Dave Schuler is what you could call a hunter who’s been reborn. He hunted while he was young but had to stop when he served his country. He got back to it after going on an Arizona elk hunt. Dave became involved in the Arizona Elk Society and started Twisted Juniper Outdoors. He shares programs for kids that encourages them to be more involved in the outdoors and enumerates programs involving hunting that helps wounded veterans assimilate into society. Encouraging you to get involved as well, Dave also gives other foundations that support the hunting community.
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Hunter Reborn Twisted Juniper Outdoors – Dave Schuler
We welcome Dave Schuler to the show. Dave’s going to talk to us about being a reborn hunter. What’s that all about? When he was a young kid, he used to go hunting with his friends, neighbors, father and cousins. He took his BB gun out and did some hunting. He took his .22 out and did some hunting. He took his shotgun out and did some hunting. While that change, he got into the military and he drifted away from hunting, then a friend of his invited him on an Arizona elk hunt. Anybody who has hunted elk in Arizona, you know that’s one heck of a hunt. They’d get primed up. He picked up a bow, started shooting his bow and started putting in for that Arizona tag. He also got involved on the conservation side of the business and is very active in the Arizona Elk Society. He also started his little business called Twisted Juniper Outdoors. Dave’s got a lot going for him and I can’t wait to share his story with you.
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I’m meeting with Dave Schuler. He hails out of the Phoenix area, but he’s done a little traveling in his life. We’re going to talk about a couple of things. We’re going to talk about the hunting tradition. We’re going to talk about giving and we’re also going to talk about Twisted Juniper Outdoors. Dave, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
How does a guy from the Midwest get up to Phoenix and figure out that he wanted to start hunting again?
How I get from out there to out here is after high school, I went to the Marine Corps. Right after I served my time and got an honorable discharge, I ended up settling here in Phoenix because my wife at the time, her family was here. We wanted to have my oldest son the time to get to know her family and his grandparents. Also, I was going to go to ASU to be a physical-ed teacher. After a handful of years, life had other plans. Here I am with two children in Arizona and happily remarried. I’m taking Arizona for what it’s worth and it’s some of the more beautiful landscape that I’ve seen. That’s pretty much how I’ve ended up here.
We talked about some of those elk sheds up on your wall. They’re unique and one looks like a sphere. Where did you find those?
Good hunting is being able to get out there and experience the outdoors and taking it for what the outdoors gives you. Share on XThree out of the four years I’ve gone elk hunting up there. My friend and I both successfully filled our tags. I was up there on the Mogollon Rim area. Ironically, the sphere shed is what I call it. I used that as a logo for a shirt that I designed. It’s something that you won’t see that often.
Let’s talk about the hunting tradition and you drifted away and left it. All of a sudden, you’re back into it. How did that all work out?
I grew up hunting and fishing in the sense that I grew up in Cincinnati, the Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky area. I grew up on it because my dad did that. He was passing down the tradition that was passed on to him. I spend my summers fishing for catfish, and the winters and falls for rabbits, squirrels and deer if I could. I didn’t do a lot of it through my teen years because I was involved in sports. Whenever I had the chance, I was out there doing something. I was able to bag my first whitetail with a muzzleloader which is not something most people can say these days. After the Marine Corps, after I got out, I settled here in Arizona. At the time, the opportunity here in Arizona wasn’t something that I was aware of. Growing up in a private land-atmosphere, I was never aware of the opportunities that were here in Arizona as far as the public lands.
In the past couple of years, what kick-started the vigor and the interest of going back into the hunting and fishing, I had done some fishing here and there in some of the community ponds and some of the smaller lakes with my kids. As far as the hunting, for a wedding present, my good friend that I’ve known for many years since I’ve lived here in Arizona, he got drawn for elk. For whatever reason through an accident, he broke his phone and he lost his direction to my wedding. He no-showed me and he felt that, so he invited me to go on to elk hunt with him. I call it one of those happy accidents because it kicked that fire and got me back into doing what I grew up once.
Here I am, especially now with my children. I have a son who’s fifteen and he’s heavily involved in sports like I was. I have my younger son as well who loves fishing. He’s not so much ready to go hunting yet. I’m not going to force it on him until he’s ready. Having kids at the age that they are, it relates a lot to what I went through growing up. That’s what a lot of people go through, especially with their kids. Having my sons around and getting them involved in programs which have also helped expose me and educate me to a lot of the other organizations and offerings that Arizona has. That’s where we’re at, it’s like a hunter reborn.
When you lived in Cincinnati, Ohio area, did you ever hunt whitetails?
Yeah, whenever I got the chance. It wasn’t successful. I was so much younger, but my dad has got 100 acres in Northern Kentucky. I had a conversation with him a few months ago or whenever the season is excellent. He lives in zone one, so he can bag four does a year and he’s always telling me, “I got another bag of jerky out your way.” I grew up on it. I bag my first whitetail with a muzzleloader, which was fun. I grew up knowing it. In Arizona, there’s not so much. There’s the Coues whitetail in the Southern portion, but I haven’t gotten back around. I was going from them. I’m going mule deer hunting. I got an archery tag that I’ll be heading out. A few weekends were doe. I grew up hunting whitetail and going for a Coues deer. Whitetail is on the list. What’s also on the list is once my son gets out of high school, I want to go back to Kentucky and take them whitetail hunting, so that way, you can have three generation hunt.
Where are you going to do deer hunting?
Up on the Mogollon Rim. It’s the same zone that I go elk hunting. My friend and I would go out elk hunting so we know the area pretty well. Every time we’re looking for elk, we’re always finding deer. When we go up there looking for deer, we find the elk. Hopefully, we can get everything on the same page this time.
Is that an archery hunt or muzzleloader? What kind of hunting?
It was over the counter archery. A lot of the zones right now are over the counter archery so that’s what we’re doing. We didn’t get drawn for the prime rut hunt, but there’s a lot of good hunting, especially in Northern Arizona over the counter. We’re going to try to take advantage of it.
What does good hunting mean to you?
It’s getting out there and having an opportunity. It’s like what Fred Bear says, “If you focus on the kill rather than the hunt, you lose the perspective.” To paraphrase that a little bit, good hunting is being able to get out there and experience the outdoors and taking it for what the outdoors gives you.
You’re archery hunting. What kind of bow do you use?
I grew up on Bear and I haven’t found a reason to stray away from that. I know a lot of people say PSE, Hoyt or Mathews, but I shoot Bear. I like it and that’s what I’m going to go with for now. It’s like if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
What’s your favorite technique when you’re hunting mule deer?
Out here in Arizona is you’re going to have to do a lot of spot-and-stalk and also, you have to do a lot of glassing, which is something that was foreign to me growing up in the Midwest where you sit in a treestand and wait for the deer to come to you or on a blind. Out here, you don’t have that opportunity. That’s the best way we’re going to approach it, especially since the landscape was different. You have to tailor your hunt with what we have and that’s pretty much the best way is to do your glassing and spot-and-stalk where you can.
You’ve got plans to elk hunt. You’ve got plans to archery hunt and mule deer. That all brings you right into the game. What’s the driving force for you to be a hunter?
The spot-and-stalk and the glassing are probably going to be the best approach to elk rather than the treestands in Arizona. Share on XThe best way to put it, especially the way things are going these days, is primal instinct. I feel more one with nature and especially with things are going and Arizona is becoming the second most urbanized state in the union. The best way to put it is passive domestication and I don’t feel like being forced to get my food from the grocery stores. I want to have a little bit more control over that. It’s being one with the outdoors, that’s what pushes me to do it. This was an intrinsic feeling but it’s hard to explain that people understand especially if you are a hunter or an angler. It’s hard to put into words, but it’s being one with nature. You find yourself when you’re alone is probably a good way to put it as well.
What about the boys? Do they want to be with dad, so if dad hunts, they’re going to hunt? Do they understand what hunting is?
My older son does. I got him his own bow a couple of years ago only because an ex-coworker of mine has to bet me $20 a shot at the trap shoot. I ended up walking away with $400. He choked in the second round. It was quite funny. They grow up hunting and fishing and whenever we’re going back to Kentucky, they have the opportunity to do that. My oldest son understands it. My younger son, he’s got Asperger’s so you have to tailor it to what he’s comfortable. He likes bow hunting. He likes to go fishing and he’s accurate when shooting a .22 or a BB gun.
As far as the hunting, it’s almost like trying to train a squirrel to do a backflip as far as the patience. I tailor that to how he is ready, but he loves being outdoors. Seeing their interests if I take them to a youth camp. They both have been to a youth camp and outdoor skill camps, to have their joy in their experiences. There are a lot of electronics and get them away from the city, back out and do nature works. Kids can be kids and have fun and do some skills that they might not be able to have the luxury of doing here in the suburban environment.
It’s good to see investing your time with your kids and helping them understand what being outdoors is all about. You do a lot of work with conservation groups, the Arizona Elk Foundation, I believe the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Tell me about why that’s important to you.
I’ve been a member of the Arizona Elk Society for a few years now. I haven’t been active until about this few months. They’ve put on a very good program called Wild in the City where it’s a one-day outdoor skills camp for urban youth that don’t get the opportunity to go hunting and fishing so much. They’ve put on clinics where they can make wildlife identification like tracks, glassing, archery, air gun, depending on where they’re at, outdoor skills and outdoor bracelets. That is something. The Arizona Elk Society has its hands in a lot of stuff. It’s not just related to elk, but the wildlife and conservation in general. They have Sawyer program where they make some of the underbrush and riparian areas as well as us riparian repairs, water catchment repairs and sawyers.
They have a program called Hunt for Heroes where they take wounded veterans that have above 40% disability that can’t get out and do the outdoor experiences. They will have tags donated to them where they can go out and take disabled veterans hunting and help assimilate them back into the world and find a sense of meaning, which is very good. The list goes on and on. I would recommend people to go to the ArizonaElkSociety.org to check out a lot more about what they do. Also through that, I’ve got to know other people through other organizations like the Phoenix Varmint Callers. They are a smaller group but their primary focus is predators.
Unfortunately, they had lost a board member over the weekend who ended up passing away. His name was Ray Evridge. I didn’t know him too much but he was at a lot of the youth camps that the Phoenix Varmint Callers partnered with the Elk Society. He was always there making a lot of wildlife identification. I didn’t get to know him too much. From what I could tell, he was a great guy who put his heart and soul into conservation, mentoring and teaching. He was working on Hunt for Heroes as well for wounded veterans in partnership with the Elk Society. That’s something in his passing, the upside in the Phoenix Varmint Callers and some other organizations are going to try to keep his work alive and try to keep that going.
On the more national front is Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. I’ve gotten involved with them. They have an Arizona chapter. Growing up on the East Coast, I was surrounded by private land. This whole public land was completely foreign to me. Looking it up and thinking some of the numbers of the public land, especially in Arizona, it’s over 32 million, where Kentucky has about 800,000 public land acres. Ohio has 650,000 public acres. It’s foreign to me. Knowing that all this public land is accessible to anybody is something that once you realized, you don’t want to lose it. You’re taking that for granted. That’s the reason why I tried to join the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and try to stay abreast and stay involved at the national level. Those were some of the organizations that I’ve joined some local front and then also try to stay abreast in some of the national fronts as well. Knowing the resources that are at our disposal, you don’t want to lose sight of that.
Let’s talk about Twisted Juniper Outdoors. It sounds like that was an offshoot for all of these conservation programs.
Yeah, it was. I don’t have much time. I’m spread pretty thin through taking my sons hunting and also two of my wife’s younger brothers. I got them involved and trying to work them into the mix slowly. I also work and being a dad. My son is into football and he’s a varsity wrestler in sophomore. My time is always going to go towards my family first and hunting second. Twisted Juniper Outdoors started out to be something like a hunting and fishing page. It’s my activities with them. It started to morph into something a little bit more. It was a way of giving back to some of the foundations and the organizations that helped me get to where I’m at right now. It was like a soft opening, a website going on with some shirts. 25% of the profit will be going to organizations for each shirt that I have right now. I don’t have much time. I don’t have much money, but this is something that I feel I can help give back and try to help other programs that have helped me. Hopefully, they can help out other people along the way.
What are some of the programs that would be the recipient of some funds that come through you?
It’s the Arizona Elk Society and Hunt for Heroes. Being a veteran, that means something to me, so I help those. I have a lot of friends that were wounded veterans. Fisher House, to name some of the few, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Arizona Game and Fish. The list goes on and on, Arizona Elk Society, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. There are a lot of programs out there that helped me get to where I’m at. Being through a veteran and also conservation locally and especially with someone on the national front, that will help give back in some way and also education and information dissemination as well.
When you think about elk hunting there in Arizona, are there any similarities to hunting whitetail deer?
Not really because with mule deer, the methods are the same. A lot of people would love it if you could sit in a treestand and have an elk come to you, but it’s doesn’t work that way. The similarities based on topography don’t afford us to have that option from what I’ve learned. I would assume the spot-and-stalk and the glassing are probably going to be the best approach to elk rather than the treestands, especially with the landscape here.
How far are you spotting elk from it? Is it 1 mile or 2 miles?
If you have a good enough scope, you’re going a handful of miles. You decide if it’s worth the trek. Is it a possible trek? With a fine scope, you’re looking at a couple of miles. With a pair of binoculars, maybe one. How far it is and how good your scopes are is going to dictate that.
You mentioned if you’ve seen elk, you get to decide if you want to go get them. How do you do that?
Some people like to laugh like how big is the ravine down there that you get to go through. How long is it going to take you over there? Where’s the truck? There are a lot of things. There are a lot of factors, but it also depends on what day of the season. If it’s the first day if I’m going to pass, is it going to be the last day, you might want to fill the tag and get it everywhere. As far as what I’ve come across, there are several factors. The terrain to get there and is it by yourself? The temperature and are you going to be able to pull the meat and can get it out as well? Those are some of the things that I’ve come across.
Hunting is a primal instinct. You feel more at one with nature. Share on XPeople have told me that there are a lot of roads in Arizona and in some places, they’re miles square sections. How about in the area you hunt, are you close to roads?
The area I know is a national forest. There are some roads. That’s one thing without, especially during the rut and post-rut. They try to get away from those roads. That can make some of your hiking a little bit more treacherous. There are some areas where you’re hiking pretty well. I’ve assisted with some of those. I didn’t have a tag myself. There can be on national forest area where there are some roads, but even then, there are a lot of monstrous draws and whatnot. I think a lot of that also depends on where you go. Where I’m at the northern part is flat sagebrush, but the southern tip is a lot of valleys and draws, which can be rough. It depends on that.
I’ve enjoyed this conversation. We’ve covered a lot of information. Do you have any questions for me or anything else you’d like to share with my audience?
As far as the information that goes and whatnot, the best things I would like to say to people is to get involved with your local organizations in your home state, especially on the national front as well. Pay attention, those would probably be the best things I’d have to say as far as that.
Before we leave, Dave wants to get some shout-outs to friends, neighbors and groups. Dave, have at it.
I’d like to say definitely to you for giving out this show. You bring to the forefront some of the common people out there, the average day man that’s out there. You give them a voice over. I appreciate that, first and foremost. I’d like to give a shout-out to the guys at Big Game Utah, Dave. He’s a cool guy. He’s a little small market as they’re trying to get up and going as well. People might want to check out Ryan Bashir, he’s an up and coming country artist down there in Nashville. He was an avid hunter as well, so check him out. Those would probably be some of the best, some of the shout-out that I like to give out. I mentioned Arizona Elk Society, Phoenix Varmint Callers, the guys in the Arizona chapter, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. Those are the ones off the top of my list. Anyone out there that has the heart and anything that’s helped me. Not everybody knows everything, so get out there and help people.
Thank you so much for that. Dave Schuler, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. From thousands of followers to the show, it’s the people like you that make it an interesting and informative show. We’re a little bit different and I think that’s good. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Important Links:
- Arizona Elk Society
- Twisted Juniper Outdoors on Instagram
- Bear
- Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
- Wild in the City
- Sawyer program
About Dave Schuler
Dave Schuler joined the Marine Corp after high school, and after being honorably discharged, found himself living in the greater Phoenix, AZ area with a new wife and son. Life got hectic and it seemed that the closest that he got to anything outdoors related was watching Bill Dance on TV.
Luckily, he could get back to Kentucky every summer and get back it for a week or two.
Fast forward a decade or so, a good friend of him got drawn for archery elk in northern Arizona, and as a wedding gift, invited him to go along. Needless to say, this “pulled the trigger” and reignited his passion for the outdoors once again. He pulled some money together, got a bow and haven’t looked back since.
His love for hunting took some time off but know he is so passionate about the sport that it’s on his mind 24/7
Shout out to Arizona Elk Society, AZ Chapter of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and Twisted Juniper Outdoors LLC.