20 Rapid Fire Questions That'll Start Arguments at Deer Camp | Bucks of Nebraska Podcast Episode #10

In this episode of the Bucks of Nebraska Podcast, we throw out the deep dives and go straight to the hot takes. Episode 10 is 20 rapid fire questions — the kind that start arguments at deer camp, blow up Facebook groups, and put your hunting buddies in uncomfortable positions. Cody, Matt, and Zach go round after round on topics from crossbows to cull bucks, and nobody's getting out clean.

We kick things off with a scenario that forces even the most anti-crossbow hunter to rethink everything — what if it's a world record whitetail and the only weapon in the stand is a crossbow? From there we get into Nebraska's deer harvest hitting an all-time low since 1993 and who's really to blame. Is it Game and Parks? Non-residents? Or the habitat loss happening on farm ground across the state? We also debate whether Nebraska should go to a one buck state, what to do with the landowner early rifle season tag, and whether food plots are fair chase or just baiting with extra steps.

The conversation gets real when we talk about who the best whitetail hunters in the country actually are — southern volume hunters or Midwest guys chasing mature deer on limited tags. We break down why thermals matter more than wind in hill country, whether you should ever shoot a doe during the rut, and what cell cameras are really doing to the sport. Plus, we tackle hunter shaming on social media, the crossbow-during-archery-season debate, and whether the next generation of Nebraska hunters is being priced out, pressured out, or regulated out entirely.

Are hunting lease networks and land brokers helping or hurting deer hunting? Spoiler: nobody held back on that one.

In this episode:

• 20 rapid fire hunting questions — no holding back
• Crossbow vs compound bow: the world record whitetail scenario
• Nebraska deer harvest at an all-time low since 1993 — who's to blame?
• Should Nebraska go to a one buck state?
• The landowner early rifle season tag controversy
• Food plots: fair chase or baiting with extra steps?
• Best whitetail hunters in the country — southern states vs Midwest
• Thermals vs wind and why thermals matter more than most hunters think
• Shooting does during the rut — dumbest move or herd management?
• Crossbow hunters during archery season — bow hunters or rifle hunters with short barrels?
• Cell cameras: scouting tool or killing the unknown?
• Non-resident turkey tags selling out in 90 minutes — is it a problem?
• Hunter shaming and posting kills on social media
• Are hunting lease brokers the worst thing to happen to deer hunting?
• Is the next generation of Nebraska hunters being priced out of the sport?
• Best week to hunt whitetails in Nebraska — late October vs early November
• The marginal shot debate — should you need to buy another tag?
• Passing bucks to let them grow — are hunters actually doing it?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Alright, what's up, everybody? It's episode 10 of the Bucks in Nebraska podcast. Once again, I'm Cody Near. I'm here as always with Matt Williams and Zach Bryant. Today, we're gonna do a little bit of fun on this episode. So we're 10 episodes in, and that means we're really just getting started. Our episode one, we we titled We're just getting started for a reason. Today's show is a little different, a little fun here. No long form breakdown. I'm not gonna tell you what it's about, but there's no deep dive. We're just gonna do 20 rapid fire questions, and I'm gonna give both of these guys their chance to answer. Maybe I'll have an opinion here and there. But these are the kind of questions that are gonna start arguments at Deer Tan. Perfect. Sounds hard. Sounds good. These are the kinds that you post on a Facebook page and you get every Zach Bryant in the comments. Oh yeah. Okay. These are the kind of questions that sometimes you'll be at some random Joe's comments. These are the quite you put in a Facebook group. Okay, and you get 400 people that smarter than so a couple of these are just you know Nebraska going to one buck state and maybe a little bit of turkey hunting stuff and what we would shoot animals with, but we're not gonna hold back, okay? So Matt's probably gonna say something that takes off everybody, half of the people, I'm sure. Zach's probably gonna have a hot take on probably habitat or something. Maybe a crossbow. Maybe a crossbow, there we go. And I'm probably gonna regret having this podcast. That's my boy. Okay, but we're gonna get started. Let's get into it. So we're gonna be uh if you're just listening again, episode 10, and we're live on TikTok tonight. We have absolutely no one in there, I don't think. At least they'll see them, but the uh if they're on if they're on mine, go over to the Bucksham, Nebraska TikTok and they can follow on there. And they will be taking some questions as well towards if if people go to Bucks and Nebraska on TikTok and put up some of your questions. Maybe we'll have some time to answer on within this podcast or in some of the where is what is your TikTok handle, Zach? Mine's ZB Hunter. ZB Hunter, Matt. GB2 Outdoors. GB2 Outdoors, yep. Obviously Bucks of Nebraska on TikTok. And then I personally coding ear on TikTok. That's a fun follow if you're not. If you're interested in seeing a bunch of family pictures and vacations and stuff about business and non-hunting related items, you can join me over there too. That'll be interesting. Catch me at the sauna at 10 p.m. That's always fun. But all right. 20 rapid fire questions. Let's get this thing started. Here's the first one. And and boys, I want to tell you, I did a lot of research today about these topics. And the idea was to specifically root out questions that I could probably get under your skin with. Okay. Nah. I'm probably gonna put you in some compromising positions. I mean, worst case, I don't like my answers. That's all right. Most likely we will not, but that's okay. I also eliminated some of the possible answers I knew that you would give, since Zach is such a diplomat when he gives answers. I've pinned him down where he's gonna have to give us a straightforward answer. All right. Perfect. I'm sure the viewers will will love it. So 20 rapid fire questions about overall general could be about anything. But first question I have, and I'm gonna give each of you guys the opportunity to answer it, okay? And if you get into a piss and match an argument, I'm gonna sit here and let you guys go at it. But speaking to the mics, loud and clear. We need more yielding. This is not gonna work tonight with uh six bickers. Yeah. This is the way it's gonna go. Buzz, let's go. If you're listening to episode 10, episodes eight and nine were awesome. We did some Sandhill Cranes, we did we did some on we've got some other topics that were you know, they were interesting and fun, a lot of good sets and interesting uh conversation there. So first question Okay, if a 180-inch white-tailed buck steps out at 40 yards and you have only three seconds to take a shot, okay, and you don't have a rifle or a muzzle loader, and your choices are a compound bow or a crossbow. Which one are you taking? I'm gonna throw this to Mac first because I know this one's gonna be interesting. Oh well, it's easy. I'm gonna shoot it with a compound bow because I don't own a crossbow. I'm gonna challenge you and say there's zero humans on earth that's gonna be able to stand up or full draw at three seconds and take a huge shot. Are you saying like I've got a I'm sitting in this redneck blind, I've got a compound dialed in, and I've got a crossbow dialed in. Which one am I picking up? Like they're it's equal. So I don't know, I don't know. Precisely, but yeah, let's say that they're both sitting there on the blade. They're perfectly dialed to the tree stand. This is not gonna make a good cut for three seconds on the Instagram. Okay. Because all right, now you've changed my of course I'm gonna shoot it with a compound normally, but if we tweak this question a little bit, both of them sitting right there. New table in that we can 180-inch buck, and I got two weapons dialed in. There's a lot less hey, it's at the cross. Since we've already gotten to this far and we still don't have an answer from either one of you, let me change the question. You're hunting with an infant child, maybe four years old, seven years old, well, is it just a small child, just a small child, just a little baby, and you have a world record. Okay, it's the largest white tail just ever walked out. And the only thing you have in the mount saddled up right there is a crossbow. It's in the crosshairs and you got a bolt in. I've already shot the deer while you've asked this question. It's already dead with the with the crossbow. And it probably didn't even take a step. It probably hold on the deer right up. Hold on there, quick. If you had a world record white tail in your crosshairs, and the only thing you had is a crossbow, Zach. I've already pulled the tricer. Yeah, I've already pulled the trigger. He's dead with with the crossbow. I didn't like it. I probably won't have the crossbow in the picture with the deer, but he's dead. Man, for context through Wall of the Record book. For context here, guys, this first question, the reason we asked it was I've heard verbatim most of the time. Zach would say, I will never share a crossbow, and everyone who shoots crossbows are not grown men or they should be for children. But we just got them live. You caught him on air. He just admitted he's gonna use a crossbow. So every man has a breaking point, and I guess the the world record deer in the world was a nuts to get me to pull the trigger. But on the 180-inch deer, too, I probably again in your scenario in three seconds, you don't really have much time to think. I don't have time to stand up, draw through a full draw cycle, settle the pen, make an ethical shot. But that crossbows, it's already sitting there on the on the gun rest, it's copped back, safety's off. I got a thermal on it. Bam. You got a third crossbow.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

All right. The the rest of the question is gonna be a lot easier. I just wanted to prove a point that I could probably figure out a question to get his act to say he would shoot a deer with a crossbow. For the record, I never said I would shoot a deer with a crossbow. That's true. That's true. Matt's not killing a world record anytime soon. It's the only thing he has is a crossbow. It's water. It's all interpretation. Okay. All right, but a real note, let's jump in. So Nebraska's deer harvest just hit an all-time low since 1993. Whose fault is it that the deer population is so low? Is it Nebraska Game in Parts? Is it the non-residents that we see in the comments every day on Facebook and on the social media? Or is it the Nebraska natives themselves? And I'm going to put down the iPad here because I have some strong opinions. I would say it's not necessarily the hunters, but it would be for say the landowners, the farmers, the people that are taking out so much of our habitat would be our biggest whatever, fear hunting, public enemy number one. Public enemy number one with the the whole summit. For Zach is a Nebraska farmer, a producer in Nebraska, the number one, enemy number one for Zach Bryant. Got it. Yep. Against the deer herd. Against the deer herd. That little point in there. But yeah, that's that me my answer, uh Matthew. I'm going to say that it is a combination as well. Zach's not wrong. It's the loss of habitat, and the responsible party for that is the farmers. Farmer landowners, no knock against them. Yeah. So the lack of habitat that goes on the farmers' shoulders, okay, or landowners. I'm also going to blame the game in parks for our regulations and the amount of late season dough tags, the the high number of permits available. That that they're all going to come into play on the situation that we are sitting in right now. So yeah, it's to me it's it's a combination in both of them. The locals, yeah, sure. Maybe you know they don't realize the the problem or the troubles that we're in right now with the population. And maybe they shouldn't be out there, you know, banging 10 does late season and and filling both their buck tags. I I think it's it's it's gonna come down to all of us coming together if we're ever gonna fix this. What's your guys' opinion on so in Nebraska we have the late season, the the bonus dough season, the first couple weeks of January. What effect do you think that has on shed bucks and next year's you know off sprite? Late season dough seed? Yeah, the late season dough where we're able to harvest whatever. I think you can shoot two does during that season. It's the worst season we have with a high power. I have a uh a little different opinion. I don't like the idea that we're shooting does after the rut, and I don't like that that concept. Somewhere along the way, there was somebody that came along with some research or some thought pattern or some opinion that said that hunting deer in December, late December, January to middle of January here in Nebraska, it was a good idea. Now, the the thing I do know is that deer season in the south, in some regions of the south, goes all the way till February, March. Yeah, I mean the rut is just hitting February for Alabama, is it we write? And so what I know is that the deer season, Nebraska's still trying to capitalize on the up of deer season in revenue and hype and get many people opportunities and whatnot. And so the the trend was to what I know, what I believe to be true, was to extend deer season so we can still capitalize on a big game season for deer. Do I agree with it? I would say no. Have I killed deer in January? Yeah. I'll go I've shot those in January. It's kind of a little bit off topic here, but but with the extended season, isn't Iowa? Can't you hunt into like the end of January or first week of February at first antler here?

SPEAKER_00 11:18

21st of January, I believe, give or take one day. It's around the 21st of January, is when their bucksy went in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, but I think when if you go back to the the question, I I would say that at the time their their driving factor or their their reasoning for adding that season was populations were too high. I mean they were they were booming. And I think they were trying to decline the population. The population has declined, they just have not removed the season yet.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

I think, yeah, I think you're right, Matt. I think at the time at which that season was introduced between the bonus dough tags on rifle tags and that late dough season was back in the for say early 2000s, around that 2000, 2010, when we had really high populations and they were trying to control deer numbers, they were trying to incentivize dough harvest, those types of things. But our decline of of deer harvest has, you know, over doubled. Of course, the decline. Why wouldn't they take the season away now that we do you think they just did it so they kept it because they've done it, and now some of the years people are used to expecting that I assume it's something to do with the getting it repassed through legislation, then the money back behind the game of parts. I don't know if it's completely a decision that Game of Parks has control over, and it's probably a bigger hurdle than we understand of, other than just saying, well, we're gonna take away the season market and do that anymore. It's probably not a decision that the Game of Parts is able to ultimately make. I would agree. I think it's a little deeper than just people on making decisions. We're gonna shoot everything we can, Game of Break. All right, let's go to the next question. All right, and this one's gonna be quick. So should Nebraska be a one buck state? Yes or no? One buck, you're in rifle season. This is my boat. And then if you want to shoot your second buck, you gotta try to either do it with archery tackle or a muzzle letter. Love it. Matt, one buck state or not? One buck state, I would support that.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

And again, I touched on it on previous episodes, but I I still think you should be able to buy a second permit for a meal beer.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Fair. I'm in agreement. I think one buck during rifle, period, resident, non-resident, whatever. And if they want to keep two bucks, they will you allow you to deal with Russell or and if you ultimately go to one buck state, period, that doesn't matter. Any weapon. If you go to one buck and you have any weapon and it eliminates the it doesn't it doesn't matter at that point, you you take your best ear you want. I got a question that can stem off of that one. So we had the the landowner's rifle season. You guys are aware, you're a landowner, you can get that early rifle season tag, but it's only a tag that's valid for a three-day season. So if you are a landowner, you purchase that tag, you don't fill it, you don't get to use that tag for the normal nine-bait Nebraska rifle season. A lot of landowners have taken advantage of this. They buy that first weekend tag and then they buy a secondary tag, which is for the normal rifle season. So the question is if we go to a one buck stake, what do we do with that early landowner's tag? Squash it. Just saying get rid of it completely. Absolutely. Well, why do they I mean I get it? Vinnow and this is gonna probably push people's buttons, but why do they need that advantage to go in there? If anything, discount their tag or whatever for being a landowner, but why do they need to get the opportunity to go in there a week or two or a week early? Yeah, a week early and rifle on. I know it was brought up by Senator Dan Hughes from Western Nebraska. I know the whole story on it, and it's it's very controversial why he did it. It was because of his neighbors, and his neighbors were killing all the deer, and he put he pushed this through. And I just feel like that's not it's not I don't know. I I hate to be a that guy, but it's not fair to the rest of the state. Like, why do they need that? Why do they get that? If you're gonna give them anything, just uh maybe they should get the discount on tags. I've heard our get a free tag. I I think I heard the argument that because they are the larger landowners pay a lot in taxes, they don't really, but they that's their claim, or they have a larger impact on the state economy, or they employ a lot of people, and also know the fact the fact is is they are really good what we would call lobbyists. They have really good relationships with our governor and the in the politics here, and ultimately the gaming parks is cut out of the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

They were on that topic.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah, we will go the house without the gaming parks. But it comes back to is the deer a public resource or a private resource? And we these landowners you all have high fence, they're not their deer, it's a state resource, so it's a natural resource. Yeah, nobody owns these things. Alright, next question. Okay, in this one, I have a personal uh uh almost a vendetta against it, okay? So it'll be interesting and probably argue both of you guys here. Food plots. And everyone's gonna I don't know, I don't even need to go with the practice on this. So food plots, is it a uh is it fair chase or is it just another like high fence hunting with extra steps, another baiting tactic? Food plots are 100% fair chase. Absolutely. You know what you're putting the time in, you're putting the work in, you're planting a crop. It's no different. I mean, we're hunting over corn and beans. So what you know, now we're just adding, you know, wheat, rye, milo, brassicas, clover, alfalfa, whatever it may be. Yeah, I don't think there's any controversy in that. I think it's fair chase. What's the difference between a food plot and a pile of corn? It's definitely different. The difference is what is the difference? Not that it is, because I don't disagree, but what is it? Why is it the difference between a food plot and a pile of corn is a pile of corn is a consolidated area that is whatever, a one-yard area that you can place 20 yards from your your gear stand, and a food plot is something that you plant. It could be a quarter acre, an eighth of an acre, tenth of an acre, it could be three acres, but that deer has the ability to pick and choose where it wants to go to essentially browse. So you can re spread out corn over twenty acres. Wow. What's the yeah? I guess I mean ultimately you could, but it's pretty easy to take a bag of corn and walk around and spread it right on top of the ground. There's a lot of work that goes into the implementation of giving plots. So that that's the topic that I'm need to. People I believe people think because I put in this extra effort and the work and I got the seed and I planted it and it grows out of the ground, that it's not it's different than any other bait. And the argument that I've heard, okay, I'm not sure I'm 100% believer in this, but the argument I've heard is that it's not any different because it's not a natural part of their environment. Well, here's the here's another thing. How's it horn though? Irregular feed, old stuff, and yeah, well now food plots, great, normal, everybody does them, right? A lot of people do them. Throw corn on the ground. When does it become one when those guys that plant a cornfield plot then just go in there and shred it? Which is legal in Iowa, not legal in Nebraska because they say it's not a common farming practice. But yeah, I think now what's the difference? The Arbus. Now you're on the age of being here. So they can grow it in Iowa and they can mow it down and shred it and spread it everywhere. Now, what's the difference between that and just dumping your feet out? Same page. It's a great. Yep, same thing. I guess their old concept is back to can you place a bag or whatever, a pile 20 yards from your stand, or is it shred over whatever your one acre field, and it gives the deer a little bit more of an advantage of fair chase. But we're splitting hairs. At this at the end of the day, there's a food source in which we are hunting over that we were drawing them to. And these guys with the crossbows that are extremely effective in longer range, and they're pretty successful at it. What's the difference between a crossbow and a rifle if you're saying that's just so effective? So much I want to say right now. Um I can't say it. I'm just saying, like, if a crossbow is so bad, then how come you buttler the rifle? Well, when you have a nine-day rifle season compared to you have a four-month-long crossbow season, there's a lot of. Salt Happen October. No, December. No, but you can help the cropping for the entire four months. Let's be real. Who kills boo deer after rifle season? Let's be clear. Like maybe muzzler, you'll catch one slipping when it's real cold. My favorite time of the year, I hope they never change the state of rifle season. I hope it's in the hot of November every year. All right. So let's go to the next question. All right, so Nebraska's non-resident turkey tags, as we know, they sold out within two hours. Okay. 90 minutes. Under two hours, they sold out. So should a non-resident be cut off entirely until residents are first taken care of for getting turned to tags? Look that up. I believe we still are guaranteed our tags. Guaranteed or always available for us to purchase as residents. I don't. Well, there's a limit to how many you can get, but I don't think there's a limit to how many tags are available to purpose. I think it's our resident tags for residents. So there's whether we have non-residents or not, we'll we still have the opportunity. Let me change that question. I agree. Let me change this question. If you have public lands and non-residents coming into the state of Nebraska, the most of them are going to go to the public land and hunt. Most of them probably have private land, to be honest with you, 97%. Or you've catch them on a trail camera. Yeah, we dealt with that this week. So so the idea behind the question is do you believe that we're limiting our residents who don't have their own private land to hunt when they want to go take a turkey on public land because you're letting us onslaught of non-residents into shoot turkeys? I think the success rates are probably going down from the amount of non from the amount of non-resident hunters, which I mean and bark all you want about it. They've got just as big of a right to come here and shoot a turkey as we do. Just because we live here doesn't give us some of the same page. If you know, and I think we actually all agree with it. Is an air issue is in all reality. I mean, they're pale. I'm sorry for male. And that we're we as a state, we make more money on the permit sales per individual permit sale to the non-residents. I think that not necessarily that we need to cater to them, but I think it's great that we have people from other states come to our state and hunt, whether it's turkeys, ear, waterfowl, whatever it is. I love having non-residents come to our state. I think non-residents that come to State Nebraska are not just good for the what we call a sport of hunting, but the economy, the friendships you made, the camaraderie had the deer camp wouldn't be the same if I couldn't have and brought my dad, my brother, who lives. How about the Pennsylvania guys? You guys ever met anyone like that before? So Yeah, that was a good bunch. But I I would agree. I think non resident deer hunting, turkey hunting, any hunting in general is non issue. Now, the argument that I do know that a lot of people are saying right now is that if you turn off non resident tags for most species, what it causes them to do is Go back to their own state and figure out their own state's problems. The reason you're going to another state, maybe you want to just shoot multiple species and or multiple you know animals a year, but it's typically because, well, we don't have good ones, so I'm gonna go over there and shoot shooting that sea, you know. But so that's the argument that I hear that I'm like, okay, that's a valid argument. I think that's part of it, but I think a lot of people travel. I've personally travel to multiple other states of deer hunt, and it's for just different opportunities hunting different grounds. Change of sea. Yeah, it's just yeah, exactly. It's a chain change of scenery, it's a change of challenge, going to a new place, learning how to you know pick apart that piece of ground and and find a uh for say a deer or a turkey that you want to harvest. Yeah, I would agree. I'm asking everybody on chalk right now. If you if you're watching on TikTok, either uh Zach or Bucks Nebraska TikTok right now, if you have a question, rapid fire, whatever. Not that I'm you know you're opening it up. If you want to ask questions that we can answer or whatever, throw something at us that you think would be fun topic to have, we'll certainly uh we'll get in our opinion. I think you say this: most of the non-resident hunters that we have for whitetails in Nebraska are probably from the south. Say it again. Most of the non-resident tags that we sell in the state of Nebraska probably are going to people from the south or in areas. That also be an interesting smaller deer. They're coming in. Interesting stat to note because I can tell you I came from Florida and you know, my friends in Alabama and whatnot, they that's where they come from. However, Michigan seems to be a Michigan is somebody saying Michigan seems to be everywhere I go, all the leases, all the private property, I'll put I'm from Michigan. I'm from I'm a little what's okay, but Michigan's problem. Why they come in here? And what took me to that was I'm I was I was just assuming they're coming here because the Midwest has larger deer. And Michigan would also fall into that category, parts of Michigan, not all of Michigan. There are some giants in in Michigan in what the northern area or no the south southern Michigan, I believe. But yeah, they're coming here for a chance at a bigger whitetail.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

And so, you know, down South Florida, that you're very aware of, uh, doesn't have, you know, 180s, 190s, the elusive 200s.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Not as frequent as we do here, right? Yeah. Not like the five-pound basses. Yeah. And then not the Melonkers. All right, let's go to the next question. Next question. Uh let's stay in the turkey topic here. So you're calling a hung-up taun a 60 yards, okay? What type of year? It's it's April point, yeah. Oh, all right. Okay. I like the average. Are you going aggressive and you're gonna push them? Or are you gonna just shut up and let them come to you? I'm gonna read the bird, but by April 20th, yeah, I would I would tend to say that I'm probably gonna get pretty aggressive with him that that time of year. That's how Zach said, I'm sure that's why you say, yeah. I was thinking more so right in the cut. You actually gotta be as smart and figure it out. But yeah. Early when you're going to yeah, early season, I'm gonna be quiet. Middle of the season when the birds are more active, a little bit more aggressive, guards are down a little bit more. You definitely get after them on the call. A lot of hens are already bred. My whole thing is yes, but how hungry am I? Am I suckers teeth? Am I gotta take a kiss? That's where I'm going at it. And how long am I gonna sit there and wait them out? That's that I mean, I only think in that man, we're on the three minutes. Am I gonna wait them out or whatever? Or, you know, I'll be quiet for a little bit and see what's gonna happen or a piece of breakfast. Yeah, I'm just I'm starting to send bacon and egg text messages to everybody around me. I don't know if you do that. That's what I do every time. About 7:30, 745 a.m. deer on I'm sending breakfast pictures to everybody. Get them all riled up. Damn.

unknown 25:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

It's not about actually be 100, it's about just getting everybody else all riled like get out of your stand and go. So crucial deer on me. All right, let's go. Next question real quick. So cell cameras during season. Matt got quiet. Coast cell camera used during season. Is it a scouting tool? Is it you know a thing that's making you kill more amateur deer, Matt? Cell cams are a scouting tool. Yes. I I'm never gonna be one of those guys that says we need to eliminate them or ban them like some of the western states are. No, I'm always gonna be a proponent for cell cams. Here's the early meat. We're gonna have cell cameras forever. We didn't even sell a couple of cell phones. And all of a sudden now we've got cell phones and cell cameras and cell towers and good service everywhere. And it's not a real it's not true to real hunting whenever you've got 20s circling you and you can see him pinging the camera and all of a sudden you know where they're coming and they're moving. And I see oh he hit camera three and now he's on two, and one's 20 yards away and he's behind a tree.

unknown 26:41

Right?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

I think the only reason they were thinking, why is that? Well, I'm just trying to think about how I want to answer this question. Well, man, a rear. You you you think about it real quick. I'm gonna say that yeah, maybe while you're in the stand, that that's kind of getting into that gray area where you're using an electronic device. If you're checking cameras while you're hunting, I I could see them eventually have the problem with that. And then the only other thing I can say about cell cameras that has taken away from the sport, in my opinion, is it's like we know every deer out there now. You know, you know, like it you're not gonna go hunt because there's nothing on camera, or you think you know every deer on that farm. And so the element of surprise, you know, like you you're sitting in your stand with no cameras 20 years ago, you didn't know what was gonna come by. And I feel like the excitement and the unknown was a really cool part of deer hunting when I was younger, and I feel like, in my opinion, I've lost some of that. Matt, how many cameras do you have out? Uh uh cellular or not cellular both. A nine. I had around probably 25 cells and and I don't know, non-cells. I just usually the non-cells I just put up in spots that I want to learn more about. I leave them up all fall and I'll pull them in the spring.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

I'd I don't know, I about the same 20, 25.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

So you have 50 cameras now, and yeah, huge profanal cell chips. Okay, well, we got that one. So if you think cell phone or cell cameras for deer hunting are a bad thing, Matt has 50 of them at any given moment. Zach? Dude, listen to Mark Drew, how many he's got? He's got way more farms than I don't know. Well, yeah, more farms and more money and millions. There's numbers. He stores, and I know way off out, but he he's got a podcast with Mark Kenyon, and they're talking about cell cameras and how he he stores every buck on there. He will upload upwards of a million pictures annually of butts that he's trying to categorize already. When you know you can get a million pictures of a you've got some problems. Zach, bro, do you use let me ask this question again, okay? Sell cameras during hunting season. Is it scouting or is it is it okay to use him? And send the camera. Well, I think that's okay to use them. I think it's scouting. I think it takes a lot away from the unknown, per se. That's very few deer, like Matt said, that will not be known about. Just surprise. Yeah, there's not a lot of surprise here. It's a ton of fun when we do actually have a deer that shows up that we don't have on camera while you're in the stand. That's really exciting and brings you back to kind of the good days. But I think there's some benefits to knowing about the deer that are out there as well, because it allows you to better manage. And if you're wanting to harvest that higher age-class deer, it gives you more time to judge and analyze that deer through cell cam pictures or through trail cam pictures, whatever that is. And that way you're not, for say, caught in surprise from the stand. You shoot a deer and you have what you know guys will refer to as ground shrink is. It gives you you will you lap, but it happens, right? Wholesale sure. People you ever had it happen. Uh whatever. A deer comes out, you shoot it, you get excited, and you walk up on here, and like, this is not in my mind, I thought this deer was huge, and it's maybe just a decent buck, and you've shot a lot of them, maybe, and it wasn't what you were truly after for your season. So I think that the ability that tro cameras give to us is being able to better study the herd, the deers, the the bucks that are in our area, and allow us to know when that deer steps out, if that's a deer that is for say on a on a target wrist or not. Well, one of the other great things about them is just watching your farms, you know, catching trespassers, keeping an eye on the place, especially if you live an hour and a half or three states away. I mean, that's that's a good defensive court. I like it. That's yeah, it worked out for Zach. The other day he caught two trespassers on his farm with a cell cam. So it's from Michigan. Yeah, out of state. I sat at work and they both had crossbows. Am I right? Or am I? Michigan, out of staters with crossbows, poaching, caught in a cell cam. If they had vertical bows, I might have left them alone. But he says they had crossbows and they're on the farm Hall of Gay Aura and had a ticket. Sorry. Let's burn through a few of these in the middle. So you're bow hunting or you're with somebody that's bow hunting, and someone shoots a marginal shot on a 160 plus inch white tail or meal deer during the rut, and you lose them. Okay, he loses him. Should he be required to buy another tag if he shoots another one again that season? Guess the question is is did he make a viable attempt to har or to find the deer, to recover the deer? Did he go through all means necessary? Did he just go out, look for blood for 30 minutes or two hours and didn't have success, or did he get a group of guys together and really try to, you know, grid search the property? What's the difference? If you looked at it and go, Dad, it's in a blood or whatever, and you walk up there 200 yards of circle. Well, isn't you say it was supposed to be a pretty good shot? Marjorie. Margin. Okay. Well, I would still think that you're going to give it more than 30 minutes. You should if someone's only giving it that much of an attempt and they're just back in the stand and flinging an arrow at the next year. I don't think that's right. But I think that if someone gives it a solid attempt, whether they're by themselves and they they look for that deer for a half a day or come back the next day in daylight, or they bring some friends back and do some grid searching. Maybe they call in somebody with a dog. You know, it's I think that you need to make a solid attempt to try to find that deer before you're gonna you should be going back to the stand to try to shoot another one. Matt, somebody makes a marginal shot with a bow on a really good deer and doesn't find it, should they have to buy another tag that year to shoot another one? And there's so many ways you can go with that. All right, so if they shot a deer, some guy's moral compass is gonna say, I killed my deer for the year, I'm duff. Some guys are gonna be polar opposite and say you did have that as a law and you drew blood and you'd have to buy another tag, are they gonna report themselves? No, probably 90% of them won't. So I don't know how you'd ever patrol that. You know, and if we were a one buck state and they made a marginal shot and now are they done for the year? I I yeah, that's tough. That's a tough question. Let me change this question. You're in your property, you invite one of us three, one the other one of us, right, with you. We make the marginal shot. You're with us, we go look for 20 or 30 minutes, and there's no blood, no nothing, and you're like, hey, let's go hunt again. What are you gonna make us do? Yeah, I'm gonna take you probably to some open fields and water ground, introduce you to some public, and uh wish you the best of luck.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

I think that would be about the time that we're gonna go ice and take some bacon and eggs, like they said yesterday. We might be done for the day.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

I'm gonna go ahead and say I'm I'm we're settling back up. Let's go. There'll be another one come through here. Neighbors get done for standard, push another one over here. All right, here's the next one. You're on public land, you're somewhere out in the west in the sand hills, and you bump into another hunter that's under spot, and you maybe, you know, there's all sorts of semantics here. I'm sure you too politics are gonna go into it. Are you gonna stay in hunt with it or are you gonna move? Aries. Well, it's public ground, so it's definitely not my spot. Uh well, let's just say you have stand there.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Yeah, I'm gonna probably be cordial with the guy. You know, it's it's public ground.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

I'm out there chasing deer that I had no history with. Probably gonna talk to him about it, feel him out, try to get a little bit of insight from him. How's it been going? What's he been seeing? If he's seeing a ton of other hunters, I might move. If it's him and I are the first human interaction that either one of us have had, I'd stayed on it. Zach, you're out west, you're hunting deer on private uh public land, you bump it to another hunter. You're gonna move or you're gonna stay. Probably the first move is to go over and have a conversation with them to ultimately see, again, like what Matt said, you know, have they have they been out there, have they been scouting, kind of tell them a little of your backstory, and maybe they're gonna decide that they're gonna find a different spot if that's what you've scouted out and plan to hunt. Ultimately, at the end of the day, you both officially can be there. So I don't want to hunt right on top of someone else. I'd probably have tried to figure out how I can go hunt somewhere else, not affect them, and they aren't gonna be affecting me either. If you had been there for three days chasing the same 180 inch, 170-inch buck, and he says, Man, I'm not seeing a whole lot.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

How about you? What are you gonna tell him? I haven't seen nothing.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

I say, when I get home from camp and I'm with my dadby brothers that say just seeing me and say, I didn't see anything, man. I didn't see nothing. I'm gonna go right back here again, though. But I didn't see anything. I'm gonna go right there tonight, tomorrow, the next day of the day. Looks like a good spot, but I haven't seen it. But on my way in, I saw a bunch of sign back there about a half a mile, and I think it looks really good. So if you're looking for a spot to go, I'd point them in that. You know what's funny is Zach and his dad can they come up here every year. They'll find they'll they'll all of a sudden halfway through the little hunt, two or three or four days in, they get a spot and they're just they're in it, and then I just I'm gonna go back there. And I always want to just okay, I'm like, You sure you're not seeing anything? Yeah, because there's just it's all fiato. Where are you going? I'm gonna go right back girl there, that thing. And it's like, okay, you're not seeing anything. Nope. Okay. Yeah. So it might be that's probably sick right now. That's not so other boys. Yeah, I like it. I love it. I would do the same to them. I don't see anything until I see them on the ground desk. All right, here's one interesting one. Cole bucks, is that a real thing? Is it real management? Is it a good tool? Is it a big myth in all deer hunting? Are you a proponent of coal and deer? I don't like to refer to it as coal bucks. I like to refer to it as a management deer. If there's maybe a deer that's an older age class deer, but he doesn't have great genetics as far as his head gear, that is a deer that I want to be targeted on the farm, whether it's me or one of my guests, to come in and try to harvest that deer to get him out. A lot of times it's an older buck, maybe it's just a you know straight eight point, 110, 120-inch deer, but you might be a six or seven-year-old deer that's kind of a bully buck. Those are really good deer that I could get off the farm because they're pushing a lot of the younger deer away. Matt, you calling deer? Are you you're you're not gonna shoot us multier just because he's that weird crack, right? Not a 401 buck state, but yeah, he nailed it. All right, so a lot of people abuse the child call buck, all right? They're gonna shoot this little six-pointer and say, yeah, he was a six-pointer, it never would have been big. Well, how do you know he was a two-year-old? You know, and so many people shoot these alleged call bucks and they're two to three-year-olds, you know. If I got a two to three year old, or I'm sorry, if I got a six-point buck or a small eight-point buck that's five or six, yeah, I'd say you can definitely apply that term to that deer and you'd want to get rid of those genetics genetics on your farm. But I think too many people throw that term onto young bucks and they never gave that bucket. I'm gonna go ahead and say, if I have deer, a smaller, mature deer, four or five years plus, four plus really is my reign. Any days are five, but four years old plus, and he's got a small head deer. I'm personally gonna know he's there or whatever, but I'm I'm gonna probably pass him. But what I am gonna do is try to put my wife on him, a youth runner, or somebody else I know yes, probably gonna be their biggest deer or something. That's what I'm gonna go about.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

That's when I bring in like Zach New or a Pennsylvania guy, and I I put those guys on him.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Like, I have you ever shot on Call Buck and shot and said, Man, I I need to get rid of this buck. Use a call buck. I mean, have you down south? Boy, we should. Well, I mean, okay, yeah, up here. I'm not knocking it at all. I think there's a definitely a timing case. Despite me, he's gonna be called. That's a four-point, he's called, that's a ten point, he's he's he's a two-year-old ten, he needs to be called. He'd know that. I've never wasted a tag or burned a tag on on one because the only time I really had were actually was on Zach's barn. Now I had Ben Harodi KP and I think I showed you the picture. It was a cool buff. He was a really tall eight corner and had like a corpse or coming up and oh, yeah, yeah. And I was after a different one. I did not want to shoot that one, but I I definitely wanted that deer shot, and Ben came down and shot it.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

So it's always you said this right someone else say.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

This one's not on my thing, but it just makes me want to ask it. So Zach, when did you start hunting? And these guys are from Nebraska. I'm not from Nebraska. Zach, when did you start hunting? What year? Did you start deer hunting? Start deer hunting in 2002. Okay, it's 2002. So you've got 24 years. You've been deer hunting right, and you're in the state of Nebraska, so 24 times two, total possibility of shooting 48 deer. Yeah, probably in a lot of other states, but you get the gist. Matt, when'd you start deer hunting? I shot my first deer in 1997. My dad didn't hunt, folks didn't hunt. So my uncles took me out bird hunting. They got into deer hunting and finally like a drive, which was my junior year. I went and shot my first buck, so yeah. Could have been 97. Yeah, I was five. So so 60 deer. What's that? Sixty deer. 48 is 60. Well, I mean up, because I haven't potentially near safety deer yet. That's the exact point I was gonna make, Bill. Is your opportunity of two bucks, whatever you've been hunting 30 years and uh, you know, potentially upwards of possibly 60 and then 48, especially if you stayed in the state of Nebraska. If you've gone here and there a few years, you know, maybe four or five years, wherever, even them and you go out there, even six years, even ten years. Okay, that's 10 extra deer. That's 58 for you, and that's 70 for you, right? That's a lot of deer. Essentially, let me just tell you about people in the south. Okay, you start the moment you can grab a gun, and then you have a buck in a dough limit a day. Okay, so in like Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, something like that. Georgia's different now, but Florida, a buck in a dough a day, and the rules change a little bit since, but imagine in the south. That'd be pretty fun. Yeah, but the the point I make is who's a better deer hunter if you're from Mississippi or Alabama or those bucket of dough a days, right? Or you're in the Midwest, and you have a chance, Midwest are gonna get a higher chance more often to shoot a high quality mature deer than you are in the south. Because you have the big rack buck on the wall, because you have to say, even though you're limited at 48 and 60 max potential, these guys have killed 200 and 400 and a thousand deer by the time they're they reach the same age. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, are they a better hunter? Or are they a worse hunter because they don't have a 180? Too many variables. I can you can't really say move better. What's the variable? The amount of game that they're chasing, the opportunities that they're presented with versus uh limited. I'm just gonna say if you're at a range, okay. You shoot trap, right? You shoot trap. Yeah, okay. And you practice. And you practice, and it's the same as when you're live, so it's the same thing. That's the point I'm making here. You got that many shots of experience in you, right? Yeah, rap. You're really good. Yeah, you're really good. I think the same holds true for hunting and deer hunting, is particularly. They've killed two and four, 600,000 deer. I would particularly argue that the guys in the south that are in the buccana dough a day ratio are actually better deer hunters than guys in the Midwest. I would say they're probably better at executing the kill shot. You know, they probably don't get near as nervous, they're they're comfortable in that that zone, but are they as good in the woods?

SPEAKER_00 42:33

You know, can they track them? Can they pattern? Maybe. Maybe you're right. I don't know. I'm not gonna say you're wrong by any beats.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Which I was gonna ask you guys, which state do you think has the best white hunters? White tail deer hunters. Yeah. My argument, the reason I was going this way, I believe you can't even hold a candle to the guys in the south.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

So I said, that I would either say Michigan's killers, man. Uh I'd say Michigan or Pennsylvania. They are killers, man.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

They got they got way too many hunters, and the pressure is that high, and those beer skittish. I know they have more numbers, but they are able to. So you're going off with a scarcity of population, the fact that you can put a deer in the ground. Mine is the fact that you've literally done it so many times. Put a new poll, please. Put a poll on social media. Or question though. I I would love to hear the feedback. But you're able to shoot them in the south with a gun? Yeah, right for the season. I'm just saying, say, you ride around the truck and you chase them a dog, you shouldn't brass you guys. You can shoot a buck and a dough, and we don't care about the size of these deer, and you're gonna give me a high power rifle and let me hunt for 30 days or 45 days. Could I kill a deer every single day? Yeah, I could kill one every single day. Put it on TikTok. Let's get some feedback on this one.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Which state has the best white tail hunters?

SPEAKER_01 43:47

That's a good question. The other the other question, I mean, that's the same one, though. Do you think the amount of deer you've killed is a qualifier notch in the belt, or the quality of deer you've killed? God, you're gonna have to. Yeah, I mean, as there are any variables. You guys in Florida can't shoot giants. So that you can't knock them because they don't have her. How bears to kill a joy spice there? I'm on the same page. That's Markman always. You gotta have the deer killed like you. However, there are guys in Florida that do, that are they do shoot a lot of deer, but they also, when they do have the chance or they find they have a a matured big deer, those guys to me are the best hunters. And that's why I say that guys in the south, in the states that have a high volume of deer that they can kill, when they also have a big deer from that state, then it's not a matter of I can just shoot a bunch of deer and therefore it's whatever. They also have that big one. That is a challenge. What's a giant Florida buck? I think they've scored 180s 190s. Oh, no share. They've got some big ones. They're down the Swanee River and stuff, they got big deer in the nervous down there. However, how many? You're gonna put a record on a board, it's not even gonna come close to any Midwest state, right? But the thing is, is when you have a guy in the South whose nodules shot quantity deer and has a handful of quality deer, to me, best hunter in the world. Could y'all say could you could you put a guy from Florida up in the hill country or Missouri River bluffs? Would he kill a deer if you give him seven days? All day long. Okay. Yeah. I think they would. I would I would tend to agree a little bit with Cody, but I'm gonna change it a little bit. Any hunter that's out there hunting white-cell deer in a big woods atmosphere is a completely different situation than hunting them here in the Midwest. Our part is a fast for sure. It is way easier to spot, see, find deer. We have all these travel corridors, we have fence lines, we have drainage ditches, small blocks of timber, and then to go quit someone that's being successful in a block of timber that's 60,000 acres, continuous woods, is a completely different challenge. And that's what I love so much about going up to the northeast and hunting. It is so much more challenging than it is. You know what it's gonna bite a guy from Florida in the ass when he comes up here and hunts bluff country? Tell me. Thermals. They don't they don't have to worry about a known flatland, you know. Thermals would bite them up here. I don't think they would get it. It gets cool and they would understand them and they'd have to learn to apply them and learn to hunt with thermals, but here's the thing. I think it would shop a lot of them. Thermals matter as much or more in warm temperature than they do cold temperature to warm temperature rises. I don't think they uh they matter both here. You're right, but I don't think they are affected in flatland like they are in Steve's hill country. In my opinion. You think wind is the most dubious factor? Down south? Down south, more than thermals, yeah, because it's flat. I think thermals in the northeast, north-northeast is what the biggest factor. The big woods with ridges, the thermals, those deer are continually, for say, wandering or going about their life with the thermals, and it is difficult to get in boat range of them. It's different, obviously, if you're trying to get hunt or doing deer drives, that type of thing is a different style. Do you think thermals or wind is more important? Thermals, thermals. I'm gonna tell you, ever seen people smoke a cigarette, wind right in their face, issue big deer in front of them. Right? Yeah, from the thermals is whatever, but the wind factor was right for them. I was hunting a ridge this fall, and I had a north wind, and as that temperature started to drop and the wind started to drop, I still had probably 10 mile an hour north wind.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

I was getting snorted to the north of me because my thermals were falling down that ridge to where the deer were. I was banking on that north wind carrying my scent, but the thermals overrun the wind.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

The wheels feel that temperature shift. But it was best for if you ever take the time and watch how deer move through that field, say it's a CRP field, and the deer always seem to kind of go up this ditch part of that field, like a low spot. But walk that area. Personally, try this if you know you're listening to the show. Try this in the fall time and feel how that temperature changes in those lower ditch spots. That's the thermals working through that field. That's the reason the deer are choosing that path is because that's where the scent condition is best for them. All right, let's go to the next question. I love your answers. By the way, you bunch of politicians you are. Shooting the doe during the rut. Is it the dumbest thing a hunter can do? Hmm That's such harsh words.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

I won't shoot a doe in the rut. No. I want all the does I can have in my farm during the fall. If I'm gonna shoot one, it's either gonna be September or probably not at all.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

For January? Nah. Hell no. Again, I should probably be a big. It's a pretty vague question. I mean, do you have your yeah, what child out there? You'd your your wife out there? Is it their first time ever going year hunting? In that situation, absolutely not. It's not stupid at all. They should have the opportunity, shoot the first deer that comes out and make sure they have a good time. Me personally, I'm not messing with shooting any does in the whole month of November. I like your answers because you give all the politic answers. They always say, well, so people ever shoot one. But then you say, Yeah, no, yeah, they're different there. And then you type in your girlfriend, your brother, and your cousin, your boyfriend, and all this other stuff, your neighbor, but like you're not gonna shoot us. That's I blank. You're not gonna shoot a dough during the. The only time I would is if I was on the new farm and I just acquired and I realized my buck to dough ratio is whack, right? Say I got 20 doughs to one buck, or even 15 doughs to one buck. Okay, I'm probably gonna shoot some doughs because we need to balance that herd ratio up. Other than that, and I have seen extreme conditions like that, but if I had them, sure.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

First couple years, I would probably shoot some doughs year round.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Or I got some conditions like that on some of the farms that I have, and I'll either try to hunt some satellite stands early season to get some dough harvest, or when it gets late season after I'm done, I've filled my buck tags, either myself or spouse or friends invite them in and try to get some doughs harvested. Back to what Cody said about shooting doughs after the gun season or whatever after the rut isn't a good thing. But like Matt said, if you've got 15 to 20 doughs per buck, your ratio way out of whack. You definitely need to get some harvest done. And it drastically affects all your thermal, you know, cover and your brows, your woody brows, like all that stuff was getting hammered by your rut. Your rut is gotten too last till February, which yeah. I mean, just the things that did you see people with uh with the spotted fawns dropping in crazy times of the year? Because of that, they're typically when you get a spotted fawn that's dropping way odd, it's because you have too many doughs, a high dough to buck ratio, and you that box would just get that doe's get bred later, you know, and the or whatever. So that's I had a fawn this past fall. I'd have to go back and find the drill cane picture, but I want to say it was the first week of October still at spots on it. All right, next question. So crossbow hunters during archery season. Okay. Bow hunter or rifle hunter with a short barrel. Where do you stand? Bow hunter or rifle hunter with a short barrel? What's that even mean? Yeah, so like if you have a crossbow during archery season, okay. Do you think that they're an actual bow hunter or do you think they're just a rifle hunter with a shorter barrel? Zach seems to think they're just a rifle hunter. Yeah, I think that a crossbow is basically a a rifle because you have it has a stock, it has a trigger. You a lot of times they have scopes on them. They're already drawn back, you just have to flip the safety off and pull the trigger, and you can put it right on your ladder, stand arrest. I don't think that it is complete archery season. I think that when I think of archery season, I think it's a vertical bow, whether that's traditional style, long bow, recurve, or a vertical compound bow. That is bow hunting or archery hunting to me. A compound bow is the most similar to, or excuse me, a cross crossbow would be similar to a muzzle utter. Yeah, I'm gonna say I will wish crossbows had their own season. I wish crossbows were maybe a you know two-week season. Here's the challenge, boys. Y'all sh were you shot a crossbow? What's the last time you shot a crossbow? I shot one at the range at Shields when there was sell on the When's the last time you shot a crossbow? Ten years ago. Their three second shot. Yeah, ten years ago. Okay. We're gonna do this challenge just because I know you're gonna give you shot a crossbow. You're gonna give me politicians three or four years ago. Did you kill anything with it? Yeah, absolutely. All right. Did you even take a step after you shot? I shot a doe with it. Was it in Jur? Yeah, I shot a doe after uh in Jane Bird. He those bicross. Probably a chess fixer with it. Here's the thing. It's hard when you're by yourself. Here's the thing with cross tells. And we're gonna do this. And I'm gonna do it live on TikTok one day. I'm gonna take both of you guys out there. I'm gonna put one bolt in. I'm gonna we're gonna cock back. We're gonna give you the crossbow. I'm gonna shoot it and I'm gonna pin it right in the circle. Okay. Reverse shot. I'm gonna give you the crossbow and you're gonna get one shot. And you're gonna shoot it. I think we should get at least three. No, so I'm gonna shoot it and I will shoot dead center. That's fine. Okay? But if fresh, you're at a shot three time for anything else. I'll let you shoot three times. At least let us get honed into this thing a little bit. It's already dialed in on a Robin Hood. Okay, we're just saying stuck. If they're rifle, you should be able to pick up a rifle. And I know the argument's gonna be the slope and all this stuff. Yeah, that's what I'm getting. I get it. But like you're saying a rifle. It's not all the same because people don't even know how to sight in their rifle. It's not a rifle. I'm just saying that it's it's your crossbow. You've shot it before. At least give us three shots. Hey, I got a question. Are we done with crossbow talk yet? Here we go. Next question. Alright, you have one week to hunt white tails in Nebraska. Are you gonna have to rut? Or do you go? Are you gonna stay east? Are you gonna go west? What are you gonna do? If I had seven days only to hunt in Nebraska, I'm gonna hunt the last week of October. Hands down, for sure. The only thing I would contradict my own answer with is if I had a buck pattern in September and I knew where his bed and I knew where his feed in September was the most patternable bucks. Are you going west or staying east? Do I have two tags of one? You have one tag. I'm staying east. Yeah, I'm with Chase Whitetails. We always attempt it though. But yeah, whitetails east and late October. If I had one week to hunt Nebraska, seven date periods roughly. November 2nd through November 8th. I'm assuming this question means that I was gonna hunt a piece of ground that I've never hunted before, and I gotta go in, learn it, and get a here harvested, mature big gear. I'm going November 2nd to November 8th. I think that's the best opportunity on ground that I don't know. Listen, you give me 30 minutes with a three-year-old who kills a mouse. What's up? Oh, caught that one, TikTok. All right, let's go to the next question. If gaming parts moves to their draw system for its non-resident turkey tag, was that a win for Nebraska's resident hunters or the beginning of the end for the over-the-counter access that's built the state's entire reputation of being an over-the-counter tag state? I think most of that's going to come down to the total number of permits sold. I don't know if it's over-the-counter or draw. I think if he did draw, though, it would probably it would probably encourage people to be more dialed in on coming here to hunt. I think they would apply for the permits, they would work harder at it, and they would earn them. And I think that could be a good thing if they went to a draw-off system and preference point system for turkeys, because right now it's first come, first serve, and if you're not there the first 90 minutes, you're not coming to hunt. Well, but I think the preference points and the draw system would probably balance that out and give people a more of a fair shake. I think it gives the state a great opportunity to have some more revenue too. Go into a preference point system, draw system. I think it'd be great that we do it not only on turkey tax, but also on our whitetail tax, too. The whole over-the-counter thing, I think, diminishes the value in what our state offers for a hunting resource. So I think that going to a draw system would be extremely beneficial for the state of Nebraska. I don't disagree. I hate the idea of. Yeah. I mean, it's got pros and cons. People uh people are gonna hate it. I have a perspective. Being a Florida kid, came up here to play baseball in Nebraska. If I was I was considered non-resident and I moved and you know still stayed up here hunting, if I couldn't have come up here to hunt, I probably wouldn't be sitting in the chair and had moved back and stayed active and would never build bus in Nebraska or any of that stuff. If if if they didn't have the chance for non-resident deer hunting permits to be bought up if you it was different back then, you guys didn't have to you know wait there for a 90-minute third. Was there a limit back then? Three, oh, will they capping it? I don't even know if they count. Oh, yeah. Are we still talking about turkeys or are we back to deer yet? Either one, either one, but turkey hunting permits for non-residents was easy, and it's not that way anymore.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

It's gonna have to be you snooze, you lose. Yeah, yeah, 90-minute window. I was just wondering how it was as far as the gear tax go.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

For example, I hunt out of state Missouri, but I don't put in for a draw. It's over the counter. I wait till the day I'm driving down there to purchase my permit online. Pretty easy. And yeah, it's simple. And it for that it's convenient because it's I don't know specifically when I'm gonna go, if I'm gonna get to go, depending on that year, what I have going on, what deer I'm chasing here. But then when I do go, I jump in the truck, head down there, I go on my cell phone, buy a tag, and I'm I'm rolling. Yeah. Let's keep going. Okay, so this is this is one, you know, we're gonna we have we have four more questions. Hunter shaming, okay. And and the idea behind this is is posting every kill you have on social media, is it helping or hurting the future of hunting? Neither. I mean, if you want to share in the glory of something that makes you happy, I don't feel like that's gonna sh hurt anything or help. If anything, I would say maybe it does help. You know, it gets people excited, it creates excitement and for the sport of hunting, and it might encourage somebody that was on the fence about trying it to try it. I'm gonna go the other way with it, although I agree with Matt, and why I share my stuff is not to try to put it. You're not bragging, you're just sharing because it is bragging, though. You know, we just say everybody put in a lot of work. We're we're excited about the harvest of the deer that we put in all this time. And I bought this farm and I put in the food pot. I put up the stand that you know I harvested this deer, and it's it is a little bit of bragging at the end of the day. The concern I have with it is for that newer hunter or younger hunter that's trying to get in. You're constantly you or you and the general public is up there just with all these big rap beers showing them off, and they're potentially conservative about getting some of their first deer harvested because they're afraid of the opinions of the internet. Or if they do harvest to whatever, a year and a half old or two and a half year old buck, they're concerned they don't want to for say show it off because they don't know what people are gonna say about them. So if I think that that's sad because we I would assume we've all done it. I've shot high off, I've shot bucketfuls of those two and year and a half old bass. Right around 60. Well, correct. I'm just saying when I was young, I took advantage of the two buck state and whether it was archery or rifle, I was shooting a lot of those basset racks and I enjoyed it. I had a great time. And then I think you mentioned this earlier. Phases of honey. Yeah, the phases of honey, and just cutting yourself graduating. And so I don't think that he that's the downfall to posting all the stuff online is Brutality. Eventually, I'm not gonna say shaming those people, but they might be concerned about posting their harvest because they're embarrassed. The deathfall, there's no downfall in sharing what we love, whether it's a 90-inch or a 190. The sh the the shit part is the assholes on their keyboards that shame those four keys. Yes, yep. I am what is your number one go-to word for a non-mature deer? Is it called a dink? I'm pretty sure you've said that to me before. Oh, but you can have a mature dink. I love it. All right, so let's go to the next one. So you kill a 130-inch eight point on October 5th. What a dink during archery season, and your buddy says, You either shot him too earlier, or is that a snow on? He's an immature deer. He's a dink. No, that was a call buck. What are you doing? Man, Sarah, I have verbatim heard Matthew say this to me. I'll give you a story. Wait, what? Let me give you a story. This is the second year back in Nebraska. I'll check this. This is the second year back in Nebraska for me full time. I haven't archery hunted in seven years. So it was past year. Hadn't shot a buck with my bow in seven years. Rifle hunter in Alabama, shotgun rifle hunted down for an Alabama bunch. But I hadn't shot a deer with my bow. Seven years. Seven seasons essentially. And it was what late October, early November. This past year. I think the deer was a mature deer, whatever you will call. He was a probably a four-year-old deer. You bow killed this year? Yeah. I was probably being the smarter than Jesus. It looks like Z B Hunter's phones. Don't worry about your phone, but let's keep going. So my whole thing is, and Zach, you kill one, is that what's the deal? You get in on your buddy, you're gonna start talking about him. What's the what's the go to? I personally have never, it's never crossed my mind when somebody brings a deer in or kills a deer, not once have I been like, I wouldn't have shot that deer, or that's a small deer, or what are we doing here? I know for a fact I never told you. I'd never share it. I might have said that. It's okay. You heard before.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

I don't think I'm at all gonna uh shame anybody for the shut up with a 120 Zach, I know, right? Like you're gonna give him shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:16

How many beers have we had for the night? We might wrestling about being a smit, but once no, or also reality, you whatever you have family friends. Yeah, exactly. You're not mean that, but you're totally gonna have fun with it. That's what we do at deer camp. Yeah. All right, let's go. We got a couple more. All right, won't you guys both be honest? Because you haven't been the whole episode. Are you actually passing Bucks to let them grow, or are you just telling hey, where you are? 100%. I've got the videos, I'll show you guys. I will pass deer to let them grow. I passed handfuls of deer this year, and most of them got killed by the neighbors. But I want to bet on deer. I want to bet on the deer. I want them to have the chance to live, and I'm not gonna shoot a deer because I think that the neighbors are gonna shoot it, so I'm gonna harvest it anyway. It's just not the goal for myself. So that's what I choose to do. But I'm definitely passing deer every year. All right, the last question of the episode, well, episode 10. Before I ask this question, I'm gonna say that eight and nine, episodes eight and nine, that we talk about, we're fishing and some Sand Hill Crane conversations. Go back and listen to those if you're listening to episode 10, and most recent, which one would be coming out, but go back and listen to eight and nine, and uh the last question I'll ask you guys, I know what you guys think about it. And Matt's guy's phone out all sorts of videos and stuff. He's got Lee Lakoski over here. Is the next generation of Nebraska hunters being priced out, pressured out or regulated out of the sport? And does anybody in Nebraska game parks and Lincoln actually get them a ship? I don't think that they're necessarily being priced out by any means. I do think that there is limited opportunity for availability of ground to hunt anymore with the loss of habitat and so much of that private ground now be you know leased up, it is very difficult to find places to hunt. I mean, how hard is it for us to find places of ground to lease? It's not easy to do. And for someone who's trying to get new into hunting that has, I'm gonna say, zero to minimal connections, how hard do you think it is for them? Think how hard it is for us when we try to find other places to lease drown. How difficult is it to someone who's wanting to just get in, buy their first bow or their first rifle, and try deer hunting for the first time? They either have public or they better pray that they have some family ground that they can get onto because without that, it's their they have an uphill battle trying to find some some ground to hunt. Right, agree. So I would say that also qualifies then for being priced out, and I think they're being regulationized out. If they're, you know, think about if they weren't competing with 10,000 non-residents, be how many farms would that make available to them? Or, you know, if everything wasn't gobbled up already by non-residents and residents alike, they maybe would be able to get a permission piece. But now if they you there's not a lot of timber left. We all know that, right? Timber is thinning out day by day, and it has been for decades. So if you want to hunt a big timber, good luck. You gotta, I mean, you're gonna pay for it. We we all know that, right? You're gonna have to pay for it. So this kid that wants to get in hunting and he wants to hunt a big timber, he's gonna have to pay for it. He probably doesn't have the money to pay for that. So regulations and and pricing is definitely good enough. I said that was asked question, but here's a current call question. We'll come back for the uh last one. Do you think the hunting lease networks and the hunting lease land leasing companies and agencies are helping or hurting the sport of deer hunting?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:00

I'm not a fan of that hunting loose network, base camp leasing, any of them.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:04

You know why? They're a broker. I think you should be able to go out there and knock on a door and work a deal out with the landowner and not have a middleman, not have a middleman as brokering the deal or taking his cut. You know, the farmer's getting less and the hunter's paying more. We don't need that.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:19

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:20

Yeah, I'd say the same thing. I'd say the only benefit to these land leasing companies is they do have some coverage on the insurance side that can be beneficial to both the landowner and the hunter as far as liability purposes. But as far as the money side of it, as far as making it more difficult for guys to get a hold of land, it's making it way more difficult because it's driving price up. It's changing the price point, and it comes back to the guys with money who are going to continue to be the for say the highest bidder on this ground instead of just having that relationship, handshake deal, and you know, offering to pay a little bit to help the farmer out with you know whatever he has for cost, but also being able to offer him, you know, assistance around his house or farm if he needs help with harvest or driving a grain truck or he's got some fence to put in or needs something cleaned up, cleared out, you can help him with those things, uh, having that personal relationship. I'm gonna look at the camera when I say this. I think leasing brokers and agencies are a joke. The worst thing for deer hunting, I think they should not have a place in the market, however. The farmer and the landowner, it's the greatest thing that's ever happened to them. But I hate them. And that's the end of episode 10. I think we'll end on that one. Join us for episode 11 coming up soon. And go back and watch eight and nine. Thank you guys for joining us. If any of these questions, page this job, made your one throw your phone. Come again next week. Have fun. We were just getting started, it's only episode 10. We got a lot more coming for you. So we'll see you next time and uh appreciate you guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:58

That's why I was gonna show you how many guys will pass this at 19 yards.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:01

Yeah, he's take two.