Show Notes
In this episode of the Pennsylvania Woodsman, Mitch is joined by PA native Chris Weist. The two delve into the intricacies of deer hunting, discussing various strategies, mental challenges, and the impact of technology on the hunting experience. This includes how Chris prioritizes his time throughout the fall, what challenges he is facing, how to navigate feed trees in monotonous timber, and much more. They explore the importance of patience, the significance of food sources, and the need for aggressive tactics in certain situations. The discussion also touches on setting realistic goals and expectations for the hunting season, as well as the balance between utilizing technology and maintaining the adventure of hunting.
Show Transcript
Mitchell Shirk (00:04.046)
All right. Take number three, joining us on this week's show. I've been looking forward to having him. Chris Wiest, how are you, Doing good, buddy. Just got out of the deer woods and then talk some deer hunting with you. Yeah, absolutely. So you've been hitting it now. I feel like we've had this conversation the last, I don't know, 10 minutes and we haven't let anybody hear it so far. So I know you've been hunting it hard. been hunting Maryland and a couple other states out of state here for a couple of weeks now.
I know I just, you just told me your dad's out of state. You shooting, just shot a great buck in, I think Wyoming. said there's lot going on in the deer world for you right now. September 6th was Maryland, right? Yes, sir. That was the opener this year. Gotcha. So recap for me, what are the states that you hunt each year? Well, my main three is definitely Maryland, PA and Ohio. And then I've been trying to trick another state.
I just haven't had a year where I tagged in all those three and I moved on yet, but I got some cameras running in Virginia I'd like to get down there and then I actually have a I'm a lease in West Virginia that I've had for two years and never had it once yet and I got some public closer to home that I've got in West Virginia so I'd really like to make it down to West Virginia soon, but I I make it a I prior prioritize
trying to go back in PA Ohio and Maryland first before I move on. I don't want to spread myself too far. You know, it's funny you say that because today I was scouting in New Jersey for bear and I was with one of my hunting buddies and we were talking about, you know, the upcoming season, some stuff that's happened in Pennsylvania up until this point, you know, the stuff we see in the near future we'd like to do or places we'd like to go. And I just said at one point there's
too much ground and there's not enough time. sometimes I just don't know how I want to prioritize my hunting structure. How do you do that? Well, I just think it depends on what your goals are. mean, what you prioritize, what's more important to you. You know, like I said, my main three is Maryland, PA, Ohio, but Maryland really isn't even high on my priority list as far as the caliber of deer or anything. It's just
Mitchell Shirk (02:27.982)
It opens up so much sooner than the other states and it gives me a chance to get in the timber, work out all the kinks in my gear. And it seems I'm learning as a woodsman. You know, I see different scenarios down there all the time compared to here. You know, it's all big mountain grass kind of relevant, but it's just individual setups and how things work and wind directions and thermal play. And it just makes you a better hunter being in the woods, you know, for four more weeks out of the season.
And then you got four weeks before PA opens to really, you know, get on your high horse and get your game on. So when Maryland or I'm sorry, when Pennsylvania comes to a start, you know, Ohio's around that same time each year. When those two come into start, does that mean Maryland takes a back burner? Yeah, a little bit. What's nice is it's not very far from my home and you can hunt Sundays. So like as we're talking now, it's Saturday night. I just got done hunting and.
Tomorrow morning, I'll be in Maryland. I'll hunt Maryland on Sundays now and then hunt PA through the week. Before work, I work second shift. Usually hunt about every morning. And then I tried to make it to Ohio at least two, three times through like the end of October, of the beginning of November. Gotcha. So one of the things I wanted to ask you.
I know you are, you know, you do some power lifting, you're hard grinder when it comes to hunting. You got a lot of things that really require a lot of mental strength, a lot of, a lot of just strength in general to be tough. And a lot of the time, when I think about those two things, a lot of time you're setting goals or there's things that you're trying to get better at or overcome. Is there anything in particular when you think about
deer hunting this fall that say, man, this is one area as a deer hunter I'm really looking to pursue and get better at this year. I think. challenges arise with each season, and it might even be something that last season was easy for people for some reason this season with the struggle, and I can relate to that because right now I'm kind of going through a mental struggle.
Mitchell Shirk (04:45.494)
Man, I felt like I was just almost more patient last season. If there's some reason that my patience level has been very low this season. I think it's because I mean, I've just been grinding hard really early already, and I really haven't had very action, very many encounters thus far. Obviously, there's different reasons for that. I think there's a lot of food in the timber right now.
mass crop of acorns and we haven't had any hard frost yet so there's still all the vegetation on the forest floor, your clear cuts, green briar, everything. So I just don't let the deer move very far. So I mean you got, you and I find that you have to be right on top of these deer, the seed deer, because they're just not moving. I tell you what, I've been wrapped up in deer for weeks that I just have not brought it together and it's starting to, starting to wear on my shoulders a little bit, getting frustrating.
And then had one of my neighbors kill one of my target bucks open a morning or open an evening. So now now it's like my competitive edge is starting to come out. Now I'm ready to start pouting some boots and I think, you know, bringing up the ugly side. I want to start tracking these things down. Yeah, I can relate. I've had tough seasons myself. Yeah. Yeah. I just think that's one. That's one area this year is.
It's early, you know, it's only October 12th, but I'm acting like I've been in PA for six weeks when that's not the case. So I'm gonna try to reset my patience level and, you know, just stay steady and grind. Yeah, I think a lot of people have talked about when they hunt hard like that, at some point they're going to reach a point where they reach a breaking point and got to take a break and, you know, almost, you know, flirt with, you know, I would almost say burnout.
You're hunting hard, you're not seeing exactly what you want to be seeing. How do you balance that? Because you want to make your season enjoyable and last as long as possible. I we wait all year for this. So tell me a little bit about how you approach that. You're going to approach that. Yeah, I think looking at maybe where you're at in the season and then setting your expectations.
Mitchell Shirk (07:07.32)
So I realize now like, hey, I've been hunting for weeks and these deer aren't moving very far. So I need to realize that I'm not gonna be seeing a pile of deer moving around. But if I can put myself where I need to be, even though I'm not seeing very many deer, it's all it's gonna take is one right morning or one right evening. And the one deer that I am gonna see is the one that I need to see.
So I just, think if I just keep practicing my woodsmanship and doing what I need to do, picking that right tree, playing the wind, being where I need to be, making sure everything makes sense and why I'm there, then I just need to keep out of the lodge till I get that encounter. Cause I really think once I do see this deer that I'm hunting, I think it's probably gonna end up being real tight quarters and it's probably, I'm gonna get a shot off basically. I just gotta.
keep growing and wasting that opportunity to arise.
Absolutely. So you talking earlier, there's a lot of food in the woods and I know there's certain places that I'm hunting that I haven't seen an acorn crop that was real special the past few years. Now, this year seems like there's a good supply of food. I've had years on the flip side, years ago, I can remember hunting a piece of private land where if you get a big acorn crop and maybe you had a food plot or something like that, they were coming out to regularly then a big food
you know, big bash of acorns hit the ground and it kind of changes food sources a little bit. So would you rather have lower mass crops as far as hunting or like your ability to get on deer or is it just it's that hard to get on deer in bow range? I mean, in my mind, I've my experience has been if there's food, I can find deer. It's just a matter. Can I get one in bow range? I mean, what's your take on it this season so far?
Mitchell Shirk (09:07.235)
I've never had an issue with getting deer in bow range. I just think it's harder when there's such a mass crop of acorns.
Mitchell Shirk (09:20.622)
of being because then it's really hard to pick out what tree that they're focusing towards. As far as like if they're low acorn crop here, if you got a couple of trees, maybe four or five trees in a group that are dropping and then say like a five or six hundred yard section, I mean, that makes it lot easier to move in on what the deer are eating. You don't need to have a lot left to choose from.
Either that or if there's not a lot of acorns, then maybe, you know, if we're talking mountain ground, you'll have like open log yards that they over seeded with clover. You know, basically a food plot in the mountain is all it is. You know, they could choose from green. Maybe they're just on a green or maybe there's green briar they're eating on. I feel like it's a lot easier to fine tune with the deer feeding on when there's not so many acorns.
That makes sense. one of the things I've kind of I think back, you know, I've listened to people talk about podcasts or have shows and stuff and might depend on where in the country you're at. But I've heard people talk about finding that oak flat or finding that feed tree or stuff. And man, some of the places that I've hunted in Pennsylvania, I still hunt to this day. The best example I can think of is, you know how if you have like I know Onyx has this, I don't know if Spartan Forge does, but I Onyx has a
feature that can show where oak trees are or predict where oak trees are. And some of those places that I go, you put that feature on and the entire mountain range is just this solid color of yellow or red, highlighting white oaks and red oaks. And when you look at that, it's a sea of oak trees. So I used to hear, find the feed tree, find the, you know, that,
that oak flat, the whole thing's an oak flat and if they're all dropping acorns, I don't really know that there is such a thing. So what I've kind of gravitated towards is where do terrain features come together that might funnel movement if there's a sea of food amidst it and how do you get in, how do you get out and what wind do you need? And that's kind of, I feel like sometimes we do overcomplicate this as hunters. We want to overcomplicate it because we want to look for that one specific feed tree. That's where the deer are going to.
Mitchell Shirk (11:42.484)
And sometimes in Pennsylvania, some of the forests that we're at, I just haven't had any experience that way. I do you have any thoughts to that, Chris? Because I mean, I've definitely tried that in the past before I started working with the Spartan Forest guys. I mean, I never thought it was true. I mean, it's not hard to throw out on a mountain side, that it's all red oak or white oak. And it's just like, it's not specific enough to be like ultra useful, in my opinion.
And as far as like terrain features and stuff, what I'm finding right now...
Guys have terrain features that they prefer, right? Doesn't mean that there's a pin buckle in every one of those terrain features in your area and I really just think it takes a lot of boot work to fine-tune and Find out where you actually need to be at You can't hunt where you want to hunt and hunt the tree you want to hunt you got to hunt where the deer are and Hunt what tree you need to be in to kill the deer. So honestly right now I'm shifting towards
just finding fresh tracks, bean roots, fresh brubs with shaving on top of the leaves, scrapes that are as fresh as you can find them and then you kind of combine all that with the terrain feature and figure out how the wind is going to work with your access.
Makes sense to me. What I was kind of getting at, like with the feed tree concept, like I don't necessarily see in some places where like you'll scout around and you'll go, okay, this is the feed tree. I mean, I've heard a lot of people talk about locating the feed tree. And I guess what I'm getting at is there are, I don't know if it's like places that you hunt as well, but some of the places in Pennsylvania I hunt, it is just a dominant oak forest. And on a year like this where everything's
Mitchell Shirk (13:40.588)
Dropping acorns. It's almost impossible to navigate. I guess that's kind of just echoing what you had said before Like as far as a feed tree, I mean I did kill one of my does this year off of the feed tree in Maryland I Shot her on a big red oak tree But it was literally one of the very first ones that I found dropping and I just like all the deer flocked to it But that was a very small window
that I just capitalized on. went in to hunt it one morning and I was able to shoot a, I shot a big doe at seven yards with my long bow. And it was just like every deer on that mountainside was on that red oak until the whole mountainside started to drop. And then the movement just kind of went, you know, they went from one feed tree to the whole west side of the mountain was dropped acorns. So then the movement really got stagnant and sporadic.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think it's a great example of how most recent information can play into that. When you talk about hunting mountain ground or big tracks of public land, that, hey, let's face it, that involves boots on the ground and covering ground. One of the things I always struggle with is the balance of covering ground and finding out what you need to know, but not actually boogering up everything when you're walking around and chasing deer and stuff.
So a lot of the places that you're doing that MRI and that scouting, I would assume you probably know the lay of the land enough that you know where the fringes are that you can scout versus diving in too far. Or do you go into some places where you just hit it hard and Hey, sometimes you get it wrong, but you're to kind of roll with that. Yeah. I think if I, like, if I end up starting to struggle through the season, I will fall back in this four areas.
that I know a lot about. But at the same time, I don't care how long you've hunted a piece, I feel like there's never room to stop learning. There's always a micro detail, you didn't know, where maybe the movement shifted because of some reason, maybe a food source change or a crop rotation, you know, a mile or two away affects how that you're just, whatever it is.
Mitchell Shirk (16:05.742)
I'm really aggressive. I spend a ton of time in the mountains. You know, I got 20,000 acres of public like right beside my house and I pound a ton of it and I could be super aggressive because of that. And on my whole scheme, I locate multiple, multiple areas that have at least
decent size bucks that I would want to pursue. And then I go back through in August, I'll pick out the five best areas with the five biggest bucks and I'll focus on those first, but then I have all these back burner spots. And really I'm super aggressive. Like I don't care. I'll walk right into a piece. If I, you know, I'll use my camera for intel. I know the deer is in the area, but maybe he's coming at nighttime and maybe it's like 30 minutes off, hour off.
I want to get aggressive at all and I will blow right in there and I will pound it and I want to know what I need to know to kill him. I don't want to, you know, don't want to sissy foot around and well maybe if I stay back here off to the side a little bit and I can see what he's doing, I don't do that. Like I will, I'll pound until I get the encounter that I need but when I do it's going to be first time and I'm killing him. But having all this ground and all these options allows me to do that because I realize
going right in, put all that boot scent on the ground. Which is hit or miss. I think that's a personality thing for a deer. I've seen a lot of deer like I'll run into an area and I mean I'll boot it all up and I'll just figure out what I need to know or where I need to sit and I'll go sit it the next day and I might have nine out of ten deer come through and they don't even bat an eye. But the tenth deer might come in and smell my boot and just completely lose its mind.
So it's, I really feel like it's deer dependent. I think the biggest thing is, is don't touch anything with your hands. I don't think boots is as big a deal as what people think. Yes, it can deter deer. I've seen it. I've seen it both ways. But I think if you walk into an area with your bare hands and your touches, because I just, feel like you leave a lot of unnecessary scent on trees and branches.
Mitchell Shirk (18:30.752)
Even when you're hiking, you don't think about it. You reach for a tree to grab, just pull yourself up somewhere. that kind of stuff drives me nuts. Like I try not to touch anything but bare hands. But I that's, I'm rambling, but that's just how I kind of do it. I've so much ground. I don't really worry about boots and being aggressive as much because I have so much ground to play with basically.
Yeah, I think that's one of the differentiators for a lot of people because I do get the sense and I've been guilty of this too where I only have so many spots or maybe the property I'm hunting is a certain size and if I go at it wrong the very first time, if I have that gut feeling I need to go in and be aggressive and I'm wrong, it might ruin that spot or my places to the point where
man, I'm back to the drawing board. But I think when you have options and you have that, not just the first, second, third options, but a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh option to go back to, and you can keep just pound away at those spots, aggressive absolutely is, I mean, you got to be aggressive sometimes if you're going to ever see some of these deer in daylight hours. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. It definitely depends on what situation that you personally have to deal with.
If you have a certain size piece of ground, you know, if you only have 200 acres to deal with, then, you know, I would, I would be a lot more strategic on how I'm entering, exiting and the pressure I'm putting into check cameras, things like that. but I will say there's a flip side too. Like if there's a certain deer that I want to kill and I'm determined to kill him and I maybe I'm getting more camera all the time. Like, I mean, I'm going to be pretty aggressive.
But there are some things that I won't do, you know, maybe I'm just gonna basically a problem, probably make like a bubble on my map. I'll be like, okay, well I got, I got a more camera here travels or this direction. I make a bubble out of it. I'll start pounding like the side edges. And I, until I catch some kind of pattern or notion of that deal, it might be the smallest thing that you'll
Mitchell Shirk (20:55.862)
that kills that deer. You know, because here in PA you got so much terrain and diversity. You know, you got drainage ditches and little micro points and bucklorel and red maple thickets. I mean, there's a hundred things that it could be a micro detail that that deer's using a reason he's moving from A to B. I mean, once you start getting into the fricking weeds of it,
ones there you start to learn a lot you've been paying attention to what the sign looks like if you got a bottom that's all pour up and you got drainage up top and it's full laurel and there's a micro point in it you know you i'll follow that sign up as far as i can and what i think i can but at some point you're gonna have to realize that you've gone too far or if you find out where he's bedding at and i get into where his bedroom is and
Maybe that's the only time I'll ever go in. I want to go in one time, figure out what he's doing and get back out and start hunting the edges around it. I just say more deer, like certain deer take more pressure than others do. So it all depends on how much I was getting him on film or how much I was seeing. Just scenarios, just situational. Yeah, absolutely. So you were talking a little bit about caliber deer that you were going after and
I'm kind of curious, like what kind of goals and expectations do you set for yourself at the beginning of season? I mean, what'd you set for yourself this year? then, you know, as we were talking, you know, so far you've been, you know, just having to grind it really hard and haven't quite met your expectations of seeing stuff. mean, do you think there's anything wrong sometimes with adjusting your goals and expectations midway through the season? I think a lot of people think that's taboo.
I'm kind of curious your philosophy. Yeah. You have to excuse me too. Cause I, I realized that once I started talking, I just ramble just because I got like a really situations going through my head and I just started rambling off what's going on. You and me both. I catch myself doing that all the time and I'll start talking deer hunting and I just start rambling and it might go from one subject to 10. That's how you know you're talking to a real deer hunter. Cause they just like to talk and talk and talk and talk.
Mitchell Shirk (23:21.006)
As far as expectations, honestly, it really goes on just what I'm seeing. I've killed a couple good deer and one pretty exceptional for Pennsylvania. people that say Chris Weiss is a giant buck killer, I'd say you're wrong. I'm a deer hunter. I love killing deer,
You know, if I got a handful of really good bucks on camera, that's my top priority at beginning of the season. If they're doing some funky stuff where I'm, you know, I'm like, hey, you know, I waste the whole season chasing these couple deer because they're just not patternable. They're sporadic or maybe they're a roamer. They have a giant core. They're traveling too much. I'm like, hey, what's the next, what's the next best deer? You know, and that's another advantage to having so many cameras and so much.
I kind of got a list of these like hey like you know I don't know just a Example okay, hey, I got this 140 over here that I'm acing but I don't think it's gonna happen because he's doing some weird stuff And I don't I don't know that I can get get a pattern on it But I got this you know 115 once one here over here that's acting to pull on a scrape almost every single night well at some point when I'm done pulling this one I like shooting bucks, so I'm gonna kill this 115 and you know if he if he
Comes in, works the scrape or whatever and gives me the adventure, the experience that I want out of my hunt. And he gets my heart racing when he comes in, I'm like killing. I can't disagree with any of that because I think we don't get me wrong. I am somebody that has gotten lost and ate up and trying to shoot the biggest buck, chase the biggest buck.
I've made the argument for years that you don't see people with t-shirts that have spikies and fork horns on because people dream about big deer and shooting big deer. But at the same time, we're not in the Midwest. 140 inch deer in Pennsylvania, that's a big deer and they don't make them all the time. have one, one forties get shot all the time.
Mitchell Shirk (25:39.534)
And Lord knows if you go on social media, you'll see, you know, every time Dick and Harry shooting a 140, 150 in Pennsylvania every day. And you see it on these pages and stuff, but really they're not that numerous. 115 to 120 inch deer, not quite making Pope and young is a very common good deer in Pennsylvania. That's a respectable deer. And if you're happy with that, why wouldn't you let her rip? Yeah, no, I agree.
I my expectation for a long time is like when I think when I was about 17 I said if I could kill like a 17 inch eight point every single year I would consider myself a pretty decent hunter and now that I have a big bucket full of 17 inch eight points maybe I'll shoot something a little bit bigger but
I mean, there's years, that, you know, everybody has struggle years and I'll shoot a 17, 18 inch, 8.8 day of the week now. As long as he gives me everything I want out of my heart. You know, a lot of it is just hunting for the adventure of the experience. you know, tonight I told you I had just left the woods when we were talking there before the podcast. And, you know, I e-biked in to a spot like two miles.
And I just was reading sign up in and there was a big driven in there that I might get a crack at and Man, I really thought I was when I get a shot in the night. I've seen a smaller buck foot Yeah, it's just the whole adventure because I was even talking to tell myself as the man like how cool would it be the bike in here by two miles? No camera This was my ship read this sign up in here and kill a buck
That would have been everything I would asked for right there, an entire season. I was going to ask you the question too, when you were talking about no cameras and stuff. Do you think that some of the technology we have available to us, do you think that taints the adventure in some ways? You know, I was thinking about scouting today. I have Onyx and Spartan Forge on my phone. I use both of them for different reasons and applications and
Mitchell Shirk (28:04.022)
I'm on them constantly. They're such a big helper, but you know, there's some ways that that kind of takes away a little bit of the unknown. The same way that a trail camera can, the same way that, you know, accessing with, an e-bike, all great things, great advantages for us, but there's a little bit like it takes away from it for me in some cases. I mean, that's a hard line. I don't know how to balance.
Yeah, no, I completely agree. not that I'm taking back anything I said, cause I'm not, I just had the opportunity to use my dad's e-bike because he's not here. I don't have that luxury ever. Yeah, no, I got to use that, but I could see the huge advantage because I used, I've been using that bike for like three days.
and my god there's a spot that I went into and I walk everywhere like I usually laugh at guys with the e-bikes because I tell them I was like there's nowhere you'll take that bike that I won't and it took me an hour and 40 minutes to check five of my cameras the other morning that normally would take me two trips or a full Saturday to walk to.
I mean it was like it took me like an eighth of the time to get to all these cameras and check them on that e-bike. It was nuts. So I could see how I'm super efficient but I could see how it's like you know maybe too efficient. I don't know that's just everything has an advantage I just think it just depends on how you use it and I know the cell cameras are a really big deal.
I do run some cells, not near as many as my SDs. I run a pile of SD cameras. Cell cameras can be dangerous. They can make you play your own dumb game. know what mean? Make some bad decisions if you don't use them, what they're meant to be used for, like a tool.
Mitchell Shirk (30:21.358)
Obviously there's that big debate of you know cell cameras and corn piles and crossbows and all that stuff Which you know, that's somebody Not using the cell camera what the cell camera was meant to be used for I don't know that's kind of a new thing only don't know that I've had anybody Really question me on the mapping it can be a huge help
But you have to be able to read a map, think. You know what mean? Because I know guys that, I mean, they don't even know what to do with a Topo map. Even with like the LIDAR and Spartan Forge and all that, like they just don't know how to read maps in general. So it's a really, really big help to guys that understand mapping. But if you don't already understand how to use a mapping app or read a Topo,
I don't really think it's that much of an advantage. That's just my opinion. As far as cell cameras, mean, to be honest, they're just a big pain in the ass to me because they eat up a lot more batteries. It seems there's always something wrong with them. They only work half the time. And I tell you why, this is no lie. I cannot tell you how many times that I've done this.
this year where I have a scrape I want a cell camera on because I want to keep track of it all year long and I want to see you know when it's getting hot when it slows down but at same time I know that that camera the batteries aren't gonna last all year so I'd stack them I stack an SD card camera beside it so I don't lose anything and I'm telling you what these freaking cell cameras
are not sending you all your pictures. I promise you. If you stick an SD card camera beside that cell camera, you'll shit yourself when you check the card on that SD and realize that that cell camera never took a picture of or didn't send you. It's nuts. It is, and I think there's a lot of intricacies with the different cell cameras. I I learned that, you know, I had a...
Mitchell Shirk (32:39.602)
At one time I had a reveal cell camera and it would send one picture But it would send like the middle picture of a three shot burst You know, there's another one that I used in the past that would like if I could set it to Two pictures that it were three pictures, but it only send one So then you go back through and you look at that card after the fact when you pull it and you go wow, there was other stuff. I I didn't realize is on here like
I can think about end of the year after a cell camera I use, I'll pull that card and then just review it, save pictures for, you know, just kind of like that, you know, next year information. Like I like to know if there was a deer that I was after. When I get the real time, I don't collect the data real well, but if I go back at the end of the year and look at those cards and write down, save pictures about that, I like to use that for the next year. Right. And I noticed that going through those cards,
I pick up on things that I didn't pick up when I was, you know, running into the grocery store, picking the kids up or, or stuff like that. And, you know, just notice, Hey, there's a good deer or whatever on my camera here. Yeah. Yeah. Using the cell cameras, but I think there's, they're good for two things in my opinion. And one is a really important area that you do not want to step foot in.
That is one really good way to use the cell camera. And two, is the actual in season. In hunting season. I'm trying to think of an example without making it sound like I'm hunting pictures because I'm not. I'm using the Intel off the cell camera. Let's just say like I'll just use the situation I'm going through right now but I won't give out any details. Is I got a camera on.
I got two cell cameras stacked maybe 50 yards from each other on two scrapes. But I'm not hunting any of those scrapes. What I'm doing is I'm, I realize that this deer that I'm hunting is heading these scrapes every single night. But what I'm doing is I'm just using that, where is he coming from in the evening? Where is he going to in the morning? And I can go back and see what the forecast is on the wind.
Mitchell Shirk (35:06.636)
and all that good stuff and then I'm hunting the outside edges. I'm talking like 200 yards plus on either side of these scrapes. I'm using the terrain. So I still have to go scout that terrain to hunt that terrain because I know that there's no way that I'm getting the support where these scrapes are and hunt because of the winds so bad. So I'm using it basically in my opinion is what they're to be used for.
a tool I'm not hunting that picture like hey, he's there. need to go on it. I'm using that Intel is hey He's coming from this direction in the evening at this time So I think I need to be X amount of yards up this mountainside and straight feet try catching Yeah, you know the whole question that I asked you earlier about like all the different technologies and things we have you know that just You know it changes
the game of hunting, know, it's all stuff I use and it was a weird question to ask, but sometimes I think like with that moral compass, like does it taint our experience? And I actually think the answer for me is no. I mean, I think about all of the ways I have learned to connect and be a better hunter because of technologies. there's a lot of great things that happen.
in my, my day to day. I even think about, you could even translate that into like social media and the podcast, like my ability to connect with people I never would have connected with, I think is allowing conversation and, you know, critical thinking to just enjoy the woods better than maybe I would have thought just on my own. So there is benefits. What it really comes down to is the moral conversation and like people have different morals for different things. And that's where the
really muddies the waters. If you use things in a healthy, healthy manner and in an ethical and by ethical, I'm pretty much meaning a legal way, you know, then what's the conversation really having? Who, whose morals are better than one another? Like it's Yeah, no, I agree. there's, there's ups and downs and seems like politics will just about everything anymore, but it just
Mitchell Shirk (37:31.054)
Depends on you know what you're using it for and then how you're using it I guess you know Whatever more worlds you said because I mean honestly if you're using it in the way, it's not supposed to be used for Other people don't know The honest, you know, it's deep down inside You know that you're using it for a reason you shouldn't be using it for Absolutely. Well Chris we're gonna
We're going to wrap this one up because I know you, you got to get to bed and I want to let you get out there and kill a deer in Maryland tomorrow morning. I don't want to keep any, keep you any longer than we have to. But I think what we should do is let's put a pin in this conversation and let's circle back towards the end of the season and let's do a recap and dive a little bit more into about experiences and what you learned from them. Yeah, man. Absolutely. I agree. I'd be happy to come along.
Fantastic. Hey before you go, where could people follow along with you and kind of catch up and see what you're doing throughout the season? Some stuff goes to Facebook but ninety five percent of what I put on social media just goes to my Instagram and that is UnleashTheWees. You can find me there and if you have any questions follow along. That'd be awesome. Appreciate everybody that follows my journey and if you have any questions
Feel free to be a fan and chat about some hunting. Absolutely. Always a fun day we talk about hunting. Chris, thanks for coming on show. was a pleasure. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thank you.
