Season Gear Up with the Everyday Outdoorsmen

Opening day of Pennsylvania statewide archery season is opening this coming weekend, so if you're not fired up by now, this episode should help!  On this week's episode of the Pennsylvania Woodsman, Mitch is joined by Grant Forney and Brandon Miller of the Everyday Outdoorsmen YouTube channel.  This is an old fashioned B.S. Session discussing many topics including:

- videoing hunts and content production

- discussing hunting with non hunting community

- equipment and stand setups for public land hunting

- season goals and expectations, and how they have adapted over time

- hunt scheduling during preferred times of season, and more!

Additionally, Grant and Brandon discuss some of the products they use from show sponsor Huntworth.  They break down their preferred camo, garments, and accessories which they use from the warm early archery season, to late season when Heat Boost Technology can be brought into the field.  Huntworth gear is suited for all kinds of weather as well as budgets, and the Everyday Outdoorsmen have put it to the test!  Thanks for listening and good luck to everyone this season!

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

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[00:00:00] You're listening to the Pennsylvania Woodsman powered by Sportsman's 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 the light in the pursuit of creation. And now, your host, the pride of Pennsylvania, the man who shoots straight and won't steer you wrong, Johnny Appleseed himself, Mitchell Shirk.

Mitchell Shirk. Mitchell Shirk. Mitchell Shirk. Hey

everybody, thanks for tuning in to this week's episode. This week we have a great episode leading up to deer season. I can't believe that the countdown is here. When you listen to this week, we will be one, two, three days away from our statewide opener, [00:01:00] the moment of truth that everybody's been waiting for.

I'm not far behind there. I don't know that I'm going to be able to get out the first day. That's still up in the air. Not sure what my game plan is, but I'm hoping to get out here in one of the special regs places the early season that would be this week, and hopefully try to just hunt a doe, but mainly what my goal is to try to Work out the kinks in my system.

I'm going to be using a saddle and a set of sticks. I made a two step eight or with two sticks. I had can't even remember the name of the sticks, what they're called. But for those of you who are familiar with summit products, I had gotten a set of summit. Sticks. They're, all solid metal and they've got like a small platform for the step, on both ends.

It's not, your typical folding T handle step. It's it's this small platform. And I was looking at that and I thought, I could probably make something that utilizes the top step as [00:02:00] part of a platform. And I always, when I... saddle hunted, which has not been much. I'm not an experienced saddle hunter, but the little bit I have, I've used a ring of steps because I like that mobility around the tree a little bit easier.

So I'm thinking, Hey, why not use that platform and then put put some steps next to it so that I could still walk around the tree. So I'm hoping to use that this week, really not because I'm trying to I'm really excited that I'm going to go shoot a doe. I will, if I get the opportunity, but it's more along the lines of, I want to practice.

Getting up the tree with my setup. Like I said the two step baiter, what I did, I basically just took some rope and cut two pieces of PVC pipe per stick and ran that PVC pipe about eight inches, six to eight inches wide and use that to make my step. And it's. It turns into one stick.

I can get up about seven feet. So I'm thinking if I stretch myself out, I want it. I could probably get up 14, 15 feet with two sticks. It's going to [00:03:00] be a whole lot easier to take that back in then, multiple sticks and everything else. So I'm anxious to try that. It's going to be a little bit of a learning experience.

Like I said, I have hunted with a saddle a couple of times. It's just not something I regularly. Do you know, if you've listened to me on the show a lot, that I do mostly private land deer hunting and I'll usually have hang ons in place, which I've been really happy with. And I'll continue to do that.

That this day, I'll still do that this year, but for this public land bear hunt that I'm doing. Or any public land bear hunting I do, I'm probably gonna be back and forth between borrowing my dad's climber and using the sticks and the saddle. And the saddle was a cool thing too. I didn't buy it, I had a friend of mine that had an extra saddle.

And he's you wanna give this a shot? I'm like, absolutely, I'd love to give it a shot. It's it's nice and it's comfortable. And, I'm thrilled. So I have don't have a lot invested in using this, which I'm thankful for. And maybe it'll give me some ideas of if I want to invest in one myself, [00:04:00] but now that's that's got me fired up.

I'm really, my opening day feels like October 9th when I go down to New Jersey. If you've watched my Instagram, if you've done any social media things you probably saw that I was doing some scouting. I had some encounters with a number of bear. I think I'm, Honing in on a spot that I'm gonna hopefully stand hunt the first day and we're gonna we're gonna let it rip and see what happens I'm gonna be doing it with the bow bought an archery license.

I want to hopefully kill my first bear with a bow So that's what's on the radar for now. And I know you guys are all excited it's here the season the things you've been counting down waiting for it's here. So this week's show we have a group of Pennsylvania hunters, awesome content creators, and just all around good guys on this week's episode, I was able to catch up with the everyday outdoorsman.

That's going to be Brandon Miller and Grant Forney. It was great to catch up with him, meet those guys. And man, you can tell these guys are passionate [00:05:00] about deer hunting. They push themselves, they do it for their own entertainment. They're not doing it for anybody else. They're doing it for themselves.

They just like to bring people along and share the hunt and get it on film. That's just part of what they enjoy. Cause I talked about that. I said, guys, I don't know how you do it because that just seems like a headache. And. It just seems like too much work and, not that much fun. And it's one of those things where I guess if you do it long enough, you get used to it.

And it's it's like just part of your normal routine is basically the way they described it. And I'm glad they do it. Cause I do enjoy watching their videos. If you haven't noticed, they've been putting out a couple of recent deer hunts here this year. They were able to knock down a couple of doe.

I think some of that might've been Maryland and some of it also might've been special regs areas in Pennsylvania. But we are going to have a season, get you started episode, things we're looking forward to, where we've come from in our hunting experiences the goals we have set this year, and just a lot of other [00:06:00] random whitetail BS stuff.

We talk about things as simple as what. do how do you handle conversations with non deer hunters up to, what is the gear that you're going to be using this fall? What do you what do you like the most? And with that, we're also going to talk about Huntworth products. You've heard me talk, I'm a partnered.

Got a show with Hunt Worth. I really like their products, but Grant and Brandon have a lot more experience with their equipment and their gear and more seasons under their belt than I do. And we talk about that a little bit. What's some of the things that they enjoy the most And we're we're gonna touch on that.

Let's let's get to this episode real quick real quick before we do. Just gonna give our thanks to our partners, and that's gonna be RadixHunting. I put my mCore cell camera on video mode. I actually, I made the decision last minute when I was scouting for bear, right before I went down this last time.

I pulled my [00:07:00] cell camera that I had at my place and swapped it out just for a regular SD card. Regular SD card camera and then took that cell camera down to New Jersey and swapped it out. And I'm glad I did because I've been getting a lot of great pictures. I can't get over how good the video quality is.

The audio is pretty crazy too. I was hearing bear making all kinds of neat sounds. There was cubs fighting. That was really neat to see. But I've been really happy with those M CORES. Affordable cameras. I really think you guys will like them. They're easy to set up. In addition to the M CORES, you've got your your Gen 600 cameras.

The Radix Hang On Tree Sting. It's really liking those. I had such an easy time setting those up, putting them together. They're quiet. They're solid, including the sticks. So Radix products, anything from cameras to tree stand gear to feeders, to blinds, to stick and pick trail camera accessories. So check out Radix hunting.

And we're also going to be talking about Huntworth guys. I've been really impressed. I said last week I was [00:08:00] talking about their lightweight gear. And I couldn't remember the name of the stuff that I was using. I felt like a goofball. But the Durham Pants were the ones that I was referring to. The Durham Pants were lightweight and really comfortable.

And I have been really happy with that. Also, the Sheldon Hoodie. That's another comfortable one. I've been using the Disruption Digital Pattern. Really like that, but there's a couple other things to keep in mind. Huntworth Clothing is really great for all kinds of weather, and it's not going to break the bank.

You can have a budget and get a set of Huntworth Clothing that will last you... Most if not all the season and if you're looking for some cold weather stuff check out their heat boost technology it's extremely warm, but it doesn't have the bulk like a giant fluffy parka So check out hunt worth gear with that guys.

Let's get to this week's episode

it but for the most part we take this Yeah, that's like the [00:09:00] first thing that I if I can't get the camera or get All cameras on, that's the first one that goes. The main camera is the one I go to. And then the GoPro, if I get it on, I get it on. But, yeah. And, do you often put stuff on your weapon or on your head as far as filming?

Because I know my buddy John Colbett has the Suffering Outdoors channel. He does that a bunch. He'll put he'll put it on from that and get that point of view. I didn't know if that's something you guys tinker with or not. Not a lot. Nah, just a little bit. Last year, late season, I did. But that was just for drives, like I couldn't get the main camera on, so I was like, this is with the front lock and stuff.

It was actually on my bow. Okay. So yeah, that was, it was interesting. I missed the deer with it. Oh, really? Yeah. But, no, we don't tinker around with it too much. Gotcha. We'll get started rolling. Yeah. Whenever you want to kick me out, Brandon, pretty much when it comes to Bob. We'll probably be here all night then.

Because we can talk hunting. Yeah, I'm right there. I'm right there. So if you guys have noticed [00:10:00] the voices yet. I had the privilege of coming down here and sitting here with Brandon Miller and Grant Forney. I'm sitting here with the Everyday Outdoorsman. So guys, thanks for thanks for letting me crash your party here.

Absolutely. Yeah, thanks for coming. Thanks for having us as a guest on the podcast. It's an honor. And yeah, always love talking about hunting, so should be a good time. How can you not? What's so funny? We were just talking about this before we started recording that there's more people in the social media, videoing, podcasting, like content production in our area than I ever realized before and it makes me wonder am I missing more people?

But no, this is great to connect with you guys. So had a busy year so far. How's the season preparation and everything for you guys been going well? Yeah, it's been really busy. We pretty much start preparing for hunting season the day that it ends. Pretty much on February 1st, we're getting after it, shed hunting, post season scouting.

And that's what we did this year. And I, for me [00:11:00] personally, I think I've put in probably more time scouting this off season than... Than almost ever before, or in several years, for me between winter scouting, spring scouting, and even summer scouting, time hanging trail cams, checking out new areas, fine tuning areas we've already hunted.

So I don't know about you, Brandon, but yeah, it's been a busy year, I would say. I think our scouting is getting. Much more focused. Like a lot of times when we were younger, it was just like walking through the woods looking for a buckrub here or there, but now we're focusing on specific locations.

Three years ago Cam and I ran, I think it was six cameras in one location. They were spread out. It was one piece of public, but they were really spread out. And... We didn't really know what to expect, and we had some incredible deer. Now, we're looking at the land, seeing how these deer are moving, where they're living, and we're running a lot more cameras, but they're more condensed in specific areas that we know or think that there should be some big [00:12:00] bucks.

So I think our scouting is getting more focused and more intentional, and I hope it results in more deer at least that we're seeing on trail camera and maybe having encounters with and getting an arrow in them. That's always a hope and I'm really anxious to dive into that guys, but I want to go back real quick Just give us a brief overview how and when did the everyday outdoorsman get started and it's funny because I Would say about a year ago one of my best friends from high school.

He goes He found out that I was doing a podcast and he's you got to reach out to those everyday outdoorsman guys. I really liked their show. And I started watching some of your stuff. It was like, yeah, these guys are real, real relatable. So he's probably gonna listen to this and be like, Hey, he called me out.

But no, I gotta know like how South now Southeastern PA boys like get started doing that just because I'm sure it was. Passion driven, but the thing that gives me is like I'm driven to hunt. I learned quickly. I'm not passionate to produce video content Like I filmed a couple hunts already, but it's just like it's [00:13:00] not for me.

So I'm anxious to hear about this Yeah, so the everyday outdoorsman. First off It hasn't even been called the everyday outdoorsman for The Everyday Outdoorsman, we changed the name to in, I guess it was 2018, I think that was it. Prior to that we were Pennsylvania Outdoors Unlimited. Prior to that we were basically just a YouTube channel under my name.

So yeah, we got started. Back in back when I was 14 years old. So I think it was, I made the YouTube account in summer of 2010. Yeah, it's been 13 years. It's been a long time. That's back before a lot of people were on YouTube. Compared to now. And it was, Never something where I had a plan for it.

It was never like, supposed to be what it is now. It was just simply made a YouTube account, with the intention of, maybe posting outdoor videos on there, just to show to our friends. Just have a [00:14:00] platform to show people stuff. And, that first year, Brandon and I we had always been as kids good buddies loved to hunt and fish.

Me and you and some of my brothers and Brandon's cousin, Herschel, we all. We loved to hunt and fish and we always did together. So once I made the YouTube channel and we started carrying a camera around, Brandon pretty much hopped on board right away with me, as well as Herschel. And so it just went from there.

We just, we were just a couple of kids that loves to hunt and fish and... Fell in love then with showing other people our adventures is the best way that I would describe it and then You know, I don't know it just feels like here we are now, just one thing led to another, We just have so much passion for it.

As the years have gone by we've almost just fell in love with it more and more every year just [00:15:00] Sharing our adventures with other people it's, that, it's to the point now where it, it feels like we, we really have a platform that we're thankful for to be able to reach a lot of people and hopefully, Be a good influence on people, hopefully inspire, maybe new people to hunt that haven't hunted before.

And just, yeah, be a good influence on people that are already hunters. So yeah, that's how it started. Long time ago. It doesn't feel like that long ago. But it's in the name. We're trying to relate to the everyday outdoorsman. And in our bio it says you and us, or you and us are...

The Everyday Outdoorsman. So we want to relate to The Joe Schmoe that's walking out through the woods. We want to relate to those people that are weekend warriors, like we are. Yeah, we get some vacation days, but we're not doing this full time yet. We're still just grinding through work and then we get to hunt on the weekends whenever we can.

And that's a lot of people these days. So we're trying to [00:16:00] relate to those people so that they get they can be influenced and want to get out there more too. And you talk about the everyday outdoorsman, and I don't want to put you guys in a headlock or confine you to the area, but I, when I think of the everyday outdoorsman, I think it relatable to the Northeast just because of the type of hunting you guys do, because you grind it out close to home.

I think you guys got some hunting camps you go to, and let's face it, the, I've had that on my show a bunch about the heritage and the camp traditions and stuff like that. That's really relatable and I'm curious as you've gone through this whole process Like there's so many times where I've talked to guys that maybe they're Have some kind of take on the hunting industry and they're from the northeast or from pennsylvania and there's always That little bit of a negative mindset of we're in Pennsylvania and that's not the best state for deer hunting.

It, Midwest and you go West young man deal. But I think sometimes, and I don't get that vibe from your show, like you guys truly enjoy, [00:17:00] and I get the vibe you embrace hunting in this state and the surrounding Northeast. So I'm curious, like your thought process or your perspective.

On the positive side when it comes to Pennsylvania, Maryland, all the surrounding states that we hunt stuff because it's definitely different when you look at it from a nationwide perspective and you definitely have that kind of influence with YouTube and everything else. Yeah, it's truly a blessing to hunt here.

It's all I've ever known, obviously. I've hunted. That's exactly what I was going to say. Yeah. We grew up here. We had to grind it out on public land. Like my dad and even my grandpa we've been hunting north, northern Potter County for the better part of 50, 60 years and it's all public land.

Yeah we struggled over the years for different stints, just not seeing deer and, but man, in the last couple of years, we were just seeing some awesome bucks. They're not easy to kill, but when you find sheds like this of one sixties, just laying around in the woods even grant, like [00:18:00] just up north, we have some incredible bucks and some incredible genes that are just running around.

And even here, where we're from here in Lancaster County, I shot this one just up the road at score 113 with the recurve. It's even 20 years ago, it's... That wasn't, that really wasn't unheard, that was unheard of. And now with the point limit, the three points on a side, I think that was the best thing that could ever happen to the state.

We're just seeing some awesome bucks coming through. And you see it all over social media. Once hunting season starts on these Facebook pages, specifically about Pennsylvania, it's there are some monster deer out there. They're not easy to kill, but they're around. Yeah I guess just adding a little bit to what Brandon said or basically just agreeing with what he said.

That was the first thing that came to my mind too after that question was, this is just all we've ever known. So we both grew up hunting here. We've really, not that we will never travel to hunt or, not that we don't occasionally, but, really one thing, one thing I love about hunting around here and just [00:19:00] hunting in general, yeah.

Just because this is the way we do things, but I just enjoy Being able to hunt for, the deer that we're putting our time into all year round, if you're going to travel out of state and there's a lot of fun things to, to traveling to hunt too, I'm sure, but, if you're going to go travel out of state to hunt, it's like, you're probably showing up to an area you may never have been to never scouted, you don't know what kind of animals, caliber of animals are in that area.

And I think there's, a lot of fun just in, chasing the deer that you scouted for all year, hunting the areas that you've invested your time in all year. I really think that's just the style that, that we both have come to love just because that's all we've ever done.

Yeah. And it's year to year too. Like we have spots that we just keep going back to because we keep seeing that success. And that's just awesome. Just keep, every year it's learn a little bit more. Absolutely. Yep. And yeah there's fun going out. Outside of this area, [00:20:00] but if you're spending a lot of time in a specific area and five years down the road, it results in a big buck.

It's that was totally worth it to scout that, hunt it so often and at the end, come to the end of a blood trail and there's your big buck. It's that's pretty cool. Yeah, because the deer is what you're going after, but at the same time, it's that journey you're going after, and that's what I love, is the chase, because I'll never forget when I killed my one big one that I was after in 2020, it was the first time I ever killed a deer when I was done.

I had this empty feeling like because it's like he's not alive anymore like that pursuit is done Now I got to start and that carried over into the next year and it drug on. I was a giant too, right? Yeah, I got lucky. I Had some luck, but I'll sell some credit. I was blessed that was an awesome journey It was an awesome experience.

I mean that a deer taught me a lot and if I never lived to kill another deer like that was an awesome experience. Now you guys brought up, you brought up [00:21:00] camp in, in Northern Potter County and I wanted your perspective, both of you guys, because I go to a camp, I've been to, I've been to many camps.

I think I've hunted out of three or four different camps in Northern Pennsylvania for deer, bear, turkeys and stuff like that. My main hunting camp that I call my own, the generations, like between my dad's generation and my grandfather's generation, you see that trend changing over time with how you hunt, your perspective on the woods and stuff like that.

And the past few years I started doing some group hunts in rifle season and I just, I had an idea, I wanted to try something in a few areas and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but it gave light to My dad's, my dad his group of guys and my, even my grandfather's generation that they never looked at before and we had a successful hunt this year and they made the comment along the lines of Oh, we would never have this if you didn't come here.

And I don't believe that to be true whatsoever. I think it was just me having that ramming. This was like, I want to [00:22:00] try something. Let's get a group of guys and let's try this. So I'm bringing that into light and I want to know. What has been your experience in deer camp? What has your generation brought into deer camp from a hunting side of things and a hunting perspective of those woods, because and I think about camp, like you, you got the, like my grandfather's telling me stories of 60 deer coming out and, drives and seeing small buck and hunting ridges certain ways.

And then, the next generation comes through and then the deer shot off and it changed the woods and logging and stuff. So each generation brings a new perspective and I just wonder from your point of view what have you guys experienced in camp over the years? It's probably a good one for you to start with again.

Yeah, and that's a very good question, honestly, and I think our generation, and nothing against the older generation, but we have to work for these deer now, whereas back then Like you said, 60 deer in a line and you shoot the last one, it's a spike or a four point. And [00:23:00] yeah, you'd be jacked for that in those moments because that may have been the only buck in that group.

But now I think we bring an appreciation and just that drive to go further and deeper into some of these areas. I know for Cameron and I, we have one specific area that we've spent so much time in. Yeah, the density of deer is very low, but they are there. And it's not uncommon for us to go one, two, three miles in on this place.

And you're seeing one, two, three deer a day. Which in some of your Midwestern states like that's absolutely ridiculous, but up here. That's a successful day to me. Even just seeing one deer. Now I've seen that deer and I can watch, all right, how's it moving? And like last year I had a hunt in this area.

I saw one deer all day long. It was a really big buck. He picked me out and I never got a shot. So now I'm learning, where do I need to be for that situation again? And I'm going right back there this year and I'm going to hunt the same area, but just shift my tactics a little bit. [00:24:00] So I think our generation.

Has brought that drive. Now, technology has changed to where we can go out and scout, run those cameras, whereas my dad and my grandparent or my grandpa, they didn't have that, so they were scouting in the summer if they wanted to, or scouting in spring Turkey season. But a lot of that was, we're going to hunt the pressure back then.

And every year it seemed to be the same at nine o'clock, here comes this line of deer every opening day and I'm going to sit here and wait for that. It's not that way anymore. You can hunt some pressure, but you're not going to see 60 deer in a day. Alright folks, it's that time of year for fall food plot planning and this year I'm proud to be working with Vitalize Seed.

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Yeah, look the things I think about like I believe my grandfather those Generations when they were hunting in the 70s and stuff like that when they had the deer population the dynamic they had I think you put those hunters in a setting where we have the forest quality and the deer population and the age structure that we have now, I think a lot of those guys would [00:27:00] have killed some big buck cause I think about some of them and they tell me the places they went in the ground they covered and how they hunted it from my point of view.

I'm like, man, why weren't you guys killing hammers? And it's just, for me, it's a hard to. cope with or come to reality that dear population, the dynamics were so different then. But I do think that each generation brings something different. And that's why I wanted to get your perspective on that.

Absolutely. Yeah. You guys camp is a specialty thing. You guys grinded out close to home a little bit. How has your evolution hunting around hunting in general? I'm going to say, but hunting around home too. How has that evolved over time just because you either keep that drive going, either you want to get a progression to shooting a bigger buck, or shooting more deer, or stuff like that.

It's different for everybody. I'm curious where you guys come from hunting around here and stuff. Yeah, I would say, like you said, it has been an evolution for us both [00:28:00] over, the last number of years since we've, Been hunting harder in areas close to home here. Yeah, just every year trying to learn a little bit more, I would say we both are in a stage of our hunting careers where we do enjoy the challenge of trying to pursue more mature bucks each year.

Not that our standards are crazy high, but we do enjoy that challenge, I think. And we also, we love shooting does too. That's... That never gets old That never gets old. We just, we just love hunting. We love we love everything about it that includes shooting does we try to get better at that every year, because even that's not easy to do, and it's great practice. Great practice, yeah. For when that big buck comes through. You know what to do. Those does that you've shot leading up to that tells you a lot. You can't take experience out when it comes to shooting deer. I don't care how much practice, I don't care how realistic your practice is, I don't care.

When you [00:29:00] put a live animal in front of you, it's a different ballgame. And the only thing that gets better is experience. The people that hunt suburbs and shoot a lot of deer annually, those are, they're killers. They got experience. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, just trying to fine tune our skills every year in every area of hunting and just understanding the way deer are moving and using.

Those areas we hunt understanding how they're changing their patterns off of pressure Understanding, you know what they're doing during the rut where they are Trying to understand them during late season, you know trying to get better at like we talked about, you know being good and in the moment of truth Trying to figure out big bucks.

So just about anything you think Anything you can think of, any area of hunting we're trying to trying to improve, I think, with each year that goes by, yeah. From the from the perspective of, you talked about hunting mature [00:30:00] deer, and, or hunting more mature deer each year, the progression.

I can relate to that. I want to shoot a mature deer relative to where I'm hunting. That's important to me. That's where I've got to. The thing I struggle with, And this is more of a personal struggle, is like, where's the line where it becomes that you're trophy hunting versus hunting for enjoyment and filling the freezer and stuff like that.

I struggle with that. And, from your guys point of view, the everyday outdoorsman, you're trying to be relatable. And I know that there's people who watch your show that relate to some level of that. But, I feel like in the level, in the world of content that we have for hunting it... It's like a weird line like of what's realistic what's and what's not and you guys hunt public land So I think it always keeps it realistic because you got a punch your tails off But I just like what's your two cents?

so like how do you feel when it comes to you like the content production just because of Everybody being in a different level. I know you want to be you but [00:31:00] yeah, I don't know what else Yeah, The best way I can answer that is I agree with you. It's the, that line, that kind of, that line for everybody is different and it is a struggle, I think.

But, the best thing that I could say to anyone is just, do what makes you happy. And so there's so many different ways that, that you can do it. If you want to... If you want to hold out for a mature buck all year, and then still eat your tag at the end of the year, there's nothing wrong with that, and I don't think that should be looked down upon.

If you want to start off the year looking for a big deer, passing up some smaller ones, and then it gets to the end of the year, and you're like now I want to fill my tag, and you end up shooting a deer that you passed up earlier in the year, there's nothing wrong with that either. Or, Shooting the first one that comes along too.

I just think, yeah, it's whatever makes you happy. Like I said, there's a lot, there's a lot of ways to do it. I think everybody has to decide where that line is for yourself. So [00:32:00] I don't know what your thoughts are, but... No, and I agree with that. Just in the last, man, I'd say two to three years, my standards have started to creep up.

I was, like Grant said shooting that first buck. I've done that so many times. Don't get me wrong. I've been jazzed for some of these bucks that I've shot and gotten worked up over them, so I don't regret any of that, but another thing too, is growing up, like when we first started this, we would get to hunt.

A handful of days a year we were only here in Pennsylvania when we started out, we couldn't drive. So like we were relying on Herschel or our dads or whoever to drive us around. So we were just jacked to get out there and shoot a deer. It didn't matter what it was. Sixteen or whatever. Yeah, exactly.

Fifteen. So now we're spending more time in the woods, I'm running more trail cameras, I know what's out there. So especially in PA, my standards are starting to really creep up. Now I'm not looking for that five, six, seven year old buck, but something that's three year old or better, that, that's what I'm looking for.

And then in, in [00:33:00] Maryland too. the standards are a little bit less, but still looking for something half decent down there. We still get three buck tags, so that makes it a little bit easier. Really? I didn't even realize that. So yeah, that, and it can vary state to state too. But no, I think my standards are starting to get.

We're starting to creep up a little bit, but still, whatever gets me jazzed is hitting the dirt. Yeah, absolutely, and one thing, so I've said this a bunch of times, like I feel like I grew up. In the wrong era, because like the nineties and two thousands is when like private land, habitat, wildlife management, that was cool.

And anybody you watch it was doing that, like that was the thing to do. And if you weren't, planting food plots and cutting timber and doing all those stuff to put a hunt together, like you were missing out. And that led to shooting bigger deer. And I'm extremely fortunate that like from a young age, I had that privilege.

And. And, I knew it, but I didn't know it, [00:34:00] if this makes sense not everybody had what I had growing up, so my experience was way different than so many people, and when, I ask you guys that question because I can make sense of that now the hunting I've done over the years, because years ago, I wouldn't have understood the timeline and progression if you have that logic of shooting a mature block I don't know if that makes sense or not, but it just gives me a different perspective and now when I see like all the BS on instagram just because with having a podcast now I do that.

I never did social media before but It's just made me Wonder where the line is all the time And what is something, because at the end of the day, anything I do with my channel or my podcast, I want it to be a light in darkness for people. That's what's important to me. Trying to think of the positive side, that's just tough, because, let's face it, hunters bicker all the time together, and that's, I don't want that either.

I don't know, it's just, that's a gray conversation, I don't even know how to direct that, yeah [00:35:00] and there's keyboard warriors out there, we get them all the time, we get hate, hate comments like, Honestly, we talk about if it's hate or if it's positive, it still gives our channel traction.

So bring it on. I like how you bring positivity. Yeah. So no, there's always going to be someone with a different opinion, but be true to yourself, be true to your morals and shoot the deer you want to shoot. That's what it comes down to. Yeah. I was going to say the same thing. We talk about it a lot.

Like it doesn't matter what we do. There's always going to be somebody that it upsets no matter what it is. So you're never going to be able to make everybody happy. You might as well just do what you want to do what you think is right, the way you want to do things and that's really all you can do.

So yeah, unfortunately, like you said, Mitchell there's a lot of hunters that, that like to fight and argue, different topics, different things. But yeah, I think that generally speaking, hunters need to do a better job of just coming together and. being on one team, even though [00:36:00] we all maybe do things some different ways, have different opinions on certain things.

We're all hunters at the end of the day. I think we, we got to try to do our best to get along. All right. Last question I have for you guys before we get into talking about the upcoming season and stuff you guys got going on that you're excited about. I've run into a situation here more recently, and I think it's probably because of doing the podcast, where I'll have more neutral non hunters ask me about hunting and what I do.

And I never realized how difficult it is for me to explain to somebody. What I'm interested in what I'm doing. Like it's easy to talk about hunting from the perspective of well I shoot deer, it helps from the population dynamic standpoint. I'm doing my due diligence from a carrying capacity.

I fill my freezer, venison's good for me. That part's easy, but when people start asking more detailed questions, and it usually comes from How do you think of stuff to talk about on a weekly [00:37:00] basis for hunting? Like it's easy for you guys because we can talk the language and we understand where we're coming from when we start talking about the specifics of targeting mature buck and accessing that so like When people ask you questions like I'll give you an example.

This new property I'm hunting, the people who own it are very new to hunting and the logic that I have for their property. And explaining that, like, where my thought process lies for that is so hard to make it relatable to them that they understand. I just wondered The non hunting community that you guys have talked with, like, where, what have those conversations been like?

Whether it's family or maybe it's even social media or YouTube or something. It is pretty interesting. I think we get so used to like, talking so in depth with fellow hunters that are, so passionate about it that then it's almost hard to talk to someone more surface level about hunting that it's tough to deal.

I don't know what you'd do, Brandon. It's [00:38:00] one of those things, unless they bring it up, I'm usually not talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. I get awkward, if I go to a family event. And I'm with the in laws, and they're trying to make conversation in an awkward light. They're like, so how's the podcast?

How's your hunting season? Did you catch anything? It's no. Yep, here we go. The surface level stuff. Yeah, I know. Then it's I wanna... Say something of value, but I don't want to bore you to tears when I start going into the details of I've had pictures For this buck for the last three years.

There's a window. I think I'm gonna be able to kill him I started putting a food plot in it Trees in it this way. Look at you like you have three heads. Yeah, you're doing this for a deer Yeah, like for one deer. I'm like, yeah, I think about one deer on a daily basis. Yeah, you're freaking nuts. Yeah Stay awake all night thinking about him.

Yeah, people don't understand that So like thinking about one specific deer is for you guys, do you have that one specific deer generally at home or one thing I've been batting around? I want to spend more time [00:39:00] at camp and shoot a really good buck with my bows. Like where are you guys at with this upcoming season, like goals, mindset and things like that?

Yeah. It's pretty rare that I will target only one specific deer. Yeah. For me personally. I think we run our trail cameras, we see what we have on our trail cameras, and we may go in to an area trying to hunt a deer, but usually knowing, hopefully, there's at least a couple others in the area that we would shoot if they showed up.

That's that's how I do things, and really... The majority of my hunting is based around the rut, me personally. So a lot of times, like I'm basing my strategy off of that, trying to hunt areas where I'm putting myself, in an area where I may have an opportunity to see multiple different bucks that I'd be interested in taking.

I think throughout the year as I'm scouting. I'm keeping that in mind, [00:40:00] almost scouting with the rut in mind, not all the time, but a lot of the time. It would take a pretty special deer, a pretty special deer in Pennsylvania for me to say. I'm not filling my tag on anything else.

And it's tough when you're a weekend warrior. We can't just take a week whenever we want to and go target a specific deer. We're hunting when we can, so we're killing, yeah, we're holding out for some bigger bucks. We're not focusing on one specific buck, per se. Yeah. Do you get more excited hunting one region of your hunting area versus another?

I do. Absolutely. There's some areas that we run trail cameras right now. We just, we know there's big bucks there and it's more area based. It's not one specific deer. It's I'm jacked to go hunt this area. And I think that's what I'm looking forward to this season because I've just been bouncing around all over the place the last couple of years.

And now I'm starting to really focus on a couple of specific areas that. Trying to get in on some bigger bucks. So talking about trail cameras, how has your interpretation of the cameras you run changed over [00:41:00] time when you approach an area to hunt a deer or group of deer in an area? For me, I think, like I was talking about a little bit earlier where we were spreading out our cameras vastly.

Now we run, upwards of 75, 80 cameras. But we're. We're putting them in clusters now, trying to learn specific areas. So I think my mentality has changed where I'm not just trying to see what's out there. I'm trying to learn how these deer are moving in this area. And I think that's going to change the way I hunt too.

Because now... Say, I'm not seeing any activity in an area. I'm moving that cluster. I'm moving, I'm even moving how I'm going to hunt that specific area, or I may even just leave that area completely and come back next year and see if, say there's food there, more cover But I think trail cameras can tell you a lot.

They don't tell you everything. You're seeing a window in the woods. It's 30 yards wide. We have areas where we know there's other big bucks, but they may have seen the camera when we were hanging them chest high and just walked right around it. [00:42:00] So trail cameras don't tell you everything. And frankly, they don't tell you much at all.

They tell you a good amount, but the amount that you're missing Around that tree. That's 360 degrees. You're only seeing a small window of it. So you have to get boots on the ground. Like we were talking about, I don't focus on one single deer and I don't think I've ever shot a deer that I knew about on a trail camera.

I just enjoy looking at trail camera pictures of big bucks at the end of the day. Someday, hopefully I can kill one that I know about, but for now it's just, I want to see what's out there and have an idea of which areas to focus on each year. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I think. I think Brandon hit it pretty good there.

I would say, yeah, in the past I was going way too widespread, like with trail cameras. Say we have a massive piece of public land that we're going to hunt. We would say, all right, we need a camera up here, one all the way down here in this other corner. Like we need to have this area, this whole public land covered, with at least one camera in every general area.

One camera [00:43:00] per square, I Yeah. And so spatial grid, that wasn't really helping us a lot because we weren't learning anything about those more specific areas. And then those cameras that really did well, we, then we started clustering and now we're seeing some really big deal. We got ourselves into the areas that we know are good.

We know from year to year. They're gonna probably hold deer. We want to shoot, some better bucks And so we've focused our cameras into those areas to try to really More specifically learn those areas and fine tune them. So And I mean for me personally Most of the trail cams that I run with the exception of cell cams most of the regular cameras that I run They're usually with the long term play in mind getting historical data, really to try to help me for really the following year after those [00:44:00] cameras have soaked for a whole year.

Not that you can't go in and check one and then, go in and get on that deer, right after you get a picture of him. A lot of times, our cameras aren't super easy to get to and check, so a lot of times, our cameras might soak all year without us even checking them, at least a good amount of them, and so we're going to use that data.

For the following fall to see hey, this scrape was really hot. The last week of October, daylight, mature bucks. Okay, then we're going to use that, that data for next year. Or whatever the case is, maybe a food source or, a trail. Or if the spot was dry, we're not coming back here.

Yeah. We've had that quite a few times too. Yep Yeah, I can't agree more the regular cameras like i'm thinking about the one property that was just at this past weekend I was doing some work on I set up my cell cameras in locations that were relative to stands and relative with the line of movement, but There was areas on the [00:45:00] property That I mean I knew the deer used them, but I wanted to have a better idea of throughout the calendar year.

When are they using them? Morning versus evening. When are they using them? Daylight specific or times of year specific. So there's cameras in areas that I'm really not, they're more centrally located. I'm really not looking at those areas from the small property thinking I'm going to dive in there and kill a deer in there.

But what I do have in my mind is okay, if I know this is how they're utilizing it, this is hopefully going to help me Cause it's private land, I have the ability to do some manipulation. I thought maybe that'll give me an edge on how I want to fine tune this to make the stand location that I have a little bit better as far as movement direction.

So there's that, but even on like the cameras that I hang at camp at public, I know that my amount of time I get up to camp, which camps about two hours away from me. I am not gonna get up there and regularly check cameras. I'm gonna scout and when I find something that looks [00:46:00] good, I'm gonna stick a camera on there.

And my hope is that I learn some of these areas between bebopping around and throughout the season when I have time, and rifle season, but that in conjunction with some camera data. When I finally decide I'm going all in to kill one with a bow up there, I at least feel like I have some good direction.

Absolutely. But I get really wrapped up with like analysis by paralysis. Like you talked about 75 80 cameras within your group of guys. And I think I've been with hunting buddies that we might have had in that 50 range or stuff. So like, how do you go about tackling that? What do you, tell me a little bit about...

You pull a card and you manage cameras and, pass it back and forth and stuff like that. That's a lot to go through. And, people that are thinking they want to run more cameras I do it all the time. I'm like, how do I want to get the most out of this card pull? I'm wondering what your perspective is.

Yeah the way I, if we're going to get pretty specific, the way I organize photos is I have pretty much, All the areas, [00:47:00] folders for all the areas I have cameras in within those folders, each camera location within those folders, each date range of the card pool. So I save all my pictures.

So that's how I organize. And then, beyond that, I'm pretty much just trying to remember everything. Mentally, as far as the data, there are times where if we're getting one buck on camera in an area, several times on camera throughout the hunting season, then where we will try to log some data, like within a spreadsheet, the dates, the times he's moving, the specific camera he's showing up at, if we're trying to learn one deer, but other than that, for me, it's mostly mental. Just, I don't know, I guess guys that are just so serious about hunting have a way of... Logging stuff in the brain. Yeah. And I ask you guys that question too because I used to be fairly [00:48:00] good at that. And I feel like the way life has gone on, Wife, kids, work, stuff like that.

It's way harder for me to do that now than it ever was before. Just the way it is. Yeah. No, I struggle to remember last year's deer season like they all. They all jumble together each hunt and same thing with trail cameras. It's like in some of the areas that I one specifically, we have 31 cameras right now.

Okay. In one area. And I actually had to print out a paper map and I marked out every single camera where it is on that map. Now, I have it on X, which is what we use but next year I'm going to delete those pins. So I'm. Naming files on my computer based on my paper map so that next year I can say, Oh, this buck was on this camera at this location.

I don't have to remember. All right. I had that camera on this Ridge or this saddle. I can just go to my map. Say, Hey, it was right here. This is where the buck was on that date. This is where it was on this date. And that's how I look. Now, this is the first year I'm doing that because the last couple of [00:49:00] years we're running so many more cameras that the pictures are just in one folder.

from six, seven cameras, and it's tough to then get them all organized, especially with some of the deer that I'm trying to follow year to year. I'm actually breaking out those pictures into separate folders so I can say he was here, he was here on this date, and it's all in one location.

So that's how I do it, or how I've started to do it. Yeah, I The way Brandon's doing it this year is probably a good way to do it. I do save, like, all my previous year. Camera locations, I still save those on Onyx. All the previous years, just have them in a different color than existing cameras that are out this year.

Just so that I remember exactly where my cameras were. But that does, that does cause my Onyx to get a little bit cluttered. Especially every year that goes by, it'll get more and more cluttered. But, for now, I'm okay with it. And, it's fun, yeah. As far as picture organization, I think we're both pretty good with that, [00:50:00] but it does get challenging with trying to remember all that data sometimes.

But it's good to have it organized because there's so many times that I get a buck this year that I've had last year. It's I want to know what he was doing last year on this date and looking forward to this year. I have some specific dates that I'm going to be out there and. What was the activity like last year on this?

Now, each year the weather's going to be different, but it's a general idea of what was there or moving during that time. Yeah, my, my kick right now and it's been growing for the past probably three years is windows. When I, we were on, I was on vacation back in August July, August, I had brought a bunch of cards with me that I just never took the time to go through.

It took me forever to go through them. And I finally was like, you know what, I'm going to take some time and do that and organize them the way I wanted. I usually do by location by year and stuff like that. And most of the time I'm saving the buck pictures. It's usually what I'm doing. But I noticed that there was one buck [00:51:00] that I knew he went through last year, forgot about him, but he went through in this very small property that I hunt in daylight on this certain window.

And for whatever reason, probably because I had the time, the kids were asleep, and we weren't doing anything, I just started going through old pictures at this camera, and I started clicking through, and I'm like, wait, that's that buck from last year. I didn't realize, I didn't put two and two together, so two years in a row.

Then I went back the third year, and I'm looking, and I'm not 100 percent sure, but I, Believe it's the same buck three years in a row. I didn't think it was at first, but the more I look at it I think there's a good chance of it just looking at antler characteristics and how his body's developed. But what's unique is Every single year in the same time frame.

He will show up and most of the time it's daylight So now like when you talk about organizing your cameras, that's where like You finally have a click bone, but I feel like 95 plus percent of the time when I'm going through cameras I think I'm look I'm trying to make something of it and look for something that [00:52:00] It's probably not there.

Like I'm it's I don't know if that makes sense or not. Like I just feel like I'm trying to Analysis by paralysis and sometimes like on the public land that I'm when I'm looking at those cameras. I just feel like I need to Take some of it with a grain of salt and just go hunt it too. Yeah. Yeah. That's very true.

I think, like when you're talking about windows of time too, I think that's something that's pretty relatable to most people because I think a lot of guys like us, they're only going to have so much vacation time off work to be able to hunt. And, a lot of guys probably have to... Know at least somewhat in advance, what days they're going to take off work to hunt.

So Kind of being able to study that and log that windows of time that are good in Certain areas you have cameras or certain areas that you hunt I think is Extremely helpful or would be extremely helpful for most guys yeah, and I think a lot of guys and I've fallen this to where [00:53:00] You're picking your location based on your trail cameras and or disregarding a spot because you're not seeing anything on your trail cameras.

Just go hunt it. There's, like I was saying earlier, there's so much more of the woods that you're not seeing on that trail camera. There could be a trail right behind it they're using in daylight and then the nighttime pictures are in front of your camera. You don't know that. Just go hunt it.

Do an observation. Sit. Even if you don't see a deer or see just a few deer out of range, you still learn something, take that into the next time. Maybe if you saw a buck, that's 60 yards out, do it again the next day, but shift closer, like you're, you have to be able to move and be mobile and learn from each hunt is its own hunt.

You have to learn from it, whether you saw deer or didn't, there's always something to learn from it. You talked about windows and time off. We've been flirting and, skirting around this, pretty much talking all about archery hunting and bow hunting for the most part and talk about vacation time.

Do you guys historically have windows that are by the calendar or has that [00:54:00] changed over time? Like, how do you orient when you want to spend the most time in the woods each year? Yeah, that's an interesting one. I've... Spent some different windows the last three to four years. It's been almost a little bit different each year.

I've tried to play it by the weather. Some years I've... Really only specifically played it like by the date And then some years by the weather and that's a tough one to answer. I think every window in and around. We love hunting the rut or leading up to the rut itself.

And even, the tail end of the rut, every kind of phase. So it's hard to say, which one is the best one to take your time off work. I think the weather does play a huge role in it. And I think me personally if you just said the weather is going to be equal for a month straight from like late October, [00:55:00] Let's, we'll say from October 20th to November 20th, let's just pretend the weather's equal.

I think, for the area that I like to hunt, during the rut, I would probably take off the second week in November. Just cause, I don't know what it is, I think maybe... That area I hunt, that's when a couple does are coming into heat, but I've just had so much success like in and around November 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th.

Isn't it amazing how properties can be different one to the next with that? Yeah, it is amazing. And those are some of my favorite days, but... It's amazing how, yeah, you talk to other guys and, they just, every year, they're just doing amazing, the last week of October, or, Halloween, or, the day or two before Halloween, or, some guys have areas they hunt that every year the week before Thanksgiving, it's good, later in the rut.

So it just, I think it all [00:56:00] depends. I think that just comes down to you gotta know your areas, know when they're gonna be the best, and maybe try to play the weather too if you can. But, yeah, it's a tough question. It is, I struggle with it all the time. If you could hunt for a month straight, that'd be ideal, but.

Yeah, I'd probably end up, getting served divorce papers if I did that, so I'm gonna try to refrain from doing that. I don't know what you think, Brandon, but... Yeah, because I'm the complete opposite, where I don't think I've ever done a stint in PA or Maryland longer than three days.

I don't, I've never shot a buck in the rut in Pennsylvania. Okay. Cause I'm hunting a day, a week, a Saturday, a week. I don't have the opportunity to hunt those three, four, five day stints. This year I'm finally getting to do a five day stint which I'm really excited about. But I've just been that weekend warrior, just getting out there whenever I can, who cares about the weather.

It's [00:57:00] hunting season. If it's pouring down rain, better believe I'm going to be out there with my tree stand umbrella, grinding it out. And I'm more of a meat hunter. Like I just, and content driven, I like to create things and I want to get that content. So usually a man, if it. A lot of years, I don't even care if it's the rut.

If a doe walks by, she's getting slocked. I love that. Oh my god, I love that. Yeah. I, yeah, I just, man, I love punching holes. Yep. Yep. Yeah, you have shot your fair share of does during the rut. Oh yeah. Which is fine, it's... I don't regret it at all. It's awesome. It's a blast. So you're the kind of people that they make those Instagram reels on when your buddy says that you've got one to drag out and it's in the back corner in the rut.

And it's a doe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's something about good old Ted Nugent talking about the mystical flight of the arrow and that is so stinking true, it's just I just, there's something, it goes back to what I said about talking with non hunters you can't explain to a non hunter what it's like to shoot deer.

Yeah. I'm sorry, but it is fun. You can't. [00:58:00] It is. Oh, it is. And there's no shame in saying that. There's, the list is endless for the reasons we love hunting and love to hunt, but I'm not afraid to say that one of them is that it's just fun. It's fun to shoot deer and just, yeah, I think it all comes down to, it's just, it's part of who we are.

It's just in our blood, I believe, but, and some of the questions like I've gotten to did you shoot enough this year? It's even from hunters. Oh yeah, absolutely. And it's a generation thing too. It is. Just shoot enough. Yeah. But in some of the areas we hunt, there's a high density deer too, that they need to be shot.

Yeah. A lot of people don't realize, a lot of our followers don't realize that. They don't. And that, and we get comments about it. It's like, why are you shooting? Why are you shooting does in the rut? So many does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And. It comes down to, yeah I keep what I, what my wife and I are going to eat and there's donation banks that go to the homeless or the needy and you're doing a favor to the conservation side by harvesting those deer because the population needs to be thinned and you're also helping out people that are in [00:59:00] need.

I take what I need and then just give the rest away. I've had family and friends that are hunters that make the comments about being greedy about wanting to shoot more deer and I'm, I just like, Where are you coming from on that? I can't, I don't understand that. I don't feel like I'm being greedy by wanting to shoot deer.

I feel like if I have the tag and if it's an area that I don't feel I'm impacting at all, I'm like, Why not? I love to go hunting. Yeah, that's exactly how I feel. I'm the exact same way. I love to go hunting. I love venison. I love to shoot deer. If I'm hunting an area that Need some deer harvested.

Not only population in general, but also buck to doe ratio. Huge. If that's out of whack there's nothing wrong with shooting. Plenty of days. If the game commission is gonna give me a tag. I'm gonna do everything in my willpower to kill it and fill it yeah, and We won't go down that rabbit hole There's definitely controversy from some people just because there's areas where we have D map tags additional tags and there's people that whine and complain that there's there don't need to issue those and it's a money racket And I don't think we need to [01:00:00] go down that's not for I have some science knowledge, but I'm not going to claim that I know what's best, but make your own judgment.

Have your own hunt. That's what it comes down to. So you talked about, we were talking public land mostly, what is some of the gear that you have because I've gone through this evolution of having every gadget gizmo Who's it and what's it in my pack? And I mean I felt like there's days where I've had 50 yard walks to a tree stand and I had a 50 pound backpack With stuff that I didn't need like how is that molded for you guys over time, you know stand hunting saddle hunting anything like that Yeah, for us, or for me my setup really hasn't gotten lighter.

That's because you guys got cameras. It's gotten heavier. Yeah, it's getting heavier. Just the camera gear, probably 15, 20 pounds at least of just camera gear. Then you got your stand and I'm still at the age where... It drives me and I want to carry that stuff in there cause I want to capture the best content that I can.[01:01:00]

Cause that's what we love doing and that's what our followers want to see. So I don't mind carrying in that extra weight if it helps me get the content that we need to get to be able to share with our viewers. I have no problem carrying a little extra weight sometimes. Yeah, I think generally I'm somebody who...

I'm not gonna say that you need to have the latest and greatest piece of gear to be successful. You don't need the nicest thing, but I think most people that really enjoy hunting, and it's, a big hobby or a big passion they have, at least are willing to spend a little bit of money to have Like decent gear, So I like to have you know, at least you know what I consider decent gear, it's not like the most expensive thing but Yeah, I mean I run Brandon you do most of your hunting out of your climber I do A hang on and sticks and then yeah, we got the camera [01:02:00] gear, we got the basics that anybody else would have.

I don't think we're bringing, we're not bringing too much extra. We're not really, yeah, we're not bringing really anything that anybody else wouldn't bring other than our. Our camera gear, really. Here's, here, I want to stop you there for a second. You use a climber, and you use a hang on.

I've used everything under the sun. I actually, I have a saddle. I hardly ever hunted out of it. But, I've done a lot of hang ons. Still run run climbers. But, it's all different preferences. Give me an idea why you guys prefer that because we're, right now we're in a sea of if you don't saddle hunt, then you're missing out because it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and saddle hunting is, to me, it's a tool.

I think about, I think about, I relate it to like my job in agriculture where you talk about the newest product that's come out from an application standpoint, or maybe the newest software technology, and it's always portrayed as The greatest thing because you're trying to sell it.

But at the end of the day, I look at it is, yeah, it's great, but it's a tool. It might not [01:03:00] be used in the right application. So I say that all to say, like you guys are steering away from. What's normal lately, and I'm curious like what why and what's the quality aspects for those pieces equipment for you guys Yeah, I was just gonna say I mean we're pretty much just like you and that we've tried it We've tried just about everything too.

We have tried like I've hunted out of a climb or some we've both and you've hunted out of You've hunted out of hang ons and stick some and we've both hunted out of saddle some. We've both kind of had our tries at that. And I dabbled in saddle hunting for, yeah, I'm trying to think of how many years.

Really since 2019, I bought my first one. So yeah, for like the past four years I dabbled in saddle hunting a little bit, but yeah, I think over time it just became, like you said, a personal preference thing. I'm not sure how to explain it. It's almost like you just got a You gotta try them all to know what's for you.

And I just feel the most comfortable in, in my hang [01:04:00] on and sticks with, all aspects. Shooting angles and just, the walk in and out, packing it in and out, the set up, yeah, I don't know. Just a personal preference thing for me. I feel like I'm able to for the most part get into the trees I want to get in and You know still have good shooting opportunities What if you don't mind me asking what are you running?

What about that makes it like the best equipment for you? What stand I run? Yeah. Yeah, so I run The lone wolf one of the lone wolf assault stands. I guess they're they're no longer, are they? They're... I don't know. Yeah. I honestly don't know because I haven't kept up with lone wolf. Yeah. I do know they've traded hands over the years.

Yeah. And then I have a set of four XOP sticks, XOP gear. Those I've had for quite a while. Those are those are pretty heavy sticks, actually, compared to some of this [01:05:00] newer, lighter stuff coming out. But, yeah, I'm just used to them from over the years and feel pretty good with them.

Setting up, taking them down, I'm able to still get to the height I want to get to. And yeah, the stand is fairly lightweight. But still, big enough to... Accommodate me. And it's comfortable. Yeah. And you're running a climber. Yeah, so I, I run an old man climber. It's older.

But I've tried, I tried saddle hunting last year and honestly it was just not my favorite thing. I got up in a couple of trees and I couldn't get the camera under the bridge. And even by setting it super low, I was then hitting my body and may not have been doing it right, but I just felt like there was too many moving parts for me, and I wanted to be not facing a tree.

I wanted to be able to see behind me. Now, I know you can swing, but I just felt like I was a little bit confined in that setup. So I've been running this climber for quite 29, 30 pounds. But I know [01:06:00] it's not going anywhere when I'm up in that tree and just being able to have that simplicity. I have two pieces and I can get up that tree pretty quick and I've run hockey tape all over the thing to dent any noise.

It, I've just refined that piece of equipment to fit me. I know there's climbers out there that are lighter weight and probably will do the job maybe even a little bit better. I can't deviate from what I know best right now. And yeah, I think the saddle is very versatile for some people, but just not for me.

And I've hung some pretty ridiculous sets with my climber, like climbing the tree and hoisting up a base and, or climbing a tree that's four inches in diameter. You're sitting at the top and you're just swaying constantly. And it's just be creative with it. And I've seen killed some deer hanging some ridiculous sets.

And then there's also those times where you can climb a perfectly straight tree and don't see a deer. You just gotta be, you just gotta have to have that mindset that this is fun. Don't go out there with the mentality that I'm gonna kill a big deer. It's [01:07:00] go out there and have fun and whatever the good lord has for you out there is gonna happen.

I can echo that. I'm glad we're talking about this, though, because on the topic of gear, it is easy to see the newest, the latest, the greatest, and everybody wants to dive into it. But you guys are talking about using a system that works for you. You've adjusted it. You talked about modifying with hockey tape.

I'll never forget. I was, when I was learning about people modifying their stuff in certain different ways, and I saw stealth strips. I thought, oh, those are the coolest things. And somebody was like just use hockey tape. Oh, where were you six months ago when I started doing this? Just stuff like that.

Modifying it to... To your case in point, because if you get a system that works for you, maybe you fine tune it, but why do you got to deviate far? And another example I, I talk about with that is, is compound bows. I love to shoot new bows. I love them. I don't work with a bow company. If I worked with a bow company and switched bows more often, I'd love to, but I've finally now gotten to a point where the bow that I shoot, that is what I feel comfortable [01:08:00] with, and I don't feel like I need to deviate from it.

It's not, it's, there's nothing wrong with tinkering and trying to get better, but. To me, when it comes to the gear side of things, I don't think there's anything wrong with finding something that works for you and sticking to it. And that's how we were too, for a lot of years. Now we've signed with the bow company, now we shoot those bows each year.

But, we shot the same bows for quite a long time. And killed a lot of deer with it. And, even with the new stuff, it kills deer too, but... It's all in... What you do with that bow. It's a tool. So you have to practice. You have to put in the time. You can kill a deer with a recurve. You can kill a deer with a compound bow.

It's all up to the user and how much time you put into it. So it doesn't matter how old the gear is. If it fits you and you're accurate with it and you feel good with it, use it. Speaking of companies and gear, I did want to talk a little bit about Huntworth because both of us work with Huntworth.

You guys have worked with them a lot longer. More about Huntworth stuff than I do. And [01:09:00] I wanted to shed light on this episode because I was always somebody that I would s I would spend my money on my bow, tree stands, a lot of the... The specific year for whatever reason I have always been a cheapskate when it comes to clothing Like I will have mismatched stuff and there's nothing wrong with that.

But when I started using I got I did buy some hunt war stuff and then I got to work with them and they let me try some other stuff out. I could not believe how much more comfortable I felt hunting that. And I felt this is gonna sound corny, I felt more athletic with better gear, like MO mobility and.

To me, I think it made my hunt more enjoyable, but, speaking of Huntworth stuff they've got anything from the light, mid, and heavyweight stuff, and I've only had experience with the Elkins mid weight stuff in turkey season this year, and I really liked it, but you guys worked with them for a little while now?

Yeah I [01:10:00] don't even remember, at least two years, at least this is our second year. This is our second year. Yeah. It feels like longer than that, but yeah, echoing off what you said, it seems to back up a second, but it seems like in the hunting world right now, the social media world, there's a group of people where it's it's the cool thing to do to be like.

Soaking wet to be, cold and, hunting clothing doesn't matter at all. But I would, I would encourage people to, realize that, like you said, wearing the Huntworth, something a little bit better, it has made your hunts more enjoyable. And I think that being comfortable, being dry, being warm.

Feeling athletic, like you said, like those are all things that, I think would be more valuable to people on a hunt than they would actually realize. And I'm not [01:11:00] saying, that you have to be super soft and, sometimes you got to be willing to be cold and wet and, get a little bit muddy or dirty.

But I think there is some value in having. Some nicer clothing for those reasons. But Yeah, sorry, I, now I forget what your original question was. No, so one thing I said, and this is back to feeling more agile mobile, and the example I'm going to give you is the first day of turkey season, it was rainy, and I think it was, I mean it did get up into the probably mid 50s by mid morning, but overall it was probably high 40s, rainy, it was dreary, miserable, and I stayed dry, which I talked about, but one thing I've noticed is whenever I've tried to bundle up for warmer clothing most of the time I didn't have something that had a really good wind breaking layer and therefore I had more bulk.

And I can tell you just from the turkey that I killed that morning I struck a gobbler up around 11 o'clock and 15 minutes, I called him and killed him. And when the last time he [01:12:00] gobbled, he I, he was, where my gun barrel was, he was drifting to my left, which wasn't a big deal because I'm right handed for shooting.

But, I remember I shifted. And I didn't think about it right away, but afterwards, like the movement I did, when you're sitting up against a tree and stuff like that, it didn't feel big, bulky, and awkward like it has when I've worn like a big, thick cotton coat and stuff like that in a morning where it was like that.

So that was one time where it really opened my eyes. And the other thing that I've really liked too is I've fallen in love with having conforming base layers underneath my clothing because I feel like it keeps me warm and wicks away moisture and then a windbreaker. Like I just, it, I stay warmer, but I don't feel the bulk.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. The base layers are crucial to staying warm. So we love those. Huntworth. And then Yeah, like you said, it's, and then the, the other big [01:13:00] thing that, that Huntworth has is the heat boost for the cold weather gear, the late season stuff. So I don't have much experience with that, but can you guys enlighten me a little bit more?

Cause I'm anxious to try it. Yeah. Really what it comes down to is, and actually we have a video review that'll come out on heat boost here pretty soon. Actually when this podcast is live, that video will be out, but, heat boost. It's simply giving you more warmth for less bulk, like you said.

It's it's pretty amazing how warm it is, honestly. I, we have the the Saskatoon jacket and pants as well as the Matterhorn. And those are bigger. Those are like the mega duty heavy cold weather stuff, right? Yeah, the Matterhorn would be the heaviest. Okay. And then the Saskatoon would be.

Would be the next lightest both super warm and yeah, it really, I remember I talked about it a little bit in the video, but it really does change kind of the way you hunt, the way you layer for the late [01:14:00] season when it's cold out. Just being able to stay warm for less bulk when your late season archery hunting is a big deal and like public land hunters.

Obviously we're, if we're hiking into an area during cold weather, we're not going to hike in with all our clothes on. So you're strapping your clothes to your stand or to your back. And you're taking in less weight if you have to take in less bulk. The heat boosts is the heat boost is the real deal for sure.

It was pretty awesome to use that stuff last year during the late season, cold weather. And their gloves are on next level too. And that's how Huntworth was founded basically on their gloves. And just a testament, I was fishing in Montana this past, about two years ago now, and it was between five and 10 degrees and I landed a fish, hands were soaking wet and they're cold.

I slipped them into this fleece coat. I was like. If any other glove that I wore before, my hands were just absolutely frozen. And I slipped them into those fleece lined gloves, it was a game [01:15:00] changer. It wasn't instant, but man, they warmed up quick. And same thing with a heat boost. Like Grant said, you don't have to layer up.

Like I used to, I had just a regular hunting jacket. It was thick. It was super thick to begin with. And then I had two to three layers underneath that yet. And exactly. Grant said again, I'm carrying all that to the stand and wearing another base layer that got sopping wet from my sweat. So now I have to change that out, but I have to carry all that in there now.

Yeah. You still need to layer up, but your layers aren't nearly as many, nor is thick underneath. There's a couple times where I wore the heat boost and just a long, the long sleeve base layer underneath it. It's I was perfectly fine. The, I sound a little bit like a hypocrite when you talk about this with stuff because I'm utilizing this stuff now and learning more about it.

Before I didn't spend the money to, and now with my experience that I've used so far and knowing. I think my biggest hurdle whenever it came to hunting clothing was I never felt it was going to be the value [01:16:00] of the price tag. And hunt worth isn't too bad in the first place when you consider all the other gear out there.

But now that I've experienced that, I would have no problem spending the money. Whenever you look at any clothing company, there is all kinds of different makes and models and everything else and to me it's like a sea of trying to go through. So like the stuff that you guys have run for Pennsylvania hunting from the beginning of archery season where the extended season if you guys hunt it is, September 16th I think this year and then we go into the extended season in January up until basically almost February 1st and stuff like that.

So you've got that real long window. And I was curious what your guys perspective is if you're, again, the everyday outdoorsman that has a certain amount of money that you're going to spend to like, how would you orient your clothing structure for the majority of the season? Like being the hunters that you guys are.

Yeah. As far as if we were to recommend yeah, just how somebody should structure. [01:17:00] Their purchases like on hunting clothing, I guess that's what you're asking. Yeah, Yeah, I mean I would say like you said it all depends how much money you want to spend On it, I would recommend that people Try to set them up for three different phases of the season early season mid season or the rut and then late season, so I'll try to set yourself up with A lightweight pair of pants with, something lightweight for your top and then, a mid weight.

We love the Elkins. That's what we run. Elkins pants, Elkins jacket for mid weight. And then, set yourself up with something for late season at least a jacket, if you're going to skip out on one thing, maybe a late season pants, if you're somebody who, doesn't really get cold legs easily, but if you can try to get yourself covered for those three areas and you should be in pretty good shape doing that.

Yeah, the late season stuff being the either, either the Saskatoon or the Matterhorn, I would say. And then yeah, like we said, the Elkins for mid weight stuff is our favorite. And then [01:18:00] some of our favorites for the lightweight stuff would be the Durham pants. The Gadsden pullover, that's another one we use a lot, and then the two hoodies, the the Harrison hoodie, and then the Shelton hoodie.

The hoodies are nice. Yeah. Yeah, I did run that one I think it's the Shelton in Turkey season. What do you think out of all the stuff, like what do you think has the most versatility in it that you've used? Just because a, again, I'm coming back from my roots. I'm a little bit of a stubborn deified boy in, in Berks, Connie

But no I like if you were gonna say, I'm not gonna spend, from the beginning of the season, the end of season, getting three different sets of clothing, even though I think it's worth it. Yeah. What do you think with the hunting that you guys do? It's the what's like a little bit of the most versatile.

Probably, I would say the most versatile thing is, would probably be the Elkins jacket and then the Durham pants. I agree. The lightweight pants [01:19:00] with the mid weight jacket. If you were gonna go, as minimum as possible on what you're buying, you could hunt a lot of the season in that stuff.

Cause a lot of the season here is in October where we're starting in Maryland. We're starting first, second week of September. So we're using lighter stuff, but with those Durham pants and the Elkins, you can hunt for a while and if it gets colder, just layer up. Yeah. If you had to, you could layer up, pretty heavy under the Elkins and still hunt in the late season.

Absolutely. And. If it's early in the season, just like a little bit of chill in the air, you can wear that thing with a t shirt underneath and, you're not going to be too hot. And then, yeah, for the pants, perfect for early season. And then even into colder weather, you can wear some base layers underneath and still be good to go for the most part, unless it was, absolutely frigid.

That would be my answer to that question, would be the Durham Pants and the Elkins Jacket. Would [01:20:00] probably be the two most versatile things. I've never been somebody that's been a big fan of like specific camo patterns and never really cared. I don't know why I like that. Digital camo pattern that disruption.

I just think it looks cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how else to describe it. It just looks cool. I like it. Yep. Yeah. And I used to, I'm not gonna lie. I used to make fun of some of my buddies that bought like head to toe the same camo patterns. Oh, you're special. No, I'm the dude that's doing the same thing.

But I'm like it does. It's like it has to me, I'm not talking about the camo pattern from a hunting benefits. I'm just, yeah. Purely looking at the, looking at it. Yeah, it's I just think it looks cool. I'm sitting here looking over at the pile of clothing and I'm like, that's just a cool, that's just a cool camo pattern.

You guys are talking about September rolling up. We're as we're recording this, Maryland is right around the corner. Do you guys hunt Maryland pretty hard or is it just mostly early before, like getting the feet wet going into PA? Yeah, we hunt it pretty hard. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we hunt it [01:21:00] hard.

In September early season, arguably almost more than PA for me, at least throughout the entire season. Yeah. You probably hunt Maryland more than PA now. And yeah, for me, it's, I probably still hunt more PA than Maryland, but it's close. Yeah. So my season will be pretty much all Maryland in September and then October probably be.

Maybe like 75% pa, 25% Maryland, maybe more like 50 50. . And then once the rutt comes, I'll pretty much be all PA until, if I'm fortunate enough to fill my tag, then I would be all Maryland. Okay. For whatever time I have left. And then for gun season, if we haven't filled our buck tags, we're, for the most part, we're pa and then the late season is actually mostly Maryland. Oh, okay. From mid December through the end of January. For a month and a half we hunt. We hunt it pretty hard in the [01:22:00] late season too. Yeah, we hit it hard. We hit it hard for sure. Both states. Yeah. You guys, and, would you guys, if somebody asked you, Are you specifically tied to bowhunting?

Your answer would be like... Yeah, I'm not sure what my answer to that would be. Bowhunting is our main thing just because that's what the majority of the season is. Really there's only... For the most part, there's only two weeks out of the year that... We're going to gun hunt, other than there's the early inline season for Pennsylvania for antlerless deer.

So we hunt that a little bit. There's a three day inline muzzleloader season for Maryland that we've hunted before. Which you can shoot a buck in, I believe. You can shoot a buck. Yeah. Yep. And then. In Maryland, and then there's also late late muzzleloader season in Maryland, too. We've never done that.

We've not done that a lot. We've hunt during that time, [01:23:00] but just with the bows. Yeah. Yeah, for the most part, we're bell hunters. Yeah. For the better part of the season, the season, our season is every bit of four and a half months, close to five months from start to finish, and for pretty much all of it other than the cold.

Maybe two, three weeks, we're bowhunting. Yeah I'm the same way. Do you, so with that bowhunting, do you have any, so many, I don't know how to word this question. So many people I know, they get so fixated on bowhunting cause they, cause of the opportunity thing that it just becomes part of their identity.

And then the other gun seasons and stuff, it almost gets like a negative taste in your mouth. You guys don't feel that way when it comes to the other seasons throughout the year? Not really. We grinded out in archery season and hopefully we're lucky enough to harvest a few deer.

But man, I love getting that gun in the hand. Yeah. Even the playing field a little bit. Yeah. For those two weeks. I should have added that in on my last answer. That's us being bell, [01:24:00] saying we're bell hunters, that's not because we don't like gun hunting. It's just, we love them both. I love bell hunting, but I also love rifle hunting.

And, don't feel bad about getting the gun out at all. We even save tags for rifle season. Yeah, because we enjoy hunting with the rifles. Yeah. We love them both and if somebody wants to strictly only be a bow hunter, that's fine too, but, that's definitely not us.

We enjoy them both and have fun with that a little, I dabbled with that a little bit with the idea of just strictly bow hunting. Hey, every now and then I'm like, you know what? I like hunting with a gun. And the other thing I'm looking at too in your gun safe over there, Brandon, is that flintlock in there.

That's one I've really enjoyed. You guys mess around with the flintlocks much? Oh, we've messed around. Yeah. Yeah, we've messed, yeah, that's a good way to answer it. We we hunted ten years with the flintlocks. With our entire crew, and finally Herschel killed one. Yeah. I've missed, I think I'm upwards of 12 deer with mine.

Okay. Yeah, so not the best. But it's [01:25:00] fun. I think about flintlocks, the level of practice that you should do is probably not far off what you should do with your bow. Probably. Totally agree. Yeah. And I never quite get there. I don't know if anybody does. No, cause if that's the case, then I gotta be shooting it in the summertime.

Because I'm busy deer hunting. I was thinking about that I want to get better, and I shoot mine I've been fortunate, I've taken a couple deer, now the next thing I'd like to do is I'd like to eventually have the opportunity to kill a buck with one. And I was thinking about that I've had some shots over the years.

I'll tell some good examples and some bad examples. First good example, last year we were doing some drives with a group of guys from church and one of the guys hit a deer and fortunately for him he was in real rough shape physically and he hit this deer and it ended up going a very long distance and I ended up being one of the people that was on the trail, right?

So we, we chased this deer. It ended up being alive. It ended up going in a creek. It was like 80 yards and fell in the creek. It was just laying there. It was about [01:26:00] 80 to 90 yards laying broadside in this creek. And I ended up, I had a shooting stick, but I still, I put it on the shooting stick and squeezed one off.

10 ringed it and it was like, wow, that's like how it's supposed to go when you shoot that. Then I think back to some of the other deer, I'll never forget one time, the first deer I ever killed with a flintlock, this group of eight doe come out, I was buck hunting and I had my back tag, it was the last day, I'm like, I'm shooting a doe, it was the last evening and I've never shot a deer with this gun.

And I'll never forget, I lined this doe up and thought I squeezed off this perfect shot and when the gun went off I heard, bleh! And I looked, and here, the button buck that was to the right of it, I hit it in the top end of its rear end, in the spine, and it's dragging itself across the leg, so I like, quick run out, reload my gun, and I literally got from here to your steps away, and I was that excited, that between the reaction of the flinch, and then I also my, Black powder is anhydrous, so it takes that moisture in, and I had a [01:27:00] little bit of a hang fire.

I kid you not, from here to your steps away, I missed the thing. It was standing, it was waiting for me to finish it off, and I missed it. I had to reload and shoot a third time. So I've been through the good, the bad, and the ugly of some, and it's I want that to be a weapon that when the time comes that I'm gonna hunt with it.

I want to be as proficient as possible I always make the joke with some of my buddies, it's there's guys I've hunted with in groups that, if they shoot, I think, man, there's probably a good chance that he got that, because he's pretty good with a gun. And there's other people, it's like Brandon, it's he missed.

Yeah, exactly. No, no confidence here, but like I had the mindset that I was going to, I was going to practice this summer and in the fall and you know how many times I brought it out zero. Like I think it still might even have the load in it from this fall. Like I'm like, so that I've enjoyed that and I enjoy late season hunting, but yeah, it's like the bouncing act.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I can't talk with flintlocks cause I've never even tried it. No? Oh, you're missing out. No. You're missing out. He'd need a lefty flintlock. Yeah. Would [01:28:00] you? Yeah. I can get you one. Okay. If you find me a lefty flintlock, maybe I'll buy it. But yeah, no, I've been mostly archery for late season, but all archery, I should say, but yeah, been along for some, been along filming Brandon on some of those flintlock hunts.

So that's always fun. Not a lot of content coming out from my Flintlock, I was going to tell you that. More bloopers. More bloopers, yes. But good memories. Good memories. Still content. Oh yeah. Yeah I it's amazing if you go on YouTube and you type in Pennsylvania Flintlock hunting, like some, those are some, sometimes big.

Big views on some of those videos. I always enjoy watching those. I've connected with some people just for that. I think it's just because it's unique to our area. I enjoy that. Gotta give a shout out to Johnny Royer, Leatherwood Outdoors. Yeah. He's the GOAT for that. He is the GOAT. I started watching some of those and I think about the production that he goes through that.

Yeah. I'm like, you are nuts, dude. That's hours upon hours of just dedicated in the field doing it. And then back at the computer like [01:29:00] that. That takes some time. So John would be the perfect answer, but you guys watch that video, you know what it takes from the editing side of things. What kind of investment do you have in the computer to make something like that?

A lot of time. Yeah, I don't know what the number would be. Yeah, a lot of hours. A lot of hours for sure. I just edited my the season intro for one of my videos. It took me about 12 hours to to create a one minute clip. 12 hours. That's absurd. Yeah, let that sink in everybody who wants to film their own hunts, cause like I, I dabbled with it.

Like I said, I used to carry my little handy cam and I was, like I said, it going back to cheapskate. I used to have this clamp that would go on one of those three piece screw on bow holders and I'd put my little handy cam on. I filmed that. I shot a doe, I shot a buck and filmed it and might've even filmed some turkey hunts with it.

But I got to a point where it was like. Yeah, once I have this all, then it's a lot of time at the computer. I'm like, this just is not for me. We were talking about that before we started recording it's just come this is part of hunting now. Yeah. Yeah. It's just how it is for us.

That's [01:30:00] just, it's a part of it. It's a part of hunting season and really all year round. It's just that time on the computer. It's, there's parts about it we like. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say we love it that part as much as being out in the field hunting and making the content.

But, it's just a part of it and it is, I'd say the fun part about it is just seeing that project come together. See a video come together that you were out, you filmed, you had a vision for it. Come back, create it on the computer and I think that's pretty fun to do.

Having that vision is huge. If you're going out there without... The mindset of what you need to capture, you're basically doing it. It's not, it's pointless because like we have to go out there and I've had this discussion a lot of times, trying to go out there with intent and a mindset of what do I want this end video to look like?

Yeah, a lot of times you're not going to kill anything, but you have to create that b roll. You have to get all those secondary b roll shots to [01:31:00] be able to create a video that someone wants to watch. Each video It's, they're all different. They have to be unique and engaging with your audience. So being able to have that idea of what you want it to look like is so huge because now you're, all right, so once I get in the stand, this is what I need to film.

This is what I need to capture. And even if you don't kill deer, there's so many times where I still save all that video footage and can go back to if I'm creating some other kind of video, I have that B roll stuff from a previous hunt that I can just pull from and use now. Yeah. Repurpose, recycle that all the time.

A big challenge, too, is just trying to capture the whole process, the whole, trying to capture the whole journey, I think is a challenge a lot of times. You gotta be slower. Self filming. You gotta be slower in everything you do, right? Yeah. Yeah, self filming is tough with that, trying to capture everything.

We try to do the best we can. I think... It's easy for people to watch a YouTube video and a lot of times it's, just like the hunt itself or, even just a small part of [01:32:00] the hunt itself. But, we try to. Try to show the whole process as much as we can, even, yeah, just with our videos in the off season scouting and even incorporating, some of that footage into our hunting season videos.

And then, the day of the hunt or the week of the hunt, trying to show as much of that process as we can, I think, helps tell the story the best. I heard somebody say one time that has, I don't even remember who this was, they said that they felt like self filming, one thing that it helped them do was slow down in the woods because you get the mindset before where I want to get from point A to point B.

And when they were creating content around it, it forced them to slow down, and they felt like there was, maybe not necessarily a, making them a better hunter, it just was like a more enjoyable process slowing down, which I still can't fathom, just because I still can't fathom carrying extra gear with cameras and everything else, but like I said, it, for you guys, it's probably, I gotta know though, so you've done this for a very long time, you've Do you still [01:33:00] have hunting buddies or family or stuff that still poke fun at you because you're doing this extra progression for hunting?

Because I could tell you right now, I still got buddies and family that are like, The Pennsylvania Woodsman's here! Yeah. I don't know. I haven't experienced that too much. Not a lot. Not a lot. I guess everybody's just so used to it by now. That's just that's what our identity is. Yeah. Yeah, no, we don't get that a whole lot, but I guess that's a lot because it's because we've been just doing it for so long. Literally, like I've been, I guess we both have been filming hunts now for way longer than we've. Not been hunting and not been filming. That's just it's almost to the point where that's all we know now.

Yeah, it feels weird to walk into the woods without camera gear. Yeah. It's been extremely rare that's happened, but it has happened a couple times where we... We're on a hunt here or there without camera gear and it did feel weird. Yeah That buck right there Really? Yeah. [01:34:00] Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that buck hanging right there.

Did you ever watch that video? I think I did but I didn't remember that it wasn't yeah, cuz I wasn't intending to hunt that night So I just I drove over to my parents house to shoot in my recurve and the wind was good So I was like I'm just gonna walk out here. No scouting. Nothing climb the tree Just like freehand it stood on a limb in sweatpants and a t shirt.

You're kidding 20 minutes later. I poked him Yeah, it's been a long time because that was what two or three years ago or is it longer? That was two years ago two years ago. Yeah, because I remember my buddy devon who you guys know it that little mountain. Yeah, he sent me That clip I think you got when you shot that yeah, and I watch it I just don't remember it anymore.

It was two years ago and stuff, but no I didn't realize that yeah shot him in sweatpants Yeah, I remember Brandon sent me a snapchat video that night of him standing on this limb Yeah, and you know these old torn up rubber boots and sweatpants. Yeah 30 minutes later. He's facetiming me. Yeah, and I'm like this has to be where you had to be hysterical.

Oh, I [01:35:00] was I you didn't pick up. I called you about four or five times because he was busy. Yeah. And I was like, I have to talk to someone because I didn't have a video camera. I was like I need someone to come here to videotape this. Yeah. Like Cameron came over then and Grant ended up coming over and like we, we tried to caption.

I actually filmed. Recreated the hunt the next day. And that's what the film is. It's basically a recreation of that hunt. Yeah. Yeah. So you went out no scouting as you just decided I'm going to get in a tree. Yeah. So it's my parents property and. I didn't do any scouting and my parents had said, Yeah, we haven't really seen any deer all this summer.

And, which they typically do. And I walked out 50 yards off the grass line and climbed this maple tree that I knew was there. And I was actually hunting a cornfield edge on the edge of my parents property thinking they'd be walking that edge. He came on the trail behind me. So I had to spin around and shoot him.

I shot him at 10 yards. But he, With the recurve. With the recurve. And he ran towards my parents house and died. 20 yards like [01:36:00] within the grass line. It's like you can't write that up. And to give even more backstory to people who don't know, like you, if I remember right, so it was a weeknight you were go, you went over there intending to just shoot your bow, shoot your recurve to practice for the weekend and got there, realized.

It was an east wind. You had your hunting stuff in your car, your hunting license your bow, and yeah, your bow, because you were going to shoot, and realized there's 30 minutes of daylight left and it's an east wind. Yep. Let's hop up this tree and see what happens. Yep. So you went there not even thinking you were going to hunt.

Nope. I stepped out. I was like, yeah, I'm going to go hunt. I'm going to go try it out. Yep. And shot his biggest deer. My biggest buck. After seven years hunting with the recurve, I finally got a deer killed and it was my biggest one to date. Yep. Yep. Now you still hunt with a compound though, so where does the recurve fall on your level of attractiveness for archery hunting?

Pretty low on the totem pole now, because that's going to be tough to beat. You don't know that! [01:37:00] But I passed up a lot of deer that season, just too far or whatever, and yeah, it was totally worth it, but there was content that I missed out on. Now it's I just want to kill deer on film, so I'm going to use the compound.

I can respect that. I'll probably home with it again someday, but for now, I'm just soaking in that one. There's something about having that bow sit right under that mountain. Just reminisce on the crazy story. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Pretty cool. So we'll we've been rolling for a while and we'd be mindful of your guys time and bring this to head, but I'm curious.

So you've been doing since you guys, you said you were 14 with your YouTube channel. So do you have an outlook of what you want to see or do or accomplish in the next five years? Yeah, that's an interesting question. I would say one thing that's the same as, I don't think we have an exact plan for where it's going to go.

I just think our goal is to, continue to But to hopefully reach more and more [01:38:00] people, be a good influence on everybody and, spread the word about hunting and fishing and, show everybody our adventures and why it's so fun and such a blessing in our lives, is the way that I would put it.

But, it's hard for me to, it's hard for me to say I look at the last five years where we've come from and it's like. It's hard for me to say where it's going to be in five years, or what my exact plan is, but... It's pretty crazy to look back on those five years and see where we've come from and understand that the next five years are going to be probably just as insane.

Yeah. Which is pretty cool. It is, and I think there's... There's nothing wrong with having goals, dreams, aspirations, and goals. But at the same time, there's a part of me that says... Like, when you do something like this without major expectation, you're just doing it out of enjoyment and in the glory of God, that the things in which it can take you is pretty daggone cool.

Yeah. Yeah. [01:39:00] Absolutely. Yeah, no, that's very true. It's always just kinda, that's always kinda how it's been. We were just guys that loved to hunt and fish and we never were like, Yeah, it was never really numbers oriented, like with goals or anything. It was just like, we're just doing this for fun.

It took us here to places we didn't think we'd get to. Yeah, and it's still extremely fun and we still enjoy doing it, but now seeing those numbers come to fruition and seeing things start to ramp up a little bit, it's like this is really cool. And there's some opportunities that we have here right now and in the future that, that could be huge for this channel.

And I think we, like Grant said, we don't really focus on goals for the next five years. It's a lot of, what are we doing this year to be successful? So that in those next five years we can continue to grow. But I don't think we have huge goals for those five years. It's more. Yearly based stuff, so we can continue to increase.[01:40:00]

And I, the reason I like that is because when I think about how the hunting industry and media content has been, for a long time it was driven on kill content, and meeting numbers and quotas and stuff like that. And one positive thing that I will say amidst of YouTube and social media, is when you're following no script and you're just doing what you love to do and bringing the content along the way, It's relatable, and it's enjoyable, and I just think that is Ultimately better.

There's no negative motive behind hunting. It's just pure enjoyment and it's film creation. So I like that. Yeah. Yeah. When it becomes unenjoyable, you're doing something wrong. Yeah. If it ever gets to a point for us where it's this is an actual job and I do not like doing this.

What's the point? It's, that's not hunting anymore. That's a job that you're working. Yeah. And I think for us, we just like capturing that content out there and showing it to people. And that's where this was stemmed from 13 years ago. [01:41:00] And that really hasn't changed. Yeah, we're working with sponsors, and we have some things that we have to do to meet our contracts, but it's, at the end of the day, it's still content creation, and we're still having a blast doing it.

Yeah, yeah that's what we've always done. And As far as the business side of it, yeah, we don't really have specific numbers, goals. We just, we're just doing what we love to do and as opportunities have come along that have made sense for us. If God opens up an opportunity we'll walk through that door when it's there.

But, other than that, we're just like you said, just doing what we love to do. And keep doing it, guys. You're doing a great job. I appreciate it. Thank you for letting me come over and BS with you. I, if you would be willing, I'd like to make this more of a habit. This was fun. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, we'll make sure Everyday Outdoors Men, where you're following along, all that good stuff. And if there's anything else specific to this season you want to share Brent, please do. Yeah, nothing too specific yeah, we're at the Everyday Outdoorsman on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Is that [01:42:00] everything?

Yeah. For the most part. Yep. We try to put out one, two videos a week if possible and just keep pumping out, out the the content for each person to watch and enjoy. Cause we enjoy creating it, so hopefully you guys enjoy watching it. Yeah, full length hunting videos on YouTube and then, on social media, on Instagram and Facebook.

Social media trying to put out stories and reels, more more up to date stuff. Even, we're even like posting reels while we're out in the stand and stuff, almost live stuff. Yeah, definitely appreciate anybody that checks it out. Yeah, absolutely do that. Thanks again, guys.

Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks a lot for having us on, Mitchell. Really appreciate it. Thanks.

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