In this episode, Ryan Campbell talks about bowhunting, the hunting tradition he grew up on and the hunting ground his family had hunted for generations in Georgia. He also gets into pine plantation and how it has helped the habitat and the prey that are hunted in the area. Ryan shares his insight on how bowhunting paved the way for the deer population to grow again with much success.
—
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Bowhunting Is Not An Option – Ryan Campbell
We’re heading down to Georgia with Ryan Campbell. Ryan is a heck of a guy. We did a Facebook Live talking about the pine plantations. Let’s stay right there, Ryan, and talk about hunting immature, mature and then past their prime plantation. I never have, and I found it fascinating what you were sharing.
Thanks for having me on. We do have a lot of pines down here. They started planting them, I’m not exactly sure when but that’s helped the habitat for turkeys and deer pretty tremendously I would say. Even though it’s not their favorite, it has provided a lot more woods in general in the area. The timber companies do a good job of making sure people cut them on time. They have wildlife in mind usually in most of these places. I would say that for some people, their favorite places to hunt is in wide-open pines because you could see a long way. I tend to not see as many deer when it’s open. That’s because I bow hunt. If I do see 100 yards away, it doesn’t do me a whole lot of good.
When they’re younger pine trees, it generates a lot of undergrowth. About halfway up a five-foot pine tree is tall grass and briars. It creates a perfect bedding cover scenario for whitetails down here. They poker down in there. Sometimes they’ll come out and sometimes they won’t. Sometimes they’ll stay in there all year and you may not even see the bucks that you have in there but they’re in there. Hunting on the edge of those is always good. Around the 10 to 12-year mark, I would say they’re about twenty feet tall or so and it starts to open up on the floor in there. It’s open but it’s shaded. They’re close enough together where it shades out everything and there’s nothing but pine straw on the ground under them, so your place goes dead in there until they open back up, until you thin them. It’s a process that you have to pan around and know what your food value is in there. A big part of it is knowing what time of year, because in the late season when all the briars, grass and stuff is dead, you’re not looking at a whole lot of food value in them. Early season it will be the best place you have to hunt. The edges of a block of pines and a block of hardwoods could be some of your best hunting ground here.
Where do they find the water in the plantations?
We have pretty good creek systems around here but there are some of them that don’t have running creeks. It’s manmade ponds, 3 to 4-acre ponds and little creek bottoms at the top of those. They may have to travel 400, 500, 600 yards sometimes to get to the water in some of these big places. Some guys do try to poll water tanks around in the back of their truck and fill up little holes that they dig. There are times where you have to travel a long way to get to the water. It can be a good place to be down here when it’s hot.
We’ve got cover and we got water. The food is sketchy. How many guys put food plots right next to the plantations?
They’ll be full of food plots. Pretty much everybody plants down here. We have a lot of agriculture down here. It’s probably not as much as the Midwest, but we do have a lot. Food in the summer months is easy for them to find. They plant a lot of soybeans. Everybody’s got corn and soybeans, a few grains over them, stuff like that are big farm to plant. They can find that. Those places are good food for them. Soybeans are the hot places even in summer months. Even if there’s corn around, they prefer a soybean field. Everybody plants food plots pretty good. The hunting crowd, hunting clubs, private landowners wait until September to plant winter plots. Our summers here, if you don’t have irrigation, you can’t plant corn by yourself because seeds are expensive. You can plant it if it doesn’t rain, you’re out of money. Here the people like to plan oats and wheat, winter stuff for the wintertime and go that way as far as food plots go.
Let’s talk about your hunting techniques in Georgia. How do you personally hunt?
We have a place on the river. Our early season is slow. I don’t easily get deer open in a day like a bunch of my friends and people I know to do because our deer don’t come out of the clear-cut areas in the swamp which is nothing but huge blocks of briars. They don’t come off there until October. We set up on acorns about October on. That sounds strange because all we do is bow hunt and that’s when the gun season comes in on October down here. We don’t even get cranking on our bow season until the season’s been in for well over a month. You find your acorns and your greenfield and figure out your pattern on an afternoon, where they’re hitting their greenfield at night. You set up in between there and their bedding as usually your morning strategy. In the afternoons, you either can get in the greenfield or go on your hottest oak tree.
Finding your hot oak tree, that starts in the summer. My dad taught me this. He’s one of the best hunters I’ve ever met. Ever since I was a little kid we’d go down. We’d go to the swamp and it’s a blistering hot summer. You spend all day walking in the woods looking up with your binoculars in the top of trees. You find every tree has a got a few acorns. By doing that, it’s spending extra time where you know which tree down to the exact tree has the most acorns. You put your stand in that tree. That narrows your search down from the get-go. That’s how we’ve always tried to work it as far as acorns. I don’t ever hear a whole lot of people do that. I’ve told people to do it. That’s how we find our best success in the summertime. You look at your acorns in the tree when they’re green, find out the exact tree because somehow those deer find and know where the best tree is. You get there on the right day, and that’s how we try to work it.
What you’re telling me is you and your dad go up for a stroll. I don’t know if there are 10, 50, or 1,000 oak trees. I have no idea. You’re looking up to the leaves and you’re trying to find the one with the most acorns or mass has already shaped up.
We do that in the summertime usually.
It’s hotter than a pistol down there, 100 degrees.
It’s warm, that’s for sure, but it pays off. A guy that talks about scouting, how to go and get in there early season and hang in the stands a week before deer season. They’re so busy working on their stands and trimming and you’re 60, 70 yards from the best oak tree and you don’t know it yet. You don’t get down there until November because of work-life. You’re 60, 70 yards away from the best oak tree. You’re out of luck on that deal and then you have to move it in November. You want to avoid the extra time on the ground in November because the deer is smart.
Do you find the oak tree and then immediately set up your stand once you find it in the summer?
Yeah. We know the general areas because we’ve had the place for a long time. Even though in general areas, you’ve still got to narrow it down within. Our average shot is fifteen yards down here because it’s wooded. That’s where your bigger bucks are. Where you’re going to find them is in thicker stuff and on acorns. You need to get close because bow hunting at 40 yards, it sounds good in your yard while you’re shooting, but when you get in the woods and he’s walking around or doing whatever, 40 yards is plain old too far. You need to be on top of him to get him. The one I killed was about seven or eight yards. The other one’s a little farther but one of my kills was seven or eight yards.
Out of the oak tree?
Yes, sir.
Bow hunting at 40 yards sounds good in an open area. But in a heavy wooded area and the deer is walking, 40 yards is plain old too far. Share on XHow high do you get up in your oak tree? These are gnarly oak trees. These are not skinny, little oak trees. These have been here for a while.
These are 60, 70-year-old trees. They’ve been there a while. You can’t reach around them. We don’t do anything crazy high. A twenty-foot stand is good down there because the trees are open. We don’t have to have those 35-foot stands down here. A lot of people do get way up there. We got a few ten-foot stands that are good. You’ve got to get them shoved up in the leaves. I don’t like to get that high for safety. Twenty feet is our favorite and the rest of them are probably fifteen. We have all kinds of old stands 10 feet, 12 feet. I would say fifteen feet is our average. That’s a good height.
What kind of brand of stands do you use?
We have a lot of Family Tradition stands. Are you familiar with those? They’re metal ladder stands and pretty simple. We have had those for years and years. They have been so good. My dad and my uncles used to hunt for homemade lock-on stands. I remember when I was a kid, I couldn’t even get in them because the steps would be so far apart and it’s dangerous. It’s rinky-dink stuff. Somebody fell. I can’t remember which one of my uncles it was. Somebody fell out of one. I said, “They might be able to see it a little better but we’re going to do something a little bit safer.” We’ve done Family Tradition stands over the years and they have stood up to it. They’re expensive but they are a good stand.
What makes them a good stand? Are they hang-on or ladders?
They’re fifteen to twenty-foot ladders.
Why do you like them opposed to any other stand manufacturers out there?
They come in three-foot sections. You put them together yourself. They don’t have any creak to them. There’s no noise. You don’t have to have the support that goes up against the tree in the center of it. They’re made stiff enough where you don’t need the support in the center. They’ve been good. They’re tough and they last a long time. You can get them with the gun rail, your backrest, all that. We get simple ones. They’re comfortable. The seats are made out of the seatbelt. They’re like a car seatbelt material. They last a long time. It holds up well and it’s comfortable. They’re light. You can carry a fifteen-foot ladder stand by yourself and it’s comfortable. It’s never that comfortable moving treestands, but you can carry a fifteen-foot ladder stand by yourself for 200, 300 yards and you’ll be able to put it up by yourself. They’re lightweight. They’ve been all-around good stands.
When you think about hunting, talk to us about your hunting tradition. Where did that come from?
My grandfather loved bow hunting, traditional archery. That’s all there was when he started. There wasn’t any such thing as compounds. He shot tournament archery, field archery. My grandmother was at the Georgia State Champion in the female division in the ‘60s. They passed it on to my uncles and my dad. They took it through another level on how serious they are about it. I grew up shooting traditional recurve longbow. My dad didn’t want to shoot compound. He didn’t like them. He’s probably one of the best big-game hunters in the world honestly. He killed several record book elk with his 21st-century longbow.
He went on a Clark plane trip to Alaska back when you could do it by yourself. He got dropped out in some lake with a tent and his recurve bow. He killed a 56-inch moose with his recurve by himself. My uncle, he’s killed the number one and the number three whitetail deer, both kills in Georgia. They live and breathe it, they always have. They taught us how to do it but made us do the hard way. The four biggest deer I’ve ever seen in my life, I have either missed or couldn’t get a shot at because I’ve been bow hunting my whole life. It’s been a struggle. It’s been fun and it’s been worth it.
Are you a traditional archer or do you use a compound?
I use a compound. We have a bunch of old recurves. I still shoot them. I like to go hog hunting with it. Now, it’s hard enough as it is. Don’t even make it any harder but I do like to shoot. I’ve only killed a couple of hogs with my recurve. I’ve never killed a deer with it. I’ve missed a big buck with it. That’s one of those things where I thought I was better than I was.
Join the club. Let’s take a moment and do a little gear talk here. What was the last piece of gear you bought?
I got a bunch of arrows. I got stocked up before deer season on arrows and broadheads. I got Slick Trick broadheads and Carbon Express Arrows. I’ve got a set up on my bow.
Why did you buy those broadheads?
We shot expandables for a couple of years. It had some good look with them. I shot a deer in the shoulder years ago and didn’t recover it. I shot it right in front of the shoulder. It ended up right in front of the shoulder and hit him right in the spine, but it didn’t knock him. It didn’t get him. A buddy of mine came hunting. He comes and hunts on our property with us. He ended up killing him the same year. The hole was completely closed on his skin. I pulled the broadhead and it was thick in his spine. It didn’t get him. I went back to a fixed blade. The one with the more quality fixed blades that we found is the Slick Trick. They’re tough and they come sharp out of the package. We’ve had good luck with those.
Let’s talk about that shot in front of the shoulder. You got the shoulder blade and then it’s going to drop into the neck and then you do have the spine. Did you pull the shot a little bit? Tell me about the shot. I don’t want to put you on the spot but I am.
A lot of times even though experienced hunters know what they're doing, they may not know how to explain it or they may not want to tell you what they're doing. Share on XThat’s fine. It was a long story. I had this buck that kept coming out in the food plot every night. He walked right up under me in the dark. I let him do that three times. I never shot. I was like, “I’m not going to do that.” Before I finally did it, I’ve turned lose a good shot. I could see everything, but he may have taken a step. It was well too dark for me to shoot. It was still probably in legal shooting hours, but it was a little too dark to shoot. He either turned or something. I thought it was a good shot. It felt good when I turned it loose but I was looking at it wrong because of low light. It hit him. He dropped to the ground, got up and took off. I was sick about that for a month. He started back up like nothing was wrong. My buddy got him and I got a broadhead out of him.
Had the blades expanded?
They did. It was stuck in his spine, the barrel of it was actually stuck in his spine. From the blades hitting that front of that shoulder, going through that opening up and then hitting that spine, it didn’t have enough juice to knock him down. That’s a tough part of the spine up there. It did not get him, I’ll tell you that.
I wonder if you had a fixed blade that would have made any difference. I’m a fixed blade guy. I’ve seen some fixed blades do some nasty things on elk and you’re going, “How did that blade do that?” One, because you have the kinetic energy driving that blade, and then the construction of the blade literally cutting the bone and finishing the job. Everybody makes a bad shot. If you haven’t made one yet, you’re going to make one soon. Get over yourself. Be ethical, do everything right. Stuff happens and that’s the way it is. On the fixed blade, structurally they can bring it better. The kinetic energy is better. That’s my thought. What are your thoughts?
I think so, especially with the expandables that open from the front to back. That’s got to take your energy, that’s going to knock your energy down. I have better luck with the fixed blades, especially for the shoulder and spine. I will say those big expandables are good if you hit the back and rib cage. It’s probably better for those types of shots because it makes such a big hole. You can make a pretty good shot in the shoulder and you’re not going to get the penetration that you need with an expandable, I don’t think.
That’s our thought about expandables. That’s Ryan and Bruce’s gear talk on tackle. I’m looking at your bio and you’re one of the people that live and hunt basically all the time. You have a family that supports you. What would you say to the people out there that don’t have that, that didn’t grow up of that? Probably so your dad and your uncle are some of the finest archery hunters in North America, whether they’re on somebody’s radar or not, it doesn’t matter. Been there, done that. What would you say to people that don’t have that lineage, that doesn’t have that tradition behind them in regards to hunting?
I would say learn as much as you can from people that do go. I know some guys who started in their early twenties and from learning on their own and learning their own techniques, instead of trying to pick up what, say something like, “My dad told me, do this.” Some of those guys end up being the best whitetail hunters because they learn their own techniques as they go. Honestly, you have to take the time to ask people what works, what doesn’t and try to go as much as you can on public land. These days it’s sometimes crowded but there are opportunities there to get out and go and try to get in the community.
Maybe you can get into a place, make some friends, get into a club that provides you with some opportunities that you need. Definitely, I wouldn’t stay discouraged. I notice some guys who started having no experience and they learned it on their own and knew how to do it. It can be done. Within five years’ time, you can have a set of skills that can achieve doing the same thing as Michael Waddell. It’s not impossible to kill a big buck by any means anywhere. You just have to put the time in, ask some questions, learn from the people who know, but mainly get out and go. That’s how you learn. Even my dad and they are the best, you always learn more going by yourself. A lot of times even though people know what they’re doing, they may not know how to explain what they’re doing. They may not want to tell you what they’re doing. Getting out and going is your main obstacle, finding time to go and learning how to go.
Thank you for that. Let’s talk about scent control and how you make that happen for you. If anybody’s hunted in the south in the Rocky Mountain in September, it can be 60, 70 degrees out there. I’m sweating. There is no way it’s not going to happen. What do we do about that, Ryan?
Down here you can plan on sweating until the end of October. Because you’re going to sweat, make sure you can buy the scent control products. That’s definitely a plus. The main thing is keeping your body clean before you go. Even if it’s 100 degrees you need to make sure you don’t come home right after work and go straight out there with the same boots you had on all day. That’s a no-no. I like to wash my clothes every time I hunt, hang them outside and let the wind blow through them. That always helps. If the wind is wrong and you got everything right, scent control, you’re clean, and the wind is blowing right out a big buck, you’re out of luck. In my experience, it’s a tough game. You’ve got to have it set up beforehand, your wind situation. Definitely, products help keep your clothes clean and your body clean. There are a lot of little pieces into it that will help you out. You’ve got to put it all together which is hard to do when you come home from work, you’re in a hurry and you’ve got to go. Definitely keeping your clothes and stuff clean, finding a good spray-on product helps. I don’t have any experience with the ozone machines. I’ve heard they work but I don’t have any experience with them yet.
As far as spray-on, everybody’s got one. It’s Dead Down Wind, Carbon Skin, Pier One. Every company is a great guy and they’ve got their product. What works for you?
I like any of them. I like the fresh earthy smell. The Hunters Specialties is the easy one to pick up at the store because it’s everywhere. If you’re somewhere and you’re in a hurry, you can get some of that quick. As far as I know, Lethal makes some stuff that they put a little more time into it probably. It comes back as then two separate bottles and you mix it together after you buy it instead of it being premixed and sitting in the same bottle for whoever knows how long. I know that’s probably a good idea. I do like the fresh earth scent because it’s natural. I’ve always been partial to that. It does smell like fresh earth in most cases.
Thanks for that. Parting shots, what are your thoughts you want to leave with the audience across North America?
I will say this type of show is so cool. I wish I could turn on my radio in my truck and listen to hunting way down the road. I don’t think we’re there yet but this is cool. You can get a lot of knowledge from this. I’m watching it because watching the major television networks is commercialized. You know you got big bucks getting shot. We get a little bit of picture time. We got product placement and then commercial or something else. You see the big bucks and you see a little bit of product, commercials, but you don’t get into any details on how to scout. This stuff is important to people who want to get out and go. If they don’t know how to go, then they’ll say, “I’ve never been hunting before, I need to take my six-year-old hunting with me.” You don’t learn how to do that and maximize your time out there without watching some of those stuff on TV. This is important.
I think of Jay Scott of Big Buck Registry. He’s a guy that’s got a great show. Mark Canyon does a super job. He’s wired to hunt. My friend Jay Scott out west has Jay Scott Outdoors. I’m thinking of John Stallone with Interviews with the Hunting Masters. They are some of the guys you need to listen to. There are others. Podcasting does bring everything to you because it’s available 24/7 wherever you are. If you got a smartphone, you can listen to this podcast, you can listen to my podcast, anybody’s podcast all day long. Dan Johnson and I came up with Chronicles. He’s got a great show. There’s a lot of great information out there. Ryan, I’m so happy you’ve been a guest on Whitetail Rendezvous.
It’s been super cool, thank you.
—
We’re headed to the north of the border in the province of Alberta with Matt Gatto. Matt works on the oil sand industry, but he loves to hunt those big Alberta bucks. He doesn’t do it by spot and stalk, he’ll do it by round blinds. He’ll incorporate scent into his hunting techniques. Matt’s been hunting for years and he enjoys chasing those wild whitetails in the bush of Alberta, Canada.
Important Links:
- Family Tradition
- Slick Trick
- Carbon Express Arrows
- Michael Waddell
- The Hunters Specialties
- Lethal
- Big Buck Registry
- Jay Scott Outdoors
- Interviews with the Hunting Masters
- Nine Finger Chronicles
- Matt Gatto – Next episode
About Ryan Campbell
I am 29 years old and am from central Georgia. I grew up bowhunting for wild hogs and whitetail deer with guidance from a supportive outdoor family.
Bow hunting in our family is not a pastime or recreation, it is either bowhunt the family land or don’t hunt. It sounds harsh and if I could rifle hunt my wall would be too full.
But it’s bowhunting I believe since the reintroduction of the deer that paved the way for the populations growth and success. My family hunted the same ground I hunt today when there were only rabbits and quail.