Bruce: Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This morning, we have a really special guest, Zachary Overman — he goes by Zach — from Southeast Kansas. He runs a cow cattle [SP] operation, plus he's very involved with New Generation Outdoors. Zach, welcome to the show.

Zach: Thank you for having me, Bruce.

Bruce: Zach, in talking with you, you've got a nickname called Melrose Marauder. Can you share with the listeners what that's all about?

Zach: Yeah. Well, it goes back to the '60s and '70s back here in my home town. The families around here when harvest time is over — because we're a farming community of course — they would all get together and play baseball. So there were several teams around the area from all the towns and they were known as the Marauders. That was their baseball teams for the local communities. And so naturally, we had the Melrose Marauders, but it even goes further than that.

As time went on, it just became the nickname for all the guys who grew up in my community and the Melrose Marauders stuck, and now, it's a pride thing for me. I'm proud of that tradition, that heritage, passing down those stories where all of our uncles and cousins got together and played baseball together on our homemade field out in the middle of the wheat field.

Bruce: Well, traditions are important. Traditions are really important in the world of Whitetail, and that's one reason why Whitetail Rendezvous exists. Let's start right off and talk about the traditions of Whitetail deer that are in your life.

Zach: Right. Well, I grew up hunting. My father used to take me out before I could even walk and I can remember at five and six years old, him setting me in a brush pile near his tree stand and him sitting up there with his bow. I don't actually remember him ever killing anything, because I was young and probably playing with stuff, messing around in the brush pile, but those memories stick with you through time and those are the ones that hold most prominent. My dad, he was an avid hunter and he always took me along. He coon-hunted around the country with walker coonhounds and I'm proud of those memories of things that I've shared. I grew up here in this local community, farming community and my Ag teacher in high school, he ran a Buck master’s club through his class and he was also into 3D archery. And he really is the one that got me into Whitetail hunting the most and I'm proud to say he actually writes for the Alaska Outdoor Journal now and he lives in Alaska. So those memories are what sticks with you through time.

Bruce: Yes, they do. Let's talk about some of the best advice you got when you started Whitetail hunting and who gave you the advice.

Zach: Well, my Ag teacher, he would be the one who gave me the advice. You know, you've got to stay calm, you've got to keep your nerves about you. The whitetail they get my adrenaline pumped up. I don't know about anybody else but they get my adrenaline pumped up and then I forget my basics. So he told me to just keep calm, stay calm and breathe and focus not on the whitetail but on making the clean shot and getting it done professionally.

Bruce: Now, what was your Ag teacher's name? Is he still alive and teaching?

Zach: Well, he's not teaching anymore but his name is Paul Atkins.

Bruce: Well, Mr. Atkins, thank you so much for passing on something that is lasting way longer than you might have thought. Sir, we appreciate it. Let's talk about your first harvest.

Zach: Well, there's not much to say really. Like I said, I get nervous, so of course my heart gets pumping. I had, it was a small little basket rack, is what we call them around here and he came up underneath my stand about 15 yards and I drew back my bow on him. I was shooting a Hoyt at that time. I drew back on him and I didn't make a clean kill, unfortunately. He was hit in, I guess, the liver area and he ran quite a ways. He got guts and he ended up near a creek that we ...

Bruce: . . . two, one. Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon. We're gonna head up to Wisconsin today and talk to Loren Hamilton, the owner and chief guide at Public Land Guiding. Loren, welcome to the show.

Loren: Thank you. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Bruce: In the warm-up, in your bio, it says, "We chase the dream." Expand on that and share with the listeners what you mean by chasing the dream.

Loren: Well, everybody dreams different. You know? We go out. We chase big whitetails. Everybody wants to shoot the next world record. That's what we all strive to do and try to do. We just chase the dream of shooting a big whitetail. With me, my dream is just . . . I go out. I have a dream every day. Every time I'm in the woods is a dream. You see anything you want to see out there. We have a good time. We just chase the dream of shooting a big whitetail.

Bruce: So you hunt public land, DIY, do-it-yourself, or, in your case, with your outfitting company.

Loren: Right.

Bruce: Let's share with the listeners the size of each class of deer and the size of the deer that you know roam the public land of Wisconsin.

Loren: There's every size you want. Everybody's chasing the trophy. The trophy is in the eye of the beholder. Average deer, you'll see a lot of 120s, 130s. We've got monsters. I've got pictures and video of deer that'll go probably 160, 170, still got a couple months to grow. Average deer, what you want to see . . . You'll see 120s, 130s. Possibilities of seeing 200-inchers are definitely out there. They're shot every year. We had a 208 shot, 40 yards from a tree stand. State record in 2013 was shot five miles outside of town.

The chances of shooting a giant deer are everywhere you go on public, if you're ready to do the work and get in and find them. That's what we do. We go out, and we find them. Hopefully . . . There's always luck involved. You can do all the scouting and trail cameras you want, but there's still . . . Lady luck plays a big part in shooting the giant. Everybody knows they go nocturnal, and they come out certain times, and you just got to be lucky to be in the right place at the right time sometimes. I do everything I can to try to help your odds of getting there, but you still need a little bit of luck.

Bruce: You just mentioned "do the work." Let's talk about doing the work. Step us right through the process of you getting set up on a deer that's on your hit list or a deer you want to make darn sure you get on or one of your clients get on.

Loren: Well, it starts from the end of last season that started. We're already . . . I'm already in the woods during the winter, when everything is frozen, walking trails, all the way up to looking for sheds, finding sheds hopefully, finding the trails and markings from last year, just putting [inaudible:00:03:34] ground. You just got to spend . . . You got to get out and . . . Guys that go to a parking lot and go in 100 yards and expect to kill a deer, they might get lucky, but you need to take your time, get out and scout it, and look for the signs. It takes time. You got to put boots to ground. I spend four or five nights a week or four or five days a week out in the woods, scouting, looking, sitting up on hills, scouting, [inaudible:00:04:04] and a lot of driving. We spend a lot of time. Most of it, I spend in the woods.

Bruce: It sounds like . . . When you said a lot of driving, do you scout from afar during this time of year and through July and August?

Loren: Yeah, I get the sliding scope in the truck, and I got places on the public. You can go in and walk them. Here, outside of town here, we got [inaudible:00:04:32]. You can't go in and actually walk the woods. So we have to scout it from a distance with spotting scopes or binoculars or just eyes on. A lot of times, you pull in the parking lot, and you'll see deer working the CRP or working the field edges.

Bruce: Okay. Sweet. Okay. Take a deep breath. Stretch my neck. Okay. Here we go. I'm going to count it down. Five, four, three, two, one. Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is Bruce Hutcheon, your host. Today we have Chase Latham from Benton, Missouri and Chase loves chasing whitetails. That's a pun folks, but what the heck. Anyway, Chase, welcome to the phone. Welcome to the show.

Chase: Thanks, Bruce. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Bruce: Well, I appreciate you reaching out to me and I reached out to you on Twitter. So listeners, social networking is one of the secrets of great whitetail hunters because there's so much information out there, especially during a rut, that you can find what's happening in different areas of your state or different areas of the country and kind of figure what's happening, when it's happening, and why it's happening. So social network, there's a big buck nugget for you, is something that you need to get involved in. Would you agree, Chase?

Chase: Oh, absolutely. I talk to a couple of guys that live up in Pennsylvania, Waylon Dietrich [SP], me and him talk quite a bit on Twitter and he actually comes down to southeast Kansas every year or so, I guess hunts. And this past year I was talking to him quite a bit and seeing where he was hunting out to see where I was hunting out to see if it was in the general area. We were about three and a half hours away from each other. And I was seeing, asking him what he was seeing before I made my trip to Kansas, kind of knowing what I was going to expect when I got there. Then when I got there, it was exactly what he was telling me. There was not much mating. There was not much buck activity, rut activity going much on at all. So I got there. I saw some bucks out there but they were more just kind of scent checking the does and me and him were kind of just talking about the rut and everything that we were talking about was happening in the woods.

It was just. . . Twitter is a great way to connect with people from around the world, from around the United States that go out and hunt these different states that you don't personally know firsthand.

Bruce: Thank for that. Let's talk about your first mature buck. Now, how do you define a mature buck?

Chase: I like to define my mature buck. I mean I don't. . . I mean the age to class thing I've kind of been off and on I've been learning more about it each year. I may look for more of the body, the neck, and the. . . when the first part of the season, the [inaudible 00:05:48] can tell you he's got a big body and his neck is a lot more bigger than the rest of him. I'd classify that as a mature buck for that early in the season, especially in September when Missouri is [inaudible 00:06:02]. [inaudible 00:06:03] season opens up, you can tell those mature deer from those younger deer right off that bat. So he was. . . I'd [inaudible 00:06:12] for two years straight. He was a mainframe nine with a kicker off his G2 and I had pictures of him all through the 2012 summer. Then once season came he just disappeared. Didn't see him. Didn't get any more pictures of him. Nothing.

So 2013 season rolls around, I was starting to get a lot of pictures of him again, same spot, same field. The beans were looking amazing. We had a lot of rain. So then I went out two weeks before the season started to look at my camera. My camera got stole so that really ticked me off there quite a bit. So I just kind of went in to opening day, opening week actually because I was out working, and just kind of leaned it, set up an observation point where I could see down in this field. And he came out right where my stand was at so I knew I could move in on him the next couple days and hope I had a good chance at him. But the fourth day on stand I arrowed him at 7:00 20 yards from my stand heading out to the bean field.

Bruce: Wow. What did he end up scoring?

Bruce: Five, four, three, two, one. Howdy, everyone out there in the Whitetail Rendezvous community. Today I'm really excited about having Jim Campbell on the show. He's from C4 Outdoor and, Jim, why don't you give us a little background?

Jim: Okay. I live in south central Wisconsin. I'm 53 years old, married, with two adult sons and we just are a hunting family. We always have been and continue to pass it along.

Bruce: Thank you. Jumping right into the interview, what's your best hunting tip that you give your boys, your best friends?

Jim: The best hunting tip. Detail. It's just all about detail and, for me, probably the biggest detail is the wind. I don't pay as much attention to moon phase as a lot of guys but getting in and out of the stand and being in the right wind location at the right height is probably the biggest detail for me.

Bruce: When you set up your stand, just talk, let's talk a little bit about just setting up your stand.

Jim: Mm-hmm. Well, because I'm primarily now a videographer versus the hunter, I only pick up a bow probably 5% of the time anymore, but setting up with a camera is no different than setting up with a bow or a gun and when we set up, if we even have a small field, we'll set up multiple stand locations for different winds. Some people think it's overkill if you've got a tank or field and you've literally got a double set on each side of the field but if you want to be able to hunt that field, that's what you really need to do.

Bruce: When you take a look at, say, the 10 acre, now is that a food plot or natural croplands?

Jim: That'd be natural croplands. We rely a lot on natural ag fields. We've experimented some with food plots and I don't know whether it's geographically where we are in southern Wisconsin or what the deal is but if we can utilize the corn and the beans and the switchgrass, I guess we've just, we've grown up hunting that way and that's how we continue to hunt.

Bruce: When you set up your stand, how do you scout the field so you know the entry and exit points of the bucks?

Jim: Well, this time of year is a great time to be doing that. The runs, the major, predominant runs are really obvious right now and, in fact, we've learned that some of these runs right now that we're seeing might, in fact, go away as we get closer to opening of September season. However, as the season progresses they're going to come back to these major, annual runways that they've been using for years and years and years, especially escape routes. If you're bumped, they're more than likely going to take one of these major trails that has been there forever. We consider those. As far as other scouting, it's trail camera work, lots of trail cameras.

Bruce: How many trail cameras do you put out on a, are we talking 100 acres, 200 acres, 50 acres?

Jim: Well, we have a number of different places and we have a little cabin north of where we live and that's only 18 acres of woods. We have, I think, eight cameras on that 18 acres. For me, it really boils down to how many trails you have coming through. If you look at it from an aerial and you dissect it, you can really pinpoint your camera locations based on the major trails coming through.

Bruce: So I hear that you do some scouting on, possibly, Google Earth or topographic maps?

Jim: Yes.

Bruce: Then what do you look for when you are setting up your trail cameras?

Jim: You know, we look for pinch points. Pinch points are water, seem to be the biggest elements for us. Anyplace you get a natural neck down in the terrain, whether it's the field widens it and then it looks narrow or you've got a creek bottom or something like that that's really going to concentrate the movements in the woods. We tend to look at those first.

Bruce: So when you have a map in front of you, you're looking at it, how do you determine camera number one through number five or, in this case, eighteen?

Jim: Well, again,

Bruce: Five, four, three, two, one. Welcome, everybody, to another edition of Whitetail Rendezvous. I'm really excited to have just a great gentleman, a great Whitetail hunter, and an all round pretty nice guy. Ken Fitzner is our guest today. Ken, say hello to the folks.

Ken: Hey, how's everybody doing today?

Bruce: Ken, share with us what you are doing at X X and how you run the pro staff.

Ken: Well, about three weeks ago I, actually no, actually longer than that. About a month and one-half ago X with X X contacted me through Facebook and it was a simple message. It simply said, “Call me.” I found it kind of weird and I simply sent a message back to him, "Why?" He just said, “I want to invite you on a hunt.” I said, "Okay," so I gave him a call and he wanted to take me on a turkey hunt and so I said, “Okay,” so he went ahead and wanted to do a turkey hunt down here in Florida where I have relocated, to my home state of Florida after I retired from the army last year, May. What had happened was he had some things came up and so he was able to send down his guy that does his filming for him, X. X came down and X and I hit it off instantly.

He came down and we did a turkey/hog hunt on a lease that I have up here in northern Florida. I belong to a hunting lease, 3200 acres in Madison County and what a treat. What an awesome, awesome experience. I had my son with me, Mason. He’s 12 years old. He’s a great bow hunter. He’ss been hunting ever since he was real young. My daughter, Mikayla, same thing, and my wife Dawn. We’re all avid hunters and [inaudible 00:02:20] the rest is history. X and I hit if off and then X made a phone call to X and said, “Hey, I really think that Ken needs to be on the team.” They talked about it and X asked me to become part of X Outdoors and I didn't even hesitate. I said yes. It was a win-win for everybody and so far I'm fitting in.

You asked me to do the interview and here I am. I am on the way, actually, to go to South Carolina where I’m going to go to a place up there and do a turkey hunt/hog hunt up there with Circle S Outfitters and it's going to be a great time. Me, X, and X and couple of other guys are going to come down and film us. It's going to be an awesome time and I can't wait.

Bruce: Sounds like fun. I wish I could be there. We got snow out here in the Rockies today.

Ken: Oh, wow.

Bruce: Let's talk about the responsibilities, the role of being a pro staffer. I'm sure we’ve got a lot of listener that say, "Man, I’d like to be a pro staffer." Guys or gals, they love hunting and they’re passionate about Whitetails. I think you probably could share some good words of wisdom.

Ken: Oh, man. I tell you what. I watch, I have a lot of people on my Facebook page and a lot of people I look up to like the guys with Open Season, Chuck Paddock and James Blankenbeckler. I tell you what, I see all these people that make these comments on Facebook and they always ask that same question, "How do you do it?" or "How can I become one?" and I tell you what, I'd been wanting to become one for years and years and years. It's hard. You don't just become one overnight. Being in the right place at the right time, sure that helps but you’ve really got to work hard at it. You’ve got to hunt. You’ve got to be out there. You’ve got to do your homework. That starts with shed hunting. That starts with putting up trail cameras. That starts with doing your homework. That starts with putting in food pots. That starts with getting on hunting leases.

That starts with knocking on the farmers door down the road and trying to get on to his property and if he says, “No,” go to the next farmer and asking that farmer, "Hey, I'd be willing to do work on your property for you." Believe me, I've done it. I've been on so many leases in Kentucky, Michigan, Alabama, here in Florida. I have a lease that I belong on in Florida here now. It's my second year on 3200 acres. Sure, yeah,

Brian Howell – Prostaff Horney Buck Seed

Bruce: This is Bruce Hutcheon, your host at Whitetail Rendezvous. And today, we've got a pretty outstanding gentleman, his name is Brian Howell, he's pro staff with AWA, American Whitetail Authority, Horny Buck Seed. He's also very interested in and active in takeout outdoors. Brian, welcome to the show.

Brian: Hey, glad to be here.

Bruce: Hey, let's start right off with American Whitetail Authority, what it is and how it helps people in their whitetail pro-series. I'd like to hear more about that.

Brian: Sure! Well the American Whitetail Authority is kind of like a Bass Masters of fishing. This is where the top guys, the nation or country or however you want to look at it compete to see who the best whitetail hunter in the whole world . We do this . . . it's all by digitized scope, so we do not partake in the actual killing of animals. What it is, we've got a couple of different regionals, qualifying events that we go to. There'll be eight guys in one event and eight guys at some other event. We all get dropped off at the same timeframe, none of us have been to these areas together or individually, outside of this event so we don't know the area, we don't know the land. We're given topographical maps, we're kind of given a ride around of the area that we're hunting or going to be hunting. Pretty much give us a day and a half to scout the land, and we have to use our knowledge to find out where we want to set up, where we want to do our calling and use your knowledge to find and located the deer and you're scored on shot placement, age of deer, size of deer and gender. So any missed shots or wounded shots or . . . points are taken away from you. So you're pretty much getting judged on those areas.

Bruce: How did you get involved with this? I'm sure we've got listeners who are saying, "Hey, I'd like to do that." So how did you get involved with it?

Brian: Sure, actually it was done through Bass Pro shops, it started I think 2010 was when they started. They made their way around to all the Bass Pro shops, with this big RV searching for the best whitetail hunters. At that point, you stop in, you kind of give an interview which is a recorded interview and they go back with all these contestants and they're kind of panel judged. It's not necessarily that you've killed the biggest deer, or you're in the fields 10 or 65 days a year, it's kind of an accumulation of everything you've done. And then they would panel judge the 4000 people that applied, cut it down to 400, cut it down to top 40 and now we have it, now we have our top 16 guys are in the competition.

Bruce: Now, is that 16 guys in each region? Or is it 16 guys in the total country?

Brian: Sixteen guys in the total country.

Bruce: Oh my goodness! That's pretty competitive, I would think.

Brian: Oh yes, it is. And, like I say, you've got a day and a half to scout and then you get two days of actually shooting, which you're only allowed five shells a day and then after that second day, your events get cut in half. You know, the people, so if you have eight guys, after day two, you only got four guys for the final day. And then the top three will go on to the championship.

Bruce: Now are we shooting shotgun, rifle, crossbow, compound bow, what kind of weapons are you using?

Brian: We're using a 20 bolt fault action guns that are equipped with a digitized scope that records everything. They can tell at time of you pulled the trigger and where your crossers are, if they can slow these things down, so much they can tell exactly where the crosshairs were as you pulled the trigger, so that's how they know shot placement. And then they can get a pretty good idea of age of deer and size of deer, they can score from images.

Bruce: So as I understand it, you're doing a reality TV show and you're doing it green that no deer is harvested during this competition, is that correct?

Brian: That's correct.

Bruce: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. I'm really excited to have a gentleman from out the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania with us, Robert Hines. He owns Men In Treestands Productions. Robert, welcome to the show.

Robert: Thank you, Bruce. It's good to be here.

Bruce: Share with us a little bit about what you do for a job, if you have one, and then let's talk a little bit about whitetails.

Robert: Okay. First off, I'm a Deputy Sheriff out here in Pennsylvania. I've been hunting whitetails for 40 years since I'm 12 years old. Like I said, it's something we do here in Pennsylvania. Whitetails are really big out here in PA. We just love hunting them. The tradition is here. Deer camps are one of the best traditions going in Pennsylvania and it's just a good time; we have a good time out here.

Bruce: Let's just open up the show and talk about deer camps. You've been hunting for 40 years, so I bet you've been in all sorts of different deer camps. Why don't you just tell us about . . . when you were a young man and then you turned in 20's and now you're a little bit older. Share something about the deer camps that you've been a part of.

Robert: Well, I'll tell you, Bruce, to be honest with you, I have never been in deer camp until the last 15 years. My dad used to hunt. When I was hunting with my dad when I was younger, he was a big pheasant hunter, him and my uncle. They hunted deer, but they weren't really gung-ho about deer hunting. We used to just leave from the house.

Recently, the last 15 years, we leased a piece of property and we bought a trailer; we always wanted to a deer camp. There's a few of us that hunt there; there's five of us in the club. We bought a trailer and we put the trailer up in our hunting camp and then we just enjoyed the hunting camp atmosphere in PA. It's big in PA. Pennsylvania hunting camps are a big tradition out here and for the last 15 years, I've really enjoyed it. You get together with your friends and have a good time for the week; especially our buck season. That's big here.

Bruce: When you're in camp, how many days do you hunt and how many days do you set up, tear down? Just tell us about the whole process.

Robert: Usually, we have a two-week season in Pennsylvania for whitetail season. The area we hunt in is Area 3C. We can hunt bucks the first week and then doe comes in on the Saturday. It starts on Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving and it goes for two weeks and we're up there . . . I'm up there anyway, myself and another friend of mine, are up there for the whole first week. Then we have a couple of guys come back and forth. They stay a night or two and then they'll come back; they'll go to work for a day or two and then come back. It's a two-week season and we're up there to have a good time.

Bruce: How large is the land that you either lease or own or hunt on?

Robert: We have a piece of property; we have basically two farms that we lease on. The total area is 500 acres. We have a parcel that's 249 acres and then we have a parcel that's 251 acres and they're close to each other, but we have the stands set out where the guys are not crowded; they're not crowded together. We try to keep the guys down to a minimum in our club because that's what we want. We have some fields. We don't want guys shooting at each other. That's one of our main concerns, is safety.

We have, like I said, between the two parcels we have, two guys on kind of different parcels and the stands are scattered so as to not interfere with each other. So for safety reasons, especially.

Bruce: How many acres of food plots do you have?

Robert: We've been trying the food plots. We're kind of limited to our equipment. We have a disker that we bought, a used disker, and some of the food plots we put in, some of the guys don't want to do it. There's two of us that really do; we put quarter-acre food plots in. We go up and we put in . . .

Bruce: You know, I'll just count down. Five, four, three, two, one. Hi, everybody in Whitetail Rendezvous Community. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon. So I'm really excited to have somebody from north of the border, Don Sangster, from Ontario, Canada has joined us. He's got an extensive background in the outdoors having written articles and been involved in the outdoor industry for a long time.

Don, hey, say hello to the folks at Whitetail Rendezvous.

Don: Hi, folks. Hi, Bruce. Thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure.

Bruce: How many years have you been in the industry, Don?

Don: Well, I guess I've been an outdoor writer for about 16 years now, but obviously I've been a passionate hunter since the weeds were taller than I was.

Bruce: [laughs] Well, let's start. Let's just start right there. When did you start hunting whitetails?

Don: Well, I guess I started, as far as gun in hand, age 15 here in Ontario at the time was the minimum age, but I was accompanying my grandfather or my uncle on deer hunting trips for a number of years even before that, before I was old enough to carry a gun of my own.

Bruce: So you went to deer camp? At what age did you start going to deer camps?

Don: Fifteen, I would say.

Bruce: That's great. What's your best hunting story? Include in that hunting story one of your favorite whitetail hunting tips.

Don: Well, you know, I've been fortunate as an outdoor writer to hunt in a number of different whitetail destinations both in Canada and the U.S., around the Midwest in particular. I've hunted in the Midwest quite a bit, and I've written on a number of whitetail-related topics. Maybe the best whitetail trip... I've had two really memorable whitetail hunts. One was in Texas a couple of years back. I've wanted to go to Texas for probably 30 years and it was everything I expected and more. And probably the other most memorable whitetail hunt I had was out on Anticosti Island in Quebec which is a well-known destination for whitetails as far as numbers of whitetails. Perhaps not huge trophy-quality deer but I guess maybe one of the tips that I've picked up along the way that I think a lot of people maybe make a little bit of a mistake on sometimes is use a trail cameras.

They're great, they actually revolutionized deer hunting and they're indispensable now. But I think the thing that people, a lot of people, don't realize is that you can overdo it, as far as how often you get out there to check your trail cameras, pull the cards out of the cameras. That's why I'm really a big fan of the new ones with the cellular technology that will transmit the photos to your laptop or to your mobile phones without you having to go into the deer's wood to actually check the camera. Because you've got remember, every time you step into those woods you're creating a disturbance, you're leaving scent, you're making noise. You're basically allowing the deer to pattern you, and that's exactly the opposite of what you need to do, of course, if you want to shoot a big trophy buck.

So my tip would be just don't overdo the use of trail cameras. Put them out there, let them do their job, check just as often as necessary, or switch to some of the more cellular ones that allow you to do things remotely. That'll probably be my number one tip.

Bruce: Thanks, Don. Let's unpack the "allow deer to pattern you" comment. Let's talk about that for a little bit.

Don: Yeah, and I've written on topics about hunt like a ninja and be as stealthy as you can be, flip in and out of the woods. But the reality is this is not our backyard, this is the deer's backyard. They know that like we know our living room. And while we can move around in our homes without making a lot of noise and disturbance, there's only so much we can do in the deer woods. We can control our human scent to a large degree and minimize noise and use cover to our advantage. But these animals have to have their senses on to the highest aler...

Bruce: Five, four, three, two, one. Welcome to another episode of White Tail . . . Welcome to another episode of White Tail Rendezvous. We're a community that educates, collaborates, and communicates about the white tail and its industry. Today, we have Jacob Raines, of Walton, Kentucky. He's a pro staffer and owner of Drop Tine Outdoors. Jacob, say hello.

Jacob: Hey. How's it going, guys?

Bruce: Jacob, tell us about how you started and why you started Drop Tine Outdoors.

Jacob: I actually started Drop Tine Outdoors because I grew up in the woods. I grew up hunting. That's what I know. Our motto is, "Live to hunt and hunt to live." So basically might as well try to spread the word and make a little something out of it, other than memories.

Drop Tine Outdoors was established in 2014. We are very proud to say that we take great care of the animals that we do harvest and make sure we harvest the most mature animals possible. So we do have six members on our team, five men and one woman.

Women hunting is actually getting very big in this industry, and that's something that we love to get women into. Because a lot of times, you go out and ask people, and primarily it's mostly men. It's something that we'd like to grow and get more women into it and definitely children. So that's just something that we'd like to do.

Bruce: Tell us about who got you started in the white tail hunting.

Jacob: White tail hunting . . . Actually my dad did. I think I went on my first hunt when I was about six years old. I had a little 243 in my hand, growing up. What can I say? That's one addiction that I can say isn't so much of a problem. So definitely live in the outdoors. Every chance I get, I'm in the woods, scouting or hunting. When it's not hunting season, I'm normally on the water fishing. So it's just a passion of mine, and I love to spread it around and just let everybody know how fun and how educational hunting can be.

Bruce: When you were hunting with your father, what are the five lessons that you learned when you were a young boy, six years old, that's carried forward to the man you are today?

Jacob: The biggest thing he stressed to me was respect. Respect the animal that you're harvesting because a lot of times, you see people win an animal or not have a good, clean shot, and they just let that animal lay there and suffer or don't make much effort to harvest the animal. That's one thing that is gut-wrenching to me, is when I do shoot an animal, a deer especially. If I can't find that animal, I will try my hardest to get on that animal and harvest it. That way, we can have dinner that night or have meat in the freezer.

So another one would have to be taking an ethical shot. You see guys shooting through brush and doing all that kind of stuff. It's really important to me to put an ethical shot on an animal. That way, you know that animal is gonna die without suffering.

Let's see. That was two. Number three would have to be just spreading the word. Starting me off at a young age makes me, when I have kids, want to start them off at a young age and learn the things that I do and become the hunter that I am today.

Another one that didn't really start with me when I wa

s little, but something that I do realize now, is, like I said, harvesting the most mature animal that you can, that's possible, to let the younger generation thrive. Because a lot of times . . . With children, it's a little different. You want them to get into it. So whatever walks out there, take a shot on it and harvest that animal. But as I've gotten older, managing your deer population and making sure you're killing off the oldest generation really is what strikes me the most and what I thrive to do.

Bruce: You mentioned kids a couple times or youth. What's your vision for Drop Tine Outdoors in the youth community?

Jacob: We would love . . . This year, we're gonna try to do a youth gun season hunt.

Bruce: Okay, 5-4-3-2-1. This is Bruce Hutcheon, your host of Whitetail Rendezvous. Today listeners, guys and gals, we have two gentlemen from Fit To Hunt. If you've hunted for a number of years, you know the importance of physical conditioning and mental attitude. We're going to dive into being fit to hunt with Jeremy and Nick. Guys, say hello to our listeners.

Jeremy: Hey guys, how's it going? Thanks for having us on, Bruce.

Bruce: You're welcome. Jeremy, why don't you just give us 30 seconds of your background and then, Nick, you can introduce yourself. And then we'll roll right into what we're going to talk about. And that's to be fit to hunt.

Jeremy: Absolutely. So I've been working in the fitness industry going on about 20 years. And like my passion for being physically fit, at a very early age my grandfather had me fishing in the woods, brought me up hunting squirrels, all the way to now it's the big driving force, which is the big game: the whitetail, the turkey, things of that nature. And I've been kicking around this idea for a couple of years now of merging the two, because I trained a client several years ago for an archery elk hunt in Colorado. And he came back and just raved with how well he was able to traverse the mountain. And took a fantastic bull, just was so excited.

I thought, "You know what? There's something to this." And then if you look into the industry now, between the different outdoor shows, Under Armour has a line of outdoor apparel that is geared more so toward the fitness side of things. I believe this is a growing trend and that the thing of what we want to do is to help the outdoorsman, the outdoors woman, the outdoors man, improve in the field, have better performance on their hunts, their fishing trips, their hiking, their adventure, it doesn't matter. If they're outdoors, we want to help them get fit.

Bruce: Nick, what do you think? Or who are you and what do you represent?

Nick: Well, I grew up here in St. Louis. Hunting whitetails was probably the biggest thing. My dad and I used to go out a lot. I'm not quite as versed in the fitness industry just yet as Jeremy is. I've been in this industry now for about five years. I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science from Missouri State.

And over the last five years, just trying to acquire so much...as much knowledge as I possibly could in the fitness industry. And once Jeremy came to me with the idea for Fit To Hunt, I realized this was a chance for me to combine two things that I love together. And within the last year, Fit To Hunt included, I've helped open two different fitness businesses, one being a gym where we do train our Fit To Hunt clients out of, as well as being a pretty integral part of Fit To Hunt with Jeremy.

Bruce: Thank you, guys, for that. When we go out in the mountains...I live in Colorado and I know what it takes aerobically. I know what it takes physically and mentally to hunt elk or sheep or goats or whatever. And the interesting thing, to me, is the better shape I'm in, both mentally and physically, the better I hunt and the more success I have. So let's unpack that for our listeners. Let's talk about, Jeremy and Nick, about what the edge is that you get by being physically and mentally ready for your hunt.

Nick: Well, one story that comes to mind is actually a buck that I shot this last year. Everybody thinks that Midwest hunting is just really long shots and shoot it, it's done, the whole deal. Well, this last year I had my first experience with a shot that would have had a questionable hit. And the deer took off in a direction that I knew there was about a seven foot ditch straight down and if he gets there I'd probably lose him. So it was the first time that I actually had to take off on a dead sprint after a deer.

Now, I'm not saying I ever got up to him, but I tried to get as close as I could to make sure that it was a clean, ethical kill.