#450 Mule deer bucks are tough

Mule deer bucks may be tough, but that isn’t enough to keep women hunter Chelsie Wilkey at bay. Growing up in a family of hunters, Chelsie Wilkey, has gone from a student of hunting to a teacher. She’s active in empowering huntresses in the industry. She’s part of a team that makes sure women in the field have a safe place to share and discuss hunting without the fear of backlash. She shares some of the hunting gears that she uses and sponsors, and why she sponsors them. In this episode, Chelsie raises awareness on the difference of hunters and huntress, both in public treatment and equipment. She gives a subtle reminder on why it’s important to be grateful to animals that are harvested.

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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

Mule deer bucks are tough – Chelsie Wilkey

We’re heading out to Utah and we’re going to talk to Chelsie Wilkey. She’s a good friend of mine and also being sponsored these days by Vanguard and Skeleton Optics. She’s on the team of Reel Camo Girl. Chelsie is one fine huntress. She’s a lady of the outdoors. She loves to hunt with her husband in Central Utah. She went up in the mountains and hunted elk, didn’t get one, but her husband sure got a nice mule deer buck with his muzzleloader. She’s going to go out and she’s going to hunt up a fine mule deer for herself. Chelsie brings a lot to the game and a lot to the table. You’re going to enjoy our discussion about women in the outdoors with Chelsie Wilkey.

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We’re heading out to Nephi, Utah. That’s not whitetail land, but it’s Chelsie Wilkey’s land. She is sponsored by Vanguard and Skeleton Optics, as well as being a Pro Staff for Reel Camo Girl. Chelsie, welcome to the show.

Thanks. It’s nice to be back.

It was a coincidence, but on Facebook, Chelsie and I became friends. As we were talking about it, time goes fast because here we are again and we’re going to do a follow-up interview with Chelsie because she’s been busy. I wanted to touch base with her and see what’s going on. We’re going to kick the show off and chatting about women in the outdoors. Chelsie, take that away.

I’ve hunted my whole life, but I started this whole journey about 1.5 years ago by sharing my views about hunting and stuff on social media. I then applied for a team member position with Reel Camo Girl. We celebrated our one year as team members. It all came fast and big things have happened. I’ve been to the SHOT Show. I’ve met some amazing people and some amazing women that also share my same views. To meet women that share the same passion as I do is incredible because we’re far and few between.

Let’s talk about those passions. Where does your compass take you in the world of women in the outdoors?

I like to do my own thing and then share it with everybody else. I don’t even have a game plan when I go out. I’m going to take my gun and see what happens, and then share my struggles, my successes with everybody. That way, we get talking and we can learn from each other. That is what it’s all about, it’s learning from each other. As women, we don’t have the same equipment made for us as men and all that. We figure out how to make stuff work and it’s nice to talk with each other to get an idea of how everybody else does it.

Let’s go back to what you said, “Women who think the same way I do.” Is that specifically in hunting? Is that in women in the outdoors? Help me understand what you mean by that.

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It’s everything in general. They have the same wildlife conservation views. They love that they know where their food comes from, their meat is fresh. They love the experience as well. It’s not about going out and harvesting an animal. It’s about going out and enjoying it. They have the same view that they feel at home when they’re out adventuring. They feel the same way in their hearts as I do and it’s nice to meet other people that feel that same way.

Let’s stay right there because I know Kirstie Pike. She wrote a blog on her site about the bashing that women get. I don’t get bashed. That doesn’t happen to me. Do I put a lot of grips and grins on? Yeah, when I put something down. There they are. Why are women completely trying to rip each other apart? They’re still women but they have completely opposite views. They’re mean and it’s ugly.

If you post a picture of you with your animal that you’ve harvested, for some reason, people view it as different than when a guy does it. I’ve gotten death threats before because I posted a picture of a spike that I harvested with a muzzleloader. I don’t get it. Women are vicious. When one person starts commenting, everybody flocks, all the anti-people flock. It’s hard. Jana Walker posted a picture of her teaching a kid about how to clean an animal and the comments on it were horrible. Some of my team members on Reel Camo Girl tagged us in it and we filtered in a few positive thoughts to break it up. It was a comment after comment of horrible comments about this little girl. I don’t know how old she was, but she wasn’t very old. I’m like, “It’s okay. It will be okay. You do you and you worry about you.” She’s learning something that will help her the rest of her life. It’s amazing, but people are ruthless and it’s scary.

I thought about the farm ladies. Not that long ago, the ‘50s, ‘60s, even into the ‘70s, they killed everything that they ate. If it was farm animal, chicken’s head comes off, the pig comes apart, the rabbits come apart, and the cows come apart. If the husband brought home some game, he dressed it in the field, but still it was a family affair and they kept the tallow. They used every single part of that. It’s like Native American people. They used every single part of that animal and nothing went to waste.

I’m trying to get my arms around why women are so ugly, call it what you want, for other women doing what they’ve done for ages, decades and decades. It’s social media that’s blown it up. They go, “That’s terrible. Don’t eat meat.” That’s okay if you want to be a vegetarian, go be a vegetarian. The thing I don’t understand that comes down, and you said it well, “You be you and I’ll be me. That’s the way it is, but at least respect me. You don’t have to like what I do. You don’t have to appreciate it, but at least respect me as a woman.” That’s my thought.

We’ve had people come to us all the time as a team with Reel Camo Girl wondering like, “How do you handle them?” The easiest way to handle it is to delete the comment and block them. Don’t feed their fire. Don’t fuel them with anything else. Delete the comment and block them. In that way, there’s one less comment on your feed that’s hateful. If you don’t keep fueling them, then they won’t keep coming back.

I understand from a guy friend, he says, “It’s crazy with the vegans because they’ll come in cloaked, ‘This person is good,’ and then all of a sudden a harvest photo, they’re dressing, taking the game apart, and they’ll completely blow up.” It’s a war in my opinion. Especially for ladies, it’s a war.

It’s crazy how a simple photo can blow up and become something that it’s not supposed to be. We’re posting photos of our harvests because we’re grateful for them. That’s going to feed throughout the winter and these people think that we’re murderers. I could go to the store and buy some beef, but is it going to taste as good as something that I put the hard work in for? Probably not, but it will still taste good. People don’t understand that. They don’t understand that we work hard for this and the pictures aren’t meant to be demeaning. They’re meant to show thanks that, “My hard work finally paid off. My family won’t starve this winter.”

Sam Ayres, he’s the host of Living Country in the City. If you haven’t been on his show, listen to his show and get in touch with him. He lives in Hollywood and Vine, and he hunts. In fact, he went up to Montana. I don’t think he got an elk, but he had a heck of a hunt. Needless to say, when he’s out and he sets up concerts across the country, he’s with a lot of different people. They look at him and they say something about meat and stuff. He says, “I’m the original. I’m probably the only guy that you know in town that gets his own organic meat.” That’s how he starts it. He plays up the organic. “It’s organic.” He plays it up and they go, “How do you do that?” “I kill them.”

He’s completely country in the city and he says, “It’s a huge struggle.” He says that his organic line worked well. I’ve been eating organically since 1966, before grouse, squirrels and rabbits. As a kid, ten years old, I shot my first grouse. I’ve been eating that way for a long time. I don’t know if it’s good for me or bad for me. I’ve been eating organic. My freezer is almost empty, I got to go whitetail hunt and put some more meat in the freezer. I’ve got a couple of trophies and I’d like to look at them because they’re memorable. That’s why I have trophies because those are the memories. I’ll pass it on to my grandkids and they’ll go, “Gramps, tell me about this deer,” then I relive it. “It was 22 degrees below zero in Saskatchewan five days in a row. This buck came through and I drilled him. I was so happy in my life. It was cold.” I can tell that story. You’re laughing and I’m laughing. We’re having a good time because of reliving that memory. That’s good for me because I got football memories and I got all these memories with my grandkids, my wife, and all this thing. That’s what we got, especially when you got to my age. We got all these classically wonderful memories. I like that.

That’s how my grandpa is. He’ll take his gun one year and the next year he’ll just take his bullets. He’s not in it to shoot anything. He’s there to have a good time with the family.

We all are. I started hunting the same farm that I’m going to hunt in 1966. That’s remarkable. We have a bunkhouse that we built. My buddy bought a lake house. We’ll be spending Thanksgiving with him at his lake house. He’s the guy that took me originally to his family farm many years ago. If you read this and don’t understand hunting, spend many years on and off with the same guy on the same farm. Chasing decades of offspring of the same buck you killed many years ago. Think about that. Put your arms around that. I’m lucky. I’m blessed. Tell me what sponsorship means. You’ve got Vanguard and Skeleton Optics. What does that mean?

I use their stuff. I don’t use anybody else’s stuff. I’m all-inclusive with them. I mounted my new Vanguard rifle scope on my .270 Winchester and shot it with my grandpa. I got it all dialed in. With the Skeleton Optics, I don’t go anywhere without sunglasses. I wear sunglasses everywhere. I wear contacts. I have to wear sunglasses. To find something that was excellent that worked for me and to be sponsored by them and be able to wear them proudly is great. People think as sponsorships you get paid. It’s not the case. You don’t always have to get paid to like a product. I always get asked, “How do you get into something like that?” If you find something you like, share it. Sometimes good things come out of it. I have been lucky enough and blessed enough to use products I love and how it comes together and that’s what I use.

How do they get ahold of those? Where are their websites?

It’s Vanguard Outdoors. They’re on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. You can find them all there. They love you to share pictures of them in your Instagram Stories. They absolutely love that. Same with Skeleton Optics. It’s Skeleton Optics on their web page. They’re also on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. They absolutely love you to share pictures as well. They want to see you using their products in a unique way. If you go out and you’re out fishing, snap a picture of you using their product because they absolutely love to see people enjoy their products.

What does Reel Camo Girl do? How can people view them?

Reel Camo Girl is also on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It’s a community for women to share their experiences. Brenda works talking about an exciting app feature with the GoWild app so you guys can share your stories and stuff through there. We’re going to transition into a community. We’ll still have branch champions, team members and all that to help guide and be role models for you guys. We want to get into hearing more about other women in the outdoors. We want to connect with everybody. Reel Camo Girl is a way for everybody that enjoys picking huckleberries to hunting elk. We can join together and share our experiences. It’s a good positive community. We’re not in it to bash on anyone. There’s enough of that. We talked about that. There’s enough of it out there. That’s what Reel Camo Girl is about is to have a positive environment to know that you can go there and share your experiences and know you’re not going to get backlash for it.

Thank you so much for that. Ladies, there are a couple of Reel Camo Girls. Check them out and see if they have something for you. They probably do. You make your own decision. It’s important for women in the outdoors to support other women in the outdoors. I liked how Chelsie said it, “You pick huckleberries or you’re skinning out elk.” It doesn’t matter. You’re women and you’re enjoying the outdoors. There’s the common bond as far as I can see.

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If you enjoy the outdoors, it’s a place to be.

Let’s talk about what’s coming up. What you’re going to do, why are you going to do it and where are you going to do it.

I have a rifle tag for mule deer in the central mountain’s unit, a general season unit. We went and pulled our cameras and there wasn’t a thing on them. It was bad. We left the camera for three weeks through the muzzleloader hunt. My hubby shot a nice buck off the unit that I’m going to go hunt on. He was the second biggest buck we’ve been watching. He presented himself twice and stood there. You better take him or else you’re not going to see him again. There’s still dream buck out there though. It’s this big old 4×5 with a big 4-inch kicker off of his right side. He’s haunted us for years. I don’t know if having nothing on our cameras is a good sign or a bad sign. I’m going to wing it and we’re going to see what happens. We don’t have a game plan, but we’re going to go up and see what is going on and see if how many people are going to be there.

Are you hunting east of Nephi or west of Nephi?

It’s east of Nephi. I-15 freeway splits into two different units, there are the central mountains east and central mountains west units. I got a tag for the east unit this year.

Let people know, Nephi is 100 miles south of Salt Lake City or is it further?

It’s about 120 miles south of Salt Lake City if you want to be exact. It’s the dead center of the state, pretty close to the dead center of the state. When you go east, it’s mountains. When you go west, it’s desert. It depends on what you like to hunt.

How high are you going to be hunting in those mountains?

We’re not going to be too high. We’re only going to be about 7,000 feet, which when we hunt elk, we’re at about 10,000 feet. It’s a big difference but it’s supposed to snow.

My daughter lives in Laguna Niguel. This doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but it’s been 90 to 95 degrees in Orange County. It’s unbelievably hot. We need some more snow here. Pikes Peak had some snow. Now it’s all gone because we had 70-degree weather. We need that. The Midwest is waiting for the next cold front to come through to crank the bucks up. That’s for sure. This is all DIY public land, correct?

Yes, DIY public land. We set out tons of cameras and there is one little two-point on it, but I don’t even think he’s legal. His forks aren’t even above his ears. We’re not even going to look at him. He doesn’t even count as a buck. There were two sets of does and fawns and that was it on five cameras. Before the hunt started, we had a dream buck on our camera at least twice a week.

Is it the same area?

Yes.

How many seasons? You had archery and muzzleloader seasons, right?

We had archery and muzzleloader. Muzzleloader was packed with people. We were surprised. I got lucky and got the opening morning off of work. We went out and there were people everywhere. There were shots everywhere. We ended up being late. We slept in and got lucky and seen dream buck and the buck that my hubby harvested running away from people. We got lucky and cut down. We didn’t see dream buck again, but we did see the second biggest buck we’ve seen in there. You better take him or else we’re not going to see him again. We’re maybe going to go down there again. Maybe I’ll sleep in again. We’ll see.

Let’s talk about the terrain, 7,000 feet, is it juniper? Is it ponderosa pine or sagebrush?

It is a big old field of sagebrush. There are little pockets of oak brush. When you think sagebrush, you think like a little 2-foot brush. This is like 5-foot stuff that we’re walking through. You can’t see anybody. You can’t see 2 feet in front of you. You have to sit there and listen if you hear anything that might indicate there’s some deer. We’ll walk a few hundred feet and listen. I’ll jump to see if I can see above it, to see if he can see I’m hopping through the brush. Once you get into the oak brush, you can see a little bit better which isn’t much. When you get into the gullies where the oak brush is at then that’s your chance to see something.

Can you hunt ridges? I get flats where the sagebrush is. Sometimes, they go up the hills. Can you take your glass and stuff and spend time, put your butt on the ground and see what’s coming through?

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We do. We have done that. The flat is so big that the nearest ridge is 2 miles away. We’re looking at a little dot. That’s why the deer are down there. It’s because the oak brush and the sagebrush are so thick that they are hard to get out of there. They run right around you. There is an access road that if you catch the deer moving at the right time, you can see them start moving out of the oak brush to head for the water. We set up our cameras on the trail to the water. They must be taking a different trail to water because they must smell us. There have been too many people down there.

I’m trying to draw some parallels for the whitetail hunters that predominantly read this blog. You mentioned water. You mentioned trail cameras on the trails. You mentioned bad visibility. Let’s go back to your husband. How were you able to see both those bucks and he was able to get a shot?

We’re up on the access road. We were late, we slept in, a good 30 minutes late. That morning light when it’s not light but it’s not dark, it’s that awkward lighting. It was light enough that we were looking down into that flat from the access road and we’ve seen a glisten. I got out my binoculars and you see their antlers turn, and the glisten hit them just right. We got lucky is all and then we sat there and watched them walk through the sagebrush away from the people that were more south of them and got lucky to see where they were going and hiding out.

We walked down in there and my husband did miss this buck once. He missed it that day and then we walked down in there to see if there was any blood. Most of the deer in that area have been hanging out in that little gully because it’s hard to get to, it’s rough terrain to get to it and it smelled like deer. When you get down into this gully, it opens up. All the water runs down it so it’s not as heavily brushed. You get lucky and get some open spots where you can see the deer and then you get lucky because next to this public land is a wild horse farm. They take the wild horses off the west desert and then they feed them on their property. It is all open fields. If they do run down that fence line, you get lucky and get to see them there too. It’s knowing the area that you’re in and getting to know it well. We had been down there shed hunting and knew that there was an open area. We went for it and the next morning, it all came together.

I’m trying to visualize the terrain and equate it. Sometimes, we run the river bottom and you can’t see down there. The deer has to commit suicide to get up. He has to stop or hang upright on the river’s edge because if he comes out of the grass, willows and tag alders and then you can get a shot. It’s difficult. It’s fun. There’s a lot of deer down there. Whitetails aren’t much different in this scenario than mule deer because they need food, they need shelter and they need water. If you can pull that apart and you did it with your trail cameras and said, “They’re coming through here and here’s a trail.” You got cameras and then once the shooting started, they’re already starting to get pressure. They’re going to go into the roughest, worst, nastiest stop, hang out and move at night. They’re nocturnal a lot like our whitetails, that’s for sure. I’m not talking about high country mule deer. We’re talking 7,000 feet, oak brush and big sagebrush. Interesting, that’s good stuff.

It’s an interesting country.

How hot will be it on Saturday? You said snow.

It’s supposed to snow on Friday night, which finally we get a hunt where it’s going to snow the night before. The last time it snowed, I shot a big buck. I shot a 2×4 on the opening morning of the rifle hunt. I’m hoping it snows good. I’m fine with freezing for a couple of hours if we see some movement. It’s supposed to be 17 degrees that night up on the mountain and then opening morning is going to be 20 to 25. It’s going to be chilly.

How many people do you expect to be out in the same area you’re out?

In 2016, there weren’t that many. We were surprised. In 2017, it was the turnout. People finally realized that there’s nice deer in there. The muzzleloader hunt, there was camo on every ridgeline, every little gully line, everything. You could see people moving everywhere. I’m hoping that there are not as many bright orange pumpkins walking through. It will be me, my husband and my grandpa hunting. I know there are at least three of us out there, but I’m hoping that’s about it.

Do you camp out? Do you drive from the house?

Usually, we do camp. My grandpa makes this big old thing. We’re going to go get all the food for this camp. It’s like his vacation. It’s a big production. We have a lot of fun. Everybody comes up. I also only live ten minutes away from my hunt, from my unit as well. If the weather is crappy then we might end up driving, but we’ll see. I think that we’ll end up camping.

In Wisconsin, we’re spoiled. From the bunkhouse, I can walk to the rivers only a quarter mile maybe. I’m hunting. We’ve seen deer right up the backdoor of the bunkhouse. It doesn’t take a lot of work to hunt in Wisconsin or it can take a tremendous amount of work. When you say, “I’m going to get a mile from the road like elk hunting, get away from the pressure and go to where people won’t go.” You’re going to see some decent buck. You’re going to see more deer than you will. It’s crazy.

It’s a hunting heritage that you’re building, you have your grandfather, he’s not even going to hunt. He’s going to make sure everybody’s comfortable, well-fed, and wait for you to come back, sit around, drink his coffee and listen to the stories. Spin some stories that you’ve heard 100 times, but you still smile and say, “That’s my granddad. He was here.” That’s the tradition. That’s the hunting heritage. That’s important getting back full circle, women in the outdoors. Once you get into the outdoors, ladies, then you can share these memories forever with your grandchildren, your children. You can share something that nobody else will have. That’s the way I look at it. What’s your one big thing about hunting? It could be your optics. It could be scent control. It could be your boots. It could be playing the wind.

My one big thing is always to take an extra pair of gloves because of nine times out of ten, I’ll get walking through the brush and I will lose one glove every year. I am horrible at it. I’ve even tried getting the ones that you can get the little bungee and hook it to your coat. I still lose them. I always take an extra pair of gloves because I know that I’m going to lose one. It never fails. I always lose a glove.

Are you wearing wind stoppers, leather gloves, wool gloves? What do you like?

I usually take a pair of my extra gloves, those little cheap cotton gloves. The gloves that I like to use are the Under Armour Liner Gloves that you can put stuff over the top. They’re light enough that I can still shoot a gun with them. They’ve got a good grip. If it is raining, you’re not going to slip or drop your gun. I can layer over the top of them, which is nice. There’s one glove every season probably out in that sagebrush flat somewhere. I’ve never found them. If somebody has, they’ve probably got a glove from every year of mine.

Usually, I drop them out on my treestand and don’t get out of my treestands so I can get another pair of gloves. When I dropped out, climbed down from the treestand, getting ready, it’s dark and I walk away from them.

You hope they’re there when you come back the next time.

Pretty much they’re not, they never are. This has been a joy. Why don’t you take and give some more shout-outs, reiterate your shout-outs for your sponsors and your team members?

I’d like to say thanks to Vanguard and Skeleton Optics for making my adventures doable. Also, special thanks to Reel Camo Girl. I wouldn’t be anywhere without them and my awesome teammates. They are amazing girls. Thank you to you, guys. For all you lady readers out there, if you’re looking for a community of awesome women, go check out Reel Camo Girl.

Chelsie, on behalf of thousands of readers across North America, thank you.

About Chelsea Wilkey

Chelsie grew up in a small town in Central Utah where she learned to love the outdoors.

She was taught how to clean her first deer at the age of six and today she teaches and helps others out in the field. Her love for the outdoors never went away as she grew older and that is what brought her and her husband together. Today they do everything together from fly fishing to elk hunting and everything in between.

She is a Doggy Mom to two awesome pups, Remi and Maizy, who have been trained to hunt waterfowl and upland game by her and her husband. When Chelsie isn’t being a Doggy Mom and hunting with her husband you can find her working hard towards her goal of being a Flight Medic. Her and her husband also own a European Mount business that keeps them busy during the fall

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

Mule deer bucks are tough – Chelsie Wilkey

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About Chelsea Wilkey