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Bruce: Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. I’m privileged to have Sheri Yarborough on the show today. Sheri and Judd Cooney run Iowa Trophy. Welcome to the show.
Sheri: How are you doing, Bruce? Great to be here.
Bruce: I’m really doing good. And I heard it’s raining in turkey zone…
Sheri: Yes, it has. It’s been wet and windy. It’s not responding right now.
Bruce: Is there any hope that it’s gonna stop?
Sheri: Oh, yeah. It’s early. I just don’t think they’re fired up just yet. I need a little warmer weather and get out there and start playing in the sunshine. It’s early yet.
Bruce: Well, thanks for that. Let’s just jump into it. Why whitetails and why are you in the outfitting business? So the first thing is white tails and the second one, now you’re in the business. You’re in the outdoor business.
Sheri: Yeah I’m living the dream, whitetails. Born and raised in Idaho so mostly deer, elk that type of spot and stock. Came through Iowa few times and now we have Whitetail in Idaho they just have the mass and racks that the Midwest does and the terrain is a lot different. I’ve never even heard of hunting from a tree stand or a ground blind or a pop up where I came from and I come out here and you think, “Wow, this is gonna be easy.” Out here flat rolling hills, easy to get around and I learned real quick it was a whole different ball game. The challenge, there really is no more intelligent animal out there than a whitetail deer. So I moved out here and started my taxidermy out here, and I’m thoroughly enjoying life mountain and other people’s trophies and shooting my own trophies. I had the privilege of running into Judd Cooney out here and we hit off and enjoyed the same things and have the same passion with whitetails and he gave me an opportunity of a lifetime. Brought me in as a partner with Iowa Trophy Whitetail Outfitters, and like I said, I’m living the dream now
Bruce: Share with the listeners about what happens when you finish a mount when you created that gonna last in somebody’s, a guy, a gal’s house for a long time? How do you feel when they come pick it up and their jaws drop and their just astounded by your work? Share that from your end, not from the customer’s end, but from your end as craftsman and somebody that really do a good job. Speak about it.
Sheri: Well you know that’s easy. I’ve been doing it for 28 years and I’ve done it for the sporting good stores and the big office buildings. And I kinda got over my head there for a little while in Idaho before I came out here and it was like you are a number, “Here, mount this, this, and this, and this is your spot. You have x amount of time to do it in.” You have the self-satisfaction that you did it, but the appreciation wasn’t there. And so when I came to Iowa, I made myself a promise that I’d never get back to that point again. I’m working 18, 20 hours a day on a project there and you’re lucky if you got a thank you. You’ve got a nice paycheck, but the appreciation wasn’t there. When I came back here, I’ve done especially here because there is no age limit. You got 7-year-olds out there shooting trophy bucks. And you take a young man’s first buck and you mount if for them and they walk in there and they see it with social media now, instantly it’s plastered all over Facebook and they’re telling you thank you and how much they love it and these likes mean more to me than the dollar bill does. And the self-satisfaction that, yeah, I created this and it’s great but when you got a little kid that’s ready to cry when he sees it because it looks so good, that really makes me feel good.
Bruce: I know that some grown man that cry when they see a job well done.
Sheri: I think I have a few of those customers, too.
Bruce: Nice job Sheri. You’ve mentioned something, the challenge of hunting whitetail. I don’t know if that’s exactly how put it. Let’s talk about the challenge of hunting mature whitetail bucks.
Sheri: I mean, you spent some time out here with us and you hunted with us. The setup we have here as outfitters I think we are in a little bit better shape than just an individual hunter going out there because we have our clients out there looking. They are telling this every day what they’re seeing. We’re out there glossing every morning and every evening and so you don’t have a lot of eyes out there. And even with, it still poses a challenge, weather. Did we have a lot of rain? Which happened to us last year we had a pond that backed up and that pushed water way up the draught and changed the entire pattern of the way deer had been traveling for a long time. Where the crops out? There’s a lot of things especially in this area that contribute to how the deer travel, what they’re eating, when they’re eating.
And it is a challenge to get up there and try to second guess what’s this deer next move? Are they nocturnal? Monster buck they don’t get big being stupid. You strategically place your stands and place your food plots. It’s not a “I’m gonna go hunt today.” It’s a year-round thing. You have to work on it year round if you want successful clients and that’s our goal to have a successful client, and we have whitetails on the brain year round, whether picking out sheds and being thrilled with the fact that that 180 inch deer that we didn’t get this year dropped your sheds, so guess what? He’s still here and you’ve got another shot at him. Finding sheds of deer that we never caught on camera, that’s always great. The young deer, the up and comers, that’s awesome. So every day is a challenge as far as…
… or the day that you’re out there, it’s all years of challenge because there are some variables that could change it. That’s what makes it exciting.
Bruce: I’m gonna put you on the spot if that’s okay. You’re a big girl. You can handle it. Why when you and Judd were sitting down when we were all at camp last fall or last winter, actually last December, and you decided here’s where we gonna put everybody. You decide that and then we had a pretty good the next day, had a very good day. Talk to our listeners so they can understand when they go on a farm or they pay somebody to put them on big bucks, how you feel the responsibility to the client and how that all worked out, because that is amazing. Because you called the shots and people put big bucks out that next day.
Sheri: One, it makes you nervous. I do take it pretty personal. I got guys here in the first day or two we’re not dropping any bucks and I start to get nervous. Judd’s helped calming me down. You can’t take it personal, but I do. It’s just as important to me for one of our guys to shoot a big buck as if I were out there hunting myself if not more so. If I screw up, it’s my own fault. If this guy leaves here without a deer, the question is out there is it my fault or was is it his bad? Did he do something wrong? So you do take it personal. We sit there and we take all the factors in what the weather is doing, what the wind is doing. We don’t hunt necessarily our best on the first day. The weather may not be right for it. The wind may not be right for it. We have clients come back year after year and they got their favorite spot. One guy said, “Hey, I wanna hunt here.” Well, that’s great and fine, but your gonna have to wait till the wind changes because we’re not gonna take the chance of blowing a turkey back out of there just so you can sit there. If the conditions aren’t right, we aren’t gonna put you there.
We do hunt with the wind. It’s probably our number one thing that we look at is what the wind is doing. And some days you wake up in the morning and we might make a plan before we go to bed that night and by morning it’s changed. Mother Nature can be kinda brutal to us that way. And as you found, it can get dang cold here, and you wake up and it’s 15 below, 35 below wind chill factor. Well, we might have to change our plan a little bit just to keep everybody indoors so they’re not sitting out in a tree stand freezing to death.
And we try to have the equipment here. We’ve got great blinds and heaters and we have heater bodysuits. We try to make everybody as comfortable as possible but sometimes it doesn’t always work that way. Then you got your hardcore guys…
If you tell them, I truly believe that there is a trophy buck here for you if you can tough it out. We’ve got those guys that will go sit in that tree stand when it’s 35 below. It’s very gratifying when they walk out with that buck.
So, we always confer. It’s never one person’s decision on where everybody is going. I’m still learning. Judd teaches me. I write out my list, and the nice things is he’s never gonna let me make that mistake, a bad mistake. If he thinks I chose a place that isn’t right, he’s gonna tell me so. And I’m gonna listen, and he’s gonna explain why. I got lucky, that day I guess. You’d like to say, “Yeah, I knew this place was gonna work out.” No. The more I’m in this the more I find out the less I know every day, because I learn every single day, and when I can sit back and say, “I know it all and I can’t learn any more,” then I need to get out of the business, because I do believe that you learn every single day that you’re out there.
Bruce: What’s the number one lesson you learned last year about whitetails?
Sheri: Number one lesson… from last year?
Bruce: Yup.
Sheri: They’re unpredictable. We had a monster buck shot last year, on one of our food plots that we’d never seen. We never had him on camera. This wasn’t during a rut, you know. It was during shotgun season.
We had bucks that we should have gotten that had on camera, we’ve seen. Hunters seen. Hunters got shots at them, and we didn’t get them. So, you just… you never know. There’s always gonna be that stranger that strolls through that makes everybody’s day when a guy drops him and he’s a 190-inch deer.
I don’t know what else to say. Like I said, I learn every day. It’s exciting. I guess that’s why every season is different, because you have some of the same clients, you have new clients. The camaraderie between the guys is always great. Then we have our exciting nights when somebody drops the monster like that. And then we have guys like you that come out here and it’s just the thrill of the hunt and the camaraderie, and the family type setting that we have here, and I think we do a great job at that.
You had all of us in tears over your buck. It wasn’t the biggest buck shot, and it wasn’t the smallest buck shot for the year. It was just a pretty buck. And we were just as proud as you were of it. And that’s what it’s all about. If the client is happy with what he shot, and he shows the excitement that you did last year, Judd and I did our job, and we did it well.
Bruce: Yes you did.
Sheri: That’s what it’s all about to me.
Bruce: Listeners, I’m just gonna recap couple things we just spoke about. Whitetail deer are unpredictable. A 190 class deer came into a food plot and that deer had never been seen on their leases. And yet he showed up and was harvested. So, if you’re not in your stand, if you’re not out there paying your dues, I can guarantee you won’t see the buck of your lifetime. They’re out there. I don’t care what state you’re hunting in, they are out there and there’s bigger and bigger bucks being shot every single year. So just remember that. Take notes on that. What’s one of the funniest things that happened to you last year Sheri?
Sheri: Well I’m already on this year and you’re asking questions about last year.
Bruce: You can share what happened turkey hunting. That’s this year, I guess. I don’t know. Just tell me something funny will you?
Bruce: One of the funniest things. I guess not necessarily one of the funniest thing that happened to me, but one of our clients that we had out here that was real nervous about coming. It was the first time she’d ever been on any kind of guided hunt. Her boyfriend brought her, and he had taught her how to shoot a bow. She had shot a bow the year before, this was basically her first time real true bowhunting. The minute she walked… you know you connect with people sometimes right away and she walked through that door and I knew her and I were going to get along.
And I think I have a fairly good sense of humor and this gal had us bent over rolling and entire five days she was here. She left here empty handed. She had missed a buck of a lifetime, a double drop time buck. She had shot just under him with her bow, but it made her hunt. She had a great time, they rebooked for this year, and then they all rebooked again for another archery hunt in two years after that.
So I can’t really say it’s the funniest thing that happened to me, but it was the highlight of the season. It was just the joy and the excitement from her. And when you listen to her story about seeing that buck and her going through all of her emotions that were running through her at that time, you live it. I guess I have to say that was probably the greatest and the funniest, happiest time I had for the whole season was that right there.
Bruce: What’s the best three or five things you can tell that anybody that’s listening on our podcast today, about how they can have the best hunt no matter where they’re going with an outfitter-guide situation. What are the three or five things that you would say, “Hey, if you do this, it’s gonna enhance the opportunity, not to harvest a deer, but to truly enjoy the hunt.”
Sheri: Well, for me there’s a fine line there, Bruce, and I’m just gonna clarify something real fast.
Bruce: Okay.
Sheri: Number one, check your outfitter out. There’s good ones and there’s bad ones just like everything else in the world. You can have the worse time in your life or you can have the best time of your life.
Judd and I are both very serious about our hunt. So I’m gonna say, one, you gotta go into it with a good attitude. You gotta a hunt hard, and you gotta enjoy life. Those three things… If you’re not enjoying being out there, then you’re not gonna have a good hunt. I don’t care what the accommodations are. I don’t care how many deer you see or anything else. You’re not gonna have a good time if you’re not happy in life. And if you’re just there to shoot an animal and leave, that’s not what’s it’s about. You’ve got to get out there and enjoy the woods, and enjoy the people around you. You know how we are. You come in, you eat dinner. Everybody has a drink. If you drink alcohol, great. If you don’t, that’s great too.
It’s a family setting. Those guys, outfitters, that are out there that… you never even see them. They’re gonna give you an x on a map and say, “That’s where you hunt.” I feel sorry for the guy that puts out money to go on a hunt like that.
I guess those would be my things. One, investigate the outfitter and enjoy life, and enjoy the people you’re around while you’re out there. It’s like we’re family. These guys leave, I give them a great big hug and every now and then I shed a tear because it was a great week with them and I can’t wait to see them next year.
Bruce: That’d be true, lady. Now tell me, Sheri, about all the research you do and the reading you do and all the TV shows you watch.
Sheri: Research, most of the research is out in the woods. I can read all the books and watch all the programs and everything else, but that doesn’t tell me anything my leases. The only thing that’s gonna teach me anything about my leases is I’m gonna go out there, I’m gonna spend the time, I’m gonna find the scrapes, I’m gonna find the rubs, where they’re dropping their antlers, where they’re feeding, where their crossings are, where their water holes are, all the things that make a trophy deer live and breathe in this habitat.
What’s happening on a [inaudible 00:21:52] farm, or 500 miles from me it doesn’t affect me, but my neighbor’s land is. I need to know what my neighbors are doing, what other hunters are doing, if they’re putting in food plots across the fence for me. I need to know if they’re bulldozing over there. Those are the things that are important to me as far as research.
As far as magazines, I have a subscription to one, and that’s for Fishing King and that’s because I’m a little prejudiced. The only reason I get it is for Judd’s article. Not that I’d even have to pay for it. He could email them to me, but I do keep that one just for his article.
Bruce: I gotta stop you there. How many articles has Judd written for that magazine?
Sheri: I couldn’t even imagine. I have no idea. Thousands, it’s in the thousands. He’s wrote 100 since we’ve been together.
Bruce: You got a good teacher, Sheri. Sheri has been telling us bits and pieces about Iowa Trophy Whitetail Outfitters, and now she’s gonna tells us about the background, whatever she wants to share. It’s an open mic. So, Sheri, it’s all yours.
Sheri: Well, I won’t burn up a bunch of time for you, Bruce, so I’ll tell them how they can go to our website at iowatrophywhitetail… [inaudible 00:23:23] and it will get them to the same place. It’s pretty self-explanatory, has photos, kind of gives a bio of Judd and I both, and all of our contact information is on there.
They can also connect with us on Facebook, through that. We have good accommodations. We have great equipment. We’re upgrading all the time and we have a good time. So if somebody’s looking for a quality hunt with experience and people with a sense of humor, then give us a holler and see what we can hook up for them.
Bruce: How far are you booked for your archery and muzzleloeader shotgun?
Sheri: Archery is usually pretty open each year because its so hard to draw. You gotta have at least one, possibly two preference points for archery here, so we usually have openings there. Right now, we are booked solid for first shotgun, second shotgun and the late muzzleloader season for the next two years. And I think we only got maybe one or two openings left in 2017-18 season.
Bruce: And how many hunters do you take each year?
Sheri: We never take more over six guys in camp at one time, six hunters period. We’re averaging anywhere from 22 to 28. We won’t over hunt our leases. That’s what keeps the quality of deer there. And were pretty picky about that. We don’t budge.
We got one season right after Christmas. We only take three to four guys in. In the late muzzleloader season, the very last season, we only take five. It’s not worth it to us for the few extra dollars you’re gonna make to overbook. Judd is pretty staunch on that, and he’s got me, and even with the hunters we have now, we’re still looking at increasing our lease ground right now, and even doing that, we won’t increase the hunters. All we’re gonna do is keep increasing the quality of the deer.
Bruce: Ladies and gentlemen, they’re already booked, but if you ever want to hunt a really fun camp, just get a hold of their website and get on the list. Sheri, thank you so much for being on Whitetail Rendezvous today and welcome to our community. And I look forward to the next time.
Sheri: All right, Bruce. I greatly appreciate it and we’ll see you next year.