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July 31, 2023 - Doug Collins Podcast
59:03
It's Turkey Season, FIRE!
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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.
In 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, welcome back to the podcast today.
Great episode coming up just after the break.
You're going to get to hear from the great Michael Waddell, the bone collector himself.
It's back!
Yes, it's hunting season just around the corner.
I mean, I've said it before in this country, especially down south, but all across the country, there's two dates that most males love to hear, especially.
It is either the sound of football kicking off, or it is the sound of hunting season getting ready, and both of those are something we pride here on the Doug Collins Podcast.
And Michael is back.
Michael's just a great down-to-earth guy that you have heard before here on the podcast.
You can see him on Bone Collector TV. You can see him go to Bone Collector on the internet.
You see the merchandise.
You see the stuff.
You see the videos, the how-toes.
Well, he's here today.
We're going to talk about a lot of things from turkeys to trapping to deer to elk and then getting those first hunts in and what you should be doing right now if you're getting ready to go hunting this fall.
What should be your main We talk about a lot.
We laugh.
We have a good time today, but you just don't want to miss it.
Michael Waddell with us.
Bone Collector is back in the house right after the break here on the Doug Collins Podcast.
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Well, it's good to get you back on.
It's good to have you on.
We've been planning this for a little while.
We've got hunting season coming.
Well, first off, though, one of your big things, and folks know about you from bone collection or anything else, is turkey season.
And we didn't get a chance to talk during turkey season this past year.
Talk about turkey season.
How did it go this past spring turkey season anyway down here in Georgia and others?
How did it go for you?
Man, it went really good.
You know, it's been a little bit of debate in the south, really not just south.
It seemed like all around the country about turkeys and the numbers and stuff.
Right.
Here in Georgia, man, at least on my farm, I'm right here out of Harris County, Georgia, kind of central.
So, man, we actually had a pretty darn good season.
Oddly enough, with that said, I didn't even pull the trigger on a turkey in Georgia myself.
I did go, obviously, with my kids and a lot of different guests and friends, and so it was kind of cool, but it seems like that's what's kind of turned into Georgia.
Because obviously I get to travel a lot, but a lot of my family and some of my friends around here, you know, obviously they're more kind of stuck in the state and less time for vacation.
So usually when I come back, I'd already done, shot me a couple turkeys like in Florida and in some other places, Tennessee.
So hunting around the house is more about the youngins and stuff like that.
But man, turkeys working really good.
I saw a lot of A lot of jakes in the woods this year.
I got on a lot of turkeys in Georgia.
And so far, I'm starting to see a good many poults around, you know, that seem like a decent hatch.
So, I don't know, man.
I love turkey hunting everywhere, but there's something about the south, especially here in Georgia.
Man, I know it's a little more sacred ground to me.
It's something I've been wanting to get into more and more.
I just have never had, because of schedule, because of life, just Turkish season just had not been something that we got into, especially growing up.
But I have to tell you a funny story.
About six, seven years ago, we're down, my grandparents have a place, or this is where I'm from, is down in Greene County, Georgia, over near Lake Oconee.
But I always felt willing to pull in.
Of Lake Oconee up in the Oconee River.
And they had a dairy farm.
And about four or five years ago, Lisa and I were down at the...
We got a little trailer down there we go getaway to.
And a buddy of mine had given me a scratch collar.
And I'm sitting there.
And so we're working one morning.
And I said, it was early.
And I said, well, let me just try this.
I said before, I had to do some work.
And I got scratched.
And all of a sudden, one answered.
And Lisa was standing right next to me.
And she turned my eyes.
She said, I always wondered what it was like to see you when you were little at Christmas.
He said, I just saw it.
It was pretty cool.
It's so addicting.
I don't know.
You know, I like to...
Me and you talked about this before, just the tranquility of hunting, especially bow hunting and sitting up there and relaxing.
It's usually just you and the tree.
You got your thoughts.
You can solve so many problems, do so many chores.
Very rarely are we away from our desk or our work or whatever it is, or even the family chores.
Going a million different directions.
And so deer hunting for me is more of a, I don't know, just relaxing, meditating type of vibe.
Where turkey hunting is almost like, the best way I'd describe it, it's kind of like Navy Seal.
It's like, you know, picture these turkeys gobbling, you know, and obviously they're certainly not the enemy, so it's not a war.
But from the standpoint of tactically how you go about it, like, you know, you're here and that's turkey.
Well, now all of a sudden you're just trying to get them in range, so it's a different kind of vibe of hunting.
It's not just sit there and look out through the wilderness and then that kind of, you know, where you catch your breath when you see a deer kind of lurk out behind a white oak tree or a pine tree.
It's almost like you know they're there, you're going after them.
And so, I don't know, I like that.
It's a very, you use offense, not necessarily just a strategic look of sitting and waiting, so I like that.
Well, and that's pretty cool to look at.
But let's go back to it, because one of the things I like to do is, you know, not only have the stories, and we're going to get into plenty of stories today, but this is an issue, you know, that is out there in conservation.
And for all the folks who listen to this podcast know that hunters are the greatest conservationists in this country.
I don't care, you know, whatever club you want to go join and send your money to in protest.
It is the hunters that actually keep your trails and keep your land and everything else going.
But there's also the concern, and you brought it up, and we've I hadn't mentioned it before, but this issue of Turkey population, and especially in Georgia, and I think we've had it some other places as well, and I'm glad to hear your farm is out there doing well.
I've had some buddies more, say, to the east of you, say about 100 miles or so to the east of you, that, I mean, they're seeing some decrease.
I got some buddies over in Dublin, and then down toward, you know, Valdosta, up toward Tifton, that way, and they're not seeing the populations.
I know, and it's sort of funny, because before we signed on, I got, you know, my Of course, the absolute, almost sacred scripture in Georgia.
By the way, are you going to the big show?
Are you going to be able to go up to the blast this year?
I'm not going to be there this year, man.
It's such a fun event, though.
It's such a fun, laid-back deal, man.
I do love August and even July.
It's always a fun little weekend.
You can get away and go to these hunting shows and find deals.
You know, I remember going to the show, you remember, Doug, we'd always buy a bunch of deer pee and tree pants.
So it's still out.
Hey, look, we got your latest bites here, dude.
Exactly.
I always love to go see.
Nowadays, especially at the show, they've got, of course, all the hunting stuff.
You've got the big trailers.
You know, I go in there, wow, this is pretty cool.
I like to have this.
But, you know, also, you always have about five or six of what I call the novelty stands.
And the t-shirt sayings on some of these novelty stands, it's like...
Okay, brother.
I don't know if I'd have said that in public, but okay.
I know it.
Much less wear it.
Yeah, I definitely wear that on my shirt.
My wife killed me.
You ain't lying.
It's like the shirts you'd see in Panama City Beach.
You remember that some, you'd like, man, I don't know.
Where would you wear that shirt at?
Yeah.
Like, that's a good waste of $10 right there, baby.
We got it.
But anyway, back to it.
There's been a lot of stories written.
Where do we see that right now in turkey management, population management?
Because I know there's been, you know, National Turkey Federation and others, we've been talking about this.
Where do you see it right now in overall?
Is there things that we can be doing?
I know Georgia's looked at cutting back a little bit on Kiel.
Where is that?
It's not just here.
We see it in other populations as well.
Yeah.
Honestly, I see it, you know, not to even turn it into politics, but obviously, you know, you've worked at a high level in representing, you know, we the people.
And I think inevitably, The more we dig back into what you said earlier, these passionate hunters who are not really just out there trying to make sure they get their Georgia limit, whether that's two turkeys or three turkeys like it was several years ago.
The Georgia Game and Fish, in my personal opinion, has done an amazing job of doing the best they can do to try to work between what the people want But also what they think biologically and strategically they are seeing.
And what I'm seeing is obviously some negative results and what people are seeing and maybe a decline in turkeys.
But then I'm also seeing some very positive results.
So I think the answer is definitely listening back to these hunters that are finding new technique and tactics.
You know, obviously there's not one magic bullet that That saves or helps one thing or does away with a decrease or necessarily adds to just an increasingly increase in turkeys.
But I think there's a lot of things.
I mean, it starts with habitat.
You know, you got predation.
And then in the situation that you can't control, those are things you can control, habitat and doing some trapping.
You can't control Mother Nature when these poults are being hatched.
I found that there's a lot of respiratory issues when these turkeys get wet at night.
Obviously, you realize just how fragile a pult is.
Everything's out there to eat them.
It's a free little snack to a fox, to a coyote, to a hawk, to a bald eagle.
So you've got all these things that play into it.
And then you get an evening thunderstorm.
That, you know, temperature drops 10 degrees, the turkeys get wet, and they get sick, get pneumonia, bronchitis, whatever it is, and they die.
So I would say on average, we have found good statistics that will say that if a hen turkey is sitting on 12, 13 eggs by rule, you know, 10 to 13, then let's just say they don't get nest invaded by, say, a coon or a possum.
Chicken snake, rat snake, then they hatch let's say nine of those turkeys if they got a good fertile breeding and fertile egg.
Well then usually if that turkey will raise one to two poults, you've done good.
So obviously you realize there's a lot of factors that go into it.
So if you got the best habitat in the best situation, I think the best thing we can hunters do is give good solid reports.
The DNR now has got a good solid way that you can go in Show your harvest report.
It's the law.
For many years, you know, it was just an honor system on turkeys of how many did you kill.
But I think we get better data on how many were killed and what people are hearing and seeing.
And then working back with these private landowners, you know, like right here in Harris County, my wife and all are just over 500 acres.
And I love the game in fish.
I love where we get help.
I love where we get, you know, better understanding, say, from National Wildlife Turkey Federation.
Now, Turkeys for Tomorrow is another organization that's doing some really good things.
But they're still not going to love my turkeys more than me because I've invested.
Well, me and the bank.
The bank invested.
You know how it is, Senator.
The bank lets you borrow it from month to month, as Tim McGraw would say.
That's exactly right.
Every time I write that check, I'm like, honey, we can live here for another month at least.
But I know that individual landowners, there's a great amount of knowledge that can be learned from what they're seeing, what they're trying.
Typically, it's us that will experiment and do some different things.
Also, I know that it's usually that private landowner and the people who love turkey hunting that use a little self-governance, if that's the case, and say, you know what, I know I can kill two turkeys, but I'm not even going to shoot one this year.
I'm going to let my wife and...
Maybe my son or daughter, or maybe it's a kid down the road, let them shoot a turkey, and I'm only going to allocate, say, this many turkeys that I'm going to shoot, regardless of what the state allows.
I think that's where the best result is going to come in, and where we can share, we can communicate, and see what's happening.
And if we see an area that don't have a lot, then we don't necessarily have to shoot one.
But then the problem is, well, what is the reason?
Is it Overhunting, is it bad spring to where they didn't have any hatches?
Do we have any type of disease that's out there in the flocks?
You know, whether it's blackhead, what is causing it?
So I think that's where we could really find out more from the higher level biology of What are the diseases?
What are the things that's killing these turkeys?
I think anybody understands that, absolutely, if a raccoon is scrounging around and he finds a nest full of eggs, he's going to fight that hen tooth and nail and he's going to try to eat them eggs.
It's a free supper, it's a free breakfast, whatever it is.
Vice versa, I don't think every hawk flies around looking for a little poult, but the one that finally does swoop down and get a poult is like, dude, I'm going to do that again.
I don't think every fox is running around trying to eat a turkey, but obviously there's a lot of things that can go into that.
We can help reduce that.
We can't go out and obviously shoot at hawks and stuff like that.
We can document if we see it happening, and that way we'll have a better understanding.
I don't know.
I don't think there's one magic bullet and one magic thing we can do, but I do know the positivity is I have a lot of friends that have seen a little bit of decline, and man, they have buckled down the hatches, created even more habitat, planted more.
In some cases, I had a friend that said he started feeding grain sorghum.
He said it's a hard shell on that grain sorghum.
His opinion, I don't think he had a biologist.
Some biologists might hear this and say, no, that's terrible.
But he started taking spin feeders and feeding the turkeys.
Not to bait the turkey and kill it.
He knows that's illegal.
He's trying to give these turkeys a better opportunity to have plenty of opportunity to eat and to be around an everyday opportunity.
I've got friends that are turning quarter to half of their property into To larger grass, natural grasses, because they've got some research that's saying some of these natural grasses, not necessarily food park grasses, but natural native grasses, do the best in producing bugs and habitat for these turkeys to nest in.
So there's a lot of different things, but I think if everybody's talking, the ones that are seeing negative results and the ones that are seeing positive results, I think we can find better ways, especially regionally, to improve.
That's just my opinion.
Yeah, no, I think you're dead on there, and I think it's what we're seeing.
And look, you see it sometimes with deer populations as well.
I mean, you get, you know, they go through cycles.
I'm up here in North Georgia, and I try to hunt.
I got, I do, quote, suburban hunting up here because I'm in the area, and we're just seeing, this year for me, Last few years we've had, and I think I told the story last time we were together, my buddy next door took, I'd been, had him on camera, had this big eight-pointer, tall eight-pointer.
I mean, on camera, everything good, ready to go.
First week, you know, I'm sitting in my, I had my blind down in the backyard of where we're at, up here in Northern Lakeland area.
And I'll be darned if two of the babier bucks that I had just been watching start running into my yard.
And I said, well, that's weird.
They don't normally run like this.
They came up this afternoon, about 6 o'clock in the afternoon, 7 o'clock in the afternoon.
And all of a sudden, I hear on my next door, he gets in the mule and goes around.
I said, no, he better not.
Next thing I know, he done put my 8-point in the back end of his truck.
No way!
Yes, got him coming across his land.
We live on a fairly small peninsula, so we just do bow, and it's up here.
And we've got houses around, and the deer are everywhere.
I mean, they're just there.
But this year, I mean, for the last few years, I've been seeing tons of bigger bucks.
I mean, we've had them because it's the way we're at up here at Laurel Party.
They can travel.
This year, though, just to show you the difference, Very few bucks.
I've got one on camera and a small one at that.
I mean, a four-pointer on fur.
But I'm seeing more deer.
I did this year, which is really good, because I was worried for a while.
I hadn't seen spots until just about three weeks ago.
And I had a couple of them.
So it's really interesting.
And really, unfortunately, what I saw in this past year, and I was traveling, unfortunately, a lot last year.
It hurt my shoulder, actually.
But I'm seeing more deer was killed in the road.
And it's like, I think, you know, it's interesting to see that mix.
So again, it's all about population.
And I go down to Dublin, I got, you know, some land down there that I can get to hunt on with some friends of ours.
But it's just that, you know, where are we seeing it?
And I think you just, it's maintaining the grasses.
And I think it's an ecosystem issue.
You know, if you've got a good, you've got a good plot for turkey, it's going to translate into good plot for deer and other things as well.
I mean, because it's just that ecosystem works.
But you mentioned predators.
Do you do much with, you mentioned trapping earlier, do you do much with trapping on like your fox, your coons, your coyotes, those kind of things?
I do.
One is I get a lot of enjoyment out of it, especially like the January, February when it gets cold.
And I have seen some really cool results And my turkey population, and rabbits even.
Like, you know, obviously when I first bought my farm here in 2015, I never saw a rabbit.
And it was thicker in areas.
We had to kind of mulch out some areas.
We burn a lot.
So the habitat's better, but it was kind of a choked out rabbit thicket.
But anytime you get that situation, it usually becomes also a thicket for coyotes.
And so I saw no rabbits.
Now, since I started trapping a lot, I've noticed a major difference.
And obviously, it's not like you're trying to eliminate.
In some cases, I do try my best to trap as hard as I can.
Like the first year I trapped here, I caught 20 coyotes on about 200 acres.
And that just shows there's a lot of coyotes in these areas.
And I still saw coyote tracks after I pulled my traps.
I caught that first year, I think I caught 15 or 20 coons.
I caught about eight or nine possums.
I caught eight foxes.
Which is kind of interesting because, you know, old country boy type knowledge is, you know, most trappers and people that I always heard say, if you got a lot of coyotes, you usually don't have a lot of foxes because the foxes will also, I mean, the coyotes will also eat the foxes.
But anyway, I have and I enjoy it.
And of course, it's an art to it.
It's hard to get started.
And it's now you got a lot more opportunity on YouTube to go find some knowledge.
But back in the day, man, these old trappers, you know, it was a Market for those furs.
Man, they wouldn't tell you their secrets.
And so now there's a lot more of stuff on YouTube you can find.
And I had a couple old trappers right here around Georgia.
And they kind of took me under the wing and showed me a lot of technique.
And, man, I enjoyed it.
And, man, my young, especially, he's now seven, but when I started, he was a little bitty sucker.
Man, he loved to go check the traps.
That was like a fun thing.
We'd get up, especially on a cold morning, and ride around.
Oh, man, he thought he was Tom Sawyer, Hook Finn.
We'd go check him traps.
And I did see some good results.
And so, yeah, trapping is good.
Matter of fact, that was one thing I was going to add to the conversation.
I think through all the money that a lot of these nonprofit organizations get, I always thought it was really cool to somehow incentivize or put a deal together for all the members that they would get maybe discounts on trapping gear maybe there's a lot more tutorial on trapping you know we got all this on on habitat you know you can get all these opportunities to learn about what to make the habitat better but you know i don't know maybe you join turkeys tomorrow you get a little handcuffed dog proof trap that you can put out for the coons because because
obviously i think if you can Keep the predator population in control.
Well, certainly.
Is it going to fix everything?
No, but it certainly gives an opportunity for those turkeys to at least go more against Mother Nature in the sense of weather and rain and drought versus you never even get there if a coon or a possum eats all the eggs.
And so I've seen that.
And I know UGA has done a lot of studies on that.
And it blew my mind when I got the results or saw the results on how many nests never make it to incubation.
These hens never get a chance to even hatch a single pole because the eggs are eaten.
So anyway, trapping, I love it.
So that was my long answer to that.
You're dead on there.
Well, you know, and like, you know, we mentioned Georgia Outdoor News and others earlier, you know, they've now started over the past few years doing the predator hunt, the coyote hunt, you know, and giving some incentive to get out there and do it.
But I mean, and again, for those out there who may be listening and say, oh, what do you mean you're killing coyotes, you're killing foxes, you're killing Iraqis?
You've got to understand, there's a balance in population.
And for the longest time, there's, you know, some of the natural predators to these other animals are not there.
And if we are not hunting as much, we're not out there doing this, then it gets out of balance.
And I think that's, you know, something we've seen across the country.
And I know you do a lot of Western hunts and others, and I've listened to a lot of folks out there, you know, this reintroduction of wolves, this reintroduction of others, and, you know, and culling back on bear kills up in British Columbia, you know, basically no kill.
It's gonna have a detrimental effect on elk, it's gonna have a detrimental effect on mule deer, it's gonna have a detrimental effect on these, because you're putting a predator with no limits, basically like the other proverbial fox in the hen house.
Well, and even to re-mention, you know, obviously the position you was in, you know, as our senator in Georgia, and I always was a fan, you did an absolutely amazing job.
It gets back to this.
If we don't take the knowledge, especially in voting, you know, for who's running for office, they have a common sense understanding of this.
It's our wildlife resources at federal and state can get out of whack, just like in my personal opinion, our government has gotten out of whack, you know, very recent with this current administration.
It becomes a lot more...
Should I say communist, socialist, maybe in a gentle way, because what happens is you have a certain amount of ignorance and lack of common sense knowledge that they're pushing and fighting for, and it becomes way more bureaucratic.
And way more listening to a kind of a clown show type of agenda versus maybe a common sense, call him a country boy, call him a redneck, call him a hillbilly, who really understands wildlife.
And so I don't think any hunter or country boy, if that's what we want to use as a term, is against a wolf.
But you cannot protect a wolf And then say, well, and then we're not going to figure out a way to maintain and control the population and we're not even going to hunt the bear.
We're not going to hunt the bear.
We're going to shut down bear season.
We're going to protect the grizzlies.
We're going to protect the...
The world is going to protect all these things.
Well, guess what is not protected?
You know, the same people that PETA want to protect, the innocent deer.
So everything has to have a certain balance.
And it's always been baffling to me how when we look back, some of the things that's happened, you know, you got Bill Gates out there.
Well, it's obvious he would love to exterminate some humans, but the same dude or same people will sit there and freak out.
That if we go into a forest where there's, you know, an abundance of elk at one time and all of a sudden you reintroduce not the typical native wolf, but some huge monstrous wolf that decimate the elk population and then you protect the mountain lions, you protect the You know, the grizzly bear, and then people are starting to get killed out there.
Who knows?
Maybe that is the end result.
It's that loony now.
But I think a common sense approach.
So I think that we have to stand up and you have to vocalize the knowledge that we have.
You don't have to be a biologist or went to, you know, four years at ABAC to understand some basic wildlife principles.
Our pawpaws and stuff, you know, they understood that.
And we look at all these populations.
So there has to be some basic Mandatory predator control, because everywhere you see where the predators are limited, you'll see a lot of different things thrive.
You know, talking about turkeys, you know, I was talking to somebody at the state the other day, and they were talking about this and that, and this particular person's like, hey, I just don't think predators have as much to do with it.
And I said, well, how come in New Zealand, turkeys and rabbits are the problem?
Because they're everywhere, but there's zero predation.
Hawaii is another example.
If you want to get a good Rio Grande turkey, go to Hawaii.
There's turkeys everywhere.
It's got great habitat.
You got that tropical weather that seems to really do good for the bugs.
And these turkeys obviously do good in that climate.
But there's no nest predation and there's no predators to eat these turkeys.
So they're everywhere.
There's got to be a correlation.
Now, I'm not a biologist.
I'm not a scientist.
I'm not somebody who's out there like Jacques Cousteau studying at that level.
But I can tell you where there's no predation, there's typically a lot of rabbits, a lot of turkeys, almost to the point where there can be a problem.
People don't even want to hunt them because there's not a challenge.
You can go knock them off the fence post.
I mean, you can literally hit them with a bat off the fence post in New Zealand.
And there's really no limits.
I think it's like, you'd have to look it up.
Somebody can look it up.
But it's like five or ten a day is a limit.
And they're real grand turkeys.
But anyway, with that said, I think if we just will listen, if we'll communicate, the people that invest, everybody's dream, no matter how we raise, if you raised at a place to where...
You know, you kind of understand the country.
I think we all have been raised to want to farm or have our own dirt, you know, whether it's two acres, three acres, or 2,000 acres.
And if you have that much love for wanting it, you're not going to get it for free.
You got to work hard and you got to pay for it.
Well, you certainly want to protect it, not just your family that lives on it, but you want to protect everything from the forest to the grasses.
To a degree, you want to make sure you don't eliminate every coyote because obviously you can get it to where there is so many deer.
You have to go in and really shoot a lot of deer.
So there is some times to where a little bit of control that the predators can help you.
But it's all a balance and we dig into it and we get this increasingly amount of Intelligence that we can take to ground zero and start helping.
And we can help educate, in some cases, even some of these biologists.
But if we just sit back, what happened is, Senators, just like everything else, and you've experienced it firsthand, if we don't have the right people that represent us all across the board, that's up there speaking up, somebody like you that can speak up and say, hey, By the way, I know the law, but I also am a hunter.
I like to hunt turkeys.
I have a deer population that I really want to maintain, and I know millions of hunters, hundreds of thousands here in my state, and you can echo that.
And what's happening is, I think it's like everything else.
A lot of it is just getting lost, and we assume We assume it's being handled, but I think there's, especially at a federal level, I don't know that sometimes the agency is looking out for the best interest of the wildlife and certainly not the hunter.
But typically, as you said earlier in the podcast, a true dedicated hunter who loves to hunt also, ironically, as people get confused, love the wildlife.
And so they do the best job of protecting the wildlife through their love of conservation and hunting and enjoying some of these animals.
On their table with their family.
So I know it all goes hand in hand, but we got to be careful.
Don't get out of control.
Well, it does.
And I think the industry imbalance is, it's like everything else from your local government up to your federal government.
And it was the last we'll talk of governments for the most part, but it's local government.
The closer, the further you get away from where you actually live, there's a disconnect.
And you take a lot of your fishing gang folks here in Georgia.
They're hunters.
They're fishermen.
Yes.
I mean, when they're not working, you're out there.
I mean, they're going to hunt.
They're going to shoot dove.
They're going to, you know, you see them out there.
The higher, though, you get to those cubicles in Washington, D.C., take them away from that discussion.
You know, it's about, like, the craziness.
I don't know if you saw Derek Wolfe.
He used to be a football player for Denver, and he killed a bow, with a bow, killed an eight-foot We're good to go.
That was terrorizing a community.
Yeah.
You know, it's just amazing.
But it's that balance that you got to have.
And, you know, and again, here's what will happen.
I'll guarantee it.
And then I want to move on to hunting season this year.
When they start, those mountain lions start killing people.
Grizzlies start killing people.
Black bears start killing people.
The wolves start taking out, you know, dogs and cats and then eventually turning on others.
Then you're starting to start to see it.
And because we've, and I think this has been documented so much, we've made the wildlife, the Walt Disney World wildlife.
Yes.
Smokey the bear.
This is, you know, Bambi.
This is it.
And these are wild animals.
I mean, and they will be wild animals.
You know, if you want a pet, get a dog.
You know, don't, you know, think that these wolves and others are that way.
So it's sort of crazy as we go.
And especially out west, they're fighting this, you know, all the time.
Yeah, exactly.
And even before we move on, that is a great point, talking about how it becomes a Walt Disney type of character.
They're picturing these animals depicted off the movie Bambi or maybe the fox and the hound.
We all watched it.
We love those movies.
However, like me, I wouldn't consider that people ask me what I do for a living.
It's straight up.
You know, we represent hunting.
We create new hunting product to hopefully make it better for the people that if they decide to only get a chance to hunt maybe a Saturday or Sunday morning or Saturday or Sunday evening or whenever, that maybe we got some technique and tactic that can help them.
A better understanding, like we're talking about a wildlife, the resources, how to maintain it.
Also, when it's time to fill your tags, maybe there's a technique and tactic.
And then we try our best to create A culture around our TV shows that show how fun it is and how positive it is for Americans and really people around the world, what it is to hunt.
I feel strongly that the ability to go out and hunt and have that freedom to do that, a God-given ability and freedom to do it, Man, I've seen it cure people from drugs.
It's the closest and the next thing best to being spiritual and having faith in Jesus is the fact that you can get close to Him by sitting out in a stand and you can reset yourself and you can hang out with friends.
He gives you a positive activity to do versus so many other things that can get us off into some weird depression, maybe addiction.
So if you get addicted to hunting, It'll put you in bed a little bit earlier because one is you want to get up and get out there and usually you got to do it early.
So that's positive.
But from a standpoint of the depiction of these animals, if you get really good at hunting, you understand the true beast that nature is.
It's just like what we're talking about.
Mother nature is always going to kill way more.
A coon is going to eat way more turkeys and kill way more turkeys than you and I ever will if there wasn't a limit.
You know, if you even look at a turkey and you think, well, poor pitiful turkey.
You know, one thing they don't ever get talked about, the pecking order is vicious.
You let a turkey Even within the brood that gets a little sick.
If you don't believe me, just raise chickens.
You let a chicken get a little sick and gangly and sick, other chickens, especially roosters, will kill each other because maybe there's an extra millworm for him.
Maybe there's an extra hen that he can breed.
Wildlife are the same way.
It's proven that when bears come out of their den, especially these brown bear and grizzly, One of the first things that these big boar grizzlies will do will go eat cubs, kill kids, So you think about it.
Same with a turkey.
A turkey comes strutting in.
You got two or three turkeys strutting in.
A lot of times they're brothers.
As soon as the shotgun blasts come out, 90% of the time in Georgia they fly off and they run.
They realize danger.
But a lot of times the turkey is flopping.
The other two brothers will jump on the other brothers to make sure that he's dead because he's weak and more for them.
Wildlife It's brutal.
It is unbelievably selfish, brutal, and they only think of themselves.
They have no social media.
They could care less.
They have no conviction.
They don't go to church on Sunday.
So it's not this fuzzy little bear or polar bear or grizzly or black bear that you pet.
They certainly have a subservient nature to us people because they understand that their maker, even though they don't know that they had a maker, but they understand that the dominant The only thing that they should respect is us humans.
And so with that, most of us humans respect them.
We're at the top of the food chain.
It's biblical.
It's biblical.
I mean, look at how things are made, right?
And so at the end of the day, I think people do not have a true understanding.
Of how brutal wildlife is and what goes on.
And all you got to do is go watch some of those old documentaries talking about hunting in Africa.
Watch the lion eat an impala.
Watch what happens to a brown bear that's fishing for salmon.
They'll a lot of times just take a bite and eat the caviar out of those salmon and leave the rest of the fish flopping up on the bank.
They're wasteful in some cases.
So nature is, in my opinion, is as brutal than anything that we can experience.
Matter of fact, the things that we experience as close to nature, usually there's documentaries about them.
And there's Charles Manson's and there's Ted Bundle's with no consciousness.
Just kill.
Wildlife at that level don't have a conscience.
I do believe our family pets are certainly a more domesticated version of nature.
And I feel like they do feel they do.
But they're subservient.
They're ultimately, you know, I always laugh because I think every day I look, I say, my dog has got to be a Democrat because he sits here and waits for me to feed him.
He feels entitled I should leave him a bowl full of food every day and that he should have the first place on the couch or the first place in the Polaris.
But at the same time, he looks up to me and looks to me for everything and really has no independence outside of that.
It's funny when you look at it that way, but I don't know.
I have seen it firsthand.
Nature is brutal.
Mother Nature and the wildlife that abounds because it's not like us.
They don't come in the air conditioners and they've never evolved and done anything different.
They've not built one house.
You don't even see these deer laying in our barns.
They could go get under our shed.
Sometimes you might see it, but that is the misinformation that's out there of what people think wildlife is, in my opinion.
I agree.
I agree.
Well, on a positive note for all of us in Georgia, and this is a great way to turn us to the season's upcoming, the newest Open champion is a Georgia boy, Harmon, who also is a hunter.
And if you ever go to Ryan Harmon's social media page, you see that he got an elk last year.
He was out a big 6x6, it looked like.
But it made me think, and one of the things they talked about, what do you want to do?
You want to get back on his tractor and go to his food plots.
I mean, that's a Georgia boy right there.
I mean, you gotta love it.
But coming up, we got season coming up, got elk around the corner, got bear, but also then, of course, in Georgia, you got middle September bow, deer, October, of course, gun for deer.
If you're right now, because a lot of people look to you, the bone collector, you know, idea, they look to you, they watch you, they admire you, and I do as well, you know, what you do and the friends that you have.
What would you say to folks right now who are getting ready, and they are, let's take it away from the folks who get to hunt, you know, maybe they're on their own farm, so they'll get to go four or five days a week, but they are sort of more the weekend or maybe get off two or three days in October or September.
What would you be telling them right now to prepare for, let's just say, for now, let's just say whitetail season?
Yeah.
I mean, one is, I think probably the one thing that you can prepare more than anything, especially going into bow season, is just the ability to shoot really good and to deliver a good ethical shot.
I think sometimes, you know, that to me is like the first step.
Most people think, well, the first step.
is understanding the high intelligence or maybe high strategy on how to manipulate and get within range of a deer.
But if you don't have the first step, Completely aced.
A lot of times you'll understand the strategy then you get there and a deer show up and then there's you miss you wound or you don't even get the shot because you spook them trying to draw.
So I would say become very ethical and and just like like a sniper with your bow and arrow because I think and I can go back to this and say I personally feel like our Georgia Game and Fish has done an amazing job Of making sure through working with,
you know, quality deer management, putting out some good knowledge that all of us as hunters, if you dig into it and read on their website, As you can see on YouTube, hopefully you can see it on our shows as we're talking about what's out there.
We have an incredible resource, so whether you're looking for a big mature buck that scores good or whether you're just trying to, you know, get some meat for the freezer, chances are even if you just wander into the woods and you see what looks to be a deer trail, if you'll sit there long enough and you get the opportunity, you're going to have an opportunity, so what are you going to do with it?
You know, outside of that, I would say for the people who don't get to hunt as much as, say, I do, is to really try to take advantage of the cell cameras that people have out there.
And in one way, it can be a little negative because sometimes there's not a lot of mystery out there.
You know, like you was talking earlier, the good of it is if you got a couple of nice bucks, man, your excitement level goes to a whole nother level.
And you can kind of get a pattern of like, dude, these deer here every day on a clear, sunny day or a cloudy day with a north wind.
They're here every day at six o'clock in the evening.
So you kind of know, okay, well, six o'clock in the evening.
With the right wind, I should have an opportunity to steer if I give it a couple runs at it.
The negative of that, it gives you such a good inventory that it can also take away from your happiness because it's like, dude, I ain't gonna go.
I'm just gonna sit here and watch this Georgia football game in its entirety because there is no reason that I should go to a deer stand because my spots Suck.
So I would say, you know, and I hear it all the time, like, you know, I'll be talking to somebody or a buddy, even down the road, not even in the hunting industry, and like, glad you got one, Waddell.
I'm like, dude, why ain't you out hunting?
I ain't got nothing to hunt.
It's almost like they're just angry because, you know, the trail camera's out and they're not seeing what they want to see.
Sometimes those trail cameras don't tell the entire truth.
I know people every year that shoot bucks that People don't have on trail cameras.
It's not as common in Georgia because obviously our land is a little bit more saturated with hunters and clubs and people that are really seriously taking inventory.
But I think definitely if you're only getting a minimum opportunity to hunt, definitely use those cameras as a resource to kind of give you some knowledge.
And the reason I say that, based on traditionally what you've been seeing, it gives you a better opportunity to know when you should take off work.
Based on a cool front coming in, if you got that opportunity, you know, or knowing that certain times of the year are going to be good, like typically that opening weekend of bow season, you about can guarantee if you got a decent place to hunt, you're probably going to have a solid deer that is hitting a solid pattern early season that's coming to food.
As it rolls into kind of October and these deer start running, you might not know what's on your land and maybe that's the time you ain't got a lot of inventory Say big bucks, but take your place where you're talking.
Well, right now, these deer are not, have any, you know, sexual orientation on their mind.
They're not worried about breeding.
I'm sure these bucks had had to give an opportunity.
Will, however, so what you got is a resonant You know, visual of what you got there.
That's going to change about mid-October.
I mean, you're going to have deer.
They're not going to be confined to just their little area.
They're going to be walking over, whether it's like you're hunting in those urban areas or seek one, that they've done an amazing job of documenting that.
Those duck bucks are going to be walking all over, in this case, the neighborhood or the lease or the land.
So your neighbor's deer is going to come visit your place.
So you can kind of throw your inventory of deer And you're going to gain some new understanding.
So maybe if you don't have anything right now, and you're thinking, well, I don't know what to do, well, don't go ahead and take time off opening day.
Wait for the rut, because you're going to be basically waiting to hunt a deer that's going to be a trespasser looking to breed all these does.
Now, the good news is, if you've got that many resident does, Senator, if they stay there and you keep them fed, I can promise you, Big Daddy's going to work in there if he's close, because he is not going to allow...
All them girls be down there listening to Snoop Dogg and dancing and eating free corn without partying with him.
I promise you.
And that's why you have to go to the outdoor blast so you can get that specialized bottle of dough urine right here.
That's exactly it.
You're right.
That's what gets it.
Because I'm joking.
I can tell you right now, you might go to Georgia and it might be an all-ladies, you know, little juke joint or club, but sooner or later, I can promise you, somebody, some dude's going to wander in there.
And usually it's going to be a big one because he's going to say, I ain't supposed to be here, but I'm going to break the rules.
I'm going to walk right in here because there are too many ladies in the world.
That happens in the wildlife.
I have some big old book.
And that's what I have learned.
A lot of times, these bigger, mature books, everybody thinks they're ghosts.
They are.
They're smart.
But let me tell you, man, when it comes to the rut, they get very careless because, keep in mind, Just like we were talking about wildlife, a lot of what keeps animals in check is not me and you.
It's their subordinate nature.
They know that they're not supposed to be the ones that are supposed to be trespassing over here in this particular holler or ridge.
They know that it's already been established that Big Daddy You know, 10-pointer is supposed to be doing the breeding or this big mature 8-pointer, but they can't help themselves.
And the bigger, more mature alpha bucks have a lot more confidence.
It's kind of like they did documentaries on these baboons at these waterholes in Africa.
They can't show fear.
And so a lot of times in those certain times of year, those big monarch bucks They only have fear of me and you.
They have no other fear of any other bucks.
A lot of these turkeys and deer, they're very subordinate.
So when they come out in the food plot, you're thinking, geez, this deer is so jittery.
But they're not looking for me and you.
They're looking for daddy.
Is daddy home?
Same with these does.
I don't know if you ever noticed.
Maybe people listen.
If you ever notice, like, if you start hunting in October, early season, these does are coming in, and you really feel like they're trying to smell you.
And they're like, dude, did they leave with the corn truck?
I mean, what's going on?
They walk in there, and they're at ease.
They finally, and they smell us.
They run, but they're at a different ease.
But you'll start hunting in October on a food plot, even with a rifle.
You'll see a doe step out 600 yards just when she steps out.
And she's just, I mean, leaf blow down.
She's shaking.
She is scared to death.
That, you know, the mad, wild, sexual predator is going to run around the curve with antlers, whether it's a year-and-a-half-old buck or a big one.
They're just like that chicken running around the coop where you got too many roosters in there.
Them poor old chickens.
If you country folks, you've seen it happen.
They're not asking for acceptance.
They make Bill Cosby look like a gentleman.
Yeah, if you've ever wanted to watch something, go to YouTube.
If you want to really see it, go watch Elk.
It is vicious, wild, and quick.
And it's like, here we go.
As it gets it.
I mean, we get into the animal movies here.
As you look at it, one quick thing I want to ask you.
I know you got some, I'm sure some elk trip planned.
You got some others.
If you had somebody who was wanting to go for a first-time elk hunt, or especially elk, I would say bear or anything else.
Of course, in Alaska, you have to have a guide.
But if you were looking to do it for the first time, do you recommend a guide or...
To do it the first time or so before you would trek off on a DYI out in, say, Colorado, Utah, you know, those places?
You know, it depends on the people or the personality and depends on what you're looking for in adventure.
I would say yes.
I would recommend taking somebody, at minimum if you go on a DIY, maybe throw somebody in the old Chevy with you that definitely has done it before.
Because it can be very intimidating.
Not just the habitat in the country and tracking through it.
But trying to find sometimes the animal out west because it's very different in nature, especially if you're a southern hunter where, you know, like you said, I mean, now some of the urban hunting is very popular.
But, you know, Senator, when we were growing up, if you had 50 or 100, 200 acres to hunt, man, you were blessed.
I mean, above and beyond.
Out there, they'll talk about 2,000, 3,000 acres, and that's nothing.
Like a little small ranch, it's only 3,000 acres.
I mean, you're talking some of this public ground that's literally vast.
It can be You know, 800,000 acres, some of them approaching a million acres and more.
And so obviously it can be very intimidating, but one area these elk can move around.
So you might go for seven days and literally not even see, not just not see an elk, not even see any elk sign.
So if you have somebody with a little knowledge, it helps.
You know, these private ranches as you can pay money to go hunt, that usually you're going to have a decent experience.
Doesn't mean it's a slam dunk, but you're probably going to see elk, you're going to hear elk, and have possibly an opportunity.
And keep in mind, you're going to have, you know, a place to lay down at night.
Typically, you're going to have, you know, food there.
So picture it like a, you know, a resort that has you fed and stuff.
So sometimes economically, even though it looks expensive, it can be Worth it.
However, depends on the mentality, sometimes it's fun where you're not necessarily looking that I gotta go kill an elk.
You just want to put a, you know, maybe you're retired and you just want to throw one of your best buddies that you was in a fraternity with and went to college like, dude, we've always dreamed of this.
And it's really not necessarily about having to kill one.
It's about, you know, throwing your tent and getting a bunch of buying a sausage and some good rations and maybe you got you some hamburger helper and you just want to spend seven days out there on a Camping trip that could lead to potentially an opportunity to take an elk.
So I think all those things you have to ask yourself.
I would say most people that I meet Doug are really interested in wanting to see elk and have an opportunity.
I think we're all too busy to go on a frivolous hunting trip knowing there's not going to be any opportunity.
So if you're looking for that, I would say, and you're looking at doing that on a budget, if you pretty much have money to spend, I would tell somebody to call up One of these big landowners that offer elk hunts and book you a hunt.
You're going to have anywhere from $8,000 to probably $15,000 in that adventure.
But it feels like now I'm about to spend that going to Panama City with my family after I've had enough capris and buns and, you know, same buying a sausage.
I towed out to the beach and go to Captain Anderson's or Destin or wherever we go.
However, it sounds expensive, but if you got the money, I would say take that adventure and it just about always is going to be an amazing outcome.
No different than all of us that have like, man, I ain't going down.
I'm not going to book at that resort.
I can go over here and stay here and I can save some money here and there.
But if we ever do it.
We're like, okay, that was a pretty fun deal.
I could go and eat all I wanted any time, didn't stand any lines.
Holy cow, there's people bringing me, you know, from Coca-Cola to a cold beer out there on the beach.
I mean, this is the way to go.
It's a little more, but it might be worth it.
I do think hunting trips are like that.
However, if you realistically would love to do that, but you know you can't afford it, and you're on time constraint, 100% the best way to do it Senator, is to go to these operations that offer to put you in for these good tags in these public grounds.
Rather than just getting in your truck and driving to Colorado on a little bit of research and Google search, most of the time those hunts turn into just expensive camping trips.
I would say put in for these tags in these areas.
My buddy Nick Munt, actually Nick Munt's a good resource.
He does that all the time.
His whole life has been dedicated.
He makes all these living Through consulting, through hunting, through, you know, helping create product.
He's got a good little service that he'll say, hey man, there's an area in New Mexico.
You got a 60% chance of drawing.
And if you draw, here's what you're going to be up against.
You can go camp if you want to.
I know these four people that will charge you X amount of dollars to stay, you know, maybe in their home.
There's going to be somebody that's going to cook you two meals a day.
You'll be responsible for this.
Or it could be in this public ground that maybe a guy just say, hey, I can let you know The best place.
I can at least let you know where elk we have been seeing them and kind of get you pointed in a good direction.
Typically, you're still going to have, you know, a couple thousand dollars if you draw the tag to buy, you know, this piece of paper that gives you an opportunity to shoot an elk.
But you know you can do this on a different budget than maybe going to, say, the Vermeil or maybe going to White Mountain Apache or the Navajo Indian Reservation.
So put in for those public tags.
But the beauty of it is, if you draw a tag, and depending on how long you've got to do it, if you're a young guy and you're making some good money and you can kind of get off, put in right now.
Start putting in for Arizona.
Arizona's got the biggest elk in the country.
Put in for those New Mexico areas that have those big bulls in it.
Put in for Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas.
People don't realize there's some amazing public ground that has unbelievable hunting.
I never really advertised this because, to be honest, I was kind of greedy.
You know, you don't wear the one-name units.
But, you know, like for instance, it took me eight years to draw an Arizona tag.
But when I went out there, I killed a big bull.
It took me 12 years to draw a Nevada tag.
But when I went there, flew in Las Vegas, drove an hour and a half, two hours north of there, Up towards Utah and I killed a 373 with my bow and arrow.
Public ground.
We pay tax on this.
And so find these people.
Worldwide tags is a good operation.
But a lot of times what you'll find, you can go out there and hunt a world-class animal.
You're probably still going to have $3,000 to $6,000 invested in it.
You still got to get out there.
You either got to drive.
You either got to You know, pay somewhere to stay in Airbnb or bring a wall tent or, you know, have a guide or outfitter.
But if I made any sense of my rambling with that, that would be how I would approach it.
I would, you know, it depends on the money, time, and really the adventure.
And if you can answer those questions, it's easier to do a little research and find that opportunity.
And then I would say it's just like anything else.
It's what you pay for, whether it's the money and what that tag costs.
Or whether it's where you stay, what you eat, who's going to be with you.
Also, you've got to think about your physical conditioning.
You can do these DIY all you want, but let me tell you something.
There's some of these areas that when I was young, I remember being young, literally when I first had a chance to get an elk hunt, well, we'd go to these public areas, you know, Doug, and there'd be a couple of us.
Well, next thing you know, you know, oh, Lord, mountains didn't bother me.
I'd be 12, 13 miles back in there.
You know, you can't drive a truck.
Then you kill an elk.
You better have a pretty good buddy because right now it's illegal to leave that elk on the side of the mountain and it tastes so good you ain't going to want to do it.
Well, guess what?
Now you've got a pack job that can take all the fun out of that trip.
You're not just going to pull up the four-wheeler like we do in Georgia and throw this deer and take him back to the cooler to the processor down there and tell him to cube it and grind it.
It becomes work.
So you can be out there and realize that, wait a minute, I can't physically do this.
I can't responsibly even kill an elk in this area because I'm not going to be able to get him out.
And so therefore, if you're going to hunt like that, you've got to do a little research and find you some horses and maybe some mules to help you pack this animal out.
So I would say now it's easier to research because we have the internet.
You've got all these opportunities to research YouTube and Google.
Just do your homework and it's easy to figure out when you figure out your financial status and what kind of venture you're really looking at trying to get back in return.
I agree.
Well, folks, again, it's always great to have my bone collector here on the show.
I tell you what, that last segment, and I know we're getting ready to go to hunting season.
You're going to be traveling a lot.
I'm going to be traveling a lot.
But after the season, maybe toward the January, December time, what I'd love to do, you brought up an interesting point that I think would be great to have you, and maybe we can get some others on as well, to talk about equipment.
And I think because that's, you know, because we can get the, you know, the magazines, we get the bow hunter, we can get the, you know, the hunting magazine, but it's plowing through.
This looks nice, but this is actually what works, and we might need to get back on that as we go.
But brother, it's always great to be with you.
Always great to hear the insight.
Have some fun and talk and laugh.
God bless you on this hunting season.
You and I will keep in touch, I know, with our pictures, and I'll try and post those to some of our social media.
But Mike, thanks for being on the show today, and it's always a blessing, brother.
Senator Collins, same thing, but God bless you, man.
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