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Shelly Grandstaff  Co-Founder of Whitetail Stalkers

Welcome to another exciting edition of “Whitetail Rendezvous.” This is Bruce Hutcheon, your host. We’re heading out to Iowa today, and we’re going to visit with Shelly Grandstaff. Shelly Grandstaff  Co-Founder of Whitetail Stalkers with her husband, Mike, have a company and a crew called Whitetail Stalker. So Shelly, welcome to the show.

Shelly: Hi. Good to be on.

Bruce: Let’s start right off. Let’s talk about yours and Mike’s group and business, Whitetail Stalker. Tell us about that.

Shelly: Okay. Well, last year in September, Mike decided that he was gonna start up a page called Whitetail Stalker. He was posting mainly, on this Facebook page, big deer. He knew that people love to see big deer, and we like to look at big deer. So he saw that the page was really taking off and started thinking about doing a team and decided he was gonna put some people on. That’s kind of how it started. We started out Whitetail Stalker just by an idea. People like to see deer.

Bruce: Thank you for that. Tell me about your team. Who makes it up? Are they just in Iowa? Or are they in different states?

Shelly: No. We have quite a few people. I think we’re at 10. We have them kind of stand out between Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, here in Iowa. We also have Missouri. Like I say, I think there’s about 10 of us now. Got a couple of those girls on the team too. It’s not just guys. Yeah. We hunt everything, from whitetail deer to coyote. I think a couple of the guys have thought about going on other hunts. So just anything that we can go out and do. We do turkeys and everything as well.

Now in the warm-up, you mentioned that you’re gonna be on the Pursuit Channel. How did that come about

Bruce: Now in the warm-up, you mentioned that you’re gonna be on the Pursuit Channel. How did that come about?

Shelly: Well, the pursuit channel has a show that is called “The Search: Generation X,” is what I believe the full name of it is. They were advertising for teams to come onto the show and compete. It’s almost like an “American Idol” type of thing, where different teams go onto this show, and they submit their hunting video, and the viewers vote on who they like the most. Whoever gets the most votes wins the competition that the Pursuit Channel is putting on. So we signed up.

Bruce: What’s the prize?

Shelly: You get . . . My understanding is you get your own television show. So we’re . . .

Bruce: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Your own show, and they’re gonna fund it?

Shelly: I think, or portions of it. I’m not sure of all the details with it, but Mike kind of handles most of that. I just go out, and I get the deer.

Bruce: That a girl.

Shelly: Yeah.

Bruce: Well, that sounds exciting. Now, when . . . Let’s slow down here, Bruce. Now, have you already submitted your video for this year?

Shelly: Yes. Yep, we have all of our video in that’s required. I think we have to have in five or six videos and then a best-of video, and we have all of ours submitted in.

Bruce: How long are these videos, each one of them?

Shelly: They have to be five minutes. So it’s kind of editing down a bit, but you still get the feel of what happens out there with the hunt.

Bruce: Wow. Do you know Gary Gillette with the Hunting Film Tour?

Shelly: I personally do not. I have a feeling my husband probably does, though.

Bruce: Okay. Just make a note after the show. Gary has been on “Whitetail Rendezvous.” Had him a guest, a month or so ago. He has a company that goes around North America, built on short video clips. Now, I think his are eight to 10 minutes, but he has a collection of that. It’s all about the outdoors. It could be fly fishing, could be kayaking, could be muzzler hunting, archery hunting, but he incorporates that. It’s kind of like . . . What was that [inaudible:00:04:30] film about the skiing? You ever remember that or ever see that show?

Shelly: I’m not sure if I have or not, to be honest with you.

Bruce: Okay. But that’s the concept. Basically that was a November, September, October, and November show, where Warren Mill would film all around the world and bring an hour-and-a-half worth of skiing, all different places, to the film and just go from school to school and theater to theater. It was really fun. So remember that, Hunting Film Tour, because if you have that content . . . I don’t know how the voting is gonna come out, but you might think about that if you’re into doing video shows.

Shelly: Perfect. Thank you.

Bruce: You’re welcome. So that’s the Pursuit Channel. You said it’s gonna be in January it’s gonna air. Do you know what channel?

Shelly: Whatever you have, whether Dish or Direct, it’s gonna be Pursuit Channel. I’m not sure of what the actual channel is with Dish.

Bruce: Now let’s switch gears now, and let’s talk. Before we talk about your first deer, which is why Mike wanted you to be on the show and I get excited about having you on the show, and we’ll talk about that in a little bit, but let’s talk about the hunting tradition for Shelly and how that came about.

Well, growing up, I had . . . I was never exposed to hunting. I had no interest in hunting. I thought, “Poor Bambi,” to be honest with you

Shelly: Okay. Well, growing up, I had . . . I was never exposed to hunting. I had no interest in hunting. I thought, “Poor Bambi,” to be honest with you. My dad, he would pheasant hunt, but I never went with him. I met Mike, and when him and I met, it was a very short dating relationship. We dated for about three months, and then we got married. He was out in Indiana, and I was out here in Iowa. So when I moved out to Indiana, I had never seen the house that I was going to live in. [inaudible:00:06:39] 11 years it’s all worked out, and we’re good, for such a short relationship.

Bruce: I’m happy about that. Hallelujah on that.

Shelly: Yeah. But I go out there, and I go into the house, and I walk into the living room, and here’s four deer heads looking at me, hanging on the wall, and it kind of creeped me out at first. I didn’t know what to think of all of it. Then I go into another room, and there’s two more heads hanging on the wall and another head hanging on the wall somewhere else. I knew he was a deer hunter. Obviously we kind of established the things we like and what we enjoyed to do, but seeing it kind of firsthand, I was taken back by it.

So he wanted to take me out that first hunting season, to get me introduced to all of it. So we got married in June. So hunting season was coming up shortly after that. So I think it was opening day of gun season out in Indiana that we went out. We went out, and I think I saw everything imaginable that can happen with deer. I had like 11 does come underneath our stand. I was just sitting there, watching everything, but 11 does come underneath the stand. I had bucks sparring out in the field, a buck mating with a doe, everything you could just imagine. It was just amazing to see it and the peace and the quiet and sitting in the tree and just the crunching noise of the deer. I just was instantly hooked from that point.

Bruce: How old were you at that time, if I may ask?

Shelly: I was 18. Yep.

Bruce: So no prior hunting experience at all in your life, and then you meet the guy of your life, and all of a sudden, you’re sitting up in a tree stand, and just your eyes are open.

Shelly: Yeah, definitely. I remember sitting in school, and some of the boys in my class would come in with camo on. I remember thinking, “Oh, that’s awful, hideous. Why would you wear that?” Now I wear it. So it’s not that bad.

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