was the second day of the season.

He daylighted again, like in the morning, like same time whatever it was like, 15 minutes after daylight. And I should have been there in there and killed him, that day. And then I ended up playing cat and mouse with that deer basically the rest of the season. And it was a dollar short every time I would show up to a spot, I would hunt him and then, the camera that was in like a draw that was 100 yards away.

Had him coming through there. Looked like he was coming from where I was set up type of thing. And it happened three different times. And I kicked myself after the season because. I went in like post-season scouting and I found some of his rubs and stuff like that, that were in [00:17:00] an area, and they weren't necessarily like rutt rubs necessarily.

Like they weren't they weren't a it wasn't like a, it wasn't like a rub line or anything like that, and it wasn't on a scrape line, so it wasn't like he was just traveling, making rubs. It was like probably him peeling velvet. It was my guess, because , because it was just a random, a rando kind of one-off.

But he had a very distinct antler characteristic, and I could tell it was his just by the way the, by the way the rub was, what his antlers would do to a tree. And I ended up kicking myself because that deer was super killable right at the beginning of the season, but I was afraid that I was gonna blow him out and didn't go for broke on him, and ended up spending an entire season after he started really moving.

And checking scrapes and stuff like that, because my plan was like if I'm getting early seasons there's a handful of these primary scrapes in the area that I know of, that I know are active, that are good, and that year there was, there were acorn drop around all these primary scrapes, and so I was like, man, food, primary scrape I'll catch up to him I don't need to kill him right away, I'll play it cool, not bump him, and then when he starts to get a little bit more active and [00:18:00] drops his guard that's, that'll be my chance.

And, we just missed each other. We're like ships passing in the night, pretty much on every sit. And the reality was my best opportunity to kill that deer was early season, whenever I knew exactly where he was feeded. And I've now figured out where he's bedding because I actually had moved cameras back toward that area.

And actually just for this year, actually, and just pulled him this past week and have a couple of really good bucks in that general area. And they're all in there as they're going back, as they're going back to bed, it's this little drainage and it funnels into this really I think it used to be clear cut years ago, and there's a piece of private that borders this piece of public, and that private had been cut years ago, and it's all grown up now, so I believe that they're bedding in there in at least direction where they're coming from, that's the route of travel, and the timing makes sense, and that private line is probably only maybe A hundred yards from like where I have my, where I have my camera.

And so I feel pretty confident they're betting in that general area. And I feel pretty confident in [00:19:00] hindsight that's where that deer was spending time. Yeah. And you

Mitchell Shirk: talked about the whole cat and mouse deer. Is this a deer that you think is still alive that you're going to be hunting this

Clint Campbell: fall?

No, man. The bummer is so I would have been hunting him again last year if he were still alive, but I never saw him again. I looked all, I did search for his sheds, never found a shed. The bummer was too, he was the kind of deer that if someone killed him, you would have heard about it, and so I don't know if he got hit by a car or, who knows, maybe he got poached or whatever, but I've never seen hide nor tell of him again

Mitchell Shirk: after that.

I do wonder sometimes, because I've felt that too, with a lot of deer I've followed over the years, like you, you would have heard about that deer getting shot, but I do think there are a lot of private landowners too, that would shoot a deer and. Probably not want to tell a soul on it, just because if it is of a caliber that way, they might keep it hush.

But I would think the same thing. The one thing I was going to ask you, and you were talking about cat and mouse I noticed at this place I was telling you about, briefly a little bit ago there were, Certain days that, I had explosions of [00:20:00] pictures and it's unique that the timing of my pictures range anywhere from first light through the middle of the day.

And this is not just in the summertime this was all year last year, all through the season, I got a lot of 11 o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock pictures. And I w I was trying to. Put the, put two and two together, I was thinking I've got a really good thermal advantage because it's a north facing slope and even though it's just a steep side hill, I can probably have the thermal advantage too, but when they're in the middle of the day, are they going to get a better thermal advantage when they're walking through there?

Is that why they're doing that? But the thing I thought was interesting, I started going back, I was using weather underground and I started going back and looking at what the wind direction was doing The day that they went through on those pictures and what was really unique is every single day they did it it was a forecasted opposite wind direction of what you know I would need for the wind in my face kind of deal, which is no big surprise But it was also very it was in the transition.

It was it [00:21:00] was not like a constant wind direction It was moving around a lot So my question to you was going to be like whether it was the cat and mouse deer or just in general Do you ever notice trends like that where you see? Deer using a certain bed or a certain access route or something like that.

That's has a lot to do with the wind direction in it.

Clint Campbell: Yeah. I guess that, that deer specifically that I was just talking about. The challenge about where he was at was that it was hard to hunt in the morning because there's a drainage there and it's darker timber and he was always going to have the thermal advantage in that spot because the thermals are always going to be dropping down toward where he was bedded or down toward where he was walking to bed and you couldn't come in from the bottom side, but.

Dependent on it's still challenged because you're still above him. So you could really only effectively, ideally [00:22:00] hunt that in the evening, just based on how the thermals are going to work in there. And that's why I feel like he was in there. Cause he was bulletproof. From a, from an access standpoint the deer that I had last year definitely was using.

Definitely use the wind to his advantage. They're always using the wind to their advantage. But what he did that was different and that what I really learned because I'd heard of this and I learned of it from John Eberhardt and years ago and talking to him and I had seen this somewhat play out just from a topography standpoint and a piece of public that I was scouting and hunting for a while in Ohio.

And, but I'd never seen it actually happen with the deer actually doing what I understood in theory and what that was. I'll explain the piece in Ohio first and then talk about the encounter from last year. And this piece that I was scouting in Ohio was like big woods and, like you would think for southern Ohio, it's a lot of spine back, so a lot of steep [00:23:00] facing ridges, steep ridges and stuff.

And I don't remember if it was on I think it would have been on the north side of this ridge, if memory serves. But there was a log yard kind of at the top, and there was always this big ass scrape that was in this log yard, and we'd run a camera on that scrape, every year pretty much, and we would get a Boone and Crockett deer on it, if not two, it was just like, it was always at night. Usually, right? But you would always have a handful of big deer hit that scrape. And so we were scouting all of, and a buddy of mine had a really good encounter with a giant, maybe 200, maybe it was 300 yards from that scrape down alongside this ridge.

Like on this bottom, essentially there's two benches at the, before you get to the bottom. Essentially it was like a thermal hub area set up. And so we went back in the next year after he had this encounter with this giant to try to figure out like find a shed and try to figure out like if there were any other puzzle pieces.

And so we scouted the whole thing and we didn't find anything that was of interest or that really told us anything more. We found one bed that was far away, but it was probably not one that he was necessarily using. It was a classic [00:24:00] military crest bed. And as we're making our way back to go to the truck, we just cut up over the side of the ridge and we're just going to cut up sharp over the ridge to get to like where that the rendezvous point where we were meeting some of our buddies was just in that log yard where that big scrape was.

And so as we're coming up over, we're side hill and all of a sudden out of nowhere, I just see this like giant bed and I'm like, holy shit, there's a bed here. And it was like pretty classic, like three quarters of the way up the side of the ridge, where you would, if you don't follow the hunting beasts exactly where, Dan would suggest that you would look for a thermal tunnel and that's where a bed should be somewhere in there.

But it wasn't like a military crest or anything like that. It was just an odd spot for a bed to be because it wasn't in like a ton of cover, and we had found rut beds before, but they were usually along like the spine backs. Where those were going to be running those ridge tops and the bucks really never ran those ridge tops.

They would cross over him a lot and point hop, but there would be beds occasionally because bucks are going to lay there and try to intercept those. So we see this bed and I'm like, looking at it and I'm like, man he's probably facing this way and he's got a lot of visual advantage, but man, he's [00:25:00] still out in the open here a little bit.

He's tucked back under this little. Not an outcropping of like rocks or anything, right? But just like where the where there's a little bit of a bank like on this like little bench That he's like up against and like I started looking at my map I'm, like on my phone looking i'm like shit I'm, like that scrape is like directly above us since i've looked to see how far it's like shit It's only 60 yards from here.

Wow, right? And so I started thinking about it I was like man that buck is bedded a buck is bedding here. I don't who knows how often during Pre rut, whatever the case is to basically scent check does from here anything that hits that scraper walks by he'll know it You know and that was something I talked to John Eberhard about because he was like oftentimes those more mature deer Will especially during that time of year as opposed to running themselves ragged like you see the two and three year olds Run crazy and chase does all over the place He's but those older deer a lot of times will find a really prime Scrape location outside [00:26:00] of like a doe bedding area and they will just lay down And they'll wait, let them come to you, not chase them necessarily, right?

Because I can lay here all day and scent check every doe that comes by without having to run after them, right? And made a lot of sense. I never really seen it in practice, but in theory, it made sense. And fast forward to last year, I'm in this spot, awesome primary scrape area, adjacent to doe bedding, thick cover.

And I saw a doe walking, or I'm sorry, a buck walking in the morning, and some brush was maybe like 40 yards away from me. And then he took off like a bat out of hell and I was like, that's weird. Wasn't a, I knew which deer it was because I had him on camera and it wasn't, he wasn't on the list, if you will, to get shot.

But I was like, that's weird. He took off like, like he was spooked, but like the wind was good. Like I, he didn't win me. Certainly didn't see me. I was like, it just seemed weird that he took off. Then I saw like the deer I wanted to kill walk in and he basically walked into that same spot and laid down and I watched him for two hours.

And as I'm sitting there watching him, I'm trying to figure out like, what the hell [00:27:00] is he doing? It's like a really weird spot. Like for him to just bed down. Like I've been all over this place and I've never really. Seen beds in here, right? And so as I started thinking about it, what I realized was, is I was like paying attention to the wind and I realized he was laying there because he was sent checking that scrape with ever out, ever having to come out of a cover to set, to check it.

He just laid there and was able to set, check that thing for two hours without ever moving and then eventually just got up and walked away. And so that was one of the things like, because the way he came in with almost like a it really would have been a crosswind, but would have been coming from his

like from his ass to his head, essentially, but a crosswind, you know. And so he wasn't really so much worried about the wind for where he was going. He was, he may have been working the wind on the way in potentially, but to make the entrance into where he wanted to get to, he had to give it up.

But he was giving it up because he wanted to be able to smell that scrape. He wanted to be able to scent check that scrape. I guess that's a [00:28:00] long winded way of answering your question. It's I've seen them use it, in different ways. Especially like whenever you're, out in Kansas or something like that.

You'll see them tailwind sometimes because they have such good visual advantage out there and things like that. I think sometimes it depends on the terrain, topography, and just like how good are they able to... How good is their awareness with their vision, based on where they're walking into and are they leaving a place of comfort or going into a place of comfort?

It's I've also seen that if you're hunting, like the bedding area where a deer will give up the wind because he's. 60 yards away from a general area where he's going to bed in this place is historically safe to him. It's like his, it's like walking into your house, so I've seen that and definitely leaving beds where it's they really don't give a shit what the wind is doing when they're leaving a bed.

They usually have an exit trail from wherever they're betting to like whatever their destination is from that. And they're usually on a beeline there. And then once they get out and they're out of their kind of core comfort zone, like then I think that's when you start to see them more I don't want to say pay attention because I think they're always paying [00:29:00] attention to it, but I think that's when they more actively are using the wind to keep themselves safe.

Mitchell Shirk: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because there are definitely times where I've watched deer, whether I've hunted them or I've had them on camera and paid attention to, or tried to pay attention to some of the details. It's unique that you'll see certain trends, certain things, whether it's things that people have talked about on podcasts or whatever.

And then there's other times there's some deer, it's I can never figure out what the hell you're doing with the running around and the stuff. Sometimes it just doesn't make any sense, but there's so many variables and. To me, I think a lot of the time, deer are deer, and I know deer are going to do things because they've evolved to use their nose and their senses to try to keep them safe.

But I think it just gets heightened where you're hunting and the type of terrain. I truly believe those are major impacts. It's like when you compare, I know you've talked about hunting hunting Kansas quite a bit, this is me from the outside looking in because I've never hunted Kansas.

Are you almost comparing apples to oranges when you're [00:30:00] talking about the deer herds and the way they behave between those regions of the country? Or is there still a lot of similarities? It's just different terrain.

Clint Campbell: There's still a lot of similarities. I think, you can always use deer are going to be deer, no matter where.

No matter where they're at they just have a different toolbox, a different toolkit than what deer in Pennsylvania have, deer in Pennsylvania have a different toolkit than those deer have, I would equate it to like having two, two high level jujitsu practitioners, for example, right?

It's you can both be black belts and have completely different games. But be equally as good, right? And so that's how I think about it. It's it's not that they're different necessarily. They just have a different game that they're going to use. And out there, it's you have to be way more...

Vigilant about your visual than you do around here. You can hide, unfortunately where I live, there's a lot of flat, so there's not a lot of topography necessarily to hide behind and use to like access and stuff like that. But there's, if you don't [00:31:00] have that, then you're using, foliage, using terrain to help break, break up your visual and put a sneak on to try to get out into, in close to an area or whatever the case is, but out there it's man.

You got to be diligent about your visual because they will pick you off from a lot further away than you think, like deer don't see super, super well, right? But they're not moose. They're not blind. You know what I mean? And it becomes more of less about you seeing you from far away and more about you changing the.

The light that they're seeing. So if you think about if you're standing in front of a set of shades, and if there's someone walking behind the shade and it's walking directly toward the window that you're looking toward there's no change in perception of the light because that light stays constant because there's just an object walking toward it.

I'll use that as an example. But if someone walks across it, you clearly see the flicker in the light. And so it's stuff like that you really need to be mindful of, like, whenever you're on the ground and [00:32:00] you're trying to get in close to deer that are in plain states or that are in more open country, because they're looking for that slight little shimmy or detection of light change, signifies to them that something just moved.

Something's happened. Where on the east here, you might have wind blown trees light changing because leaves are blown and stuff like that. And trees are going back and forth. And, so there's a lot of reasons why that might change here. I still think they're perceptive to it even around here, but in my kind of experience, maybe not quite as much.

But out there it's just a much more visual game and they're still using terrain out there. Just like a deer here, like once you use edge, they want to use. A knob or something like that to go around or, a saddle to go through or pinch points or whatever. It's the same out there that they just look different, and they've just may not be as abrupt, or just may not be as obvious, the biggest change for me and going out there was really, learning how to better two, two things.

One was just like spending way more time on the glass and glassy,[00:33:00] more so than hunting. And then two was. Realizing how to hunt drainages a little more effectively. Because that's your biggest topography change for the most part out there. Like when you get into good drainages, there's rolling undulating terrain and a three foot drop out there and terrain, like a deer would disappear in that.

Like it'll be in front of you one minute and then boom, this appear and then you'll see it 500 yards later. And there was just like a three foot change or a two foot change in like the terrain that they were walking on and they disappeared. But those drainages. I struggle with it first until I realized they're really just upside down ridges like it's almost for example, you have a main drainage and you have like usually small drainages that shoot off of those and if you're hunting a ridge system, right?

Usually like that main Ridge, maybe you get like a buck and, that's going to use that main Ridge, mostly probably going to be does using that main Ridge. But where those bucks are usually at are on those secondary points off of those, primary ridges, right? so like for [00:34:00] example, you might have a north south running Ridge, right and maybe you've got you know a Ridge or two that kind of points that kind of come off it on the west side It's those westerly points are probably gonna be pretty good Opportunities for deer to bet on right bucks don't want to spend time on secluded You know away from other deer, same thing with drainages.

They're just upside down. They're just, and so when you look at them, those secondary kind of like drainages that come into the main drainage or just like secondary ridges off the main Ridge. And so once I understood that, then I better understood how to approach those and how to hunt those.

And things like that. And so the deer use those the same way they use ridges only they're down below you as opposed to above you. That

Mitchell Shirk: makes sense. I'm going to put you on the spot completely here on this one. So you talked about Kansas and stuff, and it's unique when I talk with people that are from the Northeast and from Pennsylvania, a lot of the time, they like hunting anything, if they had a season for shadows deal, they'd go hunting for shadows, but it's definitely unique when you're hunting Pennsylvania and there's.

[00:35:00] There's something different about it. And I'm curious, like from your perspective is hunting Pennsylvania, something that like is very near and dear to you or you have of the type where it's I enjoy hunting Pennsylvania, but I go West young man has a ring to it when it comes to whitetail hunting.

Clint Campbell: Yeah. Definitely. It's certainly near and dear to me because this is where I grew up. Know what I mean? That's, I grew up hunting western pa or central pa, south central pa I guess. And so it's always a little bit more comforting because I know how to hunt, hills if you will.

. And and I have a big woods piece. I've been scouting the past two years that I'm just super stoked on to hunt this year as much as I can. Because I've just found a crop of deer that is I just found an area that has caliber of deer that people from pretty much any state would want to shoot put it that way.

And it's not like I found like one or two of them. It's there's, there's targets, now flip side of it is it's really hard to hunt, so from that perspective, like Pennsylvania is near and dear because I just, it's where I'm [00:36:00] from, but my preference for hunting is.

And I'll say it this way, I'll just put it this way, it's Kansas. And not because the deer are like bigger or whatever, I just really the visual element of glassing and then trying to sneak by. Put a sneak on a deer and try to kill it. And I like the idea of hunting from the ground. I love the mobility aspect of it to where it's I can be moving and on the move.

And if I mess up this piece over here and I mess up this hunt, I'm just going to get back in my truck and I'm going to glass. And I'm going to try to find another deer. And when I find that deer, I'm going to try to sneak up on it. I'm trying to kill it. And so it's the movement. In the adventure and everything is different every day because you're really just looking for an opportunity a lot of times and people will say yeah, like who wouldn't hunt kansas, right?

It's like they got great deer and this that the other and you know versus pennsylvania and I would say There's some spots in pa where you can find where i've seen Deer bigger than the deer I've seen in Kansas. You know what I mean? That's right. And that's true. But what I would say is that if you took the deer in [00:37:00] Pennsylvania and put 'em in Kansas, and you took the deer from Kansas and put 'em in Pennsylvania, as far as like age, class, and caliber, I would still hunt Kansas because I just like that approach to hunting.

I like the mobile and on the ground glassing. And just trying to get in close with them, and beat them at their own game on the ground. That's just, what I've grown to really enjoy when it comes

Mitchell Shirk: to glassing. So that's a tactic that I'm extremely weak on. I use my binoculars.

I feel naked if I go in the woods without them, but as far as truly glassing for looking for deer in any way, shape, and form and the hunting I do in bow hunting, mostly Not something I really, I do well or often. And I'm curious with you utilizing and learning how to use that tactic in Kansas, is that something that.

You translated back to Pennsylvania and use more or is it it went in Rome so to speak.

Clint Campbell: No, I definitely use it more [00:38:00] now. And I don't know if it's just out of habit, that I just grown accustomed to using my glass more often just from, hunting, whether it's Idaho elk or Montana elk or mule deer or, Kansas whitetails or whatever, just being in places where a glass is.

Maybe more important than maybe the only the second most important piece of equipment you have other than your bow, if you're in those places and you're not using glass, like you're really, you're actually not hunting is what I would say. And so I think, I don't know if it's just out of habit because I've done that often enough now that just like it's become like a natural instinct to use, but I certainly use it now more in PA.

And I would say I probably use it. There's not a lot of great spots. I have the glass necessarily. I will go out and glass a little bit in the summer. There's not really much ag around the public that I hunt and whenever it's, if the ag is close, like a bean field, it still might be two miles or so from where I'm actually from, like the border of a piece of public that I could hunt, but I might go glass that just to see what deer might be in the area that could transition onto that piece of public, when the fall hits[00:39:00] but as far as like in actual hunts. I use it a lot more now when I'm accessing and when I'm approaching, especially if I'm going in for an evening hunt or something like that.

And I have obviously some like light and some visibility. It's I'm walking however far and then stopping and I'll pull up my glass and I'll just glass out in front of me to make sure there's not. Deer that I'm going to bump off or whatever the case is. So I use it a lot. I use it a lot for that.

And I definitely scan with glass like all the time whenever I'm in, when I'm in the tree, it's I'll be looking around and every, I don't know, I don't put like a timer to it, but probably I don't know, like every 15 minutes, maybe half hour or whatever at the max, I'll pick my glass up and just scan and pick apart like the thick areas that I can't really see real well.

But if I put glass on it, I can. Maybe start to pick stuff out and I'll spend time just gridding like it would outlast like grid in each section And I don't spend a ton of time doing it You know It might only take me like five minutes to get through the glassing that I want to do but it's every half hour or so I'll pick the glass up and [00:40:00] just pick things apart and see if I can catch like A leg or a chest or like an antler or whatever.

And that's actually how I found that, that buck, that was in there last year, whatever. I had that encounter. I saw that one deer leave that other buck came in and bedded down, but I didn't see him actually walk in. Like I ended up I thought I saw a branch and I was like, man, was that branch there before?

And I'd put my glass on it, and I was like, man, that's a really. That's, man, that branch looks like a, an antler. That's a, that one will fool you. You know what I mean? And then he picked his head up, he was laying in his bed and he picked his head up and he's oh, shit, that's a buck.

You know what I mean? So without glass, it's I would've never saw him there because he was 40 yards away, tucked behind this down tree. And there was a bunch of brush around him. There was a hole in that brush that was maybe, I don't know, two foot wide, maybe foot and a half wide, just enough to where you could see a little bit.

And if I wouldn't been using glass to pick stuff apart around there, it's like I probably would have just never known he was there. I

Mitchell Shirk: think it's a patience thing is one of the I'm [00:41:00] guilty of wanting to rush everything and that's probably just the way I am with everything in life. I think patience is a virtue that you constantly got to keep learning over and over again.

But like with anything we talked about approaching stands, I find myself so often like I'll glass, but don't take the time to slow down and really do the thorough job you need to. I get in such a mindset that I got to get to my stand. And you talked about scanning. I know some really good hunters who will just talk about that here in Pennsylvania.

They'll sit on stand and glass and talk about glassing a chop off and, looking in, in the same area for a half hour to an hour straight until you see like a a nose shake or an ear flicker, or maybe the glistening of a tine and you start breaking down what is actually in that briar bramble mess.

And I, it's a discipline. It's really hard to do. And I don't know why what it would take for me to overcome that and, perfect. I shouldn't say [00:42:00] perfect, but use that tool better because I think it's valuable.

Clint Campbell: Yeah I think it's one of those things that like, I don't know, I can just speak from my own experience, but it's I really didn't understand well how to use glass until I started going out west to hunt and you have to, and you live and you die by it, you know what I mean?

And so for me, coming back to PA, and hunting and using glass, it, I was able to take what I'd learned out there, how to break stuff apart, how to take, How to scan app appro appropriate appropriately to where it doesn't like fatigue your eyes and and you're covering enough ground, you're not going too fa too fast, but you're also not going too slow.

You know what I mean? Like I feel like a lot of times people will throw glass up and it's almost like just so they can feel like they threw the glass up and look, but they didn't really look, it just threw it up and it's oh yeah. . You know what I mean? Whereas opposed to Now just pay attention to what is in your, what's in your binos, and just and scan I always like to break a piece apart and get a marker and be like, all right, I'm going to look from here to that tree. And then I'll start and I'll [00:43:00] just go up and down. It was basically as far back as I can see, right up and down until I hit that tree.

I'm like, all right, cool. Here's the next section. Boom. And I do that one and I just make a little plan and make, almost make a little game out of it, where, and partly I do it too, whenever I'm, you It breaks up the monotony, too. You know what I mean? It's as opposed to just sitting there.

Staring into, off into nothing. I feel like I'm actually actively doing something.

Mitchell Shirk: I think where I really opened my eyes with how sucky I am with the glass was in 2019 when we went elk hunting. We were climbing up this ridge. We camped on a lake and we took the boat out across this lake and we're going up this ridge and about, a mile behind us across the lake back towards where camp was.

And we could hear elk bugling and, one of the guys in camp was actually hunting that bull. And as it's getting daylight we're glassing and, our guide throws the glass up and within 30 seconds he goes, Oh, there's a bull. And I started looking and he's explaining to me.

And I finally, at one point, I'm like, What the [00:44:00] hell are you talking? I just cannot see what you're saying. I mean it was eye opening to me how how weak I was in that but anywho

Clint Campbell: Yeah, I mean if it's not something you do often it is hard I mean for lack of a better way to put it like it's It took a minute to get, it took a minute to get used to and start to figure out like what you're looking for, and stuff like that.

But yeah, now it's, I really use it a lot too when I'm scouting even especially when all the foliage is down and stuff like that. And you're in the winter or early spring before green up and you're scouting. It's if I think I see a rub from 50, 60 yards away, it's boom, I just took a glass on it and it keeps me from having to walk 50, 60 yards out of the way that I didn't need to walk and continue to move the direction I was planning to move to get this things done.

I need to get done. And so I use it a ton, during the, during post season scouting for sure. Cool.

Mitchell Shirk: Hey, we're we're getting close to an hour here and I had a couple of just random questions I wanted to run by it. Let's out of nowhere, what are some of, with.

What are some of the [00:45:00] goals that you have what's one of your main archery hunting goals You would like to accomplish at this point in your life

Clint Campbell: Right now man. I'm hell bent on filling that Kansas tag That is if I do nothing else is it's like I want to do that it for no other reason than I want to Move on to a different state Because this will be the third year in a row that I've hunted Kansas and I should have filled up the first year And just didn't work out and then last year I had two chances to fill it and just could not I got caught drawn one time and then the second time I was I spent whatever it was like 15 minutes with the deer that I really wanted to kill that I saw on the on day two and we had a standoff for 15 minutes and I just could not get an arrow in him and I was at it was within 20 yards for 15 minutes and just didn't happen and so that's the big thing for me is I just want to kill I want to kill a deer on the ground in Kansas.

In the open country rattle them in, snort wheeze them in, decoy them in, like whatever it [00:46:00] is. But that's like the big, that's like the big thing I want to do. I think long term what I would love to do, like a bucket list thing for me would be to kill one in Kansas with a stick bow on the ground.

That's one of the things I would love to do.

Mitchell Shirk: So second random question, you talk, I know you're big into jujitsu, you've done that for a while. I really love that. And then there's a huge discipline that goes with something like that. And I'm curious in the time you've done that, have there been any lessons you've taken from jujitsu and have applied to the deer woods?

Clint Campbell: Oh man. Yeah. So many, I'm trying to think which one I'm trying to think which one would be most, or that has been, maybe. Most prominent for me I think the easy answer is like, it teaches you to like to endure like hard things and persevere and persist and push through.

I think that's the obvious because jiu jitsu is hard. But I think just the overall kind of jiu jitsu has probably helped [00:47:00] me more than anything like. You know whenever I was talking earlier about and you're not getting as much work done as I would like to get done you know in the off season this year just had a lot of obligations I just couldn't get out as much as I wanted to and so I didn't get a lot of scouting Didn't get as much scouting done as I would have liked to in years past It would have really probably would have really eaten me up, and I would have beat myself up over it You know to be quite honest and What it has really done is it's actually provided a really healthy distraction for me to kind of place hunting back in its appropriate place in terms of priority.

And it honestly has allowed me to find the same amount of joy in hunting that I used to find whenever I was like 12 years old. Because, there's that, that saying that distance makes the heart grow fonder to a degree. Jujitsu allows me to provide myself that distance from hunting.

That for me, and it isn't for everybody, but for me, it's healthy. Because then whenever I get to do it again, it's I'm in it. With the same, with the passion that I hope to have. [00:48:00] And so that's really what Jiu Jitsu has done for me. It's given me the space that I needed in a healthy way.

To have hunting be as important as it should be for me. And to enjoy it as much as I possibly can. Because at times, like you were talking about before, the pressure, like it'll, you will put someone on yourself whether you believe you are or not. Or whether think you are or not.

And so it's been a really healthy distraction for me to to create priority and balance. Not just in my hunting, but just in my life in general Yeah,

Mitchell Shirk: and one thing you hear a lot when you consume hunting media There's so many people that talk about how they eat sleep and breathe White tails and deer hunting and archery hunting and I do nothing else throughout the year because if I do it's a distraction and that all sounds really cool and there's some people that talk like that and I think you, you said it best.

Like it's probably not for everybody because like years ago, I used to think that deer hunting was the only thing that mattered and [00:49:00] it's still probably one of the things that I enjoy doing more than anything in the whole world, but at the same time the perspective thing that you just brought up, that's huge.

And keeping it, like the appreciation you get by doing something else. And giving you perspective. And I think you can have that healthy bounce, but still have that same drive and love for deer hunting or anything in life.

Clint Campbell: Yeah, you're a hundred percent right, man. It's if you like fishing, Tony and I, Peterson and I've talked about that.

It's he loves fishing. You know what I mean? That dude will fish up a storm. And fishing is one of those things where it's it's a nice break for him away from like the hunting stuff, because also hunting for him is his job, like working for meat eater, it's so he's consumed with it.

And so getting a little break from it, through other things that you're interested in, when you get to come, when you come back to it, it's you're filled with like the energy that you need in order to like, be focused and try to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish, so for me, Jiu Jitsu definitely gives me, there's a ton of other things just in terms of like strategy, like Jiu Jitsu is very strategic and how you lay [00:50:00] traps for people, like for your opponents and the discipline that you need to have and like the consistency you need to have and showing up and doing the work and stuff like that stuff applies to hunting.

It's show up, do the work, but there's also this part of yeah. which seems counterintuitive, but it also I think is true in hunting to a degree is you need some rest periods and some like off time from it as well. And sometimes when you go a little lighter, especially if you're coming back from an injury, this happened to me.

It's like I was coming back from an injury and so I could get on the mats. I started rolling with either people who were just a little bit smaller than me. Or I started rolling with some of the women in class because I was stronger than them and I didn't want to just muscle them and throw them around.

So I had to just use clean technique to try to beat them to positions and stuff like that. And then when I came back from the injury, man, I was so much better because I had focused so much on just like using technique to gain position as opposed to trying to use strength and speed and flexibility and all those things.

I was using just like. Being better at jujitsu to, to win positions. And I think that's [00:51:00] applicable when you start to think about hunting is that grind, like it's like the three 65, 24, seven, three 65. It's yeah, man. But like when you're in that grind, like you miss so much stuff because your vision is myopic, right?

And there's so many things outside of that small lens you're using that could be helping you, and because if you just take like a hunt, for example, I always, I make no bones about it. I'm honest about it when I go on these travel hunts and stuff. I'm good for probably like a good four to five days straight of like grinders, right?

And then usually like around the fifth or sixth day, like I got to take a morning off because I'm going to start to get sloppy and I'm going to start to make mistakes. And that morning off lets me reflect on everything that I've seen over the past four days. And helps me better understand whether or not I'm making the right decisions and it just gives me a little rest and a little mental clarity to get back to it so I can be as good as I need to be when I'm doing, when I'm doing my thing.

I'd rather do less [00:52:00] and be at 100 percent than do twice as much and be 50 percent of what I could be. You know what I mean? And I think, and that's just me personally, like that's just my it's, the old adage of quality over quantity. Would you rather have four really good sits?

That you knew you had a chance to kill, or would you rather have eight sits that eh, it's a toss up whether or not you're going to see anything. Yeah. I'll take the four really good sits. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so that's just how I started looking at things,

Mitchell Shirk: yeah, quality, placing yourself in the right situation. All right. Last last one I'm going to ask you, and I'm a forewarn you before I ask this question. It's one of those where you might not want to answer it because it's putting you on the spot, but I'll give you a secondary question that you can answer instead.

So the question is all the years.

Clint Campbell: That's a super, that's a super nice podcast host right there, but I'll

Mitchell Shirk: give you an out, I'll give you an out just because I don't want to, I [00:53:00] don't want to put you on the spot too bad. All the years of podcasting you've done, 300 plus episodes, an array of different guests.

Are there a handful of people that you've had and networked with over the years that have had the most impact or influence or help in your hunting game or strategies or things along those lines, that has had the biggest impact? And if you don't want a name drop, then I'll give you the clause and say, Hey, Are there certain trends that you see have in common with a lot of the best hunting guests that you've had?

Clint Campbell: Yeah, so I mean i'll answer both man. How about that? Was nailing both perfect. I was hoping you'd say that So the handful that have helped me the most you know a couple different guys, you know would be One is my good friend greg litzinger he's just, I think he's just one of the smartest, best bow hunters that I've ever met.

And [00:54:00] he does it in some of the hardest places, like in New Jersey, man. That's just that's such a tough state to hunt in. Very. And he's just a wealth of knowledge and we became really good friends, years ago, and not only did I have, I learned a lot from him, like we just scouting with him and stuff like that.

But he really helped me years ago become a better archer, and gave me more confidence behind my bow. And so Greg, for sure, the bow hunting fiend is like one of the guys that if I'm thinking of something or I'm looking at maps and I'm trying to like. Figure a deer out like he's one of the first guys I call to say, Hey let's jump on a map here.

What do you see? This is what I'm thinking. Tell me what, tell me if you're thinking the same thing or if you're seeing something different.

Mitchell Shirk: Sorry about that. The audio cut out. Clinton is referring to Chad Sylvester from Exodus in this

Clint Campbell: next part. He and I travel a fair amount to hunt. We have a very similar mindset and Chad is just, the dude just knows how to get on big deer.

And he's [00:55:00] unrelenting. And when I talk about being like focused, like man, that guy, when he gets. He's like a dog with a bone whenever he when he find when he finds the deer he wants to kill or he Thinks he knows where a deer is that he wants to kill like he's like a dog with a bone where he just does not Leave any stone unturned to figure it out.

And I feel like Chad is like one of those guys It's like I think he's an underrated Big deer killer because he doesn't do it all the time because he's going after like insane caliber deer You know what I mean? There was a period of time where, he didn't kill, I forget how many years it was, where he didn't kill a buck for multiple years, right?

But it was because there was a 200 plus inch deer that he knew of that he had an encounter with, that he was chasing, trying to kill on public land, right? And his dedication to try to kill that deer was, he passed plenty of deer that I would have shot, you would have shot, he watched them walk away. [00:56:00] Because it was just like, it was that dear or nothing, and and he's just really good at it. It's, not just being on the ground and like reading sign and scouting and stuff like that, but, his, obviously his trail camera, in a trail camera company, like man, his strategy of how he approached trail cameras and longterm data.

That's the reason why, how I'm able to use mine, my cameras, the way I use mine, a lot of people ask me about, my approach, but truth of the matter is, it's I followed him around the woods for probably two seasons, like him and I hunt together and scout together and just picking up everything I could from him, in terms of like his approach and and especially how he ran truck cameras and how he used them, especially looking at longterm data.

Yeah. So I would say him, and then I think it's probably a toss up between John Eberhardt and Dan Enfalt I think, combined. I would say them both, collectively. Which is unique, because

Mitchell Shirk: they're very differing in the way they hunt.

Clint Campbell: They are, but they aren't. Okay.

They're very, they're actually I think on the face, a lot of people think that. And I think at first glance, you think that, because people immediately go to the scent control bit. Sure. In the, [00:57:00] in playing the wind. But they actually both are hunting hot sign. They're both hunting. Betting areas, right?

John calls them destination areas are usually like a food source. It's nearby. Dan's gonna hunt a destination area This is close to bedding. It probably has an oak tree like an oak flag or something, And in both hunting scrapes at certain times and stuff like that so they actually have A lot more in common in terms of like how they hunt than people would think but with john My focus on like primary scrapes in reading some of his books years ago was like change things for me big time to the point that it's like that's predominantly what I hunt a lot of times because I have again going back to what I Said earlier.

I don't have a ton of time off necessarily that i've taken pa And so I try to strike areas that I know are going to be hot at certain times, And I focus those areas in around like great primary scrape areas and then the other part You know with dan was more about Paying attention, playing the wind, playing the thermals, understanding how thermals work, how deer are going to use them, where they're going to want to bed in relationship to them, where they're going to want [00:58:00] to lay side in relationship to that stuff, and so that was a lot of the stuff I picked up from Dan at Hunting Beasts, and I would say those four guys are probably, have had, have probably had the biggest influence on, on, on how I hunt and as far as like traits go, and I've said this before, like the biggest trait, two traits that I've always seen over the years of interviewing just like some dudes that are, they're just straight killers is their attention to the unassuming detail, right?

Every one of them are so detail oriented that are successful, like the Andy Mays and, Andy's just like an incredible, like you need a deer killed in three days, call that guy, to be like, if he could, like that deer, it's going to be a dead deer. If he knows roughly where it's at and just, and it doesn't need many days to do it.

But they constantly are asking the question. Why all the time? And they seek information from anywhere. And where I learned this, I knew [00:59:00] this to a degree, like just in terms of talking to some guys, but where it really hit me was I was in Iowa as at the Iowa deer classic, forget what year it was.

And I was chatting with Cody DeQuisto. He and I were getting ready to do a podcast together. And he had to go do something. So while he walked away, I was at I was at their booth because that's where we were doing the podcast. And so I started talking to this old man, Andre. And I'd never met him before.

And it was the first time I ever met him. So we just started shooting the shit. And he asked me how my season was and I was talking to him about, this deer I was chasing and what I, the encounters that I had and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And just like how the hunt went down. And I forget what the question was that he asked me, but I was so surprised that he asked me a question.

Because I was like, this guy has had to have seen this before, right? But what I realized was, it was like, he was not just hearing me, but he was like, focused and listening to me intently about what I was saying, because there might be something I say that he hasn't thought of in 20 years, or there might be something I say that I looked at it [01:00:00] differently than he has ever looked at it, and that might be the thing that helps him this year.

And that was like, the... That was shocking to me. It was someone who has, who's that good, that accomplished, thought he had something to learn from me. And so that was like, I, that was what I started noticing with all these guys, man. It's like they're looking for, they're not too proud to pay attention to the guy who's only been hunting for three years or something like that and pick up a nugget that helps them kill a deer somewhere.

Mitchell Shirk: Yeah, because you definitely can't see at

Clint Campbell: all. Yeah, no, and if you did, you might have forgot some of it, man.

Mitchell Shirk: Clint, this has been a lot of fun. It stinks that we had some connection issues in the beginning, but I guess that's the game you play sometimes with podcasting. I still enjoyed our conversation.

Thanks for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. Real quick, just let everybody know where they can follow along with you if they're not already.

Clint Campbell: Yeah. Truth from a standup com's, the website truth From A Stand podcast is everywhere. You would listen to and find podcasts and there is a YouTube channel, so Truth from the Stand on the YouTube as well.

And that's it.

Mitchell Shirk: [01:01:00] Good deal. Thanks again, Clint. And hey. Keep grinding out this fall. Best of luck.

Clint Campbell: Thanks, man. I appreciate you having me on and good luck to you too and all your listeners.

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