Make It Happen Outdoors

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous, this is your host, Bruce Hutcheon. Folks, just sit back, we're going to have a really good conversation with Michael Kotzum Make It happen Outdoors. Michael, welcome to the show.

Michael: All right, Bruce, thanks for having me.

Bruce: Hey, let's give the listeners a little bit of your background, what you do for a day job and how you got into Whitetail hunting.

Michael: Okay. So during the day, I am an IT nerd. I do some of the backend storage work for Wall Street. Other than that, I try to get outdoors is much as possible. I started deer hunting about the age of five or six with my uncles. That blossomed into me taking over as much as I could of the whole process as I was getting older. I grew up down in Georgia and Alabama, and at the age of 15, my family and I moved out to Oklahoma. And there's a vast difference in both the Whitetail habitat as well as the sheer numbers of the population between the two locations, so I had to completely relearn how to deer hunt after we moved. One of the large items being is down in the southeast, you have a two to three month gun season.

I started deer hunting about the age of five or six with my uncles

Here in Oklahoma, it was recently expanded a few years ago, but when we first moved, there was a 10 day rifle season, everything else was archery. So I had to learn how to archery hunt, and as you well know, it's a lot different getting within 20 to 40 yards of a deer versus 2 to 300.

Bruce: Did I lose you?

Michael: No, sir.

Bruce: Oh, okay. So let's talk about the hunting tradition and how you got started as a hunter.

Michael: Well, around the holidays, my family and I always got together. And during that time, I'd see my uncles coming back from deer hunting around lunch time or in the evenings, and one day one of my favorite uncles offered to take me out deer hunting with him. And he was kind enough to take me out earlier in the season, so that it wasn't too blistering cold. But oddly enough, being five, six years old, I enjoyed sitting there not making a noise, waiting for deer to show up, and he allowed me to pull the trigger on a deer at a young age. He really was a great teacher and helped ease me into the sport, and he showed me all aspects of it, both the bloody side of it, he taught me to...

Bruce: Hold on a second.

Michael: Okay.

Bruce: What is going on?

Michael: I don't know. I'll have the [inaudible 00:03:24].

Bruce: That was Buffalo Wild Wings.

Michael: That was a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial.

Bruce: I have no idea. Okay. Start again, I'm sorry.

Michael: Sure, no problem.

Bruce: I'll cut that out. Go ahead.

Michael: Okay. So but he really showed me the entire process from start to finish, and he taught me to respect the animals, only shoot what I'm going to eat, and he showed the hard work that went into it. So it was really at an early age ground into me, the entire process and the love of the hunt.

Bruce: In the warm-up, we talked about lessons learned, and let's just share whatever parts of that conversation you want to because so many times, listeners, we get in situations and at the time, we think they're real important, but in the huge scheme of things, really let's think about what we're doing and how we're doing it. Michael, let's talk about it.

Michael: Well, as a hunter, I primarily hunt public land

Michael: Well, as a hunter, I primarily hunt public land. I've had very little luck in gaining access to private land, either via lease, or knocking on doors. So I've stuck with public land. And I've had pretty decent success with it. However, several years ago, I had a good buddy of mine who I had grown up with to some degree, gone to church with. We became pretty much like brothers. We hunted together, fished together, I was in his wedding, I was the best man, and so everything that occurred in the outdoors,