Show Notes
In this episode of the Pennsylvania Woodsman, Mitch is joined by Nate Rozeveld from the Michigan Wild podcast to discuss their experiences in the hunting community, the evolution of hunting popularity, and the impact of technology on hunting practices. They explore the joys of small game hunting, the ethics surrounding the use of technology, and personal moral dilemmas faced by hunters. The discussion highlights the importance of networking within the podcasting community and the shared passion for the outdoors. In this conversation, Nate and Mitch explore the importance of being challenged in life and hunting, the reevaluation of personal goals, and the balance between family and outdoor pursuits. They discuss how experiences shape memories and the significance of enjoying the journey rather than focusing solely on outcomes. The conversation also touches on combating cabin fever during the off-season and the mental aspects of hunting and personal growth.
Show Transcript
Mitchell Shirk (00:00.95)
All right. Joining us on this week's show. I've got a fellow podcaster on sportsman's empire podcast network. Finally getting to meet Mr. Nate Roosevelt, Michigan wild pod. Nate, thanks for joining us this evening. This was a short notice, kind of podcast. had another one lined up and I reached out on some guys on the network and Nate's like, I'd love to have a podcast with you. So thanks for joining us with us tonight. How you been?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (00:22.129)
Dude, I've been really good. Appreciate the, giving me the opportunity to do this. Yeah, I was middle of the work day and saw a text message came through and I was like, dude, I got nothing going on tonight. I'll sit down and do a podcast. love, I love talking to all things, you know, hunting and doing these kinds of things, obviously, because I'm a host of a podcast and getting an opportunity to, you know, sit down and talk with you tonight would be kind of cool because it sounds like we might be sharing a camp here in a few weeks. So, you know, what better way to get this friendship started, right?
Mitchell Shirk (00:48.366)
One of the many ways in which this whole podcast network thing has been a benefit So like there's a couple things you think about like when you do this podcast, We do it year-round. We're weekly episodes and I'd love to tell you that I am on fire 52 weeks out of the year when it comes to hunting and preparing this podcast, but I'd be lying if I said that I mean there's you know, the workdays the
The family hustle and bustle and we're in the heart of cabin fever right now. So sometimes scheduling and planning to get good content week to week is tough. And the benefit is we've got a great network of guys that we can get shows in and have great conversations. It's valuable to anybody that wants to listen to us. And the latter part is we've developed some great relationships within guys in this network. And to the point, know, John Hudspeth, who has been
Oklahoma outdoors podcasts for quite a number of years on the network has, I think this is this his third or fourth year he's invited.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (01:48.913)
think he's done it four, yeah, four years. Or, you know, it might be year number three for the camp, yeah, the hog camp.
Mitchell Shirk (01:54.648)
But he's invited people to his ranch in Oklahoma, guys on the network to come down and just have a two, three day hog hunt and kind of hunting with thermals and bait piles with timers. And it's completely different us, but it's an awesome time to get together and just network and connect and blast away and have a good time. So yeah, that's how we, kind of connected and I'm looking forward to that. You had a blast last year.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (02:19.857)
Yeah, dude. I, like I said, I was, so I haven't been doing the podcast as long as like some of you guys have the network. I'm getting close to my hundredth episode. think I'm like 90, I think 94 might be launching next week. Um, so yeah, I'll relatively new, but like last year when I, uh, went down and, know, went to his ranch with John, uh, we got to travel with Nick auto cause we're, we live pretty close to each other. So we rode together, but just getting to kind of meet some of these guys you've heard, you know, on podcasts before and, um, just.
It's so cool that we all live in such different parts of the United States maybe, or have different jobs or different things. We all have a similar mindset of things we enjoy. So when you get a group of guys together that are that way, and someone like John who's super unselfish and very welcoming for the whole entire crew of guys kind of a thing, good things happen, right? And friendships are made and memories are made and...
Gosh, it's a great group of guys. mean, it's just, it's so refreshing to just go like someone like you who I, you know, I've never met in person before, but like there's going to be zero drama because it's like, this dude, you can listen to some podcasts, understand your passion outdoorsman. And I think if you have that common ground, it's really easy to get along with each other and just, you know, have fun no matter what we're doing.
Mitchell Shirk (03:35.982)
Well, it's kind of really awkward because, know, mom, mom teaches you when you're kid to don't, don't hang out with strangers that you meet on the internet. And that's been like the whole conglomerate that we've had on this whole podcast. Like the first time that I got to meet Andrew months, who used to be part of the, two podcasts. He used to run that and
The first time I met him was when he came over to my deer camp. We'd never met in person up until that point. And he said, you know, it hit me when I was about an hour away that I never met you. never met anybody in this camp and I'm about to go hunting with you. But man, we've had a great friendship sense and that's kind of how it goes with hunting. And that's, that's why I love hunting. That's why it's fun to do this podcast and converse about it. So, I mean, let's, let's do some, some, some hunting conversing. So one of the things you said.
Uh, well before we got started, that really intrigued me because I did this when I was a kid and I haven't done it in years is you said you still run beagles. So talk a little bit about that. What is the perception in your state of Michigan as far as small game hunting and running beagles for rabbits and stuff? Because I will tell you the access around us is way harder than it used to be. The quality of the small game habitat is way down compared to where it used to be. The public land is there and there's definitely some potential.
But it's just, it's just not the same as it was years ago. And plus the perception of running dogs on some of these properties with deer hunting and whatnot and access. It's just really, really tough. So what's been your experience with that in your neck of the woods?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (05:07.121)
Yeah, so small game hunting, I think is obviously not as popular as it may have been like 15, 20, 30 years ago in Michigan, but there still is like a really good group of people who enjoy, you know, rabbit hunting or squirrel hunting, those kinds of things. for like my, my, my experience here, I think 2019 was when I got back into it. So like I rabbit hunted when I was a little kid, 12, 13, when my uncle, had beagles.
Then fast forward to like high school age when we me and my buddies all kind of got driver's licenses I had a group of friends that they had beagles so I always Tagged along with them and did that through high school and then once college hit, you know Got too busy and I kind of really do it again until my son got old enough Where I felt like he could tag along and do that. So like 2019 I got a dog and That just like it was like gangbusters again got right into it. Just like I never left so and by that time
You know, 2019, I'd already experienced like a lot of, knock on door permission properties, like for white tail hunting. don't have, I have some really good private land that like family members may own, but primarily my bread and butter is on knock on door permission properties. So when 2019 hit, was like, dude, I have zero fear to knock on doors. I have no problem, you know, doing this and kind of found that, asking permission to rabbit hunt was way easier than white tail hunting.
From that perspective and I think a couple things are going for me in that way where I live I'm really close to like some of the best like orchards like in the I don't know if they're necessarily in the United States But for sure in Michigan like we have just this crazy Good soil good conditions to grow apples and cherries and that kind of thing. So there's a lot of orchards So when you get to one of those farms and say hey, I want to shoot these rabbits
And they're like, God, kill those things. As long as you're not here during deer season, you can kind of do what you want. So it's been pretty easy. I mean, I don't get yes every time, but I can find really good rabbit hunting, you know, really close to orchards. And then our public land pieces, I think we're not mountainous. We're, you know, we're some rolling terrain. There's lots of ag where I'm at. So.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (07:20.805)
when you can find a public land that has an egg source close by, be that maybe the private or whatever, maybe there's a swamp next to an egg field, kind of thing with that grassy stuff, we can usually find pockets of rabbits pretty easy and get some really good runs there, dog. So I know that there is still a really good core group of old school rabbit hunters, because I follow some pages on Facebook.
but I don't know how many people my age are still doing it. I know I got a group of like six or seven of me and my buddies that we go pretty much every weekend once January hits and we have a riot. So it feels like it's really strong, but I don't know in the grand scheme how big it actually is still here in Michigan.
Mitchell Shirk (08:04.386)
You know, I've been very fascinated at the way certain aspects of hunting have taken off an interest. One that I've just had a show on here recently, and I've talked about a lot, is predator hunting. Predator hunting has just taken off in popularity, where there was a time where that was not even on people's radar. Turkey hunting, I think, was always popular, but I think it grew in popularity a little bit, probably with a little bit of exposure.
There's a lot of other things that come and I often wonder if things like that will have kind of a revival so to speak for different reasons whether it's access or you know is it just as simple as Nate decides he's going to take a video camera with him and people start watching YouTube videos that Nate has and you hey that looks cool I want to get into that. I think that's how a lot of this kind of changes the interest so to speak.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (08:57.905)
Oh, for sure. know that I've already developed relationships with people just from podcasting and just talking to a few people who are like, yeah, I've done that before. you know, that's a great idea. Like I'm out here scouting while I'm rabbit hunting. They'll shoot, you know, a rabbit maybe, or they'll jump shoot a rabbit or they'll find a squirrel. And it's just like, I just am a huge proponent of getting people outside. it's kind of my thing. Like Michigan Wild, get out there. That's my thing. And I think small game hunting is like a really good opportunity to...
get yourself outside more often. And I think that's the busyness of life, the busyness of families. If you look at archery deer season and then gun season is really the prime time. If you only have a week or maybe 10 days you can take off to hunt, that's a really small condensed time. Well, if you introduce yourself to small game hunting, there's that many more weekends that you can take advantage of that maybe you can get out Saturday morning.
and go walk around for an hour or two. And you can, like for me, when I'm running my dogs, I'm actually, white tail scouting too, right? Like if I'm on public land, I'm looking. So I kind of try to do as much as I can. And then once you start doing that, then maybe, maybe I'm interested in shed hunting now. So you can like get outside and do that. And I think the popularity, there's ebbs and flows, right? think if predator hunting is a thing that has been really cool for long time, and I like the access to thermals.
and good electronic calls have made that seem a lot more attainable for the normal guy. I you can get into a bolt action, a Ruger American or something with like a 223 or any one of these varmint rounds and be into that setup pretty reasonable and then your money's really just in the thermal. So if you have an ability to do that, well, you can go be pretty lethal varmint hunting. I think same thing as a small game hunting, right? You don't need much. I mean, I would say that's one of the
the cheapest hunting things you can do is small game hunting. If you just buy some sort of single shot shotgun maybe or a 10-22 rifle and just a game vest and a pair of briar pants and you can go have a lot of fun for very limited resources in. And it's an easy way to bring new hunters. I cannot tell you how many people I've taken hunting for the first time, small game hunting, or kids or those kind of things.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (11:20.453)
Yeah, I will always beat that drum like, hey, get outside. This is a good option. It's a lot of fun. And I mean, there's some awesome recipes out there. You can still eat rabbit and still eat the squirrel and do that kind of thing too. So it's just overall a lot, a lot of fun.
Mitchell Shirk (11:30.702)
Hmm.
Mitchell Shirk (11:35.83)
Yeah, rabbit is delicious. Squirrel is good too. I just hate cleaning squirrels. I prefer not to shoot them just because they're a pain to clean. So while we're still on the topic of, you know, hunting and popularity, you know, we're circling around small game. I'm not sure how I to word this question, but I've had a thought and you kind of sparked it a little bit when it comes to small game. So here goes. So one of the things when you talk about popularity growing in certain aspects,
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (11:39.854)
Yep.
Yes, sir.
Mitchell Shirk (12:04.77)
predator hunting will keep that the technology has really gotten advanced the firearms, suppressors, thermals, calls, things like that. think that's created a draw and appeal. You get into the world of bow hunting, white tails. mean the gear and the, the, you know, what, what, what they talk about on the range pod podcast, the shiny objects, all the, the, the fancy things that I think draw and appeal.
And there's, you can have that in turkey hunting. There's so many different things about hunting technology cameras. You know, I've asked the question so many times when it comes to deer hunting, that if you did wipe the slate clean and remove trail cameras from the ability to be used in the deer hunting world across the country.
what, what is that going to do to the interest and some of the people that are out there hunting? Do we lose that a little bit? So I'm bringing this full circle to kind of throw it out there. Do you think that small game hunting is almost dying in a sense because we don't really have the technology spark that's there with technology. is a get outside and have fun. And I think it's one of those things. It's probably the best way.
to get out, get outside and have fun. But there's just not a lot of people that are accepting that and doing that. And I think it's our culture. mean, what's your thoughts when I'm kind of talking about this?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (13:35.791)
Yeah, I think you definitely, there's a good parallel there. think, you know, being able to, like, there's not many things you can control in the white tail woods. Like you can't necessarily control when that deer is going to show up or what, you know, you're going to even get an opportunity, you know, throughout the fall. There's a of things you can do to like help, you know, know, increase your odds. But guess what? You do have control over going to an archery ranger, buying the latest and greatest piece of equipment, you know, be the newest accessory. And you do get like a little release of endorphins like.
Even when a buddy buys a new bow, I'm like, dude, that's awesome. Like, yeah, cool dude, you're getting a new bow or even that's a new gun. know, every time anyone comes over and I haven't seen a while, like, hey, have you seen my new gun? You know, there's excitement there. So I think the parallel to the shiny blingy thing makes those things maybe a little more popular because us as humans can control buying that thing to make us feel relevant. But you're right, like when you're...
Mitchell Shirk (14:09.005)
Yup.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (14:32.635)
when you're going after squirrels and rabbits, there's not like this, this, you know, shotgun 2000 that is gonna make you be able to, you know, reach out there and kill a rabbit at farther range. Like that's not even like a thing. It's more of, it's more rude or archaic, I guess, kind of like you just gotta walk around, you gotta stop brush if you don't have dogs. The only thing technology wise, I think has been like the biggest thing for hounds, man.
Mitchell Shirk (14:49.496)
Yeah, absolutely.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (14:58.347)
is the Garmin, you know, GPS or whatever kind of collars would be probably the biggest thing. And that's more of just giving guys an opportunity to like have their own dogs, which is cool, right? Like I remember trying to chase dogs with my uncle, like they had bells. It's like you're constantly looking for dogs and you'd shoot the gun in the air and try to find them and, you know, leaving sweatshirts out at night, coming back, you know, hours later, looking for them. Like that was pretty common. Now we got these like little handheld units that.
Mitchell Shirk (15:22.638)
Mm-hmm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (15:25.211)
can really help with that, but that doesn't have the same feeling of like, I'm not like, my gosh, you bought a new collar, that's so cool. So I think you are definitely onto something with marketing and bling bling, it draws interest.
Mitchell Shirk (15:34.413)
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Shirk (15:42.506)
And I guess while we're on the topic of technology and talking about houndsman, so I'm not a houndsman. I really appreciate everybody that does it. And when it comes to chasing coons, small game, even up when you get into guys that do it in bear. And I think it's really, really cool. And it interests me. but it goes back to, know, that piece of technology, that GPS, that is extremely important when it comes to making sure your dogs are safe, getting your dogs back and time efficiency and all that stuff. But.
One thing I have noticed, because I have watched a couple videos of guys that are chasing game with dogs. And I've even heard of people doing this when you get into Pennsylvania and Ohio and some of these states over here. I don't know if it is in Michigan, but you can use dogs for fall turkey hunting and bust a flock up and do that. And that's really, really cool. But with the advent of that technology, it seems like even more so it's
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (16:28.977)
Mmm.
Mitchell Shirk (16:38.434)
making finding game easier because of that GPS unit, because if you know your dogs, you know, I've actually seen videos of people that said, my dogs are coming up here. I'm going to drive over here. They get out of a truck and they shoot something and there's nothing wrong with that, I guess. But do we like being outside of the hounds world and you are in it. Is there a line there that we cross when it comes to hunting ethics? I don't know. What's your thought?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (17:06.769)
Yeah, so I, you know, I can relate to what you're saying, but like from my experience with like beagles, they're really slow. I mean, they only get about, like if we circle a cotton tail, we're talking like a big circle is 300 yards. So you can hear them unless you're in some crazy, you know, circumstances, but 95 % of the time you can hear, audibly hear the dog barking. And then, you know, the natural instinct of a rabbit is to do a big circle, which is like a coyote will do huge circles. So do bobcats.
Mitchell Shirk (17:19.885)
Mm-hmm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (17:36.049)
I don't know if bears really circle, I don't have much experience with those. So like my electronic thing doesn't really help me in that regard, it's more of like a training or when they don't bark, like you don't hear audible sounds. like for me, it's really easy to be like, yeah, this technology doesn't help me kill any more rabbits, it just helps me keep track of my dogs. Now I have really close friends that he loves chasing, know, he's got dogs that chase coyotes, he's like.
Mitchell Shirk (17:42.541)
Mm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (18:01.765)
He's got friends that chase coyotes and they tree bears. There's quite a bit of guys that do that here in Michigan. There's a pretty good bear population, so they'll tree bears and stuff. I do know that the terrain they chase bears in is cedar swamps and really thick stuff, so there's not really an opportunity for them to... I mean, it happens. I've seen videos of guys do that, but I do know what you mean by...
You see the loop happening on this GPS and it's like, okay, they're running across the section. There's a two track here. Let's get in front of this thing and just wait and we shoot it. like back in the day, we didn't have that GPS option. You weren't doing that unless you were just had a bunch of guys, right? You could just line people up maybe on a road. So I do think there's a point in time where technology can definitely, it changes the game and it can change the game for a positive way. And it also, I think it gives, man.
It's kind of like the same thing with like a crossbow, right? Like crossbow hunting gives is a really good tool for killing whitetails or killing, you know, deer for a wide variety of reasons, right? But it's just once you have technology that's like so proficient, it gives people who maybe aren't necessarily have the same moral standards as like I would consider the same ethics. It just gives guys an opportunity to abuse it. Same goes with thermal drones, right? Like thermal drones, I think are a super awesome tool to help recover game.
Mitchell Shirk (19:23.327)
absolutely.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (19:27.023)
right, but they're also a tool that can be abused and that technology just opens the door for abuse in a negative way. So it's kind of like what cost, you know, here like for me, yeah, keep garments like I love knowing that like my beagles are safe. I love knowing where they are. But also if like you're abusing that in a way to, you know, but it's it's also like what are we out here trying to do? We're trying to fill tags, right? Like that's
There's so many bears that need to be killed. There's so many whitetails that need to killed every year. And as long as we're in that threshold, are we really moving the needle in negative way for the herd or not? People are gonna abuse power no matter where the power line is, right? So I kind of always fight that line a little bit.
Mitchell Shirk (20:11.654)
I think you hit the nail on the head there and I don't really think that there's an answer to this nor am I poking fun at it. It's just an open ended conversation piece. I think that we need to keep relevant, cause you can have the same thing when it comes to cell cameras. You know, I get a kick out of so much when you watch videos, you listen to podcasts and you hear people talk about, I'm, I'm, not hunting my trail camera. I'm hunting some sign. It's just, you know, that's just a supplementation. And in so many cases,
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (20:25.275)
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Shirk (20:41.398)
I just don't see that that's like the action is actually meeting suit with your words. I think there's a lot of cases and I want to stick my neck out and say, I do the same thing. I use cameras to make decisions in where I'm going to hunt sometimes because you can. there's definitely calls to say cameras don't catch everything. I've talked about that tons. I'm sure you've had plenty of deer hunting experiences, but how many times, you know,
Here's the perfect example that I've seen so many times. You're hunting a specific whitetail and I've had this happen multiple cases in my life where a deer gets to a certain age class, you get to watch him for a while and he'll do some similar things on a year to year basis. And I've got a property right now that's four hours away that's private, but I got a couple of good tree stands showing up and I have had trail cameras set up knowing that there is a 10 day window
the past year or two that this deer likes to show up. And if he shows up within this window, I'm probably going to see if I can drop what I can do, make a four hour trip out to go hunting. And in that case, I am not using like most recent information and sign like this. I am hunting a camera. And I think people are afraid to say that they're doing that because it's not the cool native way to do it. But the reality is I think 90 % of people that use self cameras are using them.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (21:58.897)
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Shirk (22:10.126)
and it's legal. So I think you hit the nail on the head though, as long as we are not using it that it is really hurting game populations and things like that and I don't believe any of our technology in most cases is, but we flirt with it when we start seeing new regulations. So it's just an open-ended conversation.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (22:12.113)
Mm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (22:29.751)
It's a good conversation. there's been, I have an example of like a moral dilemma I was faced. I think it was two seasons ago now. It was in the Michigan has like a really long gun season. Like you can shoot a doe with your, with a rifle or a straight wall cartridge for like over two months here in Michigan. So we like, we all get 10 doe tags and you can shoot them anywhere in the state. Like public pride doesn't matter. Like it's been a rule. So like.
Mitchell Shirk (22:48.771)
Holy cow.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (22:57.649)
Two years ago, was like, okay, I'd like to shoot some does. I had a food plot that I had put in that year. I'm not a huge habitat guy or food plot guy. Kind of just whatever I get an opportunity to, I can put food plots in sometimes. And it always varies on a dependent crop rotation. Like I don't have a property where I can just have a clean slate and do whatever I want. So this year, I'm talking about I had an opportunity to put like a really big food plot in like an acre. And I was pretty excited. So I was like, dude, this is going to be good.
I'm gonna have food all year and it's close to the house. Of course I had a cell camera on that food plot all year, And it was like December time, snow had came down the day before, like your typical day after like a heavy change and maybe five to six inches of snow came down. And so like the next day is usually really good, right? Like I would have, if I was like looking at the calendar, looking at the weather, I'm like, okay, this day would be a good day to go hunt and try to fill a doe tag. Well.
That day came and went and I got stuck at work a little late, know, and I was like, I'm not going to sneak out there because don't have time, right? Well, as I'm sitting down, ping, get a instant notification of my cell camera. And like, there's five does in the, in the, this food plot. I was like, Ooh, I get to go. I had that like moment like, I can hop in the truck and I'll be over there in, you know, short time. And I could probably sneak over there and shoot all those deer. And I like got to the point of like developing the game plan in my head. And I was like,
I don't like that. Like I don't like that. Yes, I would have probably if I yeah, I was more than I was like, OK, I could have hunted if I would have hunted that night. I probably shot one, I was like, I don't know how to do this. Like this is just it felt dirty to me. So ever since then, I I'll have instant still camera pictures happen throughout the summer and like that kind of stuff. But then once like deer season comes in, you know, is here, I will have a delay on my pictures. And just because I don't want to have that.
that be a thing, because it felt really weird. And that's just personal, right? Like that's just, I'm not saying that's how you have to do it. I was just like, I didn't like how that happened. And I've had like chasing cameras, know, hurt me in the past where I'm just like focused on those. So it's like twofold, right? Like waiting a full 12 hours to like understand what's going on and then making decisions based on like forecasted stuff, opposed to like, well, yesterday this happened. So, you know, I'm going do this tomorrow. Like I try to, you know.
Mitchell Shirk (24:59.067)
yeah.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (25:14.875)
do it that way. But yeah, the cell cam game, it's, do I need cell cameras to be successful? No. Do I have more bucks in my wall because of cell cameras? I would lean towards yes, because they let me know a deer was in the area, or let me know that, I need to spend time in this area because I had a one-on-one to shoot on camera. Do I think that, I've never had it where it's like, I got a trail cam picture and then,
went in there shortly after and killed that deer because of that trail cam picture, like that quick, quick way of it. But also it's definitely a tool that does help. I don't have to hunt as much. That's what I always tell everyone. If I didn't have trail cameras, I would have to hunt so much more to understand what's going on in the woods and build like that. They may have to do that for 10 years, Hunt so hard for 10 years and then maybe the twilight of my career, I wouldn't have to hunt as much because I learned so much.
Mitchell Shirk (26:03.115)
Absolutely.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (26:13.777)
I can spend more time with my family, can do those kind of things and I can be a little more strategic and don't feel like I'm having FOMO. But it's the same thing as anything else, like where's the line? And I think it comes down to you as the hunter, how you want to use those. And if they change rules, they change rules, right?
Mitchell Shirk (26:31.53)
Absolutely. Because, because at the end of the day, I don't buy Nate's hunting license and Nate can choose to hunt however he so chooses to and keeps him happy. I think the conversation is relevant just because I think anytime that we are challenged in life in the way we're thinking, if I think it's a good thing, I think being challenged in what you think, because when you go through and you break it down,
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (26:38.351)
Yes, sir.
Mitchell Shirk (27:00.29)
You're either going to solidify what you believe or if you're challenged and you're wrong, it's going to improve the way you're thinking. If you go into it with an open mind. So being challenged into what you're doing all the time is a good thing. It's, and it's, it's not a bad thing that Nate challenges Mitchell in, in something he's doing in his life. It's, it's ultimately going to make him better, whether that's hunting or that's, that's anything in life. So one of the things that. Go ahead.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (27:26.321)
Do you feel, I was gonna quick ask you something about that. Do you feel like you're more, so like I love challenging myself and if you are challenged and you have like something going on, do you feel like you're more engaged?
Mitchell Shirk (27:39.052)
my gosh. Yeah. Though I've been going through a dilemma the past few years and I just wrote, it's, it's been the, it's been a big topic of conversation that very topic. So, I, I get in the winter time here, I was, I just got asked to do a speaking event at a church. wrote, usually for our church's sportsman dinner, I'll write an article and, I've done this every year for the handout and you know, just different things. And it's been different topics over the past few years.
You know, last year I was in a point with hunting where I'm like, why am I so ate up with it? And I, I told a cool story, but I didn't really have a great, answer for myself and that stuff. And I've kind of been diving into some other things here recently. And I, I realized that in the past, before I was married, before I had kids and my time was a little bit more to myself, I could set.
goals and challenges for myself that were harder and I could have the time to invest in them and I didn't have other things pulling me away and I've realized that as my career my Family everything else that's going on in my life. I realize as my focus has turned more towards that my goals and expectations and challenges have gotten to a point where
They're almost unrealistic for myself because I can't invest the time that I want to achieve the success that I want. So I've been in kind of a limbo of frustrated with myself and, not feeling challenged in certain aspects. And it's forced me to kind of look at the scope of hunting and the things that I enjoy. Look at it in a completely different light and like, what is like, why am I so infatuated hunting?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (29:09.563)
Hmm.
Mitchell Shirk (29:36.938)
And what is a good purpose of it? And I've, I've kind of come to the conclusion that, you know, there can still be challenges along the way in changing things. there's, there's ways that I can, I can change my goals and change my way of thinking in some things. Like for instance, I was big Mr. Buck shooter, bow hunting. had to be that way. There was a certain way I had to do it. Right. And
I'm trying to steer my mind and saying, okay, I don't need to shoot the absolute biggest buck in the world and go back, you know what crazy chasing him, but I can enjoy shooting a good buck with whatever weapon I so choose to out hunting season if I do it with the right people. But I've really realized and broken down that, you know, regardless of whatever I do hunting, it's not like, that's not who I am. I'm not, I'm not my purpose in my
identity is not wrapped up in that. It is wrapped up in like what I always say is like I'm a child of God, I'm a follower of Jesus and there is way more into that and helping people along the way through my journey and my joys of that than there is my own self-gratitude. So that's a very long answer but to answer your question, if I am not challenged I have really had to recur my thinking in that.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (30:58.641)
Yeah, and I think that's powerful. Like what you just said is very powerful because we can kind of single us men out maybe here a little bit. you, know, the way society is or whatever excuse you want to talk about, busyness or how easy it is to get lost in your phone. Social media like days can kind of like just tick by and go really quick. So if you can have a way to challenge yourself mentally,
It's really important, right? There's a lot of physical stuff in there. I think it's really easy to look at the physical tools. You should work out every other day, or you gotta drink so much water, and all this physical stuff that men can kinda see, right? It's easy to see that part, like, this guy's in shape, or you can go crank out some pushups and work out in the gym a few days a week, and you can get a result. But the mental side of things are...
Where the gains I think are really made and I'm talking like if I'm in a good mental space like spiritually Or with my family like I'm better spiritually and I'm better with my family I'm a better husband better father and I know there's a balance there right like me understanding that like you know, there's certain people are gifted with certain things in life, right? like and I feel like being someone who enjoys the outdoors and
you know, sports and those kinds of things like that's something I feel like I just, have the tools and the talent for that. So like, I don't want to like let that go by the wayside, but also I got to make sure I take care of other things. But I do know if I spend time shooting my bow when I get home from work, maybe, or if I go take like a scout, like in the morning for a couple of hours or just go sit in tree for a few hours here and there that like, I'm in a good, a good spot. Like I could be grounded. Like you were saying.
And then I know that I've abused that in the past too. Like I know there's some years where I've went too hard and I think it's a constant evolution. I know I have friends and I have people that I care a lot about that I've seen go through mental stuff, right? Like go through and they don't have a purpose maybe or they don't have, they're struggling, right? Through life it's like, man, I wish I could just kind of like give you a little bit of this, right? Cause like when I'm down, can, you know, I can.
Mitchell Shirk (32:51.212)
Yeah.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (33:14.641)
Redirector I can do those kind of things and I can just always have a good like every day is a good day, right? You're not like I'm naturally that way like I'm like I'm like a hype man. Let's go but I the outdoors and doing those kind of things and being challenged is so good for like So many things and I want everyone to be able to taste a little bit of that I think it's very attainable like having success in the outdoors is very attainable for a lot of different people and a lot of different walks of life in a lot of different ways, so
That's where I'm always gonna encourage people to go.
Mitchell Shirk (33:47.128)
Have you noticed in your life the times in which you're trying to force your hunts and really grind it out and push it out and push your luck when it comes to the other aspects of your life that you'd consider priorities that there's less satisfaction than in the situations where it comes organically? And I'm going to use my own personal example. There are two deer on my wall in my basement that
really are polar opposites in this. The one is the buck I shot a couple of years ago. I was, I was actually at a point in my marriage where we weren't at our height, our best, that we were, we were bickering. We were, you know, there was, there was things that didn't suit. were, you know, just had our second child and he was, if that would have been October, March, so he'd have been like seven months old, not sleeping through the night. We were stressed. We had a lot of stuff on our workload and I am trying everything I can do.
to force my hunts in. And I shot a buck probably the third week of archery season and I was excited, but man, there was something sour about that whole experience and that deer does not seem to hold as much weight in my memory and everything else as the buck I shot this year where, you know, the hunt that I had was with a buddy, a fairly newer friend.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (34:58.993)
Hmm.
Mitchell Shirk (35:15.628)
We went to a piece of land we never hunted before, but I had full support for my wife and kids to the point that when I shot the deer and I called my wife, she happened to be driving past the parking lot that I was on and I got this, I got a sweet tea and a good job daddy note and like a Reese's thing when I came back to my truck, cause we had a long hike out. And that story, I think I hunted less and prepared less.
this year for this year's buck then I did that buck I shot a few years ago but this one was way cooler because of all that stuff.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (35:46.545)
Mmm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (35:50.769)
Yeah, for sure. That's pretty exciting. Hearing that, I think a lot of dads, a lot of guys can probably look inward, take that moment to really assess themselves. And we all have those people like, I hunt, whatever she says, I'm going hunting, I'm doing whatever I want, anytime I want. And I know people that are that way. I've been that way. There's been times where I'm just like, I'm doing this, I don't care.
Mitchell Shirk (36:11.938)
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Shirk (36:15.872)
Yeah, absolutely.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (36:19.633)
and don't care the repercussions, like stop me kind of a thing. And you can justify that so many ways, right? Like I justify, well, all summer I'm doing everything else. Like every time we got to go somewhere, I'm there, anything that needs to be done, all the bills are paid, all the to-do list stuff is done, the house is in good working order, things are organized, like it's time for daddy to have fun kind of a thing. And then growing and learning and doing those things.
I feel like I'm in a pretty good space now. And if I look back at it, I probably hunt more now than I did then, but it's because I can hunt more consistently. It used to be like, oh my gosh, I have to hunt five straight days. Or it's November, I need to hunt all November. Last year, or this year, there was times in November, I think...
I didn't hunt very much at all between my Kansas trips, because I was like, I know Kansas is coming up, so I'm going to take it easy here. So the prime bow hunting in Michigan, I only went a couple times. And guess what? Those couple times I went were dynamite sets, like dynamite. So for me, I was very fulfilled. Like, hey, this was awesome. When years passed, would just be like, I would just be pacing, pacing, and just being a pain. When I was home, I wasn't home.
I was just being a butt and now it's like, okay, I'm home. It's a Saturday. Maybe I'm not hunting, maybe I hunted that morning, but I'm not hunting that night. So like when I'm home, I'm like, it's family time, right? Let's set a game plan, right? I can strategically plan all these out of state trips and all my hunting adventures, but like, what do I do for my family? What kind of fun thing do I have, you know, for them? So just being a little more engaged and, hey, let's go do this, you know, this weekend and those kinds of things have helped tremendously. And I shot a buck in Iowa.
I'm in the land of the giants, right? Like this is supposed to be, this is white tail Mecca and, know, pristine property, like everything you could dream of as like a Michigan boy. Like I'm going to, you know, this, this area where there's mature deer everywhere. Like I'm going to see something. And, um, that year, I I can't really remember exactly what went down, but I didn't leave on like the best terms, right? Like I, I don't know if I forgot to do something or I was just, I can't really remember to tell you the truth. Um, and.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (38:38.641)
The first day I'm there, opening day of a gun season in Iowa, it's supposed to, it's trying to soak this whole thing in and it was nothing but just a pain because the family wasn't good back home. And had a lot of time to reflect right on that trip because I'm sitting in a blind all day, sun up, sun down kind of thing. And I told myself, I was like, never again, never again am I going to go on an out of state trip, no matter what it is and have this happen. What do I got to do?
I'm still gonna hunt, right? I still wanna go on out of state hunts. I still wanna do this. But what do I need to do to make sure, you know, family's good? And, you know, the following year, do I do a better job? Yes, but I wasn't where I needed to be still. You know, year three, year four, year five, it's like now I feel like this past year was probably the best it's ever been with me being gone. And that's just a sum of just making it be front center. Like making it be a mindset throughout the year.
So yeah, there are certain deer that it was like, yeah, and I shot a great buck on that trip, you know, but that buck is substantially larger than the buck I shot in Kansas this year. And this Kansas deer just means so much more because of those exact same things you kind of had said.
Mitchell Shirk (39:52.514)
I think that's big. Another mentality that I'm trying to change with my personal hunting goals and stuff is I've had this like piss or get off the can mentality or like go hard, go home mentality where, you know, if I set a goal and if I don't think I can put enough time and preparation into doing it the way I think it needs to be done, then
I almost shy away from even trying it because I'm not going to be able to accomplish it the way I want to. So, so scale back and I'm trying to change that. I've been, you know, talking to him blue in the face here on this podcast of past few times. I've said, I really want that my cabin in Northern Pennsylvania, I want to kill a good representation with my bow up there. And it's going to be definitely a doable thing, but
You know, before my expectation was, well, I'm just going to go do my off season preparation and I'm going to go this fall and I'm going to kill him. And, know, I'm looking at the January, February, March here. If I get up and scout one time in that area before spring grain up, that will be awesome. And, you know, I'll probably have a Turkey Hunter too. And I don't do really good at multitasking. If there's turkeys gobbling, I'm not going to be scouting.
So then you get into the summertime and it's, hard to, to scout and leave. I mean, of course you can, but you know, you're, trying to find a balance here. not the same. And I don't know how much I'll be able to get up and hunt in the fall there because of the, family schedule and stuff. But what I have to change my thinking is enjoy what you can and learn what you can along the way. And if this goal I have takes me two, three, four, five seasons to accomplish.
It's my prerogative. What does it matter to anybody else? How long it takes to me to accomplish it? You're going to learn the process the same. Do it on your time and enjoy what you can. And that's what I'm having to change my mind on.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (41:50.513)
Mmm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (41:59.153)
dude, 100%, like I'm gonna take golf as my kind of thing here. So I wanna, when you whitetail hunt, you like feel like you almost had to like dedicate 100 % to whitetail hunting to be good at it. I did that for a stretch. And, but then golf, like in the trades, like, you know, in construction, lot of guys like to golf and there's always golf always in the summertime. So it's pretty easy, but like, Hey, everyone, we're gonna go, you know, hit nine, you know, after work or.
We're gonna do this thing like once or twice a year. And that was kinda like my golf. Like I would golf me once a year, do a scramble or something. That was terrible, right? Like just terrible. And then I got to the point where I had a little more free time because my wife was getting, she went to school to get her masters. So I had this young kid at home and I was like, we gotta do something. And I was like, driving range. Super easy to go to driving range. So I was like, I'm gonna get better at golf this year. And like.
I knew how much other people golf. was like, well, I can't golf as much as these people do. Like I can't golf two nights a week or I can't golf three nights a week or once a week. don't have that in my schedule. But what I can do is go to the driving range once or twice a week. And I was like, I kind of took shoot my bow approach to like how I good at shooting a bow and how I like golf. So then like I would go and work on things and then like, you golf, it's like, Hey, it's working. So like you kind of almost had to like in the hunting journey, the same thing, like
We don't have like this crazy amount of time. It's like very like focused on like spreading my time out through the year and like learn little things and do that. And like you said, the goal of me becoming a better golfer, like what's my baseline? My baseline was really low. Like I was like really low. So I want to be a better golfer, which didn't take much. I just wanted to be able to not lose a ball every hole kind of a thing, you know, small improvements. And now I did that and I was like, Hey, I achieved that goal. Like I'm not a good golfer by any means, but like I can actually play golf now.
I think hunting is very similar. Your goal of shooting that buck on that property, that's awesome, dude. But you could post a picture of that deer this fall, and I would have no idea that was a goal you worked for for years because I don't know the story. That's literally you. So it's not life or death. And that is really hard to tell yourself that, but it's not. So if that takes you five years, if it takes you 10 years, if it takes you two years,
Mitchell Shirk (44:03.828)
Exactly.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (44:17.649)
you're gonna appreciate the process and take it in because guess what? Every year you're trying at that goal, every time I to the driving range, it was fun. I was just having a good time. I'm with my son, we're getting snacks or whatever, I'm slicing balls left and right. if I go, I hunted out of state with my bow for 13 years before I killed a buck with my bow out of state. I loved it, I would do 13 years again because it's so much fun doing that. I had really high goal and I mean.
It's all just down to, like you said earlier, Nate's tag, do how I want with it. And as long as you're engaged and you're contributing to society in a good way and pushing the numbers the right way for harvesting deer and doing these things and you pass it on for generation to generation, who freaking cares how long it takes you to reach a goal, right?
Mitchell Shirk (45:08.289)
Absolutely. So we got a little bit of time left here. I am curious. You told me that Michigan's deer season just came to a close, you know, a couple of weeks ago into January, kind of similar to Pennsylvania. I know there's a ton of similarities in, uh, in the season length and then the pressure between states. know you just said though, you have a much longer gun season, but excuse me, excuse me, man. I got me.
So I was curious, you know, I know you deer hunt hard grind it out all season long. Now that we're ended, what are you doing to combat cabin fever?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (45:45.297)
So what's your definition of cabin fever?
Mitchell Shirk (45:48.3)
My definition of cabin fever is like, just feels like you're stuck in and there's nothing to do. I mean, like I'm, I'm a deer hunter mentality. mean, I know like there's other things you can do and catch up on, but like I was just sitting here, this evening talking to one of my hunting buddies on the phone and we're just like, yeah, we're, we've got.
It's icy conditions. It's really not great to drive the places we want to drive to go and shed, hon or do scouting. And besides that, we don't even have the time right now with all the family ordeals and everything. So we were just said, you know, there's, greener pastures ahead is kind of mental that that's cabin fever to me.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (46:30.245)
Yeah. So I, I'm pretty fortunate cause I rabbit hunt. So I take the dogs out pretty much every weekend and can go, I can leave the house in the morning. We're usually back by like noon and we can run the dogs four to eight miles and then we'll walk, you know, between three miles maybe in that average. like I get to do that every Saturday or Sunday, just depending on the weather. So like that kind of, that kind of, you know, scratches that edge of being outside. and then when I.
So like you leave in the morning, it's dark. You get home, it's dark. Like, you know, that kind of stinks. But what I try to do is I don't want, I don't like e-scout hard, but I do like start thinking about those kinds of things. Like be that out of state stuff. So I will, you know, once the family's to bed, if I don't have a podcast, like podcasting is really good for me. Like it keeps me super engaged without feeling very relevant. But I to kind of scratch the itch or take care of the cabin fever. If I can't be outside, I like to.
Mitchell Shirk (47:22.146)
Mm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (47:30.523)
pull up my phone or watch a YouTube video on something I want to learn. then, like right now, I'm kind of like teaching myself how to maybe edit videos in the future. So I'm like learning how to edit videos on maybe a certain program, and then I'm also watching videos on YouTube, like how they film or how they do things. And then when I get kind of sick of that, maybe I'll be like, I wonder what, know, stalking on white tails. I'll watch videos like that. I always try to...
you know, kind of like if I have free time, like dedicate it towards something and like I shoot my bow in the basement. So like I do that every day. That helps a lot. Like after we're done with this, I'm going to fling some arrows before I wrap up for the night. dude, telling you like having my dogs and be able to go out once a week in the wintertime, maybe twice a week really helps scratch that itch of, you know, going hard for a long time in the whitetail woods to do that. And then by the time
We kind of get done rabbit hunting, know, end of March is when we, think March 31st is our last time we can, you know, shoot rabbits. That's like full on shed hunting. So I can just roll right into once a week, go walking around the woods and look for some sheds. And I kind of go and then summertime hits and you get the old bass boat out and go try to go fishing. So I try to like always have something going on, you know, a week in a week out throughout the year.
Mitchell Shirk (48:50.09)
I like that. I like that. Well, hey, this has been a lot of fun on doing this conversation this time of year, man. Like I said, when we started this, you know, there's a lot of things you can get into and it seems like it's hard to, to gain traction just because you know, deer season's over. You still got rabbit hunting, but I mean, it's like over here, it's kind of, it's kind of, you know, scraping for crumbs over here in a sense is what it feels like.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (49:02.353)
Mmm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (49:12.709)
I'm not in the mountains, right? You guys got hill country, so like we can access, everything's flat. So like I got four wheel drive. I can get into any kind of public land I want to and have a party out there. So I don't have to walk up and down elevation. I can, I don't have to worry about ice too bad.
Mitchell Shirk (49:26.2)
Other and there's plenty of places that I could. I've just gotten to a point. It was kind of back to the whole cabin thing. There's places that I don't know. And maybe I need to change my thinking here, but there's places I could go. just, this is going to sound terrible. don't have interest in going. I just don't have the interest in exploring those. There's places I want to explore. And even though I don't believe the checks and balances system works, I still have it in my head. We're like,
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (49:44.689)
Mmm.
Mitchell Shirk (49:55.36)
If I invest time into this away from the wife and kids, am I going to be pushing her buttons in a few weeks when I get the opportunity to say, okay, now I want to go check this out here and I want to be a boy for this day and that day and whatever. I'm like, I'm playing that like, you know, how many buttons can, how many, how many buttons can I push without making it go overboard?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (49:58.897)
Mmm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (50:13.946)
Long game, baby.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (50:19.449)
Yep, I'm thinking about how many trips I have planned this fall and I'm like, ooh, that might be a bit much, but I'll try really hard to make them all work.
Mitchell Shirk (50:27.298)
That's the nice thing about I did this. I got the opportunity to do this Kansas hunt in January. That's different than I ever do. We're going to go to John's here in March. That's a time of year. I'm never doing anything like that. It's going to be a good time to just, so if I can spread them out like that, it'll, it'll be better. So, Nate, you can be found, your podcast is found basically anywhere you can find, my podcast on.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (50:39.663)
Mm-hmm.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (50:44.687)
Yes sir, every couple months. Every couple months do something.
Mitchell Shirk (50:54.296)
Google, Spotify, iTunes, all this stuff. Do have any other outlets of stuff that you've got? know you've got a Michigan Wild Pod, Instagram. What else you got going on?
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (51:03.205)
Yeah, that's it right now. don't have anything other than the typical podcast stuff like you on the Empire. Yeah, Michigan Wild, you'll find me on all that stuff. Do weekly episodes like you do. Sometimes I do two a week during the season, but yeah, just grind it out. Otherwise, Instagram's kind of my only social media thing right now. The desire to start a Facebook page is kind of like small. I feel like I can barely keep up on Instagram with how little I got going on there. But yeah, if you want to interact with me or see any of the kind of content I got.
From a social media aspect, Instagram's the way to go. If you have any questions, if there's any Michigan listeners, right, like if you have any guys from Michigan that wanna reach out to me, hit me up on that, or just search my name, Nate Roosevelt on Facebook, and you can message me there, and I love talking to new people, and I'll help as many people as I can. I'm no genius, I'm no pro, but man, I love being outside, and I love getting after it. So like-minded people, we started the conversation with good things happen when you start yourself like-minded people.
Mitchell Shirk (52:02.006)
You got it. Hey Nate, thanks for joining us.
Nate Rozeveld W/ Michigan Wild (52:04.558)
Absolutely.
Mitchell Shirk (52:07.736)
Alrighty.
