Unlike typical teenagers, Corbin Smith is texting from the stand. He’s been hunting since nine years old, and now, at 18, shares his keys to successful hunting. Corbin is known for being an exceptional tracker, a smooth wing shot, and when called upon, he delivers his arrow straight and true. He is all about the outdoors and getting his pals in a tree stand, duck blind, or bass boat any time he can.
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Texting From The Stand – Corbin Smith
We’re heading out to Virginia and we’re going to connect with an eighteen-year-old passionate hunter. Not only for whitetails, but he loves chasing turkeys because they gobble back at him. Corbin Smith is his name. Corbin just got out of class, so we’re going to chitchat with the future of hunting in North America. Corbin, welcome to the show.
Thank you, I appreciate it. I’m glad you invited me. Hopefully, there’s a passion for everyone else like I have a passion for outdoors.
Corbin, you said you’ve been hunting for a long time. What’s a long time? You’re just eighteen years old.
My dad had a choice when I was a baby, either babysit me or take me hunting. He was into hunting a lot and decided to take me hunting. I was about two-and-a-half, three years old when he took me hunting. That’s when it all started. I can’t thank dad enough for taking me out and giving me the time of his life. I’m right there with him making memories starting at two-and-a-half, three years old. I’m glad he brought out, introduced me to outdoors and God’s creation.
That’s all you have to do. Ask somebody or talk to your uncle, dad, cousin, friend, mentor and invite them outdoors. If they’re not family members, you best get permission. Any age, you never have to worry to get into the outdoors. Corbin, what did you hunt in your first hunt?
I hunted whitetail deer, just what you’re looking for. It was back in 2009. My dad and I, and his friend and my buddy, we knew each other for a couple of years now. My dad’s friend has some property out in Fredericksburg, where I’m from. We went over to his property. It was my friend’s first deer hunt for a while because he’s in college. We went there and got there early in the morning, got some coffee from the local 7-Eleven there. After we got coffee, we sat in the woods for about an hour-and-a-half, two hours as the daylight rose. Me and my dad heard a pow, so we called my dad’s buddy. He said that his son shot his first doe. I said, “Dad, let’s wait it out for 30 minutes or an hour to see what happens.” It was about 30 minutes after we heard the pow, this five-point buck walked out. It was probably 45, 50 yards away.
Before everything, me and my dad have been playing this game for a while. We always tap each other’s shoulders and say, “I see one,” and joke around. He started doing it and I was thinking he was kidding with me because we usually do it back and forth to each other. He wasn’t playing this time. He said, “Corbin, there’s a deer.” I said, “No, there’s not.” I wasn’t believing him and he was like, “There’s a deer.” I said, “Dad, you are right.” I raised the gun up, took the safety off then aimed right behind his shoulder blade. I pulled the trigger and dropped him. It was my first five-point buck. It was one of the most memorable moments I have in my life.
It was just a bang and then there’s a deer?
Me and my buddy actually shot our first deer on the same day and the same exact time. There are not too many people that could say that. I’m grateful for what I got.
I don’t know how to say it, but that’s pretty unbelievable. Divine intervention, maybe. I’m thinking that’s cool. You went hunting, you got a deer. Were you on the ground or on a tree stand? How were you set up?
Me and dad were set up right against a pretty nice sized cedar tree, I’d say about 45 yards. There was a pass down the rear but there was a bus. This guy collected a lot of trucks and cars. There was a bus to the left, and that’s where the deer walked out. Right from the left of that bus and came right down to where we were in about 45 yards away. I pulled the trigger, shot it and dropped it.
What was the feeling? How old are you again?
I’m eighteen years old now, but at the time I was nine years old. I looked at dad and I started busting out in tears, I was shaking so much. I can relive the moment as I’m telling you right now. I was speechless. I couldn’t thank God enough for giving me one of his creatures for me to take and use for me and my family. As an eighteen-year-old hunter, a lot of people just hunt for the racks. I didn’t care if it was a doe or a buck, I was fortunate enough to get a buck. That rack on the buck is just the prize. What I wanted was the meat, which I’m glad I got.
A lot of people just hunt for the racks, but you’re fortunate enough to get a buck; that rack on the buck is just the prize. Share on XI didn’t shoot my first deer until I was a sophomore in college. I was nineteen, twenty. You were probably a lot happier than I was and I was pretty happy.
I just happen to look up at dad. He started crying, I started crying. I said, “It doesn’t get much better than this.” I called my mom, “Mom, I did and shot my first deer.” She started crying. I was like, “This is a pretty cool moment.” That’s definitely a big memory in my life right there.
Because of your dad’s passion for whitetail hunting or hunting in general, you were able to tag along. As a young hunter, what are the couple of things that you’d recommend to your buddies, guy friends and girl friends if they wanted to get into hunting. How should they approach their parents?
Safety is the key.
What do you mean by that?
It was a couple of years ago when my dad took me to this hunter safety course. We learned all about safety. Stuff like knowing where the gun’s pointed, knowing if the gun’s loaded, unloaded. It’s everything. Make sure the safety is on, pretty much stuff like that.
You’ve got to get back to school, that’s what you’re telling me?
Pretty much.
When you go back to school, you’ve got to listen to the teacher and apply it. Here’s the thing, when you mentor kids or you, yourself are just starting out, when you pull that trigger, whatever’s going to happen is going to happen.
Once you pull the trigger, you can’t take it back.
When you think of that, it’s a huge responsibility. It’s more responsible than driving a car. Every teenager in the world wants to get behind the wheel and drive a car and that’s a huge responsibility. Then you get around guns and bows and arrows. Once you let that go, typically you’re aiming at something and you’re going to kill him. You’re going to take a life and all life is precious. People say that’s a dichotomy. How does that work? There are a gazillion reasons. One, I eat. Especially growing up when we were a young family, we ate what I kill. As a kid, sometimes I brought home the rabbit, the squirrel or the grouse. That was meal for the family. You think of that and you go, “That’s a big responsibility.”
When I hunt, I travel, I meet a lot of people. Pulling the trigger takes three pounds of pressure. That’s nothing. It takes less than a thousandth of a second to pull a trigger. Everything leading up to hunting is part of it. Plus, the camaraderie, the mentorships, spending time in the outdoors. If you don’t hunt, you just go, “I can work in the park by myself and not kill anything.” Yes, you can and enjoy your walk. You can play golf. Hit a little round ball and enjoy your walk. That’s your right. You have a personal right to do that. When you start thinking about hunting, it transcends all that in my opinion. When your friends ask you in high school, “How come you’re hunting?” What do you tell them?
I tell them just enjoy God’s creation. There are not a lot of people out there that gets the chance to do what I do. I also fish and there are not a lot of people that can do that too. Thinking of hunting, that’s what I grew up on. That’s what I’ll do for the rest of my life, I plan on doing. When I have kids, I’ll introduce them to how I was introduced to.
I’m excited to talk to a young man like yourself because you put it out there. You speak who you are. You believe systems are right there. That’s a part of hunting or not be a part of hunting. What I’m talking about is your relationship with God. It’s so refreshing to hear young kids such as yourself, Corbin, to say, “God created it and I’m a steward of it. I’m going to go out and harvest and enjoy what was given to me.” From that stand point, that’s really cool.
I’m glad God put these creatures on this Earth and us, humans, to invent guns so we can make memories like I did when I shot my first deer and first turkey, and shot my first gun ever.
You’re also a big fisherman, aren’t you?
Yes, I am. I started fishing when I was the same age I started hunting. I started holding a fishing pole when I was four years old. I live in the neighborhood. There are two ponds around my house and we have a lake. There are two parts in the neighborhood. I have to go across the main street to go to another lake that I grew up fishing on. My friend and I, Devon, we grew up fishing together. Every day I’d leave my house and go to his house. He lived across on the other side of the lake. I had to walk at least two and a half to three miles to get to his house just to go fishing. It’s worth it. I fished a lot of ponds around my house, a largemouth bass, a few bluegill crappies, some catfish. Every summer, these catfish would spawn up creek. There’s a creek that we go to and we’d catch them because they wouldn’t live very long. We caught them and brought them back to a pond around that lake that’s connected to. We relocated them so they could have a life.
Did a lot of them live?
There are a lot of them left. We had a total count of 25 baby catfishes. Another funny story I have was, my cousin Kelsey Rose, came down. They’re from rural South Carolina. They’ve never been to freshwater fishing a day in her life, and we have a beach in our neighborhood. We’ll just take them down there so they can get a feel for fishing. We didn’t promise them no fish but the first cast she ever casted out there, she actually caught a nineteen-inch bass. I said, “You’re pretty lucky to catch a nineteen-inch bass on the first cast you get out there.” That usually doesn’t happen. I said, “Let me try it.” I casted out and I caught a twenty-inch bass. I was reeling the twenty-inch bass in and I told dad to get the net and we were on land. I got the bass to shore, and dad scared the bass away and it snapped my line. I was mad and sad at the same time because that was the biggest bass that I ever caught or had on the line. I said, “Let me go out there and catch another one.” I cast there again and I caught an eighteen-inch bass.
You’re saying three casts and you got three bass?
Yes, three nice bass. I still don’t know to this day how we caught them. They must have been in a feeding frenzy mood. It was pretty neat how fast we caught those big bass because that usually doesn’t happen.
Was it during spawning time?
It was what I was thinking. They must have been spawning and we cast on their bed.
I know you love to fish, so how do you transfer over to your whitetail hunting some of the lessons learned from fishing? What do you think about that?
Patience is the key. If you don’t have patience, you’re not going to be able to sit there long enough and wait for a deer to walk up or a turkey, just like you need to have patience to wait for a fish to bite the hook. Answering your question, no matter what you do in life, you have to have patience in the outdoors.
You’ve got to be in the right place too. You can be fishing a huge lake, and if you’re not where the bass are, you’re not going to get them. If you’re not hunting where the whitetails are, you’re not going to get them. How do you figure that out?
Safety and patience are keys to successful hunting. Share on XWhat I usually do is I scout a lot. For whitetail hunting, I look for when the rut’s on or pre-rut. I look for deer trails, rubs, scrapes from the bucks. I used to set trail cameras up on the scrapes to see if they’re old scrapes, I can usually tell if they’re old scrapes or new scrapes. Just in case I usually set up a trail camera on the scrape and see how many bucks I have coming in to the scrape. The same with fishing, I scout when it’s spawning season. I scout out for spawning beds around the shore because around here they usually do them around the shore. I don’t know if they do them anywhere else like that but they do it around where I live.
You check it out and you figure out where they are. Historically, what I found over the years, especially with grubs and scrapes is until that deer is killed or dies, one way or another, he’ll work the same territory. Bass are no different, they have specific territories and specific forage that they’re eating. Fishing, to me, is a lot like hunting or hunting is a lot like fishing because you’ve got to go where they are, you’ve got to know what they’re feeding on and you’ve got to know what type of cover they like. You start throwing all those things in there and it works out. What’s your thought on that?
Just a little tip here. Growing up, my dad always told me, “If you ever find a rub on a tree, they usually do it in a row.” There are two or three trees they’d do it on. Next time you go whitetail hunting and see or find a rub, just look around because they usually do it in rows. I never believed my dad about that, but I guess it’s true because I’ve seen a lot of rubs in rows. I said, “Dad is always right.”
Dads have a habit of being right. They’ve been at it longer than you have. You’re very fortunate to have a dad that wants to be out in the outdoors with you. When we were talking about the show, you’re hashing about the outdoors. What draws you out to the outdoors rather than doing all the things kids like to do, sitting in your bedroom and playing videogames? What’s up with the outdoors?
It’s hard to explain. It’s more relaxing. I just can’t be inside. There’s more stuff to do outside than being inside. My dad actually tried to buy me a PlayStation a couple of years ago. Honestly, I have not used it since he’s bought it. He bought it for Christmas a couple of years ago and I’ve not used it since. We’ve only used it for family movies. That’s a hard subject to touch at. It’s the different creations. If you stop what you’re doing and take a deep breath, look around and you’re like, “He’s done a lot for us.” I feel like he’s put all this stuff on Earth for us to enjoy. Do you know what I mean?
I know what you mean a lot. Turkey hunting is either in swing in a lot of states or going to start here soon. What’s your allure or what’s your love for turkey all about?
I was introduced to turkey hunting when I was about nine years old. I shot my first turkey and first deer in the same year. There are not too many kids like me out there that’s able to do that. I’ve got to give credit to my dad’s friend. He invited me and dad to go turkey hunting. My dad’s buddy had a piece of property up in Loudoun County, Virginia. I couldn’t explain that property more than enough than just saying, “That was the honey hole.” First time we went up there, we’ve seen turkey, we heard turkey and that was literally the best spot I’ve ever seen turkey at. I’ve been turkey hunting since then. Every time dad and I have gone up there, we’ve seen them, heard them, or we’ve shot one.
There’s actually a story I’ve got to tell you. I was nine years old. Dad and I went up there for a weekend when I was out of school. This is the first I’m meeting my dad’s friend, Pat. It was the third or fourth time I was going to that property. Dad and I sat there all day, while Pat was calling a few times here and there. We don’t want to overcall a turkey because they don’t like that. We’ve got to stop hunting at 12:00 in the early season here. We sat there probably until 10:30 and we said, “We’re not hearing anything or seeing anything.” We decided to pack up. Dad was putting up the chairs and my dad’s friend was putting up the blinds. I was off about 35 yards, turning around to leave.
It was one of those instances dad and I happened to look up at the same time at each other. I told dad, “I heard one.” He looked at his friend and said, “He’s just messing around. He doesn’t hear anything.” I said, “Dad, I heard one, I promise.” My dad’s friend hit the slate call. Sure enough, the turkey gobbled at us. We didn’t know how many there were at the time so we set up really quick. There was this make-shift blind that my dad’s friend had right next to where were set up at. We set up over there. My dad’s friend said, “You think I should set up a decoy?” Dad said, “Sure why not. Set up a decoy.”
They weren’t even five minutes away, we set up so quick. I was shaking, heard a turkey gobbling, they were coming. I said, “Dad, I see them.” Pat was calling the turkey call, making them gobble and making me more shook up than I’ve ever been before. I told dad I was seeing a turkey. I had my gun up already. Dad was checking on me to make sure I had my gun up and everything but he forgot to put his gun up to shoot the turkey. I was thinking he’ll just let me shoot a turkey and let me feel the moment of it. I told dad, “When I shoot, you’re going to pull your gun up and shoot.” The turkey came in about ten yards away gobbling their heads off. There are three jakes together. I pulled the trigger, dropped my bird and dad got lucky enough to pull his gun up and shoot the other jake.
We both got two birds on the ground, I was more thankful than enough. I couldn’t thank Pat enough for inviting me and dad up there to shoot our first turkey on the same day, same exact time. One extra good credit dad did for us was he wrote an article about me and him shooting out first turkey on the same day, the same exact time and sent it off to Field & Stream magazine. He got a response back that said they’re going to put us in the magazine and feature us.
Do you know what month that was published?
I think it was June 2009. It was a couple of years ago when I shot my first turkey.
I was right along with you in saying, “I hear something, here they come. Somebody do something.”
It was pretty funny. I said, “Dad, let’s go to every single convenience store out here and see if they got it.” Dad drove around every store we had in my town. We got all the copies. We’ve got about five copies left from handing them out to family members. We’ve got a total of fifteen magazines of Field & Stream of us in it.
Will you save one to give to your son, when you do have a son down the road in a few years?
I definitely will. That’s definitely a memorable thing I’d be able to tell the stories like my grandpa. I’ll be glad to share them with my kids when I have them.
Corbin, thanks for the visit. I know you probably have chores to do or turkeys to find or bass to catch, or homework. On behalf of thousands of readers across North America, I want to say thank you for being a guest. You’re so refreshing, you’re so excited. You represent what’s great about kids in the outdoors because you’re passionate about it. I certainly tip my hat to you for standing up for your faith also. That’s a great thing. With that, it’s time to say adios and I will be in touch with you.
I appreciate it, thank you.