#435 Red Vanes Outdoors – Brad Stricker

October 18, 2017

WTR 435RV | Red Vanes Outdoors

 

In this episode, Brad Stricker of Red Vanes Outdoors talks about passing on his passion for the outdoors to his son. Brad talks about his hunting techniques and preparation, from land and treestands preparations to food plots preparations for his multiple lands in Missouri. He also shares the physical and mental preparations that made him a world-class archer. Learn about Red Vanes Outdoors, what Brad and his team are looking to accomplish with their show, and how dads can help their sons love the sport.

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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

Red Vanes Outdoors – Brad Stricker

We’re heading to Missouri and connect with Brad Stricker. Brad’s a unique man. He’s worked hard and he’s got a great business there in Missouri. He’s been able to buy a couple of farms and he’s excited about that. He’s going to tell us all about his farms. He’s also going to share how he’s helping his son become a hunter and sharing the passion that he has. He’s going to talk in-depth about preparation. It’s not only the preparation of the land, tree stands and food plots, but he’s got to talk about mental and physical preparation and how to become a world-class archer. He is driven by chasing whitetails and he’s trying it out with him. He, like me, got busted and schooled a bunch of times. I bet all readers can relate to all of that. Finally, he’s a member of Red Vanes Outdoor Team Members. It’s a group of guys that have an opportunity. They’re going to shoot five shows and submit them to the Hunt Channel and see where it goes. Sit back, relax and enjoy Brad Stricker and hunting the wily buck.

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We’re heading out to Mid-Continent. We’re going to head out to the Missouri area at St. Charles to be exact and meet up with Brad Stricker. Brad is a horticulturist, a landscaping guru and he’s also is a whitetail hunter. Brad, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me. How are you doing?

I’m doing well. I’m getting ready because I’ll be at 10,000 feet chasing elk. I’m getting antsy about that.

You’re going up to the Rockies?

I live at the foot of the Rockies. I don’t have to drive about 3.5 hours to head up to elk camp and see what we can see. We’ll hunt around 10,000 feet. It’ll be fun. I’ll be heading to the Midwest for my Fall whitetail hunt. I’m excited about that.

That’s great.

We were chitchatting on how we found each other on Instagram. That’s one thing that social media has grown. You started and became involved with Red Vanes Outdoors. What’s that all about?

I was starting my hunting team for fun, to have a nice little group of guys hunting and rooting each other on. They reached out to me right at the time that I was starting my team. I told them that I was starting my team and I appreciate the offer. As time progressed, we talked a little bit and they said, “We’re going to start filming a show for the Hunt Channel. We’d like to have you a part of our team.” This was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. I stopped doing what I was doing and went all-in with them on this. It’s exciting and it’s going to be a new adventure for us all. It’s a learning curve. We did much of the filming in the field and had a cameraman with me while hunting. It’s going to be a whole new ball of tricks. I’m looking forward to it and they’re definitely up for the challenge and ready to move forward with all this.

That’s exciting. For the readers that are thinking, “How did that all come to be? How did they get on the Hunt Channel right away?” Is that a matter of spending a lot of money? How does that work?

The Hunt Channel reached out to them. The guys I’m with, Chandler Davis and Gavin Leonard, they’re both collegiate baseball athletes and good baseball players. I’m not sure if that played a part in it. Maybe the Hunt Channel has seen something in them through their Instagram or maybe their Facebook. I’m not sure. They have quite a big following with their social media and stuff. They are good kids, have a strong faith and a good outlook on life. Chris Leonard, Gavin’s dad, he’s the fourth member in the Red Vanes Outdoors and he shoots competitively. He’s killed numerous beautiful whitetails and a knowledgeable guy. The four of us have a good mixture of knowledge and what it takes to accomplish those big goals of killing a big beautiful buck on film and sharing it with the rest of the audience and our fans.

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Hunting behind and in front of the camera wanting to take the shot is tough. It’s an interesting thing. Have you set up a number of hunts? How does that work so you could get enough B-rolls and kill shots on the air?

We’re filming five episodes so we need five kills shots, which is not an easy task and your audience knows that some people go 2, 3, 4, 5 years without even having to kill. I’ve booked some hunts with some good outfitters to possibly better my chances. It’s all free-range and no high fence or anything like that. I have a pretty nice farm up in Pike County, Illinois. I’ve got a lot of nice deer up there. The majority of my time, I’ll be hunting up there trying to see if we can make it happen up there. Also in my Missouri farm, I’ll be bouncing back and forth. There’s going to be a lot of time in the woods and it’s tough to do it. It’s tough, one, to kill and two, try and make five episodes out of it between the four of us. We’re going to be hunting as hard as we can and enjoying every minute of it, hopefully.

Since you own your business, there was no problem to say, “I’m gone these 3 or 4 days. I’m out of here.”

That’s the greatest thing about my position. I do own two companies and I put my time in but my guys know when it comes to Fall, they know how to get ahold of me and where I’ll be. I have great employees. It’s the same thing with my family, they’re supportive of me and they know that this is my passion. Especially, my wife, she knows where my money goes, where I like to spend it on and where I like to spend my time. I’m lucky to be in the position I am with work and family. For most people, those are the two things that stop them or hinder their time to hunt. I’m blessed and lucky to have them.

What would you say to the people and to my readers that if they want to get into the outdoor industry and do filming, what are 3 or 4 things that you’d say, “You need to do this?”

One thing is that social media is huge. I’m the first one to tell you that I didn’t think I would be involved in social media. It came on at a time in my generation where I was like, “A lot of people do it but some people don’t want to do it.” It has tremendously helped me. I started Instagram and I found that good quality pictures are the key. If you have a nice deer, make sure it’s good quality pictures so they can see the deer. I learned that recently and just being yourself. As far as my followers go, if I have a new follower, I hit their page and make sure they’re not posting stuff that I don’t believe in. All of my followers are industry-based. I like the people that are die-hard passionate like me. That’s one of the keys. It’s to be yourself, put your hard work out there, post as much as you can, whether it’s Facebook or Instagram or whatever.

I don’t do Snapchat or Twitter, I’m not sure how to do those. The main thing is to put yourself out there so people see what you’re doing. Secondly, one of the big things that helped me was sponsorships through Instagram. The social media-based products and companies out there like Gerard with Rack-Gatter Scents, he was my first sponsorship. I was sitting in a tree stand in Missouri when he sent me a message on Instagram and said, “Call me. I’d like you to use my products and sponsor you.” It blew my mind. That was my first sponsor and it snowballed from there. It was cool.

He’s got a good company going and a lot of followers and stuff. If you put in your hard work and do what you’re supposed to do, people will notice you. You don’t have to pat yourself on the back. That’s what happened in my case. I was doing the right things, putting the right stuff out there and the right people noticed. Once you get one sponsor, their followers are going to look at you. It kept going from there. As far as steps three and four, I happened to fall into Red Vanes Outdoors. That was a huge step to the fall into something.

They were nice and we did a lot of talking before we finalized the deal. To be able to be a part of a team that’s only started with the filming in The Hunt Channel has been nice to say, “We’re going to give you five episodes. We’ll see what you guys can do.” I was lucky to have to fall into that role. The main thing is, put your hard work, do what you love, show people what you love and keep it interesting. You’ve got to remember, if you’re putting something on social media, there’s little kids and older people out there looking, so keep it relevant and clean. That is my main goal.

Thanks for that. Let’s turn it up. You’ve been hunting for a long time and you’ve got your son into hunting. Let’s talk about how dads can help their sons become hunters and love the sport that you’re passionate about. I’m passionate about it and my grandkids are fortunately passionate about it. Let’s talk about that and share it with the readers.

When my son was nine years old, I started with him. It was a learning curve for a dad to have a son sit next to you. For one, it’s exciting. Two, it can be annoying. You’re trying to sit there and be quiet and they’re playing with their gloves, kicking their feet and they’re tapping the side. It’s a big learning curve for me. It was hard for me to adjust. I’ll be honest and admit that I would get aggravated and be like, “Would you stop it?” As time went on, I was like, “I can’t do that. I’m trying to teach them. For one, I’m trying to teach them to be quiet while you’re deer hunting but at the same time you can’t get aggravated and make it not fun for him.” It took me a couple of times where I know I’ve gotten under his skin a little bit.

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I better not do that. That’s one of the biggest rewards for me as a father and as a parent to see my kids enjoying it. Blake goes up to the farm with me and he cuts trails, hangs the stands. There was this time that there was a spot at my Illinois farm and he goes, “Dad, I want to put a tree stand in there but I want to do everything myself.” He got on the Bobcat with the brush hog and cleared all the land. He did everything. He cleared it, fertilized it, limed it and seeded it. We checked it and it had about 2 or 3 inches of growth. To see that his eyes that he did that whole area, got his camera set up and the seeds coming up. It doesn’t get much better than that for me.

I would certainly agree with that. That’s amazing. Let’s talk about how Brad got into hunting. Who took you hunting for the first time?

I have a lawn care company. The company I buy all of my lawn equipment from is Scott’s Power Equipment at St. Louis. He had 1,600 acres in Southeastern Illinois, almost to Kentucky. He invited me to dive hunt one day and I’m like, “I don’t do a whole lot of hunting.” He’s like, “Come on out.” I went dove hunting, me and my son, Blake. He goes, “Why don’t you buy a bow and go deer hunting?” I said, “Alright.” Being the person I am, I went out and bought a Matthews and went out there to his farm. The first morning I sat deer hunting with him on that property, I missed the doe. The second morning, I’ve got one and that’s all it took. It was instant for me. I’ve been hunting for years now. It’s not as long as most people but it got ahold of me fast and hard. I went headfirst into hunting. It’s been a lot of fun and it consumes my time, but it keeps everybody out of trouble. Anytime you’re out in the woods and in the country and you’re doing something, it doesn’t get any better than that for me.

That’s interesting because most kids have their father, grandfather, or uncle when they were 5, 6, and 10 years old. I remember in my case, they took me out when I was probably ten years old. I shot grouse, rabbits, chasing raccoons and that whole experience. I knew where I was going with all that and I’m still at it. Take a guy like yourself, it sounds like you didn’t have any parental guidance or family guidance for hunting.

No, I didn’t. It was a friend and business guy that I dealt with who invited me out there. He’s taught me a lot. There were only ten members there. It was a private little club with cheap membership. We worked the ground, we did all the food plots and everything. I didn’t know it. It was years ago when I started. All the guys up were great and a couple of them are some of the best hunters I’ve ever been around. I’m a sponge when it comes to anything. I’m a blue-collar worker. Show me how to do it, I do it once and I’m going to absorb that and either do the same thing you do or maybe put a twist on it if I could find a better way.

I’ve learned a lot. They taught me a lot. In my eyes, I don’t stop learning. If you don’t learn, you’re missing something. This sounds cliché, but you can honestly learn something new every day if you try and open your mind to it. There’s something somewhere that you’re going to be like, “Now I know why this happened, how you do that or why you do that.” That’s the biggest thing with me. Surrounding yourself with knowledgeable people, people that have the experience and have the big bucks on their walls. There’s a reason they have them there and that’s because they know how to do it so. Anytime you see a friend, a neighbor or someone that has those big deer on the wall, you need to probably pay attention to what they’re talking about and how they’re doing it.

I like what you said, be lifetime learners. Every single time I go out, and I’ve been chasing whitetails for decades, I learn something new every single time. It could be the wind, where they’re crossing the fence, or in the properties that hunt. You learn something new and that’s what makes it fun. It isn’t only walking the same stand, getting up in the same stand and know that a deer or a doe is going to come by. They may or may not. When they don’t come by, you go, “What’s up with that? Something has changed.” We have to adapt like they have to adapt.

It’s fun and that’s what drives us. People that are reading, you, and myself, what drives us is that factor of knowing, “What did that deer do? Should I change my perspective to better my chances?” With technology, the bows are faster and quieter. The arrows fly like field points and the guns shoot forever. The trail cameras are unbelievable with the footage, the video and the clarity. There are so many tools out there now that we can put in our hands to better our chances. You’re still chasing that wild animal that you have to figure out. That’s the best part. The best part for me is no matter what I do to prepare, you’re still chasing an animal, and you still want this animal to come within 90 to 100 feet of you so you can get a shot. That’s pretty hard to do if you ask me.

It’s hard to do because everybody that goes to the field doesn’t shoot a buck or doe every year. I don’t know what the average sits are across the country. I don’t know that. If somebody does send me that to [email protected]. I’d like to know that average. That would be interesting. You can go to each state and they’ll say, “Many deer were killed in Wisconsin and Colorado gun season. Many deer or elk will be killed during elk season and so on and so forth. The DNR is doing a good job at that. The odds aren’t in our favor.

That’s the number one goal that drives me, knowing that the odds are not in my favor. I turn that around because of my background and having the farms that I have. I worked those fields and trails. I work everything I plant. If I can better my chance by 1%, 2% or 5%, I feel like I’ve accomplished something. Anything you can do to get them closer, to bring them in and hold them, that’s the key. That’s what I strive to do on the day deer season’s over and looking forward to the next season. That’s what I do. It’s planning and working nonstop on it.

How do you build your hit list on your farms?

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My Illinois farm is 211 acres. I purchased it in March of 2017. It’s an unbelievable piece of ground. I’m surrounded by 1,300 acres managed by a huge outfitter up in Illinois. They have restrictions of 150 inches and above. The one neighbor next to me does the same thing. It’s a unique piece of property. It holds a lot of deer. I have a lot of cameras up. I’m not going to tell you how many because you’ll think that’s crazy. I pull my SD cards every two weeks. Our season starts October 1st in Illinois. I’m going to give it that 3.5 or 4 weeks of nothing. I’m not going to go onto the property until I start hunting. I’ll pull cards then. There are tens of thousands of pictures I go through when I do my card pulls.

As far as creating my hit list, it’s interesting because there are a few deer that I got my eyes on that are beautiful deer. They’re at least 4.5 years old, mature, big Pike County, Illinois brutes. These guys are huge. There was this time that the weather changed up here. It went from hot to low 80 degrees. Now, we’re in the 70 degrees. It’s incredible that the deer that I’m seeing, whether they’re coming off my neighbor or coming out of the corn and cruising around, getting their bearings straight of where they’re at. I would say there’s 5 to 8 deer that I would love to have the camera on when I let that arrow go. That’s pretty impressive for 211 acres. Most people don’t hold that many deer. It’s a unique property. It’s bizarre how I even walked into it. It wasn’t even for sale and I bought it.

How did that happen? Could you share that? Everybody’s looking, “How do I get land?” One, you’ve got to have a couple of bucks. Everybody gets that but how do they find the person that wants to sell? I have Buffalo County and the land is atrocious. It’s unbelievable how much they charge.

I had 642 acres picked out Missouri that was close to my farm in Missouri that I wanted to buy. The realtor that I was with goes, “This is a neat piece of property.” I said, “Something keeps telling me to go to Pike County, Illinois to look for land.” It’s 1.5 hours from my house, door to door. Everybody in the whitetail world knows that Pike County has a good reputation. There have been some downfalls in 2012 when the EHD hit but it’s bouncing back fast and there are monster deer up there. I almost put a contract on that Missouri farm. I told my wife, “I want a farm in Illinois. If I tag out in Missouri, I can go to Illinois. If I’m in Illinois and it’s snowing, I’m going to stay up there and hunt.” I wanted to have the option that has two different States in two different tags.

Long story short, my realtor says, “Great. Let’s go to Illinois and look for some farms.” We had a two plan to look at and I went to look at both of them. The second farm I went to, the realtor goes, “I’m not trying to pull salesmanship on you but I know a guy that has a farm five minutes from here. It’s unbelievable. He lives in Missouri. He outfits it and he might sell that farm. He’s mentioned it to me.” I said, “Call him and see if we can go look at it.” He called him and the guy said, “Sure. Take them over there and look at it.” I fell in love with it.

The funniest story is, I came home that day and I told my wife. I said, “You’ve got to see this place.” She goes, “I don’t even want to look at it. Is it going to be for deer hunting?” I said, “Are you kidding me?” She goes, “You do what you want. I don’t care.” I took my son with me and we went up the next day. We wrote a contract and bought it. The funny thing is, my Missouri farm is beautiful. There’s a house that sits on a five-acre Lake down in the middle of the woods. My wife likes the Illinois farm better than the Missouri farm. She didn’t even look at it before I bought it. It’s a neat property. It’s beautiful up there. We’re building a big lodge on it and it might be our retirement home. It’s funny that she didn’t even want to look at it and now there’s a possibility of living there one day,

It wouldn’t be a bad place to live.

I agree. The best thing is, some friends of mine own Farm Land Trophies up in Pike County, a big outfitter up there. They’re nice guys. There are 1,000 acres that’s available up there to lease. He and I are going to team up on that to personally hunt in it ourselves. Being an outfitter, you can’t hunt your land because you don’t want to harvest an animal that you’re paid clients are coming to hunt.

You don’t want to take it out of inventory, that’s for sure.

He and I are going to lease these 1,000 acres up there, which is going to be neat. It’s in a good area. It’s going to better our chances to do what we love out there and that’s to chase those whitetails.

Let’s talk about preparation. You’ve got these farms and you’ve got a lot of stuff going on. I know you’re in the landscape and business league. You’ve got the tools that most people have to go out and buy or figure it out. How do you prepare these farms for hunting?

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In my Illinois farm, there are 55 acres of row crop in the middle of it. These fingers go throughout. I cash rent that to a farmer. I have 7.5 acres of clover for food plots at the ends of these draws and fingers and stuff. I’ve got about five acres of brassicas and rape, I put some oats out and a little bit of rye. The first thing that I do every year, I don’t care how good you think your ground is, is do a pH test. If your pH is off, then you’re wasting your money on your fertilizer and you’re wasting your money on everything. If your pH is off, your fertilizer is not going to work. Your plants are not going to grow and be as lush as they should, which is a huge deal because anybody can grow turnips but if you grow turnips to where they’re at their best and fullest potential, that nutrition goes right into the deer. It’s going to taste better. There’s a lot that goes into it that a lot of people pass up and they grabbed the tiller. It’s fine but not everybody has the means to do every step. Tilling up some ground and throwing some seeds down, that works but you’re not going to get the best.

If you go through all the steps starting with your soil samples and adjusting your soil from that sample with your lime and working your ground, keeping your weeds down and hitting the right fertilizers when you need to, that’s how you get those beautiful food plots that the deer got absolutely annihilate at the time they’re supposed to. How anybody does it is fine. Not everybody can go through all those steps because it is expensive to do everything like that. That’s my passion of being a landscaper that I am. It’s going through all the proper steps and watching the whole process evolved. The end result is to get those big deer in your plots under your stand when you’re sitting there. That’s what drives me the most. That preparation is by far my favorite.

How many treestands you have on your farms?

My Missouri farm has 21. Since I only purchased the Illinois farm, we have seven nice shooting houses and we have nineteen ladder stands. Ten of them are double sets for filming with the lock on the stand behind them. It’s a good setup with all with the lifelines and bow hangers. They’re all set up nice. That’s all I’m going to do. I’m going to finish getting them set up. It’s a big property and it hunts big with the way it’s set up. It’s hard to explain, but Pike County, Illinois has a lot of ridge tops and ravines and these fingers that go everywhere. You can hunt with several people on this property. Being it’s a new property for me, I didn’t want to throw up 40 stands and not knowing everything. I’m going off the heavy trails and my trail cam pictures where I see all the movement and all the traffic. That’s where I’m setting my stands.

By box stands, do you mean that you muzzle load or rifle hunt the farm?

I will have a bow in my hand any time possible. My second favorite thing is the muzzleloader. There’s something about that I get a kick out of. We all know how hard it is to get that animal with your bows. When your patience runs out and the gun season runs around, I’ll be prepared if I need to.

In Illinois, how many deer can you take?

You can get one with your bow and one with a shotgun or muzzleloader.

How many does?

As many tags as you can buy.

On your Illinois property, do you have an unbalance heard of does?

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There is. They did pretty good management. I need to take some does out. I’m guessing between 10 and 15 does is what I want to take this year. That’s going to help out. The population of deer up there is high. It’s different than my Missouri farm. I’m thinking 10, 15 or 20 does this year. We can do that with the number of people I have coming up there hunting with me and stuff. We can accomplish that.

Do you give the deer meat or venison to a food bank or give them away to shelters?

I give a majority of it to the food banks. They love it up there. I like making sausage and deer sticks. I’ll process the deer for myself and my family. My employees at work, they absolutely love venison so I’ll bring them a few. It doesn’t go to waste. We put it to good use for sure.

When you think about hunting and here you are with Red Vanes, what does it mean to you to be in front of the camera?

That’s a funny thing that my wife and I talk about because I can sit and watch hunting shows in the morning until I go to bed. That’s the way I am. I’ve always told her, “I can’t imagine trying to film a hunt with someone in the stand with you because it’s hard enough doing it yourself.” I also told her, “I don’t know how these people do it. I could never be in front of a camera.” Here I am right in the mix of it all. I’m excited about it. I’m with Brandon Adams with Major League Bow Hunter. He puts on a good camera school in the summer times up in Oklahoma.

I went up there and took a film school with him. I learned a lot. There’s way more involved in filming a hunt than I ever imagined. I’m sure that I’m going to make several mistakes until I get a few years under my belt. He helped me and he’s one of the best. I don’t see anybody being much better than him as far as knowledge goes and producing shows and stuff. I was lucky to be involved in that class and I learned a lot from him. He’s a great guy. I still reach out to him with questions and stuff. We’ll see how much I learned and how well I put it to use.

When the first buck comes through, everybody says, “You’ve got to wait.” Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t be waiting.

I’m sure you’ve seen this. Your readers have seen this where you’re watching a show and they say, “There wasn’t enough camera light. I let him go.” I’m not sure I can do that but I guess can do now. It’s going to be a new adventure. It’s going to be a lot of hard work. It’s hard enough getting up and getting going, taking your bow or your gun and your backpack to the stand. If you’re self-filming you’re carrying your camera bag and your setting all that up or you’ve got someone and you sitting there. There’s a lot that goes into it that a lot of people don’t see.

I guarantee people to see a guy in the tree and the cameraman is there. The setup with the guys that I’ve talked to film with a partner. In Buffalo County, all our sets are hang-ons and I don’t do video. They have all the sets up. It’s amazing what they have to do, even going into the stands that are already set up and not making noise. You keep it quiet and don’t talk too much at all because bucks hear well. You set all that up. It’s a heck of a deal. To anybody reading, give me some comments at [email protected] and I’ll pass them on to Brad.

Absolutely. I’d love to hear it. I’m going to need as much advice as possible. When you’re walking in, that’s enough with the noise, scent, and everything and you’ve got another person coming in behind you. That takes your chances down considerably. Two people are trying to train to accomplish one person’s goals. It’s going to be a tall task to hit for sure.

It’s exciting. Why don’t we wrap up the show up with your five main hunting tips and then get some shout outs to all your sponsors?

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Number one is going to be preparation. That that goes from stand locations, cutting your shooting lanes, getting your food plots in the ground. That’s the main preparation that you cannot miss. Another preparation is to do your homework. You can always learn, watch your shows and see what other people are doing. Number three, stay in tune with what’s coming out and what’s new. There are so many different products on the market that can better your chances. It’s hard to not try something new if you think it’s going to work. Keep an open mind.

I’m the first one to say, if I see something new, I’m going to buy it and try it. Another thing would be you’ve got to have patience. I know that’s not a preparation, but mentally you have to prepare to sit through the cold, wet, wind, heat and numerous sits and not see anything or not get a shot for the whole season. Mentally, you have to prepare and be patient. The last thing is my preparation starts with my family giving me the ability to hunt as much as I want, when I want to travel and hunt and spend all my time at my farms working. All that preparation all comes all the way down to having that freedom and the ability to do it. That’s my biggest part.

How about some shout outs?

Check us out at Red Vane Outdoors on Instagram and Facebook. We’re filming five episodes for the Hunt Channel. It should be great and we’re excited. We’ve got a lot of hunts lined up. Hopefully, we’ll get some good footage out there for everyone. Rack-Getter Scents he was my first, and Gerard’s a great guy. C-EZ Reflective Wraps. Jamie’s an awesome guy. He’s coming to my farm in Illinois to hunt. Sam is with Titanium Archery Products, the best stabilizer suppressor on the market. I’m sure you’ve heard about them, TAP. They’re unbelievable. Clenzoil for my guns. It’s veteran-based, American-made lubricants and cleaning fluids for your guns.

Remington Scent, they’re an unbelievable company. I love all their products. Kryptolight Targets, Scent Crusher, and Tactacam. I’m sure everybody knows about Tatacam. The cameras are nice. They’re easy to use to set up for your bows and your guns. They’re a great company to work with, Rage Broadheads, Glendel Targets, TRU-FIRE and Trophy Ridge. The list goes on and I appreciate all of them. They’re all great products and give me that little edge and confidence that I need for when that time happens. If I have the best products in my hands, I have no excuses, but to blame myself if something goes wrong.

I blamed myself a lot of times, and so it’s all part of hunting.

It is. That’s 100% or more.

It’s like golf. Every time you swing at the hole and it went in, it can be boring.

You’re right.

Thank you so much. On behalf of thousands of listens across North America, Brad, thank you for being a guest. I can’t wait to see what are happen for Red Vanes down the road.

I appreciate it, Bruce. Thank you. Good luck on your hunt.

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Thanks for reading. Before we go, can I take a moment and say thank you? When we started the Whitetail Rendezvous podcast journey, we had no idea what to expect. After years, we received a ton of feedback from over 400,000 listeners and climbing 500,000. Speaking of which, we are now closing in on over 600 featured guests. Thank you. A quick shout out to all those who have left an iTunes review and your feedback. I get those and appreciate it and it’s awesome to see what you have to say. We do read every single one of them. I want you to know that I am incredibly grateful for your kind words regarding the show.

All the ratings and reviews help us attract more listeners. If you’re one of those new listeners, welcome, great to have you. By the way, if you haven’t taken the time to rate and review our show and like the Hunting on Private Land Strategy on how to get permission to hunt private property. Go to WhitetailRendezvous.com as a special gift for rating and reviewing our show. When you get there, look for the start button to get the details. I’ll share with you the top techniques from some of the top hunters in the country on how they get permission to hunt on private land. I’ll share with you the exact techniques they use to get permission as my way of saying thanks for rating and reviewing this show on iTunes. Join us next time. Remember, we’re all on this journey together, learning, sharing, and becoming 365 hunters.

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