Welcome To Garden State Outdoors

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Garden State Outdoors and Podcast. Muddy Boots and stories that only the woods can write. New Jersey is one of the most underappreciated states in the outdoors. And little do they know what it really holds. From hard-earned public land deer to waterfowl, predators, and everything in between. This state produces more than people give it credit for. Now let's dial in with the men and women around the state of New Jersey who live this life every day. In New Jersey, excuses don't survive. Only the grinders do. Alright, everyone, we are back for another episode of the Garden State Outdoors Women Podcast. Of course, I'm your host, Mike Nitre. And today we we got a good one. We got a special one here. We have Steven Richards. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Appreciate you having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

No, I mean uh I'm I appreciate you coming on. Um, you know, born born and raised Jersey, correct? That's right. What, you

Growing Up Hunting In New Jersey

SPEAKER_00 1:05

know, for for us here at the Garden State Outdoors and Podcast, it's obviously it's all about Jersey. That's why we we brought it back to this and everything like that. What what was it like growing up in New Jersey as an outdoorsman?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Well, I guess I didn't know no better because this is all I've ever had, you know, growing up. So it all started, I guess. I don't know, dude. I was I was the kid that would like just beg my dad to take me. That's all I want to do is hunt a fish, it didn't matter. So I was I was always stuck between like my uncle, my dad, and this little ass tent pickup. I was that little kid in the middle shifting gears and just going hunting. So it started, I mean, I had wake bombs on my hands. I had like I froze my butt off my entire life. My dad never bought me, you know, gear for me to use until I got older when I learned how you know earn my own money. Other than that, I was wearing his gear, small stuff, freezing my butt off, and we were driving up to the pine barrens every weekend. So that's what we did. So we so I grew up hunting in the pine barrens, and it was the same four or five deer stands, you know, the same, and that's what we did through the winter. Like that's all we did was deer hunt. And um I grew up doing that, and then we would bird hunt Tuesday, Thursday, Saturdays before school, even when I was a little kid before I could even shoot a gun. And then oh yeah, and then my dad got me a he got me my license when I was nine. He, you know, did what he had to do to get the license through. I remember I was nine years old, and and that's when my love for bird hunting started, like, like really started taking off because then I started being able to, you know, shoot shoot on my own.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah, yeah. Wow. So yeah, so you've just been born and raised in the culture. This is what you've been doing, you know. A lot, I imagine a lot of your classmates were they playing sports and everything, or did you have classmates too that that enjoyed the outdoors as as much as you did, or was that just kind of like your family thing? You know, Jersey's not you when you think of Jersey, you don't think of think of hunting.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

No, you don't, but I never had nobody to um classmates. No, absolutely not. Nobody could keep up uh with me hunting. I never played sports, I never cared for sport. I mean, I rode a bicycle, rode dirt bikes, rode four wheelers, but at the end of the day, if I was hunting, like if it's hunting season, that's what I'm doing. There was nothing else really that mattered. I had one buddy, um, he was like five years older, so he used to drag me around. He, you know, when he was 17, I was 12. And that's when I, you know, I started bow hunting at you know, 12 years old, and I finally kid that's when I killed my first deer when I was 12. I hunted three years with a shotgun, couldn't kill a deer. I killed my first deer 28 yards with a a golden eagle sparrow hawk, bro. It's actually in the other room. I'm in my parents' house right now. I still have that bow hanging up on the wall there. It's just, I mean, dude, axle to axle, my my arrows were like, I don't know, 13, 14 inches. I don't even know if they were that. I mean, there's certain hunts that just you know really stick out to you. And that hunt, when I killed that deer, I was with my uncle, and it was just I was I was completely hooked way before that. But when that happened, it was the bow hunting just just took off.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

I I I think like like you said, everyone remembers their first, but when it comes to bow hunting, especially when you kill your first deer or whatever, like, yeah, everyone loves it, or usually you know, they like it, love it, but you just get this obsessiveness after your first kill and everything like that. And that that's exactly what it sounds like to you. Is it is it one of those things like did you and at a young age, I mean, I I don't know how, but did you just become a bow hunting like maniac at

First Deer And Bowhunting Addiction

SPEAKER_00 4:55

the time, or were you still just all season still going with the gun and and everything like that?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

At that point in my life, it was every season we hunted. There was not a season we did not hunt. Um, so if it was my dad, like muzzle it or season in Jersey was always take off Monday, Tuesday, you know, and then you have shotgun the following week, and like that's what we did. We you know, you take off school, or he'd pick me up early, or my uncle would pick me up early. We'd go out, you know, we'd hunt the afternoon. We always if it was a season, we hunted. That's what we did. Okay, yeah, yeah, gotcha. And nothing, nothing's really changed other than I mostly carry a bow during six days nowadays when I'm sitting in the tree. I quit, I I haven't I used to drive deer, you know, because I like the camaraderie of the club and the you know, hanging out with the guys and busting shops and doing stuff like that. But when it came down to it, it's like the last I don't know, four or five years. I've just been sticking to my bow and yeah, you know, it's just my thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I I always tell people that, and this is how I describe it like I'm I'm a bow hunting guy. You know, we start down Delaware from September 1st and we're bow hunting. I think when gun season rolls in, like I'll I'll probably gun hunt like four or five hunts out of the year, but it's like that camaraderie thing. Bow hunting is a grind to me. It is it it's a it's an absolute grind. I imagine it's for you and and all the other diehard bow hunters out there and everything like that. That it it's it's fun doing the gun hunts, and when you know, I I don't I don't I guess I don't not that I don't take it as seriously, but I find enjoyment because it's a different pace. You get to talk to people, you know. You're usually it's a usually a group thing, especially if you're doing a drive or something like that. Um you know, and it it makes you in in my opinion appreciate bow hunting, I think even more.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Oh, absolutely. And there's a you put a gun in my hand, I mean, I don't know if you're any different, but it's like if I can see the animal, I'm pretty much gonna kill the animal. You know what I mean? Like, I'm gonna harvest this animal. So it you're right, it is fun. You get a couple extra tags, but like you when it's when when you're when you're bell hunting and you find a deer early season and you know you're absolutely obsessed with it and you're just pushing it. I mean, if the wind's right, you're in the tree no matter what. There's nothing like it, especially when uh when it finally all comes together. It's when it doesn't come together that you're so worn out, you're so beat down because some like this year it didn't come together for me. I ended up finding out that the guy, one of the kids, I was hunting this big nine-pointer, and I hunted it until Christmas Eve when I finally talked to this kid, and I found out he shot it on November, I think, ninth. He stuck it and never found the deer. Oh, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

That's even that's even harder to a pill to swallow right there.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

So was it so? I just so what I did, I just left my bow home and I took the recurve and I started hunting with the recurve. And I was just, you know, I hunted it half a dozen times and I never had that deer like with a recurve. I like like 15 yards, man. Um I wanted to be in close, I don't want to just send arrows, and every time they're like that 20, 22, 18, 22. And I'm just and I would always forget my range finder. So when I run, when I'm running every day, I always have my my binox on my chest with my range finder. I have a system, I know exactly what I'm doing. I brought that that recurve the first time out this year. Man, I was a yard sale. I forgot. I'm like, oh my god, I'm like, I forgot my binox, I forgot because it didn't matter. I was shooting it, you know what I mean? Like I get a free. I tell myself, once I get that bow in my hand, it's a free pass. Like I'm meat hunting at that point. Yeah, I'm not going for a rack. I'm not, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not hunting no specific deer. Yeah. And that's kind of what it I was noisy. I was noisy hanging the bow. I was noisy, like everything I did that that I forgot how how much work it is to be with a recurve. It's so basic that it throws me out of my element because when you're with a compound, you know, if you see it within like say 60 yards, you can kill it. You know, if you get a good clean shot or you know, behold still or what have you. But it's

Recurve Reality And Broadhead Trust

SPEAKER_01 9:15

a different animal when you start hunting with a recurve, man. I didn't end up shooting anything this year with it.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

So yeah, I I think it's um recurve, you know, that's the next step for, you know, and I think that's uh a lot of bow hunters. Like, you know, you go from, in my opinion, right? You if you start with a crossbow, you start with the crossbow, you go to the compound. You go from the compound to recurve, long, you know, something like that, trad. And you just keep developing as a as a bow hunter and challenging yourself and and putting the different challenges in there. And you know, yeah, you're right. Like I I I had a big buck bounce out to like 50 something yards, and you know what? I sent it. You know, if you have a recurve or something like that, you're you're not sending it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

No, at least I'm I mean, maybe there's people that will, but I will not.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Man, I if I don't think I've ever taught, and you know, maybe this is something that some people just don't say they do because you know they would get a lot of hate and everything like that. But yeah, sending with a recurve tradition all along, but like that is at 60, would be I don't know. That's uh the confidence level there's gotta be. I don't know, or you would have to hit it perfect.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

No, you gotta be if you ain't Tim Wells, you ain't doing it, dude. Yeah, unless you're a Slockmaster, like that that dude's next level, but I don't even see anybody. You talk to any trad guys, you I never even hear them shooting over 25 to 30 yards. Yeah, yeah. So you pull into 60, I mean you're just poke hope and just sending that thing, yeah, the stars. You don't I mean, unless you've been practicing like crazy, but I'm just I'm not that confident. I don't spend enough time with my with that bow. With my compound, I'm pretty confident, you know what I mean? I shoot enough where I know that if I shoot, I'm gonna try to, you know, harvest that animal. I'm not trying to wound them by no means. And then the other thing is it comes down to your broadheads. Dude, I've lost so many deer over the years where you just slightly hit a little high where you catch one lung, or you slightly back just a hair. Bro, probably like three years ago, I started shooting them. A friend of mine handed me a pack of mega meats, and the first thing I harvested was a bear, and you know, you're you're in Ecka Jersey, and uh bro, I dropped this bear, it was like 400 pounds. It was my biggest one I've killed to date, but smoked this thing, and then every animal I've shot so far with them broadheads, like there's no sponsorship, there's no nothing for mega meat. So, as I gotta say, yeah, bro. If you're not shooting them, you need to give them a try because I am a strong believer in what works, yeah. And if it doesn't, I'm gonna tell you, you know what I mean? Like a lot of people want to use that single bevel, and they it goes through anything. And this I've got horror stories over that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Um, I've I'm not I'm not a fix, I'm not a fixed uh guy at all. Um you know, for me and doing what we're doing, kind of what like I think no matter what, there's always gonna be horror stories, whether you're a mechanical guy, there there are gonna be issues, right? But you got to be confident in what you shoot.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Oh, 100%. I mean, I took fixed for I shot them G5 strikers for like 16 years. I had phenomenal luck with oh, yeah, I could shoot because I never wanted anything to go wrong. Yeah, and then my buddies talked me into going to those rages, and I had nothing but nightmares. So I used them for two two seasons, and every animal I shot, I broke one or two blades off.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Man, I had nothing but bad luck with them. Same here. I can never I it's a it's a running joke on our podcast of how much I just hate rage, and it's and it's not that like, yeah, if you hit it perfectly fine. Like, I you see a lot of guys, of course, kill a lot of stuff. Like when you're kind of thinking mechanical, like that's one of the first mechanicals you think of. It's in every store, Walmart, everything like that. Like it is one of those right. I know guys that that absolutely love them and they kill deer constantly. I've had no issues, right? I just can never I've had so many issues, even without shooting a deer, right? You know, especially all like 10, 10, probably 10, 12 years ago, with those cut their collars were terrible. Every time I would look at my, you know, look at my arrow, the one of the blades would already be off or something like that. You know what I mean? So I I can never shoot them. Like I just haven't I haven't had good luck with them. And once that doubt creeps into a bow hunter's brain, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah, yeah. You gotta get it. No, you're not because you gotta discard it and you gotta move forward. It's it's no different with trapping. If I set a trap, like if I say I put a set in, if I don't have confidence in it, I just pull it. Where when I was a kid, I would set it and I'd be like, Oh, I hope maybe I'll catch something. Yeah, or you're never gonna catch nothing. And it's the same mentality in my brain. If I don't like something when I'm hunting, I get rid of it, and I just move on to something else. And then when you find something that works, oh, I'm 110 in. And that's what happened with them mega meats, dude. I'm like, I'm like 110 in. I've seen the craziest about it. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, and that's what it comes into being a bow hunter, but it's just it's just all what you believe in, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

No, I I definitely agree. Um, you know, I do want to get to trapping,

Pine Barrens Terrain And Road Closures

SPEAKER_00 14:45

and there's so many things. You know, one thing I definitely want to talk about is um the pine barrens, right? You grew up down there and everything like that. For those of you who are listening outside of New Jersey or you know, maybe live in West Jersey, never have traveled down there, kind of give like pine bar, it's a whole different like world, it seems like down there, for especially for hunting. It's a completely different terrain. That's the one thing I love about New Jersey is all the different terrains that we have, but the pine barren, especially kind of go over that and what it was like growing up there, and you know, the deer that you see are or you know, the maybe you know, some of the difficult difficulties or why people have difficulties going down there and and hunting.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So in the pine barrens, it's it's obviously pine trees, like 95% probably are pine trees and scrub oaks that are down low. So scrub oaks are like if you don't know, they're they're very thick bushes that you it's very hard to walk through, and the deer love to bed in them. Um sandy soil, very sandy soil. You it's it's over a million acres. So you have over a million acres in New Jersey that are just there's roads in every direction. The problem we're dealing with right now is they're blocking roads down. They are blocking roads everywhere. And you can now you've hunted a place your whole life, and now they just decide believe it's park and recreations or whatever. They just they're they're literally there's there's a fence post in, they're putting the guardrail style up, so you can't get through them. Um a lot of places that we used to hunt, you can't get to, they've got the bombing range in the pine barren, so that's all blocked off. Or when we were kids, when I turned 17, I had a Toyota pickup four-wheel drive. I just went around all the gates. We went right around, we had no idea what we were doing. You know what I mean? This is many years ago. Dude, we drove up. Me and my buddy drove right up to the tanks. There was a tank like up on a hill, and it's a target, and that's where all the fighter jets practice and all. Yeah. There's Swiss cheese, there's like them big tanker trucks, there's like these crane-looking things. We're over there, we're picking up shells and everything. You know what I mean? Like, we're picking up all these dummy bullets and casings, and we're having it all the time. And then, like, I don't know, like a month later, my dad's like we tell him, and he about loses his mind, you know. Like you could have got killed in there, you know, they could have been practicing that day. Well, I found out if you go into those areas, oh, you're instantly locked up. Like, so that's a place that we hunt all around. Yeah. Um, there's I mean, the roads go on forever. You just get sandy roads that go on forever and ever. And when you spend enough time up there, you start to learn different areas. But the deer, the deer hunting was different because it's it's you can usually see a long ways wherever at, unless you're in a swamp. And even so, you can still see a long ways. But to kill big deer in the pine bearing was always difficult. Um, because the wind, you would try to play the wind, but because it's such a big area, you just drove back so far, unless you knew right where they were betting, you always struggled because the deer could come in, they'd come in downwind to you. So we used to get winded all the time as a kid. Like me growing up, oh, we got winded all the time, and we had a lot of permanent tree stands. There was no such thing as climbers until I turned 12 and I got my first uh portable tree stand. Yeah, I think for my birthday, I think my dad made me work that thing off for about another three years, but yeah, I still got it. It's an old summit, dude. The thing's sitting in my backyard, I won't get rid of it.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

I won't use it. Yeah, yeah. I I have a summit sitting in my backyard too. All that I won't use it, it just sits there. And I man, the the way technology is kind of moved too is is absolutely crazy, but that's a whole other conversation. But you know, yeah, I've I've heard that about the pine barons. It's like, yeah, you try to play the wind and you just can't play the wind there. It is one of the most difficult places in New Jersey to to hunt from. I have yet to experience it, but from from my understanding and everything like that. Um, and then also because of all the pines and everything like that, like the food sources are not like it is up here in in West Jersey and and and everything like that, or even you know, part of southern Jersey that has all the ag and and everything like that, all that sand um just does not create, or and the pines just does not create sustainable food, food source for for a lot of these animals.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

No, and they're struggling right now to kill big deer up there. The club I used to belong to even say there's there's there's a big problem. So we had the coyotes were there when we were kids, when I was a kid, and everybody would say there's no coyotes in New Jersey. Well, that was blowing because I remember dude, I remember my dad left me and all of a sudden I heard something running through the swamp and the thing stops and it it barked and then howled, and it was directly underneath my tree. And I remember, dude, every hair in my body stood up, you know, because everybody tells you about coyotes, and then until you experience one go off right below your tree stand at 12, 13 years old, dude. I had my bow, I my bow is full draw, pitch black, and waiting for my dad. And we used to have the signals always like so we knew one of us was coming, or you're ready to get out of the tree. Man, I dude, I remember I was trying to whistle. I was you know what I mean. You're trying to get louder and louder, and you're like, dude, I'm trying to like dad, come get me. You know what I mean? Like, and he just take his good old time, and uh yeah, dude, it was just I remember that coyote went off. But yeah, I would tell you this. So it is very difficult to hunt. If I was to go back up and start hunting, knowing what I know now, like I once I started driving, I ended up, I made a decision. I'm like, I'm not gonna drive 45 minutes just to go hunting every day. So I started hunting locally. Any little five-acre piece or what have you, I'd started hunting right here in the township that I live in. And I realized that there's just more deer here, but there you could find bigger deer here, you know, they're what it takes to kill one up there. So if I could do it over again, and if I was forced to hunt back up there, if I lived near there or something, I'd find water source and I would just hunt, I'd hunt on edges of water, lakes, ponds, and I would just use that to my advantage with the wind. And then that's the way you're going to be able to kill them big deer because, at least in my opinion, because what we were doing, we were walking up, you know, we're getting in the on the edge of a swamp. The deer could come wherever they want to come from. We'd hunt we're hunting ridges. I mean, I have all sorts of everything you shouldn't have done, I did as a kid, you know, and now the it's all experience. The more you the more you hunt, the more you learn, the more you well, I hope you learn.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

I I think uh exactly what you said. And it's like when you look back. And you're like, wow, did you look at all these mistakes you made that you now would you would never think of doing? And I I find that hilarious, but also I do miss those days of not really knowing, like not overthinking things and just going out and just having fun. And not saying I I don't have fun now. I love hunting. I I I think it's one of the best things in the world. I have so much fun. But it is like, you know, when you're chasing that big buck and everything like that, like it is also stressful. It is also the only thing you worry about. And it's like, all right, did I make the right move? Did I push too close to this bit? Like, did I bump up? Like, there's just so many things that are going through your head. Where back in the day, like, yeah, I I wonder how many hunts I just screwed up just walking and not even thinking of just going to just set up on anything that I thought would was good and everything like that. And that's how you learn. But those were the days I were just like, yeah, this is so much fun because like you didn't know any better.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah, it it literally, um when you start

Old School Scent Control Tricks

SPEAKER_01 23:05

thinking back and you think of the mistakes. So one thing that my dad was real big on was scent control. So it was before scent control, it was before all these scents. Listen, we we hunted, we didn't we never had cameras. Like there was no such thing. I never had a trail camera while we were up in New Gretna um until I think I turned around 18 or so. So before that, there was no, you had no knowledge unless you saw the animal. Like, unless you physically saw the buck or you found the track and you hunted it, that was the only way to find out what was there. So we would do that, but my dad, we would have to take a bacon soda shower before we left the house. We'd have to all of our clothes were cleaned in bacon soda, even my regular, like if I was wearing this, it was cleaned in baking soda. My mom would wash everything in bacon soda. He used to make me collect acorns all the time. My mom used to get pissed because I used to put them in her blender. Dude, when I was like 10 years old, I'd be grinding up all these acorns and adding water, and we would call it acorn mash, and we'd rub it all over us. And I love that. Dude, we used to get out. My dad had a trash bag. We'd all have our trash bags with our hunting clothes. We'd get out of the truck and we would get down to our underwear and we'd take bacon soda, our armpits, head, hair, and we'd be fully white. It looked like a daggone ghost. And then you get your clothes on. Yeah, and then you rub that egg corn mash on you, you rub it all over your boots, and then you head in. And that's how we hunted every day. People now you just take some scent spray, you spray it on, yeah. We had you know old green wool clothes. I was wearing his pants until I was 18, I think.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Yeah, yeah. I love that though. Like sometimes it's like I know obviously right now it's just easier, like you said, the scent lock technology, you get the sprays and everything like that. But that is so like you know, I never knew the bacon soda thing, and I because I never thought about it. I haven't had to ever think about the baking soda thing and and using that as a as a scent eliminator and and everything like that. But and I know they have that scent blender now, right? I I believe there's a there's a company that has that grown in where it comes with a little blender, you can take acorns, oh yeah, whatever you want, right? But you guys are doing it way before 30 years ago, even in five years.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Wow, that's insane. You know what I mean? Like, I still use bacon soda. So when I so say if I'm working and I'm gonna go jump up in a tree, and I'm like, it's one of the things it's not playing my clothes are in my truck 24-7 during hunting season. I'm like, oh, I can get out, I'll take bacon soda, dude. I'll douse my whole head and my armpits. I don't care, you know what I mean. Like, I use non-cent deodorant regardless. I just used it this morning. Yeah, like I use the stuff that they sell for hunting, the non-cent, I use a 24-7 just because yeah, I'm just like, that's what I use. I don't use any scents, I don't use because I never know when I'm gonna be in the woods. And I just got done, you know, obviously trapping the last few weeks. Yeah, so I never want to smell like I'd rather smell like a skunk than smell like you know any kind of odor.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

And that's another very key, and you know, a couple people have talked about your when you're doing all that for trapping and you're setting a trap and everything like that, like your scent control has to be on point to fool coyotes' noses, foxes' noses, and things like that. Is it is that one of those things that you find harder? Is it harder to fool coyotes and stuff like that with with the nose and everything than than it is a deer, or would you put them on the same playing field?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

No, you're not gonna fool a coyote's nose, it doesn't matter what you do. Uh at least in my opinion. Like, there's no way, you know what I mean? Like, you just they're they're just their nose is too powerful, it's too good. And deer, you're just playing the wind with them, they're gonna come to you. I have to actually put a coyote's head, you know, within a 10 or 12-inch circle. Yeah, so you gotta actually you gotta catch them between A and B. So Nuke

Learning To Trap Coyotes The Hard Way

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Sterling is who taught me how to track. Um, so he used to teach me all the wrong things. If you hear any of the podcasts I did, he taught me every wrong thing to do, and then I'd come flying back into a shop and be like, like for I'll give you an example. I think about things 24-7 when I'm doing something. I can't ever turn my brain off. It does not turn off, it's a hundred mile an hour, it's on something at every given time. So I was trying to catch a coyote. I'll back you up. I got my license, my trap license at 12. I caught every raccoon with this box trap, anything in the box trap I could catch, I could catch with with body gripping traps and muskrats and everything. I couldn't catch nothing with a snare. I mean, for years, I I tried, I had no teacher. Well, I met Newt. My dad would never introduce me to Newt. He was friends with him because he was a drunk, wouldn't introduce me to him. I met him when I was a little bit older, and that was it. I went, I bought three dozen snares off them. I went home and I set three dozen snares or four dozen snares, whatever it was, a pile of them, and I bought his raccoon um video. It was a VHS tape. He had just made this thing. I go home, I watch this video, I go back the next day and I pull every single snare out and I had to reset. Because I thought, you know what I mean? Like I thought years later, oh, I'm gonna learn this. Could have figured out. I learned, I watched his video. Next thing you know, I'm catching coons and I'm catching red fox and I'm freaking, I'm coming apart. And now deer hunting doesn't mean nothing to me. I'm straight up is I deer hunt till November 15th, and then I'm trapping. And I went, I started trapping into pine barons trying to catch coyotes. And uh, I'm like, dude, I'm gonna hang a deer in a tree. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. I hang this in a tree. You know, not one coyote touched that deer. The whole season went by, and I went to go pull my snares out, and I was like, you know what? Let me cut this deer down. Someone's gonna find it in a tree, and I cut the thing down. Well, the next week I came and the deer was gone, like the deer was skin and bones, yeah. And I'm like, well, I went over to Newt's. I'm like, Newt, I was like, dude, I cut the deer out of the tree and the thing, and they ate the they ate the deer. And he's like, You stupid assing deer hunter. That's how he used to talk to me. He's like, How many deer hanging out of trees? And I was like, Oh, like something so stupid, but I thought I had this great idea that I'm gonna hang this deer in this tree. You know, you hear people talk now. When I hear about I don't even say anything, I just laugh. I'm like, oh yeah, I've been there, I've been there, I've done that. Those coyotes annihilated that thing. It was there for months, it was there the whole season, and I never had one touch. It was a roadkill, you know. I just hung in the tree, yeah, never touched it. I hung it, I dropped it week later, gone. I had this other bright idea. I still haven't caught a coyote. I I'm like, New, I need a duck and stick. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put a duck and stick in. I'm like, okay. So I'm hunting, I'm trapped in a farm that you're not allowed to kill any deer. The guy's a big deer hunter. He just wants the coyotes gone so his deer can go, you know, so so he can grow deer. Bro, I go there, I put a duck and stick over some every every snare I had. I come back the next day and I kid you not, I had five deer. I caught five deer. I almost had a freaking heart attack. I'm grabbing these things. I'm like, oh my God. I mean, I'm grabbing them and I'm running to the swamp and I'm just trying to hide these things. I'm having, I mean, I'm losing my mind. Like, what the heck is wrong with this? You know what I mean? Like, I thought this was a great. I flew up to Newt's house. I'm like, no, I caught five deer. You stupid deer hunter. I'm like, so that's how he taught me. He never would tell me how to do something. He would give like I would come up with these stupid ideas thinking that they're smart, you know. And he used to call me a dumb deer hunter because you know, it's a different lifestyle. Trapping and deer hunting is completely different. Yeah. And I didn't understand it. And uh, you know, as it went on, I started learning more and more. And then I started traveling the country with them. Every weekend we went to a different, different state and a different trapping convention because he has a trap, you know, trap supply business, snare one is what it is. And I Ron Deal owns or is running it with him now for and he owns the uh snare man podcast just to throw him up. So they're both my boys. He's also like the president of uh the trappers, one of them. I don't know which one, but so anyhow, we're traveling, you know, every weekend, and Newt's got to do a demo every weekend. And I remember we we get to Pennsylvania and he goes to do his demo and I file him over there, and I I sit down and I'm watching him. He sets his snare and he goes, and now you got to do this. He steps over the snare, he walks like 20 to 30 yards, comes back, walks over a snare, and says, Does anybody know what I just did? And I said, You just put your stent straight through that snare. And it was like a light switch went off because I was having coyotes come up to my set in the snow. This is the snow, don't lie. Bro, they would come up to my set, and uh they would literally, you would see their pulse. They would step right, they'd step left, and they'd choose a side and they'd go right around and then off they go. And I'm thinking, oh, they smell my snare. Bro, they don't smell my snare, they smell me. They were tracking me when my scent stops. They're like, where'd it go? Right or left? And they go. A lot of people don't know these simple little things. Once I learned how to start doing that, I started killing coyotes. That was the secret sauce for me. Once I learned how to bring my scent through. Um so, and when I tell you, I'm not scent-free when I'm trapping. I'm not, there's no way. I don't know how anybody could make it, to be honest with you. Like, there's not, bro. My hands, I'm usually bleeding, bloody, nasty, stinking. I have been sprayed by two skunks in the past two weeks. One of them was Friday. I mean, I I literally, I always I'm all banged up. You know what I mean? Like I'm going from keys to box traps to snares to you know, you're dealing with dead animals, you're constantly throwing them in the truck. You can never have one pair of gloves to do anything. I got friggin' poison ivy all over me. I'm trying to get rid of. Oh man. Oh, yeah, it's a it's a rough go. But once you start learning, the biggest thing is animal behavior. Once you learn animal behavior, then you can put your techniques to work to be able to catch them, is what I've, you know, from my experience.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Now, if you I mean, it you love you love trapping hunt. Is that the one thing? If you could only do one thing for the rest of your life, right, when it came to the outdoors, fishing, hunting, you know, is trapping that thing where where you you choose over all?

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Not anymore.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Not anymore. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

No, I'm back to bow hunting. Okay. Like bow hunting. So there's I could go so many different directions with this. So when I started trapping and I started hanging around Newt, Newt's a deer shooter. He's not a deer hunter, he's a deer shooter. So for probably I don't know, 10, 15 years, all I did, I'd go out, I'd kill a couple deer, fill the freezer, I'd bring them over to his house, we'd butcher them up. He had all the equipment, we'd butcher him up, throw it in the freezer. I'd go back to trapping. Well, I was making money trapping. Yeah, I had a guy named Frank Bruce. He's dead now, but he was he was such a great dude, bro. I used to trap every, you know, every day, whatever I caught, I could throw in my shed on the floor, and I could come home at the end of the day, and there was a pile of money sitting in my top jewelry in my toolbox. Or I'd show up to his house and I'd drop them off. I mean, he gave me it was I wouldn't I wouldn't have to skin anything at that time. He was giving me 10 bucks a coon and he was giving me 20 bucks a red fox. That was it. And I could make enough money to pay for gas and have money in my pocket every day. So it'll it allowed me like that's what I enjoy doing. If I can use the utilize the animals nowadays, you can't utilize the animals. I'm not skinning the coon for two bucks.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

Yeah, no, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

My buddy just went up and just bought a bunch of coon off Xander's. They were skinned, fleshed and dried, they were put up. Yeah, and he bought them, he bought them for the same price Xander's paid for them at two dollars a piece. You're not getting me to sit there and I so I exactly. So I won't, I don't just catch coons to catch coons. Now I do these competitions that pop up here and there, like you know, I got to know a few of these guys now. Yeah, yeah. And now it gives me one good hurrah to go push for. It's usually one week long and they coincide, two of them, one shot, and you can double dip, you could

The Fur Market Crash And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_01 36:45

weigh in on a Saturday and weigh in on a Sunday, and you could, you know, win a couple bucks. And you know, it's mostly bragging rights, it's not about you're not winning nothing. I could win both tournaments 10 times over and still be in the negative for what I just spent. I put 1500 miles in my truck last week, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Yeah, is the and I don't do what exactly happened, you know, with the history of coons and all these things were worth worth something, and then now it's it's it's not. Do you know kind of what happened, when or when it happened, and and all these things? Because, like you said, you used to be able to go ten dollars a coon and everything like that. It made it, it made it worth it, right? With trapping and in the trapping industry, like the money is just not there, the price isn't there. Is it because is it anti-hunters? Is it just people are just not has our world become too developed? Well, like what what do you think that that is? So this is just opinion.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

I mean, I've heard so many different things on it, but in 2012 was when Frank died because my daughter Stevie was born that he she was in the hospital being born, and he was on hospice and passed away the same week. So that was in 2012, and the mark the fur market fell out. From what I've heard, they said the synthetics started replacing a lot of fur. China's not as cold. I don't know if any of this is true. I don't, you know what I mean? Like, I don't chase the fur market. I don't like I'm a I'm a redneck that just traps and hunts. I don't play on like I'm not a I'm not a computer guy at all. You saw you saw how hard it is. Yeah, yeah. You do this. Like, this is not what I do, bro. I don't own a computer, you know what I mean? Like I have a work phone and a and I have a regular phone, and that's all I have, you know. And that that's what I jockey back and forth. But literally, those when the fur market it dropped out and Frank passed away, and I got like 10 bucks a red fox and five bucks a coon. I quit trapping. Well, I didn't quit trapping, that's not true. I trapped for one more season, I put all my own fur up, and then the prices dropped out worse than that. So I had a shed full because I trapped all season. So I mean, I had piles of stuff, and I kept trying to hold on to it for the next year for it to be better, for it to be better, for it to be by like the fourth year, I think it was. I walked out, you know, I wasn't in the fur shed for a while. I go out there and there's bugs just destroyed. Oh, oh yeah. And I just that was it. I was like, I'm done. And I quit trapping for I don't know, several years. Yeah, I think about four years ago, I started those competitions. My neighbor tugged me in it one time. He was like, Hey, there's this competition over here at Crooked Horn. And I was like, What? And I looked it up and I was like, All right, I was like, I called the guy Rick. I'm like, hey man, what do I gotta do to get in? And you know, he explained it to me. I was like, All right, I'm in, and that was it. And then I won a Calcutta like a couple years in a row for the coon. And then I, you know, every year I've seemed to win something. I think I got gray fox last year and I just got the coyote this year. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

And do you think that like I don't know, I imagine if people someone did the research, what there probably is, I I haven't looked it up. Um a lot of this do you think coincides with you know the downfall of the turkey population, too. I imagine, right? A lot of people are just not trapping raccoons and everything like like they used to, and the fur market's not there, so it's a lost art that um and tradition that not many people do anymore, which has caused a lot of these, you know, these nest predators to to boom and the turkey number, you know, also with loss of habitat uh and and everything like that. But I I think it definitely coincides. Yeah, I agree 100%.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

I mean, there's no there's not many people trapping anymore. Yeah, and and then what happens is and you you need trappers, you need controversial because if you don't, what happens is these animals like people don't realize dude, they get sick and diseases when they get overpopulated, and then they all get sick, and then what happens when the next when the birds of prey come down and start eating on them, then they're sick and they're dead, yeah. And it's like every once in a while I'll find like a dead bird, you know what I mean? Like a bird of prey. And I was taught now get this nine years old is when I learned about you don't never an owl, a hawk, anything you find on the ground. I remember specifically asking a dude at nine years old. I said, Hey, he said, It is federal fence illegal to be near one of these birds in the woods. I said, What happens if you're just walking through the woods and you see it? And he goes, You're in trouble. And I'm like, What? So I can tell you I've had the same mentality since I see it, I just walk off. I don't even take a picture of it, and I'm a pizza junkie, I take pictures of everything, you know what I mean? Like I'm like nope, 70,000 photos in my actually 72,000 photos in that phone right there. But I just walk off, man. It's you know what I mean, and that all goes back to if you don't control the populations, they nature will.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Yeah, yeah, you know, that's that's that's incredible. Absolutely incredible. And you're right, it is it's that thing where, yeah, if we don't, if we're not being conservative, and I think that's the big thing with outdoorsmen, hunters, trappers, like our one of our most important thing is conservation. We are conservation, 100%. And when we're not doing it, and again, and when trapping and is not being taught and you know passed down like it used to for like many many reasons, you know, you see this high number of you know nest predators and things like that, and yeah, things will always fix itself, you know, 100%. You look at the deer population. Why is it so important sometimes to you know to hunt? Okay, what EHD did. We you know, look at you know, obviously you get car collisions and everything like that, but sickness and and things like that always find its way into you know life to manage the population. Everything needs to be managed. Everything agreed, man. 100% now for for you, nine years old, ten years old, twelve years old, right? You'll you look at at the hunting world, you look at the community. Now, fast forward of 2026, what do you see it as? Like has it grown in in the positive way? Has things kind of fallen off? Like, kind of how do you see it and what you've seen throughout the years, um at least in New Jersey?

Crowded Woods Public Land And OnX

SPEAKER_01 43:37

So when I was a kid, I could jump on a four-wheeler and go anywhere as I wanted to go, jump on a dirt bike and go anywhere I wanted to go in this township. The developments that have showed up around here have stolen so much of the property that you know was huntable. Now you have these little tiny pieces of woods. where it's either park property or you have a little piece of state here or you have a so we've lost so much access, so much land. If you don't have a little piece of private, it's very difficult to hunt around here. I have people all the time they're like, oh, there's no place to hunt. Well the problem is because when there where there is a place to hunt, there's 10 guys in it. Yeah, everyone's there. Dude, I was doing an estimate on a house, sighting estimate. I was 35 minutes away from me. And I'm talking to this kid. He's like, oh yeah, he knows who I am. So I didn't know him at all. He just knew of me, you know, trapper, hunter, whatever. So you know, we're just chopping it up, talking. Well he calls me down to Cape May, which is almost an hour south of me. And I'm looking at another job for him. As I'm looking at this job, he says, hey, where are you hunting? And I'm like, I hunt around. I don't tell anybody where I hunt. You know what I mean? Like I've been burnt so many times you learn that dude pulls his phone out. I'm like, I don't even want to see it. Pulls his on X out bro. I'm like opens it up and he shows me his phone. This is God's honest truth. He's like hey look look this is where I'm hunting right here. He shows me and my whole entire I felt like my heart just dropped out of my chest. I'm sitting there and I'm like I pull my phone out I open up my own X and I said here he's like what's this? I said we're physically hunting the same piece of woods. You're 500 yards from me. The kid doesn't live nowhere's near me. He's 500 yards from me right if I didn't show him my phone he would have thought I'm a scumbag and went and hunted his spot I said here's my track from yesterday. I was in there yesterday in the pouring rain and he's like oh and he looked at it he looks at it he does the calculation and goes dude you're like 500 yards from me I'm like I know he's the one that shot that nine pointer oh I'll I'll tell you so many people I meet now everyone is hunting near everyone every everyone and and that's and I love hunting public land.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

I I want to always be able to hunt public land I do I love chasing public land here in Jersey I go to other states I love to it's a different challenge is it very frustrating right 100% but in this day and age you are crazy to think you're hunting a piece by yourself.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Oh hundred percent oh yeah you know what I mean or you're chasing a specific deer alone seven other people hunting yeah ten or twelve or twenty or ten other baits being run you know and this is my thing we we always get into this debate in New Jersey right and I you're allowed to bait in New Jersey forget again for anyone who's listening who doesn't know you're allowed to bait in New Jersey right you got guys who of course love to bait you got guys who look down on baiting right and I do both like I I tend not to especially for like I like you you know trying to find you know it's a challenge for me but don't get me wrong to earn earn a dough earn a buck I'm throwing bait out there if I you know what I mean if I need to get meat and I always tell people there's probably 20 other guys in these woods who are baiting oh yeah you put yourself at a disadvantage if you're not baiting unless you're hunting her piles unless you're unless you're hunting their pile I had a guy admit to me one day he saw us walk in he was in his tree saw us walk in yet again we're probably like 500 yards away from him I we didn't see him we dropped corn off left and he got down from his spot and went in and hunted our spot oh wow see that takes that takes guts i'm not i i'll hunt a run like if i know where the deer are at i will hunt a run i'm not hunting off your bait pile you know what i mean i'm not hunting near your bait pile but if i know the deer are coming several hundred yards that through a piece of woods i'm definitely gonna use that to my advantage and i'm gonna hunt it or if you're hunting open oaks and i'm cutting you know i'm cutting these deer off somewhere where the crack that's what i do you know what i mean but if you're a hundred percent bro i found more people hunting in this place and it was my own fault i should have killed the deer the first week it it was completely my fault i misread the situation i thought you ever get so confident where you think the deer are coming from yep all the time so i had this deer i mean i had this deer every single day through velvet i mean he was from august all through august i'm watching this deer and there's like five bucks but this one big nine pointer he mean he he's he's big he's he's he was a giant jersey giant man and he kept coming in from this one direction and I put some other trail cams you know I had them kind of where I thought he was coming from well the first day of season I go out to this other spot I kill my doe first morning and my youngest daughter which hasn't shot her bow so much this you know a lot this late a lot lately she's like dad I want to go to the rack shack and go shoot my bow and this is opening day and I'm like uh honey it's it's like 12 o'clock or something you know what I mean like it's it's almost an hour ride down there and an hour back and I'm trying to comprehend

Big Buck Decisions Cameras And Rut Chaos

SPEAKER_01 49:40

what's going on so I do it you know what do you do for your kids you go do it we do it we go down there she shoots her bow I just got back from Alberta so I just had harvested two you know killed two bears with my bow yeah so I was like you know what I think I'll be able to kill this deer it's not a big deal bro I didn't get in I got in like 230 that day or something and I jumped him off the pile like and he wasn't even on the pile he was coming in he was coming across the piece of woods so I knew where he was coming from now yeah and I got in there and I never I hunted 11 sits and I never saw a deer out of that spot. I think it was the 12th sit I hunted somewhere else with my other daughter and we saw our my first deer this year. But I hunted like 11 or I for I think it was 11 straight sits I couldn't see a deer they came in from that direct dude they were betting completely different from where I thought they were these deer are watching me go in. So then I had to wait till it poured rain one day or two days in a row and I just scouted the whole entire place and sure enough as I kept scouting then I started finding their betting and I started you know then I really locked in yeah I should have never assumed I should have freaking did my homework early on but I didn't and I thought I understood it and I I did the camera work and the recon work and but I didn't put enough food on boots on the ground. So what happened was you know I obviously didn't kill the deer um the deer did show up during the rut for like a solid week every single day on camera and I was in Illinois hunting so the whole time I'm in Illinois every deer I hunt shows up as soon as I leave for Illinois they show up they they start daylighting nonstop right through so the last day I got that buck on camera was November 6th I came home the 10th but the kid had already stuck an arrow on the ninth but I didn't know that and I hunted it until the 24th and I hunted hard and I saw every buck you could I actually killed a buck right before I left thinking it was him I thought it was him until I was at full draw and he stepped out at like 12 yards like he was straight laurels straight laurels I was I already had the shakes I'm like oh he smoke he stepped out and I'm like it's not him but he's big enough like I killed him you know what I mean it was like dude I would have never I shot I let a bigger deer go the day before yeah you know listen it be it's like that sometimes and and that's another thing that I love about hunting so much like I've chased deer like this year like I I'm pretty sure now looking at it the deer that I killed I ended up passing and then he came back and fired me up and I was like he came at five yards and I was like yeah I'm not passing this up like I shot him at five yards he was fired up I was fired up I had the shakes like I it it was like a perfect hunt or you want to grip you elevated elevated I I I usually saddle hunt um so I'm usually in a saddle I'll try maybe two three I wasn't crazy high up um but what what had happened you know a bunch of the people who who listen and and and know us know this I didn't plan hunting that spot I went to go pull that camera because it was during the rut and while walking on this river to get to this spot just deer chasing everywhere I saw seven bucks right never passed in front of my camera never and that's why I always tell people cameras are very misleading oh yeah for sure right but there were seven bucks and uh one came in came like at like five yards and everything like that of me so I was like this is God's sign of saying I need to I need to sit here ran all the way back to my truck got my gear came all the way back out got into the tree passed a whole bunch of bucks and killed him yeah at five yards and everything like that and still meanwhile not one single deer went in front of my camera and I've been getting here all all deer and the biggest deer I bumped him leaving to go get my gear he was coming across the river and he was on top of the ridge and I was heading down to go get all my my my stuff and everything like that.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

And he was a big six and then like my dream is to kill a kill a big six and he's the buck that I wanted to kill in that area. But you listen it it's that's how it works and when you get fired up you get you get fired up.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

That's it man and that's what happened to me I was already a full draw I thought it was him dude I was like oh my god dude I mean I was just and I I remember he came in so close and I was just like whoop I had to stand up to get over Laurels because he was he was so under yeah he stayed so tight against the wall all I could see was tines and I'm like bro that's him like I already I hate when I talk myself into things you know what I mean like there the facts are the facts where your brain just lies to you you know and I'm like I'm like dude it's him bro you know what I mean like I'm standing up and but it once I stood up and I already knew it wasn't him I was like oh yeah I got on film too I think and I just whack and freaking cracked you know just but it is what it is you know what I mean like you just I I just love the hunt you know so and I left Illinois man and that big boy was on the freaking camera every day plus this other buck I don't even know where it came from that's that's how it works the deer that I killed I've never had it on camera never not one time and then this kid so I post the deer and then this kid my buddy's son um dude he's like six or seven miles away sends me pictures of this deer in velvet he's like I was gonna let my buddy kill that deer and he goes I've been wondering where he went I'm like dude he's all the way down this side you know like geez bro he traveled big time he goes I lost him in September he showed up in October on me so I killed him right before I left it because I went early to Illinois this year.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

I think we did the first yeah we did the first week this year I love I listen and and that's always the other thing of that's just so wild and is you get the bucks that travel and that can go for miles. I I talked to a guy this year that we're we both had the same buck on camera. I think that was like almost seven miles away yeah yeah um you know I've talked to guys that have yeah that have had deer on completely like in in different like counties and like it it's crazy how

Trophium App For Hunts And Memories

SPEAKER_00 56:20

far that they that some of these deer deer travel and then the one of my favorite things is the deer that come into your your spot that you've never seen before and you're like oh my god like what that's huge or you you see for the first time you know during the rut and everything like that it's like I yeah I'm I'm obsessed I I think all of us are are obsessed and and everything like that of of what we do and and get to do oh absolutely there's no doubt one thing I definitely want to get into before you know we we get off we're almost at that hour mark um you know is the uh is the app uh trophyum app oh yeah absolutely give give us a background on on that all right so trophium obviously you know I don't know if you can see my hat or not so we developed this app there's there's nothing out there for hunters everything's regulated everything if it doesn't matter what you do if I pull my phone out right now I have like I said I have 70 plus thousand photos on my photo on my on my phone so if I want to show you like a hog hunt in Texas I did or Alberta bear hunt I can't just open it up and say here so we developed this app for hunters where you can literally hit boom you hit the app it pops up hunting or fishing boom you have your exact photos not only do you have photos you can add videos you can add videos you have field notes you have the exact you can do you can log the weather you can log specifics for you can do privacy notes you can do public notes you can do public or you can do privacy on the app itself like if you want to connect with other hunters um just like any other social media platform you can do so we're gonna we're also linking outfitters that are proven outfitters that aren't just you know outfitters taking your money I mean like legit people that are good at what they do with with the sportsmen.

SPEAKER_01 58:23

So we're doing hunting fishing you I mean you can add anything on there but it has specifics on what category you can add it and you have all this stuff so you can log your data. So dude you could do trail camera photos so what we're doing now is we're adding trail camera photos into our hunting stuff and I have the date that I log it then I can tell you you know I hunted it three days and this deer showed up and then again he showed up on this date and that's what we're doing right now. Like we'll be in Grand Rapids Michigan um at the sportsman show I leave Thursday morning so I'll be there in two days there's gonna be a a bunch of us um I think there's gonna be four of us out there but the app's completely free and what happens is like I said dude Trophium is dude my my dad never took photos of us when we were kids like it was we never got pictures we never got nothing every once in a while there would be like a Polaroid would show up and you would like get a picture and you know I got I think I got a picture of me like what a rabbit in my first deer and that's a that's probably about it growing up yeah my uncle showed up when I was 17 when I killed my first you know legit buck out of the pine bearings I was 17 he came out with one of them little disposable cameras and he's like taking pic and I didn't know what I was doing bro I was taking the bow. I was using my dad's 3D bow I grew all of a sudden I just had a growth spurt. I couldn't afford a bow so I took his purple and and gold 3D bow and I hunted with it and I remember the draw like went past my head when I shot this deer ripped my mask across my face and uh it was just funny how you remember certain things. But that was the first photos my uncle had them developed and handed them to me and I was like I mean I put them in a photo album. It's like my first pictures so then I always had to carry one of them little cameras around so then when it came to like putting out you know what I mean using a flip phone we would take pictures you I could never show anybody I've got probably hundreds of hours of hunting footage I never do nothing with it. I film as much as I can I've got GoPros I got a Canon or a Sony I got a Sony a Canon I got all this different equipment that I take stuff with and it just stays on the SD cards and I just throw it in the drawer. I never edit it I don't know how to edit it I just love that one day if my kids want to see you know all dad's hunting stories and stuff they can go through them.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

But I love that so now with Trophium our goal is dude they can just open up your app and they can have your entire folder I love that I I absolutely love that yeah I just uh I just downloaded it now so I'll be pretty around with that and and everything like that and I'll tell the the rest of the boys to to jump on that and and everything like that. But yeah I I I absolutely love it. You know and that's it like you know we have we have Instagram and everything like that obviously um and yeah you're always worried about what you can share. Like I that's one of like my biggest is biggest worries um you know with Instagram YouTube and everything like that doing what we do and at any moment it could be all taken away from you 100% if they if they don't like what you're posting or somebody who doesn't you know believe in what we do just complains and everything like that or whatever it does with their profile all that hard work and everything is just gone.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:50

Gone I just had a friend of mine her name is Alex I maybe shouldn't have said her name yo she lost all of her social media platforms through Facebook it started because she she does some awesome stuff bro she takes like the skulls of stuff and like puts like turns like a little squirrel into a dinosaur like yeah yeah yeah yeah she moved it's the it's phenomenal her work is phenomenal apparently they didn't like it I don't know if it was on TikTok or Facebook I I can't remember tick tock well we had that we did it on the at the trapping school she was explaining to me how she lost her entire platform so she didn't just lose her skulls and stuff she lost all of her photos from her entire childhood because her aunt downloaded them for her the aunt passed away so she had them on her Facebook and now she lost her account geez so that's the problem with big social media platforms this is these are guys I hunt with that literally developed you know that we've all come up I'm the guy where they're like Steve we just did this try it out and I'm like it's too dumb for me get rid of it you know what I mean or yo that works that works let's add this boom boom you know what I mean like what else do we add all right we add this listen if I can use it it's usable you know what I mean like anybody can use it again you understand from our conversation on what it takes to get on this phone it's like yeah bro I could go kill anything but I struggle when it comes to these digits I love it you know um yeah no and I I I absolutely love that and looking forward to to see what and using it and and see what else um is gonna be coming in in the future from from that and and everything like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:34

You know

Final Thoughts And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 1:03:35

I I wanna I want to definitely uh thank you for for coming on you any any last words uh did we miss a topic anything we'd love to get you on again um get you back on there's so much to talk about from trapping to to hunting we really I think covered most of the trapping conversation you know we didn't even talk turkey season there's so many things you know I mean would love to to get you on we'd love to you know we're big bear guys and stuff like that you know we'll love to get to talk to you some bear hunting and what your experience was from being a South Jersey guy coming up and and and hunting bears and and stuff like that but we'll have to save that for next time and also your adventures through through the rest of the the country and everything like that uh there's a lot of hunting that you do a lot of trapping and and different things so um definitely would would like to to talk about that more next time but and any last words no man I appreciate it yeah I'm just let me know I'm you see how it works with me. Yeah I just gotta call I'll just call you just give me a call bro just don't hit the social media thing just call me up like yo bro you get can you get me on I'm like yeah I'll get you here you know we'll figure it out this is what I if I'm not talking with you about hunting I'm talking with a customer about hunting here here's one for you yesterday I had to go do a uh an estimate on this roof so I I I look at the field notes and it says this woman loves her deer and loves her fox Steven do not talk about hunting these are the notes I get when I gotta go to a job I'm like so guess what we still end up talking about duck hunting I thought that was funny but yeah because I used to be a big waterfowl guy too I go in spurts on different things yeah yeah I love that I love that yeah I love waterfowl hunting big waterfowl guy um but I I absolutely love that that is hilarious that was yesterday dude so oh my god too funny uh and and listen that that's a perfect way to to end our show I mean yeah great great laugh listen everyone if you're not already following make sure you you follow below Instagram will be down down below I hope everyone enjoyed this episode and we'll see you guys next time