The Bowtreader Podcast
Welcome to the Bowtreader Podcast - a journey where bowhunting, brotherhood, and faith come together. Each week, we dive into the heart of the hunt, exploring the lessons learned in the wild and the deeper truths that shape our lives. From chasing game to chasing purpose, we reflect on how faith in Jesus leads us through every season—both in the field and in life.
Join us as we share stories of brotherhood forged through the bowstring, real-life challenges, and the power of community, faith, and perseverance. Whether you're a seasoned bowhunter, a believer, or someone seeking to grow in your journey, this podcast is a place to find strength, wisdom, and inspiration. Together, we'll discover what it means to walk with purpose and a steady aim, no matter what life throws our way.
The Bowtreader Podcast
Ep. 30 - Our Evolution in Saddle Hunting & Easter Reflections
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The journey from traditional tree stands to modern saddle hunting reveals more than just gear evolution—it highlights our quest for silence, mobility, and effectiveness in the woods. In this gear-focused episode, we unpack the critical differences between hunters who carry everything but the kitchen sink versus those who embrace minimalist setups.
Saddle hunting has revolutionized bow hunting for many, ourselves included, but not without significant learning curves and occasional embarrassing moments. We candidly share stories of getting stuck in trees, forgotten equipment, and the surprisingly steep learning process of one-stick climbing techniques. The consensus? While your first attempts might be discouraging (and potentially humiliating), perseverance pays off with a hunting system that offers unmatched flexibility and stealth.
For southern hunters especially, managing heat is a constant battle. Most hunting clothing companies design for conditions under 72 degrees, leaving those hunting in 90+ degree temperatures searching for specialized solutions. We discuss how ventilated materials, strategic packing choices, and careful accessory selection can make the difference between comfort and misery during early season hunts.
This episode also takes a meaningful turn as we reflect on Holy Week and the significance of Jesus's crucifixion. We explore how the sacrifice made over 2,000 years ago connects to Genesis through a "red thread" of sacrifice, and why Good Friday represents more than just a historical event—it's the moment that bridges humanity's separation from God. The foundation of our faith shapes how we approach hunting, business, and relationships, creating purpose beyond the pursuit itself.
Whether you're considering upgrading your saddle system, curious about one-stick climbing methods, or simply interested in the intersection of faith and your daily life, this conversation offers honest perspectives from hunters still refining their own approaches. What accessories can't you hunt without? How does your faith influence you? Join us as we tackle these questions and more.
Thanks for joining us on The Bowtreader Podcast. Leave a comment to let us know where you are listening from as well as any topics that you would like to hear us cover. Be sure to like the episode and subscribe to follow along.
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Opening Banter and Prayer
Speaker 1I'll just go ahead and hit it.
Speaker 2It's got 500 gig cards in those cameras.
Speaker 3And now we can start. There you go, perfect.
Speaker 2Something turned red up there for a second. I think it was the record button. No, are you number one? I think it was too loud on there, so it blocked it out. It was probably the master energy this right here turned red on there, so it blocked it out.
Speaker 1It was probably that this right here turned red.
Speaker 2No, the actual number one turned red. Yeah, that's why it was too loud for it, so it canceled it. Dang Perfect, it got canceled, fart I feel like Trump. Whatever, alright, we'll get rolling. We've got a slow start today, whatever all right, yeah, we're dragging.
Speaker 3We got to pep it up. Get come on past that monster, drink around.
Speaker 2We need some of that let's go, let's go, let's get this thing going so we're recording on monday this week, so it's uh monday april 14th, uh, the start or the first kind of like working day and holy week, um, so this episode will actually drop tomorrow on the 15th and um yeah so it's a big week in in our lives for sure.
Speaker 2So, all right, let's pray together and we'll we'll officially get started. How about that? Father, we love you and we thank you so much for the opportunity to come together. We thank you, lord, for what you did for us all those years ago by offering Jesus for sacrifice for our sins, and just the way that it completely changed the trajectory of the entire world. God, we know that your will is that none would perish trajectory of the entire world. God, we know that your will is that none would perish, but that all would come to saving, grace and relationship with you through Jesus Christ. So, as we talk today and as we go through things, lord, we want to bring honor and glory to you In the name of Jesus. We pray Amen, amen, all right, so we're going to talk about gear a little bit.
Speaker 2You know, I know it's april and nobody's thinking about gear right now, um, but it's something that we need to be thinking about. You know, while we've got time to go through and look at trying different things. Going into your bow shop or going into your sporting goods store and, uh, hopefully, bow treader and trying some stuff out, trying out some different saddles, looking at some different packs, stuff like that, looking at your current setup and thinking back on those moments when you were hunting last season and you know, perhaps, things that you could change or you know you want to look at, at least evaluating, you know, before we got started. Dub was talking about the pack that I carry.
Speaker 1It's a 38. It's a mystery ranch tree house 38. Yeah, Full.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's, it's I. I've got a sickness man. That's all I can say Like for dad's like hold up.
Speaker 1How much hunting gear do I have?
Speaker 2yeah, let's fit it all in here. Let's just put it. Let's just put everything you know. See, I'm always ready, you know, I mean from a, from a rain suit to a, to a jacket. That would be good for, you know, 20 degrees or below his pack.
Speaker 1Like it, it's bad, like his pack. From opening day down here in georgia to when we were up in illinois did not change yeah nothing changed I don't know.
Speaker 2I don't know why I do that. I think, all right. I think I do it because that way I know where everything is. Yeah right, I'm not having to worry about, oh, is that? You know where did I put that jacket or where did I put that shirt or anything like that. I'm not having to worry about, you know, getting any kind of odors on it or anything from it just hanging up in the house or being in a being in a tote or something like that. So I think that's part of it. That's like my turkey vest. You know, I don't carry a whole lot of stuff with me when I go turkey hunting, but I use my vest to store everything yeah like, I'll set my vest up and then that's where everything stays.
Speaker 2I never take it out yeah um, you know.
Speaker 3So in doing that, you know it creates some simplicity for me and I'm not having to deal with it but yeah, it means my pack is pretty heavy and for years I didn't even take a pack, right, I didn't take anything.
Speaker 2You know what I mean. I'd have my saddle Well before I saddle hunted. You know, I'd just go out. I didn't use a climber a whole lot, I'd use a walk-on or a ladder stand or a blind. Or a blind.
Speaker 1Old man hunting, as he calls it. I love it. I mean, you get in the right spot. It's fine when you're not using a heater, when you use a heater.
Speaker 2It becomes old man hunting. Yeah, when it gets cold and you turn that little buddy heater on man you gotta fight it sometimes, yeah I don't know man I don't you wake up at lunchtime?
Speaker 1yeah, I've never been a fan of blind hunting like I had a case this season where I had I was covered up in deer and it was like last five minutes of shooting light and they were just like. I had a deer probably walk 10 yards from the blind but I couldn't shoot her because I couldn't move up to get the window open.
Speaker 2Oh yeah yeah, you got to open that thing up and then Black your face out and everything black shirt and shorts.
Speaker 1No, it was cold.
Speaker 2No, no, no, no, no it was cold, but anyway yeah, so we'll talk through that a little bit, All right. So I sorted it out and said I have a problem. I have a sickness. I guess where I will take way more stuff than I need.
Speaker 3That's the first step to overcoming is admitting.
Speaker 2And acknowledging that you have a problem and that just started this past season. Yeah, Because I got that pack this past season and you were like wow, I can fit everything in here.
Speaker 1I can fit everything in here. You need to get a Jet Boy in there and start making coffee.
Speaker 3You just pull out a toaster oven.
Speaker 1I was like man, I'm getting a little hungry. He's got a convection oven.
Speaker 3He's over there making some cheese toast.
Speaker 2Yeah, not here. It would be an AC unit.
Speaker 3Yeah, for real, that's what we would need.
Speaker 2So you know usually we're looking at how can we, you know, be pretty minimalistic with what we're taking with us when we're going hunting and that's how I've always been in the past. So what about you guys? What about you, Brandon? What are you?
Speaker 3taking with you when you get out.
Speaker 2First off are you saddle hunting, climber hunting, lock on. What are you doing primarily?
Speaker 3Saddle hunting for deer, for sure. That's 95% of what I do. Every now and then I might hunt out of a lock on or something. If there's a place that I know I'm gonna hunt a lot, I may put a lock on just for ease. I would like to hunt out of lock ons more early season just because of heat. Um and so for me, when I'm hunting, I carry literally the minimal that I can carry. One reason for me in that is just by nature I sweat a lot, like I don't have to do hardly anything and I start sweating. And so if I'm carrying a backpack and I'm carrying them, it's even just that it's against my body, it's going to make me hotter, make me sweat.
Speaker 3It's not just carrying the weight, it's just the extra layer that's touching my body. So I'm constantly looking for clothing that breathes better. I'm constantly trying to figure out how can I get lighter, how can I, you know, just make it as efficient as I can, just for that reason, turkey hunting, I do the same thing, especially trying to video hunts and stuff like that. I've been working all season trying to figure out the most efficient way to carry a camera, gopro, um, gun vest. You get all this stuff in there and you're carrying all of it. So it's a constant thing for me of trying to figure out how can I be the most efficient I can be, you know, but still have what I need when I when I'm there.
Speaker 3And but turkey hunting, the good thing for me is you don't have to worry about the scent, and so, um, but then bow hunting is obviously very different. It's funny too. I'm walking through the turkey woods and I'm noticing the wind direction, you know. But I'm like, well, they can't smell it, so, um, but it's just, I guess, a habit.
Speaker 1But and it's not that wind direction or like wind doesn't matter for turkey hunting I think it does like it can play a part in it. I mean I'm talking like I've killed 50 turkeys, but um, I mean, if it's blowing like blowing, blowing like 20 miles an hour plus, I mean stay in the house. Those I mean. If you're a turkey hunting and it's windy, I mean, I think you'd try to get in a bottom where the wind isn't blowing and you'd probably find a turkey. Yeah, I mean yeah.
Speaker 3And some people will say that when it's windy and stuff like that, they like to be in open areas, so like an open Creek bottom, maybe, maybe, but even a field or something like that, where, because you know, you think about it, they're not. If it's windy, everything's moving around them, even their hearing, that kind of thing is going to be um more disrupted. And so being in areas that are open, I think, probably gives them a sense of security, because their best attribute, their best sense, is eyesight, so being able to use that. But I don't know, man, I read one thing and it says one something. I read the next thing and it says the other, and the worst thing to do is ever get on a forum where people are discussing this stuff because it's like all it all it ends up becoming is like name calling, like you know.
Speaker 3It's like turkey hunter 08. You're an idiot, you know, and then it's like you know, it just gets stupid. But so everybody's kind of got their own opinion about that stuff too. Yeah, when you get on those, forum threads.
Saddle Hunting Benefits and Techniques
Speaker 2Man, you get those keyboard warriors that have a fake name, so you don't know who it is yeah. And it gets out of control pretty quick is what I've noticed. I don't even get on.
Speaker 1The only forum I get on is archie talk yeah, but yeah, for me it's.
Speaker 3So it's just trying to be as light as I can with everything. Um, we talked about this a week or two ago. But I do walk a lot turkey hunting especially in the afternoons. So I don't know how how I walked yesterday, even afternoon. I mean it was a lot, and so just being light for me is always the goal. I'm like you To me when you said you know now's the time to be kind of tweaking things. I'm constantly tweaking what I'm doing, trying to find the best way to accomplish what I need to accomplish. So not just going well, this is hard, but I'm just going to do it but figuring out OK, how can I make this better, how can I improve the system that I'm using so that I can have a better chance of success?
Speaker 2It's great to do it this time of year because you've got the, you've got the time If you want to try something out, you know, I mean obviously you just walk out in your yard or something.
Speaker 3You got a tree out there and go hop in the tree.
Speaker 2It's not like you've got to get 20 feet up and do this.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, that's right and see.
Speaker 2See what changes. You know, shoot your if you've never used a bino harness before. Hop in your saddle, hop, you know, hop on three and shoot your bow with the, with the bino harness on and see what it feels like and we were talking about before we started.
Speaker 3Um, I've just had that. It's a little bit challenging to one stick with a bino harness because you're kind of leaning over and it's hitting. You know um everything and so that's something that I have actually tried to carry that in my my pouch on my saddle, because it's just aggravating to try to climb with yeah, even climbing anything like a log on to get stuck on the sticks.
Speaker 1Yeah, it just gets in just gets in the way I won't use a vinyl harness, like I'll leave my vinyl harness at home, I'll just grab my binoculars and range finder out of there. Yeah, put them in my pack. When it's above like 50 degrees, yeah, cause right there it just gets so hot, it gets hot.
Speaker 3It's another thing against your body that's going to cause heat, and it's Bionthornis I use.
Speaker 1It's a Badlands Bionthornis. It's really well ventilated, yeah, but I just can't do it. It gets me so hot, so quick yeah.
Speaker 2I used to have. This is years ago, probably three or four years ago I had the Fanatic Pack from Sitka. Yeah, that thing was like strapping, it was so. The Fanatic material is. This is like this. You know real thick, furry looking stuff. Yeah, it's great, you know, if it's cold I don't have one, but man, that pack, it was miserable, I mean it's the only way I could describe it.
Speaker 2Oh it's. It's a hundred percent quiet. It doesn't have any kind of metal buckles on it or anything like that, no zippers or anything. Everything is a um, like a, like a hook style closure or whatever it's like putting a buddy heater man on your back.
Speaker 3It was so hot and we've talked about this not on the podcast but just in side conversations that there's just not a lot of companies that focus on making clothing packs, things like that for our area. Right, if you look at almost every major, you know um manufacturer of hunting clothing and gear, most of their stuff very, very little of it is geared and usually will say 72 and above. You know, and I'm looking, I'm thinking like what about 92 and above?
Speaker 2Yeah, that's what I need.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know um one of my favorite pieces of clothing, or like set of clothing, is a badlands. I think is it, and here it's amazing. That's what I killed my buck in when I was like it's amazing.
Speaker 2It's got holes everywhere, it's perforated everywhere.
Speaker 1It's like you're basically wearing nothing, and it's just pretty nice.
Speaker 3Yeah. Going without anything that would be rough in briars.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, you should try that that would be weird.
Speaker 1You could spray paint yourself.
Speaker 3You might also get arrested for that. Yeah, it would take a lot of face paint to camo yourself up like that. Probably not going for that. Yeah, so it'd take a lot of face paint to camo yourself up like that.
Speaker 2You know so probably not gonna try that, you know. So it's a good idea. Let's just not do that. So, dub, what are you taking like when you go, when you go the woods to go hunting?
Speaker 1I'm taking white tail hunting mystery ranch treehouse 20 okay, what is that?
Speaker 2is that little fanny pack thing? No, that's the nine.
Speaker 1I'll use the nine when I'm blind hunting.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Because, which is rare, yeah.
Speaker 1But I'll set it down because it's got like two cup holders in it and then I can open it up and it just stays open. I can just like range drop it really easy, really really easy. But when I'm deer hunting, the coolest thing about this pack is it has a strap on it. I don't have to screw in two hangers. Yeah, I just strap it to the tree. I have a whole routine, yeah, same every time get up, strap my pack down, screw my bow hanger, pull up my bow, hang it up, pull it up in a pouch release, clip it on or whatever release I'm using. Either strap it to my wrist or clip it on, open the pack ready to go.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I think what you said too. You do it every time the same way. I think that's really important and getting it where I'm unpacking, the way I unpack, unpack, I pack it back the opposite.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, so that every time I've got what I'm pulling out first ready the only time that I won't like reorganize my pack, like as I'm taking everything down, is when I got deer on the ground. Yeah, I'm just like I'll do this later. I'll throw everything in the pack, let me get down, let me go find this deer. Yeah, like, after I killed that deer, it took me 30 minutes to untangle my ropes.
Speaker 1Yeah, I was like do, I do, I have everything, my saddle still in the woods, I don't even know so what is the pack that you're carrying?
Speaker 2mystery ranch tree treehouse 20 so that's the that there right.
Speaker 1Yeah, but it's perfect.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1It's perfect.
Speaker 2So when we look at the different ways that we're hunting, we're all saddle hunting at this point. I know you and I are one sticking. Are you one sticking? Yes, Okay, so we're all. So we've all gone all the way with doing the whole thing. Why did that happen? Like what caused us to get to that point. I know why I got there.
Speaker 1I tried using sticks and I'm like man, I don't have the IQ for this. So I got a one stick and I was like, wow, this is amazing.
Speaker 3One's easier than three.
Speaker 1Yeah, now I still have a set of one sticks by tethered. Yeah, fun story behind that, but um you tell the story.
Speaker 2Go ahead, tell us. Yeah, tell the story okay, so but you got to talk to the microphone, not to me, sorry, so this is back at our 301 location.
Speaker 1Yeah, guy comes in, no idea who he is. He has a lift um, or was it a phase four?
Speaker 2it was a lit, no it was a phase four, yeah um, he's like I just want to get this set up.
Speaker 1I was like, all right, but before you got it set up, he was talking to me about you got to talk to the microphone and talk to the mic.
Speaker 2I'm telling you listen to the podcast. You're not talking to the microphone. Yeah, I mean, you can do that if you must anyway.
Speaker 1Um, he's talking to me about saddle hunting. He's like why should I get into saddle hunting? Because I mean just so curious about it. So I told him everything and I talked about he's asking about tethered stuff. So I talked about the pros and cons of the one sticks. He was asking about the one sticks and the predator platform and I was like predator platform is pretty okay. Like it's not my favorite, I'd get an XOP platform and then the one sticks. They've had problems with them. Back when I first came out with them, they'd come apart because it's titanium. So they didn't really figure out the bonding process at that point. And then, well, dad was gone. He comes back. I'm working on the guy's bow. He's out looking at whatever he was out.
Speaker 2He was on the phone. On the phone, yeah, and dad comes in he was on the phone.
Speaker 1On the phone, yeah, and dad comes in. He's like, hey, are you helping that guy? I was like, yeah, he's like you know who, that is right.
Speaker 2I was like no, I just said how's it going and you were like good, and I said okay, and then, yeah, I asked you if you knew who it was.
Speaker 1Do you know who that is? I was like he owns Tethered.
Speaker 2Yeah, and. Wes's face he just got white as a ghost, yeah, and his eyes got really big and Wes was, he was 15?
Speaker 114.
Speaker 2No, you would have been 15.
Speaker 3I would have been 14. So he was basically doing some product research.
Speaker 1You would have gone to look at this building.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was looking at this building that we're in right now, so I might have been 15. Yeah, I think you were 15. No, you were 14. Yeah, you were 14.
Speaker 1Let me tell you real quick Hold up. Anyway, you know, and he freaks out, he's like oh yeah, it was a couple days after my birthday.
Speaker 2Yeah, so he gets this terrified. Look on his face and I said what's wrong? He said I just told him that his platform was a piece of crap. I said dude, that's fine. I said listen, you've given him information that nobody will give to him because they're always blowing smoke up his butt. That's right. I said you just told him flat out what was what.
Speaker 3Yeah, you told him what he needed.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah. So anyway, wes continued to work with him. He got off the phone and I went out and talked to him for a minute and, um, I had to come back over here or something, so I had to leave and wes continued working with him. I got back over there before he left and we talked a little bit and then, like three or four weeks later, it was here.
Speaker 1I think it was in october. It was here yeah I had almost completely forgot about it, and then, all of a sudden, a package shows up for me like what is this? It's a pack of tethered one sticks.
Speaker 2Oh, a four pack of tethered one sticks yeah, yeah, so so greg had sent those to him. So that was. That was pretty cool yeah, that was cool but yeah, that's but, yeah, that was a lot of fun to go through and and set his bow up for him and everything yeah, I know you enjoyed talking with him and everything yeah, he's cool but, he's a cool dude.
Speaker 2but yeah, I mean, like I've, I tell you guys all the time you know you never know who you're working with. Yeah, you know, you may have a guy come in here that looks like he doesn't have two nickels to rub together and in reality he's a billionaire. We have one customer in particular who is a billionaire. He's a billionaire, yeah, and then you'll have some that will come in that you know um, look and act like you know um, whatever you know like they got it all figured out and and and and.
Speaker 2They have no idea what they're doing. Yeah, so I mean, it's um, it's, it's very important that, that we just treat everybody the same.
Speaker 3And you know, you didn't, you weren't derogatory about anything, you just shared you just gave an honest opinion and I'm sure that's what he would want. Well, that's what he asked.
Speaker 2He said give me your opinion, why should I saddle hunt? So Wes kind of went through all that for him, but anyway. So tell us why you saddle hunt. And specifically, you already kind of told us why you one stick, but why do you saddle hunt instead of something else?
Speaker 1Well, I feel like I get really hot as well. Brandon and I have a ventilated saddle, so everything just cools me off. When I get up there and that's really nice um, like it could be 20 degrees outside, I'll take my phone out my pocket to text dad that I'm set and it'll be covered in sweat yeah yeah, but it's just easy. Yeah, like again I have a system down, yeah, and I can get in one sticking. I can get wherever I want, right, with four sticks.
Speaker 1That's hard well, you can climb a tree that you couldn't climb even with sticks yeah, that's true like I got in a tree um sometime in november that I there's no way I could get in with four sticks. I actually tried to get in with four sticks. I had those things spaced like that far apart and I was like, eh, to try to get up where I was in my one stick. I just couldn't do it. I think it's faster as well. Faster, lighter easier. It won't be when you first start, because there is a learning curve.
Speaker 3Oh I, was slow as dirt when I first started. Once you, once you figure it out, it is actually you can go up a tree really quick.
Speaker 1So yeah, I, um, when I killed that deer, the buck, I shot up that tree and, like you saw me, I was like 18 feet five minutes, yeah. Well, I mean, not even from when I saw that tree, I was like that one, and when I text dad, I think it was like 10 minutes yeah I mean it was yeah, quick yeah, and and that's one thing I would say the first time I ever saddle hunted, I was using sticks.
Speaker 1It was one of the most miserable experiences I've ever had one of my most memorable hunting experiences was the first time I hunted in a saddle.
Speaker 3I was like I'll never do this again yeah, and I remember doing it and I was like the first and then the second time it was still kind of rough and I was ready. I really wanted to give up on it because I was like this is awful, and but then I started thinking I like there are people who sit in these things all day, so it can't be the saddle, it's got to be something I'm doing. And so I just kept working with it, watching videos, asking people. I came in over at 301, picked people's brains about it and after a while, you know you figure it out.
Speaker 3But if you base, it off of your first one or two times. You're probably not going to stick with it.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I feel like it's different for everybody. Like I've talked to people, they won't go if they don't have knee pads.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1I won't use them. Yeah, I can't.
Speaker 3I wear them. But you know what's funny is I find myself standing most of the time. Can't I wear them? But you know what's funny is. I find myself standing most of the time I don't, I just lean back and I'm perfectly comfortable yeah, and I don't care about my camo.
Speaker 1I know that's why some people use them is because when they lean up against the tree with their knees it like, like it hurts their camo. But I'm like, if your camo can't hold up to some tree bark, yeah, I don't just buy badlands it's got an unconditional lifetime warranty.
Speaker 2Buy it and use the crap out of it and if it tears up, send it back to them and they'll fix it or send you a new one.
Speaker 1Yeah, I just had to send a couple pairs of pants back. This one stick tried to kill me.
Speaker 2Well, that was completely my fault. Yeah, that wasn't the fault of the stick by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 1I think I had a couple bruised ribs from that.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, it got you. So, brenny, what about you? Why did you get into it? Why did you make the the switch to saddle hunting?
Speaker 3well, the switch to saddle hunting was two things. One was it was lighter than carrying a climber somewhere, um, maybe three it's quieter, a lot more quiet than carrying a climber somewhere, and I've always wanted to hunt mobile, um. And then the third thing was just the the ease of it. It was just I wasn't carrying as much stuff. You know, it's lighter, quiet, more quiet and I could hunt pretty much anywhere I wanted to hunt, and so you just can't climb certain trees with a climber. I mean, it's impossible.
Speaker 3And so with that it gave me so much more flexibility that I could just throw this on at the truck and go, and that was the main reason for me and again, getting it as light and efficient as I possibly could get it and that's actually why I started one-sticking as well is because it was less to carry. I didn't have to worry about strapping two or three sticks to my pack that I would have to carry if I was using sticks. And so I got I actually gave those to my son who was interested in it and I was like here, try it and you got, you can use these sticks. I got one stick and started using that.
Speaker 3A friend of mine kind of helped me with some of the learning curve and so you know it's trial and error. The one thing I would tell people, especially about one sticking, if you're interested in that, is don't be afraid of it. Like because for me the one thing because I saddle hunted three or four years before I ever decided to try one sticking and for me the thing that kept me from trying it was it just felt like it was overwhelming. It felt a little bit overwhelming to have to figure out all the how do I not just climb with one stick, because that doesn't even seem to make sense, but then, like, then I'm rappelling out of the tree, which actually ends up being the funnest part.
Speaker 1Oh heck, yeah oh yeah, you shoot down that tree.
Speaker 3Yeah, and so yeah, you, you know you, you in the first couple of times you do it, you're like banging around up against swinging into the tree. But then you figure it out and but just don't be afraid of it. Just get with somebody that does it or watch YouTube videos of people who are doing it. You're going to get different opinions about the right way. You just have to keep trying until you figure out the best way for you and um, and once I did that, you know I really liked it and it's just something that I don't see myself going back to a climber or anything like that. Like I said, I'll hunt out of a hang on, um. To me, actually, bow hunting out of a hang on is maybe the easiest way to hunt, just because you've got so much freedom of movement. There's nothing there to keep you moving?
Speaker 1Yeah, and what I do, one of my favorite things to do is actually put my feet on the seat of a lock on and saddle hunt like that, and if I get tired or I want to face the other way, just sit down.
Speaker 3Yeah, and, and a lot of times I'll do that where I'll wear my saddle into the lock on and use my, use a tether or something as my, my safety.
Speaker 1Yeah, I don't even think I put my safety harness on this year. I think I just used my saddle.
Speaker 3That's what I did too, so too.
Speaker 1So much more comfortable because you don't have anything up here, right. So, and a safety harness, it's gonna catch you.
Speaker 2It ain't gonna feel good it ain't gonna be comfortable yeah, that's not gonna feel good yep, it's gonna put some of your family members in peril. And uh, you know, you're not gonna, you're not gonna, um, you're not gonna have the effects of falling 20 feet. I had a friend of mine that spent a career in emergency medicine and he told me one day we were here in the shop talking he's a bow hunter and that's how I've gotten to know him and he told me one day he said, john, nothing good happens when a man falls 20 feet. Oh gosh, nothing good.
Speaker 1Could you imagine falling 20 feet and hitting a cypress knee? I don't want to think about it.
Speaker 2I don't want to trip and fall on a cypress knee. Been there, done that. It doesn't feel good.
Speaker 1Yes, I can't imagine If you're looking into getting a one-stick and using it, practice, practice, practice, because the first time I ever hunted with a one stick I got stuck and superman here had to come save me superman. Now I'm superman, yeah yeah, don't well, I actually shot at a deer when I was stuck. I was hanging there and I was like, oh shoot, I pulled on my bow. I was like yeah, well like a 40 pound doe.
Speaker 3I was so mad about it too, though, is saddle hunting, to me, is the safest way you can hunt yeah, you're always do it the right way.
Speaker 3Yes, if you're doing everything correctly, you're always tied in yeah, that's right, you know, and and um, just really, like you said, practice. You know, if you're using sticks, you always either have your lineman's rope or your tether around the tree. Um, you're going around a limb, just take the time to go ahead and put your tether around there before you move your lineman's rope and those kind of things. And you're not. You might get skin up, but you're not gonna not fall, not gonna fall.
Speaker 1Yeah, you're not gonna fall okay, I want to ask y'all this, because I know what is y'all's favorite piece of accessory that you don't necessarily need to hunt, but you won't go without it what's yours Dad?
Speaker 2Could you repeat the question?
Essential Hunting Accessories
Speaker 1Okay, what is something that you use that you don't need to hunt, but you really don't want to go to the woods without it attached to your gear or in your pack, on your body, whatever, maybe clothing, whatever. Mine is steel strips.
Speaker 2Steel strips Dude.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's not mine, that's the biggest thing I've ever done is just coat everything in stealth strips.
Speaker 2I'd say mine from a saddle hunting standpoint is the recliner, the back belt?
Speaker 1Yeah, I could see why because you've fallen asleep like that before. Dude heck, yeah, I can't do it. I don't like that coming right here.
Speaker 2It's awesome. You get that thing right where it needs to be and you're able to support your back. If you want to lean back a little bit more, you just let the straps out. If you want to tie yourself up tight to the tree, that's when I'll stick my knees into the tree and I'll pull myself tight. You just sit there. It's changing where your pressure points are when you do that yeah, um, let me start this story by don't do this.
Speaker 1Um, but one time this year I unhooked my leg straps yeah, and I pulled my saddle up to like here yeah that was comfy. It was still on my my butt but because my saddle it expands the one I use, it was like up here. It was pretty nice but it wasn't like two pieces, like two ropes.
Speaker 3I just don't like that. Well, yeah, I mean and I've used the recliner some too I keep it usually, keep it in my pack. And if I'm going to be there for a long time. I usually use it.
Speaker 1I mean because it's not hard to use.
Speaker 3It's not like it takes 20 minutes to put it together. It's more of a thing that you just throw it on there and then it does help support your back if you're going to be sitting.
Speaker 2And then, whenever you're going to shoot or whatever, you just sit up and it falls straight down. Yeah, and it's completely out of the way. Yeah, so that that's the one piece that that I would. I say that I like to have with me, because if I'm going hunting I usually go for a while yeah I usually don't do I usually don't do the quick. You know one hour hunts. That much anymore.
Speaker 2Yeah, I used to, but just yeah I mean, you're killing so many does and stuff that I don't need to go and try to get. You know, just go get some meat, um, you know. So I'm going where I know something is there and I'm trying to slip in. I feel like they're not moving, you know, which means instead of sitting for 90 minutes, I'm sitting for, like you know, 290 or something.
Speaker 2Yeah, so just changing, changing that up a little bit. So I'm, so I'm, I'm looking at comfort a little bit more and I think that's one of those things that you know we act like being comfortable doesn't matter that much, like I can just be tough and I can get through it, or whatever. You know, when you look at stuff that the military does, they're trying to do things to make our soldiers comfortable so they can be, you know, able to execute the task at hand. You know, whatever it is that they're supposed to be doing, they, they try to do all these things to make make sure that the people are comfortable.
Speaker 3So when? When it is that they're supposed to be doing, they?
Speaker 2try to do all these things to make make sure that the people are comfortable.
Speaker 3So when, when the time comes, you know you're not fatigued because you're. You've been sitting out there being uncomfortable all the time, so you're hunting. You know, if you're uncomfortable you're gonna be moving more, um, you know. So I think that is important to, I mean, not be miserable, and you're gonna enjoy it more.
Speaker 3You know I love to go and sit for extended periods of time just because I enjoy being in the woods yeah and so, but I don't want to be miserable the whole time I'm doing it, um, so I think it is definitely something to figure out. How you're comfortable, even how do you adjust your bridge on your saddle so that it doesn't pinch on your hips? How do you, you know what? Where are you most comfortable? Um, you know, standing more upright with you know? Or leaning further back, sitting with your knees against the tree, like? What are you more comfortable doing? Just figuring, and everybody's different. Everybody's pack's going to be different. It's, it's, it's all going to be personalized, which is one of the fun things about it is personalizing it to what you like and what you need and what you feel like gives you the best chance of success.
Speaker 2Yeah for sure. So the reason I got into saddle hunting number one was because it was becoming increasingly more popular and you know we were starting to carry the stuff in the shop. So I like to use what we sell and figure out so I know how to tell people about it and advise people on what to do, why they want to do something and all that kind of stuff. And I knew Wes was going to want to start saddle hunting. So up until he was 14 it was ladder or blind. Only that was it. That was the only way he could hunt or lock on it was pretty rare.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, you could go on a lock on if I was with you, right? But if you were going to go by yourself, you go to a ladder or you can go to a blind up until you were 14 okay, I was about to say.
Speaker 2I sorry anyway, and then, um, and then we started making that transition. I started hunting with a with a saddle that year, so he'll be 17 this year. So this is three, three years ago. No, I started hunting with a saddle the year before yeah, you started a year before I did um, I started hunting with a saddle 2020.
Speaker 2This'll be my fifth season with a saddle, yeah, um, so a couple of years before we let Wes start hunting with a saddle. And so the reason I got into it was because, you know, it was kind of like a research project for me to learn what it was, what it was like, how to use it, what was comfortable, what wasn't. Um, how safe was it? You know, is this something I'm gonna trust my son to be able to do? And I, I learned pretty quickly. Number one, just like you said, it's probably the safest way to be in a tree. Yeah, I'm, I'm convinced of that. It is absolutely the safest way to be in a tree. And then, number two, it is extremely quiet.
Speaker 2I didn't realize how many deer I was not seeing because of noise, and that was something that I learned really quickly. You know, because, from season to season, yeah, travel patterns can change a little bit, and and and grouping can change up a little bit, and your herd and what travels together and all that kind of stuff, there can be some some little changes that happen, but they're not drastic, you know, and I would go to very similar spots that I had hunted before. And you know, let's say, I would see on any given hunt, um hunting from a ladder stand or something that when you're climbing it it's usually know making popping sounds and stuff like that I'd go from seeing, you know, let's say, seven deer on average, meaning sometimes I'd see five, sometimes I'd see 12, right, so seven deer on average to go into that same general area and seeing 20 deer.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know. Yeah, I hunted this year the most deer I saw in a hunt.
Speaker 2I think I saw 25 deer yeah and a lot gone yeah, yeah, so that that was one of the biggest things that I saw. So it was never it was never uh an idea about, okay, I want to go really light, or, um, I'm doing this because I want to be more mobile. Now, both of those have been benefits to it. You know, obviously it's a whole lot lighter way to get in the woods, it's obviously a lot more mobile because I'm not having to go to that tree that's got that lock on in it. I can go, you know, I can play the wind and get wherever I want to, which is huge in my opinion, especially when you're bow hunting, you know, I mean, we're, we're, we're playing a game of inches, literally, and you're trying to get a white tail deer that is, um, you know, super skittish and um, aware of its surroundings within 20 yards of you you know, and with making that happen, you don't have room for mistakes, because it'll you know, if you make a mistake, it's just, it's not going to happen, it's game over.
Speaker 2Yeah, so, so that those have been the things that I've learned about it so far. Yeah, so I've been, I've enjoyed it, though. It's a lot of fun. And then and then started one-sticking. I started doing the one-stick really early on, and I think the reason I did that was because at the time I didn't take a pack, so I didn't have somewhere to strap the sticks. I was carrying them on my shoulder and a platform.
Speaker 2Yeah, and a platform. So I'd put a sling on my bow, throw my bow on my back. I'd carry a platform in one hand and my sticks in the other hand, and that's how I went to the woods. I didn't take a pack or anything with me. I had everything I needed in either the pouch on my saddle or, you know, in a pocket. So that's how I would go to the woods. I didn't take a bino harness, I didn't take binoculars, I just didn't. You know, I'll take it now, but I still don't use it, you know, yeah.
Speaker 3I found more than I use them, actually quite a bit.
Speaker 2Man when.
Speaker 1I started carrying my bino harness actually this year. I was like wow, this is awesome. Yeah, because you know that noise that's coming from 100 yards away, that you don't know what it is. You can put your binos on it. It's like, oh, it's a squirrel, or oh, that's a deer coming my way. Yeah, I'd never know that if I didn't have binos.
Speaker 2I don't know, the reason that I've never carried them before is because, like it doesn't matter what's 100 yards away, I can't do anything to make that deer come over here. You know, if I felt like I could really do something to to affect that deer coming to me, then maybe I would.
Speaker 1I would do it more, you know, I mean if it's the rut, I mean still probably do something like a little bit of like rattling dude.
Speaker 2Still a grunt, still, I just don't. Here's my thing about it. I think, at least where I hunt, where we hunt, I think a deer will be on top of you before you know it, and your best bet is to get in the tree and don't move and just wait on the deer to walk up, wait on the deer to get close enough to you, put yourself in a position where you're going to be, where they, where they're going to move or where they want to go, and and then, when the opportunity presents itself, you get the job best way to get a deer in front of you?
Speaker 1just if you can bait it first off. I mean, that's the simple truth. You're going to go where the food is.
Speaker 2Yeah, but the bucks are not going to do that.
Speaker 1The bucks aren't, but if you're trying to get meat, yeah, that's fine, just golden acorns, golden acorns.
Speaker 2There you go, that's fine. You know my position on that. Yeah, it's okay if you want to do it. It's not really it's not my favorite thing, you know, but it's fine, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna, you know, say no, you can't do it.
Speaker 1You know it's if you told me that I couldn't bait, I'd probably crawl in a hole and want to die no, you wouldn't, you'd be fine you'd figure it out anything maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe it would cut those deer numbers down a little bit.
Speaker 2You know as far as what you're harvesting, but you'd figure it out. Um, you know, and I I think, I think there's something to be said about that, but you know you'll be 17 this year.
Speaker 3I'll let you figure it out, you'll get there the one thing I think that the that binos help me the most with is not necessarily even throughout the entire hunt. Sometimes it helps identify a deer. Maybe that is that a shooter or is that not. But where I feel like they give me a lot of help is when it gets later.
Speaker 1Absolutely.
Speaker 3So I can, especially in judging a deer. That's where I feel like, that's where I like them. I don't hardly use them. Plus, the binoculars I have are also my range finders.
Speaker 2Okay, so that helps. Oh, you got them like fancy ones.
Speaker 1Yeah, so it's Father's.
Speaker 3Day present last year.
Speaker 1That's cool, those are cool.
Speaker 3It's really cool in that I don't have to carry two things, so I just got them both there.
Speaker 2But I find myself not even taking a range finder there.
Speaker 1And that is criminal.
Speaker 3first off, you got that big old pack and you don't take the smallest one.
Speaker 2No, I mean like before, I would take the pack and everything. I wouldn't take a range finder. Yeah.
Speaker 1Always take the pack and everything. I wouldn't take a rangefinder. Yeah, always, I will always have a rangefinder. And what's cool is, if I can't see something on my pack, I'm like, or whatever, turn your inch finder around. You basically have a pair of reading glasses. Like if you have a problem reading your sight tape, turn your rangefinder around and look through it.
Speaker 3I'm telling you it works there you go, yeah yeah try it y'all are talking about accessories, and what one accessory you probably like the most? Well, if it's early season, it's a thermosel um never used one.
Speaker 2You know I used one for the first time this season.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'd never used one before I don't know how you hunt without a thermosel early season.
Speaker 1I have a reason and it got proved again this year. It got on film One of my buddies I'm not going to mention his name, colby me and him were hunting and he turned around to shoot a doe and he burned himself on his thermosel. I'm not joking, I had the whole thing on video.
Speaker 2Right on the nipple. It was hilarious, that's awesome.
Speaker 1Ouch, it was early season too, so he didn't have like, he just had like a hoodie on. Yeah, it was so funny.
Speaker 3Well, you talk about being comfortable. For me like swatting mosquitoes constantly, that's the most aggravating thing to me.
Speaker 2So we treat our clothing yeah that's the most aggravating thing to me. So we treat our clothing, we wash our gear right before season, put up a line outside to dry it on and we just air dry it outside and sometime before it's completely dry we go out there and we coat it with. It's just a permethrin? Yeah, it's just a permethrin uh product, it's just a, you know insecticide.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, it's just an insecticide, so we'll carry that in here we'll put that on our clothes and it's good for about 15 washes yeah which I don't wash, my hunting gear if I, even if I come back from hunting and I just sweat it out, which always happens I hang it up outside, leave it outside for, you know, 24 or 48 hours, and then it's good, the only time that we wash our hunting gear is beginning of season yeah, or if it gets, you know, a bunch of blood on it or something yeah, but that's the only time that we'll wash our hunting gear but other than that, like I really like the Thermos, just because, like I hate mosquitoes, I do hate mosquitoes.
Speaker 3If I had the last mosquito right here, I would crush it as hard as I could. But the other thing and I was on my phone because I was looking it up, because I couldn't remember the name of it but that Tether makes a hiss strap that it goes around the tree.
Mobile Hunting Evolution and Learning Curve
Speaker 3Um, so you don't have to screw in a bow hanger and it's, they got that quick draw. Um, that actually screws onto your bow to your site. Yeah, yeah it goes on your site and so you wrap the hiss strap, hang your bow, you're done, and you can. Also, if you do carry a pack or something like that, you can hang that on there. I did try that this year just because I had one.
Speaker 1Dad had one that he wasn't using, so I tried it Stole it out of his pack.
Speaker 2I had two in my pack, why? I have no idea. I really don't have any idea why I had two in there, it's like Noah's Ark man.
Speaker 3It's incredible.
Speaker 1Two of everything.
Speaker 3Two by two right there yeah.
Speaker 2And some what.
Speaker 3What.
Speaker 2What did you say? And some what I don't know, never mind.
Speaker 1Whatever, keep going and a folding go. I tried that. Honestly, I prefer just a screw-in bow hanger because I can move my bow out of the way.
Speaker 2I'm not a huge fan of the fold and go, the fold and go.
Speaker 3I don't like that much. The quick draw is.
Speaker 1Yeah, I don't have one. Maybe I'd like it better if I had one of those To me man, that is so easy, like you.
Speaker 3Just it's there, deer comes, I mean I don't know, I love it, yeah, so that's something that was a bit of a game changer. It's just one less thing to have to kind of screw in and figure out and I'll always, beginning of season, just get a two-pack of the ones I like.
Speaker 1They're 7-inch, they swivel, they're perfect.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1You swivel it to like a 90-degree and you can use it as a handle to turn in.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1So get those at the beginning of season. They're sharp Yep. End of season thumb away, yeah, or don't thumb away, but just have them as backup, yeah.
Speaker 3So the one thing I'd ask you guys too. So the only thing about one sticking that I found that I don't like is the noise that is made when you are getting your rappel rope down, because when you're pulling your rappel rope down, yeah.
Speaker 3What noise are you making? Well, a lot of times it's going to slide down the tree and so that can be noisy If you ever do get it caught in between, like a limb or something like that. If you have to shake your rope, and I y'all, I'm anal man, I'm like super anal about noise and stuff like that. But it's like if you have to shake it to break it loose or something, those are the things that. That's the only thing I don't like about it.
Speaker 2But so when you, before you come down, you tie a rope to your quick link, right?
Speaker 3yes, and then you pull it down using that. Yeah and so, but you know if you're on a tree with no limbs?
Speaker 2yeah, once you, once you get loose, it just falls down.
Speaker 3Yeah and not just and you know, if you're especially in a pine tree, but really any kind of tree, or if there's bushes at the bottom of the tree, that thing's sliding down and then hitting the bushes or even hitting the ground, like that's the only part I don't like about it.
Speaker 2Yeah, it just sounds like a limb hitting the ground or something there.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean, and like I said, no, I am super unnatural sound about sound like when I go like it's yeah, it probably stresses me way too much because I'm like I don't want to make any, you know, and it's impossible, I realize. But you know I try to avoid any metal-on-metal sound, of course.
Speaker 2Which those steel strips help with. That.
Speaker 1Steel strips, man Steel strips. They're awesome.
Speaker 3But that's the only thing like don't like um is that little bit of noise, because I feel like I can be like almost perfectly quiet climbing and getting down, but it's when that rope falls.
Speaker 1I'm like well, that's, that's after you hunt yeah, but you still.
Speaker 3A lot of times you got deer around you and stuff like that I think it's's just important.
Speaker 2You don't kill many deer, then I think it's just as important.
Speaker 3I don't shoot a lot of does and stuff, especially early season.
Speaker 2I think it's just as important to leave the woods just like you came in.
Speaker 3You've got to be as quiet.
Speaker 2When you're coming in, you're trying to be super quiet and not make any kind of noise or anything like that. And I think when you're going back out, you know you don't need to be using a big, bright white light going back out of the woods. You know, use your, use your red light or your green light going back out, uh, because I think it matters, you know, sure, um if you didn't kill anything.
Speaker 3Well, if you if you bump a, it doesn't matter if you bump a mature buck going in or coming out you still. You still let him know that you're there. Yeah and so, and usually that's enough for him to change that's it, and I mean, and and that's that's what makes it tough, but that's also what I love about it.
Speaker 2It's a challenge yeah, yeah, for sure what you like. You were going to say something we need to start recording at this time in the future, because he's talking, he's actually talking man or just he's on like his sixth.
Speaker 3One of those I think is that what it is. Yeah, for the day.
Speaker 1Yes, yeah, anyway. Um, I don't know, when I was hunting this was 22,. In a ladder stand I had probably 15 does in front of me. I'm shaking Never killed a deer at this point. I'm over here just shaking Off the seat because it's like a bench seat in this ladder stand. My binoculars fall off.
Speaker 3Oh gosh.
Speaker 1And bam, they perked their heads up off the corn. Yeah right now yeah so I don't know if those does were stupid or if they just didn't care was it?
Speaker 3they were like man, you're about to miss? I don't know was it like real early in the season or?
Speaker 1something. Yeah, it was first hunt.
Speaker 3I wonder if they just hadn't wised up.
Speaker 1They was hungy, I guess, I don't know. Or they were like we're not confident in your abilities to kill us. That's right, Probably.
Speaker 2Well, the other thing about that is that stand that you were in is like 150 yards from the house. That's true, yeah.
Speaker 1And they just thought it was a sound that came from the house. Maybe, yeah, because it's it was between them and the house.
Speaker 3So maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know it. Really it doesn't matter, in a way, what setup you have, if you don't hunt at the right times, if you don't go in and out the right way. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3Like those things are so important in killing a big deer and that's something that I think I've said this on here before. But that bow hunting for me teaches you more in a season than you'll learn in 20 years of rifle hunting. Just going and climbing up in a tower stand or something like that, you just learn so much more about their behavior and about how easy it is to screw up a big deer it's funny to me when I hear somebody say that they don't want to bow hunt because they can't kill enough deer.
Speaker 2You know and I don't, okay, so I don't think anybody has ever gotten into bow hunting because they were going to kill more deer, just like I don't think anybody's ever gotten into fly fishing because they were going to catch more fish.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2I just those those things don't. That's not the reason you do it. I just those things don't. That's not the reason you do it. But to me, the art of the pursuit and learning more about how the animal works, how the you know what the habitat is like, and all that kind of stuff, man, it's just it makes it fun where just going out there with a rifle and just going and killing something, it's just not them, it's just not that fun to me.
Speaker 3I mean, I can tell you this and this is not bragging, because there's a lot of luck involved with this but I killed a buck. That was 167 inches um with a gun and there was a lot of luck involved. Um, so I'm not, it's not pat myself on the back, it was just. It just worked out right. This year I shot probably a four and a half five year old buck with my bow at eight yards. They were probably both equally as gratifying you know because of the proximity and the way I had to get that close to that deer, yeah now the 167.
Speaker 3That's awesome, right, I'll never do that again. That's one reason I only bow hunt is because I know I'll never kill a deer that big again around here but down here, yeah, wow and so, but I can kill deer bigger than what I've killed with my bow more consistently, you know and so.
Speaker 3But for me to shoot that deer at eight yards and know that I positioned myself in the right place, that I was thinking correctly, that I did some things right for a change instead of screwing it up like that, was more gratifying, probably to me than knowing I killed this big deer. But there was a lot of luck involved in that this one. I felt like I actually played it right, I did the right thing you shot your deer a couple years ago like yeah three
Speaker 3or four steps yeah, it was the tree I essentially shot straight down yeah, being able to do that to me is more gratifying than, you know, shooting a really big deer at 200 yards I've never rifle hunted never, I mean, I gun hunted for deer before.
Speaker 1I never pulled the trigger. I I just only bow hunted. So I don't really I understand it, but I don't know what it feels like.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I'm not knocking it. It's just what I prefer, just because of the challenge, and that's what I like. It's like I said, I think, on the last episode I'm stupid and determined. So I'm determined to do stupid things um and so, but that part of that is just uh. I enjoy the challenge of it yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2I love it. I love every part of it. I love getting people ready to go do it yeah you know, and and seeing the excitement that they've got, whether it's somebody that's doing it for the, you know going bow hunting for the first time, or somebody that's been bow hunting for 50 years yeah it's just. It's just a whole lot of fun.
Speaker 3Um, obviously I've built a business around it so, um, I think there's a video floating around probably not probably I hope it's still on, uh, my friend's phone of the first time I ever climbed a tree once with one stick, and I hope he never shares it, but it would be quite humorous to watch. What's his friend's name, I'm not telling you know, I'm not telling you so, but I'm pretty sure I think he videoed it so um it. So it would be quite humorous.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, we all look like idiots first time we did it. Yeah, but it's all right, we're still here. Yeah, I too have gotten stuck in a tree before.
Speaker 1So we've all gotten stuck in a tree.
Speaker 3So I'm trying to think, if I have no.
Speaker 1Oh, you haven't gotten.
Speaker 3One of my brother-in-laws did so. I had a climber and I told him where it was. I was like you can go use this climber and it was like one of the. This is years and years and years ago and it was one of those old, original Tomcat climbers.
Speaker 1Oh yeah.
Speaker 3So you faced the tree, about the tree oh, they weren't heavy.
Speaker 3They were made out of uh electrical conduit yeah, and so, and maybe I think it was a tomcat too, it actually was, because you remember the first one, it faced the tree. The second one was actually had a seat. You unscrewed the little things and you pulled the seat out and but you had the foot piece and you, and just like any climber, you got a foot piece and then you've got the part that you sit on. Well, he climbed up the tree and they do have the straps that you can strap your foot piece so that it doesn't fall down the tree. Well, these weren't strapped, I just never used them.
Speaker 3Well, he starts to climb down the tree. He gets a little ways down. He's probably 10, 12 feet off the ground and the bottom piece just comes like loosens up enough that it just slides all the way down the tree and so he calls, he's like I don't know what to do. Well, I'm like I'll come try to help, but what he ends up? Just like not jumping but kind of holding on to the tree stand and just dropping down. You know he had gotten low enough he could do that, but yeah, it was pretty funny, I'm not going to lie, I had to just take another climber over there and get the other one.
Speaker 2Good grief, yeah, those things were so the one you're talking about. It had those little thumb screws, yes, and you pulled it out. It was just like a piece of canvas, almost like what that crossbow pack over there is made out of. It was just like that.
Speaker 3And just pulled it out, the seat was literally about six inches.
Speaker 2Yeah, it wasn't much, and then you would just tighten it down.
Speaker 3then sit down yeah, you know, and you put like cotter pins or not cotter pins no, that's what it was pins through where the metal slid into the metal and you just, whatever size the tree was, you just put those out. That's, I mean you talk about it now.
Speaker 2It sounds like a death trap so I'm sitting, I'm sitting, I'm sitting hunting one day day in one of those stands. I'm just sitting there, you know, looking around facing the tree, obviously, because that's you know kind of what you did and for some reason I looked down at the pin. I don't know if I was just looking to check and make sure it was in good or something. I was sitting there looking at it and then I kind of looked over to the side and that pin just just popped out. It's. I jumped up really quick, you know, in the stand, you know kind of it didn't you know, completely pull to the side, but it it moved and I'm sitting there and I'm like okay what do I?
Speaker 2do you know? Because this was the days before cell phones, we didn't have a radio or anything. I had no idea what I was going to do and you know I'm in a pine tree and I'm pretty dang high. When was this, this was? I was probably.
Speaker 3It's been a long time ago. If you were using it, your mom and I were dating, so I was probably it's been a long time ago.
Speaker 2if you were using it, your mom and I were dating, so I was 17.
Speaker 1So you were big.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was. Yeah, it wasn't a good thing to happen.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2And I made my way down the tree somehow. I really don't remember exactly what I did, but I didn't have anything with me. I didn't have an extra pen or something like that with me. I was last time I hunted in that thing. Yeah, I'll tell you that I was done with it, you get down, just leave the climber no, I took it with me.
Speaker 2Um, but yeah, I was. I didn't hunt in that thing anymore. I was well, I was petrified. I was like you know what I'm going back to running dogs yeah, there you go that's all I'm doing now is running dogs.
Speaker 1But yeah, that was that was so you, you were, you were probably into the 250s then my weight.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, I I was um, I was in the 225 class, um. So I think that meant you couldn't weigh over 225. No, I think I mean you couldn't weigh over 225? No, I think you couldn't weigh over 229.
Speaker 1I think is what that meant, golly.
Speaker 3So I'm trying to avoid the 225 class at this moment.
Speaker 2So yeah, I think that's where I was at there. That was my fighting weight. Fighting weight, yeah, although I never fought.
Speaker 1I hated fighting. Well, he did get in a fight. He got battle scars.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1He got stabbed three times, oh wow, back of the neck and twice in his arms, or one in the back, once in his shoulder area, jeez, yeah, anyway.
Holy Week and The Gospel Message
Speaker 2Anyway, that's another, another story, I guess, another day, another day, but alright. So we talked about how this week is holy week, so this coming Friday is good Friday. So we're going to talk about that a little bit. And what we're what we're what we're um, um, what we're going to be remembering on friday, um, why it's so important and, um, you know, to the point that we even close our shop. You know, this is something that we've done since we opened the store. Our faith is in Jesus Christ. That's something that we're very open about. We don't beat you over the head with it If you come in the shop. We're not going to beat you with a Bible until you believe what we believe. But we treat people the way we do because we believe that that, uh, that's what jesus teaches us to do and, uh, so this friday is, um, the day that that I don't want to say. It's the day that we celebrate, but I mean it. We really do celebrate what he, what he, did on the cross yeah, over 2 000 years ago.
Speaker 1Yeah, I feel like it's more of a gathering. I don't know if it's necessarily a celebration.
Speaker 2I'm not talking about the church service that we have on Friday night. I'm talking about the day and what we should be doing leading up to this weekend.
Speaker 3Yeah, the word that comes to mind for me is and it's not that we shouldn't do this all the time, but it's just kind of a special time of remembrance yeah, yeah you know, that's the word that kind of comes to mind is just really spending additional time, I guess, even meditating, pondering, thinking through what Jesus did for us, what happened on that day and what that meant. So not that we shouldn't do that every day, but it is that time where there's just a special emphasis put on it.
Speaker 3I mean it's like any other celebration or any other momentous event is remembered on, but this one is like an eternal event.
Speaker 2This one's a pretty big deal, yeah, pretty big deal. Yeah, right, yeah. So I want to go through and talk about what Jesus did and why he did it Right, want to go through and talk about what Jesus did and why he did it Right. Um, so Jesus was? He was a sacrifice, a substitutionary sacrifice for us to pay for our sins. Right, that's what Jesus went to the cross for. Now let's talk about why that had to happen. You know, I think it's, I think it's so easy to just say you know, easter is when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Okay, so why did Jesus have to die? Yeah, what was the reason for that?
Speaker 1Because I hadn't sinned. Well, god's wrath had to be satisfied. Okay, all right, there we go. Everything was put on Jesus at that point in time and it had to be done. I mean, I guess we'd probably still be sacrificing lambs.
Speaker 3We'd absolutely still be doing that? We'd be sacrificing? We probably wouldn't, because we're not Jewish, but we'd probably be worshiping some pagan god. We'd probably be doing that. We'd be sacrificing we probably wouldn't because we're not Jewish but we'd probably be worshipping some pagan god.
Speaker 1We'd probably be. Yeah, I think about that. How the world would be different.
Speaker 3It would be. First of all, we wouldn't know what year it is.
Speaker 1Oh.
Speaker 2We'd be in negative years at this point yeah.
Speaker 3If he was never born, Because?
Speaker 1like so many things have been based off of faith. You know like.
Speaker 2Like what. What do you mean yeah?
Speaker 1They came here because they didn't have, I guess, free will, you could say, to worship God, yeah, so that's, I mean.
Speaker 2So what got us to this point? We're going to cover the long version quickly, yeah Right. So what I mean is we're going to cover what should take us weeks to cover in about 30 minutes. How about that? Yeah, give or take. So what got us to this point was sin entered the world through adam and eve and because of that sin. Before before sin entered the world, adam and eve were in perfect relationship, perfect communion with god. They were able to commune with god, they were able to to have conversations with god, they would spend time with him in the garden, and it was literally perfect. Sin entered the world and that changed everything.
Speaker 1Yeah, Sorry quick question.
Speaker 2I just thought about it.
Speaker 1How long was it until they sinned? Do we know it?
Speaker 2was pretty quick Was it yeah, okay. Yeah, I don't think it was years there's not it was.
Speaker 1I don't think it was years Cause there's not a lot of. I mean there's I don't think there's any other stories between then and there's a few, but between when Adam and Eve, like, first came into the world and then when the, when they the fall. So we don't really know, but it was pretty quick yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2I don't know, like from a calendar standpoint, how many days they spent in the, in the garden, in perfect relationship with god.
Speaker 1Um, it's not really recorded I mean, it could have been the creation stories, it could have been years.
Speaker 2I don't think it was years. That's not. That's not the way that it's not the way that I read it, and somebody that knows more about this can check me on this.
Speaker 3Yeah, I don't know, I'm not sure how long, but I guess in the end it doesn't matter. They screwed it up, adam screwed it up.
Speaker 1It's his fault, and I've always thought he should have stepped in. You know how God said you will crawl on your belly till.
Speaker 3Eat the dust of the ground.
Speaker 1There you go. Could you imagine how creepy snakes would be?
Speaker 2If what they walked, if they had legs, that'd be weird.
Speaker 3I already don't like them.
Speaker 1Yeah, snakes are already creepy, but could you? Imagine them walking yeah.
Speaker 2Uh-uh, all right, focus, anyway, focus, focus, sorry. All right. So sin entered the world, and there had to. Because of that, there was a barrier that had been created between us and God and there had to be a sacrifice to correct that. Well, the reality is, nobody was perfect until Jesus came into the world. All right, so we've got. One key thing that makes Jesus eligible for this is that his conception was by the Holy spirit. So Mary, his mother, was a virgin and Jesus was conceived by the Holy spirit. Yeah, he was not said, so that link from Jesus to Adam had been broken.
Speaker 3Yeah, so he wasn't born with a sin nature, right, yeah, so that's, that's why I mean, if you look at it, sin nature Right, yeah.
Speaker 3So that's why I mean, if you look at it, it can seem crazy. Well, why would she need to have him as a virgin? But it was all about Jesus not being born with a sin nature and so therefore he could live a perfect life. And I think it's important too to realize the gospel like Jesus coming as a sacrifice. That's not really the beginning of the gospel, like the gospel goes all the way back to Genesis, where we do see sin. We do see a prophecy of Jesus in Genesis 3.15. And then we see the first sacrifice in Genesis 3.21.
Speaker 2And what was the first sacrifice?
Speaker 1God killed the animals. To clothe them, he had to provide a covering and he covered them with animal skins.
Speaker 2Exactly that meant something. He didn't just make those animal skins out of thin air. He could have, he could have, but he didn't, but he didn't just make those animal skins out of thin air.
Speaker 3He could have, he could have but he didn't but he didn't right, and so you look at that and you see that from the shedding of that blood there's a trail of blood all the way to the cross there's a red thread that goes all the way through.
Speaker 3So it's not like jesus on the cross just dangles out there in space and so that's just something that someone came up with. It's actually tied all the way back to the beginning, yeah, and so I think that's important for us to, even because Christianity you don't have to check your mind at the door, like it logically makes sense because it's rooted in creation, it's rooted in the beginning and you can follow it all the way through. Yep.
Speaker 2Absolutely no. I think it's really good to point that out. So so we see how it ties back to creation. We see what happened at creation. Wherever that happened in that timeline we don't know.
Speaker 1We can ask Adam one day, in heaven, you know how long were y'all chilling in the garden before you screwed it up?
Speaker 2just just asking for a friend, bro. I wonder if they aged I, I don't know, I mean, they were, it was perfect. Sorry, yeah, it was, it was perfect. You know, and we do know, that they lived much, much longer back then look at noah yeah, well, noah wasn't the oldest, but yeah, he definitely was pretty old.
Speaker 3I really don't think that humans were created to die.
Speaker 1I don't think they were.
Speaker 3Death entered when sin entered. That's why the wages of sin is death, yeah, and it's not just physical death, it's spiritual death, and so that's where the resurrection part comes in right, all right.
Speaker 2So where were we? Sorry jesus had to die. So jesus had to die, and it ties all the way back to creation and then we fast forward to the way that he died. So the way that he died was a Roman crucifixion. The Romans were experts at torturing people.
Speaker 1Killing people slowly.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think it was an excruciating. It was a humiliating way to be killed.
Speaker 1Absolutely.
Speaker 3So much so, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that a Roman citizen could be crucified.
Speaker 2I don't think so.
Speaker 3I think that it was so humiliating they would not crucify a Roman citizen.
Speaker 1So it was only for like.
Speaker 3People who were not Outside of. Yeah, not citizens of Rome.
Speaker 1I almost said Gentiles, but I was like thank Wes, yeah, Not Gentiles.
Speaker 3So yeah, citizens of Rome. I almost said Gentiles, but I was like, thank Wes, I'm not Gentile. Yeah, so I mean humiliating, seen as being cursed.
Speaker 2Wait, how was Paul?
Speaker 3martyred Paul was beheaded.
Speaker 2Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified upside down. Oh really, yeah, but he wasn't a Roman. I think you're right, Wait upside down. He said that he wasn't worthy to die the same way jesus died.
Speaker 3So he was crucified upside down yeah, if you go back and really look at like how it's recorded, and it's not in the scripture except for, I think, james um, not jesus's brother, but james john's brother um, we know he was, um killed with a sword, but if you go back and we know he was killed with a sword, but if you go back, and look at how and we look at how, we look at how the different, how history records the deaths of the apostles is pretty crazy we're about to start a new study for Wednesday night at our church.
Speaker 1It's called Peculiar People and we're going through it's a 12 week study of all the disciples. So each week is going called Peculiar People and we're going through it's a 12-week study of all the disciples, so each week's going to be a different disciple and we're going through their entire life. That's cool, that'll be awesome.
Speaker 2The cool part to me about the Christian story is that, yes, we have scripture and it's the inspired word of God, but we can actually take historical documents and prove that scripture was recorded correctly. And then you have this group. Even if you only look at the 12, the likelihood that they would all let it go to the point of requiring their lives yeah, it's pretty inconceivable. As Wes's favorite movie would say.
Speaker 3Yeah, a lot of people maybe have heard this saying, but it is basically people will die for what they believe to be true.
Speaker 3People will not die for what they know to be a lie, right and so It'll eventually come out and they'll just Like, if they're about to nail me upside down to some wood, I'm going to be like, hey guys, look, I was kidding, you know, let's, let's rethink this. But they didn't do that, right, they were willing to die for that, and so that's a Testament to the reality of Christianity, but it's also the Testament to the crucifixion and the resurrection and the feeling of the Holy spirit. Like there was something that changed Peter from being someone who denied Jesus three times to being someone who was willing to be crucified upside down, yep, and that is the not just the death of Jesus, but the resurrection, the resurrection spirit.
Speaker 2Yeah, so when you look at, when you look at the, the crucifixion of Jesus, when, when he was actually when he was actually nailed to the cross, and and, and, and and killed, was actually nailed to the cross and and and, uh, and killed um first off, I think it's important that we realize that, yes, the romans did that. The roman soldiers are the ones that drove the nails in his hands physically, but god did that because they didn't have the power to do it.
Speaker 3Yeah, people will say, well, the. Jews killed him. The Romans killed him, pontius Pilate killed him, caiaphas killed him. You know we killed him because of our sin, but nobody killed him. Jesus put himself on the cross.
Speaker 2Yeah, nobody had.
Speaker 3He told Pontius Pilate that he even said look, I lay down my life of my own accord. Nobody can take my life from me, and so that's that willing sacrifice.
Speaker 2Well, even in the account of the crucifixion, as he's hanging on the cross, he gives up his spirit to God and Jesus knew what was coming. When you look at, when you look at the story that was taking place, you know, over 2000 years ago this week, Jesus Jesus knew what was coming and I don't think he dreaded the physical pain that he was going to face from the act of crucifixioned, the physical pain that he was going to face from the act of crucifixion or from the beating that he was going to take or any of that stuff which he knew that was coming. I think what he dreaded most was that, for the first time ever, there was going to be a separation between him and the father.
Speaker 1I think it was the agony of being separated from God.
Speaker 3Yeah, and not just that. Think about when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and he's praying and he says, Father, if it's possible, take this cup from me, but yet not my will, your will. And so when he talks about the cup, he's talking about the cup of God's wrath.
Speaker 2The wrath. That's what it represents throughout.
Jesus's Sacrifice and Resurrection
Speaker 3Scripture is God's wrath, and so I'm like you. I don't think it was the, certainly I don't think he was. Like I drive the nails, I don't care, like I think that would suck, but like you said, I think the worst part was the wrath of God was about to fall on him.
Speaker 3The sin of the, the sin of the world, was about you and not just for the little sins, not for the white lie that somebody told, but for the most grievous sins ever committed. The entire wrath of God was poured out upon Christ, so much so that creation responded. The sky went dark, there were earthquakes, the veil of the temple, it says, was torn. The world reacted to this event because it was so powerful. When God poured out his wrath upon Jesus for the sin of the world, I mean think about the things that have been done.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, on that same token, though, so what is sin? Sin is an offense against God, right, and we're really good at weighting sin and saying, okay, well, this sin is really bad and this sin is not that bad Because in our eyes, that's the way that it looks, but in reality, sin is sin, and when God looks on sin, or when someone sins against God, it is an offense to God, and it doesn't matter if it was a little white lie or if it was, or if it was a murder, or if it was adultery, or or, or if it was, um, if it was judas, you know, selling jesus for some silver coins, or what it was. Right it was it was. It was an offense against god and that had to be paid for.
Speaker 3And if God didn't pay for it, if he didn't punish sin, then God would no longer be just, and so it's coming from God. So it shouldn't be surprising but it's a brilliant plan that God loves us. He loved the world so much that he wanted to save it, but he couldn't save it without punishing the sin in the world. So what did he do? He sent his son, he made a way to punishment so that we would have a way to be saved, and it's, I mean, from the virgin birth all the way to the cross and resurrection is pretty, pretty incredible absolutely the plan of god, um, and how, how he orchestrated from the beginning of time until that climactic moment at Calvary and three days later, the resurrection, just to see his goodness, his faithfulness and his sovereignty and his mercy, and pulling that off.
Speaker 3Yeah, pretty cool, by the way, pretty awesome too when you can predict your death and resurrection and pull that off. It's not bad.
Speaker 1Not bad.
Speaker 2So I'm convinced, and I've said this before Jesus is who he said he was.
Speaker 3Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2Or, as my buddy Jace would say, 1,000%, yeah, so anyway. So back to what's happening on Friday. So we commemorate, we remember what Jesus did, the act that he went through to to put us in back in right relationship with God, because there was a, there was a gulf that had to be bridged, that we had absolutely no capability of bridging. There was just no way for us to do it. And Jesus made a way. You know John 3, 16, everybody knows this verse, even folks who don't identify themselves as Christians. It says identify themselves as Christians. It says For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. And I think anytime we look at verse 16, we need to look at verse 17 too. It says God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him, because it's not the will of the father that any should perish. He doesn't want, he doesn't want anybody that he's created to be apart from him. And but for the blood of Jesus. That's where we are. We are, we are. We are separated, we are condemned, we are at enmity with God. Um, without the blood and sacrifice of Jesus.
Speaker 2Yeah, so this Friday that's that's what we're going to be remembering, um, you know our store's going to be closed. We take that day to to reflect on, um, what Jesus did for us, to reflect on the fact that had it only been for me, he would have done it. I'm convinced of that. Had it only been for John Keene, he still would have done that out of his love for me. And you can insert your name, whoever you are, whatever you've done, you can insert your name there that if it would have only been to save you, jesus still would have done it Right. And then, of course, on Sunday we get to celebrate that they went to the tomb and the stone had been rolled away, which, just so you know, the stone didn't have to be rolled away so jesus could get out.
Speaker 2The stone had to be rolled away so they could see in yeah, right, yeah you know, and you know he later walks through a door right, yeah, but he didn't need to move the stone out of the way to get out of there, um, so they, they go to the tomb to continue preparing his body for ceremony stuff.
Speaker 2We do stuff with dead bodies even today to prepare them for burial.
Speaker 2So they went there to do that and the stone was rolled away, and they went into the do that and the stone was rolled away and they went into the tomb and and Jesus was not there, um, and then, obviously, he appeared to them, uh, to his disciples and his apostles later, and to many people, uh, to prove that he had in fact been resurrected from from the dead. So that's what we get to celebrate on Easter Sunday, um, so, just, it shares a little bit more about our faith, you know what, how it all ties together, why we believe, what we believe while we talk about, the things that we talk about, while we treat people, the way we treat people and all that kind of stuff. So I felt like it was important that we look at that, you know, uh, of all weeks, that we look at it this week, you know we waited to record this week until Monday, so our you know, our hearts and our minds would be in in a position where we're we are.
Speaker 2We're taking the time this week to behold christ on the cross and the work that he accomplished, um, so, yeah, that's, that's what we want to talk about today. So we appreciate, um, we appreciate everybody joining the podcast and listening along. You know, hearing about us talk about our gear and why we choose to hunt the way that we choose to hunt, and then also hearing about why we believe what we believe. That's right. Right, so, and with that we'll cut her off.
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