These days with the technology available most of us have an intimate knowledge of the deer on our hunting tracts.  We are always hoping watching for the deer that is an all-star, or has the potential to become one if we can keep him alive a few more years.  When we identify that special deer, we find ourselves making decisions and planning around that one single deer.  From working as hard as we can to protect and nourish him, to eventually working to pattern and kill him.   It can be a roller coaster, and some are better at it than others.  Our friend Brandon Huerkamp has proven to be one of the best around at growing, identifying, and putting an arrow in mature super star bucks.   We talk about the process, tips, and stories with him. 

On this episode we talk about the Noxubee Farm Supply racoon round up. We discuss our strategy, the acres we covered, and our opinion on the backlash not only from nonhunters, but most vehemently from the coon hunting community. We have coon hunters that hunt the ground we trapped and hunted during the round up, there are still plenty of coons to tree. We all have our particular species that we are passionate about, and we should respect each other as well as nature and the resources. The teams in the roundup were spread out across more than r 20,000 acres & 6 counties. The population was not wiped out, we are still getting pics of coons on cameras we are running for deer herd inventory. We are still trapping some of the properties. The pics made it look a little more dramatic than it was. We also talk about turkeys and how we try to help sustain populations where we hunt. It's a combination of habitat management and self control when it comes to hunter harvest. Make all you can, take as few as you can. It's really that simple.

Our friends at Noxubee Farm supply in Macon, MS are putting on a Racoon Roundup later this month so Chris and I went down to get more info.  We ended up setting up in owner Ryan Bostick's office and filming a podcast.  Ryan is a lifelong conservationist, hunter, and a veteran.  We think you'll love this conversation.  

Get more details on facebook at www.facebook.com/noxubeefarmsupply

A short podcast on the annual debate of whether trapping is an effective means of turkey predator management.  Especially when compared to efforts in the area of habitat improvement.  Sometimes trapping might be the only thing that a lease holder, club member, or someone hunting by permission can do.   

Good friend and exceptional turkey hunter, Hunter Crimm joins us to talk about trapping and his efforts to help improve his turkey numbers on leased lands that he hunts and manages.  Hunter has trapped for  years and shares his experience and stories with us.

Last episode we had former game warden Bo Harris in to talk about poachers.  As often happens, we got to telling stories and went down a few rabbit trails.  I saved a few of the stories and insights and patched them back together for a follow up episode.  Hope you enjoy. 

Whether you own land or lease land, you have an investment of time and money in making it the best that it can be.   One of the most frustrating things is to have a poacher sneaking around taking advantage of your land and efforts.  Get to know your local game warden and have a line of communication with them.  On this episode we talk with a former warden from our area, Bo Harris.  We hit on the frustrations of having poachers, and some stories from the past that we can all relate to and Herring story with a goat that we didn't see coming when we started recording. 

Our friend and logger Tim O'bryant AKA Cotontop3 on the socials sits down with us and we talk past, present, and future of logging particularly in the Southeast.   Tim and his family have logged in Mississippi and Alabama for 4 decades.   Like we always do, we go back in history for stories as well as discuss what the future looks like for the industry.  On this episode you get an inside look from a logger, a timber buyer, and a realtor, and all three of us are hunters and conservationists.  We discuss the challenges for landowners when they need to get small tracts cut, evaluating the timing and methods of cutting, and the trend in recreational value of land versus timber value. 

You can folllow Tim on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@cotontop3

and the Woodsman Perspective on youtube at 

https://www.youtube.com/@woodsmanperspectivepodcast

On our 20th episode we sit down with Jason and Brian Hollis of Hollis Farms.  The Hollis family has been growing and killing big whitetails and longbeard turkeys for more than 4 decades.  We talk about how it started, with their dad Joe Hollis and his vision, not only for land and deer management but his vision for raising boys and creating a legacy.   Jason and Brian are passing this legacy on to their own sons now.  They also have a successful Youtube channel with more that 80K followers.   They are on facebook and Instagram, Hollis Farms 

Follow them here:

https://www.youtube.com/@HollisFarmsMS

http://www.hollisfarms.com/

Chris and Brent talk about a project that Chris did back in 2015.  Although his farm was producing great deer numbers and some quality bucks, Chris felt like it was lacking in cover nesting habitat.  Listen as he talks about the process of identifying the right area and taking on a project that would seem counter intuitive to most hunters and landowner, especially almost a decade ago.