00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the wire to Hunt Podcast. I'm your host Mark Kenyan, and this is episode three thirty six. Today in the show, Dan and I are talking about spring scouting, shed hunting, beginner, dear gear, deer hunting, politics, and a whole lot more. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx. I had a whole planned introduction, uh for the show, but it just has to go out the water because of what just happened. Yeah, I thought I was on my A game today, but and what I texted you today and I said, this is gonna be the greatest podcast we've ever recorded, and like one second into our phone call, it just all went out the window. Yes, somehow Dan Dan calls to start the podcast and he calls I don't know me and other people Andy May. We got any May's voicemail, and then several other people answer the phone. Who who knows who they were? Dan? How did you mar No? I don't know. I just I looked at my computer and I started hitting buttons and the next thing you know there's about five people on the line. I guess that's your typical start to the day. Huh. I I don't even have any kids in the room distracting me. They're they're seeping into every little bit of your life, even your free time. Well, I'm glad we figured it out. I'm glad we're here. Uh, glad we're getting to catch up Dan, because it's been been a little while. Um, here's what I want to do, alright. I want to take some time here to catch up on the front end, as we like to do when we're able to get together BS a little bit, talk about some current events. Uh, I had a kid since we last chatted. There's been some number two number two number two is here. Uh, we gotta talk about that a little bit. Um. We we also though, before we dive into kids, we also have to talk about shed hunting a little bit. We gotta talk a little bit about a dirty deer hunting politics debacle going on in Michigan right now, Dan, loop you in on that, um. And then we got to answer a whole bunch of questions. We've got I don't know how many dozens and dozens hundreds maybe of questions from listeners that have been sent in here recently, sort of talk about spring scouting stands, set up ideas, balancing hunting and family scouting, shit hunting h fart questions. I mean, we've got a whole we got a whole sal little things. So yeah, man, full slate oft stuff to talk about. But um, but yes, number two is here. Uh. He's a little over two weeks old now, healthy, happy. His name is Colton. And uh, I'm I'm two thirds of the understand in your life Dan, two thirds. Yeah, dude, I'll tell you what. Uh. I have a couple of friends and I'm not gonna say any names. They probably know who they are. But every once in a while, they'll they they will catch themselves complaining about having one kid, and I won't even have to say anything, and I'll just look at them and then they'll put their head down in shame because they know they only have one kid. Yeah. I'm getting to understand better and better every day. I just don't know. What I don't understand is how people do it with more? Like, how do people with four kids or five kids survive? You don't you just won one of them always is getting ignored, and that's the one that I don't know, stays inside and loves video games or something I don't like. I don't know. Uh, it's hard to pay attention, even with two adults, to all three of our kids at the same time. Someone's getting ignored. I've I've already wondered, just how is it gonna work this? You know, this bringing summer and especially fall when I have to take off and Kylie is here on her own, Like just something simple. It is like, how do you do a bathtime when you've got a two and a half year old? That's crazy? And then you've got an infant um? How do you do that? I don't even know. Just simple things like that. We're trying to think that, Okay, how do you make this work without one of the how do you do it and both survive? That's well, I'll tell you this right now. When it comes specifically to bathtime, Yeah, there might be a day or two that the kids don't get baths. As long as they're not covered in feces. I think it is a it's a it's a win if you if your kids are still breathing at the end of the day, it's a wind. I think I think you just keyed on. I think you just touched on the key, which is shifting baselines. You've got to change your expectations. More kids, you have the lower standards you have for quality of life. Yes, but healthy, healthy Mom's doing good. She's starting to feel like a regular person again a little bit, which is nice. As you know, those last weeks of pregnancy are tough. Um, so she's feeling good, and UM, we're just figuring stuff out. We're just trying to kind of figure out what the new normal is. And UM, I took a little bit of time sort of away from work. It wasn't doing as much at work and hung out more during the day helping out for the first couple of weeks. And now I'm back in the office full time this week. So now now Kylie is trying to figure out what the full day on her own looks like. So we'll get a we'll get a report card back at the end of the day. We'll see, we'll see how it went. But I think it's going okay. I haven't heard anything like the house is still standing. I haven't heard too much screaming. Uh, Kylie hasn't called me crying yet, so I'd say, so far, so good. Wow. Then then you're just into it, right, there's so much more time for you to fail as a father in husband. Yeah, you can speak from experience, right, every day? Every day? Yeah? Man? So what about you? Anything big new in the world of Dan Johnson? Uh? Since we talked about three four weeks ago. Oh man, you know, just uh, you know, there's some crazy things that happened in my life. My my social media got hacked. So do you think this is because of all that Russian porn? You watch Russian porn? Yeah, I'm assuming that's how the hackers got your stuff, right, the son of a bit. I didn't know it was gonna be this kind of podcast that caught you off guard for the next I know I did. I think I might have to throw you under the bus later. So anyways, continue, you got hacked? Yeah, I straight up got hacked. Uh. And it was Islamic right, So I think that when they when you say that, how do you what do you mean? How do you know you're saying that that's where the attack came from? Well that is what they posted. So I'm not I don't know too much about Islam. Or whatever. But I do know from watching the news and and just having exposure to um like the news and Islamic terrorism and stuff like that, it will It looked like the black isis flag that they posted on my personal page, and they must have tried to do it within nine finger Chronicles named themselves admin of my Instagram pages and basically they made uh several posts and then they tried to boost those posts for like three thousand six dollars. Now is that your money coming off your credit card or their credit card? Well it all got shut down before the boost was made, thank god. Um So, yeah, I had a week without social media and it scared the ship out of me because as you know, you you know, tried doing wired to Hunt or meat Eater without social media. It's important, yeah, very important, and uh so I had I was just was worried about that. Um that that was all last week. Finally, I made a comment on one of my podcasts about, you know, on the nine finger Chronicles podcast about if there's anybody out there, I'm desperate I could use some help. Some guy reached out to me and says, hey, man, I I know a guy. Let me see what I can do. I'm not promising anything. Two hours later, I got an email from Facebook saying, UM, you need to verify yourself. You need to go through this, that this, all these steps took me about thirty minutes, and UH changed my password, changed my email address, changed a whole bunch of different things, and had to go in and delete the posts that they made, delete the admins, and uh, finally late on Friday, I got access back to all my social media, which that's awesome. Yeah, thank god for that. Man. Yeah, I know you were stressing off about that pretty bad and understandably so glad it. Glad it came together. Although I gotta ask, was there a tiny bit of you that liked the fact that you didn't have your social media just because you didn't have to have that constant little tug to be looking at something or posting something or or any of that. You know what I mean, absolutely, and you're correct. I there was a part of me that was like, this sucks because you know, and I'm a firm believer that if I didn't have the nine finger chronicles and I didn't have um, any of what I have going on now, I probably wouldn't have Facebook or Instagram. Yeah, so I I was. I was. It was just something cool. I didn't have to worry about it. I wasn't on my phone flipping through things. And you know how you get into the Instagram black hole. You go on to make a post about wired to Hunt or Sportsman's Nation and next thing you know, you're you've been scrolling there for about thirty minutes and you've done nothing productive. Yeah. Man, I'm constantly trying to fight that. That is just so easy to waste time or to get sucked into something that makes you feeling crappy, like seeing crappy political news or stupid people, something that just gives you all fired up, and all of a sudden you realize that you're all stressed out or upset or and cruddy for something that just didn't have to have part of your life that day, but because you got sucked into the internet. It is. Um, I'm trying to find ways to force myself out of that because it can just be a just just toxic. Yeah, and that's like all television is these days. It's just those really he said, she said, political ads, one side blaming the other side, and it's just it's so gross that even it even has affected my family because my daughter's like, well, I thought Donald Trump was our president. He's supposed to be Like why do people hate him? I'm just like, oh, sweetheart, you know, like and then the same thing was like why is Donald Trump, you know, do this? Or why does the president do this? Or why is this guy not like don't you know it's and so then I have to explain all that crap and I just want to shut the TV off and good lucky, right right. That's the one nice thing about not having cable is we never have to see cable news. That's one thing. I don't have to be involved in it all. I see it online, but um, but at least I don't need to see the talking heads, because that's sometimes half the worst of it. So yeah, and the only time we really watched that is for local news in the morning to try to get the weather right and throw on the local news. And and still every it was real bad during the caucus part of time of eye Yeah, jesus, I mean it was fifteen commercials an hour of different people And that's a debacle for you guys. That's when did you just stop paying attention? M M so Iowa Caucus social media debacle. Um, a lot of bad stuff happening in Iowa these days. Yeah, anything anything good happening in the in the world of Dan Johnson over there. Have you been out shed hunting yet? Yeah? Um. I went out one day and it was probably for about oh our and thirty minutes. Took my brother. I went to go drop my kids off at my mom's so they so she could watch them that night, and me and my brother and my sister in law we went out to you remember that one day I found like eleven sheds and so we walked that No sheds, however, tons of sign. So probably in about two or three two weeks, I'll probably go back there and walk it again to see what I can find. But no, no deer, but a ton of sign and a ton of corn still in the field and not standing. But you know it's been gone. It's gone through or missed through the combine. So I'm really looking forward to getting out and doing some scooping. Man. So here's a question for you. When you find a corn field like that where there's just so much sign and you know there's got to be deer in there. Um, and even especially when you start finding those sheds like you did that one year in those buffer strips. Do you ever devote yourself to checking the corn rows themselves? I had this conversation with some other guys, and I guess I don't have enough time. Two. Because the buffer strips are higher, you know, I feel like you're gonna they're easier to see that. It's a higher success rate as opposed to walking every row in an eighty acre field. It would be I would have to live closer to it in order to do that, or spend an entire day doing it, which for me, it's just not feasible. Yeah. So here's my situation. Why I bring this up is because on on the main my main Michigan spot, Um, there's about I don't know what it is, maybe twenty acres twenty acre corn field, maybe fifteen twenty acres, and it's just getting pounded tons and tons and tons of deer. Um. I saw the brow list eight, which was a mature buck that I was. That was that I was seeing the last month of the season. I saw him out there once missing aside um and then we haven't we haven't got to talk about it. But I didn't mention it um in another episode when you weren't on. But you know, I found trans sheds. Yeah, so the match set was in the cornfield. Just by accident. I got just super lucky and was walking with the family and we ran across the match that right by the road. But so I found those two antlers in the in the corn And then last weekend I took Everett out for a walk and we found one side off the brawls eight um, maybe a hundred yards off the cornfield in a bedding area. And then we found another two year old buck one of his sides, maybe sixty seventy yards off the corn field in a little bedding area. Um. So there's four antlers all within you know, hundred yards of this corn field. And that's more antlers than I've ever found on this property ever before. Um So the whole bunch of deer in this area hit in this cornfield. So I keep on thinking, like, is this the year I finally just walk every row because there's been so much activity. It's obviously the best food source around here. There's antlers already in and around it. Um. But it's such an investment of time, like you said, to do that, So I'm I'm contemplating doing it, though, because I don't know. If there's four antlers already right around there, that means there's at least four somewhere else, um, if not more, probably are more because I've seen other bucks that I haven't found any of their antlers yet. So it's very tempting, But it would be a daunting thing to just walk every row staring at stocks. But I don't know. Maybe who knows, maybe you'd find a whole bunch of sheds that way, if you'd be willing to just do the the drudgery. Yeah, and I think if I could find one of those perfect days. I don't know about you, but I seem to find more sheds on cloudy days when maybe there's uh it's a little missed in the air or something like that, because a the contrast of the shed is different than the grass and the surrounding uh you know, landscape, so it sticks out just a little bit more as opposed to walking a stubble corn field looking for something that it looks exactly like a stubble corn field in the bright sun with all the shadows and everything. So you know what else I found because I have started walking in those roads already, and one of the things I noticed is I actually think that it helps when you're trying to see sheds in the corn if there's a little bit of snow on the ground. Most of the time you want to be snowless or close to snow at least, Like that's my preferred shed dating conditions when you're back in the woods or looking at grass and stuff. But it seems like with the corn field it actually helps a little bit because you do have more contrast versus when everything looks like a shed. Um, at least with a little bit of snow, you'll see something sticking out that looks a little bit unique, and you've got the like I'm looking at the cornfield right now, and I can see with the snow, it's a nice snowy path down the middle. Um that if there's a nice antler and there, you definitely see it, but you wouldn't have it blend in with everything like it normally would. So it's actually not a bad time if you've got an inch of snow out there or something like that. Yeah, that's why, that's that's why I wanted to go. A couple of weeks ago, or was it this last week, because it was the perfect conditions, right if they We had had snow on the ground for about a week a week and a half, and if something was gonna fall, it was it was gonna be right on top of the snow. So that's why I wanted to get out. And well, I think I got out there a little too early. Speaking to shed hunting, something that um that came to minded me someone some someone on Instagram or somewhere had messaged me with this idea, and I thought, man, that's a really good idea. And then I also remembered you did something like this. I don't remember if it was during shed season, but at some point you were going out with your kids to scout or shed hunt or something, and you guys were collecting trash too, And I thought we should do like a shed hunting challenge to everybody listening. If you're gonna go out shed hunting this year, bring along a plastic bag with you, bring along some kind of bag and collect trash. And I don't know, I don't don't. I haven't fully thought this out, Dan, But what do you think about having some kind of shed hunting hashtag or something related? To trash and then we give some kind of prize away to whoever has like the most trash did in one of their pictures, some some kind of ideal like that. I mean, we should have something good coming coming out of all of us walking around looking for antlers, you know. Um I like the idea. I like the idea. We have to kind of think it through a little bit. But what would be a catchy shed hunting related trash hashtag that we could use to track this? Um? So you know when we talk about a buck that has a non typical point and we call it trash, you know. So I'm thinking out loud here and help me out. Trashy sheds, trash, trash shed trash, garbage. Uh uh people, people now get to see what idiots we are in real time. I don't know, Well, we'll figure it out. Sheds with uh scooping for scooping for trash sheds and just sheds and trash, trash, trash and sheds. Um ah. Yeah, Well I really should have came with this better prepared. By the end of By the end of we should not even finish the Q and A part of this. Let's just talk out loud about what we think we should be doing, calling it for the next hour and a half. I think a lot of people love that, right, That's that's riveting listening. Right by the end of this whole thing, we have to have some kind of idea because I want to try to give folks an incentive to pick up some crap out there while you're out walking for ammers. I think it's such a simple thing that I should be doing a better job of that. All of this could probably do a little bit better job of. Um. So I'm thinking what kind of giveaway. Um, I'll figure out something cool. I'll give away a copy of my book to someone. I've got some extra still that and I bet you I've got oh, well, get back. We'll get back on all these things. Uh shaddowning trash challenge. We will do something along those lines that we will announce it at some point here as soon as we figured it out. Um cool cool. You know one of the piece of current events that I gotta just vent to you about alright, And I got one more thing to say before after that, then we can go good news or bad news. It's good. I think it's good news. Yes, Okay, I think I noticed is then let's say the good news for the end. Okay, So my bad news story of deer hunting politics gone bad? Oh geez, yeah, I know. So I have to just talk about what's going on here in Michigan and share my frustration and explain what's what's happening and where we're at, and maybe encouraged my Michigan listeners to do a little something. Um, here's a situation here in Michigan. We have something called the Natural Resources Commission, and this is a I believe seven member commission that is appointed by the governor to take recommendations from our DNR and essentially confirm the regulations for hunting and fishing in Michigan, Okay. And they have frequent meetings, I think monthly NRC meetings where they talk through different proposals and the things they're looking at, and the public can come and comment on it. And there's all sorts of different things going on. But it's a way to make the process public. It's a way to take in public feedback, and it's a way for these commissioners to look at all sides of the issue as well as the science and everything to make the decisions about you know, are we gonna ban baiting or not, Are we gonna change the season dates or not, etcetera, etcetera. So the people that get assigned to this commission are really important. They have, you know, significant influence on hunting here in Michigan. And over the years, all sorts of different people have been assigned to the Commission. But just recently, our governor back in December, I think, appointed someone named Anna Middling. I don't know if you remember this, Dan, but we have had and on the podcast like four years ago. Does the name ring ballat all? No, it doesn't. Okay. Well, Anna middlings from Michigan and she was a co op coordinator here in Michigan, so she had a job for a while. She came out of school with a degree in fisheries and wildlife and science and ecology and all sorts of things like that. She came with this background. She then took a job working with the QT May and Pheasants Forever and MUCC which is a Michigan conservation organization and a whole bunch of different partner organizations here to help manage wildlife cooperatives and to help work with various stakeholders to conserve wildlife, to hunt, to improve the land, and to find ways to um work together to improve hunter satisfaction, do all this really good stuff. So she helped coordinate these things, work with hunters and mostly hunters all across the state doing this. And that's what she came on the podcast to talk about was what she was learning, what she was doing, um, the studies, they were doing really really good stuff. So she did that. She came out of the Fishers and Wildlife degree. She then is now a professor of I think it's environmental silence biology, something on those lines at a school here in Michigan. She is a hunter. She is very involved in volunteer work related conservation, volunteering at deer check stations. She's working, She's worked with c w D check stations, so she's on top of all these issues that impact hunters. She gets assigned and she gets nominated to the commission, and I'm thinking, Wow, this is a great person. This is actually someone who lives this stuff, who has an educational background in this stuff, who has worked professionally within this world, and has worked with all the different stakeholders. Not only does she do is personally, but she actually has had to be in a position that has forced her to listen to all sides of the deer hunting issues, to actively work to bring people together. I don't know any better person or better type of experience to have when you're gonna be taking a leadership role with managing our regulations, right, A big part of that is listening to all the different people, looking at the science, looking at the different perspectives, and trying to come to some kind of consensus. Yes, Anna gets a sign of the Commission. It's great news. One of the best um folks I've seen as far as a resume assigned to the Commission, And interestingly enough, as far as everything I've seen, she's the only person to have been nominated for the Commission to have an educational background in this stuff, to have a wildlife management degree, so she's probably the most qualifying that. But several days ago, I think it was Thursday, out of nowhere, all of a sudden, find out that one side of the political aisle has decided that they are going to have a vote to disapprove her and remove her from the Commission. The Senate has As I understand, I might get the details wrong. I'm I'm not living and breathing this every second of the day. But as I understand that there's a sixty day window where the Senate can approve or disapprove of a nomination to the NRC. On the last day before that sixty day window closes, they out of nowhere decided to have this new vote to remove her at the end and ends up. The day it comes out, I got a text from Josh in the morning and say, hey, man, this thing is happening. It seems like some weird political stuff going on, and they're trying to vote and off the NRC. Make sure to call your senator, make sure to spread the word, talk about so all of our buddies get together. We sent emails. But that afternoon, the Senate majority, which is a Republican here in Michigan, votes on a party line to disapprove and a mendling off the NRC. So someone who's incredibly qualified just got knocked off the Natural Resource Commission here in Michigan. Why did that happen? I still don't have a clear answer, But here's what we are being told. We are being told at least the story is that there has been an another nominee to the commission from our governor who's a Democrat, and the Senate is not happy about that one. So, as the story goes, this is hearsay. I can't vouch for this. This is just hearsay. What they're saying is that the Senate went and said to the governor, Hey, if you get rid of this first guy, George hartwell we'll let you keep Anna, but if you don't, we're going to vote Anna off before our says today window comes out. And she said she wasn't going to compromise on it. She wasn't gonna she wasn't gonna remove George, and so they voted an Now, so someone who's incredibly qualified just got knocked off the NFC because of another person they didn't like. So very frustrating. All the hunting organizations I know about within Michigan or up in Arms, all the members I'm sitting online are sending emails, making phone calls. I placed a phone call to my senator. Um, I will give him credit. He he voted to disprove or to to remove Anna. So I'm not happy about that at all, But to his credit, he did get I can touch on me is willing to talk to me about it game a call today. He hasn't returned my voicemail. UM, but I'm hoping to hear from him directly to to see if there's something else to this. Um. But it's very frustrating. It is very disconcerting to see some political bullshit taking someone who's very qualified, who was a great representative hunters and anglers, taking them off of this commission. UM. I'm I'm. I was very fired up about it, very upset. You should be. You should be, and so should everybody else, not only throughout the nation, but throughout Michigan. This is exactly what hurts everything in life. It's do you think the people who voted to have so and so removed? I was thinking about our natural resource. No, they were not. They were. It was all political and it was all based off bullshit or somebody else's game. Well, the thing is is that it's a party line vote. So when you see that everyone on one side of the health voted one way and every one on the other end, I'll vote it otherwise, that screams partisan to me. There was one There was one Republican And I'm not trying to pant the Republican Party all in one way. I'm just saying this one instance, there was one. There's one Republican who did not vote with the party and said, hey, Anna is obviously qualified. I can't with good conscience vote against her. So I appreciate that person. But everybody else, I just can't understand it. The comments from my senator, and he's the Senate Majority leader. Um. And again not saying he's a bad person. I'm not saying maybe he's got some good reason for it, but his comment that I saw to the media was that he didn't think that she based on her testimony because she had to go up to the in front of the Senate panel and answer a bunch of questions when she was first appointed, Um claimed that she didn't seem to be able to make the big decisions or something like that. And so I actually went and I listened to the whole hour and ten minutes of her being up there in front of the panel, answering questions and whatnot, and UM, and there just there just wasn't any substance to that criticism. Was she, you know, the most unbelievably strong and eloquent public speaker, and did she answer every single question perfectly and with full knowledge of each issue. No. But what she did do is when there was something that she didn't know everything about, she said, you know what, I can't speak to that right now. But what I would do is I would go look at the science. I would go look at the social science. We talked to all stakeholders and come to a consensus, We come to a decision. I'm not going to jump to assumptions or I'm not going to pretend to know something. I'm not going to come to this with a with a preformed opinion um which which I thought was perfect. I thought that that that's what we need from someone on this commission, not someone who's gonna come to this with these ideological I don't know, I'm getting frustrated just even talking to dat right now. But man, I feel you, dude, I feel you. I've done the same thing in in Iowa, where I've reached out to senators, house represent lives and talk to them about public land. And of course Iowa is very low, UH has very low public lands. It's an agriculture state. We have you know, thou hundreds of thousands of landowners and UH, it's all egg based and so public land kind of takes a back seat in our state. And when you voice your opinion about that in this state, especially to UM, the politicians, they could care less because it doesn't involve who is UM supporting them, and who's supporting them are people in the agriculture industry. So I feel you, dude, I think coming out of it it it just reminds me of how important it is for us to speak up on these things, because if we don't speak up at all, then this stuff will just keep happening. Maybe if more of us knew about this ahead of time. Like what sucks is that this thing came out like the night before and then the next morning they did the vote right away, so people didn't have a chance to to reach out to the representative. There was like two hours in the morning before you could even try to get your opinion known. UM. So we need to try to make our voices her when we can. And I will say again, to my senator's credit, he did respond to my message. He texted me actually instead he'd be willing to chat. So I appreciate that, UM, But I do think that we all could could continue to try to push the envelope and make sure that our senators and representatives know that we are a constituency that matters, and that we care about these resources and these opportunities and the privilege to hunt and to have well managed resources, and and if we don't stand up and stick up for it, nobody else will, I guess is the big point in this case. Not enough people stuck up soon enough, and it led to someone who's incredibly well qualified to help guide the regulations of honey and fishing in Michigan. She got knocked off and now instead there's a couple of lawyers, uh, and a few other people who I'm not sure about their credentials and any kind of waken stack up to Anna's. So they're disappointing. Uh. If you're in Michigan, send send you take a look and see how your center voted, and send him an email, give him a call if you are similarly frustrated as I am. Let them know about it. I don't know if there's anything that'd be done about it now, um, but if nothing else, we need to make sure that they know we're listening and paying attention. So that's my political ranch for today. Yep. There you go hold on one second here before we move on. Uh, this is future Mark. I want to jump in here, uh the day after we record this conversation with Dan and just share a couple more final thoughts. Number one, I want to make it really clear here that there's blame to be placed on both sides. The more have looked into it, the more it does appear that there is some kind of politicization of this crap coming from the Democratic side. The Democratic side as well, that might have been part what pushed the Republicans to do what they did. So the more of the story here is that there were some knuckleheaded moves on both sides of the mostly related to political blogning that's unrelated to Anna, that's unrelated to our wildlife resources, and that political crap from both sides of the aisle led to a bad outcome for hunters, anglers, and our natural resources. So this politicization of our wildlife management is a big issue, and it's something that's not just happening here in Michigan. It's happening all across the country. So we need to be watching out for it and we need to be speaking up against it, Which brings me to point number two, which is the fact that today I did get to chat with my state center, and I want to give him credit for that that he respectfully listened to my feedback, affirmed that it wasn't falling on deaf ears, and and promised that he'd take this into account moving forward into the future. And so for that, I am appreciative. And I think what I came away from all of this with is that we do still have a voice. We do still have the ability to make a difference, especially here on the local level, with your state reps, your state senators. We do have a disproportionate opportunity to get in contact with these people and actually talk to them. You know, we can't talk to a president, we probably maybe can't even talk to a senator, a national Center United States senator, excuse me, but our state senators they're a lot more available. So give these people a call, talk to them, let them know that we care about these things. And I do think that if enough of us have the kind of conversations that I was fortunate enough to have today, I think we can make a difference. So that's all I got on that. Let's flip it back to past Mark in my conversation with Dan. Now tell me some good news Dan. Well, let's see. It's about a month ago. I got a call from Jared uh from two Percent for Conservation and Jared Fraser Jared Fraser, yep, And he says to me, Dan, Uh, are you busy man? I said yes, I'm very busy. And he said, well, do you have enough time for conservation? I said I always have time for conservation. And he said, do you mind if we put your name in the hat to become a board member of two Percent for Conservation? And I said absolutely I would. Will you know I would love to because I'll tell you what I made a commitment in before this, even how it happened, that I was going to try to give back a little bit more than previous years, find a way to do something more to give back to any conservation effort that I possibly could, um helping out, volunteering, you know, potentially donating more money. I'm already a two Percent for Conservation UM business certified member through the Sportsman's Nation Sportsman's Nations certified and Uh. I got a call last week or as actually the week before from Jared saying, hey, dude, um, you made the cut and we would like you to offer you a board of director seat within two percent for Conservation, and I accepted it. So yeah, so I am on as of today today is Monday. They made the announcement just like literally as we're speaking, I I hit my phone in a message popped up. So, um, I'm on the two percent for Conservation board of Directors and this is my way of giving back to Conservation in any way I possibly can. Oh, man, congratulations, that is uh, that's great man. I think you're spot on that. You know. I think all of us to look at twenty and east New Year to trying to figure out what can we do more? Yeah, so what does that mean? Uh? What are you gonna be doing? You're gonna be on meetings talking about the direction of the organization and that kind of stuff, right yep. And I think specifically, um I might you know, just because of my expertise in podcasting, there is a potential that uh and I don't wanna you know, this is only thirty minutes really into my task right now as we speak, or you know, as my rule as board of director, So I don't want to uh step outside of any lines. But if you get fired thirty. It's the best stuff. I didn't know you did that, but well, they heard Russian porn already, so I'm sure that might be Hey, hey, Mark and grat Hey, thanks a lot, buddy. I just got axed out of two percent for Yeah, but I think, um, you know, the direction of helping assist them in the direction of their message. Who their message is going to, UM basically using my platform as a sounding board for two percent for conservation method or for their message, and um basically just refining that to reach as many people as humanly possible and attain as many members as humanly possible. So um, and you know, there's the good word and it just needs to be spread. And I think, uh, you know, there's a probably start a podcast maybe, I don't know, we'll see, sweet man. That's awesome. Well, good for you. Good for two percent for conservation to have someone like you on their team. And uh, I just can't cry every now now I'm a representative. I can't cry. I know you gotta get your ship together. Uh well, good man, keep us posted and definitely let myself and the word hunt world know when you need our support. Absolutely you will be on my press release list. Hit me up, Hit me up. Um. Okay, so we've talked about kids who talked about good news, we talked about bad news. Should we answer questions? Should we finally get to the main event? Mark? All right, let's talk hunting. I have I don't know where you're at on this, but the last as we do every year, we kind of go through, at least I do, and I think you do to degree kind of go up and down a little bit with the various seasons and what we're interested in or what we're obsessing over. Um. I'll get into a mode where I'm out West, I'm really in fly fishing, and then I get back and I'm really pumped about want to go in elk hunt. And then September I was like, oh my gosh, I just want to be prepping for white tails. I have all these different you know, ups and downs there. My deer hunting excitement button just got pushed really hard, like a week and a half ago. Um. I don't know. I think maybe just because like I'm starting to get serious about shed hunting. But all of a sudden I started thinking, Man, I gotta get really serious about planning some of the projects on the back forty and where am I gonna go hunting this year? And I've got all my magazines out and my books out, and I'm working on my deer hunting to do list and stacking up ten thousand things I gotta get done in the next six months. And I'm fully I'm fully amped, and it's only February. Dam So, yeah, dude. I my daughter came up to me and said, Dad, can we watch a hunting video? So before I came up and recorded this episode with you, We're sitting in the recliner. She hops on my lap and we were watching um high country mule deer huts and she was, oh, dude, this guy he put on a shot and it went over this It went over this buck's back, and she was she was like, oh no, he missed him. She's like, you can't do that. He's standing right there. You gotta shoot him. Like so, she's she's heard me talk too much about deer hunting. I was gonna say, though you haven't told her, you know, to be a little bit more understanding of those poor hunters and they missed the deal. Well, you know, daddy sometimes does that, Honey, you gotta give him got to give him a break. Yeah, yeah, Um, you can't have her watching that western stuff that you gotta start on something good and wholesome, like the Back forty. That's what she should be watching that. Okay, Okay, Eva, he's gonna talk about pollinators for thirty minutes. I need you to pay close attention. It's like four minutes. Man, she could have a four minute times fan. Okay. Uh. Deer hunting. Deer hunting questions, Uh, we got a question. We got a ton of questions. So I'm just gonna kind of go through these and pick random ones off this list I've kind of put together and we'll see where it takes us. Um. This kind of relates to our excitement level. We got a question from Jack who just simply said, are you more excited for shed season or turkeys? Reason why? Uh? I mean turkey season because I get to go do it with my family and this year will be the first year that I think I'm gonna be taking about. But you know how I am about shed hunting, Dude, love our sheds, you know it. I know how passionate about and fired up you get. So I love my daughter, but I might lean towards sid hunt. It's crazy to say, um, because shed hunting isn't really hunting, and that's the weird thing. But for some reason, damn it, I do get so excited. I just love being out there hiking, looking, the anticipation, that burst of excitement when you finally see one unexpected. Yeah, I don't know. I and maybe because it stretches for so long for for us, while like turkey hunting, you could be done in one day, you cut me out. At least I know some guys were girls go all over the county free in Turkey hunt for weeks and weeks and weeks, and I guess in that case. Um, but for me, usually the one state thing, so I'm probably gonna vote for for sheds too. But our buddy Ross Hossman, I hate that dude. I hate him. I hate his guts and I hope he hears me say that because and I've even mentioned him and told him how much I hate him posting those damn pictures of his dog. Oh dude, big sheds too, not just little ones, but big sheds. Yeah, you already found a seven intern Jesus. Yeah, I think he's a I think he said fifteen. I think is what he's at so far. Um, and he has only been out a few days, so yeah, he stacks him up. But what can you do? Um? Okay, So that's where we're at with sheds versus turkeys. Um. Kyle asks, what age do you plan to take your kids hunting for the first time? You just kind of answered that how old? Eva? She's gonna be turning seven in next week, and is that that's gonna be their very first hunt? Right? This will be her very first turkey high. She's she stepped into the woods with me before while I, uh, did you know some turkey calls. She's been mushroom hunting, she's been shed hunting, but she has not been officially hunting where I'll be carrying a gun. So this is gonna be you know, this is gonna be interesting. Do you feel like they're Do you have any anxiety about how she's going to feel about the the shooting and the killing of a bird. Is that something that you feels she's ready for or is it kind of unknown? Yeah? So that's and that's a really good question because she is a very emotional, she's very sensitive. She loves I can already tell you she loves natures, butterflies, birds. Um. The last year when Sarah shot her turkey, we brought it home and she was playing with its feet and playing with the fan and and the beard, and she she's like, Daddy, why did you know? Like why did mommy kill this? And you know you gotta explain to her, Well, we killed this bird not only for fun, because it's fun to go hunting, but we then we eat its meat and then we can make you know, food out of it for you and the family. Okay, well, I don't like it when an animal dies. And uh well I was like, you know, I don't either, And and you know, you try to explain in the most sensitive way you possibly can to you know, not necessarily not rubb her the wrong way to the point where she's just like a hunting's girls. I don't ever want to do it. But throughout all of this twenty nineteen year leading up to today, when you know, when I said she we were, she was basically cheering on the guy in the you know, and then and then trashing him for missing the shot. You know, so, um, I think she's to the and you know, she saw the blood, she sees the deer go down, she sees them cape it out, and so I think exposure, second hand exposure like watching through videos is great that way, it's not real life right off the bat, you know what I mean. And she seen dead deer hanging from a rafter, she's seen the meat after we've cut it out, but she's never actually seen a kill other than on TV. So I think I think that is going to help to the point where we're starting off with an ugly animal like a turkey that doesn't look cute, and I think that's gonna be a great introduction for her to I don't know what the hunt and and like the whole audio experience of turkeys just is so like exciting even before you see anything that I feel like that's just such a good one for people to start with. Yeah, I can't wait. I mean, I've I've gotten I remember I told you about the turkey hunt I took ever done last spring, right when he was like, I don't know, just over a year. Um. I mean, I don't know if you really call it a hunt because we didn't have a gun, but I took him out there and we called in turkey. The forty yards on the ground that was pretty sweet. So I'm gonna I'm gonna keep on doing that kind of thing with him. Um, just kind of take him out. I think this is the first I'm gonna try to take him out during deer season. Um, I've got a box blind that you can sit up in and it's really comfortable. It's it's super luxury hunting. Um, which is good I think for a kid. So he'll be almost three, I think, you know, December, late season, take him out at the very end of the night and try to slip in there for the last half hour forty five minutes and just see if a bunch of deer can come out. Um. I think he'd get a kick out of that, because he's already through the same things that you're talking about, just by having like we watch hunting shows. He sees all my deer run to bring him home, we kind of take him out and do all sorts of we go shut outing together. Already he's right with me and shed hunting. We look at deer tracks, we point out deer beds where he's really into deer rubs right now. And so now he goes around the house trying to rub on couches and stuff with his fake anglers. And two days yesterday or two days ago, we went out and we saw a bunch of rubs, and I don't know, a week before I was teaching him what rubs were, and so he was going and pointing at him. But this time he got so excited when we saw him. He was running up to rub trees and hug them and saying, dear ruh, dear ruh. So that's, uh, that's pretty cool. But I don't know. I think that probably I don't know someone of that, like five six seven year old ranges probably when I would actually take a gun, because I do think that like that, just the sound even is one of the big questions, Like, well, that scare the crap on him. I guess you have to kind of practice that ahead of time too. Yeah, And I want to have to get some kind of ear covers for her, you know, like maybe some of those um a man, what's the what's the brand? That you can throw over your head? But you can hear about Walker's game here. Yeah, but when they pull the trigger, it cancels out the the the big bang. Yeah, I think that's I think that's what it is. I've never used him. I'll have to look into that. Um, it's gonna be fun, though, Man, I think that's gonna be the coolest. I can already see just the things I'm doing to this point. It's so much fun to see him get excited about these things that I can see how that's self fulfilling. And I'll tell you, I used to think I I used to have this this preconceived notion of me going out and hunting with my Son's just you know, it's just I it's not like I didn't want to hunt with my daughter. I just you know, you have this. I'm a man and I have a son, and I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna have these hunting adventures with him. But what I'm finding out is my daughter it seems to be more excited about hunting than right now my son does. And I know that there's there's two years difference there, two and a half years difference, But right now my son is showing more interest in other things than hunting than my daughter is. So I think, uh, it might be one of these dotty dad or daddy daughter hunting type clubs. So yeah, there's there's room for everybody. But right now my daughter is showing the most uh, the most excitement. Very cool. For some reason. If I had to guess what Mac is into, my first guesses were monster trucks and mud wrestling. That's not that's just where we're It's racing, racing, kind of racing like Nascar. He likes watching, uh, he likes playing Mario Kart on the Wii. But then the other day he sat down and watched these truck races with my father in law. So he's kind of into racing car racing right now. Well, there you go, might have the next Jeff Gordon. Yeah, all right, Paul, This is a good question. This is something that that I sometimes think about. Paul asks do you treat standing corn as a betting area or a food source when you're thinking of how you approach your stands or wind direction and stuff like that. M that's a great question. I want you to start it off. Honestly, I tend to look at it more of as a as like an open area. I guess even though it's not even those full cover I you have to blow your winds somewhere, and I know that dear dew bedding corn fields, UM, I do know that deer absolutely feed into corn fields, but I probably look at it more as an evening food source than a betting year. I'm making assumptions here, but my guess is that more dear feed in the corn fields around me than bed in them, because there's a lot of good quality betting around UM. So if I had to lean one way, I would go that route. UM. At the same time, though, I will look at standing corn as like a way to enter an area when you have to get into a spot where you can't walk through the timber and you wanna you know, access to Accessing through a standing corn field is not a bad way to do it. And so maybe even though there are some dear beded in there, it's probably fewer. And because of how thick it is, and because of just the the density, I think can get away with a little bit more. You can walk down a single row and there might be a bunch of deer bed at a hundred yards away, but you could get away with it, while if you were walking through the forest a hundred yards from bed to deer, you would likely blow them out. That's kind of how I would lean. Yeah, what do you think it's tough? Um, I've never I read this article several years ago in North American White Tail, and there was this guy who killed all these monsters just through spotting stock in corn fields. Right. That was his go to strategy, was spotting stocking giant bucks in corn fields. Um. But for me, I look at standing corn as in two different ways. Early season and that includes rutt and then the late season. So late season obviously it's a food source. Early season rutt, I look at it as a problem because it's just a whole big area of cover that that I can't access, I can't set up in. I have a hard time knowing are the deer in there? Uh. This year it was a perfect example of that. So to piggyback off what you said, other than an access route like walking through a standing cornfield to back door, um a draw leading up to it, or having good cover going into a tree stand, I kind of don't like standing corn throughout the season other than if it makes it all the way through the season into that late season time frame. Yeah, so you're you're basically saying that you would rather have your wind blowing over a standing cornfield than into some timber. Yeah. See, but then that goes again goes back into my hunting strategy overall of not hunting a lot of field edges. Now you can't really count that as a field edges. Well, I might just let me take that back. I personally would not count the edge of a standing corn field as a field edge when the corn is standing, because that's basically a jungle. You're in the middle of cover then, right. But I still feel that like for me, it I still kind of look at it as uh, I guess as a as a field edge because it's a huge or I guess we could just say edge in general, because it's a huge transition in vegetation, especially if it goes from open timber to standing corn. But if there is this this real thick you know how sometimes we have a from a field edge ten yards inside the timber it's thick because the sun hits it, then I don't think the stand the quote unquote field edge is near as good and they work the inside of the timber on that thick edge. Um. This that's kind of my experience. But I just I guess I haven't seen the um I haven't seen in the past where it's worked either way. So that's why I'm in the timber or in more cover. You know, another thing just came to my mind as you were talking about how you think about standing corn differently throughout the year, is that it is important to think about how deer use corn differently throughout the year. So in the summer and early season, they're not really feeding on that corn too much. It's not until later in the year that the corn becomes like very, very attractive. So if you've got a season open in September even early October, that's probably not top food source. So it really is just a betting area or a transition area. Um at that point you don't need to think about much feeding going on at all, because it's probably better things. But once you get into late October obviously than November and December, once it gets colder and that corn is really dried down, then it becomes a major food source. So that's another thing to think about as well. I wouldn't when if I'm coming out in the evening and I've got a standing corn field, I would not want to be walking through a standing corn field after dark in the because that thing is probably full of deer. So yeah, it depends on on what other food sources are in the area. If you have a lot of green foliage on the ground, then I would be less um, I would be more apt. Or you had a good acorn crap, I'd be more apt to walking through the corn field on the way back to the truck as opposed to, uh, finding a different way and a lot of it. I mean, there's so many very variables that you know, and each scenario is different. Right If you have one of those places where dear just pile out of the timber because I don't know, they don't have that's that's the only food source in the area. I don't I don't have that. There's so much other food in the area that they don't necessarily need to eat the corn. Interesting. Yeah, well you said a lot of different factors to play. Yeah. Um. How about this question from Alex what do you look for when scouting at this time of year? So it's February March time frame, we're looking forward to the next hunting season this months away. Is there anything you can be looking at right now that will help you scout for next fall? Where's your my head is terrain period? I really love this time of year getting out especially with with snow on the ground. And this is more of a Midwestern type strategy, but you can still go out and do this in a southern state with no terrain, uh like no snow on the ground. Look for subtleties in terrain, look for the low spots, look for um right now, A big thing that I'm looking for on on X and UM when I do my my scouting is these things I call spur ridges where it's just a it's a terrain feature coming off of a main ridge that leads down into the drainage or um, another slight depression in a ridge where that, dear you, is just so they're taking the lowest spot up into whatever it is they're trying to access, um little dips or you know. And and then and then scout look for sign around those areas. And then the only other thing left to do really is is hunt those areas in the seat during the season to see if in fact that terrain feature is worth hunting. Market off your list and move on. Yeah, And I think I think your focus on terrain is is a good one at this time of year, because that's something that's the same no matter what time of year it is the terrain, the ridges, the slopes, the hills, the valleys, etcetera. Cover obviously changes a lot, so veil cover right now in February is a lot different than it will be in September. So dear behavior relating to cover will be different, but how they move along a ridge will be very similar. Might adjust a little bit if it was more leafy cover at some point. But yeah, that's a big thing to look for, and I really like having that just allows you to confirm things so much better than any other time of year. If if if only to tell you what to think about in late November and December, that's still helpful. Um, But you can see, oh yeah, all these tracks do walk down the bottom third of you know, one third of the way down the ridge, or they do use a little spur, or you do see that there's a whole bunch of deer betting on this point, just like you thought there would have been. You you always assume there was, and now you can actually see it laid out in the snow, no questions asked. Um, you know, I was out on the back forty last week, took a little scouting run because I always I would like to get at least one snowy day scouting session on every farm just to see that stuff laid out there. Um. And I discovered a little knob that extended out into the swamp that I never walked through last year for some reason, and there was like twenty beds on it. There was all sorts of deer in there right now, and I'm not saying they're all going to be there in October, but it's still good to know that that was a major late season betting year that I never would have thought about in the past. Um. Another thing I did is I went and I was trying to pay attention to any buck tracks, and if I found a big set of buck tracks, I would backtrack it and follow the path that buck took. So you know, there's no time of year you can do that when you can actually see exactly how buck moves across the landscape. So this is really cool. I went and I was walking down along the edge of the swamp and I cut a big track and I thought, this is definitely looks like a buck track, really wide splayed big dew clause. Um. So I start following this buck track and it takes me into the middle of the swamp right into the middle of it, and then it starts heading due south, straight down the middle of the swamp, down towards the bottom of I've kind of described this swamps is like a gourd, So at the top, the north end is like the handle of the gore, the narrow end, and then it widens out into a big glob at the bottom. And so it's taking me straight down into the glob of the bottom, heading towards the neighbors, where it opens up into like a very watery um cattail area. And I'm following this track, and then all of a sudden, a bunch of other bucks all merge with this bucks. So now there's a group of three or four what looks like bucks, all in the same little area that I never got into last year because it's so gnarly in there. And of course that's where these bucks are going, and they head straight out to the edge of this really watery stuff. And then right then as I'm looking, I'm like, oh, this is, of course, this is where these bucks are heading to go. There's these little points of just a little bit of high ground with a bunch of I don't know if it's red oce or dogwood or some autumnle of stuff, just really thick, shrubby stuff that extends little points extending out into the marshy stuff. And it's like picture perfect obvious betting. But it's in the nastiest, thickest farthest away from anywhere you can get spot. And I'm sneaking out to them, like, yeah, of course this is where those bucks are going. And I'm looking at them, seeing there's one tree actually hunting here. If I ever want to get in there, like you know, November five or something, all day sit in the swamp, this would be such a sweet spot. And I'm sitting here looking around thinking about it, and then I hear slash, slash slash, and then out from this point yards in front of me, a big bodied buck steps out into the open and just looks at me. He's already shed his antlers, so I can just see these big knobs on his head, but a big body and just stands there and staring at me, and I'm staring at him, like, man, this is awesome. I followed this buck right to where he's bet and he walks out right in front of me. Um, just a really cool little scouting encounter that confirms, you know, things I wondered about and you know, gave me something to think about this coming season. So definitely you can you can learn stuff during this time of year. Um, you know, you can't see scrapes because they're covering snow possibly, but if you don't have snow cover, you can see scrapes, you can see running activity from last year. That can be helpful if you can see rubs and stuff. Um, so yeah, there's a lot. You know, I wouldn't put too much into exact trails and things like that that could be different when covers different, but there's certainly his value to be had this time of year. Right. And but the the whole, the whole point, and we both agree on this, is that it's all about data collection and data points and and adding all these data points together. Let's say you scout in the in the uh winter and you see the terrain feature, you identify the terraine feature. You come back in in the summer, and now what you've seen is the sickness, right, all the vegetation is there, and maybe what you didn't see in the winter you see in the summer, which is edge, right, Now what we're doing basically is we have a checkbox check box. Okay, we got terrain, a good train feature check. Oh, now we got edge check. Hey check this out. It's this draw leads to a food source check. So now all we're doing is is checking this box to identify good locations, to put a tree standard, a ground blind, to ambush these animals. Right, So the more checks you have in that in in the check box, the better the area I feel will be. Yeah, I think it's war earth getting. I think it's helpful to do some form scouting during each different season of the year, just so you get that full suite of data across the board. Get the winter, get the spring, get a little summer, and then of course when you're hunting, thinking about scouting every time you go out there. Um, and then you have that full set that you can pull from. Yeah. Absolutely, Uh what about this? This question comes from Daniel, and then Garrett has kind of a related question. Basically, Daniel says, hey, I'm a new hunter. Um no, sorry this one. Daniel, he's starting a group trying to help educate some of his neighbors on how to hunt, and he's wondering about low budget starter kits for a new hunter. Excuse me the hiccups. I get hiccups a lot when I'm on this podcast for some reason. I think because I'm always I drink coffee, and I think once I get towards the end of the coffee, you have swallowed so much air as I'm talking and drinking coffee that end up getting But what I'm trying to say is the question is some kind of recommended cheap way to get started, Like what's the bare essentials that you need to start hunting? Um? I think I would tell you that you know, just and again let's just say you've got the bare bones buttet. I would just get some basic decent clothing. They can get you out and there were with some basic camouflage. Um, something that's gonna keep you warm and keep you dry so you're not soaking wet. So try to get some half decent bass layers so you're not drenched. But you don't need to spend thousands of dollars on the best camel, which you know, we'd like to have good stuff, but you don't have to have it. Read away. UM, I would tell you to not feel bad about getting one of those starter kit bows. I think that those are all pretty decent these days. That's what I started with. My first compound was one of those pre set up compounds from Cabela's. I bet she was like three hundred bucks or two fifty or something. It came with all the accessories, and you know, it's not top of the line, but it is plenty good enough to get out there shooting and to be able to get a deer. Um. I would set a very high level. That's a good route to go from the boat if you're gonna go bow hunting. UM, gun hunting. I mean, there's a lot of very effective begin to arrange rifles or shotguns. You don't need. None of the fancy stuff is absolutely necessary. It's just if you want to get really really serious, really really detailed with things. Um, But to get started, don't stress over that stuff. Don't be afraid to borrow. That's a good point. There is a lot I mean, for a bow that might be hard to do because you have to have the same exact schematics as the guy who you're borrowing from. But if you're a gun hunter, you know, I know a lot of people who would just be willing to give you a gun to let you borrow it for a season, because they have plenty of guns that they that they have access to, so even borrow stuff from friends family. I think that's a that's a really good point. And another option to UM is a new hunter. I know some people are just fundamentally opposed to them, But if you are interested in bow hunting but you aren't yet fully comfortable, the compound crossbows are very very good for new hunters as far as you can pick it up and be very competent with it quickly. Hate them or love them, They're a good thing for new hunters as far as I'm concerned. So that's something to keep in mind. Yeah. Absolutely. UM So, okay, you need some kind of basic clothing, you need a basic entry level weapon. UM. As far as other gear, I think that if someone was starting out, I wouldn't even try to get them confused or intimidated with some kind of elevated hunting gear. I think that maybe just figure out how to hunt from the ground to start might be a a safe, more comfortable route for someone new, you know, because I feel like that's one of the major intimidating factors for new people is the idea of climbing into a tree for some people. Um, so I might say, hey, get a ground blind or you know, get a little something, an idea of how to set up behind a tree trunk or something. Just get out there and learn to look for deer sign and learn to see deer and have some encounters, um before you go about trying to take that next step of how to set up a tree stand or how to climb up with sticks in the saddle or whatever. Um. That that's the thought I have on there. Um And then what else? I mean, maybe binoculars, some basic binoculars. Yeah, but even even even that, your eyes are good enough to see that it's a deer. And if you're a new hunter, you really shouldn't be focusing on unless there's rules and regulations that prevents you from shooting one sex or the other. Uh, you should you shouldn't even be worrying about antlers. You should just shoot the first deer that comes. By my opinion, Phil, Phil the freezer, have that experience. Um, see what that's all like? So knife, yeah, yeah, so you need you need a good field dressing knife. You need um, I mean a grunt tube or something's nice, but not need to have, um, some kind of backpack or fanny pack or something's a nice thing. I guess if you want to bring a knife and your tag and uh, you know a few other little things like that, but you don't need a ton to get out there. Um boots to keep you dry, clothing and keep you comfy, and entry level weapon and just get out there and start. And that doesn't have to cost my mormental leg um. I hate to see gear being something that keeps somebody from hunting, you know, absolutely, yeah, you don't need you know, Mark and I sit here and we talk about stuff because we rely on our gear. So we're spending more money on it because we use it more and we're seasoned. You know. I don't want to sound arrogant, but that's just there. That's just you know, we want to be in the tree stand as long as possible throughout the or out west or whatever, so we're gonna we take into consideration our gear a lot more than a novice would. So if you novice, I mean even even solid color khakis and dickies, you don't even really need camel. Just be still, you know, you can get away with a lot more than you think. Um. So a couple of follow up questions that a couple other people have questions related to mobile hunting gear. Um. Someone asked if we would prefer for our running gun sets or for saddle hunting or something like that. Do you prefer steps or sticks? There are some mobile steps that you can like strap on steps. Um. Other people like to put screwing pegs up and have a bunch of trees prepped with screwing pegs, but they don't put a standard saddle. So the standard saddle is mobile. But they have steps in a whole bunch of places. Um, what are your thoughts on that? I'm pretty sure I know what it is. But man, I'll tell you what. Um, those guys that tethered are damn your pure pressuring me into I don't know the first time that you ever drank alcohol. I was. I was hanging out with a whole bunch of like one of my best friends older brothers and his friends are like, come on, Johnson, you gotta do it. Man, take the sip of this beer. Come on, man, you gotta do it. So I did it right. Peer pressure, I feel like I'm getting I'm getting pure pressured into sitting in the saddle. Well, dude, I've been They must be more effective than me, because I've been trying to get you to to do it for two years and you haven't showed any sign of breaking. So now finally it's you. I'd never listened to you, Okay, fair enough. Yeah, man, I'm telling you, and I know they're telling you, and it's it's it's funny. It's almost it's probably annoying to hear all the people that are It's like, it's definitely a bandwagon thing now, it's very trendy. It's talked about a ton, it's quote unquote kind of cool. It's a cool new thing. So it's gonna be really annoying for people to keep hearing about all time. But I just, honest to God truth for me, at least, I'm not saying everyone's gonna feel the same way. But for me, it was like it was a total new world. I was like, wow, this is I'm never going back after trying to So, I don't know, I'd be very interested to see what you think after you try It's it is. I don't know, you are like a big bodied person, so maybe it won't be as comfortable for you as it is for me. I don't know, Um, but you should try it. Yeah, I don't know. We'll give it a shot. I did. I just I've I'm really in my zone right now with my gear and like to the point where I feel like I'm really efficient. And you know, from a process standpoint, you should be open to other processes. Um. But I just I'm in love with what I have and it it treats me right, I understand if it if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Um. Someone did ask though, for a starter kit for saddle hunting. That was one of the questions. So I will tell you that the basics. Oh, we never answered that other question too, which was sticks or steps? Um, your sticks right? Sticks? Yeah, and I'm sticks too. And I will tell you that I I did on a couple of places set up screwing pegs um on the back forty and my other farm where in the past I would have wanted to put up a new tree stand, but instead this year, I just I did put screwing pegs up the tree, with the notion that if I decided I want to hunt, that I'll just go on my saddle and set up. Then and it was nice to have those preset like that, um because it does cut you know, the five minutes of putting sticks up. But if I'm you know, going into a new place and I don't have anything preset um, I definitely prefer sticks over the strap on steps or anything. Yes, now you're running lone wolf sticks? Right? Have you made any modifications? Do you have? You've probably seen a lot of these different things people are doing. Have you thought about up, you know, customizing or changing or getting different sticks or trying anything different or where's your head out there? Yeah? Not really. I Mean the only thing I really do is I take um hockey tape black or green hockey tape, and I wrap the stick itself to deaden the noise and to make it more comfortable and holding when you know, doing the running gun. But I don't know. I all these people, it's great what they're doing, uh, you know, making sound, dampening, making um uh eight ers and all this stuff. I guess I'm I don't hunt these black holes of public ground where you're walking in eight miles right, I'm walking in at most. At most I have one stand and it's all wind dependent that I it will take me three quarters of a mile to walk into, right, I'm not walking miles and miles and miles to get back, so I'm not concerned about weight. Uh. The only thing I really do was wrap my uh sticks with the hockey tape and I take my time climbing up and down into the tree setting up. So noise for me is really not an issue. Um, you know, and unless I'm sitting right on top of a bed where I have to be alter quiet because I know a buck is in there, do sound. It may seem loud to you, but you know eighty, you know, fifty eight yards away. Unless it's dead quiet and it's a high pressure day, you're not that sound isn't gonna travel very far. Again, all my all my opinions, I'm gonna push on you a little bit there because I do think that, right, dear, do have much bigger, much more accurate ears than we do. So what we hear, it's hard to imagine what their experience might be, and it's likely much greater more tuned than than ours are. So I would just say that if I was going to recommend you do anything, if if you were, if I if I had the luxury of telling you to make one change, Dan, I would tell you to consider at least getting rid of the buckles on your straps on your sticks, because those things just seem to be you make one little miss que with your hand, and if one strap goes sliding down or swinging down and smacks against another thing, even if you've got a hockey stick, it's gonna make some noise. And then especially if you ding against the step or any kind of metal and metal contact, that stuff is just I don't know. I always worry about that. So one thing I did, that's a very simple thing. Um is I got and you can do a d I y work around this. But there's something that's from Tethered two. It's called the Versus strap. You've seeing these. It's just basically a daisy chain. So it's it's like a strap with a bunch of loops in it. And so you just take off the regular strap with a buckle from your sticks and you put this on. You put one loop over the Versa button, and then you've got another loop that you wrap it on the tree and they just loop it over. You just pick the right hole that gets the tightness you need. So now I've got a strap with no buckles, with nothing that can make noise, and um, just it makes it much easier and quieter for me to set up. So that's one little update I made to my sticks that I like. But but yeah, either way, I like sticks too. I'm thinking about buying new sticks. This yere um still on the side on which brand I'm gonna go with. But um, so you want to know why I don't really like think sound is as big of an issue unless a deer may already be spooked, is I was? It was late October one year, and I'm sitting here perfect night, you know those late October evenings where you just feel like you're in the right position. You know, there's got to be a mature bucket here somewhere or whatever. And out of the you know, I'm glassing this. Uh there's still like a standing cornfield on the opposite side of this little not really a marsh, but a wet spot in between a timber and an egg field. So I was hunting this crp field with a wet spot in it, and I see some movement and there he is. It's one of my target bucks, and he's probably he's in this tree. Line strip of trees, and then probably fifty yards was a um was the cornfield. And then all of a sudden, I see or I hear the combine startup and it starts to combine that field, and that combine goes fifty yards away from this buck, and his body language does not even change. He's just sitting there eating his cut and two three four laps around the field, and that buck is just standing there. So I feel like if a if a buck isn't gonna move with a combine fifty yards away from him, then my my small little clank on a on my tree stand isn't going to affect him either. I don't know. See. I feel like that's all context though, and that I agree that dear knows that that combine is you know, that's a sound that they're used to. But the sound of like a single little ding ding ding, that's a that's that's a weird thing out of place in here. Um. I think you can get away. I think you could do it. You could probably get away with better access to your tree stand by taking a chainsaw. Here's my new X idea. When you're going into hunt your stands, if you've got a hard to get to place. Go in there with a chainsaw, idling dun walk all the way to your tree stand with an idling chainsaw, and then get set up. That's the kind of thing where I feel like you can get away with like farm work and that kind of stuff. It's like the sneaky quiet sounds, the ones that dear like that's that's not supposed to be here. Um. I don't know, but for for everything I've said and believe in, I can contradict myself with another thing that I've seen from the tree stand as well, you know what I mean. So whatever, Yeah, that's that's what keeps us going right because we don't have it all figured out. Um okay, so yes, sticks, sticks through the way to go from mobile hunting, I think. Um. To Garrett's question about the starter kit for saddle hunting, UM, I would say get sticks. I would say, um, again, if you're trying to be as like as budget tight as possible, get the saddle of whatever choice, whatever brand you like. I like the tether one. Um. The platform is really really nice. I love having one. But if you have to skimp somewhere, you could probably probably get away with just a couple of screwing pegs. If you don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks on the platform, excuse me, just throwing a couple of pegs and that works. I've done that. It's fine. Um, So that saves you some money. You need alignment's belt and you need to tether, um. But that's it. That's all you absolutely have to have. You can get all these different recliner straps, you can get little baggies, the whole things. You can get um, you know, the fancy insulators and stuff. It's nice to have, but you don't have to have it. So get a tether, get alignment's belt, get some sticks, get some pegs, and you can be up in the tree and going without spending a bun to money on fifteen different trees, stands and stuff. So that is the starter kit for saddle hunting. Um. What else? If you have to pick one week to shed hunt, Dan, what would your best week of shed hunting? Bee? Man? This is such a how do I put this? It's only me question? Right, It's like, so, what's your favorite thing to do? Right? So my favorite is different than everybody else's. But I dude, I have found that the late last week in February. Probably probably the last week in February or the first week in March, or in my actually, in my experiences, the where I find found the most sheds consistently. Yeah, yeah, I'd say somewhere right in that sand ballpark. I would probably pick the I don't know. I'm torn between those two as well, because I would. I used to think the first week in March all the time, but there's so many more people out there shed hunting these days. I hate getting chewed up antlers. Um, So yeah, late February, early March. It's hard to go wrong with those dates. And you certainly can find him sooner, and you can certainly find him later. There's no doubt about that too. There's obviously vary ability. I found trans to sheds January match set. So it's never the earliest you've ever found a shed angler, m Um, that might be it. That actually might be my earliest sheds trying. No, let me take that back. There's one time, and I didn't actually find it, but a guy, a neighbor was tracking a buck through the farm I can hunt, and I was out there helping him track it, and he found a shed in late December, so from that year. From that year, yep, it was a fresh might just just dropped in late December, so I didn't technically find it, but that's the earliest when I've been around. Yeah, so I would say late December. I found one January or excuse me, December, so it was it was a real fresh one too. And then the next one, the next earliest was January seven. They're definitely out there, yep. Um Derek asked us if we've ever heard of gut pile farts. Danny, you heard of gut pile farts? I mean, I've heard of them, but I don't think I've ever had them. So okay, I'll try to explain this. Um, So, isn't the deal that after you gut a deer, supposedly your farts will smelling a gut pile. Yeah, so if you breathe in the smell of a gut pile, somehow that makes it through your entire system that when you fart, it smells like a gut pile of a deer. So you don't think there's any truth to that? Come on, it sounds perfectly reasonable of me, right right. I mean, I don't know how long it takes some people to gut a deer. But it takes me, maybe, let's just say at most to get in there get everything ripped out. I would say ten minutes, right, I mean, really it doesn't take you know, I don't know unless something else is happening there about ten minutes it takes to get a deer. How Like, just imagine how much gut pile odor you would have to breathe in your system in order for you too then farted out your back. That's a lot of gut pile odor. But there are supposedly like tons of people that talk about this and believe in it. Have you ever farted before? Really? My son? My son is just to discovering farts down And it's pretty funny to see, is like his eyes like when we toots, he who to his head, his eyes get really big. It's pretty funny. Anyways, did you but like, uh, have you ever farted? And it smelled exactly like a beef burger? And it was smelled delicious? No, yes, you have come on, you had never won? No, I never had a delicious smelling fart. Oh damn, Now I'm hungry for beef burgers. You've never had he never. I want to make two points. Number One, I've never found a fart to be appetized and the fact that you have is seriously concerning. Number two, you do know that you're now the board director of a serious conservation organization and you are now talking about farts on the podcast. They knew what they were getting when they hired me. Oh yeah, just credibility going down the pipe so fast. Hey, this is launching on your podcast by so so. Our buddy Spencer actually wrote an article about this over on the Mediator website and he talked to some different scientists about it, and supposedly the experts on the topic is that number one, this is absolutely an old lives tale. This is not actually something that happens. Your farts will not smell like gut piles and any kind of objective way. Um. But they did talk about the fact that there are um serious like smell and memories are strongly tied together. So there might be like some funky psychological thing going on if if those farts bring back the memory of the cup pile, if you're eating something maybe that's tied to if you have some kind of que it might bring that memory back up. Um. But but no, it seems like that's one of those crazy rumors that doesn't have any science to back it up. Yeah, well, there you go, there go. Um Kay is a Michigan hunter. He's been hunting for five years. He's killed three doughs so far, but now he's really trying to get his first buck. What's the best piece of advice to take that step from having killed does to now wanting to finally get a buck? Man, I honestly think it's just a I mean, first off, if you ask me, three does in five years is really good for a beginner hunter? What do you think is that a good I'd agree it's a great start. Um. So what I would say is, m you know, don't go out looking if you want to kill a buck, kill a buck, but don't go out looking for some kind of unrealistic, unattainable goal. If you just be patient in the same tree stands that you're sitting in and just pass up, pass up those doughs, I feel like young bucks will be right behind him at some point. I think that's a pretty good point. I think you're pretty much absolutely right that is true. The one thing I would add to that, I was just piggyback on that would be that you do need to take things. I would just say, if you want to, on average have a better chance with a buck, you have to kind of take your attention to detail up a couple of notches simply from the fact that they're just almost everywhere there are more doughs than bucks. There's gonna be a ratio of a larger number of females to males, just based on hunting implications in most states. So there's just gonna be fewer targets out there. And so because of that, you have to get past more dear. You have to avoid more mistakes in order for that rare dear to come by. And like you just said, Dan, step number one is starting to pass on those doughs. So but once you start passing doughs, once you have a door or two walking close to you and then walking past you, you open yourself up for more possible mistakes. So is your send control good enough? Did you are you being quiet enough? Did you set up in a way that your wind isn't gonna blow where those deer are? All those little things that maybe didn't matter when you're just trying to kill the first deer that walked by. They matter now, Um, so I would just start, you know it, just a little bit more ramping it up. If you were thinking about, okay, maybe the way you learned to kill your first dear was find a place where there's a lot of deer tracks, find food source. There was a bunch of deer tracks, and sit close to that. And that's not a bad way. If you're just trying to simply get around some deer and shoot some doughs, that might be able to get you a couple of dolls. Now, the next step might be thinking about your wind direction, So thinking about, okay, where's my wind blowing, so that as I'm sitting here, there's not gonna be deer smelling me as they come towards me. But also so the deer that get past me won't win me too. Maybe that's another thing that will help. Um. So all the little bits and pieces start to matter a little bit more once you're looking for a buck, even a year and a half old buck. The just because of that rarity, um, it comes a little bit more of a question. Yeah. And also then I mean, depending on where you're at two like a year and a half old buck in Michigan is a lot harder to see than a year and a half old buck in Montana or probably Asle or someone UM, So that challenge level is going to be different as well. UM. But you know one other thing I just mentioned that if you're starting to hunt bucks other than does UM during most parts of the year, the same basic strategy works UM early season, late season. You know, it's a betting defeating type of movement. But the one time it's different is during the rut. So if you're focused on bucks during the rut, the biggest difference, and this is one on one stuff that everyone most everyone listening knows already, but i'll just say it for new folks, that during the rut, so that's for most parts of the country, that's in November late October, that's when the bucks are trying to breed dose. So at that point your bucks are more often going to be trying to travel in between dough betting areas. So finding those thick places that does are betting and learning how bucks moved between the two. That's a spot like a funnel or pinch point you'll hear's call it. That's a place to look, or getting downwind of dope betting years or dope feeding years, which is where these bucks will crews to try to smell the doughs. So that's one other small tactical difference that can help you be in a better position for a buck versus a dough Yeah, yep, I agree, uh, Doc asked, by the way, yes, uh, he said he's moving to Iowa. How do you go about shrinking the learning curve when hunting a new state? You find it more states than me, Um, I would tell you do your e scouting. So before we go to a new place, whether that's for one week trip or if you're gonna spend a bunch of time hunting, I mean, definitely study the maps. Learn the maps. Um. In most I mean I've hunted I don't know fifteen different states for white tails something like that. They're basically the same animal everywhere. They've got their little differences here and there. Definitely, the level of UM can earn that they demonstrate for hunters or for mistakes and stuff is different. So from one state to another, from a heavily pressure state to a lesser pressure state, you can get away with more or less, but basically like they do the things we just talked about. They go from betting airs defeating years. They cruise during the rut um they want cover, they will walk through, you know, the path at least resistance when they're trying to move from point A to point B as long as they feel safe. Those basic things are the same no matter what. But look at your maps first before you get there, pick out the best places based off of your knowledge of terrain and cover on the maps. So pick out the places that look like pinch points, pick out the places that look like betting airs, pick out the places that look like food food sources. Um. And then as soon as you get there, if you're moving there, it's different. You've got a whole bunch of time. But once you get there on the ground, then at least you've shortened your learning curve a little bit because now you just go focus on those top spots first. Scout those high probability areas first, especially if you're on week trip or something and you've got very minimal time, you know, hit those things and ground truth them. Um. That's a way to be a little bit more efficient. UM. But I would secondly just say spend as much time watching as you possibly can. So if you're moving there, get out there and watch places in the summer, just watch them, see him, observe. I don't think anything can help you better than just simply observing an area, and then once you're in hunting season two, do the same thing. Use observation stands for a while once you're getting started. Don't feel like you have to strike right away, step back and watch, and then push closer and closer as you learn more. I think that is a It's not like revolutionary advice at all, but I think that is kind of how I've approached most of my new states. As I first scout, then I ground truth, and then I observe and a just observe and adjust. And that's kind of what I've done every different state. You just figure it out as you go. Yep. So he's moving to Iowa, right, Yeah, yep. So I think move ing to a state and learning how to hunt it and visiting it for a five day window or however long your trip is are there's gonna be some of the same things. But at least now when you move to a new state, you're able to if you do make a mistake, you have more time to recover from it as opposed to a five day window. Let's say you make a mistake, You're you could be screwed right Um, and especially Iowa or any states, get to know people in the surrounding area. Find a local group of hunters and and chit chat with him, become friends with him, uh, talk to him, ask them you know, you know, hey, where's good public or and and that's gonna be hard to find in a state like Iowa. But and when people find it, they're pretty closed lips about it. But knock on doors, talk to people. If you're moving to a new state, you got to know the area and the people who live in that area. And that is your inn to uh a farm, whether it's an IO or whether whether it's in a different state. If you want to hunt on a piece of property, uh, you got to know the landowner. Knock on their door, start a relationship with them, and they may tell you know the first year or two, but then who knows. Your three four, five might be your opportunity to prove yourself. Yeah, I like your idea about just getting to know people. That's that's such a it's a non technical thing. But it probably makes as much of a difference as any because you get some buddies. You meet some people through a conservation organization or something, and they can very quickly start telling you about the local unique things. They might be able to point to to some areas to check out, some public land to check out, or some people you should knock on their doors, or you know, hey, we've got a lot of ridges around you. These bucks always cruise this thing, or they always check out this kind of spot. You know, that kind of local intel is isn't valuable to help you get jump started? Um, and I'll tell you you're moving to Iowa. A guy you should seek out. He is, uh he looks a little bit like a character from the Rudolph films, you know, um Claymation, Yukon Cornelius. He was funny. Dan. I haven't mentioned this to you yet, but my son is really really big into the Rudolph movie, Like he's obsessed with Rudolph. So he got him these little figurines from the movie, and so he has a little Dan Johnson figuring that he has carrying around with him every once in a while, which is kind of weird. Um, But yeah, seek out Dan Johnson for some local intel. You'll put him in the good spots, right Dan Oh, Yeah, the best. Brooke asks, And this is an interesting way. I've kind of wondered about this. At first. I was like, yeah, then I kind of wonder do you think that e bikes are worth the investment? Do you see any value with the whole e bike thing? Dan Oh, I would love to have at e bike. Yeah. I think it would be awesome. Um well, just actually, I mean, especially through driving through a farm. I would love to unload my truck um or unloaded at you know, at the entrance of the farm and not have to drive my truck, you know, all the way back through the farm. This ebike is quiet, It's I don't think it would be very threatening. I think the deer would look at it more of a hey what is that than opposed to running away from it. Uh. And then at the same time, uh, like I said, it's it would just be awesome to to have one of those things. They're fun, not cheap. And from a public land standpoint, there are a lot of public places throughout the United States that don't allow any motorized vehicles, and an ebike is considered a motorized vehicle in most states. Yeah, man, there, Um, I feel like you look kind of dorky rolling around on an e bike. Um for some reason, or maybe I do you care what people think about you? Right? Or maybe it's like maybe I just feel like guilty about the idea of not peddling. Maybe that's my issue with it. I just feel like you can, you can set it up to one of these settings to where you in order for the motor to go, you actually have to peddle. So that might give me past my psychological underpinning of my issue. But I do agree with what you're saying, and the reason why they are intriguing is that I do think that it is a safer way to access spots, Like they're not deer, aren't gonna be bothered. You're not leaving a bunch of bootprints. It's a different sound than bootsteps, you know that is a very human sound of rolling bike is not getting the same kind of stuff. I think you probably get away with a lot more whether you're accessing a spot or checking trail cameras or something. So I'm I'm definitely intrigued for that reason. Um, but you're right they're expensive. Um, so I don't know. I've yet to try one, but there are they are interesting. So my buddy Adam Party, you know him, he works for Quiet Cat. How come you don't have one? Then? Man? Right, Cadabra like, hey, dude, just give me, give me a give me an e bike, give me three thou dollars. Make sure he listens. Make sure you listen to this podcast, and he'll hear how intrigued we are yet yet reticent to really try one and see what happens. Going to send them just you know, that's how that's how influential we are marked. They're just gonna send us whatever we ask for. Come on, man, you got a Russian hacker to give you back your social media credentials, can't you can't? You a weasel? Quiet? Right? But you look at it. It's expensive, right, but same time, it'll it should last you a long time. Yeah, I mean you hope. So, yeah, it's intriguing. I could afford one. I'd probably have one. Okay, Um, Taylor asks to improve and this is more of a question for me than you didn't. But maybe you've heard from someone who gave you some ideas on this Taylor asked to improve deer hunting, is it more important to plant food plots or improved betting areas? So it's a habitat management question. Our food plots are betting air is more important? And my answer is pretty simple. It depends, and it just simply depends on what is available in your area. So there's no one sezz fits all that's always gonna be the most important thing. You have to look at what's available on your property and what's available in the surrounding properties and then figure out where the area of most need is. So what's missing. So if you're in an area that's a bunch of big timber and there's tons of trees and tons of cover, but there's no good food, then hey, if you put some good food in all of a sudden, you're offering that rare commodity that deer want and they'll that will be very valuable. On the flip side, if you're in an area with tons of egg around doing tons of food, or everyone around he's got tons of food plots, but wide open, there's no good cover. If you all of a sudden put in a ton of good cover, you have the rare commodity, the thing that dear need. They're gonna come to be with you. So just look at the surrounding area. Provide what's not there, provides something unique, feel that most those common denot of the lowest com a nominator and um that will be the first place to start at least. Uh. How can you tell the difference between buck beds and doughbeds or buckbetting areas and dough betting areas? Dan, you got any thoughts on that? Man? You know? So, I think I'll be honest, I think there's a misconception with this whole bedding or hunting a specific bed ideology. Right, So we know Dan Infalt, and we know that this guy is a master of locating a specific bed through scouting and accessing it and hunting it and killing deer coming back to it. Right, would you agree that that is that that's that principle. Definitely, Yes, him and his disciples have gotten very good at that. Yes. For me, I understand the principles, but where I hunt, I don't feel like the deer bed in the same bed every single time, So for me it's hard every single day. Right, they're not going back to a specific bed every single day. I think it's a lot more wind dependent where where I hunt based off of the wind UH and how the wind us how the UH terrain affects the wind. So they have a little bit different bedding area every single day or every single wind direction. But knowing whether something is a bed, a buck bed, or a dough bed can be very difficult, uh if especially if let's say a dough is using the same bed multiple times, it could just get worked to a point where it's bigger. Or a buck bed, you know, you may be able to tell for the tracks that are in it, or maybe it's around a whole bunch of rubs. It could be. But I don't feel that there is a one hundred percent you know, there's no I don't know, there's not There's not any fact that you can look at a bed and go I guarantee you that as a buck bed, I know it. Unless you saw a buck stand up out of it, that's a buck bed, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think that's true. UM. What I would add to it, though, is that I do think there are things that can give you confidence to say this is likely a buck beed versus a dope bed I think there are things that can clue you into it. Probably is um, And I'll add one more thing before I've mentioned that. I'd say, as I understand, you know what folks like Dan are doing what I'm in Annie May or different folks like that, and that I use sometimes is that you're not necessarily They're not necessarily saying that a buck's betting in the same place every single time, but they're saying that he's going to have a handful of places that are the most commonly used. So let's call him buck the Big eight. He might have like five locations based on wind direction and time of year that these general regions are where he's typically rotating throughout, and if you happen to know those are, then you can cycle through them based off of intel and have a chance at least I think that's usually what they're doing. UM. But as far as figuring out what those things are, what I look for to tell the difference is oftentimes almost always does are bedded and family groups. So you've got a dough and her fawns, and then usually that fond that that does two year ago fawn. So there's gonna be groups, family groups of you know, three to six to nine doughs, big groups of deer usually, so you're never almost never unless they never, but most often you won't see a big group of deer beds that is bucks. Usually that's gonna mean Okay, these are a bunch of doughs, these are dozen fons. So if I find a bed and then there's another one right next to it, and two more over here and three more over there, then I can say pretty confidently, okay, this is a doughe bedding group. On the flip side, if I see an individual look one single bed by itself. It's if there's one single big bed and you look around it and there's no others, and you walk a ten yards circle around, and a twenty yards circle around it, and a third yards circle around, there's still no other beds, just this one big bed. That's a pretty strong indication that's a buck bed um. If you find a bunch of rubs right around it, that's another indicator. It's probably a buck bed um. If that bed is in like the best possible location, that's another thing. Oftentimes the bucks will get DIBs on those just picture perfect bedding spots, So like a little knob off of a ridge with some cover on it, you know, two thirds of the way up the ridge. That kind of spot that's like, oh yeah, this is money. This buck can sit here and see everything ahead of him and can smell what's behind him. That's the kind of spot that Okay, yes, this makes sense, we're about to be here. Or if there's a little point that extends into a swamp or an island in the swamp and there's some high ground there and there's one bed on it, that can be like, okay, yes, that's probably a buck. Those are the things that kind of clue me in on probably a buck versus probably dough Again, no sure things, but those are clues at least to give you some something to work with. You know. Um, you gotta go dam though right here pretty soon. Okay, so let's wrap it up then. Any we've got a bunch of more questions that will we'll just keep on doing these. I feel like once a month almost we need to do these Q and A podcasts because people have got a lot of questions, and I think it's the best way to cover a lot of different things. It's fun, at least for me. I enjoy going through these. I'll really quickly answer one question here. I got a question someone said, what can people do to take action to protect the Boundary Waters. If you heard me last year talking about my Boundary Waters trip, um, you know about what's going on there. I will just tell you that recently a bill was proposed that will protect the area around the Boundary Waters from the minds that they're trying to put in there. It's called the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act. That's a lot, so don't remember that. Just remember to google boundary Waters and you will see the new bill. It's called HRVE nine eight. Maybe that's easy. Remember h R five five eight. Email your representatives tell them to support that that will protect the boundary Waters. So that's all I got, Dan. Any final thoughts from you, No, sir. It's a pleasure as always talking to you, Mark Kenyan. It was fun. I enjoyed it, my friend. Let's do it again soon and that is gonna do it. So thank you all for listening. Hope you enjoyed this one. Um, if you haven't yet left to review for the Wired Hunt podcast, that's a pretty cool thing that definitely helps out what we're doing here. I appreciate that if you haven't left a review for my book That Wild Country on Amazon, that's a really cool thing that helps a ton, And for both of these things, I will thank you in advance. UM, I hope you've been enjoying this free podcast over the years, and your support with reviews, your support and purchasing the book, all of that is incredibly um helpful, incredibly appreciate it, so thank you. Stick around. We've got a lot more fun stuff to come, and until next time, stay wired to Hunt. H

Save this episode