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Brian Howell – Prostaff Horney Buck Seed

Bruce: This is Bruce Hutcheon, your host at Whitetail Rendezvous. And today, we’ve got a pretty outstanding gentleman, his name is Brian Howell, he’s pro staff with AWA, American Whitetail Authority, Horny Buck Seed. He’s also very interested in and active in takeout outdoors. Brian, welcome to the show.

Brian: Hey, glad to be here.

Bruce: Hey, let’s start right off with American Whitetail Authority, what it is and how it helps people in their whitetail pro-series. I’d like to hear more about that.

Brian: Sure! Well the American Whitetail Authority is kind of like a Bass Masters of fishing. This is where the top guys, the nation or country or however you want to look at it compete to see who the best whitetail hunter in the whole world . We do this . . . it’s all by digitized scope, so we do not partake in the actual killing of animals. What it is, we’ve got a couple of different regionals, qualifying events that we go to. There’ll be eight guys in one event and eight guys at some other event. We all get dropped off at the same timeframe, none of us have been to these areas together or individually, outside of this event so we don’t know the area, we don’t know the land. We’re given topographical maps, we’re kind of given a ride around of the area that we’re hunting or going to be hunting. Pretty much give us a day and a half to scout the land, and we have to use our knowledge to find out where we want to set up, where we want to do our calling and use your knowledge to find and located the deer and you’re scored on shot placement, age of deer, size of deer and gender. So any missed shots or wounded shots or . . . points are taken away from you. So you’re pretty much getting judged on those areas.

Bruce: How did you get involved with this? I’m sure we’ve got listeners who are saying, “Hey, I’d like to do that.” So how did you get involved with it?

Brian: Sure, actually it was done through Bass Pro shops, it started I think 2010 was when they started. They made their way around to all the Bass Pro shops, with this big RV searching for the best whitetail hunters. At that point, you stop in, you kind of give an interview which is a recorded interview and they go back with all these contestants and they’re kind of panel judged. It’s not necessarily that you’ve killed the biggest deer, or you’re in the fields 10 or 65 days a year, it’s kind of an accumulation of everything you’ve done. And then they would panel judge the 4000 people that applied, cut it down to 400, cut it down to top 40 and now we have it, now we have our top 16 guys are in the competition.

Bruce: Now, is that 16 guys in each region? Or is it 16 guys in the total country?

Brian: Sixteen guys in the total country.

Bruce: Oh my goodness! That’s pretty competitive, I would think.

Brian: Oh yes, it is. And, like I say, you’ve got a day and a half to scout and then you get two days of actually shooting, which you’re only allowed five shells a day and then after that second day, your events get cut in half. You know, the people, so if you have eight guys, after day two, you only got four guys for the final day. And then the top three will go on to the championship.

Bruce: Now are we shooting shotgun, rifle, crossbow, compound bow, what kind of weapons are you using?

Brian: We’re using a 20 bolt fault action guns that are equipped with a digitized scope that records everything. They can tell at time of you pulled the trigger and where your crossers are, if they can slow these things down, so much they can tell exactly where the crosshairs were as you pulled the trigger, so that’s how they know shot placement. And then they can get a pretty good idea of age of deer and size of deer, they can score from images.

Bruce: So as I understand it, you’re doing a reality TV show and you’re doing it green that no deer is harvested during this competition, is that correct?

Brian: That’s correct.

Bruce: Well that’s really interesting. I’m just going to jump out, if somebody is really interested in that is there a website they go to or how do they get involved?

Brian: Yes, they can check out AWApro.com, there’s a bunch of forums and they can keep them get involved, ask us questions, we’re there to educate. Either newbies to the sport, or people who have never done it, even to guys who’ve been doing it for years, open forums to everybody.

Bruce: Okay, let’s get down in there, how did you get good enough to make it to the top 16?

Brian: Well I mean in reference to the AWA? Or just a . . . ?

Bruce: Hunting. I mean you’ve got to be pretty good just to make the grade to get on the show and you’ve done a lot of things in the industry, I understand that. But what skill set specifically do you utilize, once you get your plot of land. Your 40, 80 or how many acres they give you to hunt, let’s talk about that, and let’s unpack that.

Brian: Sure, I’m just infatuated with the whitetail deer. Ever since a young age, as early as I can remember. Started bow hunting at 14, I was involved getting into woods with my father even younger than that. At the age of 14 I was just constantly in the woods, learning about everything I could about whitetail deer. Just their ecology, evolution, the deer, sites, sounds, whatever I could. Shed hunting was a big part. So I did a lot of days in the field, a lot of reading and just a lot of hunting. I learned a lot from being in the field, what tos, how tos, even how the deers act. What they’re doing, actions that they’re making, just learning about the the deer themselves, it helps me a lot.

Bruce: Okay, so you’re dropped off, what are the first five things you’re going to do when you know your area you’re going to hunt and you’ve got a day and a half to figure this out? So what are the five things you’re gonna do, right off the bat?

Brian: Well first thing of the bat, I will probably going to grab the topographical map of the land, of the area that I chose. One point I should make, let me just jump back a little bit, during our drive around, we got to make notes, you know on a kind of on topo map of where we’d like to hunt. Like, area one, one three and six are my spots I’ve picked, we go back to the lodge and they draw numbers. Well better have a backup plan because if I am the fifth one to be drawn or sixth guy drawn and my top three areas are taken, I’ve got to jump to a different plan. So keep in mind that’s always . . . sometimes you may be left with the not so good areas. That could turn out to be the best but, we don’t know what best spot we could pick. But as for picking out what I look for on my topographical map is water, is probably the biggest one, water and bedding. Are going to be my biggest things, then food. Once I notice, I have all that, then I’ll jump into escape routes, funnels, food sources, adjacent properties, the kind of what do they have, what do they offer? I’m trying to make sure that the deer are staying in the areas that I want to be on, not traveling outside of or not . . . If it’s a wintering area, maybe it’s the, you know, maybe they are here, what I’m hoping they’re staying here, they are living here, this is their home.

Bruce: Did I lose you?

Brian: Nope, I am here.

Bruce: Okay, okay. So last thing I heard was the deer are staying home, anything else you want to throw in there for the top five things you look for?

Brian: No, ‘cuz you got all the food, the water, the bedding, the funnels and escape routes and you got all that.

Bruce: Now, how do you decide where to put your stand or stands? How many stands can you put up?

Brian: Well we’re kind of allowed of two, two stands per area but we can always change them. We just can’t be with 100 yards of each other. So other than that . . . we have some ground time, so you can sit in the stand, and you bring your climber, not very limited on that end but I move around. I’ll set one morning in area A and try to locate from an open field, kind of see what deer are coming out or going to bed or what have you. And then I’ll kind of move for the later in the evening or the following morning.

Bruce: Have you ever taken the first place in the Whitetail Pro-series?

Brian: You know, I have not. I haven’t . . . the one that we just finished this year was probably the closest and it was within points, it was a tough hunt, we don’t get optimal conditions. These hunts are very tough hunts, it’s either 90 degrees out or negative three. We don’t get the rut weeks to hunts to do this. They put us in the positions where we’ve actually got to go out to find deer. So if you can get on them and find them, you’ll do quite well but this last one, the 2015 series was probably the closest.

Bruce: How do moon phases or the barometer fit into your strategy of hunting your assigned area?

Brian: I guess it just all depends on where the moon is at, for that specific week or weeks that we’re gone. If it happens to be a full moon, and which fork of the full moon it is. If it a full moon it’s kind of tough, I’d rather just hunt all day rather than mornings and evenings I just have to sit. I believe that this activity is much better in later in the morning hours than right away. They feed throughout the night just because of the bright light and they’ll feed later.

Bruce: How about what role the barometer plays, or if it does?

Brian: Well sure. I think animals in general, they know if the barometer fluctuates, they know if there’s a storm rolling in or they know if something’s going to happen, they can feel it, they’re going to want to be up there, going to want to be feeding early, just to beat that storm.

Bruce: Do you have 31.5 as the time you want to be out there? Or rising, or barometer going down?

Brian: Not really, I just kind of know, I’d like to know what’s coming in. If there’s a front and if there is I’ll definitely be out there earlier but once again it just kind of plays a part is, where’s my land, how long does it take me to get to where I want to be? I’s too many variables really, it’s just a place by place for me.

Bruce: Now, what about the wind? Say the prevailing winds from the northwest and all of the sudden a front comes through and it switches, what do you do then?

Brian: Well for me I guess I would . . . it depends on the land, it depends on where I’m at sitting, if the wind’s changed, which way has it changed from? It’s going to be conductive for me to move? The piece of property that I may be on, may not be worth my while to move. I set certain plots of land on wind directions so if it does switch on me, I may be put off packing out. Without having my scent blowing into a bedding area or into a staging area, where I don’t really want to be detective.

Bruce: Now how long are the hunts, the contest period, how many days?