Discover Shedding Light Outdoors With Travis & Trav – Light It Up

August 25, 2017

WTR 419TT | Deer Hunting Techniques

 

How does one become a better deer hunter? Travis Shirer and Travis Williams shed light on deer hunting techniques based on their experience with Shedding Light Outdoors. Hunting deer can’t always be about standing in one spot, and hoping for the best. The best hunters adjust and adapt to all conditions. Travis and Trav sit down and share stories about deer hunting and the “ministry” they’ve found in Shedding Light Outdoors.

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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

Discover Shedding Light Outdoors With Travis & Trav – Light It Up

We’re going to head to Ohio meetup with Travis Williams and Travis Shirer. They’re with Shedding Light Outdoors. They’re going to talk about some techniques that everybody thinks they know about and they’re going to tell you why they work. One such technique is adjusting the placement of your stand during the season. Enjoy the show.

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We’re going to have a couple of Travis on the show. We’ve got Travis Shirer and Travis Williams and they are with Shedding Light Outdoors. It’s about a couple of passionate hunters, about loving the Lord and it’s about a couple of average Joes. There are three of them Joes out of Kansas. The average Joes are known as Joe’s staff. We’re going to talk about adjusting to deer movement, setting realistic expectations, and traditional archery. Welcome to the show.

Thanks for having us, Bruce. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Let’s talk about Shedding Light Outdoors. What is that all about and why you started?

The three of us all went to college together. We met there and Trav and I started hanging out. We started shooting these parody videos and this was back in 2005. We called it TNT Outdoors. We did squirrel hunting adventure and groundhog hunting safari. It was stupid, but we had a lot of fun with filming. When I moved down from this area, Trav came and filmed me while I hunt. He’s like, “Let me film you for real, not a parody.” A doe came out and she came broadside about 30 yards. He filmed it and I dropped her on the spot a little high, but it worked. It was our first actual kill. From that point on, we were hooked. Joey, meanwhile, was out in Wisconsin and then moving to Kansas. He had what he call a Christian bowhunter blog. We all got together in 2015 at Trav’s wedding. Before the wedding, we got to talking, “Why don’t we combine forces here?” We thought of a catchy name and Shedding Light was cool. I knew a buddy that could do logos and stuff like that. That’s how it all started. Our mission is simply to use our passion for hunting and our passion for Jesus and use hunting to share our faith with others. It’s more of a ministry.

What about this average Joes? What’s that coming from?

We don’t claim to be experts there. I don’t want to be Pro Staff or an average Joe staff.

One of our guy’s name is Joe. It makes us call ourselves the Joe Staff right off the bat whenever you hear us. We’re learning. We’re the average guy that watches a lot of videos and read podcasts. We listen to your podcast and we try and learn things. We don’t claim to have it all figured out. We’re learning like everybody else.

You think about learning because whitetails schools all the time, even in the woods that you know and hunted for a long time. Let’s talk a little about knowing the deer movement. How do you adapt to that?

I remember that I was always nervous about the right tree and pressured to be on the right tree. There may be 100 yards that are woods that you know deer are moving through, but you do not know exactly where. I want to encourage people to get in a tree, observe with your own eyes where the deer are moving and then move your stand according to what you see. That is one of the best ways of capitalizing if you want some deer. I think of a nice eight-point I killed. I was on a ridge and I sat there all morning and watched the deer crossing the valley. That afternoon, I moved my stand into that valley and the next morning, I shot up a nice eight-point. I learned from neutralizing your movement for yourself and moving on it.

I had this scenario where I set up and I was hunting the edge. I was looking toward the spot I hadn’t hunted before and I kept on seeing these bucks but they’re about 50 yards away from me. I thought, “I need to move 30 yards closer.” I sat on the tree and I was like, “That’s probably for the next time I come in.” As far as I sat in the stand, we had two magical hunts. Bucks were cruising and it was middle of the rut. I had a nice ten-point come in and I was underneath them. I miss them, but I would have never had the shot. I’ve been in that 30 to 40 yards away from where I’ve originally set up. Don’t be afraid to move. Some guys were like, “This is the stand I’ve got to be in forever.” Being able to adjust, even mid-season, you can do it without disturbing the deer. That’s the way to go.

WTR 419TT | Deer Hunting Techniques

When you think about your hunting traditions and how you get started, how did you get started in hunting?

When I was 11 years old, I shot my first doe with a shotgun. I remember shaking so badly. From that point on, I was absolutely hooked. I ended up shooting my first buck with a shotgun when I was fifteen and when I was seventeen, I shot my first button buck with a recurve. I appreciate what my dad did. He would let me use a crossbow compound to accomplish the doe harvest with a recurve. About five yards from my tree, I shot it and it was a rewarding feeling.

I grew up where we were at my hometown and we did a deer drive. Growing up, the whole idea of sitting and waiting on a deer was foreign to me because we had a bunch of guys that drove deer. That’s all I knew how to do it. I remember that I started as soon as I could be old enough to get my hunter safety where I was in the woods. It was probably for 4 or 5 years. I remember it was a deer drive. It was a buck on the run, I pulled up and the Lord allowed me to somehow make a shot on this running deer. It was a little six-point. Bowhunting didn’t come to me later on. In college, I came home and my dad had a crossbow, so I went out and got a feeder. We were allowed in Ohio to have corn in, so I shot a buck underneath the feeder. That got the adrenaline going, but the big thing was when I got married, my dad gave me an old bear bow. I practiced with it a lot and it was my first compound. I went down to my wife’s grandparents’ house and I’ll never forget this doe came in. She stood broadside and made a good shot on her. That hooked me in. That was in 2009 and I’ve been learning how to do compound since then. I still hunt with guns and muzzleloaders, but I’m primarily using the compound.

What are some of the lessons that you guys had from your parents, from your dad, about hunting that stayed with you? What is going on as far as lessons learned that you’ve taken from your parents, other uncles or other friends?

In order to be successful, you have to spend time in the woods. I was also told that it doesn’t come easy. You can’t set your expectations for it to become easy or it will disappoint you. Those are some things I learned from my father.

For my dad, it was the camaraderie of a hunt. There’s something fun about going off by yourself in hunting, but my dad would go to the deer drives and he would joke and laugh. In the evenings, we’d be together with some guys and after we had cut up deer, we’d play cards and we’d laugh. I learned from my dad some hunting tips and things like that, but the main thing is there’s something special about going into the woods with somebody and just laugh, smile and enjoy the experience. Trav and I, a lot of times we like to film each other, but we just like to laugh, joke and enjoy. He shot a doe. He hit her far back with his recurve. I drove up the next morning to be with him and capture him while we found her laying right where he thought she’d be. Camaraderie is probably one.

When you think about your hunting experience to date, what’s one thing you’d like to share with the readers that is important to you as an archery hunter?

Personally, I want to stress that realistic expectations are highly important. Especially for young hunters or people that are coming into hunting, they think that the five-year-old buck or a big buck is the standard and that’s what you’ve got to go with to be a successful hunter. I want to stress that it’s not how it works. You want to cut your teeth on any legal animal that helps you develop their skills to deal with under pressure. There’s a pressure that an emotional journey that comes over you that’s hard to deal with when you first start hunting and expensing that. You want to kill a legal animal and it’s cutting your teeth. You don’t want to start at the top. You want to start on soft food. It makes you appreciate it when you eventually get to the bigger animals. That’s something that I encourage.

I’m maybe along the same lines. Make sure you practice. Be sure you’re ready and you read and learn as much as you can. I would say for your readers, with a compound, you’ve got to go in practicing them, but also to know what type of animal you’re going after. Also, know what animal is in your woods. The longest time I had high expectations. I see these guys on Facebook posting this giant 170-inch deer. That’s great if you have 170-inch deer in your woods. If the highest thing that you’ve got is a 130 or 140, you’re going to eat a lot of taco soup every year.

Here in Kansas, deer come out with bucks. They come out with 160-inch antlers.

I killed some eight-point and some smaller bucks and I want to kill a mature buck that I’m happy to put on my wall. I’ve killed enough of the smaller ones. I want to hold out and I want to know that whenever he comes in, I’m not going to make any mistake. One time, I was sitting there and thinking about it, looking at him and zooming in with my camera on. I’m like, “If he doesn’t make you stand up, I’ll shoot him.” Trav has a little different standard than me and that’s okay.

I realized that it’s tough to kill a big deer every year. I appreciate even 110-inch deer. It’s where my standard is. I’m hunting with a recurve and so far, I’ve killed three deer with recurve and no bucks. I want to kill a buck with a recurve and if that’s a spike, by all means, I’m going to try to slip an arrow in it because I want to get that experience with a predator instinct. You put tension on the string and you make a good shot. That fulfills me and gives me a good feeling.

Our mission is simply to use our passion for hunting and our passion for Jesus, and use hunting to share our faith with others. Share on X

A little bit of pinpoint, instead of a spike. We’ll still love each other no matter what you shoot.

I tell people about Elk County and they say, “What about Elk County in the West?” I said, “Any elk is a good elk. I don’t care if it’s a cow, but it’s got to be legal.”

I had my first elk hunting.

Where did you go?

I went to Southern Pagosa Springs in Colorado. It was fantastic. I was looking, but I didn’t see anything. This Ohio boy was not ready. I live in the hills of Southern Ohio, but there was no getting prepared for the air and all that. I’m with you. I would’ve shot anything legal that came in front of my scope, but the opportunity never presented itself.

Did you go with a guide or outfitter?

No, I went DIY. I went with some cousins who had been out to this area before and we had a lot of fun. I was on some elk at one point, but it was the second season rifle. It was hot, so the elk weren’t coming down. You had to go up and learn. I would have done a lot of things differently. I’d like to do a drop camp next time. I still like the idea of DIY than having a guide. Guides are cool but I can’t rid much. I liked the idea of trying to figure it out and learn. You’ll do a lot of tags hoop that way and it was exciting. We’ll go back again, I’m sure.

Let’s go back, Travis, and talk about hunting mature deer because if you killed a lot of small deer in similar stands and areas, what are you going to change up? If you haven’t seen mature deer, you weren’t in the right place.

I’ve been a lot of rookie mistakes going in. I’ve shot myself in the foot. I did not play the wind as much as I should have. The thing that we learned and we should have learned this long ago, but in Ohio, you can use corn bait pile. One of the things we do is we’d put out the corn and we’d set our stand maybe twenty yards. We never thought about how mature buck would access that point. He’s going to come in down when and we always wonder why all these does and spikes will come in. They’ll come straight in and they don’t even think about danger, but a mature buck is alive for a reason. For a couple of years, I shot myself in the foot. I would also run a blind grunt or a blind rattle and do all these things that I saw on TV because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do. I was never thinking of the approach of that buck. He’s going to come in and if downwind, I don’t have a clear shot, it’s thick or he’s going to wind me. One thing is thinking about your approach.

Number two for me is also caring about my scent. I’ve gotten more serious about using the right stuff, putting the laundry detergent, scent-free and then I’ve got a crusher bag and all that stuff. The third thing is thinking that bucks know, a lot of times, where we’re at. Changing location and going into areas, and how to find those pockets where a mature buck is comfortable. I found this spot that was going to be the best spot where I saw a deer after deer there. When you know the next-door neighbor, he put in an eight-foot fence all the way around. These three guys put in a high fence all the way around their property, so that changed for me. My goal was taking inventory and try and see some spots that I haven’t been before.

Let’s talk about that eight-foot fence. Did they go high fencing, so they’re paying people?

These three guys and that’s for themselves, but in my knowledge, they’re not leasing. They’re not bringing people in. They must have the money and they fenced in 180 acres. I’m starting to understand this property, so we’re going to have to readjust. It’s going to create some new funnels. We’re optimistic about it because those deer that are on our side are not going to go over there. We’ve got them on our side of the fence and we’re going to use that to our advantage.

WTR 419TT | Deer Hunting Techniques

Are they going to release the deer? Have they released deer?

While I was turkey hunting, we looked across fence and there were deers with deer tags in their ears.

They got to throw a high fence operation because typically 180 acres isn’t enough to sustain a herd for three guys or grow a herd. It’s not going to happen. It could, but it’s going to take a long time and it depends. When you put the fence up, you don’t know what’s there.

The deers are going to be getting used to the fence, but some of the deer during turkey season, we were out and Trav left stuff some in the field. We went back to the field and there was a buck that was there. He was running into the fence and Trav videoed this deer. The last time he takes off running, ran right into a pipe and ended up killing the deer. He gets this all on camera.

He ran right into the eight-foot fence and killed himself, which is sad to see.

I wonder why he was motivated to get in that terrain.

That fence has never been there before and he didn’t know how to get away from. I jumped and there are deer in a patch of woods. There were three of them and two of them followed the fence line on up. This young buck was determined to get through it.

It’s not going to work.

It didn’t work.

In Ohio, everybody knows that there are some big bucks. The hammer buck came from Ohio and the monstrous deer. In your area where you’re at, do you have that class of deer?

Yeah, every farm we hooked the cameras along, there are at least 170-inch deer there. He might be there at 1:00 AM, but you see him. Quality Deer Management is picking up and I think the mentality of a lot of people these days, but if you don’t have this mentality, it’s fine. I don’t have it myself yet. They’re passing younger bucks and I’ve seen more mature deer. What I remember in the past, I think the caliber buck is here.

There are a couple of TV shows that come out and they hunt within 1 mile or 2 of where we’re hunting at primarily. That tells me that there are plenty and we see the pictures posted in the gas stations. These guys are 170 to 180-inch deer. There’s a buddy of ours, not too far from here, that shot almost 190-inch deer. I would say that those are the places with big acreage and people were able to manage their farms. There are some soybean and cornfields around where these bucks can have that to get big.

WTR 419TT | Deer Hunting Techniques

How big is the area that you hunt? What’s your acreage?

The one farm we have is 70 acres and I killed a five-point deer on a five-acre piece in 2013. The farm that I hunt, I’ve got about 100 acres and it’s mostly alfalfa field, so it’s a good property. We’ve got a dairy farm that we’re able to hunt. It doesn’t have a lot of woods, but the woods are good there. We’re starting to learn it a little bit. They’re for small parcels. I don’t think they’re huge. I can put it in a food plot out. We haven’t done that here yet. We don’t have the area for it, but Joey’s got some good spots out there.

It’s all about getting the right place like anybody. Hearing what you’re saying about your land, it doesn’t take a lot of lands, you just have to be on a pinch point, funnel or saddle where they are going to travel through. The whole secret is getting set up your stand and being adaptable. What we’re talking to people about is long-distance scouting and not even hunting the area until you see the deer that you want to kill.

It’s another lucky mistake. I did that a lot. In the first year, I love hunting. In September, I love to hunt, so I’d go out on my best stand. We had probably 7 or 8 stands on that 100-acre property. I would go out to the best one, the pinch point and I would sit in it. He was always telling me, “I don’t know why you should do that.” I stayed out a good bit and that’s when I had that nice ten-point. I’ll call him Tight Rack. He came in right down the path. I had a shot at him, but I let him go because I had an encounter with a bigger and more mature deer. Go in your stands early on waiting for the right time and right conditions. That’s important.

You get in there with the truck and covered area or you set up scouting stands not in the optimal place, but we can check them. That goes back to adjusting your stand. If you think about it, would you hunt all season for one shot at a mature deer? We get the point of the mature deer that gets your heart going. Would you do that? If you had once set knowing that, “This year, this is how I’m going to do it. As soon as I can pattern this deer, I’m going to go in and I might sit that stand. One day, they’re unhappy because these big bucks know that you’re there. Lots of people that I had on the show said that the first 2 or 3 sets are the best time to shoot it out of your stand. I’m guilty of it like everybody else because I have my favorite stands that killed a lot of deer. I just hammered that stand when I shouldn’t.

It’s important to have a couple of extra properties, too. We have a couple of spots like that dairy farm. We were able to hunt it and it scratches the itch a little bit in the early season. Not that you can’t get an early-season kill. We have another spot that we’re able to hunt that’s adjacent to 100 acres. We’ve got permission on it. It’s about 40 acres and I don’t think it’s going to mess with stuff. You have a couple of those places where you can go in the early season to pre-rut before moving a lot, so you don’t mess everything up.

There’s a particular place on that 70 acres that’s on this patch woods. I have another friend and we’ve killed off 120-inch or better bucks there. There are these big scrapes in there. You can put a camera in there on October 1st and you will not see a deer or the best scrape until October 29th probably. We hunted that area in October not seeing a buck. When you go in there in November, it’s crawling with bucks. Hunting a property for multiple years helps you learn it. We got to the point where we don’t even go in that area until the calendar says November. It saves us a lot of hunts that we don’t have to be in there and not see anything.

Let’s talk about traditional archery. You said that you feel like a predator. Let’s talk about how you started off with your dad. You shot your first deer with a recurve then you went to a compound. What’s important to you? What are some of the tips you want to share with the readers about not going backward, but changing it up and leaving the compound at home up close and personal?

When I grew up, at the age of 8 or 7, I shot 8 or 10 groundhogs with it. My first deer was with the recurve bows. I went with a compound for several years and in 2014, I was sitting in the stand and I killed two does within five minutes with that compound. I smoked and they went 50 yards and fell over. In that morning, I’ve got the feeling of almost being too easy. I was like, “Wow.” That got me the recurve. I picked up a recurve and I started practicing with it. I was able to harvest two mature does with it. I got my compound out, I looked through the peep sight and it feels dizzy. I liked the open natural feeling of working and the arrow magically goes there. People might think that it’s something special, but if you have the mental and physical coordination to throw a baseball, football or frisbee. Any of those got the same muscles and mental capacity you need to shoot a recurve bow. It’s nothing rocket science behind it.

Practice is a lot. Every time I would call him, “How are you doing?” “I’m doing the recurve.” It’s five days a week. We went frog digging and he used his recurve. He was shooting frog with a recurve. That’s how he’s been practicing.

One thing I’ve learned is I did not practice in the treestand. There was a morning and I was up probably pushing 30 feet. This platform is about 25 feet and I had a deer within ten yards of me. Four different deer that I shot right through their back. I’m just a couple of inches over their back, left and right. It’s perfect right over the back. That’s not easy to do by the way, because it’s like an elite group that I put myself into. I call it the 4×9 group because I missed four deers by 9:00. I’ve got this thinking in practice and research a little bit and that arrow goes high. That’s super angled and I want to go high. I’ve been practicing from a treestand. I’ve got one hang-on on my backyard. I’m optimistic that I’m going to be able to correct that. That’s one thing that was educational. For compounds, 60 to 70 pounds is not uncommon, but my recurve is 45, so I’ve shot a deer with it. If you’re starting out at 40 to 45 pounds, that’s all you need because you’ll develop bad habits if you get too much weight. That’s something to think about. I’m passionate and I’m to the point where I would rather fill my tag and hunt with a recurve every day than hunt with a compound and fill that tag. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s such a fulfilling feeling to be able to do that. I’m blessed. God’s blessed me.

Are you members of Pope and Young?

If you haven't already seen matured deer, you weren't in the right place. Share on X

I’ve got to do that would qualify, but I’ve not registered them.

Are you members though?

No, we’ll look into that.

Jim Willems has been on the show twice and he’s quite a guy. He’s traveling around the world hunting and I was reading a copy of Pope and Young and Fair Chase. I read the stories of that one guy Marv Clynke out here in Colorado who’s famous. The guy is unbelievable. He shot everything that is ever killed with a traditional bow. He did kill a lot of stuff. There was some great stories that I’ve heard from him about stalking and getting up close and personal. Jim Willems, who is the President, had a good piece about all archers. I’m giving a little shout-out for Pope and Young because it’s important that all archers need to be a member. We’re a “dying breed” if you will, in actuality because we’re not recruiting enough young kids. It’s $25 and it doesn’t cost that much, but the benefits of supporting our sport are huge.

I appreciate that and we will look into that, for sure. One other thing that crosses to mind with the recurve is I stand high to what I get in. I would rather be from a 10 to 15-foot range with a lot of branches on a tree that’s only 5 or 6 inches in diameter rather than a tree that’s 18 to 20 inches in diameter. Being close to the ground makes that angle less dramatic. Also, a lot of guys need to feel the recurve and I limit myself to fifteen. I want that shot to be a slam dunk before I even put it on the string. I’ve no doubt in my mind that arrow is going to go through the lungs or I don’t even put tension on the string.

We have a deal worked out where I’ll film him with a recurve on the opening day. I was like, “I’m filming you, but I’m taking my bow in at least three yards where I know you won’t shoot it.” He’s like, “That’s fine.” We had this ravine in front of us feel out through our left and there was a path that was leading right down to an open shot for him. These free does come right down the path and instead of coming down to us, they’d build into the ravine. I’d already arranged, but it was 30 yards and I’m like, “We’ll take the last one.” He’s like, “Do it.” I accidentally bumped my camera so I didn’t get the shot on camera. I’m mad at myself, but I’d also spend a lot. I practice from a stand because I kept on hitting deer high. Even with a compound, you can get up in there and practice. I practiced my shot. It was double lung, 30 yards and crash. If you’ve got a raker buddy, go out with them, and then work out a deal. Wherever his range ends, that’s where yours begins. You’ve got to work on a deal.

You have to shoot them before I get close to them.

When you think about young people, and we just talked about a little bit about the importance of recruitment, what are your thoughts? I know Travis, you’re a family ministry pastor. There are going to be a lot of kids there. How do you share about hunting to the kids that you come in contact with?

Get them into the woods if they have any interest at all. One of the students, he was coming back to church and his parents weren’t there initially. He started coming back and I said, “Do you like to hunt?” He’s like, “Yeah.” I took him back home with me to the deer drive, which he killed a buck and doe. That was getting him in and then he and I started bow hunting the next year. Just taking kids, you’ve got to be selfless like, “I want to kill a buck and I want to put it on the wall,” but which is more important? Doing that or taking a kid with me? Initially, during that hunt, I might be giving up that opportunity to shoot that buck, but I’ll do that any day. We took out some boys and some other people turkey hunting. A kid got his first bird. It’s a boy out of Riley. I got it on film. We had these jakes come in and he shot one. That feeling of hoping that they get their first animal and being able to join them on the hunt, that’s where it’s at. You get them in the woods and give them that experience. That’s what it’s all about.

Once they’ve experienced that, they have that adrenaline rush on fulfilling and killing a buck and they want more. We’re getting them that first experience and hopefully, the second experience. I have multiple bows. If you do and you have a youngster that’s interested, they probably won’t be able to purchase their own equipment. Let them borrow a bow for a season. You don’t take it over to him in June or July. Get them set up and then let them borrow it. That’s a good thing to do.

My hometown has a homecoming and they have booths downtown. You set up a booth and people come by. One of the boys is like, “Can I join your booth?” I’m like, “Yeah.” We were talking to people. We had our booth set up and Riley’s right there with us chatting along. He’s pumped because we made a 2017 highlight video. We put it on YouTube and showed it to everybody at the homecoming. He’s on the highlight videos. In times, you’ve got to learn to be selfless. If all you care about is you going out, being a solo hunter and putting bucks on the wall, that’s fine if that’s what you want to do. I find it more fulfilling to get some of these young guys out and to mentor them. Part of being in the Christian life is being at a disciple and making disciples. While I’m out there, we’re not just talking about hunting, we’re talking about life.

When you’re talking about hunting from stands, have you ever hunted out of just the ground with your recurve? Have you ever thought about that?

WTR 419TT | Deer Hunting Techniques

Yeah, I do, but I’m afraid of the movement. I have not found the perfect position. I’ve only hunted it a couple of times. I liked hunting on the ground because you don’t have noises that clang in your stand. You can just sneak in there and plop down. It’d be in your face type of stuff.

He sent me a text and said, “Should I hunt on the ground?” I was like, “Do whatever you want, but I can’t.” I love the feeling of being 20 or 25 feet up of that deer, even if it’s a little spike walking underneath your stand, he’s looking around and he doesn’t have a clue you’re there. That to me is enjoyable. I love that aspect of it. Hunting on the ground, I also like to be able to see. I’m a person who’s not the most disciplined. Sometimes I’ll move and I move around. I like that freedom of being up 25 feet, looking around and see them come in. We are trying to video our hunts and it’s hard to video on the ground.

I have nothing to say on the video part, but on the hunting part, if you get yourself with ghillie suit and you’d be surprised that deer will come right by you. I’ve had deer on the ground and I didn’t shoot them, but they’re coming down this trail oblivious that I’m there. I’m not that good of a hunter, but I was on the right trail and there was a lot of deer and they were going someplace. The first buck I ever saw, I wasn’t on the ground, but I was ten feet up a tree and he walked underneath me.

I did shoot 135-inch at one point. We rattled him and he was mad. He saw it. He runs us off and checked if we were a doe. I don’t think he even realized humans exist, so he was jacked up. He came right in.

The thing is the versatility of being adaptive sitting on a ridge or sitting across from the ridge, spotting those deer and you can slip in and there’s no sound or anything. You’ve got to play the wind. Scent control is huge, but once you play the wind, you pick the right tree and put your back against it, they’ll never see you draw. They’ll come right by. It’s a different mentality, especially with the recurve because you’re talking ten-yard shots.

That’s what I like, slam dunk shots. I’m trying to go and get a turkey. I’m going to use it and we’re definitely hunting on the ground. I’ll try to get a turkey with the recurve and see how that goes.

That’s a little harder because they’ve got better eyes than deer. There’s usually more than one walking down the trail.

You might get a ground blind to get in for that.

Why don’t you get some shout-outs to friends, neighbors and all the rest?

We want to thank everybody that supports us. As many of you guys know that do support us, we are selling some t-shirts to help our ministry. We’re going to have them at the homecoming. It’s $100 set up at the booth. I get shirts and things like that. If you go to SheddingLightOd.com, to our Facebook page or Instagram, you can find a link to support us. We’ve got different kinds of shirt colors, green, blue and all that with our logo on it.

We’ve got hats for $20. We appreciate the people that support us. We want this. We don’t care if we ever make it on TV. That’s not our goal. We call it shedding the light and we want to shed the light of the gospel and tell people, “Hunting is awesome, but your relationship with the Lord, that’s it. You’d kill the biggest buck of your life, a 200-inch buck and hang him the wall, but into your life when you pass away, where are you headed? Do you know where you’re going? Do you know what the point in your life is?” We like to encourage people and go, “It’s awesome to be in the woods and love that, but it’s better to have that relationship with the Lord.” That’s what we encourage people to do. We’re on YouTube as well.

On behalf of Whitetail Rendezvous, this has been fun sitting and chit chat with you guys. We shared some big button nuggets, tips and techniques, and found out a little bit more about Shedding Light Outdoors. Thank you for being on the show.

Thank you, Bruce.

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We’re heading to Central Nebraska and we’re going to connect with Jason Obermiller. Jason is a teacher and got a Masters in Biology. More important than that, he loves chasing whitetails. He and his partner, Eric, started a company called Rackology. Rackology is an attractant and minerals all in one bag. Jason is going to talk about the importance of feeding and supplementing deer during the prime growing season. It might surprise you when that growing season is for bucks. It might not be what you think.

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