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Interviewer: Three, two, one. Welcome, Whitetail Rendezvous community to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. Today I am really happy to have Saul Soltero and he is the Regional Director for Whitetails Unlimited out of Wisconsin. Sturgeon Bay I believe isn’t it, Saul?
Saul: Yes we are headquartered in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
Interviewer: Right. Tell us what you do for Whitetail Unlimited and even more important, what type of whitetail hunter you are.
Saul: Two totally different subjects there as far as I’m concerned. I am the regional director for Whitetails Unlimited. It’s one of these jobs where guys come up to you and ask how you got his job. It’s kind of a dream job. Basically in the hunting industry, I am the Regional Director of the Midwest, which means I cover from Fargo, North Dakota to Stillwater, Oklahoma. We’ve got chapters all up and down the Midwest. Always looking to open new chapters. We are a pro second amendment hunting. We are certainly very involved in youth and youth shooting sports as well as youth hunting opportunities. One of the most important things that is near and dear to my heart is we are linked up with the Wounded War Heroes, which is a group that supports the mission of taking our wounded warriors when they come home from the war on hunting and fishing trips to kind of ease them back into life.I am very proud of my existence and my participation in that they’re doing. That’s a little bit about Whitetails and where my region is.
In regards to hunting, I’m an avid outdoorsman. I would rather be outdoors than anything in the world. And it seems like chasing those whitetail deer is probably the number one thing on my list. Although I will hunt just about anything. I just got back from a hog hunt. I love to pheasant hunt. I’ve got two very well trained labrador retrievers that I consider my two best buddies in the world. And love to be out there chasing the roosters, goose hunt. I love to go shoot my gun, side of me [SP] my and my kids enjoy doing it as well. I would like to say I am a huge outdoorsman and Whitetails Unlimited plays right into that aspect of being able to get outdoors as often as possible.
Interviewer: Thank you for that background. Let’s just jump right into the interview. What’s one of the best hunting tips that you received and who gave it to you?
Saul: For me it was a bit of a baptism by fire. I went on my first pheasant hunting trip over 25 years ago. I am from Southern Arizona. My wife’s family is actually from the Midwest. Came into the Midwest and decided that I wasn’t real sure if I wanted to stay based on the weather. And that was the day that they took me hunting for the first time. It didn’t take much more than that. It was a pheasant hunt. And as some of my people may understand. . .some of your people understand out there, a pheasant is a tough bird. First and foremost you have to judge whether it’s male or female based its colors. It’s giving you one one-hundredth of a second to decide that as it flies away at Mach speed from right beneath your legs and then you have to figure out how to get a shot off and how to cut it off from point A to point B.
I was hooked on the meticulous nature of hunting and the interaction with the dogs, the interaction with the buddies that you are with. Just being outdoors. I say, there’s been times when I lay down in the field and took it in because I’m tired, but I don’t want to quit. The dogs laying right next to me because he’s tired, but he doesn’t want to quit. It’s just an unbelievable sport, it’s challenging, it’s rewarding, it’s satisfying. It scratches a lot of itches.
I’ve learnt my hunting from a lot of different people. The first person to take me hunting was a gentleman by the name Jack Lutz [SP]. Jack was gracious enough to work with me in all of my failures and my [inaudible 00:04:00] and my lack of knowledge and he just did a wonderful job with. He was born and raised in the Midwest, love the guy to death. I haven’t seen him for a minute or two, time passes. But there’s this buddy of mine called Keith Muniak [SP]. He took me deer hunting for the first time and it was only about 10-12 years ago. He put a muzzle loader in my hand in December and said, “Go sit in that tree and shoot at anything that comes by.” I laughed and ironically we didn’t get anything that day. But by the second day, a nice buck walked out and I dropped it and that was it, man, hook, line and sinker. Keith is a dear friend of mine to this day. We hunt religiously. Like I said, we chase those Whitetail around. We chase just about anything around and just enjoy our time together, enjoy the dogs, enjoy the fellowship. Certainly enjoy the outdoors. Since then I’ve been on elk hunts, moose hunts, deer hunts, alligator hunts. Just love it, every aspect of being out there challenging something that’s in their own backyard, in their own element. I love the surprises. I love tracking the scent trail. I love the tracking aspect of it, the food plot aspect of it. I enjoy every aspect of deer hunting. I just think it’s the ultimate sport.
I just recently got into bow hunting which I think is a pure man’s sport. I know there’s a lot of bow hunters out there that don’t consider gun hunters true hunters. I think there’s a lot of give and take there. I don’t get into that argument because I feel that anybody that’s outdoors and doing their thing out there, I just want to be part of that group. I just recently got into the bow hunting. I actually took a turkey with a crossbow on Sunday afternoon and that was a great thrill to get close enough to drop a tom with a crossbow on a spot and stalk and just every aspect of being outdoors to me is. . .makes me smile.
Interviewer: Well I’m smiling right now and taking a couple of notes. I heard you being very passionate about the out of doors, taking a moment. You’ve got your dogs there. You’ve been working sections for pheasants and you take time out to really enjoy where you are. That’s important in the world of hunting. It isn’t so much about the score and it isn’t so much about even if you do get a buck. It’s participating. How do you think that stands with you?
Saul: Well there is no question. A lot of guys especially in this area… a lot has changed in the habitat in the Midwest especially in the Nebraska area where I live. The set-aside lands aren’t as great as they used to be. The ditches aren’t as great as they used to be. They’re all mowed under and the birds have moved around or certainly moved up north into South Dakota, North Dakota. I always say it’s not going to walk by you on the couch. You gotta get out there and find them. A lot of guys say there’s no birds in that field and I say how would you ever know if you didn’t get out there and try.
There are great successes in being out there and limiting out getting three birds or getting two birds or even getting one bird. Just being outside in the quest. If you go out and limit out every day, you are going to lose your passion for the sport. I honestly believe that. That big buck that you shot, your passion is to better that one that. Your passion is to get the one that you haven’t got on the wall yet. Your passion is to take somebody else that’s never done it. Your passion certainly should be to take a young person out and teach them the ways, the next generation, pass it on. I don’t just believe in scoring and having a great hunt based on what you bring home. I think a lot of it is just being out there the camaraderie, the passing it on and then if you happen to get something, that’s even better. That’s icing on the cake. I love to go out, the interaction with my dogs and just being outside and getting a ton of exercise. I just think its great. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Interviewer: You mentioned a couple of things in our warm up and I am going to drill down on one of those right now and that’s youth. I feel and a lot of my friends feel that we are missing the mark by not taking one or two kids out in the field every single month. Not just once a year and checking it off and saying that yeah I took a kid out. Kind of explain or unpack what Whitetails Unlimited is doing in their youth programs.
Saul: Unfortunately, there is no way that we can pass on the tradition without taking the youth out. They can’t read it in a book. You can’t watch it on TV and, unfortunately, that’s the current generation that we are getting toward. We call them the Nintendo generation. I can do the hunt online. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. At Whitetails Unlimited, we are very committed. All of my chapters are very committed to the youth, to passing on not only the safety aspect which is huge. Just the safety aspect alone of handling a firearm, of handling a bow, proper care for the bow, even passing it from one to the next. There’s techniques and safety precautions that you have to observe. But I feel our chapters are committed to the youth and it’s a perfect fit. We have raffles strictly for the kids 15 and under. Most of my chapters give away as many as 20 lifetime hunting permits to the children, great prize.
The kid at first doesn’t realize that that’s the prize he wanted. He wanted the BB gun or the bow and arrow. He doesn’t realise the dad wants that prize for him knowing the value of something like that. We give away BB guns. We give away 22s. We give away all aspects of bow and arrows and flashlights. There’s nothing like giving a kid a knife and you think it’s dangerous. But it’s only as dangerous as you make it. If you teach the young person how to take care of his equipment, how to use it, how to facilitate the interaction between the what the equipment is and what it’s needed for, there is no danger in that. We need more guys to step up and say, “Hey, look, I can do that. I can teach that. I know how to talk to kids. I can work with kids. I’ve got time.” We need those guys out there in the field. They are the frontline with our kids. I’ll be honest with you and I know there’s no test, no glass or no scientific evidence, but I promise you these kids are sharper. They are more knowledgeable, they are more self-sustaining. They don’t need as much help as other kids do. Because if you put a young man out on a tree stand by himself at 12, 14 years old, there’s not a lot of things that he can’t do because if he’s ready for something like that, then he is ready to take on the world. And I honestly believe that if we could just take our hunting knowledge and take what we know and pass it on to the kids, can you imagine what a better place the world would be with that type of respect for not only firearms but for the outdoors? If they transfer that respect not only to their teachers, their classroom, their community, their marriage. There is not much more of a service we can do for the youth than that. I think that is huge.
Interviewer: Yes it is. Hey, share with us something funny that happened to you out in the woods last year.
Saul: I’ve got probably two, arguably two of the worst or the best hunting stories that you’ve ever heard in your life. First one starts when I first got my bow and arrow. I went out on a hunting trip and a buddy of mine, this was just local, but I live up in Northeast Nebraska. There is a lot of woodland, a lot of river land. Buddy said he’d been seeing a big buck crossing in front of his house about same the time every night. So I went and posted up in the woods. I waited and waited for this buck to come out and about two days later I was getting a little antsy and finally a doe walked out. And I wasn’t sure there was a path where the doe walked out. So I kind of left my stuff behind and I walked over to see where that doe might have gone. Sure enough and as fate would have it, almost like in the cartoons, I looked back over my shoulder about 40 yards away and that buck is standing above the tree that I was laying in. I was laying in a tree, it had fallen down so I had a nice little cover there. I was laying in the V of the branches of this tree and the buck is literally standing over my backpack as I look back over my shoulder.
Interviewer: Oh man.
Saul: First and foremost, I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t fathom that that buck was standing where I was standing less than a minute before. I drew my bow and I was kind of waiting. All I could see was his neck and just a little portion of his shoulder. I was hoping to get another inch, inch and a half and I was getting ready to fly. At that moment, the buck jumped almost out of its skin about 5 feet off the ground and took off running. I couldn’t believe that I had the opportunity. I had missed my opportunity to pull. When I got back over there, the reason he had jumped is that I had left my phone on vibrate and somebody had called me and. . .
Interviewer: Oh no!
Saul: The whole tree moved and the buck didn’t know what it was and he took off running. I’m sorry, talk about [inaudible 00:12:57].
Interviewer: Oh, my goodness!
Saul: The buck went 25 yards away and just looked at me like,”Boy did you hear that? There’s something going on in the woods.” I was beside myself. I couldn’t imagine that that would happen. That certainly is probably the worst and the funniest thing to ever happen to me. I actually had an opportunity to harvest a buck with my bow and I had spot and stalked buck and I got to within 15 yards of him. And he’s laying down and couldn’t see me. And every time there was a train that kept going by, about every 15 minutes. So every 15 minutes I would time my crawl so that the train would cause enough commotion or noise where the buck wouldn’t care that the motion and the movement. So finally I got about 15 yards from the buck and I whistled and I’m full draw just waiting for him to stand up. I yelled and sure as heck he stood up. As he stood up, I went to pull and I knocked the arrow off the knock with my thumb in my haste and the arrow dropped to the ground and me and the buck are just staring at each other. He’s looking at me like, “What do you want?” Obviously I couldn’t draw again and he took off running. The funny thing is, I had a dear friend of mine that was out in the woods with me and he said, “You are not going to believe this.” and I said.”What?” and he said,” The biggest buck I ever seen just came running right behind me.” And I said, “No, I believe you.” And he said, “Did you see it?” I said, “Not only did I see him. I nearly killed him. He just ran right in front of me.” These are the great stories because everyone talks about the one you got. I would venture to say that more guys are sitting out there with the one they didn’t get than the one they got. Those are the great ones. Ironically, no less than five weeks later in rifle season I dropped that buck from about 25 yards. Fate worked in my favor that trip. But it was ironic. I certainly would have rather put an arrow through him than the [inaudible 00:14:50] sticks, but I got him either way. He’s on the wall.
Interviewer: Atta boy. Let’s talk about the episode just before that, the first funny story or very interesting story. You are in a V of a tree.
Saul: Yes.
Interviewer: You see a doe walk out. You are pretty quiet and you get down and take a slow walk over. A minute passes and you turn around and there’s the buck. How long do you think he was watching you when you were sitting in the tree and how close do you think he was?
Saul: I was on the ground.
Interviewer: Okay, on the ground.
Saul: The tree had fallen to the ground. It was a huge tree and I buddied up into the V of a branch and the trunk of the tree. My feeling was, and its funny you should say that. I’ve played this over a million times, heck I played it over in my mind when I was telling the story. The way I think it, I think the buck was picking up on the doe. It wasn’t picking up on me. When the doe moved, the buck wherever he was was moving as well. They don’t move together. He pushes her a little bit and I think at some point she came out and he was waiting to see if the coast was clear before he came out. And that’s why he came out first. I don’t particularly believe that he saw me at all. When he finally did see me was when I got between him and the doe. That’s when he saw me and went, “Whoa, where did you come from?” That’s what makes the story so ironic that if I just sat still, heck I might have jumped on his back. That’s the problem I have when you asked about lessons I’ve learned in hunting? I think the most important word I could give to anybody, all your listeners, anybody that would care to listen, patience. I had no business leaving my seat that afternoon. And had I sat there 30 more seconds that wouldn’t have happened. But you get impatient and you think you are going to do something that nobody else has ever done in life. You are going to make a special shot that nobody’s ever made. If you just patiently wait, I think you are going to get your opportunity, no question. If not this year, then next.
Interviewer: I hope all my listeners are picking up on this one little pice that lasted a minute and a half, two minutes. Saul?
Saul: Yes.
Interviewer: But if you transform that and you think about it, the word patience was the make and break.
Saul: There’s no question. No question. In life, I believe there’s a lot of things in hunting that could be certainly related to anybody’s aspect of any part of their life. But the patience part of it, with your kids, with your job, with your spouse, obviously with your dogs. They don’t speak English, but they are trying to please you more than anything else in the world. Be patient, it’s coming. It’s coming. Might not come right away but it’s coming. These guys that aspire to shoot a big buck, a big elk, a big black bear. Patience man. The odds are not good if you are going to drive up, pay for your tag and go shoot the [inaudible 00:18:00]. It just doesn’t work that way and every hunter out there will tell you the same. It just doesn’t work that way. And if we can incorporate the patience aspect in anything we do, needless to say, hunting, of course for obvious reasons, I think we would do a lot better.
Interviewer: Well said, well said. Let’s talk about taking over a new 100 acres. Your uncle just gave you a 100 acres, a pretty Whitetail habitat there in Nebraska. What are you going to between now and hunting season?
Saul: I’ve got the full court press on the turkey. I’ve got probably 300 turkeys. I took my brother out hunting this weekend and we chased them around a little bit. We found one with over 27 toms in the group so they are still grouped up a little bit so they need to separate. I’ve got a couple of my Whitetail buddies from down in Mississippi as well as in South Louisiana are going to come up and try and shoot one of those toms and I’m excited for that.
There is some shed hunting that I plan on doing. I love that aspect of take the kids out there and seeing if we can find a shed. We never get skunked. We are always come back with half a bag full of them. It’s neat and exciting. It sounds like an Easter egg hunt except for antlers so that’s certainly something I have planned here next couple of weeks. Chasing the turkeys around is priority one for probably the next month. Then we are going to manage the land a little bit. We’re gonna move some tree stands, put up a couple food plots, make sure the pathways are clear, make sure the waterways are dug, put up some cameras, take a look at what’s out there.
We were hit pretty hard with the deer disease that came a couple of years ago. It’s been called several things, EHD [SP], the bluetongue, whatever it was. We were hit very hard with it. Rumour would say, I think 50%, 60%. Realistically it was closer to 70% maybe 80%. I am very happy to say the deer are back. I charted 47 deer coming out of one field on Sunday afternoon. A sight to behold especially when it’s your land, knowing how hard we had been hit before but so encouraged with the numbers. Just basically take care of your land and it’s going to take care of you. So you have to take care of it man. You have to even grease the gates. You don’t want that gate squeaking and squealing when you are going through it. So many aspects of things you could be doing out there, chopping some cedar trees, clearing some paths, it never ends. This is the time to do it because if you wait till summer, A, it’s too hot and B, they are starting to come in and making their home there. And October is just around the corner. If you wait till August, September, that might be too late.
Interviewer: Thank you for that. Let’s talk about another aspect you mentioned earlier, about what Whitetail Unlimited is doing with the Wounded Warriors.
Saul: Okay. First and foremost, you might have misheard me. It’s the Wounded War Heroes. There are several groups out there. Mission statements are solid. I am passionate about this group. If your listeners would care to check on them, it’s woundedwarheroes.com, there is the website. I am really passionate about this group. There are several aspects of this passion I would like to share with you. First and foremost, they have several events throughout the year where they bring these warriors together. These guys are coming back with PTSD. They are coming back wounded. They are coming back disoriented. They are having trouble filtering themselves back into life, their marriage, their kids. There is a lot going on with these guys. What the Wounded War Heroes do for these guys is they take them out, they counsel them, they bring them all together and show counsel, compassion. They can help them financially. They can help them with advice. They can help them with looking for a home. They can help them with their marriage. There is so much that these kids have done for us and they basically left it all over there. And I mean everything. So what the Wounded War Heroes do is they basically bring these guys back and take them on fishing and hunting trips and talk with them and work with them. But more importantly, they take them away and make them feel special. They give gifts and trips and vacations with their families. Just basically trying their best to help them get back into life.
One of the aspects of the Wounded War Heroes that I just couldn’t be more thrilled about is you have to be a purple heart recipient or you have to be 40% disabled to even qualify for their program. They are dealing with those guys. That’s what makes it so cool is to watch these guys. I was there. You want to get chills up your spine listen to 75 wounded war heroes standing in the same room, saying the pledge of allegiance and singing the national anthem. You talk about feeling like you are in the right place. Those are the guys I want to be around. That’s who I wanna be with. And that’s the group I support so adamantly
Interviewer: Thank you for that. Listeners, maybe they don’t have a chapter of the Wounded War Heroes near you, go to their website and check it out. Reach out a hand because these people have served us and they deserve the best we can give them. Let’s talk about archery hunting now. What kind of bows do you have and why did you decide to take up a stick and a string?
Saul: Probably my last choice I ever wanted to make was that. I loved the gun. I feel like I am a relatively good shot. I love the aspect of thinking that if I’m within 200, 250, I can make that shot. The bow and arrow gives you a whole different language, a whole different point of view. If you are not 30 yards, 40 yards for some of these heavy hitters, you have no chance and I never in my life thought I would go that route. A buddy of mine bought me a bow. He said, “You need to try this.” He donated me a bow when I was working with Whitetail. He said that he’d like to get involved in what we are doing. It was a Bear Rampage. It wasn’t a high-end bow by any means. Bear has a huge name. It’s synonymous with bow hunting. He’s a passionate fan of Bears. If I took it out I realized I wasn’t that bad a shot. I tell you what, shooting a round target from 10, 20 yards away, is a lot different that shooting at something walking underneath you and breathing because you can’t even take a deep breath without it knowing you are there. All these bow hunters would know that feeling of seeing something come out, reaching for your bow and realizing you’ve got a nice one and pull it back silently and walk on this thing. It’s just an unbelievable challenge. It’s high risk, high reward and I love it.
I’ve also got a crossbow. I’ve got a Mission 360 kind of a higher end crossbow. I’ve also realized, and I want your listener to understand. It doesn’t matter what you have. That’s not making the best player. I was an all-state basketball player my senior year and my dad got my trainers at the swap meet. It didn’t matter what you were wearing. It doesn’t matter what you shoot. Get out there and dance with who brought you. I have a million guns, but I’ve got and old 30-06 Remington 700. It’s my go to. I’ve got a million new guns and this gun’s 25 years old but when push comes to shove, this is the gun I am going with. Your gear doesn’t matter and I encourage the boys, take care of your gear and it doesn’t matter. Every day I see a new something on TV and everybody’s gotta have it. Sure it would be nice to have it but you don’t need it. What you have is plenty for what you’re doing and don’t get caught up in all that stuff. There’s a lot of neat products out there, but if you have something and it’s useable, go out there and use it.
Interviewer: Thanks Saul. We are at the pint in the show where you get to an opportunity to talk to our listeners and the community of Whitetail Rendezvous about what you do, why you are passionate about it, how to get in touch with you, websites, whatever information you want to share about your social networks. Saul, the time is yours.
Saul: Listen, guy, first and foremost, I appreciate you having me on. I am a passionate Whitetail hunter, but I’m a passionate hunter. I am passionate about the outdoors. I am passionate about spreading the word, spreading the gospel if you will of outdoors and the blessing that we’ve been so greatly endowed with. I want to encourage you to get the kids out there, get the girls out there. Don’t let them skip a generation. I’m not getting on my box by any means, but the government seems to think that that’s not the way they want things to go. And we need to make sure that we speak for our rights, our second amendment rights, and Whitetail Unlimited is right on the frontline of that. We are having banquets all over the Midwest, Wisconsin, Michigan all the way to New York City. We’ve got Whitetail events. Get out there and see what we’ve got for you.
We’re passionate about supporting our veterans. We’re passionate about supporting the kids. If you are interested in starting a chapter, please loot at whitetailsunlimited.com online. Find a chapter near you. Contact your local field rep. See if there is an opportunity to come to an event. See if there is an opportunity to run an event. Contact me online. My information is on the website, www.whitetailsunlimted.com. Our national headquarters are in Sturgeon Bay. If you are ever there, it’s quite the site. You should pop your head in there. There’s [inaudible 00:27:43] prizes, there’s lots of bucks and stories and pictures in there. It’s worth stopping. Just make sure that if you are passionate about it, pass it on. Make sure you don’t take it with you because there’s a lot at stake here. We can’t skip a generation. We need to make sure that we get the kids out there and that’s very important.
Interviewer: Saul, thank you so much for being on the show today and we just echo what you’ve said about kids, about our servicemen and about the passion of hunting Whitetails and its tradition that it represents.
Saul: You bet. Happy to do it. Thank you for having me. I’d love to do it again. Once again, keep in touch and you guys keep up the good fight. It’s worth it.
Interviewer: Thank you.