Show Notes
On this episode Byron breaks down the perfect deer hunting laws if he was governor of the Ohio DNR. What season dates he would apply. What changes he would do with tags and out of state license. Baiting, Crossbows, tag allocations all discussed.
The other part of the episode we catch up on off season scouting. Is there a perfect scouting bag? Ways to prevent blisters or hot spots.
Other items discussed:
-giant dead head 6 point
-scouting for early season
-firearms news
-Good content consumed
-paint your face like braveheart
socks link discussed in pod : https://amzn.to/41yrnW5
Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] All right. This is the Whitetail Experience Podcast. This is your host, Byron Horton. Got a funny. Episode today. Variety of topics. Some hunting related, some not. I think I throw in a little BS here and there, but I think I'm gonna title this minivan problems in off-season topics, and that is because I am dealing with a minivan crisis.
Oh, . The family van is not working and we're juggling vehicles and it's very stressful. And I sold my truck, lost my bird dog. I don't know, two weeks ago. My, my life is like a country song right now. It is a busy time, but I am still getting in the timber here and there. I took some p t o and been doing a little walking.
I do want to mention Patreon. I want to appreciate you guys. I have tried and been putting out more of our scouting type content to those guys. Appreciate those guys given to the brand. And that allows me to display, I don't know, more of my tactical thoughts, maybe information that I don't want out to the masses.
And [00:01:00] yeah, I feel way more comfortable giving those guys the eyes of oh, the best trail cam from last. The ambush point I messed up on where I found that deadhead the other day. That was a hammer, deadhead. And it's definitely some things maybe I noticed that I don't know how to keep a little close to the vest.
I think you gotta do that these days. The main part of this Podcast will be the hunting rigs. The Ohio DNR has come out with their improvements and stuff, and I'm gonna throw that audio actually in at the end, after I get through some of this offseason stuff. Proposals are interesting.
I don't love the fact that they're not accounting for some of the e d in counties, and I think it's a little ridiculous, if you will, when it's very apparent that states even one to the west, like Indiana, have so much in play when they realize EHD is breaking out. But the only thing you can do is fill out your surveys and I will be posting a link shortly with the open house like your ability to leave comments for the dnr.
If you watch the Whitetail experience feed, social media feed, I should be [00:02:00] posting that shortly. And I did, I was having a conversation with Shannon Long the other day, a, a very good deer hunter here locally, and talked about this with Jake Bush as well. And that is, I think next year's gonna be worse.
And I think that because we had a on par average ish, Hunting numbers of deer taken, and you combo that with a, an HD outbreak. And this might be a touch more buck centered. It does seem like HD hits the bucks hard. Although my buddy Larry found nine dead deer on his, I don't know, 70, 80 acre property and it was like a 60 40 split between do and bucks and that's not a huge amount of acres, right?
Like under a hundred acres, nine dead. And presumably from e d I think most of those were found in his creek system. So that just shows like it, I think we had a, an average ish harvest overall numbers and you combo that I just, Ooh, there are some places that are gonna be hurting for deer population I think for about three to five years.
In [00:03:00] other news, I did try and have, oh, I had my forester guy out to the family farm. Trying to actually acquire some cash to maybe buy another, place if you will. And he did some timber evaluation and long story short, just not as easy to do. Now my buddy Larry did advise me to maybe shop around a little bit.
He said the forester guys are a little hippie-dippy on the for forest ecosystem. And he goes, you want a little cash for future better deer hunting? And you understand how much your place could benefit from. A clear cut, if you will. And I don't know, he said sometimes forester guys aren't exactly the most ideal to deal with, and I had to do that via my programs in the em.
State forestry program, which you can save 50% on your taxes. So I thought that was worth mentioning. Basically the, it comes down to, you might have, let's call it, five grand in timber, but the local logger and sawmill distance and price of diesel and trucks and equipment, like it's all gotta work out and [00:04:00] y.
yes, you might have valuable timber, but the job has to be a breakeven point for the logger. I think that's common, but I was sitting there mentally thinking, oh yeah, like I can not only improve my property, spend zero time doing it, put a little cash in my pocket to stash away in the s and p for two to three years.
And then take that money and hopefully buy a, another small place for my boy and I to hunt thinking longer term and oh, price of land and thinking access is becoming so much more apparent in the public land. Boom. I'm trying to get another piece. I think at this point. I did scout the small piece that day.
I found no sheds and I know there was one shed spiker or four pointer there. The big buck obviously dropped his antlers in December. I scouted a little bit, saw some good things, a lot of tracks, a lot of action. Running a couple cams out there that I pulled for that had been out there all season, scouted a few times in the timber.
Oh, good. [00:05:00] Like seven mile days or big days if you will. And let's see here. I found one older shed, but a solid buck. The one day. Kicked up a few different deer, pulled some cams. Got some stuff marked on the map, putting a priority on Marking a few more of our early season food sources, knowing next year I'll probably get to hunt a few more evenings.
This year, obviously with having a new baby girl, my wife said, I'd like you home for the second half of the day, but I think next season I'll be able to slip out and do a few more evening hunts. I do have a note here as far as scouting items and what I've been doing. When I put on any more than about four miles, I do step up my foot care and I I'll link these, I think they're worth mentioning, but the INI socks, which is basically a thin Marino to sock.
And I got turned onto these by a guy who does like some ultra races, we're talking like 60 mile races. He used to work out at my gym and I was telling him I got a hotspot. Toes on my left, left foot. And he [00:06:00] was like, dude, like anytime I, I do anything above 10 miles, I put these on underneath my running socks.
And this dude clearly he does like overnight rucks, he does some beyond tough utter militaryesque or long races and. Noses shit. And so these, and Gingis, it's like a Marino wool for your feet and just prevents hotspots, blisters. The other thing sometimes I do is take a. Leuko tape and just put it over my heel in case I'm gonna get a little heel slip.
My thing is with foot care, what I have found out, and obviously listening to guys like Snyder, it's like it's all about preventing any sort of needed treatment. So those are a few things I thought I would mention here. I've mentioned those in plenty of YouTube videos, but never really on the podcast and it's two different audiences or limited crossover audience.
I, I can tell that I do have another gear item here, bag problems. Let me pause for a sip of coffee here. I'm on the warmup here. , I, I don't know if it's b got [00:07:00] talked about on any other podcast, but Rick of whitetail experience, Dave and myself are in the cold plunge. Cold water is good for the body, is good for, oh, your mental toughness.
So Rick and I bought these, I don't know, they're inflatable bathtubs off Amazon. Basically keeping 'em in our garages. Occasionally dumping some ice in there, freezing water bottles and doing some of the cold plunges you've seen talked about on Joe Rogan YouTube, if you type in like cold plunge or ice plunge, there's plenty of stuff on there.
But dude, it is a mental dopamine kick. That's what I get out of it. And I do notice some inflammation. Oh, if I'm training her, my elbows for whatever reason, give me fit. And so I noticed a little bit of that, but it's a beyond runner's high, getting in that cold water, doing something tough and then getting out.
I have done it occasionally at three o'clock and it's like I've just drank a full cup of coffee. When I get outta that thing, I'm ready to freaking go. [00:08:00] But yeah, I'm on the rewarm here, so it's cup of coffees needed, but back to gear problems. So I bought the Everly stock. and I love it. I've hunted with it a few times.
It's a real small bag. I think it's like under a thousand cubic inches. I think it's 800 and good, decent pockets. I do wish I had one more external that's really the only thing done wrong with it. But I was going scouting the other day and I was thinking, oh, I just want a light bag to carry water.
And really maybe if I'd strap one or two horns to it, it's not like I'm the bomar having 50 antlers problem. and go to Scout and realize, man, I gotta pull four or five cameras in this piece. And you start doing the math of cameras with a stick and pick style mount or whatever. You mount 'em to the trees, like that's taking up room.
And that's also some weight. So I had to call an audible and grab the x o p striker bag or and go with that. But I love that banded bag. Bought it for scouting and realize if I'm doing any [00:09:00] sort of trail cam, I need the other. It is that bag's still valuable and it's a, it's really well built.
Like it's definitely good straps, good buckles. I can just tell it's a good quality bag. But yeah, here I am scouting season. I'm taking my other bigger bag due to needing to pull in cameras. And then the other day I did strap the mega deadhead to it. It was a big seven and I rough taped him one 15 ish.
But I don't care who you are, that's not a Facebook. So one 15 as an eight. He'd been 1 25. Which 1 25 s are stud eights, sorry. Facebook and, yeah, just five and a half inch bases. He was a hammer. So I have notes here. Oh yeah. In my day one of off season scouting. I did realize I abandoned a spot way, way too soon, and I divulged a little bit more on the Paton video, but, I had, I think, no, one good buck [00:10:00] in October 24th ish when I pulled the cam and didn't see any deer there that morning.
And I pulled the cam and based on population and what I was seeing and the lack of sign compared to where I had found this spot the year. . I was like, eh maybe there's something bigger at play here that these deer are shifting or just not here right now or not here this season.
Maybe there's a new clear cut that instead of swinging through this area, they're swinging through somewhere else. I just couldn't figure it out real quick on the fly, right? And in a year of h d you gotta abandon ship. I feel like if you think all your good bucks are dead. So I left that spot, and from the 25th of October to all of November,
If I'd have sat that thing four or five times, I probably shot one. Maybe not, but like it was the most quality bucks, regardless of daytime and nighttime. And then obviously a handful of good daytime photos let alone if a deer maybe [00:11:00] skirted the main trail by five, six yards. Like I saw the coyote when I hunted there, this coyote came, literally, he was coming right through the main pinch, if you will, that.
I was hunting and he was gonna cut the, I think he was gonna cut the ridge system short by 20 yards. I would've never got him on cam. And I think maybe some bucks do that too, on that spot. But yeah, dude, I definitely abandoned ship and I don't know where these, that's the other thing. No, none of these bucks that I have I'm a just quantified November pictures of they were not there in October.
Like I had no reason to. Think they would be coming through at least if I had nighttime photos, I'd be like, okay, he's gonna bebop through here, potentially during the RU and daylight. None of that. So that is what it is, but definitely abandoned ship way too soon. Lesson learned, big one there.
Oh, I have a note here. Congratulations. Goes out to Jake Bush for joining the Latitude outdoors crew. That's a, that's big. Someone. my age, [00:12:00] getting to pursue their passion to the fullest, and now work for an outdoor brand company that's doing things at a high level. And I saw they also hired Aaron Blyk, full-time and the Fall podcast.
Great podcast. But I like Aaron talked to him on the phone a handful of times a year. Does some very good videography in the and obviously it's just done some cool things. Some travel hunts, killed some good bucks. Had some crazy years where he. , I don't know, forward a year. A year. Just, yeah, it's off to Aaron.
I I like what he does and enjoy his podcast. Been enjoying. He's got this cool series going right now of one giant mistake and he's got a co-host and I really the direction he's taken here recently. Another content, I actually have some notes here on some content I've been consuming liking, cuz I think it's important to share positive things right.
in today's society, I don't think people give thumbs up or thank yous enough. And I watched a short film and we're talking under four minutes on YouTube. It's called Stick and String. It's just a cool short film. It's obviously traditional bow hunting ish, [00:13:00] but like the quality of videography. But then the message is just talks about the pursuit the tapping into the core of hunting.
I I enjoyed it. The other content I wanted to touch on here was , a podcast, the Deer Hunter Podcast guy Mr. Kevin Vistas and did with Brian Brodrick of day six. And they got on the topic of painting your face. And Brian talks about Brian obviously has to shoot a bunch of deer. Every year just due to testing.
And he's on a management program that requires a lot of dough harvest and does a decent amount of hunting. Brian's a killer and he just doesn't post about it. And they got on the topic of painting his face and Brian was like, I've never been spotted from painting my face. And he goes, I think it's ridiculous.
These guys running around with looks like they spent 20 minutes to do their war paint, if you will. Their face paint. and there was a Braveheart re reference in there. And Dave e Bright is famous for the Braveheart Black lines of a little bit thicker on [00:14:00] his rut hunts typically, if you will, or if he goes ground game.
He definitely goes full on Mel Gibson . But I'm a big proponent of painting in the face. I think it is. . Yeah. I think it's what GI gives you away the most. Like I feel like it's a known fact that deer id predators based on especially man by the head and shoulders, right?
And if you leave the head it's full, I don't know, skin exposure, which is super bright. Especially come fall when you haven't been out in the sun as much. The face just sticks. and I'm a big proponent of it, at least throwing some black on there and just darkening up your overall face when you walk through the woods.
If a guy's in full camo, you generally spot him first by his face, and so I, yeah, I definitely would like to hear from you guys. The other thing is I know guys do the face mask thing, and I'm always afraid of anchor points, right? If a deer walks in, now I've gotta pull that face mask down a bit and then go to anchor [00:15:00] and if you leave it up your anchor's slightly off and I don't want a extra movement to pull that face, paint, face mask down as a deer's walking in.
I just wanna shoot 'em. So I'm a big proponent of painting the face and we'll continue to do let me know your guys' thoughts. I think it, it'd be interesting cuz I feel like at first it was cool because the duck commander crew was doing it and they looked pretty sweet and then it like became uncool when all the major league bow hunter guys were doing these crazy designs.
But I think from a functionality I'm team face pain. I think, I thought that was a funny conversation that I wanted to chime in on. The other one I I listened to lately was the Bo Hunter Chronicles podcast, and he had the lust archery on the guy with the pretty good broadhead type review channel from YouTube.
And just a sticking point to me, which was very opposite of ranch ferry type talk, was the sharpness on a broadhead doesn't have the most. With penetration, lust talked about it being a little more of the [00:16:00] blade angle, a little bit more of the blade integrity, and I thought that was interesting and I I don't know.
I think that's probably somewhat true. I feel like I could go to his channel and he'd shoot things into jail and just if one was sharp and one wasn't he's probably got he was speaking about this on the podcast, of course, he just there the gap between the sharp broadhead and the non sharp broadhead wasn't that much.
And so I, I just thought that was interesting, and I heard bow hunting Fien talk about this one time. And it made a lot of sense. Like these broadhead companies have specifically designed tools to sharpen the broadheads. And yes, there's some aftermarket ways to do it, and some broadheads are easier to sharpen than either.
But dude, like I'm very much a plug and. Type guy. I don't wanna spend time necessarily sharpening my broadheads. I'd rather shoot a few arrows. I'd rather prep my stuff for my next hunt. I, there's, in the world I live in where you've got a family, you're trying to hunt hard, scout as much as you can, cuz you can't do [00:17:00] that due to just drive times and job and life.
It's man, you, yeah. I try to eliminate some of those jack around type tasks or whatever. I some plug and play items in. That's why I, honestly I was a fan of this electric style broadheads for years. Not only, I feel like those are a solid, accurate head, but you could swap the blades out.
You could usually shoot the piss out of 'em, swap the blades out, and go hunt. Now I do think there's, oh, personally, the thinness of a slick trick worries me a little bit as far as catching a bone or something like I would think, something like an afflic or an iron wheel a day. , even maybe a G five strike, like some of those heads with the thicker blades are probably gonna hold up way better.
But I do the plug and playability. Any other outdoor news I'm thinking of here? Oh shit. I've been down the YouTube of, oh, affordable, good budget guns, in the firearms world. Couple things I, I do. I wish I I've got a crush for some 19 elevens out there and have not pulled the trigger.
And [00:18:00] I swore at age 21 I'd have 10 guns by now. I did look, did pick up a new, oh, smaller ish, nine millimeter. I did go with a GX four from Taurus. and that I've put about a handful of rounds through it and seem to like it. I do like its size and they had it marked down about $75 advances.
So that was a solid win right there. I did see that. Smith and Wesson just released a folding carbine, nine millimeter Carine and oh, Caltex had one for several years, but it looks I know Ruger released a, oh, some sort of mini ish Carine. Two, three years ago, and now look, Smith and Wesson is doing that.
One other final segment before I get to the perfect deer hunting rules and regulations, which I think you guys are gonna enjoy that segment, is sports gambling. It's now been legal in Ohio for a couple months. Me and the boys have had some funny talks or texts around it, but I have one. A [00:19:00] few NCAA March Madness brackets in my day.
I think three of 'em, and one of which was a really good payday. I don't wanna brag, but in 2008 I had a top 0.1% bracket on espn. But if you're going to win the office pool or the bracket of friends, there are a few things. One, you've got to get the final games correct ish. You gotta at least go 50% to the Final four.
But in a strategy, if you've. Multiple brackets, pick two different winners and swap at least 50% of your final four. Or if you feel very strongly about three, swap one of them. . It's just a very, if you think you're, you can stick to your core guns and day one and day two, honestly do not matter as far as winning the bracket.
You is concerned. You can pick a few upsets, sure, but those aren't gonna make or break you winning the whole thing. . So yes, if I had a strategy, multiple brackets, you sw swap your winner definitely. And swap 50% of your final four. All right [00:20:00] guys, enjoy this segment on the Best Deer Hunting rules and regulations.
If I was governor of DN R, the only thing I think I didn't fully elaborate on is I have a Crossbo season that starts October 15th and runs through, I think I just said the. I meant the 30th of November. So month and a half season. You'll get more details on that. Why Ohio dnr? What are you doing? So this video is gonna be funny, a little bit lighthearted, but the DNR just released so last week, their plans and any updates they're gonna make to the new rule changes for next season.
And I was shocked to see. No mention except for one county of a reduction of bag limits. And that's awful considering how hard we got hit with EHD and had a on par, maybe slightly above par harvest reports come in and it's wow. Like we clearly as a DNR don't value the resource at a level we do when states surrounding us step in the same year that e [00:21:00] g breaks out and start limiting dough and buck harvest.
So I think it's a little ridiculous, and I wanted to shoot a video on this. I thought a funny, cool spin would be okay if I was governor of dnr, what rule changes would I make? And so I will make these specific around deer season. And something I think's worth noting is I heard on the Hunter Podcast and inters interesting.
Do that. The equipment and the technology we're really evolving at the craft of deer hunting and the laws and regulations are not keeping on par to maintain the resource. And I thought that was a good way to phrase up a lot of what, what's happening and okay, let's get to my proposed changes if I was governor of dnr.
So let's start with season dates. I think that's a very good way to look at things. I'm gonna give stick bow guys the. Time because they have the least efficient weapon, if you will. I feel like that's just logical, right? So stick, bow, got us September 15th through end of January. That is your season. [00:22:00] Take it and run with it.
The compound guys kick off October one. I think that's a very popular date across the Midwest. Several states open and I'm gonna cut those guys off January 15th. So stick bow guys. Obviously get about a month and a half longer Crossbow guys, and I thought about booting all crossbows. Or making them very regulated like Iowa does.
And I think what I'm gonna do is put those in season from October 15 through the 30th. And why I think Crossbows nowadays need their own season is they are very effective deer killing tools. Sure it's a great way to introduce somebody to the outdoors. I'm not super anti crossbo, but when you can shoot a 50 and a hundred yard groove better than my grandpa's 30 30, I think that is not technically a archery.
There is no answers for butts. Literally no recoil. 50 a hundred yards shooting better than 30 thirties. We're gonna put that in its own season. My gun season dates, and what I think I want to do is one Ohio's gun season starts on a Monday. That's a terrible idea. It's like [00:23:00] the Super Bowl being on Sunday when everyone's hungover at work on Monday, like we need to change.
So I'm gonna have two gun seasons centered around weekend hunting because the world most a. Are off work on weekends is just a fact. And we're gonna have those be like the Saturday, Sunday, Monday after Thanksgiving, be the gun season one, if you will, and then the following will be two weeks later this year.
That would've been around the 10th through the 14th. That'll be a four day, or it'll be Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. That gives guys two separate weekends ish to do plenty of firearm hunting. You get them after the rut, you get them in December. There's still some, slight secondary rut I just think that's a good, happy medium.
I will put muzzle over season as the first full weekend in January. We'll kick that thing off like the Friday, Saturday, Sunday. , like a three day muzzle lit season. And no bs with muzzle liters. You gotta load 'em. It's gotta be powder or pellet form. None of these like [00:24:00] pre-made cartridges that all you're doing is putting in a, that's not a muzzle letter.
Heck, we might even look to make these things like iron sites only or something like, it should be somewhat of a primitive style pursuit on muzzle later weekend. I think for bag limits and looking at what you can harvest, every hunter can have a buck tag. I think that's, , but as far as do tags and distribution I think the DNR needs to do that on a county basis, and there's no excuse now with the drone thermal type technology, the dnr.
like you can survey your grounds and know how many dos are in per county, but definitely do it on a per county basis. If you've got counties with tons of dos, shoot 'em. But if counties, maybe have a lacking dough quality, and that can change year to year or every two to three years, whatever you think.
But I would like to see a more dialed in specific dough type harvest because, there are areas that those should live. And so some years maybe you need to dial that. . These are some odd and end things, and a lot of these actually stem from other states, [00:25:00] and I would like to see maybe an extra little like pass or stamp or something for maybe certain forest WMAs.
And honestly, that's to generate a little extra cash, like even an extra dollar per hunter. is a lot of dollars at the end of the day when everybody gets charged in. And that's for the DNR to maybe do things like food plots or buy these, additional researchers put in better archery ranges for the public.
And I've seen other states do this, and I think it's a good way to incorporate like a little better cash. If you believe a certain state force, maybe this is a little better, because you're gonna put on some timber project. , I think, asking a couple extra bucks to hunt that specific unit.
Not a terrible idea out-of-state hunting, as a state here, that gets a lot of Eastern ish pressure. Like I like guys to be able to go other places. I go other places, but I think the West had figured this out. When you have a demand for a product, a big game tag, you need to watch the onslaught of outward pressure from other states.
And [00:26:00] so probably some sort of draw ish. Type system should be put in play for Ohio, right? The demands there. You can fetch some extra dollars as well. I think those are all good things. And again, extra dollars for the DNR puts better resources like archery ranges, boat ramps, stuff like that. I'm gonna totally kick baiting out.
I don't think you should be allowed to do that. I might put a clause outside of deer season. You can bait. I if we're gonna have a harsh winter, if somebody wants to dump some extra corn there in February. Get those mamas started off I'm okay with that. I think if you wanna run a couple extra minerals on your private ground in the summer to get some picks, okay let, but in season we're taking any, anything horny out of the ground, it's gotta be out of there.
As far as a gun season caliber, I'm gonna let that be up to the specific county. I, if you want to be able to use a two 70 cuz it's a rural enough county and population density isn. Okay, go for it. Definitely kicking out cell cams, drones[00:27:00] regular trail cams I might limit to public land. I think public land needs to be very untouched.
A, a wilderness, a wildlife area for all to enjoy. I would hate to see the day that he, with the most trail cams on public land is the best hunter. So no banning on public. No permanent stands. Oh, another kind of public land style rule that I've seen. Some states have draws for certain pieces of public.
Some also may be considered no gun hunting on some of their public land, and maybe have a little bit better pursuit, a little better numbers, a little bit higher caliber. I'd like to see Ohio maybe step that up for a few w bmas that want to be a little better managed. But guys, I want to hear from you.
What are a couple of these lost? Do you like anything I said that you would want to. Also, if you watch our social feed, I will be posting a link to the March open house comment for the OD n r I think we need to raise, we need to raise a little bit of awareness around putting in your voice to the OD N r if you will.
Appreciate [00:28:00] you guys watching. Hope you like this video team. Hard earned bucks. We're out.
