OH Vets and FL Osceolas

Big week for the guys, especially Paul who got his first crack at an Osceola turkey down in the Sunshine State.  Congrats to Paul for bringing home the birds from down south!  Andrew got to try out his hog/coyote gun on a ground hog.  Pretty cool stuff coming from Xvision and Midwest Gun works!  Check out the video on Gowild.

Paul takes the time to talk with a couple guys from the Ohio Vets outdoors group. These guys do a lot to help veterans across the state get out into the outdoors and experience mother nature for all it’s glory.

Make sure you guys check out our friends at GoWild, Midwest Gun Works, XVision optics, Half Rack, and First lite!

Have a great week and enjoy the O2 if you get out into Ohio’s great Outdoors!

[00:00:00] All right. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the oh two Podcast tonight. You got Paul and Andrew and Paul is on the road, and we'll get to that in a second. But first we want to give thanks to our partners. We've got go wild Time to go wild.com. Those are our guys down. Running their social media platform for all things hunters and anglers.

Got a cool little shop on there with lots of stuff. It's not little anymore. Lots of stuff going on. I think that the biggest highlight for those guys at this point is right now that you can still enter into the UTV giveaway. That's through the end of the month. So if you're not a member, hop on there, then it'll automatically enter you into.

Drawing for the utv, which is sick. It's like $40,000. Get up. And then I think if you're on there already, you can invite people [00:01:00] to the platform that will also get you entered in for the drawings. So don't forget about that. Paul, you were the start not one of you were one of the main topics on their their podcast this week.

Did you happen to catch that? I, I haven't, man I need to listen to that. Hopefully it was, Yeah. Was it was Dan. Were they just making fun of me the entire time? There was some of that, but Dan Johnson was on there and he was giving giving you hell and back and forth Paul about the Paul Campbell Turkey show.

So the oh God. Yeah. Anyhow, we got Midwest gun work. So real quick I'll tell you, I got that gun getting ready to go down. Visit John in Oklahoma. Might make a stop in Missouri to see the boys out there. And I needed something for shooting coyotes and. got a hold of kids and ground hugs.

Oh, we'll talk about that. So well, and so I talked to Cameron. Our buddies over at Midwest Gun Works got me set up with a pretty sweet ar platform in the six five Creemore. Go ahead. You can make fun of it or love it or hate it or whatever. I don't care. It's available [00:02:00] hunting toosh. It's available ammunition and it looks sweet.

So it's gonna do the job. And Yeah, that I got a chance to finally screw around with that a little bit over the past week. And if you look on our Go Wilder Instagram, you'll see the groundhog that took the one on a chin. Yesterday he, that was through the the X Vision thermal scope. I think it was pretty sweet.

Yep. So that's our other partner with the X Vision thermal scope that allows you to record it to your phone. It's, so that's such a weird scope, and I don't mean weird in a bad way at all. It's totally Digital so you don't have dials or anything to change it, the elevation or windage or left or right or anything like that.

So you have to go in and manual enter that to try to get it sighted in. So I'd been citing it in and I got like a heat bag, like a hot hand up on my target to give me something with heat so I have something to shoot at. Anyways, I was close and my shooting abilities are always suspect anyways.

But anyways, Paul, I sat out there yesterday like. Like a sniper in the weeds waiting [00:03:00] for that groundhog to poke his head up. And then I sent you that video I posted on our stuff, but that poor dude who was digging holes underneath my barn just exploded. And it's all on the video from the exhibition scope, the TS 200, but.

The, I think the funniest part was the cat that was in the bushes. . You didn't know the cat was there. I didn't know the cat was there. All of a sudden this cat comes jumping out. I think I scared the shit outta him. But so yes, thanks to exhibition and Midwest Gun Works and Midwest Gun Works, we have a code of Ohio Outdoors five.

Get you 5% off there. And let's see. Shout out to our guys at first Light. Paul, we're talking about your Turkey coming up here and I liked your complete first light. Get up there. That was be. Worked. Well done. It was nice. Worked out. Yeah, it worked out great man. And it wasn't yeah, we'll talk about that cuz it really, the first like year really saved me, honestly.

Yeah, because you, it's warm down there. You and we'll talk. It is. Yes it is. [00:04:00] All right. Finally, thank you to our buddies, tj, Josh, the crew over at Half Rack. half-rack.com. We just got like literally a code. So if you guys get on their website and at checkout, you can type in Ohio Outdoors 15, say 15% off of your hunting accessor accessories.

Lots of cool stuff on there. They got the bow hangers that we talked about. Those are just coming out. I was perusing through there the other day. Looking at some different things, but definitely a cool company. Check 'em out. half-rack.com. I think that's all we got so far, right Paul? That's it, man.

That's good stuff. Thanks to those companies and people that support this show, so support them as well. So absolutely. Real quick news around the state, we've. Still got your special Turkey hunting opportunities available to when you get on there to buy your Turkey tag. You can apply for these around the state.

Paul and I won 'em last year. They were a lot of fun. Gives you a little bit of different ground and a new challenge. [00:05:00] Oftentimes there's birds there, so yes. Lake Erie record, smallmouth Bass was 16 years old, so let's see. Oh, the 10.15 pound smallmouth bass hot in Ontario in the Ontario Canadian waters.

Lake Erie in November of 2022 was a 16 year old female in case you wanted Wow. In case you wanted to know Paul damn girl, that fish could drive dick. That fish could drive. She could drive and she's thick as hell. Yeah. And we've got another spring wildflower blooming report from Odn R Gold, star Lilly blood.

We got sharp blood. Those things are cool, man. Those are cool little flowers, snow Trillium, lots of stuff coming up there. Little bit. Little bit. Maybe slowed down after we got a little cooler weather here the last couple days, but nonetheless, it's coming. If you get out there, keep your eyes to the ground for sheds and spring wild flowers.

So finally we got some new wildlife [00:06:00] officers that are ready to serve. I shared that on one of. Oh b one of the social media things, I saw it pop up, but let's see, we've got some going Homes County, brown County, Gurnsey County, Butler County, Sy County, Washington County's, Clinton County Bainbridge Township, Champaign County, noble County, and Astro Belo County.

So lots of new officers. Thank you and good luck out in the field, Paul. That was a quick Hi buddy. Eight minutes into the show. It's good. Good intro. I blew you. Did all that be lifting? That's all right. As I want. I wanna hear your story, but I blew up a ground hog and you did way more than that. So hit us, buddy.

What do we got? So I I'm down here in, in central Florida now. I spent a couple of days in big Cypress Swamp, which is the everglade. That sucked. It was hot. There were freaking snakes and alligators everywhere. It was cool. I will [00:07:00] say I'll put some pictures of, I'll have you we'll get 'em up on Instagram and go Wild, beautiful train.

Never been down there, never seen anything like it. The highlight of hunting Big Cyprus was I had a, I have this primo, foggy bottom tube call that I. and I use it, it's super loud. It will list to as shock gobel. So I use it as essentially as a locating call. And I located a Florida panther with that damn thing,

So there was a panther that was, must have been a sleep under a tree. And I hit that thing and it like screamed at me and I didn't really know what it was at first. And I just seen like some movement and I hear running. I was like, man, what was that? So I took my phone out, I go to do a video.

I'm like, you're never gonna believe this. The craziest sound just happened. I'm gonna see if I can get to do it again. I did it, I called again and nothing happened. But I was talking to some folks at this general store. I'm like, dude, they say sounded like something screaming at me.

And they're like, oh yeah, that was a Panther. Good job. So that was pretty wild. But I will say, man, that place intimidated the [00:08:00] hell outta me months. It was big. . It was hot. It was wild. And it was just every morning that I went in, or even in the afternoons, it was it was one of those like mental battles just to keep my nervous Ohio emotions in check dealing with that four wildlife.

That was fun. I was there for two days, two and a half days packed. Went over to Southwest Florida and met up with with a really good friend of mine, Clyde. He invited me to come down and do some hunting on some property that, that him and some other guys have. And so Friday night we go out, shot my first wild pig from his tree stand with an AR 15, which was awesome.

It was a big female. I sent a video to you of me of her just like running around like in place kicking dude. She got up, runs into the Palm Meadow thicket, right? That like she came out of, and I heard her run maybe 25 or [00:09:00] 30 feet and then just crash, right? And so we get down and we're looking for, we give her like an hour and a half.

And we're looking for, and the Palm Meadows were so thick. and the hogs over the years have dug out like literal tunnels underneath the roots of the palmetto. Like big enough that you and I like definitely you, maybe not me, but definitely like you, you could crawl through 'em. And then they're underground.

It's just, it is the craziest thing and that's how they move back and forth. Some of the videos and stuff you were sending me, I want nothing to do with that terrain. Yeah. And that stuff. Disgusting. And I, you can call me a bus or whatever, but nah, that was not, did not look for it. It it is so very unique to that, to just southern Florida.

And it was just, it was wild, man. It was unlike anything that I've experienced. And yeah, we look at it and we're like, man, that looks crazy. But it's beautiful in a sense, just and it's very unique in a sense. The pig tunnels were in were I couldn't find, we couldn't find this.

She for sure died. Dude [00:10:00] I longer. Which those animals are so tough, talking to 'em, they're like, oh no it's headshot with those pigs. What caliber was it? It was a 2 23. I just, I'm curious. Yeah. Yeah, so it, and I put a good shit on her, a shot on her. I saw the entrance and then when she got up and rolled over, I saw the accident.

It was decent, there's some good blood. Not a ton. I'm sure she was bleeding heavily inside, but Yeah. Couldn't find her man. So that sucked. That was a good size pig too. It was, yeah. She was a big, she was a big pig. You could be a big pig too. , so I guess, , population control.

They're, they're invasive down there. She's gonna die. Sucks. I didn't get to, get put, find her and butcher up. But, so the next morning we go out, we set up an area that one of the other guys down on the property had killed a Turkey a couple of weeks ago.

And we hear some gobbling. Nothing. Nothing too. . And so we get up, we move and we're right [00:11:00] along. So there's a creek that normally floods and it floods this cypress forest. And the turkeys just love it cause it's cool, it's damp, there's bugs everywhere. There's a ton of, worms and all sorts of stuff for them to eat.

So they really like those cypress Forest us. That's where they roosted and spent a lot of the time. So we go in there and we're walking and we call. , I've told you this, and if you're Turkey haunted you guys understand this, but in, like in Ohio when the leaves come out and you can hear a Turkey because of this, the way that the forest like dens, the sound, because of the vegetation, the turkeys are closer than what they are.

Like the first couple weeks of the season when there's no vegetation, you can hear a Turkey gobbling much farther. I'm calling as we're walking and we cover, I don't know, 1500 yards or whatever it is. I don't know, maybe more and a Turkey gobbles returns my call.

And [00:12:00] so I'm like looking around. I'm like, okay. And in my mind, like I'm programmed to think, okay this, I can hear this Turkey. This turkey's probably like 130 yards away max. . So I'm like, I'm looking around, I see a real nice area. I'm like, okay, we can get in there. There's something, I don't have a decoy, so there's something in between us and the Turkey.

Like we can get a good setup. We can hide here. Dude we spooked this Turkey. We took a couple steps and just gone because it's so thick down there. But he was way closer than I thought. So that was like a learning lesson. I was pretty upset. I'm like, dude's still early in the day, at this point it's 11 o'clock.

I'm like, all right. We. We'll be okay. So we go back, we get lunch and we were talking about areas in that Cypress Forest. Cuz I, I was going to blind and the one thing that I've learned, like down in Florida, you look at the aerial views of these on OnX and everything just looks green. Like you don't, you don't know what it's gonna look like.

You don't know what if there's water. You don't know how thick it is. So it's really hard to read [00:13:00] maps and like you'll see like an open area, but it's. Five foot Palm Meadows everywhere, and it just looks like a green field, but it's not. So it's pretty wild. How the maps are. So we were just talking and he's just there's some of these like little small open areas.

And we passed some, we saw a couple. I'm like, man, these are really nice. And they're in, they're open grassy areas in the middle of the Cypress Force and they're not very big. And these are maybe half an AC. to an acre at most, within this little within the Cypress Forest. So I'm like, dude, we need to look.

I was like, let's get in one of those little areas. We know that there's a Turkey, there's a couple turkeys in there. We heard 'em gobbling. We spooked one. So let's go back to that like general area. Let's find one of those open areas. And we set up and dude, we're there for two hours.

And we got a little tiny hand decoy out in this little grassy field. La grassy clearing, no, j decoy just a hand decoy [00:14:00] and, which is neat cuz I haven't hunted with decoys a lot like this. It was pretty neat. Yeah. You and I haven't been, when I've gone with you, I haven't had, we haven't done much.

Yeah, just keep 'em keep 'em in case you need 'em. This is one of those I need 'em. So we're set up and I'm calling and nothing, and it's 90 degrees and there's a, every once in a while there's a little breeze that rolls through and you're like, oh God, this feels so good. But I'll tell you, the one thing that really saved me.

I had my first light, I had that marina wool, that short sleeve Specter. WIC base. Wic, yeah. WIC is the name of it. The, and it's just the short sleeved shirt. and then over it, I had that that leafy suit, that phantom leafy suit and that leafy suit is like it's just netting with the cut fabric.

So I was pretty comfortable. I was still sweating like a pig. And so I turn around, I look at my friend Clyde, he's, like maybe four or five feet to my right and just a little bit back, and we're there for two hours of nothing. This is his first Turkey hunt. [00:15:00] So I know. I'm like, dude, he's having a miserable time.

This sucks, dude. We're, I'm dumping sweat. I look at him and he is dumping sweat. We both pull our face mask down and I'm like, dude, I don't know what we're gonna do, man. We're talking about the different strategies. There's all these cut, there's a road, like a Mowed road down the borders of Cypress.

I'm like, man, I was like, we could walk through there, see if we strike anything up. I was like, it's gonna be hot. And I'm like, we've put all of our eggs into one basket. Coming here and sitting for so long and not moving. I know we're in the right area. There's turkeys in the air and we're talking full volume.

Both of our masks are down. My shotgun is laying on the ground. My legs are spread flat. I'm on like my. Rolled over on my hip, looking at Clyde, talking to him, not trying to be quiet at all. And dude, this freaking Turkey cracks one off 50 feet from us and behind us. Just a thundering, gobble and Clyde's eyes get like freaking silver dollars.

Cause [00:16:00] that's the first Turkey that he's ever heard. That's the closest that, 50 feet. That's the closest I've been to a. . And so like immediately we both like real slow, pull our mask up and I'm move, I'm moving as slow as I can. I grab my shotgun, my legs are still down, they're not knees up, like which is the best way to shoot a Turkey, but I pull my shotgun up, pull my mask off, and that sucker cracks off another one and he's even closer and I'm like, oh my. This is gonna happen . It's happened. He's, he is just over my left shoulder and behind me, and he is drumming so loud and he's doing his little. , which is the sound of a drum. And I don't, forgive me, I don't have my microphone set up.

We're running off of the microphone of my laptop here. So hopefully you guys can hear that. But, and you can hear, and they like fluff their they, they like run. It's like they're running air through their feathers and they [00:17:00] vibrate 'em. It's all these crazy noises that you only hear when you're that close.

And I've never been that close to a live Turkey. And so I can he'd let that second gobble rip. And I start getting nervous. I start shaking, and so I close my eyes. I'm like, dude, freaking and relax. Like it's gonna be okay. Deep breath. So I close my eyes, I relax. Ah, deep breath. Dude right over my shoulder, like you can feel it, man.

And it is like the loudest thing and it's almost like robotic and sound like it's just, it's such a, when they're that close, man, it's such a weird sound. and I've got, so I'm looking at you but I don't wanna move. So I've got my head turned just the tiniest few degrees to the left, and I've got my eyes buried as far over to the left side as my, of my head as I can, just to see out of the peripheral of the, when this Turkey walks in and he walks into the woods or walks out of the cypress,[00:18:00] into the little clearing.

And he is 15 feet from me. No more than 2015 feet. and I'm like, oh my God. So my gun is pointed. The decoys to my right, he's to my left and it's pointed in the middle, and I'm just gonna let him walk right in front of it and just let it happen. I don't know if he saw me, I don't know if he didn't like the decoy.

I don't know what it was, but he stops and turns. I'm like, Nope. And so I swing as fast as I could. I get on him and he was so close. 15 feet. I shot right over his. because that, it was just, dude, it was so fast, swing. And I just didn't, I didn't get on 'em, and in my mind I'm like, don't miss.

And so I, I roll my entire body forward and I get on 'em. I know I've got a really nice shotgun. I'm comfortable with it. I've got t s, I know that I can shoot out pretty far if I have to. I'm not going to, So I give myself time to, to get lined up on my [00:19:00] shotguns. I know that I'm down on it. I put it right on.

I wanted a bigger target, so I kinda aimed right at the base of his neck and he's running like full speed. And so I aim at the base of his neck on his side and dude freaking rolled him. Yeah. Smacked him. And out loud, I'm like and if you're, if you don't wanna hear curse words turn it down now we'll give you a 3, 2, 1.

Oh shit. I hit him and I pop up, dude, I leave my shotgun there and I am running full speed at this Turkey dude as fast as I can. Yeah. And he's flopping. Dude. I grab his neck and I'm just like, . I'm just like, I was like, oh my God, I did it. I freaking killed him. And Clyde's running up. I'm like, oh my God.

Hugging each other, dude, this turkey's flopping. And dude, it was unbelievable. My first Osceola, wild Turkey. What a moment. And it was neat, man. I, I. I, I like I, and he's still alive. I'll send you, I'll send you the video. I don't wanna put it on Instagram. [00:20:00] Probably put it on go while, but, and he's flopping around.

I'm like, oh my God. I just and I didn't know Clyde was videoing was like, are you videoing? He's yeah man. I just talked real quick. But it was cool man, just like being able to look back and hear like the emotion and excitement in my voice. And one of the things that's really neat, like when you kill a wild Turkey, like immediately after that kill their head is like so vibe.

With the red, the white and the blue, and like that life is it's just slipping out of them quick. So like those colors start to fade like really quick. And in the video I'm like, dude, you gotta come see this. Come see his head, come see his face. Put that phone down. I want you to look at it. And it's something really neat that you know if you like, if you're a Turkey hunter and you pay attention, like you can see that.

Watch that life just slip out of 'em. Watch the color fade. But for just for those few, like first, 60, 90 seconds after you kill him, man, it's just, is pretty and as vibrant as you can possibly imagine. And it was just really cool man. Just touching him. Look at his, in his feathers and yeah, it was cool.

But [00:21:00] look at this is for, this is on the video so you guys can't see it. Oh, buddy, look at that. That's totally worth it. That's those, so my I think. Paul's showing us a picture of his armpit basically, that is very bruised from the Oh dude. Of that guy. It's the size of what?

A baseball. I don't know. That's big. I don't, dude, and I don't know. I, it must've when I rolled, I, it's slid out my shoulder and so it's that kind of like that pocket right below. But dude, it is so sore, man. And I didn't I didn't even notice it. I got in the shower like last night.

I'm like, holy crap, look at that thing. But, and it was worth it. It was awesome, dude. Oh, totally worth it. That's great. So I caped him out. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do it. Did I send you that picture? Yeah. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do a Turkey Cape Mound on him and I he's packed in freaking 10 pounds of dry ice and a bunch of regular ice, and he's frozen solid.

[00:22:00] So I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep him frozen until I make my way home in a few days. So That's exciting. So where are you out to now? I'm in central Florida. I've got an N W T F hunt that we're working down here, me and two of my coworkers. And then after. Next, next week, Monday and Tuesday.

Sunday, Monday, I think I'm gonna hunt with some folks from Alabama. In Alabama, yeah. In Alabama. On my way home. Their season opens up for Saturday and one of the guys invited me to come up and hunt with them. So I'm gonna take 'em up on that. So in theory you could come back with two of the four birds that you need.

I hope so. Yeah. I hope so. I, I. on the How to Hunt Turkeys podcast. I had Team Wing Bone on and we talked about, the potential of me having a s being able to get a grand slam in one year. And one of the guys, his nickname's Hein Leg, he said, don't get stuck on third base. And so I sent him a video of me holding the Turkey.

I'm like, first base. So pressure's on man. Pressure's on, hopefully I'm, I, hopefully on my [00:23:00] way home to Ohio, I'm halfway to a one year grant slam, so that would be awesome. The only, yeah, I've got a couple Eastern hunts planned and then one Miriam's hunt planned. So I've told my lovely patient, adoring wife, love you that if I get three out of the four, I'm just gonna go after the Rio.

And I'll be home after that. That either that season closes or I get that grand slam. I can't not, wow. Yeah. That's it, man. First, first Osceola dude. Freaking amazing experience. Thanks to Clyde and his buddies and his friends that let me, they were gracious enough to share their awesome land with me, man.

It was a great time. And it was cool, man. It's another, that's the hunt that I wanna get you on, I know. And, it was funny, like at the end of it, Clyde. , dude, I had no idea that they sounded like that. I'm like no. And he is that was so loud and amazing.

I'm like, yeah, I know. I was like, do you like it? And he's Hey, he texted me today. He is I bought a hen decoy. I gave him a Turkey call. I gave him his first Turkey call and a Turkey, bald Turkey vest. So he's hooked, man. I love that stuff. I love getting people in on that. But it's those good haunts, man, [00:24:00] where you see like the heart and soul of what it means to be a Turkey hunter.

Why you do it. And. I, we got it in freaking droves, dude. It was just insane. I could go for that. I can get into the idea, but not in Florida yeah. Come back up here. Let's, we'll play in the Ohio Woods and I'll have, that's it. Oh, buddy. We got Ohio and Michigan together, so let's let's.

Yeah, that's right. That was the Paul's recap of the os Osceola. And then we're gonna put here on the back end. You, now you did this interview solo when I had a couple things going on. Yeah. But you met with Nick Vincent and what's the name of his group that. You guys were talking, it was a, it's a veterans group, right?

Ohio Veterans. Yeah. Vet, yeah. Oh yeah. Ohio Veterans Group. They're conducting a veterans Turkey hunt. This year I'm gonna try to get down and help and guide one of their hunts. Still trying to work through that, but I think we're gonna make that happen. So it's And I feel terrible.

The name's skipping me, right? It's skipping my mind right now. It's been a long week, but we talk about their website there during the interview. So yeah [00:25:00] check that out. Ohio Vets Outdoors, I think is what it is. I think that's it. Yep. The website and the Facebook. Nick, our buddy was on it, and then then Sean, the state president was on it.

Really good chat. This is, 10 or 12 minutes long, just giving you guys an update. So if you are a veteran here in the state of Ohio or no veteran, this is a veteran organization geared toward. getting vets in the outdoors and using hunting and fishing and the outdoors and the camaraderie and everything that goes along with it to help veterans heal from everything that that they've been through and really give them a sense of community.

So it's a really neat program. I think we'll do everything we can to help them out, awesome. Paul, I appreciate you sharing your story with us. Good luck on the rest of your voyage and yeah. Thanks man. Yeah, we'll talk to everybody next week. Get out there and then enjoy the outdoors.

Find some sheds, do some scouting. Check out those wildflowers, check out our partners. Got any insight? We or we wanna leave a review? Go that we're out. We've got our website, the oh two podcast.com. It's the dot [00:26:00] oh two dot podcast on Instagram oh two podcast on Go Wild. And we will talk to you guys next week.

Hey.

We had quite a few events and we were able to help to a, around a hundred vets. There were a hundred participants. We had a couple walleye charters. We had our this past. Deer season, we did not have the archery hunt. Something came up and we had to cancel it. But we've refocused we want to do more quality as opposed to quantity.

So we're narrowing it down to just a couple events putting more time, effort, and and I don't wanna say thought because we put a lot of thought in all of them, but put more focus on those [00:27:00] smaller events so it can be a more personal touch and get a little bit closer with each one of the vets.

Sure. But yeah, talk, talk. Go ahead. Talk about some of the, talk about some of the struggles that, that veterans face when they, just immediately after they're done with their service and then the years and decades that, that follow. What are some of the struggles that those folks deal with?

The, I'll just a little bit backstory with me as far as OVO goes. So I was a friend that I went to church with, he told me, man, I need to check out this group, Ohio Veterans Outdoors. And so I got a hold of him. I turned into the stuff that I needed to turn in, cause we do vet the vets basically to make sure you know that we don't have anybody coming out that could cause any harm to themselves.

Any of the other veterans. So I went on a Mount orb. We went to Mount Orb and we had a I think it was a gun hunt then. It may have been archery. I can't remember. It's been several years ago. I can't even think exactly when it was. And then and so I went to that and I really enjoyed myself.

And then they asked me again if I wanted to go to Colorado. We went [00:28:00] to Colorado on Elk Hunt. And it was it was. . So it was Brian and then our vice president Travis and a veteran from Cleveland and then myself, and we went to Colorado and I think we saw two Elks that was just driving down the road.

We didn't see anything, but the camaraderie and everything was cool. So I'm like, all right, so Brian, , he asked me, we're getting a board started with this. Are you interested in the board? And I was like, man, I don't really know anything. Cause you know I don't know what exactly is going in and out of it.

I can guide and help hunt and stuff like that, but cuz I'm not a combat vet. I was I got, I went in right in after Desert Storm and then I got out. and 99 I think, or 90 December of 98 or something. So I was in for several years and I was in between the conflicts, everything that was going on.

So I was like, nah, I'm not really worthy to get on there. And it's I had to learn myself since I'm not a combat vet that really. Getting out there and just [00:29:00] talking with guys and even if I'm not, hadn't been in combat, we're still a brotherhood and we, even though we're in different branches and whatever.

So I joined on with that and we've The biggest thing that, has been vets have been dealing with here as of late, the 22 veterans committing suicide a day. I don't know exactly if the numbers higher or lower right now, but that's what they've been dealing with in the PTs D and things that they've seen that nobody else has seen and they've had to deal with and then come back home and, The stigma attached to it.

And also being men. And there are, there are women too that veterans that struggle with this stuff. But men struggle to talk about their feelings a lot. So we get these guys out there and women and we take 'em out and take their mind off of what's going on in their life at the time.

And, it's a lot of honestly, we. , we dog on each other. Navy makes fun of the Air Force, and Air Force makes fun of the army, and the Army makes fun of the Jarheads or the Marines and things of that nature and tell [00:30:00] lies and all this stuff. So it's basically being back in the military and it gives 'em a, like a, I guess it'd be like a sense of home.

Being around like-minded people and people that's gone through the same thing and even though I haven't struggled with them, or been where they've been sometimes all they need is an ear to listen and not judge them or look at them a certain way for what they had to do or things of that nature.

I always go back to, and I know I'm jumping ahead here cause I've never did no podcast before you're doing great. I'll say that. . Yeah. So I went, I remember going on we went on and the first archery hunt I got to go on and I had was with a navy corpsman and he actually had a twin brother that was I believe he was the corpsman as well.

And they were twins. So I had him out there in the stand and we're sitting out there. , and he starts going into some of the things he, he's seen and done while he was overseas. And I was like, man, this is some heavy stuff. I'm glad he's opened up with me, and I was like, okay, it's time to lighten it a little bit.

And [00:31:00] so I started telling some jokes and stuff like that, some stories just about my crazy life sometimes. And we ended up starting laughing so loud that there was not a deer within miles. the whole time. And then that's when, I really got it that this is, it's about the hunt or the fish or whatever, that's the cool part of it, but it's just being around people and just talking and getting things off your chest that you're not gonna be looked at a certain way.

So that's when I fell in love with it and then got on the board and I've just TruD along here. I'm the treasurer and I've treasured along here for the past, oh, I don't know. It seems like it's been four years now, it seems like I've been that long on the board. And even with the same guy that, I was out in the woods with his his twin brother.

He struggled so much that he ended up taking his life and that was a rough time. But, we circled around him and and tried to take care of him the best we could, so it's just, it's one of 'em things, especially when it hits home and with the family, that's when it really it just really sucks.

So that's my little spiel on that, it's hard for me to explain. I can sit and explain it all day long, but, unless you actually talk to someone [00:32:00] that's physically dealing with, , it's I can't bring any any light to it other than just, my experience. Sure. Yeah. That's that's something that, yeah, that's such an intensely personal thing, and that's just a dark place, for many. And I understand you, you can't explain that, and that's a staggering stat man. 22 vets a day commit suicide. That's just, that's heartbreaking.

When you hear stuff like that and there's something therapeutic about being in the woods, being in the water, being around. Absolutely. Fellow. People, the people that are doing the same. And it doesn't matter if you're killing deer or catching fish or whatever the hell it is.

Just that, that camaraderie that, that you have. And that's what I enjoy, yeah. It's great putting Turkey fans on the wall or whatever, but my friends my, my son that I get to hunt with, that's the stuff, the, that's really important. So I think that's really neat.

And a mission statement. Your mission statement on your website is, our mission is to promote veteran wellness through outdoor experiences in education. And that's as simple as it gets, but that statement is, it's just massive impact, massive positive impact. Nick, what are some of the events that, that the organization does?[00:33:00]

Or has, has coming up this year that you veterans can look forward to. Coming up in the our next event is actually next weekend we have an Arkansas goose hunt. That is booked. We have all the all the spots filled. Following that is Turkey. I don't think we have the dates set on any of the upcoming events that I'm gonna say, but we put all of our events out on Facebook.

That's primarily what we go through if you get on our website. , everything works. It's a little bit dated though working on that. But after Turkey, we'll have a welcome home classic fishing, which that's a multi-day event. I think the turkeys two days. And then the Fishing Classic that's out in Brookville, Indiana, Brookville, Indiana.

Yeah. We got a friend who is very helpful and supportive of OVO O and his father was as well and also a veteran. So he lends his place out on Brookville Lake. And we go out there for a couple days and get [00:34:00] some vets, some fish if we can, if they bite and. Yeah. After that I'm probably missing something, but I think that's after, that's the big archery deer archery, or am I, what am I missing?

Yeah we that's what it is. I don't know if we'll have a squirrel hunt. We do have a squirrel hunt too. That's a one day deal where we go down and , and squirrel hunt for one day. And then, yeah, then it would be the archery hunt. Oh, I missed one. What's that? Our first, all right, this will be our second year doing it is the annual archery shoot that we have.

It's a fundraiser. So all of our events are veteran only Ohio veteran only even the Brookville Indiana one. We only take Ohio Vet. It's in our name. That's what we're trying to, focus our impact. But up in Toledo last year we had it at Toledo Metro Parks, at the West Winds. It's a public course, 3D course.

Had some prizes that we gave out for top shooters. Top scores, and we're hoping to [00:35:00] do that again this year. But there is, it's a fundraiser, so we are asking for money for non veterans. , as with all of our event events, vets get in free for that. Yeah. Oh, very. Can I speak something? Can I speak about the events?

Kind of Yeah, absolutely. More in depth. Yeah. So we have . We actually have a guy that's a chef that he is, he cooks our meals for most of the events we have especially the archery the archery hunt. Let's go back to the Turkey hunt. There's a guy that has donated his cabin for us to go and stay down in Jackson.

And so we go up there and we have some guys, some, I guess there's some world class Turkey callers that come out there. I don't. I've tried it to hunt Turkey, but I ain't never been close to getting one. But Brian's really heavy into the Turkey hunt. He has a, I don't know, he's got turkey's grand slam stuff.

I don't know all the ins and outs of all that stuff. He hasn't got all of 'em, but he is working on it. But so with that event there, we take vets up there and I think even the last couple years we've had we've [00:36:00] had some, a vet that's been. . So we have I'll speak to some of the vets here later who we have.

But we get up there and we go Turkey hunting. Everybody seems to enjoy it. The biggest thing about our events is we pay for everything. We'll buy your Turkey tag, we'll buy your deer tag. We pay for the processing when it comes to a deer. Turkey Anything and everything you need, you basically show up and we will get you what you need to hunt with, even if that's, a shotgun or we've had crossbows that's been donated and camo.

Camo, anything and everything we can hook a vet up with where they just gotta show up and come out there. The Turkey hunt's pretty good experience. I try to show up to everything, even if I don't come out, cuz I don't, I can't call Turkey. But I at least show up. I enjoy that. The the Brookville Fish and trip is it's probably one of my favorites because the, there is one, let's see.

There is there's two families that are Vietnam veterans and they cook the [00:37:00] meals for us. So the first night we have we have a big meal and then the second night they have a fish fry for us. So they prepare all the meals and cook and we get together. And like I said, we just hang around bullshit.

Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean if we ain't allowed to cuss. You're good. Yeah, no, you're good. And so the brookville fishing trip to me is really cool. And then like I said, we did start the squirrel hunts, the other one that I was speaking of, and then the archery hunt, and that's the one where it's the same thing.

The guys come down. It's usually, I think it's usually six vets and people have donated their land for us to come out and hunt on. And like I said, the chef, I live up here in Bethel, like New Carlisle and our chef, he lives in New Carlisle. So he comes out and he does most of the cooking. He drives from New Carlisle all the way down to Clarksville where we're based out of.

And so we have that. And every year it's usually around veterans. And then we got the Marine Corps birthday, and we always celebrate that. Pull out a big saver, cut a little cake in half, and the oldest and the youngest feed the cake to each other. [00:38:00] So that's always a blast, , whether we kill deer or not, yeah. Whether we kill deer or not, we just we just really have a good time and hang out. And it's, we've gotten some really good guys and ladies that's come out and hunted with us. Probably our. , I would say the vet that we do a lot with he's a Vietnam veteran. He made it through Vietnam, then came back and he was jumping and when he jumped, he, I think it was a tree landing and it ended up, I think he broke his back.

So he's So that would be a paraplegic. . And he's, so he's 70 he's 70 something years old, so he's been in a wheelchair since 68 or 69. So the older he gets, the more we're like pushing him to get out there and get out there and do more things. And it's gotten to be where, we've taken care of him, had to do certain things for him, but we've had.

I, I, we've had double amputees. My one bud. My one buddy. He's the na, he's a single [00:39:00] amputee. We've had him getting out there. Basically if you want to get out there, man, we'll throw you on our back, drag you through the mud, whatever we gotta do to get you out there to have a good time.

Oh yeah. Good stuff. So if you're listening to this program right now and you were a veteran, , talk to those guys. Talk to those the men and women that are listening to this, that, that might wanna get involved, might might be struggling. You know what can you say to them? Nick, you wanna say something?

Yeah. Talk to somebody. We're happy to listen. I'm not a veteran but I do what I can to. Those who I can. I can't relate. I wasn't in the service at all, but I'm always happy to listen. Sometimes that's all it takes. I sitting in the blind with a veteran. He told me that he, the happiest thing he saw was that I was there.

A a civilian specifically to, to people who, to a veteran who needs to talk to somebody. We have seven board members six of those, including Shane, our veteran. We're all happy to [00:40:00] talk. Yeah, happy to have you out. If you need some support, we'll find a way to support you. We'll, if you need somebody to come out and go hunting with you, give you a little bit of a guide we'll do what we can.

Wouldn't necessarily be an OVO o event, but, we don't necessarily care about that. We want we want to help veterans. We're living by the mission. It's, whether it's through an event or. Yeah. Yeah, good deal. And if you're listening to this and you have the capabilities to donate to this organization, please do it.

This is, you guys pay for everything. That's really neat. And those costs, I understand that adds up very quickly. , we take nothing. A hundred percent of the donations go to paying for tags, paying for gear if we need to buy it. We get a lot of stuff donated gear wise shells other ammunition.

There's always costs that donations physical donations don't actually cover. Yeah. Yeah, it's, anybody can support and we absolutely appreci. Any support. [00:41:00] Yeah. Good deal, gentlemen. Gimme the gimme the website one more time if you would. Oh, vets outdoors.org. Do you guys have Facebook?

Yeah, we got Facebook. Instagram. I think we have Twitter. We don't, I don't know if we ever really post anything on Twitter, but Facebook's our big one. I'm on. Go wild. Nick Vincent, I am hoping working on getting a Go Wild. Ohio Vets, but I gotta get that stuff. What's a go wild? Shane, I told you about this.

Don't embarrass me. That sounds weird to me. Go ahead, . It's a social media app. Okay. For outdoors. Yeah. Good. It's a great platform. So gentlemen, thank you so much for your time, Shane. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your dedication to supporting veterans in, in, in this state and beyond, quite frankly.

And Nick, thanks for your time volunteering and helping take care of our veterans here in the state and get them into to the great outdoors. Whatever your organization needs from me personally, needs from Andrew [00:42:00] Munz, needs from the Ohio Outdoors Podcast, you let us know. We're here to help you guys here, to here to support you and every veteran in the state that wants to get out there.

So thank you guys. Really appreciate your time, man. Thanks for having us. Appreciate. Yeah, my pleasure. Appreciate your time.

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