Peter Rogers Whitetail Bunkhouse Crew
Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous.
This is Bruce Hutcheon, your host. And I'm really, really happy to have Peter Rogers with me. Peter Rogers is the son of Dick Rogers. And if you listen to my episodes 000, you find out that Dick Rogers was instrumental in bringing me to the Baraboo River Valley and started me off on a career in 1966 of hunting all over North America.
So, Peter, welcome to the show.
Peter: How's it going, Bruce?
Bruce: It's going really well. Peter, let's share where the hunting tradition came for you, and let's just start there.
Peter: Hunting's always really been intriguing for me because of my dad and my family. He grew up in Baraboo River Valley in the center of Wisconsin on the farm that you first hunted.
And since was knee-high little grasshopper he's been taking me out hunting. Whether I was going on the hunts, whether I was riding in the car while he was taking people out for drives, or just sitting around listening to ol' boys talk about that one that got away.
So the love affair started when I was extremely young. But I never really became passionate about it until I was in my 30s. And 36 now, I'm really starting to get down to the heart of what it is to be a hunter.
Bruce: Well, let's talk about what does it mean to you, Peter, to be a hunter?
let's talk about what does it mean to you, Peter, to be a hunter
Peter: Well, I don't look at it the same way that a lot of people do. I'm not extremely into how big a deer is or . . . of course, as any hunter would like to bag the big one and have the biggest buck in camp, I really just enjoy being out there in the wild life and experiencing that passion that my dad has.
My biggest aspiration is really just to understand what big bucks do. Because I watch baskets run around all day when I bow hunt and I rarely see that unicorn, if you wanna call it. So, in general, my whole outlook on hunting is really just to get out there, to be in nature, to make good accurate kills.
Wounding a deer is a great fear of mine. It's never happened before, which I feel very fortunate. But I really just wanna get to the heart of what deer hunting is all about. And I feel like I'm almost there.
Bruce: That's interesting. You said, "The heart of hunting." Define that for Peter Rogers.
Peter: For me, it's really understanding the deer that you're hunting. Right now, I'm into using my climber, especially for bow hunting.
And even after open weekend of gun season, I find myself wanting to use my bow more than gun because it's a more intimate thing.
I really feel like the heart of hunting is being right there and actually catching the animal in its close natural environment as opposed to taking a 200 yard shot when it comes to whitetails, of course.
Bruce: Let's talk about the Bunk House Crew as I've named the people and the place at Mill Creek. So share with our listeners what the Bunk House Crew's all about and why it's fun.
Let's talk about the Bunk House Crew as I've named the people and the place at Mill Creek
Peter: Well the Bunk House all started . . . my dad had a little cabin on a river a few years back. And we never were able to hunt there.
It was more for boating, having a good time. And we'd always come up and either stayed on the farm that we actually hunted or stayed in a hotel nearby. And when my dad had the opportunity to get out of that cabin he was quick to try to find a place where he could call home base.
Where we could park our snow mobiles and four wheeler s and go shoot trap. And luckily my cousin Mike had a bunkhouse, if you will, for one of his crews. And we knew especially,