Whitetail 101: Carolina Reaper

Mike : 0:21

welcome back to the garden state outdoorsman Podcast presented by Boondocks Hunting. I'm your host, Mike Nitre.

Steve : 0:28

Steve.

Mike : 0:29

Molnar and everyone. This guy he really doesn't need much of an introduction. I'm pretty sure I said the same exact thing the last time he came on. This time we have a more in-depth breakdown of the man behind the page white tail 101, but also carolina reaper. Everyone give a warm welcome to. To mr brandon the.

reaper : 0:55

The legend on the instagram lives you had me until you said legend uh, hey, everybody, hey, listen you, you're a legend.

Mike : 1:05

You're a legend in our eyes like whistling the like I said. I think the time you're on your introduction into how we got to know you all started from those legendary instagram lives and you just being an absolute genius, just with your wordplay in the uh in the chats and just having everyone crack up and just having a good time what really cracked off. You know the pursuit live. Uh instagrams every week my og humor.

reaper : 1:32

Well, that makes two of us, because I've only been a legend in my own mind up until now.

Steve : 1:36

So but anyone that runs as many cameras as you on a regular basis is the instant legend right there.

reaper : 1:45

So yeah, just based on my uh, the boots I wear out. But thanks to uh, thanks to dry code, now they keep me in in boots. I'm not gonna say they're the the best or the worst, but they're free and I love them. You cannot beat. Hey, I wear boots out. I think last year I did 409 miles and I use an app, and that was postseason scouting, running camera, and I'm a fat guy, so that's pretty good. It's not bad, you know, for a fat guy.

reaper : 2:19

We do wear gear a little harder than that just a little bit.

Steve : 2:23

yeah, we speak from experience with you there.

Mike : 2:29

Yeah, no, you wear just a little bit. Yeah, they speak from experience with you there. Yeah, no, uh. So you know, brandon, why don't you, why don't you break it down for us? Um, you know, whatever you want to start with you, if you want to start with your background to everything, if you want to start with, you know, white tail 101. You know, give us, give us a quick intro, and you know, tell us a little bit about yourself sure, yeah.

reaper : 2:45

So, um, you guys all know me as carolina reaper and thank you for having me on. Um, it's great to be back and it's always great to hang out with you guys and, um, especially mike, you know you've been one of my go-to uh instagram uh friends. I guess you know I don't know what the lingo is these days but it's been great being acquainted with you and chatting with you and seeing your posts and it's always great to be back. But, yeah, everybody knows me as Carolina Reaper. That's kind of how was my handle on Instagram. But I decided a couple of years ago I guess now two years ago that I wanted to share kind of how I approached deer hunting, which because I kind of got online and started listening to podcasts and reading posts and really didn't see anybody hunting like I hunt. So I decided that I wanted to share what I do because I feel like it was unique, kind of like playing the fiddle. You know, if you got your own tune, bring it to the table. So that's kind of what I was like. Well, I kind of do my own thing, so let me throw it out there and see what people think. So started doing that and it took off. I guess I didn't realize that some of the things I do I probably overthought to the point where, um, you know, I'm a little crazy maybe with, like my access and my exit routes and I tell some guys, like I'll take a different entrance route than I will an exit route, and they think I'm crazy. Um, and that could just be based on like thermals and stuff and we could talk all about that. But I'm a little eccentric in how I approach deer hunting sometimes. But I realize that that's kind of a niche and people tend to like new ideas. So that's kind of how the page got started.

reaper : 4:36

But then, on top of that, I decided that I wanted to. Once Instagram banned me a few times like 10 times for various things nothing terrible, of course, you know, bloody hands, really just ridiculous stuff. I posted, I had, did a video like this and I had, like my coyote gun in the background and it had a silencer central suppressor on it. Apparently that's a nono. So you know, after just being banned several times, I realized that I'm kind of carrying all of my eggs in one basket. So I wanted to get on YouTube and Facebook and kind of fan out in case the terrible idea of you know they just delete your account, happens and you're dead in the water. So I thought if I could kind of diversify out onto the other platforms, at least, if that happens and one of the platforms takes me down for censorship, I can retain, you know, even if it's just your 500 base people, they'll connect you with everybody else, right, like you're going to start seeing everybody else's posts that you always like. So as long as you can maintain that base 500. So that's kind of what I tried to do.

reaper : 5:48

But going over on YouTube I was having a messaging issue because nobody, I guess, just my name, carolina Reber. It didn't really have the ring and I was trying to, like everybody tried to come up with a brand, the ring, and I was trying to, like everybody tried to come up with a brand. But overall I just kept drilling basics to people like entrance routes, access, proper stand location. You know how to identify the rut, rut, timing, how to run a trail camera, how to install a trail camera, just basic stuff. Permethrin you, you know ticks and uh. That's really what I enjoy talking about. And so that just kind of led me to whitetail 101, because I find that the majority of the time. I'm talking about just basics, just basic woodsmanship stuff. Just you know, um, I think that that's overlooked a lot. So, um, I guess I through all of this I realized that's kind of my passion is new hunters. Uh, if that makes sense no, it makes.

Mike : 6:52

I said briefly and I went on for 12 minutes.

reaper : 6:54

Sorry about that and listen.

Mike : 6:56

That's what we love we. We love that makes our job a lot easier when when we're running this um. But you know a bunch of stuff to dissect with that. But you know, let's start with the censorship. You know, that is the one difficult thing about running a hunting page on Instagram and I know Steve knows this and you know our guys know this. But I actually ran into that. What, like a couple of days ago I think, I brought it up in the chat that they had censored five, five of my posts, um, because, like the AI system or whatever they use, um got flagged and they thought it was um, it was breaking their, their, their conduct or or whatever they have Right. So basically, what it said was they weren't recommending my page, my reels, anything like that to no non-followers. So how do you grow? Besides?

reaper : 7:51

shadow. But yeah, at least I told you I've been shadow banned even.

Mike : 7:56

Yeah, and I think the only reason why they told me was because they actually came out with this new system where if you go to your settings or whatever there and you check on, you know your interactions and everything like that and it showed goes, okay, what does it take for us to recommend? And everything was checked off. Great, great, everything was monitored. Like I can monetize Instagram, I can do all these things. But it said for recommendation that had an X, so I clicked on that. One of the posts was me in the tree having milkweed, just go flying, you know, just checking my wind, checking the thermals, doing what we do something that's very important. They flagged me for that. They flagged me for, I think, two podcast episodes, cover pages that I dropped. The only one I could have understood was the one where I posted with Frank shooting that, uh, that deer. Okay, I, I can get that, but honestly, I see it, we see it thousands of times on Instagram. Damn I. You see more boobs and and butts in and sex stuff on, on.

Mike : 9:00

Instagram.

Steve : 9:01

That's not getting relaxed.

Mike : 9:03

So that's all good, so it doesn't make sense, but we're really being what we do, for hunting really puts us back on the eight ball and it makes it very difficult. And, yeah, they can shut your page down at any second. So, like you said, it's very important to get on other platforms. We are currently creating a website, you know, because I would like to eventually move mostly all the stuff onto just the website, because now we can show what we really want to show. You know, now there could be blood. We can actually show videos of us gutting a deer or breaking a deer down without any consequences. There could be blood being shown, because that's the truth and that's the truth and that's the reality of it.

Mike : 9:46

You know, when we're out in the woods, this is what you're going to be dealing with. This is what you're going to have to do to after you harvest your animal. You know you have to track it. You gotta, you gotta find blood, you know you gotta. You know, once you find it, you gotta cut it open and you gotta take everything. You know what I mean.

Mike : 10:01

You gotta clean, take everything. You know what I mean. You got to clean it correctly. You got to get we use the butt out plug. I'm a big butt out plug guy for for the but whether you're using the butt out plug or a knife, you have to carve all that out and rip the butthole out. And we now, as hunters, we, we know I don't have to explain the whole thing but new hunters like exactly what you're talking about, brandon, that's what you want to get into and that's who we're really trying to teach here. They don't know that and they have to learn. And this is the best way of doing it is just being a hundred percent transparent with it and showing them the reality of it.

Steve : 10:35

Yeah, so we're dealing. We're dealing with very much an overarching mindset of people that all they want is to dismiss us as hunters and as a lifestyle, and you know, activity, hobby, however you want to put it, and so it's so overarching that it's a constant fight. So it doesn't matter whether it's shadow banning or you know, however it comes like, we are constantly behind the eight ball.

reaper : 11:04

That's a that's a great way to put it. Yeah, it is. Yeah, and I don't think people even realize they get shadow banned. It happened to me recently.

reaper : 11:14

I've been banned, banned several times, but, um, recently I made four posts that had zero reach. It was like my friend circle that liked it, um, and I was like thinking, like you know know, this should have had a couple of hundred likes, not like 23. And so, um, I ran a ten dollar ad that ran for four days and it got zero. It reached zero accounts and I was, and I was like, and I was like I knew it. So, whenever in doubt, if anybody whoever's list listens to this, you know.

reaper : 11:43

Whenever in doubt run, if anybody whoever's list listens to this, you know, whenever in doubt, run a, run a five dollar ad for two days and if it reaches zero accounts, you know you're, you've been shadow banned. But yeah, anyway, enough with that. But yeah, definitely that's a big thing. And so just to try to overcome that, that led me to to Whitetail 101 and and kind of just really gearing myself towards the new hunters and I'm loving um, it's, it's, yes, it's gearing for the new hunters, but it's still anyone can find something useful out of it.

Mike : 12:17

You know it helps like I love what you did with the winds and the thermals, like it. Just we know them. But it helps break it down even more. And you know, you you got the video that's playing and it describes like everything in a quick it's not a 20, 30 minute video right where it can be like, oh, like this, this is kind of like boring.

Mike : 12:34

You know you got to skip it is yeah, it gets quick to the point where it's like all right, like it keeps us engaged, we know real quick and it's something that you can continue to watch, like if you're you're ever having doubts, like you're going into a new hunt. What I do a lot of time is I go back to like certain videos that I like to watch and I just refresh my memory while I'm hunting, or right before I go about to hunt, where I need to play a certain wind correctly.

Mike : 12:57

You know, and I I really like what, like what you're doing. You know the history of stuff, um, everything like that, so it's, it's really unique. You know um. Also, like I said, I'm a big white Oaks. You know finding Oaks. You know having cameras, doing all these things like that's very crucial to what we do. You know, and you know that's what if you're in a state where you can't bait, it's even more crucial that you learn your oaks. You know your natural food sources. You know bedding, transit, all these different situations, and I think having Whitetail 101 helps for the beginners but also helps for everyone who needs a refresher or who just don't know and want to learn.

reaper : 13:41

Yeah, I appreciate that I had a. You know, a lot of my deer pictures and stuff are Polaroids and you know they're. I've got a drawer in the kitchen full of old Android phones and um, but uh, you know my account. When I first started, uh, I talked to Dave about this, but when I first started my, I took down all my deer pictures because I feel like everybody on the internet just has like buck pictures on their set, on their page and the new hunters they just want to rush into buying scent eliminator and saddles and big buck pictures. And so I just decided to just take all that down and to just to focus on new hunters. And you know I'd rather talk about like the thermals and the wind and then just never mind, like just the big buck pitchers, like that comes later, you know. So that's kind of, that's kind of how I got the start, but you know we still love some big buck pitchers once a while.

Steve : 14:36

No, no, the need for you know, essentially a digital glossary of terms and encyclopedia of hunting is so needed, whether it's, you know, just think about it.

Steve : 14:51

When people are sitting there talking about, oh, I, I look for this bench, what, what's a bench? Like something as simple as that, you know, and you, yeah, or a funnel or whatever. You go online you try to look it up and you kind of feel dumb. When you're sitting there, for you know, scrolling down, scrolling down on Google, you know, trying to find a definition for something you're like, oh, this, this doesn't exist. And whether you're coming back into hunting or you have adult onset hunting, uh, like a lot of the guys now you know that are getting into it for the first time, and you don't have a mentor, you don't have someone that you can look to for this, you know, where are you supposed to find that information? So what you're doing is such a credible service to not, you know, not just the industry, but to, to people that really care, you know, especially especially in our state in Jersey and some of the other States where baiting is allowed.

Steve : 15:41

We talk about it a lot, but how easy is it to just go into the woods and dump a bag of corn and set up a tree stand and, yeah, you'll kill some deer, but you're not learning anything about the habitat of the deer, You're. You're basically just you're barely managing the deer at that point and there's so much more to it that can be had and it's awesome what you're doing.

reaper : 16:03

I think the Ohio guys realize that now. I think they they learn. You know, ohio's always been a great place to hunt because they've always had great age structure and minimal pressure. And I know the people that live there would would throw spear at me for saying minimal pressure because of the orange army that they see. But you know I live where you get several buck tags. South carolina rifle comes in 815. It runs through february um, they're allowed to run deer dogs right here in north carolina um, so it's really a super pressure area and the guys in ohio I think at first they realized that they could throw a tractor trailer load of corn out and kill a big buck.

reaper : 16:46

But you can only do that for a couple of years and then the deer get educated quickly to that, and so even the carolina guys. Now you're allowed to be here you have been able to for years but you'll hear them tell you that they never kill a buck over their corn. Um, I have a hard time. Like, the reason I don't use corn for inventory is because it's extremely difficult to get a mature buck to come into anything man-made um minerals or corn here, just because of the dogs and everything else. So, um, I think the ohio guys now it's the ones that I know like.

reaper : 17:23

I have a friend who lives there, who I pick, I pick on, he'll know who. He is listening to this, um, but he baits and uh, killed two really nice bucks two years in a row and then this year he can't get a mature buck to come into corn. And it's like they get educated pretty quick and if you don't have knowledge for inside the woods, um, you're in trouble, because if you just sit over food plots and corn, I mean that's, you know, you're not going to kill a mature buck consistently. That way I think they get pretty smart, pretty fast.

Mike : 17:56

Yeah, I would agree. They are highly intelligent and you know they adapt to their surroundings and what's going on, and that's why that makes them what they are and why they get so big and so old.

Mike : 18:06

you know, and it's to get a mature deer like that, you got to do a lot of things correct, you know, and and it's, it's a part of that's the fun part and that's what we love and that's what we're addicted to Like, at least you know. I can imagine that the three of us talking I, I know that's for a fact and you do something that where you dive even more, which has kind of opened my eyes from the first time that we talked when you came on during the season, was um fawning cameras and you know if you are hunting hot sign, it's too late. Where it's like everywhere you hear, you know, for the midwest, everyone's like you want to find the hot sign, you want to find the hot sign, you want to find the hot sign and if you find the hot sign, good chances are you're gonna.

Mike : 18:57

but you said if you find the hot sign it's already too late, because that deer has already, has already yep, so that opened up my eyes, where now I started to to take notes and I think we're talking about it. Um, I think you saw the post where I literally had a buck meeting a doe right in front of my camera and you're like, take note of that. You know that this, that doe, is hot, gonna be hot around this time. You need to be in that area around this time next year not tell anybody that.

reaper : 19:32

Yeah, if you have it's online, delete it immediately. Yep, because that's the unicorn that we're hunting out. Here is the breeding date exactly for each doe group. Yeah, fawning cameras are something that I got turned. I I started doing that probably 10 seasons ago, um, when I moved to the south. So, uh, real quick history on me. I'm from upstate new york and I'm used to hunting the adirondacks.

reaper : 19:59

The deer up there are a little bit different. Um, a lot lower deer numbers, a lot more, uh, difficult terrain, a lot of where we hunted agriculture. Um, and uh, the it was just a different scenario. There was a real tight breeding window, of course, because of the winter. Um, you know, fawns are born too early or too late they'll die. So there the rut was really november rut and it was. You could just get like at the base of a beaver dam or something and just catch, buck after buck after buck, slipping through. You know that's not like that here.

reaper : 20:33

Uh, moved down here 10 years ago, realized pretty quickly that terrain features don't mean anything. It's flat ground for the most part. Deer just wander. Um, you know, they'll use certain terrain features like creeks and inner edges, you know, maybe where, like some pines hit some hardwoods, they'll run those edges, but that's because there's no other real terrain in the areas that I hunt for the most part. So started to have to try to think differently and outside the box.

reaper : 21:02

I also came down to the south and was just hunting November and realized pretty quickly that a lot of my does were already like linked back up with their yearlings. So that one thing I noticed really quickly was, I'd say, early on 10 years ago, trying to figure out what was happening here in the south and why my november hunting sucked was, uh, in november I would see a lot of does that I watched all year. So let's say there's a doe with two fawns and she has last year's spike corn with her and you watched her during july and august and september and that's pretty typical. And then in September she, she runs her spike corn off, she chases him away. Um, he still usually lurks around right like in the shadows, but she chases him away for the most part, um.

reaper : 21:55

But then I started realizing around November here in the south I'd see that doe and she'd have her spike corn back with her and I was like that's pretty odd, that like they would link back up, you know, during the breeding season. But I, through this, started realizing that some of these does were breeding really early in september and october, and not really some of them, but a lot of them in the south. And so, uh, that's kind of really where I got my initial inclination to start digging in, a little bit like OK, well, how early and how many? And then kind of just then that worked twofold, because then I started, I saw Stan standing estrus dough get mounted by two different bucks in the same morning, and it was, uh, the day before christmas, the next, the following year, and then I was like, okay, so they're breeding really late too.

reaper : 22:54

There wasn't really a lot of resources 10 years ago. Now, thanks to a lot of these deer labs and various websites, you can find a lot of this information now. But 10 years ago there was nobody saying, oh hey, the rut in the south runs through February, like you couldn't find that anywhere. So literally I was just writing this stuff down this thicket is hot in November, this thicket is hot in December, this thicket is hot at the end of September, and realizing, like that's when you needed to hunt those thickets. So I've been running a lot of cameras during this entire time. And then what really really really led to this was I realized that all of these thicket dates where I was like, okay, this, this thicket's hot at the end of October Well, I realized that's when I would get my big buck pictures.

reaper : 23:45

So if you take that data and you overlap it with your big buck pictures, then you start to realize like, okay, so this fawn was born in May and also I had that buck big buck was in that thicket at the end of October. And then you start to like, okay, and then your trail camera. Maybe you see some other things like you've seen where different body language, like tail cupping, and you start to really put all the puzzle pieces together. And then you're like, okay, that's an October thicket, but and that's kind of how well I know that was a lot of information compact, but that's how I got started with. This was just watching deer and trying to figure out why my hunting sucked, and then realizing that I had a lot of deer being bred in September and December, and to an Adirondack boy.

Mike : 24:38

That was pretty crazy, but I had to roll with it that now, wow that, and it's every time you break it down. It's just like it makes more and more sense in my head. And now, like like we said the last time, like so many things are popping up, so many questions, so many like okay, this makes absolute sense because you know, like I said the first time we talked bianca's camera that had the best rut action and it wasn't anything like during the beginning of the season. It was like, yeah, it was, it was there, there wasn't much. But during that, like end of October, early November, yeah, all different big bucks just flying through.

Mike : 25:27

That's how they prioritize their visits.

reaper : 25:29

I mean now. Now I can anticipate it. So what's funny is I work it backwards now, so I don't know. I posted a picture just recently of a pregnant doe, because that's what I'm looking for next on my, on my betting cameras is I'm looking for those giant bulging pregnant does, because some are going to show before others and not to be stupid, but the ones that show first are the ones that you need to hunt first, because those deer were impregnated first, those bucks are there first, those scrapes are hot first and I'll bet my paycheck, if you put your cameras there, you're going to get your big buck pictures there first, just like you said on yours. It always lines up that way. So those deer know where to be and when, especially the older bucks, especially when you have a good doe age structure.

reaper : 26:18

Because, um, I believe I'm not a biologist but I believe that deer have a relationship to each other, and I actually know this for a fact based on my findings. And we won't really get into like bachelor grouping and that, yet I guess in this one, but, um, I know for a fact. I'll just say this like I killed an old doe and it caused a bachelor group to break up. So I know that deer relate to each other and um, personally I feel that way and so, uh, uh, you know, um, I think an old buck, if he has a history with an old doe, she gets a lot of priority and I've proven it with cameras like multiple times do you think with that in mind?

Steve : 27:04

do you think as far as age, structure and breeding times? What has been your findings as far as when the mature bucks? Are they getting after it right away in the beginning, when those first does come in, or are they waiting for others? What have you found are they most attracted to in correlation, like in correlation with that relationship you're talking about?

reaper : 27:29

so usually what happens and it's not always, but uh, and I'm still definitely studying it but usually what happens is that it depends on the age of the doe. But let's assume it's an old doe, she's older than six, I think that's another thing. I don't think people realize how old does are. I think people underestimate that. Through all of this I've realized that my average doe age is eight to ten and I think that's a lot of people. Um, I don't think people realize how old does get. Um, maybe in areas like if you have a big muzzleloader season in you know erie county, pennsylvania or something, and they get annihilated, yeah, okay, so maybe the age structure sucks, but um, I think as a whole people don't realize how old their does are, um, so let's assume it's an old doe, she's like eight.

reaper : 28:22

Well, um, what I find is an old buck like old man Earl that I had this year. He never really chased, he never really pursued. He came in and he worked the scrape a few times. I had some good footage of that. He broke it, in fact he broke a sapling right next to it. He made his present really known to a couple of the three-year-olds that were around, to a couple of the three-year-olds that were around um, and he did that every single day like clockwork, for I'd have to look at the hit the instagram post now, but I think five days in a row he came in there and he made his present known. His shit was everywhere and you know he was betting right there because he was hitting that scrape at like 7, 10 am, 11, 1 and then have to look again but like 6 pm it was still daylight and he'd hit it um and and uh.

reaper : 29:14

But he never chased her this rut and um, my opinion is that he just moved into that area and what I usually see is the old doe will go to the buck. It happens a lot where I'll see like an old doe She'll take her fawns out to like the field, the ag, the beans, and then she'll turn and go back. And I think a lot that reaches a point in the pre-rut where the bucks are coming out to food all summer and then I don't know if it's when the acorns start dropping or just when they start getting curious about the early estrus does, but they start stopping that and they start hitting the doe bedding um, you'll start picking bucks up like september on your bedding cameras. One will slip through it like midnight and you'll be like, oh, who the hell was that?

reaper : 30:03

Um, you start seeing that around september and I think, um, uh, that's what they're looking for. And when they find a doe that that's going to estrus early, they'll just set up camp and they'll pick a little Island out in the cattails or whatever. They'll make their scent known. They, they want her to know they're there and she'll go to the oldest buck. I don't know what the biology is behind that, but I've seen it many times.

Steve : 30:31

Interesting yeah.

reaper : 30:34

They have to chase young does because they're terrified and they don't know what to do yet. So you know, I think if you have like doe fawns that are estrusing late, or if you have like a two or three year old doe who is still kind of not really figured it out, he'll have to come out of his little hidey hole and chase her around, and that's where you get a good crack at him with the rifle. But you know, if you've got a bunch of old does, um, you can rest confident that their bucks are going to stage there but they're not going to chase. So it may. It's kind of a a blessing and a curse at the same time that's I.

Mike : 31:10

I love to see this, this, this nitty-gritty breakdown of more like science behavior with these deer. This is what makes it so interesting. It's it's because, absolutely, we really don't know, like there's so much that we've still yet to uncover so much, man.

reaper : 31:26

Man, that's what I run cameras for and all I know is what I see A lot of this stuff I'm talking about right now. I don't really even know what it means. You know what I mean. I'm just I'll see the old doe go to the old buck and I'm like huh, I wonder if they do that everywhere. I don't really know how to deduce that.

Mike : 31:49

It's not my education, education, you know. But it makes sense because I've, I've seen it happen before. You know, I, I have, and yet again, if you're, you're looking at that old doe, 100, she's experienced.

reaper : 31:54

It's really I, I it's a high percentage too.

Mike : 31:57

It's like 90 plus she's gonna go to him and I and I talk about time, like, listen, I'm not gonna. This is how I talk about the rut. The rut is always to me like a bunch of college kids. They're going out to a bar. They've been drinking vodka, sodas, doing a little, you know, extra, extra stuff, and they're trying to fight and get laid. You got that experience doe.

Mike : 32:19

You know I mean the, the older one she's going to you know, casually introduce herself. You know, make things happen. Uh, you know, casually introduce herself. You know make things happen. You know a little, a little, a little quicker. You know, and that's how I break it down because it's the perfect example it literally I'll never forget watching my buck. I had what I think eight or nine bucks chasing like two or three does like all over the place. And you know, kong, the big guy that I I drew back at a 12 yards, couldn't get him to stop. He was literally looked like he did vodka, soda or, uh, red bull and vodka all night and did some cocaine and was just like bouncing, just did not stop.

reaper : 32:58

Yeah and I think a lot it depends on where you live too. So, um, because young bucks chase, that's what they do, and like, when that old doe starts getting close, um, the young bucks will just be. I mean, I have a gas line where you'll see like she goes across. Then you'll see like two young bucks chaser and then she'll go back across and then you'll see like three bucks chasing her and you're like jesus, they picked up one along the way, like uh, but here it'll be like one-year-olds and two-year-olds and and maybe even three-year-olds. They get a little crazy, um, but that's a good point because, depending on what state you're in, if you have a two-year-old or a three-year-old acting like that, um, he could be poping young. So you just think all bucks act like, oh, that's a big buck, he's chasing and I'm like I don't know, our five-year-olds don't really chase like that here, but maybe you know I've had three he's at least he was.

Mike : 33:51

When this happened he was at least three, at least, cause I had three years. So you know, I would say he was four, because when I saw him he was very much developed. He was a very nice deer and he got even bigger and bigger. I mean we're talking, I think, anywhere between 140 and 150. But he still had some maturing to do. He still could have gotten even bigger. Didn't see him this year. I tried locating him, couldn't find him. I don't know if he got. I don't think he got killed by another hunter, I really don't. But you, you just, maybe he just moved down and the doe number was lower in this area this year, so maybe he, he moved out and hopefully, hopefully he'll be back, hopefully, um, but yeah, there's a lot of things that impact historical data.

reaper : 34:45

I know we dug into that last time. But if your doe age structure is really really young, your historical data really is just shitty because older deer settle into a spot. So when you really do have some old does, they just burn into a spot. I mean you have to cut the oak trees down to get rid of those deer, burn into a spot like they just I mean you have to cut the oak trees down to get rid of those deer. So you know, I think when you get old does and you get some historical data and buck pictures based on those old deer who are burned into like a ridge and they're not leaving, that can be really good historical data versus, yeah, if you just have bucks chasing two year old does and it's kind of a college party like you said, you're like, oh, he passed my camera October 10th, but I mean that's a three-year-old chasing a two-year-old doe. I mean you know you can pretty much throw that out the window. I mean, so what you're recording is important.

reaper : 35:42

You know I've learned that it's not a big buck. Passing your camera isn't equal to all big bucks passing your camera. You have to really look at what's happening there and you know it's not all just cut and dry. And when you start injecting young deer it's like injecting young people. It just gets crazy. And young does they move. You know they'll be in your soybean field this year and then you're like, oh, I never saw that deer with the white leg ever again. You know like she'll just straight up move. And so when you're really talking historical data and buck sightings, you want to make sure you're, you're, you are keyed in on an old doe. When you're doing that, it really helps your, it raises the odds he's going to come back at that same time next year. You know I've found that's like tenfold if it's an old day.

Mike : 36:34

That's, that's. That's pretty cool. Uh, steve, any more on on that topic.

Steve : 36:40

Uh no, I mean, I was thinking about it when you were talking about all that and I I know that. The question that I had for you in relation to that is I know that there's certain does the matriarchs that are in our area down here in South Jersey, that are in my immediate public, that I hunt, we didn't it's. I don't think they got killed because I've never seen them except for at night on trail cam. So I think they're really super smart. Um, I would never see the big does come out during daylight, but I haven't seen nearly as many this year as I saw last season. Do they, like you're saying that that they they huddle down and where you're at, is it possible that they, that they move around more than we think, and is that determined by the time of year, or I mean, I'm just not.

reaper : 37:38

I'm not sure I guess yeah, so, um, yeah, I would say that generally old. Well, so the primary thing is does follow food, they are stomach driven. So if you switched, let's say, from soybeans to corn and then you're like, yeah, so my old does, they're not out in my cornfield? Well, it's probably because someone a mile up the road has soybeans and they just they like soybeans. So they gave you two middle fingers and they dipped um, does are stomach driven first. But if everybody in your town grows soybeans, that's where an old doe just burns into an area, like if she finds an area that's safe and there's low predators. The other thing is predation you might have just had like a pack of coyotes or a bear, move in um and where younger deer will tolerate that. The older does tend to be like, yeah, I'm just not gonna. You know, we have a lot of wild dogs and like domesticated dogs here, that kind of that run that can run rampant, and we have a lot of just weird things here, like I've seen like immigrants, like illegal people living in the woods and stuff, and even like homeless camps and like. So I would say you have to kind of investigate to see, like why those older deer don't like that area. Like I'm guessing they've been replaced by younger deer, um, and then, and that is by younger deer, and then in that is there's a.

reaper : 39:15

There's a prime age for a doe and it's somewhere around five or six, I find, where they almost always have twins and they can take an area from anybody, basically like they're the head bitch.

reaper : 39:24

So what you'll find is your old doe, who is six and she's in charge, and you're like, oh yeah, I used to see, I saw her last year, and then she's seven and then she's eight, and then you're like, okay, I have three years of history with this old doe. Well, now her old fawn, who is now five, probably chased her off. So it just depends on how big your food source is. So for me my food plots are all like half acre to an acre or less. So when I have an old doe disappear, sometimes that means I need to kill a young doe because she's taken over and, believe it or not, like doe fights are really pretty gnarly, like I'm sure you guys have seen them on camera, but yeah, they're pretty gnarly. And so you might have just had like a younger doe who was more aggressive Little bucks do that too, I've had like a three-year-old chase off like a five-year-old before, just because he's just insane.

Steve : 40:23

That connects on two levels. That connects on two levels because almost everybody was planting soybeans this year in our immediate area, so everything was covered, uh, with soybeans. Yeah, so, and then the other thing, too, that I that I mentioned earlier about this, this dough that we have three years of, you know, I guess, historic camera data from um, I've never seen her with fawns. Have you do you see that where older, some older does just don't get bread? Um, I've never seen her with fawns. Have you do you see that where older, some older, does just don't get bread? Because I've never seen this. She's huge, she's, she's got to be 150, 160 pound doe. I mean, she's absolutely huge, but I've never seen it.

reaper : 41:01

I see it with. Um, I see where they just pass their prime. Um, I have a doe who has one fawn and then, like last year, she didn't have any, but I'm looking to see if she has one this year. But she had one for a couple. She didn't have any and then she had she used to have twins and then she didn't have any and then she had one for like three years in a row and then last year she didn't have any and then this year. So I do three years in a row and then last year she didn't have any, and then this year. So I do think so.

reaper : 41:31

Um, there's also it depends on when they drop their fawns, because if, for some reason, a dough is bread this is something I noticed if some reason, for some reason, a dough is bread late, so let's say, um, everybody in your neighborhood did a great job and they just killed a ton of bucks. Or let's say there's just really high dough numbers and the bucks couldn't make it around, or coyotes came through and disrupted the rut, I don't know. Just a plethora of things could happen. Maybe a deer got hit by a car and was injured for a few weeks. She didn't get. Basically, is the moral of the story. So late season rolls around and a buck picks her up late season and breeds her. If she drops her fawns late the following year, when now she was bred late, she's going to drop late. Last year I had a doe drop like October 15th, does drop in July and August and even September um does drop in July and August and even September Um. And so if she drops her funds late, depending on the threshold but there is a threshold where she won't estrus herself, like her maternal duties will take over.

reaper : 42:39

I don't know how to say it, but like I find that like if the funds, like the, the dough who dropped in August, who had, like I had like pictures in August last year of like these 10 pounds spotted funds, that that dough who dropped in August, who had, like I had like pitchers in August last year of like these 10 pound spotted fawns, that that doe who dropped those fawns I never even got a buck pitcher on her scrape all fall she was with those fawns and I see a lot where, like her maternal instinct will take over and she won't even estrus because her fawns are so little. So it's possible something like that happened too. It's hard to say, you know without, but there's a bunch of reasons, either being that she's too old, she didn't get bred, she could have been sick or injured like snake bite, or she could have had like small fawns and her maternal instinct was taking over. I think there's a bunch of things that I've seen happen there oh, that's great and being down the south, you completely forget it.

Mike : 43:32

Like for us, we don't really have to worry about snake bites, but over where you are, you got it's. It's a lot more that they have to deal with.

reaper : 43:40

Um, you know you see it a lot, yeah, really so yeah, so you, if you see a wacky rack, like if you see a buck, and he's got like, um, perfect four on one side and then he's like a spike on the other, it's like dilapidated you gotta really watch him for a couple of years in a row because if he was hit by a car what I find again, people may contest this, but if he's hit by a car, a bit like by a snake, um, he'll have a wacky rack that year but it'll recover the following year. So it doesn't mean you have bad genetics. Like I had a deer that was a spike on one side and, um, the year after he got hit by a car, it was actually the opposite side, which was weird because he got hit on his right side and it broke his back right leg, but that you that following fall, his left side was like a spike.

Mike : 44:29

So yeah, I don't know how that works biologically, but I know that shit does impact them it just goes to show how um tough and resilient these animals are like oh listen, humans, we get a snake bite oh my god, like especially what you guys have. What cotton mouse down there rattle, snakes down there as well yeah, we have water moccasins.

reaper : 44:51

I believe we have like five. There's like five venomous snakes here.

reaper : 44:56

There's coral snakes, a couple of different kinds of rattlers, pygmy rattlers, moccasins, copperheads all those could easily kill a human with I mean, you know, not really, but I guess if you'd rather be conscientious about, like, how you're getting bit, because, um, you know, I carry a walking stick. For that reason, because my biggest fear isn't that I'm gonna get bit necessarily, but it's like when I'm tunneling through brush, have you ever seen like a moccasin, like how they hang like three foot off the ground in the branches? They always hang in low hanging branches, just like three foot off the ground. So my biggest fear is that I'm going to like be tunneling through like brush and like a bedding area, because it's always wet and, uh, it's like wet, wet, wet up onto a hump and it's like bedding and it's like wet, wet, wet up onto a hump and it's like I'm tunneling.

reaper : 45:47

My biggest fear is I'm gonna get hit in the face tunneling through and I feel like, yeah, if you're like a mile back and you get hit in the face, hell, yeah, you'll die. Worst place to get hit, right, yeah, like in your yard in the ankle, you're probably fine, you know like you're not gonna die. But like, if you get hit in the face like a mile back in public, yeah, you're hurting you're, you're in one, yeah.

reaper : 46:09

So that's why I always have my walking stick and I'm like out in front of me, because I'm like I hope if it happens it hits me in the hand and not the face. But, jesus, snakes are pretty, snakes are a pretty real thing down here, um, but I think it keeps a lot of people out of these marshes. You know that. And the gators.

Mike : 46:29

So nobody ever walks past.

reaper : 46:30

My marsh cameras dude like nobody.

Mike : 46:33

Well, that's always a good thing.

reaper : 46:36

Yeah, yeah, it's like everybody's like chaining their cameras. I'm like I just I don't even see humans back in these marshes, Like I think people are just scared of snakes.

Mike : 46:46

So you have snakes to deal with gators as well. Bears, pigs Are spiders. An issue over there?

reaper : 46:58

So they are in the sense that, because of everything else you mentioned, generally you're wearing a lot of rubber boots and waders and they like to get inside there. So I spray the inside of my waders with with uh, permethrin and um. That keeps, like, the black widows out of your waders. But yeah, you still have to.

Mike : 47:19

You still want to stick the old nozzle of the leaf blower in there once you know it's so different and just like what you have to prepare for, like down there, like if we were to travel down there which you know, eventually I do want to go hunt down there it's like we're in a whole different world and it's like you know. There's just other things that you have to be conscious of. You know here what? What are we really worried about? Bears? For you in south jersey, it's, you don't even have to worry about the bears, but but coyotes and bears.

Steve : 47:47

I don't think that we necessarily there's. I've heard of one bear making appearances around here in the past couple of years. It's not really the issue, and I don't think coyotes really go out for people around here. Um, not that I, you know, I've never heard, I mean, a child, maybe not an adult. Um, but I will tell you what, along with that, with the whole boot thing, like even in my garage, I'm shaking out my boots every time I go out. Just, I don't want, I don't want to get bit by anything or scare anything to a corner of a boot. So yeah, that's across the board.

Mike : 48:20

We do in certain areas in New Jersey. We do have timber rattlesnakes, copperheads. We have timber rattlesnakes, um, copperheads, um, we do have a few. People are your biggest concern, really. But yeah, people, and that's what I tell people like, I tell my, my kids at work, like they're like, oh, like, aren't you ever afraid of like bears and stuff like that? I'm like no, because I kind of know how a bear is gonna act. You know, I mean they're they. I know when I know what I'm getting with a bear, you know I mean with a human yeah you have no idea like what is going to happen.

Mike : 48:54

You don't know what type of individual.

reaper : 48:55

You're coming across being bluff charged will make you pucker, though I don't know if you've ever. Oh, I have charged, but no, thank you, things pucker you didn't even know you had knock on wood.

Mike : 49:06

Thank, thank God I have not experienced that For the most part a lot of the bears that I've experienced close quarters. They usually just turn around and just go. My cousin got bluff charged by a bear up in Maine when he was deer hunting, walked right up on the den and had cubs. Definitely could have gone a way different situation with cubs and that's, I would say. My really only worry about bears when I'm in the woods is just cubs In the spring. Yeah, it's just. You know, coming across cubs is my only concern.

reaper : 49:44

Yeah, if you're going to get killed, it's probably going to be during turkey season, not deer season. You're going to accidentally call one of those cubs in with your gobbler and then she's going to lose her shit. That's not you know. Or you're going to be walking. You're going to kill a bird and you're going to be walking real fast to the truck and you're going to get between them and not realize.

Steve : 50:02

Yeah you stand a better shot of getting shot by somebody else who's not paying attention upland game or even turkey around here probably than anything else yeah, the only time that I've ever been yeah, yeah, I agreed.

reaper : 50:18

The only time I've ever been bluff charged was in the spring, like I was saying, and it wasn't turkey hunting, but it was, um, it was fishing, and I was just focusing on like throwing my jig at some bass and I accidentally drifted my canoe between a sow and her cub and she like charged and like hit, hit, like the back of the canoe, like just like a little bit, and um, that was, that was enough for me.

Mike : 50:44

I mean, I was like you know and you're in an awkward position because you're in a canoe too, so you're already double vulnerable. Then you're in the water too. So, like humans, do not have the advantage when it comes to being in the water with any animal? No, yeah.

Steve : 51:01

And that's why you always carry an extra pair of boxes with you all the time. Now, right.

reaper : 51:05

I'll be honest too. The other thing was this like I always carry a pistol a nine millimeter in my bino harness and um, that day it happened that unfolded so fast that not only did I not have like a chance to put my hand on the pistol, my brain couldn't even register that I had a pistol. Like when that happens, I don't think people realize like dude, that unfolds fast. Like the shit had been on me I'd have been toast by the time. I even really like I was like, oh, yeah, I have a pistol. It was too late, like you're. All people think like, yeah, I'm gonna pull it out and I'm gonna get it ready.

Steve : 51:40

Like shit, you're dead how does that work down there too, if you shoot a bear in self-defense? I mean, does d DNR get all over you or what? What's the situation there?

reaper : 51:52

Yeah, I mean I don't know. I know that I think it's fine if it's a self defense situation. I think anytime you have footage of it it's better. But you know, I think I think they're going to do their investigation. You know, if they, if they, rule that, it's fine, you're fine. I mean it's North Carolina, it's a Republican state, so you know, I mean you can shoot someone in your yard if they're just looking in your windows like so it's.

Mike : 52:22

You know, this isn't New York, so yeah, big, big difference over here, you can jack a fool up.

reaper : 52:27

You can jack a bear up. I mean, it's protect your shit first and foremost, down here right.

Mike : 52:33

Yeah, well, actually we've talked about in Peyton's bear had a nine millimeter round right in its right in its nose and this thing, just it just shows you like you need to hit it correctly. If you hit that skull, like their skull are so thick and just so like it's like armor and it did nothing, like there wasn't, even there was, there was nothing to you know, to that skull, no dent, no, no, nothing. And I've even heard people shooting um arrows at bears and deflecting just right off the skull and just not even, not even really doing anything. The bear was, the bear was fine bear.

reaper : 53:10

All animals are resilient, but bear, it's a tank, it's a tank on four legs how about the fact that I mean, I don't know if you, you guys, have bear hunted, then so you know, like bear are a formidable opponent, like a mature buck, you know, just gonna walk up to one and shoot it in the face like, hey, today I'm gonna go shoot a bear in the face? The reason why that bear got shot in the face was probably because he, like charged somebody. Oh yeah, definitely you know. And then it's like well does, did she teach her cubs to do that? Are they still out there? Like what the hell?

Steve : 53:39

now you gotta worry about it yeah, now um, they got two cubs out there they're like well, hey, mom says, charge people, that's true they learn quick yeah yeah, yeah, they do um, most likely it was somebody trying to take a crack shot at them when they're in their trash or something and maybe, which they should have been doing it all big possibility as well.

Mike : 54:02

We'll never know, never know um. So it's, it's that time of the year.

reaper : 54:10

Yep, let's get into some catfishing talk catf and talk yeah, man, so I'm going back out next weekend. The time for giant catfish is pretty much behind us now. It's usually january and february here. Oh, really cold. Yeah, cold water brings the big cats out. Um, is that because?

Mike : 54:28

they're mating and stuff like that well, I think it's.

reaper : 54:33

I think that, uh, I'm not as knowledgeable on catfish as I am deer, I'll throw that out there. But I think what it is is there's like spawning activities happening in the spring at a certain water temperature. It's really like you reach a threshold where, um, the water temperature gets really cold and the deer move into the main river because the water temperature is more stable. So on these nights where it's 25, 30 degrees, your creeks even ice over, but the main river will stay like 55. So what you'll find is where a lot of these big cats were hiding, in every little nook and cranny and Creek and beaver pond and just kind of all over the place, every deep hole in the river.

reaper : 55:23

Um, they'll move up into the main channel of the river and you'll have higher concentrations of big fish, or at least you'll be able to find big fish. That way, if you can get into a concentration like where there's some big fish feeding in the rapids, you can use big hooks and big bait and try to just catch big fish right, like you can throw out like a three pound piece of shad and a giant circle hook and just target 80 pounders and if, if you do that long enough one will grab it. But for the most part we're just using regular gear trying to catch 15 to 30 pound blues, and I think people are pretty much catching blues that size everywhere. It's just here in the Carolinas we have a unique opportunity to catch one over 100 because where we live it's it's a big catfish state and hundred pounders are pretty common jesus, I couldn't imagine reeling in a hundred pound catfish the boys just did it again this weekend.

reaper : 56:25

Mad cats caught one. I think it was 109 or 103, but they'll see. I feel like every weekend they're hooking one. They've got the mad cats pro shop, but give them a little plug, but uh so are.

Mike : 56:38

When they're that size, are you guys just throwing them back, or are you, um, I imagine the, the bigger ones you really want to kind of just like throw back? What do you keep smaller ones to eat? Do you eat catfish, or, or what's the case with that?

reaper : 56:51

yep, love catfish. So generally I'm almost exclusively fishing with cut shad and cut eels. Um, not using any kind of crawlers or artificials, um, just keeping it to cut shad and cut eels. It's best to get the bait out of the river you're fishing. Um, I don't know why, but for some reason, if you're using shad from another river again, it's just. Maybe it's just me, but I find that catfish can smell like they know the scent. So I like to use shad from the river I'm fishing in. I feel like it works a lot better.

reaper : 57:25

Um, definitely eat catfish. Um, with channels I don't eat those. I usually throw them back. I call them channel rats. But the blues I'll eat, and the idea for those is under 20. Um, I like to.

reaper : 57:40

I don't like to clean a lot of little fish. So the perfect blue cat for me is around 10 pounds, 10, 12 pounds. I think that you get two. You're gonna get like a three pound fillet off each side, like each back strap is going to be like a beautiful tenderloin. Um, but it's also a 10 pound fish that's a couple of years old. You know, he's not 40 years old or anything. He hasn't been just sucking up mercury for his whole life. So, um, I know that those fish that are like 100 pounds, that they're probably not recommended to eat them. So, um, yeah, so we target.

reaper : 58:17

We're going out this week to target some teeners for meat, that's the whole point. So we're hoping to get into a bunch of like 10, 15, 20 pounders, fill the coolers, fill the freezers with blues, and then the third catfish we catch here is, uh, flathead, and unlike blues, they grow really fast, so I'll pretty much eat a flathead of any size. Um, they're also predatory and they tend to favor rap, you know, like rapids and fast moving water. And there are more predatory fish that grows fast. So, um, a 20 pound flathead is only a few seasons old. He, you know they grow that fast. So, um, I generally will eat a flathead of any size. I like the belly meat, so, um, it's kind of a a delicacy around here. So, uh, and if I can catch one 40 or 50, I'm keeping it and I'm going to have some beautiful steaks. Venison and flathead belly is unbelievable.

Mike : 59:21

I haven't had that yet, but I would definitely love to try it. I do love catfish, but I haven't gotten the chance to do that. But, man, I think honestly I'll plan on doing some catfishing this summer. I mean, they're definitely not on the level of what you guys are doing down there.

Mike : 59:41

But, man I pulled in a five, six pounder. It was my last cast was a couple of years ago. I literally threw it in the minute it hit the water. I was hooked on and this thing fought like. I felt like I was pulling in an absolute, just like a 10, 20, 20 pound cap. This thing was fighting and it came up and I was just. I was so happy because this was my biggest, biggest cat was it a flathead or a channel?

reaper : 1:00:07

do you?

Mike : 1:00:07

know I that I do not know, that, I do not know.

reaper : 1:00:14

Well, I guarantee there's some big catfish. What I would say is that most people I think there's giant catfish in every body of water and while you might not have 100 pounders, I have friends that catch um 50s and 60s just right in dc. So I would say, get you some 100 pound mono and get you some big ass hooks and try throwing a one pound bait out there and see what happens, because if you haven't fished with a big bait and a big hook, you might not know man, there might be one lurking. That's true.

Mike : 1:00:48

You gotta give that something to eat, and especially at the.

reaper : 1:00:52

You know, we just go right up to delaware water gap and I guarantee there's some monsters up in there if you're gonna throw a piece of bait like the size of a golf ball, you'll just catch the first 10 pounder that finds it. Throw some shark bait out there, man, see what happens smart, that's smart that's where we're gonna have to. That's what we're gonna have to do for sure, definitely for sure if you hear that clicker then you'll know you better hang on.

reaper : 1:01:18

Because if you hear the clicker on the big bay, go click, click, click and you know it's the big bay, like oh man, that's exciting. And then it's like you start to panic, like when do you close the clicker? And like, yeah, because it sucks when you close the clicker you just pull it out of his mouth and he's not there and you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's true.

Mike : 1:01:39

It's catfishing, it's. It's definitely a cool experience. I definitely anyone who's looking to get into. I definitely advise it. It's such a they're such a cool fish. They really are such a good eating fish too. I I definitely love catfish especially.

reaper : 1:01:56

It's fun yeah, they fight very well. That would be my one advice for catfish since you asked about catfish and is if you do use a big bait, use a big bait, big hook and see what happens. You know who cares? Um, because the worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to hook a big one. And what I will say is, though, if you do use a big bait and a big hook, you got to let them take it. Talking about the clicker, let them take it for a good, you know, I don't know 20 or 30 seconds, because they have to have time to like flip the bait around a few times and they it takes them a minute to like get it just right and swallow it, and if you get get too excited and and close that clicker too quick, it's gonna be a sad story of the giant fish that took your big bait?

Mike : 1:02:42

yeah, definitely. Do you ever plan on traveling like anywhere else, like I know further south, mississippi, alabama, like those areas they're pretty good for for catfishingishing? I imagine too any any time we're going to travel or anything like that? I think what St Isn't St Louis or there's some major river that is like in one of the major cities that's actually known for for catfishing any plans like that? Or you're going to stay?

reaper : 1:03:08

Yeah, no, I don't. Just because here we have an op, if I'm going to catch a hundred pounder, it's going to be here, right in my own backyard. So, um, I'm just going to keep my annual minimal catfishing to just January, february, right here by the house. Um, knowing that eventually, if I'm lucky, I'll hook that a hundred pounder.

reaper : 1:03:30

Um, it's just a matter of you know throwing enough big baits in that hole and you know not having a 40 or 20 grab it, and just it's just statistics. You know it really is what it is when you've got 10,000 fish in a hole and two of them are 100 pounders, I mean it's just you got to, you got to hit the hole enough times and play the odds, and I think that's the opposite of deer hunting to some degree, where it's a little more calculated deer hunting versus you can, you can kind of set up your own fate versus with fishing where it's it's a little tough but they got forward facing sonar and stuff. Now, so the guys, that won't be long they'll have 4k pictures of that big fish before they catch it that's, that's definitely true, um what was your biggest?

reaper : 1:04:17

cat so far um, my biggest catfish are my channel is 12 pounds just over 12 pounds, um and my blue cat is 38, which this should be a pretty easy pb to be here and my flathead is pretty sturdy that's 72. So that's going to take some work to to beat that one.

Steve : 1:04:43

But and you're talking about bluefish that are the size of some of our deer down here yeah, flathead the size of a fawn that is absolutely just.

Mike : 1:04:54

And then you know you guys have what. Have you ever hooked into? An alligator or a snapping turtle, anything like that, and like what's the process?

reaper : 1:05:02

like that, if you hook it to something that you're, that's not a catfish yeah, um, I haven't hooked an alligator, but it's, I've had them steal my, like my alligators and sharks will steal like uh, down in the intercoastal waterway, especially like, if you get like a red, let's say you're a light tackle guy and you want to go out with your ultra light and hook, like, um, a six pound redfish with some six pound test, um, you know, those fish fight and he's going to be.

reaper : 1:05:30

You know, and if you're like ultra lighting it in the intercoastal, you will absolutely lose fish to gators and like sharks, like it's just because you're dicking around with the fish and you're not getting in the boat, so that happens. I haven't hooked a gator, but I have hooked a lot of turtles and like seagulls and I even hooked an otter and that's a mess, but I couldn't get the hook out of the otter. I mean I probably shouldn't just be airing that out here, but I tried my best and those bitches are gnarly and he was bitey and just trying to get me.

Mike : 1:06:03

So, yeah, the most important thing, that was like 10 years ago you try, you know trying is, you know, doing everything you can, but you're also not going to For what it's worth, though.

reaper : 1:06:14

we saw that otter for three more years. He was fine.

Mike : 1:06:16

Oh, okay, yeah, Listen, they're wild animals, they're going to adjust. I imagine I've heard that snapping turtles here. They actually, if you hook one and you leave, they actually will work it out. I've seen snapping turtles here. They just claw and they eventually will get the hook out themselves. Um, and I, you know, american mike, was the the one that originally told me that because the first time I ever went snap snapping turtle fishing, you know he was like yeah, I don't like listen. We, of course we lost one and it was a big, big one. He was like listen, don't it, watch it, watch what he's doing. You see how he's clawing out his face. He's's trying to get the hook out and he will eventually get that hook out.

reaper : 1:06:56

Yeah, that's what the otter is. So it wasn't even really in him, it was just a J-hook and I was using a live minnow under a bobber and he came up after the minnow, I guess, and what happened was the J-hook kind of went under his chin and it literally was outside of his mouth, it was on the side of his face and it was literally so I know it just pulled out, but it was through like the tiniest piece of flesh. But their skin is tough so like trying to get that, I was just trying to get it out and like he was just trying to tear me up so I let it go. But we saw him like for like three more seasons and like that shit just pulled out.

reaper : 1:07:30

but yeah, it's not worth losing fingers or anything like that that a seagull is pretty eventful if you've ever hooked one of those. I I I have not how so?

Mike : 1:07:41

how did that happen? Was it did it?

reaper : 1:07:43

happen so many times. Dude, I've had them grab my rapala out of midair like, yeah, yeah, like when you're fishing like in front of a powerhouse and you're not paying attention, you just flip your like your rappel out there. You better cast it out like a laser beam, don't give it a lollygag like a little shh One will grab it. Yeah, I had him grab a rappel out of midair.

reaper : 1:08:10

Man, that's got to be a hell of an interesting way, yeah, well, the worst is because they get it in their beak and then they do this, and then it gets in their foot too and it's like now you're just a big gnarly mess dude, like you know. Like did you have to put your foot in there? It's horrible, yeah.

reaper : 1:08:30

Yeah, the birds are the worst because they bite too dude, like it's single, but it may as well be like a philosopher after, because you're trying to grab that thing and he's like you know, they're like they'll bite the shit out of you.

Steve : 1:08:43

That sounds like an awful day.

reaper : 1:08:47

You got to hold them down and like using your grippers and you're like, yeah, yeah.

Mike : 1:08:51

The last animal I want to talk about, you know, is do you have any? Are you? Do they have an open season for gators down there? Is that anything you'd ever be interested in? I can't wait to go gator hunting, but that is on one of my bucket list. It's a great meat. I love eating it, but it's definitely something that I would love to do, so is that something that you can do down over there?

reaper : 1:09:14

So I don't think you can gator hunt here. There was talk a couple of years I'd have to Google to research. I'm purely just guessing here, but I don't think there is, I'd have to do a little research. There was talk a couple of years ago that they were going to open a very limited season season um. I imagine it would be like a raffle where um, like they do in other states where you know maybe they're only going to give up like 100 elk tag or something. It would probably be like that where they would just set a number at like 300 gators and do a raffle. But I haven't heard of that. I certainly would try to get in on it if, if they um, if that's something they offered here.

reaper : 1:09:52

As far as hunting gators, I would love to hunt gators. It's actually um on my list of things to do. Uh, one of my cousins and I were talking about doing that this year, but I don't think that's going to work out. Um, but he retires next year so we'll probably try to do something, but it's uh. As far as how I want to hunt a gator, I definitely want to uh get a 10 footer or a real gator. You know, I don't want to catch like a five footer, um and uh.

reaper : 1:10:22

The other thing is is I don't want to snipe one or uh, really, just I would say I'll leave it at that.

reaper : 1:10:31

I don't want to snipe one from 300 yards. So I'm looking to either hand line one or cast fishing poles and you know, 100 pound mono and and you just get two or three guys with two or three poles and you just get two or three hooks in them and get them to the boat and put either a boom stick or a 22. Um, I'd be fine with a boom stick or a 22, but I don't want to. I just don't want to snipe one. It takes it away, you know. Yeah, it's like, I agree, it's like sitting in the ground blind and shooting a buck at 300 yards, like I'd rather shoot a small buck with my bow than that you know, I didn't even know that they went after them in that style yeah, there's a couple outfitters in florida where you can just lay in the bow of a boat and like snipe the eyeballs, you know, out there and then rush out there real quick with the grappling hook and just get them.

reaper : 1:11:21

That's why I'm not really trying to. I want like the rope burn on my hands. You know, if I'm gonna kill a gator, let's kill a gator, you know oh, you want the story.

Steve : 1:11:30

You know that's not a very long story when you're sitting down from 300 yards.

reaper : 1:11:35

Yeah, I killed a pig with my crossbow this year and that was cool, but it's like a been there, done that, and maybe it was because it was a marsh pig, but it really wasn't that good eating. I mean, we're halfway through it and it's I don't know. I like venison and elk but it doesn't compare to either, in my opinion. And I'm a I'm a pig like. I'm a bacon guy, you know I love pork, but have you found that sows taste better than boars?

Steve : 1:12:06

so I don't have a lot of experience eating wild pig.

reaper : 1:12:09

I've had some sow. Didn't care for it at the time. Um, I did have pig at a friend's house. He shot one and his was actually like half tan, like half hairless, half hairy, so it was like it hadn't completely evolved and it was actually decent to eat. But then, like mine this year was a straight up like. I mean, he was black, with the hair on every inch of his body and like he just was a gnarly Razorback and they just did that. Good, I don't know, it's, it's okay, it's, but so I don't know. I think if I kill another pig it's going to be. I want to do it one more time and I want to do it with dogs and a knife.

reaper : 1:12:56

And I was going to say that, that and that's it, and that'll be the last pig I ever did. I'm going to have the hide set up and that'll be. That'll be the only last one I ever do.

Mike : 1:13:03

I would love to do that with a dog knife and the helicopter I want to. I want to go to texas, but you know, those I heard are just so expensive. My buddy actually did it. He lives out in texas and he did. He's like I'm trying to get him to send me the file I I don't, I think he just uses ar.

Mike : 1:13:21

I don't. I don't know if he uses a 50k, I think he uses ar, but any, any type of way, like going to texas and doing those hunts like it's, but that at that point, that's it. We're talking about a management thing. We're not really talking a food a, a food source. You know, obviously they probably take one or two and you know they eat it, but the rest, like, they have to do everything possible get rid of. You know the numbers and I don't know if it's as bad as you know where you're at. You know, but they reproduce like crazy, and I believe we have them in south jersey too.

reaper : 1:13:52

Right, it's here. It's regionalized by county, by cats, like uh, it's like they don't cross major rivers and major highways, so we'll have them in one county and not the next, and it'll be because it's separated by a major river. I don't know, it's weird. I don't know, um, what dictates it here, but in north carolina I would say probably what dictates it here? But in North Carolina I would say probably, probably 50% of our counties have them and the ones that do are completely infested. And then you go to the next, you cross over, like you know, you cross over the next bridge and that county has none.

Mike : 1:14:33

I'm gonna have to look into that because I have no idea if we have so south jersey does yeah but it's it's new jersey has some feral hogs in south jersey that are that escape from. You know, a pig farm, of course, um, but they said local hunters have kept it under under control for the most part, what it seems. But you may see, see one, um, I guess it's same thing. It's a very select here is really where they are.

reaper : 1:15:00

You either have pigs or you're getting them because they're coming. I mean, that's, that's pretty much, and you know if any biologists listen to this. If I'm wrong, correct me, but the way that I understand it, I heard they spread, like the lady that I spoke to says that you either have pigs or you're about to. Um, that's interesting yeah, that's a matter of time.

Steve : 1:15:24

I mean, they live in, they breed like russia yeah we'll have a management season before you know it yeah, I mean listen, so what about you guys?

reaper : 1:15:32

are you, uh, all your cameras out of the woods or are you trying to, uh, did you move to some some greenbrier and grass for some fawning picks?

Mike : 1:15:41

soon. Yeah, I haven't gotten the chance, I've been absolutely swamped. Um, if you guys could see where I'm recording. So this is normally where I record, but we moved everything out my room because we're repainting, we're getting new, new rugs, and so right now after season, I, because we're repainting, we're getting new, new rugs, and so right now after season, I am we're redoing everything. So I'm trying to get that done. I tried getting out for some coyote, but the next thing on the list is to I am late Start with my minerals. I usually like to do at the end of the season, but I got to take some cameras out and then move some cameras. I do want to start, you know, some fawning cameras. Um, I'm here in new jersey. I might just grab some sd cards, though, so I can keep my payment low on all my yeah, all my cell phones right now, because it's it's it's killing me yeah, I have no cell cameras on any fawning.

reaper : 1:16:28

I mean, the cell cameras that I have are dead.

reaper : 1:16:31

There's a few that have solar panels, that are, you know, my further away cameras or other cameras where I even if it's a year round camera, for example, where I have seven piebald deer just given the gravity of the situation there, I don't like to intrude on their turf any month of the year. So I run solar panels out there where the white deer are. I also have a solar panel on the scrape where the tall and the wide eight bros are. They're going to be five this year and, just again, given the gravity of that situation, I don't like to intrude any month of the year because you know they're about to be five and they're about to be the kind of bucks that aren't going to tolerate me to any degree or any of my boot sense. So got solar panels on the boys, got solar panels on the white deer and a few instances like that. One marsh island has a solar panel because it's a pain in the ass. But for the most part my cell cams are dead and my um sd cameras are out. But uh, a lot of the reason why my cell cameras are dead right now is is twofold. I do like to take a break from deer in January and February and hit catfishing real hard.

reaper : 1:17:54

Um, but I also, as soon as deer season ends, the public lands, lock the gates here.

reaper : 1:18:05

The public lands lock the gates here. And so we are effed until turkey season, because most of my spots, from where you, where the gate is locked, you have to drive in with a four by four, a mile or two or three or four back, and then from where I park, it'll be know anywhere from a hundred yard walk to a mile walk from the truck. So, um, depending on this spot and the camera, and so, um, when they lock those gates, I'm screwed really. I mean, you're not allowed to take a motorcycle or anything in there. So I'm waiting for April 1st to have a reason to grab the shotgun, and which is turkey season, april 1st. But at least I can run cameras, change batteries, spray them with permethrin and, uh, you know, get myself cameras all working again. And as soon as the gates are, the gates are unlocked. But I have a few private doorknock pieces where I'm able to maintain my cameras, but I don't, because I'm just in that mode of my gates are all locked.

Mike : 1:19:08

So I just fish.

reaper : 1:19:11

Yeah, I just turned. I turned deer off during January and I fish.

Steve : 1:19:16

This is my first year running cameras postseason and I just have one on a food plot that I'm working on getting established right now and I have another one that I'm keeping the subscription up because I want to put it out with some um, racketer, uh bags that we want to put out some mineral this year. And I've got one piece of private up north, uh, I say north of here, it's's a Hamilton area that I want to kind of abandon last year and I want to throw a mineral bag out there and kind of see what inventory is going on and kind of see what's happening through, you know, throughout the spring and summer. So that's kind of what I'm doing with cameras right now.

Mike : 1:20:01

Yeah, same, and we're going to be moving to a whole bunch of different spots. You know I want to get down to south jersey where, where steve is, I know paint and I are eyeing something more southern so we can all hunt near each other. Um, you know, I'm looking to go back up west and be out in, you know that, blairstown area, the delaware water gap area um, hope to get in ohio next year and stuff like that. So cameras will be bought, cameras will be moved, cameras will be. I want to get into, like local areas here I start working on those, those fawning cameras and stuff like that. And, you know, start doing intel and history, um, more data collection, kind of what you're doing in my local areas, because now it's like hit a light bulb and now I'm just fascinated in it.

Mike : 1:20:46

Um, but um, brandon, we'll, we'll, we'll get a few more questions. You know, I know you're going to be coming on again. Um, I know you're going to be on eventually when we do another round table segment, everything like that. So the conversations with you are, are, are are very much open and we'll be having plenty to talk about. I'm very interested in talking about what you you mentioned earlier is the bachelor groups you know, and and getting into to that and once you know later in the in the summer.

Mike : 1:21:14

Like yeah, once we get into that, like that summer area, that's something that we could definitely definitely talk about. But I got a couple of short, quick questions here. I ask everyone this when they come on the podcast sure, what is your dream hunt? So anywhere for two weeks, location doesn't matter, animal, what would be a dream hunt?

reaper : 1:21:32

money is not a thing yeah, so hopefully it doesn't take two weeks, because you know, you know me, I'm not a happy camper when I sit and don't see anything. So, uh, I like to be a little more efficient than that. But my dream hunts. I do have two of them, um, one is a mountain lion, but I don't want to shoot it out of a tree no offense to those guys, I love watching it on youtube but I want to either call mine in with a predator call or kill it, just fair chase tracking in the snow, something like that. Um, and then the other one would be like mountain lion on the ground, or, uh, where both of us are on the ground, or a, um, a sika deer hunt. I want to kill a sika deer with my bow. Um, you know, I talked to jim shocky about that when he was out here and, uh, he told me it was not only the best eating meat in the world, but it was his favorite animal to hunt, and so I was sold and yeah wow, those are pretty good.

Mike : 1:22:32

And you know, I've heard a lot about the seeker deer, but the mountain lion, that that is I'm not saying I want to kill it with my bow.

reaper : 1:22:42

I'm happy, I like to hunt with a gun too. You know I started out as a tracker in the snow with a rifle with a peep sight, so I've always had a love for guns and I do love my bow hunting and I've got the—I picked up the recurve. This year I got a trad bow double with does my first year carrying that and I'm my first sit carrying it ever. So um was really happy about that this year. But uh, I still like a gun, um, and uh, I got into pistol hunting a little bit.

Mike : 1:23:12

I was going to actually bring that up too.

reaper : 1:23:14

I was going to yep, I killed an eight pointer a little a little like a 90 or 95 inch little, 8.3 year old this year, like a 90 or 95 inch little, 8.3 year old this year Actually. So I make a list with my bucks which, at three years old, I decide if they're winners or losers, and if they're losers I eat them generally and if they're winners they get to pass, like the boys that are four. Now this year they're going to be five, the tall and the wide eight. They hit that same scrape. They were winners by the time they were two, they had little basket eights. I was like winner, winner and they've lived ever since. But if they're three and they're losers they get eaten. Well, last year that eight point I shot with my pistol. He was on the winner's list because he was like a 90 inch eight point, um, and he had the potential to be a nice buck. But I was hunting on the ground with my handgun and he came in at zero yards and I throat patched him because I got excited.

Mike : 1:24:09

He got it at that point. You know that I lost 50 followers overnight.

reaper : 1:24:14

when I shot that buck, really, yeah, I guess people were like I don't know where I ever advertised. I only shoot, you know, 200 inch bucks. I've never killed one. I mean, all I ever kill are like bucks like this. You know just little like 130, 150 inch bucks. We don't have 200s here. But when I shot that eight point this year, yeah, I lost 50 followers overnight. I guess they decided they only wanted to follow 200 guys. You know, I was like damn what's that, and I was like damn what's that and and I was like that was the most fun I think I've had in 20 years you know, jesus christ, that's awesome, that's crazy though

Mike : 1:24:49

yeah it's like well, whoever those guys are, just unfollow us because followers anyway yeah no, you, you really, you really don't because, listen, it's, it's so much more about. You know the size of the antler and like that's a one, like that deer was basically telling you to shoot me, like you know, on the ground, he was browsing on the bush that I was hiding in.

reaper : 1:25:11

I was in a holly bush with the like, with the, the, you know, the spiky leaves and the red berries. I was inside that bush like like lost DNA getting in there, and was in there and this deer came down through and was browsing on that bush. And I seen him coming and I was like, oh man, he's going to bust me. The whole time I was just like he's going to bust me. He's going to bust me, please don't come to this bush. And he came over to the bush.

reaper : 1:25:35

I was on and he started browsing around this side and, uh, the sun was coming in my face and he came around behind me. So I literally was like I cannot turn my head because the sun was exaggerating my movement through the bush. He would have seen me. So I was just like holding my breath. And then he came around the left side of me and as he came around the left side of me, I was like he's gonna win to me, he's gonna win me, he's gonna win me. And I was like cause I was hunting a specific buck and I was like please, don't win me, please don't. When he came around and he was just browsing. And he was browsing like right there, just I'm just eating. So I was like I took my thing out. I was like he just he just went down like right there, so that was cool, but I guess he wasn't a really big buck. But you know is what?

Steve : 1:26:23

it is. What's the minimum caliber for pistol to hunt with down there? What's that? What's the minimum caliber for pistol?

reaper : 1:26:31

Yeah, so I shot him with a 9mm because North Carolina lifted their caliber restrictions two years ago. That's crazy, yeah, and I shot a doe last year. It was the first deer, so I like to build up this year. I shot a doe. Last year was the first year, so I like to build up. This year I shot a doe with my recurve, so next year, any box next year I'll probably kill a three-year-old that's on the losers list with my recurve. That'll be. My goal is to to kill a loser with the recurve. That'll be but um, but I'll probably see a winner and get excited and do the same thing again. But so this year it's.

reaper : 1:27:04

I killed a doe last year with a nine millimeter and I shot her straight down. So this one was zero feet, but last year it was like 20 feet from my stand. A preset stand to her back was like 20 feet and it was completely devastating. So like I don't know what the minimum caliber you should use is, but a nine millimeter is far more than you need to kill a deer if the deer is less than 50 feet. Now I'm not saying take a 30-yard poke, but I'm saying like if you're going to stock a cornfield and it's going to be five feet. Yeah, it's way too much gun. It was outside your picture. It was horrible, horrific, like what it did there, what the above?

reaper : 1:27:48

here, did you use like look yeah, just regular remington, just regular remington. Uh, nine millimeter hollow points. But the wound channel was like your fist all the way through. Wow, like all the way through too.

Steve : 1:28:02

Like it was just like like I would not have expected that at all just horrible, yeah, yeah, you don't want to get hit with a nine millimeter.

reaper : 1:28:12

I'm gonna tell you that right now, shoot me with a 30 out of six, but don't shoot me with that. Yeah, I want like a pinhole in the pinhole out. That's just like a fist through you, dude, like it, like it's horrible, and that buck. I hit him in the chest and it came out behind the shoulder and there was no heart or lungs in him. Wow, like it was just all that was gone, just vaporized.

Mike : 1:28:38

That's insane yeah. I wouldn't have expected that at all.

reaper : 1:28:42

Like you know, it's not at all now, from 50 feet, maybe he would have ran off and it wouldn't even have broke the hide, who knows? But up close, devastating some personal.

Mike : 1:28:50

Yeah, you're gonna get the job done. Yeah, that's pretty cool, but, um sorry, hard to believe the bear survived, oh well I didn't like.

reaper : 1:28:59

I said we don't know in his head we, yeah we.

Mike : 1:29:01

We don't know the the distance. I could have been a far shot, like honestly I must have been a poke because I'm close. That's pretty devastating so you know it's yeah who knows?

reaper : 1:29:11

yeah, so for me I'm looking forward to getting out april and getting my cameras focused on some. What I do is I focus them on broadleaf food, like greenbriers, and I look for food that's specifically below the knee, because little fawns are short and they can't reach food that's about buckle high or higher, so so if you're trying to catch fawning pictures and you're in an area where the food's all really high, it's not going to be favored, or if the stem count is too low, she's not going to hide them there. So what you want is find an area. What I'll be doing is finding an area where it's really like grassy, where you could take your boot off and you could throw it and then you wouldn't be able to find your boot again. If you can find your boot within a minute or two, it's not a good finding area. She's not going to hide them there, they'll just get eaten. So you want a good thick area and then you want that to be in in company with broadleaf food below the knee, like briars, like green briar, because the thorns they can. If you can find a nice briar patch, the fawns will use that for security, but also they can't reach very high and they start browsing in as little as a week or two. So, um, what she'll do is she'll take the fawns from her hiding area. Um, one thing is is fawns don't poop where they're hiding. The doe tells them where to poop, so like she'll take them to a neutral area and they'll, and she'll nurse them and they'll, they'll drop their droppings and everything there and then she'll take them back into that grassy area. But in between the brows and in between is where you want that food, below the knee. So I'll look. I have some briars where I've done some hinge cuts and like all the briars are just like it's almost impossible to walk through there because you'll tear your pants and that's where they like to fawn.

reaper : 1:31:07

So I have like seven cameras in this one hole briar thicket. I get some early fawning there and that's pretty much what I'm going to be focusing on and looking for those giant bulging. Does that look like me? You know you want to prioritize your bow hunting this year on the does that are giant and bulging. Does that look like me? You know you want to prioritize your bow hunting this year on the does that are giant and bulging first, because they were impregnated first and those thickets are going to be hot first. That's not the perfect barometer to use, but I'm looking for those does that are showing first, because they were, they were bred first. And then I'm'm gonna go back and through the sd cameras and confirm that with some buck pitchers and I'll say, okay, she's showing first and I got october buck pitchers. I know where I'll be in october. That's pretty much what I'm looking for.

reaper : 1:31:57

I'm not a velvet guy. You don't really ever see me bragging about velvet buck pictures. I don't pull over on the side of the highway. I don't own a spotting scope. Um, I could give really two shits about velvet bucks. Um, I just want to know when they're going to come to these thickets, because that's what they live for, man so usually if you have velvet bucks.

reaper : 1:32:20

You're hurting because you're not going to have hardhorn bucks like that's weird, but my spots where I have a lot of velvet bucks in the summertime they suck hunting. I don't know if you've seen that, but that makes sense.

Mike : 1:32:30

Ok, I get that. That would make sense. You know, because you know it's. They're usually in a lot more open area at that time and they're not in the thickest, thickest part.

reaper : 1:32:40

Yeah, I think some stay, like if you see five velvet bucks, one will probably stay, I find, but the other four are dipping. You know you might get a midnight picture or something of them here and they're passing through, but if it's like a corridor, but um, that's pretty accurate.

Steve : 1:32:55

That's pretty accurate. For down here, I would say yeah, and they're in their summer range, you know, and then they go back.

Mike : 1:33:00

You know, and then they go back. You know they're in their vacation spot. That's what I call it. They're in their vacation spot and they're going to go back to their main home, you know.

reaper : 1:33:07

Exactly you were talking about that. So consider this. So when I told you I killed an old doe that made a bachelor group breakup, but consider that that bacheloring behavior is in some way dependent. Or there's a social group that involves bucks, just because you're born with antlers doesn't mean you're no longer part of the social group anymore. So oh, you're a buck, you're out of here. They're still part of the social group and they still have their.

reaper : 1:33:33

So there's a relationship between that doe group and those bucks that were from that doe group. Now they do disperse because it's nature's way of avoiding inbreeding. That doe group, now they do disperse because it's nature's way of avoiding inbreeding. But to some degree I find that those bucks come back and they bachelor in and around their home doe, where they you know, I'm not going to say mom or the family group, but they do, I find, often come back and they bachelor around that area.

reaper : 1:34:00

So you're not going to see those same bucks trying to breed their family unit. They're going to go and they're going to try to breed somebody else's family unit, but then they're going to return. They kind of always. You know, you see a lot of times where. But if you shoot like if you annihilate that doe group or the oldest doe or the oldest couple of does there, I find that they don't have a reason to come back and bachelor there anymore and they just become a little more nomadic. And I do think that some bucks are nomadic and I think it's because they've lost all ties to everything and they just go off on their own little ridge and they're nomads. But I think that they start out with ties to something Every buck does.

reaper : 1:34:36

But you know, I think if you can maintain some of those ties, that you can maintain that buck coming back for his bacheloring. But you shouldn't expect to see the buck that's bacheloring breeding, because he's there for two different animals. Very interesting, you know what?

Mike : 1:34:56

we're going to leave it there, because that is the perfect segue for when we record the next time when we do this in the summer, because Cause you know what that is. Yet again, another thing, just eye opened and it's now, I think, would change. Not everyone, because we know how people are, but now it definitely to me would change, change how I approach things, and you know yeah, you're always going to have guys that are like deer are nomadic and they're purely random.

reaper : 1:35:22

And you're North Carolina, deer is just going to chase all the way to Texas. But you know, we all know that's not the case. Not very interesting. Anything with a home range can be managed.

Mike : 1:35:33

Very true, all right. So, brandon, I want to thank you so much for coming on. I mean, this was a blast, very informational, you know. I yeah my coming on.

Mike : 1:35:45

I mean this was a blast, very informational, you know, I, I, yeah, I my mind's blown, so now I gotta go dissect, dissect some of this stuff and everything like that. But you know, love chatting with you, love talking to you on instagram. We, you know, we go back and forth. Um, it's been an absolute pleasure. Um, you know, can't wait to get you on again, can't wait to get you on for the uh, the roundtable segment, because we're going to have some fun during that.

reaper : 1:36:05

You know, hopefully, you got to get me on with Dave.

Mike : 1:36:08

Oh, definitely, I definitely will. We'll get the crew together, you know. Hopefully one of these days you can make it out for one of our events. I would love to meet you in person.

reaper : 1:36:18

Sit next to Dave real close and make him uncomfortable.

Mike : 1:36:24

I love it. Hey, hey, listen, I would be even interested, you know, maybe for next year, if, if you would be interested being our, uh, our guest speaker and talking about exactly this, because growing awareness on, on on this, fawning cameras and even the velvet stuff, I mean I feel like a lot of people would be very interested into doing because I would like I would like to. I would like to sit and not have to ask questions, and like just sit there and just listen to you to you, you talk.

Mike : 1:36:50

So I would be very interested in that too, and, you know, maybe you'll, you'll, you'll be our guest speaker for the for our next one yeah, I don't want to commit to that now, of course but yeah, we got a long time, always if, if, the availability rises, I would love to.

reaper : 1:37:03

And with that said, I'm this year. I'm specifically targeting collecting data, collecting that data more than I have in years past. But I'm also working through organizing some of my old data to have like visual to, to present selfishly, both just for my YouTube channel and for my channel, but also to share with people, like you're saying. So when I get all of that together, I'll submit it to you guys, and if it's something that you you think is worthy, hell yeah.

Mike : 1:37:38

Yeah, no, definitely, definitely. But thank you guys for for tuning in. I hope you guys enjoy this episode and we'll see you.