Whitetail Rendezvous

My name is Hayden Krimmer and I am an avid public land bowhunter. I am a spot and stalk whitetail hunter. I was introduced to bowhunting by my Dad at the age of 12, the youngest age allowed at the time. Hunting is a long-standing tradition in my family, hunting public land in the big woods of northern Wisconsin.

Deer numbers were sparse, and hunting was tough, but I learned the fundamentals from my Dad, uncles, and cousins in my early years. In the fall of 2013 I began going to school at Winona State University in South Eastern Minnesota. With over 27,00 acres of diverse public land within an hour’s drive, my passion for bowhunting took off. Over my 4-year stint at Winona State, I honed my skills as a whitetail deer hunter through my numerous experiences in the field and people I met along the way.

And this is an absolute pleasure, I’m joining with Amy Ray. And if you don’t know who Amy Ray is, you will by the end of the show. And she is the founder and CEO of Sisterhood Outdoors. And women are the fastest growing segment in the outdoor industries, all the industries, and Amy and her husband a few years back decided to do something about getting women in the outdoors. And so, Amy, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Bruce, I’m glad I’m here, it’s awesome.

Well, let’s just let the listeners know about Sisterhood Outdoors right off the get-go, then we’ll talk about how your husband helped you get into the hunting community, and then a lot of other things. And we’ll just see where it goes, but please tell us about how Sisterhood Outdoors began.

Hey I’m Chad Works, I’m originally from Brookfield, Nova Scotia and started hunting there thanks to a couple old guys then I ventured out to Alberta and have been hunting here for 8 years. My passion is hunting elk and screaming bugles, love the whitetail hunting out here and hunting big mule deer it is a truly awesome lifestyle.

Bush Buck secrets…Hunt where there aren’t any Grizzly Bears, Find intersecting travel corridors leading to bedding or feeding grounds. Stay persistent.

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous with your host Bruce Hutcheon, and I’m heading to La Crosse, Wisconsin. And I’ve got a fondness for La Crosse, Wisconsin because I attended the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, played a little football, then a little track, met my wife of 48 years. And I got a friend there, Jeff Vance, and Jeff is the Head of State for Bucks of Wisconsin, and it’s a division of Bucks of America.

Jeff, welcome back to the show. Jeff was number 160-something a number of years back. So, Jeff, I’m excited to have you here and I’m sure looking forward to spending a few days hunting with you this coming year.

Jeff: I’m looking forward to it and it’s great to be back, Bruce. Listening to your podcast throughout the last couple years has been great. I got several of them bookmarked from Mark Hammer, those podcasts are always really good. And then…Mark puts down a monster…

Deer hunting season is an exceptional time in Minnesota, bringing together friends and families to share in this special and long-held tradition. On Saturday, Nov. 3, opening day of the 2018 firearms season, nearly half-a-million Minnesotans will participate in this popular pastime. They will come from all over the state and beyond, leaving with memories to last a lifetime.

To honor and promote Minnesota’s deer hunting tradition, please join us for the 16th Annual Minnesota

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When we’ve identified these three things, we can plan seasonal access to stand locations that allow a hunter to hunt virtually undetected by deer. The ability to hide from a deers eyes, ears and nose let you hunt virtually invisible.

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We’re heading up to “O Canada.” I love to go north of the border, I’ve had some great hunts up there and with some great people. And Chris is no exception, he runs Cedar Ridge Outdoors and he’s just kind of sort of getting going in this whole program, and so he and I connected on social media and we’ll be talking Deer Hunting and Discover Cedar Ridge Outdoors. And I love to have new guys and guys that hunting in Southern Ontario on the show. So, Chris, welcome to Whitetail Rendezvous.

Hey. Well, thanks for having me, I appreciate the opportunity.

Yeah, we were kidding in the warm-up that you live in Southern Ontario, I fish in Northern Ontario quite a bit. And I call it the suburbs, and you kind of came back to me and said, “Well, it’s not that bad.” And so let’s just tell the people, you know, what you’re hunting, what type of land are you hunting in Southern Ontario?

For the most part, like, there’s a fair bit of hardwoods and stuff around, we got some cedar swamps, but it’s a lot of farmland. There’s a lot of big fields, a lot of farmland. The deer is plentiful, like there’s a lot of crop for them to eat. So it is what it is. Hunting is hunting, I guess, and at the same point you got to have a little luck behind you, too. The deer population is there. In my area where I am right now there’s a lot of guys hunting, so I’ve noticed in the last couple years the deer population has dropped a little bit. But that’s why I do what I do and I try to keep the herd healthy.

Hunting is hunting, I guess, and at the same point you got to have a little luck behind you, too

Where I am I haven’t got a whole lot of farms around me. Like there are quite a few in the general area, but a lot of guys are growing beans, corn, a lot of stuff for cattle and that, oats. And they…but I like to put my…get my food plots and try to do what I can for the herd, keep them healthy and just keep them in my area, too. So it’s…

Now you’re running on public…pardon me, private land, how many acres you have access to?

I’ve got, personally myself that I own, I’ve got 300. And, but there’s a good friend of mine right next door that he’s got 400, so I kind of hunt about 700 acres for the most part. But it’s a lot of acreage, but we do all right with it.

Yeah, what are we talking about, what does the DNR say about, you know, deer per acre, or deer per square mile?

To be honest with you, I really haven’t looked into it. Like in our area it’s…you go 10 minutes south, the deer population when you get down closer to where there’s a few more big farms and that, like, you see a big jump in the deer population. And back where I am right now, if I had to guess, I’m going to say five, six, maybe seven deer kind of within 100 acres or so. Like it’s a pretty healthy population.

Friends of Whitetail Rendezvous podcast host Bruce Hutcheon and Be a lion Outdoors, CJ (Christopher James) had a digital campfire where they discuss the reason Why they Hunt. The discussion took many twists and turns throughout the evening and by the time the embers were glowing they all reached common ground. We hunt because we love the challange, the journey to far reaches of the earth, the relationships forged, the life lessons learned and the enjoyment of organic meat.

And it’s time to head out to the West Coast, and actually Northern California. And we’re going to meet with Jen O’Hara, and Jen is the CEO of Girls with Guns Clothing brand. And she’s got a great story Deer Hunting – Guns with Guns – Jen O’Hara. And, guys, you need to listen to her because she’s done something a lot of people haven’t done. She and her best friend Norissa about 10 years ago started Girls with Guns. And, Jen, what’s happened in 10 years?

A lot has happened in 10 years, Bruce. I actually can’t even believe it’s been that long. But, like you said, Norissa, Norissa is my best friend and somewhere along the way I actually ended up marrying her brother, so she’s also now my sister-in-law.

Whoa, wait a minute, that’s another story.

It’s a whole other story.

Yeah.

But, you know, it was not planned. So we basically started along the way. And, you know, just to preface, Norissa would normally be here, we normally do everything together, but she is currently in South Africa hunting with our friend and the marketing for Clarissa. And we are…usually we kind of complement each other on these, but I’m just going to tell you the whole story in my words.

Well, have at it.

Okay, perfect. So basically Norissa and I were doing separate things 10 years ago. I had started my real estate business and it was becoming extremely successful, even in the downturn of the economy. I very much have a business head on my shoulders, Norissa very much has a creative head on her shoulders. She owned an embroidery shop, and she worked at a helicopter company at that time doing their front desk work and dispatch and all those things. So we had two totally separate things going on, but we would always meet together to go boating and wake boarding, snowboarding, hunting, of course, and all of these things in the outdoors, and that was just our friendship.

Josh Honeycutt is a back-country deer hunter from Kentucky that grew up slinging arrows and bullets at pressured river bottom whitetails. If it’s deer or turkey season, you’ll find him high in an oak tree or sitting up against one. And he enjoys spending that time in the outdoors with his wife, Kathryn, as well as the rest of his family and friends.