A Quiet Woods And A Big Why

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Every hunter has a moment when the woods grow quiet, the air shifts, and time slows down. And in that stillness, you realize you're not chasing big games. You're chasing something bigger. Welcome back to the Chase the Unknown Podcast. Where we go beyond the saddle, past the show cameras, and deep into the stories that fuel the fire. The show is for the ones who sleep over the rudge, who hike miles into the public land for just a chance, and who live for that silence before the shot from the backcountry to the back roads. We sit down with hunters and trappers, with relentless stories, who live for the thrill, embrace the unknown, and return with the stories we're telling. This is more than a podcast. This is the start of something real. Let's chase it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Today's guest is a man who lives and breathes the outdoors. Jesse Richard from Giant Midwest Bucks to Raw Authentic Moments in the Field. Jesse captures it all. And the founder of Outdoor X Media, a proud husband and a father of two, and a force in the hunting world. Not just for the animals he tags, but for the heart and grit he brings to the lifestyle. From Velvet Bucks to Dove hunts, Jesse's chasing every moment the wild has to offer. Let's dive in and talk dear, digital grit, and what keeps him coming back to it all. Jesse, welcome to the to the show. Oh, thanks for having me. No problem. Really excited, excited for this one. Um, you know, for for all those out there who who may not know you, why don't you give a quick uh rundown?

SPEAKER_02 1:54

All right. Uh my name is Jesse Richard. I live in in Iowa, have been here my entire life. Uh kind of got into the outdoor industry. Man, it's been almost 20 years. I I turned 40 this year and I started filming my hunts in 2005, but started hunting when I was probably oh, eight or nine years old, rabbits and squirrels, and you know, it just kicked up from there, got into a little bit of the deer hunting. And where I grew up in northern Iowa, there wasn't a lot of deer, a lot, not a lot of deer opportunity. So I used to bird hunt all the time, ducks and geese. And every morning before school, I'd go out and and duck hunt, and it just it's all I ever did. And we got to the point where I graduated high school, moved uh a little bit farther south, and the opportunities kind of opened up as far as you know, chasing deer and turkeys and all that, and almost had to like reset how I, you know, went about hunting.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah. You know, you you you say so you started roughly eight or nine, but um, you know, you started, you know, film were you starting filming in in 2005 and everything like that?

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah, so it's it's right at 20 years probably that I've been filming hunts and stuff like that.

Filming Hunts From Tapes To Phones

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So but you know, before we get into you know your childhood and everything like that, um, you know, 2005, I mean, obviously you look at social media, you look at, you know, the cameras and you know, the editing capabilities of of just where we are now in 2025, you know, what was it like when you first started, you know, filming your own hunt? Like what were some of the different difficulties with everything? Like, it feels to me like things were just so heavy. And I mean, at the time, like that's what was you know the norm and everything like that. And everyone's moved to like such light components and everything like that. But like, what what was it like for you making that also that transition from a hunter to now moving into this this more medium-based field?

SPEAKER_02 4:02

So back in back when I first started doing it, um, it's it's kind of a neat story. The only guys doing it for production-wise were were companies. So you had like your real tree, hunter specialties, primo, like those were the guys that that did it. It was it was companies that filmed their hunts. And uh I got started with a group of guys here in Iowa. Mind you, I was you know 20 years old at the time, and they had come up with an idea of basically your everyday person filming hunts and being able to produce it. So it was called uh real hunting, is what it was called. And it was basically if anybody had filmed their hunts and just kind of wanted their 10 minutes of fame, they you would send in your videos to these guys and they would edit it and put it out on DVD. So this is this is like I said, this is way back in the mid-2000s, and it would be here here in the Midwest, Casey's general store like is our gas station. Like it's that's the thing. Like it's we we were in Casey's, but we would do all the trade shows and have booths selling DVDs. That that's that's that's what we did. And uh, you know, so the big guys had the giant cameras. I remember I I grew up around uh some hunter specialties guys, um, Phil Vanderpool knew him and Rick White knew him, and uh their cameras were like 25 pounds, huge, like carrying a cinder block around, and they were$20,000. And and you were recording on a on a huge tape. Like, I mean, the tapes were were that big, and there's no redoing, there's no deleting. So you would carry around, you know, multiple batteries and multiple tapes. So if you're filming something and it's running out, you got a quick stop, shut everything off, pull the cassette tape out, put a new one in. So it's it's transitioned from that to you know, a lot of people produce stuff on their phones, you know. We've we have uh we have phone hunts on some of our videos, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

So it it's funny, you know, yesterday. So my and it's gotten to the point where I remember growing up, like you had to get a new phone every year. So like when I got into high school and everything like that, so like 2009 and everything like that, like the the thing was like you got a new phone every single year, like brand new phone, and I knew everything. I was up to date on my phones, everything like that. You know, now I just went the last three years without getting a brand new iPhone, right? And it died yesterday where it just was not working. So I go to the store and he's like, Well, what are you looking for? First of all, I'm like, I don't know. Like, I don't what what is even the new, you know, what whatever. So he went over it and like I was like, listen, this is what I do. You know, I I do a lot of filming for my hunts, and I I have my main cameras and everything like that. But sometimes, you know, these iPhones are absolutely phenomenal at filming. I mean, a lot of products are, and I think even in movies and stuff like that, they're using iPhones and everything like that. So I was like, listen, I just want whatever. If I don't have the time to grab my camera, if I don't want to lug my camera on a quick scout or something like that, or a quick, you know, hunt or whatever, I can just bring the phone and just film with the phone. Like, that's just what I want to do. And this thing, look how small it is. Like it's tiny, but it's absolutely amazing. And now you can live stream on it, you can do all these things, but you know, it the way technology is just come is phenomenal. But yeah, those big, like anytime you're thinking of, you know, back in the day and everything, you you think of those big, big cameras, and then you know, I know I I had a muddy um camera arm, and this thing was it was great, it was so sturdy, yeah, but it was so it was it weighed so much, and now I'm using a stealth um, let's face the the pocket arm from stealth, and that thing literally fits in my pocket, and it's like maybe a pound or two, and it's just like it's just phenomenal, just where things have have gone.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Yeah, I use one of them muddies that had like the turn knob to level it.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

You use one of those for 10 years. Loved it. It it just uh it got to the point where it it was a pain having to set it up every single time. And then like I've I have a it's not even a newer one. I have a a couple year old fourth arrow camera arm and I bought like 20 bases. So when I'm setting up a stand, I set I set up the base kind of where I think I want it, and then the first time I hunt, I'll put the head and everything on there and get it exactly where I want it, and uh I just leave it.

Mobility Versus Set Stands On Private

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah, yeah, and and that's what I was doing with fourth arrow for a while. But you know, also on that too, you know, when you're you're going through this process. So when you were filming your hunts and you're starting out, you know, you're you're hanging stands and everything like that. Yet again, everything is was heavier back then and everything like that. So there wasn't where are you not much were you how mobile were you back, you know, back in 2005 and you know, probably the early you know 2000s? And have has how has that changed for you now? Like do you saddle hunt now? Are you a little more mobile? Do you have the stands that you can just take put up and and take down? Or you you know, are you just having a strategic layout on your your properties?

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Yeah, I mean, I mean, right out of college, I mean, I didn't have any money, so it was like you'd go to Menards and buy a$50 ladder, 12-foot ladder stand that was literally a just a platform. And and the funny thing is, I still have the first ladder stand I ever bought. It is on my uncle's farm in southern Iowa, and I actually killed that deer out of it like two years ago. It was it was like grown into the tree. Um, you couldn't cut it out if you wanted to. Um, but it's in a good spot. So um, but yeah, I I guess I'm not super mobile. Um, I'm very fortunate. I hunt 99% private ground. Um I just I've went out of state and hunted public before, um, Missouri, Kentucky, uh, North Dakota, stuff like that. And I have a different thought on it, you know, just and and maybe it's being a little bit spoiled that I do have private ground like my uncle owns a 200 acre farm in southern Iowa and I've been hunting it for 20 years. Um, I just bought a farm two years ago. So most of those cases, I they're they're stands that I know where I want to be. So I set them up and I leave them. You know, I every year I check straps, I trim lanes, make sure everything's good. But for the most part, my stands are stationary. But I I do always have a set of lighter stand and sticks in my truck at all times once like September rolls around, you know, like when I'm doing like my final scouting or if I, you know, have a camera in a certain area and I'm getting a deer, I'm like, okay, well, instead of pulling a stand, I'll just go take this one and I'll go go hang in there and and I'll hang and hunt the first time. And then depending on what I see and how it goes, I'll leave it and then go get another stand and have it ready. But I don't when it comes to like the super mobile stuff, I'm that's never really been my jam. Some guys are good at it and and that's their thing. That's that's just never been mine. I like to historical, you know, information of where I'm gonna sit.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

So I think, you know, when you when you look at a lot of hunters, you know, I and listen, when I've hunted pro private and everything like that, it is so much easier just to, you know, you do your scouting in this in the summer, you hang your stands and everything strategic, and then you you just leave them for it private. I think that's that's kind of like the best thing. And then like you said, you're just going off a history off of that. You know, you do your maintenance and everything like that. And you, if you do have to put a stand or or something like that in another spot, like you might as well just do it. No one is gonna be really shouldn't be going up into your spots or anything like that. Like it it's much different versus public. You can leave your stands, and you know, which I think in the start, in the beginning, listen, that's what I did all the time. Like I would go and it's like you you'd put your your spot there, and that would be your spot for you know how many years to come, and then you start seeing other hunters start getting close or you know, start putting their stands up. And that's where you know I've gone into this, I think, super chaotic mobile setup where I'm constantly moving. Um, don't like to hunt some of the same trees, especially if if I get busted and everything like that. You know, if somebody else is like near me, like I will just even if I really want to be in that spot, I'll just move and everything like that. But that's the choice that I've kind of been given just because we're hunting on on public land versus private. I think, you know, when I do get my, you know, hopefully finally my my farm or whatever and my long-term hunting property, I would kind of like to do a more strategic historical hang put up stands and everything like that, and then go from from there. You know, it's I I think it just makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Yeah, and and I mean I I even on ground that I've hunted for years, I still, you know, hang new stands every year. I I do. Um there's you know, you you go off of the historical stuff, whether it's trail cameras or sightings or you know, things like that, where I was in the woods, oh, probably two weeks ago on on my main farm that I hunt that's not mine. And uh I've had a camera on this cedar tree by this mock scrape for I think three or four years now. And that first week of November, I always have big deer at daylighting right in through there. And the last two years I've walked it, you know, during shed season and go, okay, where am I where am I gonna get in here? And I'm I looked the other day and I'm like, man, I can't get within 80 yards of here and be on the top of this ridge because I don't want to go off of either side. Um, I want to be on the on the very top to try to mess, you know, keep my thermals as true as they possibly can be. And I settled on a, I haven't hung it yet, but I found a tree and it might be too close to the scrape. I don't know, but it's it's a big wide tree that I mean, they they base break off probably four feet off the ground and it's just a big Y that goes up. And they're only this big around. But I I think I can get in there with a set of sticks and a hang on, and um it's the right place, if that makes sense. You know, it may not be the perfect tree, but it's the right place. So I'll I may hang it, I may do all the work, hang it, get up in there, start moving around and being like, now this tree's shaking too much, or it's doing that. I I can't sit here and then I'll pull everything. So um I try to do that stuff, you know, I like doing it in the middle of the summer just because it's you're getting a little bit of foliage in there by now. I know what it looks like in the in, you know, when there's no leaves, because I, you know, shed hunt the farm for years. So I kind of know the general area of where stuff is, but it's it's a never-ending process, I guess, is the easiest way to describe it. It's just adjusting.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

And and I think you know, that that's an important part there too, is like you wait until the foliage is is coming up a little bit because a lot of people will will get out there and they'll do it when you know maybe things are are still not yet to the grown in where things do change, you know, and you kind of want to know what you need to trim, like, oh, maybe this is not gonna really work out for me. Um, and then once you're doing it midway through the season, it's you know, I think it's another important piece, is also like, yeah, if you need to adjust, you need to adjust. So if you get in there and you just don't feel comfortable and like, hey, you know what, this isn't working out. I think that's some people will stay a little complacent where like, oh, like I'm just I already did the work, I'm just going to to leave it up, you know, um, versus like, all right, listen, it I this is not it. Like, this is not what I thought it was gonna be once I got up there and got everything set up. I've I've done that even in in my hunts where, you know, especially being in a saddle and everything like that, I'll get up and I'll get all set up and I'm fully set up and I'm just like something is not right. Like, I just don't like once you're up, you see just way more, and you can see wherever it's like, I need to be a little further down, or this tree is a little too wobbly. I can't really even move without the whole tree shaking and everything like that. So you kind of have to, you know, make your adjustments there, which I I I think is great. And I, you know, I do believe in getting a little aggressive, and you know, if hopefully that that spot pays off for you and everything like that. And yeah, maybe a little too close, but I think sometimes that being aggressive and getting close in, as long as you know, obviously, which everyone, most people know, is it's all about how you how you get in and you know which way you're walking in your entrance. And as long as you can stay undetected, I think you'll you know, you'll you'll be hit pretty great on in that spot.

Cell Cameras And The Ethics Line

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Yeah, it's it's just it's one of those I won't even I'll let the cameras tell me when to get in there. And I'm a huge cell camera guy. Um same, same. It's if people just not using them, they're just being, you know, bullheaded about it really. I mean, I I don't know. I I go back and forth with people all the time on social media and different things. Everybody's got their own opinion, and everybody thinks a little bit different. And you know, some people want to make it as hard as it can possibly be. I mean, it's already hard. It's already too hard. I mean, I it took me years and years and years to kill a, you know, what you know, Iowa standard good deer. And I mean, God, it was I bet you I was bow hunting 15 plus years. I'm trying to remember when I killed or when I started bow hunting. I was maybe 2000. Yeah, I mean, we're talking 16, 17 years before I ever killed a deer over one 140 with my bow. You know, and it had just happened to be the biggest deer I've ever killed. So it's it just worked out that way. It was, you know, not that I haven't had other opportunities or chances, or you know, I've missed, you know, missed deer, you know, shoulder shot one or something, you know, something you know, where everything didn't work out. I mean, but yeah, it's it's hard enough as it is. So I'm I'm one of those guys I will take every legal advantage I possibly can to kill a deer.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

And then I think that's we talk about this all the time in our podcasts and everything like that. But it's like people are like, oh, well, you know, you you can't do this, or like it's but it as long as it's legal, it should not matter. You know, we went to a state Delaware um last year and we'll be hunting there from from now on um for opening weekend down there and everything like that. But there's no choke, no choke cameras, so you can't, and yes, it was fun, and I think that's a rule that they just put in like a year or two ago, but like it's fun, it's different, it's a different challenge. It's it was a brand new state for me. So I was already it was already challenging enough as it is, but then going in there with no intel at like at all and like movement, and you're you're trying to you're basically going off the hunt of each hunt you're you're scouting. That's it, that's basically what it is. And yeah, it's great, but man, I love to if I can get 15 cameras out and like I'm cra I'm like crazy when it comes to it because and then I'm moving cameras, like especially the closer we get to the rut, I'll move, I'll move cameras. Right now is the time I let them soak. They just sit there, I don't touch them, I don't go in, I I just leave them. And during the rut, then I'll start, you know, moving them around and everything like that. Because for me, and my belief, at least here in New Jersey, um, and the areas that we hunt, like they're not as phased as hum with human scent as it would be like in Iowa, you know, somewhere on the Midwest or you know, Maine or something like that, where the deer-human contact is not like it is here. Like we're such a small state and everything like that, like you see deer constantly and you're always interacting with deer. So they're a little more free when it comes to that, where it's like, all right, you you don't have to worry near as much. But um yeah, I think if trail cameras is a phenomenal tool, I think yes, it is getting a little crazy with like you can check on them live now and everything like that. Like, I think that's a little too much, but I think cell cameras just where they are right now, like besides the lives, like I I think they're in a a really good place where you know I can get a cell cam picture right now and boom, I'm collecting intel without even being in the woods.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Yeah, and and you know, I I have a couple cameras that have the live option, and and I've never used it. I probably will once it once it gets a little different, but it it'd be more of I think it just goes back onto that what is legal and what's not legal and what's you know, because people will. Say one person's ethical is not another person's ethical, you know. Um, like you can say, well, I got a picture of this deer this morning, you know, it's November 1st. I got a picture of this buck on a scrape. I'm gonna drive down there this afternoon and I'm gonna hunt. Well, we're talking seven, eight hours difference. One person will say, Well, you had a picture of him, you weren't gonna hunt there. I'm like, yeah, but five minutes after I got that picture, he was 200 yards away. Like it's not like I'm sitting at my house and you know, I don't, but let's say like I hunted could hunt the property, you know, I had 50 acres behind my house and I get a picture of a deer, you know, right behind my house, and I would sneak down there and shoot it like within two minutes of getting a picture. You know, that's probably pushing the ethics line. But uh once again, I mean, if if it's legal in whatever state, it is what it is. You know, we we talk about the the baiting and the food plots, and you know, well, a food plot's just a giant bait pile that you put in the ground and it grows, and you know, it it is what it is. I mean, there's whatever your state allows, why not? I mean, we can't bait in Iowa, you know, as far as dumping corn or mineral or you know, something like that while you're hunting. Um, you can now, like you can put anything out right now you want to, and yeah, it's fine. I I think there's like a 30-day sort of thing, but usually if there's nothing left there, there's no sign of it by the time you hunt, it's it's all it's all good and legal.

Baiting Food Plots And Hard Seasons

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah, yeah, we're we're a baiting state, and I always tell people, like, and I I've tried cutting down the baiting and everything like that. Um, but then it always gets to a point of what a lot of us say is like, well, if I'm not baiting, neighbors, every other hunter, every every other hunter is baiting, so like it really doesn't matter. And then it just puts us at a disadvantage, it puts the non-baiters at a disadvantage, and we're like you said, it hunting is already hard enough as it is. Now, can you imagine you're the only person not baiting, but every other hunter in the woods is is baiting, the deer are just gonna go to that, go to those bait piles. So that's that's the reality of it.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yeah, and we even see that here with food plots, like uh my main farm that I hunt, uh our our food plots completely failed last year. We had, besides a couple little clover pieces, we had on 200 acres, we had zero food plots, and there's just so much that involved with that. It was like nine weeks of no rain whatsoever and just you know, crop damage, all this stuff. But the neighbors, um, which is basically a lot of commercial ag that's all designed for hunting, you know, there's certain spots that get cut out, and you know, they'll leave this section of corn and that section of beans and you know, have blinds all over it and all power to them. I mean, that's that's great, but at the end of the day, we couldn't do it. And I saw such depletion in deer numbers last year. It was it was insane. Like the amount of mature bucks had maybe all year last year, had maybe three or four mature deer on camera the entire season. And you know that you know we're right where they're at, you know, they're on on all the food, but yeah, Mother Nature wasn't playing last year, so didn't work.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah, and that's what what you hear and talk about with a lot of just all over the country is just how bad um you know the drought was and everything like that, and just everyone's deer number, like I was constantly getting like, hey, like what you know, what's it over there? Like, I haven't really seen much, no mature deer. And like I would say, yeah, if you're somebody lucky enough to have a property that did have some food on it or even a a water source, like it was a such a key thing in of getting a water source in uh last year if people didn't have it, that that's where just a lot of deer were going. But you know, with that, you know, when you go into like boom, all your your food source and you know your your plot is is basically null and void, you know, what what did you do to kind of overcome that? Because last year you shot two bucks, correct? Or were they in in that on that property somewhere in the area, or were those different states?

SPEAKER_02 26:19

So the the two I shot were were both in Iowa. I didn't go out of state last year uh to deer hunt. Um, I did not shoot one on that farm. I uh one farm, the buck I killed November 1st um with my bow was on a completely different farm. It was it's more of an ag big ag chunk, and it's it's surrounded by preserve, like it's a nature preserve white walking trails all over the place. And I'm fortunate enough I got a little chunk of timber right there. And there was a lot of good deer there. They were running around like crazy. There was a you know, hindsight 2020, I killed a five and a half plus year old, you know, mid-50s deer, but there was a big, big one running around that I think I should have probably held out for. And um, but it was hard to do. I mean, I rattled and and grunted, and he came right to the tree. Um, I mean, he he came right in, snort wheezing and grunting, and ended up shooting him at like 16 yards and watched him fall. And but then my statewide tag was was punched and I had my farm tag because here in Iowa, you get a if you qualify, you can get a landowner's tag um for the farm that you for the property you own. So I hunted all in November on my personal farm and uh never got an opportunity. Had a close call with the big deer on the farm. Uh just a little bit of not enough shooting light. Um I the camera camera probably saved him. He uh uh it got a little too dark for the camera. I came to full draw, could see my pin on him and looked at the camera and it was just black. So I I let down and I'm like, yeah, it's it, you know, it it was it was pushing it anyways. So I just let it go and the neighbor ended up killing him like three weeks later, which it is what it is. They're wild deer, you know, they go all over the place. And yeah, um, I got to hunt my farm a lot and I kind of realized how deer move very, very consistently on my farm. Um, so I hung a new stand last week for that, um, for that situation. Um, but then the buck I killed late season, I used my bow. Um I'm pretty good friends with uh Josh Bomar and he had this old deer. We actually tried to get my kids on it during youth season and it just didn't show up. And he's like, hey, uh, this deer is constantly there. Do you want to go shoot it? He's like six or seven years old and said, Yeah, I have nothing late season. I uh I have nothing consistently. Uh let's go shoot it. And I I was in the blind like an hour and 45 minutes, and deer walked in the plot and I killed him. So, you know, that's amazing. I'll I'll rather be luck, a little bit of luck, never hurts anybody.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

So and and you know, I I like when you talk about the deer that you killed earlier in the season, everything like that. I things happen for a reason. When you look at it like a kind of like a storybook hunt, it's you and it always the TV shows, especially growing up, you rattle, you grunt, and then a deer comes in, and then you you smoke it, and like, yeah, you it's so much easier now to say, like, ah, I should have, you know, held out for it for the bigger one. But then that was just like the perfect moment, and like everything came together, and it's just one of those signs of like, hey, listen, it this it worked. 16 yard chip shot too. It's that's even better. As a bow hunter, the closer in, you know, the better and everything like that, which made everything just so perfect. Like, that's I think that's one of my dreams, and we talk about it here, um, being on the east coast, deer aren't as vocalized as they are on on the Midwest. You know, we've talked to a bunch of Midwest guys, like the grunting and the the rattling of the antlers, I think, works way more than it does out on the east coast. Also here on the east coast, like where we're hunting, if you're not on a an ag field or something like that, like we're in these thick woods, and you know, you have maybe sometimes five, six, seven yards of of visibility. So it could work. You just may never even see that deer, so it really wouldn't, you know, they can go downwind and you know, wind check you, whatever the case is. Like you have these sometimes these small pockets of windows where grunting and everything like that may be at a disadvantage, but that is a storybook. Like, I want to get the you know, get the grunt, get the rattle anglers and get a deer to come cruising in looking for a fight to kill. I feel like that's a lot of bow hunters like dream scenario right there.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Yeah, and I mean it when I when I say I I rattled, put the horns down, made two grunts, heard a grunt, looked up, and here he came. Like, I mean, it was within, and the funny thing was I had a cell camera probably 150 yards away from where I was. Yeah, and he was blowing up the scrape when I started rattling. So he was 150 yards away because I went back, looked at the timestamps of everything, and I'm cracking the horns, and you can watch him in the cell camera just look like he's looking my direction on the camera. And I didn't even know this till like an hour later after I found the deer and was doing you know cutaways and stuff like that. Yeah, and my phone had blown up. I'm like, oh, oh, no, that's him, you know. Like I knew it was him and all that good stuff, and it just it worked out perfect.

Tagging Out And Iowa Tag Strategy

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah, no, definitely. And you know, something also so 2024, 2023, 2020, you've been on a grind where you've tagged out, so you get, like you said, you get two tags and everything. Like are these all Iowa, Iowa deer?

SPEAKER_02 32:10

Yeah, yeah. The so you get as an Iowa resident, you're guaranteed a any sex bow tag and an any sex gun tag. Um now you have to kind of pick your seasons with gun, um, what you want to go, what you want to do as far as just a regular resident. Um, a couple of years ago they switched the farm tag. So your your landowner's tag is a floating tag. So it's good from October 1st when our season starts all the way through January 10th. You can use that tag the entire time. You just have to use whatever weapon is legal in those in that time frame. So, like there's a there's a section where you can only um like early muzzle loader, like the third second or third week of of October. There's like 10 days that you can use a muzzle order, and that has a quota. So you get, I think there's 7,000 for the entire state, but your landowner will work for that.

unknown 33:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Where everybody else has to apply for that one. So I typically what I do is I get a landowner's tag that'll go the whole time, get my archery tag, and then I go late muzzle loader, which is after like our shotgun season in December. It's basically like December 2017, 18, 20th till January 10th is that late season. And you can you can use your bow like I did this year for a muzzle odor.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Well, that's I mean, uh first of all, phenomenal streak, you know, three years in a row, you know, tagging out and everything like that. Um, you know, through the hard work and and dedication and everything like that, but like you said, there was a point where you know, in your career that this wasn't happening. You know, it took you uh a long time to kill, you know, a a 140 and and everything like that. And now, you know, you're you're on this, you know, a a phenomenal street, but it's not for the, you know, this is work, you know. And I think some people, you know, not everybody, but I think a lot of people see people on TV and on Instagram and social media and all these shows that it's like, oh, it seems so easy to them. But it's not. There, there's tons of work that that you're doing that other people are doing that years of shouldering a deer, just completely missing a deer, you know, not being able to get on, you know, mature older, older deer, but it's it's a it takes time. It's not a snap of your finger, then it's going to happen.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Yeah, you can have that flash in a pan where stuff happens and it just it works, but yeah, I mean, for years, and a lot of the deer that I killed with my boat back in the day that were like in the 30s were old deer. I mean, I you know, they it was just one of those they never had a big rack, it never, you know, not every deer is gonna turn into a you know 170-inch deer, you know. Um, so I I never really cared. I was I I kind of coined the term if it's if it's not old enough, it better be big enough, and if it's not big enough, it better be old enough. You know, so but each their own. I mean, I got you know, most of the deer behind me are at least five, if not six years. I think this one is six. I don't know this when he showed up, he's five or six. This one I had four years of pictures of was six. That was my big one, just a random. I think he was five, but that one I I got a lot of flack for shooting that because really he is he's a four and a half year old deer, you know. He's he had a lot of potential. Um, but I'm not gonna pass 170 inch deer. I'm I'm just not. So no, no, no, it's crazy to a couple of the neighbors were upset, and I and I get it, and I and I understand I don't hold it against them. Um, but at the end of the day, if it excites me, I'm gonna shoot it. And it just it just is what it is. Like you can hate at hate on me all you want. Um I got I got thick skin. I'm I'm so used to it. I you know, it it doesn't really bother me to uh to take take a little bit of a guff every now and then, but it's it's it's unfortunate that we we kind of bash on each other a lot and you know it's it it everybody's in different situations. That that's what I I would want everyone to look at it is you know if you're like how you're at, I don't even know what a what a big deer is out there, you know, no no clue. But if if you're whatever you're set up for and whatever you're this is my goal is what I want to shoot this year, do it, you know, stick to it. But uh a lot of trial and error, a lot of mess ups, and you know, a little bit of luck here and there definitely definitely doesn't hurt.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

I I think you know, especially, you know, when you know your listeners and you know people, uh, you know, your your followers and everything like that, especially from the Midwest states and everything like that, here about so for New Jersey. We are a six to seven buck state. Yeah, it's crazy. Which is and it's it's very unfortunate because we have actually we have phenomenal genetics here. I mean, we have really big deer. Now not like stuff, right? We have a we keep there are a lot of non-typical. I feel like uh especially in um like the more southern you go in New Jersey, you get a lot more non-typical. And here, um, in where I'm at right now, more western Jersey, you do like have a lot of typical uh deer. Uh especially like eight points, there's a lot of you know, those that typical buck that you that you would think of is is kind of like what we have here. But they do get big, especially, you know, on the farms or in the mountains and everything like that. The only problem is we are not getting it and you know, for the people that in Jersey that consistent consistently can shoot a four and a five-year-old duck, it's usually on private. Where if you're on state land, man, you pass a 120 two-year-old or a three, you know what I mean? You're no one else is gonna pass that. Man, you got people because it's a six, seven bucks state, you got people not passing spikes. So and you have to, I've I've kind of learned that like I would pass deer and really great potential, and they're they're dead to come gun season, especially gun season. You know, I think the bow hunters in our in our state, they really do try to go for, you know, bigger deer, and they're the you know, they're the ones that really pass, you know, more mature deer and everything like that, and really want our state to go to a a two buck state. Now, for our gun hunters, which I completely understand because most of them are the guys that are only going out for that week or you know, the weekend or something like that, they want to be able to get as much meat as they can, which uh it's legal. So, yet again, there isn't really much for for me to do or say I get it, you know, but it definitely has to if you're hunting on this in this area and everything like that. You have to remember like you may pass a a good potential deer, the odds of the next person passing that that same buck is extremely low. So you might as well take that shot. And if it like you said, if it gets your heart pumping, that's all that matters. If that deer, don't don't hesitate. And I've I've shot some smaller bucks thinking on that mindset right there of learning in the past where I've passed deer and then they've been killed. And it's like, all right, I put in all this hard work whole season. You know what? Maybe the the big, big ones that I've hasn't worked. You know what? This is getting my heart pumping. This is a respectable deer. I'm gonna take this deer because you know what? Why why pass them? No one else is like no one else is gonna pass them. So let me let me get my meat in the freezer, let me be happy and be proud of what I've killed for all the hard work that I've put in. So I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot that deer.

Camera Bans Public Land And Loopholes

SPEAKER_02 40:44

Yeah, yeah, it's everybody's got a different train of thought and mindset, and I understand all of it. I I really do. You know, like our gun season here, a lot the first one's like five days long. And you know, we part we party hunt, you push them with shotguns and stuff like that, and you know, you kill a lot of deer, but we also have like antlers tags. So in our state, each county is allotted so many depending on deer density and harvest numbers from the past. So we we may have the county I hunt in southern Iowa, there's like 3,000 dough tags every year, and probably half of them don't even get bought. They just nobody nobody buys them because there's a lot of big landowners down there that are managing and they're not shooting does. So they they just they just don't shoot dough. Um so we're at there's actually a pretty big push to make Iowa a one buck state instead of two. Really? Wow. Yep. Um I don't I guess I don't care if you if you still allow me my landowner's tag so I can hunt my land the entire time and you make the one buck tag a floating tag also. Like you can go and you know, instead of making it instead of declaring, well, I want it for bow season and that's it, then you can't use it during certain periods of time. But if you get a buck tag and it was like, yep, it's a buck tag, but it's good all season long. Yeah, any weapon, yeah, yeah. I can see that. And and you can see where they're they're they're trying to do the age class. I mean, people that are just shooting deer to to fill the freezer and just to shoot a deer are gonna that they're gonna do that anyways. But like take me, for example, that 150 I shot. If I knew that was the only deer I was gonna get to shoot all year, I might have let them walk, you know. Yeah, I I might have walked him. So it's Yeah, and that's true too. And so you just it it's just a different mindset when you know you can't get a quote unquote mulligan and uh you know be able to double back on later and and ah, you know, late season, I'll get after a bigger one or something like that. Or but it's it it's it's interesting. And our our state laws have been trying to get changed a lot the last few years. Like they tried to ban cell cameras on public. Heard about that, yeah. And then it didn't pass because the wording wasn't right, so they hold held off on it, and I think they're still trying to do it. But my mindset with that is you know, everyone's thinking, well, if you don't have that, those cell cameras, you the deer are gonna get older, you know, because you you can't like track them. Well, I'm on the opposite side. Now let's let's say you're hunting a piece of public and there's no cameras, you and a nice solid 135 inch three year old walks out, good looking deer.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

And you just you lace it. You you smoke him. Now let's just imagine you have a cell, you have cameras back in this same situation. Well, guess what? You have A 170 on camera, two 150s, and 160 on camera, you letting that 135 three-year-old walk? Probably. Agreed, agreed. You know, so if if that's your thing, I mean, people that are that want to shoot just any deer, you know, what spikes, little fork, well, they're gonna shoot them no matter what. So you you're you're not looking at that. But if if you don't let people age deer and you don't let people realize what's running around, they're gonna shoot the first okay deer that they see because that may be the biggest deer on the on the property. You don't know if you were running cameras and that's the big deer, you're gonna shoot it. Yeah, but if it's not, you might let it walk.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

I I I agree with you on that statement. And I feel like a lot, and that's another people why people also don't like sell cameras as well. Where I've heard that case where it's like, well, you know, you get a lot of people that pass a lot of deer because they're you're holding out for that, for that one. Yeah, and I've I've it's happened to me, you know, or you get you get a picture and you kind of you plan on hunting another spot and then you get a self-cam picture, and then you go to to the other spot, and then like it just messes with your mind, which oh yeah, I under I I I completely understand that. I've I'm a victim of it. I think everyone is a victim of of that. But I think you know, if I head out to these these woods right behind me, you know, and if it was hunting season and I have no idea what's back there, yeah, a good looking buck comes by, I'm gonna whack that. And you know what? Could be an even bigger deer that I just have no idea about. So boom, now I'm gonna kill the smaller, maybe, you know, huge potential of a younger, younger deer, and then you know, it's it it's just one of those things that I don't know, I'm I'm not a big fan of people wanting to ban you know, sell cameras. I do think there has like I said, I do think there should be a limit of what the cameras can do, you know what I mean? Um I I don't think we need to go anywhere else than than where we are now with with cameras. I also can't imagine what else you can add um to cameras. Yeah, but most of them have like mine have has sound. I mean you projecting sound. Oh me, oh yeah. Could you could you imagine? Well, we I think we were joking. I don't I think that would be a company doing that one day, at least one company coming out where if you get a notification and somebody's by your spot or trying to tamper with your stuff where you can speak through it.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Or have a pre-recorded like there's something built into it that says, you know, hey, you're uh you're under surveillance, you know, this is being said to the authorities, you know, this is being recorded, blah blah blah like that. But uh yeah, we were joking in one of the groups, like I run stealth cams and stuff like that. And and uh when the live view thing came out, one of the guys that worked for him was showing us like on a feeder, there was, you know, like two turkeys like up in the feeder, like pecking at all this corn. And you know, he's like, Ah, turkey season's over, they need to get out of there. I'm like, man, you need to put a speaker on that thing so you look up the rack raccoons or something on your feeder, you can just be like, Hey, hey, get out of there, you know, and like spooky. So they so they take off. And yeah, so it's kind of funny that you say that.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

Yeah, no, it's and I'll I I get C1 eventually. Listen, in years to come, we'll go back. If one company comes back, we'll go back to this exact moment, like we, you know, we called it.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

There will be some sort of audible option, whether it's a siren or a beep, or yeah, there will be some sort of option that you can click on the on your app on your phone and it will audibly ring out on the camera, whether it's a voice recording or just a noise, it will be there in the next five years, guaranteed. Yeah, why to probably to deter people and stuff, you know, things and stuff like that, because that's how you need to phrase it. Because when they were talking about banning cell cameras, it's like you can't tell me I can't have this for surveillance for my property. Yeah, like I'm this this isn't here for deer. This isn't here for turkeys, this is here for making sure people don't trespass on my property. You can't tell me that I can't protect my property, yeah. You know, so there's always there's always loopholes.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

And I I have noticed a lot of the companies have been adding that surveillance of yep, you know, it's not only a show camera for for hunting, you can use these cameras for surveillance with surveillance, which is a great idea. I mean, one of my buddies, he he took his cameras, uh, they're at a break-in or something like that at his wife's like store or something like that. So they he just took his his cell cameras there and and and placed the cell cameras over. And it's it's it's true. How are you gonna tell somebody that they can't they can't do something, especially on their on their own property? And yeah, you technically I can hang him. It's not for hunting. I don't wait, I don't want people walking on my on my property, you know. I want to be informed when somebody's trespassing on my property.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Yep, yep. And just so happens that a lot of these accesses are also places where a lot of deer walk is what it is. Yep, not my fault. You know, it's like like the t-shirts are the signs, you know, this this corn isn't for the deer, you know, it's for the squirrels. But if I if I see a deer eating it, I'm gonna shoot them off of it, you know.

Iowa Giants Then EHD Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 49:37

So uh it's it's a hundred percent, a hundred percent fact. Um, you know, one thing, so you you grew up in Iowa, correct? Yep. So what have you now, when especially us on these, when you think of Iowa, you think of the land of giants and everything, like like just just deer hunting, you know, the mecca of of deer hunting. What was it like growing up for you? I know you said you did a lot of waterfowl, a lot of bird hunting and stuff like that when you're really young, but once you got into that deer hunting, you know, what did you see as the numbers, um, you know, the size, and what did anything change where to get to where we are now?

SPEAKER_02 50:17

Oh, yeah, I mean, so I would say I started getting into deer hunting a little bit harder, maybe that 2005 through 2010. And uh it when I when I tell people, and like I said, and I was young then, so like we had cell camera or we didn't have cell cameras that had regular cameras back then. And uh if I had the knowledge now back then of like stand placement and camera placement, all that stuff, my wall would look like a bell's. I mean, there were so many big deer in like the you know, the late, you know, 19 and early 2000s, there were so many big giant deer running around. Um, and we had a horrible EHD hit 2011, 2012, and it absolutely destroyed the state. I mean, when when I tell you there used to be, there were sections that I knew of, and I I've probably seen half a dozen 200-inch deer on the hoof. Um there were years that there were more like you you could go out into a field and you would glass now we're like in Iowa. If you go and you'd glass a bean field or something, there'd be half a dozen, you know, 140s, 150s on it. These were 180s and they were everywhere. They were and when I say they were everywhere, everyone's talking, oh, there's 150 pine every tree in Iowa. Back in the day it was. There were so many big deer. And EHD came through and absolutely destroyed the genetics, and it I don't think it's ever recovered. It it really hasn't. Wow. So it's you know the number the numbers aren't there, the quality. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are still giant deer. There it's coming back in spots, but I don't ever think in general, with the whole thing like it's like a state, a statewide thing. I don't think we'll ever, or Midwest in general, I don't think we'll ever get back to what it was. I mean, you you would have to do man go dough only for five years. Yeah, you know, shut down hunting for five years, you know, only shoot eight, nine-year-old deer for five years to even pretend to get to that. But then the gent are the genetics even there, like you know, that are they gonna are are those lineages still in there that used to be there? And there's some that are. Like I have pictures of deer on my that farm down south. Uh in general, the characteristics there are big brow tines and junk on the bases and uh kickers off the twos, you know. Um there's that's how it's always been. There's I have a deer right now that's probably 140, you know, and he's far from being done growing, and it's actually one of his genetics. Same, same exact frame. I mean, he was as a he was either three or four last year, um, probably three. He was probably pushing 150 as a clean six by five. And he'll he'll probably he'll probably look just like this, you know, be in the upper 60s, lower 70s at the end of the end of the day, you know, when this season's running around. I'm getting pictures of him every couple days. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:57

But it's not so and back in the day, it was it was a constant, consistent thing. Always big maternity everywhere. And but I think that's just a a you know, EHG has been a huge, and you've man, we got hit real bad by EHG one year, and I definitely have seen a huge notice, but like I I was talking to people that had farms at like 90 to 95 to 99 percent of their herd was absolutely wiped out where you just smelled just death everywhere, like on farms and everything like that. But you know, there's a lot of things that are up against deer numbers just around the country. You know, big part is also, you know, there's always being new housing developments, secondos, stores, like we're losing so much land, you know. Everyone knows uh by now should know, you know, the bill that was just they're trying to pass and everything like that, um, with it's like two or three million acres of of public land and and everything like that. But that is one of the things. So when you take something like EHD, you take, you know, deforestation, um, and then you also at the end of the day, you still have hunting. Yeah, you're it's almost impossible for a number to and for a size and a class to get back to to what it was, you know, and then also as a state, a state is not gonna unless like they severely need to like an the deer number would have to get drastically low for that to happen.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

And that's what they that's what they want, so it doesn't matter. Like yeah, yeah, and our everything in our state's dictated by Farm Bureau, the insurance company. It's it it really is all the lobbyists and all that stuff. It's all it's all politics.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Same thing here. That's that's why we have seven bucks state, that's why we have unlimited dose, that's why our black bear hunt was banned multiple times and finally is back, and it's only it's it's just a all of it is all political, all of it is not actually run by the the correct people. Um, and yeah, the insurance, it's never, it's never going to change. It generally will never, they don't want deer. They want to they want less less deer. And it's very no deer, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 56:22

No deer would be their favorite. So and it's just and like I said, with like the whole public land stuff, it it's it's kind of weird to to think about this because a lot of hunters are probably more conservative uh in general, but when it when it comes to like government programs and all that stuff, Democrats are the ones that do it. You know, they're they're the ones that that like you wouldn't never have a Democratic president wanting you know public lands to be sold. It just wouldn't happen. Um like our our uh like CRP programs and WRP programs in the state, you can tell when a when a democratic governor or president's there, those things go up and they're just handing them out left and right, you know, free, you know, free healthcare, free, free public land, free this land, free that land. And then when a republic when a Republican gets back in office, it they kind of grip it back and and pull it in because once again, it's like, well, why do you need to get paid for this? You know, so it's it's a hard thing to wrap around as a conservative, you know, that it's almost like, man, this is this is one of those times I'm agreeing like not with my party or what you know, whatever. But I think in I think in general, most people are smart enough to go, it's not here and it's not here. We're all right here. You know, sometimes if you're over here, you swing a little bit this way on one thing, and if you're over here, sometimes you swing a little bit on this way on some things, and you know, and the problem is that the 10 over here and the 10 over here are the loudest. Yep. And that's that's and that that's the problem.

SPEAKER_01 58:01

It's just isn't it? I agree with you. 100, 100 agreed. You know, it's it's it's just one of those, yet again, that's never it's never gonna change.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

Yep.

Dream Hunt Mountain Lion With A Bow

SPEAKER_01 58:12

Unfortunately. I got a few quick questions for you. Um you know, our biggest question, what I I love asking everybody, you know, two weeks, money's not an option anywhere in the world. What is your dream hunt?

SPEAKER_02 58:36

It's probably different than everybody else's. My the one thing I want to do is shoot a mountain line of the bow.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

Yeah, I think I think we've had enough one person at least say that that is a phenomenal animal.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

And it and it's I'll never forget it. It was Primo's truth about bow hunting. I believe it was Chris Ashley that was hunting, and they are out in like Idaho or something. They're banging these dogs or banging these cats of the dogs, and they get this mountain almost like on this rock point, like overlooking this huge canyon, almost like the like the Lion King Pride Rock sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's snarling and he shoots this cat. And I'm like, I'm gonna do that someday. Like that, that's what I want to do. So it's weird, like it's it's not that expensive, it's pretty obtainable, you know, where most people be like, Well, I want to shoot a polar bear or go to you know, over to Europe and shoot a Marco Polo Ram. Like, I'd love to do all that stuff. But if you said, hey, you get one free hunt, send me to shoot Mountain Lion.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

That's pretty cool. I listen, a phenomenal phenomenal animal. I heard they actually I think they said mountain. Yeah, I heard mountain line tastes really good. That's it's what I've heard. It's supposed to be sweet. Really? Yeah. Same thing with Bobcat. You know, I've I had I had Bobcat this year uh last year. Yeah, and I will say it was good. Um I'm a big fan of bear. Everyone knows, and on our shows that was like that. Huge bear hunter, love love eating bear. The bear that I killed, that was a sweet, sweet meat. Um, I know obviously it's not always going to be like that. Um, it just really depends what they but that is an interesting, like, because you know, at least with bears, I would understand because they do a lot of foraging, you know, they eat a lot of berries and root stuff like that. So that would make sense to me, you know. But mountain line, like that, that's an interesting one. I I would love to I would love to try, um, would love to do a mountain lion hunt at some point, but that is definitely a phenomenal fun, phenomenal hunt. Uh, is there any where where would you want to do it? Would you want to go to Idaho? Like you guys don't have mountain lions and stuff like that. So what's the closest?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:49

I mean, we do you do. Well, I mean, there is they're they're around, they get pictures of cameras on cameras every single year. There was one less than a mile from my house here in central Iowa uh two years ago. Um, people were seeing it actually in town. Um, there's been a couple killed in in like the Des Moines metros, like the capital is Des Moines. There's been two or three killed here by police in the last decade, you know, because we have such we have river systems that come through, yeah, and they just follow the river.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

But um is it a is it a is it a state thing where the state really doesn't say because like for us in Jersey, like I swear to god, I saw one two years ago. I know what a bobcat looks like. I I hands down, and you know, you'll hear about and PA every once in a while in upstate New York, and you know, one was hit by a car in in Connecticut. They say we don't have a living, breathing population, so that's why like you see mountain, like you we have mountain lions or a place has, but they don't consider it a breeding population, so they don't is that a kind of what it is for you for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:57

Yeah, a lot of them will come over from Nebraska. Um, they'll cross the Missouri River and come over and um and and they'll live. I mean, they'll live there and grow. I'm sure some of them are breeding and stuff like that. A lot of them they say they're you know immature males that get kicked out and can't find a range, but there was one a viral video, was it not last year season, but the season before this kid was in his in his tree stand, in a ladder stand, and a mount line came up and jumped the fence in front of him and just stood there, didn't know he was there. He's filming him with the cell phone, and then the cat goes and walks away, and and that cat was probably 150 pounds. It was huge. And and I'm telling you right now, if if that was me and it was that mount line or 200-inch deer, I'm killing the mountain. That is insane. There's no there's no season here and they're not protected.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

Yeah, which means you're legally allowed to do it, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

Yep. Uh we cannot shoot bear in Iowa. Oh wow. Yeah, there's even less of them, and we can't shoot them. Like, but like like I said, mount lines, they just they don't claim anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:07

Yeah, and and that's what I've heard with a lot of like states. We we actually had a picture of a um uh a guy posted on in Jersey, and we had an elk in Jersey the uh like a couple weeks ago. And technically, if it was hunting season, it would because we were talking about like they're like, can you technically kill him? Like, I'm pretty sure technically, because it's not a it's not protected, it's not anything that you you would, you would probably like they would probably still do an investigation, but legally, I don't think anything would be able to happen to you because it's not an actual game species or or anything, it's not protected. There's nowhere where it says you are not allowed to kill this animal if it if it comes on, you know, land or if it's in Jersey. And I same thing, you know, for for you guys in a lot of states. But that's that's interesting. So they don't is it what is the reason, you know. Last question for you, if you even know, what is kind of like the reason why they don't have you guys kill blackbirds? I feel like that is a like a thing where you never want that population to grow out of control. I've seen what they do when they grow out of control and everything like that, especially with farmland. If they you know you're on a big farm, they they cause millions and millions of dollars of crop damage here in New Jersey, and that could be like lowballing it. I'm not exactly sure the exact number. So, like, is there a reason why you you've heard of maybe why they don't they don't have you guys or you're nothing?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

Not not really, nothing on the bear. Like, we'll get all sorts of stuff. Like we had a moose running around last year. Like it was, you know, social media is like the greatest thing ever because you know it's up in northwest Iowa, and there's this year and a half old bull moose, you know, with paddles, you know, this this big and that's it. And uh it ran around up there for like three weeks and then it ended up, I think it fell through the ice on one of the lakes up there and drowned. Um, but we have bull elk all the time. Uh I've people seen mule deer. You can shoot mule deer. The elk and stuff, if it if it was born or it's natural here, you cannot shoot them. But let's say, you know, we obviously have high fences scattered out through the state. Um, if a fallow deer got out with an ear tag, you can technically legally shoot it, I believe. Um, because it's a at that point, it's like livestock. You know, it's not it's not supposed to be there. So it's a a hindrance and a nuisance. Most of the time they don't want you to. They want the DNR to get contacted and they'll take care of it in general. Um, but yeah, there's there's some big bulls that end up in Iowa every single year. Uh there was a huge one running around this year. I mean, well over 300 inches that was running around. When people were getting on trail camera and they kicked it out during a shotgun deer drive, like ran across this open field, and there's 10 guys lined up with shotguns and they're like just watching it run by, you know, and they're filming it because you can't kill them. So that's insane. I wouldn't, I would never have guessed, never have guessed that at all. A lot of weird laws, but I mean it's it's basically, well, if you don't have a tag for it, it's not gonna hurt you, leave it alone, you know. Let a let a walk on through.

Iowa Points Advice And Closing

SPEAKER_01 1:06:28

So yeah, definitely. Well, man, Jesse, I want to I want to thank you so much for coming on. It was a it was an absolute pleasure. Um, you know, that's I have two points so far to Iowa. I roughly I think I got three more to go where I get, you know, we'll be able to get my uh I think preference of where I want to go. I think that's how it works. Um, you know, so I eventually do plan on making it down to or over to to Iowa. I feel like a lot of bow hunters do and everything like that. But I mean it it was it was a great insight. Definitely would love to get you back on one day um and talk some more uh about those deer, specifically about those deer that that you've killed behind you and and everything like that. I know we kind of got into a little more of just general stuff, but um, yeah, definitely want to hear those, hear those stories uh eventually and everything like that. And um, you know, if you got any last words, you know, let it be known.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:23

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. It uh it's I always one of those things. If you can, if you've never been here and never had the opportunity, definitely uh put in put in for your points and get it. You know, you can you can draw earlier with a gun tag. Um, you could probably draw next year if you wanted to, but if you want to bow hunt, it's at four to five years. It just and that's one thing that I I think the state has done right, is it limits access to out of state hunters because if you just let everybody I mean just you just let everybody come in and do what they wanted to do, I agree. The resource would not be what it is, so it's it makes it more of a uh I mean, and then Kansas is rolling back on it too. It used to be able to draw every year on Kansas, and I've never hunted there for deer, but now you have to apply. So it's yeah, Kansas is a two.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

Yeah, I think Kansas is a two, two. I I was gonna do Kansas, but I was like, I'm gonna focus on Iowa first, um, and then because then they with travel, I you know, and work and everything like that. And you know, I do main moose laughter every year. So if I ever get back, that is a high priority over everything, everything else and everything, and then the bear season here in Jersey. But um, yeah, love I actually I I love that idea for Iowa. Um, I love that you guys are a two bucks state. Um, you know, obviously whatever they they decide if they decide to go to the one and everything like that. Um, you know, I I I think that I wish New Jersey would do something like that. I really wish New Jersey would go to Two Bucks State. It ain't ever happening, but I can dream. But it was it was an absolute pleasure uh to have you on. Everyone, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. All the links are gonna be down below in the description below. Make sure you go check them out, and we'll see you guys next time.