Show Notes
Today’s show opens with us talking about gear searching on GunBroker.com. Dan daydreams about a new .30-.30 that he’s had his eyes on for a while. We talk about maintenance for our outdoor equipment for this upcoming hunting season, it can get pretty expensive quickly if you’re not careful! Brad talks about putting time in behind the bow in preparation for his upcoming hunting season, he had to swap out his sight but he’s still shooting pretty consistent groups out to 30 yards which is as far as he’ll be shooting on his hunting spot. Brad’s new hunting spot is a tree farm that has some positive outlook for this season, almost like clockwork every afternoon at 6:00 PM it’s a deer party! Brad’s first day in the stand was a super interesting one, deer were absolutely everywhere all evening. He ended up stuck in the stand having to wait until deer cleared out of his area, listen to this episode Sponsored by GunBroker.com to see what showed up after he dropped his bow to the ground!
Next up Brayden goes into his weekend hunting the first cold front of the year. The temperatures were all over the place from sweating when arriving at the stand to cold by night. It seemed like the perfect recipe for a great evening of deer. The only caveat? The wind was all over the place which may have led to a slower evening of deer. Brayden’s new saddle setup caused him a little bit of a headache during the first sit this year but once he fine tunes his new setup it’s going to be super convenient for him, listen in to see what he changed on his setup this year. We talk about the best positions to sit in the tree saddle to be the most comfortable. We all have some interesting ways to get comfy but Dan’s may take the cake. He calls it the koala bear; you absolutely have to tune in to hear his description of this!
Closing out we talk about waterfowl hunting. Brayden and his crew were drawn for an absolute sweet duck hunting spot this year. We talk about just how different duck hunting is in different parts of the country and how everyone seems to hunt ducks a little differently. We talk about how waterfowl hunting is a different type of “fun” hunting. It’s often miserable when out in the woods but the good hunts always make good stories afterwards.
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[UNCENSORED] by GoWild kicks off your week with shameful nonsense, inappropriate convictions, and unfiltered tales from the woods, waters and whatevers. [UNCENSORED] is a behind the scenes look at our adventures, failures, wins, embarrassing moments at trade shows, hilarious tales from the warehouse, and a good rant or three about the most recent tyranny from the Dark Lord of the Sith himself.
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Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Dan started off the podcast by touching my leg. Oh, that's weird directions. Yeah. That's naturally how it goes. Yeah. Before we go into hunting season and forget, I just got to give a quick thank you to a forensic gun broker. Yes. Have you been on there shopping Dan? No, I haven't. I'm still, I tricked out my gun, my 30 30 last season and didn't shoot a deer with it, so I'm trying not to move on to the next gun.
I did look on GunBroker for the the new Springfield waypoint. 2020, Waypoint, they have a new one with a backpacker stock, and I did peek on Gunbroker for those think about how I could afford one of those, but. Are they expensive? Relatively, I think for, the new one has a carbon fiber wrapped barrel.
That doesn't sound cheap. So if you look at other guns that have that, it's pretty cheap. Yeah. But compared to your [00:01:00] traditional Mossberg hunting rifle, it's, I want to say it's 1, 200, maybe a little more. Yeah. I know it's funny because every time we do a no low ballers, the guys are all like, It's like our own time goes up on gun broker because everybody starts getting curious about whatever we talked about.
Yep. Funny. Yep, all the historical guns and stuff we've been going over. It's wild to see all the different things you can buy. How much have you spent on your bow so far this year? I feel like you were doing a lot of like Maintenance and did you upgrade anything? So I got it restrung New string and then the like they did the setup and everything.
It's all like a package. I think that was like one 160 I think and then I had to buy a Drop away, rest, QAD, drop away, rest. And I just got like a Hunter one, it's not like a big fancy competition one, it's 60. So I'm like a little over a couple hundred bucks. And then I bought, I don't know if this counts, Broadheads, does that count?
Yeah. So that would be... [00:02:00] Another 45, so that puts us at about 250. Doing better than you. Oh, yeah? Okay. Oh, good. I'm zero dollars in the hole on my bow. Alright. You just jinxed it. Yeah. I know, right? I have not spent on anything. Yeah, I just that's good. The funny thing, cause you guys were kept like trying to get me to go shoot.
And. I was like, I don't know, man. I have, I got to get my site back on there. Cause I let Matt borrow my site to go out west last year and I had his Garmin and then he came back and I took the site that I'd been shooting with all summer. And cause basically we just never ended up trading back.
Yeah. And then it got to be gun season and I was tagged out. So I was done and I shamefully had not shot. And I'm like, dude, this is going to be so hard to get. I just it's going to take me longer than I want to do. I've only got 30 minute windows with just with all the kids activities and stuff right now.
And I went out and I threw the sight on, my son came out with me, and he wants to shoot archery next year, so I was showing him some stuff, and dude, like 30 minutes, I was right back in, and everything was ready, which I didn't change [00:03:00] anything, so it was the same arrows, same broadheads and everything, and I was like alright, I was shooting looser groups than I'd like to, but it's still dead deer.
Yeah, all those are dead deer. And you were at 30 yards? I have it out to I had checked my broadheads out to 25 right now. Yeah. At where I'm hunting right now, I probably wouldn't shoot, there's time, like I was telling you guys over the weekend, there's times where I can see deer at 108 but there's no good shots really past 25 because they start getting into the tree rows of trees.
I guess I'll tell my story first. I'm already getting it. I'm getting it. Let's go. I'm hunting a tree farm, and so there's rows of trees, and it gets into, there's guide wires, and there's branches, and To be talked about later. Yeah, you can see the bruise on my nose.
We'll get there. But I feel like Even if I thought I had a clear shot, I probably wouldn't take it because of those guide wires and just, there's a lot of stuff that I might not be able to see. And the tree, I'm in the branches start to I'm going to eventually peek out on how far out I could [00:04:00] go.
So there's one side that I could definitely get out to 30, but I'm like every deer that they were coming right through where I hoped for. Perfect. So this long story for anybody the quick backstory on why I'm hunting at random tree farm in suburbia is my hunting spot. The guy that owns it has let me hunt there for free for five years.
And I, a family member wanted to hunt there and they paid for it this year. And that's the way it goes sometimes. And I was very grateful to have even, I've killed a lot of deer out there. I had a backup, some of these guys may have heard me tell the poacher story last year or the year before where I had set up on another tree farm just to get to test it out and ended up poachers came in, tore out my blind, were walking around, I had them on camera with shotguns.
That, that spot just made me nervous. It's I don't really want to get in there. If somebody is this protective of whatever, it's not worth it to me. Plus I didn't have any good deer on camera. Really? Like I had a couple, three year old, eight, three and a half year old, eight points on there, but it wasn't like a, it's [00:05:00] not like I had this freak in there that I'm like, Oh, it's worth dying.
That's right. I ended up sitting up at this other one, which is where my son and I've been fishing. And I caught a. Really nice bass over there last year. We've been hanging out over there. He loves going over there. He chased the geese around and it's been a fun little spot for us to have access to.
And I finally threw up a camera and dude, my phone goes off just all the time throughout the day. But what's funny is I'm getting during the day, I'm getting all the guys that work at it there. So they're coming in, they're getting taken care of the plants or they're coming in to get a tree to take to a client.
And the deer are like clockwork because they know That the places, it's like it has human activity on it up until five o'clock, six o'clock on the money on the dot, dude, they start showing up. And I knew it was going to be pretty consistent of that would be the time just from what I'd seen.
What I hadn't thought about is the camera set, I've had it set up two different directions now. And I didn't realize how far it was not capturing, dude, it turned into a deer [00:06:00] party on whatever it was Friday or Saturday night. It was Saturday. Yeah. Cause Kentucky was getting demolished by Georgia.
So the, yeah, I ended up not watching the rest of that game. I listened to the radio on the way home and I was like, ah, I don't need to, better not. Yeah. Let's just spare myself. But dude I, so I saw the first year come in at a little after six and I had come up, I set up in a real. with my saddle, which I love that you can do that on a saddle and it was perfect.
But he came in way down there and I immediately knew what it was. I knew it was, I have a thicker six point that's got a tight rack on him. And I was like, all right, cool. First one in, I knew there would be more coming in and I watched him for 30 minutes. And then the I've told you guys about this four point I have on that I think is really old.
He's the boss daddy. And it doesn't really make sense when you look at his rack, it's almost like he's just gotten used to being the boss. Yeah. Cause typically when you think of them, like anytime you see them fighting, there's like the big buck is running off the smaller buck, right? This buck doesn't, I, even when I saw him in person, he doesn't look that impressive on any account, [00:07:00] but he came in and he was putting the six point in place.
There was a spike or not a spike. It was like a fork. He came in and he's putting him in his place. And I got to watch them spar and they sparred for Two hours. I could hear them sparring as they walk down through the trees and and then there's more deer start coming in and at one point I had crashing coming into me and I get my bow.
I get ready, have my bow. I'm holding my bow and I see him coming and I knew he was getting ready to hit my scent wall. And this was so cool. This is the value of urban hunting. I'm like, if he hits my scent while he's gone and I didn't even know what he was yet. I watched him come in. He smelled it and he stopped dead on and looked up and he couldn't really see me very well because there was a foliage in between us.
He thought about it and he took off and ran back. He ran about two big jumps and he thought about it. He's meh. Whatever. It was like, they're always out. Yeah, exactly, dude. And so he came back and I was like, wow, I don't know if I've ever seen one retreat from a [00:08:00] scent wall and then come back to it. Just from hunting on public or on private farms, like big farms.
And so he came back through it and I was like, wow, that's pretty cool. And then he walked right now. I sent you a picture of him under my stand. He ended up walking. Yeah. I had a, there was a big rock out there that I had that I knew was 15. He walked right on it. Like I could have pegged that deer perfectly.
But he's like a young nine point and I'm like, dude, he's not even top five that I have on my camera. I don't even know if he's top eight. Even yeah, he's nine point deer. Like I, I beggars can't be choosers. I don't know how many times I'm going to get out, blah, blah, blah. All the things telling you, you should shoot the deer.
But I'm like, there's no way in the first 90 minutes of hunting, or I guess I would be out there for a couple hours at that point. There's no way I'm shooting this deer. And so he goes off. And then I think I had nine deer. At sunset that had come through one doe and only one of them was a tiny buck.
The rest of them were decent, between six and nine point bucks and they were, they will [00:09:00] all be dead deer in December, like they'd be a dead deer in December, right? I would shoot any of those at the end of the season, right? Some guy on Go Wild even said, he's the saying about don't pass on something early that you'd shoot late and I'm like, I know man, but it's like first day out.
Yeah. And I I start to realize though that I'm in a bit of a conundrum in that I'm on the back of this property and there are deer everywhere on the way to my car and it's getting dark and I didn't bring a flashlight because I forgot, but then I'm like, I can't use one anyways because they're going to see it.
And so I started thinking about this. I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to wait until they clear out and then try to go to one edge or another, whichever one I think they're not on. And shooting light ends actually right at shoot, three minutes before shooting light ends here crashing again, but this time it was a doe and two fawns come on out.
And I'm like, great, she's gonna sit here for forever. I'm gonna have to wait on her to mosey on out. She gets out pretty quick. And so I quietly dropped my bow and this is two minutes after shooting light ends, my [00:10:00] bow hits the ground and the second it hits the ground, I hear loud crashing like I knew it was a bug.
He comes thrashing in and I see the rack and my heart didn't jump. So this is coming from behind you? Yeah. From it's like just to my right. I could see him very well. But my heart rate didn't even jump because I had, there's no option to shoot. So it's I didn't even, I just yep, that is a big old deer.
He comes in, he's got a big body. I don't, it's hard. I don't have a scale when I usually weigh 'em, but I would guess like around here, like 180 to a 200 pound deer is a big deer. He was a big deer. Yeah. And he, I see his body and then I see just mass. Oh man. Coming in, dude. It's just I don't know that ive seen him on camera up close.
Okay. I couldn't really tell how tall he was. 'cause it's dark at this point, but like I can just see the white of his mass come out. And he's even got the big neck and it's not even right yet, but he's got like this big, he just come out like he was the boss. And he walked right up.
I'd put a [00:11:00] scrape with a little bit of buck pee in it just to get them to stop. If I wanted to shoot in case they were coming through there, he did it perfect. If I was an unethical turd, I could have, popped this thing. He was at 15 yards. He stopped on my scrape and he sniffed it for a bit. And then he walked on out like super confident.
But I was like, I was excited because I'm like, dude, I, and I knew I probably had a trail camera picture of him, but it's not, it's blurry and it doesn't, I saw him in person and the picture, it's this is not, I'm going to have to go and see if I can get the video and see if I can see a little bit better of what he was.
But he walks out and I'm like, okay I got to wait on him to get out now. And then another doe comes out. So at that point, there's 13 out here somewhere that I've seen come in. And I'm like, I got a ninja sneak out of here. So I come down and I cross the gravel to get to the grass. And I'm walking in that and it's pretty quiet.
But then I get to the far corner, which, and then I got two tenths of a mile walk to my car. And I bust out three deer that I didn't know were in there. So there's 16 deer now that were in there. [00:12:00] And I think two of those were bucks from what I could see running away from me. But they go crashing over the fence and then I'm like, all right, I gotta get.
More in the, I just completely I thought there wasn't God wires over here. And so I start walking through this one part and I'm, I wasn't walking super fast, but I was trying to, get out of there unnoticed. And so didn't want to like linger. I'm like, okay, I just blew them out. I've got an open shot over to my car.
I'm going to mosey on out of here, dude. I hit a guide wire with my eye and. I hit it so hard it ripped my contact in half on my left side, and it my, I had a big pinky size welt on my eye right here so I couldn't see anything out of my left eye until I got to the car and I was able to get the contact out, but I'm like, dude, this is nuts. This was the first day it's only going to get better over the next two weeks because that was right at the front end of this cold front. And it wasn't even that cold. Now once they get moving I'm super pumped up. Yeah. I think I'll get. [00:13:00] A decent buck, I think.
So is that one you saw last night? Is that your new target buck? He's not even a target dude. He, I've got two or three on camera that would make him look like a no-brainer to not shoot. But the, none of them are like, Super, super beefy wall, like that, that one had mass to him, but they're not like I've seen some of Zach's deer the cure of it's just it's, I'm not saying there's anything like that, but for a dude like me, like this over here was last year's, I think I've got that one on the wall up there is pretty beefy for that's probably the thickest mass I've got.
But I've got at least three that would make that one look like a little tiny, there, there's, I'll show you, I probably sent you a few, but, and I was talking to Mike Larson about, he's dude, you're sitting on the sweet honey hole cause they're all, there's that pond in there and they're all at congregating in there and There are other ponds in the area.
It's just not a lot though. And I've got all the does coming in there. And it's just like this natural spot because there's houses. And so there's this [00:14:00] natural trail that they're walking through in the evening. And the other benefit is they. There's no timing issue because they're not going to be there during the day.
Yeah. They've learned to not come in there during the day. So it's fun. I I do wish I had my spot that I could have normally done cause it's super fun to be out in the woods and feel like, you feel like you're a little more challenged and I've got a public spot I might do in rifle cause I can't hunt rifle at this spot, but dude, it's just it's a different nut to crack than what I'm used to.
And I'm excited about trying to figure it out. It'll be interesting to see. How much their behavior changes, versus, cause gun season, a lot of times out where I hunt, it's crazy. I've heard 200 shots in a day and they'll get real scattered out. So that won't happen here. So that'll be cool to see if if that happens.
And then also I've thought about there's so much noise here. I wonder if I can even hunt the rut, like I normally would with calls. Because dude, I'm hearing radios. I'm hearing people talking. There was a bonfire going. There's motorcycles And it's weird. It's truly weird but i'm like, I don't even know how effectively I could call with all this [00:15:00] Suburban noise going on.
There's lawnmowers, but they don't care. They don't care about any of it. Yeah No, that's the crazy thing like seek one like their whole way They roll like you might be watching them a little bit this season to try to pick up some of their cues Yeah, like how they like that. It's just it's like a very It seems like a small group of people that get to hunt that real urban setting it's not...
I think more people could unlock these kind of opportunities. They have a whole class on it. Sequins the, they have really built up a process for knocking on doors, they go on road trips and target areas, and they'll go knocking and explain what they do. Anybody could do that.
Just most people don't want to seems like them now though. They're getting calls of oh, hey There's this donkey in the cemetery. Like you need to yeah, I Read this article and I'll probably get all the details wrong, but in some anti hunting city state I want to say it was Baltimore, but it was somewhere in Northeast 20[00:16:00]
20 or maybe 100 acre park and they say they have a herd of 400 deer That are just like demolishing it and just go around as a pack And so they're opening it up for a quota archery hunt and almost like a deep predation hunt And so they're like taking applications and they're like, they've never seen so much people apply for it.
It'd be like shooting fish in a literal barrel. That's the funny part of this. My buddy called me last week freaking out. He's dude, they're shredding our trees right now. Can you come out here and help? I'm like, I got a cap on one buck dude, so like I can try, but like you have to have somebody else help.
I'm surprised his workers don't want to do it. So he's got some teammates that think their spouses might come out, but I told him about those permits and he's looking into it. He's whatever we got to do, whatever we got to do to get them out of here. What permits? A depredation permit to where you can, or you said de [00:17:00] predation.
I said de predation. I say everything wrong, so now I'm questioning how I've always said it. Depredate. Yours sounds correct. I don't know. But the, it's basically a permit that if they're destroying property, you can apply with the state and you can take them off as long as they're destroying property. But I was walking out on Saturday.
And I saw what he was talking about there. And we're just getting, I told him, I said, this is all going to get worse. I said, I, and I don't know the answer to this. It'd be interesting if some go out members who are smarter would tell me, I said, from what I've seen, I would leave the trees that they're already rubbing in place and don't try to deter them from those trees anymore because they're going to, they're going to rub and they typically will refresh those.
Yeah. If it were me, I wouldn't try to prevent it at this point because they're just going to start tearing up other trees, I think. I don't know, but that was what my gut said. In the woods they typically are hitting the same spots. The concern, would be like a rub line.
If they start Let's have a rub line. So they have a robot already? But they're hitting, they already had, yeah. [00:18:00] They're basically coming on, I saw on the outside of the row I was walking. Now on, it was interesting though, it's not trees like you would see in the woods because they have those protected.
They have a, like a, some kind of barrier around them that What was enough to deter a rub, but it's happening on like their shrubs and stuff. And I've even seen it on their evergreens over there. Like the small green giants, you know what that tree is? Yeah. I've seen them clean a foot off of a green giant tree, which is not typically a tree.
That they, I feel like I would have seen in the woods because it's like harder to get into. Usually that's like an opportunist, right? They're gonna pick a convenient tree and I wouldn't say like cleaning off a eight inch section of an evergreen like that's, I don't know, I just haven't seen that as much in the woods.
It's usually there's this opening spot where they can get to it really good and they're gonna shred all the bark off that side. Yeah. But they've taken limbs off of these things. They can't sell these trees anymore. Huh. So it's costing them, these trees are hundreds of dollars a piece. Yeah.
And they're hitting [00:19:00] dozens of them in this tree farm. Oh. Yeah. Old Brad might be shooting a couple bucks out there. I was like, if you get it then I was like, dude, I don't even have the freezer space. But I was like, I don't know, somebody over here or like the office. And I told them, I was like, if you want to get it processed, I could throw the leg in the freezer and you can take it down or whatever.
I was like, I'm not processing. All these deer to hand out to your office, but I'll take it to my guys, so that's how that works then? Like he could he could have you out there and say here's one of my depredation tags, or here's three of my depredation tags, and you could kill multiple bucks in a year?
I briefly read on the state website and I will, if he gets this done, I will definitely check that because I don't want to screw this up. up, but it looks like it's up to the landowner, if the landowner has the tag, they, you have a right to take as much as you need to. That makes me wonder, do you have to I understand morally we wouldn't kill a deer without consuming it, but do you have to?
Could you theoretically have? It where you just leave him out in the field. I don't know. I don't know. I can I Honestly don't [00:20:00] know the law around that but I like a predator yeah I don't know who in the right mind would leave delicious venison laying out, but Yeah, I don't know the answer to that But I mean I told him if I and if we end up in that situation And he wants me to come out and try had I shot that nine if I had one of those tags, I probably would have, right?
Because it's like, why not? I can come back and try again. And I'm helping him. Dude, they're so overpopulated there. It was nuts. Just in the small timeframe. From 6 to 7. 50, I got 16 deer on top of me. Thank goodness he hasn't fenced it in. Because that would seem like an investment that would pay for itself.
It would have to be a really tall fence. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. would have to be a tall fan. And plus you got so many people, I imagine during the day that just leave the gate open at the front. Yeah, you could do, you can do it. Actually I was driving over by over through the area over here next to, on a way to a cub scout meeting.
And there's a farm over there in Anchorage that has far, they've fenced in a high fence, eight foot tall all the way around. And that's what they're doing. They're trying to keep the deer out. [00:21:00] They may end up doing that over here. But the problem, fences get holes. They. They have a fence on one side and it's, it's trees have fallen on it and everything.
And it is a tough battle. Yeah. It makes me wonder about that farm that we hunt in Indiana. Like they, they're wanting us to kill, as many deer as we can ourselves, and then bring like people out there to do the same and they factored up. I haven't seen the number, but they factored up like how much money.
And damage deer do to their property every year. And it makes me wonder They could apply. Pretty much every state's got some kind of permit like that. What'd you get into? We went out there Saturday, same day you went hunting, just with the cold front coming in. We were trying to make Friday evening work, but that's just not really it wasn't feasible.
We went out Saturday evening and really worked out that it didn't get very cold Friday night. It was maybe 50s I was cold. I was cold cause I only had a hoodie on Friday night. Yeah. Yeah. It was probably like 70s down to 50s. It went, it was a pretty big drop and it was super windy.
Yeah. And then Saturday went from like 70s down to like [00:22:00] low 40s. Yeah. And it basically dropped, I forget, it was like 10, 12 degrees in 40 minutes or something like that between, I think it was like. 6 p. m. and like 7. 30. That's what happened. I went from sweating to cold. Yeah, and it was tough.
So we went out there and we hiked in and set up on the same like soy field. I was on one part looking into the woods and then looking out over the soy and then he was in a peninsula where he could see both sides. See out into two different soy fields really only had a good shot at one especially just with archery.
So we were trying to get basically we were hunting like soy edges and then I was hunting like a corner in the woods a little bit. And really just out there, we got up at 345 and the whole play was like. Hopefully it gets hot from 645 to 7, I think we had to 749 or something like that.
So that last like hour or whatever, and the wind was like [00:23:00] perfect when we got out there. But then like slowly, I mean it was swirling a lot. It was not like a good consistent wind. It finally, temperature started dropping and started like feeling and looking really deary. We were getting excited there at the end, but I only ended up seeing one doe out of range in the field.
And didn't have any really work that field edge that I needed him to work. If it was gun season, it would have been a poke, but it could have been, maybe possible, but just with archery, obviously trying to get close, we didn't have a, neither one of us had a shot. And I had just the worst set.
ever. Like I did, I'm using these new Amstel daisy chain ropes instead of my normal, just like regular rope tie, half hitch knot and all that stuff. And the Amstel worked fantastic on the sticks. And I had tried like practice with my platform, like on the ground, like I didn't climb all the way up and do the whole thing.
I was just like, okay, I see how this works. And I was having a really hard time, like getting it to be like. Steady against the tree. Like it just [00:24:00] had a lot of play, like a lot of flex. Yeah. And so I kinda, I I was having a hard time finding like a really good tree and so it was one of those situations where I'm like, all right, this one has like the best shooting lanes.
It's not perfect, but I can make it work. And so like it was set up like basically where I wanted to put my platform. There's like a branch coming off at like the exact height. that I wanted to put my platform and then go up like two feet and there's a branch off the back like about where I wanted to put my tree tether.
And so I'm like up there having to manage around this giant limb in the way of trying to get this new am steel rope on the platform that I'd never used like that before and I just struggled for 15 minutes and just could not get it. I'm like starting to sweat and getting pissed and.
I actually ended up climbing up on it and I got on it and was standing there and I was like nope. Like it was flexing. And I was like, that was, and I truthfully started rational, rationalizing a little bit. I'm like, I'm not going to move that much. Like I'll probably be fine.
And as soon [00:25:00] as I did it, I was like, the fact that you're doing this right now, like you need to get down. So I got down and I brought my cam strap just in case it didn't work. And so I dug that out and then ended up just using that. Why'd you change your strap? It's just if you can if I can figure it out, it's really fast.
Cause it's literally just a daisy chain. And you literally go around the tree, and then you put it on the post. And then it's done. You don't have to tighten it, or do any of the stuff like that, that you have to do with a cam strap. It's lighter but to be honest, like I don't really care, like it's not, I'm not too worried about weight, I'm not going 16 miles back it's fine so it's just more of a speed thing, convenience thing where I can just, I always hate having that cam strap up there and having to reach around the tree or do whatever to get and like actually pull and cinch it down and get it into a Tight position.
So I was like, all right, I'm just gonna use this am still. And I just, I couldn't get it to work. And I think the big problem was that big limb in the way and me not having a bunch of experience with it. So I'm going to try again and just keep bringing the cam strap in case, I can't use it. I can at least safely put it up there, [00:26:00] but yeah.
So then it was at I still had a weird angle, the platform. So like my calves are super sore, like from being that my back is all sore. And my neck was really sore. Cause I hadn't been in a saddle and a year and. It took me probably 25 minutes to get everything because I was going up the tree and I went up first to high and I was had a branch right at my head and I was like, I come back down, had to drop a stick down and just constantly, re deciding where I was going to go up that first time.
So how do you, I was at brain an hour talking about this morning. How, what is your posture in the tree when you're not? Prepared to shoot like you don't see a deer, no deer around, you're just hanging. I have to change it all the time. Like I'll sit for maybe half an hour to an hour one way and then I'll adjust it, tighten it up and have it.
So I'll first really be sitting in it with my knees in the tree. So you're putting your knees together and I have some knee pads that I picked up online, just cheap ones that work fine.[00:27:00] And then I will once that starts to get to me, cause what, it's What I find is that starts to cut into my it's almost like nerve pain.
That's what I was saying. Hip pinch. Yeah, I get pinched and then I will let out slack of my tree line. And then I will like, sofa it a little bit more. Do you use a recliner? I don't, but my, I think my seat might be a little bit bigger than some of the seats you guys use. Do you use a recliner?
Yeah, I didn't use it last time. That was the biggest difference for me. I got the trophy line one that's a little bit thicker than the tethered one. Man, it makes a huge difference. That's what I have, so maybe it is a recliner. I wouldn't have thought it was, but... The separate recliner thing.
Oh oh, it's a separate... No, okay, no, I don't have that. But, that's not really as much, my issue is the weight on the seat, that usually starts to pinch, like the hip pinch as you said. Do you ever, cause I do this, do you ever, what I like to call, koala bear the tree? He's telling me about this morning.
Where you just, like I'll have my pack in front of me. On the tree, my [00:28:00] backpack strapped to the tree. And then I'll put one leg on either side of the tree, almost like I'm a qua bear, hugging the tree . And I'll just, I'll sometimes I'll put my arms up on my pack, and the trunk's two inches from my face.
I just got a visual walking up on you in the woods like this. Just like a little, I haven't done that little listen, I'll try anything 'cause I, I do get I do find, That this, there's just no question to me on a long sit. The saddle is not as comfortable on a long day. No.
I just don't think it's, there's no way you could say it is. As comfortable as a buddy stand. A ladder stand. Yeah. Ladder stand or something a padded ladder stand is totally comfortable. But koala bears look comfortable. Listen, , it's true. I, yeah, I hear you. They've got it figured out.
I'm not even judging this yet. I'll try it this week. Yeah. Can't make fun of it until you give it a shot. No, but I'll do something similar though, where I will shorten up, get myself close to the tree. And if I'm cold, I'll do this. Or if I just need a new position, I'll tuck my arms. Like like you're folding your arms.
Like you were standing, put my hands in my armpits and I'll just lean against the tree like that. Have you ever fallen asleep [00:29:00] in the saddle? I've fallen asleep not at all. But and then you're like, Oh, it's 20 minutes after the last time I looked at what I have. I don't know.
I've done it as a koala bear, too. Just imagine walking up on Dan, snoring, hanging from a tree. Big buck walking right by you. Yeah. Oh, I I left my stuff out there. Oh, okay, nice. What all did you leave? Your platform? Your sticks? All of it, but one stick. The stick I didn't use, I brought back. But, the reason is cause the noise.
I couldn't get down. I was like, there's no way I'm getting all this stuff off this tree. Not that it's super loud. I actually think it's way quieter than a climber stand, obviously. Oh yeah. But these deer, there's deer 20 yards from me when I came down and I got out of there without them noticing.
But there, there was just no way I was taking all that off. So I had already there's only one other tree that I would probably hang in and it is where. 70 percent of the deer came out, but the two shooters came out under my tree. So I don't know, that could be [00:30:00] coincidence, but I'm not, I'm going to go at least one more time there.
And the other thing is the wind, if it's similar, it was at least blowing back towards the houses. To where I have, those two, I didn't mention the doe, but I had a doe do the exact same thing on the scent line and she ran off and then came back. But it's at least got more of a chance to get back to those houses versus if I'm set up in the middle, I'm like, dude, that's going to spread everywhere in there.
Yeah. So yeah, I've left my saddle set up in a spot for a week. Some guys leave it much longer than that. Yeah. I don't, I wouldn't wanna leave it out like in the sun for obvious reasons 'cause of the ropes and everything. . But I'm, I was like, man, I'm probably talking about the next month.
Just been there. I think it's fine. I would assume. I don't know. I wouldn't advise anybody else on what to do in that situation, but no, I've left hang ons and trees for whole seasons and I've still got to climb and stand out in Shelby County. So somebody go pick that up. Maybe that's the one you've been walking by.
That's what I was thinking was how many people [00:31:00] next season comes an opportunity to hunt, how many people, what's the ratio of people who are like, Oh, I gotta go back to this other property, hike in, pull down the old stand, or just that stand's just gone. Oh, I've seen, it's illegal to leave permanent stands out on public.
Yeah, mine's on private. Yeah. Yeah. You can do whatever. The one that was on the lane between the lakes I saw was a climbing stand. Yeah. Which I guess you should be fine. I don't know if it's permanent, if that's technically permanent or not. You can't leave anything. You're not be considered littering, right?
Yeah. Leave it on the ground. You can't leave anything. Yeah. Guess that's true. Yeah. Yeah. The benefit to pub private is I can screw into the tree. Yes. That is great love. So I have two hooks. Yeah. I, my whole setups, I will be in that tree in Five minutes next time. Yeah, dude.
I thought about for my grandpa's getting some of those screw in steps You know this little I think they look like kind like a triangle or whatever. You just pop every other foot Do you still have your ground blind that the poachers? No, I got stolen. It's not stolen 350 blind wait, it got stolen. I thought it just got either up.
It did one [00:32:00] time the wind got it and I don't I think they probably stole it. No, because the wind, it would have caught it. Oh, I remember that because you borrowed paracord from me once, right? Or was that you? Yeah, I don't know. I got my own paracord. I don't borrow paracord from Cabela's today.
I I don't know. I I don't know. I may have borrowed it. Oh, I think I did borrow it to tie it. Because I didn't have enough to tie down. I was trying to anchor it. Yeah, and you were at the office and you were like, Oh, I gotta go tie down my... Yeah. Yeah. I, at first when I went out there, I thought the wind had got it, but I'm like, I would see it.
If there's a fence, like it couldn't have rolled. Cause your property seems like it'd be a really good spot for that. Where if you set it up, I'm going to build, I already talked to them. We're going to build a permanent blind out there. Yeah. If you set it up, deer would be used to it in a week.
That's what I told him. Cause he started, he's you can build it now. I'm like no. I was like, these deer are used to people, but I think putting, I said, if we put a blind up and I'm pretty sure that's true. I said, we put a blind up now. They may start coming into the property on a part that's harder for me to hunt them.
And they're gonna go away from the blind that we [00:33:00] built. They'll start coming in on another corner where I may not have a tree or something to get to them. We have them coming where I need them. I have everything I need to kill them. Let's not build a blind right now. But I told them I'd come back in the summer and throw one up.
Yeah. That's the way to go that. Get a crossbow. I know I pop them across the whole property. Yeah. Dude, like I said, for 20 yards, it's not hard to get ready on a compound. Every most unsatisfying hunt is a honey hole at a landscape place with a cross. I shot a deer in Texas over corn and it was like.
feeding dogs I mean it really was, part of It was like a make a wish hunt. They like, they literally, your dog hears the dog bowl and comes running. They went out with the truck, he had a feeder on the front of it, and it was like, and then he takes the truck away, and within 40 minutes we had all these deer standing there in front of us eating the corn.
Wow. And I'm not knocking the Texas guys because I even told those guys, I was like, I don't know how else you would hunt this year because they're in cacti, thick stuff. Like you can't get to [00:34:00] them. And I remember butchering, when I was butchering that deer, I was pulling barbs out that were like inch and a half long and their legs, like they're in some thick, nasty stuff.
And that's how you get them to come out. And I'm like, I don't judge it. And it was a fun experience all the same. It was something different. It tastes good. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it's totally different than like. Where I thought I was going to end up, because I was still up until a few weeks ago, I thought it was going to be on public in Kentucky.
So is your rifle hunt, is it down in coal country? Yeah. I've got a spot down there that is probably stupid, but I think, I don't know, I don't know if I would hunt. It's a good spot for like archery. It would make me a little nervous for gun, just been down there, it's too accessible. It makes me a little nervous that it's so accessible.
Not from pressure, but for safety. Did I tell you that I got into the Taylorsville Lake quota hunt? Yes, because you were telling me you got into the waterfowl twice. That is true, yeah. So you had two opportunities. Yeah, last year we had. Derek had [00:35:00] a group already. It was him and Bardo and Quentin. And those three have I don't know for how many years, but, been put in for this duck hunt in Kentucky.
It's one of the best places to do it. to go and it's like points based, so it's points based and then if one guy gets drawn he can bring three people with him. So they were like, if we could get one more person to join in, then there's four of us and if any one of the four of us gets drawn each year, then that means we can all go.
That was, so last year, one of, one of the four of us got drawn and so all of us got to go ducking and we were like, woo, this is awesome. So I got a point last year. I only got a point this year, but two of the four guys this year got drawn to do the quota. So now we get, the way it works is you pick They got eight guys.
No. It's different dates. Oh. So you get, you have to pick That's cool. You have to pick two days and then, so now we have two days in December and two days in January. I thought we were getting invited. It depends, if people can't it's possible we have [00:36:00] some people that may not be able to go. So it's we Have you been one for a hunting?
Derek makes it sound hor like everything I hate about hunting is oh yeah, you wake up super early, it's freezing cold, and then the way he describes it is if it's a good hunt, you're done in about five minutes. First light. Shoot two birds and then you leave and if they fly off you may or may not see anything the rest of the day Yeah, which is how most around here it's like totally different experience like all the people that are like major duck hunters that like are super stoked on it Follow the migration pattern like down from freaking Canada to Louisiana and have a whole you know, they may not follow it all the way but they keep track of like where they are and they like Set up, we're going to this Airbnb or we're gonna go hunt with this guide or we're gonna go do, you know We got property here and here that we can go hit or you know You live in one of those states and so you just keep track of when the flyway is gonna be active and you know Make your plans that way over here We don't really have major flyways and stuff like they [00:37:00] do over there that are just rolling over consistently And so it's really difficult and so most duck hunters around here are like sad boys when you talk to them They sound like old war vets or something's I had just It's hard out there, but Derek's going up to North Dakota on that. He's doing the thing to actually, on YouTube if you go watch North Dakota duck hunting that time of year. It's just like nuts. And Derek will be back tomorrow to tell us about his bear hunt. Yeah, he's deer and bear hunting right now.
Larson, I went up with Larson a few years ago and goose hunted. I admit, just thought of him because he was posting on Go Wild this morning about his goose that he was smoking up. And that was fun. I think that's the only time I've goose hunted was with Mike. I like a goose hunt. Yeah it was fun.
It was, it's like, it reminded me a lot of dove hunting because there's a lot of B. S. And then somebody sees a bird and it's like everybody gets quiet. Yeah. That's like duck hunting too. Yeah. That's like a blast. Yeah, duck hunting, I think I've I haven't bird hunted a ton. I've dove hunted a bunch, but I haven't waterfowl a ton.
There's things I like about it a lot. I still think I don't think I could get into it the way that guys do. It's so freaking expensive compared to everything [00:38:00] else. Yeah, it's expensive. It's tough if you don't have a dog with you, the whole time we were with Mike his buddy brought out all the decoys and I'm just sitting there tolling up in all my head.
This guy's got a side by side, a trailer, like four grand worth of decoys. It's you are deep. Yeah. And like I told you, I didn't even spend a dime, besides my license. Yeah. This is gonna be the cheapest meat per pound. Yeah. The cool thing about that one hunt we go on is not that many decoys required for these types of spots, but it's all fixed blinds that are out there.
And I think this year is the first year you're allowed to hunt. Like they're built. Yeah for the people that get drawn or whatever and so you just get to go out there and you just, it's a lottery each morning. So you go up and say, I got drawn. You go into this room and you say it's me.
I'm the guy that got drawn. Okay, here's your lottery ball. Write down the number and they put it in a little. Tumblr and everybody does that and then there's even people that'll show up that haven't gotten drawn But if there's if they run out of people that [00:39:00] got drawn They go to people that didn't and you can put your name in the hat for that day It's a big commitment for maybe it is dude.
It is. Yeah, especially for us dude. It's like hours to drive It's like people that live around there do all the time and maybe not getting your license from exactly what it's like but then you so then it's like Elimination you like first guy comes up. It's I want to hunt this unit or whatever.
Okay. It's nobody else can pick that one. Each one like has its own blind and there's a map and it shows this is where the blind is. You're hunting over like dry ag or wet ag or, whatever it is. And then Derek, last time we were down, there's like calling locals on which one. And so you have a strategy of this is my one, two, and three that I want to.
Draw or whatever. It's a cool experience. But for us, it's like a lot easier than Derek has told me some stories of him hunting. I think it's Texas or Oklahoma where they like slog through like thigh high water and muck for four miles into the spot and they shoot a lot of ducks.
But. It's like you're slogging through ice and water, it's a terrible, [00:40:00] we were just like a tenth of a mile into this fixed blind and get in there and hang out. Those hunts are always fun to tell about later, but when you're living it, it's yeah, absolute hell. Type 2 fun. Yeah, for sure. And it's once in a lifetime fun, you're never like, let's do that again next year.
Oh, I don't know. I don't know man, me and Derek were that bear last year. You would do that again this season? Yeah, I've actually, there's an open invite from Chris, I'm trying to get Brayden and Jacob to go, or you or somebody like to go and, Do it and I'm like, I don't know, I'd probably go even though I'm like last man on the totem to shoot one, but it was so fun, fun, like air quoting, everything was fun up until that four hours where Derek and I were like, we're so screwed and then we hated our life until we got back to the truck and then they're handing us beers and it's yeah, this is awesome again.
It's great. It's like running the marathon, dude. I do that analogy this weekend because Chicago was this weekend and I, it's like the nine year anniversary of me almost dying at the Chicago marathon. I was thinking about it, but yeah. There's three points in my life that I've had that thought of I'm so stupid, why do I do that to myself?
And it's marathons, hunting in extreme cold, and then startup life. Yeah, a lot of [00:41:00] parallels. Yeah, we were talking about that at lunch of just like why, like how good hunting is for us. Like the, you gotta have some amount of like struggle. Yeah, we were talking about. We were talking about just student math scores and how everyone's failing math.
And he was talking about how Bill Gates is trying to make math fun and easy. It's kids have to have something that's hard and difficult. You can't just have everything through your life be easy. And we're like, hunting for us is introducing something hard. Where you're out in nature and it's on you to be successful or not.
And I think you need that in your life. I think you need that in your life. And, but it does need to be... Something that like you have a chance at being good at people that make their kids grind it out through sports for year after year when there's obviously no hope that the kid wants to do it.
They don't have a gift to do this and they think they're going to hone them in to be a pro player. Like I know a lot of people that do that to their kids and I'm like, that kid is never going to play whatever the sport is. Like you could just see it. They hate it. They're there for social hour and that's it.
Versus like when you [00:42:00] find, I'm going through this with my son cause he's in all the things right now. And there's some clear paths that he shouldn't do. Like baseball. Like he wanted to go back to baseball this year. I was like, dude, let's just talk. Let's be real. You're really good at percussion.
You're pretty good at soccer. I think he's got some problems on basketball, but baseball ain't it, man. We gotta just we gotta pick something and try. Cause if you're gonna put all that time into it and effort, and I don't know, I feel like there's a struggling for struggle's sake is not what we're talking about.
That's what Victor Frankl talks about, that as soon as suffering and struggle loses its meaning, it's when people lose hope. Yeah, like what, struggling towards a goal. There's no outcome from that, that My kid comes out of this and is a great baseball player. But he's really talented with percussion, and like I said, he's okay with soccer and some of this other stuff.
So it's yeah, let's keep doing it. But, I don't know, I think adults do this to themselves too. 100%. That's what hunting is. What? Is a struggle where you're most likely going to be unsuccessful. Yeah. It depends. I think, but [00:43:00] that's, what's fun about hunting is, when I first started, I was hunting with someone else and I thought it was easy because I was with a guy that was showing me how to do it.
And I was like, yeah, man, I get this. You like go in, you look for some deer sign, you set up over the deer sign, you shoot the deer. Cause that's what I did. And then when I had to do it myself, I'm like, Oh my God, this way harder. I'm on public land now. And I, it. And then I remember the first, that, that deer down there was the first deer I killed by myself.
And I got a reward for that. And then you do naturally, I've talked to Mia Anstine about this. She's a great guide. She was on Restless Native a long time ago. One of my favorite people in the hunting industry. Just super sweet to talk to, but an insane badass. And she's talked about that. She says, you, there are levels to which you go through this.
Once you have accomplished a level, you generally don't want to just do that again. Like you're always trying to like, once you get to this 200 inch deer, you're like, man, that was crazy. I'm going to, I did that with a gun though. And now I want to do it with a bow. And now I don't want to do it with a compound bow, trad bow.
And there's always a way to, challenge yourself more. I don't think anybody, and then, or then you're like Clay Newcomb. It's man, I'm really good at killing bears. I bet I could kill two bears in two different states in [00:44:00] two days. It's there's always a new way to challenge yourself.
And that's what I think is so cool about it. It's because we could all sit around with different skill levels and I can identify with. You're, like, your pains, even if I haven't been there or not. Yeah, cold is cold. We all know what it's like to be cold. Or scouting sucks or it's hard, or whatever, whatever the challenge is.
I feel like that's, that is one cool thing about it, is you can unite around that. Cool. What do you guys got going on next weekend? I'm going back out to Land Between the Lakes. Do some more scouting. I'm with this cold front that's coming in, it's gonna be in the 30s, so I am, I think the first night I can get back out there is Thursday, I'm not sure yet I'm definitely gonna be hunting, but I don't know where yet. I'm just waiting to see how the wind and everything plays out to pick between the spots, and I think, I don't think Phil can hunt Saturday, so I'm gonna be potentially so we'll see. I'm gonna put the plans together.
The cool thing about the tree farm is it is I'm not going to go out there at three o'clock, they're not out there, but like the, it's the last two hours of the day. So I feel like it's very convenient for my lifestyle. I can plan it really [00:45:00] conveniently and I can be there in 15 minutes. I'm hoping to get out Thursday night and then one day this weekend, at least.
Nice. So yeah, hopefully we've got some blood on our hands next time. Yeah next time we convene. Yes, sir. All right We had Braden where Dan almost called you Dan Johnson, Dan hood OG Dan and Brad Luttrell I think it was David called me out or called you guys out I wasn't on that episode for because you guys don't do the roll call at the end I was like, I don't know who to tag.
I don't know who was on there And apparently you and I sound a lot alike, Brayden, and this is Brad speaking. I'm honored. Alright, you got Brad, Brayden, and Dan. Let us know what you thought of our ignorant rant. Thanks guys. See ya.
