Show Notes
This week on the Southern Ground Hunting podcast we're joined by a couple of our favorite creators in the space right now. Jeremy Aron and Daniel Lemmon from Do It Yourself Hunter are hanging with us to talk about their season and their very unique approach to creating video content for their viewers. Our favorite thing about them is the fact that they're as southern as southern gets and they consistently find success on big public land whitetails all over the country. We've all heard the "If you can kill them in ______, you can kill them anywhere". Well, Jeremy and Daniel prove it. These couple of Mississippi fellas can flat out hunt and we're happy to pick their brains for a little bit!
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, thanks for tuning into this week's episode of the Southern Ground Hunting Podcast, where you're gonna hear a valuable hunting based conversation that's tailored for us southern folk. If you love what we do and would like to support Southern ground Hunting, you can visit patreon.com/southern Ground Hunting, or you can click on the link in the show notes below.
We'd love for you to join the Southern Ground Hunting community today. Again, that's patreon.com/southern Ground Hunting. You can also support us by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. It helps more than and we greatly appreciate it. And now let's get to the show.
I've had a heck of a run. I really don't have much of an agenda of anything like specific that I wanna talk to y'all about. I think Jeremy, you might be one of the most quoted people on our podcast, like whenever. Whenever we [00:01:00] go back and talk about different tactics and things like that, your name comes up in the one episode that you've done with us in the past.
Your name comes up over and over. You know what Jeremy said back here. Jeremy said this and Jeremy said that. And so we like I said, like everybody loves. To watch you guys. They loved that episode and it's only gonna be better adding Daniel to the mix here on this episode. That's right.
He's a big part of it. I want him to relate to the younger group. Like I said, I'm older and done a lot of this, and I love sharing it with this younger generation coming up and I'm hoping they see through. A lot of the younger guys, you know what they can get out of it too. Kinda like I said, I've been very fortunate and I've always loved to talk to older hunters.
I always loved to listen to their stories. That's where I got a lot of the quotes and stuff from, is just hearing it and, trying to pass it down. That's so cool, man. That's neat. Parker. I was thinking too, our episode, I guess it was at the beginning of your season when we did our fantasy hunter draft.
Yeah. [00:02:00] Daniel was on my team and Jeremy was on your team. So that's pretty neat that it's just us. Yeah. We and we can't forget that. I don't know if you guys, if y'all haven't listened to it, you definitely should. We did a fantasy, like a fantasy football draft, but we did it.
Deer hunters. Okay. And who would have on our teams if we had to go into a certain place and kill buck real quick. And you guys both made the cut. Y'all are both on a team and I gotta tell you I'm disappointed that Drew is not here because I think he might be the number one Jeremy Aaron fan in the world.
I think he, he thinks it's like Father Son Holy Ghost, and then Jeremy Aaron's like right there underneath . The main thing between me and Daniel, what works so good is we're both competitive, yeah. And we are that, and that's what. He shot his elk in Montana and he got back home and showed my wife and I was going to Wyoming and he like, man, I hope my Elk's gonna be bigger than his
I'm like, [00:03:00] boy, I'm in a unit that took 10 years to draw. I'll post to kill a bigger bull in you . Yeah. Counter unit. But he still is pretty close that's good. That's what drives him. But a lot of time, I tell him, it's not all about competition now, but competition does help you Now it does give you that, that fire.
Get out and do a little bit harder. Just a little bit. Yeah. And then we, yeah, go ahead. I just, I'm just curious to know how you guys. Became like how y'all got, how y'all, got to know each other. Have y'all been friends forever? Is it like family friend type thing or, oh, I've known Daniel since he had a little bitty feller.
Like I said, when we had the hunt show in 2003, his dad was on several of them. He turned, he was a big hunter. So we hunt it together. Like I said, they live what, five miles from me? Yeah. 10 minutes maybe. It's, like I said, I've known him since he was a little Beatty fellow. . Yeah. And I asked him, I said he was homeschooled.
He's, his dad basically raised him hunting and everything. And I remember when he was 16, they come, we had a little pea patch and they come pitch a peas and [00:04:00] I'd draw the elk tag or it was gonna go elk hunting. Yeah. No. I draw tag. You drew that mu it was. Colorado Drip mu tag. Yeah. And I told Sandy I like, I'm gonna ask him if they'll let Daniel go with me.
He wasn't gonna have a tag, but he is gonna get to go when he is 16. I didn't figure his mom didn't let him go. He called me that night like, they gonna let me go And he reminded me so much. Of myself when I was young. Like I said I would just eat up with hunting in high school. I coon hunt with an old man that was 65 years old.
I wasn't big on dating and stuff. I loved hunt, like I said, I had a ball with that old man. He taught me a lot of stuff. So I guess I, he, like I said, he reminded me so much of myself. And and like I said, we've just hit it off. Yeah. Y'all really. I was gonna say, y'all really compliment each other really well.
They didn't do us and what I had to say about Daniel is for his age, how he can read sign, and I knew he had it when he killed a big deer when he was 16 or 17 down in 17. Yeah, 17. I'm talking about hundred 15 inch deer on public land. and he basically, he comes [00:05:00] after it and he like, man, why'd that deer do that?
Why? Why'd that deer, he always would, was trying to figure out why it done something instead of man, I killed a big old deer and didn't have a, wasn't even thinking about why that deer done that. A lot of folks don't pay attention when something happens like that. You gotta figure out that butt was going somewhere for a reason.
And you gotta try figuring that out. If you figure some of it out, it, ive worked somewhere else. . Yeah. Just a win, he going checking scrapes and stuff when he gets up, he pretty much knows where he is going unless something bumps and turns him. So yeah, that, that's where I picked up on Dana.
I like, man, he's, and I've had a ton of people tell me, man, He got so much knowledge for 21 year old that I've never seen a kid that, that young, that's got that much knowledge. Yeah. But like I said, he said his dad and I have taught him a lot and he picked up from it and run with it. That's great.
Yeah, I feel like we see a lot of the younger guys, they're into the. Go to the shooting house, just sit in the shooting house. Greenfield, you don't put out a bag of corn, that's, yeah. That's the big thing. Or put out the corn and sell camera. And I have friends that are [00:06:00] guilty of that, but going out and actually learning and signing the woodsmanship of it is it's a big thing that I enjoy and I can admire that y'all do.
And it's it's not tic. And I have so many people ask me, I wanna go outta state, but where did I start? If they understood how to re-sign where they're at, there's no difference from going there than another state, but they've got so used to that putting something out in a deer come to you, outta state.
I don't know, hardly any states that you can bait in. So you can't do that tactic. , , you've gotta go the other way. You gotta a hut sign. And like I said, Daniel's got a lot to go with that cause he's pretty sharp on going to a new place. And his tactics on finding that. Yeah. Daniel which I didn't even realize, you're 21 years old.
So I'm pretty amazed by that already. What I think about is myself at 21 years old, like I was a little bit older before I really started challenging myself to really learn how to deer hunt, right? To really go and do it. A little bit older, married well into [00:07:00] my marriage, and then I started you know what?
I've done this my whole life. Lemme try something different. I started really trying to learn and stuff, so it's really cool to see how a guy your age, who's been doing it for years, obviously, and it's cool to see how you've started that progression a. A little bit sooner. I'm interested to know from you like what was it, what was the thing if you had to think of one moment that you were like, I am not gonna just take the easy way out.
I'm gonna actually learn how to be a woodsman and a real deer hunter. Oh man, there's a lot you, and like I say, looking up like somebody like Kim that's done what he's done in his life. And I remember when I was younger, I'd come to his house over here and I was looking around, I was like, man, look at this.
There's deer everywhere, big deer. I was like, I wanna do that. Oh, I want. Be to that stage one day in my life. Hopefully, I doubt I ever will be, but [00:08:00] I was like, I'm gonna try and I, and just listening and learning and I was always one. I wouldn't try to take just one person and learn everything from one person.
I'll take and learn from a little bit from this person, a little bit from that. And I think really what, what may have helped me to get to where I am is just taking it all and just trying it. . I somebody kill a big deer. I listen to 'em, see how they've done it, try to figure out, how that deer traveled whenever they killed it or whatever the circumstances was.
And then I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna try that, see if it works. If it don't, I'll try something else. And I learned just over the years, combining all that stuff that, It seems to work. Some stuff I take from other people's and it works, and then some stuff it don't. I'm like, okay, I'll try something different next time.
But it was just a drive that I wanted really just to kill, good deer mature deer on public land and he really got me on the public land kick for sure. . And once that started [00:09:00] I was like, man, I can go anywhere and do this. There's sky's the limit as far as the United States for going somewhere deer hunting.
Everybody, I remember when I was young watching, say Real tree and all those, primos looking to them like, man, look, they're in Iowa. I'll probably never get to go there Kansas. They're killing giants and he'll go and kill just as big a deer as they do. I'm like, Y you're doing that and you're not going where they're going.
And then he got me into that, go here and try to do this. And I'm up there. I'm like, man, this is fun. And it's, I'm not having to, I'm not doing stuff like they all on those other TV shows. And I'm like, man, this is, you can, anybody can do this. No doubt. Let me, lemme tell you one thing about Daniel that I guarantee you then hardly nobody else, none of your listeners are ever done.
He went with me to Colorado that time. Another good friend went with me and he got talking about catching hummingbirds and I'm like, what do you say? He said, I said, I'm in a hummingbird feeder for 30 minutes. [00:10:00] Be still. He's, I catch hummingbird. Yeah. You got patience if you can do that. . I ain't never heard nobody that can catch a honey mur,
They're gonna homeschool kid, man. gotta, you gotta have some fun sometimes, . You gotta seriously think about, would you say that deer hunting or just the outdoors kind of took the place of athletics and sports? Oh yeah. It did. No doubt. Because they, being homeschooled and they really just started in the last few years that homeschoolers could participate in the ball and stuff around here.
So I never got to grow up, got the chance to play football or baseball or none of that. So it was hunting, no doubt for me. If it wasn't hunting, it was fishing. It'd be squirrel hunting and me being, growing up youth season, we'd always get that early start. Me and my dad, we'd have to be out there early, whether it's squirrel hunting, Turkey hunting, deer hunting.
We'd always be out there learning. And like I say, my dad, he taught me not how to [00:11:00] hunt like a lot of the other people did. We, he made me walk, he made me look and fine and figure out how to hunt. It wasn't just let's sit here and maybe something will come by, we're going to find it and put ourself in the best situation for it.
And they, and eat everything. Oh, yeah. I'm talking about they didn't buy no meat at the grocery store. , they basically lived off the land. Yeah. That's . That's great. So you, yeah. So you didn't get checked outta school or anything? I remember as a kid, I'd be, Dave's I'm gonna come check you out and we're gonna go hunting.
And it may or may not have happened, but man you were there. It was like, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go hunting in the morning and I'll come back and do my school. So that's his extracurricular. Yeah. That's hands are flat. You're elective. Yeah. . That's right. That's why he used to wood smartt.
He's got many hours in the woods compared to That's right. Somebody his same age, . That's, I was also gonna say like for me in the last couple years, I know you were talking about the hunt, the public land, and you can go anywhere. It's sometimes it's not [00:12:00] about the hunt for me necessarily.
It's about the adventure and going and seeing new stuff. And from hunt, like you said, Candace, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, you're seeing a vast. Different regions of the United States and different terrain, different, and the deer lay different sign too. I imagine. I haven't gone out there much, but you're getting more of an adventure inside the hunt.
The, I feel like sometimes the kill can be icing on the cake cuz you're seeing, so many awesome things, a bucket list for me is to go elk hunting. Y'all are doing it. Y'all have been multiple times already. And y'all are just showing the public with your channel that it's doable.
And it's said in your name, do it yourself, do it yourself, hunter. And that really applies to me because, I have people that'll go on paid hunts, nothing against a paid hunt. You know that, that's great. You go out there and you can do it. But I've got a grudge on my shoulder that I wanna do it, do it for me, prove that I can do it.
I don't want, yeah, I don't want some, at the end of the season, like [00:13:00] right now we're gonna end next Friday. I would love for somebody to say, Hey, if you go sit in this stand, you'll kill 120 inch deer. That'd be awesome right now. But, I during the season. That's not what I want. I'm wanting to do it, on my own.
Yeah. One thing about the western hunts, I'll tell you, do it while you young. Yeah. And cause them mountains older you yet they can be tough. Like I said, I hadn't been in about 20 years when I done this on here. And man, I used, I could run it down them. I could still do it now. , but I had to do at my own pace.
Yeah. So I really advised the young guys out there listening, if you ever wanted to do a western hunt, be planning. Yeah, be planning now. That's what Daniel, we both put in for tags and it didn't work out. I had a grandson and I was like, you go by yourself. I like, you know how to shoot. You're in good shape.
We sort you. Some areas I'd hunt it. Before that, I knew there's elk in that area and I'm like, you go there and I had a buddy up there. I called him. At this point, never been to Montana. I said, but I guarantee you he's gonna kill healthcare. And he did. And Elk's not a very high success ratio.
Now [00:14:00] you go check the states out it Yeah. It's 10% of every elk hunter in the A year. Yeah. That's all. Yeah. And I said most area it's lower than that. So Yeah. So you gotta, but if you're in good shape, you can shoot and you reel. put in the time and basically find them. Oh yeah. Find them and watch 'em.
Oh. They like they're just a big old Turkey in during arch season. Pretty much. Yeah. . God. Now I don't wanna spend too much off this, but earlier I heard you said that you had a hunting show back in the day or something like that. That, yeah. That I was on my outdoor channel do itself.
Hunter. I, when I was y'all's age, you, I don't know how old you are. When I was in my late. I had a goal only when else was in my twenties. I had a goal. I'm like, I wanna make a living hunt, man. That's, that was my goal. I loved to hunt and I've business and minded. I've always been self-employed and I man, I can make a living hunt and I give it a shot, man.
I had a business. I sold out and had the money. My wife went back to school for three years. I basically hunted for three years. I'm talking about, I traveled to country hunting. [00:15:00] We finally got on the outdoor channel and dad gun. We was supposed to be, In nine 11, we're supposed to, basically in January of 2022.
we were supposed to be on, but man, nine 11 hit. Y'all probably not old enough. Remember what? Nine 11? 2002 . 2001. 2001. You said 22. We gotta get this straight . I was like, I missed something. I'm lost. Okay, keep I'm old now, but it, man, we missed our boat. If we if nine 11 wouldn't. Man, we had sponsors finna come on and all that dropped out cause the economy just crashed right there for, so we had to be another year before we got back on and we was on in January to July of 2003.
And it was due itself, hunter. We basically was doing what we was doing now, we was traveling, going to, cause I was very fortunate to go out west in my. I was 16 the first year I got to go to Colorado. And then I got going in my twenties to Montana. It was like 14 years in a row. I wouldn't hunted Montana.
Loved it, man. And just learnt the country, learnt people out there. [00:16:00] And like I said, 2003 , the guy edited my shows. Cause I didn't know nothing about editing back then, and it was expensive. It was expensive being on outdoor channel. Guys, now this YouTube, it don't cost nothing to put it.
I remember for them two quarters in 2003 and we just bought two minutes of commercial. There was six minutes of commercial and a 30 minute show that you could buy 'em all. And then you turned around and sold 'em, sponsors them Two, two minutes of commercials for two quarters was $80,000 . And that guy said, man, this is going to be a expensive hobby,
Or you gonna make money at it? Yeah. , most of the big sponsors would like to stay a here and we'll sponsor you. And I like, man, they knew that we did about everybody out. Yeah. , but what the kicker was that, that fall I'm talking about had three little girls at the house, my wife come down with th ward cancer and she had that and it was basically, I had to stay with the family, go hunting.
So that's why I backed off. If you read some of her things that the girls are grown now, they're outta school, they're on [00:17:00] their own and she knew that was my goal when I got them outta the house, that I wanted to start back doing this. But I, when I started back, after I sold out everything in, in 99.
So we sold a, we had a saw mill. I sold that thing out in August of 99. Like I said, I didn't do nothing but hunt for about three or four, five years. Wasn't hurting from money. Basically put plenty back. Got through that, but then finally she like, you going to get a job, ? So I started back over and when I started back over, I like I'm not gonna put all my eggs in one.
So I got invested in other things that cash flow and after the kids got out and I basically said, Hey, I can do it now, because you y'all got kids probably they're expensive and they're very expensive with the older they get cars, insurance on the cars. Cell phones. College. But man, after they get outta college and they leave you like, Man, I don't need near as much money to get by no more.
You've been fucking that much for so long and it's all of a sudden, and you [00:18:00] had three daughters on top of that too. That's right. So you had some extra expense. And my wife, she went back and got her teaching degree, them three years. Oh when basically doing nothing. My hunt. So she got her teaching and like I said, she likes four years now after this four and the rest of this year.
And she's ready to retire. , she's ready to do some of this stuff. Travis. That's great. Now this is a meaningless plug for me. You said you owned a sawmill, is that right? Uhhuh. . I was in saw Mill. Mill. So you're in the business. Okay. So I'm a forester. I work At WestRock in Stevenson, Alabama.
So we buy and sell logs to Robinson, Dave, all those guys. So you probably know some same folks. I do. So that's pretty neat. Yeah, I said that was what I meant. I was, like I said, I went to forestry school got out and like I said, we bought timber. , we had our own little company. We had a, we had two logging crews there at one time and then bought a song mill and we just dropped back to one crew, dead run it and I'd run the song mill and like I said, done it till 99.
And I'm like, man, I can make a living hunt, yeah. My dad said, that's what you wanna do. Go ahead. So that's great. But it [00:19:00] didn't work out. But you learn a lot. A lot of times when something don't work, you learn a lot from it. , one thing about going to out-of-state hunts is the context of people you.
When you run into somebody in the woods, deep in the woods, over the time you sit down and talk to 'em. Cause they're just like you. . , they got, they've got dreams like you do or, and man, they'll share information. But now they won't just anybody. But after you, you, the one, I see somebody, I'm a mile deep, they come walking by me.
I'm gonna walk up there and talk to 'em. I like, Hey, where you from? I wanna share your information with you. And most time they'll sit there and talk to you. Yeah, I had that happen. This. Same thing happened, man, just back there pretty deep. And we got to talking for a little bit and had a great great exchange right there.
That's something I appreciate about what you guys do. Man, it just doesn't seem like anything ever bothers you. Like you, you have these like tough moments. Somebody's hunting the spot you wanna hunt, flip your boat, and almost.
Lose a big buck that you shot. You know you have and, but when I hear you talk about it or you, both of [00:20:00] you guys, you turn in your camera and talk about it, you're just so easygoing and it's almost like it doesn't phase you. I wanna know, is that a learned skill or would you say it's a natural thing?
It's learned and then you get to it gets more natural. Cause you get my age, you're gonna have ups and downs, yeah. Ups and downs in business, ups and downs. Like my wife got cancer. You go through a lot of things, but you learn, I always learn when I got in a tough situation, what I be doing next week, what will I be doing next year?
I try to, looking ahead of it, trying to endure through it. And then you get looking, you get around negative people. And man, they can make you be negative. Oh yeah. So that's what I got, man. Be positive. That's, be thankful for what you got. And that, that's where we got, like lost a deer and the boat turned over, hey, it could have been always looked, it always could have been worse. Yeah. When something like that happens, I always look always been worse. Yeah. And then it's, then he turned into a positive. And that's one thing about hunting public land. I've tried to [00:21:00] get Daniel, cause Daniel don't , he don't like getting whooped.
He don't like losing sometime now, man, that's just part of it. You learn from it. You learn from it, and you. It makes you stronger. You basically just, I read a quote on a guy about like 6% of the elk hunters killed 90% of the elk out west. . And he basically said why they do it. And it's the deer hunters, same way.
You just, you stay at it, you grind, because all of a sudden it can turn around just like that. Most of the time when you kill a big deer, most big deer, I kill. It's not you. I'm gonna crawl up that tree and this gonna happen today. He's finna come in here at two o'clock. I'm finna kill him.
Most the time you read and sign and you kill him. You like, dad got me. That happened quick. Yeah. It just, So you just keep yourself in that situation to make it happen and in ground through all them bed times. Hey guys, as most of censorship for hunters and anglers is completely outta control.
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Check out six [00:23:00] day grind coffee code.com today. That's the word six, followed by day grind coffee. That's awesome. Daniel, you or when Jeremy came on last time, one of the things that really stuck out to us, me particularly, is when I asked him about hunting outta state. He basically said he likes to travel to places that hunt similar to what he knows.
That was something that really stuck out to me and I can see it pretty clearly through his videos. It looks like though, that you. Sometimes venture out a little bit more in I may see you hunting really steep terrain at one point and then see you hunting really flat stuff at another point.
And I took it from him to begin with. I looked for stuff that I was familiar with as far as terrain or, whether it was thick timber, open ground, whatever. But the more I got to doing it, I got to looking for a mix of something, like [00:24:00] something I knew, but something I didn't know. And when I got there I was like, all right, I wanna try something new, but if that don't work out, I do know how to hunt this type of stuff and try to mix it where they're pretty close together, where I could look at one and then be able to hunt whichever one looked better to me.
And then I just started learning how to hunt a little different stuff. And you. That's just the reason I just hunt what looks best to me now. But to start off, I tried to mix it a little bit just to learn something new to me. But that, that's definitely what I'd say is don't go out looking for something that you've never done.
Like around here, it's big, fairly rolling hills, pretty thick timber. Like starting over. If I was to go somewhere, I wouldn't wanna say go to the plains of Kansas and hunt because I would know nothing about that. But the more I've done it, I'm starting to learn how to hunt type of terrain like that.
Yeah, it's definitely different, no doubt about that. But I would [00:25:00] definitely advise nobody to start out doing a complete 180 as far as a terrain deal there. With that, you find people who. Maybe go on their first out-of-state hunt, they're gonna do something drastically different. It's almost natural.
If I hunt hills here, I'm gonna want to go hunt farmland somewhere where maybe the stuff that I get to see on that I see on tv, yeah. Go hunt. Go hunt a cornfield or something, yeah. But realistically, I'm gonna be a whole lot more effective if I go to, A hillier terrain in Ohio, maybe southern Ohio.
Okay. I'm probably gonna know how to hunt that one just right off the bat. A little bit better than a crop field. Yeah, man, I love hearing that. I love the confirmation of that from guys like y'all who really do it a lot. And like I said, Jeremy, that whole episode has been quoted.
All of us quite a few times cuz there's a lot of little nuggets like that. But that is one of the things that really stuck out with me and has helped me even this past [00:26:00] season and the season before that. In how I'm planning my out-of-state hunts. Every once in a while I get a wild hair, right?
Me and Matt were like, let's go hunt freaking cropland in Kentucky, man. Let's do this . And you know what happened? We get our butts kicked every single time, , but we end up hunting, hillsides, in flatland trying to find the slightest change of terrain. You don't never know. You gotta challenge yourself every once in a while.
My dad always had to quote You never learned. No. And that is so true. I, I remember when I was five years old and he said, get out there, you'll make Gate . I was like, I can't. He got out there and helped me be like, or get on a tractor or something when I was young. He's you'll never learn any, and , I'd always look at that way.
Try something new. Yeah. If it don't work, like he said, you know what, you can fall back on. Especially if you got time I don't like the heels. He done good in Wisconsin and figured out how to hunt them ridge tops cause we hadn't got that kind of terrain here. Yeah. Nothing that state.
And we can go to Arkansas and hunt it and he likes that. He kills some deer down here in the bottom, lake bottom. And he likes. Man, ain't [00:27:00] nothing to pin 'em up down here. And I'm like, yes it is. There's water and stuff. He you find your favorite. Yeah. You find what you're good at, but get outta your conference zone every once in a while. You never know. You might pick up something, learn something. Yep. I wanna know, Jeremy, has anybody anybody found your camera or recovered your your. The boat. The boat. I went back down there two days later and it was in a log gym about a mile and a half down the river in a big hairpin curve.
The camera was still in the back, but it was soaking wet. Yeah. . It had ruined the card. Everything was lens. I took it out and dried the camera out and thought it would and got it to come back on and I sent it to someplace to repair it and they went through it and, It's not fixable. And I like, it'll come on.
They like, oh, it's got too much water damage. He said, all this electronics in it, . We may get it working now. We just said it's going to, it's crowed and everything on the inside. So it's all gone. But now my muzzle loading my pack cuz the pack had the, a bone out deer in it. [00:28:00] It's in the bottom of the river somewhere.
It's, I have had some guys said we got some magnets. We help you find it when the water goes down. Yeah. You go magnet fishing. Yeah. So it's not far cause, cause like I said, the boat turned over and I. That camera bag would flow and it got hung in the side of it there because like I said, it was turned up on its side in the log gap.
It wasn't turned all the way over. Oh, okay. Wow. Yeah, that was a . Majority of the stuff has definitely got, oh yeah. It's 85% of it for sure. The boat and the motor you got back. But y'all, I will have to say never thought of it. Never would. Even the game war that night when they come got me, you come back out man.
All the law and the game ambulance and everything was there and the game war said, I gotta do a report here. And he said I gotta do a report. And he said, you might wanna use it for your insurance. I'm like, man, I ain't got no insurance on that boat or none of that. And he like, you got house owners.
I. I'm like, yeah. He said, I've heard a lot of folks turn in on their house insurance, and I'm like, why they gonna cover it? He said, I don't know. He's said, but tried. And I went to my agent. Like I said I got a lot of insurance with them and I've had [00:29:00] it our house with 'em ever since we've been married.
My agent said, I don't know what covered she said, but let me turn it in. Bye, George. They covered about 8% of it. Yeah, because they basically said you keep that stuff at your house. Yeah. That's content. . Yeah. I never would've thought that . So that is why. Yeah. That's why I give a shout out to that insurance company, though I talk to a lot of people, talk bad about 'em, but that helped.
That camera the first time I took that song, gun . Cause like boats, like you'd have to have boat insurance. Oh yeah. They said they wouldn't cover the boat. Boat. Okay. It was just the contents. Okay. Yeah. That's what she said. She, I know they won't cover the boat or the motor. She said that's so okay.
Side. She That's nice on the camera. Yes. The camera and the gun. The backpack. . . Terrible stuff. But they can't cover the cost of a nice. No. And also I thought that card would work too. Yeah. That's surprising to me that the card didn't work. Yeah. Actually it would, camera was soaking wet.
It had been in water for two days yeah, it got a pretty good, so [00:30:00] Jeremy is if you could get one thing back out of that, would you rather have that deer or would you rather have that camera, or have that card to have the video of the deer? I had a good hunt. Lay down, you know how it laying a hunt out and you got it.
And like I said, my GoPro was in the pack and it went down with the pack. So like I said, I remember when I got the shot and I turned around and turned the camera back to him. I like, man, I had my tag cam on. I had to GoPro on, I had the gun on and he was laying there at 70 yards and I seen him in the center of the screen.
I like, I got all this man. I said, I got a awesome hunt laid out here, , Ike said it could have been worse that night. Could have been absolutely absolutely. Yeah. Be glad you stopped. Yeah. You stopped at Walmart with your life jacket to get a life jacket. Yeah. I went back home and got a life jacket.
Ain't that? Yeah. But I, oh yeah. I've been on the water enough. , you don't do that. . Yeah. You don't. Especially at night. Yeah. And that, that goes back to what [00:31:00] Parker was saying earlier about, getting discouraged. I've seen many hunts where, you know, you either had your hammer locked on your gun or you found something, you end up getting late, nine, 10 o'clock.
They're saying, if I. If I'm getting to the stand of that late, I'm, shoot, I'm already chalk up my hunt. I'm talking to my camera like a pissed off little baby. Whenever I when I'm like, I freaking suck. I don't got no business. And you guys are just like, oh man. We're just a little bit late today, , my God.
That's right. But what are you, what good does it do? Grappling about it. You're right. Yeah, you're right. . That's made, I guess that's why I always looked at things, what, something bad goes wrong and I look at the other side of it and. . Why you always looking at it like you can't do nothing about what happened?
This done happened. . Yeah. Let's get over it. , man, that's great. That's my wife's over here just doing this right now. Yeah, . She knew you before, huh? That's right. Like me telling her I told you . Hey man. Speaking of your wife I know I mentioned it before. I'm not sure if we were recording or not.[00:32:00]
man, what a season she's had in Mississippi this year. And she loves doing too. Now she's . I'm gonna say something on her. She's probably gonna get mad at me. She was sitting over here last night and she's I'm ready going outta state hunt. And I said, you wanna go to Arkansas? She looked at me, she's Uhuh , Daniel.
Dana knows a story about Arkansas. I took her five year ago, probably six year ago, . She come down looking, you don't want me to tell this ? I took her a spot where there's a big buck in there, and the first day I set her in a blind, I sat with her and video. The next day we split up. I took her to a blind on side of a hill, cause it was hilly.
And I said, you stay here till it gets dark. I'm finna go right back about 200 yards and I'm finna climb right off where we walked. . I said, but don't get outta that thing. Don't get outta that blind. It started getting dark and I got down there cuz she don't like the dark. She likes watching scary movies.
So y'all know women and it's like that . I come walking up that blind before it got dark and I figured she'd meet me out of it. I peeped over in that [00:33:00] blind and she was gone. . I like, oh, this ain't good. Cause I was in a, I was in a tough spot to get out of. It was one of them, and this, luckily I had phone service and I called her and she was bawling her eyes out.
And this luckily, like I said, I had phone service and she's ah. I said, which way did you go? You go back the way we come or the other way. Cuz she went the other way. It'd been hard to find her . And she went back down, but she got stuck between water and she couldn't get out and it was dark. We was in some big woods and it was black, dark
I was. She said, I got my light on. I got my light on. I like you just leave your light on. I'll find it. Oh, that didn't go over well, she been hunt with me for several years, a couple years after that, . So watch taking your wife to, even though there's some big deer in there, take her to one of them hard places like that.
No, God she was gonna walk back out to the truck before it got dark to what her plans were and I thought I was on the trail where I could see her coming back cause I was back down to holler. But I missed her. And , I guarantee she ain't forgot that . Yeah. Ain't reason she said she ain't [00:34:00] going back
So that's why she's been hunting by herself so much. I'm guessing. She'll hunt around here. And once she hunts by herself a lot around here, we just haven't been able to click, you know how it's going, somebody trying to film them. Yeah. . We just never couldn't make it work out and kill nothing.
Now she'd go here by herself cause I got two or three places. It's pretty good that I leave alone for her. Now she can go by herself and go kill a deer, right when it's right about a week right there, when it's real good around here. But man, I wanna get you on film this year, and it did work out this year.
You know that old power line hunt, man? It's faithful. You can hunt it that week or the rut and you can kill a three year old deer there. It's just, so we really hunted it this year and she killed two on it. So that's such a cool dynamic watching you guys on film together. Super inspiring.
Your wife talked at the end about being married to a deer hunter. I just thought it was whole thing was good. Now, Daniel you travel a lot. I'm, I am guessing that there's not a whole lot of. [00:35:00] For a lady friend hunt with you around this time. No, I ain't found one at one that's been outta the question for a lot a while.
While . Sure. What? Who knows? I'm liable to run. My plan is to run into one while I'm hunting, yeah. If you run into one about a mile deep, , that's when you know, that's what we're talking about. That's love at first sight. You better pack her out. We we run into one. He went with me to Colorado that year.
We was around a big mountain that was 14,000 beat. There's a lot of people and it was on the weekend. Yeah. Daniel don't remember this girl. I did. They was, I'm talking about she was, he was 16, 17. He was 16 then, wasn't he? Yeah, 16. He was 16. Then she proud. 18, and I'm talking about she was a doll.
She come off that mountain by herself. She had her checking sticks and she had a big pack. She said, I've been camping up there with some friends and there she left. I was like, Dana, that's what you looking for right there . You found her . So he hadn't found that [00:36:00] yet, but I was like, That's what you looking for now, , do you wanna know more about saddle hunting?
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I'll say a lot of the solo. That's how I like to hunt, and I want it to wean him off that way. Cause you're more productive by yourself. Yeah. When you go with somebody, especially you're [00:37:00] going to the state. When you both got the same tag, odds are one of 'em gonna tag out quick and the other, you're going in the same vehicle, you're gonna be sitting there waiting on the another one.
Yeah. And I knew that he, it took me a little while to get him. I didn't never figure he'd go to Montana by himself. We put in, I was going with him and situations come up and I, like I said, I just didn't have a grandkid that week and I knew I couldn't go. And I basically told him, I like, I'll go after that grandkid comes here.
But I was like, you need to go on. And I knew if I could ever get him to do it once by hisself. , he'd be hooked. And it's different. It is different going cuz you know, what's that? 14, 1500 miles you went 2000 miles. It's a long way. It's 19. Yeah. 19 or two. It's long ways. Yeah. That was a long trip to go by yourself.
40 something hours, from the time I left, the time I got there. Yeah. You aware of what You were in Wyoming. Montana. I was in Montana, west Central Montana, where he went on up to, but like I said, I'd been to that country. I knew if he ever got to it, he was gonna absolutely look, cause it is just wide open.
You can go, you know the [00:38:00] shape he's in. Cause I remember when I was younger, I'd always. I find the highest mountain I'D climbing. I just had to go to the top of that sucker. Killing a big buck and getting on the top of a big mountain is the same feeling. You sitting up there and you're like, ain't many folks been right here?
, that, that's a one of them pretty good feelings. But go back to the places we hunted and hunting solo, what's your opinion on hunt solo? Man, I just like to be able to, when I'm by myself, It's like making a decision on yourself. You're with, say you go with a group, two or three of you, you come back, you get to talk.
Say you've seen a deer, this and that, and you get to talking amongst each other, and then somebody will put in their opinion like, oh, you should do this, you should do that. Then you go back next day and you're hunting. You're like, man, should I have done what said, or maybe I should stick to what I've planned or this or that.
When you're by yourself, you're like, that's the decision I'm making. If it works. If it don't. I ain't got no other decisions rolling through my mind that could, could have worked, could not. I made a decision. It worked or it didn't. And that's what I like about, being [00:39:00] solo.
One thing is the traveling to it and the setup. Yeah. Your vehicle set up. It's easy to set a vehicle up for one person. Yep. You can get all your stuff in it, you can sleep in it, and you're so mobile, you get to a spot and you don't. Man, it get dark. You can drive six, eight hours at night and be in a new spot way away from it.
Oh yeah. And that's the biggest advantage of being a mobile is you'll be a going by yourself is being mobile. Yeah, for sure. You're not waiting on anybody else. If you get that gut. Cause a lot of good hunting is gut feeling. You get where you learn yourself and you know what you're good at and you've got that gut feeling, I need to go do this.
Yeah. I need to go do. And the more you do it and the more you're successful it just, you got that feeling. Yep. You know when to trust that gut feeling. That's right. For sure. , he may crawl up in the stand, he'll sit there a second I need to move. And a lot of times I've moved him.
Boom, man, that bigness pops up and that new spot. You're like, I'm glad I've done that. Oh yeah. You learned to trust yourself. Yep. Absolutely. I think, go ahead, Matt. Did Dan Daniel, did you do that on that big brow time buck? You killed this. , [00:40:00] didn't you move areas or something? I did. I had yeah, I'd found that spot the day before I killed him.
And I said, the, what, the wind wasn't right for the way up where I wanted to sit. And I said, I seen that front was gonna be pushing in about 12 o'clock the next day, 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock, somewhere in there. So the afternoon before I'd went, hunted his other. Seen a couple bucks chasing a couple little bucks chasing a dough, and I was like tomorrow morning I'm gonna get in there and hunt just for a little bit cuz the wind was gonna switch from a due south to a due north, like one 180 degree wind switch in two hours.
So it was gonna be a big switch. And I went and hunted that spot that I had seen a couple little bucks chasing the dough the day before. And at 10 o'clock I said, all right, I gotta get down. I gotta move. And all of a sudden, about halfway out when I was walking to the truck, that wind started switching.
I'm telling you, I've never felt that before, but. Within 10 seconds, the [00:41:00] temperature dropped five degrees. And if you ever feel that you know what? That front, when it hits you like, oh, that's different. And them deer, they feel that. They know that. And when that happened, I said, I've gotta get to this spot.
Where I knew, was the best sign I had found. I said, I've got to get there as fast as I can. And it took me about an hour to get around there and get in and get set up. I got set up at 12 o'clock, 1230 maybe, and at two o'clock is when that deer come through and I ended up killing him.
I am I believe weather or wind shift days more big bucks get killed on a day that the wind shift. . And then you have the added benefit of having a cold front shift, right? He's not only gonna move because the cooler air, but he is gonna move because probably his bed isn't good anymore and he's gotta change bed.
We got talking, that's one thing. We share information. When we hunt, we sit and talk like, why this deer do that? We just sat here last night. I'm like,[00:42:00] you killed three different bucks on that day. The wind shifted. Yep. I usually have the better look the second day. Oh when that pressure is starting to come back up and everything.
The deer I killed this year, both of them was on the sack day after. So it depends. But we got talking cuz Daniel, you know that deer took a crap right there. Yeah. He had just got up, so he just got up and see these deer he killed here on that same weather. They was close to their bed.
Close to their bed. So that's what we got thinking he like that day is that wind shift like that. They're not moving way out. You gotta be close. You gotta be close to 'em. But they're up on their feet. That's right. So what then last time we share information and get sitting there bumping our heads, why'd you kill 'em on this right here?
And what were they deer doing? Yep. And we got thing That's right. Them deer you kill was close. Them deer I killed. They were rolling it, they was up on their feet, they was up traveling fast. You could tell they was traveling fast cuz they was just focused, they was headed somewhere. They, there's no telling how far they could have come from cuz they was up looking, traveling.
Tell you, I hope that information, people will start thinking, your listens are saying Okay, but because there's no doubt when them [00:43:00] fronts come through them major fronts, when that you got that double dig, your temperature change that's the best time to kill a big deer. Yeah. If it's close to.
We pay attention around here. You can pay attention on Facebook, you can watch a front come. Cause I'm in with a Kansas group, an Iowa group, an Indiana group, an Ohio group you can watch when that front comes across and then the folks start posting pictures of them killing them. And when that front's coming through.
So it's, if you start paying attention to stuff like that, it's something that you can learn from. , even Mississippi, you can watch Mississippi, I killed it, Mississippi or something, and watch out the Delta in December. They'll start putting big bucks up and you can tell right where that ruts starting to go on.
Yep. That's right man. Man. So we know y'all are hunting in the south, and I know Parker started this question. We got onto some more topics, but how many states did you hunt this year, and which ones were they? I know, I think y'all just posted a video talking about already preparing for next year.
Is that right? Yeah, I just put [00:44:00] one up a while ago trying to tell people how to show people how I scout. And like I said, we hunted several. , I drawed Way too good. This year. I drawed a Montana tank and I never stepped foot in Montana. I hate to say that. , I had a deer elk tank. I didn't step foot any and.
It was my fault. Cause I spent three weeks in Wisconsin trying to kill a deer and it kicked my tail. It was just, I was one of them spots that I said, I'm fin the, cuz that's the place you can kill a giant. There's not that many numbers there, but there's some, just some giants there. And I love that place.
And like I said I picked up North Dakota that I didn't draw, that I did well, I did. I did. You did you drew? No, yeah. I drew North Dakota. My plan was to go North Dakota and Montana. Yeah. And I didn't. And like I said, with all w. Wisconsin over the counter. Yeah. Wisconsin. Wisconsin. One picked up. I drove Wyoming.
I guess what I was thinking. Wyoming. Yeah. But I told Daniel my western state, I killed a big deer. I don't, I won't say that state. Cause it'd be too easy to find. There's not a lot of public land there. Yeah. I said that's my Wyoming and that one's my priority. And I'll pick up [00:45:00] what's left and I basically killed good animals in both of them states from my priorities.
Yep. Oh, so Daniel, what you went to? You hadn't I went to I went to Montana, started that office early and then when did I leave? In October and I went to Wisconsin and then killed there. Went to Kansas. Killed Darren and I went to Iowa. Iowa kicked my butt. And I don't even wanna talk about that damn one.
That's one. He had a heck of a show, but he didn't come out with it. Yeah. What happened? I like, boy, you gotta learn. Yeah. You gotta show you defeats Now. I like, it's, it happens to everybody. . And that comes from age. Yeah. That comes with the, I know I'll get out of it eventually, but right now I can't.
But anyway, I come back home and. Ended up going to Arkansas and didn't do no good there this year. And then, here at home so five deer states, I guess if you count Mississippi and then and then Montana. It's a six five outta [00:46:00] states and one in state. In state, home state. That's what I was tell guys, I've got the experience on him.
Like I said, I had the preference points for Wyoming, Young guys think ahead of what you wanna do five and 10 years from now. Cause a lot of them western states to get into some of them real good. , you gotta get the preference points. Oh yeah. I was in another state. , you gotta have the preference points to hunt it, but it's worth it.
That's why that tag is so high, because there's no doubt it's the best public land for whitetail in, in the country. I don't know. For a big it wasn't for you, but it was . Did you not have a chance at a big deer? I am. That's all. Yeah,
Oh yeah. I actually, I bought my first preference point this year for Iowa okay. I'll be going for number two this coming year. Okay. I guess back as much as I hate to them, Steve said you like and Yeah, and it goes back to, I like hunting rivers and creeks and stuff, so I really leaned toward them, but man, I had a lot of folks.[00:47:00]
That's one thing about doing this show and y'all do it and y'all starting to get the contacts and stuff. Folks will start suggesting places like, man, you need to come up here and you need to come up here. And when they start sending pictures, they usually get your attention. Oh yeah, man.
I've had a guy from Minnesota that I've got friends with on the phone, and I've got one in Ohio. It's a man, a deer. They send you pictures of, you're like, gosh, dog. Yeah. And he's man, they killed a bunch of these around Here're. Yeah. I'm like, I gotta check that out. Yeah, for sure. And Minnesota, y'alls a sleeper state.
It's a long ways up there, but man this guy sent me some pictures of his taxidermist. Just some he has that come in that county. Man Giants. Yeah, giants. Giants. And that's an over calorie tag. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, there ain't any public land. That area. And he'd sent me a his own ex.
And he and it was public land everywhere. I like, okay, , see you'll be, do it yourself, hunter. You guys are the definition [00:48:00] of what you call yourself like. You guys go out and you do it and do it well. Thanks for coming on the show this evening and man, I think we're gonna talk about some turkeys too.
Freaking Turkey season is getting close. This is a shameless plug for the Limb Hanger Podcast. It's coming up on the Sportsman's Empire Podcast Network. And you look like, you gotta say something Jeremy. Yeah, I got something to my wife. She said We got a booth at the Turkey show. The Turkey convention or whatever it's called.
Oh, sweet N wtf. We're gonna have a booth there. So all your listeners that go, Hey, come by and see us at booth number 4 31 in't Yep. 4 31. We'll be there. We went last year and we we just kinda walked around and looked at it cuz we, neither one of us had ever been. That's a good show to go.
That's a good family. Heck yeah. Your wife and kids. There's plenty for kids to do there that, it's a good show. It's in a good place too. Nashville though. And people think it, it's all turkeys. It's not all turkeys. No, it's hunting. There's a lot of deer stuff there too. A lot of deer stuff.
And you walk through the parking lot, there's tags cause you get, think of Turkey hundred chapters all in the [00:49:00] old country, United States. And it's the best show that's rep represented abroad. Yep. Most of the time you got a show like y'all got over in Alabama, it's probably a hundred hundred mile radi.
But man, this thing called people from everywhere. Hey guys, thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Southern Ground Hunting Podcast. And as always a big shout out to all of our partners. Let's go Wild tethered, Spartan Forge and six Day Grind Coffee company. You can keep up with Southern ground hunting by following us on Facebook or Instagram.
Or subscribing to the YouTube channel, and you can be sure to check us out@southerngroundhunting.com to pick up some of our merch, read some blog articles, and all that good stuff. I truly hope you enjoyed this week's episode, and we'll see you here again next week. Remember that God gave you dominion over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the earth to go out and exercise that dominion.
We will talk to you next week. Woo.[00:50:00]
