Imagine a secret place where you could park your snow mobiles and four-wheelers, and just relax after a long day of shooting trap. Absolute heaven. Peter Rogers talks about how the Whitetail Bunkhouse Crew formed at Mill Creek – a great place to trade stories about hunting after a long day with his buds. His cousin Mike had a bunkhouse, if you will, for one of his crews. It was just a small two bedroom, four bunks in each room, a crapper and a shower – but they cleaned it up. Made it their own. There’s a pot belly stove in the main area, and a nice dinner table in the living area where Peter and his friends would just hang out and talk about the day, where they’re going to hunt next, what they’ve learned through reading or from other people. Hot food in a cozy bunkhouse in the middle of nowhere – now that’s a proper bunkhouse crew, alright!
Peter Rogers is the son of Dick Rogers, who once brought me to the Baraboo River Valley and started me off on a career in 1966 of hunting all over North America. But Peter never really became passionate about it until he was in his 30s. And even after open weekend of gun season, Peter finds himself wanting to use his bow more than his gun because it’s simply more intimate. For him, the heart of hunting involves being right there and actually catching the animal in its close natural environment as opposed to taking a 200 yard shot when it comes to whitetails. At 36, Peter Rogers is rediscovering what it truly means to be a hunter.
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Peter Rogers comes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He’s a member of The Bunkhouse Crew up in Laval, Wisconsin. He’s 37 years old and for 23 years has been hunting with a rifle, but three years ago he took up bow hunting along the Baraboo River. He took his first buck two years ago. He’s a certified massage therapist, renowned Milwaukee Musician, avid bike builder, and motorcyclists and all around a fantastic friend who happens to be the son of Dick Rogers who introduced me to hunting in 1966.
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Peter Rogers Whitetail Bunkhouse Crew
I’m happy to have Peter Rogers with me. Peter Rogers is the son of Dick Rogers, and if you listen to my Episode 000, you’ll find out that Dick Rogers was instrumental in bringing me to the Baraboo River Valley and started me off on a career in 1966 of hunting all over North America. Peter, welcome to the show.
How’s it going, Bruce?
It’s going well. Peter, let’s share where the hunting tradition came for you and let’s start there.
Hunting has always been intriguing for me because of my dad and my family. He grew up in Baraboo River Valley in center Wisconsin on the farm that you first hunted. Since I was knee high to a grasshopper, he’s been taking me up hunting, whether I was going on the hunt, whether I was riding in the car while he was taking people out for drives or sitting around listening to the old boys talk about that one that got away. The love affair started when I was extremely young, but I never became passionate about it until I was in my 30s and 36 now and starting to get down to the heart of what it is to be a hunter.
Let’s talk about what does it mean to you, Peter, to be a hunter?
I don’t look at it the same way that a lot of people. I’m not extremely into how big of a deer is. As any hunter would like to bag the big one in the biggest fucking camp, I enjoy being out there in the wildlife and experiencing that passion that my dad has. My biggest aspiration is to understand what good bucks do because I got baskets run around all day when I go hunt. I rarely see that Unicorn, if you want to call it. In general, my whole outlook on hunting is to get out there, to be in nature, to make data accurate kills. Wounding a deer is a great fear of mine. It’s never happened before, which I feel very fortunate, but I want to get to the heart of what deer hunting is all about and I feel like I’m almost there.
You said, “The heart of hunting.” Define that.
For me, it’s understanding the deer that you’re hunting. Right now, I’m into using my climber, especially for bow hunting and even after opening weekend of gun season, I find myself wanting to use my bow than a gun because it’s a more intimate thing. I feel like the heart of hunting has been right there in catching the animal in its natural environment as opposed to taking a 200-yard shot when it comes to whitetails of course.
Let’s talk about The Bunkhouse Crew as I’ve named the people in the place at Mill Creek. Share with our audience what The Bunkhouse Crew is all about and why it’s fun.
My dad had a little cabin on a river a few years back and we never were able to hunt there. It was more for building and having a good time and we’d always come up and stayed on the farm that we hunted or stayed in a hotel nearby. When my dad had the opportunity to get out of that a cabin, he was quick to try to find the place where you can call it home base, where we could park our snowmobiles and four wheelers and go shoot trap. Luckily, my cousin, Mike, had a bunkhouse for one of his crews. We, you especially, went through with him and he cleaned it up. It’s just a small two-bedroom, four bunks in each room that have a shooter and a shower and we made it our own.
Since we started going up there, it’s about a mile away from where we hunt. It has become a great place to share stories. There’s a potbelly stove in the main area and then a nice dinner table in the living area where we can hang out and talk about the day, where we’re going to hunt, what we’re going to do, what we’ve learned through reading or what we’ve heard from other people. We try to make each experience that much better every year. Now that we’re in our third year here, it’s starting to all come together and we’re all getting good spots and where we’re going to hunt and what we’re going to do for that day.
Tell the audience about your buddy, Jason, because he’s part of the Bunkhouse Crew. Introduce Jason to our audience.
Jason is a very good friend of mine. We became friends through a good friend of mine because I needed help fixing one of my motorcycles. Instead of just doing it for me, he showed me what I needed to do. I’m very intrigued with that. Through that, we started talking about deer hunting. He spends most of his time quite a bit north of where we hunt and keep most of his bucks. Since getting into his 30s, with marriage and stuff, he lost his hunting crew and I said, “Why don’t you come up with us?” That was the first year of the Bunkhouse. As far as I know, he started bow hunting extremely early in life and he had an uncle that walk them through every aspect of it.
He was that guy that never wore camo, never scented himself, nothing. He had nothing but the bottom part of a climber and his bare hands. He would inch himself up the tree, get as high as he needed to be, right on that rub line. He’d always come home with a nice buck. As much competition as that can be, there’s also something to learn from somebody like that. As far as him being my guru with motorcycles, he’s also taught me a lot about hunting and seeing his passion for it. He does all. He cleans and quarters all his animals, he freezer them, packages them, he does all that on his own. He loves every aspect of it, from preparing for the hunt all the way down to zipping that last freezer bag with the tenderloin in it.
How heavy was that buck that Jason shot last year? Tell me a little bit about that buck. It certainly was unique.
This past year, he shot probably the biggest buck I’ve ever seen. As far as the horns go, it wasn’t very big. It literally looked like a crab claw on one side and a fork on the other. The deer, they say, was close to eleven years old and well over 200 pounds. He honestly had no clue how big it was when he shot it, he just saw this giant body rubbing on a tree and took his shot and he thought that he had got the biggest buck in life as far as rap size go. He walked up to it and saw this crazy crab claw and finally realized that he had a neat buck. As disappointed as he was with not having the giant rap on it this was very impressive animal. The meat in it, he cut your buck up at the same time. He cut his and just the back shafts alone were three times the size of the buck you had shot. That goes to show the sheer size of this animal. It’s part of his house right now, staring ahead, they had it hanging on the side of his barn. He’s still pretty proud of that.
Jason and I tried to drag it up a small hill, not even the big hill to get it to the truck to get it on out of the woods and we couldn’t do it. We had to take ropes and drag it up the hill and then took a bunch of us to get it set up and drag it out to where the trailer was. It’s one of the largest bucks that I’ve ever seen. Jason’s one heck of a guy and I’m sure glad I’m a buck brother with him. We shot our bucks the same day and we went around calling ourselves buck brothers, but he’s part of the Bunkhouse crew and that’s what hunting to me is about since 1966. I’ve been going live with Dick and hunting the family farm and other farms in the area and it’s special. It’s a special time and I hope everybody understands. It’s not just the kill, it’s the whole journey and the relationships. Here’s Peter, 36 years old, and he has fond memories of hanging out with his dad and waiting for us to clear the woods after. Peter, let’s share with the listeners about your first archery kill.
It's not just the kill, it's the whole journey and the relationships. Share on XI want to add that you had to go help Jason pull back that monster out. After that, there was a mysterious giant dent in the bumper of my dad’s truck. There were no witnesses. Nobody has said who it was but I can only imagine that. I knew that you both got your bucks and I was on the other side of the property from where his was and I seriously regret after seeing pictures and stuff. I figured that I would stay out there since you were driving four wheelers in the woods. My cousin, Jim, came up to check you out and I figured this, all that movement, maybe something will get pushed my way.
Instead of driving up and walking out there and congratulating you on the spot, I waited and I wish I was there. In the Bunkhouse, we have a bulletin board with all our kills and and family coming to visit. It’s a big pole barn. We have a huge area where we can have people come in. We get the deer hanging out in the shed. I do regret, and I feel like that’s part of the hunt, too, is when somebody gets something going out there, especially for me, there are guys that stay out there all day such as yourself. If you don’t get anything, you pack them lunch, you stay out there, but if my dad gets something, I definitely want to be there to help them gut it and help them load it and whatever.
I feel like I missed out, staying in my stand because I can’t see a damn thing the whole time you are loading up. That’s another part of what I feel like the heart of the hunt is, is sharing those moments with the people that you hunt with because it is an exhilarating experience. You get that adrenaline rush and you want to get pictures and whatever. I feel like I missed out, but you never know. You could turn around and take a pee and the biggest buck you ever saw to be right in front of you or you can sit in the woods all day and never see the biggest one you could have seen walk right behind you. There’s an unknown and I feel like the camaraderie is almost more important to me than getting out there a little extra longer.
I’ve got to share that the day Jason and I both killed our bucks, Peter and I woke up 4:00 AM, 4:30 AM. I look out, it’s raining, snowing, foggy. It was ugly. I said, “I don’t think so, Peter.” Peter’s up and ready to go. He says, “Come on, just go to the point stand.” Because of Peter, one of the nicest bucks that I’ve seen on the farm, not the biggest but a very nice buck, I was in the stand and watching the buck go up and I couldn’t get a shot at him. He’s a very nice buck, ten-pointer and nice width and heavy mass. I couldn’t get a shot. Then all of a sudden from my left, I hear a commotion. I know it’s about coming and all I could do is turn my scope back from a power to two power and swing on him like a pheasant. As they say the rest is history. Peter, thank you for getting me up and for giving me your stand.
No problem. I didn’t want to sit there any longer. I wish that I had, but it’s one of those things. When I started explaining my first bow buck experience, you understand that I almost would rather the people that I hunt with get the nice one. You come all the way from Colorado and it’s a big deal for you. You took a lot of time that year. I wanted everyone to have the best spot. There’s been times where I’ve actually sat on the ground so that you could get a better spot, especially because I started off from August sitting out there and I know where the deer are running. I know where I see a nice buck. As long as we don’t get pushed out by other people, I always feel like I want to send people I care about in the good spots. I’m only 36, you’re on the precipice of life here. I give up your spot or whatever. I’m not a selfish hunter at all. I enjoy spending the time with people.
I’d seen my buck the day before. Jason and I were hunting back behind my cousin’s house, which is the area in my uncle’s farm and my cousin’s farm. They create a huge area of over 800 acres of not only a pasture and farmland, but a massive amount of woods. Jason had set up a stand the year before. It’s so thick in there, but there are all the big bucks in there and you’ve driven before so I sat on the edge of the field on the west end of the field. He went up in the woods into his stand. Just before dark, the night before I got this guy, I saw him walking along the edge of the field underneath a walnut tree. He wasn’t spooked at all. He walked from the direction that the Jason was sitting. He either snuck past him or he was between where Jason was and where I saw him and he had just gotten up to start the evening feed. The next day, we did some sighting ins for our gun rifles and had a few libations, a couple cold ones. This was about noon and we cut off at about three and I went out a little after that.
I was the only one who’s hunting that area that day. I decided to take a climber into where I had seen him the night before. I climbed a tree right next to the walnut tree and got myself snugged in. It was one of those fall days that was picturesque. I’m facing west. I facing the stand where I was sitting in there the night before and there’s a small field between. I start to doze off a little bit as we tend to do when the hot sun hits you and you’re still wearing your warm clothes. I wake myself up because when you’re in a prime area, you’re pretty much on edge. There’s a doe standing right in the middle of the field. She was halfway between me and this other stand probably 100 yards between me and the doe. She started walking away from it. At this point, I was already looking for this buck. I stayed still. I didn’t move and she’s walking away from me and then she caught my scent. Not the scent of myself, but actually I put some stuff on the bottom of my boots and she started following my actual footprint I could see in a freshly tilled field.
It was a cornfield scenario. There’s corn in there that the doe was feeding on, but I could see her walking right over my footprints right towards me. Not more than a minute after she started walking towards me, she was probably 50 yards away, I hear to my left, and I knew exactly what it was. He came right to the edge of the field, right next to the tree I was in probably twenty yards to my left and I didn’t move. My heart was beating out of my chest. I wanted to look so bad. I could tell he was standing on the edge, looking to see what’s going on. The doe finally noticed them and she took off a little bit. She moved to her left, which would have been to my right.
The buck chased her down and she stopped right at the edge of the woods. He stood in the middle of the field for a good minute, but I still didn’t move. I knew if I moved one inch he would’ve been gone. She took off into the woods to my right and he took off after her and he started running. I grabbed my bow, I don’t even remember putting my relief or anything, and he stopped right behind the tree. I could see there’s a background. He took two steps forward. I released, he ran about fifteen yards and dropped right there. I couldn’t believe it. I’d never taken a shot so fast and come to find after I retrieved the buck, how accurate a shot it was. It went right through the right side and then just above his heart and got that ascending aorta and that’s why he died quickly.
I texted my dad and my nephew that I’m going to need a trailer because at the time, I was driving a small sedan. I went up and checked them out and it was the same a-point I’ve seen the day before. I couldn’t have been happier with such a good quick, clean kill and just the way it all happened. It happened over the course of maybe five minutes from when he first step to my left and to when I finally dropped him. It was a truly amazing kill.
Peter has lots of pictures and he was just ecstatic and it’s a joy, especially for an old guy on the precipice of life. Peter was so excited and we were excited. His Dad was excited. Everybody was excited for him because Peter spends a lot of time figuring it out and doing it right. He’s doing everything he can to become vulnerable hunter and to get that deer with the shot he put on it is a testament to his desire to be a great hunter.
The weekend before I passed up on a buck that was twice. The rack was twice that size. We’re calling him Mr. Wonderful. He was 60 yards away and there’s no way I was to take that shot. He was 50 yards away, broad side right in front of me and where my stand was. He was at the crest of a hill so it would have been a slap shot, not shoot him down. I didn’t want to take a plot shot. I’m still happy I didn’t take the shot and nobody as far as I know has gotten him because pretty much we know everyone that hunts that area so we’d know it.
Mr. Wonderful is still there. The terrain we hunt, Baraboo River, runs on the northern edge down in the valley and then we have the hillsides and the woodlots and the crops and everything up on the ridge. It’s a wonderful place and a lot of deer have come off that. Because of everything that’s happened, we’re seeing bigger and bigger deer. We’ve never seen a deer as big as Mr. Wonderful in the years I’ve been going there. Something is going right and it’s the heritage.
I have my theory and I’m close to right is which is why it goes through all the hunting. 45 minutes north of us, a coworker of mine has some hunting land. They have always scored big animals off of there. They were bow hunting and they saw two wolves going through their area. They started talking to their neighbors and everyone said, “Have you seen any deer?” They haven’t, and now I feel like the deer I push themselves towards us, as well as a lot of the smaller predators like fox, because if you were a small game up there, normally you’re ticking rabbits and being annoyed to death by turkeys. Turkey hunting was pretty bad in that area. It’s due to those smaller predators being pushed down by the wolves. At the same time, it’s pushing more deer down. Bow hunting from opening weekends until dawn hunting, I’ve never seen so many deer in my life. When I was turkey hunting, I had a doe walk right up to me. She had no clue what I was until I moved. It’s been pretty crazy. I have a feeling that if we don’t do something about it, the wolves are going to push them even further south and we’re going to be out of luck.
Wisconsin DNR does have a wolf season. They take 200 to 300 wolves. Northern Wisconsin has been hammered. I don’t want to use the word decimated because some people will think that’s a little alarming, but the deer in Wisconsin are heading south. There’s no question about it. We’ve been getting licenses and hunting wolves and taking wolves that are on the farm.
They don’t allow it in our area. They do allow wolf licensing and hunting, but it’s not in our county or the one north of us. Pretty much, there’s nothing you can do besides scare tactics, whatever you can do to get them out of there.
Peter, give a shout out to your bow manufacturer, The Bunkhouse Crew, and a big shout out to your dad.
Thanks to you, I’m a proud owner of a PSE Stinger that has never done me wrong. I’ve never had any issues with it. I barely have to reset it every year, even after being restrung, surprisingly. As well as Jim’s Archery in Union Grove, Wisconsin. He makes all my arrows for me and make sure that the handle is right for every season. Thank you and my dad, Dick Rogers, and Jason Casting for making my hunts most pleasurable.
I’m ready to jump in the truck and head east and hang out at Fishies and the River Mill and other places that we frequent for good meals and good camaraderie. Especially get to the back to the bunkhouse and burn some wood, tell some stories and get up in the morning and go hunting whitetails. To The Bunkhouse Crew, a big thank you. Keep the sun at your back and the wind in your face and be patient.
I want to thank each and every one of you for spending your time with us. I look forward to sharing with you in the next episode, more whitetail hunting tips, techniques, and storage. Until then, keep the sun at your back, the wind in your face, and always be patient. If you have any tips, comments, or suggestions or what we can do to improve, because we’re here to serve you, let us know. Thanks for listening to whitetail rendezvous podcast at www.WhitetailRendezvous.com.