Tony Peterson Shoots A Crossbow?

Hold on to your butts for another exciting episode of the Nine Finger Chronicles with deer hunting superstar the one and only Tony Peterson. Dan and Tony cover a variety of topics including wild game violations, smallmouth bass fishing, gaining access to a new property, and their thoughts on trail camera strategy. Towards the end of the podcast, Tony and Dan talk about crossbows. Will Tony be shooting a crossbow this upcoming season, listen to find out! The answer might shock you!

[00:00:00] Dan Johnson: Whether you're hunting the back 40 or chasing game deep in the back country, the all new Razor guide pack from Outdoor Edge has it all coming in at only 12 ounces. And in a premium wax canvas roll pack for compact storage and travel. The Razor guide pack is seven blades in total, including a five inch replaceable blade folding knife, a three inch replaceable blade caping knife, and the flip and zip saw for wood or bone.

For more information, visit outdoor edge.com.

Mic check. Ladies and gentlemen, mic check. It is Friday and I we got a holiday weekend coming up and I feel that there's only [00:01:00] one person I want to talk to about for a holiday weekend. And that's Tony Peterson. I don't even remember what we talked about today. Oh, we talked about what did we talk about?

We talked about the upcoming season. We talked about him gaining access to a new property. We talked about a whole bunch of fun stuff. You know what it's like when we get together and those usually turn out to be really good episodes. Sometimes we cover some hard hitting deer hunting topics, and other times we talk about hard hitting 1980s movies so there's a little bit of all that, but I have a really big announcement to, to make, and this might blow some of your minds, right?

I bought. A 2013 Sweetwater pontoon boat.

I know you guys should be impressed with that. I [00:02:00] drove an hour and a half today up and I bought it. And the, that's the transition into what I really wanted to talk about, how I feel that women are really good at manipulating you to do something that maybe you didn't want to do, or that you don't want to do or you didn't want to do.

And all of a sudden you're like, holy cow, what happened? How did this all happen? And they're brain watching us through, I don't know what, but they're brain watching us somehow. And here's why I say that. I. Walked into this boat store with my wife today, and we're looking at one pontoon boat, right?

We are. I researched it. I said, Hey, this is within our budget. We can afford it. It's it's not brand new, but it's good for three kids. We can bring our friends out on it. It's gonna be fun. We walk into that that store. We go take a look at the boat we were originally looking at, and they misplaced the key.

[00:03:00] And in the, in a moment of trying to look for the key, my wife made the decision that she wanted to look at other options. And I said, that's okay. We can just look at 'em. And we come up to a brand new 2024 pontoon boat. I forget the name of it right now. Oh, a Harris. It was a Harris and it was like, 2.5 times the amount that we spent on this one, and she almost got her way.

I really think that I would've, like we collectively would've purchased this today if I didn't have to go to the bathroom, look in the mirror. As I was washing my hands and then the spell was snapped from me and I was like, holy shit, I'm just, I'm getting ready to buy something that is ridiculous.

Not only would it be horrible for three kids, cuz they're [00:04:00] jumping around on it, it's gonna get dirty. We want to be able to fish off of it. It, we couldn't fish off of it. And so the spell broke. I walked back in there, I go, I don't think this is a good idea. And luckily I don't think she wanted to fight right then and there.

So we got the more affordable pontoon boat and I think we're gonna have fun with it this weekend. I don't know why. I just wanted to share that story with you. So if you feel like your wife has you hypnotized. Or maybe she's like feeding you magic goulash or putting like herbs and spells in your food or your drinks.

I, I completely get it. Sometimes it takes a cold rag to splash of water to the face after you get done. Going into the bathroom, look in the mirror and wash your hands and try to see deep into your soul and see if maybe you're hypnotized. I don't know why I was talking about that.

Anyway, fun episode today. We are gonna do some commercials right now, and I'm pretty excited [00:05:00] because next week we'll be introducing a new partner. I'm just gonna tell you who it is right now. It's Code Blue Sense and I'm looking forward to doing some mock scrapes with those guys. But here's the, here's.

The crew today tethered, if you're looking for a tethered saddle you gotta go check out the brand new saddle that they have available. It's like a luxury addition. It's got these, it's got side pockets. It's gonna be really awesome for me. It comes with suspenders al almost.

They go over top and you can slide it on like a vest almost. You hook it together up front. But the reason that I like it, because the pockets are built into it, and if I, while I'm climbing up, I want to, screw in a bow hanger or I need something in my pocket, or I want a bow rope, it's all right there, right next to me.

So the best thing to do to go check out this new the new. Saddle that these guys are offering. Go to tether nation.com and just read up on it. It's pretty sweet. Along with that, they have climbing sticks and all the saddle hunting [00:06:00] accessories that you need. So go check out tethered was barrie.com is where I go to check to, to buy my broadheads.

And I'll tell you right now, I got a really good discount code for you and it is N F C. Two zero NFC 20, and that's gonna get you 20% off of your WASP archery purchases. Dude, I'm a huge fan of the three blade jackhammer, especially during the whitetail season where I'm, my goal is 30 or in, dude those heads just destroy whatever they hit.

Most of their heads are still made in America. And so with that, you're getting awesome quality. All right. What else? We got Vortex Optics. Just got back from Vortex. There is a new, a whole bunch of new gear that we're gonna be talking about in an up, in an upcoming week where I'm going to dedicate an entire week of podcasts to Vortex and I'm really excited about that.

That week. That'll be probably be in [00:07:00] mid to late July once they have the official release date for some of these products. Keep a look out for that vortex optics.com. Vortex optics.com. Yes. So keep an eye out for the new products. And plus they have the v i P warranty. And that is you bust it, break it and smash it.

You just put it in a box, you send it to 'em, they fix it for free and send it back to you. And the last on the list is hunt stand this time of year, man, it's all about preparing yourself for the upcoming season mentally. And so I am on hunt stand. Just trying to figure it all out, man. I'm hype. I'm going through hypothetical situations like what are we doing wind direction, what access will be on a south wind, what access will be on a north wind where the pinch points are, where the spur ridges are, where the, where I believe the staging areas are, even if I've hunted these properties a hundred times.

I'm still going back into every season thinking about the properties as much as I as I [00:08:00] can. And I'm doing that with hunt stand. Go check out hunt stand.com. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is our four partners today. Hopefully you guys enjoy this podcast. It's another fun one with Tony.

We'll catch you on the back end.

His name is Tony Peterson and I'm not sure why he continues to come back on my podcast and be a guest. But Tony, thank you for your time. How are 

[00:08:27] Tony: you doing? I'm good man. I'm gonna be honest with you. It's just cuz I don't really have any friends. That's it. That's the only reason you're my best friend.

I got. Thank you. Thank you dude. 

[00:08:40] Dan Johnson: This is no joke. I have people, I know, I have some people who I would consider friends, but as life goes on, you move away from them, right? They're all in different places with their families and, the crew that you used to run around with, just everybody goes and they do their own [00:09:00] thing in life, right?

And so it's not like I have friends, but I don't ever hang out with anybody. So my, and I always say this, I have one friend and his name is Lance and he lives across the street from me. And I've been friends with the dude since I was. Fourth grade. In fourth grade. And so I've known him almost my entire life.

And there was a house for sale in my town across the street. I said, Hey, do you want it? Him and his wife and daughter moved in, and now really my life is complete because I have every, other than my parents. And like my brother, my best friend lives across the street from me. And so I can just walk over to his house and we can have a beer or something in the driveway and then we just go our separate ways.

And, but it's good. Like I only have one friend as well. Yeah. 

[00:09:49] Tony: You guys, if he lives that close, you guys could build like a zip line or something. Oh, that would be 

[00:09:53] Dan Johnson: so sweet. That would be sweet. Dude. Someone's getting hurt though, oh yeah, of [00:10:00] course. Of course. Let's see. It's summertime. Oh.

Before we get into this, I wanna pick your brain about something that popped up on social media today. And I'm not gonna say any names, and I'm not gonna, I'm just gonna throw a scenario out there for you and I want you to tell me what your thoughts are on this. Okay. There is a hunter who has been charged for violating a wild game law.

Okay. Whether, and I'm not even gonna give the details. Let's just say it's poaching or baiting, or a combination of all that stuff. And it goes he's, or this person is charged with it. Okay. Through the rigmarole of the legal process he has the case was dropped. Okay? So it is, Not necessarily guilty, but not necessarily innocent as well.

There are fines that are associated with this still, and that [00:11:00] person is responsible for having to pay fines. So what are your thoughts on that particular scenario? 

[00:11:08] Tony: Is it like a plea deal? Oh 

[00:11:10] Dan Johnson: I'm guessing it was a plea deal. The case was the term was the case was technically dropped, but they are still responsible for paying certain fines.

So I'm assuming in a legal sense, that's a plea deal. 

[00:11:27] Tony: Yeah. Man, that's a, there's, I have two, I have competing thoughts on that. Yep. One is, I'm real nervous about everybody engaging in cancel culture. Set fire to everyone for every mistake they made. The other one is, how if, okay, so you do that and you're in the industry, even if you're not in the industry and you get caught for something like that.

Like how egregious is it? And how much does that taint your entire history? Cuz [00:12:00] sometimes if it's if somebody traveled to a different state and they broke a rule that they didn't know about or something, I'm like, whatever. Like I could, I can see that.

If it's like just a blatant thing where you're like, really trying to get an advantage here. Then I go, man, I think that guy needs to get jettisoned out of the club. Yeah. And even then I, part of me is so jaded on that stuff that we've had guys in the past get caught for really egregious stuff.

Like real like things where you're like, they should be gone forever from the industry, from hunting as a whole. And they still have massive following. Yep. And so I, part of me looks at it and goes, does it even matter? I hate that, I think that way, but we've seen examples of this and it, to me, that's just crazy.

But it happens, 

[00:12:45] Dan Johnson: right? In this world, and I'll share this. In this world we live in, it's absolutely crazy. Okay. Do you know who Ja Morant is? Is, yeah. He's that basketball player, stud basketball player. But now he's got an 

[00:12:59] Tony: affinity toward [00:13:00] handguns. He 

[00:13:00] Dan Johnson: he must be a Second Amendment supporter because he's flashing guns all over the internet.

And so that's the big talk talking point on sports radio right now. So I, and I hear that and I go, oh dude, this, you gotta remove this guy from the limelight, right? You gotta set him down and say, Hey man, guns are, you can't be flashing guns on social media, especially in your. And like the way he's doing it, like a rap song's on, he is going, Hey, check the, like flashing the gun.

So then I go to pick my son up from basketball camp one day. And what is the overwhelming, and I don't mean just by a little, I mean by a lot, the overwhelming jersey that kids are wearing by a long shot was the Memphis Grizzly Ja Morant. Okay. And so this leads me down the path of [00:14:00] number one, the kids obviously don't care, right?

The kids know who this guy is. And number two, the parents are either clueless or they don't care either, right? And so that's, this world is people can do crazy dumb shit and really no cares. Like no, nobody. I doubt his Jersey sales have suffered. Because of these things that he's doing 

[00:14:27] Tony: might've gone the other way.

Exactly. Might 

[00:14:28] Dan Johnson: selling. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That, 

[00:14:32] Tony: yeah. I don't know. I, it is so hard for me to imagine a world where you have NBA superstar kind of money. And you need to be doing that. Yeah. Do you not have a handler or something who's listen man, just don't put it on social media.

Yeah. Or don't be in a situation where somebody's gonna film it and throw it up there. But Yeah, I don't, that's a different world. 

[00:14:54] Dan Johnson: I was watching a documentary on, I think it was Motley Crew, and they [00:15:00] literally had guys that would have backpacks full of drugs. Like they would never carry the drugs their guy that they hired.

So basically just a drug mule would wear a backpack with all the drugs in it. And that way if. He got busted, he's going to jail and they're not getting touched. 

[00:15:19] Tony: Yeah. So I I'm not gonna say this on this show. I'll tell you afterwards. Remind me. I heard a story like that out of the hunting industry that blew my mind from.

But I'm not gonna say it on here. I don't, I've had to pay for one lawyer in my life and it was $395 an hour, so I don't wanna do it again.

[00:15:39] Dan Johnson: Just know that those types of people are in all industries, right? Yeah. Okay. Let's see here. What are we gonna talk about today? Any, anything? I hear, here's this deal. Small mouth bass. Have you been catching em lately? 

[00:15:52] Tony: Oh, buddy. Oh, buddy. Not lately. I actually filmed a fishing show for meat eater in the [00:16:00] beginning of June with Andy 

[00:16:01] Dan Johnson: May.

Andy May Fishes. Yep. 

[00:16:05] Tony: Catching so smalls and large mouth and we freaking waylaid them. Yeah. I mean it was, we just, we hid it so and it was so much fun. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:16:15] Dan Johnson: I love were they schooled up? 

[00:16:18] Tony: They were just all up shallow. It was a weird deal. I don't think they were on beds cause they found a bunch of empty beds, but they were still shallow.

Yeah. And it was just a top water fest. They were just chewing and it was real fun. I caught I caught the biggest small mouth I've ever seen in my life. We did it. It was just fun. How big was it? Just under 23 inches. Okay. Did you weigh him? I didn't but it was, everybody I showed a picture to, they're like, that fish has to be over seven pounds.

Jesus. And I, that frame of reference. I've caught a few that were 20, like legit 20 twos. And we've weighed some of them and they've been six-ish. So I don't know what this [00:17:00] one was, but it was, I'll send you a pic. Yeah. It was, and it was on film, on top order.

Just 

[00:17:06] Dan Johnson: cool. Yeah man. I think, you know how everybody has a fishing goal. Like for some in the bass fishing community, the 10 pound ba like large mouth is like a dream fish for a lot of people. My, my father-in-law, he's caught one, maybe two in 50 years. Not, and that not on the river, cuz river fish don't get that big.

But in farm ponds and lakes, he's caught two, it's probably more than 50 years of fishing anyway. Two 10 pounders his whole life. And so I think it would be like a dream to catch like, A seven or eight pound smally Like that would be or yeah. That, or just like a gigantic muskie. 

[00:17:55] Tony: Yeah. It's getting to the seven pound range this far north on [00:18:00] anything is, yeah.

It's wild fi like a legit seven pound small. When you see, Lake Malax when they have a tournament there, they'll be, the winner will have a limit of five pounders, maybe even multiple days. Yeah. But you won't see a seven pounder weighed in. Yeah. And they're the best of the best.

It's just so rare, but they're out there, if you get to the Great Lakes you have a chance at that, but it's, that's a different thing than finding that double digit large mouth. Yeah. There's so many more options for that, just generally cuz they're, they live in a lot more places, but yeah, they're freaking cool, man.

Yeah. 

[00:18:35] Dan Johnson: What else is on the agenda this summer? You 

[00:18:38] Tony: know what I have a new spot to hunt here by my house that I just got permission on. Yeah, buddy. So I'm gonna start digging into that and I'm almost to the point where I'm really gonna start glassing heavy. And I got some bear tags. We're gonna work on this September.

So I'm like I'm gonna enjoy about the next two weeks of kind of [00:19:00] not doing a bunch of work in the woods and then it's gonna be off to the races and I'll be fishing way less and scouting way more. Yeah. 

[00:19:08] Dan Johnson: That's that property that you picked up, how big is it? It's 25 acres. 25 acres, okay. So it won't take too terribly long to, are you gonna run, do a summer run through of it?

Scout it? Yeah. Yeah. So it's, 

[00:19:22] Tony: it just for a frame of reference, it's five minutes from my house in the suburbs of the cities. Okay. And so it's I know 25 acres doesn't sound like that much, but here, that's like a good pickup. Yeah. And it's, I've only looked at it, I've been in the guy's driveway cuz my daughters are friends with his daughter and so I've only seen it in person from his driveway and then looked at it, es scouted it.

But a lot of the stuff here is like, how close is this line to somebody else's house? Or how close is this? And then, okay, is there's a, it borders a sod [00:20:00] farm, is there, are there any vegetables planted in there? And so you're yeah, you walk it but you're standing on fence lines, glass and outside the property to see what are you gonna be dealing with?

Does this neighbor have dogs or. Yeah. Because a lot of those properties there, somebody might have five acres at their house or seven acres. And then you're like, okay, do they have tree stands in there? Cause everybody knows somebody who hunts. Yep. And so it's a it's figure out the deer, but figure out the people Yeah.

Kind of thing here, 

[00:20:27] Dan Johnson: yeah. Are you the only guy who's gonna be hunting it? Or does that guy hunt it as well? 

[00:20:33] Tony: So he hunts it, but he doesn't know what he's doing. And he told me that, he's I don't, I just, once in a while I grab my bow and I go walk around back there. Yeah. Yeah.

And so he doesn't, I don't think he even hunted it last season. Okay. And so I'm mostly concerned n not necessarily with myself. I will hunt it and I promise you there's gonna be big bucks going through there cuz of that neighborhood. Yep. But I'm, I lost.[00:21:00] The place we've been hunting, turkeys here is getting all developed.

It's all houses now or, Yeah. Construction out there right now. And I, my, my biggest concern was I gotta find something to take my girls on. Yeah. That's not a long drive. And this thing is just, I mean it's small, but there's turkeys there, there's deer there. So my hope is just to get in there and it, the cool part about it was that the dad, he's like us.

He's like same age doesn't really seem to like people a whole lot. Like quiet, whatever. But I asked him, I was like, do you like venison? And he's we love venison and I never get it. And I was like, oh buddy, 

[00:21:35] Dan Johnson: this is where you're, this is where I step in, sir. 

[00:21:38] Tony: Yeah. And this is, I told him flat out this is an unlimited dough zone because we're south of the line.

So it they encourage deer harvest here cuz there's so many places you can't hunt. Yep. And so you could buy, do tags till you were. Until the season ran out. Yeah. And fill 'em, and so I told him, I was like, man we'll get some dos dialed in here and we'll shoot 'em and I'll split 'em with [00:22:00] you.

50 50. I'll cut 'em right down the middle and butcher 'em, package 'em, and just drop 'em off. Yeah. And I'm gonna make it real nice for him. Yeah. Because this is, it's a gift. You don't, you just, where I live you just don't find this very often. Yeah. 

[00:22:13] Dan Johnson: You think when I launch this, you're gonna be fighting the seek one guys for an opportunity here?

Or is it locked up for you? 

[00:22:20] Tony: I think that it's pretty safe. Okay. 

[00:22:25] Dan Johnson: I don't 

[00:22:25] Tony: know. I shouldn't even say this, but there probably are some really big deer Yeah. In that area. I know it's close enough to a property that I had permission on for two years that was. Pretty dang good. They grew vegetables on that place and it was overrun with people, but the quality was like real good for Minnesota.

Yeah. Like you knew you were around the 1 25 to one 40 type deer. Like they were in the neighborhood and this situation, I could see this or I could see that being [00:23:00] like pretty common. So I'm itching to get out there and look around and get a few cameras out and start figuring things out.

Yeah. 

[00:23:07] Dan Johnson: So I just got a I just recorded a podcast with a guy from o Ohio a couple weeks ago, and he was telling us this story of a buck, or he just got permission on a piece of property. Now it wasn't 25 acres, it was like, I think 80 maybe. So it's a little bit bigger, but it was like a rectangle, a vertical rectangle and everything surrounding it was a housing development.

And so the county or the city tried to step in and go imminent domain, we're gonna, we want to buy your property. The guy went to court and he's, and he won. And so now it's just this, in this neighborhood, it is a, it's just like this perfect rectangle and there was a 180 in it. And he ended up not killing it.

He found it dead. I think it got hit. He's [00:24:00] thinking it got maybe hit by a car, but. It just goes to show you that in, in a environment like that, man, they can get yeah. They can just slip through the cracks. Even with all those eyes, people just aren't paying attention. You know what I mean? Yeah. 

[00:24:15] Tony: Oh, dude.

It, they're, they have so many sanctuaries. The biggest concern in a lot of times is them getting hit by a car. But the thing that I've learned up here, this is such a different kind of hunting than I, like I grew up doing and I do on a lot of my trips.

It's, I don't know, it's just it's not my favorite, but I, whatever it is what you have. The thing that I've learned though, is the hardest part for me a lot of times is dealing with how many people are feeding them. Oh, yeah. At at their houses. We had this in Turkey season every year too, where, if somebody's.

Fifth of a mile away and they're running a feeder in their yard just cuz they like looking at 'em, they're gonna soak up half of your animals. Y and at certain points, in Turkey season, if you talk about like [00:25:00] early season where there's not much food out there yet, they're soaking up most of the birds.

Those times are gonna go there and then you're waiting for that like afternoon cruiser to break off or late season for deer. A lot of people feed the deer up here. And so you might have a property that's pretty good in October or maybe November and then all of a sudden you're like, I can't find a deer track on here cuz you're only working with 25 acres.

And it turns out that three of the neighbors that are, quarter of a mile away are feeding them in those deer. You're just, you're like out of the game. Yeah. 

[00:25:30] Dan Johnson: Are is baiting and feeding deer illegal in Minnesota? Or if you're just feeding 

[00:25:36] Tony: them, it's okay. So these are just Yeah, these are just bird watchers.

They're feeding 'em. Yeah. You baiting is illegal. Yeah, but it's. It is. If you, I don't know, have you ever hunted a state where bating is legal? 

[00:25:48] Dan Johnson: Nebraska, but I guess it's okay. In Nebraska, it's not illegal or it's not legal, but they have a black and white rule in [00:26:00] Nebraska, which is 200 yards.

Yeah. You cannot hunt 200 yards within a mineral or a feeder. Yeah. So I'm assuming that there are people there that use that rule. They'll put it 200 yards away and they have it measured out saying, Hey, listen, I'm 220 yards from the, this feeder. They just so happen to be walking by me to get to it.

But other than that, 

[00:26:23] Tony: no. It's it's, to me, it's like the hardest thing to overcome if you don't want to do it. Yeah. Like it, I shouldn't say that in, in certain situations it can work in your favor. If you look at the states where baiting is legal on private land, but not public land.

Yeah. Which is pretty common. A lot of times your competition, which is on the private land, relies so heavily on that, that those deer will learn man, I can bet in that public and stage in that public and then head over there after dark. You can get into a situation like that where I can work in your favor, but there's, I, I've hunted, some of the counties over in Wisconsin where it's legal, [00:27:00] it is so hard to compete with.

So you, you almost end up timing your haunts if you don't wanna do it to the time when people just aren't that excited. Like the beginning of October when some of those bait sites dry up a little bit and then you can get some natural movement. But it. It is a hard thing to overcome in my experience.

Oh, yeah. 

[00:27:18] Dan Johnson: And then, you talk to some of these guys who hunt bait they're, they hunt in a bait state and they hunt using bait, and then you learn how they hunt. They're just like, just, big mature deer just don't come into bait piles, is what they've told me. And every, so I had this misconception that you put a pile of corn out and deer just go right to it. And so I After you several years now I'll tell, I'll say this. I will, I bet you there's a caveat to that. Like in Iowa, if I dumped a shit ton of corn right in front of my tree stand, and it was like a one time thing, I, and I got downwind of it in certain areas, I'm guessing I'd have better success, [00:28:00] right?

Yeah. But if you're. Going into the same tree, stand over and you're just ruining it. Do will come in or young deer will come in, but the big dogs, they, what they say is the big dogs, they always flank it and that's where they're hunting. Yeah. 

[00:28:15] Tony: That scenario is true. Just as if you had the right property, like you said, and you were evading, you would have big deer coming in there.

Yep. It there's a spectrum there. Yeah. 

[00:28:25] Dan Johnson: Yep. What states are you hunting this year? 

[00:28:28] Tony: You know what I got a wild hair at my ass to go to Nebraska, try to shoot a velvet buck. So I'm gonna see if I can pick up one of those tags before they sell out. Yep.

And go do that September one hunt. I found some stuff Turkey hunting down there this spring. That made me pretty curious. Yeah. And so I'm gonna go, do I, if I can get a tag, I'm gonna go do that just right off the bat. Yeah. And see if I can kill a good one on public land. Yeah. And then the Minnesota thing, of course.

And then Wisconsin bears with my daughter, which I can't freaking wait for. Yeah. And we'll do deer there too. We've got some, a pretty good [00:29:00] population over there. I didn't know how they were gonna fare after this winter, but it was pretty solid. And then I think I'm gonna do I think I'm gonna hunt North Dakota in an area that I'm not really that familiar with.

I wanna try something new there. Yeah. I 

[00:29:11] Dan Johnson: didn't draw Iowa. Yeah. Is that an over the North Dakota tag? Is that over the counter? Yeah. For Whitetails. For Whitetails, yep. 

[00:29:18] Tony: Okay. Yep. So I'm gonna do that. But other than that, I'm not really sure, man I have I have an open October now because I didn't draw to Iowa. And I'm like, I wonder if I should be, I don't know. I'm kinda looking at Oklahoma still. I'm not, I got, I have a window where I probably wanna take advantage of it, but I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. Yeah. If 

[00:29:38] Dan Johnson: you do Oklahoma, please let me know. Because I will go with you.

I if I, if you want a partner because I I didn't draw Nebraska this year and I'm not planning on going to or I didn't draw Kansas this year. And I am not planning to go to Nebraska in for that late September hunt that I went last year. And [00:30:00] so as of right now, I only have one out-of-state trip, and that's to South Dakota.

I drew South Dakota this year. And I usually do that the second week in October and second or third week in October last year, I think I did it right in that mid middle of the month. I'd like to go out there and do that hunt like right before the shotgun season starts and watch like the mule deer start to rut.

But it's just so hard to walk away from Iowa that time of year. But that just what I'm getting at here is I have openings as well. And so if you do, if you decide to go to Oklahoma, dude, let me know and I'll say, screw it and I'll 

[00:30:38] Tony: go. Have you ever hunted there? No. Nope. Yeah, I like Oklahoma.

Yeah. I don't know what it is, man, but those people are my people. Yeah. Like when I meet somebody in Oklahoma, like they're always super nice. Yep. And yeah, everybody hunts, so there's a lot of pressure, but it's just, it's a cool state, man. You got a lot of deer. Yeah. A lot of people that hunt, but you have a pretty high density of [00:31:00] deer on public land, at least in most of the places I've been.

And just, it's an opportunity state, man. Yeah. I just, I like it. 

[00:31:07] Dan Johnson: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. I'm, I, the more I talk about it, the more I want to go. I have friends that live down there or people I know that live down there, people that I know that live in southern Kansas and hunt both northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas.

And. Just like you with Minnesota and Wisconsin, just, from the area standpoint. So yeah, I wanna get out to Oklahoma at some point. I don't know why I don't do this. And I think a lot of it has to do with the timing of where I'm at in my life with three kids and really busy.

But dude, I hunt, or I live so close to, I'm only like two and a half hours or three hours from Minnesota. I'm three hours to getting into, two, two to three hours from getting into southwestern Wisconsin. An hour from Illinois. And I'm two hours from Missouri. And [00:32:00] I've never put any en energy into those four other four states.

And I don't know why. 

[00:32:08] Tony: Because you live in Iowa. 

[00:32:09] Dan Johnson: Yeah. That's part of it. That's part of nobody leaves, 

[00:32:11] Tony: there's like a viable strategy around hunting close to states that nobody wants to leave. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like a secret, but yeah, it, if you look at most residents of Iowa, they're not going to Missouri to hunt.

No. Maybe turkeys, but yeah, to leave there for whitetails is not gonna happen. Yeah. 

[00:32:30] Dan Johnson: And I think that would be, like, for me, that would be a, like a bonus hunt. And I'd do like a four day or like a long weekend, like a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday type hunt, hunt it early October, or, I don't, I think Missouri and Wisconsin, they both open up in September.

And so I could do that as well. But I don't know, man I'm my mind for some reason, when I think of outta state, I want to go [00:33:00] to a place that's not like what I'm currently hunting. And I just Yeah. Travel west for that. Yeah. 

[00:33:07] Tony: I get that, it's crazy. You could travel two hours east and be in the same kind of terrain.

Or you could travel eight hours west, 10 hours west and be in a 

[00:33:17] Dan Johnson: vastly different experience. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what I'm looking for at some point too. Have you ever done the January, Arizona hunt at all, 

[00:33:28] Tony: man? No. I have not. Yeah. I have done a stupid amount of research on different areas down there.

Yeah. It's just so far. Yeah. And, by that time of the season, I'm like the idea of driving 25 hours to get down there and do a, a hunt like that, I'm just like I love the idea in September. I, but I hate it in January. Yeah. By that time I'm like, do I really want to do this?

But. That's a cool [00:34:00] opportunity. Yeah. 

[00:34:01] Dan Johnson: And so I've had a couple guys Marlon Holden, do you know who he is? He's the dude, the dude just slays. He's a mule deer hunter. He's a high country guy in Colorado in other states. Hess, a desert guy down in Arizona. And he goes, that's what he does.

We're whitetail guys, and that's what he does. And so he goes to Arizona and he goes to Colorado. I I don't know if he goes to Colorado every year, but he's hunted a lot of mule deer throughout the western part of the United States. And the environments that he's in are nuts like the desert, the big desert mule deer down in Arizona.

And he was like, I think he was watch, I don't know if it was him or another group of people who were recording. Because some of those units are right. Along the US Mexico border, he was Yep. He was recording through a spotting scope for I think maybe two or three dudes running across the desert.

And then behind them, like a half a [00:35:00] mile are border patrol agents and they let a dog out of their vehicle and you can just, the video is just watching this dog full sprint, close in on these guys and take one down. And by that time, they, the other people show up and they all get arrested. And so it's I don't I can't comprehend having to think about that.

Some guys go to Wyoming or Montana and they have to think about grizzly bears. Yeah. But I could never like think about, oh, there's so many illegal, we might run into some illegal immigrants out here. Dude 

[00:35:37] Tony: that Eddie Claypool has a bunch of stories about that. Or encounters. Yeah. And it's a wild situation down there.

Yeah. Between just who you might encounter and what you might see. And then the other aspect of that is all the trash really that gets left behind. Oh yeah. It's nasty. Oh my God. You gotta imagine if you're walking up, and you finish your jug of water, you're not gonna [00:36:00] just carry an empty jug around.

You're just gonna chuck it. But Yeah, I've never done that. It's an interesting opportunity. And it sounds like it's getting a little tougher to get tags down there now. I think they tighten things up a little bit. Yeah. But it's, 

[00:36:12] Dan Johnson: that would be cool. Yeah.

Cause I thought that for the most part, that used to be an over the counter tag. Yeah. So 

[00:36:19] Tony: yeah. That's, that's the situation where, the Arizona game and Phish were, they were paying influencers to come down there. And do hunts. And highlight it. That's why for a while I couldn't figure it out.

I kept getting these invites to go to Arizona. And I'm like, why do all these people who've never invited me anywhere, all of a sudden they're like, Hey, you wanna go to Arizona with us? And then it found out that it was one of those deals, like the, kinda like the hunting public guys get sometimes in different states where you're promoting the hunting of the state.

So it got real popular. It ended up on everybody's radar and now they're tightening things up. 

[00:36:52] Dan Johnson: What do you think, what do you think goes through the mind of the Department of Natural Resources? Like the [00:37:00] marketing people? Cause I've met I've, who did, man, what state was it? I think it might have been Tennessee.

It might have been Tennessee. And she's there was a direct result in tag sales when we paid, I don't know if it was Tennessee, but I met this girl. She's there was a direct. Influence of tag sales when we had like t h p come to our state and they documented all of this stuff. And so what are your th what are your thoughts on that scenario?

I. 

[00:37:39] Tony: My thoughts on it, and I've known about it a long time. Have been, I'm pretty uneasy with it. Yeah. Because you know where it's gonna go, and now we're here, yep. You knew it's the same thing. The first time I drew an Iowa tag, I, it was 2009. And I drew and then it was wait three, four years or whatever the timeframe was [00:38:00] back then.

And I remember talking to somebody about the governor's tags that everybody talks about. Yes. And he's you could definitely get one being in the industry. And I was like, man, I don't want to. Yeah. Because at some point I have to explain that to everyone. Cause somebody's gonna ask me.

Yep. And that whole situation with paying, paying people to promote hunting in a different state, and it's weird because I. I don't know who, I don't know what state started that. South Dakota's been doing it a long time for their pheasant opportunities. And, Nebraska did it to compete with them.

And then you see, I know some of the southern states did it for their big game. I just, it makes me uneasy, man. We don't, they now, the cat's outta the bag, whatever, but we don't need it. Yeah. It's just unnecessary. And it's there's plenty of information out there. So I think it's better to just be real vague about where you're hunting and not go that route.

But I get, I get why those guys did it. Yeah. I understand they're getting paid and the, state game agencies are like, we want more people to come here and hunt and then it [00:39:00] works. Yeah. And now the tags get tightened up and that sucks. Yeah. 

[00:39:03] Dan Johnson: I understand why you would wanna market it for financial reasons.

But for me, I look at it as almost a slap in the face to the resident. These people who live in these states all year round and they hunt in these areas all year round, and then maybe it's just me being an asshole, but a group of people comes in to a spot that you hunt every year, and the next they come in, they record all of it, they document it, they even say where you're at, and then the next year there's 10 other guys there quadruple the amount of the people who went there.

Now, every year they're going back, especially if it's a state with an over-the-counter tag and there's no point system. I would be extremely pissed as a resident if that went down because my personal opinion is [00:40:00] the state needs to take care of the residents of that state first.

Is there something wrong with that style of thinking? 

[00:40:07] Tony: You just have to recognize the funding. Yeah. It's not I know everybody says that, but it's not so simple. In a lot of states, in, in whitetail dominated states, it's generally the residents who are paying for the bulk of the game management and state game agency.

But it depends. It depends how much they're bringing in for preference points or they're bringing in for non-resident tags. And it, and you can find, I, I just wrote about this for meat eater. If you take Wyoming as an example, I, the, I think the numbers I had were for tw from 2020, I think, but it was preference points.

99% of the money, which is, which was 12 million, was raised by non-residents and a hundred thousand dollars was raised by the residents. And then if you look at the license sales, it was like, I'm gonna screw up the numbers. But it was [00:41:00] like, I. 80% of 60 million was non-resident money. So this is one of those things if you really wanted to keep it for the residents what somebody would do, and I don't want anybody to do this, but maybe they will someday, is it would just be, it would be just like ending trophy hunting in Africa.

If you were really pissed about that, you could pay and if you raised enough money, you could shut that down cuz it's about money. And so in a state where if you're like, I want, I don't want non-residents anymore and I want everything to be for the residents, all it would be a matter of raise the prices enough till it covers that.

It covers the budgets, yeah. And I'm 

[00:41:40] Dan Johnson: not opposed to non-residents hunt, like going and hunting other states or coming to Iowa. I'm not opposed to that at all, as long as it's properly managed. Yeah. But what I don't want is something like that to happen. Like Iowa, there's no need for those governor tags anymore.

Everybody knows about the Whitetails [00:42:00] in Iowa. Yeah. I don't care who you are, there's no need for marketing the state anymore through those tags, just I don't know. And so I feel like the, non-residents have their place and it's a tough, it's tough because in Wyoming they're afraid to change because the population of their state is so low and the, that income comes from the non-residents.

I don't know. I would, and I think recently, I know Nebraska went to it they're going to a draw system. South Dakota is now. On a different system. It's the same system, but now they, I think they reduced the tag, the number of tags so that it's gonna, it's gonna turn into a preference point system.

Yep. And to me, I don't have a problem with that as a non-resident. If I have to wait a couple more years to go hunt South Dakota and I have to start doing that every other year, man, if it helps the natural resource, like I personally am okay with that. 

[00:42:56] Tony: I am. If it's a resource Yeah. If it's actually a [00:43:00] resource issue.

Yep. Here's where I definitely break from that line of thought. We take the temperature of this stuff by how many people are bitching. And if you look at I, Colorado Elk is the best example. Yeah. If you listen to people talk about Colorado elk over the counter elk, I'm talking not drawn a primo unit.

It is almost universally, it sucks. It's not worth going. It, there's too many people, all the elk are pushed off the mountain and then you go hunt Colorado public land elk in an over-the-counter unit and it's you have great opportunities there. Yeah. Anybody who says you can't find elk there.

And so I always, I get real nervous about this when it's we're, are we taking away opportunities cuz people are bitching that the hunting quality isn't as good for them personally? Or is it really like we're killing too many elk or too many white tails or ducks or whatever. Yeah. That's a different thing to me.

Yeah. And you see that, [00:44:00] what worries me about that is you see that, like with mul deer, if you take like Nebraska or South Dakota, there's a huge concern with the resource of mul deer. Because that's a pretty limited supply. Yep. But then you also see the whitetails often get lumped in there and you go is this the same thing?

Are. Or are you just doing this because you can? And I, if it, if a state game biologist comes out and says look, we're hammering these things too hard, then great. But if it's just man, people are complaining that it's not as easy as it used to be. That, that makes me nervous cuz there's no end to that.

There's no way to measure that. It's not a game population, it's not a harvest statistic. Okay. All 

[00:44:38] Dan Johnson: right. So moving on to the next thing I you, you don't really run a ton of trail cameras, do you? 

[00:44:48] Tony: Not really. Not really not compared to a lot of people. 

[00:44:50] Dan Johnson: Okay. So on that 25 acre property, are you thinking because the kids are involved and because it's a brand new property?

Or are you thinking trail cameras are gonna be in [00:45:00] play there? Big time. 

[00:45:01] Tony: Yeah. Yeah. I'll, I shouldn't say big time. I'll run a couple because I have no idea what lives there and what moves through. 

[00:45:09] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Okay. I, what is, let's see here. What is your overall trail camera strategy?

If you have one, and when you go and hunt public, do you ever use trail cameras on public? 

[00:45:27] Tony: I almost never use trail cameras on public. Okay. Part of that is because a lot of the places I hunt, you can't, and part of it is a lot of the places I'm traveling to, if I have four or five days, it wouldn't do me any good.

So I look at trail cameras two ways, like over in Wisconsin where I take my girls. I'm literally just monitoring some spots to see if are the d are deer there, like any deer coming in consistently. So it's, it's a couple hours to get over there. I wanna make sure that they're gonna be in the game.

But for myself, [00:46:00] it's always just to answer a question. Yeah. I find a fence crossing or something, or this property that I just got permission on, there's nothing to glass. Yeah. There's no way to just get there and watch anything. So I have no idea how many deer live there. I have no idea what the, the size of the bucks are, or how many dos might be going through there.

And so I'm just answering that question what am I curious about? And some of the properties that I have, like in the southern part of the state I don't almost never run trail cameras like on the edge of a bean field. Yeah. Or in kind of a, like a typical spot where you'd be like, I'm gonna take inventory and, get 'em pinned down here.

It's always like some. Terrain trap in the woods or something where I'm like who walks this subtle trail? What, when, like, how could this play into my strategy? And I, it's like a, it's just a curiosity thing for me. It really isn't like a huge I'm gonna run 25 cameras and get 'em dialed [00:47:00] in, type of thing.

I'm just not that kind of person. 

[00:47:01] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Man I tell you what I think for me, I really I just really like trail cameras and I think it's more of, I just like looking at pictures of deer, right? Especially if it's a big mature buck. Does it help for me, do I base a lot of my decision making based off the data that I get from those trail cameras?

Absolutely. But if someone said to me, all right, trail cameras are now outlawed in Iowa, nobody can use 'em anymore. I don't think I would be too terribly disappointed. I think I. I would change my my scale of what I'm looking for every year. I would probably not be passing the one 40 s in Iowa that I'm passing to go hold out for maybe a low, one 50 or something like that.

I wouldn't be passing those types of deer. But other than that, I don't think I'd be too terribly disappointed. Yeah. 

[00:47:57] Tony: What you said there is so true. It a lot of times it's just [00:48:00] fun. It's fun. Yeah. Like it's just a, it's just like an add-on part of, preseason and the season where it's just, it's like a, it's, we give it too much credit for helping us kill deer a lot of times.

But just for enhancing the experience, they're pretty sweet. Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:48:16] Dan Johnson: Absolutely. So one thing that I am excited about this year is I got one of those systems cutting cutback link system. And so you put one where you get cell service and then you can daisy chain them. And so in the, in, in my main Iowa farm, there is no cell service in the river bottom.

Okay. Or the correct bottom. You can't it's high all around and you can't, you just can't get cell service down there. So I would only check a couple of those trail cameras twice an entire year. Not just the season, just the entire year, once in March and then once maybe in [00:49:00] September, right before the season started.

But then they just ride out the entire year. Batteries would die and then I'd go back and get 'em. But now I'm excited to see more of a. I don't know, more of a real time. It's not gonna really affect my hunting just because I'm still multiple hours away from these properties. But I just, it would be nice to know what's moving through there at more real time On the other corner of my mouth, I say cell cams are ch for cheaters.

[00:49:32] Tony: Dude. I know it. It's not only do we have cell cameras now, and they're the standard just about. Yep. But you have cameras with live feed. Live feed, yeah. Capabilities, which is freaking 

[00:49:44] Dan Johnson: bananas. Yeah. Security camera type technology where you can log on like a ring door system on your door.

You can go who's at my front door right now and the moment and I'm, I bet you they're coming the secur the trail [00:50:00] cameras that you can, Pivot Right or left and scan a food plot or scan. Absolutely. It's coming. It's coming. There, 

[00:50:08] Tony: there was a camera, I don't remember who, it might have been a wild Game Innovations camera, but there was one that had multiple lenses on 

[00:50:16] Dan Johnson: it.

Oh, yeah. 360. You put it in the middle. Oh, yeah. Food plot. It's a 360 deal. 

[00:50:21] Tony: Yeah. Yeah, no, we're not that far away. I think in maybe 10 years, 12 years, you're gonna see these manufacturers will be selling here's an Iowa compliant camera. Here's a, Texas compliant camera, here's a whatever.

Because these rules, I think the cell camera thing is I think the clock is ticking on that in a lot of states. You think it's 

[00:50:40] Dan Johnson: that it's going bye-bye. 

[00:50:43] Tony: I think it's very likely. Yeah. Yeah. And I. I don't know. Again, I'm like, is it a resource issue? Or is it just a, like a public perception issue?

What is it? Because, but the problem is you're gonna have people who are going [00:51:00] to, they're gonna film a TikTok or something where they're like, I'm sitting here in my office and look at this, the buck's in the food plot, and they're gonna grab their rifle and they're gonna film their self walking out there.

Oh, people 

[00:51:07] Dan Johnson: have already done that. They've already done that. I saw this last year. Hey, I was packing for a trip. Buck showed up on trail camera. She ran out, grabbed her rifle, ran out to the food plot, shot him dead. I don't like, what if she got, I don't like that. 

[00:51:24] Tony: Wonder if she got a visit from a co.

Cause I, there's so many states that would be illegal. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. I guess I don't know where she was, but yeah. Oh, so then people see that and they go like how is are we still talking fair chase here? Yeah. Yeah, man, I 

[00:51:41] Dan Johnson: don't know. Like I just can't wait for me to start making enough money or pivot in.

Don't get me wrong, I love doing all this, but I just want to like, just step away from it and just shut it off and just go black and [00:52:00] watch and just go do me without worrying about any of this other stuff. I don't know. Yeah. 

[00:52:06] Tony: Yeah. We just, I don't know. And it, dude, we're all guilty of this, but we just can't help ourselves.

Yeah. The technology comes along and it's just fun. And cell cameras, man, they're so fun. Oh yeah. Like it's, it's so fun to log in there and check that app and see those pictures. And the one thing that could happen that I would say is what I would hope would happen.

Is they would regulate in incrementally and be like, you can't get instant photos. So somebody would come out with a camera that will only send you photos once a week or once every three days or something. But what'll happen is just a wholesale ban. Yep. And that'll, I, I don't know.

I don't know where we're going with it. I'm like I'm like you, I'm in the same I like 'em, I use them. If they went away, I would be like, eh, whatever. Okay. Whatever. 

[00:52:54] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I gotcha. Cross bell are you thinking about shooting a cross bell ever?[00:53:00] 

[00:53:01] Tony: No. Okay. Why you hear a rumor about me or what 

[00:53:03] Dan Johnson: Oh, yeah.

Lots of rumors going around. Tony Peterson shooting a crossbow this year. I heard the checks came in and you're like, oh, yeah. That's hard to turn down that money. Got one 

[00:53:15] Tony: of those, I got another ivory backscratcher here from that Crossbo royalty. 

[00:53:21] Dan Johnson: No. I 

[00:53:22] Tony: was when the crossbo thing started burning pretty hot.

Which has been going on a while now. Yeah. We're probably 15 years into this thing, or maybe longer. Yeah. I was like, this is a bad idea. I was like, typical. I don't want 'em, I don't think they belong here. And now again, my daughters use one. It's, it is the thing that drives me the most nuts about cross bows is anybody who argues that they're the same thing as a vertical bow.

Yep. Like they are just a different thing. They're an easier weapon. Yep. To use. You don't need to practice with 'em. They're just different. It's just easier. And if you acknowledge that I don't care, don't try to pretend, it's the same thing. If [00:54:00] you were like, a compound and a recurve really the same thing.

No man. Yeah. They're just go shoot 'em. Yeah. Like they're just not, yep. And so I'm, I was like adamantly anti crossbo and then I was like I don't know if I have the energy to care as much anymore. And now I just look at it and go, it's just coming anyway. Like everybody, every state out there is gonna have 'em.

I think eventually, I think more than half of the states already have full inclusion, so it's I don't know. What are you gonna do? 

[00:54:30] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're gonna wrap it up here. And I wanna know it's summertime. And I played this on one of the last episodes. It's a game called, my Favorite Thing is, all and so my, my we talked, I'm gonna use this for an example. My favorite thing about the whitetail rut is when you're sitting in a tree stand, it's a crisp, no wind, [00:55:00] frost on the ground. Cold morning, you can see your breath. The sun's coming up. It's so quiet and all you can hear is you turn around and there's a butt coming right towards you.

That is one of my favorite things about the rut and hunting deer. But now I'm want to narrow it down to summertime. What is one of your favorite things about summertime? 

[00:55:27] Tony: Oh, man. The, how visible they are. Yeah. My, my fa I love using a spotting scope and watching bachelor groups. Yeah. So one of my favorite things is how visible they are in the summer.

I just, you don't get a chance to watch mature books very often in the summer is your time. Yeah. I 

[00:55:46] Dan Johnson: love that. Yeah. What about non Deere hunting related, favorite things? Fishing. Fishing, period. Period. I like fishing, period. I do 

[00:55:56] Tony: man trout, bass, whatever. But I [00:56:00] just love, I love that there are so many different options to fish in the summer. Yeah. You can go to the stream and drown worms with your kids, or you can go get real serious on some big water for whatever you wanna fish. I just All of it. Just 

[00:56:14] Dan Johnson: fishing. Yep. Yep. That's awesome, man. Tony, man, thanks again for hopping on. I appreciate this. I think our contract, like I have enough stuff to Black Milia and I promised you like a couple years and then I'd let you go.

But I enjoy having you on the podcast, man, and have fun the rest of this summer and let's touch base again when the season starts. 

[00:56:37] Tony: Definitely. Thanks buddy.

[00:56:48] Dan Johnson: And there you have it, another Tony Peterson episode in the books. Hopefully you guys enjoy. I love you all. I hope all of you have an extremely active and happy 4th of [00:57:00] July where we get to celebrate one of the greatest countries in the world where freedom. Is, you go to any other country man, and you see how they live, and then you see how we live.

We got it really good over here and sometimes almost too good. And just think about that this weekend. Hang with your friends fighting you hang with your friends, blasting off fireworks, eating till you're full, drink until you're drunk. All that stuff ha happens because, Of 300 some years of people fighting for this country to be the way it is and defending our right to live in this world of freedom.

And yeah, just take that into consideration this weekend. Huge shout out to tethered wasp vortex hunt. Stand the woodman's pal and hunt worth. Please go out and support the companies that support this podcast. And last but not least, good vibes in my friends. Good vibes out, and we'll talk to you next time.[00:58:00] 

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