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Aug. 29, 2022 - Doug Collins Podcast
56:41
Stories from Booger Bottom: A conversation with The Bone Collector: Michael Waddell
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You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
This house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Hey everybody, it's Doug Collins.
Welcome back to the Doug Collins Podcast.
Today, again, as you've known here in the last few months, we've had some just phenomenal episodes.
This is one personally that I've been excited about.
Now we make connection and get going.
For those of you who know, I believe in a podcast.
We talk politics, we talk life, we talk faith, we talk family, and we talk sports, and we talk Hunting.
After going through a career and being in politics, being in life, I found over the last few years of my life, getting back into the woods from my time of growing up, fishing, going in the woods, has been my stress relief.
I believe everybody needs a time when they can get back into what God gave us, and that's the greatest creation in the world with animals and hunting and fishing.
It gets us back to who we are.
For all those folks out there who believe these newfangled stuff, The best conservationists, the best environmentalists are your hunters, your folks who get out there and deal in the woods.
And today, I am pumped.
Before you even see it, I gotta show you folks, we've got the bone collector in the house.
Michael Waddell is with me.
Georgia boy, I am excited about this podcast.
We're gonna talk about a lot of that.
But the first off, I mean, for everybody who may not know, and Michael, this may be a time for people to get to know you.
If they go to your site, they say the man from Booger Bottom.
Okay, even from Georgia now.
Come on, I'm from Greshamville down in Morgan County.
I mean, come on, Greene County.
Booger Bottom got me beat, brother.
Hey.
Man, hey, you got to have a Booger Bottom.
I know where you're from.
I've been up in them hills and hollers that you lived in.
And I tell you, Booger Bottom is real similar.
There's no stoplight.
It's just an area.
Like, you know, if you say, if you go to Warm Springs, Georgia, which obviously, you know, that's right.
The FDR had the little white house.
And if you say, hey, I'm looking for Booger Bottom, they'll tell you exactly where to go.
And there's all kind of folklore and stuff.
But it's funny, I get more of a kick out of that across the country.
People are like, where are you born and raised?
I was like, it's called Booger Bottom, Georgia.
And it's funny because everybody local, I mean, they love it, but everybody's like, oh, come on, man.
They're like, I'm serious.
That's what they call it.
And so...
Man, and obviously, if you're from Booger Bottom, Georgia, you know, you do a lot of hunting and fishing, and you know something about some fried chicken and cornbread, too.
I know that.
Now, come on now.
If we're going to talk food, we get that cornbread, and you get a little bit of collards, get a little turtle, get some chow-chow going.
I mean, come on.
We're Georgia boys.
You better watch out.
Like I said, we eat good.
I tell you, you're going to freak somebody out.
I went up one time, I was in D.C., and we're talking about somebody, they're talking about all the desserts.
And then we're talking about peaches.
You had mentioned peaches, and my wife's grandparents used to raise peaches.
But when I was growing up, Daddy was a steaks root.
We came home, and we would eat, and we...
Didn't have a lot, but we had plenty.
You understand what I mean.
Absolutely.
And Daddy would take a glass of, get a bowl, and get some sweet milk.
That's whole milk for the rest of you in the world.
That's right.
And then he'd take the pound of cornbread, and he'd crumble that cornbread up in that milk, and that was dessert.
I mean, ain't nothing better.
Nothing better.
Matter of fact, buttermilk, we used to do that a lot, buttermilk, a little red cup of Vidalia in there.
And it's funny, you know, we were texting, and I was very excited and honored to be on your podcast.
And you texted me and said, hey, man, I might be running just a little late to start this thing.
And so I literally, my dad had just walked in the door, and he had some fresh peaches.
And I was over eating that peach like somebody, like I done stole it.
I mean, I just wanted to get rid of the evidence, you know.
And so...
You got to get in there.
I saw the most offensive thing.
And folks who watch the podcast, they know me.
We're going to get into this in a minute.
I went with my beautiful bride of 34 years and your bride as well.
But we went to Sam's the other day and I saw something.
I just wanted to go to the front door, lock the door and stop it.
They had California peaches.
And they had the audacity to have a California white peach.
I'm sorry, Georgia Bells is the only white peach.
Texas, California, ain't got nothing on that.
I agree.
I can accept one from South Carolina, and that's about as far as it goes.
I mean, you got to stay south with that.
I mean, I appreciate the fruit they grow in California.
I love their pistachios, their walnuts.
They got those little cuties.
I know they do a good job on the tangerines.
Our Florida brothers do.
But let me tell you something.
When you're talking peaches, you've got to keep it right there in Georgia.
I'm going to vote with you on that, Mr. Collins.
I promise.
It's a high quality on that one.
On a weird note, you talk about California.
Do you know that Georgia...
Almost every year is the number one state in blueberries.
You know what's funny is I didn't realize that but over the last couple years I have been hunting a lot with some South Georgia blueberry farmers and one friend that I made up in Tennessee that I turkey hunt with every year he actually is a big large blueberry farmer and I didn't realize just how big it was and as a matter of fact another thing that we're big in is pecan and I actually my wife and I have a pecan farm and And it's funny,
I never was, you know, I've always appreciated our ag in Georgia, but I never had participated outside of growing food plots.
I mean, I always had me a little garden, some sweet corn, tomato.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
But when it comes to a lot of our best fruits and vegetables, you're right, Georgia is still a force to be reckoned with.
We still grow some amazing stuff, and obviously Vidalia.
I mean, you can't just go anywhere and get a Vidalia onion.
It has to be from Vidalia, Georgia.
Yeah.
Exactly.
This text is sweet stuff.
Don't worry.
And then, of course, you get up to my part of the woods, the nooks and hollers up here.
You know, a lot of folks up our way, you know, we have to acknowledge the fact that they may not eat their corn, they may drink it, but that's a whole different issue.
That happens a lot around here, too.
I love it.
Well, one, for folks on the podcast, if you've known the name Bone Collector, you've seen it all over.
Talk about hunting, and for somebody to be an ambassador of what we do, and for those who love to get out in the woods and do that, you are just a great example of that.
Go back.
Let's find out how you became you a little bit.
Talk about growing up.
Talk about how you got into hunting.
You know, especially now that you're, I mean, you're a brand.
And I think that's, I don't mean that, you know, I mean that in a very good way.
And how did that happen?
Talk to people who may be out there who say this may be their first indication.
They may be listening to a podcast.
They say a hunter there and they've never done it.
Talk about how you became you.
Man, I'd be glad to.
And thanks for your question, Doug.
It's actually kind of a cool story and a really cool American story, not just from the South, but, you know, in America, you can do so much amazing things.
And I think it's so easy to forget that.
You know, as we set time, sometimes we squabble about the least of things.
And for me, you know, very similar to you, I grew up in a very rural country area.
And, you know, everybody seemed to hunt and fish and have those gardens.
And, you know, you celebrated things like a sunny day and a fresh peach.
I mean, just little things.
I mean, people on front porch shelling pink-eye purple hulls.
I mean, literally, the arguments were, you know, what's a better, you know, tomato, rutker, or a better boy?
I mean, literally, that was about the only fistfights around Booger Bottom.
And you're right.
You know, there was people that sipped on a little corn whiskey and stuff like that.
But everybody seemed to hunt and fish.
And obviously, I was no different than anybody else.
I was introduced to hunting when I was really young.
Obviously, small game.
That led into deer hunting and stuff like that.
And I quickly just fell in love with it.
And it was something me and my dad just did a lot of.
My pawpaw.
On both sides, my mama's side and my dad's side.
My Uncle Morgan, obviously, he lived up in Atlanta and worked for Bell South.
And they would come down, you know, open the weekend of deer season.
It literally was unbelievable.
It was as big as Christmas.
You know, it was just a big, big thing that everybody did.
And so I fell in love with it.
But really what happened...
For me, that really turned the page of, like, if you want to say become something to where I really took it to the next level was when we started having turkeys that were gobbling in the South, and I was probably 12 or 13, and I really fell in love with that because I was just like, man, this is tough.
Man, you got a language to learn.
And obviously I had a lot of people I looked up to that was turkey collars.
And so I went on from there and won a state championship.
And then I actually had a chance to win a grand national championship when I was young, right there, just out of high school.
And that's where I kind of got my start in the hunting industry.
I can't even tell you, Doug, that I knew that there was an industry.
At the time, obviously, looking back, you know, I wasn't a business guy.
I was a kid.
But I knew there had to be something because I was buying product.
I remember my dad, I'm sure, used to go down to the Buccarama in Atlanta every year.
Oh, yeah.
Man, we'd go eat pizza and walk around and look for, you know, dough pea.
I mean, you know, get cool deals on stands and look for opportunities to places to hunt.
And so that was always a big part of my childhood.
And so when I won those turn calling contests, that got me an introduction to people in the hunting industry, people like Bill Jordan, David Blanton, and just the world that was out there as far as manufacturing.
And, you know, and I learned that they were obviously, you know, I started looking at these TV shows that I'd watched and these hunting videos I'd watched.
I'm like, wait a minute.
I mean, Somebody's got to be working behind the scenes and so that just led to an opportunity to start a career in the hunting industry and really one thing led to another and obviously I was that old saying, a kid in a candy store, that's what it was.
I couldn't believe I was actually having a chance to work In a space that I just truly, truly enjoyed.
And so I had an opportunity probably about 10 years into my career to start hosting a TV show called Realtree Road Trips, where basically it was just more behind the scenes.
It was more, you know, I was always just cutting up, not real serious.
I was serious about my hunting, but I always enjoyed having a good time.
I enjoyed being around good people.
I was proud of where I was from.
I was a proud American.
And I really just had a very big passion for, you know, showing people what the hunting culture was all about.
And to me, it was a lot more than just getting an animal, you know, putting it on the wall or putting it in the freezer.
And so I was just really lucky to luckily have some people that gravitated toward that type of production to where we show a lot of behind the scenes and just laughing and cutting up the friendships.
The camaraderie.
Obviously, you know, even all of us that hunt and fish, we've certainly raised our share of hell, no pun intended, but I will say we always knew that the good Lord put these renewable resources out there for hunt.
We realized we had dominion over it, and so for me, I had the opportunity to share with people just, hey, hunting was something that was a God-given right, and it gave us an opportunity to go out there, and it was, like you mentioned, even opening this podcast, For me, still, in the most stressful, anxious times, I still escape to the woods.
If you want to call it my Prozac, that is it.
That is the drug of choice, is to go to the woods.
It sets my mind free.
You can say a little prayer up in the stand.
You look around, you see a squirrel.
A lot of times, the last thing you're worried about is if you're going to get a shot, you just escape.
The responsibility and chores of the home and just all the stress.
Obviously, you know, you look back on your career, you've certainly been in some heated debates.
You've had the whole world watching.
And so that escape, it works for everybody.
And I don't think everybody see that and understand that.
And so those that are hearing this and watching this, they understand it.
There's a lot that don't, that just want to quickly judge and maybe start hating on it.
But a lot of that is not understood.
I think a lot of people are going to better understand it, Doug, when they start buying meat this next year and those fruits and vegetables.
Because, you know, not to get political around the bat, but we're about to see some major crazy prices.
And that deer meat and a rabbit, a squirrel, I think a lot of people, even in California, is going to start looking at a little different.
Oh, you know, and it amazes me when we talk about this.
You know, hunters are, you know, the environmentalists, everybody talking about, you know, we're the most organic, you know, I mean, you can't, you don't get any more organic than, you know, going out and taking an elk or a deer or, you know, whitetail or squirrel.
I have to tell you a funny story, though.
You'll appreciate this.
Okay, do a Jordan boy.
I'm up in D.C. and we're in the middle of something.
It was a crazy time.
Something was going on.
And it was the first year.
And I went with my boys.
Squirrel hunting, okay?
And so we went, we got a couple squirrels, and it was sort of quiet.
So I came back home, cut them up, and if anybody wants to see this, they can go to my Instagram page.
And so I did a picture in the woods.
I laid them on the trees, did a picture on the woods, got them up.
When I cut them up and put them on the grill, and then put them on the final table.
And I did, I called it my, you know, farm-to-table meal.
I'm followed by a lot of people who've never been in the woods.
Okay, let's just put it that way.
My chief of staff called me late that evening.
He said, what have you done?
I said, what are you talking about?
He said, did you put animals on your Instagram?
I said, well, I showed me cooking squirrel.
He said, cooking what?!
I might have to go back if I was still older.
I can't imagine the comments.
But isn't that crazy?
That is strange.
I mean, like, you know, if you grew up like we did, I mean, that's just life, right?
I mean, that's what you did.
I mean, look, you know, for those out there eclectic, I had a little olive oil.
I put a little black pepper.
You know, put them on the grill.
And they were like, I mean...
Oh, I can't watch his Instagram anymore.
And it's like, what?
I mean, you're ready to go to a restaurant and go through a processed meat category and you take that?
And you won't take what I just took out of the woods that God gave me?
Really?
So...
But this is where we get back to this whole thing.
It's funny, man.
I mean, one of the number one comments we get sometimes negatively, and it blows my mind, is like, why do you even go hunt when you can go buy this meat at the grocery store?
Almost like we're being, you know, this evil person by hunting.
And obviously, you know, For me, I take a lot of pride in feeding my family, even my kids.
I mean, we process a lot of our own deer and, you know, make hamburger meat out of it.
I'll even go down to the local grocery store and get a little beef fat, and man, we'll mix it up.
We'll get out there and make some sausage and different things, link and patty.
And on those cold days, man, it's just amazing.
And even my kids who have success hunting, I will label all those packages.
Like Waylon, my son Waylon, he's my youngest.
He's six.
My oldest boy is 22. And I will label each, you know, this is Waylon's deer.
This is Mason's deer.
This is my daughter Audrey's deer.
And there's a lot of pride that I can tell my kids, like, hey, tonight we're making, might be hamburger helper at minimum.
And then it might be some unbelievable lasagna, homemade lasagna my wife's making, and we can say, this come from our farm, and you had a hand in helping provide supper tonight.
And so, for me, I take a lot of pride in that, and I'm very humbled that we get that opportunity.
It's amazing to me, the ignorance.
It's being lost, I think, a lot.
I mean, we're trying to preach that message, but I see it all the time, even on our page, which people come to for hunting.
I'm still blown away at sometimes the ignorance, you know, from...
That side of things.
It's crazy.
It is.
And me being, you know, again, and I freely admit, I hunt, you know, I was fishing, grew up on the lake, and did some hunting when I was younger.
It didn't as much.
I was in sports a lot as well, and went away from it a lot when my kids were younger.
I wish I had not, but I've came back to it.
And I think it's sort of coming back to that makes you remember, you know, what you were looking at, and you're talking about your kids and providing for that.
Let's turn for a second.
You talked about Turkey really is where you sort of got into it.
I do want to hit an issue that has been coming up a little bit.
I know here in Georgia, and it's a little bit in the turkey population.
Talk to us a little bit about that.
I mean, you can't stop the flop.
Folks, if you go to bonecollector.com, there's plenty of stuff for you to go buy.
But can't stop the flop is one of the funniest things you've got to see.
It is great.
Talk to us a little bit about that because, I mean, that has been a concern.
I got buddies down in South Georgia.
I mean, you know, normally see a bunch gobblers.
You know, they're not seeing them up here in North Georgia.
Again, not as like we have in the past.
What are you hearing about that?
And across country, too.
I've heard it across country, too.
Yeah, there's a lot that's going into it.
Even here on my home farm, We're pretty blessed.
We got about just over 500 acres and I've been just obviously management trying to just in my own way along with some biologists and different people I know that know a lot about just habitat and things like that and obviously the cool thing about us as hunters you know we're really protective and really instrumental in making sure that we Obviously leave more than we take and that's one of the things with the turkey hunters out there in certain areas and regions and even almost area by area in certain counties
you're seeing a little bit of a decline in certain spots and you know it's crazy because you know you and I very similar in age You know, we grew up from North Georgia to South Georgia.
We were just covered in wild quail.
We saw that almost be eradicated and they never really, it was almost like an unsolved mystery.
I mean, there's certain people and certain biologists that will say they'll have the answers, but I think it's a multitude of a lot of different things, Doug, that's affecting that.
A lot of people thought, okay, well, maybe we're overharvesting.
Maybe we're taking some of these gobblers too early and they're not getting, you know, the hens as fertilized eggs as possible.
You know, maybe it's too many predators, maybe not enough habitat.
And so I, for one, my opinion on it based on just some stuff that I've done on our local leases here, And my farm, I think it's a little bit of multitude of everything.
Like, for instance, the last three years, man, I went back to trapping like I did when me and my papa was when I was a youngin'.
You know, I just got out of it.
It wasn't something I did, you know, when it comes to coons, possums, coyotes, bobcats, foxes.
And the first year that I really got from heart, I caught 20 coyotes, caught five bobcats, I caught 12 foxes.
I probably caught 20, 25 coons and possums apiece.
And the next year, we were blessed that spring.
I had a good spring as far as the weather, and I had a tremendous pulp reproduction.
And some farms down the road from me, they didn't have as much.
So I remember thinking, well, there's no doubt them predators made a difference.
Now, some biologists will say, well, they really don't.
I saw that it did.
I also noticed that if I let my food plots grow up higher, didn't mow them, you know, all through those April and May months that I seem to have better bug reproduction.
I gave those hens a little bit better cover, maybe habitat to nest in and bug in and brood in.
So I've been trying a bunch of different things.
So my thought is I think there's a multitude of a lot of different things.
Some people going as far, Doug, and saying that, you know, since bathing is Legal that maybe it's molded corn.
You know, some people say, well, it's a certain tactic that's being used in hunting turkeys.
I just think it's a combination of several things because here's the good news.
I found in a lot of places that I've hunted in the state of Georgia where people are very, very serious.
Like that's the only thing in their life is just a wild turkey.
They're covered in turkeys.
Now you go two properties over or maybe not even two properties over, maybe just drive an hour or so.
There's not as many.
And so, I think it's a multitude of things.
I think there's a lot of studies that's being shown.
And the good news, I think the state departments are really reacting really quick to try to get to the bottom of it and all we can do.
And two, you know, it's crazy, and I just hope the turkey don't ever turn out kind of like the quail did in Georgia.
One thing I've noticed, Doug, it seems like there's an ebb and flow to certain animals.
Like, I remember there's been certain years where the deer population wasn't that high.
And then all of a sudden, you might give it three years, and you've taken the same amount of animals, and they're everywhere.
It's like, I don't know.
It's almost like, you know, as much as we try to balance nature, it seems like the good Lord does have...
This mysterious way of coming in and saying, look, I know what I'm doing.
I'm not going to get too much or too less.
You go out to Montana, you know, there'll be deer everywhere.
Literally in some of those Milk River, that Milk River bottom, it's so many deer, hundreds and hundreds of deer.
And you will think, man, this is going to be the easiest thing to get a deer.
You'll go back out the next year And EHD would have hit.
And Doug, I'm telling you, 98% of the deer are dead.
And then six years later, it'll get back up to this crazy high.
So there's a lot about wildlife, and I think that's the mystery of it, that you learn a lot.
And I think that's another reason I like to hunt, and I like the conservation.
And I like even the environmentalist part of it, even though that's a little yuppie for me to say, but I will say I like it all because you realize you're always learning.
You'll never know it all, and there's always things and variables that change it.
Well, and I think one of the things, I'm a big proponent, and you and I both have been blessed to put roots deep in Georgia, but we've traveled the world.
Okay, we've traveled a lot of places, which I think is one of the best things in the world, because it gives you perspective.
After you got out of Turkey, I know deer and...
Talk about going out, especially with your, I know you do elk hunts, you've done others.
What has traveling done for you and hunting?
Some of your trips that, you know, sort of made an impression on you.
You said, wow, God, you're a pretty cool God.
You know, this is pretty neat.
You know, I would say that traveling hunting has probably had one of the biggest impacts.
And you're right, Doug, you know, growing up in Georgia soil and red clay under my nails and, you know, and loblolly pines, you know, I was learning how to navigate through them and little old cane cutter briars.
Looking for snakes, you know, it's funny.
I never knew I would get a chance to hunt some of these places I dreamed about that I read in some of these magazines.
You know, I think that's really cool.
You and I both have had a chance to see a lot of amazing country.
We've seen some amazing culture, amazing people.
And so in that, there's a big blessing of learning about diversity, not necessarily in race.
I'm just talking about in geography and the diversity and And like, you know, the argument when you eat barbecue in Oklahoma or Texas versus the barbecue we're used to eating in Georgia.
And even you get up in Northeast, you know, toward that South Carolina is different.
And so for me, hunting different geography, different terrains, I've learned so much and it's taught me a lot about life.
And it's helped me understand politics even better because I've also hunted out of America.
I've been all over Mexico, all over Canada, many African countries.
And let me tell you something.
I didn't know how much I appreciated America until I left Zimbabwe and learned about a guy named Mugabe.
Yeah.
When you learn about that cat, you realize that...
It's some pretty bad stuff.
We can sit here and vent, and people can sit there and say they hate somebody.
I mean, literally, people in America can sit there and say, man, I can't stand this congressman, or I can't stand this senator.
I can't stand this president.
And I remember going over there, just a young hillbilly kid from Georgia in Zimbabwe, and they was having an election.
Come to find out the guy that was running against him, he's dead.
He just killed him.
That way you don't have to worry about them boats.
Just kill him.
I mean, literally, that's what happened.
And I remember I was talking to some Zimbabwe natives there, and I said, so, I mean, this Mugabe, he's like a bad guy, man.
Why don't y'all get rid of him?
And literally, Doug, I never forget this.
This is my first lesson in world politics.
They did like this.
They said, you know, like in America, I mean, there's people going crazy about, you know, if they're man or whoever in talking and on public forums, that doesn't happen.
So that's what I'll put the political spin.
But from a standpoint of knowing that, oh my goodness.
The good Lord was certainly a sculptor.
When you go to the Yukon or Alaska, even states like Utah and Montana, and you see that country, and you wake up, and old John Denver had that song about a Rocky Mountain high.
He wasn't lying.
I don't think he hunted it as hard as I did.
I think he sat around and Maybe had a left-handed cigarette and just relaxed and did it different than I did.
But when you're out there chasing elk in Colorado, ooh, sun, and that frosty morning and just a black cup of coffee, man, let me tell you something.
And you finally find success and you can bring some of that elk meat home to your family and Tell your buddies about it.
In our case, we capture it on video.
No, there is no way you can't know there's not a God when you get in that country.
And I certainly appreciate Georgia.
I appreciate our swamps.
I appreciate them hills that you lived in and grew up chasing squirrels and stuff in.
But there are some places right here in America.
That are fascinating.
That just blew my mind.
They still do.
I'm still humbled when I get in that country.
A lot of times now, it's because I've been eating too many of these big old biscuits with my wife and cooking, so it's hard to get up and down in the mountains.
Yeah, I was just in Utah on a business trip.
I got a few buddies are going back out there because I think, what, September 1, elk season hits, and, you know, they're getting ready to go back out.
My dream trip you mentioned, Yukon, the Brooks Range.
I want to get up in the Brooks Range, and I just – and I told somebody, they said, well, why do you want to go up there?
I said, I want to go to a place in which it would be me, maybe my guide, or a couple of other things, and there's nobody for 500 miles near us.
Absolutely.
You know, It could be better than that.
I mean, it's...
That's my big dream.
Looking at it, whitetail season, just getting ready to hit.
I know down here in Georgia, we're going to have it all over the country.
You're, of course, all over the country doing it.
In fact, we're not, what, two weeks, a little over two weeks from bow season starting here in Georgia.
I know you do both.
What do you, interesting, just an interesting question, is it a bow or a gun?
Which do you prefer?
I prefer a bow.
I just love it.
I, I, I love bow hunting, man.
I don't know.
There's something primitive about it.
There is a pride factor to...
And it's just, you're so much closer, and it's so much of a challenge.
And so obviously, I mean, I still like to rifle hunt, but if I have a chance to take a bow versus a gun, I would say 90% of the time, I'm going to take that bow and arrow.
Exactly.
I got back into it.
I never shot a bow growing up.
I was gunned.
You know, we had guns.
We did that.
So about three or four years ago, I... Got my first bow and started shooting.
Never before.
And folks, if you're out there listening to the podcast today and you're hearing myself, look, I can't explain this.
I grew up shooting and I loved to shoot.
But for me, getting that bow for the first time that I could pull back, that I could get on it, and I'd just sit there and put arrows through the bow.
I mean, it was like...
And you described earlier, it's just like...
It was just relaxing.
I mean, and I'd come back home from Washington.
My wife, there's certain things people know about me.
When I get back home, my wife knows when I get my ball cap on and my jeans and my shorts, one or the other, that I'm home.
And I get that.
I go downstairs, get that bow, go out back, and it's just relaxing.
Bowhunting, I have to admit, I've not been successful where I want to be with bowhunting.
I'm learning.
I've scared a few to death, but we're working on it.
In fact, you just put out a tweet that was meant for me.
Aim low.
Yes!
It's amazing them suckers are dumb.
They're good at it.
But I just got a new bow.
I had a good buddy of mine, and I was humbled.
I didn't expect it.
He...
He works for one of the big companies.
And he sent me one of their brand new ones.
I just, you know, I'm just, oh boy, I had one that I could afford.
I got, this was like going, I went to our local bow shop up here and he said, darn Doug, you went from a Volkswagen to a Cadillac here.
I said, yep.
And shooting is great.
We're getting it dialed in now.
When, talking about hunting, and there's been, and I want to get, I want to talk a little bit more about hunting, then I want to talk about people who may not have ever Done it.
And we're going to talk about that in a minute.
Okay, curious question.
Everybody out there, I know you've been in stands.
I've been in stands my life.
Saddle hunting.
Have you ever saddle hunted?
You know what?
It's funny you say that because I haven't done any recently.
But back in the, right out of high school, like 91, 92, and 3, me and a friend of mine, he had a store in Manchester, Georgia called Big Buck Trading Post, Shane Collier.
We hunted out of saddles.
I mean, holy cow.
It was a trophy line was the name of the saddle company.
And now they're huge.
And that just come back around.
And we did it.
Because, you know, we could get anywhere.
And most of where we were hunting was even private ground.
A lot of times on clubs, the reason we did it was probably a different reason than some of the people do it now.
We was doing it because, man, old redneck buddies of ours would go hunt your stand when you weren't home.
So we just didn't have a stand.
We literally like, okay, we will sit in our stand and we'll leave with our stand.
So that's kind of what we were doing.
And also we were trying to video, you know, this was before we realized that, uh, We were going to have an opportunity, especially I was going to get to Lucky Break and start working at Realtree.
And it's funny, I can say that that saddle actually helped get me a job because some of the stuff that we were videoing back then was an old clunky VHS camera that I bought at Service Merchandise, which I had to tell a lot, Service Merchandise.
And...
So yeah, saddle hunting is kind of fun.
I mean, I don't do a lot of it here.
All my stands here on the farm, I try to have at least 20 foot high.
And I usually use the big ladder stands because most all men, women, and children can get in them.
They're safe.
And so that's what I do.
I make it easy.
But I still, from time to time, our production guys, they'll still use a saddle.
And there's times I'll do it by myself if I just want to kind of tweak and go to a different area.
But those things are pretty nifty.
I mean, you're limited in some areas if you don't do it a lot because you can bump the tree and you can make a little more noise than maybe if you had a lock-on or a ladder stand.
Or even say in a blind, but they definitely have their use and they're really cool.
I've been looking at, because my hunting, we've got land different places, but most of mine is if I go, I need to get in and get out.
I don't have as much setup.
And so I'm actually, interestingly enough, sitting here and if you look on my computer right now, you're looking at a trophy line.
You know, looking to possibly get into it.
So I think we're going to do it some this hunting season.
So we'll keep in touch to see how that's going to go.
Because it looks to me, again, for folks who are out there, you may have had the idea of, you know, the stands, like you talked about, your ladder, you climb up, sit on the platform, or you climb up, sit in it.
And I've done all that.
This one seems to me, gives you a little more flexibility, you know, to pick it up and go.
I love it.
You can go where you want to.
You know, and how many times are you hunting?
And, you know, it could be a home farm, you know, or a place that you grew up hunting.
And you just realize that, man, if I could just be in this time frame, if I could just be 50 yards south, well, you can get down, you can move, and you're right there.
You know, it takes a little bit of effort because I would always use screw-in steps to go up the tree and...
Independent, you know, you're a pretty tall guy, Doug.
So, yeah, you can get your five to seven steps, you know, screwing steps or a ladder, and you can be up quick.
And then a lot of times, if you want to, you can kind of go ahead and put steps in a lot of trees in a certain area based on different winds, and you can You can move around and jump around.
And so that's huge when you're bow hunting.
I mean, that can make the difference in success and not, you know.
I get it.
I'm looking forward to it.
So my wife, she keeps watching.
Basically, I think it's out of the corner of the eye.
She said, okay, have you pulled the trigger yet?
Have I hit the buy button yet?
Yeah.
So I'm waiting to explain that one to her.
I said, no, honey, I still got Christmas money.
You know, we're good.
That's right.
That's exactly right.
I love it.
All right, let's switch gears.
You and me, you know, again, and I take it from perspective getting back into it.
One of the things I've noticed getting back into hunting, there's so much out there and, you know, trying to figure it out.
I want to make this simple for a little bit.
You got to say if somebody who's never hunted, they want to hunt, they want to get out and they want to get in the woods.
What would you say to somebody who, you know, they got a little experience, maybe, or maybe they don't have any, and they want to say, you know, look, I want to be more self-fit.
I want to learn how to hunt my, you know, from my own food, or I want to get out and instead of watching TV and staying on the internet all the time, get out.
What would you give an advice to somebody who's sitting there looking at this podcast saying, you know, these two boys, they're crazy, but I want to be like them.
I want to go out there and hunt.
I think the first thing I say is learn to not be intimidated by the sport of hunting, whether it's the politics of it and or just the technicality of it.
I mean, the beautiful thing about hunting, anybody can do it.
It does take some knowledge.
But right now, especially, that's one thing, even though typically I'm not big on a lot of the technology we have, especially that it takes away from our kids.
But in this case, you know, if you go to YouTube, you can go to My Outdoor TV, which is Outdoor Channel or Sportsman's Channel.
Pursuit Channel has some great programs.
And you can actually have so much content right there to learn firsthand.
Not only the success of it, but whatever it is that floats your boat.
If you're just a diehard and you just want to get into it because maybe you want to chase a really big animal, you can do that.
If you're just somebody who says, you know what, I'm tired of paying this for ground round.
And I grew up and I remember my grandfather always had deer meat and I loved it.
And so I just want to go and Maybe learn how to get my own deer.
In our state of Georgia, we have some phenomenal WMAs, which obviously you were right there in our Georgia Congress as well as our government and help protect those WMAs.
So we got great access for everybody, not just in Georgia, across the country, whether you're looking for trophies and or just meat.
And I think the biggest thing is just learn to approach it With fun and excitement and realizing that the biggest takeaway from the beginning is just being removed from the hustle and bustle of, it could be the city life, it could be the stress that life has on you.
Because let's face it, you know, and a lot of times, especially us men, we have a lot on our shoulders.
I know that's Not necessarily something that politically is correct to say that men have a lot of weight on their shoulders, but we do.
We're running businesses.
You try to be the head of your home and you try to be the guy who goes to the door.
If evil is knocking, obviously, and any man that's old-fashioned, like that's one thing I always appreciate about you, you were very old-fashioned in your beliefs and your faith and just how you looked at the simplicity side of things.
I've always thought that if somebody's going to get cut or injured at my home, it needs to be me.
If somebody's going to get dirty or get rained on, it's going to be me.
It's not going to be my wife.
And so I feel the same way.
So I've always thought, if you look at the world, I've always thought there was a difference in men and women.
I've always thought women was more valuable.
So there is a difference.
And I've always thought, get them out of the boat first, if it's sinking out of the house first, if it's on fire.
So in that, for a man, there is something that's amazing.
However, if you look at the ladies out here now, the number one rise in hunting has been in female hunting.
And I think because we're sharing so much of responsibility.
So a lot of times people think hunting is just this alpha-based killer type of mentality.
And it's far from it.
Sure, there's some social media warriors that get on there that Rub themselves down in Vaseline and flexing up and trying to run all up and every down hills and push-ups and pull-ups.
And I'm not saying that it don't help you, especially if you're out in those mountains like we were talking about.
But overall, anybody can do it.
I mean, he's six now, but at four years old, my four-year-old took two deer.
And man, he swelled up with pride.
And now he was right there.
He was banking off all the experience and sitting with dad on the ladder stand.
One of them was in a redneck blind.
So it was just like being an extension of his home.
And, you know, here comes a big old fat slick doe comes walking out and he shoots it.
His mama's right there to celebrate it with him.
We come back and I showed him where the tenderloin was, showed him where the backstrap was and what we could do.
Later, he got out of school, you know, And I'd wait and we'd cut that meat up together and we did a lot.
Now a lot of that type stuff you can go to Bone Collector, our Bone Collector channel on YouTube and watch us on Outdoor Channel and we talk about that.
But I think the biggest thing is, is just start learning and digesting it and understand what it's really about.
And the true thing it does Get back to a very common type of practicality that I think we've lost.
We're used to, you know, society, the old timers, when you wanted something to drink, well, you went to the creek.
If you wanted to stay warm, well, you built a fire.
If you was hungry, you went to the garden, or you went and you're looking for meat.
We're all born to be carnivores, and because we've all got a canine tooth, it was built with teeth, have nothing against a vegetarian or vegan, but we designed, our body has been proven, our bodies are fine and designed to eat meat, just like a lion, just like a wolf, and so in that, now we don't necessarily go hunt for a deer, we go hunt for McDonald's or Chick-fil-A. Nothing wrong with that, but as we're seeing I think the independence of hunting is something that people will look into it.
If you look at politics, you look at everything, and you've seen it firsthand, Doug, and it's not necessarily just some conspiracy theory.
An independent man are the country boys and girls, the Second Amendment type of people, the ones that did not freak out during COVID, that you had no control over, Are the most feared people and the reason it's feared is because they cannot be the lapdog because we're not going to work.
Hunting truly, truly helps.
And bringing an independence to you.
So that was a long answer, maybe a little philosophical.
Just get started.
Just get started and find somebody around you that can help get you in the right direction.
And especially if you're a man, probably one of the biggest problems we have as men too is our pride.
Don't be afraid to ask and just bring yourself down to an elementary level.
And I'm telling you, people will help you out.
They will, and you'll be amazed.
And I think the hunting culture, and I think that's the other thing is, too, is, you know, even if you've been away from it, like I've been away from it, they're still thinking, okay, what do I do now?
And you call and you say, hey, what do you think about this?
And like I said, today, you know, years ago, you know, when we were at...
You know, we didn't have a YouTube to go look at stuff.
And I was just talking to my son.
We were talking about fixing stuff.
And I said, today, I said, it's amazing what you, you know, I can fix now with it.
You know, I can go, okay, how do you do this?
I say, how do you put on that?
And, you know, how do I set up a stand?
I've been watching so many, you know, stand videos.
I'm about, I'm going to be a salesman for one of these stupid places.
At this point.
And also, I think one of the things I would give, I'd love to hear your part, is get what you need.
You don't have to have everything.
And, you know, put it together.
And also, I'll make a recommendation, especially for clothes and other stuff.
Most of us have stuff we can use underneath.
And you can pick up stuff at Goodwill.
You can pick up stuff at, you know...
If you're going to get into it more, yeah, you have something to keep you warm, have something to keep you dry, those kind of things.
I think the one thing I want to get across, you don't have to be a wealthy person to hunt.
You'll get you some good equipment, the best you can afford, and that's what you can do.
There's no doubt, and I think there is some misconceptions.
Even in the hunting industry, if you look on a lot of the social media, a lot of people say, Hunting's ain't got too expensive and hunting's this and that.
Well, they're not telling a story that's not true.
It can be expensive, but it's at the level that you want to participate.
Most of those people are talking about when they're looking at well-managed properties and these big mature whitetails, you know, maybe big huge elk, but overall hunting can be very economical and And like I said, it's these resources and they're renewable.
If we take care of them, they'll take care of us.
But there's some amazing public ground out there that you can find great success.
There's dove fields that's planted by the state of Georgia.
You can go in and put your name in and you can go sit on those fields and have a chance to shoot your shotgun and maybe have an opportunity to get your limb in a dove.
There's squirrel hunting places all over the country in these same public grounds and different animals.
You can pretty much still get access.
Now, it's changed, Doug, since me and you being kids first deer and turkey.
You're right.
That can be expensive to be part of a hunting club to go hunt turkey and deer because that there's a value to those animals and people will pay for that value.
But overall, you're right.
You can find equipment.
You don't have to go out and spend an arm and leg on equipment.
There's some great equipment out there.
A lot of times, people will loan you.
Man, I've got two bows out right now, the buddies of mine that never hunted.
Like, hey, it just happened their draw length was the same.
Like, take this bow and here's some arrows and get after it.
Just last year, one of my wife's friends wanted to go squirrel hunting, and I had literally a little old Ruger 10-22, and I just gave it to her.
You know, $400 gun.
It had a little rust on it and some chunks out of the stock where I didn't haul it around.
You know what I mean?
But I'm thinking this was a single lady.
She's probably 38 years of age and wanted to go squirrel hunting.
And I thought that was odd.
That was the least I could do was give her a.22 in a sleeve of ammo, you know?
Oh, yeah.
So you'll find that the hunting community, anybody, if you're in the hunting community, then obviously I'm preaching to the choir like I saw Southern Baptists do.
Now, if you're not in the hunting community and you're hearing this message, I promise you, if you step over into it, you're going to find a whole other family of people that I promise you, you'll find that you'll love and they will love you as much as anybody because...
They like success.
And I think a lot of the hunters and fishermen are some of the finest people that we have in America because they are just very independent and they understand this balance that sometimes we forget, you know, so good people.
And that is it.
All right, looking ahead a little bit, we've got fall coming up.
Of course, we've got, you know, for all of us, especially in Georgia, you know, after 40-something years, thank God, the University of Georgia, we're national champions, where we should be.
We've got football coming up.
But in Georgia and across the country, look on your schedules.
September 10th is bow season opening, deer in Georgia, bear as well, some other.
Squirrel is actually already open and a lot of other things, gators coming up.
But where are you going to be?
What's your fall?
Because I mean, I know you're probably already got plans and books.
Do we got deer?
We got elk?
We got bear?
What we got coming up?
My first September, you know, being that I am a turkey hunter and I love turkey, the next thing that's similar that could be elevated that's even better is elk hunting.
So I'll be in Utah, maybe out in some of that country you just left.
So I'll be out in Utah and then I'm going to Oregon.
And then we also, our crew will be down in Arizona at the Navajo Indian Reservation hunting elk there.
So pretty much September at Bone Collector.
We're pretty much shooting elk footage, and that is just unbelievable.
I mean, it's very physical, it's fun, the mountain air, and these animals are, for lack of better words, very sexually frustrated.
These big bulls, that's their month that they breed, and they are bugling.
And the cows are obviously, some are coming in heat and through that cycle, and so you can manipulate them with calls.
Obviously, they've got a good sense of smell, so you have to watch the wind.
And obviously, an elk can just go, they can just strike off and go 7, 8, 10 miles like nobody's business.
So, you know, you've got to be in shape a little bit.
And to get within range of a 700-pound elk, And find success.
It's some of the best eating, and it's probably one of the coolest challenges out there.
So that's what we're going to start with.
And then as we flow into October, we're going to start doing a lot more whitetail hunting.
And the first week in November is always chasing big whitetails, typically in Kansas and Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, places like that, you know, in that heartland where there's just big, huge whitetails.
That is it.
On just a side note, have you ever shot a hunted bear here in Georgia?
You know what?
I have not.
I've been actually, you know, All up toward Gainesville, where you're from, I know.
And then Helen and Dahlonega, that whole area, I did a lot of vacationing.
So I've seen bear.
I've been hiking and seen them.
Matter of fact, we used to compete every year at Unicoid State Park.
That's where we used to have the state championship turkey calling contest.
And I've seen a lot of bear, but I've never hunted them.
And we got some big bear in Georgia.
600 pounds three years ago, Rayburn County.
No way, dude.
600 pounds.
I mean, big black bears.
I mean, just massive.
I'm trying to get a place.
I got a couple of folks up there that I'm talking to.
That's one of my, what I want to do in between deer this year is do some bear as well up there because it's just huge.
And they're coming down It's sort of a mix between North Carolina and a lot of states and across the country you're seeing this.
It is know your area.
We talk about this area about people getting in hunting.
Know what your area is about.
And for some, you may not be in an area, but they're close by.
And the public rain, you own the public land.
Okay?
That's your ownership.
So take advantage of that.
But bear as you go.
You going to be doing Roosevelt elk up in Oregon?
You know, I've never done that.
I'm just doing Rocky Mountain where I'm at.
I'm out I've toured, I think it's LaGrange or LaGrange or something like that.
It's a friend of mine who just bought, he just bought a ranch out there last year.
And he just picked up some more.
And that's some pretty cool country.
I've never hunted Oregon a lot.
I've hunted turkey out there years ago.
And then last year we went up and hunted a little bit.
And so I'm looking forward to going back.
That's kind of a, everybody knows there are elk in Oregon, but a lot of people don't go there.
And Doug, you hit on something.
I think a lot of people too, and maybe you're a Georgia hunter that's listening to this.
A lot of people don't realize some of the best elk hunting in the world, literally, especially in America here, is on some public ground.
You have to put in for those tags, but literally, it's amazing.
All of my biggest elk with archery have all come on public ground in Arizona and New Mexico and states like that, that just a lot of people don't realize.
You drive out and go on an expensive camping trip to Colorado, which You know, you can yield good results.
But some of these trophy areas and public ground out west are just phenomenal.
And so, yeah, definitely check that out because you're right.
You know, I didn't know that either.
And of course, especially through your line of work, especially in politics, I mean, you see all kind of things that our money goes toward, tax money goes toward that's there.
But a lot of times it's not advertising.
We don't realize it.
A lot of us outdoorsmen don't even know that we have this available A lot of people don't realize you can go to Alaska, and you just pay an out-of-state hunting license, and you can take off and chase black bear, you know?
So, you got to get there.
It's a long way, but, you know.
Well, and I need to also bring up something, too, because there's a lot of folks out there who say, oh, you're going and taking it.
Look, no, it's hunters who pay for this.
We are the ones who, through our purse of ammo, through our purse of both, the Pittman Fund, I mean, we're paying You know, the more people that come in, the more land is preserved, the more, you know, duck land, the more, I mean, it's just, that's something else that I think is a bad discussion.
I mean, they think that, you know, hunters are only taking.
No, these lands, these public lands that people just go hike on, they just go to their camping trips.
We're paying, you know, through that, through what we do as hunters.
And I think that is something I want to make sure that people understand as we go.
Mike, this has been a blast.
I want to do this.
Both of us, I want to get out to elk.
I've never hunted elk.
That's one of our next big steps is to go out and hunt elk.
Let's have a hunting season this year.
We'll keep in touch.
You and I will keep texting pictures back and forth.
I'll text mine where he says, hey, it went right over his head right there.
You'll text ones where you have the big six by six and I'll say, well, thank you.
That's great.
But then let's get together, because what I want to do is after the hunting season, let's get back together, first of the year, do sort of a wrap-up after hunting season, see the things, talk about things.
I want to do this in a series, if we could, because I want people to get excited about it.
I want us to go to Rep.
Doug Collins, go to outdoor, you know, go to...
Bone Collector.
Follow us on social media.
See these stories through the fall.
We'll get back together.
Talk about it.
Hopefully you've got a little engaged.
And then we're going to talk about your passion.
Because when we get into February, January, February, we're getting close to turkey season.
And especially here in Georgia.
So we'll do the turkey time.
But Michael, thanks for so much.
Folks, if you want to follow more of Michael Waddell, Bone Collector, all you got to do is look it up.
Google it up.
You'll find it.
They got great videos.
They got everything there that you would need to know.
You won't find a better guy in the world that I just admire.
But, you know, your values, what you stand for and getting out there.
And thank you for being a part and sharing some time with us today.
Well, thank you.
And Doug, I want to tell you this too.
Thank you for the fight that you put forward because it takes a lot to do what you've done.
And so a lot of times you guys don't hear it enough.
You hear about a lot of the crazy and the corruptness sometimes that happens in our government and it's there.
But I want to say thank you for representing people like me, especially from the state of Georgia, but all across the country.
A lot of times it's easy to see that people don't Might not always support.
As a matter of fact, the first thing before he was president, President Trump said to me, I saw him in Las Vegas randomly, and I was with his son, Donald Jr. He said, You're a hunter.
You guys don't vote.
And I'm like, and I remember the first thing out of his mouth, I'm like mad at the guy.
And then I started looking and it caused us to go look and start looking at the amount of hunters that don't vote.
And most of us are quick to talk about on the Cool Around Camp.
And so, long story short, I know that you've done a lot to preserve our conservative views and just basically...
I don't know to protect America, so I just want to say thank you for that and appreciate you representing me, because for me, that's what a representative is.
When it says representative of college, that's what it is.
You represent me.
Obviously, I try to represent people as best of my ability when it comes to hunting, and you've done it for our state and our country, and so I just want to say thank you for that, and I know a lot of listeners feel the same way, so heck yeah, buddy, and I promise you, If you're ever down close to Booger Bottom, if you go south to where you at, brother, you always got a place to hunt.
Come on.
I'm going to say we're going to pick on you if you shoot over one of them, but that's all right.
We'll get you a horse.
Well, we'll just laugh.
My daughter actually was at Warm Springs, and most people know Jordan has spina bifida.
She spent a lot of time at Warm Springs.
We know the area well.
We'll get down there.
Who knows?
We may catch up this fall and we'll have a time together.
Folks, you've been listening to Doug Collins' podcast.
The Bone Collector is with us today.
Michael Waddell.
I am so pleased to have him on.
You're going to keep up with us.
Now, here's how you're going to do it.
You're going to go to the DougCollinsPodcast.com.
You're going to download the podcast.
You're going to subscribe so you can stay with us.
You're going to go and go to RepDougCollins.
We've got our Instagram accounts.
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Michael, what's your Instagram?
How do they follow you on social media?
It's at bonecollector official on Instagram.
That's the same on Facebook, at boogerbottom on Twitter.
And we've even got a TikTok.
I guess I'm giving China all my data too, but we're dancing around like a little donation kid on it.
I love it.
All right, folks.
Another great episode here on the Doug Collins Podcast.
We appreciate you.
Look forward to talking to you again soon.
Thanks.
Hey everybody, MyPillow, I just wanted to let you know MyPillow is having the biggest sheet sale of the year.
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Also use the code word Collins to get this discount.
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