Show Notes
In this episode, Jon Teater (Whitetail Landscapes) and Dan Johnson (Sportsmen’s Empire) discuss technical hunting series hunting gear. Dan explains his recent buck harvest during the rut and strategies around how to be successful. Dan explains his clothing and what hunting tactics tie into success. Jon explains his clothing, using scooters, and how to reduce the chance of being cold or hot as you get into the treestand. Dan explains his process of layering and dealing with temperature swings.
Dan discusses why he does not use rubber boots. Jon counters Dan's point on boots and provides another approach to rubber boots. Dan explains the boot and sock type that he uses and a few tricks that will eliminate any cold foot issues many hunters experience.
Dan discusses his base layer choices and what products he no longer uses and why. Jon and Dan discuss hunting gear that are next layer and outers that allow better hunting afield. Dan provides specific clothing options by name and type. Jon explains why some companies like Sitka or Kuiu may not be the right option for hunters.
Jon and Dan debate scent management, the how to’s and options for those that are particularly concerned with scent and how to best manage clothing and body odor. Jon and Dan discuss building a system around clothing and an easy way to manage scent.
Jon and Dan discuss how to deal with body odor, mouth odor and changing diet during hunting season.
Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!
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Show Transcript
[00:00:00]
Welcome to Maximize Your Hunt, the podcast dedicated to those who want the most out of their hunting property. This podcast explores land management, habitat improvement, and hunting strategies that will help you maximize your time in the field. Follow along as industry professionals that live and breathe whitetail deer share their secrets to success.
And now the founder of Whitetail Landscapes, your host, John Peter. Hi, I'm John Tito, Whitetail Landscapes. This is Maximize Your Hunt. Welcome back, everybody. I've had the fortunate pleasure of being successful. I killed a beautiful buck here, and my son also killed a nice doe. So I'll share those stories in another podcast, and I'll talk about, my technical approach to breaking down a particular deer during the rut and finding success.
And I think some of these aftermath stories will get you thinking about what you can do better for next year. [00:01:00] I also want to mention that I have my master class coming up. Everything's on my website. It's in July. All the information is on there. You can reach out and contact me. There's a contact page.
I did some upgrades to my website. You can take a look at some of the stuff that's on there. Please get in touch with me if you want to be in the master class. I've gotten a ton of inquiries on it. I want to make sure that, it's an opportunity for you to learn. And it get a hands on in the field approach to seeing how I manage a property.
It's not me coming and consulting. It's me actually showing you the improvements that have been made. And this is an advanced level stuff. I'm going to teach you things that you've never heard before. This will not be, something similar to what maybe you've gone on a a masterclass, maybe to Don Higgins or Tony LePretre.
This is much different from that. This is very in depth and I want people to recognize the level of detail that's required to make these hard hunting areas easier. And that's what I'm going to teach in that master's class. Please participate. You will get to meet some of my clients in that.
It'll be a good, culmination of [00:02:00] learning for a group of people. Exciting event. Please get a hold of me and I'm here to talk to my next guest. I have not podcast before. I've been on his podcast. Hey, Dan, are you on the line? Yes, sir. All right. So if anybody doesn't know Dan Johnson he's a pretty popular guy.
He runs the network that my podcast is on, and I appreciate him having me on the network, you've been successful, Dan. And you just killed yesterday. And I want to hear a little bit about that. I know it's probably emotional for you. It's a lot of time invested, you executed, and you probably feel pretty good today.
Yeah, I feel really good today. You made it sound like it was easy right there. And as everybody knows especially if you follow me, it was not easy. I had my number one target buck at 19 yards and I blew a chip shot. A slam dunk in your face, no obstructions, nothing wrong. I blew it straight up buck fever, [00:03:00] right?
And so that had me feeling the lowest of the lows to the point where I took a break from the rut and I ended up going home and spending some time with my kids basically shaking that one off. And then I got back on my horse and started at it again, going through the process of trying to locate and kill a big deer.
And last night it happened. I actually watched your Instagram live kind of stuff and watch it after we talked. I didn't, I knew you were hunting. Did a factor of anything else come into play? Do you think there was they're harvesting corn, I think, in your area? Did anything like play into your hand there so that all of the deer We're moving through the property to go to that standing corn.
They were combining it so that meant that was not an option that night and so I said if there's any night for me to go in and be really intrusive [00:04:00] into this property and Try to sneak in there and get the job done. It would be on a night like this where the movement It isn't going to be east west, it's going to probably be more north south because they're not going to hit that food source.
They're probably going to go to a different food source. And luckily it paid off. But as far as what put me in that stand, there's a variety of reasons, but one of the contributing factors was they were harvesting that corn. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a time and place and knowledge thing. And I think, so for some of you that have standing corn that are experiencing, the impact of corn, right?
Corn ends up being, element of cover, right? It's a food source and cover, particularly this time of year, as we transition as the months get colder it's a resource, right? And that resource, can be detrimental to your hunting locations, at least your traditional hunting locations. So it sounds like you took that in consideration and it played your hand.
Yeah. So [00:05:00] usually what happens, these deer are, it's a very long and narrow property north south and imagine it being a rectangle and one third of the furthest west piece, the property runs north south, is all Okay. Like Osage orange trees, honey locusts, just overgrown cattle pasture, multi flower rows, the stuff that you probably try to remove from the properties, but it held, it was holding really good deer, and good numbers, and so it was hard, it's hard for me to get in there.
Especially on there, it holds so many deer, it just, you go, you just take a couple steps in and something's watching you. Something's watching you something's seeing you. And these does they're, they don't take anything lightly, right? They will blow and blow and try to get downwind of you until they figure you out and then they'll run away.
And it [00:06:00] took me a really good, it took me almost a week to figure this property out where they like to hang out, where I feel like there's a dead zone. And then I use that dead zone toe to access certain pinch points or terrain features that I find would be good for deer putting a tree stand in or a saddle.
Yeah, and I think that flexibility that a lot of us sometimes don't So this morning I woke up and, I'm tagged out at least buck wise, and we're starting to target some does here locally. I was scouting this morning and I'm scouting for gun season. I hung a double set for me and my son for opener, which is coming up this weekend.
And which is exciting. It's exciting for me. I showed him the set. I think, he's pretty excited. I had a couple of bucks walk past me while I was hanging the set. And that's, I've stayed out of a couple of these core areas and it's, again, it's always time and place, but it's thinking through, what's the environment going to be in that time, where I'm playing off pressure or I'm [00:07:00] playing off, in this case, something harvesting, the local crop, et cetera.
These things are all meaningful in your overarching strategy. So I think it's being smart, but it's being tactical. And I want to get into the series here. So we've had this long technical. Hunting series. It's been multiple versions. I did one on wind and we've had a rock one come out and just, big woods, hunting, all sorts of things.
I want to talk about comfort and this, Hey, John, Hey, John, can I hijack your show for one moment, one minute? Can I do it please? So I'm sitting in this tree. And I'm saying to myself, I'm sitting in a really big overgrown Osage orange tree and I'm looking at all these storm trees, all these locusts.
I think they're called black locusts, right? Yup. Yup. And so I'm just like, Jesus, man, This is just a mess in here, but the deer love it. And I actually, you popped into my head when I was setting this stand up, or this location up, [00:08:00] and I was saying to myself, if this was my property, how, what would I do to this area, this little pinch point that's covered in black locust, and...
And Osage orange trees, knowing that the deer already moved through it, they already love it, but these are, I don't know what the proper term is from a habitat standpoint, but they're just not ideal species of trees to be on a property. And so you popped into my head and my question to you is what would you do as a habitat specialist?
In a scenario like that. So black locust is depending on the species of tree, we teach in this podcast ecological function. So if it provides some benefit to your landscape, assess what that is. So black locust is a good firewood tree. And that's predominantly how I look at that particular species and any of the shrub component that comes with that, whether it's honeysuckle, multiflora rose, whatever the case may be, those are called [00:09:00] interfering plants.
So in the landscape, it's all an interference. The next piece of this is looking at its value. And so from a value standpoint I look at, what is it doing for my cover, in this case, we'd say it's got good cover element to it. So it's okay, leaving components of that across the landscape, because the worst thing you can do is eradicate.
Something that is of value. And unless you have something that's of more value. And so we talk about replacement species. We, you could look like, you could look at different species that you would wanna plant in those areas, but if it's just chalk full of, those type of tree species and shrubs, you're gonna have to move it in sections.
So it's called we call it like incrementally phased eradication. . So what we'll do is we'll take sections of that. So we might leave the perimeter. And then interior that because it gives you that good shielding effect that kind of segregation that you need interior that you start your process of removing and then you remove in pockets and so it's just like it's taking one bite of the elephant at a time and once you [00:10:00] get to the point where you're able to introduce plants that have cover and food as one component and then you have a benefit to your ecology or wildlife.
So that is the approach to dealing with that circumstance where you don't want to get rid of everything. You want to take incremental steps and we're going to talk in the podcast this year about how to manage like this situation, like you're talking about, because a lot of properties I go on, it's man, the cover values, the roof, why the hell would I get rid of it?
And to your point, if you get rid of it in phases, it doesn't hurt you as much. So that's the tactic. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You can have your show back. Okay. All right. So we're going to, so we're going to go and we're going to start talking about comfort hunting. And what that means to me is having the right gear and Dan does a lot of gear podcasts.
So I thought he'd be the perfect person to talk about this. And I want to talk about clothing and I think clothing would be probably the foundational piece of having. Comfort and, there's more than just clothing, right? There's boots, there's tree stands, there's all that kind of [00:11:00] stuff.
But I want to start with clothing. So Dan, I want to talk about your process to look at clothing, what gear you're using, why are you using it? What are the options you think are available to people? I want you to push people in a direction. And obviously this is latitude contingent, right?
So if you're going to go near the northern latitudes you're going to focus on a little bit colder climate stuff. And then obviously Southern latitudes, you're going to pick, obviously different clothing options. So think about obviously the temperate piece of this. So Dan roll. All right.
So for me, 100 percent of all of my clothing to maintain comfort, there's two things that I think about. One. The first one is always base layers. Base layers are the foundation of any hunting clothing or camo, and The reason I say that is because it's the part of your gear set that touches your skin, your next to skin.
And for me, it has to be [00:12:00] breathable because I sweat it, it has to be have good warmth. I'm a huge fan of merino wool. This entire season, because it hasn't been too terribly cold yet, I've worn some synthetics, some blends, but they have to be moisture wicking, they have to dry fast, they have to have a warming component, and they have to be Thank you.
Thank you. somewhat flexible. As far as I like, I personally like an athletic type fit, something that's snug that fits like a T shirt, but not like compression. If that makes sense. Yes. And so that's where it really starts for me on the ultimate comfort is the base layers. The second thing as far as clothing comfort is what kind of hunter am I?
Okay. And so depending on the scenario, it will dictate, you take that, like you said north or south temperature, climate, all that plays [00:13:00] a huge role in how you dress. But for me, it's about accessing my hunting location, right? Am I going to be able to take a two track? Drive a side by side in and walk 100 yards, or am I going to have to go a mile deep on a hike on some kind of public land mobile setup?
And so that tells me how I need to layer my clothing. And there are times when I will bring my layers in with me, and then there's other times where I will wear almost everything. Most of the time, I wear my my heavy pants, my insulation layer but then I'll put on my heavy jacket when I get to the stand to prevent sweating so bad.
And really, for me, it's all about layering, and it's all about how I'm accessing my hunting location. Yeah, Dan, I think that makes sense. I think the basic piece of this, and it's funny, we [00:14:00] have a similar comfort feel like, and it's pertinent to you. Some people like very tight compression clothing and then that whore portability piece of it's another thing just to add to your point.
Can I take my clothing if I have a long walk and I take my clothing from point A to point B and there's an added weight and component of that. Like I want people to laugh at me. So yeah. I have an area, so I don't have an e bike or anything like that. I have a electric scooter. That's my kids.
Okay. Okay. And I do hang and hunt on a property about a mile from me. So I take this electric scooter and I take it's pink. So you can even laugh at me more. I don't care. Yep. And I take my I w I usually wear my boxer shorts and a t shirt. And it depends on the time of year. And I'll go to this location.
I'll have everything on a pack. Sometimes I'll have my hanging on stand. Sometimes I'll have it, stand already hung. And I like, that piece [00:15:00] of it where I'm thinking through the cooling aspect of it. When I go drive anywhere in the mornings, I have my air conditioning out of my car. I want to be cold when I get to my spot depending on my, my my distance that I have to travel.
One of the things I do with my feet, Dan, is I clean my feet, I take showers. The ridiculousness that goes into my routine, but the other piece of it is like just foot care, just overall foot care and trying not to sweat at my feet and cold feet, cold hunt. And so I think thinking about each aspect, whether it's the type of socks that you're wearing, like I wear cool max socks, I put deodorant on my feet.
I have I wear a particular set of sandals. And, again, when I'm going to that location, I don't want to have to wear some of my clothing so I can, keep that, that cooling, type status. I'm not sweating. The other piece of it is wind is a factor in this too, Dan.
If it's a not windy day and you haven't anything like, wicking essentially some of that heat [00:16:00] off your body, you're going to run yourself into a little bit of a situation. Yeah. So I absolutely I think that plays on to the decision of the type of gear that you have, what gear you wear to your stand and then how you layer it.
And I think that's I think a lot of people don't pay attention to that or struggle with, the right gear to choose. And I think it's obviously time of year contingent and, related temperature in your latitude, etcetera. Yeah, I'm a firm believer that you can, especially if the temperature is nice outside and for the most part, let's just use early october time frame where you know, it could be really hot outside.
You can get away with jeans and t shirt or some walmart camo and things like that and be just fine. But what we really find is that when you really want to be in the woods, the weather is not always Fun to be in whether it's extremely cold or it's time of year and there's like the last [00:17:00] Six or seven days here in Iowa.
It's been 65 degrees a high of 65 degrees. That's not fun during the rut. And then we have these swings where the mornings are in the high twenties, low thirties frost on the ground. The highs get to the 65s and then once that sun goes behind the hillside, it drops down to 40 almost immediately. So having the ability to be flexible in the woods is important.
And I want to know what Gear that you use specifically to adapt to these warm cold spells and like you talked about a 20 degree variance What's the gear that you're using in the field right now that seems to work well for you? Okay, you mentioned boots. So that's a good place to start. I have given up on rubber boots.
I no longer wear rubber boots. I feel like my personal point of view on this is that they actually cause your feet to become [00:18:00] colder because once that rubber gets cold, on that on those in those boots, it's game over. I don't care how much insulation it has. I don't care what kind of socks you're wearing unless you have a battery powered heat source in it.
I have never found luck with those types of boots. Plus they're clunky and they make climbing up a set of sticks very hard to do, especially on some of those bigger, thicker models. Now, here's what I've changed you. I wear one And the brand name is Altera Alpaca, they're alpaca socks. And Altera, they make a sock called the Prevail.
And I wear that with a pair of crispy hiking boots, no matter what the temperature is. And that keeps my that wicks the moisture away. It's a hiking boot. They're uninsulated. And I'll wear those. no matter what. The trick that I use is when my feet do get cold, I will throw a pair [00:19:00] of Arctic Shield boot covers over top of those hiking boots.
And it does a very good job of keeping the feet warm. If it's super cold and we're talking maybe late season, same pair of socks, same pair of boots. But I'll take some hand warmers and I'll put them in the a couple hand warmers and I'll put them in the boot cover and it just keeps the inside of your You know, it just keeps the inside of that nice and toasty.
That cold air is not getting to your boot and your feet are very comfortable. I've hunted all the way down into like negative twenties with that setup. Yeah, and I think this is interesting because we all have different things and so I'm gonna have my two cents into it. So I recommend to all my clients.
Not to go the route that Dan's going now, I don't disagree with Dan and I'm actually thinking about making some changes to my own regime, but I'm so focused on boot management and I want you guys to hunt short periods of time. The all day sit thing and [00:20:00] maintaining this kind of static state with your temperature and all that stuff is very critical.
But for me personally, Dan, like I am so observant and concerned with reducing in any capacity whatsoever. So the breathability in my clothing and my boots particularly, I'm very conscious of. So I agree with you, but I also disagree with you at some point. I want to tell you one other crazy thing.
So do you remember, I don't know if you remember this or not. So years ago, Bill Winky came out with this the suit and it was like a, it was like a. He sold at Cabela's and it's almost like a boy in the bubble kind of suit. And this is a prime example of where the rubber or a suit like this will kill you.
So I did recently an all day set and I went into a very difficult area to hunt, to kill my target deer. And I had this Bill Winky suit on. and he did an excellent job designing this. And basically what it's like it's like a boy in a bubble [00:21:00] and it's like a plastic bag essentially, but it's quiet, it's portable and it's a one piece, overall set up.
And when I took that suit off, the volume of moisture interior to that. So like very little air escapes. I have it zipped up. You can only wear it on super cold days. Like it's got to be like 2025 kind of in that range. The amount of moisture in there that stayed in there and then it created this kind of like shell of coldness, right?
Nothing was wicking away. The moisture was close to my body. It was amazing how cold I got fast. And so at a dance point, I agree a thousand percent, but if you're hunting short windows, short windows of time, and you're managing some of the things like I suggested is running your air conditioner on your feet.
As you go to your stand, et cetera, you're trying to stay cool. You might be able to last as long, but to Dan's point, I think the, like you said, the heater, are they the heater? What are the name of the, for the footsies that you use? There. It's a boot [00:22:00] cover called Arctic Shield. Arctic Shield. Yeah, I think that's an excellent option for people.
I think it's something that people probably overlook. We had a guy on here that out of Michigan hunts way up north. And, he talked about his eye warm suit and the heater body suit, right? There's options. If those are things, they're fantastic options for people that want something you can, they're breathable, they keep you warm, you can dress light, you can throw it over and you're good to go.
So I think, if you're okay with that, right. maneuverability piece of it. I think those are good options for you as well. So with those bootsies or footsies, I'm gonna call them footsies. Do you feel like that takes away from your comfort level, at least when it comes to moving in the stand? Does it make you feel odd?
Just, just moving around a tree stand, for example, or maybe in your saddle? Nope. Okay. I don't have a problem with him. I tie him. I zip them up, uh, squeeze them down real tight and yeah, it's, it has a bigger footprint than my actual boot, but when you're sitting, you're [00:23:00] just sitting there, you're swinging from a saddle.
There's no, I don't think there's anything, negative that I would say about it. So I want to get to your base layer choices, how you select those and what currently are you wearing and what do you think works well? Yeah. I'll just get right into currently Huntworth. Okay.
And so here's, here is, and I've tried everything. I've had Kuyu, I've had Sitka, I've had First Light, I've had, the hunting industry, it seems like there's a new camel pattern, or not a camel pattern, but a brand, a hunting gear company that comes out every couple of months. And I've tested out quite a few of those.
And then for a while what I did was I stepped away from anything hunting industry related and I went to l. Bean and I went, some of these outdoor brands, but that are not hunting related. And so I really curated a [00:24:00] list a thing like a setup with bits and pieces from every, for everything.
And then I ran into Huntworth. And I do work with them, so take that, take everything I'm going to say with a grain of salt. But one thing I've found about Huntworth... Is that some of the elite brands, like the Sitka's, the the First Lights, the Cuyu's, obviously very expensive, and they have garment for every type of scenario.
If it is this temperature, and you're in this environment, they have a piece for that. Okay? What I like about Huntworth's, uh, setup, is that they have, I feel like their layering system the clothing that they have for a Midwestern East Coast box blind,[00:25:00] running gun on public tree, tree hunting, saddle hunting, you know what tree stand hunting hunter, they offer one of the best selections of options for that as well.
And what I mean by that is. The base layer, they have a base layer, they have a hot and cold, basically a pant that's hot for hot weather, a pant that's cold for cold weather, and then the same with the tops. And I feel like they are, they offer a, like a lineup where you can pick three or four things and be good the whole year round.
I like that. And I'm on their website now looking at what they have to offer. And I agree. I think the other piece of this is. How much clothing do you need? How often do you hunt, right? Those are factors into, what touches your skin. Anything touches my skin gets washed. It goes through a [00:26:00] process.
Anything that doesn't touch my skin, it goes through a different process. So it depends on, how well you're managing your clothing. And if you're in this routine of anything that touched my skin and needs to be washed you're going to need multiples of different clothing types. So like I typically wear.
I had this one and I just found they don't make them anymore, but there's a company called Pythol and I don't know if the owner used to be related to scent lock. I can't remember the story there, but they have this rot 2. 0 plant. And that is the most comfortable pant I have ever worn in my life. And I found another one recently.
I've got two of them and I run in sick. I run these three pants. And either one, run one with a base layer in the pant, base layer of pant, then exterior. It just depends on the temperature. But those pants that I have three of them and it's a game changer for me because I can wear, in some cases, I can just wear the pant, I can wear a layer under the pant.
And so it's, you're finding these key pieces that you that are affordable. So I bought that used piece for I think it was 60 and I'm always looking for a [00:27:00] discount. I'm always looking for something on sale in my area, like places like Marshall's, any of the ski places that are going out of business, any end of year sale, some of the base layers you can find really good, it doesn't have to be camouflaged to Dan's point.
Yeah. The other piece of it is. Finding gear that you feel like will last the hands of time. So I've hunted the most I've ever hunted this year, Dan, it's probably been. I think 16 times. I think that's my number. I usually have about five times a year, 116 times so far. I've been hunting like crazy.
And in that I've had to go through this plethora of thinking through my system, right? I've got two boot dryers going, I run nine pairs of boots. Like I have this whole like crazy process to what I'm doing, on top of all the management and everything else that goes down with the hunting.
And it's the gear that has to last the washes that has to be comfortable during the day. I'm taking multiple showers, right? It has to be portable and light. I think lightweight stuff is probably the more important piece of this entire equation. So in the next layer of this, if we're getting out of the [00:28:00] base layers, a mid layer or an exterior layer, what do you feel like, how meaningful is that?
Like puffies and, clothing like that. What do you, how does it matter to you? Is that an important thing to your, your setup? Yeah. So remind me, I have a couple thoughts. I'm laughing here because you, when it comes to scent, me and you are completely opposite. And so I want to talk about that at the end of this episode, but I am a huge fan of insulation layers and I like big Western Types of puffy jackets as my insulation layer, and so there's times when I will throw Just a base layer on and then I'll take my puffy jacket Over top of that and then I just put a shell over top of that some kind of windbreaker and Huntworth offers that but I have a Eddie Bauer.
It's an actual, it's not, it's just a [00:29:00] Eddie Bauer. I got it. I got it at a an Eddie Bauer store. It was on a clearance rack. It's a puffy jacket and it holds the heat very well. And so that is a lot of people are concerned. Oh, doesn't that make too much noise? I'm like, man, do you realize how much noise it would take for And I know this is different in different parts, like some deer don't mess around, I hunt in Iowa, I hunt in, I hunt in out west as well, but do you know actual how much noise it takes to spook a whitetail?
I feel like... Some of these companies over exaggerate how important being quiet at their garments have to be. Because last year, I was wearing this puffy, when I shot my buck, I was actually wearing my puffy jacket, that's it. And I drew back, there was no problems there. [00:30:00] And and so the whole quiet thing, I think it really is blown out of proportion.
It's not like you're wearing a chip bag, potato chip bag as your outer layer, right? Crack, like that. But but yeah, I'm a huge fan of puffy jackets to, to hold the heat. I'm with you on the puffy jackets, Dan. And to your point, it's funny. I have Patagonia Eastern Mountain Sports and Eddie Bauer.
Puffy jackets. . And just what I did was try to find 'em on sale and yeah, and you, Eddie Bauer's a good example. You go to Eddie Bauer and if you're worried about quietness, you can feel the exterior and just see the noise that they create. Some of these other brands that are not hunting, specific, these light puffy are packable.
You can fold them basically into a small bundle. I think that's a game changer. And I think, I have bottoms. The, I haven't, I don't have a pair of bottoms that are quiet but I do have bottoms, I don't even want to talk about the brands cause I don't think their brands really matter.
I think [00:31:00] it's more along the lines of what you feels comfortable to you. And if it's, if it meets this quota and like you said earlier, like I'm not like Velcro man out there, it's not making a whole host of notes. And a lot of times it's covered with a shell. And maybe that shell has an interior layer that's a fleece, for example, or micro fleece, and that's going to, that's going to add to that, quiet ability aspect of it.
But to your point, I'm not super worried about that stuff. There's more creaks and dings and... Things that happen with your stand setups that you have to be cautious of that are much more annoying and you know What would trigger an alarm for deer? I don't think it's as much as the clothing.
Although I will admit velcro I'm looking for really solid zippers and things. Oh, yeah, you know those things I think you know I don't want velcro. I like buttons and I like zippers really like zippers and I want pockets in certain places I really like a chest pocket for my rangefinder.
There's certain aspects of the gear that has to meet like my movement. So in the world of design, they call that human factors analysis. So I want a [00:32:00] human factor component of it. I think sick has done it just honestly, I'll just say this right off the bat. That whole like side zip design, that's.
That's absurd. That doesn't make any sense to me, even if there's a benefit to it. Some of these design features, I have sick of gear, but and I'm not trying to down the company. I'm just saying there's elements of this clothing that maybe meet what you think is appropriate or not.
And I feel like you've got to try a lot of stuff on and that's, I think people struggle because they don't get a chance to go to a Huntworth store or they don't get a chance to go to the Sika outlet in Montana. They're stuck in, their house in Missouri, right? And so they don't get to experience some of these things to try on all this gear.
So I think people, struggle with what gear to pick and why. And again, if you have an outlet store or place to go. I think it's an opportune thing and obviously you're probably friends and family, use certain gear types So you get to experiment and listen to them. So I don't think there's one brand that does better than others I just think an expense is the big piece of this and if you're going through clothing like left and right like [00:33:00] I do a lot of deer drives traditionally, when I was a kid, I want to get back into that.
I've done a little bit more of that with my buddies recently. You got to have the right clothing for that. And that's not the clothing that I'm wearing when I'm sitting in the woods, right? I'm sitting in my tree stand. That's a different outfit. So it's meeting the scenario with the right clothing.
All right. Let's go to your outers, Dan. I want to talk about, what do you like for exterior kind of layers? And what seems to fit the need for you for whitetail hunting? Alright, so at the beginning of the podcast I talked about locust, I talked about multi flower rose, I talked about like beggar's lice, cockaburs, all that stuff.
I am not a huge fan of having my pants be fleece. Really, there's a pair of, some of the Huntworths, they have that the knee, and it goes halfway down the shin. It's man it's real rigid. It's [00:34:00] tough. It's it's not denim. I'm blanking on what the actual fabric that is called, but it's it's not it's plasticky, but, but it's flexible.
It's quiet and it does not pick up. It doesn't let the thorns through. It doesn't pick up that much beggars lice or cockaburs, and so it's a real rigid pant. It's called the Durham pant, and so that's a light, that's a lightweight pant, so I will change my base layer to wear that pant longer. If I have to, so I will increase my my base layer from a lightweight base layer to a heavyweight base layer just so I can stick with that pant longer.
However, when it's cold out, then I'll bring in my my, my, it's like a fleece. It's a very quiet fabric. What do they call that? Brushed something like brushed fleece or something like that. [00:35:00] But those pants also have knee covers on them as well in some of the high traction areas like the knees and the butt and things like that.
And so I really like that design because of I have a pair of Sitka pants that's probably still standing up when I threw it in the corner. I had so much beggar slice on it and I didn't even take the time to, it was like at the time it was like a 200 pair of pants. I just threw it in the corner.
I'm like, I'm not even going to attempt to try to get all these off. And yeah, and so there goes that pair of pants, right? And so from there on out, it's been like car hearts. Dickies. There's a brand that I really called Arbor Wear. It's it's like a Dickie Carhartt khaki material that's real heavy duty.
And and I really like to wear those. Now here's the downfall. They're durable. They're hardy. They are not breathable. And when they get wet, they stay wet [00:36:00] for a long period of time. But I'm not wearing that stuff in rain. I'm not wearing that stuff in like Sometimes I'll wear gaiters if the ground is really wet, but for the most part, I'm wearing that when I know I'm not going to get wet.
I like that. And the Arbor wear stuff is great. And I think a lot of people, and in my field of working on properties, they make some of the best clothing you can buy really for the infield type stuff. Shout out to that company, Dan. Yeah, absolutely. And and then the tops, it just depends on how cold it's going to get.
I carry my outer shell jacket is always carried in. I never wear it in. It's either in my pack or strapped to my pack. And then I will get to my stand. I will almost get to the point where I'm cold, but I'll be dry and then I throw it on. And sometimes that could be an hour into the hunt before, before I throw it on.
And so [00:37:00] I am not a huge believer. I think camo plays its part in certain scenarios, but I feel like I've gotten away more wearing solid colors in the past than any type of specific camo patterns per se. Now, most of Huntworth's stuff, they have, I think, three different camo options to choose from, but for the most part I don't think that the actual camo pattern plays a role As long as you're sitting still.
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. Yeah. I think some of the disruption came out, that's come out over the years, the digi camo, which is based on military application and studies, I think they're going to fine tune that for, I think you'll see some changes over the next few years. I'd like to do a podcast on deer eyesight and things of that nature.
But to your point, I think movement is a critical element of that. All right, so I want to talk about rain and snow and I want to know, I'll just briefly explain what I [00:38:00] use and I am going to be brand specific because I like this this outerwear. I think I have some Sika dew point. Jack and pants.
Absolutely love that. That's been a staple in, my hunting. I've been, I've hunted in the rain. I've killed deer in the rain, particularly my bow, which, to put yourself in those positions, you're giving up some things, but you got to have the good gear and you got to be able to sit and survive.
I hate getting cold and I hate getting wet. And those are the two things that I try to stay away from for you specifically. What have you used to combat rain? What are some of your go-tos? And you do hunt in the rain, right? ? . No, . I hon. Honestly, if it's raining outside, now a light sprinkle.
Yes. Yeah. If I look at the radar and I'm gonna go out in a light sprinkle and, and sit there for a couple hours while it passes through, yeah. But I am not the kind of person who sits in a downpour waiting for a deer to come by. I just, [00:39:00] I don't know why, I just don't do it. I've never had luck doing it.
I've never had I've never been that, because what happens like when you're deer hunting, somebody has some kind of experience where it's like, Oh my God, I saw five different bucks and it was pouring down rain. Hell, that's going to lead them to want to sit in those types of conditions.
I had the opposite experience. I did not. have any type of success hunting in rain. And so I'm not gonna sit in the rain. And so therefore I don't, I have rain gear, but I don't ever wear it. Yeah. I think that's, I think there's nothing wrong with that. I used to have the opinion. That, and again, it's circumstantial.
If I have the opportunity to kill a deer and it's in the conditions that would be, not hospitable to even bow hunting, but you have an opportunity, sometimes I'll take the chance if they intercept this high. And I think I'm going to kill that deer. I'll go after [00:40:00] them. I think the other piece of it is building a system of clothing around the conditions.
And I think, being focused on that, being light, being portable, I'm thinking about my hunt this week. So I have, a 600 ft elevation change from where I'm starting to where I have to be to take my son. And so I preset the stands et cetera. I want to be light. I want to be able to get in there and I don't want him, getting too sweaty, wet, whatever the case may be.
It's going to rain the opening day. So I'm thinking through each aspect of the hunt. and I want him to be enjoyed. I want him to enjoy the experience and be comforted. But we got, a 600 foot elevation and change to go through. And we got to switch back trails where it's a long hike. And I wonder, what that experience is going to be like for him.
Thinking through these aspects of your hunt and realizing you've got to have the right gear. So what I'll do is I'll pack an extra gear in my pack for him. I'll make sure that he's as light as possible. I've been in the worst, right? I can withstand almost anything until I'm near death.
[00:41:00] So I feel like in his instance, I got to give him the comfort factor, whatever you need of short johns to a location. And I'm not suggesting walk through an entire property, go miles in, right? I'm just saying in that circumstance, but if you can make it easy on yourself, You need to do it. And if it's I don't want to hunt in the rain because the conditions don't really provide the best opportunity to harvest deer.
Totally justifiable. So I just want to put that out there for people. I like that gear also in really wet snowy conditions as well. So I, we get a ton of snow, a hundred inches a year in my area. So constantly dealing with snow. cold temperatures. It's really important having the right gear and it's being able to navigate through that snow as well.
Sometimes snow up to your waist makes the hunting pretty difficult. So you've got to be more conscious of the clothing that you wear. And then, wading through snow like that, boot height, obviously getting your clothing wet, changing at the stand location, potentially sealing up those clothes.
And I want to get into set with you now, Dan, because I feel like maybe we're gonna have an argument here. So let's let's hear what you want to talk about.[00:42:00]
A lot of it has to do with clothing too, but you mentioned multiple pairs of clothes. You mentioned washing washing clothes multiple times or almost at the end of every day to try to be sent free. I hunted, I went on my Western trip, I washed it when I got back and then I hunted for a week not washing my clothes.
Wearing the same stuff, went three days, took a break, and I washed a pair of pants, and then, I washed my base layers too, and then hunted another, four or five days. And for me, I used to be the guy who, I'm not joking, I would, I took scent elimination to the extreme. I was, Washing my clothes.
I was putting them in totes. I was trying to [00:43:00] seal everything out and I just got sick of doing it. And I said, I'm going to play the wind. And that's all I care about now is. playing the wind. And so my scent routine now, my scent elimination routine is ozone. I don't wash my clothes. I wear my clothes, to the gas station and all that stuff.
Before every hunt, I will run my clothes before I get dressed in like a 15 minute, they call it a dry wash bag. I run the ozone in this dry wash bag, and this ozone, O3, it attacks odor, kills odor, and kills bacteria. And that's what I do before every hunt, is just throw the machine in, put, on the clothes, cycle it for about 15 minutes, get dressed, go hunt.
And I, as far as scent, [00:44:00] I'm a believer that access routes are the most important thing when it comes to finding a hunting location. And any type of, plus, you can... You can be as scent free as humanly possible. Your clothes can be as scent free as humanly possible. The kicker is what comes out of your mouth.
Did you eat a big, fat, juicy cheeseburger? Maybe you brushed your teeth. But if you're burping, that emits more scent than your clothes combined. Absolutely. And I've just given up on all of that stuff. I run my ozone machine, and... and I go hunt, I go play the wind. So everything, Dan, I think that's your routine.
And I think that's a good example of what people can do that may not want to go through the insaneness that you once went through. I'm going to add a little bit to your routine. I want you to think about this. So you talked about your odor coming from your mouth, right? The biggest orifice or the largest orifice is going to exert.[00:45:00]
molecules, baking soda and water guys. It's so simple. Just bring a bottle with you with baking soda and water and sip on that for a little bit. Don't swallow it. Just use it as mouthwash. And every hour put a little in your mouth. Don't bring coffee in the stand. I don't eat. I try to starve. That also does other things to your body.
So you have to get used to, binging or not binging on food for that example. But yeah, baking soda and water. That's it. That's the secret. And that helps mitigate some of the molecules that are going to come out of your mouth. It's the same thing I use when I clean my boots.
baking soda and water. And so you can do really simple things that are inexpensive that'll get you a lot further, down the road. And I know some people cover their face and body and activated charcoal, right? I've seen a lot of that kind of stuff. I stay away from that. I don't think that's necessarily the greatest thing.
I know people use zeolite and a few other chemicals. I think that doesn't make sense either. So [00:46:00] just be cautious of what you put on your skin and your body. and be considerate of what you're using and don't indulge in too much stuff. The flip side of it is I see people running ozone and box blinds.
Not a good at not good at all. In fact, that's a pretty unhealthy situation to be in. It's not good to have that much ozone to be breathing that much ozone. Just a big name guys do that. And I wish they would think a little bit more about the output and those things are not regulated. They're not health or environmentally controlled.
So there's a, there's some things to think about there as well. And that's just my opinion on stuff without doing the science work behind it. Okay. You want to hear something crazy too? All right. In 2006, I went to the Iowa Deer Classic, and that, that was back before everybody had a smartphone.
And everybody used to bring these little picture books with them. And they would have all of the deer that they've killed. Throughout decades in these books and if you ever got in a conversation [00:47:00] with people you would just switch them like I would grab yours you would grab mine and we'd flip through them and it'd be all it'd be this guy's history Almost like a journal but of all his pictures cool and so one time I was talking with this guy and the topic of scent elimination that back then I didn't have a picture book to pass around to people and so this guy we started talking about scent And he goes, do you know why, and he, I don't know if this guy, he was an old timer, and he goes, do you know why deer run from coyotes?
And it's because they can smell that they eat meat. They're, they can smell that they're a predator so they, they're in fear of that. And he goes, I stop eating meat 30 days before the season starts. And I don't eat meat anymore. And it clears out my body. And I feel like I give out a different scent that is less threatening to deer.[00:48:00]
And I'm like, so at the time I thought he was crazy. But then I'm just like, that, makes sense to where your body is emitting a different type of scent Because all you're doing is eating vegetables or whatever, whatever the case may be. He's I eat ultra clean. And then once I shoot my buck, then I go back to eating meat again.
aNd I was like, nowadays I think about that and I'm just like, I bet you if you did some research there's some kind of science behind that. There is. And so with my clients, I go through the, this is so funny, Dan, you bring this up. Not that I had a similar conversation with somebody, but I did research on that and I changed my diet probably 10 years ago.
However, I just cheated recently. So yeah, so I don't eat meat. I will eat some instances. I'll eat chicken, but I typically don't eat meat. But boy, I tell ya, I had to go down and get a sub from one of my favorite sub places. Cause I was [00:49:00] just dying the other day. I've been hunting so much. I'm like, I got, I'm craving.
I'm craving a sub. So I went there and guess what going off that diet, the amount of farting that next day was through the roof, right? Your body is so reactive. So once you get, once you once you get on the routine of having a lot of like vegetables and we're designed physically, we're designed to consume.
Much more vegetables than we probably realize, but adding into that like a lower portion of meat content and then using that as your main diet dietary needs throughout the years is a good tactic and then switching, strictly to vegetables and it's I do a lot of shakes and I have a certain routine that I go through.
So I regulate my body. I'm trying to minimize as much Output of farting and burping and bad mouth and everything else bad mouth scent and everything you can deal with. I think there's things you can do. I don't think that old timer was wrong. I think some of those old folks kinda understood. Same thing urinating scrapes, [00:50:00] if you think about the velocitation of some of the scent that comes off of the body and the concentration it in our urine is going to be a lot higher.
Watch if you have a good line, a scrape line, watch the coyotes follow that line and piss in that scrape happens more frequently and not. And if you don't think that's a disturbing function in the landscape. You're completely wrong. I've paid so much attention to the interaction of those two. There's a lot in the social biology piece of it that we don't pay as much attention to that's meaningful on how deer use the landscape and what interfering or factors go into alarming deer.
And it's being conscious of that. I see a lot of guys go to the bathroom and scrapes and I think, man, I wonder what they ate the day before. Because that's probably meaningful and what's the compounds that are part of their urine. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Gas station. Chili dog. Was that your go to during the rut?
Oh no, dude. I would be miserable if I ate that. I try to, I personally try to eat, I don't eat breakfast. Because, and I don't, I try not to drink any caffeine [00:51:00] because with caffeine comes jitters. It comes bowel movements and I just don't, I don't want to have to deal with that until after I'm done hunting for the day.
Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Are your kids old enough to hunt? I know your kids, they're younger, right? Yeah, my oldest is 10 and my oldest boy is 8 and my youngest boy is 6. So they're right in the age to where I'm starting to bring them along. My daughter had her first turkey season.
shE's not old enough to do any type of gun hunting yet. I just, I think it's, I might 410 for turkey season this year. Awesome. Awesome. But, and then maybe try to find a way to. use it for both turkeys and white tails. Sure. But but yeah, it's I'm in the starting stages of it.[00:52:00]
That's a good experience. I'm at the point where my son's hunting, so You know, some of these things of clothing and just maintenance and thinking through, I am, I'm of the point now where my success from the hunting standpoint is not of the same importance, right? The experience of, that he's having.
and we've had some tremendous hunts. This kid has been so spoiled and spoiled in like a tough hunting area. So let's be considerate of that. But I want him to experience some of the things, but also have the struggles. And at the same point I think, I hope the weather is nasty for opening day.
I hope there's some nastiness in it. So he can experience like the pain, because there's a pain and pleasure thing that happens in this world. And I think as long as we expose our kids to enough of that, I think the outcome is going to be such where they appreciate the the land of plenty.
When things are good, it's good. When things are tough, we got to get smarter and that's where I want to push him, to think a little bit differently than I probably was taught. I might have banged my [00:53:00] head against the wall too many times and wasn't as strategic.
So I'm all about, kids getting into this thing and learning from us. And I'm really happy for your big buck, man. I don't care what it's scored. It's a ginormous deer. Incredible deer, man. It's great to hear that you had success this season and you grinded and you were smart and it sounded like the hunt came together for you.
So I think there's probably a sigh of relief right now. Yeah. I, this season was definitely a season of the highs and lows. So when I hit a buck really high in the meat in his shoulder, passed through him and there was no deer at the end of the blood trail. It just disappeared into nothing.
And sure enough, I got him on trail camera a couple days after and he looked healthy. I bet you he's right now breeding a doe, living his best life. And so I was at the all time low at that point. But then, like I said, I took a three day break, got back in the stand and started playing the game again.
And last night it paid off. [00:54:00] So I'm pretty happy with the results. Great. And for anybody who's listening to this podcast, that type of resiliency and the, and those scenarios is critical at this time of year, through the rest of the season, don't give up, keep grinding, keep listening to this podcast.
I appreciate everybody listening to it. Dan, thanks for being on the podcast today. It was great talking gear with you. I learned quite a bit, so we'll talk again soon. Yeah, I appreciate it. And thank you for the awesome content that you put out, man. All right, brother. Talk to you soon. See ya. Maximize Your Hunt is a production of Whitetail Landscapes.
For more information on how John Teter and his team of experts can help you maximize your hunt, check out whitetaillandscapes. com.
