Velvet Whitetails with Chris Hammond

It felt like the day would never come, but the 2023 deer season is underway! Professional archer Chris Hammond is this week's guest on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, and he has quite a September ahead of him. This episode timed out perfectly with John's upcoming trip to Nebraska as well, so the guys get together to talk about early season velvet hunts. This year Chris will be hunting Tennessee's early velvet season, Kentucky's early September season, and then he heads west to Wyoming with several of the Mathew's team shooters to chase mule deer. 

John's only September hunt is his trip to Nebraska which he hopes to now make a yearly tradition. The guys talk about early season topics like hunting bed to food patterns, corn vs beans, water holes, and how terrible mosquitoes can be when hunting so early in the season. They take a little time to discuss Oklahomas proposed velvet season and the effect it could have on the state's hunters and deer herd.

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

John Hudspeth: [00:00:00] What's up folks? Welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. Y'all are gonna believe this, but this is actually a pre hunt episode. I, after this episode launches, we'll be headed to Nebraska for my first Whitetailed Deer hunt of the year. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit today. I gotta talk about what I did over the last weekend.

Before I get to all that, I gotta throw out a quick disclaimer. I have my one-year-old daughter here with me 'cause I couldn't get a babysitter tonight. So if you hear any crying, laughing, [00:01:00] odd random noises, that's probably her. I'm feeding her rich crackers as we go, when she runs outta crackers, she can get a little hangry.

So anyway, just wanted to let y'all know she's okay, I promise. So yeah, back to what we're talking about. It is early season white tail time. We have an awesome episode. I'll go ahead and throw it out there. Right now, we are talking to Chris Hammond. He shoots from Matthews. He's a avid white tail deer hunter, a native Oklahoman, and we had Chris on last year and he had did, or excuse me, had done a Kentucky velvet hunt and was successful.

And I had just gotten home from my Nebraska hunt last year where I was unsuccessful. So had him on, had a really good time kind of talking about ideas and successes and failures and everything. And so he came to mind a few weeks ago as I was getting ready for my Nebraska hunt. And come to find out, not only is he going back to Kentucky, he's also doing Tennessee's early velvet hunt and then going to Kentucky and then after that also going to Wyoming [00:02:00] and on a mule deer hunt.

And yeah, I got all those states confused while we were recording because he's going to so many states and I'm going to a different state. But it was a really cool conversation. We talked about, bed to food patterns, water, all that good stuff. And so a really fun episode there. But before I get to my Nebraska intro sorry, one other quick announcement.

The schedule of all this is going to be a little bit weird because just how my episodes come out. They come out on Monday, so I have to have them, recorded and edited before that. But this hunt that I'm going on, I'll be hunting all through the weekend and at the earliest I'll be coming home Monday.

Might still be hunting on Monday. And so even though this is like my pre hunt episode, there will be another episode between this episode and when I actually talk about that hunt. And yeah, so this is my pre hunt episode. We'll have another episode that has nothing to do with Nebraska and then we'll have my kind of post hunt breakdown.

So just wanted to give y'all a heads up if y'all tune in next week. All [00:03:00] excited about to hear about my hunt. Not gonna happen yet, just like I said, because the way everything works out. So yeah. Before I get to my Nebraska stuff, I do want to touch on what I did this last weekend. Went up to the ranch and had my last big work type weekend.

So I made a list on my phone. I laid out all my different spots, what I need to do at each spot, the things I need to bring for all that work, and did a pretty darn good job. I brought a weeded ear. I bought one of those saw blades. I think I paid 22 bucks for it. And so I went around to all my different locations and weeded all the feeder pins.

The goat weeds just drove me nuts last year. 'cause even after everything dies, even after the feeders have been running and the deer knocked down all the vegetation. Those goat weeds are just strong enough that they just don't go away. And yeah, I weeded around all the feeders.

Where I had ground blinds. I weeded a little, like teardrop shaped thing, like going up to the blind just so I had a clear shot. Because that was honestly a small [00:04:00] reason I didn't do quite as much hunting with my longboat last year. It was not necessarily that I was afraid the goat weeds would deflect my arrow, but I just didn't have very good visibility.

And being a new traditional archer, I just needed every advantage I could get. And so I didn't wanna try to be like guessing where I was aiming, where I'm already somewhat guessing where I'm aiming because I don't have sight. And so took care of that problem. Trimmed up some shooting lanes. I checked all the motors and the feeders and, I hadn't filled them yet, but I checked all the motors to make sure they're good.

One kind of frustrating thing at the very end, I was working on my last spot. I'd already done all the weeding and everything. It was like one o'clock it hit 1 0 6 this day while I was out there. And so the last thing I had to do was change the motor on this feeder that I had checked last time I was up there.

And so I pulled up the housing and everything off. I'm undoing the spinner plate that you have to do so you can take the actual motor out. I already had all the, battery and everything else unhooked, [00:05:00] and so I undo the screw that holds it in place and I'm trying to pry that spinner plate off the motor.

And it breaks, like the little weld in the center came undone. So I had brought everything else. I had brought all the stuff for the weeded eater. I had brought zip ties. Oh. I also put an antenna up for one of my cell cams where I had bad reception, used a piece of 10 foot conduit.

I had brought all that stuff. I had straps, like I replaced a bunch of straps on some of my tree stands and everything. Literally the last thing I was trying to do, and I broke that spinner plate, so I got the motor switched out and everything, but technically that feeder is still not ready to go because I had to order a spinner plate.

I was looking around the shop and everything. I had a couple old motors there, but I just didn't have spinner plates on 'em. I guess I'd already stole 'em. So I went ahead and ordered like four because it just seems like I'm always breaking those suckers, trying to get 'em off, they get rusted on there when they're on for a couple years.

Yeah. The other thing that I didn't get done that I was hoping to was I did not get my actual blinds [00:06:00] situated, like my tower blinds. I had one that had blown over in a storm and I had another that the cattle had pushed the legs out. So it's real uneven. So like you, if you're trying to shoot a rifle out of it it just wouldn't work 'cause the window would be too low.

But the tractor that I needed to do that with was at the other property. And by the time I got done with everything and I was sweating so much, I just didn't really feel like or have time to, to road the tractor all the way over there, do everything and then road it back. 'cause I always like to leave stuff where I found it just to help my, brother and dad out.

So that I didn't get done. But I'm not too awful worried about it because I still need to plant all my food plots. It's just too early, too hot and too dry to do it now. And I'll be driving all over the place with the drill anyway, so I'll just, I'll have the tractor with the forks and stuff and I can set it up and level and do all that stuff when I'm planting food plots.

So not the end of the world on that. And, other than filling my feeders, which I gotta figure out when on earth I'm gonna do that, and planting my food plots, [00:07:00] pretty much everything else is 100% ready to go, which is an incredible feeling. I feel like I'm always behind the ball. I always have a few things that I, haven't gotten done by opening day.

But I'm in pretty darn good shape. And like I said, that's a pretty darn good feeling. So yeah. So that's what's been going on in Oklahoma. As far as this Nebraska trip, y'all are probably sick of hearing me talk about it, but I'm gonna talk about it one more time 'cause it's finally here. So the official plan is I'm picking my mom up early Thursday morning.

We're gonna drive up there. It's about a nine or 10 hour drive. We'll have my daughter too, so it may take us, a little, a few extra stops. She's sitting in my lap right now. But I'm hoping to get up there in time to, give my sister a hug, let my mom and daughter out at the house, and then run to a little bit of glassing before dark.

So that's the goal. And then the next morning, Friday will be opening day. I don't think I'm gonna hunt Friday morning. I think I'm gonna use that time. To do some more scouting, to drive some roads. Glass I have three cameras that have been [00:08:00] soaking since Turkey season. Late morning after everything's bedded down, I'll probably go check those, see what's up, see if there's any good bucks around.

I have permission on a couple different properties and so if the cameras aren't looking good, I might just go hunt blind somewhere else. If there's some decent, excuse me, if there's some decent bucks on camera, obviously I'll stick around. I have a few kinda, I don't have any preset stands. I didn't hang any stands this spring, but I did mark some trees that I can just, walk up to hang in and feel pretty confident.

And so yeah, there's that. I feel like I'm missing something. Like I said, I'll get to hunt Friday, Saturday, Sunday for sure if I need to. I can hunt Monday. My mom needs to be back by like noon on Tuesday and so I told her, worst case I'll hunt Monday evening and we will just load up and leave and, stop somewhere on the way back somewhere safe where I don't get my truck stolen.

But yeah, so that's the plan. Very excited. Feeling a little bit more confident than last year. Still gonna be a shot in the dark, if I'm being [00:09:00] honest. But very excited for this trip. So yeah, that's that. Like I mentioned this week we're talking to Chris Hammond. A really cool guy. Lots of hunting experience, lots of archery experience.

I don't remember if I said it at the beginning or not, but he he shoots professionally for Matthews and so he's good buddies with Levi Morgan and all those other really awesome archers who, yes, they're professional archers, but they also just really love to hunt. All those guys are super passionate as I've, been finding out since I've been talking to Chris.

So yeah, that's the plan for this week. Wish me luck. Follow me on Instagram because I'll be doing lots of updates. And that's all I got for you. So we're gonna get into the episode after a quick word from our partners, which is going to come right about now. There is truly no place like the great outdoors in Oklahoma.

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Visit bravado wireless.com or check them out at one of their retail locations. Bravado Wireless, the power of connection. Hey everybody, welcome to today's show, and today we got our old friend, Mr. Chris Hammond. How you doing, Chris? I'm doing well, John, how are you buddy? Man, I'm doing good. I I was thinking to myself before we started recording I always know that the time is getting close when I suddenly go from like really struggling to come up with content over the summer to suddenly having, more episodes that I want to get out than I have time to get out.

And that's where I'm at right now. So yeah, I, I reached out to you I, I don't know, maybe two weeks ago or something. And kinda what brought you to my mind was last year we talked because I went to Nebraska early and I think you went to Tennessee early and we had you on after that hunt.

And so I I reached out and asked if you were doing that hunt again, [00:11:00] and you explained that not only were you doing that hunt, but you added a couple other early season hunts. And so I said, man, that is definitely worth podcasting about. So that's what we're gonna be talking about today. But real quick before we get ahead of ourselves, just in case somebody missed the other episodes you've been on, why don't you do a quick little introduction.

Yeah, so my name's

Chris Hammond: Chris Hammond from Norman, Oklahoma. Avid Bow Hunter. That's my passion. That's it for me. If I had to quit all the other things and just focus on bow hunting, you would not have to force me to do that. I would do it yesterday. But I shoot I shoot professional archery. As far as the couple of companies I shoot for Matthews Archery vol, Excel, gold Tip Arrows, ky arrow Rest or Archery Solutions, and then T Veins and Schwer Broadheads.

But yeah, I think that covers it. Had a little bit of success shooting tournament archery. Not as much as I would like, but yeah, that's it. Outside of archery I work a whole bunch of hours Monday through [00:12:00] Friday, sometimes Saturday. And then I play football, baseball, and basketball coach for my boy, my daughter's full-time soccer and gymnastics.

So we don't ever stop,

John Hudspeth: man. That is quite the schedule. I'm not quite there yet. My daughter just turned one about a month ago, a month and a half ago. Yeah. And guys I work with, they talk about ev every Monday is always like a big coaches meeting 'cause they all had baseball games all weekend and everything, and they're comparing notes and, Oh yeah.

But yeah, I'm sure that day is coming

Chris Hammond: oh yeah. It's awesome. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Cool man. We have a ton to cover and so we're just gonna go ahead and dive right in. I mentioned it already I'll be headed to Nebraska here in a few weeks and you have multiple hunts, and so I just wanna talk some early season white tails.

And so I think to kick us off, why don't you just tell everybody a little bit of what you got going over the next couple weeks? Yeah. So

Chris Hammond: like you mentioned just the states were just a little off. Last year was my [00:13:00] first year hunting Kentucky in their early

John Hudspeth: season. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

With

Chris Hammond: their season opening, the first Saturday of September, it gives you, What I consider the rare opportunity to hunt white tails in velvet. I know Nebraska has the opportunity. And then Tennessee and some of the states further north and to the east. And hopefully we get to experience that here in Oklahoma next year.

So I'm a big fan after doing it one time. But I was such a big fan of it that I'm now going to go to Tennessee. They have a special velvet season and that's what they call it. It's an early archery velvet season that's three days long. It'll be the, just, so it'll be Friday, I believe it was the 25th, 26th and 27th.

If I'm off the day there you have to bear with me, but nope, it's the right dates. So I'll be out there in Tennessee my first time ever. Got a pretty cool location there. It's a big farm, [00:14:00] but it's really, it's basically. Right outside of a very well populated area. Gonna do that a turn and burn hunt.

I'll get out there and I, this earlier season, I strictly hunt evenings. The only way I could hunt the mornings and feel okay about it is I guess in this scenario where I only have three days and the entire, that, that whole season's only three days. And in that case, what I'll be trying to do is get between them, between their food and their bedding.

But right now the number one goal is to catch them going out to these bean fields. So that's the goal there. But after we kill our buck in Tennessee, I'm trying to speak that into existence confidence. I like it. Yeah. I'll then go to Kentucky the very next weekend. So their season opens on the second.

New place. Never been to before. But same thing beans and then there's some alfalfa on this farm. [00:15:00] And then I will come home and I will work on the fifth, and then me and my buddy Scott will jump in our truck and we will go meet the whole like bow life crew up in Wyoming where we are doing a hunt from the sixth or the 12th up in north central, northeastern Wyoming.

We'll be hunting mule deer, and I believe Levi, I drew a pretty awesome elk tag. So pretty excited there. Right now what I've told everybody is I'm gonna shoot the first for horn. I see. And just follow Levi chasing elk. So we'll see. We'll see how that goes.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome, man. Yeah, that is a lot.

In a short amount of time

Chris Hammond: it's, it's, the most, I've done this early. And that back

John Hudspeth: to back. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. So now when you I'm trying to keep all these straight, these states straight now when you go to your second trip in [00:16:00] Kentucky, you said that was a new farm.

So I assume that's a different place than you went last year then. Yes.

Chris Hammond: Yeah. Different place than last year. Wasn't able to hook everything up with the awesome folks I hunted with last year with the Dodges. Just they went on a. Man, what I would consider a once in a lifetime trip to Africa for a long time is why I say once in a lifetime.

But they went out there as a family, looked freaking awesome. So the last thing I wanted to do was, bother them or anything like that was coming out last second. So fortunately enough I was able to get in on another spot and I'm excited to see how it goes. More ag land and just the same approach of catching these deer, heading, coming to and from food, from their bedding, like with key n on where is their bedding areas?

Their first option. Their second option. And yeah, all in all, what I'm gonna focus on anytime there's revenue, I'm definitely gonna hunt. But I'm also, we're still [00:17:00] gonna hunt when there's not a resume, but that's the that's the tactic, as far as just surface level. Yeah.

John Hudspeth: All right, let's take these one at a time.

So let's start in Tennessee. And that's a hunt they've been doing, I know, for several years now. One that I've always been jealous of, always wanted to go do. So that's super early. So you're still in August, correct?

Chris Hammond: Yeah. That's next. Yeah, depending on when you release this for me, that's next week.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Yeah. Which is awesome. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. One thing that is different for me, going into my early season hunt last year, I had never really stepped foot on the ground that I was gonna be hunting. And, I have my sister's there, but my sister's not really a hunter, especially a bow hunter.

So even though I had somebody there and I had access to this private ground, I basically had zero help. Going into that hunt. Where you're going in Tennessee is there a buddy there? Did you just happen to find this place? Talk about the connection and I guess how much knowledge you have going into [00:18:00] that.

Yeah

Chris Hammond: Completely random. With my company, we just went through a regrouping slash restructure to where my location became part of our Dallas region. And on one of the first calls we did on teams, I noticed the background on one of the other guys on there. And I noticed like the week after that, someone made a comment and they're like, Hey, isn't that your farm?

And I was like, wait a second. After when he said that. So we actually got to work on a couple projects together and turns out he had he, at one point he had 4,000 acres in Tennessee. That is all ag land except for a thousand acres of it that he grazed and ran a cattle operation on. And they've never hunted it deer all over it, everything.

Hit it off with him and he's got a ranch hand that runs everything. So what I did was I boxed up one of my reveal cameras and shipped out there and did a whole bunch of [00:19:00] just virtual scouting on OnX and just different things of Google Earth and found what I felt was a pretty good pinch point with good access that I could get in and out of without blowing everything off of these bean fields.

So I dropped a pin there. He went out there, strapped the camera and the solar panel up to a tree. And man, I got pictures, I think. So that was in the middle of the day and I went, I got pictures about midnight that night, and then now I've got a good idea that they are using that pinch point going in and out.

What's creating the pinch point is it looks like it's some really thick cover that like goes up to a creek edge. But the bean field feeds down to, it comes to a point and then it appears to be tall grass that feeds into a thicket that's on this island. I say an island, it's just surrounded by some ditches and stuff like that.

But there's definitely some deer bedding in there going back and forth. [00:20:00] And from what I can tell is it does look like there's one deer that I would shoot. So we're gonna we're gonna try to make a play on him. I'm putting out of the saddle probably exclusively this year unless I'm on the ground.

There's just so much. Flexibility with the saddle setup, that if I need to make a change right then I can make a change. So that's the plan going in. So I'm going in a little bit blind, but I've done a bunch of research online, and then luckily I've got the ranch hand there to help me out with that.

John Hudspeth: Yeah, that's awesome. You're talking about the ranch hand? That reminds me one year when I was in college we had just bought our first place that we had. And I tried to do that with my dad, like I sent him a camera 'cause I was at school and stuff and he tried to put it out for me. And it wasn't a cell camera.

This was before those got super popular. It was just the old school camera. And so I'm like anxiously awaiting. I finally get to come home for Thanksgiving break and I go up to the camera and it's I wouldn't say it's directly at the sky, but it's pretty [00:21:00] darn up, facing pretty high.

Yeah. And so I'm check, I'm checking the pictures and it's mostly like treetops and stuff, but then I did, I don't, this buck must have walked within inches of this camera. I got a picture and I think you could just see the top of three times of a it had to have been a huge buck. It was probably two weeks before I got home, but it was like, it was the, it was almost worse than not having the picture at all because I didn't know exactly what he was like, I'm pretty sure he was big, but I didn't know he was big.

I was like, I don't know if that's the first time he walked by that camera for, he walk by it every day and it like tore me up. And so I never tried to do that again. 'cause I think it was more torture having a little bit of intel than a lot of intel. But anyway very random story that has nothing to do with any this.

No, I get it. This camera, believe it or

Chris Hammond: not, is prob I'm six foot one and it's probably eye height based off of the angle. So he hung high.

John Hudspeth: Yeah, I guess he was

Chris Hammond: the grasp and in away.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Maybe maybe that made me think of two [00:22:00] questions or one kind of statement. One question. First on the saddle.

Man I had been wanting to get a saddle so bad this year because yeah, I think I mentioned, I, I drew Iowa also. Oh yeah. Going to Nebraska and then I, I'm usually hunting Texas and Oklahoma as well. But I just never really found the one I wanted. I had one picked out and it was sold out forever.

And then I basically just never ended up getting one. But a good buddy of mine just two weeks ago, he's Hey, he's I have a saddle. I'm not gonna need it till October. If you wanna take it to Nebraska, you can. So I met up with him, got the saddle. But with how hot it is and how busy, I've not actually used it yet.

I've put it on like inside the house one time. Okay. But I've yet to actually. Climb a tree and, play with it. And that is definitely my goal for the next two weeks is to get more comfortable with it. I still obviously have my stand, but I do think it would be helpful if I could get to use that saddle.

But I'm getting a little worried that I'm just so late to the game. That I'm just worried I'm not gonna have time to get [00:23:00] comfortable with it. What do you think? Is it something like if I dedicated, an hour or two and really, messed with it and climbed up and down a couple times, do you think I could get comfortable pretty quick?

Oh yeah. The

Chris Hammond: look, the climbing up and down, if you've ever used just like a lineman's rope or anything like that, you'll be fine. I recommend it. I would, it's worth you allocating the time to spend just getting familiar with it. If it has pockets, I don't know if it has pockets, but just like how you're going to keep your ropes and all of that. So whether you have a bridge, a tether, stuff like that. How are you gonna use it? Which pocket is it in? Because the more you do it, so for your first time, you're gonna be like, okay, that's not that bad. Then your second time you're gonna be like, oh, that was easier. Yeah. Then your third time you're gonna be like, why did I waste all my money on all those expensive tree stands?

John Hudspeth: It's, it,

Chris Hammond: You can. And there's so much versatility, but I guess I shouldn't say that about the tree stands. I've got a really good buddy Hunter Hogan out in Missouri. He uses the lone wolf, I believe he the 0.5 stand. And a couple [00:24:00] sticks. He uses that stand as his platform 'cause he likes to still be able to sit down.

On a stool type seat. So he'll use that. The point five's tiny. It's just a bigger platform, but it has a seat. So I recommend, without a doubt, spend some time getting used to it. And you don't even have to go that high, just throw one, stick on a tree, climb up there, get your platform set, stand on it, get it set, and then I would shoot out of it a couple times.

That was probably my biggest learning curve, was just getting comfortable with that. I do feel like you get a lot of shooting angles. But I would then spend time I guess my favorite way to shoot out of the saddle is actually standing on the platform facing the tree and shooting to my left.

'cause I'm right-handed. I could come to full draw of standing straight up, everything's good. But then if you need to, while at full draw, you can just sit back with your [00:25:00] saddle and then it'll take your weight and then you can move around trees and all that stuff so you have that much more versatility.

So yeah it's definitely worth it. And if you haven't looked into it, but they make some cable aiders, like some aim steel cable aiders that you can do a single step, a double step. I think they might even make a triple step. And what you do is you throw those on the bottom of your stick and now you, your one stick you can get, eight feet high with.

So it's, kinda be tough to strap that high, but, If you ran two sticks, you definitely could get higher. So I personally, I've got two with two that have two cable leaders on 'em that are just two steps.

John Hudspeth: Gotcha. Yeah, like I said I've been convinced for a while that I need to get one. I just haven't, so no excuse. No excuse. All right. And then, My other question, which I know you, you do have a camera going, so you have a little bit of intel, but it sounds like, this is a pretty big farm and only one [00:26:00] camera, one thing that I really struggled with it last year going in so blind this year.

I feel like I have a little bit more, you, I've at least done some scouting. I've three cameras soaking that have been soaking since this spring. So I'll have a little bit more intel. But just figuring out like your standard, what you're willing to shoot or not Shoot, and this is something that I'm really tearing myself up about with my Iowa trip.

But just on all these travel trips, when you're going one place to other, especially this one you only got three days how do you adjust your goals? Just when it comes to the buck, you're actually

Chris Hammond: willing to see, I was just talking to about this yesterday with my buddy and man Tennessee's just not known for giants.

Obviously there's big gear everywhere. And I've seen with the bow hunting league that, heck, they've had a couple, 170 inch deer killed. I think. Two over one 50 in the velvet season. But one of the guys, it was amazing deer. He shot it with a black widow, a recurve. The thing was a gi beautiful typical deer.

But dude with me and filming I [00:27:00] don't know that my standards are gonna be like they are back home. Or if I had an Iowa attack that I've spent how many years trying to draw,

John Hudspeth: Five points plus a year that I missed. Yeah. So this is like seven years in process. Yeah. I think

Chris Hammond: you roll up there and shoot the first 130 m steer that walks by yeah. But Tennessee if he's mature and he's 130 inches, he's getting it. Yeah, I will. And look, I'm still new to this velvet, so to me, I look at the velvet deer differently than I do, just our normal, everyday hard horn deer, and I think it's funny because I've got several friends, like my buddy Art Brown he's not a velvet guy.

He doesn't like him fuzzy. He's I want them hard horned. He said, I think they look better and all that. But I'm like, man, I'm the total opposite. It's new to me. It's given me a little bit more fire. But right now I just said, I was like, man, the first probably, first mature buck that's in full velvet probably leave with two holes in him.

So I'm not too terribly picky there. A lot of people that know me know that I, with Oklahoma having two [00:28:00] tags, I normally try to make that first tag, an older, I've, I normally have a couple of really old deer that I target. But I'll shoot, dude, I've got a couple seven pointers on the wall that probably score a mid twenties to high thirties.

One of 'em is pretty big. But I'll shoot an old eight pointer all day, every day and then wait with my second tag. But out there, I think I'll shoot the first good buck. It's mature. I can't bring myself to shoot a three-year-old or a four, four-year-old. I just, I can't.

John Hudspeth: Yeah that's my struggle because, at home, I've passed some one forties, four year olds and, some nice deer and everything, and it's, but it's just, it's a little easier knowing that you'll have a shot at me again the next year. But man, if I'm up there in Nebraska in a good looking three year old, I don't know.

I I'm just being honest. I think I'm gonna be pretty tempted. 'cause I don't have a velvet one under my belt yet. It'd be my first one. And I don't know. Granted, I do have, it's my sister's family's land and that, but theoretically would be there the next year.

But man, I don't, that's it's the mental battle. It's the mental battle.

Chris Hammond: [00:29:00] And if you had any bet, I bet that you're probably gonna smoke that first one that comes through. But it's okay. That's okay. And I think that's where, I think we get a little lost as.

Hunters, especially if you, everybody likes to label 'em trophy hunters. I'm a trophy hunter with my second tag, if you will, but I think these freaking giant old, goofy, mature bucks are just as cool, if not cooler and harder to kill sometimes. So I get I love it. But what I do know is each and every one of us are just in different places, when it comes to where we're at.

With the bow hunting and just how many deer we've been able to hunt, or even the properties we've been able to hunt. I know people that have only hunted a couple years and they're not shooting anything over or under one 50, but they've been blessed with amazing dirt. And then I know people that they've been hunting their entire life and they're the first 120 inch deer walks out.

There's getting it. They don't care what age it is. [00:30:00] And I think that's okay. Either way. Yeah.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. As long as we're having fun. Okay. That's right. That is right. All right let's let's shift gears. So that was Tennessee, and then you're headed to Kentucky, right?

Chris Hammond: Yes. Yep. Kentucky. The goal in Kentucky isn't to shoot, 'cause Tennessee's gonna be just get it done.

Kentucky's gonna be, let's try to shoot a bigger one. But I do not have any plans to go back. So that one's just 50 50. Again, won't shoot anything unless it's mature. And yeah, I killed a hundred and I think that 10 pointer I killed was like 1 37 or 1 38 last year. So solid deer, but mature buck.

They knew him from years past. Had a really, excuse me, had a really strong right side and then a weaker left side. But yeah, I would I'd like to shoot. Just something that's really pretty. I think they're awesome, when they're in velvet, so we'll see. Haven't put much thought into it.

Kind of been really focused on [00:31:00] the Tennessee stuff and then getting ready for

John Hudspeth: Wyoming. Yeah. All right. So you said you, you mentioned farm ground and beans and stuff. Are there, do you know, are there gonna be beans and corn? Is it all beans? You got any idea? No. It's

Chris Hammond: beans and corn. It surrounds the property and then this timber's in the middle.

But there's drainages that they funnel down and use to get down in bed. And my thoughts are that they're using those drainages that way the thermals, will suck the wind down too, even with, a different wind. Oh, sorry. They'll be there's just a little more safe there, but then if anything comes in there, they're gonna hear it or see it by the time it gets there.

So I'm hunting the edges of that. I've had a buddy of mine, he's he's the one who's got me in on it, so we're not going in near as blind on this, but I don't have a good inventory on the deer because a lot of 'em are still in the corn. So I'm really hoping that we'll get lucky and they'll cut some, but I doubt they do.

[00:32:00] Yeah. Yeah, we we'll be hunting over corn piles there. So we'll be baiting there for sure. Can't do it in Tennessee, so we won't be doing any of that, but we're gonna see what we can put together there. I'm actually excited to go hunt some deer with no names and just no history.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Yeah. It's fun both ways. But I know what you mean. That, that mystery that you don't get when you own your own ground anymore or or at lease, whatever, just when you have the same place you lose a lot of that mystery. Yeah. The whole, so I'll tell you ex yeah.

I'll tell you one thing that I learned last year when I was hunting Nebraska. So one thing, right when I got there, it seems it seemed like all the crops were backwards, like everywhere I wanted to be, beans was corn and everywhere I wanted to be corns was beans. So I'm very excited about this year 'cause they'll probably be flipped, right?

But when I left my house last year, I thought I had this one like 110 acre place to hunt. Once I got up there, I discovered they also owned this other place and I learned that [00:33:00] all they had to do was like, call their neighbor and I could get access on their neighbor's place. So now I have a lot more ground to hunt, but I remember I found this one little section that I set up and hunt hunted the first evening.

And it was like a kind of a secluded bean field. I'm gonna say it was like six acres, trees, most of the way around it with a creek. And I was like, oh man. Like this is the spot. Yeah. But what I discovered that evening after I got set up was those beans had already turned. Yeah. They were all yellow and a lot of the bigger fields were still very green.

And so I did see a few deer that evening. I think I saw two or three dos, something like that. But the swap basically just didn't wind up being quite as good because I just didn't pay attention to kind of those finer details. Yep. So that's one thing I'm really, I've just, from last year, like I'm gonna be paying attention to this year I guess what I'm getting at is like, how do those crops, like you mentioned the finger ridges and that sounds awesome, but are you gonna be focusing like, okay, here's green beans, that's where I need to be?

Or is it gonna be like, Hey, they could still be bedding in this corn. That's where I need to be? How are [00:34:00] you just kinda sorting through where you're actually gonna set up? Yeah, no,

Chris Hammond: I'm gonna focus on the beans 'cause I don't think I can kill 'em on the corn. Just with, from what I've seen on the maps and what we've the, what we've seen in Kentucky between the two.

So we're gonna be focused on the green beans and the green sections. What, like you mentioned, you said the bigger field, was still green. I'm gonna be going after green beans for sure. It's funny to say it like that. I know what I've noticed is that a lot of times the center of the fields will still be green or have some green in it.

Which that's where you've gotta be in the right spot. You gotta get a little bit lucky to catch, make sure they're not changing their bedding areas. And that's why normally I would spend some time scouting, just glassing. 'cause dude, you can get, so you can get a lot from trail cameras, but you can get more from glassing and actually putting boots on the ground and that is figuring out their primary bedding areas and then their secondary bedding areas. And what I mean by that is there will be spots where [00:35:00] as the food source changes, it's where do they go next? That's hard to find out doing what I'm doing with these two trips. But here at the house, and this year we're gonna, I'm gonna hunt some public land just 'cause I know of a couple giants that are living on some public land.

I filmed one not too long ago. It was a stud, but that's what I'm focusing in on there, because the primary bedding, that's great, right? But we all know it's public land. And even private, you're gonna get some pressure. So the first time they get pressure, where does that buck go next? And that's where unfortunately, you just you've gotta work through that.

You gotta have things go wrong, and then you've gotta be able to locate that deer again. Sometimes that's 200 yards, sometimes that's two miles. And it's just, you've gotta, you've gotta use what's given to you to be able to, put a plan together. Out there I'm gonna focus on green, anything that's green.

If I have to hunt the corn, I do think that the odds are gonna be [00:36:00] less in my favor. And I just because a deer can stand out there 50 yards away in the corn, and I'll see his anular tips maybe. But if they stand out there at a really good distance in the beans, I can still kill 'em. So that's the other thing is just, I've been able, over the years, I've been able to maximize my distance, right?

So that I feel confident in harvesting an animal. I understand that's different than others, but that's their limits, not mine. And yeah, I'm pretty confident that I can get, as, let's say, we can get it within a hundred yards of a feeding animal. Feeding deer. Like we'll be able to do that and seal the deal.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. This is oh, I, it's still on topic, maybe a little off of what we were just talking about, but earlier you mentioned, maybe being old to hunt velvet here in Oklahoma. And before we shift gears to the mule deer, I wanted to talk touch on that just a little bit because that's something I covered hot and heavy this spring when they first announced the ID and everything, but I haven't thought about it in a few weeks [00:37:00] and I was just curious your opinion on it.

When it came out you heard a lot of people like, oh let's do residence only, or let's limit, or this or that. But, to me, I think a big part of the reason they were wanting to do it was to get that non-resident money and, let people hunt more and everything like that.

So I was just curious if you had any thoughts on it. Do you think it should just be you buy a tag like you always have and you get it? Should it be a draw tag? Should they try to limit non-residents? I was just curious your

Chris Hammond: thoughts on that. So I have two things, but I'm gonna start by asking you a question.

As an Oklahoma resident, what do you get that a non-resident does it, what's the perk for being a resident?

John Hudspeth: Pretty much just a discount. I think that's about it. Yeah. But as you buy

Chris Hammond: all your tags, how much of a discount?

John Hudspeth: That's a great question. I think I see I have a lifetime license and so it's kinda hard for me, but I believe a deer tag's, what, 20 bucks? Yeah. So let's say, and I [00:38:00] think it's oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, go ahead. The,

Chris Hammond: so you, no, you get $20 tags, right? For each tag. You're a hunting license.

So let's say you kill your six deer your, math is hard for a lot of people, especially for me after working all day. But if I pay $20 for six deer, what? I'm 120 bucks. All right? And then my hunting license will say, that's another 20 bucks. I'm 140. So fi more than 50% off because a non-resident, my dad comes up and he can kill the same amount of deer that I can for $300. Can you do that in Iowa? No. And you gotta earn it. You paid them. Five times. Yeah. For the, just the chance to draw that tag. So I, without us going down a rabbit hole, getting on my soap box no, I do not think it should be available to everybody.

And at the same price that it currently is I think you've [00:39:00] gotta look at changing some things. I don't know the answer because there's so many different Yeah. Variables. I'm not gonna sit here and act like I do know the answer. Do I have suggestions or some I wishes or I likes Sure. But what I do know is that as residents, that's not enough.

Dude. That's not, that's just not. I know the world's not fair, but man, that's, how are you rewarding the residents here? The ones paying our taxes? Yeah. Year in, out, year out.

All of that. I just don't agree with it. Yeah, I think that we have an opportunity to make a lot of money off of the non-residents that come in.

I want 'em to come in, I wanna see them, at the local diners, around town. I almost like the place I hunt in northwest Oklahoma. I almost feel like I'm that guy. 'cause I know I'm bringing my money and I'm going to eat. It's a little diner there in Sci Oklahoma where it's me and six other people and that's it.

I want to have that money coming up from I'll just be honest with you. It's Texas, the [00:40:00] majority. I'm sure there's other data out there that support, its other states, but Lord have mercy. There's Texas trucks everywhere in northwest Oklahoma. So I do think we have an opportunity to make a lot of money there and benefit the residents.

Whether we look at that and we say, okay, that's archery only. Maybe. We can get into the crossbow scenario that gets pretty passionate. Or, even if they, if I say archery only and I say No crossbows I've gotta be willing to say, alright archery only, why not traditional bows?

Only wood? Arrows only. So I can't, it's like I can't be, a hypocrite here. But I do know there's a way that we can make some money increase. Increase their, like tag costs. They're not going to not pay because they're already leasing up so much land. They're not gonna not pay.

Yeah. And half of 'em come up and, now that you can shoot with a crossbow, they just treat that as two rifle seasons. I don't know if you've shot [00:41:00] a a high-end crossbow lately, but it's a, it's a. Cross gun is what we call it. Yeah. One of the companies I shoot for makes a crossbow that it's insane what you could do.

My son can go out here right now and shoot one inch groups with it at a hundred yards and it's quiet. So there's there's no chance. Yeah. So there's a lot there. I do have a prediction on it though. The first season we have it, there are going to be some absolute mega giants killed.

Hands down. Hands down the first year. Yeah. No doubt about it. And it's gonna be a highly successful season regardless of temperature or anything like that. It's almost easy. Yeah. When it's that early, it's fun. I want the other option. I think as a resident we should have it.

I don't know. If we say, Hey, then we shut it down to non-residents. But I do know if we shut it down to non-residents, they're not gonna sit there and say, oh, I'm not gonna spend the tag or the money now. Yeah. I don't know the full details on it. [00:42:00] But I can tell you this, it doesn't feel like we've got it.

There's a lot of Yeah. There's too much conversation about it. If we did have it right, it'd probably be pretty quiet.

John Hudspeth: So we don't Yeah. Yeah. I. Okay. I have all kinds of thoughts on it too. First I agree with your prediction but with a caveat. I do think there'd be a lot of giants killed.

I also think there would be a ton of young deer killed just from what we were just talking about a minute ago, like that Oh, your first velvet buck. So I think there'd be a lot of people being a lot more true, happy. I do think you'd have to put a one buck limit on that season. Not overall.

You could still have two buck tags, but just only one during the velvet season. Yeah. And I was saying I could get behind that for sure. Yeah. And I'm very torn on the non-resident thing because like, when I first read, the article, the first thing they listed was all the revenue it could generate, which our state could definitely use.

And so I hate to say, you cut it off to non-residents 'cause that's where a lot of the revenue would come from, I think. I think the. Maybe not the solution. I think you're still gonna have a [00:43:00] lot of deer killed, still gonna have a lot of lease leased up land and everything.

But I do think you need to do a price increase. And I think that's for both residents and non-residents. I'd pay a hundred bucks for a velvet tag and maybe that's not something I do every year. But, every other year, something like that, like I'd pay a hundred bucks for a velvet tag and same thing for non re, whatever that price breakdown be, charge a little extra for it.

Even if it's like a completely separate deal. So I think you, yeah, non-resident license I think is now $300 and that's for one weapon. You have to buy multiple deals for multiple weapons or whatever, but make that velvet season its own $300 deal or whatever. And like you, if you buy it, you just get to hunt that velvet season and you gotta buy an additional one for the rest of the year or whatever.

So lots of moving parts. I think it'd be awesome. May I will say, I've said this every time I've talked about it. I can't imagine sitting in a tree stand, in southeastern Oklahoma here, and, the next couple weeks waiting on a big O buck. It would be miserable, but it would be [00:44:00] awesome at the same time.

That, so yeah, I, I didn't I didn't mean to get us off on too much of a tangent, but I was just curious and I hadn't covered it in a while. Yeah.

Chris Hammond: This is the stuff that, like whenever I'm shooting indoor archery or we're on the three D range or anything like that, we start talking. It's this is where it goes and it's fun to talk about.

It is. But there's a lot at most, I'll just say most so far that are on the same page with us as far as saying something could be done. We could change something, right? Yeah. And look, maybe we settle and say, all right, the first time we are gonna, that's what it's gonna be. I do think that you open when I just think of business, right?

And that's what we need to do, is we need to generate money. I've got a buddy that works for the O D W C. You could never bring him on here because he'd probably lose his job, but he he's got great info. For instance we'll never get any of this stuff looked at because the legislature won't entertain it because of the taxing brackets and what, how everything's taxed.

They're [00:45:00] not getting any money off of that. So why would they spend time looking at changing that? And that's where, I don't care if you want to kill, spikes 130 inch deer, one fifties or 200 inch deer, we all need to get on the same page with this and actually get some attention on it.

And that's just what it's gonna take for all of us to get organized and, put our voice as much as we can together and have one voice with this and move forward. But until they find a way to make money off of it, they're just gonna, Nope. No, we're not looking at it. And unfortunately, those are the guys we've voted in.

Most. Yeah, most of them. But so yeah, there's that dude. But all in all, I'm excited to be able to hunt velvet deer in Oklahoma. I think most people are, will it be miserable? Sure. But you know what? It should be miserable because that's what makes it worth it. We gotta suffer a little bit to really, appreciate it.

John Hudspeth: Enjoy it. [00:46:00] Yeah. Yeah. I'll figure out some way to get a battery pack and a little window unit going in a blind or something like that. Make it, maybe make it barrel. That's, that, that's real hunting. When you got an AC unit in your blind with you for those early season hunts. That's one.

That's one thing though that

Chris Hammond: people don't think of forget the ac, but mosquitoes with the rain. With the rain. We've had, the mosquitoes are so bad. When I was out there filming the other night, I guess it's been a couple weeks, it, that was the worst mosquitoes I've ever experienced in Oklahoma. And normally I don't have 'em that bad on this farm.

And dude, yeah, I would have to buy stock in thermo cell. That's, I'd have to have, I'd have to run like three or four of 'em. Just me. It's not Kentucky. Last year we, both of our thermo cells, mine and my cameraman, he, we ran out within 15 minutes of each other. Ran outta juice. And we didn't have any.

Gosh. And it was like a light switch immediately. They, on us.

John Hudspeth: [00:47:00] It was nuts.

Chris Hammond: But yeah, it was worth it. All. Worth it.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Good, good. All right, we got a couple minutes here and we got one more state to cover. Tell us a little bit more about this mule deer hunt. I'm gonna assume that's open Plains

Chris Hammond: country.

Yeah. It's gonna be some prairie ground but, dude, I'm so excited I've watched this. So it's gonna be with Bighorn Outfitters up in Wyoming. For anybody that watches like Bow Life or any other shows bow Life, Levi and his brother Micah, go up there and just have some amazing hunts just year after year.

And with Dustin De Crew and Bighorn Outfitters and Dustin. I actually met years ago because he used to live in Oklahoma and when I talked to him a couple weeks ago, he told me that he just actually sold a property he had here in Norman recently. So he still had ties backed to Oklahoma, but I know he is got several guys from Oklahoma that'll go up and hunt with him.

So that's why it's been on my radar is ever since he went up there. And then now, he is a, an, he's either a fool owner or part owner[00:48:00] but he's just got an operation. Put together. He knows what he is doing, he knows how to be successful and it's awesome. I can't wait. But we get up there chance at some velvet mule deer's probably there.

But yeah, we're gonna be doing a lot of glassing from the truck. A lot of walking, a lot of glassing and just looking for, the right bucks. But I guess the more importantly the right bucks in the right spots and that's it. We tried to draw the combo and do that with the pronghorn mule deer combo.

But with the winter kill they got this year, they drastically reduced the pronghorn tags and none of nobody drew a pronghorn tag. That's unfortunate, but it sounds like it's the right call. So the mule deer, where we're at, from what I've heard from everything I've talked to the antler growth is good, population looks good.

I know they did have some winter kill there, but yeah man I'm fired up. Fired up. [00:49:00]

John Hudspeth: Yeah, man, you're definitely gonna have to keep me posted and maybe I can find a time to squeeze you in sometime when you get back and go through all the adventures. Absolutely. But I have had mule deer on my mind lately.

I had me and my buddy that I went on the elk hunt with last year, we saw some dang good mule deer where we were at, and we discovered that we both have enough points to draw that unit. So we're kicking that around for next year. Obviously Oklahoma Mule Deer is still on my bucket list just like most people, but I live on the wrong side of the state Yeah.

For that. And so yeah, but I, yeah I think so this year I'm calling it the year the white tail. 'cause I'm hunting for states all for white tail. Not doing any elk or anything like that. I'm thinking about maybe doing year, the mule deer next year. We'll see how that plays out though.

Nice. That's gonna be

Chris Hammond: fun. I yeah, mine's so we're gonna get the mule deer in there. My buddy Hunter Hogan and I have talked about doing the Oklahoma Mule deer on public land, just public land only. We could get it done and I think that's what we're gonna do because eventually I would love to be able [00:50:00] to harvest an Oklahoma elk, already at the white tail.

Mule deer and a black bear. I think that would be awesome to have a, almost like an Oklahoma slam, if you will. Yep. Oklahoma Slam. That's right. But yeah, we're doing, so the early season whitetail stuff, the mule deer, and then Oklahoma will have the whitetail rolling. Got a couple deer that I've found that I would be insanely happy with.

John Hudspeth: Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna ask for me, you know where we're at, we're still way behind on annual rainfall. I don't know how, I know Central Oklahoma's been a little better as of late. But but this spring we did have, I. Like extremely well timed rains. And we'd get a half inch, five days later, we'd get three quarters of an inch.

10 days later we'd get two inches, so it was just like very well timed out. So we really had a pretty green spring, even though we were still technically like behind on rain. But from what I've seen so far this year, it [00:51:00] has been an awesome antler growing year. And I actually made a prediction I think last week.

Like muzzle loader season is a little later this year. It starts I think October 28th and goes till November 5th, something like that. So I actually kinda made a, an early prediction that I think there's a good chance that the muzzle loader state record could be broken this year from what I've seen so far.

But I'm curious from your part of the state and what you've seen, do you, would you say, would you agree that it's been a really good antler year Yes.

Chris Hammond: I think overall, yes. Just with all the deer pitchers that I've seen and the deer I've seen, and then buddy sending me to say what do you think?

I think by now you get a good idea of how good the growth is. A few deer that I saw earlier on this year from my buddy, he knows who I'm talking about. He had a deer that must have dropped his antlers like the 1st of December because three months ago that deer was a giant, like already, and now, he's basically finished [00:52:00] out.

His points are pointed off like he's done. He's tightening up with his velvet. He's still a freaking giant. But I could see that, I could see this is one of those things, dude, if we had the velvet season this year, Who knows what's out there. We've all seen, I saw the, what the Julian Buck is circulating again, that big giant mainframe, six pointer ended up scoring like two 16 gross or nah, I don't even remember, but I think that was like back in 2016.

But I yeah, I would say our antler growth is solid for sure. I personally have a buck that I have his shed to, and I'd say that deer put on every bit of 30 inches. Yeah. Wow. And that's a lot for us in this farm. Yeah. But yeah, I would say it's it's been a pretty good one. I always love watching 'em grow the month of July because they, it's every time you open up your camera or your pitchers or your laptop, it's oh my gosh.

They're bigger.

John Hudspeth: They're bigger. [00:53:00]

Chris Hammond: And it's crazy how fast some deer catch up to everybody.

John Hudspeth: I had that happen. There's two bucks that I think one's four and one's five. And I get pictures of 'em pretty much every night. And when I first started getting pictures of them, there was one of 'em, actually the one that I think is gonna be my main target this year.

I thought he was gonna be some kind of crappy eight. Kinda like we were talking about, an older one, twenties type eight. And I've killed a bunch of those too. But all of a sudden, yeah, late July came and he flipped a switch and he's like a pretty dang good looking 10.0

Chris Hammond: yeah. Yep. I'm not shocked.

The deer, I'm saying put on 30 inches, actually lost his extras that he had last year. But dude, his main beams, his time length, just mass, everything, he's, he got. He's probably four inches wider. Pretty impressive. But yeah, as far as the deer I'm targeting here in Oklahoma I've got a couple five year olds two for sure.

And then I have the one that all my buddies know him as the white eight. I think we finally put a name [00:54:00] on him for Joker. That's his name because he's a wide joker. That deer, he's all width. He's got six inch G twos. His brow ties are probably six inches, but his G twos are six inches.

And then his G threes are like two. And it's all main bean. Yeah, all main beans and whip. But that deer is eight years old. I've got four sets of sheds off of him and I didn't find two years worth so cool buck. But that's one I'm gonna try to get my boy or my wife on. I think that'd be a really good one.

But yeah, I'm excited for it, man. Yeah. It's gonna be good. One thing I was gonna touch on, I know we're running out of time with Wyoming, and I think it's important that, we're talking hunting, that people think about their setups and it seems like it's been a hot topic, the last couple years it's been getting momentum.

But dude, I've been testing out this, these, this new setup because what I'm after I talked about, shooting deer my limits aren't everybody else's limits. Their limits aren't mine. As [00:55:00] far as how far I feel comfortable shooting an animal. But the new and like dude, the new Schwer, L r P system, the long range precision system is unbelievable.

I've been telling everybody about it just with my testing. It's extreme, extremely strong, but. If you're like, let's say you're comfortable at 40 yards, these are going to, they're so freaking accurate that it's unbelievable. And they have practice heads that are full length of the broadhead that you could screw on and screw off so you don't have to worry about doling anything.

Amazing broadhead system that I'm surprised somebody hasn't thought of it sooner 'cause it's unbelievable. But that's what I'm excited about. Yeah. That's what's giving me even more confidence to air one out if I need to.

John Hudspeth: All right. Yeah. I just Google them looking at 'em right now.

Pretty sweet looking.

Chris Hammond: Oh yeah. Yeah. You can order 'em custom, you can get the whole arrows built and they'll clock [00:56:00] your broadheads with your veins however you want 'em. Whether you want it three and 12 or three and nine or 12 and six. Dude, they're amazing. I've got one right now. I'm spinning in my hand.

John Hudspeth: Nice. Hopefully you get to throw that sucker at a whitetail here really soon. And man, it yeah, it's gonna be here. Even if you're not hunting early season whitetails, it's gonna be here really quickly. Oh yeah. Yeah. Chris, man, I appreciate it. I love having you on and like I said knock down a couple deer and maybe we'll get to do this again in a month or two and and hear about all the

Chris Hammond: stories.

I look forward to it, man. Good luck in Nebraska. I hope you hope you accidentally shoot a giant.

John Hudspeth: That's kinda what I'm hoping to, that's what I'm hoping to alrightyy, man. We will talk to you later and I appreciate you coming on. Alright buddy. All right guys. That's it for this week. If you're wanting a little bit more, I think I mentioned this at the beginning, but if you're wanting to follow along for real, y'all need to be following me on Instagram because I'll be posting a lot of stories, a lot of updates [00:57:00] strategy and stuff like that.

Really for the whole entire hunting season. Specifically for this trip so yeah, hit me up on Instagram. I've been getting a lot more messages and everything as we're getting closer to season. I love that stuff. I'm always willing to help. I've had a lot of people, message me and have questions and everything, and they're usually pleasantly surprised by not just the fact that I answer, but how I answer.

And like I said, if you have a question, that's part of the reason I do this, is I just enjoy teaching people, helping people in any way that I can. So that's gonna do it for this week. Thank you guys so much for supporting this podcast. Hunting season is upon us, which means this podcast is just gonna get even better.

So thank you guys so much for listening, and until next week, I will see y'all right back here on. The Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast.[00:58:00]

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