Episode 012 Kaylee Jade Jackson I love the outdoors

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This is Bruce Hutcheon, your host at Whitetail Rendezvous and welcome to another episode. And I am excited beyond words to have a special lady join us today. A woman that’s been hunting a long time. She’s a radio talk host for Catch The Madness on 97.1 FM. She’s also the owner of Kaylee’s Outdoors. She’s a huntress and an angler and this lady, really knows her stuff. KJ, say hello to our listeners.

KJ: Hi guys! Thank you Mr. Bruce for having me, I’m glad to be here and I hope I can help everybody and talk, let you hear the things that you want to hear.

Bruce: Well, we’ve only got 30 minutes so let’s really get right down to it. Let’s talk about where your hunting tradition came from.

KJ: I was, when I was born, my grandfather raised me and he hunted and fished and did everything that most men love to do. So at five years old, he put me under a tree, sitting on the ground, we didn’t have tree stands back then, we didn’t even have camo to tell you the truth back then. Unless you wore military, you know, garb. So he put me on the tree and said, you know, after learning how to, you know, tear down a gun and put a gun back together better than any marine in the world and being able to shoot, you know, proficiently and perfectly, he put me under a tree and set there and said, “You know what to do.” So about 30 minutes after he set me under the tree, here walks this little six point and the whole time I’m thinking in my head, “Hit it here, hit it here, make sure where you put your bullet. Make sure where you put your bullet.” And I raised that little .44 rigger barrel carbine and popped it and it just went down just like that and I got hooked on it. That was it. Five years old and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Bruce: A lot of people don’t have that kind of story. Let’s talk about last season and lessons learned that you took forward that you’re going to implement this season. Because, every year we learn something new, I think you’d agree to that.

KJ: I do, I really do. I hunted in Pennsylvania last year, we lived in Pennsylvania and we had mostly does come through during the first part of bow seasons and the bucks kind of hug the rocks. If you know anything about Pennsylvania, you know it’s really rocky up there and the bucks would hug the side of the wall area around our place and you couldn’t see them because they were grey and they would blend in with the rocks. So, the rut hadn’t started, so the first time during bow season I said, “Look, it’s pouring down rain,” I told my husband, I said “It’s pouring down rain, let’s just take the bows we can wipe them down a little bit better than we can just break down the guns.” He said, “Okay.” Come in the monsoon, I get up there and I climb up in my tree stand and, you have to understand folks, I have studied everything about a deer and a turkey or any animal that I hunt to the point of, I know the anatomy of those animals and I know where to put my shots.

So, I’m standing, or sitting up my tree stand and it’s coming a monsoon and out walked this big doe, 140 pounds, I knew she was big before I even weighed her. And I said, told myself, “Okay, just let me wait, let me wait. So I drew back. So I’m sitting there in the tree stand and she would never give me a broad side shot on her. And I mean it’s pouring rain, don’t forget that part of it. So she gave, she turned and gave me a neck shot. And I knew that if I put that broadhead right exactly on her spine I would drop her where she stood. So I, you know, pulled, I had back got all the way back to my back wall on my bow, I hit that trigger with my thumb and that arrow shot, thwack, right into the neck, dropped her where she stood. The point being is, deer are going to come out in the rain. It doesn’t matter if it’s a monsoon, it doesn’t matter if it’s a hurricane, it doesn’t matter if it’s snowing so hard you can’t see a foot in front of you. Deer have got to get up out of their bedding. So never think that you cannot hunt in the rain or the pouring down snow.

Bruce: Thank you for that. Because a lot of times, and unfortunately I’ve been guilty of it too, it’s snowing, the wind’s blowing, it’s raining, it’s foggy and I said, “Ugh, I’m not going to go out, not today.”

KJ: Everybody does that. And I’m guilty as the rest of us. But, we had to have meat in the freezer. My family, you know, lives off of deer meat or any animals that we take during any season that we hunt in. Whether it be bird or deer, or bear, whatever. So my family eats off of that all winter long. And then come springtime, we eat off of fish and the vegetables we grow out of our garden. So, when you’ve got to put meat in your freezer, you’ve got to do what it takes to get that deer and, like I said, deer have got to come out, they’ve got to stretch their legs, they’ve got to go to the bathroom, they’ve got to eat. And so you’ve just got to know when to be in the woods. If you, you know it might be a little bit lighter when you’ve got to go in, but you’ve got to go in and you’ve got to put in that effort. It’s just the effort of doing so.

Bruce: Why are you so passionate about hunting and turkeys, or whitetails, what is it about the out of doors, the hunting experience that really gets you going?

KJ: You know Bruce, I really can’t say I have one thing that makes me absolutely passionate about it. There are so many things. The one thing is, I do a lot of hunting alone, and I can get out there and get in my tree stand, buckle myself in and, you know, I can watch the squirrels play and get over the top of my head and drop acorns and I’m happy. Or I can watch the little birds flutter around on a limb and play with their friends and I’m happy. It’s just, it’s alone time for me and I always, you know, there’s, I always let deer walk that you know that are small, that are not of age. Bucks that are not three and four years old. You know, if they’re one two and three, I probably let them walk and go until they’re four and five years old. You know because I don’t want to cull my herd and let the young one’s get bigger. The thing is, it’s getting closer to nature. It’s getting me time. It’s getting time to enjoy what God has put on this earth to give us to enjoy.

Bruce: Thank you for that. You also, you already shared about your grandfather, I’m going to go back to that. And this is in your bio also, you knew how to strip down your weapons at a very young age. Why do you think that was important for your success as a huntress?

KJ: You know, I think my grandfather prepared me for whatever situation that I would be in. And in tearing down the gun, he taught me two things. One, how to clean the weapon. You know, if you’re out in the woods and it’s snowing and it’s raining and you come in, you’ve got to oil down your weapon. You’ve got to clean it, you’ve got to make sure it’s clean and the moisture’s out of it so that it does not rust. Because that makes a big difference in a gun. Second thing is that being able to, if it jams up on you in the woods, you know, you can be able to say, “Okay, this is what’s making it jam, let me fix this real quick and then I won’t miss the next shot if I get a next shot.” So being able to tear it down and put it back together in such a quick time, gave me the opportunity to be able to be able to do the things that I do, like hunt in the rain. Or, you know, if it’s jammed, I understand how to fix it.

Bruce: What does that have to do with kids learning how to safely handle their weapon?

KJ: You know, as I told you in my bio, I grew up in a police family. Everybody in my family were police officers and I myself went into that after I turned 21. Safety is a very key issue for children because nowadays you have so many kids that have no clue about any type of weapon. And you hear on the news all the time, you know, a two year old or a three year old has picked up a weapon and shot another child. Or you hear a five year old playing with a gun and he shot his, you know, little next door neighbor. I think if children grow up with them, they understand you don’t touch them unless there’s an adult around. Just having those guns in the house, you know, I would go and just sit there and admire my grandfather’s weapons and I know that’s kind of crazy and off the wall. But, I would go and just sit there and look at them and I would say, “That’s a 30-30, that’s a 30-06, that’s a .44.” And I learned my weapons.

So, as a child growing up and learning the different types of weapons, learning the proper safety techniques with the weapon, never pointing it at somebody, learning how to unjam it without shooting anybody or something else, you know. I learned that, and I think each child should be taught, whether it be at 12 years old, which now is the legal age to hunt in most states. You know, if a child has a safety class before they have actual deer hunting class, I think that would help a whole lot, you know, prepare a child and also keep a lot of children from getting shot and killed.

Bruce: Let’s talk about women in the out of doors. Women today are making up the fastest growing segment in hunting. Why do you think that is, first part of the question? And second part, what can men do to help ladies get into the out of doors?

KJ: The reason I believe that the women are getting in the outdoors more is, you know again, it’s an alone time for them also. Any woman will tell you, it’s great to get up in a tree stand and enjoy the outdoors. Women are also, because of the family dynamics that are going on in today’s society, women are having to take care of kids without a husband or a significant other. And so therefore they’re having to feed their families and I think a lot of them do that for that reason. But I also think that they’re getting into the outdoors because for years, you know, I grew up in a small country rural town in the state of Mississippi, but I think the women now are seeing other women, you know, getting, I’m not saying successful in the outdoors but getting a better quality of treatment from the companies in the outdoor industry. So, I think they’re trying a little bit harder and that’s the first part of the question.

Second part of the question, “What can men do to help get us part of the outdoors?” I think if your wife, you know, I see a lot of this and it drives me a little bit insane is, you know the men go off to deer camp every weekend, the wives stay home, take care of the kids, do whatever they need to do. Men, invite your wives to go with you. Whether they hunt or not. Let them enjoy the outdoors. You know you may find that you’ll have hunting partner for life if you give them just one chance to enjoy it and see what you’re doing. I think they would understand it a little bit better and you would have a partner, plus you wouldn’t have the problem of you wanting to go to deer camp by yourself.

Bruce: What do you think holds women back from embracing the hunt?

KJ: A lot of it has to do with the goriness of it maybe, I don’t know if that’s the right word to use. I field dress the deer. I’ve done that ever since I killed my first deer, I mean, I’ve learned to field dress right on the spot, you know, so it’s not as heavy to take out. Now a lot of women may not like to do that. And it’s rough, it’s hard, a woman’s naturally not as fat as the men, so it’s harder to drag out your deer by yourself, harder to drag out a hog by yourself, etc. etc. But I think a lot of women want to hold back because they’re afraid that they’re not going to succeed in doing, they’re not going to make their husbands happy or their significant other, or they’re going to make a fool of themselves. But, you know what, in life, you’re going to make a fool of yourself no matter what you do, whether you’re hunting or you’re working on a computer, you know you might make a fool of yourself.

Bruce: I’m chuckling because I had a pretty rough technology morning.

KJ: Yes you did.

Bruce: And here we are. You know? Here we are and we’re getting it worked out and sometimes as a man, I like to control things. And guys, one thing I would say, is be patient. Not only with your girlfriend, you wife, significant other, but also with the kids that you bring out into the out of doors. Enjoy it. Step back and just think, and frame it this way, the first time you ever enjoyed the out of doors somebody took you, somebody shared that experience.

KJ: Exactly.

Bruce: As KJ’s already shared that with us.

KJ: Exactly, you’re right about that. And I don’t mean to cut you off, but if you take a child into the outdoors, you’ve got to be patient. Because that’s, you’re putting our next generation of hunters in the woods. And if you do not put your next generation of hunters in the woods, then first of all, the deer population or whatever animal you’re hunting, it’s going to overtake what we have.
Whether it be our yard,our lawn, our flowers or whatever. The deer are going to overtake that. You’re going to see more wrecks on the highway, you’re going to see so much. So, please, please put in the next generation of hunters. Because, it is the most important thing for the cycle of life.

Bruce: Let’s focus on what your community is doing, what you do on your radio station and what you do in person to help get kids in the out of doors.

KJ: Our community, our two counties that are back to back are doing rural, excuse me, are doing hunts now. And you could take a child with you and be able to hunt without it going against your tags. So, in our two communities combined, we’re seeing more kids get into the outdoors through the urban hunting league that we have here. That’s the main thing our community is doing. And they’re also offering hunting lessons, we’ve got a bow shop up here that’s really great about teaching kids about crossbows and about compounds and even about you know old-school, the recurves and the long bows. And that’s really, I love this about this community.

My radio show is on every Saturday morning at 8:30. And what we do is, is I do have a great many people that make products to go on guns, bows, or that you can use to get up in your stand. Whether it be the limb grip, or several other. But, the Steady Form which I use, you know, just it’s a tremendous help to me. But, you know, every Saturday morning we’re talking to somebody from the outdoor business. Whether it be a product maker or somebody that you might see on TV the next day. And so we’re giving tips and techniques for everybody from the beginner to the ones that’s been here like I have for 48, 49 years.

The third thing is what do I do for, you know, in the community? Saturday we’ve got a pioneer day over at North Oak Lake and I will be over there signing autographs between two and three booths. And I get out and I communicate with people what I would like to see and what I want to happen. And I want to see more kids fishing out there on the White River catching some of those good trout. I want to see more kids up on Bull Shores around North Oak fishing for bass and crappy, you let’s get these kids out there and let’s do stuff with them. You know let’s get them out, let’s get them outdoors, get them away from that Xbox, get them off that couch, get them out of that bed let’s get them up out and in the outdoors.

Bruce: Thanks for sharing that information. How about sharing a couple stories about when things didn’t go quite right in the field but then when you get to set back and think about it with your friends or whoever, you have a chuckle out of it. Can you share a couple of those with us?

KJ: Yeah, I think so. I’ve personally been bow hunting for four years, no joke, I love it. Started out with a youth bow because I didn’t even know if I would like to bow hunt. And plus I had broke my back and I wanted to be sure that I could, you know, use a compound bow. I didn’t want to use a crossbow. So I started out with a youth bow and I did really good the first year. I killed three does with that youth bow. So I graduated up to a big girl’s bow then.

So I’m sitting out there in the woods and I’ve got a nice eight point buck walk right within 20 yards of me. And I drew back and I let that arrow fly and it went straight up under him. And he just looked up at the tree stand at me and just walked off. Just as softly and nicely as it could be. And I couldn’t, I was sitting there going, “What did I do?” I mean I was perfect, I mean what was going on? And I got really mad and I just, I got out of the tree stand and I three my bow down and I told my husband, “I’m never bow hunting again. I know I was perfect, I’ve been practicing every day.” He said, “Get back up in your stand, I’m going to go up and get the target and I’m going to put it exactly where that buck was.” He said, “Okay, now let another arrow fly.” After he did all that. So I let another arrow fly and there was a twig about half an inch, you know, in diameter sticking out from a tree and I could not see that limb from where I was shooting, in the exact location I was shooting at towards that deer every time that arrow would hit that limb, and I never did see it. So I was ready to give up bow hunting because of a little half inch diameter limb. So I learned my lesson about little half inch diameter limbs. Everybody has bad days.

Bruce: Yes, ma’am, we all do. And I could sure raise my hand to that. Let’s talk about, let’s talk about, you just got a new 100 acre parcel. You know there’s deer around the neighborhood, and you want to hunt it next fall. What are the three to five things that you’re going to make sure you’re going to do to have that land ready for next fall?

KJ: I’ve already started, I have got clover already planted in the ground from Boneyard seed and also clover, you know the nice green and red clover you see on the side of the highway that deer love. Absolutely perfect. That attracts them, all of the clover. The second thing I do is, then I go behind that and I plant my turnips. The turnips, I’ve already planted, they’re coming up, deer is already starting to take to the little bitty tender leaves out of the ground, so that’s my second thing I do. Third thing I do, is come about the last part of July, first part of August, I’m out there scouting my deer. I’m out there, I know they, when they’re coming through every morning and I know when they’re going to bed every night on a good day.

Now of course you’ve got to vary that you know, through moon phases and you’ve got to vary that through wind and rain. You’ve got to just be careful about scouting because it’ll trick you up every now and then because you’ve got to plan, okay go in there a little late, go a little earlier, go in the evening, go in the mornings. You know, you’ve got to understand the dynamics of the deer herd yourself. And the fourth and fifth thing I would say, to me is, you know, make sure you’ve got your stand where you want it. Make sure that when you get up in that stand there’s no limbs, no twigs, no nothing in your way. You’ve got good shooting range if you’re bow hunting. You’re not shooting toward your house if you’re gun hunting. You know, you’re at least 100 yards to 200 yards from any house. I think it’s 150 in some areas, in some, you know, populations around the united states. And then make sure that your harness is ready to go. All my equipment is, you know, good to go, there’s no broken strings or there’s no broken buckles. And so I’m getting ready from the time our deer season ends in February, to the time I start back in September. I am doing something with my deer herd.

Bruce: Listeners, KJ just shared something really important. I took a note. Deer hunting, is a year round endeavor. For the people that are as successful as KJ has been, and will continue to be, she focuses on deer hunting year round. So think about that. KJ, moon phases, you just talked about that briefly. Do you believe in them?

KJ: You know, as a police officer, and it comes back too when your kind of you’re hunting, 90% of your car wrecks happen on a full moon night when deer are out stirring looking for food. Because they’re crossing the highways and stuff. They roam at night. They can see. They’ve got great eye sight, folks. So, the full moon, I honestly, truly believe in. Your waning and your waxing moons, those vary. Sometimes people, and I’ve heard older people tell me, on a waning moon you want to go in later in the morning. And on a waxing moon you want to go in earlier and then, you know, hunt until about 10:00 then go home, give it a couple hours then go back about 2:00 and hunt until, you know, your time that your hours close at night. On the other one, you want to go in earlier, stay until about 9:00 then go back about noon and hunt until, you know, the end of time. So there’s about a two to four hour gap that you don’t want to hunt in. You want to give them time to get up, start moving and then, you know, get around and get to where you’re at. So I do believe in the moon phases. I believe in being able to determine when I need to go in and what time I need to go into the woods.

Bruce: So we got a moon phase and then we’ve got the moon overhead or under foot. Can you kind of elaborate on that?

KJ: Yeah, a little bit. You know, when you’ve got, the moon is so peculiar because like I said, you know, you’re hunting, the way you hunt first of all is, like I said, is scouting. The second thing is, when you’re scouting, make sure you’re watching is the moon still overhead when you’re out in the morning times? Or you know, do you, and I think I’m answering you right and if I’m not tell me, and if it’s not, then you’ve got to change your pattern around. The deer are going to change their pattern around so you’ve got to change your pattern around.

Bruce: Okay so, let’s just expand that a little bit more. So, if the moon’s overhead and you can see it when you’re going out to your stand or it’s up 3:00 or 4:00 and the dust comes and it’s already overhead, how does that impact the deer movement?

KJ: You know deer, and I did kind of misunderstand you on that one, the deer, it’s like changing the times. Deer have an internal clock. All animals have an internal clock in them. The deer know that, you know, what time that they need to walk through the woods or go to the feed. So what you’re going to do is, and I’ll give you an example, last year I had went into the, I was getting busted out every morning. The moon would be up over, oh say about 9:00 I’m still seeing the moon. So I was getting busted out every morning because they were going to feed in the early mornings instead of later in the mornings. So I had adjusted myself to where I was going to go in at 3:00 and I was going to go sit in my stand. Well, I did that. I didn’t get busted out, but I was sitting up in my stand and I was fixing to unbuckle my harness then when this scream just let out. And I knew what it was when I heard it, but I had never heard one and it was a fisher. And for those of you that don’t know what they are they are flat looking little weasel things, I can’t explain it to you, you’ll just have to look it up.

Anyway, so then, the deer started walking in, let’s say I guess it was 5:30, 6:00. Well that’s when I noticed that when the moon was up at 3:00 in the afternoons, you know later in the afternoons, or early in the afternoons when the moon started coming up, deer would go to bed in bed like from 12:00 to 4:00 and I was seeing more deer come in right at dusk dark, right before their shooting time would be over. So I’d have to stay just as long as I could without going over time. And I learned how to pattern myself that way.

Bruce: Thank you for some really good information, KJ. You’re just a wealth of knowledge and thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with our listeners today. We’re at the time, you have an open mic, so would you share with our listeners, your sponsors, talk a little bit about your radio show. Tell people how to get ahold of you in the social networks, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, wherever you’re at. And then anything else you want to share about yourself or your life.

KJ: Thank you very much.

Bruce: It’s all yours.

KJ: Thank you very much, Bruce, I appreciate that. I have some great sponsors. Steady Form Torque Eliminators are my main sponsor, they sponsor the Catch the Madness with Kaylee on 97.1. And you can listen to that if you’re in our area. Listen to that live at 8:30, or you can go to their website at www.mountaintop97.com and you can listen live and if you can’t listen on Saturday there’s always that on-demand, you can find me on that. And that’s mountaintop97.com. And Steady Form Torque Eliminator, as I said, is a great new product that goes on your compound bow. It keeps you from torqueing your bow left to right, up or down. If you’ve got tendonitis or say carpal tunnel, it’s really a great, great product to have that will keep you from bending and moving your wrist around and your arm up and down so you’re not having to, when you’re up there holding your bow back at three or four minutes, you know you’re going to have a clear accurate shot every time you shoot.

Started out at 15 yard shooting and I have gone up to 60, you know, and I’m working on 80. If I could see 80 I’d probably get a little bit better. Eighty yards is a whole long way when you’re looking through a bow sight. And that’s just not, I’m only comfortable with 40 or 50 yards, that’s all I’ll shoot a deer, but I can shoot that distance.

The second person would be Boneyard Seed, they are a great company. They produce different types of grasses, different kinds of seeds that you can broadcast. They’re producing deer, small game, even game bird feed now. So Boneyard Seeds, you can give a [inaudible 00:30:32] to them, they are on Facebook. Both companies are on Facebook or you can get them on their website at either name, steadyform.com or at boneyardseed.com.

My third sponsor is OIOI, it’s a scent company. I’ve been with them for years and they have so many scents that you could use to cover yourself with. They also have a great bear attractant, not an attractant, well it is an attractant but it was made for trappers but bear do love it and you’ll see results in that. Skeeter beater, you spray this product on you and you don’t have to worry about your ticks, your chiggers, your fleas your, you know, mosquitos, your wasps, any flying insect you don’t have to worry about it you’re fine sitting where you’re at. It’s helpful for me when duck season comes, because I live in the mosquito capital of the world here in Arkansas, we got mosquitos as big as Volkswagens and they will take you on. You don’t have to worry about it with the skeeter beater. Check them out, you’ll love it. They come from outer banks of North Carolina, so this man knows what he’s talking about when he made this product.

Another one would be Wolfgang Products, he makes a great tag protector. As I was saying, in that monsoon, once you write out, in some places you have to write out you name and everything when you killed your deer or when you killed your turkey on your tag and then you put it on your bird or your deer. Well this particular, you’ll stick your tag in there and if you do get checked or you have to go to a checkpoint by a game warden or a game official or a DNR official you know your ink hasn’t run or anything. It’s just a great thing to have when you’re doing your tags. And all you do, it’s like a ziplock and well, not a ziplock, but a zip tie. And you just put it around the deer’s horns or around the ear or the bottom of the ear and they’ll stay on. It’s a great product. I’m trying to think.

Bruce: We’re just about, we’re just about out of time KJ.

KJ: And you can catch me on any social media network. You can go to Facebook at Kaylee’s outdoors hunters KJ Jackson. You can catch me on Twitter @hunterskjjacksonkayleesoutdoors, Instagram, Google+, Reddit, any website, social media that I’m on, please be sure to look us up and we’ll be glad to help you in any way possible.

Bruce: KJ, thank you so much for being on the show and bringing just a wealth of knowledge to share with our listeners. And I for one, look for you to be on the show again real soon. So, on behalf of the Whitetail Rendezvous Nation, this is Bruce Hutchoen saying thank you for being on the show.

KJ: Thank you very much for having me.