Chase The Unknown Podcast
Welcome to the Chase The Unknown Podcast, brought to you by the Boondocks Hunting Podcast family! This show is all about embracing the pure joy, excitement, and rush that comes from not knowing what lies just around the bend. To us, Chase The Unknown means the thrill of stepping into the wild with no guarantees—whether it’s locking eyes with a 200-inch whitetail, crossing paths with a 500-lb black bear, hearing the thunderous gobble of a turkey, or simply witnessing the beauty and unpredictability of nature. It’s about the anticipation, the adventure, and the stories that follow.
But what does Chase The Unknown mean to you? Is it the adrenaline of the hunt, the connection to nature, or the pursuit of something greater than yourself? Join us as we explore those questions, share incredible stories, and celebrate the thrill of the hunt—where the outcome is always unknown but the journey is unforgettable.
Let’s chase it together—one adventure at a time!
Chase The Unknown Podcast
Chasing Iowa Giants: A Life in the Woods with Jesse Richard
The path from novice to seasoned hunter isn't straight, easy, or guaranteed. Jesse Richard knows this journey intimately, having transformed from a duck-hunting farm kid into one of Iowa's most respected deer hunters and the founder of Outdoor X Media.
Jesse pulls back the curtain on the evolution of hunting media over the past two decades. Remember those massive 25-pound cameras that cost $20,000? Jesse started filming hunts when equipment was cumbersome and hunting footage was exclusively produced by major companies. His storytelling takes us through the technological revolution that's democratized hunting content creation, from those early days of selling DVDs at gas stations to today's smartphone capabilities.
What truly resonates is Jesse's candid reflection on persistence. For fifteen years, he hunted without taking a buck over 140 inches, despite hunting in Iowa—a state legendary for trophy whitetails. Now, after tagging out three consecutive seasons, he shares the wisdom gained through countless empty-handed trips home: "If it's not old enough, it better be big enough. If it's not big enough, it better be old enough."
The conversation travels through the painful impact of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease on Iowa's deer herd, the ethics of using trail cameras, stand placement strategies, and the politics that shape hunting regulations. Jesse's perspective challenges both traditional and progressive hunting philosophies, arguing for a pragmatic approach that embraces legal advantages while respecting the quarry.
Whether you're hunting private land in the Midwest or public ground on the East Coast, Jesse's insights apply across geography and experience levels. His dream hunt? Mountain lion with a bow—a refreshingly unique answer that perfectly captures his authentic approach to the outdoors.
Subscribe to Chase the Unknown for more conversations with hunters who've earned their wisdom through years of dedication to the craft and love of wild places.
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Every hunter has a moment when the woods go quiet, the air shifts and time slows down, and in that stillness you realize you're not chasing the game, you're chasing something bigger. Welcome to the Chase the Unknown podcast, where we go beyond the saddle, past the trail cameras and deep into the stories that fuel the fire. This show is for the ones who lose sleep over the rut, who hike miles into the public land for just a chance and who live for that silence before the shot. From the backcountry to the backroads. We sit down with hunters and trappers, with the relentless stories, who live for the thrill, embrace the unknown and return with the stories we're telling. This is more than a podcast. This is the start of something real. Let's chase it.
Speaker 2:Today's guest is a man who lives and breathes the outdoor, jesse Richard, from Giant Midwest Bucks to Raw, authentic Moments in the Field. Jesse captures it all and is the founder of Outdoor X Media, a proud husband and a father of two, and a force in the hunting world, not just for the animals he tags but for the heart and grit he brings to the lifestyle. From velvet bucks to dove hunts, jesse's chasing every moment the wild has to offer. Let's dive in and talk deer, digital grit and what keeps him coming back through it all. Jesse, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:No problem, it's an absolute pleasure. I'm really excited, excited for this one, um, you know, for for all those out there, who, who may not know you, why don't you give a quick uh rundown?
Speaker 3:all right, uh, my name is jesse richard. I live in in iowa, have been here my entire life, Kind of got into the outdoor industry. Man, it's been almost 20 years. I turned 40 this year and I started filming my hunts in 2005, but started hunting when I was probably, oh, eight or nine years old rabbits and squirrels, and you know, it just ticked up from there. It got into a little bit of the deer hunting and where I grew up in Northern Iowa there wasn't a lot of deer, not a lot of deer opportunities. So I used to bird hunt all the time ducks and geese, and every morning before school I'd go out and duck hunt and it just it's all I ever did. And we got to the point where I graduated high school, moved a little bit farther south and the opportunities kind of opened up as far as you know, chasing deer and turkeys and all that and almost had to like reset how I, you know, went about hunting. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know you say so. You started roughly eight or nine, but you know you started. You know film where you started filming in 2005 and everything like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's right at 20 years probably that I've been filming stuff like that childhood and everything like that.
Speaker 2:You know 2005,. I mean, obviously you look at social media, you look at, you know the cameras and you know the editing capabilities of just where we are now in 2025, you know what was it like when you first started. You know, filming your own hunts, Like what were some of the different difficulties was everything like? It feels to me like things were just so heavy and I mean at the time, like that's what was, you know, the norm and everything like that, and everyone's moved to like such light components and everything like that. But like what, what was it like for you making that also, that transition from a hunter to now moving into this, this more medium-based field?
Speaker 3:so, back in back, when I first started doing it it's kind of a neat story the only guys doing it for production-wise were were companies. So you had, like your Realtree Hunter Specialties, Primos, like those were the guys that that did it. It was, it was companies that filmed their hunts. And I got started with a group of guys here in Iowa, Mind you, it was, it was companies that filmed their hunts. And, uh, I got started with a group of guys here in Iowa. Mind you, I was, you know, 20 years old at the time and they had come up with an idea of basically your everyday person filming hunts and being able to produce it. So it was called, uh, real hunting is what it was called, and it was basically, if anybody had filmed their hunts and just kind of wanted their 10 minutes of fame, they, you would send in your videos to these guys and they would edit it and put it out on DVD. So this is. This is like I said. This was way back in the mid-2000s and it would be here in the Midwest.
Speaker 3:Casey's General Store is our gas station, that's the thing we were in Casey's, but we would do all the trade shows and have booths selling DVDs. That's what we did and you know. So the big guys had the giant cameras. I remember I grew up around some hunter specialties guys Phil Vanderpool knew him and Rick White knew him and their cameras were like 25 pounds, huge, like carrying a cinder block around, and they were $20,000. And you were recording on a, on a huge tape, Like I mean, the tapes were were that big and there's no redoing, there's no deleting, so you would carry around, you know, multiple batteries and multiple tapes. So if you're filming something and it's running out, you got a quick stop everything off, pull the cassette tape out, put a new one in, so it's. It's transitioned from that to. You know a lot of people produce stuff on their phones. You know we. We have. We have phone hunts on some of our videos, you know so it's funny.
Speaker 2:You know, yesterday, so my and it's gotten to the point where I remember growing up like you had to get a new phone every year, so like when I got into high school and everything like that. So like 2009, and everything like that like the thing was like you got a new phone every single year, like brand new phone, and I knew everything, I was up to date on my phones, everything like that. You know, now I just went the last three years without getting a brand new iPhone right and it died yesterday where it just was not working. So I go to the store and he's like well, what are you looking for? First of all, I'm like I don't know, like I don't what is even the new, you know whatever. So he went over it and like I was like, listen, this is what I do. You know, I, I do a lot of filming for my hunts and I I have my main cameras and everything like that.
Speaker 2:But sometimes, you know, these iphones are absolutely phenomenal at filming. I mean, a lot of products are and I think even in movies and stuff like that, they're using iphones and everything like that. So I was like, listen, I just want whatever if I don't have the time to grab my camera, if I don't want to lug my camera on a quick scout or something like that or a quick you know hunter, whatever, I can just bring the phone and just film with the phone, like that's just what I want to do. And this thing look how small it is, like it's tiny but it's absolutely. It's amazing. And now you can live stream on it. You can do all these things.
Speaker 2:But you know it, the way technology is just kind of is phenomenal. But yeah, those big like anytime you're thinking of, you know back in the day and everything you think of those big, big cameras. And then you know, I know I had a muddy um camera arm and this thing was. It was great, it was so sturdy but it was so it was. It weighed so much and now I'm using a stealth let's say it's the pocket arm from stealth and that thing literally fits in my pocket and it's like maybe a pound or two and it's just like. It's just phenomenal, just where things have gone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I use one of them. Muddies that had like the turn knob to level it. Yeah, yeah, you use one of those for 10 years, loved it. It just uh, it got to the point where it. It was a pain having to set it up every single time. And then, like I have, I have a it's not even a newer one, I have a couple year old fourth arrow camera arm and I bought like 20 bases. So when I'm setting up a stand, I set, I set up the base kind of where I think I want it, and then the first time I hunt I'll put the head and everything on there and get it exactly where I want it and, uh, I just leave it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that's what I was doing with fourth hour for a while. But you know also on that too, you know when you're you're going through this process. So when you were filming your hunts and you're starting out, you know you you're hanging stands and everything like that yet again, everything is was heavier back then and everything like that. So there wasn't. Where are you? Not much were you? How mobile were you back? You know, back in 2005 and you know probably the early, you know 2000s and have has. How has that changed for you now? Like, do you saddle hunt now? Are you a little more mobile? Do you have the stands that you can just take, put up and take down, or, you know, are you just having a strategic layout on your properties?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, right out of college I didn't have any money, so it was like you'd go to Menards and buy a $50 12-foot ladder stand. That was literally just a platform and the funny thing is I still have the first ladder stand I ever bought. It is on my uncle's farm in Southern Iowa.
Speaker 2:And I actually killed that deer out of it like two years ago it was like grown into the tree.
Speaker 3:You couldn't cut it out if you wanted to, but it's in a good spot. So but yeah, I guess I'm not super mobile. I'm very fortunate I hunt 99% private ground. Um, I just I've went out of state and hunted public before, um, missouri, kentucky, uh, north Dakota, stuff like that, and I have a different thought on it. You know just and maybe it's being a little bit spoiled that I do have private ground, like my uncle owns a 200 acre farm in Southern Iowa and I've been hunting it for 20 years. Um, I just bought a farm two years ago.
Speaker 3:So most of those cases that there there are stands that I know where I want to be, so I set them up and I leave them. You know, every year I check straps, I trim lanes, make sure everything's good, but for the most part my stands are stationary. But I do always have a set of lighter standing sticks in my truck at all times. Once, like, september rolls around, you know, like when I'm doing like my final scouting, or if I, you know, have a camera in a certain area and I'm getting a deer, I'm like, okay, well, instead of pulling a stand, I'll just go take this one and I'll go hang in there and I'll hang and hunt the first time and then, depending on what I see and how it goes, I'll leave it and then go get another stand and have it ready. But I don't when it comes to like the super, the super mobile stuff. I'm that's never really been my jam. Some guys are good at it and and that's their thing. That's, that's just never been mine.
Speaker 2:I like to historical, you know, information of where I'm gonna sit, so I think you know when you, when you look at a lot of hunters, you you know I and listen when I've hunted private and everything like that it is so much easier just to you know you do your scouting in the summer, you hang your stands and everything's strategic and then you just leave them for private. I think that's kind of like the best thing and then, like you said, you're just going off of history, off of that. You know you do your maintenance and everything and everything like that and you, if you do have to put a stand or something like that in another spot, like you might as well just do it. No one is going to be really shouldn't be going up into your spots or anything like that. Like it's much different versus public. You can leave your stands and you know which.
Speaker 2:I think in the start, in the beginning listen, that's what I did all the time, like I would go and it's like you you'd put your, your spot there and that would be your spot for you know how many years to come.
Speaker 2:And then you start seeing other hunters start getting close or, you know, start putting their stands up, and that's where you know I've gone into this, I think, super chaotic mobile setup where I'm constantly moving. Um, don't like to hunt some of the same trees, especially if I get busted and everything like that. You know, if somebody else is like near me, like I will just even if I really want to be in that spot, I'll just move and everything like that. But that's the choice that I've kind of been given. Just because we're hunting on on public land versus private, I think you know, when I do get my, you know, hopefully finally my farm or whatever, and my long-term hunting property, I would kind of like to do a more strategic historical paint, put up stands and everything like that and then go from there. You know, I think it just makes sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I mean I even on the ground that I've hunted for years, I still, you know, hang new stands every year. I do there's, you know, you, you go off of the historical stuff, whether it's trail cameras or sightings or you know things like that. Where I was in the woods, oh, probably two weeks ago, on on my main farm that I hunt, that's not mine and I've had a camera on this cedar tree by this mock scrape for, I think, three or four years now, and that first week of November I always have big deer daylighting right in through there. And the last two years, years, I've walked it, you know, during shed season, and go okay, where am I, where am I going to get in here? And I'm.
Speaker 3:I looked the other day and I'm like man, I can't get within 80 yards of here and be on the top of this Ridge, cause I don't want to go off of either side. Um, I want to be on the, on the very top to try to mess you know, keep my thermals as true as they possibly can be and I settled on a. I haven't hung it yet, but I found a tree and it might be too close to the scrape, I don't know, but it's a big, wide tree that I mean they break off probably four feet off the ground and it's just a big Y that goes up and they're only this big around. But I think I can get in there with a set of sticks and a hang on and it's the right place, if that makes sense. You know, it may not be the perfect tree but it's the right place, so I may hang it, I may do all the work, hang it, get up in there, start moving around and being like now this tree's shaking too much or it's doing that I can't sit here and then I'll pull everything.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so I tried to do that stuff. You know, I like doing it in the middle of the summer, just because it's you're getting a little bit of foliage in there by now. I know what it looks like in the in, you know, when there's no leaves, cause I, you know, shed hunt the farm for years. So I kind of know the general area of where stuff is. But it's. It's a never ending process, I guess is the easiest way to describe it. It's just adjusting.
Speaker 2:And and I think you know that that's an important part there too is like you wait until the foliage is coming up a little bit, because a lot of people will get out there and they'll do it when you know maybe things are still not yet to the grown in. Where things do change, you know, and you kind of want to know what you need to trim, like, oh, maybe this is not going to really work out for me, um, and then once you're doing it, midway through the season, it's, you know, I think it's another important pieces also like, yeah, if you need to adjust, you need to adjust. So if you get in there and you just don't feel comfortable and you're like, hey, you know this isn't working out, I think that's some people will stay a little complacent where, like, oh, like I'm just, I already did the work, I'm just going to to leave it up, you know, um, versus like, all right, listen, I, this is not it, like this is not what I thought it was going to be. Once I got up there and got everything set up I've done that even in my hunts, where, you know, especially being in a saddle and everything like that I'll get up and I'll get all set up and I'm fully set up and I'm just like something is not right, like I just don't. Like once you're up you see just way more and you can see where it's like I need to be a little further down, or this tree is a little too wobbly. I can't really even move without the whole tree shaking and everything like that. So you kind of have to, you know, make your adjustments there, which I think is great.
Speaker 2:And I, you know, I do believe in getting a little aggressive and you know, hopefully, that that spot pays off for you and everything like that. And, yeah, maybe a little too close, but I think sometimes that being aggressive and getting close in, as long as you know, obviously what everyone, most people know, is it's all about how you, how you get in and you know which way you're walking in your entrance, and as long as you can stay undetected, I think you'll, you know you'll, you'll be pretty great on in that spot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, it's just, it's one of those I won't even I'll let the cameras tell me when to get in there, and I'm a huge cell camera guy. Same, same it's. If people people just not using them and they're just being, you know, bullheaded about it. Really, I mean I don't know. I go back and forth with people all the time on social media and different things. Everybody's got their own opinion, everybody thinks a little bit different and you know, some people want to make it as hard as it can possibly be. I mean it's already hard, it's already too hard. I mean it took me years and years and years to kill you know what you know Iowa standard good deer and I mean God it was, I bet you.
Speaker 3:I was bow hunting 15 plus years. I'm trying to remember when I killed or when I started bow hunting, I was maybe 2000. Yeah, I mean we're talking 16, 17 years before I ever killed a deer over 140 with my bow, you know, and it just happened to be the biggest deer I've ever killed. So it just worked out that way it was. You know, not that I haven't had other opportunities or chances. Or you know I've missed you know missed deer. You know shoulder shot one or something, you know something where everything didn't work out. I mean but yeah, it's, it's hard enough as it is, so I'm I'm one of those guys. I will take every legal advantage I possibly can to kill a deer.
Speaker 2:And then I think that we talk about this all the time in our podcast and everything like that, but it's like people are like oh well, you know you can't do this or like it's, but as long as it's legal, it should not matter, it should not matter. You know, we went to a state, delaware, um last year and we'll be hunting there from from now on um for opening weekend down there and everything like that. But there's no choke, no choke hammers. So you can't. And yes, it was fun and I think that's a rule that they just put in like a year or two ago. But like it's fun, it's different. It's a different challenge challenge. It was a brand new state for me, so I was already. It was already challenging enough as it is.
Speaker 2:But then going in there with no intel like at all, and like movement, you're, you're trying to, you're basically going off the hunt of each hunt. You're, you're scouting, that's it. That's basically what it is and yeah, it's great. But, man, I love to if I can get 15 cameras out and like I'm, I'm like crazy when it comes to it, because and then I'm moving cameras, like, especially, the closer we get to the rut, I'll move, I'll move cameras. Right now is the time I let them soak. They just sit there, I don't touch them, I don't go in, I I just leave them and during the rut then I'll start, you know, moving them around and everything like that.
Speaker 2:Because for me and my belief at least, here in new jersey, um, and the areas that we hunt, like they're not as phased as human with human scent, as it would be like in iowa, you know somewhere in the midwest, or you know maine or something like that, where the deer human contact is not, is not like it is here.
Speaker 2:We're such a small state and everything like that. You see deer constantly and you're always interacting with deer, so they're a little more for you. When it comes to that, where it's like all right, you don't have to worry near as much. But yeah, I think if trail cameras is a phenomenal tool, I think yes, it is getting a little crazy with like you can check on them live now and everything like that. Like I think that's a little too much. But I think cell cameras, just where they are right now, like besides the lives, like I think they're in a really good place, where, you know, I get a cell cam picture right now and boom, I'm collecting intel without even being in the woods yeah, and, and you know I I have a couple cameras that have the live option and I've never used it.
Speaker 3:I probably will once it. Once it gets a little different, but it'd be more of. I think it just goes back onto that what is legal and what's not legal and what's you know, cause people will say one person's ethical is not another person's ethical. You know, um, like you can say, well, I got a picture of this deer this morning. You know it's November 1st. I got a picture of this buck on a scrape. I'm going to drive down there this afternoon and I'm going to hunt. Well, we're talking seven, eight hours difference.
Speaker 3:One person will say, well, you had a picture of him, you weren't going to hunt there. I'm like, yeah, but five minutes after I got that picture he was 200 yards away. Like it's not. Like I'm sitting at my house and you know I don't. But let's say I could hunt the property. You know I had 50 acres behind my house and I get a picture of a deer, you know, right behind my house, and I would sneak down there and shoot it, like within two minutes of getting a picture.
Speaker 3:You know that's probably pushing the ethics line, but once again. I mean, if it's legal in whatever state, it is what it is. You know we talk about the baiting and the food plots and you know well, a food plot's just a giant bait pile that you put in the ground and it grows, and you know it is what it is. I mean there's whatever your state allows. Why not? I mean we can't bait in Iowa. You know, as far as dumping corn or mineral or you know something like that, while you're hunting you can now, like you can put anything out right now you want to, and it's fine. I think there's like a 30 day sort of thing, but usually if there's nothing left there, there's no sign of it by the time you hunt.
Speaker 2:It's it's, it's all good and legal. Yeah, yeah, we're a baiting state and I always tell people like, and I've tried cutting down the baiting and everything like that, um, but then it always gets a point of what a lot of us say is like, well, if I'm not baiting, neighbor, every other hunter, every other hunter is baiting, so like it really doesn't matter. And then it just puts us at a just, it puts the non-baiters at a disadvantage and we're like you said it, hunting is already hard enough as it is now. Can you imagine you're the only person not baiting, but every other hunter in the woods is, is baiting the deer just going to go to that, go to those bait piles.
Speaker 3:So that's, that's the reality of it yeah, and we even see that here with food plots like, uh, my main farm that I hunt, uh, our, our food plots completely failed. Last year we had, besides, a couple little clover pieces we had, on 200 acres we had zero food plots and there's just so much that involved with that. It was like nine weeks of no rain whatsoever and just you know crop damage, all this stuff. But the neighbors, which is basically a lot of commercial ag that's all designed for hunting, you know there's certain spots that get cut out and you know they'll leave this section of corn and that section of beans and you know, have blinds all over it and all power to them.
Speaker 3:I mean that's great but at the end of the day we couldn't do it. And I saw such depletion in deer numbers last year. It was, it was insane, like the amount of mature bucks had maybe all year. Last year had maybe three or four mature deer on camera the entire season and you know that you know right where they're at, you know they're on on all the food.
Speaker 2:But mother nature wasn't playing last year, so didn't work yeah, and that's what what you hear and talk about with a lot of just all over the country is just how bad, um, you know, the drought was and everything like that, and just everyone's deer number.
Speaker 2:Like I was constantly getting like, hey, like what, you know, what's it over there? Like I haven't really seen much. No, no, mature deer. And like I would say, yeah, if you're somebody lucky enough to have a property that did have some food on it or even a water source, like it was such a key thing of getting a water source in last year if people didn't have it, that that's where just a lot of deer were going, but that's where just a lot of deer were going. But you know, with that, you know, when you go into, like boom, all your your food source and you know your plot is is basically null and void. You know what? What did you do to kind of overcome that? Because last year you shot two bucks, correct? Or were they in that on that property somewhere in area, or were those different states?
Speaker 3:So the two I shot were both in Iowa. I didn't go out of state last year to deer hunt. I did not shoot one on that farm. One farm. The buck I killed November 1st with my bow was on a completely different farm. It's more of a big ag chunk and it's it's surrounded by preserve like it's a nature preserve white walking trails all over the place and, unfortunately enough, I got a little chunk of timber right there and there was a lot of good deer there. They were running around like crazy. There was a you know hindsight, 2020.
Speaker 3:I killed a five and a half plus year old, you know mid-50s deer, but there was a big, big one running around that I think I should have probably held out for it, um, but it was hard to do. I mean I rattled and grunted and he came right to the tree. I mean he came right in snort, wheezing and grunting and ended up shooting him at like 16 yards and watched him fall. But then my statewide tag was punched. I had my farm tag because here in Iowa, if you qualify, you can get a landowner's tag for the property you own. So I hunted all in November on my personal farm and never got an opportunity, had a close call with the big deer on the farm. Just a little bit. Not enough shooting light. The camera probably saved him. It got a little too dark for the camera. I came to full draw. I could see my pin on him and looked at the camera and it was just black. So I let down. I'm like God, you know it was pushing it anyways, so I just let it go and the neighbor ended up killing him like three weeks later, which it is what it is. They're wild deer, you know. They go all over the place and I got to hunt my farm a lot and I kind of realized how deer move very, very consistently on my farm. So I hung a new stand last week for that situation.
Speaker 3:But then the buck I killed late season. I used my bow. I'm pretty good friends with Josh Beaumar and he had this old deer. We actually tried to get my kids on it during youth season and it just didn't show up. And he's like, hey, this deer is constantly there. Do you want to go shoot it? He's like six or seven years old and said, yeah, I have nothing late season, I have nothing consistently. Oh, let's go shoot it. And I I was in the blind like an hour and 45 minutes, and deer walked in the plot and I killed him, so you know that's amazing I'll.
Speaker 3:I'll rather be.
Speaker 2:A little bit of luck never hurts anybody, so and and you know, I, I like, when you talk the, the deer that you killed earlier in the season, everything like that I things happen for a reason. When you look at it like a kind of like a story book hunt, it's you and it always the tv TV shows, especially growing up you rattle, you, grunt and then a deer comes in and then you, you smoke it and like, yeah you, it's so much easier now to say like I should have held out for it, for the bigger one. But then that was just like the perfect moment and like everything came together. And this was one of those signs of like, hey, listen it, this it worked. 16 yard chip shot too. It's. That's even better as a bow hunter. The closer in, you know, the better, and everything like that which made everything just so perfect. Like that's.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of my dreams and we talk about it here and being on the east coast, deer aren't as vocalized as they are on on the midwest. You know we've talked to a bunch of midwest guys. Like the grunting and the, the rattling of the antlers, I think works way more than it does out on on the east coast. Also, here on the east coast, like where we're hunting. If you're not on a, a ag field or something like that, like we're in these thick woods and you know you have maybe sometimes five, six, seven yards of visibility, so it could work. You just may never even see that deer, so it really wouldn't. You know they can go downwind and you know wind check you or whatever the case is. Like you have these sometimes these small pockets of windows where grunting and everything like that may be at a disadvantage. But that is a storybook. Like I want to get the, you know, get the grunt, get the rattle anglers and get a deer to come cruising and looking for a fight to kill.
Speaker 3:I feel like that's a lot of bow hunters, like dream scenario, right there, yeah, and I mean when I when I say I, I rattled, put the horns down and made two grunts, heard a grunt, looked up and here he came, like I mean, it was within. And the funny thing was I had a cell camera, probably 150 yards away from where I was, yeah, and he was blowing up the scrape when I started rattling. So he was 150 yards away because I went back, looked at the timestamps of everything and I'm cracking the horns and you can watch him in the cell camera. Just look like he's looking my direction on the camera. And I didn't even know this till like an hour later, after I found the deer and was doing, you know, cutaways and stuff like that, yeah, and my phone had blown up. I'm like oh what? Oh no, that's him. You know, like I knew it was him and all that good stuff and it just it worked out perfect yeah, no, definitely, and you know something also.
Speaker 2:So 2024, 2023, 2020. You've been on a grind where you've tagged out, so you get like you said you get two tags and everything. Are these all iowa, iowa, deer?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, so you get, as an iowa resident, you're guaranteed a any sex bow tag and any sex gun tag. Um, now you have to kind of pick your seasons with gun um, what you want to go, what you want to do, as far as just a regular resident um, a couple years years ago they switched the farm tag, so your landowner's tag is a floating tag. So it's good, from October 1st when our season starts, all the way through January 10th, you can use that tag the entire time. You just have to use whatever weapon is legal in those in that time frame. So, like there's a, there's a section where you can only um like early muzzleloader, like the third, second or third week of of october.
Speaker 3:There's like 10 days that you can use a muzzleloader and that has a quota. So you get I think there's 7 for the entire state, but your landowner will work for that Okay, where everybody else has to apply for that one. So I typically what I do is I get a landowner's tag That'll go the whole time, get my archery tag and then I go late muzzleloader which is after, like our shotgun season in December. It's basically like December 20, 17, 18, 20 till january 10th is that late season and you can. You can use your bow like I did this year for a muzzleloader okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Well, that's, I mean, a first of all, phenomenal streak. You know, three years in a row. You know tagging out and everything like that. Um, you know, through through the hard work and dedication, everything like that. But, like you said, there was a point where you know in your career that this wasn't happening. You know it took you a long time to kill. You know a 140 and and everything like that. And now you know you're, you're on this, you know a phenomenal street, but it's not for the. You know this is work. You know, and I think some people you know not everybody, but I think a lot of people see people on TV, on on Instagram and social media and all these shows that it's like, oh, it seems so easy to them but it's not there. There's tons of work that that you're doing, that other people are doing, that. Years of shouldering a deer, just completely missing a deer. You know not being able to get on. You know mature, older deer, but it takes time. If it's not a snap of your finger, then it's going to happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can have that flash in the pan where stuff happens, or didn't it? Just it works. But yeah, I mean, for years, and a lot of the deer that I killed with my bow back in the day, that were like in the 30s, were old deer. I mean I, yeah, you know, it was just one of those. They never had a big rack. It never, you know, not every deer is going to turn into a, you know, 170 inch deer, you know. So I, I never really cared, I was, I, I kind of coined the term. If it's, if it's not old enough, it better be big enough, and if it's not big enough, it better be old enough. You know. So what, what do you? I mean I got you know most of the deer behind me are at least five, if not six, years. I think this one is six. I don't know. This one he showed up, he's five or six. This one I had four years of pictures of was six. That was my big one, just a random. I think he was five. But that one I, I got a lot of flack for shooting that because he is, he's a four and a half year old deer, you know he's, he had a lot of potential Um, but I'm not going to pass 170 inch deer.
Speaker 3:I'm, I'm just not. So a couple of the neighbors were upset and I get it and I and I understand I don't hold it against them, um, but at the end of the day, if it excites me I'm gonna shoot it and it just. It just is what it is like. You can hate on me all you want, um, I got, I got thick skin, I'm so used to it. I, you know it. It doesn't really bother me to uh, to take, take a little bit of a guff every now and then, but it's unfortunate that we kind of bash on each other a lot and you know everybody's in different situations.
Speaker 3:That's what I would want everyone to look at. It is, you know, if you're like out where you're at, I don't even know what a big deer is out there. You know, if you're like out where you're at, I don't even know what a what a big deer is out there, you know. No, no clue. But it's if you're, whatever you're set up for and whatever you're. This is my goal, is what I want to shoot this year. Do it, you know, stick to it. But, uh, a lot of trial and error, a lot of mess ups, you know. A little bit of luck here and there definitely definitely doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2:I think you know, especially you know when you know your listeners and you know people, you know your followers and everything like that, especially from the Midwest states and everything like that here about. So for New Jersey, we are a six to seven buck state. That's crazy, which is, and it's it's very unfortunate because we have, actually we have phenomenal genetics here.
Speaker 2:I mean, we have really big deer not typical stuff, right trash, we have a we there are a lot of non-typical. I feel like, especially in, um, like the more southern you go in new jersey, you get a lot more non-typical. And here, um, in where I'm at right now, more western jersey, you do like have a lot of typical, uh, deer, especially like eight points. There's a lot of, you know, that typical buck that you would think of is kind of like what we have here, but they do get big, especially on the farms or in the mountains and everything like that. The only problem is we are not getting, and you know for the people in Jersey that consistently can shoot a four and a five-year-old buck. It's usually on private. If you're on state land, man, you pass a 120, two-year-old or a three. You know what I mean. No one else is going to pass that man. You got people because it's a six, seven-buck state. You got people not passing spikes. So and you have to, I've, I've kind of learned that like I would pass deer and really great potential and they're they're dead come gun season, especially gun season. You know, I think the bow hunters in our state they really do try to go for you know bigger deer and they're the, you know, they're the ones that really pass, you know, more mature deer and everything like that, and really want our state to go to a a two buck state now for our gun hunters which I completely understand, because most of them are the guys that are only going out for that week or, you know, the weekend or something like that. They want to be able to get as much meat as they can, which I it's legal. So, yet again, there isn't really much for for me to do or say I get it, you know, but it definitely has to.
Speaker 2:If you're hunting on this, in this area and everything like that, you have to remember like you may pass a, a good potential deer. The odds of the next person passing that that same buck is extremely low, so you might as well take that shot and if, like you said, if it gets your heart pumping, that's all that matters. If that deer don't, don't hesitate and I've shot some smaller bucks, thinking on that mindset right there of learning in the past where I've passed deer and then they've been killed and it's like all right, I put in all this hard work whole season, you know what, maybe the big, big ones that I've hasn't worked. You know what this is getting my heart pumping. This is a respectable deer.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna take this deer because you know what, why? Why pass them? No one else is like no one else is going to pass them. So let me, let me get my meat in the freezer, let me be happy and be proud of what I've killed, for all the hard work that I've put in. So I'm going to, I'm going to shoot that deer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah it's. Everybody's got a different train of thought and mindset and I understand all of it, I really do. You know like our gun season here a lot. The first one's like five days long and you know we part, we party hunt, you push them with shotguns and stuff like that and you know you kill a lot of deer. But we also have like ampl antlerless tags. So in our state each county is allotted so many depending on deer density and harvest numbers from the past, so we may have the county I hunt in Southern Iowa. There's like 3000 doe tags every year and probably half of them don't even get bought. They just nobody buys because, oh, there's a lot of big landowners down there that are managing and they're not shooting. Does so they just, they just don't shoot, does um? So we're.
Speaker 3:There's actually a pretty big push to make iowa one buck state instead of two. Really, wow, yep, um, I don't. I guess I don't. Don't care if you still allow me my landowner's tag so I can hunt my land the entire time, and you make the one buck tag a floating tag also, like you can go, and you know, instead of making it, instead of declaring, well, I want it for bow season and that's it, then you can't use it during certain periods of time. But if you get a buck tag and it was like, yep, it's a buck tag but it's good all season long, yeah, any weapon, yeah, yeah, I can see that. And and you can see where they're they're trying to do the age class. I mean, people that are just shooting deer to to fill the freezer and just to shoot a deer are going to, they're going to do that anyways. But like, take me, for example, that one 50 I shot. If I knew that was the only deer I was going to get to shoot all year, I might've let him walk. You know, I might've walked him. So it's that's true too, and that's true too. So you just, it's just a different mindset when you know you can't get a quote, unquote mulligan, and you know be able to double back on later and you know late season I'll get after a big one or something like that.
Speaker 3:But it's interesting, and our state laws have been trying to get changed a lot the last few years. Like they tried to ban cell cameras on public Heard about that, yeah, and then it didn't pass because the wording wasn't right. So they held off on it and I think they're still trying to do it. But my mindset with that is you know everyone's thinking well, if you don't have that, those cell cameras, you, the deer are going to get older, you know cause you you can't like track them. Well, I'm on the opposite side.
Speaker 3:Now let's say you're hunting a piece of public and there's no cameras. You and a nice solid 135 inch three-year-old walks out good looking deer, 135 inch three-year-old walks out good looking deer. Yeah, and you, just you lace it, you smoke him. Now let's just imagine you have a cell, you have cameras. Back in the same situation. Well, guess what? You have a 170 on camera, two 150s, a 160 on camera.
Speaker 3:You letting that 135 three-year-old walk, probably agreed, agreed, you know. So if, if that's your thing I mean people that are that want to shoot just any deer you know spikes, little forks, they're going to shoot them no matter what. So you, you're not looking at that. But if, if you don't let people age deer and you don't let people realize what's running around, they're going to shoot the first okay deer that they see, because that may be the biggest deer on the on the property you don't know if you were running cameras and that's the big deer. You're gonna shoot it, yeah, but if it's not, you might let it walk I, I agree with you on on that and I feel like a lot.
Speaker 2:And that's another, people like people also don't like cell cameras as well, where I've heard that case where it's like, well, you know, you get a, get a picture and you kind of you plan on hunting another spot and then you get a cell cam picture and then you go to to the other spot and then like it just messes with your mind which, oh yeah, I under, I, I completely understand that I'm a victim of it. I think everyone is a victim of of that. But I think you know, if I head out to these, these woods right behind me, you know, and if it was hunting season and I have no idea what's back there, yeah, a good looking buck comes by, I'm going to whack that. And you know it could be an even bigger deer that I just have no idea about. So, boom, now I'm going to kill the smaller maybe you know huge potential the younger, younger deer, and then you know it's.
Speaker 2:It's just one of those things that I I don't know, I'm not big fan of people wanting to ban, you know, sell cameras. I do think there, like I said, I do think there should be a limit of what the cameras can do. You know what I mean. I don't think we need to go anywhere else than than where we are now with with cameras. I also can't imagine what else you can add um to sound the cameras, but most of them have, like mine has sound I mean you projecting sound oh me, oh yeah, could you, could you imagine well?
Speaker 3:I think I don't.
Speaker 2:I think that would be a company doing that one day, at least, one company coming out where, if you get a notification and somebody's by your spot or trying to tamper with your stuff, where you can speak through it or have a pre-recorded, like there's something built into it that says you know, hey, you're, you're under surveillance.
Speaker 3:You know this has been said to the authorities. You know this is being recorded, like that. But uh, yeah, we were joking. One of the groups, like I, run stealth cams and stuff like that and and, uh, when the live view thing came out, one of the guys that worked for him was showing us like on a feeder there was, you know, like two turkeys like up in the feeder, like pecking at all this corn, and you know he's like oh, turk, season's over, they need to get out of there. I'm like man, you need to put a speaker on that thing. So you look up and there's raccoons or something on your feeder. You can just be like hey, hey get, hey, get out of there, you know, and like spook them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so they take off and yeah. So it's kind of funny that you say that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no it's, and I guess we want eventually listen in years to come. We'll go back. If one company comes back, we'll go back to this exact moment. Like you know, we called it.
Speaker 3:There will be some sort of audible option, whether it's a siren or a beep or yeah, there will be some sort of option that you can click on your app on your phone and it will audibly ring out on the camera, whether it's a voice recording or just a noise. It will be there in the next five years, guaranteed. Why? Probably to deter people and stuff. You know things and stuff like that. Because that's how you need to phrase it, because when they were talking about banning cell cameras, it's like you can't tell me I can't have this for surveillance for my property. Yeah, like I'm this. This isn't here for deer, this isn't here for turkeys. This is here for making sure people don't trespass on my property. You, you can't tell me that I can't protect my property, you know so there's always loopholes.
Speaker 2:And I have noticed a lot of the companies have been adding that surveillance of. You know, it's not only a trail camera for hunting, you can use these cameras for surveillance, which is a great idea. I mean one of my buddies, he, he took his cameras. Uh, they're at a break-in or something like that, at his wife's like store or something like that. So they, he just took his cell camera there and place the cell cameras over and it's, it's, it's true. How are you going to tell somebody that they can't, they can't do something, especially on their on their own property? And yeah, you, technically I can hang them. It's not for hunting. I don't want people walking on my property. You know, I want to be informed when somebody is trespassing on my property.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep. And it just so happens that a lot of these accesses are also places where a lot of deer walk is what. It is Not my fault, you know. It's like the t-shirts or the signs. You know this corn isn't for the deer, you know it's for the squirrels, but if I see a deer eating it, I'm going to shoot them off of it, you know so you know it's 100% soft.
Speaker 2:You know one thing so you grew up in Iowa, correct Yep. So what have you now? When especially us on these when you think of Iowa, you think of Landon, giants and everything like just just deer hunting. You know the mecca of deer hunting. What was it like growing up for you? I know you said you did a lot of waterfowl, a lot of bird hunting and stuff like that when you're really young. But once you got into that deer hunting, you know what did you see as the numbers, um, you know the size and what did anything change? Where to get to where we are now?
Speaker 3:oh, yeah, I mean. So I would say I started getting into deer hunting a little bit harder, maybe that 2005 through 2010. And when I tell people, like I said, I was young then, so like we had cell cameras or we didn't have cell cameras, we had regular cameras back then. And if I had the knowledge now back then of, like stand placement and camera placement, all that stuff, my wall would look like a bella's. I mean, there were so many big deer in like the you know the late, you know 19 and early 2000s. There were so many big giant deer running around and we had a horrible EHD hit 2011, 2012, and it absolutely destroyed the state.
Speaker 3:I mean, when I tell you there used to be, there were sections that I knew of and I'd probably seen half a dozen 200-inch deer on the hoof and I had probably seen half a dozen 200-inch deer on the hoof. There were years that there were like you could go out into a field and you would glass. Now we're like in Iowa if you go and you glass of bean field or something, then there'll be half a dozen, you know one, forties, one, fifties on it. These were one, eighties and they were everywhere. They were. When I say they were everywhere. Everyone's talking oh, there's a one, 50 pound every tree in Iowa. Back in the day it was there, there were so many big deer and EHD came through and absolutely destroyed the genetics and it. I don't think it's ever recovered. It really hasn't. Wow. So it's. You know the number, the numbers aren't there. The quality, I mean, don't get me wrong, there are still giant deer there. It's coming back in spots, but I don't ever think in general, with the whole thing like a statewide thing.
Speaker 3:I don't think we'll ever, or Midwest in general, I don't think we'll ever get back to what it was. I mean you would have to do man, go only for five years, you know, shut down hunting for five years. You know, only shoot eight nine-year-old deer for five years to even pretend to get to that. But then are the genetics even there, like you know, there are, they gonna are. Are those lineages still in there that used to be there? And there's some that are like?
Speaker 3:I have pictures of deer on my that farm down south. Uh, in general the characteristics there are big brow tines and junk on the bases and, uh, kickers off the twos. You know, um, there's, that's how it's always been, there's. I have a deer right now that's probably one 40, you know, and he's far from being done growing and it's actually one of his genetics, same, same exact frame. I mean he was as a. He was either three or four last year, um, probably three. He was probably pushing one 50 as a clean six by five and he'll he'll probably, he'll probably look just like this, you know, be in the upper sixties, lower seventies at the end of the end of the day. You know, when this season's running around.
Speaker 2:I'm getting pictures of them every couple of days, so yeah, but it's not so back in the day it was, it was a constant, consistent thing.
Speaker 3:Always big material Almost everywhere.
Speaker 2:But I think that's just a. You know, EHD has been a huge and man, we got hit real bad by EHD one year and I definitely have seen a huge notice. But I was talking to people that had farms that like 90% to 95% to 99% of their herd was absolutely wiped out, where you just smelled just everywhere, like on on farms and everything like that. But you know there's a lot of things that are up against deer numbers just around the country. You know big part is also you know there's always being new housing developments to condos, stores, like we're losing so much land. You know everyone knows I by now should know you know the build I was just they're trying to pass and everything like that, um, with like two or three million acres of public land and everything like that. But that that is one of the things.
Speaker 2:So when you take something like EHG, you take you know deforestation and then you also and then you still have hunting. Yeah, it's almost impossible for a number and for a size and a class to get back to to what it was. You know. Know, and then also as a state, a state is not going on less like they severely need to like and the deer number would have to get drastically low for that to happen and that's what they, that's what they want, so it doesn't matter like yeah, yeah and everything in our state's dictated by Farm Bureau, the insurance company.
Speaker 3:It really is all the lobbyists and all that stuff, it's all politics Same thing here, same thing here.
Speaker 2:That's that's why we have seven bucks state, that's why we have unlimited does. That's why our black bear hunt was banned multiple times and finally back multiple times and finally is back. And it's only it's, it's just a all of it is all political. All of it is not actually run by the, the correct people. Um, and yeah, the insurance, it's never, it's never going to change it generally will, will never. They don't want deer, they want they want less, less deer, and it's very on deer.
Speaker 3:No, deer would be their favorite. So and it's just, and, like I said, with like the whole public land stuff, it it's. It's kind of weird to to think about this, because a lot of hunters are probably more conservative, uh, in general, but when it, when it comes to like government programs and all that stuff, democrats are the ones that do it. You know they're the ones that that, like you, would never have a Democratic president wanting, you know, public lands to be sold. It just wouldn't happen. Like our, our, like CRP programs and WRP programs in the state you can tell when a when a Democratic governor or president's there, those things go up and they're just handing them out left and right. You know free. You know free health care, free public land, free this land, free that land. And then when a Republican gets back in office, they kind of grip it back and pull it in because once again it's like well, why do you need to get paid for this? Why do you need to get paid for this? You know. So it's a hard thing to wrap around.
Speaker 3:As a conservative, you know that it's almost like man, this is one of those times I'm agreeing like not with my party or you know whatever, but I think in general most people are smart enough to go. It's not here and it's not here, we're all right here. You know, sometimes if you're over here, you swing a little bit this way on the one thing. And if you're over here, sometimes you swing a little bit on this way on some things. And you know, and the problem is that the 10 over here and the 10 over here are the loudest, yep, and that's, that's the problem.
Speaker 2:It's's just, it's all you agree with you A hundred percent, a hundred percent agreed. You know it's, it's, it's just one of those. Yet again, that's never. It's never going to change.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately. So we're. We're about to hit our hour mark. I mean it's. This has been phenomenal. I got a few quick, quick questions for you. Um, you know, our biggest question, what I love asking everybody. You know two weeks, money is not an option anywhere in the world. What is your dream hunt?
Speaker 3:it's probably different than everybody else's my. The one thing I want to do is shoot a mountain lion of the bow. Uh, I think, I think we've had in.
Speaker 2:the one person I want to do is shoot a mountain lion with a bow. I think we've had one person at least say that that is a phenomenal animal.
Speaker 3:I'll never forget it. It was Primo's Truth About Bowhunting. I believe it was Chris Ashley that was hunting and they are out in Idaho or something. They're baying, these cats of the dogs, and they get this mountain lion, almost like on this rock point, like overlooking this huge Canyon, almost like the like the lion King pride rock sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, you're snarling and he shoots this cat and I'm like I'm going to do that someday, like that, that's what I want to do. So it's weird, like it's. It's not that expensive, it's pretty obtainable. You know where most people would be like, well, I want to shoot a polar bear or go to, you know over to Europe and shoot a Marco Polo Ram. Like I'd love to do all that stuff. But if you said, hey, you get one free hunt, send me to shoot a mountain lion.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool. I listen, that's phenomenal, phenomenal animal. I heard the animal, I heard they. Actually I think they said mountain. Yeah, I heard mountain. Lion tastes really good, that's what.
Speaker 2:I've heard it's supposed to be sweet, really. Yeah, same thing with bobcat. I had bobcat last year, yeah, and I will say it was good. I'm a big fan of bear. Everyone knows on our shows I was like that huge bear a big fan of bear, everyone knows on our shows, like that huge bear hunter, love eating bear. The bear that I killed that was a sweet, sweet meat.
Speaker 2:I know, obviously it's not always going to be like that, you know, it just really depends what they. But that is an interesting like cause you know at least what bears I would understand, because they do a lot of foraging. You know they eat a lot of berries and stuff like that. So that would make sense to me, you know. But mountain like that, that's an interesting one. I I would love, I would love to try, um, would love to do a mountain lion hunt at some point, but that is definitely a phenomenal, phenomenal hunt. Uh, is there any where? Where would you want to do it? Would you want to go to Idaho, like you? Guys don't have mountain lions and stuff like that. So what's the closest? I mean we do?
Speaker 3:You do. Well, I mean, there is there, they're around, they get pictures of cameras on cameras every single year. There was one less than a mile from my house here in central Iowa. Uh, two years ago um, people were seeing actually in town. Um, there's been a couple killed in in like the Des Moines metros, like the Capitol is Des Moines. There's been two or three killed here by police in the last decade. You know, because we have such, we have river systems that come through and they just follow the river. But um, is it a a?
Speaker 2:is it a? Is it a state thing where the state really doesn't say because, like for us in jersey, like I swear to god, I saw one two years ago, I know what a bobcat looks like, I, I hands down and you know you'll hear about in pa every once in a while in upstate new york and you know one was hit by a car in Connecticut they say we don't have a living, breathing population. So that's why, like you see mountain, like we have mountain lions or a place has, but they don't consider it a breeding population. So they don't. Is that kind of what it is for you?
Speaker 3:guys. Yeah, a lot of them will come over from Nebraska. They'll cross the Missouri River and come over and they'll live. I mean, they'll live there and grow. I'm sure some of them are breeding and stuff like that. A lot of them they say they're, you know, immature males that get kicked out and can't find a range. But there was one, a viral video, was it not last deer season, but the season before? This kid his in his tree stand in a ladder stand and a mountain lion came up and jumped the fence in front of him and just stood there. Didn't know he was there. He's filming him with the cell phone and then the cat goes and walks away and that cat was probably 150 pounds, it was huge and and I'm telling you right now, if, if that was me and it was that mountain lion or 200 inch deer deer, I'm killing the mount line. That is insane.
Speaker 2:Because there's no season here and they're not protected.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it should mean you're legally allowed to do it. Yep, we cannot shoot bear in Iowa. Oh wow, yeah, there's even less of them and we can't shoot them. But, like I said, mount lines they can't shoot them Like. But, like I said, mountain lions, they just they don't claim anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what I've heard with a lot of like States. We we actually had a picture of a um, a guy posted on in Jersey and we had an elk in Jersey, the uh, like a couple of weeks ago and technically, if it was hunting season, because we were talking about like they're like, can you technically kill him? Like I'm pretty sure, technically, because it's not a, it's not protected, it's not anything that you, you would, you would probably like they'd probably still do an investigation, but legally I don't think anything would be able to happen to you because it's not an actual game species or anything. It's not protected. There's nowhere where it says you are not allowed to to kill this animal if it, if it comes on you know land or if it's in jersey and I same thing that you know for for you guys in a lot of states. But that's that's interesting.
Speaker 2:So they don't, is it? What is the reason you know? Last question for you, if you even know what is kind of like the reason why they don't have you guys called blackbirds, I feel like that is a like a thing where you never want that population to grow out of control. I've seen what they do when they grow out of control and everything like that, especially with farmland. If they you know you're on a big farm, they cost millions and millions of dollars of crop damage here in New Jersey and that could be low-balling it. I'm not exactly sure the exact number. So is there a reason why you've heard of, maybe why they don't have you guys, or you're nothing?
Speaker 3:Not really Nothing. On the bear We'll get all sorts of stuff. We had a moose running around last year Social media is the greatest thing ever because it's up in Northwest Iowa and there's this year and a half old bull moose with paddles, this big and that's it, and it ran around up there for three weeks and then it ended up. I think it fell through the ice on one of the lakes up there and drowned. Um, but we have bull elk all the time.
Speaker 3:Uh, I've people seen mule deer. You can shoot mule deer, the elk and stuff if it, if it was born or it's natural here you cannot shoot them. But let's say, you know we obviously have high fences scattered out through the state. If a fallow deer got out with an ear tag, you can technically legally shoot it, I believe, because at that point it's like livestock. You know it's not supposed to be there. So it's a hindrance and a nuisance Most the time. They don't want you to. They want the dnr to get contacted and they'll take care of it in general. Um, but yeah, there's, there's some big bulls that end up in iowa every single year. Uh, there was a huge one running around this year. I mean well over 300 inches um.
Speaker 3:That was running around iowa and people were getting on trail camera and they kicked it out during a shotgun deer drive like ran across this open field and there's 10 guys lined up with shotguns and they're like just watching it run by. You know they're filming it because you can't kill them.
Speaker 2:So that's insane.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't, I would never have guessed, never have guessed that at all a lot of weird laws, but I mean it's, it's basically well, if you don't have a tag for it, it's not gonna hurt. You leave it alone, you know, let it, let it walk on through, so yeah definitely.
Speaker 2:Well, man, jesse, I want to. I want to thank you so much for coming on. It was a, it was an absolute pleasure. Um, you know that's. I have two points so far to I and I roughly I think I got three more to go. Where I get, you know, we'll be able to get my, uh, I think, preference of where I want to go. I think that's how it works. Um, you know, so I eventually do plan on making it down to or over to to Iowa. I feel like a lot of bow hunters do and everything like that. But I mean, it was, it was a great insight. Definitely would love to get you back on one day. Um, talk some more, uh, about those deer, specifically about those deer that that you've killed behind you and everything like that. I know we kind of got into a little more just general stuff, but, um, yeah, definitely want to hear those, hear those stories, uh, eventually, and everything like that. And, um, you know, if you got any last words, you know, let it be known yeah, no, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Uh, it's, I was one of those things. If you can, if you've never been here and never had the opportunity, definitely uh, put in, put in for your points and get it. You know you can. You can draw earlier with a gun tag. Um, you could probably draw next year if you wanted to, but if you want to bow hunt, it's that four to five years, it's just. And that's one thing that I, I think the state has done right is it limits access to out-of-state hunters, because if you just let everybody just you just let everybody come in and do what they wanted to do, the resource would not be what it is, so it's. It makes it more of a, I mean, and then kansas is rolling back on it too. It used to be able to draw every year on kansas and I've never hunted there for deer, but now you have to apply, so it's yeah, it's one of those things who yeah probably can't hear this is a two, two.
Speaker 2:Look, I was gonna do kansas but I was like I'm gonna focus on iowa first, um, and then because then day with travel I you know and work and everything like that. And you, you know, I do Maine moose lottery every year. So if I ever get that, that is a high priority over over everything, everything else and every end of the bear season here in Jersey. But yeah, I love I actually I love that idea for Iowa. I love that you guys are a two buck state, you know. Obviously, whatever they decide, if they decide to go to the one and everything like that, you know, I I think that I wish New Jersey would do something like that. I really wish New Jersey would go to two bus state. It ain't ever happening, but I can dream, but it was. It was an absolute pleasure to have you on everyone. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. All the links are going to be down below in the description below. Make sure you go check them out and we'll see you guys next.
