Mike Evenson The Kadlec Buck # 4 B&C all time inside spread

This is your host of Whitetail Rendezvous, Bruce Hutcheon. And I'm sitting up in North Central, Wisconsin with Mike Evenson. Mike Evenson the Kadlec Buck # 4 B&C all time inside spread. Mike brought over a rack that you'll be able to see on our website coming up just in a couple of days but this is a spectacular white-tailed deer. It's the fourth largest inside spread at thirty and five-eighths that has been recorded with the Boone and Crockett Club. Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike: Thank you.

Bruce: So Mike, let's just go back and talk about how many years you actually hunted this deer until you found it, unfortunately or fortunately for the deer, it died of natural causes. Let's talk about when your odyssey began for the Kadlec Buck.

Mike: Well, it began in about, oh, it had to have been 2004 the first time I was going to put some stands in the woods. I didn't have any weapons with me because it was preseason and he was standing broad sided in the logging road probably around I would say 50 yards or so and ever since that point, it was a mission to go after this thing.

Bruce: And what year was that again?

Mike: That was 2004.

Bruce: Two thousand four, you laid eyes on him. Was he this big at that point in time?

Mike: He had quite a spread, so he was large.

Bruce: And do you think he's a two-and-a-half, three-and-a-half year old deer at that time?

Mike: I'm thinking it looked like four.

Bruce: Wow. And you found him. In what year did you find him?

Mike: I found him in 2008.

Bruce: Okay, so four years. So he had a pretty good long life if it’s four-and-a-half years old then he was eight-and-a-half years old?

Mike: Yeah, right in there seven-and-a-half, eight-and-a-half. He wasn't a young deer the first time I've seen him.

Bruce: Yeah. So let's talk about when you put eyes on him the first time, what did you think?

I really wasn't thinking much because I was so amazed. I had no idea he was in there

Mike: I really wasn't thinking much because I was so amazed. I had no idea he was in there. He was running with another one that the neighborhood called Handlebars. Yeah, that's same inside spread. Yeah, so the genetics were there and I was amazed. I couldn't believe it. I had an opportunity with something like that.

Bruce: Now how many years had you been hunting this track of land?

Mike: I had been in there since 1992. So I had a lot of time on the properties out there.

Bruce: And how large a track is it?

Mike: Well, my friend owns about 1,600 acres of continuous acreage, all woods and swamps and he's...manages forest.

Bruce: Okay.

Mike: And there’s also 800 acres to the south, that was an old Boy Scout Camp that became a development, and the protective covenants on that property are also no hunting since the '60s.

Oh, wow. So there’s a sanctuary there.

Bruce: Oh, wow. So there’s a sanctuary there.

Mike: Oh hey, yes. This deer had frequently been seen in there as well by other people.

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Ken Olson - How to use WiFi trail cameras to build a hit list

Good morning. Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. I'm privileged to be sitting with Mr. Kenneth Olson. Ken and I connected 1977. We were both with the New York Life company, and Ken and I have maintained a relationship ever since. Ken went on to be very successful with the New York Life, and I went into the publishing industry and had a great career. And I'd like to spend two or three days, as much as Ken can tolerate me up at KO Farms in Northwestern Wisconsin. Ken, welcome to the show. Ken Olson - How to use WiFi trail cameras to build a hit list

Ken: Thank you, Bruce. Nice to be back here.

“I can’t believe that we have over 9,975 now! If you want to get great guidance regularly on whitetail hunting, just follow us at @whitetailrendez. We share a lot of cool ideas on there and I answer questions pretty regularly, so just head over there and see what it’s all about.”

Bruce: We're sitting at the farm. It's about 450 acres and it sits on a lake. And we got marsh, we got ridges, and we got fantastic whitetail habitat. Let's talk about why you went to a wireless system.

Ken: Well, I wanted to monitor the behavior of these critters, not just the deer. But I get all kinds of pictures of all kinds of critters. But I've hunted for 50 years and sitting in the woods seeing nothing just got old. So now with my system, I at least know what's around. I have been able to pattern and shoot one very nice buck. This year, I had two dandies that I had on the pattern. And about a week before bull season started, down came the acorns, away went my deer. And I monitored those cameras for six weeks seeing very little. And then as the acorns disappeared, my bucks started to reappear. So rather than wasting a whole month of my life, I was playing golf and fishing in Florida for October and on back during the rut.

Bruce: And Ken, I understand that you can be sitting down in Fort Myers and on your boat with your iPad or whatever and see whatever critters are walking past the camera lens. Is that correct?

There is a software, I believe it's called TeamViewer, that's pretty easy to install on my iPad

Ken: There is a software, I believe it's called TeamViewer, that's pretty easy to install on my iPad. I could actually be in a blind out here and check what's walking by on the other cameras in the woods. But like you said, I can be in Florida. And it's rather fun to monitor what's going on. Then I do keep what I consider the best pictures, not only of deer, but everything else running around. And then I make a book of pictures in the winter time. I believe I'm on my fourth book this year.

Bruce: Yeah. Ken and I were talking. He's got over 15,000 photos are taken each year, not just of deer, but we have turkeys. What else did we catch on the cameras, Ken?

Ken: A lot of sandhill cranes. I have lots of bears. bobcats. But the only thing that I believe that's in the neighborhood that I haven't had a picture in yet is a cougar. My neighbors claim to have seen them, but I haven't.

Bruce: And how many food plots are you monitoring, and travel corridors?

Ken: I have 11 cameras, 9 of them are on food plots. But those food plots might be as small as 2/10ths of an acre. I think my biggest one is 7/10ths of an acre. Most of the time I'll plant a brassica along with the clover, so we hunt the brassica. But the fall that I plant this stuff, and then the clover basically comes up for the next year as much as five years after that. Well, I usually mow Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day just to keep the clover down. Fertilize it spring and fall. I'm a city farmer.

Bruce: Suburban farmers. There are a lot of us out there on Whitetail Rendezvous, that's for sure. Ken, let's talk about the mileage you have on your travel corridors. Now ladies and gentlemen, he has roads that are basically food plots. What do you have on there, clover?

Mark Kenyon Host of Wired to Hunt  - He knows how to hunt whitetails

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. And ladies and gentlemen, we are very fortunate to have a gentleman named Mark Kenyon. Now, Mark is founder and full-time managing editor of Wired To Hunt, both the blog and the podcast. He's also the digital content manager, director at National Deer Alliance. And in April of 2015, he was on the cover of Outdoor Life Magazine as the new media star in the outdoor industries. Mark was also named the 2014 Quality the Deer Management Association Communicator of the Year. Mark, welcome to the show.

Mark: Thank you so much, Bruce. I'm excited to be here.

Bruce: Well, we're excited to have you here. And let's just jump right into the fact of you gaining influence in building a substantial media career in the outdoor industry at I'm going to call it a younger age, as we talked in the warm up. I'm a little bit older than you are.

Mark: Yeah, yeah, a little bit.

Bruce: A little bit. So let's jump right in and let's talk about that.

Mark: Yeah. I've been very, very blessed and fortunate to be able to do what I'm doing now, like you said, at a pretty young age. I'm 28 years old now, and my full-time career unbelievably is to talk about and write about hunting in the outdoors, which has been my dream for a long time.

And it's a long story that you probably don't want to hear, but long story short, I was able to move from a career in the technology industry, to now running Wired To Hunt and the Wired To Hunt Podcast full-time, and now also writing for most of the different hunting magazines out there and all of that. So it's something that took, as anyone might imagine, a lot, a lot of time and energy.

I really dove into Wired To Hunt in the fall of 2009, and I decided, at that point, I just started my full-time career just out of college,

I really dove into Wired To Hunt in the fall of 2009, and I decided, at that point, I just started my full-time career just out of college, and at that point, I decided working a desk job in the technology industry, it's great, I appreciate it, but it's not what I'm passionate about. It's not what I know I'm going to want to do in the long run. So I'm going to double down on Wired To Hunt. I believe that I could build something there, a community and a resource for the next generation of deer hunters.

And pretty much from that time on, from October 2009 until today, I pretty much, every single day of my life, I have been working on something related to that, whether it's creating, writing articles for the website, or building the website, or working on social media, or writing for magazines, or recording podcast, and doing all these different things, yeah, it just took a lot of time in building relationships, and trying to always be on the forward edge of what's going on, and trying to find a way to serve my audience. How can I be as beneficial and helpful to the people up there that are paying attention?

I've been fortunate that people responded well to it, and have appreciated it, and found it interesting and useful. And here I am today, just very thankful to be able to do what I'm doing now.

And I've been fortunate that people responded well to it, and have appreciated it, and found it interesting and useful. And here I am today, just very thankful to be able to do what I'm doing now.

Bruce: Mark, you mentioned a couple of seconds ago about writing different articles. Just share with our listeners, just run through the list of where your articles appear in the media.

Mark: Sure, So of course, I write articles for my own website, WiredToHunt.com. And then also over the past years, I have written for Quality Whitetails Magazine, which is the Quality Deer Management Association's publication. I've written for North American Whitetail, I've written for Deer and Deer Hunting, Whitetail News, Field & Stream, and Outdoor Life.

Bruce: Now,

Calvin Buckler of Boneyard TV  He knows how to hunt B&C Canadian Whitetails

Welcome to another edition of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and we're going to head north of the border. And we're going to head up and chat with a gentleman's name of Calvin Buckler. Yup, that's for sure. And Calvin is one heck of an interesting guy. We've been spending a couple of minutes on the warm-up. And he is the co host and producer of the Boneyard TV. And like everybody in Canada, he knows where the big bucks are and he won't tell me either. So maybe we can draw some good secrets out of Calvin while he's on the show. So Calvin, welcome to the show. Calvin Buckler of Boneyard TV - He knows how to hunt B&C Canadian Whitetails

Calvin: Hello. Thanks for having me.

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Bruce: You're welcome. You were telling me in the warm-up that you're from about 100 miles or an hour west of Edmonton. Is that pretty much where you're at?

Calvin: That's correct, yeah.

Bruce: And what kind of country is that? Is that hill, brush? Or is that agriculture, river bottom? Help me understand the type of terrain you're hunting in.

Calvin: As you come out of the city, it's pretty much flat land. There are some hills and stuff like that, but we are...like from my house, I'm probably three hours from the foothills of the mountains like Jasper National Park with the Rocky Mountains. I'm about 10 miles from a river, so the terrain changes but it's fairly flat. It's boreal forest, so there's a mixed forest of spruce and pine and poplars. And the whitetails really like the poplars when you get further up north toward Swan Hills.

Bruce: For anybody that hasn't hunted north of the border, tell us what they should really expect if they're hunting, I'm going to say, early season, mid-season, or during a rut. Those three seasons, what should a person expect to encounter weather-wise and deer behavior-wise?

Calvin: Well, I found early...like ours, my season starts September 1st. And if you can get them in that first week, if you can pattern them, you got a chance. As soon as they seem to lose their velvet, it's super tough. There's more bush around that. Once you get towards Red Deer, that's the middle of the province. Then there's less trees, the terrain changes, and it's big open fields. But the deer usually aren't as big once you get further south. There are some big bucks down there. But [inaudible 00:02:29] that you're hunting, there's some big chunks of bush mile by mile, and you're sitting on the edge of that or trying to get into there and hunt them. And it can be really difficult with a bow. Whereas once you get into November where the rifle season usually starts in my zone, because there's a bunch of different zones, then you have a better chance with a rifle because you don't have to be so close, obviously, right? So you hunt the food sources. That's what I do.

Bruce: Now, what are your peak rut times?

Calvin: Usually it starts around November 7th and goes until the 15th or the 20th. So my brother and I got one on the last day. That was, oh, I don't know. It was a big one. It was a good one, grossed 184, just a beautiful old buck. And it was the last day. He was coming across the field at last light with his head down, and he was looking for a hot doe or on a hot doe. But usually that's 7th until the 15th is when they're really moving. You can have a good chance of seeing a big buck that usually you'd never see.

Bruce: Well, thanks for that background. So everybody that lives in what I say the lower 48...we're in the US.

Tony Campisi "How I Learned to Hunt a New Species of Wild Game

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon. We're heading into the end of the year. In fact, this is December 31, 2015. You'll be probably hearing this show sometime late January or mid-February. But today, ladies and gentlemen, we're heading to Pennsylvania, and we're going to chat with Tony Campisi. Is that right, Tony?

Tony: Yes, sir, Campisi. Yep.

Bruce: Campisi. You're in for a treat, ladies and gentlemen, because this young man…and he's under 30 and over 20, so pick a year. But this man really plays out of everybody's sandbox. He's got a different slant on things. In the warm up, he shared some things with me, and I went, "Really?" And he's an interesting guy, so without further ado, Tony Campisi, welcome to the show.

Tony: Hey, thanks a lot for having me, man.

Bruce: Hey, let's just start right off with your number one, and I think it's important for everybody in North America to understand how important conservation is. So I want to get Tony Campisi's eyes on it, or take on what conservation really is and how it's integrated to everything of our life.

Tony: Right. Well, first of all, I truly do believe that, as the human race, we are dependent on the natural world. And if you think about it, if you think about what do we really need, we need clean water to drink. We need clean food to eat, and we need clean air to breathe. All of those require stewardship of the land that we live on.

There are a lot of people, I think, that just believe that development can be a ruthless pursuit, and have this idea, "Well, it's not gonna happen in my lifetime." And I think that that's a big problem today, because in the past 100 years, up until the year about 2000 in the Industrial Revolution, we did a ton of damage. I wasn't even around during that time, but the Industrial Revolution and the ruthless development did a ton of damage. Now we've gotten to a point where we are going out of that economy. We're going out of that time, and we really do have an opportunity to make a huge difference for the next 100 years. It really is so connected to...everything is really connected.

There was a study done, I forget what scientist did it, I forget his name. Monbiot, I think, was his last name, George. And he did a study in, I believe it was Yellowstone National Park, where they actually took the wolves out of the park, I'm guessing, to make it more safe for guests. And they noticed over the year that the deer population would go up. And then the deer would eat everything as they do now, why it's so important to manage the deer herds now. But they would eat everything, all the browse, and then the birds would leave because they'd have nowhere to go. The bears would leave because they had nothing to eat, and it turned into a barren wasteland, basically.

And then they reintroduced the wolves to see what would happen. The amazing thing was that when the wolves came back, they started to eat the deer. And then the deer population wasn't able to eat all the browse anymore. And the birds returned, and the banks of the stream became thicker, and the rivers slowed down, and they started to flow more evenly. And the fish were healthier, and the bears returned because they could eat the fish and the berries. Everything was connected. In conservation, especially in the hunting industry, hunters and fishermen do more for conservation than any organization, because they understand the connection between everything, how it's connected and, basically, what's gonna happen if we get things out of balance, I guess.

So I think with this new economy, people are either…I believe that the 40-hour work week is completely dead. I believe people are either gonna be working 80 hours or they're gonna be working about 15 to 20 hours. There's gonna be a lot more time to focus, for the people who really care about this stuff to focus,...

Wayne Partridge of Partridge Outdoors produces highly nutritional deer attractants

 

Welcome to another edition of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and we're heading to the Midwest today and we're going to connect with Wayne and Carol Partridge. I had the fortunate situation to connect with Wayne and Carol when I was hunting Buffalo County with Buffalo County Bucks in Waumandee, Wisconsin. We spent a little bit of time in the Waumandee House, talking about whitetails and I said, "Wayne, when you get home, let's get you on the show and talk about Partridge Outdoors, his new company. But more so let's talk about bow hunting up and personal."

So Wayne, welcome to the show.

Wayne: Hi, Bruce. How are ya?

Bruce: I'm doing great! And I hope you had a great Christmas.

Wayne: You, too. We did. We had an excellent holidays. It's getting kind of cold here in New York now though.

Bruce: Well it better be. It's almost January!

Wayne: Yeah!

Bruce: We had a strange fall; that's for sure. So let's start the show right off and let's talk about Partridge Outdoors, which you're going to launch soon. And then we'll talk about the background of that product and that company, and then we're going to talk about whitetail hunting. How's that?

Wayne: Sounds great.

Bruce: All right. Well let's talk about Partridge Outdoors and why you and Carol are launching the company.

Wayne: All right. We are starting the company with deer attractants and supplements. I know I've used a lot of stuff out there, bought a lot of attractants from the stores and stuff, all the big names on TV, and a lot of them to me just didn't work very good. So we started messing around with some different things and we've come up with some pretty good stuff right now.

Bruce: Well let's talk about that stuff. What is it specifically? And how is it going to help all the whitetail hunters?

Wayne: Well, I don't know. Most of the stuff in the stores, it's just powder and you dump it on the ground. I've dumped some of the stuff on the ground and deer don't even touch it. The attractants we're making are all natural. There's a couple of different types: some soybean, some corn. But our deer are digging holes in the ground to get more when we put it out. I know a lot of guys spend a lot of money hunting and stuff, and on all the things for hunting, and I hate to see the guys waste money on stuff that doesn't work.

Bruce: Why do you think it doesn't work, Wayne?

Wayne: I'm not sure, Bruce. I don't know what they make it out of. To me, our attractants, you can actually see what is in them, as opposed to just pure powder, different colored powders that you dump on the ground. Ours is very nutritional, high in protein, and the deer just love it. They're just tearing it up.

So what is it that make the deer come back? What are the deer looking for, so they're digging through the ground looking for this either attractant or supplement?

Bruce: So what is it that make the deer come back? What are the deer looking for, so they're digging through the ground looking for this either attractant or supplement?

Wayne: Well it's just some of the stuff we're using. We're using roasted soybeans in one of them and they just tear it up. And even the ones with the corn, there's different stuff that we're putting in it. And we went through nutritionists and the deer just seem to love it. They're digging holes in the ground for it.

Bruce: Now you mentioned nutritionists. What did the nutritionists say that whitetails really need and will come to this product?

Wayne: Well that's the whole thing. We wanted to make it nutritional. We weren't just trying to attract them. We wanted something that would grow horns bigger and make them more healthy. And they've come back with a couple different ingredients for a couple different supplements and it's all going to be top of the line stuff. Very nutritional for the whitetail.

Jimmy Davis Pro Staff at Monster Raxx

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. Today we're heading over to Wisconsin, actually River Falls, Wisconsin, and we're going to talk to a young man named Jimmy Davis. Now Jimmy has been hunting since about 12 years old. He is Pro Staff at Monster Raxx out of Buffalo, Minnesota.

And Jimmy lives down pretty close to -- or I shouldn't say "lives" -- but he has hunting on a family farm, his wife's farm, in Pepin County, which is really close top Dunn County, and Buffalo County, Trempealeau County. Right along that Mississippi River, where we all know some big bucks come from.

So Jimmy Davis, welcome to the show.

Jimmy: Hey, Bruce. Glad to be here.

Bruce: Now let's start right off and let's talk about something that happened this fall. You had your son with you and he watched you take a buck. He watched you shoot a buck with a bow. Let's just talk about that, what that experience meant to him, and what it meant to you.

Jimmy: Yeah. It was a great experience for sure. Basically, last year he started coming with me hunting. I've taken him hunting with me; he would sit with me, and he was seven years old. And then he's sat with me a few times in the bow stand and he's kind of antsy, being seven years old. And this year he said he really wanted to go with me a lot.

So early October, it was a Friday it must have been, him and I went down to that land and he sat in the ground blind on a Friday night. We saw a lot of deer and weren't able to shoot anything. And then, the next morning he wanted to sleep in so I gave in to him and said, "Sure." It happened to be my birthday and I said, "All right. Well tonight you get to pick out where we're going to go." He said, "All right. I want to go in the creek bottom and I want to sit in the double-ladder stand." I said, "All right." And I said, "Well, we've got to make sure we stick it out, because you never know what could happen."

So we got down there in perfect wind for our spot and we were surrounded in mostly corn, and a thick swamp behind us, big [inaudible 00:02:24]. And we were sitting there and he was starting to get antsy. I said, "Well, we have to stick it out." And I was looking over to my right. I never noticed this buck coming out of the creek and it came right by our tree stand. That's only the second time I sat there this year.

I was pointing that way and all of a sudden here come a doe and a fawn, dropped down in the creek and they walked right underneath of us. He sat there and he was watching them. I said to him, "Make sure you don't move," you know, whispering to him. They walk right by us and that was pretty cool. We let them go.

About five minutes later, off in the distance in the bush, I saw bushes moving and I showed him. He thought that was pretty neat and he kept watching. And then the buck -- it was a smaller buck -- came about 25 yards from us. He wanted me to shoot him and it was just a little basket rack. He walked away and I was like, "Oh, man, maybe I should have," Because that would have been his first experience ever with getting a deer, you know. He's been tracking them and that kind of thing.

But about five minutes later, all of a sudden big herd, just like a bear coming through the corn, just trashing and everything. I was already standing and he was sitting. All of a sudden [inaudible 00:03:42] my voice goes, "Dad, shoot her! Shoot her!" And I couldn't see him. I'm like, "Where?" And he's like, "Right there!" And he's pointing, you know. I'm like, "No, keep your hands in," you know, and trying to whisper, and still looking.

Finally I did see the deer and I'm like, "Oh! He looks pretty dang good!" He started walking out and I drew on him

Finally I did see the deer and I'm like, "Oh! He looks pretty dang good!" He started walking out and I drew on him. Then he stopped and then I was waiting for him to walk forward a little bit more.

Larry Mitchell Co-Founder Country Camo Outdoors

Welcome to another episode of White Tail Rendezvous. This is your host Bruce Hutcheon and we're going to head to the Mid-West today and we're going to talk to Larry Mitchell. Now Larry and his wife Jeana have Country Camo Outdoors. Larry also runs a hydrographic dipping business and Larry you're going to have to tell me about that one and Larry's been a hunter for a long time. so, Larry, welcome to the show.

Larry: Thanks for having me, Bruce.

Bruce: Well, let's talk about, let's start it right off, Country Camo Outdoors that you and Gina have, why don't you share with the listeners what it is, what you're trying to accomplish with it, and how they can get in touch with you if they have some interest in finding out more.

Larry: All right, great. Well, I guess Country Camo Outdoors was, I guess it's been a passion I've had for a long time. growing up I watched Fitzgerald, his videos and stuff and always dreamed about doing that myself. What we're about is trying to get people involved in the outdoors as far as kids, disabled kids, veterans, and just the ordinary Joe that's never been in the woods before. We mainly rely on our sponsors, donations, stuff like that and much of it comes out of our pocket as far as things that we put on. We do a kids' fishing day in the Spring, whatever. If anyone's interested in getting a hold of us we do have a website, Country Camo Outdoors where they can look as up and see our staff on there and everything else.

Bruce: Great. You mentioned youth and veterans and getting them involved more in the outdoors. What type of activities do you get them involved in?

Larry: Oh, right now we're trying to get a veteran's hunt scheduled for some lucky veteran out there. We've got a couple places, one up in Michigan that we're looking into getting the hunt sponsored with them. As far as the kids go we do a kids' day out, usually during the summer or we take them out to a lake, we'll have games, and feed them. They usually end up getting free fishing poles and free tackle. [inaudible 00:02:33] kids out there, I mean they're the future of this sport.

Bruce: Why do you think kids aren't in the out of doors so much these days?

Larry: Well, it's come down to the old video games are pretty much taking over kids' lives in my opinion of it. You've got a lot of parents that don't know anything about hunting, never been in the outdoors, I think a lot of it started with...It's kind of like a babysitter for some parents, keep your kid occupied, give them a video game. But just [inaudible 00:03:08] be my opinion.

Bruce: How about the veterans? How do veterans get in touch with you if they want to go out and do an activity with you guys?

Larry: Well, they can get a hold of us, we've got the numbers on our website or go through our website and get a hold of us, leave us a message, send us a message, email, anything like that.

Bruce: And any age restrictions?

Larry: No. No age restrictions. As long as they're...As far as kids go they've got to be able to know what they're doing, know they're going out in the woods to hunt, they've got to be able to hold a gun I guess. That would be the only restriction as far as kids go.

Bruce: Now in your state they have to have a hunter safety card, would that be correct?

Larry: For like three years you can get an apprentice license which they just have to accompany a licensed hunter who's not hunting. So they can do that for, I believe it's three years before they get their hunter's education certificate.

you told me in the warm-up that your mom taught you how to shoot a gun and enjoy the out of doors.

Bruce: All right. Now let's go back and you told me in the warm-up that your mom taught you how to shoot a gun and enjoy the out of doors. Let's talk a little bit about that and then you also said when you were in grade-school that somebody brought a deer or something to school or you saw a deer...

Steve Wall of Wisconsin Outdoor Pursuits

Welcome to another edition of White Tail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon. We're heading over to Wisconsin today, where we're going to connect with Steve Wall. Steve's out of Green Bay, and he's the founder and blogger on Wisconsin Outdoor Pursuits. Steve, welcome to the show.

Steve: Thanks, Bruce.

Bruce: Steve, let's just jump right into it. Let's talk about Wisconsin Outdoor Pursuits, how they got started back in December 0f 2004, and let's talk and let the listeners know what it's all about.

Steve: Yeah, we started it last year, was kind of just looking to getting into the outdoor industry a little bit and was listening to some other podcasts, Philip Havens of Bowhunting Freedom. I listened to him and one of his podcasts and decided to start blogging and writing and emailed Phil and said, "How do I get started?" He gave me some tips. And last year on my birthday, started up the website and started writing some stories. It just kind of has grown from there.

Bruce: I know at the end of the show we're going to give a shout out, how to get a hold of the URL for Wisconsin Outdoor Pursuits, but why don't you share it with our listeners right now?

Steve: Sure. It's wisconsinoutdoorpursuits.com.

Bruce: Let's talk about one of your favorite blogs, something that stands out to you to say, "Hey, this is one of my favorites, and here's why."

Steve: I guess one of my favorites would be my first buck. It was a story I wrote for a high school project. I shot my first buck at 16 years old. It was a 12-pointer drop time, scored 153 inches. That was my first buck ever.

Bruce: And that was your first buck? Come on, this sounds like a hunting story, come on.

Steve: I just grew up hunting some trophy-managed land and had great opportunities that way. Yeah, so it was definitely a buck of a lifetime. The name of the blog is "Buck of a Lifetime," but, yeah, it was my first buck ever.

Bruce: Was that down by Prairie du Chien?

Steve: Yep, that was down there, one county over from there down along the Mississippi River, so some great hunting down there.

Bruce: Oh, yeah, I used to hunt near Lancaster. I'm just trying to think what county, Iowa County is that?

Steve: Grant County.

Bruce: Grant County, yep, yep. I have an 8-point buck that I shot along the Little Grant, and I think that was in 1976. I still have that on my wall. You know, I was ecstatic, because it was just a solid-frame, two and a half year old deer maybe. I couldn't have been happier. I know that country. I've trout fished down there quite a bit too when I was living in Wisconsin. Yeah, I love that country, and congratulations. Tell us about that hunt. Why don't you just jump right in it? This is your first hunt. Was that archery or rifle?

Steve: It was rifle. I had been hunting for years before that and let quite a few bucks go, but this was Thanksgiving Day. I had decided to go out in the morning for a bit. I had to be at my grandmas for noon for Thanksgiving lunch and decided to go up there for a couple of hours. And I was just standing up in the field, waiting for my dad. He was sitting down in the woods. On his way out, he had jumped up the deer, and it came out. All I could see when he came out of the woods, it was probably a couple of hundred yards away, and all I could see was white antlers, and got it in the scope.

I actually ended up missing on my first shot. I went down into a little ravine, watching for it to come out, and I didn't see it, didn't see it

I actually ended up missing on my first shot. I went down into a little ravine, watching for it to come out, and I didn't see it, didn't see it. I looked down the field, and it was standing about 200 yards right at top of the field. I took a shot, and he dropped right in his tracks. My dad and I both went running up there, and we both got to it about the same time. I yelled down to my dad, "He's down.

Mike Jordan DIY Bowhunter

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host Bruce Hutcheon. And I'm pleased to bring a friend from Colorado that loves to hunt elk, loves to hunt whitetail. His name is Michael Jordan. And Mike comes from the city of Pueblo. He's got his wife Andrea and he's got two children, Bella and Brady. And he's been hunting for a long time. They attend a Christian church down there in Pueblo. And one of his favorite things to do is chase big whitetails and big bulls either in the Rocky Mountains or along the Arkansas.

Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike: Thanks, Bruce.

Bruce: Say Mike, when you sent me that picture a month or so ago, I was pretty astounded because when I first looked at it, I thought you had shot just a humongous whitetail deer because I didn't see the split fork on the backside of his right antler. So let's just jump right into the show and tell people about this magnificent, I'm going to call it a hybrid for lack of a better word, just a gorgeous, gorgeous deer you took out in Eastern Colorado.

Mike: Yeah, I would probably tend to agree with you. I would think it probably is considered a hybrid. But the story on that, I was hunting with Gage. And Bruce, you know Gage. And we were hunting on a farm that I actually insure. And we spotted this buck probably about 150 yards. And luckily he was in a milo field, and luckily there was a fence line. And with the winds the way it blows in Eastern Colorado, it blows some tumbleweeds up against that fence line and we were able to use those tumbleweeds to walk behind and get within range. And ultimately I shot the buck at 33 yards in the milo field and that was that on the buck. He scored a 196. He had a broken tine in the back that problem would've put him over 200.

Bruce: Amazing, amazing deer. Now had you seen this deer previously on that property? Had you scouted it? Tell us what led you to hunt that property.

Mike: To be honest with you, we hunted probably a bigger buck that morning in a cornfield over towards Wiley. And this farm is probably about 30 miles east of Wiley. And so after we hunted there and had an opportunity at the buck. But I just didn't have a shot that I felt comfortable with. So we went over there. And to answer your question, I never did see this buck before. I've been over in this area a few times and I've never seen this buck. But we just went over there and spotted him out and put the stock on him.

Bruce: How old a buck do you think he is, Mike?

Mike: It's hard to say. I'm not an expert on aging deer. But I would say probably five or six years old, somewhere in there.

Bruce: Yeah, what do you think he weighed?

Mike: That's kind of weird, because as big as his back was, his body wasn't very big at all. Gage and I threw him in the back of my truck pretty easily, just the two of us. And I would say probably maybe 350 pounds, somewhere in there.

Bruce: Yeah, because from your photo that I'm looking at, it's difficult to see. But it's just an amazing, amazing deer. Now how many deer have you taken along the Arkansas?

Mike: That would've been my second one. I was with Gage, it's probably been three years prior, and I killed a 182 out there, a muley. So this is definitely my biggest one that I've killed.

Bruce: Now in your travels up and down that river card, or river valley, do you see big whitetails just driving down a road on fields or are they pretty hard to see with all the cottonwoods and everything in the river?

Mike: It's a funny story, Bruce. I actually had a chance and I had my heart set on a muley. That's ultimately what I wanted and that's why I drew the tag. But I had a chance. I had a 170 whitetail. Had 35 yards that I could've shot and I passed on him because I had wanted a muley. But to answer your question, yeah, there's definitely a lot of whitetails out there as well.

Bruce: How hard is it to get landowner permission to get down into the cover d...