Is it October yet?! Drew Hasler Introduction

October is fast approaching and on this episode of Michigan Wild Nate and Drew Hasler talk about the upcoming season. This is an introduction podcast for Drew to understand his tactics and passion for bowhunting whitetails in Michigan.

They both share a lease in Illinois and are excited for the upcoming fall. Having similar mindsets with how they bowhunt out of state and in their home state of Michigan makes for great conversation.

Drew also has had great success targeting bucks in early October in Michigan. He breaks down the mindset with striking early and setting up his property for that success. That success stemmed from a mindset change and not being afraid of some sweat equity thru habitat improvements.

Bowhunting at a high level is something Drew has done for multiple years and look forward to more episodes with him on Michigan Wild. 

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

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What's going on? I am doing my first intro for Michigan Wild because this week's episode I was able to do with drew Hasler through the internet. We didn't have an, I didn't have an in studio guest this week, so my first week with that, a little nerve wracking. This morning I got up pretty early and I've been on the struggle bus trying to figure out how to upload this file.

All new stuff for me. I'm not a techie guy by any means, but I believe with the help my wife and the Google searches, I got it figured out. But yeah, this week I was able to sit down and had a really good conversation with a buddy Drew who became a friend through a mutual friend. And we actually getting pretty fired up for this fall.

We're approaching October quickly. It's the first the first two weeks of August here. It is the 12th already. So this is gonna be this podcast will be dropping Monday whatever that day is, [00:02:00] the 14th. But yeah, I wanted to sit down with Drew and just chit chat with him because we both share a lease in Illinois.

We both hunt Michigan. He is not, he doesn't live close to me, but I hunt similar terrain that he does or area of the state. And I really enjoyed the conversation because he's He's not afraid to get after in early October, which you'll find out he's had a lot of success doing that.

He's been outta state hunting a couple times. He so yeah we're fired up for October. We're fired up for our lease in Illinois. We've discussed, those kind of our game plan. We didn't really get into many nitty-gritty details for how we hunt. More just a broad spectrum of things.

Just kinda wanna introduce him on the podcast and get to know him because he's definitely gonna be on more in the future. But yeah he. Got me fired up because he has shot some really nice bucks in early October, like talking like the first sit, second sit a thing. And it's on a [00:03:00] piece of properties.

He's hunted for a long time, so he explains how it's something that you get to put some equity into. And with food plots, micro plots, learning how to do those things and how it's really paid off by doing that. And that's something that I've wanted to add to my toolbox or my fall hunting style, because primarily I don't do any of my equity has not been in food plots or in doing habitat work because the properties I have, I just am not.

Allowed to do that or unlimited. So I've just done a lot of scouting, a lot of knocking on doors, just getting lots of properties to hunt and just bouncing all over the place, which, depending on how the fall goes and how your year goes and where you're working, for me I'm flexible and I work to an extent because I'm self-employed, but each year is different.

I could have a job, pretty far away or, trying to hit deadlines and just a lot of things going on with that. So this fall I took a different approach with a couple of mini food plots and Drew is someone I talked to quite a bit. My dad has, being a farmer, growing up a farmer and doing the, [00:04:00] that kind of thing, hobby farm along my father-in-law, they know how to do crops and stuff.

And my dad's kind of had a food plot he's been messing with for a few years behind his house. I have a working knowledge, but I just haven't really done much other than broadcast seed and. Some rye and hope for the best in fields that get harvested early. So this year actually used a rotor tiller and a call packer and those kind of things and strategically placed a couple obviously, in farm field.

But no, just, yeah, just doing that was pretty exciting. And yeah, now I'm talking with Drew. Trail cams are going out today heading to a property with a family, gonna get some stands hung and do those kind of things. But yeah, I got the, got cameras all sitting down here and batteries in 'em, making sure they work their cell cams.

But yeah, they're gonna go on on mock scrapes. One of 'em, I believe there's a scrape that was, has been there last two years that I really like to have a good game plan for where to hang a stand to hunt that scrape have scouted that area a couple times, like that general area of the property with other [00:05:00] cameras and other mock scrape and.

I believe three years. Yeah. I've had a camera on this one. Scrape, mock scrape made for three years and the first year was dynamite. Second year. A big buck was using it early in the season. He ended up getting shot right away. And then after he got shot, no other mature buck really was using that area.

So I'm bailing on that spot. It's a really good spot for dough and that kind of thing. So that would, that's just a spot we know deer move through, so I don't really need a. I'm a camera there because this other location's really close to that and I feel like that's where the bigger bucks are using just from, sitting on a distance and watching and paying attention to the certain things when you're there.

So yeah, I got that. Another location's gonna be a brand new spot that I haven't hunted. Gonna put a stand in a mock scrape, scouted that with the family a couple different times in the last two years, just walking and seeing what's going on. There's this perfect little train feature and natural funnel and a perfect tree to hang a stand in a perfect spot for a scrape.

So it's one of those things where [00:06:00] I'm the stars align. It could be a great spot. Otherwise, there's times when I do lots of mock scrapes and you think it's gonna work and it just doesn't work. So gonna use the camera to do that. Like I said, it's second week of August and I was hoping to wait to do my cams until closer to September, but I'm running outta time because there's gonna be a trip, hopefully to Illinois and the next few weeks.

So I burned up a weekend. So just gonna do a soft start with those, get a couple of those hung up and see what's going on. But yeah, that's my updated current event for that. Hopefully this audio sounds good with Drew. Like I said, it's my first time doing that and I'm sure I'm gonna, I'm sure I'm going to listen to it and hopefully be able to get better moving forward with it.

But hopefully it sounds good enough for you guys. But yeah, if you're not getting fired up for the season, I know it's August, but we have a little mini rain system came through and cooled the temps down a little bit and it's getting a little dark a little sooner. Have found some. Really nice bucks, just scouting, driving the roads.

[00:07:00] One of 'em is, I talked with Drew a little bit about that. One of 'em really surprised me. I actually found a shed this spring and knew the deer from Trail Camp X, but just didn't hunt him. 'cause it wasn't, a deer I was targeting. I figured he was a small three-year-old, is what I had thought, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

Then I found his shed and I was like, okay, the mass, and, certain things you, it's all a relative guess, but yeah, I've picked the shed up and I was like, okay, he's probably a three-year-old. He had really cool brow tin, big brow tin, big mass. Just lacked in time length. And then I've seen him a couple times this summer and wow, he blew up.

So that buck really surprised me. So hopefully in the next few weeks, get some cams set up for him. There's a food plot that got put in for him. Then there's another buck that I have seen and he, I believe I know which deer it is. He It is one of those deer that, I don't know exactly how old he is, but looking at him from a pretty far ways away, he could definitely be in that four and a half year old range also.

He's really [00:08:00] frame and just trying to get a good look at him, see the time length and all those kind of things, and then compare him to other deer, the other deer that he's with. I passed multiple times last year as a busted up three-year-old, I thought. But sometimes those two, three-year-olds are hard to tell, especially in November when they're rutting and they're moving pretty quick and you see 'em a couple handful of times.

But it's just tough. Sometimes I feel like it's easy to get 'em confused. But if that deer is four and a half this year, And then this other deer is definitely four and a half because he's a lot bigger bodied and all that stuff. But it's hard to judge from a distance in a, these fields are tall, maybe grassy field or the back drop's, not the greatest, they come out last light, so you're trying to glass 'em from a few hundred yards away.

So yeah, usually do a better job estimating that with multiple trail cam picks and getting a little closer to, there's a telltale size, telltale signs of bucks, where you can compare and contrast to other deer, especially you have a camera going up and the multiple deer go by.

Thankfully, I live in an area where I get to see lots of [00:09:00] deer on trail cam, so I pretty good judge of character. But yeah, there's definitely some future prospects of bucks that I actually wasn't even really, weren't really on my radar for this year. There's a couple others that haven't showed up that I was really looking forward to.

So yeah, if I have those two potential deer already showing up, that's just adding to the list of deer to go after, and that gets me pretty jacked. Yeah, I don't know what else to I don't know what else to do from a prep standpoint, from food plots. I pretty much got that all done. And then, yeah, now it's just deploying cameras and getting ready for the Illinois lease.

Doing that, I'm primarily a mobile hunter, so preset stands are usually not something I take part in unless I'm running behind or one of those things. You get home from work late, quick hop into one. Those are mostly gonna be set up for, Family and other people that can get there and do it.

My wife brother-in-law, dad, those kind of things because their schedules are so just hectic. It's hard to be everyone, be a mobile hunter [00:10:00] when you have small properties. So these spots that I'm gonna have preset stands are, those are private property and they're typically, my family's property, my knock on door stuff, I do not hang stands.

Those are strictly hanging hunt every time. And that's just a. The nature of it. 'cause I don't want people stealing stuff, but I think an effective tool for a preset is if you can have the camera really close to it with a scrape especially, and you can monitor it from, a distance as in, cell cam or if it's in a spot where you have a camera close and you can, check it quick, sneaking into a pre-stat once or twice a year could really pay off.

I've I think we talked a little bit about that first sit stuff with Drew Chew in this podcast, but yeah, it's pretty powerful the first or second time you're there. And not overhunting it and getting there the right conditions. So sometimes you gotta have luck on your side with that. But yeah, I think I think we're gonna have a pretty good game plan.

So yeah, that's that's gonna be this weekend's fun, adventure and [00:11:00] current event for the family and I, and hopefully we'll have some good intel moving forward. But yeah, enjoy the podcast. Thanks you guys. Thank you guys all for listening and I always like to say at the end, apparently, go outside.

Enjoy creation. Do your thing. Enjoy the family. Take the kiddos, take your, your dog. Whatever you gotta do, get out there and just enjoy it. What you can. Have a good one.

I think we're good to go here. I got a little red thing up here. All right. We [00:12:00] have episode six of Michigan Wild and I have Buddy Drew. What? I don't we know your last name. We're just Drew H in my phone.

Drew Hasler: Hasler has is the correct pronunciation.

Nate Rozeveld: Nice. So Hasler. So it's been a friendship that's just started on a whim to another mutual friend.

Yeah. Our buddy Mason, I worked with him a little bit and we he always told me stories, working alongside him. I don't know, we probably worked, I bet we worked with each other for two or three months. Like he was on the same job I was on and he was doing, working from another company, but we were got, became friends and found out that he loves Deer Hunt and he's from central Michigan area, which you are from.

And I always heard stories about this Drew guy that you two would always get in trouble doing stuff. Yeah, oh yeah. Shooting deer and all

Drew Hasler: that. We've had our days we've had some good hunting memories together.

Nate Rozeveld: And I think that was the fall you guys went to Indiana Yeah. On a hunting trip, right?

Yeah. I'm so he was act about that leading up to that. Yeah. Yeah.

Drew Hasler: And that was really [00:13:00] our first hardcore experience out of state trying to do it the right

Nate Rozeveld: way. Yeah. 'cause I remember he, yeah. 'cause how old are you guys? You guys are younger than me, but How old are you guys? 26. 26? Yeah. So 26 I think.

Mason's 25. So 25. So yeah, that would, that was, is that early? Almost two years ago. Was that two years ago already? Yep. Yep. You guys are early twenties doing the first Outta state thing. You guys went just to a place. Never been to, never been

Drew Hasler: before. Limited research. It was a spur of the moment decision.

We said, Hey, we gotta go outta state, we gotta do something. So I think we planned it within two weeks. Found Yeah. It quick a piece outta state and just running gun.

Nate Rozeveld: Hit it hard. Yeah. And I remember you guys Or like May, I didn't know, I didn't know you at the time, but Mason was showing me Onyx, where you guys went, where you plant going.

I was like, you couldn't go to a much more different terrain than what we live in here in Michigan. Like you went from Yeah. No farm fields to hills. It was, yeah,

Drew Hasler: it was a rude awakening which I, in the past had hunted central Indiana, but it wasn't near the kind [00:14:00] of terrain that, that the southern portion of Indiana was.

This was like right on the Ohio

Nate Rozeveld: River basically. It, that topal map was nuts. I never seen all those topal lines. I was like, did you guys have fun? And you're like, it was basic. It was like, dude, it was brutal. You have this game plan. Yeah. I think you can get somewhere. Nope. Just kidding. Can't get through that way.

Yeah.

Drew Hasler: And more than that too. It was so thick, just briers, anything you could imagine, like you, as soon as you got to it, something you saw that was good, you. You just couldn't even walk

Nate Rozeveld: through it. Yeah. And but you guys saw deer though, right? You guys, overall Oh yeah.

I feel like it was a good trip. You guys saw bucks, you guys saw deer. Absolutely.

Drew Hasler: I think, and quite honestly, that's one of those things anymore, it's, you almost gotta, you almost gotta hunt the weather, right? Yeah. When we went, we had, we were working at the time, so we had a week or I think we had five days that we could go and we could hunt.

And it's really not enough. You gotta leave those days open and plan around the weather. And we weren't able to do that. And we got down there [00:15:00] and it was. 75, 80 degrees. First week in, no, first week in November,

Nate Rozeveld: Yep. Yeah. 'cause I think I was in, oh, two years ago. I don't actually, I didn't go anywhere that year.

That was the year I went to Iowa, but I never hunting around here. And it was the same, not ideal weather, like it was not nice. But that kind of, so that kind of started that, relationship with Mason. Knew you through that, just through him. And then after Mason on that trip.

Exactly what you're saying, you guys were like, man, we had this five day period and the weather was not ideal. And me and my dad for seven or eight years have always taken out state trips. Same kind of a mindset. We've done two weeks one time, but typically it's five to seven days. And you go with a semi guided thing, or you go do something like that through work, it's you're committed to that timeframe and Right. We just realized that was not something we enjoyed doing anymore because you're we're self-employed so we can be flexible with our schedule, but we were like limited to what we, what properties to hunt. And my dad, being in the age he was at and was like, we're not gonna commit to this like new public ground because we're not gonna have [00:16:00] that much time.

So try to put ourselves in a really good position with like good ground to hunt. And this whole time and looking for leases. That relationship with Mason was like, we wanna find a lease. And Mason's if you find one, I'm involved. I told him the same thing. I was like, if you find something and I knew you were involved too.

Long story short, this spring, I. I was just like going through Facebook Mark, or I think I just was on Facebook in one of those stupid little popups for marketplace. I had this property for a lease and I was like, I quick glanced at it. The guy was local to us and it looked pretty good and I just instantly said it to Mason as I'm like, working and 30 seconds later.

Yeah. He is dude, I reached out to him. We got it. We're doing this. And I was okay. And I think the third guy,

Drew Hasler: yeah. The whole exchange was a matter of an hour. I remember sitting at my desk and Mason texted me that, and I said, dude, we're doing it. Let's go

Nate Rozeveld: for it. Yeah. And I was like, and the cool thing was we had the opportunity to walk this property Yeah.

Before we said yes. We had to put a down deposit on it, but super, like just a cool opportunity.[00:17:00] And then, talking with Mason and learning how you are, it was like, okay, obviously the three of us have very similar mindset with how we hunt Michigan, what we're looking to get out of it.

I know Mason probably hasn't shot as many deer as like me and you from a bigger buck standpoint, but he's very committed to doing that. That dude is, he's I'm shooting a big deer, and he's like very, patient and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And his time's coming, so I was like, okay, I know he's a good guy.

That's similar mindset. And then you too. And then we both, then my dad's doing it and Mason's dad's not. So we have a big group of guys, five guys. But we're like, Hey, first year, let's see what it's up. Let's just do this. Get into as cheap as we can. Yep. So fast forward a few weeks, maybe two only.

We're like, we have to go look at this thing. Yep. You income's drew through text messaging. Hey man, I'm gonna pick you up and we're going seven and a half hour drive.

Drew Hasler: We're going to Southern

Nate Rozeveld: Illinois. Yep. So me and you got to enjoy a truck ride for seven and a half hours and the friendship instantly happens.

Yep. And that's, but I wanna go back a little [00:18:00] backstory too on you. So where you've hunted Michigan been a dire bow hunter pretty much your whole life, right?

Drew Hasler: Yeah. So growing up, our dad was hardcore hunter, hunter out, just Michigan outdoorsman in general. But more specifically was hardcore and the bow hunting. Both my uncles were as well. He raised us bow hunting. We I got my first Jennings bow when I was like 10 years old. So we've been doing it for quite a while. We've never really, it was up until recently that we've actually like truly gotten into it.

I'd say last five to 10 years we've actually been hardcore in the bow hunting. We

Nate Rozeveld: have When you say hard, what do you mean by hardcore? Like in your mind? 'cause like you always deer hunted before, but what was the difference between deer hunting now, like hardcore bow

Drew Hasler: hunting? To me it's, it's running cameras.

We have a lease up here in central Michigan doing food plots on that lease, running cell cams, tracking deer, year after year, targeting bucks, things [00:19:00]

Nate Rozeveld: like that. Did you, so before, were you guys more of shoot, anything a thing? Or did you Yeah. Was your dad, was he always that way or what?

Drew Hasler: Yes. Yeah. Yes and no. Basically we we always had a lease, but it was it was a lease up in Marion. Which I know you around. That's my area. Around area. Yep. Around the area. But this was probably 15 plus years ago. We'd go up there for our deer camp and it was the it was the classic ri rifle opener.

Deer camp. You'd go, oh, yeah. For the weekend or whatever, and be a whole group of guys. And up there, we were lucky to see see a buck,

Nate Rozeveld: anything, so at a young age, you grew up watching your dad and grandpa or relatives or whatever, do the deer camp thing and was like, shoot any buck.

Absolutely. A thing. Absolutely. That was your immer. So very similar to my upbringing.

Drew Hasler: Yeah, exactly. You could hunt a full season and if you saw spike or a four point, it was on the ground. Which that's just the way it went. And quite honestly, I, we put out, I was young at the time, so sitting with my dad in the stand or whatever, we put hours and hours into hunting and, there'd be very, it was very [00:20:00] few and far between when you'd see the see a buck okay, so

Nate Rozeveld: you grew up, go up to the deer camp when you're there, you're hunting and Yep.

Sitting all day or sitting in the majority of the day wasn't that uncommon for you? Yep. And all you would see is maybe a handful of dose, and full dose.

Drew Hasler: And then after the third day, you might see a buck and that was your opportunity. That was your opportunity. And it's since changed pretty drastically to the property we have now.

That, I

Nate Rozeveld: think that's changed in that general area because I'm, I'm 33, so what am I am, seven, six years older than you. Like that even was, so that went from my age growing up. That's how that was. You sit all day or sit as long as you can pile of dough. We could shoot pile of dough every year.

'cause there's always lots of those. When I remember if someone shot a buck and they came back and you were, if they came back and drove down to the barn, you were like, oh my gosh. They shot something and you ran down there if you weren't with 'em. And if you looked and if you saw a dough, you weren't even that pumped.

You're like, oh, cool. But like another dough. Yep. And then if you saw a four pointer or six pointer, like you're saying, you're like, oh my gosh. [00:21:00] That's awesome. One shot a buck and that and you did, that happened for quite a while, like you said. I wouldn't say, yeah, 10 years is probably when it started getting a little better.

But yeah, I grew up the same way. We saw deer, you sat a long time and you just waited for that opportunity. And that's

Drew Hasler: what it was. And I don't know about you, but. It was ba you baited your spots, we regularly used bait, and I think right around the time that batting BA band came around is when we, started looking elsewhere and we ended up dropping the Marion property and got a property close to home.

It was a freak thing. Just a guy my dad worked with, he's Hey, he was a free range cattle farmer at the time, and it's just nothing but pasture, ground and swamp. And he just reached out to him one day and was like, Hey, do you mind if we like lease your property or do you hunt at all?

And sure enough, he didn't hunt. And that was our, in that was 10 years ago. We picked up this property, 20, or actually it'd be 13 years, 2010 is when we picked up that property. Yeah, and it's just been on the

Nate Rozeveld: uphill climb [00:22:00] since then and that's when it started. So the pivotal point was kinda like, okay, you guys got a spot that's closer to home.

You're older, obviously. So you're like, 'cause you're the truck ride and that kind of stuff. Like you've been tore up with this whole bow hunting thing for a long time and Yeah. Then you guys are able to invest more into the property. Absolutely. And that's where you change. So what did, so for me it made it a lot easier for me to target bigger deer because of trail cam pictures.

'cause I found them as that. Like how did that kind of go for you guys? Did this property have bigger deer right away? Or was most things you kinda had to make the property better and you realized like you were getting return on that investment?

Drew Hasler: Quite honestly, when we first picked up that property it took us a few years to actually understand the ins and outs of what that property took and the deer in the area, how they worked, how they moved and.

I think we quite honestly had the mindset, the same mindset that we had up in Marion. It was, I think my first year I shot there, it was in new season at the time when we first got that property, I shot a spike [00:23:00] and then I think my dad shot like 120 inch, 10 point first year we had it. And then it was like basket rack after basket rack and that went on for a couple years.

Okay. And then our neighbor, we got in the conversation with our neighbor and got to be put pretty close to him. And he had been passing deer for a while and then we started running trail cameras. He's okay, I've been seeing all these deer Trail cameras, send us pictures and stuff. Then we loaded up on trail cameras, started doing things like that.

And then and then there's this probably 135 inch seven point. That really caught our attention. This is the biggest deer I've ever seen on trail camera,

Nate Rozeveld: at the time. Holy wow. Yeah, exactly. Like what the world, dude, I remember the first hundred and I wanna say he was like almost one 40 as a 10 point.

I pulled that picture up and I was like, how is this possible? Yeah. That first time I remember going through it was like in January, it was like after season I had left a, I bought a camera with Christmas money, set it up. Like December 28th or something, [00:24:00] and like January, I left it out for a week, checked it, and I was like, what is that?

Right by my tree stand? And that kind of spurned. But I like, I touched on that point of having a good neighbor because that is a huge deal. I don't wanna that, try not to undersell that because the only reason I've shot the bucks I've shot that are good size is because of good neighbors.

I guess it could have happened with bad neighbors, but. I think my chances, I would not have the deer I have or seen or had the opportunities to hunt if we didn't have a group of people. Similar mindset. That's really cool. Yeah.

Drew Hasler: I would give a lot of the credit to the successes of our property due to our neighbors.

We, it we're not quite a co-op, but you could basically call it a co-op. And we all exchange pictures. We all have each other's numbers. If I get a deer on camera, I'm texting it to my neighbor, I'm be like, Hey, have you seen this book? What's your plans with this deer? Are you gonna pass it or are you gonna shoot it?

Things like that. And we all get on the same page. And I think that's what has made our property what it is now, yeah.

Nate Rozeveld: Fun. Fun. And ma yeah, I've seen the [00:25:00] pictures of the deer. You guys got some sweet bucks, mature bucks. Yeah. And so how many years do you think it's taken?

So you said 2010, you said you guys leased it. So the past 13 years, you said like last five. It's been pretty good.

Drew Hasler: Yeah. The last five or six, we've consistently killed, bucks in the one thirties. My dad killed a 1 48 couple years ago. My last year was like a 1 36 inch nine. So we've consistently killed good bucks and for Michigan and Central Michigan, that's good to say. That's pretty

Nate Rozeveld: good. Yep. That's great. Yeah, that's just, that's, and that's just the, I think that's the thing, the stigma, I'm not trying to get into this whole like Michigan, different to other Midwest states, like you've been down to other states. I have. We have the deer, we have the terrain, we have the property.

We just have a lot more hunters. So we get to really focus on. Your neighbors getting on the same page. And I think that's just a point that I kinda wanna make that me and you both talking and this friendship we [00:26:00] have, we're, separate areas of the state, but we both have the same success. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we have good neighbors that are on board, so we have that much bigger property.

So I think that's like anyone who's hearing this, like that's a point I want to make. If you have the opportunity to go become friends with a neighbor or not, you can't be selfish about it. Absolutely. You have to be very forthcoming. Absolutely. Do it. Yeah. But it's worth it. I'm gonna do a podcast coming up.

The guy that shot a buck last year was a buck that I knew about hunted. I would like to do that before this fall, but I knew about the deer neighbors knew about the deer. I, the gentleman that shot it, I didn't know him, didn't have his number. Come to find out he was hunting the same deer. He shot it, technically shot, my deer was air quote, it's not my deer, but, shot it.

And it was, and now I've developed a relationship with him, hopefully moving forward that's one more piece of the puzzle. And we can just as a group, be successful. So the same mindset you have with your family and your parents or your property and your neighbor's property, that mindset, we've taken under this lease with me, you, Mason, and our [00:27:00] group of guys.

So kinda wanna talk about the lease a little bit now too, because I'm pumped because we're getting posts, for that. But yeah. Which I just, I

Drew Hasler: got a pretty pretty fiery picture today, I gotta send that juicy still. Yeah. Yeah.

Nate Rozeveld: So this is, I'm just gonna give a little background on you.

I never have met Drew, just through a group chat through Mason. He's he lives an hour and some change north of me. We're going to Southern Illinois. He's dude, I'll come pick you up in my truck. 'cause I didn't have a truck at the time. I was waiting for mine to come in. He's I'll pick you up.

We'll drive down there. He's I got a whole pile of cell cameras ready. All my cameras, my cell cams were getting fixed, so I just had some cheap SD cards. He's I got cell cams, I got the truck. Let's go. So I'm like, sweet. Here I am getting, typically, I'm not the guy getting picked up. I'm the guy picking people up.

But what a great, you like, this is gonna be a fun thing for us because it's not, we're not selfish hunters. And I think that's No, absolutely.

Drew Hasler: I think that's gonna be the fun. Any group success is a success for me. It's, we're all down there to have fun, [00:28:00] and that's what it's all about,

Nate Rozeveld: I think sometimes like my buddy Tyler, I did the, I've talked about him a little bit, to him the hunting culture kind of looks toxic from the outside because he's just seen it through social media and, Instagram and those kind of things. And he, he hears the bad stories and, but he's realizing, getting, being around more, that there's a non-toxic side to it and I feel like you can make it what you want and if you're not selfish and you're out to have a good time and do these things.

It can be a, it'd be, we all three went down there. Spent the, spent a night, two days, walked this property, and not one time were we like claiming spots, were we doing this? We were all just giving all this information to each other. Very team oriented. What we did in one day on that property, it would've taken us individually.

I don't know how many times we had to walk around that and Yep. What a great time. I'm just, I'm like, just thinking back to it, like we went up, we went there before all the greenup happened, so we gotta really good look what it's gonna look like. And I'm just sitting here daydreaming man, that warm stand probably.

It's whew.

Drew Hasler: Probably the best [00:29:00] scouting mission we could have done in the timeframe that we had. Yeah, it was planned in the matter of a week and we had a weekend to look it over and.

Nate Rozeveld: Good. It was ju Yeah, we have terrain. So what do you, so I guess we, I don't want to, we don't have to break this thing down completely property wise, but what did you think about the property when you walked it after seeing it on Onyx?

'cause a lot of guys do what we did. You look at these properties, if it's public land or lease properties, you pull 'em up on a map and you're especially going out of state, you're trying to, try to, use past experiences to dictate what on Onyx or whatever you use.

So how did you look at that? Because I know you broke it down a certain way and I broke it down separately. So want to see what you thought about it.

Drew Hasler: I broke it down from experiences in, in high terrain areas that I've had before. Just like Indiana or we've been scouting in Ohio before, things like that.

You, you take little things you've learned from there. And that's how I put it to this property. It's, if you're like any other [00:30:00] Michigan hunter, We're flat, hunting terrain, hunting, topography is a completely different story. Work, working the fingers, working the ditches, things like that.

How our thermals gonna work. It's a completely different ballgame than what we're used to. At least that what I'm used to. I can see across my entire lease property up

Nate Rozeveld: here, yeah. Six feet off the ground. Yeah. Six

Drew Hasler: feet off the ground. I can see it. 1200 plus yards, so it's a completely different ball game.

Nate Rozeveld: And I know I went down with the mindset. Yeah, because you were like deer travel areas. I felt like you had a really good, like I, I remember you showed me some like sketches. You're like, okay, I really feel like the deer are gonna work this way. Through this train, which was similar to what I thought and had seen, but then a little differences.

But we also, I had the big mindset like we're making scrapes, let's do some mock scrapes just to try to get inventory. And I'm a big mock scrape guy. I've been doing those before. It was cool. I don't, now it's been like all the rage to do like a rope scrape or a vine scrape. I started [00:31:00] doing mock scrapes without vines long time ago.

I don't know. Yep. Who told me. But just did that and I've had really good luck with it, with your idea of how you broke down the property from travel corridors and my like, where I've had success with scrapes in Michigan and hunting scrapes outta state and other places. We meshed those two things together.

So like when we all went down there, we started walking and we had. You were like, you went through and you're, you had so many pins everywhere and I didn't have as many pins because I You left it open. Yep. Yeah. 'cause I wanted to I had good idea as I liked, but then when I walked into the area that I was like walking it and I was like, I like this.

I would pull it up on Onyx and I'd mark it. And then you were doing the track. And then it was really funny because Yeah. I feel like I, I

Drew Hasler: do it the reverse way. Yes. So I add just a crack load of pins and then once I get in that area and if it doesn't look good, then I just take that pin out of there.

Yep. I just control alt delete.

Nate Rozeveld: Yep. But it was really funny because when we compare after and as we're doing it, [00:32:00] you would pull up yours and you'd be like, dude, I marked this. And I'm like, I love this. And so it was really nice to confirm that with each other. There's more than one way to do it, but it was like this really nice thing, but I really liked.

So first of all, we were it's got some ag on it and it's terrain, so we struggled to know where bedding was and Yep. You, I've hunted hilly stuff like Kentucky, which it was just straight up woods and oaks and they always betted like alongside a little ditch or pine thicket or raspberry patch.

Like you see it here. There wasn't as much of that because it was so late in the year. But then we started thinking about it, we're like, okay, where would they want to be? And then once we found a legit bed, like we were like, oh my gosh, there it is. And

Drew Hasler: I feel like come, once that green comes down, a lot of that woods opens up pretty good.

So it's the what's their best vantage? What's their best lookout? Yep. And that's exactly where we found those beds,

Nate Rozeveld: found them. Then it was like, once we found 'em, we're like, then it was like, easy, but we got it. Now we know. Yep. But how, [00:33:00] Like the importance of scouting, which we both, we all, me, you and Mason, were big into doing the scouting.

If we didn't scout that area out, you can have a preconceived idea of where the d r but like now we know they're betting in those areas and we know we cannot access a certain way. Yeah. Which,

Drew Hasler: and I think that's probably what killed the last guys that lease it. Just our brief conversations with them, they go right up the gut of that thing and probably blew every deer out of there.

It's just, it just tells you so much about access just from walking at that one time. Yeah.

Nate Rozeveld: Yeah. It was pretty cool. But yeah, that, that train's got me pumped. I loved seeing how your brain worked with it by being in that area combining together and then we put these box scrapes up. Yep.

But, and then We had bucks on 'em still before they shed because we were looking for sheds and it finally, because they're still holding nailers. We found that. But yeah, it was nice to do all that. Put the cameras up on the mock scrapes and then like you cell cams are so nice because you get that [00:34:00] validation.

You're like, we are. They are moving that

Drew Hasler: way. I think we got that validation within the first week. Yes. I think we got, had a bachelor group that moved through. Yep.

Nate Rozeveld: We were like, yes, it's, we're not that pretty good luck. We're not that dumb. Yeah. That's kinda how that

Drew Hasler: felt.

Nate Rozeveld: We know a little bit Then another good thing about the lease is we're trying to do this not tied down to a one week a year. Or that, so we're trying to be flexible. And I think, I guess how do you, how are you looking at this? What are you hoping to be able to go there a couple weekends or We're gonna try to hunt together obviously at least once.

Yep. But we also are realistic knowing that there might be a day trip or two in there that we can't all be there. But like where are you at with, because I just heard a podcast about a guy talking, I think it was on a working class, bow hunter. He's from Wisconsin and he was talking about how he doesn't take his week vacation one straight week anymore.

He does a Friday here, he'll do a Monday, Tuesday here. He'll break it up throughout the year to try to get as many opportunities as he can. So if someone like you has more of, you can [00:35:00] work from home and you're a little flexible, you work, but you still have to be structured in that. How do you, how are you gonna attack it for the year?

I'm gonna leave

Drew Hasler: it pretty open. Be honest. I have a little bit of freedom with my job to be able to, if the opportunity presents itself a cold front's moving in October, for me to be able to take a Friday off and hunt Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I'm probably gonna do that. Obviously we'll reserve time in November, but I'm gonna be pretty open throughout the whole

Nate Rozeveld: season.

Nice. That's good. That's a good feeling. No one, it's. I have never had that on outta state hunt before. Yeah. It's always, it's November 6th to November 12th or whatever it may be. Or we're going to this big chunk of public ground for nine days and it's happening this time. And you might be able to tweak it a day here or there, but then you look at the weather, you're like, man the good hunting isn't even the good weather doesn't happen for four days, so what do you do?

Do you, blow the place up? Or do you try to wait for it? It's just [00:36:00] so much different when you're outta state attacking a property

Drew Hasler: that way. And I think that's what makes a lease so exciting. We just, like we've done before, we spent so much money in just a random hunting trip for a week.

Like we take a week off of work and you go somewhere. And don't always have the best luck, don't always have the greatest opportunities depending on the weather or the time of year. But, we have, we actually have the intel now. We have cameras running. We've scouted it before, we have a little bit of background on the property.

So that's gonna make it that much more fun this season to be able to use that to our advantage.

Nate Rozeveld: Yep. What's your I know we've talked about a little bit, like what are you what's your kind of like goal? Are you going for four and a half year old? I know we've talked about a little bit, but are we doing, we're, I think we're going for four year olds, right?

That's gonna be our, if we can, yeah. We know for sure there's a few five and a half year olds a thing, but we're trying to shoot a mature deer is the goal. Yeah.

Drew Hasler: Mature deer regardless. I, [00:37:00] the thing for me is I've already had some pretty good buck show up in Michigan. So far.

I got one that's, I've been watching for Yeah. Going on three years now. So that's gonna be a big one for me. I'm gonna, if I get a really good opportunity, but it's gonna probably, At least bigger than something in Michigan. It's, yeah I'm okay with just the experience, and I think, I don't have to, I don't have to go down there.

I'm not gonna shoot the first, four year old I see it, if it's something that stands out, then absolutely. It could be. Yep. 130 inch buck. But if he's got split brows or something crazy, I might interest me. He's a little trashy. You might be all into that.

Yeah. That's something I don't get here. I get all clean eights, clean tens up here,

Nate Rozeveld: And I know that's how I am too. I've hunted outta state I think, can we think, this might actually be my 10th year and I've only shot one buck out of state, and that was two years ago in Iowa.

And I have let some cool deer walk by me because I just. Like you said, it's for the experience [00:38:00] and why shoot a deer? That's the same as I can shoot in Michigan when I'm down there, or why shoot a three-year old when I know there's four and five-year olds walking around, or why shoot that?

Beautiful. 140 inch, clean 10 point that you can't put 'em a day pass four, and you're thinking he's three and a half. It's you don't even pick your bow up because you're just so immersed in this and what the goals are like, not because you're a trophy snob or you're trying to shoot a big buck.

It's like I go down there, I go to the Midwest in these states because I want that experience of that big body. No doubter, no doubt that you're buck to shoot and like you said, eating your tag, who cares because you're gonna. If you don't shoot a buck, that means you get the full hunt the full year.

You get the best experience you can. And then we got Mason. Exactly, who's totally gonna do a podcast with us too, but I'm trying to, I'm rattling his cage like, dude, that first one 30 that walks by, you better smash that thing, dude. And he won't do it. He's so out of it right now I'm not gonna do it.

I'm like, dude, you need to, he needs, he hasn't had too many under his belt, no.

Drew Hasler: He just needs to, he needs to draw some blood. Yeah.[00:39:00] He's worked hard enough for it. He just needs to Oh gosh, yes. Get the opportunity that, because that, that, that would make the whole trip down there.

Oh gosh. If Mason shot a good one, Yep.

Nate Rozeveld: And I think we're both, his luck's gonna shoot a one 60, he's gonna be like, we're gonna be rattle in his cage. You go sit here because, we know the three year olds are over there with 1 30, 1 40. He's go get one and we're gonna set, he's gonna go over there and he's gonna shoot a one 60 and we're gonna lose our mind.

But, that's, it could happen. But, that's part of honey's. That's what

Drew Hasler: Yep. That's

Nate Rozeveld: what it's all about. And that's why it's and I'm so looking forward to this fall because of that. It's our it's our gonna be our deer camp, because I don't really have a deer camp in like here in Michigan.

Like my deer camp is just my family because we've always been just very, like my mom's side of the family did deer camp and they were, they would have their campers and they would go to the big state land chunk and do the whole thing and generations of it. But they were, they didn't really see deer.

They didn't really shoot deer. I was my dad's side of family farmland and all that. Plenty of deer. So deer got shot [00:40:00] and I was immersed in that. So as a kid and that stuff, I was like, why would I wanna go do that when I could go sit on this, awesome corner of a hayfield, see 30 deer at a night and then pick whichever one I wanna shoot.

So that's always been my, and then that it's my deer camp is seeing my family, having dinner with 'em and then all of our, seeing all the friends and stuff come hang out at night and have pie and do that kind of thing. And now I'm kind getting to do this deer camp vibe with people my age and and all that.

So I'm really pumped for that. And And top it off and top it off. It's not that far of a drive. Like we can, no, we can go make this happen. It's not like we're doing, going to the up or something where you're driving nine hours in the middle of nowhere. This is something we can easily get down to do it a day.

We could hunt that same day if we want it very easily. So it's just a good, it feels good, to

Drew Hasler: be honest with you. It was a quick seven, eight hours. Whatever it ended up being, it was, it didn't feel like an eight hour drive. No. Whatsoever. It's a straight shot, so [00:41:00] that does make it that much better.

Nate Rozeveld: Okay. So what are you doing for stands? I know we're gonna possibly go down before season if that works. I know we have a lot of good spots pre picked for stand locations when we were down there scouting. But what is your go-to thing you feel like, are you gonna do. For me, it's

Drew Hasler: gonna be the saddle.

A hundred percent. Yeah. I know your dad, Mason's dad, they're not saddle hunters. We're probably gonna have to set something up for them if Yep. If they're able to make it down. Or if they're fine with just running and gunning with the, the stick and stand lone wolf set up, whatever.

Yep, yep. Whatever you wanna call it. But I got the new latitude sticks, nah, you did.

Nate Rozeveld: I'm gonna, I'm gonna be running those. Sweet, sweet. I I actually have, so I've been doing the Seattle hunting thing too. Pretty strictly for five years. I think it's my fifth year, actually my sixth year. But I did just buy that new beast stand.

I went to the expo in Kalamazoo, made it there like right before they closed and was like, I wanna hold this stand. [00:42:00] And then I bought it just to have another thing for if Ashley wants to go with me this year, like having that with a saddle combo for dual hanging. And also, I wanted a really lightweight stand just to bring down to Illinois, because I feel like of all the stand sites we picked, there might have only been one spot where're, like, eh, that might be difficult with the saddle.

But the majority of the saddle is so nice, it's so versatile. But I was, I'm bringing it down there also, just to have that other option. That's okay, we have these guys coming, or whoever's coming, we can just quick hang it in a tree with a lifeline and it's there, and then pull it down. We're done.

So I really liked that idea. So I was almost going to the. Because I was okay, what if we do, John Eberhart, you know the guy that presets all this stuff for, right saddle hunting. And I was like, I don't know if I want to get that and committed to stuff and do all that. And I started, adding up the price for some stuff and I was like, I'm just buying the stand.

Just give you one other thing and tell you what this beef stand is pretty sweet. Like it's light, it's nice. It's gonna be, I [00:43:00] sky I'm really tempted to see I, I'm about gotta, I've still to put the thing together a hundred percent, but it's been sitting in my basement down here i's been staring at it for a while and holding it and I'm like, man, if I would've, if that thing would've came out when I fir, I first used to do this hanging hunt thing with a lone wolf alpha.

And I remember that. I was like, I felt great doing that. And I would go down to Kentucky and Missouri and Illinois with that thing on my back with four sticks, Illinois. I hunted and I was like, die.

Drew Hasler: That's exactly what I have. That's exactly how I started. And yes, and first time I did that.

Especially because I used to do hanging hunts on my property too. I still do. If the opportunity presents it stuff I'll I'll do that. And actually that, that 1 48 my dad shot, I was on him like Donkey Kong. It was every other sit I saw that deer and did many a hanging hunts for him.

But I was hauling around that lone wolf set and it's man, this thing is not fun. No. These new, setting up that stand at three 30 in the morning trying to get up there early enough,

Nate Rozeveld: it's just [00:44:00] heavy. Yeah. Good stuff. Yeah. That's how he, my dad always told me, he's you're building character, because I would just be dying and now I've got this well, saddle hunting, that's why it was so intriguing to me at first.

Literally everything's in your backpack. You wear your saddle. Yep. A hundred percent. And your sticks and your platform in your backpack and you just go and you climb the tree and you hunt so streamlined. Love it. So yeah. I'm, that's gonna be the primary thing too, just. The ease of it. And then I think, yeah, we'll probably possibly do, like you said, a couple, we have a few handful of stands we could bring down for the dads or even if one of us gets there, we talked about if we get there late or whatever and we got a quick hop into a set, have something ready. We just trying to be as efficient as possible, this whole deal. Absolutely. Because it's not a giant property and trying to be creative and I really like how you said earlier with your lease in Michigan that when it first started, it took you guys a handful of years to figure it out.

And I think we all have that same mindset let's go into open-minded, try to figure this out, stay positive and do [00:45:00] that. But yeah, I think I think it would be, I think one of us is gonna shoot deer. Come on. I feel like if someone of us is gonna, at least if we don't, we're gonna have a great opportunity.

It just seems too good to not,

Drew Hasler: Yep. If all, if it comes down to it, I mean we got that extra combo doac, there's gonna be something hitting the ground

Nate Rozeveld: regardless. Yeah. Yeah. Now we have a little camp and everything there. We have to Yep. I'm

Drew Hasler: not afraid to need this say but yeah,

Nate Rozeveld: I didn't think I don't know.

Are you, we talked about the food plot thing too. So I had packer Max on last week. Lincoln Yep. And chitchat with him a little bit about food plots and leases and that kind of stuff. And funny, he's got two out-of-state leases but can't do food plots either once, so it didn't really help me too much in that regard.

However, I've, I just got done doing a couple food plots this past week and a half ago, I think. Yeah. A week. Two weeks ago. Like test dummy for what we could do down there a little bit. Yep. But you have a lot more experience with food plots. And what is your How much, [00:46:00] what are mean?

We're probably not, what's your mindset? Are we gonna try to do flue plot still this year or you think we missed the boat on that a little bit?

Drew Hasler: I think I, our best opportunity down there would be just broadcasting into the beans. Yeah. The farmer's got, both of the field front and back are gonna be soybeans.

So I think we're gonna, if we can go down early September, we're gonna hit a pretty good window to get those, get that broadcast in the beans before those leaves drop. And really, I think that's their best shot at anything. Yeah. Even more than leaving beans up. 'cause I know Farmer said they'd just pound them year after year

Nate Rozeveld: I'd like to, now how have you had good luck with that?

Have you done that here in Michigan? Or have you broadcast

Drew Hasler: before? Yep. So I started. I dunno, have you ever heard of the Jeff Sturgis method? Oh yeah. The no, no-till method. That's basically how I started food plot, five, six years ago. It'd be spring planting of buckwheat or some sort of cover crop and then broadcasting into it and rolling it over.

From my [00:47:00] understanding the bean, the beans, the leaves dropping over top of the seed, Dax is the same kind of thatch. Nice. I've had really good success with it if you catch it in the right window. So yeah, I've done I think it's gonna be one of those things where we look at the forecast, especially planting brass, 'cause they're cheap, we can get away with just doing it.

And not worrying, worrying about the cost of it later,

I

Nate Rozeveld: got some bought already, so I got some in my garage. So we got, I got enough seed to do, I got some clover. I got some grain brand and stuff like that from packer Max. I can do an acre. I think I have an acre worth, which that on top of whatever else my dad's got laying on.

I have some now my dad being the hobby farmer, that dude's got a whole area full of stuff. So we're good on seed. Yeah, it's just, I've done the broadcasting, the corn, 'cause a lot of corn round here and I've had just rye, just cereal rye and it works okay. But it's not it's just one of those last ditch efforts.

They chop the corn quick. I've done that. I've never [00:48:00] done it in soybeans before though, so I'm pretty peak. My interest is definitely peaked on trying that. Yeah,

Drew Hasler: absolutely. And I think. Especially the broadcast in the corn, you don't get near as much sunlight to the ground with that high corn stand.

So I think that if anything, the beans are gonna do a lot better. Broadcasting in them and like you mentioned, cereal rye. I've had great success with that. I plant that as a cover crop and most of my food plots just about every year. And it does great and it's a great green layer come first spring.

Only thing about that is we gotta get with the farmer and let him know that we're gonna, probably gonna spray it for him because Yep, yep. He probably doesn't wanna ride stand in his beans

Nate Rozeveld: come spring. Nope. He's not gonna wanna deal with that big mess.

Drew Hasler: Yep. But I think that a lot of that's gonna come down to what he says and what his thoughts are on the whole situation

Nate Rozeveld: so have you seen a good return on your investment doing food plots here in Michigan?

'cause like you said, you've been doing it for six or seven years. How? Absolutely. Yeah. Like you've got it obviously you're probably [00:49:00] a much more efficient at it. 'cause I think you're actually getting ready for food plots. Are you doing it this weekend or you said something about getting food pots stuff ready tonight,

Drew Hasler: tomorrow.

I, yeah. So I was getting all the equipment around today and mind you, my equipment is a four wheeler a called the Packer and. Spreader and a sprayer. So that's all you need though. That's what's awesome. I am the poor man's epitome of a food plot. But it's worked well for me and yeah, I've absolutely seen return on investment.

I, the last, I wanna say last three bucks I've killed. I've been going to food, going to my food plot, or going to one of them. Yeah. That big nine I killed last year was. On the edge. On

Nate Rozeveld: the edge. Yeah. That right on the edge. That was crazy. Yeah. Right

Drew Hasler: there. Worked a scrape line and I shot 'em at nine yards at, ba base of where the food plot starts and Yep.

Ended up dying on the edge of the food plot.

Nate Rozeveld: So what have you found? 'cause my food plots here have always been broadcasted ag field. I haven't made any food plots in, bad areas or no lowland or you have a lease that [00:50:00] isn't farm field. It's, not good enough area for farmers to use for for crops. So you're adding food plots. Have you found have you found like a good recipe to like size of food plot up to cover in a certain way? Or how have you broke down, like architecting your food plots?

Drew Hasler: So for us it's, I pretty much had a lot of the work done for me as far as like terrain features go, our property, it's lowland, so there's a basically a county drain.

It's all cedar swamp drainage, right? We have 160 acres, but probably an acre in total is what's we have four or five stands, set stands on the entire property and it's entirely tall, native grasses golden rod the Kentucky blue grass, things like that. A lot of it's mowed for pasture grass for, pasture for farmer's, cows, but other than that, it's pretty much grass that's over your head and it's wet.

Okay. It's, so you have a

Nate Rozeveld: pot right up against that is what you Yeah. Right up against pot, up against the, [00:51:00] that kind of thing. Okay. So

Drew Hasler: in the summer it works really well. 'cause those deer love that, that thick grass or bedding, they get into those swamps and they. They feel pretty comfortable in there.

And even for running doughs, they love that tall grass in the fall. So basically any tall spots are where we have our food. It's pretty limited that 160 acres I got probably a full acre of food in total.

Nate Rozeveld: And how many spots do you have? Is that in four spots? Five spots?

What do you have

Drew Hasler: two spots? That's just two. Two spots. Two spots. You have two half acres originally. Yep. Originally I was up to almost four or five acres in food. 'cause we originally had another 80 to the north of us that was much higher ground out of the swamp. And I had quite a bit of food in there.

But we since lost that last year. That sold last year okay. This is what we're left with, but it seemed to work out just fine. I have these food plots on rotation. So I've never You're

Nate Rozeveld: so efficient with 'em. Yeah. You're so efficient with 'em. Whenever you talking me like you said, you don't have your limited [00:52:00] equipment.

You're able to go in there, handle, take care of business, you do your things in the spring, do that and yeah. I've seen the, I've seen your fruit of doing that. And it's man, that, and that kinda is gotten my gear spinning. It's okay, I need to find, I've always focused on properties that already have food on them, like with eggs.

So I like, I'll do the same kind of thing like, not as big of a property, but I might only have a handful of acres of woods I can hunt. Because it either butts into a farmer's ag field or something like that. And talking with you and seeing, the overhead view of that property, I'm like, I would've never have thought to.

Try to have that, get information on a property like that. Because it's just not something I've thought about. So seeing that and then seeing what you've been able to accomplish with, minimal stuff, but doing it effectively and learning how to do it, it's okay. Got my gears turning.

And I've been looking a little bit and I thought I was gonna get permission on a piece that I was gonna be able to do something similar to it, but I just got permission for rabbit and Turkey hunt, which is great. No whitetail hunting [00:53:00] yet, but you gotta start somewhere though. I never Yep, exactly.

Gotta get your foot in the door somehow. But I never would've knocked on that door with the inclination to deer or to deer hunt it until just seeing what you've went through like with that. So just anyone that's, knocking on doors, getting permission, like all my stuff's essentially permission property that my family has got some land up north.

My in-laws have a little land down here on me, but all my other spots are just knock on door permission. The only lease I have is down in Illinois. First lease I've ever had. But yeah, go out there and don't be afraid to see those un appeasing properties, I guess

Drew Hasler: for that. And I tell you what, it took us, took me years to get there.

A lot of sweat equity went into just making a little quarter acre half figure food ply here and there. Especially with limited equipment. When I first started I had a chain link, fence gate that I got from work and I put a few cinder blocks on it and I started dragging the field that way and just sprayed the crap out of it.

And, I'm certainly not afraid to use some [00:54:00] glyphosate and, get it down to dirt. Yeah. That's the biggest thing. And for me, Nebraska's was the easiest way to start small seed. If you wanna

Nate Rozeveld: shoot, if you wanna shoot a nice deer in Michigan, you can't be afraid of a little bit of work and sweat equity.

Yep. And that be defined in, I have done it with multiple properties. So I have put my effort into finding spots, getting permission, hunting all over the place, wide net, put cameras out and just like fingers crossed, waiting for the right one to come into a property and then go strike.

When the iron's hot kind of a thing. And that, that could have all the bucks, you can see behind me, like they've all been shot on different properties. I've never shot a nice buck off the same property twice. And I've been shooting probably up my game, was shooting bigger deer, 2000 and.

12 or 13 probably was when I made like the adamant I'm not shooting a little or little buck. And to me, a little buck was like a two year old and under or something I thought was really big and I didn't wanna have ground [00:55:00] shrinkage anymore. And then it took me until, it took me five years to shoot a really nice one in 2017.

So then from 2017, I've shot a nice buck as in 130 ish and up buck, 2017, 2018, 2019 2020 2021. And then last year, my first year I didn't shoot one. And that was just because I was being too picky, which that's a whole nother thing. But that that, that mentality or that swag equity I put in that way has worked for me.

But then last year it bit me in the butt. So I was like, man, I don't have this like little like pocket where I have put effort into that I can maybe draw a deer or, weight, grow a deer, not grow a deer maybe isn't the right word, but. Keep a deer, keep a deer safe or keep a deer in my area and then wait 'em out, a thing.

I'm just like strictly relying on neighbors, not shooting 'em and having one come through and hanging out for a couple days and then going in and shooting 'em. So yeah, my brain is reflecting on last year, I'm like, okay, what can I do differently? I don't have that same kind of a year again, and I really like this idea of [00:56:00] little food plots and like properties

Drew Hasler: like that.

So it's, and it's little kill plots. That's what I call 'em. It's, I know deer are gonna be moving through the area, the way they're set up on high ground. Especially when we get some pretty severe rains in the fall. They're not moving a lot of those areas that are wet year round, 'cause they're, instead of having six inches of water, they have a foot of water or more.

So having food in the high spots actually is a huge advantage to us. And I know deer are gonna be moving through there, so I just need something to bring 'em a little bit closer. We position our stands. Within shooting distance of any deer axis in that food plot. Yep. Based on the wind direction, obviously.

But yeah.

Nate Rozeveld: What if you had to, I know this bucket, you don't need to give away any juicy details on 'em. I know of the deer you told me about 'em last year. If you're gonna kill 'em, when are you gonna kill 'em?

Drew Hasler: So funny you asked that. I've only ever shot one deer in my entire life in November.

So for me in Michigan up here it's first couple weeks of October. If [00:57:00] I had to choose a day October 16th, I've killed three deer on October 16th.

Nate Rozeveld: Oh. In the middle of the wall you killed deer in the wall. The middle wall.

Drew Hasler: That boy. Yep, that boy. And it's, I'd probably say.

80, 90% of the time it's been after a solid rain too. I've been walking out to my stand in the rain, let rain stop, and that's when I hit 'em. I was

Nate Rozeveld: I was passive aggressive. Not like purposely passive aggressive. But early October 7th last year, it rained. Me and Ashley and Henry went out and sat in my one blind that I built that works as a gun blind and a bow blind early season.

It was a bean rotation, which I had not had beans in the specific area in a long time. Like I don't even know if I'd ever had beans there while I could hunt it. So I didn't really know how to handle the property, so I was like, I'm just gonna be easy the first little bit. And I didn't really have a buck I was targeting.

There was one really nice three and a half year old that was gonna be just fantastic. So I didn't really want to go in there, hunt hard and have walk by it [00:58:00] 15 yards and a moment of weakness and shoot 'em. So I was like, I'm just gonna stay back, but. I had wanted to put a ground blind on one side of the bean field.

And these, the bean field I'm talking about is not like your wide open bean field. It's actually hidden. You can't see it from anywhere. So it doesn't really act like a normal field because it's so secluded and it's surrounded by, standing corn and fence rows and chunks of woods. So it's literally like the perfect little area.

There's called pinch points on it. However, I wanted to, me and Henry were out there doing something. I think we actually broadcasted some rye last year into the beans on the one side because they had they dried up enough. I forgot. I did do that last year, but I didn't do it the right time, so I didn't get good grow on it.

I waited too long, but we were there and I was like, Henry, we should totally put a ground blind over there in that deadfall, because that we had a big storm that came through in like middle of September, maybe. And it blew it over. And we thought about doing it and then we just never did. Come to find out, October 7th here, I'm sitting back 200 yards away and[00:59:00] two bucks fought in the middle of this bean field like no other.

And the one was a really nice eight point, he's probably four year old would totally shot him. And I was kicking myself in the butt kind of, 'cause I was like, man, he literally walked right by where I would've put that ground blind where I could have been right in the thick of action. No deer down there, like that's a known area that deer like to travel through.

And he walked right by a tree stand, or it's not tree stand, but usually hanging, it's like group. Usually when we do the hanging hunts on property that you have permission or private, you have your trees picked out for the wind. So like I have three or four trees all. Within 60 yards of each other that I can hunt no matter the wind.

And for the wind that night, I could have snuck in there hung and I would've dusted him at like 25 yards. And I was just like, the whole time oh my gosh, I was just too passive on that. You are not passive in October 1st you go balls the wall. Yeah. So

Drew Hasler: the, it would've been two years ago, I killed my block on my first sit on October 2nd.

So I decided not to hunt opening day. 'cause usually it falls on opening day of duck season. Yep. Me and Mason [01:00:00] usually head up duck camp. But I had gotten a picture of this deer on, got a little notification opening evening, a duck season that there's deer at 30 yards hitting my mock scrape.

And it was like probably 85 degrees. So I was like, I know he's staying close. He's got water there he is, got everything he needs and. Yeah, sure enough. Shot him at 3 45 when I got, I say early. Early.

Nate Rozeveld: Yeah, dude, you're nuts.

Drew Hasler: Nuts. Which that was one of the crazier experience hunting experiences.

I've been on I snuck in, it was one of the first time I ever had a stand there too was it was a first set. I thought it'd be, thought it'd be good. And it had just perfect access, like undeniable access under some cedars. We had a little tunnel of cedars that you could walk through to get up into the stand surrounded by au olive.

So you were in the stand before anything could even see you. Perfect. Sure enough, he stood up out of his bed at 24 yards. Had no idea I was there. No idea. Nuts. Yeah. 'cause

Nate Rozeveld: [01:01:00] you took a picture, right? You showed me the picture where the deer was when he stood up and I was like, no way. And you're like, yeah dude.

And you look and you're like, I could see why a deer bed there. Little pocket. And he was right there and you stuck

Drew Hasler: right up into him. He was 15 yards from the. Mock scrape. And the picture I saw the night before, he was just hanging

Nate Rozeveld: out. Yeah. Just, and I've done that. I've, you know that people might call, I don't, I hope no one doesn't believe you.

I believe you. 'cause I have done hanging hunts and had deer within 50 yards of me. You sneak in you know your spot. And this isn't, I'm not bubbling around the dark. This is the evening set. You're, the one buck, the one right here behind, behind my shoulder right there.

That toker. Yep. I bet I was within 65 yards of him when I set up. And it had just rained and I had the, like you said, like a perfect access. I didn't hunted this property all year. It was October 26th, got done raining. I like had this game plan and yeah, I snuck in there and set up and that joker came out two hours before dark, checked like two or three [01:02:00] different scrapes, was just doing loops, checking all the other deer in the area.

And I shot him on his way to the other side so it can be done. And then if you and those, I have a preset behind my house. I got property to hunt, same thing. Like I can sneak in there, I got this, it's off the field edge, it's down in the bottom a little bit, and then you can slide up. And I know the deer are bedding within 60, 75 yards of me because there's dead falls.

I find their beds often. You're staring 'cause you know the deer are coming from and all you watch 'em, boop, get up and then come over. Now

Drew Hasler: for you, is that like your first time in there? Because for me, that's where a lot of my success comes from. It's the first time I've entered this piece.

Like I know the deer's there, I have intel that the deer's there, and I ev I pou pounce on the opportunity basically. And that's when I'm most successful. So

Nate Rozeveld: Every big deer I've shot has been the first time and that has been the first time hanging hunt. And then the preset, I'm trying to think if I've even shot one on a preset before.

I could have, this year I passed three deer on [01:03:00] presets, but they were three year olds. They weren't just something I wanted. And then I don't think I have shot, I'm looking through the deer. I've got No, they've all been, all the big ones have been first sets. Hanging hunt I have shot. Or the one I might've hung it the night before and shot him the next morning maybe.

Nope. That was a hanging hump the same night. No. So I've had better luck, like you're saying, the first chime in. The spot, the house works really well because, I can get in there, I can see 'em get up the way they work by me. I can get out of there without them knowing I'm there. So the deer walk by me and then it's like a urban area. So there's people all over, like they're used to cars driving by. So I can really sneak in and outta there. Those are the only spots I can hunt more than once in a year and have success seeing deer or those kind of spots up north. I get two tries and that's it.

Then I gotta move. Burn it. But yeah, that's funny you say that. It's am I wasting my time sitting [01:04:00] that stand over again? But it's deer still, so you don't know.

Drew Hasler: But that, that's something we've, that little bit of knowledge that we've gained over the years.

We used to, especially when I was in college, when we had that lease and I had, classes at random times. I had a, an opening in the afternoon or an evening that I could go hunt every single evening if I wanted to. And I was in the stand like crazy, but, I didn't have near the success I have now.

But I wasn't patient, I was going out there every opportunity they had. Now, if I have a good opportunity, but it's not the right, time to go into the spot, I'm gonna sit on top of the hill and I'm just gonna go ask and Yep. That's, I guess that's the advantage we have on our property, but,

Nate Rozeveld: Yeah, that's a fine line. 'cause I did that last year. That was what my observation set the blind on my family, which was a great experience. Like I loved it. Got to see bucks, fight. Like I would not take that back, but that was my agenda. And then I I set a camera, I hunted the next night down in there.

'cause I was, I saw the eight point. I was like, he, I mean on video and all that, I was like, I think he's [01:05:00] four. I think it was a buckeye of history with, didn't get much bigger. Typical Michigan, like they're nice frame and then when they're from three to four, they either blow up like crazy or they do this mass.

They gained mass and buy size and they really jumped when they're five. But I went down there, I hunted that night, set the camera on a scrape I had in that inside corner and I hunted and I had little bucks come by and some doughs. And then I. Didn't hunt it again, but I got that buck on camera that night.

I knew it. He came in like probably 45 minutes after I left. So an hour, some, hour-ish after shooting light because I had pull my, I pull my set down every night when I hang and hook because I don't, first of all, I don't want people to know where I'm hunting. I don't want people stealing, trespassers and that kind of stuff.

But I never had him on that camera the rest of the year in daylight after that. So I literally had one day October 7th, which that's the first time I seen him in daylight. Never saw him in daylight again. That might've been the only time he fought a buck. And then he was nocturnal the rest of the year.

And that very well could've been, 'cause he smelled [01:06:00] me, backtracked me to where I was. And I was like, yo, this joker's sitting here, I'm done. And he just knew to hang out where I couldn't hunt him for the rest of the year. Who, that's the, you take, right? Yeah.

Drew Hasler: I think if anything the, what's been the huge advantage for us is just cell cams.

I don't know about you, but once, once we transition to cell cams, it completely changed the experience on our property. I think cell

Nate Rozeveld: cams have help me kill a deer. I don't think, I can't see any of the deer I've got that, I killed that deer because of a cell cam picture. Is, but I've killed that deer because of what cell cameras have told me what the deer do.

Exactly that updated information, that tool that you add, you still have to come through the game plan, but getting the access to undisturbed deer, because, you used to put your cameras, it went from, put your cameras in the best spot, you got to hunt, and then you go check every two weeks or once a month, walk in there, pull the cart, oh my gosh, there's bucks all over this.

But it was two weeks ago [01:07:00] to, take a whole year to learn that and then try to remember and catalog. So then the following year, you sneak in there at that time of year. I did a hanging hunt October 4th in the morning and I shot, a nice buck at 10 o'clock in the morning, October 4th.

But that was strictly because of the year before I knew the first six, seven days, October, there was a bunch of bucks walking through this little ridge, this like fern ridge going down into the swamp. But now I get that same thing. It doesn't take me a year though. I get it real time in instantly. Yep.

Instantly. Yes. So it helps a lot. It does. You just gotta be smart with how you do it still. 'cause I screwed it up still.

Drew Hasler: There's still plenty of room for air in bow hunting. As much as people wanna think that, we have all this technology to give us this advantage, it still takes a lot of mental game to, Try and kill a big buck. It's not as easy as you'd think. Deer. Deer don't work exactly how you want 'em to. No, and

Nate Rozeveld: they're, it still shocks me. It's come on. Like you, you've done [01:08:00] this three days in a row. The fourth day. Why aren't you doing it the fourth day? Or you did this, I had this one buck is a seven point.

I've been chasing that joker. Oh, 2019. I shot at him with my shotgun. Crazy story. He, I was hunting up north, opening day gun. My brother-in-law had just gotten into hunting. Aj, who did the podcast with a couple weeks ago, he was sitting in my spot. On his family farm, a gun spot. And he had texted me and said, Hey, I saw this really big deer and this really big deer came out of this section of the field.

I had permission to hunt a property really close to that. Unfortunately, I'm the only one that can hunt it. They don't want anyone else hunting there. Even though I've tried, but they're just like, no, just one person probably. 'cause they got overrun before, so they're just adamant on that.

But you're as respectful as you can be. So I went in there the next morning and I drove all the way down from similar to what you said, you get the information and you gotta act on it quick. So I acted on it the next morning. I found out that night, got in there the next morning, did my access, did this crazy walk, did all the things set up in [01:09:00] a saddle, had my shotgun because I had, my brother-in-law just started hunting, so he was using my nice four 50.

And I like, literally that morning was like, do I take my bow? I take my muzzle order, which I haven't shot my muzzle order in four years because, or however long it had been, because you can use straight wall cartridges at the time. And I hadn't really muzzled or hunted or I was like, man, if I sit up in the tree, I want that one creek crossing's, like 50 yards.

I was like, I better just take my shotgun, which is my benelli sweet shotgun semiautomatic that I used for turkeys, geese, waterfowl, all that stuff. And never shot a slug through it my entire life. What? A dummy, like 2019, 29 years old. I should know better. But I was like, I'm just gonna take the shotgun. How bad could it be?

I should be able to hit something at 50 yards with a slug, open bird barrel, open sight. Lo and behold, that deer comes through with a smaller 10 point. Which actually I shot the 10 point the next year, but comes through right at that creek crossing 50 yards, put it on a boom shoot, wt completely wft on this tap.

Okay, so from 2019, I've [01:10:00] hunted that deer since. I have got pictures of him on cell cameras and traditional cameras, and I have only seen him one time other than that, and that was 2021. I saw him bump and dose 300 yards away. And I have cell cameras all over that area and he's on it. And just because you get a picture of doesn't mean you're gonna kill that deer.

And last year I got a picture of him end of season, finally all my a bunch of my cameras got toasted early in the year because of ants and all that stuff. So I learned my lessons. Why I don't have any cameras up right now, but solar panels are awesome, but they give access to ants in your cameras.

Oh, before I learned that last year. Yes. So I'm waiting to use 'em, but that deer showed up finally end of the year after season, as like this gnarly looking five point, same brow time, safe, curved as beam, same old deer. That deer's gotta be ancient. But I've been hunting that to heart since 2019. Like you said, that's the argument.

Tru camps are awesome. Cell cans do make something, you just gotta take it when you get it, easy. But they don't guarantee [01:11:00] anything.

Drew Hasler: And I will say, you mentioned the whiff, I will say like it's, regardless of how much success we've had, it's A good whiff or hitting a deer, not finding it humbles you real quick.

Yes sir. There's the biggest buck I've ever shot at. It's not on my wall right now it's because I couldn't find them,

Nate Rozeveld: yeah, that's humble. Be a better bow hunter. And I think that's why bow hunting's so good. I was pretty competitive grow. I'm a very competitive guy like growing up and with sports and all that stuff.

And I think that's why I've always loved hunting. 'cause it's not easy. It's, you gotta work hard. I guess you can make it easy. You, it's. If you just wanna go shoot a deer, I guess that would be pretty easy mission in certain areas. 'cause there's just so many deer. But then trying to like up that game, that chess match, that makes it really fun.

And yeah, I think I think the day that I think I have it licked, I just need to give it up. And I don't see that day coming anytime soon, thankfully. Nope. Nope. No,

Drew Hasler: but I'm itching. I don't know about you, but

Nate Rozeveld: dude, you talking about your early October success has got me like, dude, it's August 9th [01:12:00] right now.

We're, that's what I mean. We're close, man.

Drew Hasler: It's like first couple weeks. If it doesn't happen, I usually get pretty questionable. I, I start questioning my tactics and you know what I'm doing, things like that. Because usually I, for me it's pretty quick.

Nate Rozeveld: And then, but then it's great you get 'em done the first, by October 18th, let's say I give you two extra days.

'cause sixteenth's your favorite, you smack your Michigan buck and then you can just Illinois, let

Drew Hasler: cool down a little bit. Yep. Go cool down in Illinois, get out the eighties and I can go hop down there in the first cold front.

Nate Rozeveld: Yep. It'd be good stuff. Be good. Yep. Good stuff. Yep. But now is there is there anything else you got going for whitetail hunting, like new this year?

Like I know I got some new gear I kinda talked about. Do you got anything new for this year gear wise?

Drew Hasler: No. This year it's been a pretty good year for property maintenance. So we're getting actually this weekend and so I'm planting one of the plots tomorrow. Then this weekend I got a load of gravel coming in.

We're doing a big creek crossing. It's gonna give me access to. A [01:13:00] solid 60 acres that I've never had access to before. Nice. I can't get any equipment back there. It's blocked by two pretty large creeks. We're gonna do a pretty nice crossing there and I'm gonna get some of our equipment out there and excellent.

Get it worked up and, excellent. I'll have, I can probably add another two or three acres of food down there, sweet. It's gonna, it's gonna be huge for the property. It just needs to happen. Needs to do it. Yep. It's way too busy to do anything else,

Nate Rozeveld: hey, busy's a good problem to have.

Yep. For that.

Drew Hasler: Exactly. Yeah. I think I got

Nate Rozeveld: this year, like I said, I got a couple new stand I did get a new bow this spring. I got that and I think it's shooting lasers, like Wow. I love it. I what'd you get? It's, I got the Hoit Ultra, the, okay. The RX seven. Really like it. Yep. Finally broke down, bought a carbon bow and hemming and hawing on a carbon bow for a handful of years, and was like, you know what, I'm just gonna do it this year.

And, it fits me really well. I think that's why they boat fit me really well. Like my other boat wasn't bad. I really enjoyed it. [01:14:00] But I just had to have it like really tricked out to shoot how I wanted it to be, to shoot like as consistently. Tricked out being, a big front stabilizer, a big back bar.

I had to have, have it, the back bar swung out a certain way, so like to shoot my quiver on. And it just it felt really, and I had to shoot like a taller bow because the way it was my stringing was I shot like a taller axle, axle bow. So it just felt cumbersome. I shot deer with it and all that stuff, but I really was like, if I'm gonna do a switch up, I wanna do a switch up.

I went to the Hoyt and I really like it 'cause it's a little sleeker. It's shorter axle. Axle. It's ultra. So I think it's 34 but still two inches shorter. My bow I don't have a big stabilizer in front. It's got the little stubby on there and then that's what I got back bar dude. It shoots so great.

Like I shoot it as good as the other bow, maybe better. I think I shoot it better actually at rain. And

Drew Hasler: I have the vent and pro, which is the aluminum model and that I love that bow. It's, they shoot great. It's great. And I'm just shooting a little stubby too, I don't. I don't need near as much stabilization as I did on my last bow.

Yep.

Nate Rozeveld: Shoot. Bow for sure. Yeah. Trying to bring it back to the basics a [01:15:00] little bit because that's how I used to shoot my bows. Like I had, I never went really crazy on any accessories. I've always had my quiver on my bow, so I just learned to shoot it without even a back bar. And then when I bought that previous bow, probably four or five years ago got me into the kinda the back bar game to help offset that.

Yeah. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is so nice. Like sweet shooting. Yeah. So I still have that. That's really nice. But just the quivers closer to the bow, the back bar isn't swung out as far because of that. It's just so streamlined and I'm just shooting really good. And I was getting so hung up in years past to all my targets in the yard.

I'm shooting 52 yards, crank it to 52, shooting 36 yards, crank it to 36. And I actually listened to a podcast of Brian Borich, I believe his name. He owns day six gear. He was on someone and I shoot someone his arrows in his broadheads and he was talking about how he knows his gaps for ranges.

And I was like, oh my gosh. That's exactly how I used to shoot a bow when I was younger. I had my 20 yard pin. And I knew how high [01:16:00] to aim at 30 and how high to aim at 40. And I knew how to gap shoot with just one pin and I killed a pile of deer doing that. The last few weeks I've been doing that again, just put my bow at 20 yards and just learning my gaps.

And it's surprising how effective you are doing that. Yeah, and I have a so I measure the gap too on targets, but I also have one of those Bucky or the, what is it, what's the nice big buck? Target yeah, whatever that one is. Morale. And I got a blemished or something, so I got cheaper. Yep. So being able to like have that deer, like cornered away or broadside or whatever, I'm like, okay, kill zones approximately, cut it in half.

And it is not perfect, but just being able to, have my holdover, it's if that deer's at 40 yards and in my pin does not have to be off the deer's body. Just knowing that I'm so much more, I feel like way more confident because I did have,

Drew Hasler: And I don't, I don't know about you, but confidence is just a huge player at bow hunting.

For me anyway. That's, it took me a little while to [01:17:00] get there, but, Once you had the con, especially with the good, equipment nowadays, we have the confidence in that. Being able to take that to the field. It just makes, it makes you so much more efficient as a bow hunter.

Yes. Feel like you're not questioning near as much when a deer's coming in. You know what you've done. You've shot all summer. Yep. Time to

Nate Rozeveld: execute. Yeah. It feels great. It feels great. Knowing that I can go out there and not I was relying so much on pulling a rangefinder out every deer that walked by.

Oh, that's 33 yards. Oh, that's 27 yards. And I was like, almost like missing on the experience of watching the deer work through. 'cause even if it was a dough or a buck wasn't gonna shoot, I just I need to know the range. I need to know, because I have to shoot exactly that range.

It's no, I don't like I can shoot effectively enough at 30 yards an in or 30 or 40, let's just say 40. And in, it's my thing, if I am gonna shoot a deer over 40 yards, I'm gonna arrange it. Yeah. Like I just need to arrange it and if it's over 30 yards, if I have time, I'm gonna arrange it.

That's just, I think the [01:18:00] right thing to do. But if a deer's bumping a dough or doing something or coming in quick, I don't want to have to be so like hung up on home, rangefinder out and zapping it and doing this. I feel like this is a new thing that, and I used to do as a kid. I had a old bow, no let off pull that bugger back and I was, I would shoot deer at 35 yards all the time and have a one pin.

That's, and I just learned how to do that. And it's like throwing a ball. I shoot lots of recurve. I grew up shooting instinctively. My dad's shot instinctive bow for a long time. So that has rejuvenated me shooting my bow this summer. It's been a lot of fun, doing

Drew Hasler: that. It's funny, the last couple deer I've shot I've obviously killed them and I sit in the truck afterwards and I think to myself, I was like, man, I didn't do.

A damn thing getting ready for that deer. I sat in my seat and I waited for him to come in and I drew and shot. Yep. It's as simple and as stupid as that sounds, that's what's worked. It's

Nate Rozeveld: That's good because that means you're in kill mode. You're in kill mode. Like you're very, like you've gotten to the point as a hunter.

Yes. Yep. [01:19:00] The

Drew Hasler: mistakes I've made in previous years has been because I've ranged it, 15 times before the deer's actually. In my gap to shoot and I'm overthinking everything and it's just go out there and be confident. That's huge. Yep.

Nate Rozeveld: So I'm really pumped about that. Now, if I start missing all fall, we can just come back to this conversation and be like, you're stupid.

Yeah. But I'll bring my, I'll bring my target

Drew Hasler: down to Illinois. Yeah. We'll be shoot, just in case.

Nate Rozeveld: No, it's fun. I'm not an no, I'm not like a tap shooter by any means, if you go out there and say, hit that baseball at 55 yards, I'll hit that baseball for you. So feel pretty good about that.

So I think. I shot Broadheads a little bit, so I'll probably, I usually start shooting Broadheads in September. So I will have a Broadhead, I'll shoot, try to shoot one Broadhead every day, any range. That's really good indication of where I'm at from tuning wise. 'cause string stretch could happen or bow can get tweaked or whatever.

So that's usually, I don't start that till September. First of all, I don't have enough money to buy targets if I shoot a bunch of broadheads. 'cause it gets expensive. Yeah. But that's what I'll do for that. And then [01:20:00] trail cameras, I don't have any out in Michigan right now, so me and the fam or me Henry Nash are gonna start doing those this weekend.

I'm gonna get 'em out. I got a whole box full of 'em with batteries ready to go, so I get 'em all ready and then that's gonna be this weekend and I got my food plots done. Yeah. I think other than food plots in Illinois, I'm pretty much wrapped up with the Habitat stuff for the year and just show cameras are next and then just, yeah.

I got. Two really nice bucks I know for sure are alive. That could target. They're both eight points. The one I have a shed from last year, I saw him last week. He blew up from last year. He's a now

Drew Hasler: Do you do quite a bit of driving around the sections? Yep. Looking for deer.

Nate Rozeveld: Yep. He'll get ice cream and drive around.

Yep. The road scouting, that's Yep, exactly. I know the I know the farms, I know where they like to be, so I know like where I can park my truck and just kinda wait and know where the big ones are, pose to the littler ones. And then yeah. Then when we go do the food pots, like the only scouting [01:21:00] I've done the summer, I really, me and Henry did a lot of summer sky last couple years because my wife was in nursing, nurse practitioner school or whatever, doing her masters'.

So it was just me and him on the weekends. She's studying get outta here, I'm trying to study. So we'd be like, all right, we're gonna the woods. And I didn't really have any, The amount of effort and miles I walked was great. Taught my kid a lot of cool things, did all that, but I didn't really get a good return on that from like deer hunting last year.

So I've scaled that back, didn't do hardly any of it this summer and just focused on putting some food plots in because of the opportunity I had. And then, yeah, shoot my bone. Just being more doing to-do list stuff and getting some stuff ready and this podcast thing took up some Yep.

Time. But yeah, I don't have, other than those two deer, the one, both of 'em caught me by surprise because they're a lot bigger than I anticipated. I'm being, I know both of 'em. And then I have three other deer that I'm like just patiently waiting for my cameras to get out and tell me how big they got because, yeah, there's three there.

So I, it's looking really good going into the fall, so I'm like fucking getting jacked up from Michigan, man. [01:22:00] I'm like doing this to be awesome.

Drew Hasler: My, my couple of drives around, multiple drives I should say, try to get out at least once a week, driving around the section, whatnot. Checking out the corners, there's certain corners that are hot.

And it seems like this year there's just been an absurd amount of bucks. Especially bucks that I've seen in previous years. They're still around and they could be doing part two, our conservation efforts in the area. But it seems to be paying off. Yeah. I think

Nate Rozeveld: actually worried.

I was worried because of the drought. I didn't know what was gonna happen. See?

Drew Hasler: Last year was hor like scout. Summer scouting was not near as good as it was this year. I would

Nate Rozeveld: agree. I had nothing. I can't think of last summer seeing a bucking velvet. There was one young 10 point that I know he's alive.

I haven't seen him. I passed him last year. He was hanging out by where I could see him last year. He's not there this year that I've seen, but I've heard where he is. I can't see it from the road. I have to go walk on a dude's field and I'm just not gonna scare any deer. So I don't want to do [01:23:00] that. Other than that last year I didn't see crap for velvet bucks, like at all. And this year it's like, why is there so many bucks? Like you're saying, why am I seeing these deer and why are they making that big of a jump? So I don't know if it's just. The deer or the year, but I, you would've thought the drought was so bad.

It was. But maybe the, we got rain in time, rain where all these crop up and they're doing good rain, I don't know. But we did have a really easy winter, so I actually found a bunch of sheds this year because typically the bucks aren't, don't winter where I hunt because of the cover that don't be thermal cover for 'em.

But because the winter was so easy, I actually found a lot of sheds. So I think that might actually have a pretty big role into these deer. They went into the spring really healthy. So

Drew Hasler: They've had it pretty easy this whole

Nate Rozeveld: year, michigan buck poll on Instagram, Facebook will be able to see if that's true through the entire state.

That's true. But that's how I'm feeling. But yeah. Is there any, yeah. Anything else, man? I know it's getting a little late. I don't know how early you're gonna wake up tomorrow, but what have you got going on?

Drew Hasler: Anything else? Nope. I, like I said, we're food [01:24:00] plots tomorrow. Obviously gotta show up to work, so that's always a fun one.

Nate Rozeveld: Yeah, you wake up early for

Drew Hasler: that four 30 rolls around awfully quick every day,

Nate Rozeveld: yep. So no, I'll yeah, I'll let you go, but I appreciate that you're definitely gonna be hearing Drew and more this fall. You guys are gonna help me out through the fall. Try to give as real up to up-to-date legit hunting stories or hunting events through the fall. So I got a handful of guys and Drew's on that list that I hope to go through and we can chitchat and see what's going on. And hopefully it would be awesome if we can get this compilation of information and see how relevant it is year to year because you have success early October.

Very consistent consistently. I have success late October going into November. Really good. So it's like meshing these two together and picking up on these things and just being as versatile as we can because I. We're not, we're essentially weekend warriors, like we do have time, I hate sitting at home

Drew Hasler: October 1st.

Not near the time [01:25:00] we used to have.

Nate Rozeveld: Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. College days. College days. Those are nice. Those are behind us. But yeah, so no I'm super glad that you came on tonight. Yep. Did this. Thanks for having me. Got me jacked up for October, man. Yeah, thank you, man. I'm just talking about this.

It's ooh, let's go. But yeah, if if there's nothing else, let's have a good night and anyone else listening to this week, make sure you guys get out there. Enjoy creation and yeah, get your, what do you think the window is for food pots? I've heard end of August, right? You got till the end of August to get some food pots in usually.

Yeah. Pretty

Drew Hasler: much depends on what you're planting. I'm doing like a beans, peas, and oats. So usually start to mid-August is when I try to get 'em in. But we got some, there's so much moisture in the ground now. We've been getting so much rain. I think you're. You got a pretty good window just about this whole

Nate Rozeveld: month, so yeah, be good.

So yeah, get out there, do a food pot. Obviously Drew's got firsthand experience on a non-ideal hunting property from the outside, but you can make it into something, give it some time, put some equity into it. It'd be successful for him. But yeah, get out [01:26:00] there, do it. And yeah, look forward to hunting Illinois with you this fall,

Drew Hasler: man.

Yeah, me too, man. It's good talking to you.

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