Hunting isn’t all about shooting and harvesting, especially when you’re a DIY hunter. Preparation is a big part of success, and a big part of preparation is physical and mental fitness. Hunter and fitness trainer, Lindsay Persico is a predator of one of the smartest predators there is, the wolves. In this episode, she shares the experience of wolf hunting as a mother and as a wife. Lindsay gives her insight about the tradition and joy of the hunting industry and how it can have a positive impact on families.
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
HuntFiber = DIY Hunting & Fitness With Lindsay Persico
We’re heading up to Montana to meet an old friend Lindsay Persico. She’s one of my first hundred guests on the show. A lot of great things have happened to this young lady’s life. She is the Creator of the HuntFiber brand. Lindsay, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me again.
You’ve done many neat things and I want to start off with HuntFiber. What’s it doing these days? It was a blog but it’s more than that now.
It’s still a lot like a blog. I use it as a place to share what I’m up to but there seem to be a lot more people who are interested in it and inspired by it. That has inspired me to open up a lot more on there about things. Even in my personal life that I’ve been going through, the struggles that I’ve dealt with and the lessons that I’m learning. It’s therapeutic for me and hopefully it’s inspiring for other people as well.
When you look at social media, it has grown first of all. How has that helped HuntFiber reach a lot of people?
That’s the only way of the social media aspect. That’s where I can share my articles and where people go to look for them. Having a nice Twitter following, Instagram, Facebook and all those places, that’s the way it gets out. Having that is huge to get the audience to be able to read the articles, watch the videos or try the recipes.
I have been up in Canada, BC, taking a wolf. That was hard and I’ve seen some pictures of you out there, DIY solo looking for wolves. How are you confident that you can go mix it up in the mountains with the opportunity to take a wolf?
The opportunity is slim. Not many people take a wolf when they’re out there hunting for them, especially here. They’re trapped or people run across them when they’re big game hunting and happen to have a tag, they kill one that way. I’m not doing it because my odds are great. Although I would love to take one. It’s one of my biggest passions and it’s huge on my bucket list. I know I’m going to have to put in a lot of time and effort if I want to make it happen, but I’m willing to make that sacrifice. The reason that I like doing it by myself is I have been a loner type of personality all my life. Especially the love, the peace, and quiet of being outside of the mountains. That’s where my brain has the freedom to think, unencumbered and without somebody pulling at it.
I’ve been working with a lot on my mind and being out there by myself is rejuvenating. I love chasing the wolves and I don’t find myself intimidated by them. I know they could hurt me and I know that it’s risky being out there by myself, but I feel confident in my abilities out there. I know that it doesn’t matter how much I know. There can always be an accident and it can happen but I’ve come to terms with that. In my mind, if that was the way I went, I couldn’t think of another way that would be better. If that ends up being the case, I’m okay with it. The benefits that I received outweigh the risks in my mind.
Do you haul them in? Do you voice call?
I call with an electronic call. I have elk calls, too but I haven’t used them that much. I have an electronic call that I use. I do a fawn in distress like an injured fawn. I know that could bring in either cougar, coyotes or wolves. I’ll use that fawn in distress call for a while and then I’ll start adding in some coyote calls. I know wolves are supposed to be territorial and hearing the coyotes could potentially bring one in to check it out. They don’t like to have those other dogs in their area. Those are the two I’ve been working with. The success rate is low, but I’m going to keep trying.
Have you talked to any trappers? Does that trap work successfully?
Yes. I’ve talked to the wolf biologist in our area and I’ve talked to some wolf trapping groups in different places. They all tell me, “Your chances are good.” I feel like my chances are better if I’m out there than if I’m at home, so it’s worth the try.
A lot of people have told me that one of the hardest trophies to get in North America is a wolf. With a rifle or a bow, it would be astronomical but I’ve been told that. The times I’ve been into wolves, the guide up in British Columbia, he voice called. No electrical calls and no read calls. He just voice called and he said the whole thing about what he’s trying to do is to challenge that wolf that I’m the new kid on the block, I’m going to come over and mix it up with you. He challenged them and that’s why he called the wolf for me. His name is Mike Hawkridge from Quesnel, British Columbia. It’s amazing because we set up that whole hunt. We were at least a mile away when he first called.
You heard him or you heard the wolf call first?
The love, peace, and quiet of being outside of the mountains gives our brain the freedom to think. Share on XI heard Mike call first. He said, “We’re going to stop here. If they’re here, they’ll come back to me.” If they’re in the basin, he says, “If they’re in there, they’ll come back to me and game on. If they don’t, then we’ll go fishing or something.”
The areas that I have tried for are the places that the wolf biologist has told me of bucks have been active in and they’re hard to get to. I’ve also been told that you want to go where the elk are. I try to pay attention to that as well. I was up for an archery hunting for an opener. In the early season, the wildfires were going crazy. I was watching a wildfire a rigid across from me. I did not see a whole lot of deer sign. I saw a couple of whitetails, but I couldn’t get close enough to them and I saw a nice mule deer bounded off in front of me. I decided to call it a day and I was hiking back to my rig. This guy shows up right as I got back to my car. He started to drive by and he pulled next to me. He’s like, “Guess what I shot?” I didn’t know this guy. He’s a stranger but this is an exciting thing in Montana. You pop the trunk of this old car and there was this wolf in the back. He had been archery hunting for elk and he was sitting there watching elk opening morning. The wolves came in between him and the elk. They were looking at the elk. They were down there looking for something to eat and he happened to be in the right place and the right time. He was able to take it with his bow. It was cool.
I haven’t heard too many people taking wolves with their bows. I haven’t done that at all. You know how smart wolves are. Why do you think you’re their match?
I feel comfortable in the woods than I am anywhere. When I go out there, I’m heavily armed for one thing and I’m a confident person. I consider myself a predator. We’re both predators. There’s more of them than there is of me, but I know what I’m out there for and they don’t know why I’m there. I know wolves here, at least, they do have respect for humans. They know that they’re not safe here. I know that I could get hurt but I don’t care. I’m crazy, I guess.
When a lady called you or messaged you on social media and said, “I want to do both things,” what would you tell her?
Be confident in your equipment and in your physical abilities. If you’re not, take somebody with you, but go for it. We only live once and we might as well fully live. It’s an experience that I tried once. I’m hooked and I can’t stop. My husband is not thrilled about it, but he knows that it keeps me sane and it’s good for me. He goes along with it.
How deep into the mountains do you go to before you set up?
As far as my legs can get me. Last time, I had this goal and it was quite lofty. I had looked on Google Earth and the area that I wanted to get to was over a literal mountain. It was snowy but I thought I could do this. I’m persistent and I felt like I could do it. I got out there. I have a big pack and a big gun. I hiked probably a quarter of the way up the mountain that I wanted to hike up and pop over. I wanted to call down into the basin behind there. I was going to a quarter of the way up when I fell. On the way down, it cracked my jaw and my scope but I was able to land in a way that my gun didn’t hit the ground. I got myself stopped by shoving my foot into a bush. I thought this is not working because it was taking me longer to make any progress. The ground was completely frozen. If I put my foot on any ground, the rocks will give way because there was no way to put your toe into the dirt and get your footing under you. The rest of it was snow which was slippery. I had to regroup and I looked at my GPS. I saw that I could get around the mountain, but it was going to take me a while and I still had to go all the way up to the top.
It was on a logging road that circled its way all the way around and up to the top. I hiked for three hours and I made it to the top. I was able to crest around the backside of that mountain and I got to see the view of what I was trying to get to all day. That was the best feeling in the world. I took a picture of it and I was like, “This is my paradise,” because I’ve worked hard to get here. By the time I got there, I didn’t have much daylight left. I wasn’t able to go all the way down into the basin where I wanted to set up and call. I learned a lot on the hunt and I was able to understand the countryside I was dealing with. I did find a place to set up and I called for a little while. The snow started coming in. It was headed towards where it’s going to get dark. I packed up my stuff and I hiked back out. I took all the lessons with me. The next time I go back up in there, I will be a lot smarter about how I go about it. It’s a journey to get back up there. It’s a long way.
Let’s dissect this. On Google Earth, it’s an interesting place. It’s way up there. There’s a little mount in the way. I like that there’s a logging road there especially for getting out. In going in, who cares? In coming out, it’s good. We take a dump and put everything upside-down, topsy-turvy and that’s persistence. She said, “I’m going to get up there and head up there.” I’m short at least I’m here. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you. That’s what it says. I was going to say what it takes. Not only in hunting but basically in life because you decide where your goal is and then you go do it no matter what happens. You do it. Many people say, “I can’t do this. It’s too hard. My wife left me.” All these types of things get thrown in our faces. We’ve all had them. Nobody’s listened to this and immune from that stuff. It’s called life. Sometimes it’s ugly and sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it’s fantastic. When you do make it to the top fourteener or you do get into that basin, take these lessons that Lindsay is sharing about hunting. That’s a great segue because many people now don’t understand what hunting is. They see one part of it. The perception we have on somebody else and the perception they have of us sometimes is incorrect.
It’s easy to see one thing, one picture or one article and assume that we understand everything that there is to know about that individual. I know because that’s happened to me. I’ve been judged based on a single picture or a single article. We can’t possibly come to a realistically truthful idea of who these people are or who a single individual is without knowing more of their story. Everybody has a story. We have to remember that, show grace and mercy to these people because we don’t know where they come from. Hopefully, they’ll do the same for us.
As a woman, there’s been enough talk about Cecil the lion, there was a giraffe, and all the different things that have happened in the hunting industry that people completely have blown up on over the years. Has somebody blown up on you?
I have had a few different instances where something I posted somehow got shared someplace where somebody who didn’t like it a lot. That happens easily. I don’t know exactly how because any time one of those people post on one of my friends. It’s a hunting post and they post aggressively about it. I blocked them because I don’t want negativity on my feed and I don’t want it in my life. I block it to try to prevent it from happening. That is starting to catch up to me because I don’t have it happening as often as I did when I first started posting hunting things. I have had some people make some hurtful comments. Some things I posted some pictures of my dad and me when I was young. They were hunting pictures of him and me either at hunting camp or him and me with one of my first year or something like that. Some of the things that were said were hurtful and hateful towards my dad, towards me and towards our relationship that I highly value and I treasure. Having hearing somebody say things like that is hard on you.
What’s the best way to deal with it? You said you blocked people. I’ve heard other people say, “I’ll block him,” then there’s no response. That’s the type of thing that you can’t win because pigs don’t know pigs stink scenario. What’s your recommendation to ladies?
Sometimes, I’m in a place mentally where I feel like I can engage with someone who posts a comment that to me seems somewhat intelligent. It’s not just a bashing of you and you can tell that there’s no view of you as a human in their mind. If I have somebody that’s commenting and they’re not even treating me like a human being. I’ll instantly block that person to leave a comment and move on because that’s not worth my time. There have been occasions, a few different times where I’ve been able to have intelligent conversations with some of these people. We’ve come to a point where we’ve agreed to disagree because we both can respect the other person’s perspective because we’re both treating each other like a human.
I’ve been able to explain to them like, “I look at myself as to where I am on the food chain and these are animals that I eat. This is how I look. I am like a predator. This is what I do and I respect the animals. I use them for food.” We’ve been able to have conversations back and forth where they have been respectful of me and I’ve been respectful of them. We end on good terms and that’s rare. It can happen and I don’t even always have the mental capacity to want to deal with it at the time and to want to have that conversation. Most of the time, I block them and then move on. I won’t say that it’s an impossible thing to be able to have a good conversation with some of them.
Great people though because social media carries the day. It doesn’t matter what you’re interested in. It’s out there. You can be on a feed, in a tribe or whatever. President Trump uses Twitter all the time. He’s certainly helped Twitter grow. It shows you the ways to communicate or have changed dramatically. We live in a sound bite world. That’s why hunting is growing both on the women’s side and on the men’s side. If you’re going to put a pack on and grab a rifle or your bow and hike into the backcountry, you’re not going to have cell service. You might have a sat phone and you might have your garment and all that, but you’re not going to have Wi-Fi. That’s for sure. You get with yourself and we were talking about that. I’ll process that you’ve been going through both physically and everything else in your life. Let’s talk about the importance of being able to challenge the mountain and make the mountain your friend rather than being threatened by the mountain.
I don’t know if it stems from me having been out there ever since I was a child. It is being surrounded by people who were taking the time to teach me how to function out there safely and enjoy myself or if it has to do with my personality. I don’t know where it comes from. I know that if I don’t have time outside even outside alone, I can get that specific about it. If I don’t have time outside in the mountains or someplace away from people, I’ll start to crave it like I would a drug. It’s a part of the emotional, mental needs, physically of my body. I need that. Something about it is healing. There’s depth to the thoughts that you can have out there. I can’t reach that when I’m in my normal everyday life. It’s busy. There are a lot of things you have to remember. There are a lot of people that you’re trying to be there for. There are lots of roles that you have to play. Once I get out there in the mountains, all that disappears and all that goes away. My mind has the freedom to go to places I can’t get to. That creates a love for it in me that I couldn’t fear it because I need it. It’s a necessary part of my being and I can’t fully explain why that is but it’s my reality.
How do you share that with other women? Why do you hunt? How do you get out there solo?
I have a few friends who have told me, “Why are you out there by yourself? Aren’t you scared? Aren’t you terrified? I would be terrified if I went out there by myself.” I said, “I don’t know how to explain it. Do you know the feeling that you have when you’re in town and you’re going out on a walk or whatever? You feel comfortable, safe, good and you’re like, ‘This is where I’m supposed to be.’” That’s how I feel when I get out there. When I’m in town, I’m stressed, worried, nervous and scared. I’m running around here where there are people everywhere, there are cars and it’s hectic. I get out there in the woods where it’s quiet. It’s just the animals and me and I’m like, “Okay.” I’m at peace. That’s the way I feel about it. I would love to be able to transfer that, help other people experience and understand it. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it.
Over the last couple of years, HuntFiber Fitness is coming to being. Let’s talk about the genesis of that and how that has impacted your life.
Fitness plays a big role in what you can go out and do when you’re hunting. I’ve always been one of those people where I don’t want to be limited because of my own laziness. I don’t want my inability or my unwillingness to push myself to keep me from experiencing things that if I had pushed myself, I would be able to do. I don’t want to look at a mountain ahead of me and think, “If I had only worked harder, I could scale that but I can’t go there because I haven’t worked that hard. I refuse to limit myself out in the woods because I limit myself at home.” That’s been something that I have continually worked on in my life ever since I’ve been in my teens probably. I have always been striving to get stronger, get better and be healthier. It’s become a passion of mine and it’s a passion that helps me with my other passion for hunting. Combining the two naturally happened.
When I did that, a lot of people respond to that. They find that interesting and they want to know what they could do to help them with certain things that they want to get better at when they’re out hunting, physically or with nutrition. With many people asking me questions and some time on my hands at home, I thought, “I might as well try to start making this somewhat of a business. Something that I can do if people are interested in it. I’m happy to try to share what I know,” and I started it randomly. I decided to do it and it’s been fun. It’s been a slow journey and a slow process. I do a little bit of it but every bit of it that I’ve done, I’ve loved. It’s neat to see people ignite a little bit of a fire in a passion into thinking about what they could possibly do that they weren’t able to do before because they’re putting time and energy into making themselves stronger and healthier.
In this point of view, you’re helping people to transform. Jeremy Koerber helped me get ready for my sheep hunt and I had people come alongside said, “If you’re going to do this, you need to weigh less than you weigh now.” Aerobically, you need to be getting up there. I was able to do it when I was motivated. I was glassing sheep from 14,000 feet. That didn’t happen by chance and that’s the message from both Lindsay and myself. You don’t summit by chance. You don’t go ten miles or five miles in some cases, into the wilderness and into the backcountry. No road and no nothing, just flat rocks and trees. That’s what it is. There are people that we all know their names that are supermen and superwomen getting into the backcountry. There are thousands, if not millions of us that go out and do our thing getting that basins of Colorado and know where some elk are. It’s hard to get there and it’s even harder to get an elk out. You do it because it’s one of your passion. If you bring a person with you, you can help transform them and give them the opportunity to achieve something that they might not have ever done. Your thoughts?
You feel good about it because you work for it. Our culture is inundated with instant gratification where we want what we want and we want it now. We’ll pay for it or we’ll go to a cheap and easy route around to try to get to something. When it comes to the mountains, they don’t give you that. There’s no cheap way around it. If you want it you have to work for it. When you do work for it, you feel good about it. It gives you confidence. It boosts your attitude and you appreciate what you have and what you’ve earned. It’s a blessing and it blesses you in many different ways.
The mountains don’t care who you are, what your name is, and if you’re in shape or not shape. They welcome you but they don’t care. It’s what you bring to the table that makes the difference. That’s why I love being in the mountains. It’s all about what I’m bringing there because they’re going to stay there. They’re not going to move and they’re not going to change.
All you got is what you bring. I want to bring my best. That’s what it takes.
If you read stories all the time, there’s the blind guy that climbed Everest. That was no easy task.
These people, I love their stories. They’re inspiring and they show what we can do. Often, we limit ourselves. We think, “That’s too hard. I can’t do that.” You’re no different. Most of us, in a lot of ways, is no different than the person next to us. If we want to do something, we can do it. We have to be willing to work for it and I believe that 100%.
It's easy to see one thing and assume that we understand everything that there is to know about that individual. Share on XTalk to me about your diet. I know your body fat must be zero. I know it is. What kind of diet do you have?
My diet is based on what makes me healthy with my autoimmune disease. I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which is a disease where your body attacks your thyroid and that affects your hormones a lot. It affects your energy levels, it affects your metabolism and it affects a lot of things. I’ve found with my disease that my body functions a lot better, I feel a lot better and I have a lot less inflammation if I don’t eat grains. No grains, no flour from wheat, rye or anything like that. I’m on cuts out, most processed foods. I also don’t eat processed sugars. I have small amounts of honey or maple syrup in my diet. I use those occasionally in my tea in the afternoon to have a little bit of sweetness. Aside from that, I eat meat and eggs. I eat a paleo diet, but I also eat dairy because it does not seem to affect me. I have milk, eggs, cheese, meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. That’s primarily what my diet is based on.
You’re in fantastic shape, you keep working your body and toning your body even though you have some challenges.
I refuse to be limited by a diagnosis. I wrote a blog post fighting that diagnosis. It was called I Don’t Care. My body can have problems and that’s fine. I’ll work around them. I will work with them and I’ll make them work for me. I am not going to be slowed down and I’m not going to be held back because it’s a little bit harder. Everybody’s got things that make their life harder. Everybody’s got stuff that challenges them and maybe in a way, it doesn’t. Somebody else doesn’t have to deal with that challenge. We all have challenges and this is one of mine. I have multiple ones and this is one of them, but I’m not going to let it slow me down. I’m not going to sit, whine about it and feel sorry for myself. I’m going to find what works best for me and move on. That’s what we’ve got to do. You can’t let that hold you back and slow you down.
A couple of years ago, you saw some nice mule deer buck and some whitetails. Some of the people on the east and in the Midwest didn’t realize that Montana has a good population of whitetails. Can you talk about that?
We do. It’s been difficult for me coming here from Idaho. When I was in Idaho, I hunted whitetails in the canyons and we lived upon the high mountain prairie. The canyons would come down. You have the big fields and you have these deep canyons. We go and sit glass frosting, that’s how we found whitetails. They would come up in the evenings to feed the fields. We knew how they patterned and we knew how to find them. I came to Montana and I know they’re here but for me, they are hard to find. I have not figured them out yet. I’m still continuing to try to do that and to figure out how to hunt them here. It’s different. We’ve got the mountains. There’s a lot more cover on the mountains and the trees are a lot thicker where I’m at. You can’t do as much glassing because you can’t see through the timber as well.
The fields and stuff, we don’t have that right here. It’s river bottoms and mountains. I’ve seen them different times when it was a hunting season or someplace where I couldn’t hunt. I have yet to hone in and figure out where my whitetail hunting spot is. I saw someone when I was on archery hunting. They were vetted down in some heavy timber and I was creeping along. I probably got within 25 yards of a small little buck but a tree was between him and me so I didn’t have a shot opportunity. He did hear me, I believe. That’s what happened, he stood up and then brought it off. I would have taken it because I have a hard time getting close to any whitetails. It’s difficult here but it’s fun. I’m enjoying the process. I know eventually, I’ll get it figured out.
I remembered the Milk River and they had a big guy off that hunted whitetail over there and then up in the Swan Valley. There’s a hellacious numbered year in the river bottoms in Montana. Some people have them but other people don’t. It’s research but they’re great animals. It’s a great challenge to hunt on their own. How about elk? Did you go to elk hunting?
I did. I went out the opening morning for two consecutive seasons. I was blessed to be in the best spot and I got my bull both years at opening morning. I did shoot a small bull. He wasn’t a big bull. I got it on film. It’s on my YouTube channel. I got the whole thing on video which was exciting for me and I got to share that.
Is it a public or private land?
This piece is private. We have an opportunity out there where we get to hunt a combination of private and public land that all buzzed up together. The part that I was on was a piece of private land.
Obviously, you put blog posts out there about three, two or one hour-old.
It’s not even right. That was fun. It did seem to cut my season short though. I like being able to get one right away but at the same time, everybody else is going out hunting. I’m like, “I already filled my tag.”
You got meat, you got protein and you get a ton of it. You get hundreds of pounds of it though.
We had a lot of me. My husband was blessed to get a gigantic moose. We’ve had an abundance of meat and it’s been a huge blessing. We’ve been eating on that moose.
Thanks for the segue. As a husband of a dynamic huntress, how does he support that?
He’s so supportive. He’s my world. My husband is amazing. He has always enjoyed elk hunting. That’s his favorite thing to do and he’s big on that every year. That’s a huge thing for us. We’re always planning our elk hunting season and we do that together. We also plan our antelope hunting every year. We do that together. The wolf hunting and predator hunting, he’s not interested in that. It’s not something that he’s passionate about. He’s supportive of me, even though I want to do it, he’ll watch the kids for me so I can go out on the weekend. He’s there and he’ll set me up if I need something on hunting gear-wise, gun-wise or I have a problem. One time, I was like, “This gun is fifteen pounds.” This is the one rifle that I take for wolf hunting. I said, “It would be handy if I had a sling that was also detachable quickly. I didn’t have to mess with it. It would stay on the body and then I could clip and unclip the rifle or click back on it.” Within 30 minutes, he had my gun out and he was working on it. He’s like, “How about this? What if we did this?” He gets it set up for me. He’s so supportive. I couldn’t have a more supportive spouse when it comes to that. He’s my hero.
Do you have any suggestions to ladies who are reading this if their husband maybe isn’t over the top or Mr. All World supporting them in hunting?
If there’s a way to infect them with the passion somehow, that’s going to be your best bet. Share that with them and take them out there. It’s hard for a guy to watch a girl go out to hunt and not somehow want to be involved in that. I’ve not experienced that so it would be hard for me. I wouldn’t know what to do with that. That would be interesting. Usually, it’s the other way around where the guy’s the one that’s wanted to go out and hunt and maybe the girl doesn’t want to. That’s always been the experience that I’ve had growing up. Nowadays, I can totally see how you might find yourself in the other situation with as many women as we have getting involved in the industry and wanting to go out and hunt. That’s probably an issue that some women face.
Going back to your fifteen-pound rifle, what are you shooting?
It’s a DPMS Mini SASS, it’s a .223 AR. My husband set it up for me for my birthday. It was something I’ve wanted for a long time and he surprised me with it. I absolutely loved it. He thinks I’m crazy to take it out there and kick around with it. I look forward to it. Every time I take it out of the safe, my heart beats faster. I love that thing.
No doubt with that weight and I remember you get a tripod set up on it. That’s going to be rock-solid, the shoot as far as you want to shoot.
It’s an accurate rifle. That’s one of the reasons why I like taking it out there. The distance that I could be possibly seeing a wolf is varied. They could be anywhere from right there at your feet to 600 yards. I want something that I can quickly adjust one way or the other and make those changes. I know that if a wolf comes walking in and I might not have much time to make that decision. I want something that I feel comforted and quick that can handle the distant changes. I’m confident in that gun.
You get a rifle that weighs fifteen pounds. You get 30 pounds probably in your pack. You get food and you might have hiking sticks or not. You might have some water and you’re 100 pounds.
I’m one of those crazy people that carries way more in my pack than I probably should. I do it because there are many things that I want to have out there, especially being alone. I end up carrying a lot more stuff because I have to have everything that I might possibly need. All that being able to take it out there by myself. I do carry a lot and that’s part of my training. I think of that when I am training. I do go out and I do rocking with a 60-pound pack on to try to train for that so that I have strong core muscles to support the pack and legs to carry it around it. It’s something I definitely consider when I’m training.
How much do you think is the weight that you’re carrying?
The gun is fifteen pounds and then my pack is probably 40 to 45 pounds, I would imagine.
Do you get bullets?
I always have about three extra magazines in my pack. I carry a .44 revolver on my hip. I always have my GPS. It’s probably an ungodly amount. I don’t know what that weighs at all and I might not want to know.
When I lived in Montana, I always had on my pistol. I have a shoulder holster. No matter what I was doing, bowhunting, fly fishing or whatever, I always had it because there are a lot of bears in Montana. Where you’re at, either grizzly bears or black bears.
Our culture is inundated with instant gratification where we want what we want, and we want it now. Share on XWhen I go there, there are grizzly bears and sometimes there’s not. It depends on what I’m after but the bowhunting was definitely a grizzly bear country. I always have my .44 on no matter where I’m at. I do think about it a lot more when I’m out there in a grizzly bear country.
You go grizzly bears, hunting and fishing. It’s the reality of being in some places. I’ve been close to a grizzly bear in Wyoming. In Montana, I never was but it definitely puckers power if you will, knowing that you’re there.
It’s a completely different situation when I go out alone and I know I’m in grizzly bear country. I am more alert. There’s definitely a lot higher of a feeling of respect for my surroundings when I know that I’m in a grizzly bear country, especially the previous years. It seems like we’ve had a lot more incidents with grizzly bear attacks on hunters.
I can’t comment on that. The only thing that I know is that there are more bears than there were years ago. That’s my whole unscientific take of that situation.
I don’t know what it is, but I do know that the stories that circulate every year about hunters getting attacked are becoming more prevalent and not less.
That’s the world we choose to play. We’re crazy, aren’t we Lindsay?
That’s what makes life fun. Who wants to live in a boring world?
Some of the people that I’ve had, “We’re going to go up here and spend the day fishing.” You got a pistol and they start looking at me. You don’t get it because they haven’t been immersed. That’s the thing you’ve been immersed by your father. You’ve spoken about the hunting tradition. How has your dad impacted your life that you’re going to transfer to your kids?
My dad helped me to recognize the value of what’s there and it is valuable. There is no price that I could put on what he instilled in me and the joy that he instilled in me about going out in the outdoors. He would get excited. As a kid, for your dad to get excited about something, it takes something special. My dad was an awesome man. I loved him. He was kind. He was loving. He’s not the guy who you don’t want to be around. He’s fun to be around but my dad wasn’t always excited about everything. When hunting season was coming around, he was planning his elk hunting trips with his friend or his whitetail hunting trips. That was one of the most exciting parts of the year for us kids. He would be on cloud nine for weeks thinking about hunting season starting.
That’s where the passion for it started for me. I saw what it did for my dad and I knew there was value there. It transferred over to me and my oldest daughter Bridger, it’s transferring over to her, too. She loves hunting. It was so exciting to watch her, more exciting than it’s ever been for me to go out hunting. She was able to go out and harvest her first doe. The whole family got to be there. My husband was there. Her younger sister and her little brother who is three years old got to be there. We all got together around her deer when she got it down. We got to take a picture altogether. She was so excited and the other kids are all excited. It was one of the best moments that we’ve all had together. It was special. Seeing that excitement on her face and the feeling of accomplishment that it gave her is so huge for children. I can’t press enough how glad I am that I get to pass this on to my own children.
On behalf of thousands of readers across North America, I can’t wait to get the comments and feedback on this show. Lindsay, you’re an amazing woman and I’m thankful that we’re friends. You can continue to share your story on Whitetail Rendezvous.
Thank you for having me back. It’s been fun.
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We’re heading up to Michigan for the next episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. We’re going to visit Kasey Thren. Kasey is the owner of Complete Deer Management. What does that mean? From the first blade of grass to that mature buck, he’s going to show you and help you get the results you want from your land and from your timber. What does that mean? You might have five acres, you might have 500 acres, it doesn’t matter. He’s going to put his skills to work. He’s been educated by Quality Deer Management and a number of organizations. Along the way, he’s written some books and some articles that if you Google them, you’re going to find that he knows what he’s talking about. Enjoy the show.
Important Links:
- Guests – past episode
- HuntFiber
- HuntFiber Fitness
- YouTube – Lindsay Persico’s channel
- Kasey Thren – next episode
- Complete Deer Management
About Lindsay Persico
My name is Lindsay Persico. I live in Montana with my three little kiddos and my sweet husband. I stay at home and take care of managing the household and in my spare time I pursue my love of hunting and all aspects of outdoor life. Processing game, hiking, fitness, shooting, fishing and camping are just some of the interests I find myself enjoying. I started my blog because I wanted to share my love and experiences with others and show the world that a regular girl can be an avid and successful hunter on public land. I am always learning and seeking to grow mentally and physically and I enjoy sharing my lessons and experiences along the way. I will continue my quest to learn until my last day and I am determined to be real about my struggles and mistakes along the way. That is the best way to learn. I have also written articles for The Outdoor Channel, Eastman’s Hunting Journal and am a content writer for Earned- the DIY Journal. I am honored to be Pro Staff for Rack’D Up Outdoors as well. My love of hunting began as a little girl as I watched my dad head out on hunting trips and later packed my own gear along and headed out with him. He taught me so much and really helped me develop my love for wildlife and the outdoors.
HuntFiber Fitness was born from HuntFiber.com where the love of hunting and the outdoors is celebrated. This lifestyle is more fully enjoyed when the adventurer is fit and healthy. From this truth is where HuntFiber Fitness got its wings. As a lifelong seeker of fitness I chose to get my NASM Personal Training certification so that I could help bring more opportunities and outdoor experiences to life for those around me. My goal is to bring you farther into the woods and closer to the game. Now I am blessed to have a husband and kids who share my love and pursue it with me. Bring on the challenges…they will just be opportunities for new lessons learned in my adventure story.