Nate Thomas: The Hunter Decline Myth

In this conversation, Ricky and Nate Thomas of the Missouri Woods and Water podcast, discuss various topics related to hunting and conservation. They touch on the hunter decline myth and an article written by Nicole Qualtieri about the subject.

The Hunter Decline Myth: Habitat - Not Hunting - Is at Risk by Nicole Qualtieri

Missouri Woods & Water Podcast: The Hunter Decline Myth with Nicole Qualtieri

They also talk about the importance of educating people about hunting and conservation, and the challenges of finding hunting opportunities and the impact of legislation on hunting rights.

Nate shares his experience as a father passing on his knowledge of the outdoors to his children. Nate discusses the emotional aspect of hunting as a father and the pressure he feels to provide successful hunting experiences for his children. He shares a personal story of his son's unsuccessful hunt and the emotions that came with it.

The conversation concludes with Nate discussing his archery setup, including his bow, arrows, broadheads, and other accessories.

The Range Podcast can be found on all major platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Video versions of the podcast can also be found on the Vapor Trail YouTube Channel and Wild TV.

Enter Promo Code trp15 during checkout at www.vaportrailarchery.com to receive 15% off VTX Bowstrings and Branded Apparel.

The Range Podcast is brought to you by Vapor Trail Archery and Stokerized Stabilizers. We are proud to be a part of the @sportsmens_empire network.

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Ricky Brule (00:06.523)

Welcome to the range. I'm your host, Ricky Brule. Thank you all for joining us today. Before we get started, do me a huge favor and give us a five star rating and review on either Apple podcasts or Spotify. You can find the video version of this episode on the Vapor Trail YouTube channel. So please head on over, subscribe, give us a like and hit that bell so you can be up to date on all things archery.

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Don't forget to follow us at the range podcast on Instagram and Facebook as well as vapor trail our treat and stoke rise stabilizers On the podcast today. We have Nate Thomas of the Missouri woods and waters podcast another fantastic podcast That is part of the sportsman's Empire Network family Nate is a dedicated father and husband as well as a successful bow hunter Which is why we're having them on the on the podcast today Nate. Welcome. How are you doing, man?

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Missouri Woods & Water (00:57.689)

Successful bow hunter might be pushing it, but hey, I'll take it.

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Ricky Brule (01:02.128)

Hey man, if you've taken one animal with a bow that's success in my eyes, but I'm sure you got more than that. Yeah. So again, thank you for, for being on, and pivoting really quick. I had a cancellation and thanks for jumping on and, and good to, good to finally meet you. You know, I've been part of some of the, some of the big meetings that we have with Dan and the sportsman's empire network, but it's, it is really cool. It's a family. so.

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:06.514)

Okay, well then I'm there, yep.

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Ricky Brule (01:29.451)

It's really fun to have chats with each other and kind of bounce ideas off of each other. why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do for a living and also what is your archery origin story? Like what, what, what got you started hunting and then what led into picking up a bow?

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:46.361)

Yeah, so, yeah, my name's Nate Thomas. I'm one of the hosts of the Missouri Woods and Water podcast. Andy doesn't say hi to you, because he doesn't even know we're doing this right now. He's in Colorado chasing elk. But Micah says hi. Sorry he couldn't be here. But it's a running joke on our show. I'm a safety guy in my career. So Micah just says I show up to places and say, hey guys, be safe. And then I leave. So that's what we're going to say I do.

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Ricky Brule (01:59.295)

Nice.

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right on.

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Missouri Woods & Water (02:16.291)

I'm a safety guy. My hunting story is maybe a little atypical, although I don't really think it is. I've met so many people that have a similar story to me. I didn't get into hunting until I was in college, maybe even after college. I might have went turkey hunting with my brother -in -law in college, but never really got serious about anything until I graduated.

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Ricky Brule (02:19.155)

That's cool.

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Missouri Woods & Water (02:44.275)

and I went rifle hunting with my brother -in -law, killed my first buck, kind of caught the bug. And then my archery origin was just a year or two later. He bought a new bow. I bought his old bow from him, loved it, and started archery hunting. And I've become more ingrained in it ever since. And now I'm an old man, I feel like.

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That's kind of my archery story. A lot of people grew up hunting. I didn't grow up hunting. I grew up in the outdoors, but not really hunting. But the more and more we do our show, the more and more people I meet that were like I was, where they didn't get started until later in life. And once they did it, they started hot and heavy. So that's kind of my story.

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Ricky Brule (03:33.415)

Mm

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That's cool, Yeah, it's like one of my favorite things to do as far as bringing people in, adult onset hunters too, especially. I participate in some metro hunts here in the Minneapolis area. And so we get a lot of new hunters just because they simply don't have opportunities. Public land around here is really tough to hunt. And so it's kind of cool to be able to work with a lot of new hunters. And it's a ton of fun to kind of teach them some things.

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And so good for you for taking that up too. I always like to talk a little bit about that. And it's funny because this is naturally going to kind of segue into what I wanted to kind of talk to you about. I just listened to one of your recent episodes that you put out with Nicole Qualtiere. She posted an article back in like 2021 called The Hunter Decline Myth.

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I'm really torn between a lot of different ideas and concepts and everything like that. I'm a life member of BHA and, you know, I have been since, you know, it's probably been seven or eight years now, but I've started to kind of distance myself a little bit from it. It sounds like she used to work for them and now she's kind of on the other side of the fence, but BHA used to really talk a lot about the R3 program and I always get...

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Missouri Woods & Water (05:00.27)

Mm

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Ricky Brule (05:03.883)

I'm the kind of person where if there's one thing that I don't agree with, I'm not just going to cancel that. Sometimes there's some things that you don't agree with, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad cause. But I always thought that it was a little bit counterintuitive. It's like we're trying to save all this public land and trying to acquire more public land, but then we're also trying to recruit new people and more people and get more people out there. So I was always a little bit confused by that.

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Missouri Woods & Water (05:31.64)

For sure, yeah.

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Ricky Brule (05:33.253)

Listening to that episode was pretty wild because all this time I've never really thought about the fact that the numbers are based on The Right right exactly and that it's

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Missouri Woods & Water (05:42.113)

Aggregate, it's aggregate numbers. Yeah.

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Ricky Brule (05:51.623)

I'm trying to think what is the, why am I drawing a blank on the term that she's using per capita? Yeah, the fact that the numbers are based on per capita, right? But if you really look at the overall numbers of license sales and everything, hunters are increasing and then our opportunities are decreasing. Land is decreasing, know, things are getting, you know, now there's things on the docket like in Utah for land to get private, well land to get,

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Missouri Woods & Water (05:56.578)

then they actually

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Missouri Woods & Water (06:00.609)

per capita, yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (06:10.51)

just

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Ricky Brule (06:21.619)

hand it off to the state, which then, you know, historically speaking, is there's a good chance that it's going to become privatized and even private ground now, like, you can't used to be able to knock on doors and go hunting, you know, get permission, especially if you had a bow, it was it was awesome, because people would be like, you're doing the bow, knock yourself out, have a good time. Yeah, yeah. And now it's like the opportunities for leasing property and all that kind of stuff. So if you don't have, you know, 1000 bucks a year, you know,

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Missouri Woods & Water (06:38.277)

nobody's out here right now anyways. Yeah.

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Ricky Brule (06:50.171)

you can't get that access and so all those things are going on.

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Missouri Woods & Water (06:52.601)

and honestly, even if you do have the money, I mean, I'm a perfect example. Not that I'm rich, but I have been looking for a lease for going on four years now and I cannot get one. I mean, as soon as I think I've got it, I lose it. Somebody else comes pays more. And so, yeah, what I loved about that episode and, you know, I don't want to jump too far forward, but you keep hearing, you know, my entire hunting career, you hear

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the hunters, hunting numbers are going down. we're losing hunters in the droves. You know, the baby boomers are no longer gonna be hunting. The older generation is leaving the space and we don't have anybody. And she was the, that was the first thing I read or in this case her article was the first thing I read that was saying the opposite. And then when I read the article I'm like, well shit, yeah, per capita that makes a whole lot of sense but.

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Ricky Brule (07:47.901)

Mm

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Missouri Woods & Water (07:48.193)

If you look at tag sales, they're really not any different now than they were back then. I mean, I think there's a couple thousand variants here and there, but I think, and I could be way off on the numbers, because I didn't research before we recorded here today. Like back in the 80s, the number of tag sales were like, and that was the highest numbers of hunters we've ever had, were like a couple thousand more than they are today.

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Is that really less hunters out there? No. Per capita, sure. Because there's a shit ton more of us in America than there were 40 years ago. and then, you know, obviously you listen to the show and, know, if anybody wants to go listen to it, go check it out. It was just a few episodes ago, but she talks about just all the things that, you know, the R3 initiative, which I think is a good thing in general. It's not a bad thing to have an initiative like that.

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Ricky Brule (08:31.005)

Yeah, for sure.

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Missouri Woods & Water (08:44.131)

but she talked about, you know, it's more of a marketing strategy and, you know, I don't think that's the best way to get hunters into the hunting space is a big marketing initiative, right? It's more of a personal, personal way you get people in. And I will say I agree with her point that any new hunter I've ever seen in the space has been because somebody got him into it.

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Now there are people out there, we've got a good friend out in Indiana, he's out in Colorado right now hunting elk. He started by himself. Second year with a bow, went out to Colorado by himself, back country hunted and killed a cow elk. But he is one in a million. Usually you know somebody that gets you started in it or your dad did it back when you were a kid and you're getting back into it. Usually...

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Ricky Brule (09:28.563)

Mm

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Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (09:41.197)

you've got some sort of connection into the hunting space. so I don't disagree with her point that it's better to get new hunters, recruit new hunters organically, but initiatives like that still can't hurt. mean, what's it gonna hurt telling people to come hunt, right? But yeah, so was just, she just kind of went against the current.

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Ricky Brule (10:03.229)

Right.

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Missouri Woods & Water (10:09.347)

that I've always read. It was just the opposite direction. And so I read it, it was interesting, and it took me a few years to have her on. I mean, that article's three years old now, but it's worth the read and at least makes you think a little differently.

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Ricky Brule (10:13.713)

Mm

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Ricky Brule (10:24.263)

Yeah, for sure. yeah, so definitely people should go back and listen to that. And I wanted to dive a little bit more into detail about, she mentioned a little bit about the Pittman Robertson Act. so when I would attend some public lands rallies and things like that, a lot of the talk was, well, part of the reason why we need to add new hunters into the fold and

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get more people is because of the amount of money that goes into the Pittman Robertson Act, which is, you know, federal excise taxes that, you know, manufacturers put into that pool of money, and then that goes into conservation efforts, all that kind of thing. And so one thing that I've talked about with a lot of people and even some board members of the local BHA chapter, they're no longer with BHA now, but it's still, it's just something that

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has never been talked about, me being with a manufacturer with Vapor Trail, we pay an 11 % excise tax on all archery accessories. So basically every product that we manufacture, we pay 11 % excise tax. And so one of the arguments was we need to get more people into hunting to supply funds for conservation. However, I think it would be a better effort to educate people on the products that they're buying, specifically because Amazon is a big one.

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You know, people go on Amazon and they're like, can find the same set of broadheads on Amazon for half the price. But what they don't realize is that those broadheads are probably, they're probably like a copy that's being made in China. And then they don't have to pay that excise tax. And so when you're purchasing those products, you're not contributing to conservation within our country. or towards that pit.

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Pittman Robertson Act. And I don't think there's a lot of people that know about that. I mean, I've been working here for 18 years, and I didn't even know about the Pittman Robertson Act for the first five years I worked here until I started getting into management. And so I always thought that that was interesting. And it's never been a talking point. And I think it's just because I agree with you, I think our three is I think recruiting people, it's not a bad thing. I just think the agenda there is is wonky, you know, because she talked a lot about it's the money.

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Ricky Brule (12:39.607)

And that drives so many different things. And that, to me, just it doesn't seem right. And I think we need to educate people on what's really going on.

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Missouri Woods & Water (12:50.319)

Well, and recruitment for just recruitment sake is a bad thing. I don't mean recruiting new people into the space is bad, but I'm just gonna use like generic numbers here. I would rather have 500 hunters who treat the land like it's their own, who are respectful, who care about the animals more than these freaking people that say that they care about animals, you know, and...

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and want to cancel all of us for shooting a deer, then I would have a thousand hunters who 500 of those hunters are jackasses. They shoot and wound animals and they don't care. They treat the land like dog crap. I would much rather have 500 people who are legitimate, you know, conservationists when it comes to that than a thousand that are just doing it because well,

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they saw a commercial about it or whatever. So, you know, like I said, it can't be a bad thing, you know, you don't want, I mean, I don't want 330 million people to hunt. That's how many people are in our country. I don't want 338 million or whatever it is, people hunting. I really don't. mean, call me selfish, but you know, it's okay. It's okay that we don't, you know, we're not.

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Ricky Brule (14:11.402)

It wouldn't be sustainable.

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Missouri Woods & Water (14:15.605)

that huge of a community. I want it to grow. It's growing every day with my kids. yeah, so was just, it was interesting. You can tell she's passionate about the topic and it was a good, that was a good topic. You know, one I've had on my list for years and I finally reached out to her. You know, it just finally got to the point where I was like, why have I not done this yet? So I finally reached out and.

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and recorded a show with her. So if you want to read the article first, all you got to type in on Google is the hunter decline myth and then Nicole Qualtieri, which is Q -U -A -L -T -I -E -R -I, if I did that right. And you'll find the article. And then like I said, she talks about it on our show. I think it was a few episodes ago now. So if you just type Missouri Woods and Water.

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Ricky Brule (15:01.181)

Thank you, all right.

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Missouri Woods & Water (15:11.598)

scroll down a little bit you'll find it. we no longer have our episodes numbered which I hate. I could just tell you it's episode 224 but it's no longer numbered on Apple. I don't know about Spotify but so yeah man it was a cool topic for sure.

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Ricky Brule (15:15.176)

Yeah, nice.

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Ricky Brule (15:28.593)

Mm -hmm. Yeah, I'm curious to actually have a chat with her myself too, just to get a little bit more into the weeds with it. Because I'm constantly trying to educate myself, and I don't know that I'm always right. I want to try to be careful that I'm not leading to any misinformation out there. But was just, with as long as I've been immersed in all of this, listening to that episode was, I learned a lot. And so I think there's a lot of people that could learn something from it too.

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Just to go, like to go back and just the whole time I'm listening to this episode, I'm thinking about all these people that I have, these conversations I've had with people. And, you know, even for myself, I hunted elk in Idaho in 2019 and I got my tag OTC. And now it's like a nightmare trying to get a license in Idaho.

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you know, absolute nightmare. mean, there's people that are driving eight, nine hours to go to an actual license station so that they because they feel like maybe they have a better chance and they don't like you as soon as you get in. It's like, you're, you know, 5000 thin line. It's like crazy.

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Missouri Woods & Water (16:32.726)

And that's part of the reason I wanted to record with her because, I say it in the show, I don't feel like there's less hunters out there. Public ground is as busy as it's ever been. When I go out to Colorado, I'm running into dudes in the middle of the woods in what I think is far out in the back country.

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Colorado is a perfect example. Almost no units are OTC anymore. They used to have, you know, dozens of units and now they're slowly becoming all draw units. you know, so I'm like, I don't feel like there's less hunters. My state specifically in Missouri, we have so many out of state hunters because of the price of our tags and the guaranteed tag for whitetail that I don't feel like there's nobody out here. You know, I feel like there's plenty of people. So

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That was part of the reason I kind of wanted to record with her is because I keep hearing that numbers are down, but I I don't specifically experience that. I see plenty of hunters. see hunters on every parcel out here in Missouri. I see hunters, you know, fighting for parcels out here. And so, and that's just whitetail. Obviously white, the whitetail deer drives a lot of these conversations. but. You know, I actually did a podcast with,

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NDA a few months ago about the white tail deer driving conservation in America. And you should go back to listen to that one. That's another good point. Like the white tail deer, if it didn't exist on this landscape, conservation would not be anything what we thought it was like. I mean, you the white tail deer is the, the bell cow for turkey hunting, for elk hunting, for all of it. It's, it's, it's pretty cool to see. So

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I'm not saying I hate that people like whitetail hunting, but just from a hunter number, I just don't see that number being lower than it was 20 years ago when I first started hunting. that's part of the other reason why I wanted to record with her on it.

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Ricky Brule (18:35.879)

Mm

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Ricky Brule (18:40.455)

Yeah. Yeah. And a couple of things too, to, to piggyback on, like I was talking about with my Idaho hunting trip and, talking a little bit about leases too. used to turkey hunt just outside of the Metro out here in a little town called Lake Elmo. And I lost access to hunt there because there was a couple of guys that came in voluntarily wanting to pay money to hunt there, which blew my mind. Cause I was like, this turkeys, what, you know what I mean? Like, but you know, people are very fanatical about that stuff and they're willing to pay money. And.

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Missouri Woods & Water (19:02.094)

Right.

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Ricky Brule (19:10.779)

So in the state of like before I started going out west You know hunting public ground in Minnesota. There's not a lot of it. So it's so naturally it's gonna be difficult You're gonna run into tons of people so it wasn't Surprising, know, wasn't like unnatural for me to go someplace and there'd be tons of vehicles and all that kind of stuff But when I started hunting out west, you know for the better part of a decade I didn't have any problems getting a tag. I could get them over the counter. I could you know, North Dakota

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I would haunt almost every year. now it's getting to be, it took me three years to draw this last time. And I even have one guy that has four points that didn't draw. And it's just unheard of. And so again, to me, it could be isolated things. It's quite possible. But then there's also some states that give out

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as many OTC tags as they do as you know, five of the other Western states combined. So then you're so then in those cases, you're like, holy, okay, maybe you need to like, you know, tone it down a little bit. Because again, now you're getting all these people, people are just colliding with one another. And, and, you know, success rates are naturally going to go down. So I'm not, I'm not opposed to it taking longer for me to get a tag right now, simply because I know that there's going to be less hunters. But it's just

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It's this balance that, you know, how do you fix it or what, you know, what do you do? I don't know.

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Missouri Woods & Water (20:34.541)

Yeah, because if you want more hunters in the woods, the worst way to make that happen is to get all of them to be out there together and nobody be successful. If I was new hunter and I never saw a deer, that would suck. And in fact, when I first started hunting, I hunted a farm. Now, obviously, I didn't know how to hunt either. I just like went out and sat in some old guy's tree stand.

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Ricky Brule (20:45.842)

Right.

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Missouri Woods & Water (21:04.014)

that was there for years before. And I bet for the first two years that I hunted, I saw like 10 deer total. And so I would go weeks, weeks on end, not seeing a deer. And that got old. And a lot of people would just be like, this is stupid and just quit. And you know, it's the same with Western hunting, know. I could only imagine doing all that work and never seeing an elk.

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Ricky Brule (21:30.888)

Right.

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Missouri Woods & Water (21:31.919)

I've had years like that and it sucks. And some people would just be like, well, that's that for me. And especially on top of spending thousands of dollars to go do it. And that's even, that's OTC tag. OTC tags are still what, $800 in Colorado, plus your travel, plus food, like all the things you got to do. And so for me, just throwing more people, know, by selling more tags and throwing more people in the woods doesn't necessarily make it.

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Ricky Brule (21:43.293)

Mm

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Missouri Woods & Water (22:01.251)

better for hunting. But like I said, this is just my opinion. I'm just some dude that has a microphone and talks. So take it for what it's worth.

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Ricky Brule (22:07.795)

That's that's where I'm at too. Yeah Yeah, yeah, I always invite people to call me out. You know what I mean? Like I'm willing to have a conversation I'm not the kind of guy that like I said is gonna you know Just write you off because I don't agree with what you say I I I encourage that I like that because that's how I figure I feel like you learn you become more well -rounded and I've challenged a lot of people to have that conversation with me on this podcast and

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very few people chime in, but I honestly encourage people because I will I'll have a I'll have a legit conversation and we can just we can agree to disagree on some things too. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with that, you know. You know, and I wanted to point out to I was listening to you know, I'm friends with Jeff Helm. And so, you know, Brian just did an episode on the Western rookie with him. So I listened to that episode. And they were talking about on on that podcast episode as well, you know, just about getting to the trailhead and there's

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You know 10 12 15 trucks, you know, so it's it's it's hard to believe that the numbers are declining and you know, they they There there's a legitimate argument towards it. I guess you know if you put a certain spin on it But I just thought that was really interesting It was a cool episode to listen to and I wanted to just have that conversation because something I've always wanted to talk about on this podcast. So

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Missouri Woods & Water (23:21.923)

Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (23:28.473)

Well, thanks man. I I was excited to do it for sure. I mean, you have those episodes where you're like, I don't know how this is gonna go. And to be honest with you, I was like, I'm a little worried about this one because it's a little bit controversial. you know, I had never met Nicole before that recording. And I mean, she was super awesome. She was really easy to talk to.

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but it's a bit a controversial topic. I don't even know why it would be controversial. Whoopty. Okay, so you believe that there's less hunters. I believe there's more. Cool. Like what's it matter if you disagree with me there? I mean, I guess it's the same thing with, you know, the fixed broadhead versus the mechanical broadhead debate. Brothers will disown each other over it,

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Ricky Brule (24:12.328)

Yeah.

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Ricky Brule (24:16.367)

Right. And that just made me think of something too. There was a comment you made that I thought was interesting. You had said, you know, maybe we don't necessarily need to recruit people for hunting, but we just need to educate people on what it is we do, why we do it. Help them understand legislation, certain things that are coming through, you know, through our state legislatures and all those kinds of things, just so that they, they know the right things to vote for.

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And I, I, and I was like, yes. And, and, and the only reason I thought that is, and so I don't want to get into the crossbow debate, but I just, I want to use this as an example. So like in the state of Minnesota, this, you know, there was more, more recently a bill passed. was, gosh, I don't know how long it's gone now. I think it's, almost two years ago now, but they legalize marijuana in the state of Minnesota. But in that package, they bundled in the, the crossbow legislation that essentially.

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allowed crossbows across the board during rifle season. During, you know, it's always been during rifle season, but then also for, you know, anybody who's 62 or older. And then the, you know, the argument was, we want, you know, it's going to help recruit more hunters by allowing kids to use them, which I agree with that. But anyway, I said, I didn't want to get into that. I'm.

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But what I'm saying is, is they bundled that in there and I think the majority of the support in the state was for legalization of marijuana, but they didn't realize that they didn't even know that that piece of legislation was even in there. And then they voted for it and now it's through. So that's one thing that people really got to be careful about too, is making sure that you know, it's not always just one thing. It's not always the major topic on the docket. There's multiple things that go into a package. And so, I mean, I had multiple, you know, archery, you know, friends who are

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Members of the Minnesota deer hunters association that some that supported that legislation and Those members were not even made aware of that legislation going through although they although they told people that they have 225 ,000 members statewide that all support it. So to me that's interesting too You know just again using numbers and stuff like that So I just it made me think when you said that that I agree with what you're saying and on top of that I think that people really got it

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Ricky Brule (26:41.329)

Gotta make sure that they know what they're voting for and to make sure they're clear.

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Missouri Woods & Water (26:44.266)

which is what's, and that's why, like I said, I'm less worried about stuff like that. You know, the fact of the matter is they are coming for our hunting rights every day. And someone told me this years ago, they're gonna go for the low hanging fruit first. So, like right now, they're going after dog hunting. They're going after the use of dogs for lions and whatever else.

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And so I don't dog hunt. So a guy like me, I don't care, right? That should be wrong. The answer should be wrong. I should care. Because if they get rid of dog hunting, let's say they go after turkey hunting next, and they get rid of turkey hunters. And then they go after quail hunters, and they get rid of them. And so we gotta pay attention as hunters. We have to educate non -hunters the right way. If somebody asks you, you know,

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Ricky Brule (27:26.919)

Yeah. Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (27:42.894)

hey, you're a whitetail hunter. I wouldn't, you know, like at work, you work for a company that does this, but I don't. I work in like a normal corporate job. And so if somebody asks me, you know, you're a hunter. Should I feel ashamed to talk about it? Or should I tell them about what I do? What do a lot of people do? They shy away from the topic. Yeah, I hunt deer and this is what I do.

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And I would love for you, I'll bring you some deer meat sometime. You can try it. And then that person potentially could be an ally. They're never gonna hunt a day in their life, but they could potentially be an ally for when some stupid ass bill gets put in front of their face and they go, well, that Nate guy, he talked about how much he loves deer and why would they do this? I'm gonna vote no or whatever. And then that gives us organizations like Conservation Federation.

‍

Ricky Brule (28:33.041)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (28:38.542)

We've got a really strong Conservation Federation of Missouri here because of our awesome sales tax that we have here in Missouri for all the public lands we've got. Their sole goal is to go fight all these stupid bills that are put in front of the state legislature every year that are trying to get rid of our hunting rights. If I were worried about hunting numbers, I'd be more worried about the dumbass things that come out.

‍

Against hunting that we have to fight all the time I mean it's got to be exhausting for those organizations and they're trying to you know Keep us updated on what's going on Because I don't know everything that's going on. I don't hear about stuff You know like Arizona banning game cameras. I didn't know about that until it was already done You know that sort of stuff so Anyways, yeah, sorry to go down that rabbit hole but

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Ricky Brule (29:31.429)

No, no, that's perfect. This is great and and to to You know on top of what you're saying there You know, I I've been a member of our MEF. I've been a member of the mule deer foundation I've been a member of pheasants forever, you know the Wild Turkey Federation all of those and Everybody that I talked to They're saying, know, we're doing everything that we can every dollar we're bringing in is just barely enough to keep our heads above water

‍

And so, you know, it's difficult to move ahead. It's just every effort is going into just keeping what we have. And so that was a conversation that I had with a buddy of mine on one of our past episodes, Josh John Wells. And we talked about that. It's. You know, if we the hunting community is very divided in a lot of areas. And so if we don't figure out a way to get along and kind of figure these things out, to your point.

‍

We may lose it, you know, and and it might be a slow bleed But it'll eventually go away and then you know with you know, urban sprawl and everything. It's just it's exponential So yeah, I just can't we all just get along

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (30:43.182)

100%, make no mistake about it. Make no mistake about it dude, like people who have no idea what they're doing make decisions for us hunters. Look at Colorado and the release of the wolves again. Nobody in the hunting community thought that was a good idea. But guess what happened? They got released and they're already regretting it. mean, so we have got to pay attention to that sort of stuff and say,

‍

hell are you doing? Now we might not win in that case. I mean they still got their way and they released wolves again. And I'm a little bit like back and forth on that whole stuff too because you know a wolf is a natural you know was on the landscape at one point in time. The problem I have is the type of wolf they released in Colorado is not native to Colorado. And so they're they're introducing a species that isn't even

‍

supposed to be there in the first place. So that made no sense to me. you know, we, people who do not have anything to do with hunting make the decisions for us sometimes. And that's where we should be really wary of it because they have no idea what they're doing. And I guess we don't either, but at least we care. You know?

‍

Ricky Brule (31:57.746)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (32:01.405)

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I do have concerns about, you know, decisions being made more on an emotional basis rather than scientific basis. And, you know, I can't say who was making the decisions on this end, but it made me think of a situation around here where, you know, Lake Superior has a large island called the Apostle Islands and northern Minnesota. Our moose population is being decimated because of a

‍

Shoot, now I can't, I'm drawing a blank, I can't even remember. But the population has been declining over the years. There hasn't been a moose hunt here in years. But then there's a moose problem on the Apostle Islands. So they introduced wolves to the Apostle Islands to reduce the moose population. And I'm going, what in the world? Can't we just transplant, yeah, can't we just transplant the moose to where it needs to be? And then once the ice froze over, the wolves,

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Missouri Woods & Water (32:38.67)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (32:48.931)

That's not gonna reduce the moose population. That's gonna eradicate it. Yeah.

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Ricky Brule (33:01.457)

went to the mainland. now they're no longer. So just like, who's making these decisions, you know, and why, you know, so it just, I'm thinking, you know, move the moose to the northern part of the state where they're lower. But again, so I don't know, maybe they maybe you're just moving those, you know, moose into a death sentence because of what's already going on with the moose population. So again, I'm not an expert in that area. So I'm not the guy who should be making those decisions, but still it's

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (33:05.038)

Ha ha ha ha.

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Ricky Brule (33:28.239)

it does raise some questions right as to who it is that's making these decisions.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (33:30.339)

well, those things thought about in disgust though? That's what I guess I would wanna know is, wait, did we talk about this or we just decide let's put some wolves on this island? So, like I didn't think about the whole ice thing, because I'm not from Minnesota. Our ponds, our waterways don't really freeze over down here like they do up there. They do, but they don't stay frozen. like my first thought was, wait a minute, you put wolves on an island with moose. Those moose aren't gonna last two years.

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Ricky Brule (33:48.474)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (33:59.95)

there'll be not a single moose on that island after the first 24 months. I didn't think about the whole they could leave it when it gets really cold out, but I can't picture a moose really like traveling way too far anyways, but maybe I'm wrong. But yeah, man, it's a topic we gotta pay attention to.

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Ricky Brule (34:00.103)

Yeah, I don't...

‍

Ricky Brule (34:12.709)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

‍

Ricky Brule (34:18.161)

Yep, absolutely, for sure. Well, cool. That was a great chat. Let's just pivot a little bit, make it a little bit more lighthearted. You're a dad. And so how many kids do you have right now?

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Missouri Woods & Water (34:33.519)

And that is all I'm gonna have. There's no more right now in that.

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Ricky Brule (34:33.683)

Four kids. Right on. And so it sounded like, you've got three that are grown enough to be of hunting age, and then I think you have one that's just getting into it. Is that right?

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (34:49.359)

Yeah, so I've got a daughter who has just turned 17 and I failed her as a father. She does not care to hunt whatsoever. I tried to get her to go hunting with me this last year and she said she would go, but if she saw a deer, she would yell at it, so I couldn't kill it. So I said, well, then you're not going hunting with me. So, and then I've got three sons after her and my youngest is six.

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Ricky Brule (35:05.036)

Mmm.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (35:16.918)

he's gonna get to go hunting with me this year. He won't be a hunter, but he will go with me this year. And then the other two are a little older than him. So I've got three little dudes that I have to figure out how to get them into the woods with me as much as I can this year.

‍

Ricky Brule (35:32.531)

man, that's cool. I have a four -year -old daughter and so she's everything about the outdoors. She loves it, just getting into the dirt and all that kind of stuff. So I'm really excited about that. My wife does have a coda. He just turned 12. And he showed some interest in hunting in the beginning and stuff. And we went out and did a few things, but it just not quite for him.

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Missouri Woods & Water (35:58.285)

Yeah.

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Ricky Brule (35:58.919)

He likes to walk trails and do some pheasant hunting, just sitting in a blind or something like that, not so much for him. now he's really diving into basketball, and he's really becoming a basketball star. So that's his main focus. And that's OK. I'm all right with that. I'm not one for pushing stuff on. I don't think it would be fun at that point. Maybe he'll grow into it. Maybe he won't. But my daughter, I'm super excited to start getting her into all of that.

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Missouri Woods & Water (36:12.494)

That's fun. Yep.

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Ricky Brule (36:26.347)

How does it feel to able to pass on that knowledge of the outdoors to them? mean, I know you've been doing it for a while, so maybe it's lost some of its allure, but what's that like?

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Missouri Woods & Water (36:35.875)

No, I actually feel like it's getting worse every year for me because I put pressure on myself for the boys. So I've got like these two guys that I have in my head. I've got me, who is like the guy who first started hunting that worried about him. And I wanna go out and kill a deer and I wanna go out and hunt the way that I wanna hunt, which is mobile, light, and with a bow. And then I've got these three sons that I want.

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Ricky Brule (36:53.403)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (37:05.752)

to go out and be successful. So like last year, I hunted out of a freaking blind just as much as I hunted out of a saddle or tree stand. And I hate blinds. I despise them. But I've got sons who are wiggly and blinds work really good for them. So we hunted out of a blind and I almost got both my sons. My second son killed a good buck and then my oldest son

‍

Ricky Brule (37:14.865)

Yeah.

‍

Ricky Brule (37:19.324)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (37:33.708)

We thought he killed one, he ended up making a clean miss. And it was just, it was great, but I have that, like this year, going into this year, what I think about isn't me so much, it's how am gonna make sure that Chase gets a chance this year with a crossbow? Because he can't pull back a regular bow yet. And I'm gonna make sure Kaden kinda gets some redemption this year from his miss last year and.

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Ricky Brule (37:37.329)

Okay.

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Missouri Woods & Water (38:01.613)

I'm gonna take the little one out too and he's gonna be with me. So I'm sitting here going, I don't know how the hell I'm ever gonna hunt by myself because I've got to take opportunities with them when I can. actually I keep putting more pressure on myself every single year for them. And so it's weird because it kind of changes like I have a podcast so people almost expect you to be a successful hunter.

‍

Ricky Brule (38:04.367)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (38:12.807)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (38:31.222)

and without using horrible language, I could give a shit if I kill anything. I want to, don't get me wrong, and I will be disappointed if I don't. But if God himself came down right now and said, hey, Caden and Chase will both be able to kill a deer this year, that's what you want them to be able to do, clean, ethical, everything will go well, and your other son will get to see a lot of deer and really enjoy it.

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Ricky Brule (38:37.179)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (39:00.514)

but you're not gonna kill something, I would take it today. Sign the papers. And that's a weird feeling to have as a hunter is to say, yeah, if I don't kill something, but these two do, cool, I'll do it. So it's weird, but I gotta be truthful with myself. I only have so many days to be able to out in the woods and if I've got a day where I can take them and they wanna go, I've gotta use that day for them, which means it's one less day for me.

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Ricky Brule (39:03.623)

Yeah. Yep. Agreed. Mm -hmm.

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Ricky Brule (39:14.536)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (39:29.369)

to go do what I probably need to do to go kill a mature whitetail. So it is what it is, I love it. It's fun, it's a chance for me to get them off their phones. Well, only one of them has a phone, but it's chance for me to get him off his phone, get the other one just away from screens and just, I don't know, I feel like life is pretty loud for kids nowadays. There's a lot going on.

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Ricky Brule (39:34.056)

Yeah.

‍

Ricky Brule (39:44.296)

Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (39:58.594)

with school and just all the activities they can do. And my kids are no different. They play sports and do all these other extra things. And getting them outside is just a chance to be like, not we're leaving the phones in the truck. We're gonna go out and you're just gonna like sit and look out there and just be there. It's just a nice reset for me too.

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Ricky Brule (40:19.175)

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. think they definitely need to flex that muscle nowadays. I mean, I'm sure the same was for you. We didn't have to be constantly supervised. And it was just like, got kicked out of the house. I mean, my thing was Nintendo. And if my mom didn't do something about it, I could have sat there all day long and played it all night, not even get sleep. You know what I mean? So I understand the allure of those things. But at the same time, I'm thankful that I had a mom that

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Missouri Woods & Water (40:40.462)

100 %

‍

Ricky Brule (40:48.275)

kicked me out of the house. then my dad, he wasn't even, I never even realized it until many years later that he wasn't even really much of a hunter. just, he knew it was something I wanted to do. And so he took me out. so, so for you, like your kids are going to always remember that, those moments that you've had. I saw my, I've only seen my dad cry a couple of times and one of them was the first year, well, twice, first year I killed and the second year I killed. You know what I mean? And I thought it was such a weird thing.

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Missouri Woods & Water (41:00.014)

So it took you.

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Ricky Brule (41:18.097)

Like I just, remember going, what's he crying for? I was like, this is the time to celebrate, you know, but now I get it. You know, as a dad, like, I'm super excited for that, for that opportunity to get my daughter out. And again, maybe that's not her thing. you know, right now she's, she's really into, you know, animals and all that kind of stuff. And, but she'll say, you know, dad, please don't, you know, don't kill that rabbit in the yard or whatever, stuff like that. But then she, she gets it. Like she sees pictures of.

‍

know, hero shots of me with the deer that I've, you know, killed with my bow and stuff. And, and she doesn't shy away from it. She's not afraid of it. Like she understands that we eat, eat the deer and all that kind of stuff. So it's pretty cool, man. And that's awesome. It's really, I love watching that.

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Missouri Woods & Water (42:00.654)

It's a, no, it's terrific. It's, mean, I talked about this on our show. My oldest son last year went, so the buck that we thought he killed was a really, really nice Missouri eight pointer. It probably would have been 135 to 145 inches. It was a really beautiful deer. And we looked for it all that night. We went back the next day. I wanted to verify that I,

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Ricky Brule (42:24.61)

Yeah man.

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Missouri Woods & Water (42:29.677)

I was pretty certain by the end of the night that he didn't hit it, but I wanted to go back during the daytime and I'm gonna try not to get emotional when I say this, and this is what I'm talking about. When I told him, hey buddy, he's alive, you didn't kill him, he started to cry. And I had to say, hey, this is part of hunting, you're gonna fail. But that night,

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Ricky Brule (42:41.767)

Yeah.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (42:58.024)

I was by myself and I cried because as a dad, felt like I let him down in some way going back through the whole story. And I won't tell you the whole details, but there were some things that I did before the shot that maybe I shouldn't have done. Maybe I should have let him be nervous. Maybe I shouldn't have said, it's, it's so he got nervous. And I said, Hey, it's, it's, it's time to kill something. It's not time to be nervous. We can be excited after it's get, get in your zone.

‍

Ricky Brule (43:00.243)

Mm.

‍

Ricky Brule (43:09.276)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (43:25.555)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (43:27.234)

What I should have done right there is I should have said, it's all right, get off the gun. It's okay, get off the gun. We got time, which we did. We had plenty of time. There was nothing rushing him, but I didn't do that. And that night after we made sure he wasn't dead, I went down to the basement by myself and I had a nice little man cry because you want your kids to be successful and you don't want them to remember the bad things about...

‍

Ricky Brule (43:49.469)

Mm

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (43:56.875)

hunting. Luckily, both of my sons, the first time they tried to kill a deer, they were successful. That's my biggest fear, is that the first time is unsuccessful. And that wasn't his first time, he's already killed a buck. So he's experienced the good things, but still as a dad, the emotion is real. The amount of pride you feel for them when they do it.

‍

Ricky Brule (44:05.286)

Mm.

‍

Ricky Brule (44:09.671)

Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (44:26.164)

is unmatched for any of the deer I've ever killed. And the amount of disappointment you feel if it goes wrong is unmatched at the same time. I love it. I love that they want to be out there with me. But it is an extra added pressure that I put on myself. And I don't know about other dads out there, but I certainly do.

‍

Ricky Brule (44:47.271)

Yeah. Well, and hats off to you and all the dads that are doing it right, because there's certainly some pressure there. I know there's some things that are probably really exciting about it. But as you said, you've got, there's a lot of pressure on your shoulders, and especially trying to be a good parent and do all that kind of stuff. guess the best thing you can do is really just hope that it's all the good things that happen that leave that impression, right? So, well.

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Missouri Woods & Water (45:11.916)

Right, He wants to go again this year, so that's good. Yeah, I don't think I ruined him.

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Ricky Brule (45:17.117)

Perfect, yeah, exactly. And there's definitely a silver lining there too, because I think for everybody it's going to happen at some point. And so maybe good that it happened now. Shake the bugs out. then I think if it gives them the motivation to want to work harder, that's always a good thing too. Because sometimes it makes kids want to just give up altogether. And that can be challenging to navigate.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (45:29.048)

Yeah. Yep.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (45:44.047)

And everything happens for a reason. He and I don't have, we're not real touchy -feely with each other. I tell him I love him, but he doesn't hug me much. It's not like, I mean, he's 13, so take it for what it's worth. But in that moment, when he started crying, I got to give him a hug. I got to tell him I love him. He got to feel those things for me. So it might have happened for a reason. A reason outside of hunting that...

‍

Ricky Brule (45:59.111)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (46:07.833)

Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (46:13.738)

he needed that, maybe he needed that in that moment instead of the success because, know, I typically when I'm happy I don't cry about it. So they really haven't seen that too much. But yeah, I mean, you know, it was, was a opportunity for him to be closer to his father in that moment. And so hopefully that's what came out of it instead.

‍

Ricky Brule (46:14.823)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (46:24.947)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (46:35.015)

Yeah, yeah, that's cool, man. Thanks for sharing that story. I appreciate that. So I'm curious about your current set up, like your archery set up. What kind of bow are you shooting, accessories? Go down the list.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (46:37.955)

Yeah, no problem.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (46:49.102)

Yeah, it's still weird for me to say this, but I do have a bow that is, it's my second year with it. So I shot a 2010 Bow Tech Assassin until last season. And I love that bow. So I didn't want to switch. I didn't want to change. I got it restrung every two years and just kept going. Last year I moved to an elite era. So my bow itself is an elite era. It is at 65 pounds. I'm loving it. 65 pounds. I shoot.

‍

Ricky Brule (47:01.101)

Yeah. Yeah.

‍

Ricky Brule (47:09.179)

Okay, yeah.

‍

Great bow.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (47:17.647)

Black Eagle Rampage Arrows, 300 spine. I still shoot boning blazer three vein fletches. I've shot those my entire hunting career. I've never had an issue with them, so I really haven't switched. Let's see here, my broadhead this year will be a sever, sever mechanical. I'm not going out to Colorado or doing any big game, so I'm gonna...

‍

Ricky Brule (47:31.027)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (47:41.331)

Okay, yeah.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (47:46.606)

keep with the severs this year for whitetail. What else here? A release, my sight itself, it's a black gold custom pro sight. I've actually got two of the exact same sight, but I've had that sight for at least five years now. The first one I bought was, and I've enjoyed those sights. And then I shoot a Trueball short and sweeter sweat back trigger release, wrist strap release.

‍

Ricky Brule (48:14.163)

Okay, cool.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (48:16.312)

So that's my setup in general right there.

‍

Ricky Brule (48:18.643)

Cool. Yeah, no, that's awesome. I like that. There's so many different bows out there, man. it's like, I shot for Bowtech for almost the better part of a decade. And I always loved their bows. And then they started making some changes and putting their focus into the target area. And I didn't really do much of that. So stepped away from them. And was really cool, because now I could shoot whatever I wanted. And just.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (48:37.966)

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (48:46.747)

working for Vapor Trail, you know, I've got a lot of relationships in the industry and so it's really been fun just playing around with all kinds of different stuff and yeah, Leet's making a great bow. I've got a handful of buddies that shoot them. You know, Jeremy Dinsmore antler up, he's shooting it and so.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (48:57.42)

Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, yep. It sucks too because I like gear, so I'm like a gear junkie, but I'm also somebody who when I find something I like, I don't move from it. So for instance, like all my buddies, they got the AAE Max fanes and they go to the forefletch and I'm like, I'm gonna keep fletching my arrows and blazers because

‍

Ricky Brule (49:09.074)

Mm.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (49:27.118)

They fly. I don't have an issue with them, so I stick with those. And before last year, I had a bow that was 12 years old. All my buddies had brand new bows. Everybody was buying a new bow every year, you know, when I'm like, eh, I'll keep the Assassin running, you know, it's light, it's small. I like a small bow, because I'm a short guy. And I was like, eh, you guys are carrying around bows that are as tall as me. I'm good, like, I don't need that. And...

‍

Ricky Brule (49:34.639)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

‍

Ricky Brule (49:42.675)

Yeah.

‍

Mm

‍

Ricky Brule (49:52.262)

you

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (49:54.124)

So like it sucks when you are a gear junkie but you're also a guy that when you find something you like, you don't, I don't move from it. so last year it took a lot for me to go to the Elite Era and even when I went to it, we've told this story on our show before too, I actually went out, you're gonna love this, I got the bow, I put my black gold sight on the bow, got the bow all set up.

‍

Ricky Brule (49:59.783)

Mm

‍

Yeah.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (50:20.406)

I got home, kinda freaked out a little bit that I didn't have my bow tech anymore. I still had the bow, just didn't have the sight on it. So I went out and bought another black gold custom pro sight, the exact same sight, mounted it to the bow tech, sighted it back in, and that bow is my backup now. Just because it's like a safety blanket. You know, so I don't know, it's just kinda funny.

‍

Ricky Brule (50:40.677)

nice. Yeah.

‍

Ricky Brule (50:47.463)

Yeah, always good to have a backup. Always good to have a backup. Never hurts.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (50:50.541)

I'm tempted to get the damn thing out and just start using it again, but you know, I do like the area a lot, so I'll just, I'll keep shooting it.

‍

Ricky Brule (50:57.593)

Yeah, that's awesome. So I know you talked about you don't have any Western stuff coming up, but as far as like upcoming hunts, what do got going on? You just sticking around the home state there?

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (51:07.532)

Yeah, that'll be me this year. Boring Nate. I'll be doing whitetail hunting here in Missouri this year with my sons and myself. then, you know, Micah also didn't get to go out west this year. Him and I both got left. Andy is out in Colorado right now. And then our buddy Pat actually drew a New Mexico tag. One of the most sought after tags in New Mexico.

‍

Ricky Brule (51:29.265)

Nice.

‍

Ricky Brule (51:33.83)

Okay.

‍

Ricky Brule (51:37.466)

Really?

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (51:38.254)

Yeah, only 12 out of staters got that tag and he was one of two that got it in our friend group somehow. And just found out yesterday there is a bull on the ground. So they've got one down. So one down, one to go hopefully. And haven't seen pictures yet. I know it's a five by five, a good five by five. That's all I know. But so yeah, that's, I mean, that's pretty much my years. I'm going to be hunting whitetail until whitetail season's over. And then we hunt coyotes pretty hard.

‍

Ricky Brule (51:41.767)

Wow.

‍

Ricky Brule (51:48.141)

nice. That's awesome. Heck yeah.

‍

Ricky Brule (51:58.898)

Ha ha ha.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (52:07.886)

in our group. So I don't hunt coyotes during whitetail season, but you know, after whitetail season's over, we get into the coyotes this winter. So that'll pretty much be my year for the most part.

‍

Ricky Brule (52:15.859)

Mm

‍

for sure. Cool, cool. So what would be your best piece of advice as a bow hunter?

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (52:25.314)

best piece of advice. this is gonna be generic and corny, but shoot, shoot, shoot.

‍

Ricky Brule (52:31.429)

Yep, perfect.

‍

Missouri Woods & Water (52:33.774)

you know, I

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I've been a guy that's shot, shot, shot, shot, then sometimes I get in these lulls where I don't shoot for a while. But when you're someone who's shot a lot, it's easier to not shoot and then get back into it. And it's almost like, okay, this is just like riding a bike. When I first started bow hunting and if I didn't shoot, it's almost like, crap, how did I have my hand? Like my lead hand, what did I do there? Did I do this, did I do this, what did I do?

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Ricky Brule (52:43.732)

Mm

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Missouri Woods & Water (53:06.338)

how did I have the trigger, like, I can't remember what, it's just all these things, now it's just second nature, you go out and shoot. But it helps you, you know, and I would also say on top of shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot at different stuff. Don't shoot at the same target all the time, every time. I know I'm trying to tell you to go buy new stuff, that's, I mean, sure. But go to 3D shoots in your area, find where there's 3D shoots, go shoot different,

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terrain, different areas. It'll give you an idea how like, is your bow okay? Is your third axis messed up? That sort of stuff. So shoot and shoot at different stuff.

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Ricky Brule (53:47.859)

Yep. Yeah, no, it's a great piece of advice, honestly, and I can attest to that. You know, I can think of the times where I've had a miss or I've wounded an animal and I can 100 % every time attribute it to the fact that I didn't shoot enough. And, you know, the other thing is to talk about

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different environments. Also make sure that you're practicing in the gear that you're going to be hunting in because I missed missed a turkey that same way. You know, I was hunting in a blind. I was sitting down. It was cold. So I had, you know, some bulk on and, you know, missed by a mile and then went home and, you know, shot with all my all my gear on and I was, yeah, my arrow was my point of impact was like two inches off. And I was, you know, I was using a Magnus bullhead at the time. So was shooting for the head and

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Missouri Woods & Water (54:35.97)

up.

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Ricky Brule (54:36.475)

I guess that's a nice thing if you miss, know, it's a clean miss, but still, you know, again, so to your point, great advice. so perfect. Really appreciate that. So here, here's where we're going to move into the shiny objects portion. I know you got to get going here pretty quick, but, so I'm basically just going to do another quick little intro and then, and point people back to this episode and then, and then you can talk about your shiny object and then we'll, we'll be done. So, so here we go. I'll just do a quick little countdown. So.

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Missouri Woods & Water (54:45.038)

Yeah, no problem.

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Missouri Woods & Water (54:51.011)

No problem, yeah, you're good.

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Ricky Brule (55:06.771)

Three, two, one. Welcome to the range, everybody. I'm your host, Ricky Bruhle, and this is our, ugh, let me try that again. Welcome to the range, everybody. I'm your host, Ricky Bruhle, and this is our segment of shiny objects. If you didn't get a chance, head back and listen to the previous episode with Nate Thomas of the Missouri, well, woods and waters.

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Missouri Woods & Water (55:15.288)

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

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Missouri Woods & Water (55:31.768)

Wilderness, woods and water.

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Ricky Brule (55:36.499)

If you didn't get a chance be sure to head back listen to our previous episode with Nate Thomas of the Missouri woods and waters podcast We have a great conversation about hunter that hunter decline myth and then also we talked a little bit about being a dad and You know just getting the kids out hunting and doing all that kind of stuff. So make sure you head back excellent episode. You won't be disappointed This is our segment of shiny objects doesn't necessarily have to be an object. It can be

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you know, an upcoming hunt, can be a piece of gear, it can be a new song, a book, you name it, it's your shiny object. So Nate, what is your current shiny object, man?

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Missouri Woods & Water (56:15.45)

this is gonna be so basic, but this question has come up a lot lately. So we have been emailed this question at least six times in the last week, and we also got messaged on Instagram a few times. So it's at the top of my mind right now, and that is my broadhead. Everybody wants to know what broadhead you're shooting. What, you know, like, you're doing fixed blade mechanical. So.

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Ricky Brule (56:34.104)

Mm -hmm.

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Missouri Woods & Water (56:44.431)

I will say it just seems like not a lot of people know about this broadhead and so I told you this earlier in the show but I'm shooting a Sever 1 .5 inch mechanical broadhead this season for whitetail.

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Ricky Brule (56:57.565)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (57:03.372)

Mechanicals, they get this wrap that they are less quality than fixed blades because a mechanical head is mechanical. However, if you ever are bored, you should look up a guy on YouTube called Lusk Archery Adventures. His name is John Lusk, and he has this really robust testing platform for all different types of broadheads.

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Ricky Brule (57:14.983)

Mm

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Ricky Brule (57:23.752)

Hmm.

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Missouri Woods & Water (57:32.204)

When I was buying my broadheads a few years ago and anytime I buy broadheads, I look up his videos on these broadheads and he tests them. He puts them through all kinds of different tests, cinder blocks, shooting them through gel, how much penetration do they get, how do they hold up, shoots them through metal plates just to see like what type of, know, how the materials hold up. And there is one mechanical that I can remember getting really high scores.

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Ricky Brule (57:45.298)

Mm

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Missouri Woods & Water (58:01.068)

and the durability test and that is the sever. So we bought them two years ago, one, two, maybe three seasons ago honestly now that I think about it. they have Andy shot a buck with the sever broadheads, shot the buck forward unfortunately and still blew through the shoulder with the mechanical blade. so,

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Ricky Brule (58:03.677)

Mm

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Ricky Brule (58:24.441)

Mm. Mm -hmm.

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Missouri Woods & Water (58:29.495)

you should look into the Sever and that's S -E -V -R. S -E -V -R. They're out of Northwest America somewhere, I think in Oregon or Washington somewhere. But they're really cool. And so my shiny object is the Sever mechanical broadheads. I think they're quality broadhead and you know, they fly straight because mechanicals obviously are easy to shoot. know, typically you just screw them on and start shooting, right?

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Ricky Brule (58:34.716)

Mm

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Ricky Brule (58:49.329)

That's cool.

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Ricky Brule (58:59.111)

Mm

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Missouri Woods & Water (58:59.911)

So going through what I went through before with a fixed blade setup, which I've always been a fixed blade guy, the last fixed blades I had, they didn't fly very well, it was hard for me to get them tuned. When I went to these severs, it was just like, this is nice. Start firing, right? So that's my shiny object. You should look into the sever mechanicals. And by the way, we are not sponsored by them. I don't even know who they are.

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Ricky Brule (59:18.449)

Yeah.

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Ricky Brule (59:21.959)

Mm

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Missouri Woods & Water (59:28.738)

So I'm not getting anything from this. We are not sponsored by Sever, although that'd be cool. We would take it. But there is no tie in there at all.

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Ricky Brule (59:29.525)

Hahaha

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Ricky Brule (59:38.011)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. No, that's cool. I know a lot of people I just had an interview with James Blankenbeckler of Open Season TV last week and he's shooting those broadheads as well I've done I've shot both You know Fixed and mechanical the main reason I ever I moved to a mechanical was because there was a particular ball that I bought Just could not get a fixed blade to fly out of it. Well switched over to a mechanical

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And then I've never really had an issue since. I think it's just, I think part of it is, you know, my shooting ability has gotten better, my tuning ability has gotten better. And so there's a lot of those factors that probably play into that as well. you know, I just, you know, more recently, I haven't been doing a lot of Western stuff, so I could probably really get away with any broadhead as far as like, you know, flight goes. But this year, you know, and this is part of my shiny object, I've talked about it a million times, but I finally drew that North Dakota.

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So I'm going to be practicing out to further distances and I'm actually making a switch I've shot Grim Reaper broadheads for over a decade and I'm going to switch over to the G5 Mega Meat this year mainly because I'll be shooting a prime bow and So, you know, I've got some relationships with G5 and with prime and so they're gonna send me some broadheads and I'm gonna shoot those so far

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From the one, you know, I we have some here in our pro shop, so I've been practicing with them and they're flying great so But yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about the sever broadhead too. We got it I know a handful of people that are gonna be shooting them including yourself. So Definitely check those out

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:01:12.888)

There was another broadhead I thought about using this year. I just never got around to buying them because I didn't really need to. And they're actually out of Minnesota or Michigan. Somewhere up there, Rekt broadheads. They only make two broadheads. They make a mechanical and they make a fixed. I think it's Rekt, starts with an R. And I saw them at ATA and they were really good looking. Rekt broadheads.

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Ricky Brule (01:01:26.16)

Mmm.

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Ricky Brule (01:01:32.509)

Hmm.

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:01:43.374)

So people should look into them too because they look like really high quality. R .E .K. REC broadheads. And so they've got like a fixed blade version and a mechanical version and that's it. They don't have like 400 options. Not that that's a bad thing but sometimes I'm like holy shit like which fixed blade of yours should I buy? There's 40 of them you know and sometimes it's overwhelming you know for some folks and

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Ricky Brule (01:01:49.562)

Mm, yep, I'm familiar, yeah.

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Ricky Brule (01:01:59.069)

Yeah.

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Ricky Brule (01:02:07.374)

Yeah. Yeah.

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:02:10.838)

It's kind of nice to be like, this is our fixed blade option, this is our other. I got to shoot, they gave me a sample fixed one and I shot it a few times and it flew really good. I just didn't feel the need to go buy five more when I had these severs that have been great to me. So the severs are what's gonna stay. So yeah, I'm excited about it. I actually got them out the other day to make sure they're all good and I didn't need to go buy more and yeah, they're ready to go.

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Ricky Brule (01:02:40.103)

Heck yeah, man, that's awesome. Well, folks, that brings us to the end of this episode. Nate, where can people find you if they want to get in touch with you,

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:02:49.122)

Yeah, so if you're going to want to listen or listen to our show, just type Missouri Woods and water. You'll find it on any podcasting platform, Sportsman's Empire Network as well. If you want to follow us on social media and subject yourself to that, because there's not a whole lot of it. were not, we don't love social media, so we don't do great with it. You can check us out just at Missouri Woods and water. We are on YouTube now also, Missouri Woods and water there as well. So yeah, check us out.

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Ricky Brule (01:03:13.796)

nice.

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:03:17.415)

and we're just three buddies, family members, buddies who love to talk about hunting and just have fun. So check us out.

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Ricky Brule (01:03:26.503)

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, and I'll put some of those links in the show notes as well. So if anybody wants to refer to that, make sure you check out the show notes. And there should be some links there to get you all things Missouri woods and water, not wilderness, woods and water. So well, thank you so much for your time today, man. I really appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely.

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Missouri Woods & Water (01:03:48.833)

Hey, thanks for having me on.

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Ricky Brule (01:03:51.581)

Don't forget to follow us at the Range podcast on Instagram and Facebook, as well as Vapor Trail Archery and Stokerized Stabilizers. You can find the video version of this episode on the Vapor Trail YouTube channel, so please head on over, subscribe, give us a like, and hit that bell so you can be up to date on all things archery. If you're listening, do me a favor, give us a five star rating and review on whichever platform you're currently listening on. And with that, we're gonna pack up our bows and arrows and we're hitting the range.

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Have a great day everybody.

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