Transcription

00:00:01:11 – 00:00:26:14
Speaker 1
I. All right, man. Hey, we are. We’re back for episode two. Yep. This is like a second date. You’re like, well, the first date must have went right if they said yes to the second one. Exactly. Yeah. Really cool.

00:00:26:14 – 00:00:38:14
Speaker 1
And welcome everybody to the American Hunting Podcast, our second episode. We’ve got great feedback from a lot of folks. So a lot of our members are saying mean that was that’s right on. There’s a lot of stuff in that podcast that I’ve wondered or had questions about.

00:00:38:14 – 00:00:53:15
Speaker 1
And so, yeah, we’ll keep doing them. You guys keep listening or keep viewing and we’ll keep making them, right? Yeah. All right. Well, before we get started, I have to mention we had another hunter die since. I mean, when we just did the first episode five days ago.

00:00:53:19 – 00:01:05:04
Speaker 1
Yeah. And 43 year old Shane Robinson in Campbell County, Kentucky. And the report is Tristan malfunctioned. Well, that’s what the report said. And he fell to his death.

00:01:05:14 – 00:01:11:06
Speaker 2
You know, it was you said the last episode, we weren’t going to harp on this stuff, but it just how.

00:01:11:06 – 00:01:11:20
Speaker 1
Do you ignore.

00:01:11:20 – 00:01:21:16
Speaker 2
It? How do you ignore it? And my brother actually tagged me in a post on Facebook and it was a guy had a cam trail cam set up at the base of his tree, must have been setting something up or doing something.

00:01:21:16 – 00:01:37:09
Speaker 2
And his camera caught the moment he fell from his tree stand and hit the ground. The guy who posted it was fine and he kind of made a joke out of it. Like the moment your camera catches you fallen out of a tree and the comments were people laughing about it and it was light hearted or whatever

00:01:37:09 – 00:01:51:14
Speaker 2
. But I just it just rubbed me the wrong way. Yeah. And it’s it’s impossible to ignore. And like you said, we hate to keep harping on it, but it’s got to get through guys heads at some point. And I don’t know what the what the trick is going to be.

00:01:51:19 – 00:02:01:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. I mean, from this point on, we are going to we’re not going to ignore it. We’re going to talk about every one of them. But maybe sometime in the future we’ll do a whole podcast on just trees and safety.

00:02:01:14 – 00:02:17:25
Speaker 1
And, you know, I’m going to talk real quick to just to the to the ladies that are listening and maybe even the ladies at Don Hunt. If you’re a wife, you’re a sister, you’re a mom of hunters, ask them if there weren’t harnesses, ask them more importantly, if they’re using lifelines around the dinner table in front of

00:02:17:25 – 00:02:31:11
Speaker 1
everybody, ask them, are you doing this? And when they say no, tell them flat out you’re not going back to you to correct that. You know, and let’s not kid ourselves, the ladies in our lives make the rules for the most part, you know.

00:02:32:01 – 00:02:42:18
Speaker 1
So, yeah, that’s it’s just, again, unfortunate, but that’s the third fatality we’ve heard of this hunting season. And it’s not November yet. It’s crazy. Yeah, it is.

00:02:42:18 – 00:02:55:16
Speaker 2
So so we have a little bit of a different look today because we both have headphones on and that’s because we decided to up our podcast game and have a guest on the show over the phone. So if you want to introduce them.

00:02:55:20 – 00:03:14:13
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So we thought, you know, somebody worth actually listening to would be nice, a nice touch. So this about three years ago, we were looking for a group or organization to support and we found the Sportsmen’s Alliance and the this is a group it’s an organization that just does tremendous work.

00:03:14:13 – 00:03:32:19
Speaker 1
And they’ve got they’ve got the I want to see the muscle and the passion combined, you know, to to really make a difference. And so on the phone with us today is Sean Curran, who is the vice president of membership and Corporate Partnerships for the Sportsman’s Alliance.

00:03:33:06 – 00:03:37:12
Speaker 1
That’s a that’s a whale of a title, Sean Yeah.

00:03:37:12 – 00:03:51:08
Speaker 3
There’s a lot of different hats that that go on with that but that’s all right that’s that’s part of the fun of doing this job is wearing a lot of different hats and doing whatever we can do to, you know, help grow the organization and grow the Sportsmen’s Alliance.

00:03:51:20 – 00:03:52:27
Speaker 3
So I appreciate you guys having me on.

00:03:53:01 – 00:04:02:16
Speaker 1
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We’re we’re thrilled that you’re with us. And before we kind of get into the bread and butter stuff, I saw a picture of you yesterday on a blog. I want to congratulate you on your beard game.

00:04:02:25 – 00:04:03:15
Speaker 1
It’s strong.

00:04:05:04 – 00:04:18:13
Speaker 3
It’s it is grown strong. This year, we decided we decided not to break out the Clippers. You know, my daughters encouraged me just to kind of see how how long we can grow it before I finally get tired of it and hack it off here.

00:04:18:13 – 00:04:20:29
Speaker 3
So it’s it’s pretty robust right now.

00:04:21:16 – 00:04:31:07
Speaker 1
It’s pretty white, too. And I noticed that goes to surprise minors, too. And I’ll be honest with you, just this morning, I was like, I’m pretty close to breaking out the clippers and trimming this thing a little bit back.

00:04:31:07 – 00:04:39:09
Speaker 2
But from a guy who can’t grow facial hair, I would ask you not to do that. Just enjoy it. I think I’m the only one in this room right now who can’t do it. So there’s a little bit of jealousy on my part.

00:04:39:10 – 00:04:39:20
Speaker 2
All right.

00:04:39:26 – 00:04:50:27
Speaker 1
Yeah, I’ll keep her going. Well, Sean, can you explain to our listeners and our viewers what exactly is the Sportsmen’s Alliance and in your why is it important to to all hunters?

00:04:51:26 – 00:05:08:23
Speaker 3
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. So the Sportsman’s Alliance, you know, we have been around, you know, as a as an advocacy organization for 40 years. And our primary mission is to protect and advance our outdoor heritages of hunting, fishing and trapping.

00:05:09:08 – 00:05:23:21
Speaker 3
And so the way that we do that is, you know, we’re looking out for sportsmen and women. Any. Time issues arise. You know, we do the majority of our work in the legislatures, both at the state and the federal level, in the courtrooms and at the ballot box.

00:05:24:13 – 00:05:37:26
Speaker 3
So we’re kind of the the specialist group out there that is watching out for bad laws being proposed or lawsuits that would affect one’s ability to go out there and do the things that we love to do to hunt the fish and trap.

00:05:38:13 – 00:05:54:27
Speaker 3
And most of these types of things, you know, involve hunting. You know, that’s where we see the majority of the attacks kind of taking place. And so, you know, that’s what we’ve been focused on, is looking out for those types of things that would restrict or prohibit any of us from going out and doing what we love

00:05:54:27 – 00:05:55:07
Speaker 3
to do.

00:05:56:20 – 00:06:07:18
Speaker 1
Okay. Why is that? I guess here’s one of the questions that I had for you early on. Like I said, I think we’ve been partnering with you guys for three, if not four years. So here’s one of my questions that I asked you.

00:06:07:18 – 00:06:26:24
Speaker 1
And I think even a year or so ago, and that is I noticed on your that you guys focus a lot or actually your work has done a lot out west where, you know, your concern with grizzly bears being delisted or laws concerning wolves or wolf hunting or even black bears up in Maine.

00:06:27:18 – 00:06:36:08
Speaker 1
How does that relate to a guy like myself that hunts whitetail or waterfowl, mostly in the Midwest or down South? How do those two things correlate?

00:06:37:16 – 00:06:53:28
Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s a great question because, you know, it’s and that’s a hard, hard bridge to kind of to to cross for a lot of folks is, hey, I’m just a deer hunter from Ohio. Why the heck do I need to care about black bear hunting in Maine or, you know, what’s going on with grizzly bears in the

00:06:53:28 – 00:07:11:23
Speaker 3
Yellowstone ecosystem? Well, behind a lot of those types of things are much bigger organizations than ourselves and much bigger than, quite frankly, a lot of the conservation groups that are out there. And these organizations are, you know, are animal rights or anti hunting organizations.

00:07:12:22 – 00:07:30:08
Speaker 3
And what they do is they kind of slice away at the fringes. You know, we use, you know, phrases like, you know, death by a thousand cuts. You know, they’re not going after deer hunting in Ohio or Iowa or Kansas, but they’re going after black bear hunting and they’re going after predators or coyote hunting or or little

00:07:30:08 – 00:07:50:04
Speaker 3
things around the edges that are smaller groups of hunters. They’re not going to go after, you know, waterfowl hunting tomorrow, things like that. But what they do is they attack these areas where they see vulnerability, where they can divide us, where they can pick apart hunters and and take away these little things bit by bit by bit

00:07:50:18 – 00:08:06:24
Speaker 3
. Um. Their end game is really to stop hunting. I mean, that’s really the end game. And it’s it’s been quoted, you know, from from many people, you know, on on that side of things is that, you know, they want to they want to stop trophy hunting.

00:08:07:15 – 00:08:24:11
Speaker 3
That’s HSBC. That’s the Humane Society of the United States. That’s one of their key tenants on their. Their their recently updated website is to stop, you know, quote unquote, trophy hunting. And they use words like that that are kind of divisive, that pick things apart.

00:08:24:25 – 00:08:36:22
Speaker 3
But at the end of the day, they’d be just as happy. If not a single one of us ever picked up a bow or ever picked up a gun to go out and go go deer hunting or squirrel hunting or rabbit hunting or anything like that, you know?

00:08:36:22 – 00:08:55:02
Speaker 3
So that’s kind of why we need every single person that’s out there that that buys a hunting license to really pay attention and to really watch and stay engaged on these types of issues, because there’s a lot of groups out there that really don’t like what we do, and they’re just fundamentally opposed to it.

00:08:56:19 – 00:09:11:18
Speaker 2
You talked about how big some of these groups are. And for you guys, the Sportsmen’s Alliance, is it? Do you guys pick and choose your battles? Do you have a team that kind of ranks the importance of certain legislative issues or things like that, and then you choose which ones to go after?

00:09:11:18 – 00:09:16:05
Speaker 2
Or is it, you know, first come, first serve, and we take everything that comes our way?

00:09:17:23 – 00:09:30:23
Speaker 3
Yeah, it’s, it’s it’s a little bit of both. And that’s kind of a great question is because if we could go after everything we would. But unfortunately, a lot of these things well, all of these things come down to funding.

00:09:30:23 – 00:09:48:23
Speaker 3
You know, which fights do you pick and choose is based on, you know, what your budget for that particular year is looking like. Lawsuits, for example, are a very costly way to do business, you know, but unfortunately, you know, the the other groups that we kind of go against, they know this and they have much deeper pockets

00:09:48:23 – 00:10:05:27
Speaker 3
than we do. Humane Society for the good of the United States, for example, you know, their annual budget is somewhere around 130, $235 million. If we take a look at some of the top anti-hunting organizations out there, add them up collectively, the top five of them.

00:10:07:08 – 00:10:26:08
Speaker 3
You know, have just an enormous I think it’s half a billion dollars collectively to do these types of things, to take things to court, to string things out, you know, over many, many years. So, yeah, we have to be very smart about, you know, how we spend our money, where it goes and and what issues we get

00:10:26:08 – 00:10:45:09
Speaker 3
involved in. Most of the time, you know, we’re we’re looking at, you know, some of the bigger issues that are out there. You know, for example, right now we’re involved in a lawsuit in New Jersey where the governor, you know, recently came in, took executive order and has banned bear hunting on public lands in the state of

00:10:45:09 – 00:11:03:27
Speaker 3
New Jersey. That’s not based on science. That’s not based on anything that his wildlife biologist recommended. It’s based simply on campaign promises that he made to his funders, some of which are, you know, anti-hunting organizations, that he was going to stop bear hunting for no other reason.

00:11:04:24 – 00:11:14:23
Speaker 3
Then he wants to stop bear hunting. And so he’s done those types of things. So those are the types of things that, you know, we get involved in, um, and we partner with other organizations when we do so.

00:11:15:03 – 00:11:28:15
Speaker 3
You know, the New Jersey example is a good example of, you know, how we partner, you know, we’re partnering with the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance and with ASI, you know, us three groups, groups of hunters come together collectively and we’re fighting these issues.

00:11:28:28 – 00:11:43:03
Speaker 3
Similar thing with the Yellowstone ecosystem, Grizzly Bear. You know, we’re partnered with Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation on that. And so, you know, these things don’t happen, you know, in a vacuum or by themselves. You know, we we rely on our partnerships.

00:11:43:16 – 00:11:57:15
Speaker 3
Just as, you know, American Hunting Lease Association is a partner of ours to help us fight these types of things. When we get into the fights, we’re the specialist, we bring people together and our government affairs team has the expertize on how to win these types of issues.

00:11:58:01 – 00:12:07:28
Speaker 3
But we also need our partners to come in there so that we can, you know, have numbers behind us and really make those pushes to win these issues and and protect our our rights as sportsmen.

00:12:08:25 – 00:12:30:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. I mean, I got to tell a quick story of what we did with the in the state of Illinois a couple of years ago with the Sportsmen’s Alliance. And that was the state of Illinois secretly passed. I can’t remember a law, basically, that was going to tax or charge a fee to landowners and anybody who helped

00:12:30:23 – 00:12:47:21
Speaker 1
landowners find somebody to lease their grant. Basically, what the state of Illinois tried to do and they did was lump leasing companies or leasing in with guides and outfitters. And it basically was just an unnecessary tax. So, you know, as a leasing association, we tried to get in front of it.

00:12:47:21 – 00:13:05:24
Speaker 1
Our first call was the Sportsmen’s Alliance. And I mean, you want to talk about being aggressive. We got on a call Sportsman’s Alliance. A week or two later, I was on a plane to Philadelphia where there was a large gathering or convention and the Illinois head of the DNR was going to be there, and so was the

00:13:05:25 – 00:13:20:28
Speaker 1
Sportsman’s Alliance. And I mean, I literally I walked into a room in a hotel in Philadelphia, and I think it was it was Evan. And one of their lobbyists said, hold on, we’re going to go get him. And then 5 minutes later in this little meeting room walks the head of Illinois DNR, and he said He’s got

00:13:20:28 – 00:13:30:19
Speaker 1
a problem. And I laid out, you know, I just laid it out and I said, here’s what we think. And he said, Well, that’s ridiculous. It basically at that moment was agreeing fully with me. I said, I’ll take care of that when I get back.

00:13:30:28 – 00:13:45:10
Speaker 1
And so it’s kind of still ongoing. But my point is the Sportsmen’s Alliance, they jumped on it, you know, and it was it was really impressive to see them work. They carry real weight when the when they tap you on the shoulder, regardless of where you’re at, and they say, hey, we need to talk.

00:13:45:26 – 00:14:00:02
Speaker 1
These politicians take those meetings and they take them to heart. So, yeah, we’ve we were thrilled and impressed with with that whole. Thing we went through and continue to support them. I know and so to some of our partners now.

00:14:00:02 – 00:14:13:07
Speaker 1
So yeah, we were real impressed with that. Sean, you mentioned Humane Society a minute ago. You know, when I grew up, the Humane Society was where you went to to adopt a dog, you know? Right. So locally, I think people don’t realize.

00:14:14:17 – 00:14:24:14
Speaker 1
What the connection may or may not be from the local humane society, the dog pound, to this this mega organization that’s trying to ban hunting. Can you kind of touch on that for me?

00:14:25:19 – 00:14:46:05
Speaker 3
Yeah, no, that’s a that’s a fantastic point on the so the Humane Society of the United States is its own organization. They are not affiliated, you know, whatsoever with your local county shelter, you know, so, you know, the Franklin County Humane Society, they don’t receive any funding at all from the Humane Society of the United States.

00:14:47:09 – 00:15:02:13
Speaker 3
You know, they’re funding primarily I’m sorry, you know, your local Humane Society. Usually they’re doing good work. They’ve got good people there. They’re helping the cats and the dogs and doing all those things that, you know, are necessary at the local level.

00:15:03:08 – 00:15:18:24
Speaker 3
The problem is, is that you have an organization like the Humane Society of the United States that shares a similar name, that does a lot of deceptive fundraising. You know, if you look at their Web site, it shows those same types of things, you know, particularly dogs and cats and things of that nature.

00:15:19:08 – 00:15:31:15
Speaker 3
And, you know, they run a lot of commercials asking people to donate, you know, whatever it may be, 1995 a month, those types of things. And people, you know, it pulls at your heart strings and you want to give and you want to get involved.

00:15:31:15 – 00:15:38:12
Speaker 3
And so you think, oh, well, this must be the umbrella organization for my county, you know, organizations.

00:15:38:12 – 00:15:38:25
Speaker 1
Exactly.

00:15:38:25 – 00:15:56:22
Speaker 3
I think that’s exactly that’s exactly right. And there’s there’s no relationship there whatsoever. Less than 1% of Humane Society, the United States budget goes back to any sort of, you know, local chapters or local shelters or anything along those lines.

00:15:57:10 – 00:16:16:18
Speaker 3
Instead, they use that money to to file lawsuits, to go after big AG, to go after the outdoor industry, hunting, fishing, trapping, those types of things. They are they’re extremists. They don’t want to see anything that we’re doing.

00:16:16:23 – 00:16:34:17
Speaker 3
Certainly, you know, that’s, you know, their goal, their former CEO, he’s been since removed due to some character flaws and bad things that were going on there weren’t going to get into the gutter of things he was doing, you know, but he was he made it clear that his goal was to end hunting.

00:16:35:20 – 00:16:50:05
Speaker 3
Their new leadership has that same mentality. You know, in fact, their website was recently updated, and one of their initiatives is to end hunting. That’s it. I mean, it’s it’s as plain as day. So we’ve got to be getting the word out.

00:16:50:05 – 00:17:04:19
Speaker 3
We’ve got to have more and more people involved in just paying attention to these issues and watching what’s going on. Because it may start in May and or it may start in California, but those things slowly creep in bounds to other states.

00:17:04:29 – 00:17:18:03
Speaker 3
So what happens in one area if it’s happening in New Jersey now? It could be happening in Pennsylvania next. It could be happening in Virginia after that. They bounce around and we’ve got to be vigilant on these things.

00:17:19:15 – 00:17:34:26
Speaker 1
I agree. It’s you’ve got I mean, it’s a big deal. It’s a big dollars game. Okay. So here’s yeah, one of my questions is why does my $50 matter? I mean, you know, as you know, I’ve joined, but if anybody’s listening, they’re like, yeah, my $50 won’t even you know, it won’t make any kind of a difference

00:17:34:26 – 00:17:35:18
Speaker 1
. Can you talk to that?

00:17:35:19 – 00:17:38:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. Can my small donation really make a difference?

00:17:39:05 – 00:17:58:14
Speaker 3
Heck, yes, it can. Absolutely it can. It’s interesting just looking at Hunter numbers, right. You know, we’ve got you know, I think the most recent report, you know, was reflecting 2016 hunting license numbers. And there was, I think, 11 and a half or 12 million, you know, licenses bought that year.

00:17:59:19 – 00:18:22:11
Speaker 3
If we had just 1% of those hunters becoming members of the Sportsmen’s Alliance, it’s a game changer. We’re talking about 1% of everybody who hunts. Becoming a $50 member or $100 member of the Sportsmen’s Alliance. All of a sudden, we’re not having to pick and choose which issues we get involved in.

00:18:22:11 – 00:18:42:13
Speaker 3
All of a sudden we’re able to do more advancing type of things and more proactive things. You know, one of our proactive programs, this again, it’s a partnership program. It’s called Families Field. So if you live in a state that has a apprentice license or a mentored hunting license, you know, that’s a that’s a proactive program.

00:18:42:25 – 00:18:56:21
Speaker 3
That Sportsmen’s Alliance, National Shooting Sports Foundation and the National Wild Turkey Federation have partnered on for a number of years. I think we have apprentice licenses or mentor hunting licenses implemented in one way, shape or form in 40 states now.

00:18:57:22 – 00:19:16:13
Speaker 3
We can do more of those types of things if we have more members. More $35 members. More $50 members. So, yeah, it makes a huge impact, guys. I mean, that’s that’s what it’s all about. And not only from a funding standpoint, from an advocacy standpoint, because then that 1% that becomes a member out there.

00:19:17:21 – 00:19:31:11
Speaker 3
They’re up to date on what’s going on out there and they’re able to articulate and to communicate with people in their network. The guys that you’re going out hunting with, you’re able to to share that information, to give them a heads up on, hey, did you guys know what’s going on?

00:19:31:11 – 00:19:45:07
Speaker 3
Hey, there’s this issue that Sportinglife is working on. Sure. And we’re able to have just a huge influence at the grassroots level from that regard as well, too. So it’s you know, we think, you know, like, oh, what the heck?

00:19:45:15 – 00:20:03:07
Speaker 3
What’s one membership? What’s one vote? What’s what’s my little impact going to be, you know, by itself? It all starts to add up and then you start to have that pebble in the pond. Ripple effect. The more of us they’re engaged, more of us that are involved, we can really move some mountains.

00:20:03:17 – 00:20:05:10
Speaker 3
But we’ve got to have people involved in the fight.

00:20:05:14 – 00:20:17:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, we’re just basically we’re turning to death by a thousand cuts around and and applying it to the other side instead of it being applied to us. So, yeah, no, it makes sense. Work in our work and our viewers and listeners do this.

00:20:17:23 – 00:20:18:12
Speaker 1
Where can they join?

00:20:19:12 – 00:20:41:26
Speaker 3
Yeah. So, you know, our website is Sportsman’s Alliance, dawg. You know, right there at the top, there’s Alliance membership. You know, they can become a individual member right there. They can they can follow us on Facebook, just, you know, look up Sportsmen’s Alliance, their Instagram, Sportsman’s Sportsmen’s, all for whatever reason.

00:20:41:26 – 00:20:43:00
Speaker 3
We didn’t spell it all the way out.

00:20:43:00 – 00:20:45:17
Speaker 2
But I don’t know if they give you enough characters to be able to do that.

00:20:45:27 – 00:20:46:15
Speaker 1
They’re restricted.

00:20:46:15 – 00:20:58:20
Speaker 3
I could have been that could have been it at the at the onset when we did that. So yeah, I mean, we’re on all the social platforms, the websites, the main place to go for up to date information and to join to become a member.

00:20:58:20 – 00:20:59:13
Speaker 3
That’s where you need to go.

00:21:00:20 – 00:21:11:21
Speaker 1
Very cool. Very cool. Okay, we’ve got one last thing for you. And this is kind of a fun thing we’re going to do for all of our guests. It’s called The Tale of the Tape Tail Spelled to Tail.

00:21:12:03 – 00:21:19:07
Speaker 1
So the tale of the tape. So we’ve got six fun questions for you. Basically, just preference. You tell me, are you ready?

00:21:20:11 – 00:21:21:02
Speaker 3
Fire away.

00:21:21:03 – 00:21:24:06
Speaker 1
All right. Make up mask or nothing?

00:21:25:29 – 00:21:26:13
Speaker 3
Beard.

00:21:27:22 – 00:21:31:18
Speaker 1
That’s good one. That’s nothing. All right. Preferred tree, stand snack.

00:21:33:17 – 00:21:34:05
Speaker 3
Clif Bar.

00:21:34:27 – 00:21:38:03
Speaker 1
Nice healthy tree stand or blind ground.

00:21:39:07 – 00:21:39:24
Speaker 3
Tree stand.

00:21:40:18 – 00:21:42:10
Speaker 1
Pelvic splitter or butt out?

00:21:44:28 – 00:21:54:23
Speaker 3
I am not a pelvic splitter, so I do it. Old school and. Use a butt out technique to get that taken care of.

00:21:54:23 – 00:22:02:20
Speaker 1
Awesome. Joel’s just asked me a little bit ago. He’s like, What’s the difference? Who cares? And I was like, I don’t it’s. It’s a preference, man. So what’s your favorite state to hunt?

00:22:04:15 – 00:22:25:11
Speaker 3
Favorite state to hunt. You know, I guess Ohio’s probably near and dear to my heart. Being born and raised here, we’ve got some pretty good deer over here. A lot of turkeys. Waterfowl can be hit or miss. I’ve also had some some pretty awesome spirit experiences, you know, chasing waterfowl out west and in the North Dakota area

00:22:25:14 – 00:22:40:07
Speaker 3
. So, man, it’s hard. North Dakota is pretty awesome out there. The things that I’d love to go out there and chase some white tails, too. It’s just. Just different country, I guess, you know? Sure. I’m used to seeing the same old, same old.

00:22:40:11 – 00:22:55:26
Speaker 3
I love hunting here in Ohio. I hunt central Ohio. And then I go down south and hunt a little bit of a hillier area. But yeah, just just being able to go out west and then try some new things, you know, hunt some of those big expanses of public land that are out there.

00:22:57:09 – 00:23:10:07
Speaker 3
You’re able to kind of do that as a waterfowl hunter and just kind of bounce around and you can hunt some of the plots land and lots of public waterfowl stuff out there. So I don’t know, I’d have to flip a coin on one on that one.

00:23:10:26 – 00:23:20:26
Speaker 1
We don’t allow that. Yeah, we need to do that together. That’s something you and I have talked about a couple of years. We need to get together on a waterfowl hunt somewhere out west. Maybe. Maybe next year we could make that happen.

00:23:20:26 – 00:23:23:01
Speaker 1
All right, last thing. What’s your bucket list? Hunt.

00:23:24:23 – 00:23:43:16
Speaker 3
Oh, I. Elk with a bow out west somewhere. Been looking into it the last couple of years and just haven’t taken the plunge yet. Was closed this year, maybe in 2019. I can make something happen, but I definitely want to get out there and chase elk with my beau.

00:23:43:16 – 00:23:55:29
Speaker 3
I think that would just be amazing. It just looks like so much fun running up and down, up and down the hills out there and and getting after it. And I should probably do it before I get any older and any greater.

00:23:56:08 – 00:24:02:00
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve done it and it’s. I’ve done it once and and loved it. I can’t wait to go back.

00:24:02:00 – 00:24:09:14
Speaker 2
I’ll tell you what, though, if you get a chance to do that and you get an elk out there, I want you to write a blog post like the one you wrote a couple of days ago about that that deer you got.

00:24:09:15 – 00:24:21:11
Speaker 2
I just that was that was so fun to read. And then you would post that video of that that bug walking up to you Shaun I would talk about we got to ask what kind of scent protection did you what were you wearing?

00:24:21:11 – 00:24:24:07
Speaker 2
What did you do that you don’t see that every day?

00:24:25:04 – 00:24:44:13
Speaker 3
Yeah. So it was really crazy experience and I guess I’ll just describe it real quick. It was I mean, after I, I shot my dear last week, you know, I collected myself, gave myself some time and figured, okay, well, I’m just gonna pull my stand out because I did a quick hanging hunt and I’m like, Oh, I’ll

00:24:44:13 – 00:24:59:11
Speaker 3
pull my stand. He’s back to the truck and wait a little bit, send a couple text messages out and they start tracking. So I’m on the ground and I’m packing up my stuff. I’m trying to be quiet, but I’m not like stealth mode ninja quiet, right?

00:24:59:11 – 00:25:12:10
Speaker 3
I’m just, you know, packing up, taking my time also. And behind that is your thrashing. So I turn around and I see a tree, little sapling just going back and forth and like, holy cow was a buck over there, probably like 40 or 50 yards.

00:25:12:21 – 00:25:28:17
Speaker 3
So I just pull out my phone real quick and hit up video mode and I’m standing there and this young barbecue’s pretty two and a half year old. He’s starting to work his way through the woods. Well, all of a sudden, he cut the trail that the buck I had shot came in on.

00:25:28:17 – 00:25:39:02
Speaker 3
So then he turns his direction and he starts following this trail right to me, because I ended up shooting my block pretty much right at the base of my tree. So I’m standing at the base of this tree, still packing up my stuff.

00:25:39:11 – 00:25:50:19
Speaker 3
And as the video shows that that deer walks probably within ten feet of me. I mean, it was so close that in my head I’m thinking, okay, Shaun, you’re pregnant to move or like based something this deer, because you know how it goes.

00:25:50:19 – 00:26:00:24
Speaker 3
I mean, these blocks, when they’re starting to run, you don’t know what the heck they’re going to do. Right. And he saw me, you know, and he’s kind of looking at me. I’m still standing still. Then he just kind of slowly turns and walks away.

00:26:00:24 – 00:26:08:08
Speaker 3
And, you know, I was feeling pretty good in the moments I just buried a pretty good deer. And so I talked to him smack on that little buck and, you know, told him he didn’t want none of this.

00:26:08:08 – 00:26:23:20
Speaker 3
And that’s right. He just he just walked away. But as far as, you know, sent control, you know, I got up I took a scent free shower that morning. You know, I keep my clothes in a tote. You know, I, I, I wash them on a regular basis.

00:26:24:08 – 00:26:37:28
Speaker 3
But one of the things that I do and it’s it’s kind of counterintuitive is, is I use smoke as a cover scent. So I’ve got a I think got a scent smoker. It looks just like a what beekeepers use.

00:26:37:28 – 00:26:56:21
Speaker 3
Right. Um, and I put oak chips in there and I, I blow smoke all over myself as I’m getting dressed out there in the field. I, all my clothes, everything. Um, and I’ve had so many experiences like that where, and that deer was, it wasn’t much of a breeze that day, but that deer did approach from downwind

00:26:57:07 – 00:27:10:09
Speaker 3
. So they smell the smoke, but it doesn’t bother them. I mean, they they just they’re used to it. And I think especially in the fall and in the Midwest this time of year, you know, everybody’s got their their fireplaces going there, wood burners are going.

00:27:10:09 – 00:27:22:05
Speaker 3
And so I’ve been using smoke kind of as a cover since for, um, seven, eight years now. Yeah, I think it was seven, seven years ago I started using it and it’s pretty crazy, but it works.

00:27:22:13 – 00:27:34:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. Now I got to go buy a freaking wood smoker, a gadget. I need more time. Yeah. Hey, Sean, man, we’re going to let you go, man. Thank you so much for for for being part of our just second podcast.

00:27:34:23 – 00:27:50:19
Speaker 1
We really appreciate, you know, we appreciate you and your whole team over Sportsmen’s Alliance. And we would urge everybody that can hear our voice to, you know, to to join go to Sportsmen’s Alliance website, take a look around and and do what you can to support them, because I assure you, they are supporting you.

00:27:52:00 – 00:27:52:21
Speaker 2
Thanks, John, and.

00:27:52:21 – 00:27:57:16
Speaker 3
I appreciate it. Thanks, guys. You having us on and love the podcast. Keep up the good work.

00:27:57:21 – 00:27:58:04
Speaker 2
Thanks.

00:27:58:06 – 00:27:59:02
Speaker 1
Thanks, Bob. We’ll see you.

00:28:00:06 – 00:28:00:11
Speaker 3
Thank.

00:28:04:03 – 00:28:14:21
Speaker 1
Nice man that that guy is just. He. They’re salt of the earth people, man. They’re they’re really they’re really good, good people. So what else we want to talk about? We want to talk about on that.

00:28:14:21 – 00:28:22:19
Speaker 2
Was I do I know Shaun brought up his bucket list hunt is doing something out west and hunting elk and you’ve had an opportunity to go out there a couple of times.

00:28:23:04 – 00:28:32:19
Speaker 1
I have a boy and just on my own, you know, and I’ll tell you this and all that kind of tie this in with what we talked about a little bit last week about on public land. There’s a ton of public land out west.

00:28:32:25 – 00:28:46:10
Speaker 1
There’s more way more out west than in the Midwest. And we stay with the the do it yourself method man. So I’ve hunted bears twice in Idaho and I’ve hunted elk once in New Mexico.

00:28:46:18 – 00:28:47:06
Speaker 2
Any luck?

00:28:48:00 – 00:29:01:24
Speaker 1
Yeah, on two of three. So I’ll tell you, my first story was the first time I went was bear hunting in Montana. And I got hooked up with a guy kind of online and he said, Yeah, you can go out there, honey, come talk to us into it.

00:29:02:29 – 00:29:19:21
Speaker 1
So basically what we did is we we got online, we knew we got a plane that would fly us into the Bitterroot National Forest. So we literally just drove our truck. There’s no guides, no outfitters, no nothing. We drove to Missoula, Montana, and got on a plane.

00:29:19:21 – 00:29:30:24
Speaker 1
Little you know, again, we hire a pilot that’s got a plane is common out there. It’s not that big. A deal is like 150, 200 bucks a person. He flies us out to the Bitterroot and there’s a big nest or grass strip in the middle of the forest.

00:29:31:03 – 00:29:43:07
Speaker 1
And he lands and he lets us out and he says, I’ll see you in five days. And off he goes. So there’s no lodge, there’s nothing there. It’s just us and our gear and there’s a lot more that happened.

00:29:43:07 – 00:29:55:27
Speaker 1
But suffice to say, it was within 24 hours I was telling myself, Remember this feeling and never, ever come back here and do this again. It was brutal. It was was awful.

00:29:55:27 – 00:30:06:27
Speaker 2
I got to bring this up. You’ve you’ve talked about on several occasions how you think you were made to be on the TV show Naked and Afraid or Survivor. Oh, would you second guessing that thought when you were out there?

00:30:07:15 – 00:30:20:19
Speaker 1
Um, probably. Actually, I don’t even know if I remember those shows back then. It wasn’t that long ago, but it was. It was to the point where my problem was I was following somebody else’s lead. That’s the problem.

00:30:20:19 – 00:30:34:29
Speaker 1
When you do it yourself, that’s. It’s in the definition. Do it yourself, you know. So I was following somebody else’s lead and we went on an ill advised hike in the middle of the night for probably ten miles and then looked at this guy that was leading.

00:30:34:29 – 00:30:46:10
Speaker 1
And I was like, Dude, where are we? You? And he was like, I think we passed where I wanted to turn. He’d been there before. Okay, so we go through 36 hours of this and I said, All right, I’m going back to the grass strip.

00:30:46:13 – 00:31:00:17
Speaker 1
That’s exactly what we did. Me and my partner went back to the grass strip, got some water, bottled water out of the river, took a shower, literally got to my tent, slept all night, got up a breakfast and got out.

00:31:00:17 – 00:31:11:14
Speaker 1
And I said, okay, we’re on bears. I’ve never had a bears in my life. I’m gonna watch the wind. It’s pretty hot. I’m going to find water, and we’re just gonna sit there. And that day we killed a bear.

00:31:11:15 – 00:31:28:13
Speaker 1
Not a big bear is the only bear I saw. So the only bear I saw came home with us. Point being, I’d never been there. I trusted somebody else at first. Then I realized I know how to hunt and how to keep the wind in my favor and to just hike and walk and glass until you see

00:31:28:13 – 00:31:39:19
Speaker 1
what it is you’re looking for. So it ended successfully, but it was rough. A couple of years later, I was like, I’m going to go back and redo that trip on my own, on my terms and got out there.

00:31:39:19 – 00:31:49:21
Speaker 1
And as luck would have, it was 90 that week, all week, and the bears just weren’t moving and it was equally difficult. But I was calling the shots, so I was okay with it was like, I can do that.

00:31:49:21 – 00:32:06:12
Speaker 1
I can fail on my own. Yeah. The other time is excuse me over time as we went out to New Mexico and I said, do it yourself, we signed up with an out there. We used an outfitters outfitter number because when you apply for a tag in the state of New Mexico and this they’ve changed since you

00:32:06:12 – 00:32:26:14
Speaker 1
could use their number and practically guarantee yourself drawing a tag. It was me and two friends and we again, we got in a truck and we drove to New Mexico and this is nothing anybody can’t do. We went to their campsite for the outfitter part of the we paid for money, our money to use their guide, their

00:32:26:14 – 00:32:38:13
Speaker 1
outfit, our number. The other part was they would have a tent for sustaining. That’s it, you know. And so we were out there, we went on public land and three of us together, we bolted and we agreed on this and we’re going to go hunt together.

00:32:38:13 – 00:32:49:04
Speaker 1
So if we kill anything, we’ll all share in it. We all share and everything. And yeah, it’s kind of a same similar story of three days of of doing what we were being kind of told to do or go over there.

00:32:49:25 – 00:33:02:22
Speaker 1
Finally we said, Well, we know what to do. And we stopped. We started making decisions on our own. We realized we needed to be at the top of a mountain in the morning. And so we couldn’t afford to wake up and take the ATVs and drive and do all that stuff.

00:33:03:08 – 00:33:15:22
Speaker 1
So we went back to the tent, got our own sleeping bags, went back on the mountain and slept basically right at the base of this mountain, all on our own, right next to the trucks. We got up the next morning, scooted up the mountain.

00:33:16:00 – 00:33:33:10
Speaker 1
And sure enough, we were finally in front of this herd of elk. Now again, I’ve never I’ve never encountered one of the guys had. So he had a little bit more idea of what to do. And yeah, we had an elk get run off of a rub by a bigger elk and this is all happened within a

00:33:33:10 – 00:33:45:10
Speaker 1
hundred yards. And then a really good bull, if I remember it was 310, 320. I mean is a gives a good elk. He come walking right down this trail right to us. And we were spread out a little bit.

00:33:45:20 – 00:33:59:09
Speaker 1
And I kind of noticed one of my friends kind of caught with his bow at his hand or the side. And I thought, okay, I might have a shot here. They got to the point, though, where I was like, okay, if he charges, I need to know where I’m diving because he’s walking right at me.

00:33:59:09 – 00:34:13:09
Speaker 1
I had no shot about that time. Our third friend stuck him from the side and he just. He come running at me about two steps, saw me and took off. And it was just it was a phenomenal experience, something I can’t wait to do again.

00:34:13:23 – 00:34:32:15
Speaker 1
But, you know, again, this isn’t about what I’ve done. This is about what if you’re listening to my voice, what you can do. Yeah. Get in your truck. You know, that time we actually pulled a trailer, an open trailer with our ATVs into deep freezers and two generators with us just in hoping we were going to.

00:34:32:15 – 00:34:33:08
Speaker 2
Get that dude out.

00:34:33:13 – 00:34:41:22
Speaker 1
And we did. And we, you know, we we called him up, picked him up and put him in the freezer, turned the generators on and headed home. So it’s there.

00:34:41:26 – 00:34:52:02
Speaker 2
If I want to hang out west like that, obviously I could I can look at a guide or outfitting service if I want to do the backcountry stuff like you talked about with your bear hunt. Do I have to is it over the counter tags?

00:34:52:02 – 00:34:54:24
Speaker 2
Do I have to do I have to put in four points? How does that work out there?

00:34:54:25 – 00:35:07:20
Speaker 1
Well, it’s a different it’s different states, all state by state. So different species like bears out west are like coyotes are here in the Midwest. I mean, they’re like they’re everywhere. The tag a tag for a bear is less than $100.

00:35:07:23 – 00:35:23:08
Speaker 1
It was in New Mexico and a second bear is 35 bucks. So they’re they’re literally they’re easy. Again, that was in New Mexico and that was all over the counter. Things have changed. I know, but but no, just check whatever state you’re looking to go to and see what you can afford.

00:35:23:18 – 00:35:29:27
Speaker 1
You buy the tag and drive out there and hunt them. It’s there for you. It really is.

00:35:30:03 – 00:35:34:01
Speaker 2
You said you want to do it again. What’s what’s your bucket list? Hunt. Now.

00:35:36:01 – 00:35:50:12
Speaker 1
What’s a bucket list? That’s a good one. I know this. I must tell you two things. Probably. Probably a big elk, but I kill it this time. Not a friend, wouldn’t you? You don’t kill it, but you get to pack it out.

00:35:50:12 – 00:36:02:12
Speaker 1
That’s kind of the short straw. But you know, whenever it was pretty cool, I would love to go to Yellowstone. I want to be in the presence of a grizzly bear, the real prey. I want to be within 100 yards.

00:36:02:17 – 00:36:07:24
Speaker 1
And, you know. Yeah, I would mind. I’d love to take a big grizzly. Well, too.

00:36:07:24 – 00:36:09:17
Speaker 2
Scary for me, man. I don’t know about that.

00:36:09:17 – 00:36:24:09
Speaker 1
I mean, that’s what I mean. That’s what makes that to me pretty impressive. But, I mean, I’ve got all of them elk, goats. Mule deer. You know, in all honesty, a big, mature mule deer spotting stalk with my bow is probably the bucket list.

00:36:24:12 – 00:36:26:11
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’ll be too cool.

00:36:26:13 – 00:36:38:05
Speaker 2
Nice. Yeah. I think this was a like you said earlier, it’s almost like a second date. The first one went well, and we decided to do it again. Um, that is all due to the guy sitting behind the camera.

00:36:38:05 – 00:36:48:26
Speaker 2
That’s producer and that’s Connor. These guys, you know, we had a lot of expectations. When we do things here, we don’t want it to be like you say, we don’t want it to be a really good homemade thing.

00:36:49:00 – 00:37:02:19
Speaker 2
Right? We want it to be professional. We want it to be at a standard where people will respect it. And I’m just so happy with the way the first one went and I’m actually more excited, looking more forward to making more of these episodes.

00:37:02:19 – 00:37:15:09
Speaker 2
So I just wanted to shout out these guys because I didn’t get a chance to do it last week. But you know, I think having Shaun on and talking about what the Sportsmen’s Alliance does and and what they’re doing to represent us as hunters is so important.

00:37:15:17 – 00:37:24:09
Speaker 2
And like you said, if you can find them online, support what they’re doing because they are supporting you. That’s that’s what I would encourage everyone listen to this to do.

00:37:24:26 – 00:37:36:09
Speaker 1
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let’s wrap up here real quick. Yeah, I do want to mention the American Hunting Podcast is brought to you by the American Hunting Lease Association. Everything you need to enjoy a safe, successful hunting lease all in one place.

00:37:36:09 – 00:37:49:09
Speaker 1
That’s it. A hunting list dot org resources like the secret to hunting private land and the front porch kit, both free to download to time tested lease agreements and of course the most affordable hunting lease liability insurance policy you will find.

00:37:49:20 – 00:38:02:04
Speaker 1
Protect your landowner and yourself with the HLA complete risk management package. And again you find all that at WW w dot a hunting lease dawg. Now from old guy to young guy, do I need to say w ww anymore?

00:38:02:08 – 00:38:02:24
Speaker 2
I wouldn’t.

00:38:03:14 – 00:38:07:10
Speaker 1
Know. Nobody out there being like I thought it was y y y it’s it’s I’m just.

00:38:07:10 – 00:38:18:28
Speaker 2
Happy you threw the third w in there. I hear a lot of people say ww dot and that’s just not right but no a hunting list dot org. You can find everything there. Find us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

00:38:19:04 – 00:38:26:15
Speaker 2
These guys will link it in the description. Go give us a like support this podcast, help us to create this content. And that’s all I got.

00:38:26:24 – 00:38:39:09
Speaker 1
Absolutely. And it is Halloween as we talk. It’s raining cats and dogs, but that’s okay. It’s going to break any time soon. So good luck this this week until we see you again. Another podcast and as always on Safe You.