Unorthodox Whitetail Strategies w/ Jake Vernon

Show Notes

Hey everyone, welcome to episode 180 of the Antler Up Podcast!

On this week's episode I was joined by Jake Vernon!! Jake resides in PA, but had a really unique upbringing when it came to hunting.  Growing up Jake traveled a lot to Kentucky to hunt whitetail, then had the opportunity to live in Montana.  This is where Jake seemed to really sharpen his skills as a whitetail hunter.  In this specific episode Jake and I cover a variety of topics and stories. To go along with this episode, please head over to our website www.antlerupoutdoors.com and on our In the Field page, Jake has an article written for you all.  So, listen to today’s episode and head over there to read his piece.   

Kicking this episode off, Jake introduces his interesting upbringing when it came to whitetail hunting.  This was a story unlike any that I have heard so far.  I really enjoyed Jake sharing his story and then talking about his experience getting his son into the outdoors and particularly archery.  Following this discussion Jake shares some stories about the time he lived in Montana and the tactics they used to hunt whitetail and how these strategies have evolved for him over the years.  Jake and I shared a similar story when we hit our early 20’s in that we got back into bowhunting. From there Jake discusses how the last few years he has been successful in an unorthodox way.  When listening to Jake you just hear how much he just loves hunting whitetail and isn’t afraid to be different. For example, Jake does not spend a ton of time scouting during the “post-season” time frame, but rather uses the rifle season to hunt but scout for next year's bow season as well.  Throwing this strategy on top of his preferred method of archery, Jake just simply grinds to be the best hunter and archer he can be.  We wrap things up discussing goals, build upon your experience in the woods and upcoming plans for this year.  Check it out and let us know what you think!  Enjoy this fun episode and see you next week! 

Thanks again for all the support and best of luck out there and Antler Up!

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

Show Transcript

Jeremy Dinsmore: [00:00:00] What's up everybody? Welcome back to this week's episode of the Anup podcast. We're brought to you by tethered the world's best saddle hunting equipment, and we have a fun show for you all today. I was joined this week by Jake Vernon. Jake resides in Pennsylvania, but had a really unique upbringing when it came to his hunting.

Growing up, Jake traveled a lot to Kentucky to hunt Whitetail then had the opportunity to live in Montana for a couple years, and this is where Jake seemed to really sharpen his skills as a whitetail hunter. And in this specific episode, We cover a variety of topics and stories. Just a fun conversation to have talking hunting.

To go along with this episode though, please head over to our website, [00:01:00] www.antlerupoutdoors.com. And under our in the field page, Jake has a article written for you all. So go listen to the today's episode and head over there and read his piece. And in this episode, Jake introduces his interesting upbringing when it came to whitetail hunting.

This is a story really like unlike any other that I heard so far, and I really enjoyed Jake sharing his story. And then we're talking about his experience getting his son into the outdoors and particularly archery. Following this discussion, Jake shares some stories about the time he lived in Montana, the tactics they used to hunt the whitetail out there, and how now that has evolved for him over the last couple years.

Jake and I shared a similar story when we hit our early twenties in that we got back into bow hunting. From there, Jake discusses how the last few years he has been a very successful hunter. In an unorthodox way, and when listening to Jake, you just hear how much he just loves whitetail hunting and isn't afraid to be different.

For example, Jake does not spend a ton of time scouting in the postseason timeframe, but rather uses the rifle time, [00:02:00] the hunt, but also scout for next bow season. So throwing this strategy on top of his preferred method of archery, Jake just simply grinds to be the best hunter and archery he can be. We wrap up things, discussing our goals and build upon really your experience in the woods to be a better woodsman and hunter, and also his upcoming plans for fall.

So check it out. Let us know. We think, don't forget to head on over to our website to check out his written piece under the in the blog. Thanks again everybody. If you like what you hear, go ahead and leave a five star review. Under the reviews, we're gonna have some cool giveaways coming up, leading into the season.

Going to give away a half dozen set of either MMT arrows or the NIS arrows from Exodus. So I'll be giving away a half dozen of those coming up here soon. Also, looking into some other cool things to give away, just as a big thank you. Be on the lookout for some new tethered stuff. So we'll get into that here shortly, right before the episode.

Thanks again, everybody. Happy 4th of July to you all. Antler up.[00:03:00]

America's best bow strings has been manufacturing high quality custom bow strings in the s a since 2006. America's best. Bo string strives on the commitment to never end the search for perfection. And this has been the driving force behind the company Innovative products. For every Archer out there, go create a custom set Today at America's best bo strings.com.

And a special code is made for our listeners of the Antler Up podcast For America's best bow strings, use code antler up and you'll save $10 off your order.

Tethered is a team of saddle hunting fanatics with a passionate addiction to wide tail hunting, designing and engineering products. To be a more efficient and confident hunter Tether produces the most mobile, stealthy and safest elevated hunting gear on the [00:04:00] planet. Built by saddle hunters forward the saddle hunter.

Head over to tether nation.com to see for yourself what exactly I'm talking about.

Last year was a wild year for censorship for hunters and anglers. We partnered with social media platform Go Wild to Combat mainstream social media Censorship. Go Wild was built by outdoors men and women by hunters and anglers just like you Go Wild is a free social community. Not only are your photos not censored, they're encouraged on Go Wild and Go Wild.

Gives you points for things like sharing your trophies, gear reviews, and inviting friends. As you earn points, you unlock awesome rewards too, such as gift cards, free swag, knives, huge discounts on brands like Garmin and Vortex and so much more. And if you create a free account, you can unlock $10 just for trying it out.

Visit and download gow wild.com to get started. What's [00:05:00] going on everybody? Welcome back to this week's episode of the Antler Podcast. I'm joined by Jake Vernon on the other line. Jake, thanks for coming on tonight,

Jake Vernon: dude. How are you? I'm good, Jeremy. What's going on?

Jeremy Dinsmore: Oh, we're just talking about how our memorial day was of, getting blasted by the sun, eating like pigs and so now here we are, we get a chance to talk some deer hunt, so life's pretty good.

Jake Vernon: Yeah, man.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Love it. Dude. I saw this past weekend you're out shooting with your son. I know you and your boy do a ton of shooting in general, but you had a little 3D course action. And is that the one that Lyle puts on? What is that the same club as Lys? That's a

Jake Vernon: different one.

No, we're members at that club and we love going there. They had a shoot actually yesterday. Okay. But just couldn't make it out there. But no, it's actually my boys' old pre-K teacher does photography on the side and every year she takes our pictures shooting. So we were out at her family's property and just brought a few targets with us and we're, messing around with that

Jeremy Dinsmore: [00:06:00] dude.

That's pretty cool. They, you've been, cuz you did, like you said, you've done that now a couple times with your son to getting the photos taken. That's so cool.

Jake Vernon: Yeah, it's just, it's more for me than its him. It's an aggravation for him, he like, yesterday he found a or was it Saturday?

They spotted a wood chuck and the girl's husband was, go for it. He. Off at that thing before it went down a hole. And he was like, the first one was like, damn close. And after that they were just, hail Marys. But, he gave it a shot. So

Jeremy Dinsmore: he's thirsty.

He wants to get it. I could tell. Oh,

Jake Vernon: worse than bad dude. Worse than bad. As soon as he, he killed a squirrel with a pellet gun like last fall and ever since, all he wants to do is kill stuff. It's the it, the blood lust, I remember having it as a kid and they, yeah. I wanna say he's got it worse than me, but he probably doesn't.

I'm just, like grown outta it. Yeah. But [00:07:00] yeah, it's pretty wild. He's seven pounds away from draw, from legal, draw weight and pa Okay. I almost wanna drive him to Kentucky where it's 30, or it used to be 30 pounds. I don't know what it's now, it used to be 30 pounds. Just so you know, he could get a crack at a deer with his bow.

Cause his interest in rifle hunting is like nothing. Okay. Has zero interest in rifle hunting. He's it's too cold and we gotta wait too long. I'm like, ok. Like you have a point. Yeah. But

Jeremy Dinsmore: Cuz what is that? I dunno man. Our legal poundage is 35. 35. Yeah. 35. That's what I thought. Yeah. My daughter's nowhere near that.

Nowhere near that. She, you know what's funny is though, the last two years, she's gone quote unquote bow hunting with me. And it's just mainly like her just hanging out with me either on the ground in the woods or in a blind my in-laws area and just she thinks, I, it's funny cuz then once the time comes, [00:08:00] we're sitting there and she's daddy, you, if a deer comes like you shoot it, then cuz I, I'm not gonna be able to reach shit.

I'm like, okay, honey. Sounds, sounds great. Even though I know that's exactly what we were doing in anyway, it was just her going hunting with her boat, which is,

Jake Vernon: that's, oh my, my boy just hates sitting still. He's I put him in a ground blind one afternoon last October, and he's dad, we're not hunting deer.

I'm like, hang on. All right, let's explain this to me. He's we're waiting for deer. I'm like, all I like where your head's at because I don't like sitting still either. Yeah. There's a little bit of waiting involved pal. Like you, it's just something you gotta get over.

But, I dunno, kids are tough, man, but they're fun, they're blasty. Get out there. That's so funny.

Jeremy Dinsmore: We're not hunting down we're waiting for deer. That's good. That's that's a, he's wise beyond his years already.

Jake Vernon: And it's and it's my own fault because like he's, anytime he like, comes [00:09:00] downstairs or in the garage, I got Whitetail adrenaline on and it is like just deer drive city or stalking him on the ground.

And it's, and and that's like my big thing is this the past two years is like getting on the ground with deer and it's been a fricking riot. And with deer drives, he's been out on a few with him, with us. And he's yeah, we're not hunting gear, we're just standing here.

I'm like, man, you're using like my own will against me right now, and I'm okay with it. That's so fun. You gotta get a few under your belt before you're ready to to do that. That's,

Jeremy Dinsmore: yep. No man. That's good. So just give a little introduction of a little bit of who you are and, what brings you to here, where you're we're at right now, Jake.

Jake Vernon: Okay. I'm I'm not a PA native. I'm a PA implant spent most of my life in upstate New York, but my dad bounced us around a bit. We lived in Wisconsin for a few years Montana for a few years, so I got ruined on, some really good deer hunting [00:10:00] in a hurry. We would my dad when we lived in Wisconsin, I would like seven or eight and he would drive us down to a family farm in Kentucky.

And that's where we really cut our teeth on. Just, it didn't matter what the bag limits back then in Kentucky were pretty liberal. I think at the time you could shoot two bucks. Okay. And doe tags were like, it wasn't even a factor and you had crop damage tags and stuff like that too.

But I shot my first year when I was seven, and then after that it was like, okay my dad just threw me to the wve. Yeah, you gotta have an adult sit with you, whatever if you can kill it, you kill it. And then he, started with my sister and that was like a whole chip on my shoulder thing.

And she killed a fair amount of deer too, don't get me wrong. But that, that really sparked the the interest for me. And then after that we moved out to Montana, and I think I went a year without hunting before I [00:11:00] was legal there. Okay. And was with my dad on a bunch of, primarily whitetail hunts, but there were mules around.

And we didn't really get into like pronghorn or anything like that until I started hunting out there. And then, I shot a pronghorn, I did kill one mule deer. And then just a pile of whitetails because we hunted these weapons restricted zones out there where you had to use a shotgun, a muzzle, or a pistol.

Yep. And they, from, I wanna say it was like December 20th till sometime in January you could buy two do tags a day over the counter. Wow. Just insane. Insane. And we, after three or four, you're like burned out, yeah. But It was, that and that, like that article I wrote and sent to you it is just getting there's only one good way to get good at killing deer, and that's by killing deer.

And then, you shift your focus to, bigger and better things, [00:12:00] whatever you wanna do as an individual. But that was like such a building time for me, getting kills under my belt. Like just, it made as I got older and started chasing bigger things. Yeah it made it a lot easier.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still get jacked up, but, ha having those kills under my belt I still think back about them like, More than I should, probably

Jeremy Dinsmore: now that it's July. That means for us whitetail hunters, we have a ton of things going on. We are tirelessly scouting, shooting our bows, and dialing in our gear.

One piece of gear that Tether just released is their new lockdown saddle. This saddle is the king of comfort with the yolk system. It will eliminate the frustration of constantly having to pull up your saddle on your way in, and it will keep your saddle in position so you don't have to keep pushing it down or pulling it up so it keeps it in place.

And if you don't wanna run your yoke system, no problem, because you can easily just [00:13:00] remove it. Lastly, when it comes to a comfort, the lockdown has it with the capability to expand, but with the lockdown links, your saddle will then return to the normal position when you want it to. Made right here in the usa.

Check it out over@tethernation.com. Yeah, there's I'm the same way to thinking back to some of my old, early kills and, killing my first white tail with a rifle and, first one with the bow that I've talked about plenty of times on here. And just, it's just, it's cool to think

Jake Vernon: back to Big Dough, wasn't it?

Yeah. Was it a big dough you got with your bow? Yeah, that was mine too. I shot a big, a really big doll with my bow. That was the first one. Yeah, it's just cool.

Jeremy Dinsmore: But it, but like you said though, I mean it, you think back to those memories and it's funny because growing up here and it almost felt like you were limited.

And for me it was al like, it became to a point when I was in high school where I wouldn't say I still loved doing it and I still loved at the time going, I was just I think I was a little bit more bitter at my dad just because of the relationship we had, [00:14:00] I guess that I was Sure. Sure. I wanted to, sure. No, I get that. Get that throw, throw it into him like, no, I don't want to go. But it was more. Cause I was successful almost every single year filling a buck tag, do tag and, not nothing to go home bragging about, of saying yeah I killed whatever.

Shit, I think up until high school, I, my biggest deer was still like a 6.8, little eight point basically, but,

Jake Vernon: oh yeah, dude, don't, I'll get into that, but Yeah. Yeah. But I'm with you

Jeremy Dinsmore: on that. But like you said though, it's the experiences, right? It's getting those things under your belt that kind of helps you become better and, and I almost feel once I would say over a day, like just over 10 years now, when I got right back into things and after life settled down, it seemed like it was like learning to hunt all over again, honestly, because yeah, a lot change and a lot of.

Gear slash I don't know, just like everything changed and, getting that buck fever, chasing that that adrenaline [00:15:00] hit back real quick, if that makes sense.

Jake Vernon: Yeah, no, dude, I get it. Because like in my, I, early twenties, late teens, early twenties I didn't hunt a lot. Gun hunted a couple days a year, maybe bow hunted once, I'm not even sure I owned a compound at the time.

Yeah. But went out with a recurve. I had, like one day a year. And I think it was only because my brother had hit a deer the night before and we were gonna hunt that morning and then go track the deer. And then, like you said, you just get back into it. And I think I wa, I wanna say I was, let's see, my son was born when I was 24.

Yeah. Cause when I turned 25, I really I'm like, okay, I'm getting back into it. Like life settled in and, just I was no holds barred. Yeah. Anything that ca and like you're saying you're learning to hunt [00:16:00] again basically. I was gun hunting, whatever, but learning the bow hunt again.

Oh my god. Yep. Like the first bow I was able to get my hands on that I could afford was an 80 pound Matthews. Yeah. And I had never shot a bow that was 80 pounds before. I had shot a few that were near 70, but I'm like, how the freak am I gonna do this? Yep. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then, whacked a couple dos of that and a small buck in New York and I'm like, okay, like I can still do this, like after the first one contain my composure and.

It, like you said you're, you almost, when you go through a hiatus like that and it's like starting all over. Yep. You're not completely starting over. Like you, you got the basics down, but, oh, man I get fired up over a deer, over a dose standing under my stand.

Yeah. I'm with, yeah.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Yeah. I'm with you. I honestly, to each your own and everybody has their own journey and I just, as long as you're out in the woods and you're having fun and you're enjoying. That, that piece out there, [00:17:00] then I don't, as long as you're doing something, as long as it's legal, go for it.

But

Jake Vernon: at this, yeah. Bingo dude. Bingo. Bingo.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Yeah. And the thing that I just love, and what you just said is when a dough comes in and you still get fired up, so do I, dude. That's just, I love deer. I took a mountain bike ride just I shouldn't say mountain bike. I just took my bike out for a ride on some trails this morning before we went to my in-laws and everything, and I was just coming through and on the trail I kicked out a deer and I was just like freaking out.

I just, oh yeah, I do, because I just love seeing deer and I don't know, man. Like you said, you, you engulf it and you just become obsessed with it and it's, it takes over.

Jake Vernon: Oh dude, I'm a freak. Like it there deer hunting will wake me up in the middle of the night. Because I'm like, holy shit, that's a good idea for that spot.

Yeah. And I'll wake up and go write it down. My wife thinks I'm nuts, like completely nuts. She's your job keeps you awake enough. Why are you letting deer hunting do this? I'm like[00:18:00] I enjoy deer hunting more than my job. Yeah. Yeah. But it's just, and I am not like, and I am the worst for out of season scouting.

Like I just I don't have the time for it. I feel guilty enough taking as much time away from my family during deer season that I don't need to take it outside of deer season. Okay. And that probably hinders my success as far as killing bigger bucks than I do now, don't get me wrong, I have had an incredible hot streak over the last six years.

Just, looking back at my childhood, once I moved outta Montana, I never thought I'd shoot the deer I did the last few years. Yeah. Never thought I would like, I shot that mule and like maybe 115 inch, nine point, and I'm like, that's it, that's your pinnacle. I'll never touch that ever again. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And then I go out and shoot three, one [00:19:00] twentys and a couple others that were between a hundred and 120 and five years and it's alright, maybe I'm not so bad at this, yep. But yeah, I, but I, if I could allocate the time without feeling terrible about it to scouting I'd probably do much better.

But I'm pretty content with, how I get things done now and it just keeps things interesting for me.

Jeremy Dinsmore: So how are you? You know what I mean? Yeah. So I guess that's a great question. If someone listening to this would probably say, okay, so if you're not doing a ton of scouting now, throwing my experience out there.

But that's the one piece of that. This year with not coaching, I've been able to do a little bit more I should say a lot more compared to what I used to do now. It's still nowhere close of like how people are like getting over hundreds of miles. Like I'm not, I'm still not, oh yeah. Fucking touching that dude.

Yeah, I'm still not touching that stuff. I'm not there because same thing it's crazy because I think of, man, what did I, how was I a father and a husband the last 10 years basically [00:20:00] in the spring? Cuz I still felt pulled in a lot of directions and I wasn't coaching. You know what I mean? Sure, sure.

So I guess someone listening could sit there and say, okay, so if Jake's not doing a ton of scouting and he's been very successful, I guess how are you doing that? What is your philosophy or your game plans that to get shit done.

Jake Vernon: I am going to, I'll be honest with you, I'm terrible at explaining this because I can't really explain it to many people, but I'll do my best.

Now I will go I have to put like I'll have to use New York as an example because I really haven't hunted pa that hard. The last few years as far o other than meat hunting, because the couple spots I do hunt in pa I will go I know there's deer. It's a travel corridor. Like I'll just catch them coming through and that's it.

Yep. Now back in New York a lot of what I do, and now I gotta rewind here to that hiatus of [00:21:00] bow hunting that I was talking about. Sweet. During that hiatus, I did do a lot of bigger hunting. At night and I got to know a lot of spots where there was deer hanging out at nighttime. And now I know spotlighting is legal and pretty much everywhere.

Obviously within certain confines of, don't shine over a double yellow and no loaded weapons in the truck and all that shit. But that was like a big thing for me. I'm like why don't I just drive around and while I'm foxing, if I see a deer that's near a spot I can hunt or some public or whatever, I just start from there.

And that was really what, tricked my trigger on okay. Maybe I can, use that to my advantage. But, if you see a deer there at four o'clock in the morning, he's probably not very far off at seven when it gets light out. You know what I mean? So it worked into that.

And then [00:22:00] that was a big thing for a couple years, and I've gotten away from that. I've gotten to know some other spots just from, traipsing around if I, and now I will go in and I am like the worst scrape hunter on earth, but if I see like a handful of scrapes in an area and, a rub line that I like I use that as a starting point.

And I will, my big thing is like I get down on the deers level. At that scrape or at that rub. And I just take a real slow, like 360 view and I'm like, okay, where would I go if I was a deer? And at the same time, I'm thinking back to we've filled some really big bucks on deer drives. And I'm like, where did, what type of spot did you kick those gear outta?

And so I use that to like it's all like past experiences [00:23:00] that I, factor into that moment as I'm looking at stuff I, like I said, Jared, I'm really bad at explaining this stuff. No, but that makes sense. But that's that's just, the first year I really got back into deer hunting.

My son was one, I want to say. Yeah, it was 2017. It was the year my grandfather passed away. It was like my biggest. Hunting mentor there was. The guy in 40 years killed like 300 years, just an absolute killer. Didn't care about the size of Bucky was shooting, but he was a straight up killer and he hunted multiple states and all that.

And that year was just like what lit a fire under me. And as soon as gun season rolls around that year, we Deere drove like crazy. As of 8:00 AM opening day, we were driving deer and I probably learned more from three days of driving deer as to where big bucks hang out than then I learned [00:24:00] in 20 years prior of just sitting in a tree stand that somebody else has set up.

Jeremy Dinsmore: And I think if you could, and you please correct me if I'm wrong, when you're doing these drives and you're kicking up these deer are at where. They feel the safest, like away from people. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? So you're right. And I think to even build upon what you were saying, Jake, is that like you're finding either like that sign and when things that you like and you're just casting a wider net now.

Like you're just trying to piece things together. But I think that's actually a really cool piece because I've heard z Zack Reba talk about this stuff about Ohio when he does like the drives with his friends Sure. And family and all that stuff. Man, it makes sense because at that point in time, those deer are going to where they've been pressured all season up to that point.

Whether it's from archery season and whatever, however many days into a gun season already. But, they're usually at their, what they consider one of their safest spots.

Jake Vernon: Yeah. What's the word ever. Heart [00:25:00] uses security cover. Yep. I had heard and I'm not like a huge ever heart fan by any means, but he.

He's a killer. Yeah. Like I don't like how he talks to people, but he's a killer. Like I will not deny that at all. The guy is a straight up killer, no matter where he goes. He is killing the biggest deer he can find. But yeah, I had heard him talk about that security cover. I'm like, man, this guy's onto something.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Yeah. About three years ago we were I killed my, I killed a buck already here and. We're on a drive and dude, I was walking on this mountain Laurel Ridge system side and I was the one all the way up top and everybody else was, trickled down and we're going and going and going. And then something kicked up from me and I got about 15 to 20 yards from this big buck.

And I just remember putting up like my scope just to see what it was like to try to count how many points. Cause I was like, dude that sucker's big, he bounded maybe two, three times until he [00:26:00] put a nice little distance between us and he stopped. And that's when I was able to get a really good look at 'em.

And he was either a really nice eight, nine or 10, but for. He was bigger than the deer that I shot that year, and I just remember being like, wow. And right. And I'm, I, when he took off, I gave a different hauler down to the person below. So we, so that way he doesn't escape, basically. And we pushed him to, to the poster.

But I remember just standing there actually, when I kicked him up and looked where he was and not in a million years, would I try to hunt that spot. Not in a million years. Oh yeah.

Jake Vernon: No, it's it, and it's wild because same deal that year, I was talking about 2017, the first drive we did at 8:00 AM the first buck we kicked out and Jeremy, this was in the first two minutes of the drive, we kicked out 147 inch, nine point that one of my good [00:27:00] buddies killed.

Oh my gosh. Three more minutes into the drive. 120 inch buck comes out and my brother killed. And then the drive was over and it's and I don't live near the peak, near, near enough to where I could go in and hunt it and I'm like, Jesus, somebody should go in and bow hunt this, right? So our buddy that shot the 1 47, I said, Matt, you need to go in there and bow hunt.

And he tried to, the next year he is like, dude, it's impossible. You can't do it. You can't do it. And this guy's a straight up killer. Like he, he kills a lot of beer and he is no, you can't do it. It's too thick. That's literally the only way you can get beer out is by bumping them out.

Yeah. I'm like, alright. That's what you gotta do. But yeah, I will say that I use, I probably use gun season more for two things. Scouting for both season. And for filling my freezer, that is my primary focus of gun season. Yep. Shoot a few doughs. If a [00:28:00] nice buck comes out I'll shoot it.

But I'm scouting for Bo. That's just, call me weird, but that's just, that's my deal,

Jeremy Dinsmore: dude. But it makes, for you, it makes sense and for others I think of when I'm up at the club with my dad and rifle season rolls around and, it's been a while since we've been able to, Shoot a buck with the rifle, cuz it almost seems like we will get them on camera or just maybe a few days prior.

So we know they're around, but again, we don't really, there's no one up there doing drives. So it's literally you're gun hunting, like you're bow hunting and it makes zero sense to me. But it's, there's only, you can't do a drive with two people, you know what I'm saying?

You can't have one

Jake Vernon: person. I'm go I'll correct you on that. You gotta come along sometime. Yeah. Yeah. We we like, you think of like traditional, like I, I talk about drive hunting a lot since I've moved to pa Yeah. And it either goes one way or the other guys are like, oh yeah, we do drives all the [00:29:00] time.

Or guys are like, oh man you're a driver, blah, blah, blah. 20 guys in the woods all walking through. No. The biggest drive I've ever been on was 10 guys. Okay. And it was five drivers, five standers. Now that I've narrowed in the group of people and and I was invited on that drive.

Like my crew for driving is six guys. Maybe. Maybe that's, if we can get the sixth guy to show up. Because he is a notorious, he is my brother and he is a notorious Blake. He's no, I'm gonna go hunt over here. I'll take, you do whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And, but precision drives and I use this term a lot.

Precision drives with a handful guys, four to six guys, even less. We've done 'em with two or three is a very effective way to kill deer. You're not the driver, quote unquote driver [00:30:00] is essentially trying to sneak up on the deer. And you're second or third guy is just, the back door to catch him as he's escaping.

Like I, I don't know how else to explain it, but that's just I, we, I, I, we'll do drives during bo season, during the October low quote unquote, again. Yeah. Yeah. It's a five acre piece of public who gives a shit. Yeah. You know what I mean? Now let's walk through it.

If a buck comes out, it's within 40 yards, you can shoot it. Yep. Whatever. And it's, it, the hunting public does it with bows and they call it wind bumping. It's a freaking drive. I don't care how you look at it. It's a freaking drive. And people can gripe and whine all they want about how drive hunting isn't real.

Drive hunt or isn't real. Hunting and whatever Fred Bear did drives. The Indians did drives. If you wanna be a purist, whatever, but anybody who wants to gripe about 'em, [00:31:00] I have DVDs where Fred Bear does drives from mule deer and tigers and all kinds of shit. Yep. And if you read Fred Bear's Field Notes, they set up spots to shoot grizzly bears at night with bait piles with white sheets behind them so they could see 'em in the dark yeah. Everybody's become so pure. And don't get me wrong, that was in the sixties when there wasn't a whole lot of laws behind that stuff. But as long as you're within the confines of the law, who cares? Who cares? Don't shit on what somebody else is doing.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Take the guesswork out of building your own arrows for this upcoming season by ordering a custom set of MMT arrows from Exodus outdoor gear.

They have developed and sourced literally the most precise archery components on earth. To build a tailored arrow for your hunting adventures, just head over to Exodus website and plug in your specifications in the Arrow builder and have your custom [00:32:00] set sent straight to your door. And use code au 12 to save 12% off your custom set over@exodusoutdoorgear.com.

What's funny is, yeah. Oh, I agree man. And what's funny is actually, now that you're saying that is I just, it's so funny because I remember from being a kid, Up until even now when my dad or I will do he'll send me a text message, when, so obviously this is more so now as a, as an adult if I'm rifle hunting.

Sure. And he'll be like, Hey, I'm gonna get down and I'm gonna walk to you. I'm like, okay. Be ready. And Absolutely, dude, and never Absolutely. And it never dawned on me that that's a drive. It is. Like you said. Yeah. Yeah. It's

Jake Vernon: literally if you want, you can beat the definition of it to death.

Death, yeah. But no matter how you cut it in one way or another, it's a drive. Dude, when we lived in Montana, we were elk hunting with this group of [00:33:00] guys. And it was either the air, the zone we were in. If you were from 12 to 14 years old, you could shoot a cow or. Anybody over that age either had to shoot a spike or a special draw bull tag.

Now this group of guys we got roped in with, they would go in and shoot spikes like crazy. That was their thing. They had shot, there was like four of 'em that had shot spikes every year in there for 30 years. No screw around operation. These guys were like real deal elk hunters when it came to a wreck.

And we got to the, and it was opening weekend of rifle season out there and it was like dumb hot, 70, 80 degrees, just dumb hot for November. And there was like probably I think it was that group of 10 I was thinking about, we're standing around this big like bowl canyon type thing and my dad was like why don't we just do a drive?

These guys had never heard of it. [00:34:00] They had never heard of a drive. We came from out here. Yeah. Wisconsin and New York. Yeah. I mean we, when I was young, we lived in upstate New York and it was all shotgun there and then we went to Wisconsin and that's even more shotgun and drive country.

And my dad's yeah, drive set up four or six guys down at that end, the other four guys walk it down and that's it. Oh, okay. We kicked up two cows and these two youth hunters killed them both. That's awesome. We talked to 'em years later. That's all they do now. That is all they do Now their crew is 15 guys and that is all they do.

That is all they do is drive that spot. You know that zone? Yep. And it is what do they call it? They call it the governor's tag out there. Okay. Yeah. It's the Elkhorn. If you Google it, it'll pop right up, but it's like [00:35:00] zone 3 0 2 B or something stupid like that. But it is like the most coveted tag in Montana.

If you get it once, you never get it again for a bull tag. And that is all they do is drive for spikes. Wow. And cows for kids. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah. And people hate on it all they want, but you know what, if you're just out there trying to kill stuff, it's a job though. And it's legal.

Just do your thing, man. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy Dinsmore: That's where I'm at. It's funny because I think it was maybe six, about six years ago, and I was, I. Hunting back at home and I missed a buck. And

Jake Vernon: with the, we gotta get you to New York, man. I know. We gotta get you

Jeremy Dinsmore: to New York. I know. I missed a buck with the bow and I went back for rifle and it was the second day and it was pouring rain.

It was just one of those days where it just was downpour. I even think like the umbrella that my dad had on the the stand that I put up, didn't work because of how much rain [00:36:00] we got. And I just remember him texting me, being like, I'm gonna go for a walk for you. And I was like, okay.

He's just be ready. So I was, and he calls me. I'm like, okay. That either, that means Hopefully nothing happened to him. One or two, he kicked up something. Something like that. Yeah. Something serious. Yeah. So something serious. Exactly. Hey, and he is, he startled, he's like, Gerald, I just kicked up a freaking giant.

And he's he was, he, and when it's raining out and with the weather he was sneaking up on him. Sure. He didn't hear nothing. Yeah. And exactly what you were saying, you're pretty much trying to sneak up on these deer. And he must, he, my dad said, he goes, I didn't notice him until he got, he kicked up.

I said you should have shot him cuz he still had a buck tag. He goes he looked like he was gonna come your way. The buck never did, but, Again, I remember then I said we mark it on the map, like where you are. Like, mark that spot so that way we can find, go back to it. Cause he was bedded and he kicked him up basically.

And long story short, [00:37:00] that's an area now where we constantly have a camera and we'll get young bucks coming through there. It's not as it's not, I wouldn't say it's a routine bed area by any means, but sure. It definitely opened up our eyes and it was because he was out doing a little walk for us while, while the, it was just pouring down rain.

Jake Vernon: You, you cannot be boots on the ground when it comes to scouting. I don't care how many trail cameras you have in the woods, I don't, you know how much map scouting you do? And I do a ton of map scouting, but. You cannot beat time on the ground looking at stuff like plain and simple. Yeah, it is. That is like the best thing you can do.

And it's what I was saying earlier about shooting deer, the only way to get good at shooting deer. Shooting deer. Yeah. Plain and simple. And plenty of guys are deer shooters, not deer hunters. That's a whole other topic. But yeah, it's just, the boots on the ground looking at stuff, kicking up deer, [00:38:00] figuring out what they're doing and when they're doing it.

Like I used to really bug myself trying to figure out why deer were doing stuff. Yeah. And then I'm like why worry about why when I've seen them do it six times in the same spot? They're doing it for a reason. The reason doesn't matter, but they're still doing it. You know what I, yeah.

We'll figure out the reason later. Let's get over there and get on one. You know what I mean? Yep. And I

Jeremy Dinsmore: think the pe I think people, I would say, shit, man, at least for me, unless I'm just god awful at it, is the whole you scouting thing. I, there's hundreds of areas that you look at, and I could say for all, like all hunters, there's, I would say if you go to say someone marks 20 different spots, they want to go scout, I'll bet you about 17 of them, they're never going to hunt because once they get boots on the ground, it's [00:39:00] shit, or it's not what they want, you know what I mean?

Jake Vernon: Absolutely. You absolutely. I do the same thing. Cause my, I get a fair amount of downtime at my job, so I'm like, okay, finish up my computer stuff and. Look it on it, and like you're saying, I'll mark 20 spots. I'll go to 'em, first week or two of season and be within 10 minutes.

If I don't feel like it's right, I'm out of there and onto the next one. I will not waste my time trying to chase something that's not there. Now I will say that I do have a fair amount of buddies who, one in particular who puts a shit ton of cameras out and he will hunt a spot for a few years and then he'll turn it over to me and say, Hey, go ahead and go in here.

And we know him well. He's been on this podcast a handful of times. You like to call him drop time? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. The year after he killed that buck. He's oh yeah man, go in here this spot. There's a few good [00:40:00] ones running around. And last day of rifle season I shot. A real nice eight pointer.

That's awesome. I'm like, you probably wish you wouldn't have turned me loose in there. Huh? He's nah, you deserved it. Yeah. One of the best

Jeremy Dinsmore: man. He's

Jake Vernon: such a good person. Oh, dude, he is. I love Tom. I love Tom to death, man. He's like a brother to me. Dude. Him and I met at a wedding Uhhuh, and I am like, I was out of my mind drunk outta my mind and he, and either I had given him my number or he had given me his number, whichever I text him the next morning, I'm like, dude, I don't know what sort of dumb shit I said, but I'm sorry.

He is no. You were like relatively coherent. Whenever you stopped talking about deer hunting was when your brain like, shut the fuck up. I'm like, ok, alright, fair enough. I can respect that. Yep. And that was after, that was like a couple weeks after he had shot that dropped pine. Yeah. Was was when I met him.

Yeah. Yeah. Pretty

Jeremy Dinsmore: [00:41:00] wild. Oh my gosh. Pretty wild. What a buck that was.

Jake Vernon: And dude, I, oh dude. I know. Like absolute monarch man. Great buck and for the area and even better buck. Yep. I

Jeremy Dinsmore: need some you know what's funny is what, as you're saying this, I could use some hangout time with Tom.

He's, the Delaware Hunt was such a good time, and when we've gone out to Total Archery challenge was such a good time just to how f like a funny individual and just a good friend overall. It's just it's so good to be around his presence. No,

Jake Vernon: he's, yeah he's cool shit, man. He reels me back in when I'm getting a little crazy.

Yeah. And yeah, he, we tried, we had a my wife had her baby shower last weekend, so the night before I had like a handful of guys over and I'm texting him like, yo, get over here. Whatever. Yeah. And he's no, man, I'm out to dinner with the wife, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, get Jill on the phone.

I'll talk to her. It'll be fine. Come over. It'll be okay. Yeah he's a good sport man. He puts up with my shit and yeah. Anybody who [00:42:00] can stay friends with me after two years is, their key,

Jeremy Dinsmore: So let's talk about this for the kind of one of the main last topics about everything.

Is that kind of what we touched upon earlier is that building on that experience, because, here we are, we're gonna be into dog days of summer here soon. People are either going to be or not going to be putting cameras out, but some people are gonna be shooting their bows and dreaming of that whitetail being all optimistic about stuff.

But I really like what you say about getting that experience. And the only way you can get better is by, boots on the ground killing deer and, having the, like you could even talk about like the goals. What are your particular things that, a hunter wants to do, but I guess I guess talk about what your, your thought process is, or what your belief is on that type of thing.

Because I, I do, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I have young, students that are like, Hey, yo, dens, like one day I do wanna hunt. I think it's, I, whatever, and I'm [00:43:00] just, I'll talk to 'em about certain things and because there is a lot you're the little boy's blood thirsty.

He's ready to rock and roll and, like you said you're ready to get him going. And I'm, you're gonna do a great job of teaching him the ropes and setting expectations and goals and what he wants to accomplish in his hunting adventure. Every person has their own adventure, but you can't there's an easy way to get burn out from it.

But, and I

Jake Vernon: think if you that, that that's like the big thing, and that's what's going through my mind while you're saying that is everybody has different goals. Yep. Everybody has different goals. Some guys want to go out and, Get a few decent bucks on the ground and then chase a one 70 power to 'em that, would I pass up a one 70?

Certainly not. But I tell you what, if it comes by me and it's 110 inches or 120 or whatever, I'm probably not letting it go. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I think like the biggest thing for, anybody new, old, new hunter, old hunter, it doesn't matter. [00:44:00] Figure out your goals for what you wanna do, and don't be afraid to change those goals.

Like it's getting to the middle of the season and you just want to get a deer in the freezer because you like eating deer meat. Don't be afraid to shoot a dough or a dink buck or, whatever. I mean that, that's just me. Could you I

Jeremy Dinsmore: don't know could you think of a personal experience where maybe something like that has happened to you?

Cuz I could think of one for me. Oh yeah,

Jake Vernon: dude, last year was a prime example. Columbus Day weekend, I dropped my bow out of a tree stand. The one time I hunted out of a tree stand last year because I was dead set on hunting on the ground, which was my goal for last year was hunting on the ground and shooting one instinctive.

That was, instinctive shooting. That, that, that was my those were my two goals for the year. I set goals every year before every season, and right about now is when I start like, looking at those goals anyway, so [00:45:00] I dropped my bow out of the tree. Let's rewind the couple days before that Columbus Day weekend, I decided I was not confident enough in my.

Instinctive shooting and was going to take my bow out that had sights on it. Okay? And like I stopped shooting sites because it, I didn't feel anything in front of me was safe. And I don't mean to be cocky, but like the last five deer I shot with a bow word, like dumb easy before I switched to instinctive.

So anyway, I let myself get in my own head and I'm like, okay, I'll pull my bow out with the sights on it. It'll be fine. Now again, I decided to get up in a tree stand, which was against my better judgment at the time anyway, but the spot set up perfect for it. And so I did, and my [00:46:00] bow hanger was set up for my bow without sight.

And I'm not making excuses, I'm just telling you what happened. And I knocked my bow out of the tree. Climb down, grab it. I didn't even have time to shoot another arrow to make sure it was good. I just looked over everything and it looked okay, Uhhuh, here comes a buck, nice buck. I miss him. Once he scoots out a little ways further settles back down.

I miss him a third, a second time, and then he is walking away and I take a third hail Mary shot, because at that point I'm like there's a hundred dollars in broadheads in the ground. What's one more? Yep. And that was an incredibly humbling experience for me. But at that point, I changed, I shifted gears.

I'm like, okay, now I need to focus on I, I couldn't let that bother me. I couldn't let [00:47:00] it bother me. You okay. You missed a deer. Yeah. And all your buddies are gonna give you shit because you missed it three times. But so what you move on to the next one? Yeah. And tell you what the next few dos I saw that were over like 120 pounds were not safe.

And I killed all of them. That was just like, had to get my, had to get my confidence back up. No doubt. You know what I mean? And sometimes you gotta do that. And again, that's just me. That's just me. I'm the type of guy who will practice at 40 yards and if I have a few bad shots, I'll sneak back into 20 or 15.

Yeah. And make myself feel better again. And then move back out before.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Yeah. It's smart, you gotta do

Jake Vernon: that. You've gotta do that. I don't, maybe you don't. But for me, that's what I need to do. Yeah. I'm with you.

Jeremy Dinsmore: I agree. I agree. I do the exact same thing when I'm practicing shooting.

And, I think back to, was it the 2020 or 2021 season? W we were [00:48:00] up on the public land up here. Demetri and I, we were hunting and it was the kind of the beginning of our rut, cation that we both took the same days off and we're going to hunt. Yep. The same kind of days together.

And He, we, we got in on some deer and at night I had a couple deer coming skirting through. And two, two dough broke away from the group that worked away from me basically. And one came in and it's getting down to the last couple minutes of light, and I just ranged. And I, she was 25 and I just was like, I'm killing this d let her have it.

I'm, let her have it. I'm coming in here, let her have it right. I'm coming in here tomorrow morning in the same location because I just saw, two bucks with couple groups of dough, like work the other way and I'll just move in a little bit further and, marked it on the map. And this dough came in 24, 5 yards.

Boom. Put I, at the time I was still shooting like a several broadhead. I blew right through her. She ran eight yards topped over Dimitri. I called Dimitri, he was on his way down already because he needed to come like down by me to like where we were walking out. [00:49:00] Anyway, I said, Hey, we're gonna have to pack out a dough.

He's did you shoot one? I was out there. Nothing wrong with that, man. Yep. He's nothing wrong with that, and I'm like, all right, man, here we go. So we ended up packing her out, and and dude, it was like, I don't know. We weren't, I wasn't necessarily in the say to myself like, Hey I'm gonna shoot whatever today.

It was, came down to that moment.

Jake Vernon: No listen. If it if do it, if it, if something comes in and you wanna shoot it. Yep. If you have a tag for that animal, shoot it. And I will say this about big do I have had a hell of a time killing one big dough on a certain property for the last five years.

She bust me as soon as I shut the truck door. I'm not, dude, I am not even joking it. That's crazy. It was open, it was opening day last year in PA for both season. And I pull into the spot. Now I have to walk like 200 yards to the spot where I like even start hunting [00:50:00] and I'm like, oh, I got a new truck.

She's not even gonna know. Pull in. Didn't slam the door. Just, being real cautious, whatever. I don't even make it to the edge of the woods, which is only 20 yards from my truck. And that bitch is blowing. Now, mind you, she has watched me shoot like a handful of like year or two old do over the last few years.

Yep. But still, she, I, she busts me every time I'm in there. That's crazy. Every single time. And she is, she's at least seven years old. Cause I like to assume that she was two years old when, when I started hunting there. Yeah. I don't know for sure, but geez, she's harder than any big buck I've ever chased, with the exception of maybe one.

If people wanna write off do, but man, you go out and try and kill yourself a dough that's 6, 7, 8, 9 years old and do will live to be [00:51:00] like 14. Yeah. Like they know their shit, man. Oh yeah. They're willing to take some certain risks because they're raising young, but killing an old big doe is tough.

I don't care who

Jeremy Dinsmore: you are. It was my last year hunting out of a like tree stand before I made the transition to hunting out of saddle. And I remember I, I was like, oh man, I'm setting up this. Stand right here. I have a pretty good cover. Even like when there's no leaves on because of just the branches, maybe I'll be able to, sure.

I felt good about it now was at a pretty decent height and these three d deer come in. I, that was actually, it was was it 28, 18? I killed a buck and then that it was,

Jake Vernon: oh, 2018. Good year. Yeah. I'll tell you a good one about 2018. I killed, lemme know

Jeremy Dinsmore: when you're done. I killed I kill the buck and then I'm going out with the bow.

And so I had, I was killing a dough. That's all I was going for. I wanted to fill some more tags and these three start working towards me and I'm like, oh my gosh, they're coming right on this trail that like right below me. Perfect. Let's get it [00:52:00] and I'm ready. When they were pretty far out. So I, I got ready unscathed was all pumped.

And the two little ones, which the first one I could see was a little button buck. And the other yearling dough is like right in front of her and she's. She's working her way. And I don't know what the heck unless, cuz I'm at this point, these dough or the two yearlings are literally like right underneath me.

And she was still a couple yards away and she's like walking and I'm not dude, I'm, I swear I'm not moving. I'm not moving. And then all of a sudden, yep, she's browsing, she's looking like around and all of a sudden she goes, dink looks straight at me in the eyes. I'm like, oh yeah, what?

In a freak. Like what?

Jake Vernon: Yeah, they, no screw around operation man. Dude, I don't know

Jeremy Dinsmore: what it's, dude, she starts blowing and then they take off and they're now, they're like 60 yards up on the ridge from me, just, oh yeah. She's blowing her head off. And the other ones are like, wait what? What happened?

And it was just, [00:53:00] I, they're tough man. I know exactly what you're talking about.

Jake Vernon: Yeah. Yeah. Hey Chase, all the big bucks you want. I'm all about it too. But man, Big. Those are tough. You can't discredit them. That is clean and simple. You cannot discredit '

Jeremy Dinsmore: em. I just love hunting deer like,

Jake Vernon: oh dude, listen I get to a, and like we were talking about with your question a few minutes back there how do you set your goals or whatever, I start out with really high expectations and I will, but, that's the only thing you can lower is your goals.

If you still wanna remain successful, empowered to the guys who, a tag I can't do it. I'll let you know, I'll let small bucks walk, but I am not gonna go a season without getting some meat in the freezer. Yeah. I just won't do it. But it will, I let small bucks walk.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And then, and I drive my brother nuts because he is, Like a notorious spike shooter on opening day in New York. [00:54:00] Man, come on, let that guy grow up a little bit. Yeah. Why don't you just wait for a dough, shoot a nice big dough. I don't know, man. It was the first one that stepped out, yeah. And I shit on him about it, but he's a really good deer killer. Yeah. Like plain and simple. When he was in college, he shot 60 or four years in a row. Like, all right, you, you've paid your dudes, you can shoot whatever you want, but man, come out let's set your sights a little higher.

But some guys are like that. Yep. They don't care what they kill. Nope. You know what I mean? If it's legal, he doesn't care. And up there where we hunt, we don't have any antler restrictions, so he can shoot whatever he wants. It doesn't matter. And, I razz him a little bit, but at the end of the day, I don't care either.

You shoot, whatever makes you happy. Exactly. When my voice finally gets one under his belt, I'm gonna let him shoot everything. I don't care. If you want to kill it. Yep. If we have a tag for it, you can kill it. Exactly. But plain and simple, we have some crop damage tags up in New York for August, [00:55:00] and he's not really in love with the idea because, we do it primarily with a rifle.

Yeah. But I'm like, dude, you can sit in an air condition truck until the deer come out from a few hundred yards away, step out and shoot one. He's that's not really hunting. I'm like, eh, you're right. But at the same time, if you wanna kill a deer, that's a quick way to kill a deer.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Yeah. You wanted to get your practice on field dressing. Here buddy. Here you go.

Jake Vernon: Yeah. He is a skinning fool. He won't get into Gotham, but if I get one hung up and get it started, he'll skin it. Yeah. If I let him, he'll skin it. Yep.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Exactly. That's cool, man. So what's on the goals for this upcoming year?

Jake Vernon: Man, still chasing one on the ground. Want to kill one on the ground. Didn't do that last year. Then get a few more shooting instinctive. That's, the two biggest things for me. I'm an arrow freaking nut. So I'm always tinkering and stuff. I got my setup pretty well dialed for [00:56:00] the year now, but I really just want to get some blood on him because, They look awesome and they shoot.

Awesome. And I think they'll go through just about anything I'm gonna shoot 'em at. So talk

Jeremy Dinsmore: about your setup because it is you for me that's unique, like what you're doing. So I guess talk about

Jake Vernon: Oh, it's wild shit. It is wild shit. So go

Jeremy Dinsmore: for it. I don't explain it.

Jake Vernon: Yeah, I don't know. I grew up, I shot a recurve from the time I was two.

And then when I was about, probably about my boy's age, so like six, my grandfather bought me a PSE was a PSE spider, with sites and a peep site and all that. And I could not wrap my head around that for a year and then, or no, it didn't come with a peep site on it. And then my dad had a peep put on it.

And then it like all came together for me. I'm like, oh, it's like a scope, yeah. Whatever. And and I shot that [00:57:00] for, when I shot sites and a release and all that for a long time. A very long time, but still, always shot a recurve instinctive. Like for fun. We, when we lived out west, we shot prairie dogs with 'em like 24 7.

Yeah. That was, some of the best practice you could have doing that sort of thing. And then when I had my little hunting hiatus there in my early twenties when I got back into it and started bow hunting again, like I said, like the next five deer I killed were like dumb easy. Like it didn't even feel like it was fair.

I could stand anywhere in my yard and hit that Glendale full rut, yep. No matter what. And it proved to be the same thing on Live Deer. If they didn't know I was there, and even then, I still shot a few that looked up at me while I would, while I drew, it, it wasn't even close.

So I just needed I don't know, I wanted a new challenge for myself. It wasn't able, it [00:58:00] wasn't ready to die full trad. So I shoot a hoy, carbon defiant at 68 pounds, no sights. A Q ad rest on it with fingers. Yeah, man that's pretty simple. Did, did you

Jeremy Dinsmore: say 68 pounds or 58?

Jake Vernon: 68. 68. 68.

Yeah. The last two years I was shooting a Darin that was 60 pounds. And then just had an opportunity to shoot that's defiant and really liked it at where it was at. So just left it alone and, yeah, 68 pounds and that's just I don't know, built some arrows up for it. Grizzly stick arrows.

And that's the tough thing with being a finger shooter though. You got you really gotta tweak your setup to where they fly. Good. To account for a piss pour release because I don't care who you are as a finger shooter, you will never get a super clean release, especially with a compound.

Yeah. And [00:59:00] yeah, I don't know man. Dude, that's nut. But dude, that is gnarly. It's wicked shit. Don't gimme, don't let my Instagram fool you. I miss a ton. I miss a ton and I shoot 'em in the neck or the, leg all the time. I tell you what, my biggest thing that I pound into my head, other than my anchor point, if I have my anchor point and I pick a spot, it's not safe inside of 35 yards.

Plain and simple. But I am confident enough in my tracking ability that where if I hit them on the front half of the deer I like my odds of getting them. Yeah. That's just, and I shoot a big stupid wide broadhead that's like an inch and three quarters wide. Again, that's a grizzly stick.

Yeah. I don't know, man. It's so cool. It's just just something I like doing and, gives it, it's a good excuse for, when I miss [01:00:00] stuff, yeah. I'm

Jeremy Dinsmore: doing it instinctively, 68 pounds, finger drawn it, just, making my life miserable.

Jake Vernon: Yeah, exactly.

They just, I don't know, as if hunting isn't hard enough, I decide to make it harder, dude, but how rewarding

Jeremy Dinsmore: when it gets done.

Jake Vernon: Yeah. The big thing too was especially when I started hunting ground. The ground on the ground. Yeah. Like being and even when I went I.

We were doing mobile hunting before it was cool with like climbers and stuff. Even when I went to sh going completely mobile, like I found myself in some spots where I either needed a really short axle to axle bow or I needed to be able to camp my bow. Okay. And that was a big thing with going, shooting the way I shoot, I had, I can get my bow to about, I wouldn't know what the degree is.

I can go over 45 degrees and still have good aero [01:01:00] flight. Okay. And hit what I wanna shoot at. I don't know if I have, I could probably figure out a way to measure it. Maybe that'll be my project tonight after.

But yeah, it just, I don't know. I don't know. I, there's, and then there's other situations where I would probably be better off with a recurve or a long bow because I'd only have to shoot something at like half draw instead of coming to full draw. Yeah. But I don't know that being able to camp my bow and not have to worry about, it hitting something is, was huge for me.

Yeah. So

Jeremy Dinsmore: what's what hunts do you have coming up this year?

Jake Vernon: Oh, let's see. We'll do pa just cause I live here and then New York for sure. That's probably about it. Yeah. No, I'm just, cause of the new baby coming and all that. But the following year I'm trying to get into some other stuff.

Nice. Yeah, 2024 we'll [01:02:00] probably be into Kentucky. Take my boy down there. Then we're working on maybe like a bear Bo Hunt somewhere else. I'm not sure yet. Nice. But yeah, for, yeah, 2023 is pretty boring. Just chasing deer in bear and pa in New York.

Jeremy Dinsmore: That's what I'm excited for this upcoming hunting season because I know Jim, Jim will be doing New York and I, he's said, he's dude, just come with me if you ever want to, and everything like that, but no, I'm

Jake Vernon: telling.

Yeah. Listen, for the price of it, just buy your New York tag. He got more than enough guys between everybody that'll get you, into some good stuff. You might as well. You know what I mean? Yep. Screw that. Four day pa bear season. Yep. Come up for opening day gun season in New York. Just have yourself a blast, man.

Yep. It's a good

Jeremy Dinsmore: time. That's a good time That might be on the docket because I know Tim and I we're going to go scout Ohio here soon and Yep. Being that I have the license because of this past season hunting for the spring for Turkey, all I need to [01:03:00] do is buy the buck tag or the dag or whatever.

So once that kind of comes about I'll get that. So he and I were gonna go a couple weekends in October and then Missouri is still going to happen and then Pa so Nice. Yeah. Nice. That's the ticket I got my Iowa point and that now makes it four. For me, so I'm, yeah. So I don't know if that means like next 20, 24 means I could possibly draw with that one being the fifth one, I guess I'm not totally sure.

So if financially, yeah, I, if financially and time off works out, I'll maybe, I'll Sure I'll draw it. If it's not, then I'll wait that next year.

Jake Vernon: Yep. Yeah. I gotta look into the Iowa thing because I have a sister who lives there. Okay. And she's a hunter too, but they have the the party hunting thing.

Okay. And I know as long as you have a tag, a legal tag and you're hunting [01:04:00] with the other person, you can use their tag also. Okay. And she doesn't really care to Shoot a buck. She just wants to shoot something. I don't know, I, I gotta look into it a little bit more. I don't want to shoot my mouth off about it without knowing exactly what the rules are, but I do I do know that party hunting is legal there.

Shit, the hunting public put that one video out last year where the one guy shot three bucks in a dough. And that was like the whole cruise tag, that's crazy. So that's crazy. I'm sure it's legal on some facet, but I gotta look into it a little more. And she's more like Central Iowa, where, it's nothing really ho or nothing really.

Worthy of writing home about, but it's still Iowa, oh my gosh. Yeah. Still America. Yep. I joke about it all the time, I'll call her up and she'll be like, oh, I'll get you a job in Iowa. No problem. Eh, I know, but you gotta convince my wife for that. Oh man. I would go in a heartbeat if I could. I really would. But yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know, man.

Jeremy Dinsmore: I like it, dude. Where could people [01:05:00] follow you on Instagram and get a chance to, here's some things. Oh,

Jake Vernon: yeah. If they want to see drunk stories from me or watch my kid shoot his bow.

That's pretty much all my Instagram is, it is JT Vernon. And I'm sure you'll probably tag it in the show notes or something. Yep, I do. But yeah, it's Us doing weird things with our bows and shooting at our hundred 3D targets we have in the yard. And a little bit of baseball in there.

And just having a good time, man. I like it, man. It's a good time. I like

Jeremy Dinsmore: it, dude. I appreciate you coming on, having to chat. We'll definitely do this one again, and I appreciate,

Jake Vernon: oh, no, dude, thanks for ha thanks for having me on, man. It's been a ride. I've had a real good time. I can't wait.

Said I'll, I pro I probably ruffled some feathers, but, I don't care. Hey, man,

Jeremy Dinsmore: I enjoyed chatting and I'm looking forward to a time we could get together with Tom and ha, have a copy.

Jake Vernon: Oh, yeah, we got it. We gotta get all three of us on here. That'll be a riot.

That'll be a riot. I'll give

Jeremy Dinsmore: Tom some shit. Yep, that'd be good. All right, [01:06:00] everybody give Jake a follow. Thanks again and for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next week. Till next time, aunt Laura up.