Powerful Story for an Appalachia Giant

In this episode of the Pennsylvania Woodsman Podcast, Mitch is joined by Cody Readinger, a successful bow hunter known for consistently harvesting big bucks in challenging terrains. The conversation delves into Cody's journey from a casual hunter to a dedicated bow hunter, the emotional experiences tied to hunting, and the importance of scouting and preparation. They discuss the balance between family life and hunting passion, Cody's hunting philosophy, and the story behind his latest big buck. The episode emphasizes the significance of understanding terrain features and the challenges of hunting in Pennsylvania's Ridge and Valley region. In this segment, Cody shares his insights on deer hunting, emphasizing the importance of fieldwork, understanding deer behavior, and utilizing technology like cameras for tracking. He discusses his strategic approach to hunting, particularly focusing on wind direction and the significance of patience and preparation. The conversation culminates in a profound moment of connection with a buck, leading to reflections on faith and the journey of growth in both hunting and life. They share their insights on the influence of podcasts in learning about hunting, the importance of embracing failure, and the need to find a personal 'why' in the hunting experience. Cody discusses the impact of social media on expectations and the significance of valuing experiences over mere success. The conversation also touches on personal reflections, life lessons, and the role of faith in guiding one's journey in hunting and life.

Mitchell Shirk (00:00.898)

You're listening to the Pennsylvania Woodsman powered by Sportsman Empire podcast network. This show is driven to provide relatable hunting and outdoor content in the Keystone state and surrounding Northeast. On this show, you'll hear an array of perspectives from biologists and industry professionals to average joes with a lifetime of knowledge, all centered around values aiming to be better outdoorsmen and women both in the field as well as home and daily life. No clicks, no self interest.

just a light in the pursuit of creation. now, your host, the pride of Pennsylvania, the man who shoots straight and won't steer you wrong, Johnny Appleseed himself, Mitchell Shirt.

Mitchell Shirk (00:45.496)

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Pennsylvania Woodsman Podcast. As always, I'm glad you're here, I'm glad you're listening. Hard to believe that we're into the first week of November.

I'm finally starting to get the itch to deer hunt. I did a little bit of deer hunting slash bear hunting this past weekend. I made a two hour drive up to one of my good buddies. I wanted to hunt with him hunting that area. The morning was unproductive. The evening we ended up seeing a bear. I just could not get it close enough to get a shot. It was a pretty nice bear. Had us pretty excited. It's in an area. Maybe we'll make some drives in bear season. So that was a successful hunt. I was able to go out one day during the

week before work this week and in an hour's time I saw two buck on their feet and cruising. They were nice, you know, two, three year old deer. You know, the one came in when he first came in, it was getting me really excited. I was thinking, my gosh, this might be a shooter for me. And I just decided it wasn't what I wanted to shoot, but it got me excited. It was so cool to see those buck on their feet cruise in a seven pointer in a nine pointer. And I just thought, I'm just thankful to be out in the woods and

get to experience this. I'm hoping that I get a couple more encounters this coming weekend. I'm going up to my camp. I have not hunted at my cabin all year and I'm looking forward to it. And I've got two part goals. know, part one, actually I would probably consider it part two is to do some hunting, get in the tree and hope to be successful. Shoot a deer, shoot a bear, something like that. But really my main thing that I want to do is I want to do

some scouting. Like I don't know what is up. I don't know where the consistent food sources are. I don't know where a lot of that information is. Stuff that you would want to know going into the archery hunt. And I just don't know it because I haven't had the time to be there. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to find it. I'm going to try to hunt it. But what I'm also doing is I'm going to be keeping a logbook in the back of my mind of where I see good stuff. So that way I know.

Mitchell Shirk (02:51.95)

Where do I want to go in bear season? Where do I want to go in rifle season for deer? And really the thing that I've talked about on the show before is I'd love to get the crew of guys, friends and family together and make some pushes. And I want to know, is there any other areas that I'd like to take the crew and make some drives? And it's, it's so opposite of what my priorities have been in the past. My priorities have been in past have always been deer with a bow.

Only thing that matters, I'll think about all that stuff afterwards. And just a little bit different this year. Priorities are a little bit different. And hey, I got to go with what I have. So one thing I might do, I might take my shotgun this week. I'm going to go Thursday night and hunt Friday, Saturday. I might take my shotgun for a walk, maybe try to find some grass, find some turkeys along the way. If I find some deer sign that makes me worthwhile hunting, I'll keep that in my mind and might hunt it Saturday. I really don't have a

greater agenda than that. want to cover ground, look for sign, look for deer, look for food and hey, put those two and two together. And then from there I might say, where's a pinch point and a chop off? Where's a lip around a hollow or a, you know, some kind of thing that might pinch deer down and hey, I might sit there and see what happens. And that's as far as I'm going. I'd love to be a little bit more in depth and a little bit more detail oriented than that, but I'm not and that's okay.

But this week we're gonna have a conversation with somebody who's a lot more detail-oriented than I'm discussing with my hunting this coming weekend This is one of those episodes I hate to single anybody out single any episodes out, you know, I've done this now for three years or something like that and this without a shadow of a doubt is

easily top five, one of my most favorite episodes I've ever recorded. And there's a couple reasons for it and I don't want to give you too many spoiler alerts, but this episode, in my opinion, is everything that you're going to expect it to be and then more. So this week's episode is Cody Redinger and if you follow Cody on social media or if you know who Cody is,

Mitchell Shirk (05:15.086)

Cody has consistently, and I'm talking consistently, killed really good bucks with a bow in areas that are not easy to do it consistently. We're talking about Appalachia, I mean just giants, truly giants. He's killed a couple bucks that I would consider to be big giant bucks and one of them being this year. And this year he harvested around his favorite time at the end of October.

a four-year quest of a what I'm guessing he didn't tape it and I still don't know I'm guessing just looking at the pictures this is like a hundred and sixty class deer 150 160 class deer heavy big mature buck that he had a lot of homework into we're gonna go into the story of Cody becoming a hunter we're gonna talk about how he kind of stepped up each year and progressed as a bow hunter

his enjoyment of adventure and scouting the woods, how he views the woods. There's a lot of details about the areas that he hunts that I don't think most people get to hear and it opened my eyes, opened my ears to view the woods a little bit differently and I think it will you too. And then of course we're going to get into the story of his buck and everything else, but there's one more thing that shows up in this conversation, in this episode.

and it's extremely real, it's extremely relatable and I don't think I want to spoil any more of it than that. This is a powerful conversation and it's an extremely relatable conversation and I think you guys are really going to enjoy it. So I'm going to let it at that. Let's give our shout out to the people who partnered with us and support this show. Let this show keep going on.

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Mitchell Shirk (07:39.576)

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Mitchell Shirk (08:13.167)

We don't eat any beef, so my hunting season is making sure that we fill the freezer. So that definitely comes first for me, but since I shot my buck, we've been butchering that. So sorry if I stink here, because that's what I was doing here a little bit this morning. I live in a house with two kids and dogs, so my nose is blind to stuff. So I've been doing that.

really just like i said i have a two-year-old so just kind of taking some time and recuperating because i was i was on pretty hard throughout the beginning well mid october because i was chasing a different box for a while and then i had to had this that the box that i did shoot i was you know

Like I said in my post, was kind of waiting for him to do one specific thing. And that was at the end of October and he ended up doing it. yeah, was hunting a different buck the beginning of October. And he really liked the morning. So I was getting up early and doing the morning hunts.

yeah since i shot my book i've been kinda doing family time good and that's what you should do in all reality i mean this is here day after halloween whose funny because i had asked you about doing a podcast in the first time i said was i didn't realize it was halloween night when i'd asked you to do it and you're like yeah i would be doing trick-or-treating in high i normally would be do i did it on the night before

That night my wife went to her mom's and they were like an hour and a half or an hour away and it was I came home from work and they were already away so I didn't go so I was free. But yeah, but yeah, that's that's good to be doing that and you know before we get too carried away with you getting to tell your story and everything else because I want to do I want to jump into it. I want to make sure you get to introduce yourself. I didn't even let you introduce yourself who I have.

Mitchell Shirk (10:35.764)

on this week's show, because I'm sure there's some people who are wondering. Yeah, so my name's Cody Redinger. Really, I got in, so I grew up and I'd say in an average hunting family, my dad would go out for rifle season.

and when i turned thirteen you know he would take me out you know couple days and and what not but i ended up well thirteen i shot my first year was a doe with a rifle and after that i'll be honest like i did not know not how did have the interest or didn't have the drive just too much of the stuff going on life well i mean at that time i was thirteen and maybe it was i'd just didn't have

really the interest with it okay and i was doing i was doing a lot of sports you know baseball was a big thing when i was when i was growing up there and that always that was year-round to for me when i was that age you do spring and fall ball and and everything and then you had your winter camps and stuff like that so i don't know it just didn't

you know like i said i would go out maybe one or two times and then right on the air and what yeah yeah and then you know i always remember you know when my dad would go out and like you'll be snowing a little bit and if i didn't go out with him i'd always be waiting for that like to hear that gunshot from like cal so he usually hunt close to home in that case yeah yes we we my family we have twelve acres

So yeah, we would hunt around home. never did, really went on the state game lands. It was always just at home. yeah, so 13 shot my first doe. And then after that, I didn't start hunting again really until after college. So that was when I was 25.

Mitchell Shirk (12:54.08)

Okay, so what caused the change in your life to say, I'm gonna start hunting again? That's tough. So, I went to college, graduated, and we moved to Connecticut right after that for a job. Quickly found out Connecticut was not for me. yeah, why's that? Well, so the job I took was for making submarines for the Navy. wow. Yeah, and

the the city that we were in it would be mystic connecticut grotten and it it was just not it was not for me i grew up around here correct in the mountains right now more city yes very much and that was definitely not for me i was i was feeling it pretty bad like i was i was on what i was pretty depressed with it honestly

We would be coming back home here to PA, you know, every, I'd say every weekend. goodness, yeah, that's a drive. That was five, six hour drive. And yeah, so we ended up moving back after a year. So that was 2017. And at that point, really, I think it just got to me that like, I wanted to, I wanted to provide for my family a little bit more. Okay.

And it started with, you know, just doe hunting, getting some meat in the freezer. And then it quickly, quickly escalated from there. So it would been 2017, I got my first bow. Just I'm like... I was just saying, what made you go into archery hunting if you really hadn't done much hunting at that point? I think it was just the more opportunity. Okay. Yeah. So mean, let's face it, seven weeks of season before you get the hunt with a gun. Yep. Yep. For sure.

so i just i just picked up some boat bell is a thing was like a diamond i think you know those are common boat act me and kind of just you know progress from there i saw it couple bill at my parents house and then that year i was like well what to see came let's see what

Mitchell Shirk (15:18.958)

March around there. Because growing up, I would go out in the mountains and hike and just explore. I'm very much looking for adventure. I was always that way. Adventure, adventure. So I was always out just walking around, just seeing what I can get into, what could I find. So yeah, so 2017, I went up there. October 27th, I shot my first buck up there.

It just a small seven point, you know, two year, maybe two and a half year old basket rack seven point. my God, was so elated. Do you remember what that emotion was like when that happened? Like, me about, like leading up to it, you know, you're just new to, you're fairly new to hunting in a sense, and then you go and shoot a buck. Yep. I would say, you know, more of a late onset hunter and, you know,

i was able to experience it with my dad to okay which was it so he came up with me that morning and he would he was on on the ground just sitting by tree out near point and i was i'd i'd get i'd decide well at that point the whole was it be but it will cost me a little bit

just lone wolf. yeah, yeah. So I got one of their alphas and I got to like the three step climbing sticks and so I was messing around with that. god, I'm probably blowing all the deer out because I was so loud. I know the feeling. So I got up in the tree and then it was early morning and I had this doe come up from the bottom.

and she was paying you know like calm down calm down i know i i heard about this i know i heard you know it's going to might be a buck comment right so and sure enough this this little seven point came in i was able to make a a good shot on him and he didn't run far of course ran down the mountain though so you have to take a back up and out well and that and at that time

Mitchell Shirk (17:39.188)

I knew nothing about cutting them up and backpacking them out. So that's what I mainly do now. Well, all the time I do now is cut them up and then backpack them out. I don't blame you. And like I grew up dragging deer out. Like I hunted a bunch of private land and we never had far drags. But when I hunted camp and stuff, we're always with a group of guys and you just, it was the camaraderie of getting the deer out. I shot a doe the other night and I shot it at my house here and

I had time, I didn't have anything going, I thought, you know what, I've actually never cut one up in the field. I cut them up on the tailgate without hanging them and stuff. was like, I've always had my stuff to cut them up in the field. I've just never done it. So I'm going to practice this on the ground. it quickly humbles you though. When I, when I did it though, when I was done, I called two of my buddies that I hunt with and go to camp. I said,

why in the world did we drag such and such deer out and such and such deer out the other year and plagued ourselves when we could have cut it was so easy. my gosh. much easier. I was done so quick. Yep. Yep. So much easier. And you know, once you got it, once you got it down to a science, like you said, it's, it's really quick and, you know, the tools that you're like, can right now, like I'm taking in two ultra light game bags, a small little,

half of a contractor bag tarp, have a long type blade with like four blades. Do you carry steel with you or just the four blades is good enough for Just the four blades. That makes sense. Yeah. can usually get, pretty, I use the 60A's, the 60 XT's are a little bit thinner and they tend to break on me. The 60A blades, they're good. I can usually do a deer with three blades and then I have one extra just in case. Okay.

and then i keep i'd started carrying in the can't be that coolians or something they look like a little tree saw and i'll use that for for my book and it's something to that's like four dollars i can throw away if i need to because you know if i'm on in a cwd type there are two

Mitchell Shirk (20:01.644)

I do have some spots that are in CWD. And I do carry that too if I'm going out for a dough. This is the first year I testing some of them just because. You hear more about it now. Hearing more about it and also being a father, it makes me think. I'm feeding this stuff, feeding it to my...

to my family, my daughter. So you've said that to me a couple times on and off the podcast about being a dad. before we go into your buck for this year and talk about some of the other stuff, I have to ask the question because it's resonated with me. Did becoming a dad make you think you became a little weird in the head with some things in life? Because I feel that way all the time. I'll tell you how it changed.

You know, everybody tells you about how it'll change, you know, your life, you know, physically, you know, you can't do this, you can't do that, or you're going to experience this or you experience that. then, but nobody really like talks to you about like, or, or they'll say, just wait till you have kids, you'll understand. And I always was like, especially, you know, so my daughter's too. So, I was before my daughter, I was, I was really, you know,

Really starting to get into hunting right and I was like, well my passions my passion now like I'm gonna I'm gonna you know, I'll still have You know, I'll still give you know have time for my family my daughter but like, know, this block of time is like, okay I'm going this block of time. This is this is my time during the year, right? And I'll you know be with family Throughout the rest of the year, but I quickly found out that

it has been struggle going out day after day and not seeing my daughter not seeing my wife yeah it's it's it it it has it has changed it has changed my heart it has manipulated me a little bit i mean was a time where i would never would have thought that there would be anything that would pull my mind away from the focus of

Mitchell Shirk (22:14.776)

being in the woods, being focused on trying to kill the deer I'm after or the game species I'm after. You know, that was my time. I could turn the world off and do this and that. And now, don't get me wrong, I still get that way, but it now it's, this is going to sound bad. I don't know a better way to put it, but it's like taxing on your mind to know that I'm away from home, from my family doing something I want to do.

well my wife's got a you know she she was busy all day and now she's watching the kids while I'm away and let's face it I I do love the little boogers even though it's that that that like bouncing you know just wanting to kill them sometimes. yep yep I totally get that and yeah I mean I think the hunting to the level that we're doing can be selfish. Well had a friend say it one time and I never left my mind and I don't know

where to go from here with this other than just the way he put it. said, hunting for a mature buck is probably one of the most selfish things that you can do. I agree 100%. After having my daughter, it has made me realize that exactly what you said, being away from home, you know, having, so my wife, my wife is primarily a stay at home mom and you know, being,

my daughter being two, she's wanting to do everything 24 seven and you know, by the end of the day, you know, my wife's is done and you know, it's dad's time. Exactly. And if I'm out in the woods, I know like my wife doesn't get that break. Right. And so and the amount of time that you have to put in and sometimes it's like, you know, with the buck that I shot this year, it's like I have to go right now. Yep.

And it's like, I'm forever in debt to my wife because of that. Because, you know, we've had our struggles and being a late onset hunter, like, we met in high school. So I didn't hunt. I didn't hunt back then. throughout most of our relationship, I didn't hunt. And then all of a sudden I'm starting to hunt and now I'm at this level and I'm like,

Mitchell Shirk (24:41.632)

She, it's something completely new to her and you know, she, she understands my passion though now and like, you know, we've, we've worked through that and she understands, but also there's a balancing act there. It's a huge balancing act. And I don't think we're ever gonna, I don't think the position you're in as a husband, dad, an avid bow hunter, I don't think you're ever gonna perfect that balance. It's something you're gonna constantly work at for the rest of your life. Yep. And there's always gonna be challenges.

there's always going to be you know you're always going to have to adapt you're going to have to change your game plan you're going to have to you know give a little bit more here take a little bit there and you know it's always going to be a change and you know i maybe that's something that i've definitely struggled with to is because i'm very analytical making my job an engineer for my job and you know that's how i attack the morning is you know and

this the you know how i attack scouting is stuff is very analytical so i don't like change like i'll be the first to say like it's hard for me to look at change but yet the stuff you know hunting mature white tails like you have to look at change so it definitely that challenges me you know every single year and that goes hand-in-hand with you know balancing the home life just accepting change in and working through that

through that change. Absolutely. Well, I want to get into the story this year and I think we would probably be here a really, really long time if we started going in the chronological order of all the bucks because from the time that you killed your first buck until now, I've noted like you've killed some dandy bucks over the past few years. You had some great hunting experiences and you've continued to grow. And what I want to ask you before we start talking about the buck this year is I'm curious,

Are there pivotal moments or light switch moments throughout the past, you know, five, 10 years hunting wise that really just turned you on to what you're referring to as like that next level of bow hunting? Like what really tripped your trigger or happened that was pivotal in that journey for you? Yep. So the first one was definitely that first year when I shot, when I went on public land for the first time and shot my first buck, small seven point basket wrap.

Mitchell Shirk (27:07.712)

I was like, okay, this is great. Like, I can go anywhere I want and I can find a deer and I can, you know, I can shoot it. And I quickly learned that it's not that easy. It was probably just luck the first time, right? And then, you know, I went into the second year and I was like, okay, well, let's do a little bit more scouting. And I did, but like, when I say that, I was probably out there maybe like,

two or three times, four times over the summer. And I went into that season and I ended up shooting like a 120. I'm like, holy shit. I'm so lucky. And then that, I think that moment there was like, wow, there's some really nice deer here. And from that moment on I was like, well,

If this spot, so that was the same spot that I shot my first deer, same date, same time.

And at that point I was like, well, if this spot, so to give some context, like where I hunt, you know, around us, there's a lot of hunting pressure. absolutely. There is a lot of hunting pressure and a two and a half, three and a half year old deer is a good deer. Yeah. And so at that point, you know, that was the same spot that I was at the year prior. And I was like, well,

I need to kind of branch out because what happens if, you know, some other people come in here, then what? You know, I don't, I don't know what I would do. And that's when I really started scouting. And at that point I probably had like four or five spots going into 2020. 2020, I shot my biggest buck ever. was a 155. And ironically,

Mitchell Shirk (29:11.21)

same date october twenty seventh okay so that's a keep that mind october twenty seventh i've shot well including this year this year was october twenty eight this year but i shot four deer now october twenty seventh or twenty and one of those one of those is a one twenty one was one thirty one was one fifty and then my dear that

I shot this year. I don't know what I didn't score yet, anyway, so that year I shot my biggest buck and at that point I was like, man, where do I go from here? Cause I was at that point, was like, well, I'll just, I'm going to go into season and I'm going to shoot, you know, a bigger one than I did last year. And I'm like, at that point I know I'm a 155 where we're at is.

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Mitchell Shirk (31:30.382)

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Mitchell Shirk (32:20.59)

the pressure that that put on me the next year was immense. And I got to the point where I was not having fun. And I think that changed the course of my thinking. And at that point,

Mitchell Shirk (32:44.566)

I wanted to, I had my standards at that point then. I wanted to be able to shoot at least a 130 or four and a half or older deer. So that 155 one, he was a five and a half year old deer. And so I had my standards and I looked at the,

places that are around here to hunt. I look and at that point, I was getting so crazy. Like I would go out, you know, first day of rifle and I go to all my spots and I'd be like counting how many cars I see. And like, and I'm like, okay, well, if I'm going to keep this up, I need a hell of a lot of spots. Because most of these spots are going to be burned just from other hunters. And I probably got

I mean, at that point, my wife could probably say I was obsessed. I was absolutely obsessed. Like every waking moment I had, like I was out there scouting. And to some extent, you know, I, you know, this goes back to change, right? I, you know, some, to some extent I'm still out there and I'm, and I'm, I'm looking, I'm scouting all the time, but you know, I have a little bit more balance now, but you know,

At that point, I needed to make sure that I had as many spots as I could such that...

Cause I knew going into season, at least three quarters of those are going to get burned by other people. so that's, that's a, and when I go back, when I say like, I'm very statistical with my scouting and hunting and I think it comes down to that is like, I need to put the odds in my favor and to do that, I need a lot of spots that I can rely on.

Mitchell Shirk (34:57.224)

And yeah, so that was... you need to put time and effort. I thought about this with my bear hunting that I was doing in New Jersey. The first year I went down, I was overwhelmed in the whole new experience. I found spots, like one or two spots that I'm like, my gosh, this is a slam dunk, I'm going to kill one. And when I didn't do it the first day, I had nothing to fall back on. And it was like, holy crap, what's going to happen? So I really changed for this year.

you know, making sure I had options that way, hunting pressure, wind direction, mainly, know, the biggest thing that I learned the first time was I picked the spot out. It was calling for this perfect wind direction. The first day I got there was 180 degrees the wrong direction and I had no fallback. So I was like this year, I'm going to make sure I have options to cover my rear end. Should one of those things go wrong, which they inevitably always do when you're hunting, right? Yeah. So having options is it.

extremely important and when you're talking about trying to find deer at four and a half years old, 130 or better, like those types of standards, like in this part of the world, is it doable? Absolutely. You've done it multiple times, but it's an, it is a different level of work ethic and time commitment to do that. And you need to have volume. Yeah. And,

Yeah, it's, it's like I said, it's, comes down to,

you

Mitchell Shirk (36:35.992)

having those, have an option, like your wind example, your wind example, and I'll even go like dates, so the 155 I shot, the first time I went in there I shot him. I did not hunt that until October 27th. I did not hunt that area, I saw him on camera, but nothing lined up to the point where I was like confident to do that, so.

You know leading up to that yeah I had other spots that I was hunting and I think that's the main thing that helps me every year is there's multiple deer that I'm looking at every single year and I have perfect scenarios quote unquote perfect scenarios in my head of how that's going to go and unless I get close to that I'm not going to hunt. That's good. And because I have so many different spots or different bucks that I want to hunt I can afford to

and when i say we is i'm still hunting but i'm putting different here at different times because i'm waiting for more or less that perfect scenario and it just so happens like the buck i shot this year i was i waited till i saw that perfect scenario and i was able to capitalize on it but and i get the good segue into this year so you know you you put your post out and i i saw it i was like this

is just unconscious killing big deer. I've got to talk with this kid, but I read your post and you talked about windows. I've had similar experiences in time windows. You talked about scouting. You talked about finding a spot that just screamed at you, this is something I need to hunt. Take me back to the first time you encountered this deer. Was it in person or camera? Tell me a little bit about your first exposure to this buck you killed this year.

So yeah, the first exposure I had to him was really finding his shed. And that would have been 2021. So like I said, after 2020, when I shot my biggest deer, I was all over the place. And I found this spot and it immediately was like, this is it.

Mitchell Shirk (38:56.46)

Like this is a good spot. I it. I read that in your text and I want you to try to elaborate what you saw or felt to that because I've had that sometimes in my hunting experiences, but it's not something you find every time you go in the woods. Tell me about what you saw that made you think that. Yeah, so I'm, like I said, I love adventure and I always, maybe it's a

picture that's painted in my mind of like what that looks like like I'm out in the wilderness right and there's like pine trees and the and and mountain laurel and like just wilderness area and just like big big steep rocky draws and like just I always think of you know hunting out west and like I want I want that big adventure

and maybe that's the picture that like gets me fired up in my mind and like when i experienced like bits and pieces of that i'm like all this is great i just want to sit here all day like i want to experience i want to experience nature right here and just like listen to the wind going through the trees and like and just that i think

that sense of like just wilderness adventure to me. Like I don't wanna, I don't wanna hear cars. I don't wanna hear people. Like I don't wanna, I don't wanna look out over the horizon and see houses or a field or whatnot. I, and I love the mountain laurel. I love the mountain laurel. Especially when it's blooming, I'll just go out, on the mountain and.

just to go for a hike and just see the mountain lion. So without like, without being too descriptive to the point that somebody is going to hear this and think, I know where Cody's hunting. Like, can you explain like what this spot looked like terrain and stuff like that? what, what did you see that just drew you to it? So we, so in the, in, in our area here and give it, know,

Mitchell Shirk (41:21.422)

eastern will say southeast pennsylvania about the pennsylvania right we're in the lake of region valley region right and so we have you know

these ridges that have state game land on them and

the a lot of them a lot of them aren't just like straight up and then straight down right you have these like little like flat spots on top or like you know it you know that could be a mile a mile wide maybe or a little bit more and then some are even or like you know a couple hundred yards

But we have a lot of those and you know that's where our state game land falls and so.

that area there you know it doesn't hold a lot of terrain features you know you're basically just up the mountain flat down the mountain right but so when you look at a map you don't normally see these like small subtle features now given the advancement of some of these mapping features you can get pretty

Mitchell Shirk (42:50.158)

detailed with that. But a lot of it was me just boots on the ground, checking out all these different places and

that that right there i think is ninety five percent of my game is just boots on the ground because i'm looking for those very very subtle features that you're not gonna find on a map or

the you know we have a lot of rock yeah we have a lot of rivers of rocks and stuff like that most people stay away from the rocks but i can guarantee you that if a deer needs to get somewhere and there's rocks he's gonna find a way and i'm looking for that because sometimes there's little paths that

they choose like that's the one of the things is down you know on my parents land we have a lot of rocks there's this little tiny trail that goes through a vein of rocks and man do they hammer it yeah so those subtle features you're not gonna find on a map you're not gonna find that anywhere on aerial maybe you'd find a vein of rocks but you're not gonna find where they're crossing it

You'd be a good person to ask this question. I just had this conversation with a buddy of mine who, you know, we're hunting similar areas that what you're describing. And I said, you know, I said, I've listened to other podcasts. I've talked with other hunters. I've talked with people from other states and you know, there's a lot of information on podcasts about map scouting and looking for this terrain feature and following this and, you know, looking at all this stuff. And I said to my buddy, said,

Mitchell Shirk (44:43.724)

I've done map scouting, I said, but the extent of my map scouting comes down to where is parking, where is access, where is there a hollow, a creek and stuff like that. But that deer sign stuff, like I'll never forget a good friend of mine who used to host a podcast said to me one time about reading maps and I can damn near pick out these little features on this map and you bet there's going to be deer there.

I went into the spot blind, just map scouting and it was late exactly. I have 100 % never experienced that in this area of Pennsylvania. Exactly. We are not in southern Ohio where you can look at a map and find, you know, saddles and you know, what have you. Like I said, we're in the Ridge and Valley region and it is up flat straight down. There is not that much terrain, right? So...

Getting out there, boots on the ground, and finding these subtle features that you're not gonna see on a map is 100 % key to how I kill the deer that I've been killing. I will, you know, actually I just started shed hunting really hard maybe two years ago. And I will just go out and I will walk deer trails looking for sheds, but you know what?

That's how I find some of these places that...

Mitchell Shirk (46:16.992)

you know most people would completely overlock right you like it the rock example most people are going to look at that be like hell i'm not going in there you know what if i shoot a deer to you know most people drag their gear out there now go in there and i'll be the first to say that there is probably a one sixty on calling that is a mountain goat

he loves the rocks absolutely loves rocks and you know stuff like that and going to get back to this you know where i saw my dear this year i would in the offseason this past year i love like i said a little mile moral i love thick thick now moral you don't you know you you heard you know dear can't

don't really like that they like the edges right they like the interspersed you know now on stuff and yeah that i agree with that but i will use mountain moral like it's offense row or something like that i will climb trees in the offseason and i will look i will get a better vantage point and i would across this mountain alright and i will see where there's openings and within the malo yeah so you know

i'm using that as what like like i said fence rose or a wall and that's gonna funneled here and through a lot of snow tracking you know getting out there in the winter time and just looking where they're walking i'm just i a hundred percent i just want to be a dear i just want to be a dear and that's a big term right because we all know that

matured year way different than does and younger gear but that's another thing like you know the does i i would say i'm i am look i am i'm hunting the does and i'm looking for where they're they're traveling their bedding and i'm looking for the easiest way for those box to to move through that stuff

Mitchell Shirk (48:42.126)

Yeah, back to that area specifically, that's what I was doing for a couple years. I'd go in there and I'd hung a bunch of cameras on travel routes. I was trying to figure out where this deer was going, where it was coming from. I got some good intel, nothing that I was real ecstatic about, nothing that was like set me off.

you know like this was it did the same thing climb trees i was looking i was looking for travel routes through the laurel and and and what not and it's almost too like i'm starting to see a pattern with these bigger deer where they don't like to rob either they know they know people are gonna

see that and even scrapes too like i'll get maybe one scrape in an area that i'm like okay he's here but like i won't see i'll see you know you'll have hundreds of scrapes but they're not they're not they're smaller they're not by this theory right but there's all there there's usually at least one that i can find

that you know you got inch, inch and a half laurel cracked off of the branch and that just so happened to be this, you know I said in my post how he would hit this one specific scrape and I found that on the camera on it and that's when I started getting him over those three to four days.

right at the end of October, he would hit this and then just disappear for those three or four days. And I wanted to ask you, did you ever notice he was with a doe at that point? No, but there is a doe group nearby and I for 100 % for sure know that he knew when they were coming in at that specific time and he would just lay low. He would just lay low there and he would go and he would

Mitchell Shirk (51:10.542)

back and forth and check him and whatnot. the, so where he was bedded at that point, it was like a little rise, a little null. And that pops up every so often throughout this area. And the doe liked to bed on the, I would say the,

Mitchell Shirk (51:43.106)

the win so the the wind direction that we normally get here you like to bet on that side of them of this little no there and then look out on the opposite side and so i think they're back on the do you think yet and then so he he would be very close by you'd be very close by them and i'd i'd believe that because i would get i would i would also get some other box that would

come in at that time frame. It was very much a date thing. And we all talk about watching when the fawns drop, right? And then back calculating to see when the first does might've been coming in. I think that's what he was doing. He knew that that group of does would come in around this time every single year here. And he did the same thing.

And it would be like three or four days and he would, same pattern too, he would, you know, come from, it would be come from the north or yeah, leave from the south, hit the scrape, go north in the morning and then come from the north, hit the scrape, go south, back in from the morning and then leave it.

That would happen day or morning and night, morning and night, morning and night. And, that was the year that I found his shed. it was a respectable shed. Like I said, two and a half, three and a half year old deer for around our area is pretty good. So I was expecting him to be three and a half, four and a year, four and a half going into that year. And I was like, well, he's, he's a shooter for sure. So I was planning on that the next year I was planning on, you know,

Going in there waiting for him to show himself again like that cuz like I've never done something like this before I've primarily you know a rut hunter and I've never like tried to like do a betting scenario, right? I was always looking for the does and waiting for him to pass by type of thing And Yeah, so that would be 2022

Mitchell Shirk (54:10.892)

I had him on camera in the early spring and early summer and then towards the late summer and into fall he completely disappeared from me. And I was waiting for him late October, didn't happen so I was like, well, you know, things change and like, you know, I'm still very new to this so maybe this is just a weird fluke or whatever. he, or,

Like I said, I thought maybe he died at that point. Yeah, right. Maybe something happened to him. Because in this area, there's a lot of coyotes. A lot. And a few bear too. And not to mention all the hunting pressure that we just talked about earlier in this podcast that somebody could kill one. Yep. Yep. Yep. And so that was 2022. Didn't see him at all. And then

twenty twenty three came and i didn't on there because i ended up taking well i was yeah last year ended up taking another box well i was hunting a specific park last year and then the ended ups switching off the him and ended up shooting the bucket to last year but anyway i'd i didn't i didn't hunt

at this specific area last year. And then I went in over the winter here this past year and I checked my cameras. I run a lot of cameras and I leave them. I leave them where they're at so I can get this like year after year inventory. I can see where the does are going. And that's another thing. I look, I run all my cameras on video. I watch where the does are walking. I watch how they enter the frame, how they exit the frame. I watch how many are there.

what time they're coming in at and this and that. Is that something that you just do a good job of mental checklist in your head or do you take notes of stuff? Like how do you do that? Cause I struggle with that. It's, you know, you have like Steve Sherrick, right? Do his, his, he does like a book that he keeps information in and you know, running so many cameras and any inventories and dates and times and stuff. it's like, especially with

Mitchell Shirk (56:36.768)

My daughter now, I do not have time for that. I do not have time for that. So I will, what I do is I will take the cards from a specific area all at once and I will go through them and I will mentally do the does, kind of get a picture for that area of where they're at most of the time. And I can adjust cameras based on that. But then I'll take some notes.

more mentally than anything and I will erase those videos but I will save the buck videos no matter if it's a yearling or a mature buck and I will then

put them all in one folder and rewatch them. So I can see if they're moving from this camera to this camera or this camera to that put all the different cameras in that area into one folder. It'll organize it by the date and time and then you can view it. So that helps me surprisingly a lot because then I can get a very mental picture of, they were at this camera.

and then they hit this camera and then they hit this camera. So they're moving from this direction to that direction. And now I know, okay, well, the does were showing up more at this camera and this camera. So that means this camera might be the travel route that he's taking between the doe. And then I'll move the doe cameras around and find an edge. And then I can see, okay, north or south, east or west. And then I'll be like, okay, well, on this wind,

he's hitting this side this when using that side that's another question when i see if you don't mind me stopping you to you said about which when he's do you go back in use like a weather underground history type thing to get that information exactly okay yet i use whether underground and i will in those instances i will keep like an excel sheet and i'll start writing down my mental notes of like okay he's moving from here to here

Mitchell Shirk (58:49.58)

wind was this that means he's going to be moving on he's going to be moving this direction right on this wind he might hit the downwind side of this bedding area and stuff like that I want the bigger picture I'm looking for the bigger picture I'm not looking for just he showed up in this camera I'm gonna hunt here because we all talk about not chasing camera pictures and I mean

given this year's book was a little bit different because i was waiting for that but i did i had the history with him to do to be able to do that exactly you know chasing camera pictures is not the way to do it but being able to throw out those cameras and move them around move them around the dole betting and travel routes unable to get a big picture of where

where they're traveling to, how they're traveling, and what wind and date, weather.

and whatnot. And I think that lends itself to how successful I've been is I'm constantly looking for the big picture first. And then you can get down to the micro level of this specific trail, travel route, whatever, what have you.

That makes a ton of sense and yeah, continue on with your. I think a lot of people. I think a lot of people want all these spots, right? But they and you know, that's good. But you also need to like really spend your time in the spot to learn it on the offseason. I'll take eight hours and just walk around.

Mitchell Shirk (01:00:55.982)

twenty thirty acre spot and i'm just walking deer trails i'm setting up cameras and i'm just i'm i'm looking i would like i said earlier i want to be that year i want to be that year i'm looking like okay i'm not going to go out i'm not gonna walk over here because it's you know it's too open or whatever there's this little trail through the laurel here like i like that i'm gonna you know i'm gonna hang camera and see what i can see there and

I do utilize a lot of cameras, I'll be the first to say that. They're great tool. probably, and you know, that's a whole discussion. I have a love-hate relationship with cell cameras. The buck I killed this year, great representation of that, depending how you look at it, how you look at hunting, right?

So in that case, I loved it, right? Cause it allowed me to do something very specific. But on the opposite side of things, I mean, I'll tell you how many cell cameras are out there that I find three, four miles deep. Like people are just hanging cameras and not ever checking them. And that's something that I think is going to change the way I hunt in the next couple of years.

because normally I'd see a camera and be like, I'm not hunting here. Yeah, was gonna, I would go ahead. Yeah, I'd see a camera and be like, I'm not hunting here. There's somebody else here. I don't want to see it. That goes back to my adventure thing. I don't want to see another person. I don't want to see another person. I want that feeling of wilderness. Like I want to go out there and experience this adventure, right? And it's going to be tough and hard and hike here and hike there and sweat and

I don't want to see another person and all that stuff. And I would see a camera and be like, I'm not on here. And then now with the cell cameras, I'm getting out to these spots and I'm seeing cameras everywhere. And now you have to think, well, OK, maybe they'll go out there one time. They'll go out there one time. And then.

Mitchell Shirk (01:03:25.452)

you know you're gonna start having these you know you waking up at three a.m. every single day right and hiking in 20 degrees you're sweating then you get there and you're freezing right how many people are actually going to do that every single day you just hit the nail on the head I just last week when it was the muzzleloader season

past two years, some of my buddies and I have made the decision we're going to go to a new area and just explore. We're going to take the muzzleloaders for a walk with the thought that hopefully my main focus is bare, but if I have a dough tag, I'm like blast the dough, right? And this new spot we went to, we were covering ground, going around some chop offs and up. It was going up the side hill and all of sudden, boom, there's a cell camera. And I was like, wow, that's up here. And my initial reaction,

The past few years when I see those cameras is like, man, somebody's hunting back here. I can't, thought I would have got away from this, but now exactly what you just said. How often is somebody going back and hunting at that spot and hunting at that camera? I don't believe, I think you hit the nail on the head that that is not deterring me anymore. I mean, if, it's the, you know, the, the other end of the, the catch 22, I guess, is like when I hunted New Jersey, you know, there's some places that.

gosh, within a hundred yards off the road, there's cell cameras. Well, that's an easy access spot. Somebody's probably deer hunting there or whatever. like what you're describing, you know, that's great. People are going out and doing that, but I don't think it deters me. Like you said, I'm glad you said that. That made me feel a little bit better with my theory. Yeah. Yeah. I, it's, it's one of those things you always hear of, you know, there's people that say they want it and then there's people that actually want it.

and a lot of those people that say they want to go hang those cell cameras way back in because all they're going on sunday and they're going for a nice hike around the woods and they're doing some scouting writing quotes and always they found this spot that has a big scrape on hanging cell camera on it and then you know once hunting season starts the you know that walk out in the dark one time right here

Mitchell Shirk (01:05:47.22)

and then you know that going going forward

I have to change, right, to my thinking like, okay, well, even if they did come out here, okay, well, and maybe that leads into some of the stuff that I do now is I do hunt people in the sense of how are they getting in there and whatnot. I do look at that even if it's a regular camera, right, if, you know.

If there is somebody in there, how do I think they're accessing it? And, you know, with cell cameras...

I definitely going forward I don't think it's gonna stop me from exploring that area. Sure, sure, Yeah, so. I don't even know where we left off with the bucket you're right. I think we got to 2022 we started talking about some other antiques within the Big Woods which I love that. That's what I love about podcasting.

Like I think 23 I think is when you were back you were 22 He didn't show up and 23 were we're back on the search. Yep. So 2023 Excuse me, like I said Leave my cameras up year-round so I was in there and I pulled cameras That it would have been that Probably that February March time frame cuz I was in there said and probably

Mitchell Shirk (01:07:28.056)

pulled cameras, did the same sort of inventory checks and stuff, you know. And I got to the card with that scrape and I checked it and I still remember it. I told my wife, was like, he's alive. Like, he's, or I...

I said some other stuff but I won't say it on the podcast and she's like, what are you talking about? You had a PG-13 moment of The Lion King when Rafiki's going, he's alive! Yeah, yeah. And so that surprised me because I thought for sure he was dead. And he was a nice buck then. He wasn't as thick. And that's the thing too.

this guy he he's not very wide he's not very you know but he hold he holds his mask he's insanely massive yeah so that would been so that was early 2023 and or no i'm sorry i'm losing track october 23 i'm assuming you would and at 23 you pulled your cameras i'm assuming yeah that would have been actually 2024 so did you go and look shed hunt for that dear then yes and i didn't find it

i didn't find in finance that's but i'd knew the area gets for it hit really hard for shepard shen on the net the area i mean most areas around here a there but not against private land to you and a lot of those people you know come up in front through their land and into the game lands then for the sheds and i know it gets and actually i ended up hitting that later it would have been later in season

because I didn't think he was there. So that would have actually been probably like April, late April. So at that time, everything was pretty much picked up. So yeah, so he's alive. And then going through those cameras, he did the exact same thing. I mean, it was picture perfect. Like I don't think I've ever seen a deer do it to the day.

Mitchell Shirk (01:09:44.366)

for that same amount of days, it was this, was a repeat of 2021. And at that point I was like, okay. And did you have confirmation that he actually made it through gun season at that point with your camera pulls? Yep, because it was April. It was April of that, of the next year. And you had pictures of him after gun season at that point? Yes. Yep. Yep. I had, I had pictures of him right before he

i would i would guess it's shedding probably early march side pictures of him late february and then so at that point i was like okay alright this is this might be my ticket and

So when I, so I went back in there and I was, I scouted around that area where he was going in the south direction in the morning so that when he came out of that in the evening, he would have been going north. And so I scouted down and around there and like I said, there's this little nulls that happen every so often and

the one that he was in very rocky and but also thick because a lot of you get that like those like the blueberry bush little stuff. Yes, but also just shoots like small small tree shoots. And a sassafras likes to grow in the top a lot. And that's another thing. So like I said, I'm only eight years into this, seven years into this and

I've done a lot of just like deer movement and stuff, but I haven't done so much of like food and and plant based stuff. So I want to get better at that. anyway, anyway, so I found, I found this little area there and I found two big beds there. So I, I just kind of linked the two. I was like, okay, well.

Mitchell Shirk (01:12:06.67)

maybe this is it, this is where he was going. So literally that's all really that, you know, learning this theory, that's all I really had is just a whim of like, okay, I got these, you know, camera pictures and he's doing the same thing and he's going to South and I'm like, okay, I found these bed, quote unquote, beds of his, right? I was thinking they were his and that's all I had. So going into this year, I was like, okay, well,

If I see him do this, you know, for one day and you know, that would have been, October 27th. Ironically, the day that I would like to hunt was a Sunday because I shot, you know, a bunch of deer on the 27th. So that's kind of my sacred day. And I couldn't hunt that day, but I saw him move that day morning night. And that, at that time we were having Northwest, Northwest winds.

which maybe we can talk about it at some point. was hunting a different deer on a different mountain that following morning for a Northwest wind and midday it switched to a slight South, Southwest wind, South, South, West wind. And so that's at that time, mid morning, I was like, okay, well I saw him do it morning, night. And that morning on that Northwest wind, he went in bedded and

because so we had to have a northwest wind he would be better then such that when he came out in the evening he would have had the wind advantage coming back down into a scrape but it just so happened that that wind switched midday to a south southwest wind which is perfect for me so i was able to climb the mountain jayhook in and follow

that south southwest wind in my face to about 25 yards from that scrape that he liked, which gave me the wind advantage. that, you know, so doing that also, I should back up. When I started the J going into the J hook, it was probably like,

Mitchell Shirk (01:14:32.494)

300, 350 yards back from that scrape. And within like 200 yards, I really was like, okay, I gotta calm down now. And I did heel to toe, heel to toe for two hours trying to make as little noise as I could. Cause I'm thinking like, I have to believe that he's right there. I have to believe it.

How far do you, I don't know if you said, how far do you believe he was bedded distance wise from the scrape? It was probably an additional like 80 to a hundred yards. Okay. But then he was also up a null too, so he could see at that time he would be facing the opposite direction though with the, because when I started, when I actually started,

climbing that mountain, we still had a semi-northwest wind. Swirling a little bit. It was swirling a little bit. Which it does in the mountain. And then I waited until we got, it was about like 12, 30ish when it really started to come from the south. And that's when I started going in. So it took me like two hours to move that 200 yards in and get to my tree that I wanted to.

I wanted to climb and actually the tree I think really helped me because I never climb I Mean this tree was big. I mean I couldn't even like get my arms around it I usually I usually use on an am steel I Use I use sticks with some cable ladders and an am steel rope I usually use that and I had to go back to buckles because I had to do the swing thing

To get the... You had the tree picked out you wanted to hunt him? Yep. And another question I wanted to ask you too, I'm jumping around here. That southwest wind, did you have multiple wind directions that you felt you could get in there and hunt? Did you have multiple trees picked out? Like tell me a little bit about that because you have this window and you need something specific, right? Yeah, no, I needed that south southwest wind. Okay. Yep. That... I would have needed either...

Mitchell Shirk (01:16:55.678)

a south east, a south directly south or a very slight south southwest. And the very slight south southwest wind was the, or, I'm sorry, it was a direct south, a south southwest wind or possibly a southwest wind. And I needed, I needed that south to southwest wind because it ultimately gave him a little bit of an, still an advantage.

but it let me slip through just very slightly just because the way he was entering and exit so that's another thing is like with the travel routes and ultimately where i pick my stands is a lot of times if they get within range they're gonna smell me they're gonna smell me and

but I need to give them that advantage. But when they smell me, they're already, they're dead. they're in my range. And that South-Southwest wind gave him that advantage still, but...

It let me slip in there enough that he wasn't able to detect me going in there. And I'll get to it in the story, but he did know I was there. Ultimately at the end. He did know I was there. Spoiler, we locked eyes. Yeah, I'll get to that.

Yeah, so I got to my tree. It was a big, big white oak tree. I had to do the swing thing right with the, to climb the tree and there was actually a pine tree behind it. So that was nice. It definitely covered me up. And I think that's what ultimately helped me too. Because like I said, he did see me at the end, but anyway, so that would have been around two o'clock.

Mitchell Shirk (01:19:13.484)

sat there and then last time i looked at my phone was like four forty eight and then you know i put my phone away i'm like okay this is it if it's gonna happen it's gonna happen it's gonna happen soon and within like five minutes i see him pop his head up over this null

and

he's got his years and eyes pin nose pin looking down directly doubt like i'm off to his left but a little bit but he's looking he's he's looking down that all and he's just watching for like twenty minutes which i'm thankful for because the well the wind could have swirled at any moment and it was done but i'm i'm i'm thankful for that because i was able to calm myself down a little bit for was it that point

At that point, so I was 25 yards catty cornered to that scrape and he was probably another like, what I say, like 80 to a hundred yards away from the scrape. So I could see him pop his head up and he was just watching 20 minutes. And then, you know, he was up down with his nose looking around.

after twenty minutes he starts making his way down through the laurel and you know i stop in every so often just looking around and then he keeps you know he keeps coming down is probably like i said another like fifteen minutes till he got to the bottom and by that time he was behind some big oak trees so he can't see me at that point and then

Mitchell Shirk (01:21:01.998)

once he stepped out behind them he would have been at his scrape tree but what he did was he went from not seeing i'm not seeing him he went down and passed by his scrape tree and came directly towards me and looked directly in my tree and so once i saw so i could kind of see in between the trees so could kind of see movement

So when I saw movement in the first, there was maybe four oak trees. And when I started seeing movement in the first two, I drew back so that when he came out of that fourth tree, I was not moving. But when he kept going then, past that, past his grape tree and looked directly at me. And at that time he went past it. I said it was 25 yards. He was probably like 16 yards. And he's, he like,

gets to the tree and he's looking and he's does you know the head bob right he's like I think I see something and I'll never forget it we just lock eyes and at that moment yeah and I and at that moment he's front almost well not completely frontal but like I would say what would have been

quartering away just a little bit record towards you if he's facing it well he's facing he's like so if i'm from here he was facing like a very very very slightly anyway if i would have normally i you know i want those brought shots sure and i was waiting for him to turn me from to turn he starts head bob and i'm like he knows i'm here

So, I'll never forget it though. We lock eyes and at that moment, like, I just realized like...

Mitchell Shirk (01:23:10.04)

four years boiling down to that one instant in time and you know I think that leads back to the rest of my season and like

I've never been, you know, I've always had God in my life, right?

Mitchell Shirk (01:23:34.934)

I've struggled with it time here and there. But how can you tell me that there's not a god when you have four years boiled down into this one exact moment where this mature animal is looking you dead in the eyes and it's completely primal and it's just like

that one instant.

and like i can't i can't even begin to describe the feeling that i had to work i can imagine you know like i said i i want to do more in my life with with god and high you know i had dot bible verse in there and i think it it explains it explains it to a t that you know

Every... every moment that led up to that I didn't know I didn't know about but he knew about and He... You know, he... He knew and he gave me that gift that gift at the end and I... the gift at the end of that deer looking me dead in the eyes and I'll never forget that.

And you referred to that Bible verse and I just wanted to pull it up here. So I pulled your post up and it says, this is in Ecclesiastes 3, one says, there's an appointed time for everything and there's a time for every event under heaven. And that's what you're referring to. Every event and that specific event, you know, I wanted for so many years, right? And, you know,

Mitchell Shirk (01:25:35.158)

Right, he didn't give it to me, quote, you know, type of thing. But he knew, like, I just wasn't ready yet. I just wasn't ready yet. wasn't, I needed, I needed to, I needed to experience more first.

Mitchell Shirk (01:25:52.488)

And going forward in my hunting career, especially with my daughter now and providing, making sure that I just step back every so often and realize that God has a plan. And I might not see that, I might want this right now, but he says, it's not your time yet. There's a time for everything.

under, under heaven and, you know. Well, the one thing that I think it's easy for us to overlook, somebody explained this to me one time, think about it. What God created, God created time. Yeah. Think about living in a world, in a place where time doesn't exist. Like, like, just try to comprehend that thought. So when you think about

living and not being bound to time, you realize that there's no rush in anything. Exactly. We're bound in our earthly bodies to the time, right? We have a time. God created time and we have that. But when it comes to what you're talking about, about that time being appointed to you, it's all in God's time, if that makes sense. I think that's easy for us in our busy lives to forget about. Yeah. Yeah.

And I, you know, even going into this season, I felt like I didn't have enough time. Like I, right, I'm always rushing around trying to do this, trying to do that, prepare for this, scout this place, you know, check these cameras. And, you know, I never felt like I had enough time. And then season comes and, you know, I have to remind myself, like, slow down a bit, you know, it'll come, it'll come.

and you know, my wife does a a good-

Mitchell Shirk (01:27:55.458)

helps me with that she you know she keeps me level headed you know she says you know take a breath like it'll be okay like when it's your time it's your time right and you know and like I said I I've always you know went back and forth and struggled with God and and I'm slowly learning I'm learning and I want to continue doing that in hunting and I think that's only gonna help me

feel more relaxed and at ease and clarity in my mind and in my scouting and my hunting and in life in general and the balance between them. And I don't think I can ever go back and say like there's not a God because I experienced that moment four years in the making. Like can you imagine the amount of the probabilities that everything that had to happen

for that exact moment to happen the way it did. Like I was butchering this deer today and he was injured. had to actually, I wasn't able to save his right shoulder because I don't know what happened, but I don't know if another hunter hit him or he got, something happened and he had a lot of scar tissue and an abscess and he was injured, but he survived.

He survived that. So he was injured, he survived it, and maybe that was just one of the seasons that I didn't see him. I don't know. But, you know, and everything that had to happen to me as a hunter to get to that point, everything that I had to do over four years for that exact moment in time, it just blows my mind and I don't think I can ever not.

say that there's not a God. Absolutely. when you talk about the journey, one thing that you said that I wanted to share, just thinking out loud. So you talk about struggling, whether it's in your walk of faith or whether it's struggling just in becoming a better deer hunter and learning and going through hurdles and having hard times. And you're like, I just can't get this. I can't figure this out. You know, either one of those cases,

Mitchell Shirk (01:30:20.974)

Somebody shared with me an analogy one time that said, know when your when your daughter was first starting to to walk You know, she she'd she'd shimmy she'd shuffle and then she'd know lean against the couch and get herself to stand up and then she'd take a couple steps and then she'd fall and when you When your daughter falls you don't as a father you don't you know say

Why'd you follow them? You should figure this out. You got up, you aid and you pick it back and there's a process to learning that and there's grace in that. You think about your journey, whether you're deer hunting or you walk with Christ, over time you will continue to get better. Like you've learned to walk. You've got to learn to walk before you learn to run and this and that's...

That's the exact same process that you're going to go when you're spiritual walker, you walk as a deer hunter. And I think that's one thing I've really realized. You this is, this is episode like 180 or 181 and podcasts and YouTube and all this content. It makes people get up and run. And you learned in the culmination of your time deer hunting, you had to walk before you had to run as a deer hunter. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And,

You know?

Podcasts as a whole have been influential in my learning. When I first got into it, I was listening to Bo and Clint, Truth From The Stand, and Ryan Glitzke, Moose, and all those guys. Stewart and a lot of guys from this area that are good deer hunters.

Mitchell Shirk (01:32:18.956)

Yeah, and they were putting out stuff and

That helped me quite a bit. And then, you know, like you were saying, you gotta learn to walk before you can run and...

Mitchell Shirk (01:32:40.332)

I think that...

Mitchell Shirk (01:32:46.312)

If anybody is listening to this and having a hard time with haunting or what have you, need to, I would say you need to just take everything with an open mind and also know that you are gonna fail, right? You are gonna fall down, but in that, you're gonna learn.

right as we you know everyone says you need to fail to learn and you know with social media nowadays i think it it it's great because of these podcasts because of these you know people sharing stuff but it also can really negatively affect all the newer people who fall in that instance and then they don't get back up because they don't see the expectation that they think that they should see

because of these other, other, exactly, other posts and stuff like that. And, you know, I'm completely guilty. You know, some people might look at my stuff and be like, man, like he's, you know, shooting these deer. And I'm like, well, ask my wife. Like I, I'm, I'm, I have to turn Instagram and stuff off because everybody's killing deer, but me. Yeah. And like,

just expectations it and you know partly that is something that i'm working through is you know i'm miss those times when i was first starting and i was just going out there exploring and just shooting a deer and you know make sure you take i i feel like myself in my journey i i went way too quickly way too fast

I miss those beginning times and I would say to anyone listening to this to don't look at those social media posts, right? Listen to the information and go out there and explore and learn for yourself, boots on the ground, learn, right? It'll all come in time and don't savor every single one of those falls and get back up moments and

Mitchell Shirk (01:35:06.648)

take it slow because in the end you'll come out of that so much more fulfilled and with so much more gratitude and

Mitchell Shirk (01:35:27.382)

Yeah, just...

Don't be afraid of failure because even with this deer that I shot this year, yeah, I had an inkling, but I still had to be like, okay, I'm gonna risk it. I'm gonna go in there and I'm, like I said, I was on a different mountain in the morning and I drove 45 minutes to this other mountain and I had it in my mind, like, okay, I'm gonna climb up there, the wind's gonna shift, I'm gonna walk in very, very slowly, I'm gonna get up, because he's right there and it just so happened, that's what happened.

and how many times have i done something similar nothing happened ninety nine time ninety nine percent of the time you know and so don't be afraid of the failure don't be afraid to fall and

Just make sure you get back up and make sure you also have something in hunting that you have a why. Why in hunting. Like my why first and foremost is always meat in the freezer for my family because we don't buy any beef. And I have some posts that I want to do in the coming days here about my daughter and exposing her to that.

that journey but make sure you have a lie because if it's if it's really just about posting a photo like where i was a couple years ago like all i wanted was just be this next big person right and you know you see we alice you the dearly he shoots this year and it's like you know i would want

Mitchell Shirk (01:37:15.104)

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Over a three week span and like, you know, like I want to be that person and like, you know, we all have different circumstances, right? And don't make that why you haunt. Make sure you have a why internally.

you know it you know and also I think Donnie Vincent said it best for me personally is you know he was like you know I could go on a hunt for a doll sheep fly in on a plane and the guides like all look there's a doll sheep by that that lake over there as soon as they fly in let's go sneak up and shoot it and be like that's the worst thing for me that I could ever think about

is like i i need the experience and i think that's a big thing for me is the experience making sure that you know i get out there and i experience the wind in the leaves and and

you know the squirrels running around i think they're a bach rating you know i get the smell of the do on the the fall leaves in the morning as the sun's rising i see the sunrise i see the sunset and i see god in that and making sure that it's not just about this picture

So I'm like rambling on now because... I wanted to let you ramble because you were going on something that is so true, Cody. It's so true. And nobody talks about it. Nobody has the courage to talk about it. So thank you. over the past couple seasons here, I've been very fortunate. Like last year, I shot a really nice deer. This year, I shot a really nice deer. But I struggled hard.

Mitchell Shirk (01:39:14.158)

hard with social media and all the smoke and mirrors that social media has become, I think is very detrimental to the hunting culture that is today. Amen.

Mitchell Shirk (01:39:33.134)

we need to we need to talk about it more i feel i feel like you know

There, I've gone from, so I'll be the first to say, yeah, I wanna shoot a mature buck. But there's so much more to that, and that's what I said about experience. I want the experience before any of that, because if I just go out there the first day and shoot a mature buck, I don't want it. I don't want it. And I think more people need to talk about it that way, because, you know.

most of the i mean a lot of the guys that i follow the you know nathan killen and stuff like that those guys man they're out for the experience first and foremost they want the experience and not a lot of you know these big names are talking about the experience they just there shooting you know all these deer in all these different states in you know good for them but like

at the same time like we need to realize that that's not possible for a lot of people and you know we need to we need to talk a little bit more about the culture itself in recruiting the younger people and telling them about these because they'll see the social media posts and you know right away that's their expectation and then they get frustrated right away

And I'll be the first to say, like, I have a hard time articulating my words. I'm a much better writer when I can sit down and I can talk through my thoughts and get them out. So that's one thing with coming on to a podcast is I want to get better at that because I want to be an advocate for that. I want to be able to talk to that side of things. Like, I want to be able to exp-

Mitchell Shirk (01:41:38.35)

explain like how Donnie Vincent explains it. I want to give those younger generation like the fire inside for the experience. Going after these deer that seem to be ghosts, right, in the mountains. Like, you know, it's hard. It's hard work. absolutely. And it sometimes feels impossible. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

And that's why I said like I have to have so many spots because like the deer that I'm after, if I get one chance, one chance on a four and a half year old deer a year, that is good. And you have to be mentally prepared for that one chance because I'll go all season seven weeks and I have one chance.

And that's something that you can't explain to somebody unless they experience it because they go on social media and see, you know, three years and three weeks type of thing. And, you know, we don't, and a lot of that does come down to, you know, the places we live or, know, our, our circumstances and right. And you know, where we hunt, but, you know, just keeping, keeping expectations and, and

making sure that we're talking on the opposite side of just a picture. know, making sure we're really after an experience or a why in things. 100%. Well, I'm circling back here, but I do got to ask. So you lock eyes with this deer. Did he end up turning or did you just decide to squeak one through? Yeah. So we locked eyes and I knew I could not move. So

There was, I don't know where I read it, but like,

Mitchell Shirk (01:43:41.088)

somewhere I read where you need to visual visualize how your arrow flight is going to be and like visualize through the deer where you want it to exit right and and that's what I did so I you know I had the visualization that okay I'm gonna shoot here it's gonna hit this bottom part of this lung it's gonna or it's gonna hit this the lung right here it's gonna hit the

the heart rate here it's gonna hit that you know it's gonna go visualized exactly the flight of that arrow and i a that i mean that's what i did and you know people talk about not taking shots that you shouldn't and it was a little bit of history of the week or that you know i think you i think i saw that i didn't i didn't listen i didn't listen honestly through hunting season i don't even

Like I said, I don't go on social media too much. Let me stop you real quick. That's a good thing. I get the most downloads, October, November, December. when you're talking about, when I'm thinking about this, you're talking about the health of your hunting season and your life amidst social media. That's actually not a good time to listen to podcasts, in my opinion. Yeah.

Yeah, I completely agree because it throws me off. Exactly. Now I say that sparingly because I want people to listen to my show. Don't get me wrong. mean, I want people to listen to your story and stuff, but there are certain things that can get in your head when you. absolutely. If you don't know how to weed it. But anyway, continue. And you know, I'm getting better at weeding it, but at the same time, like I still don't do it because like I will get thrown off in.

Quote-unquote my game. Yeah, I will I will start questioning things I will start implementing things that I shouldn't I need to just go back to what I know and and get rid of all the outside influence at that point I need to just execute execute execute and So yeah, I don't go on I don't go on social media during hunting season unless I go on to just throw a post up But I don't I don't really scroll too much good

Mitchell Shirk (01:45:59.15)

But yeah, so taking odd shots, and this is the first odd shot that I took on a deer. And so I did the whole visualization thing, but I had confidence and I had confidence because...

Mitchell Shirk (01:46:17.518)

I thankfully, knock on wood, I have not lost a deer yet. Good. With my setup that I have. So I had confidence in it. And I think that goes a long way.

You know, if he was completely frontal, I don't think I would take that shot. But because he was slightly quartering, I could see the path. I could see the path that I wanted to take. It would go through right between, so between his shoulders and then down in, and I was able to get top of the heart and then it exited out through the back of the, would have been the right shoulder.

And you know, and maybe that was stupid of me, you know, because I didn't lose a deer yet. And maybe that would have been the first year and that would have been a learning experience. Right. So, you know, I don't, you know, I could, I don't know, you know, somebody could tell me that I shouldn't have took that shot and somebody could tell me that, you know, good, taking that shot and doing it the way you did. And, you know, and

You know, it could have went either way. I, I, I felt confident in it though. And, that's what's important. And one of the reasons I brought up that podcast we did with Troy is because not because this goes back to it's kind of like the comparison of me telling Cody what kind of deer you should go after, like saying you should, you should be shooting bigger deer than you're at or something like that.

It's the same thing with the shots you take. Like the point of that podcast was not to say you should never, ever, ever under any single circumstances, take a quartering towards shot with a bow and arrow. That wasn't the point of what I was getting at. And I was not trying to say that anybody who takes that shot is stupid, but what I was trying to say is no, with confidence, what you are capable of and what you're not capable of. Cause my fear was so much of the quartering towards shots is that people

Mitchell Shirk (01:48:34.798)

just think bone is easy to penetrate through. Like some of those heavy bones. I'll be the first to say is, like I said, I was butchering earlier. I've been butchering now for nine years. You understand the anatomy of dude. that's huge. So many people don't. Like for you to take that, like I know some experience, but I personally don't take that shot a lot because I know I get so shook up on a deer.

And I know what my pin float is, I don't have the confidence and I don't. But there are other people that know anatomy and are just absolute deadly killers and know that and can take that shot. And for them to know that they can make an ethical shot, that's what's important. My biggest fear with the whole quartering towards thing is that just like you were saying with social media and that misguided expectations is people not knowing and finding out the hard.

And I'll be, so along with the butchering thing, I felt confident in that. I felt confident in where I was placing it. But I'll be the first to say, if I lost that deer, that would have been my season. I would have made the post. I would have said like, this happened to me and I'm done. I'm done for this season because...

Where I'm at in life, deer hunting is so much more than that. Like I said, when I locked eyes with that deer, I will never forget that moment. Because it means so much to me, I respect those animals more than anybody could ever imagine. I know more about those whitetails that I hunt.

than some of these, you know, quote unquote, you know, anti-hunters, right? That want to protect the deers. Like I respect that deer more than you probably do. Yeah. I'm getting like teared up here because like, if I, if I ended up injuring that deer and I didn't recover it, that would have been my season. I would have hung up my bow and I would have been like, I already took my deer out of this woods. Yeah. I'm done. And

Mitchell Shirk (01:50:58.046)

Sorry, no, don't be sorry man. It's it's it's So I had confidence in that shot and I and I accepted the fact that if I messed it up or I Some you know, I didn't recover that deer. I was done. Hmm, and I accepted it and and that's what's really important like like

So there's, there's part of the conversation in that quarter and towards shot that I didn't have in that podcast and a lot of people don't have. So, you decide to take that decision. the ramifications of that decision or something that don't get talked about. you just talked about that. do also want to throw in one more, one more thing to that is that when I said he, was at 25 yards to that scrape and he came by it and towards me, he was now at like 15, 16 yards. That's huge.

I felt confident being that close also in taking that shot. he was at 25 yards frontal, I'd have a hard time making that decision because at that point, even 10 yards, I don't think I would have been as, definitely not as confident and I probably would have waited longer and if he would have jumped out and ran away then.

So be it. Absolutely. And I think I'm learning a lot from this conversation and how I view quartering towards shots because I think it's not necessarily the decision to do it. It's the, it's the aftermath afterwards and how you handle it. Because like what I'm hearing is like your character about that decision, like you knew it was a risky situation. For sure. A hundred percent. But A, you had the experience and the confidence to say,

I believe this is a risk that I am willing to take and I think I can do this." And you got confidence. And you already said that your decision you made, should it have gone wrong. I can live with the You can live with the consequence and you going to treat it with the most respect that you possibly could in that situation. Exactly. And that right there to me is the missing link within the hunting community and making ethical decisions. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Mitchell Shirk (01:53:18.726)

you know i'd like i said i view these animals very highly and i think that ultimately leads into my success that i've had to is like i'd like i said i want to be a dear i want to know exactly about everything about them and i hold them to very high

I don't know the exact word, like not a God figure, like it's a high standard. Yes, a very high standard. Yeah. And, you know, they're, they're, they're a magical creature. They, something about white tails and something about the mountains. Like I was sitting in the deer standing the other week. I think I said this on the podcast the other week, but, I'll say it again. You know, I haven't been deer hunting this much this year and like something is off with me and like my drive.

that I normally have for deer hunting. But I went out the other week, I was in the tree stand, it the first stand of the year with the bow. And I'm sitting in the tree and I'm thinking to myself, you know, I'm glad I'm out, I'm happy to be here. But it was that moment in time I started thinking, I realized the place I wanted to be, I wanted to be at camp. And the reason is because, you know, I've shared on this show before, like there's a special, there's something that...

that has grabbed onto me at that place, that cabin that I have, my family cabin, and I've done some hunting there, but i

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