Welcome to the very first episode of Whitetail Rendezvous, a podcast made especially for the Whitetail community. I’m your host Bruce Hutcheon. Each episode will run for about 25 minutes, five days per week, featuring some of the most knowledgeable and dedicated whitetail individuals in the country. Listen as they share their remarkable stories that throb wildly with a passion for whitetails, and reveal their own secrets to a bountiful, successful hunt.
Let’s spend a minute or two sharing why Whitetail Rendezvous was created. I retired about four years ago and began spending more and more days hunting whitetails. Quickly I realized that while there were some good whitetail focused podcasts out there I just was not getting the info I wanted. And so it began: I learn about producing value-based content consistently for those passionate about Whitetails. I knew that if I gathered focused information, useful strategies, new techniques and ideas on how it’s done right, then so would thousands of others.
The work really began when my good friend, Bob Roark said he was interested in the project and wanted to help bring it to life. Phew, was I glad about that for hundreds of reasons. He helped me develop the foundation of Whitetail Rendezvous. From an idea the project morphed into a passion to a build whitetail community that shares “great stuff” with guys & gals just like you!
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Reload Bruce Hutcheon, Host Of Whitetail Rendezvous
Thank you for joining me on the very first episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. We are excited about producing a series of episodes for the whitetail community. I will be interviewing some of the most knowledgeable, interesting and dedicated whitetail individuals in the country. We will be sharing their stories, their lessons learned and their passion for whitetails. Listen on to gain some additional insight into the show and a little about your host, Bruce Hutcheon. First, we’ll be sharing a brief introduction of the day’s guest. Immediately following, we will be giving their best hunting tips. Something you can take away and begin building or adding to your own personal hunting journals. We will be talking about their why. Why do they love hunting whitetails?
Next is the part that separates the good from the great, the lessons learned last season that made them a better hunter. Yes, we all mess up on a hunt, get busted, forget stuff or sometimes simply off our game. Sometimes lesson learned are the best lessons of all. We’ll go into depth about what led up to the situations and then what steps they took, so that would never happen again. Each of us has had that a-ha moment. You know that you know, that you know. Something just clicks in your mind and all of a sudden, you’ve got the answer to a puzzle that has bothered the heck out of you for few days, a week or maybe even months. Our discussion with our guests will take us through their a-ha moment. What was the puzzle? Why was that important to them and how it impacted their hunt, their gear or their passion for hunting? We will ask our guests about their game plan whether it’s shed hunting, prepping new gear, practicing shooting, researching new woods, working on or starting a food plot or the plans for the rut. We’ll wrap up each episode with the fast and furious segment where we can expect to hear some awesome whitetail nuggets. Here are a couple of examples. What one hunting idea did you take away from last season? How about, “I sure as heck won’t do that again?” Who most influenced you to start hunting? What’s the best advice you ever got about whitetails? Who shared that with you?
Let’s share why Whitetail Rendezvous was created. I retired and began spending more and more days hunting whitetails. I quickly realized that while traveling cross country to the Midwest from my home in Colorado, I had hours of windshield time to get whitetail smart. How the heck was I going to connect to audio information? Answer, podcast off my smartphone. Quickly, I realized that while there were some good whitetail-focused podcasts out there, I just was not getting the information I wanted. Returning from last fall’s hunt, I spent time listening to many different podcast forms and gaining a lot of knowledge about podcasts. I sure had a lot to learn about the how, the why, the what and the when of producing value-based content on a consistent basis for those with a passion for whitetails. I knew that if I wanted great focus information, useful strategies, new techniques and ideas on how it’s done right, so would thousands of others. The work really began with my good friend, Bob Roark, who said he was interested in the project and wanted to help it bring to life. I was glad about that for a hundred of reasons. He helped me develop the foundation of Whitetail Rendezvous. From an idea, the project morphed into a passion to build a whitetail community that shares great stuff with guys and gals, just like you.
I’ve shared the idea behind Whitetail Rendezvous. Let me share with you some of my background. I’m Bruce Hutcheon. I was born in Providence, Rhode Island. I lived my first fourteen years in Foster Center, Rhode Island. Like many kids growing up in New England, I love being in the woods, learning about critters, catching trout with a worm, playing Little League baseball with trips to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox’s beat the Yankees and playing football and basketball with my pals. My mentor for outdoor adventures, Otto Knight, a neighbor. He loved the outdoors and made sure I learned how to do things right. Otto opened up the outdoor world to me and I’m grateful. All that changed when I was heading to ninth grade. My dad who worked for Chrysler Mopar Division was promoted and moved the family to Long Island, New York. From a town of some thousand people to a high school that had about that many kids in all four grades. I was not ready for that experience at all. The school was Massapequa High School.
My freshman year was saved because they had a freshman football team and being on the team helped me make some friends and slowly adjust to an entirely different environment. It took work to become one of the guys, but football and in the spring track made all the difference. Right before my senior year, I got my dream job, lifeguard at Tobay Beach, Town of Oyster Bay to be exact. A job at the beach with some of my high school teammates, senior with money in my pocket and the hope of playing football and running track at a college. Life was good. Ready for college? Yeah, right.
My grades were less than stellar so the Eastern schools were out. Fortunately, I had heard about a college in Wisconsin that had an awesome reputation for football and track, the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse. I applied and they accepted me. I made the freshmen football squad and started classes. The college was just about a thousand kids larger than my high school, so adjusting to my new surroundings was a heck of a lot easier than my high school freshman year. I started out as a physical education major with a minor in history, played football, ran track, and met my wonderful wife Kathy. Going to college on college loans made it critical for me to work during semesters and all summer. Fortunately for me, I met an upperclassman named Dick Rogers who owned a bar called The Library. Soon I was studying at The Library three nights a week, plus every Saturday night. Being from out of state, I was unable to go home for Thanksgiving, so Dick asked me to go to his family home in Union Center in Wisconsin for the holiday.
He also said I needed to get a shotgun or a 30-30 because we would be hunting deer on the family farm. I double my work hours, got about $50 extra and bought a shotgun, small box of slugs, a red hat, red coveralls and a license. The year was 1966 and I’ve been chasing whitetails and a lot of other critters ever since. During this hunt, Dick introduced me to Harry Shear of Hillsboro, Wisconsin. His brother-in-law. Harry told me stories about growing up deer hunting in Wisconsin, taking trips out West to Wyoming to hunt elk, mules and antelope. In the process, Harry joined Otto, sending me on a journey that has covered North America from Ungava Bay to Illimani, Pierceland, Saskatchewan to Union Center in Wisconsin, Thorofare River in Wyoming to Taseko Lake, British Columbia, and a few more places in between. Late in 1967, my college journey was disrupted by the Vietnam War.
I was going to be drafted, so I left college, enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and headed to Cape May, New Jersey for boot camp. From there, I went to Washington, DC to serve in the Presidential Honor Guard for 12 months, spit and polish 24/7. From Washington, I headed to San Diego Air Station to serve as part of a search and rescue team. My role was that of survival equipment man. I work with rafts, packed and repaired parachutes, maintained ordinance and completed rescue operations from the rear door of a Sikorsky HH3F helicopter. Some interesting and historic moments happened that I will share on future podcasts. Kathy and I returned to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in January of 1971. I switched majors to business administration. I improved my grade point significantly and graduated with a BS degree in August of 1972. My working career started out with the train company as a sales engineer.
Each of us has had that a-ha moment. Share on XI just loved the sales part but the engineering was just not for me. Fortunately, I found the Research Institute of America, owned by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, which was later purchased by Thomson Reuters. My career spanned over 30 successful years of sales and sales management. There was a brief but exciting foray into the dot.com world or I should say the dot bomb industry for a few years, but that ended abruptly. Along the way, I completed an MBA degree. I have sat on a couple of conservation and nonprofit boards, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society and SCI Colorado. I co-chaired Big Game Banquets for Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; Springs Rescue Mission and the Small Business Development Center.
I was elected to a state delegate to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Sportsmen’s Roundtable. My Colorado outdoor experiences have enabled me to be a contributor to GoHunt.com as a Colorado profile insider contributor. An article of mine appeared in the Mountain Hunter, the magazine of the Guide Outfitter Association of British Columbia. Never one to say I’m done creating new projects, the birth of Whitetail Rendezvous is enabling me to share common interests, hear some amazing people tell their story, bring together a community of listeners with common passions, yet dissimilar backgrounds, all because we love whitetails in the forest, woodlots, prairies and creek bottoms they call home. Let me say thank you for joining me on this journey at Whitetail Rendezvous. My hope is that even if one of the episodes sparks a new thought, fills in the blank or creates a new opportunity on the pursuit of whitetails, then it’s all been worthwhile.
If you find benefit in the podcast and the information shared at Whitetail Rendezvous, just click on the subscribe button, posts some review and a five-star rating. That will get you a personalized shout-out in an upcoming show. What’s in it for you, the subscriber? More free episodes, more big buck nuggets, more techniques and strategies that are proven in the field plus, you do not want to miss our special episode covering the rut. The Whitetail Rendezvous community is getting ready to journey with thousands of listeners who are passionate about whitetails. Have a fantastic day.