Ep. 1069: Goals, Hopes, and Hit Lists for 2026 with Dan Johnson

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. This is Clay Nukem from Beargreese. Planning a hunt means keeping track of weather, maps, gear, regulations, travel plans, and a whole lot of moving pieces. Work can be the same way. With chat GPT work, you bring the goal and the details like notes, files, research, calendars, and project plans. It can help turn them into a plan, tracker, analysis, or workflow. You can keep shaping. You stay in control. Chat GPT just helps carry the load. Put chat GPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting Work Mode, available on plus and pro plans. When the moments in your life are too important to miss, you can trust O'Reilly Auto Parts to keep you and your plans on the road. More professional parts people can test your vehicle's battery and even give it a charge if needed.

1:00In most cases, we can install your new battery for free. It's just one of the many services we provide at O'Reilly Auto Parts to ensure life's best moments don't find you stranded. When you're in the backcountry, don't forget your own backcountry. Keep it pristine and confidently cleaned by bringing along wet, extra large dude wipes. Just like your truck gets muddy out in the wild so can your butt. You never clean your vehicle with dry paper towels so why would you clean your butt with dry toilet paper? Wetter cleans better. So ditch the itch and switch from TP to wet, extra large dude wipes. Dude wipes. It is the best clean pants down. They're available at Amazon S.R.I.G. order mine from. You can get them at Walmart nationwide. Fantastic product. Proud to be doing ads for these boys at Dude wipes. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. This week on the show, I'm joined by Dan, nine fingers Johnson to discuss our goals, hopes

2:03and hit lists for the 2026 hunting season. Welcome back to the Wire to Hunt podcast brought to you by Moultrie. This week on the show, I'm joined by my longtime friend and one time co-host Dan Johnson from the nine finger chronicles these days. Previously if you are a longtime listener of course you know Dan from the early days of Wire to Hunt and we are back again today to preview our upcoming deer hunting season. We're going to talk through each of our goals for the season, our plans, the trips we have going on, the different things that we're looking forward to or maybe worried about planning for and then finally any particular you know specific bucks were after or projects were tackling or real stretch goals that were chasing. So this is a fun one. This one's going to get us all ready for the hunting season that's kicking off for all of us here either already or very quickly.

3:07So enjoy this show, hopefully this will inspire some thinking of your own, some goal setting of your own and get you ready for hunting season to kick off for yourself as well. So thanks join us here we go. Alright with me now on the line is Mr. Dan Johnson. Welcome back to the show buddy. How you doing dude? Long time no talk my friend. I'm good. I'm glad we're doing this. It's always it means really good things are ahead when we sit down for our annual goals, hopes and hit list chat. So yeah, thanks for making time for it. Yeah, absolutely. First thing I think we should really address is for me, I don't know about you, but for me, all I had to do was click on a link and it opened everything up for me was not complicated at all. And yet Tony Peterson has in trouble logging into this me, he should be here, but to so

4:08that tells me two things he doesn't want to be here, right? He's chosen not to do this. He's got something else that he wants to do or, you know, by hiring him, meaty to check some kind of box to get for a tax return or something like that. Yeah, it's an age, it's an age requirement. We had to get one off the generic on the show and, yeah, man, he's getting old and seen out. He can't even get a link to a podcast recording to work. So what would have been all three of us instead will be, we'll be you and me, but that's all right. The OG's for you, Nate. Yeah. Do you do you feel ready for the season? Because when we're talking, it is the day before September, this will be going out in like a week. Yep. It's here. I believe that do you feel prepared? Let's see. How do I answer that kind of, right? And so here's a very quick recap of what happened in March.

5:09Okay. Yes. March was a huge month for me knowing I was going to have a knee replacement surgery in late March. I spent the first part of March, like organizing all of my hunting gear. I went to my farm. I moved tree stands around that I knew I needed to because I feel like this year, I'm going to be a little less mobile in my approach and rely heavily on prehunk stands. I think I'll still be able to do some run and gun when necessary. Excuse me. But then I had my knee surgery and all of April, May, June was pretty sedative for me. I didn't do too much. And then as July started rockin' and rollin' and then now August is behind us. I feel really good. Like my knees feelin' better. And so I told myself, hey, listen, I'm not going to do any Western hunts this year, just in case my knee didn't heal.

6:09Like I thought it was going to heal or whatever. And so now really fast forward to now. All I'm doing is I got, I got a new set of arrows. I got a new string on my bow and I'm just shooting. Getting ready for my cell phone for the upcoming youth season. So. It's a big year of transition for both of us. You got a new knee. I got a new house, a new home state. So a lot of change here for the old wired hundas. I haven't actually talked about it on this podcast yet. But as you know, and as anyone following me on social media knows, I did move. I moved to Montana. We finally, you know, we've talked about it over the years, you and I many times, all my summers out here and the things I do and how much this has become a part of our life. And yeah, finally decided that we better give it a shot. Otherwise I'll be lookin' back my whole life with the what ifs.

7:10So yeah, we, it's just kind of consumed my whole year. It seems like the move, trying to sell our Michigan place, trying to sell our cabin in Idaho, trying to find a place in Montana. It's just been all encompassing. So I do not feel as prepared as I typically am because it just seems like there's been this other thing, this other set of things that has just eaten away everything all my extra time, all my mental head space. So that has happened. We're here. But that also not only has that kind of made my time and available like bandwidth do other things very different, but it's also put me in a like wildly different hunting position this year. Yeah. So it's just gonna be a big set of new experience, some old experiences, some new, but just it's gonna feel really, really different. Yeah. This is crazy because everybody's like Midwestern, Mark Kenyon, Whitetail Hunter, right?

8:11Yeah. Michigan, Ohio, other states that you've hunted in the past. And now you're out west, west has the Whitetails. So now are you going to be that non-resident who's coming back to experience the rut every year? Or is that not happening anymore? Midwestern, Mark Kenyon will still be a thing. Do now. Okay. I will still be doing big chunks of time in the Midwest for the rut and for different parts of the year. So yeah, you know, the way I've kind of looked at it is in the past, we would go out and spend, you know, two, three, four months a year out west. And then the rest of the year back home in the Midwest, now I'm just gonna kind of flip flop it. So we're gonna spend most of the year here in Montana, but then we're gonna be coming back for a month or so in the summer. And I'll probably over the course of numerous trips, probably about a month in the fall. Yeah. So yeah, that is still gonna be a big part of every year. This year will be kind of the first of trying to fair what that looks like and feels like,

9:13but yes, I'll still be doing it. Now I have, we'll talk about that. Yeah, I have a real life question for you. Okay. It's here. Your family, the four of you, you left family somewhere along the lines, right? Yes. And what's that like, like packing up, going and living your own life and then having to step away from the closeness and comfort of family? Yeah. That has been the hardest thing and the thing that has kept us from moving for the longest has just been the fact that our family connections and all of that does matter so much. And so what we've just decided is that we decided, okay, we're gonna try this new thing. And A, it doesn't have to be forever. We can give it a shot and if it doesn't feel right, and if we're not able to maintain those family connections, then we can always go back. But B, just solving for those problems. So figuring out how do we utilize that?

10:14We're really fortunate to have flexible work situations, my wife and I both, right? So we can both work from home. So we're gonna come back and spend a month, every summer, back with family. And we're gonna come back and do a big chunk of time in the winter. I'm gonna be able to come back myself and with my boys for big chunks in the fall to still do stuff with family. And then we're also gonna have an open door policy here in Michigan or here in Montana. For visitors. So for example, my mom and dad are actually arriving today for like a three-week period out here. So yeah, hopefully, we're gonna be able to make that work. But it's gonna be different. And I'd be lying if I told you I haven't, you know, worried about that some. But we're hoping that all the positives and those things I just told you about, hopefully that's gonna make up for. Yeah, for sure. Dude, it's a new life experience. And at some point, like everybody goes through it, right? Everybody goes through, if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it.

11:17And so you just gotta pull the trigger on it and hope it works out, dude. That's what came down to me. And I always said like I wanted to raise the boys out here, like around this culture and the opportunities here and like the lifestyle here. I always thought like, man, that would be what I think the best opportunity for my kids would be. And then obviously hit me. I've been saying that year after year after year, and then it's like, oh, someday we will. Someday we will. Then I realize, you know, my oldest is almost nine. So he's almost halfway through his 18 years here with me. And then he's gone. So like if I don't do it now, it's not gonna happen. So. Yeah, I mean, here we are. That life has hit that part of life has hit me like a ton of bricks lately. And it's something I think about. And I've talked in the past about like the midlife crisis era that I'm currently in right now. But it's definitely hit me hard, you know, like when grandparents are slowly going away, parents are getting older, kids are getting older. And I'm just like, oh, my God, what is going on?

12:21And so I just, I don't know, just something I think about a lot. Cool, buddy. Yeah. Somehow we have all of a sudden grown old. I remember, you know, many, many years ago doing like, I think, well, I won't even say but there was, there was some fun stuff going on at the pre-knits home, big, big chin digs and good times. Parties and ATA shows would get rowdy. Uh-huh. Now it's just early bedtime, dude. I know you, you admitted to me off air that you were drinking at a farmer's market and realized that was too hardcore for you these days. Oh, no, no, I wasn't drinking. I wasn't watching other people. I was watching other people drink. That's what I, that's what I do for fun now. It's just go out in public and just people watch. Yeah. Yeah. New world, buddy. Yeah. But anyways, we still, we still have enough blood pumping through our veins that we can deer hunt and we've got some good hunting plans this year. So as we do every year, I was hoping to kind of run through both of our sets of plans

13:25of the year. Yeah. You know, what we're going to do, you know, for both of us, it's going to be a little bit of a different season based on what we just talked about. So what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? What are our goals? Do we have any, you know, particular goals or particular bucks or anything like that that we're really excited about? That's what I want to run through today. Kind of set the stage for the season. And then, you know, you and I, we're going to try to get together another time or two this fall to kind of check in, you know, to keep people up on the store of our seasons, what's happening so far? So this kind of is, is, is day one of that. So yeah, how about we start with you, Dan, walk me through what does your hunt schedule look like on this first post new knee year? So I, you know, I told, I've already said that there's no Western hunts this year, right? I was, I didn't know how the knee was going to be. So I didn't schedule anything. I didn't want to buy any tags just so that I couldn't use them.

14:26Okay. So it is all hands on deck in Iowa, right? And that starts in roughly two and a half, three weeks for the youth season here in Iowa. So I'll go high level real quick, youth season, priority, three weekends, two weeks. So there's going to be a couple weekends dedicated to just the youth. My, my oldest kid, my daughter is just, I don't think she's in the killing deer to be honest with you. I think she is a turkey gal. I think she's okay with that. I, I, deer are just too precious and cute for her. Yeah. Now, my, my oldest boy, watch out. Like he's not in football this year. All he wants to do is fish. All he wants to do like yesterday, he comes up to me. He goes, hey, dad, he looked at a calendar. Like it's funny how like you go to school and or like, I'm sure my parents felt the same

15:33way. You go to school and it's like, you can't do the simplest tasks at school. My son got, we got an email from his teacher day four of school this year. Saying, hey, he's goofing around. He's not paying attention. All this stuff, right? And I'm like, buddy, it's the fourth day of school. And we've already got, you got to calm down, dude. But he's still intelligent enough to look at the calendar. Go to his phone, find when youth season is or go to the tablet, find when youth season is come to me. He's like, hey, dad, youth seasons in three weeks. We need to go to the gun range and start targeting. I need to start practicing with a gun because this year, if I want to kill a buck, I got to, I got to be on for my gun with a gun. And so I'm just like, all right, buddy. Like he's taking, he's serious enough in it where he's like, he's ready to go. I want to see. Yeah. Exactly being proactive.

16:34Now the bad part is is he thinks he deserves the daddy bucks that I have on trail camera this year, right? He's like, so I'm, I always show him the reveal trail camera picks. So I'm like, hey, check this out. Check this out. He's like, I'm going to shoot that guy. I'm like, no, no, no, you're not. I'm not going to have you be that kid who shoots some giant buck right out of the gate and then not hunt because there's no giant bucks to shoot. I'll help this buck. And I scroll down to like a 90 inch, like a 90 inch two year old. I'm like, how about you shoot this buck instead? I guess, you know, whatever. But if that buck shows up, can I shoot him? I'm like, yeah, if he shows up, you can shoot him by. So you just start garhole on your kid. I know exactly. I'm not going to share information with him. I'm only going to show. I don't know where that Oh, he just showed up out of nowhere. I don't know where he, where is that? Yeah, it's weird. I don't know. So youth season is going to be a priority big time this year.

17:35And so, I mean, other than that, the high level part of my hunting is going to be taking advantage of all of the tags that Iowa offers and shooting more dose. And just kind of realizing that groceries are so expensive these days that, yeah, the gas money to go hunt and the gas money to drive around and the, the, the processor costs to make the sausage and stuff may not. But it's still like this year for us, man, it's still cheaper than a, you know, a pound of ground beef. Yeah. And so, dude, I'm going to, I'm going to fill tags this year. That's, that's my goal. And are we still focusing on the two main, your old main farm and then that newer main farm or those are two spots? Yeah, those are the two spots as of right now. There might be some public land adventures that happen just because, like, I, because I'm

18:40not in football and because my kids are in activities and there's like, there's going to be times where I'm going to be able to pass the transportation onto my wife on certain days of the week and just be like, hey, I'm going to go sit on the ground out here in public, see what happens or I'm going to take my boy out there and just be like, okay, let's, let's just see what happens and, and maybe even the neighbor boy and just bounce, bounce on this public and, and almost kind of like a, a school, right? Like, hey, get your body and I'm going to go teach you something. Maybe it's not even about trying to kill a deer, but hey, check this rub out. Oh, there's another one. Why are the deer walking in this line and have those types of conversations? What about this terrain or why is, why is a deer bed here or why are we seeing deer here and then have those conversations? And I've always said, this is my goal. My goal is to be able to hunt with my kid when they're an adult.

19:43So we can pull into wherever we're at. He goes his way, I go my way and at the end of the night, we're meeting at the truck and we're, we're swapping stories. Like that's the ultimate goal. And so, but you can't have that unless you somehow build or educate someone who loves to hunt. So that's my goal. So what's the setup like for youth season? Do you have an area that you think's going to, you know, set up well for mid September? Yeah. Is there a game plan kind of put together? You got to worry. You think you might sit if the winds right? Like what does that look like? Yeah, it's all historic data, right? It's all historic spottings and things like that. Just pinch points. It's not a ton of like current information because most of the stuff that I'm going to bring him to is river bottom ground. Now, I will say this, the last three years, there's been one buck who's bedded and I'm not joking in the exact same spot.

20:43And on the first time I ever hunt that with my bow, he stands up out of the same bed and he walks away from me three years in a row. So my gut tells me this buck is still there. He's in that same little peninsula of tall, crappy grass and like dead fall and things like that. And I'm going to try to get in there with my boy and set up on him to where if he stands up in September, he could shoot, he could shoot a decent buck. Like last year, I think he was like a hundred and forty five inch nine pointer. And so I don't know what he's going to be this year. I think probably a five year old if I had to guess. Same, but anyway, that's just like it's a bedding area. We can re we don't have to get so close like I would with a bow because we have the gun. All right. And so if we just kind of creep in there, crawl underneath the vitri and just kind of wait for him to stand up, I think due to something fun could happen.

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22:47Montana knife company, working knives for working people had to mkc.com today. That's mkc.com. This is Clay Newcombe from Bear Greece. If you're only using chat GPT to answer questions, you're missing a lot of what it can do. Think about planning a hunt. You've got weather, maps, gear, regulations, travel plans and seasonal patterns to keep straight. None of it lives in one place, but it all has to come together. Chat GPT work can be the same way. Chat GPT work helps with bigger projects that have a lot of moving parts. You bring the goal along with real information like notes, files, research, calendars, spreadsheets and project plans. Then chat GPT can help turn it into something useful, a plan, a tracker, an analysis, a presentation outline or a workflow you can keep building on. And you stay in control. You set the direction, review the work, approve any actions and choose the final result. Chat GPT just helps carry the load and keeps the work moving.

23:50Put chat GPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting work mode, available on plus and pro plans. Scan Gen, ABS or Maintenance Light On, take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASC certified master technicians. And if you need help, we could recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. That's cool. So is that the game plan for all the youth is like kind of on the ground, snakeground spots, set up something like that? Yeah, I don't have any tree stands that I feel comfortable with him climbing up into. And we don't have any type of tower blinds.

24:51We have a ground blind, but if you're going to walk in and set it up, I just feel like you might as well just sit on the ground. But last year, we just hinge cut some small saplings or some branches hanging down and kind of built our own little thing, but the deer came from behind us anyway. So I don't know. And is your youngest son going to get on? He's going to piggyback, right? So he's nine and he's not the biggest kid. So I think if I just bring him with, um, I might. Buy a tag for him if my older boy tags out, but it might just be another season of us getting into the woods. And that's what I made my oldest boy do was, hey, you got to come with me. I need to see that you can kind of sit still. Um, and even last year was a little bit of a struggle. But my oldest boy, he's like dad, I want to come, I want to come.

25:54And I hear here's what I have learned as a dad right away. There's a lot of kids or a lot of dads who are like, I'm taking you with me as soon as possible. I have almost found that if I keep them at bay a little bit and they see me getting out and going and having fun, they want to, they want to come. And I don't have to say, okay, get up now. It's time to go. They're like really looking forward to youth season. Hey, we got to go. It's on the calendar. They're talking about it and not letting them hunt right away and then letting them come to me and say, Hey, Dad, I'm ready to go. So I don't know. I found that's what that's what works for me anyway. Okay. Um, so there's this big old, this possible five and a half year old buck that maybe, uh, maybe the little guy, and he's not so little anymore, but maybe your son gets take a crack at. Any bucks that you think have made it?

26:54Have you seen, you know, confirmation of any deer from previous years? Like who, who are you after you? Oh, dude, dude. I got two bucks on camera and right now and one of them is like a, a main frame eight, but he has 11 total scoreable points. He is beautiful, right? He's probably a five year old as well. This is, this is, uh, on a completely different farm. And let me see if I can pull a picture up real quick while we're talking, but we have that, that guy, he's a returning customer last year. He had a great body, but he is just a freak. I think he maybe got injured. And so he was like a giant two by like a, a two by three or something like that. It's like a five, six pointer, really weird looking deer. But then I have another 10 pointer who's probably in the 160s that is back. No, no complete freak giants like years past, nothing over 170 that I haven't seen yet.

28:01Actually, I take that back. There's one 10 pointer who I have on camera. He is a freaking giant. He was 170 last year. The neighbor, all I know is that the neighbor found his shed. I actually, actually, I don't have him on camera, but I know the neighbor found his shed. And I also know that that buck comes through multiple times during late October, early November to check the dose that bed. He doesn't live in this area, but he checks the dose that bed. So I'm going to try to put myself one of those tree stands that I mentioned that I moved in March is now in a spot where if he comes through, and I'm not, I could, I could have a shot. So right now there's three deer that I'm thinking about. And then the fourth one would be the one that I'm going to, I think we're going to try to attack early season for youth season. And are you still at the point where like any one of those boxes, fair game, or do you feel like that big, big giant if he starts showing up would it would be a situation where

29:05you might hold out for him or where you are. It is so stupid. I'm so stupid. I am that. So last year I had to, like I had a really good buck right around the farm. I saw him from the stands and one day, a hundred and twenty inch, three year old, 125 inch, three year old showed up and I smoked him just because I was in kill mode. Did I just like, let's go. I remember. And so I had this conversation with myself every day is an adventure with me because I'll pass a hundred and forty five inch ten point or some days. And then the next day I'll shoot a hundred and twenty five inch. You know, so I'm shooting deer. I should pass and passing deer. I should shoot and maybe someday like, I feel like it's prime rut. Let me go shoot a doe right in the best bedding area. Like my mind these days is so whacked out. I'm just like, I'm just going out and trying to have as much fun as possible and be like, Oh, look at this.

30:05I'll let him walk. Let's see what he turns into. And then then the next deer that walks by is a deer with great potential and I shoot him. That's the one. Yeah, exactly. Like what is going on with me? I'm this midlife crisis is is caring over to my deer hunting decision making. So that's a way it should be though. I love that. I agree. Just like maximum enthusiasm for the moment and having fun. Yeah. Let the rest of it. Let the rest of the slide. Oh, buddy, look at that thing for anyone who's not watching on YouTube. We're talking stickers off both twos or is that what's going on on his left side? Is that? Yeah, that's it. No, that's so he's got double stickers on his G2s and then he's got a double brown time on one side. And I think. Wow. So yeah, he's he's gorgeous. And then let's see if I can find the other one. Here's the other one. So wide. Like 20 20 inside or something. Yeah, 20 to 20 to 23 inches wide.

31:07Like he's a great box too. Now, here's the bad. The thing that I'm. We share a property border where I'm sure these deer are walking through at some point. Last year or two years ago, I had two really good bucks just like this on camera. And somebody else, I'm sure got to him before I did. And they were there all through October. And when I was like, okay, they're going through this pinch point every single day. And I'm like, okay, it's game time. I got the right win. Let's go in. And then I went in to hunted, didn't see him. Nobody deal came back home and not another picture of him to the point where one day I was in a tree stand and there were drones flying over my head. And I'm assuming they were looking for these deer. So I don't know. Well, what about you, dude?

32:08What about you? Yeah, different kind of year. Like I was saying at the top, I don't have a resident deer hunting license. When you get one? No, you can't. Not this year. I have to wait till next year. I can't hunt deer close to home this year, which is very strange. What is the cutoff? How many days do you have to be a Montana resident to get a Montana resident license? I think it's six months, but I knew I was, I knew I was nowhere close to it. So I haven't double checked what the exact timing was. But I believe it's six months. So I did apply for a non resident Montana tag and that didn't come through. So what I do have though is a couple of sort of close options still. I have an Idaho elk hunt. So again, Idaho elk tag, we're going to do a kind of late September bohunt down there with my buddy, you know, Josh and Ross.

33:10So that's going to be a super fun hunt. And if I don't fill a tag there, I can go back later in the year because that becomes like a a gun tag later this year. So I can keep doing that. Try to kill an elk not too far from home. And then I also drew a Wyoming deer tag in an area with white tails. And that is about as close as I can get in Wyoming to where I live in Montana, like three or so hours away. So I had that to do local. The way the schedule is kind of shaken out, it's probably not going to be till October that I get to do that hunt. So I can I'll be able to hunt elk in September. Wyoming deer in October and then in late October, I'm going to go and do a really big long kind of rockation back home in Michigan. So I'm going to do like two weeks and my Michigan priorities this year will be different though than past years. I because of the fact that I just can't be local like I used to be and managing my old

34:14spots the way I used to be. I have opened up my old Michigan place like my place that was relatively close to where I used to live. The spot where so many of my deer hunting stories have come from. I have opened that up to a couple of buddies to kind of take over while I'm gone. And I'm still going to be a part of it and still going to drop in for hunts here and there a little bit and be a part of it. But but now mostly mostly I pass it on to Josh. And so I still got cameras out there. I'm still keeping track of what's going on. But you know on a day they basis him and my buddy Andy will probably be the ones there killing the most deer. So I'm going to be a little bit of a second hand hunter on the old wire to hunt acres spot. We call the dirt farm, which we have Josh dude. You know what's going to happen. There's something about that guy where he's going to walk in and kill the biggest deer that's ever been killed on that property. I hope so. And you know what happened.

35:14It's looking so good. Like I don't. There I set them up really nicely right there spots cleared out for food plots. There's all my pre hung stands on my trail cameras. I showed them where I used to do. This is what they do here. This is what they do here. Here's my pre hung locations here spots like to hunt with this kind of wind. I have cameras up for them and they're just getting a waltz in there and. Yeah, it's like he's going to an outfitter. Uh huh. So I mean, I'm kidding a little bit. They're going to have to do their own work, but, uh, but it is a little bit strange watching it from afar and knowing that I'm not going to be there every day. But, uh, but at least I can still, you know, live the carestly through them. And I'll still get to go there and hunt a little bit. Um, and, and hopefully fill some doe tags. But, uh, but I'm glad that at least it's like in the family still. Yeah. And then I'm still part of it. And we'll get out there and do some turkey hunt probably in the spring and some doe hunts in the winter. But, uh, it's looking really good. There's a, there's a bunch of deer, good deer on camera there. Um, I think it's going to put Josh and Andy in a really, really good position this year.

36:18And I'll be enjoying following that through the group text. But the reason I'm not going to hunt there a ton is because I've decided that if I'm going to be, you know, only able to hunt two weeks in Michigan, um, you know, I should probably be doing that in my family, deer camp, be up there with my dad and really make sure that that place is getting the priority. So my big vacation for the first time ever will be entirely spent up north at, you know, the north woods, deer camp. Um, so my, my number one goal this year is going to be to kill my first buck up there in a long time. Okay. Um, and so, you know, usually I go there gun season. I've gone there once or twice kind of in the rut, um, like doing the stuff with my dad, trying to help him get a deer, but I've never gone during the rut for like just me before. Never like taking my bow seriously, hunting that late October early November time period.

37:18So yeah, that's going to be, that's going to be the big new thing trying to kill one of those deer up there. There are a couple mature bucks showing up on a trail camera right now. Yeah. They're good four year old or older bucks probably. You know, they usually don't get huge and otherwise. We're talking maybe like one 15 to 125 kind of bucks, but man, if I could kill, if I could kill one of those deer with my bow, that would be the coolest, like maybe my, yeah, most meaningful Michigan buck to kill one up there, low deer density, tough country, tons of history. I'll be hunting our little 40, but really probably some of the public stuff around it's even better. So I'll probably be hunting a bunch of public too. So that's going to be the really big interesting one is trying to figure out how to kill them, you know, it's probably a lot of long, slow days, not seeing much, but then if you put it in the time, one of these deer got a cruise through eventually.

38:21So yeah. This kind of reminds me of us talking about all the strategy that we have in the past, right? It's like, oh, God, the wind direction's got to be this time of year is so important. I got to stay out this time and attack on this time and all this stuff. And so now with you saying, Hey, my number one goal is to go kill a deer in a low density area. But who knows what's going to happen like throwing curveballs to ourselves this year. And I'm glad you brought that up because one of the things that I feel like I'm going to do this year is learn my deer herd again. I feel like it's been 10 over 10 years in certain, certain farms. And there's not one deer who's still alive that I was hunting 10 years ago, right? Or even 15 years ago. So there there might be doing something different.

39:22And one of the things that I felt like I want to try to do this year is I want to go in and be aggressive in like my best tree stands right away in the season and just like see what happens, right? Early in the actual season or early in the vacation? Like October, first week of October, when I normally am coaching a football team or I'm just staying out of the woods to let it be, you know, nice for the upcoming season. I almost want to take two or three days and just do a cycle the first week of October and just go right into the best pinch points, right into the big wood spots that are traditional rut, like downwind of of betting areas and just see if anything has changed early season because I've always said to myself, dude, don't go in and, you know, don't do it. Don't go hunt early season. The best time is yet to come.

40:23But then I've I talked to all these guys over the course of my life. You have to and they're just like, dude, I get the job done the first two weeks of October every year. Like I kind of like that. I want to try that. I want to see. And so I'm going to I'm going to just like maybe do stuff this upcoming year because my schedule allows that I normally wouldn't do. Well, it's funny. It's so easy to get kind of set in your ways, kind of locked into the way that you know works for you. And then you just you just settle into that and that's what you do or you settle into like what everybody says you should do. Yep. And then you go that way. But I do think that there's there's a something very fun in breaking that convention and trying something new and then B, we're probably going to learn a ton. Right. When you when you flip the script, when you go and just try new things and maybe seem crazy, that's probably and oftentimes is when you learn the very most, right? Yep. And so I think that's, you know, I think for some people who are just figuring it out,

41:27like maybe they need to kind of stick with what they learned a little bit from last year and then like figure it out. But for those of us who've done this a long time and who have found what works, it's not a bad idea to sometimes find new thing that works. Like just just totally tip over the apple cart and see what happens. And then maybe you'll learn a brand new thing that works as well in a whole new way of doing things. So yeah, you make a great point and I'm definitely going to be in that same boat too. Like, I, you know, for example, one thing over the last decade, you and I have talked a lot about. Like, you know, being mobile, moving around a lot, finding where the action is right now, right? Adjusting, getting in deep, being aggressive. I don't know if that approach is going to work in a big woods swampy, low deer density area. Yeah. I know a lot of guys I've talked to and as I've done a little bit of this right, I go out there for a few days at a time. You know, sometimes it might be that sitting in the same place over and over and over and over again, actually might be the best way to do it where you just, you know, the

42:31hey, there's not going to be a buck that rolls through every day. But if you wait four days, he will eventually come through. You just have to make sure you are there on that fourth day or fifth day when he finally does. Yeah. You know, I heard that is to do when you grew up going bananas running gone, like probably moving around too much to all of a sudden going. This, this spot is good for a reason. I need to give it more time. And then you start to shoot a couple of deer out of that using that method. Then it seems like you're not doing enough those three days that the deer aren't coming through. And then on that fourth day, then your shooter finally shows up and it almost mess that success, almost messes with your head a little bit. You guys have heard me talk about Montana knife company for a few years now on the podcast.

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45:40You can trust O'Reilly Auto Parts to keep you and your plans on the road. Our professional parts people can test your vehicle's battery and even give it a charge if needed. In most cases, we can install your new battery for free. It's just one of the many services we provide at O'Reilly Auto Parts to ensure life's best moments don't find you stranded. Yeah, I fully expect this to be a massive mental challenge. I think I'm going to really struggle with it and I'm going to be sitting there thinking, am I in the right spot and I just need to wait my time or am I in the wrong spot and I don't know it and I'm screwing things up and not taking it. I don't know, it's going to be a whole new thing. But it will be really cool if I can finally make it work. Because of that, I'm not going to be terribly picky. I kill any deer up there in that situation with a bow. I think I will view that as a success. What I love for it to be one of these, a couple nicer bucks I'm seeing so far.

46:44Sure. Yeah. But who knows? I might go Dan Johnson mode on November 7th and there might be a two year old and I'm like, you know what? That buck would make me really happy today. You just get blood thirsty. I mean, I don't know what it was like last year. This buck shows up and I knew and I knew he was small and I knew he was young. And I knew all those things and I just did not care. That was the day. That was the day. And I said, well, sorry, bud, but I choose you. Nothing wrong with that. I bet you that deer tasted Dan good too. Oh, dude. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. So, yeah, man, sometimes, you know, I think we've gotten to the point where we're both very fortunate that we've both killed a bunch of great bucks. We both had plenty of success that I like this new phase where we can define our own versus success. Oh, yeah. I love it. I don't feel beholden at all anymore to what I used to think or what other people would think. You know, now, I swear, if I kill 110 inch, three year old with my bow out there in

47:49the big woods on the edge of the swamp and I hang them on the family buck pole, I will be more proud of that than just about anything. Yeah. And that would be so fun. There's parts of me. I almost wish I could go back and like issue a press release because the version of me 10, 15 years ago, like even enough to be getting when I started, started when we started wire to hunt, I was just like saying some almost arrogant things. I look back and I'm like, dude, why did you say that? And maybe that was truly the way that I hunted or in between that time frame. You know, I said things about, but at the end of the day, what you come to realize is everybody has like this different version of what they want. Everybody wants the big buck, right? But I think as of right now in this culture that we've, that has happened and guys like

48:52us as maybe even created the, I feel like big the, the, the, there is still a huge emphasis on the big buck. But I think that is slowly starting to come received just a little bit. Now people are realizing like, hey, dude, maybe chasing the big buck isn't what I need to do, right? Maybe I just need to get outside and take some big fat, deep breaths to air and just go out and have as much fun as humanly possible. And that looks different for everybody. Yeah. I do think that there is that, I don't know if it's backlash, but there's a growing movement of people being like, hey, you don't have to do it this one way. Yeah. Success doesn't have to be just like this one thing we're seeing on social media or TV. That's definitely a shift is on the way, which is a good thing, I think. So yeah, man, that's the, that's the Michigan game plan is going to be to try and try to kill one up north to put one on the buck pole, spend some time with dad.

49:57And then, and then I will be getting back hopefully some more on the winter, do some dough hunts down on the dirt farm with Josh and Andy. Take my boys out, you know, over Thanksgiving or Christmas, some of those periods. And then I do have one other out of state white tail hunt that tentatively the game plan is that myself and a few other folks from Mediter are going to go do a January rut hunt in Mississippi. Oh boy. Which could be super cool. Never, never done, you know, I've done some, I guess it would have been December in Alabama, which was sort of variety for that part of the state, but January rut hunt will be very different and cool. So yeah, and suppose this is an area where there could be some pretty good deer. So I don't know, that one will be kind of a wild card. I don't know what to expect. We're going to show up cold turkey and just try to figure out this area and just see what happens. So, so that's the season Idaho elk Wyoming deer.

50:59So Wyoming elk in September, the goal there is just like have fun on that one. I don't have, you know, because I'm now in Montana starting next year, I'll be able to have a resident elk tag every year. So going into this one, I don't, I don't have a whole lot of pressure on it. I'd rather see Josh or Ross get an elk. If I had to happen to get the shot great, but probably I'll be putting them, you know, they can be the main priority shooters most of the time and I'll call and just have a good time and yeah. So that's going to be blast. And then Wyoming deer, like I said, will be October and that one, you know, I'm probably going to have like a week to just try to figure out a new spot. That'll, that'll be public land. Another wild card and then, and then the Michigan stuff. So very, very different. And then also, you know, I'm just going to be trying to figure things out here in Montana. I am doing a lot of like, glassing, driving around, glassing. I don't have permissions on any places yet.

52:00So that's a thing that I'm slowly trying to start building some relationships and hopefully get access to like one of these different kind of river bottom ranches or properties where I can, you know, next year, really dial in a local white tail game. Yeah. But that's, that's kind of going to be a year long process. So it's definitely some deer around and seeing some nice white tails in the, in the neighborhood. So I just got to get some, some access. Yeah. Is that elk hunt anywhere close to where we went all those years ago? I think 2014. I'm, I'm taking them right back there, Dan. Oh, buddy. You know, that was, that was a very unique, very unique spot, man. I felt like the, just the drive in there was awesome. Like, beautiful. Yeah. When you cross the border there and then you drive all that way in, it did it was so much fun. And then, you think that, you think there's going to be pressure there like there has been. Have you been back to that area since? I went back one time since.

53:01So I think that at very next year, I think I went or two years later, something like that. One time and, you know, when you and I were there, do we bump in other guys? I don't think we did. Did we? Yeah. Yeah. Was there one person in there? So I can't remember. There was two trailers that people would hike in every single day. Okay. Then we, then we went in and we backpacked and remember that first morning or was it 10 done by the creek? Was that there? We were. No, we went to go get water and we looked up and there was a guy on a horse. Pulling out at elk, a bull elk. I totally forgot about that. Yeah. So he, he was on, we, we got up there and we're like, hey, this is where it all happens. And then there was like, it was all flat. Like there have been tents and horse string, horse strung up. And then that guy starts coming down. We, we start walking up and that guy was pulling out when we went down to go get water

54:01for the first night. Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? I have no idea what the pressure will be like this year. I do know that the whole elk tag thing is different this year. You know, an Idaho because they move to, you know, you have to, it's like the randomized drawing now. You can't show it like there's some people that you could show up in person in line to buy a tag and like have a better chance of getting one. Now none of that's possible. So, you know, talking to some people who live in Idaho and have like kind of seen how things have gone the last few years, they just seem to just going to be a big reshuffling of the deck for people. Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah. There's a couple of people who I know that were on the Western rookie podcast. I was emailing or talking with guys who had went out to Idaho for like 20 years in a row. And now they can't do that anymore. Yeah.

55:01It shifted how they, how they do their elk camp every year. And so they have to find new ways to go do the same thing or go to a different state or something like that, which at the end of the day, I think of things like that. And I'm like, it's probably for the better, right? Everything's a little bit more structured. Everything's a little bit more organized for, for that. And yeah, maybe you don't, maybe the non-residents don't get to come in and have as much take of those tags as they have in the past. But I feel like it's better for everybody. I hope that there's a way that folks can kind of figure out that proper balance, you know, between giving folks opportunity, but then also doing what's right for the resource and the animals and the opportunity they experience too, right? Yeah. I think that's the thing that people are constantly trying to wrestle with is like, how do we give people opportunities, but then also time of a circus out there? So yeah, we'll see, but I haven't gone elk hunting in almost 10 years. So yeah, it's been a long time.

56:02It's the same for me too. Yeah, about the same for me. So that's my, that's another big goal I have in the next handful of years is to get this knee back in shape, get my body back in shape and then, and then start exploring out west a little further than what I have been. So. Well, now what? Now you got a buddy who lives on the ground close to elk stuff. So maybe putting it for Montana elk tackier soon, man. There you go. I like that idea. I like that. I'll do some scouting for you. We'll hit the mountains together. It's been, it's been too long since you wore trash bags for reindeer. Oh my God. I cannot believe how crazy that first time was. That was, I will, I will remember that forever. It's just like, just like the sadness in my voice and the confusion in your voice when I woke you up in the middle of the night and was like, dude, can I come into your tent? Like a one man tent.

57:04It's just like, are you serious? I'm like, yeah, dude, I have an inch of water in my tank. Can you, can you let me in, please? That would have been funny if you're like an asshole and you're like, take my keys and hike back to the truck in the middle of the night while it's raining, you know? That was legendary. That one never, that store will never get old. No, it won't. No, it won't. So, God. So outside of that, for a while there, the saddle hunting thing, right, was big. Are you still into the saddle game as much as you, because everybody seems to go big time saddle and then they recede a little bit to where there's, there are now a mix of tree stand saddle. Yeah, I would say that I had gone to, well, I had regressed a little bit to what you just said, which is like tree stand and saddle. But even when I'm in tree stands, like prehung stands, I've now switched to always still

58:06wearing my saddle as my safety harness. Yeah. Because you can use, you know, you can use this. So your tree stand becomes a platform and then you can still take advantage of the saddle giving you different shooting positions and leaning out around branches and spinning around the tree and stuff. So that's kind of the middle ground I found. It's like in the spots that I have pre-existing stands, it's nice to have those things already up there and not having to run and going on every single hunt. So I use those still a lot, but the saddle gave me some more flexibility in them. Yeah. Now this year it's going to be weird because I don't have a bunch of prehung stands up north of deer camp because that traditionally was always a gun season spot. So I'm going to be running, gunning there. And then the Wyoming deer hunt, that will probably be saddle slash ground hunting. And then Mississippi is again, like a showing up and figuring out as I go. So that'll be saddle just by necessity. So just because of the weird year I'm having, I'm going to be doing a lot of running gunning. But eventually once I get some places I'll lock down again locally and probably next

59:10year when I go back for the summer for some Michigan time, I'm probably going to take what I learned this fall about the rut up north and then prehanging some permanent sets for that for the following years. But it's kind of a mix. I do think that a mix has been what's right because it's great to have the flexibility of saddle hunting and mobile hunting. But man, it can wear on you if you have to do that every day, tearing down a new set, hanging a new set, finding a new spot, putting it up, picking it down over and over. But you know, that some days it's just nice to have a place that you can sneak in quietly, climb right up, sit down and be there in the hunting. So I like the mix. What about you? That's the same. Like my, essentially my saddle is my safety harness. And you know, like I'll admit getting older. I can't sit down for too long. I can't stand up for too long. Like or my knees will get jacked up.

1:00:10But I mean, with the knee that I have now is much better than my old knee. So I don't really have to worry about, I don't even have any anymore. It's fake. So there's not going to be like the only thing that's going to really start to get maybe sore would be the muscles that surround it. So I feel like I'm going to be able to hang out of a saddle a little bit more, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to be using a platform more. It just means I'll be able to be a little, you know, like if I get bored of sitting down, I'll lean. I can stand up. I can do whatever I need to. And then if I need to go in and make some kind of surgical strike on some white tail buck in a corner of the farm that I, you know, don't have a tree stand in, I'll be able to do that too. So I like that. So so wrapping this up one, one last thing to think about. One thing this coming season that you want to do differently than you did last year. What's one change you think you're going to make for this coming season?

1:01:11I think there's not really too much of a change from the strategy standpoint. There is going to be a change from the, I feel like the tag filling, like I want, I just want to shoot more deer. That's it. Feel the freezer. Feel the freezer. Yeah. Change the goal. So the goals this year are kill more deer. Get your son a buck and then kill one of those mature deer. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. And if I wake up someday and I see down the trail, a two year old, one year old coming right at me that has a ton of potential that I know next year he's going to be boon and crock it. I might just shoot him too. So I don't know. Like this is, this is what I do know that plans change. And every year we have this conversation and every year something different happens. Right? Like I'm always like, oh, dude, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going back to 2007, 2008

1:02:14Dan Johnson. That doesn't happen. Right. Oh, I'm going to feel, I'm going to go if it's brown, it's down. I'm feeling my freezer to the limit this year. That's not going to happen. Yeah. I'm only hunting mature bucks. That's not going to happen. Right? So it's a day by day moment by moment. And I don't know if it's like my age or the amount of sleep I get or it's like if I didn't get good sleep the night before I just want to get it over with and I just want to shoot the first buck that walks by or if I'm fully rested and I'm willing to put in a ton of energy and effort into the next day, I don't know. I'm going to have fun with my boys or whoever wants to come on in with me. And that's so, that seems to be the permanent change and direction that I'm going in. Sounds like a pretty good one. I'm right there with you on a whole bunch of that stuff. I think that reserving the right to define success the way you want is about as a good of a goal as I could set for this year. And yeah, going to try to get a deer up north, have fun the rest of the season, get the

1:03:17boys out for some new things. You know, one thing I didn't talk about, but consider getting a fall bear tag. I can get a bear tag over the counter. So I could take the boys out in the mountains here, local and just be up there, you know, C and deer, C and L and maybe shoot a black bear and have opportunity for them to be out there on hunt. That'd be cool. Yeah. So yeah, this is just you're just doing new things and that's the goal is experiencing all the new things, learn new places and see what happens. And at some point, be as, you know, just try to live up to Tony Peterson's expectations to where he would want to come be on this podcast and not ditch us like he did. So yeah, man, we, uh, we apparently are missing the boat there because he, he goes to this parkour. But that's all right. We have fun with Adam. That's right. We don't hand. And I appreciate you making the time and using your technical sav in his Dan to make this work. So thanks. Thanks for joining me, buddy. I know problem anytime, bud.

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