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Mike Chuck, Mike Chuck, 1-2.
Here we go.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast.
Today, we're joined by Josh Rayleigh.
He is also the host of the Wisconsin Sportsman.
He is also the host of the How to Hunt Deer Podcast.
Both excellent podcasts.
I definitely think you should check out.
Today, we're talking about upgrades, like it's time to upgrade your equipment or modify
your equipment.
We have this conversation on whether or not what products we're looking at upgrading to
or buying this upcoming year.
For example, my bow is three years old.
I need to either poop or get off the pot, so to speak, about whether or not I'm going
to buy a new bow this year.
I'm leaning towards just getting new strings.
It's been three years.
I should probably get some new strings on it.
They're pretty frayed from me pulling it, pushing it, dragging it through the western
countryside and through the weeds here in Iowa and the thorns.
I'm debating right now, but I think I'm leaning towards getting a new set of strings.
Also, it's probably time that I get a new pair of boots.
That's going to be another expense.
We talk about some of the upgrades I did to my e-bike to prevent flat tires.
What else do we talk about?
Whether or not I modify any of my equipment.
Josh talks about that as well.
It's a fun episode.
It's almost a BS session, but we keep it pretty focused on the equipment that we're looking
for this year if we modify our stuff.
I'm not a huge modifier.
I don't know if I say this in the episode or not, but here is why I don't modify.
I feel like if I'm going to buy something, it should do what I want it to do without any
type of modification, if that makes sense.
So, call me crazy.
That's today's episode.
Anyway, only one commercial today, and that is with Hunt Stand.
If you are looking for a mobile hunting app, if you're looking for a hunting app that allows
you to check weather, it allows you to place pins on a map.
It allows you to look at the latest satellite imagery.
I mean latest, I mean monthly satellite imagery, these guys upload.
It allows you to document trail camera photos.
It allows you to really strategize and put together a plan for your upcoming hunts.
On top of that, it even has a little bit of deer movement forecasting that recommends
some of the upcoming cold fronts that are coming in saying whether or not you should
get into the woods.
Your pro whitetail platform has a ton of other functionality you should go read up on.
You can find all this on huntstand.com and you can download the app wherever apps are
downloaded, like Google Play or whatnot.
So, go check out huntstand.com, read up on all the functionality that this hunting app
has to offer.
And that's the only commercial today.
Huge shout out to Josh for taking time out of his day.
If you guys could please go to iTunes or wherever you download your podcast, give the
hunting gear podcast a five star review, leave a comment, let everybody know how fun and
entertaining and educational this podcast is and spread the word because that's really
what it's all about.
And that is all I'm going to say.
Let's get into today's episode.
Three, two, one.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the hunting gear podcast.
I'm your host Dan Johnson.
And today we have a member of the sportsman's empire here and we're going to talk hunting
gear and equipment.
Mr. Josh Rayleigh.
Josh, what's up, dude?
Yeah, what's going on, Dan?
Glad to glad to be on the show.
How are you?
I'm doing good.
If you hear some noise in the background, it is because we got a roofing crew at my neighbors
house.
So I'm going to try to record a podcast and I can look out my window and I can see them
working.
So if you hear saws or nail guns go off, that's what it is.
Nice.
You're just going to tell them to take a break.
Yeah.
Those guys don't take breaks.
They just work until the job's done and then they go to the next house.
I think, dude, I think some of these crews are putting on two roofs a day.
That's how fast they're going.
Yeah, when we lived in Wisconsin, neighbors across the street had a new roof put on.
They came out, had it stripped and the new roof on by like one o'clock that afternoon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they're stuck.
They're studs.
All right.
Let's see here.
I want to kind of get right into it today.
And I want this is almost like a BS session focused on hunting gear.
But the first question that I kind of want to throw your way is, do you have any big
purchases planned or any type of new or exciting products you're going to pick up this for
this upcoming season?
Man, as I look forward to fall, like for me, the e-bike is still on the list.
I have not fit the bullet like like Mr. Johnson and made the purchase yet.
So that one's still on the list and then actually with the approval of my wife entertaining
the idea of getting a side by side for some of our private, private ground.
That would be huge.
I like hunting private ground, but I hunt mostly public.
The private is for like the kids and, you know, taking the wife out and that kind of
thing.
Yeah.
And I don't think I can get both the side by side and the e-bike this year.
And so I've got to prioritize that.
And I don't know which is which, but I do know if I get a side by side, it is going
to be the cheapest one that I can possibly find.
Right.
Yeah.
And that's usually how it goes with a bigger purchase like that, man.
Like I said, in previous episodes, I've been lucky to know someone at the e-bike place
that I worked and I got a huge discount.
And so that made it a no brainer for me.
And then the functionality that came with it and how I used it on public land out west.
Dude, it was just, it was awesome.
And so I used to talk trash on e-bikes.
Now I fully support them.
So it's funny how you change as you get older.
But yeah.
Hey, let me ask you this.
Did you have you read much into or figured out what all you can do with an e-bike on
public in Iowa?
Because when I was in Iowa hunting turkeys, I saw guys on e-bikes all over the place.
Yeah.
And I, I, I shouldn't you weren't going to be able to use them.
Yeah.
So now again, you can't quote me on anything that I, I say here, but I can tell you this
of all the research that I've done.
Bikes are not only a state by state law, they're also a state and federal has their own laws
on them.
So just because the state allows it doesn't mean the federal land that you could possibly
be on.
Because I know that national forest and BLM have different looks and there's, they're
both federal, but they're, they each have their own.
Sometimes it's black and white saying yes to e-bikes, no to e-bikes.
Sometimes in certain states it is, what was it?
It was only class one is available to go in a non motorized area.
So if it says no motorized vehicles past this point, you can not, you cannot take an
e-bike that has a throttle engaged on it.
Everything you have to disengage the throttle.
So it's only pedal power, right?
So the pedal kicks the motor on, which thus counts as a class one e-bike, thus counts as
a regular bicycle.
So if it's class one, it's classified as a regular bicycle because it takes actual pedaling
to, to do it.
So it's less of a motorized vehicle and more of an assisted vehicle.
I guess is how they, how they work it.
Now I'll have to go back and look at Iowa, but I think Iowa doesn't have a law on e-bikes.
So therefore there kind of anything goes and it's under the, the decision making of the
conservation officer who, who would be the person to question you.
So again, I always say take several extra steps, read into it.
I know on some of the grasslands that I was hunting, I could, I had to have my e, my,
my throttle disengaged.
So I couldn't have my throttle on my bike.
I, it could only be pedal power.
And so, and so that's, that's how I was able to use my e-bike.
Oh, and, and the motor size has to be under 750, 750 watts, I believe it is.
So if it's a thousand, it, if it's a thousand, it's, it counts as a, a class two, which is
illegal, whether or not the, the throttle is engaged or not.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, it makes total sense.
Makes total sense.
Did you, did you have good?
So one of the reasons I've been looking at a, at the thousand watt bikes is they have a
lot of them, you can get the dual batteries.
Yeah.
You're 750.
Is that a single battery or dual battery?
It's a, it's a single battery.
Single battery.
And you were happy with the battery life on it?
Yeah, I was happy, I was happy with the battery life on it.
I mean, it got me, if, if I wanted to cut it close and then run it till it was all the
way gone, I would have been able to run it for probably two straight days of, like, of
getting back to, and this is up and down some major hills.
I would say, and, and me relying on the bike itself a lot, I would say that the E bike would
have got me two and a half days.
So let's just say going out in the morning, coming back, going out in an afternoon, coming
back, going out in the morning, coming back, and then I probably would have had to re redo
it.
Now this isn't continuous use.
This is me leaving my truck going to the, going out, setting my bike under a tree, walking
up.
So basically it was just a distance closer for me.
I wasn't riding it all over the place.
And so at that point, I just used it as basically access.
And then once I got to my point, dropped it and then I started moving through the, through
the hills and whatnot.
So there are batteries that last longer.
They have solar power chargers for some of these things now.
And so if you, and for me, so what I did was on day three, I went back into town after
my morning hunt and I got breakfast and I had for about four hours, I just hung out at
a truck stop and, and they had an outdoor plug in.
So I was charging a battery.
I was charging my battery at this truck stop for about four hours.
That got me back up to about 70%.
That got me two more days of usage out of it.
A couple of those days I walked from my truck and didn't, you know, I didn't really have
to take the bike anywhere, but long story short, it's, yeah, I think this year though, what
my plan is, is that's the, that's the purchase actually that I'm going to talk about is I'm
going to get another battery for my bike, for my e-bike.
So that way I can stay out longer and not have to come in and, and change it up.
Yeah.
That makes sense, man.
It concerns me to get way back in.
And so like I took one out last summer, got way back in there.
I didn't charge it before I went.
I really drained the battery and I got like three miles deep and then the battery starts
going dead and I'm like, oh, this is a long way to lug a 90 pound bike.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, the good thing is at least you can, at least you can pedal it, right?
That downhills and things like that.
So you're not having to push it the whole time.
The other big thing that I want, and this whole process cost me an additional $300.
And so I got a flat tire in my, in my, on the rear, but the rear drive or the rear tire.
I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
And so I installed these foam, uh, protectors that go in.
And so you can get up to like a two inch, inch puncture into the tire before it reaches
the inner tube that holds the air.
And so I was, cause I was out in, uh, you know, South Dakota and Nebraska, or, you know,
it was just South, South Dakota and there was cactus all over the place out there.
And as, you know, if you're going 10 miles an hour and all of a sudden a cactus pops
up on you, you got to make a quick decision.
And I tried my hardest, but it was inevitable at some points and, and it held tight, it held
throughout that trip.
But then this summer or this spring when I went shed hunting, I was driving in some
bean stubble and one of those things got my back tire and it went flat.
And so I took it to a shields here in, um, in Iowa and they installed it.
They installed these foam, I guess you want to call them, uh, protectors, tire protectors,
uh, on the inside of the, the, or on the outside of the tube, inside of the tire that
are supposed to protect that.
And so, uh, hopefully that those play their role, uh, in this upcoming season.
Yeah.
Did you notice the difference in the ride after putting the different tires on or, you know,
I haven't gone out and other than riding it up and down my street just to make sure it
felt good.
I haven't gone off road or anything on it yet.
I'm, I'm thinking it's going to make the bike a little heavier and the ride not as smooth,
but you can adjust the front suspension, uh, to, to make it a little better if you want
it to.
Nice.
Nice.
Yeah.
That'd be a good addition.
A flat tire would not be good way back in.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah.
I was thinking, I was thinking.
Okay.
What would happen if I got this flat and I'm, I was all the way back to where I was that
first, that first day I took it back like six miles, uh, from my truck to the part where
point where I stopped it was 5.8 miles and then I hiked up to a ridge.
Uh, and that would, that put me six miles away from my car and, or my truck.
And I was like, dude, if something happens to this bike here, I'm going to have, it's
going to take me like packing, packing out a deer, you can throw it on your back and you
can go, right?
It may take two trips, but at least you can go that.
You got to lift over fences and you still had to, you know, I still had to do that or
take, you know, push it uphill.
At least I would have a little bit of the throttle to help me out even on the flat, you
know, even with a flat, you can, they, they have walk mode where you can push the throttle
and you can walk it up a hill, you know, so, yeah.
So that, that makes it easier.
But yeah, it would, it would really suck to have a flat that far back.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Uh, any other products that you think you're going to be picking up this year?
Man, you know, there's always that I've always got that thing of, of wanting a new bow.
I don't change bows a lot, but I haven't really looked at a lot of the 2023 models,
but I've had my bow now for, I guess, three years.
It's been good to me.
It's not been, you know, great by any means, but I've always got that in the back of my
head.
Like maybe, maybe I should buy a new bow, but, but no real plans for it.
No real plans for it.
Definitely going to switch things up with arrows this year.
You know, I do.
You know what you're doing?
Over arrows?
Yeah.
No, I have, I'm pretty sure I'm going to shoot something from method archery.
They've, they were, they were vector custom shop.
They had to change their name.
But they've got the HMR and the ZMR arrows.
I shot the HMR last year.
They've got a new budget model, HMR, which is, it just means it comes with less customized,
you know, fewer customizable options.
Yeah.
I'm looking at those and then the ZMR is a little bit of a lighter arrow.
So my trajectory with a, you know, a 20, I think I'm a 26 and a half inch draw.
So my trajectory is garbage with a 562 grain arrow flying down range.
There's some thinking.
Yeah, I'm thinking of swapping to the ZMRs because I think they would put me at about
that 430 440 grain rate, which I think is a pretty good range.
I like to shoot heavier broad heads anyway.
And so I think, I think with that weight, I'll, I'll help my trajectory a good bit and still
maintain enough weight that, that I can be confident on, on whatever kind of shot I need
to take.
Yeah.
Man, I don't want to, I don't want to steer you away if there's something that you really
like, but man, I absolutely love day six arrows.
That, yeah, day six.
I don't know if you've ever heard about them.
I don't know if you want to go check them out.
Other arrows are legit.
They come with an out cert on the front end and dude, I love them.
They are, they're one of those products that, that I don't necessarily talk a lot about,
but they bring me confidence.
They, when I'm out in the woods, I said, dude, these arrows are straight.
They're, they're consistent.
They are, they're built tough and they're, you just look at them and you go, they're just
well designed and well built.
I know the owner and one of the reasons I like those arrows so much is because the owner
is one of the most serious bow hunters that I've ever interviewed on the nine finger chronicles
podcast.
Like the guy's legit.
He's methodical and when you have a guy like that make a product and then he's also successful
because he's using his product to kill animals all over North America, then, then you, then
I pay attention to it.
And so that's why I've, I've went with that and then they fly real good.
So it's one of those products where I'm just going to keep, there, now here's the kicker,
they are not affordable.
Well, they're affordable if you make them affordable.
They're, they're not cheap.
They're on the high end of the arrow market, but they are legit.
And so I, I have no issues.
Like for me, I have no issues spending.
It's a product that I'll spend money on.
Yeah.
So that guy, I remember the episode you did with him.
He hunts like all fall as an evening, like he's got trip after trip.
Yep.
Where are they, babe?
Do you remember?
Well, aren't they in like South or something?
They could be.
They're in the South somewhere.
Texas, maybe?
I don't know.
Okay.
I forget, I forget which, I should know this, but I forget.
So anyway, give them a, give them a serious look before, before you make a final decision
and then at least look at them and read up on them.
They're, they're pretty cool.
Yeah.
What are we talking for a doesn't?
You know what?
I'm just going to pull up their website real quick.
Because I mean, right now, I think the HMRs are like 170 a dozen or something like that.
So they're not a crazy expensive either.
240.
For a dozen.
240.
That's not bad.
That's in the price range.
Wait.
Yes.
Yep.
Does in 240.
And they come, they come fletched, you know, and they have 300s.
They have 400s.
They have 500s.
And I forget what I run.
But I should know this too, but, but yeah.
So my total error weight is 524 was my total error weight last year.
And that's with a 100 grain brought in.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Yep.
So they're heavy.
Yeah.
Nice.
Well, they can be heavy if you want one of them to, you know, they have.
Yeah.
The, the out cert can be bigger or smaller depending on your likes, you know, your, your
likings.
You can have a heavier grain per inch or a lighter grains per inch, you know, whatever,
really, whatever style you like, they have like three or four options there for you to
choose from.
And, man, they're pretty slick, man.
I definitely think people should look into them.
Yeah.
I'll have to check those out.
I had a local shop try to talk me into some gold tip and, you know, gold tip arrows have
been great forever.
Yep.
They've killed a deer, but I don't know, man, I like, I like a lot of these smaller
companies that you can order online and, you know, get your arrows in.
They're custom to you.
And, you know, honestly, a lot of them show up ready to shoot, you know, not a lot of
tweaking needs to be done.
Exactly.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Okay.
I'm going to jump in here real quick and I'm going to say, so I have a pair of boots.
My crispy thors that I've had for going on five years now, and they're still in pretty
good shape except for the waterproofing is pretty much gone out of them.
Right.
So I apply waterproofing every year, but it's not the same as a new boot.
Okay.
I think I'm going to have to buy a new pair of boots this summer at some point.
And so there's two hundred eighty three hundred dollars right there for for those,
for those, but you take that divided by how many years I actually used them and how much
I use them.
It's a no brainer to go with a high quality boot like that.
Oh, for sure.
Man, that's, see, that's the one thing that I have yet to really sink, I guess, reasonable
money into.
Yeah.
I've got two different kinds of boots that I use.
I've got some like, Merrill, essentially hiking boots.
Yeah.
They're not waterproof at all.
I like them because they're light.
Yep.
And also use some lacrosse.
I think they're like the, I forget what they're called.
They're like the early season lightweight boots.
I don't, I don't like, you know, insulated boots or anything like that.
I don't, I don't want them to be insulated.
I've never spent, you know, good money for a good pair of boots.
I've never had crispy's or anything like that.
And that's, that's something that's kind of always on the list, but I seem to find other
ways to spend my money.
So are you're not a rubber boot guy anymore, right?
You used to wear rubber boots?
Yeah, you stew back in the day.
However, I just got a pair.
God dang, I forget the name.
I think it's just light boots.
It's a rubber boot made out of the same material as Crocs.
And so I bring those with me when I'm going to check trail cameras.
I'm not going to hunt in them because I, you know, I don't like the way they feel like
trying to walk up hills and things like that.
Or I'm not going to sit with them in the, you know, in the extreme cold or thing, you
know, but I will say this, they are light.
It's almost like wearing a heavy pair of socks, man.
They're extremely light.
They're waterproof and they're, they're pretty cool to have, especially if it's wet or if
you got to cross a creek going into check a trail camera or something like that or mud.
They spray off real easy, just like a normal rubber boot, but man, they're legit.
I think those boys are out of the south too.
So that's a.
Yeah, those.
Yeah.
Looking at those, they, I saw them, I got my hands on a pair at the world deer Expo in
Alabama last year.
Yeah.
And they had a set up and I mean, they, they seem pretty awesome.
My only concern with them has been I wonder what the sweat factor would be like because
there's any rubber boots going to make your foot sweat, but I don't know, man, when I
wear Crocs, like I can sweat like the best of them.
Yeah.
It's nasty, man.
I've wondered what it like wearing those, but, but you're right.
They are light and I'm intrigued by using those for, you know, my white tail hunts that
I'm not necessarily hiking in very far, especially like my private land stuff.
Yeah.
Like if I'm, if walk is two to 300 yards, do you really need a pair of Krispies?
Probably not.
Yeah.
If you're heading west, I think, I think you probably want something a little better.
Yeah.
And that, that's where the crossover comes.
Right.
So the crossover comes me wearing my boots, white, those boots, white tail hunting and
out west.
So I bought them because I was going out west and I needed a durable Western boot that
also performs very well, you know, here in Iowa too, in Nebraska and other places that
I'll be going.
So I'm going to have those boots as backup, but I think I'm just going to go ahead and
buy the exact same pair at the exact same size and just turn the, the, the pair that I
have into like lawn mowing boots or, you know, work around the house type, type boots.
And so they never really die.
They just get repurposed.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Now that makes sense.
What kind did you say they were again?
What are they called?
Crispy thors.
Thors.
Okay.
All right.
And then so you mentioned bows too.
And I think I've been, I've been thinking about getting a new bow this year.
This would be your number three with this bow.
But then I was like, dude, I like, I just liked the bow that I have for the most part
of it performed well and I shot well out of it.
And it had little to no hand shock.
Of course it was, it was professionally tuned.
I brought it in and I had a guy help me tune the shit out of it.
And so that helped.
But I think I'm just going to get new strings and cables for it and just just go and just
do it again.
So I got the Bow Tech solution.
Okay.
You're not a, you're not a new bow every year guy even leading up to that, right?
Like you, you get a couple of years out of yours.
There was a, there was a couple of years that I went new bow, new bow, new bow, like
three or four years in a row.
Okay.
And I tell you what.
I didn't mind it, but I had more free time back then.
Now I don't necessarily have the free time.
So it was awesome at the beginning of this past year to just pick my bow up, know it
was on and I self admittedly, I'm not an all year shooter.
Like this winner, I did not shoot.
So I don't shoot all year long and there's going to come a time here where I need to
start, you know, I need to take it in and get it serviced and stuff.
But the best part is is when you don't need to change strings, it's in the ballpark,
right?
It may not be right on if you just let it set, but it's in the ballpark because string stretch
and things like, you know, all that stuff.
So you get, you get set up, you shoot, make some minor adjustments and it's in little
to no time, you're back on again.
And so I, I'm really looking forward to, you know, starting to shoot again.
However, I got this shoulder issue I'm dealing with right now.
I, I bet you if I picked my bow up, I couldn't, I couldn't draw it back.
I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to see if I can't get a, like a quarter zone shot
in it.
Oh, Dan.
Yeah.
Is, is this the year that I shoot across?
No.
Yeah.
It's this year that Dan just picks up a crossbow and has the doctors note.
Don't do you have to have a crossbows legal in Iowa?
No, you got to have a doctor's note at my age.
Yep.
Okay.
All right.
So man, let's, let's hope this isn't the year, but if it is, I'm, I'm, I sent another
episode coming up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
And so, yeah, I mentioned this on the nine finger chronicles.
Crossbows have their place.
I, I am not against them.
And this would, this would be a perfect example of how a crossbow can be effective for someone
who is injured.
Like I would rather shoot a compound bow, but I also don't want to miss hunting season.
Therefore, if a doctor thinks my arm is injured enough or my shoulder is injured enough, then
I can get a note and I can take advantage of the law that is in place.
Crossbows are also legal for those, I think over 60 or 65 in the state of Iowa.
And then they're also, they're also legal as a primitive weapon during the late season.
So I can, you know, a person could use a crossbow during the late season timeframe in Iowa.
And so it's not like they're, they're outlawed or illegal.
It's just they're not legal for capable people in the archery season here in Iowa.
So without a doctor's permit or if you're handicapped or if you're senior citizen or
something like that.
So man, I can't, I cannot wait to see Dan Johnson slinging bolts at a hundred yards.
And then what, what if I, you just, here comes out at a hundred yards.
I get one down.
I get, I tell you what, if I had a crossbow in the tree with me and it was tuned up and
ready to go this late season, I probably would have had a hundred and fifty inch deer on
the ground or, or attempted a shot at one at 75, 80 yards.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
Like knock on wood that my shoulder recovers or maybe I just had this year, I have to back
off my poundage a little bit.
But man, that would suck for that, if that, if that happened.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
Let me eat to your, to your bow.
So I made the switch last year on my site.
I've always, I've always hated peepsites.
Always hated looking through a peep site.
I just, I just don't feel like I have a good, I guess, site window with the peep and pin.
So I swapped over to a red dot site on my bow, which has been really, really interesting.
And this year, I think I'm going to stick with it and just go ahead and get rid of the
peep site because you don't need a peep on it anymore.
But an adjustable red dot is what the company is called.
And it, I've been very, very happy with it.
Okay.
And so I take it, that takes batteries.
It does.
Yep.
So in Iowa, your archery tackle cannot be lit or use power.
Oh, no kidding.
Yeah.
So I couldn't use that in Iowa.
Oh, red dot man, that sucks.
Okay.
Yeah, which is fine with me, right?
I got a range finder.
I got my setup.
I use a peep site.
You know, I like a kisser button for the, for just the points of contact, you know, the
nose, the finger, I put my thumb or my, my nub actually on my finger right here by my
ear.
So I have one, two, three, you know, three contact points on my face and head.
And then my peep site lines up the site and I feel, you know, that's how I do it.
It might be a little bit overkill.
But that's where I, that's where I gain my confidence in doing that, that repetitively.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that makes sense.
That's one of the things I've liked about the red dot.
And I guess I need to look into the regulations a little bit more if I'm going to be traveling
this fall.
But one of the things I've liked about the red dot is if you don't have good form, then
you can't see the dot.
It disappears.
Yeah.
If your bow is one direction or the other, you can't see the dot.
And for me, you know, especially hunting out of a saddle and sometimes taking shots in
really weird positions, I like that if I can see the dot, I know my form is good.
Yeah.
At least it's good enough.
Yeah.
Man, there's, there's some situations where I'd get nervous if I had that type of technology
on my bow because there's times where you got to like duck down or you got to tilt your
bow a little better, you got to lean back or, or be out of perfect form for your shot.
And yep, if I would lose my mind if that dot wasn't coming on, but I had a deer at 20
yards that I could have shot, you know what I mean?
Sure.
Sure.
Yeah.
With with with a little bit of practice, you get you get real.
It becomes kind of second nature of fixing what you need to mostly torque left to right,
you know, in your wrist and you can kind of fix that.
But but yeah, that would certainly cause a panic moment.
Yeah, for sure.
All right.
Let's see.
So I'll, I know, see, there's, there's a really good chance I'm drawing Kansas this year, which
means I'm going to be really mobile down in Kansas.
And so I am going to be jump jumping in more.
I, I, I hunted a couple times out of a saddle this past year.
This year it's going to be way more just because of where I'm going to be going and how I'm
going to be hunting.
And so that's going to open up, you know, open up a whole new window for me as far as,
you know, the, the gear that I'm using for mobile hunting.
A lot of the, the tree stand is going to be the tree stands I feel like are going to,
they're going to play their role in certain scenarios.
And just like the guys at tethered say, you know, hey, we're not trying to take away your
tree stands, we're just trying to provide you with another tool in your kill kit, basically.
And so, and so that's why I like, I do like working with those guys because it's not like,
hey, you got to, you got to have a saddle because I did I still hunt out of a tree stand
a lot of the times too.
And this year I killed my deer out of a pre hung or a stand that I went in mobile, but
I left it up and I came back to it during the rut.
So it was, it was there because it was in a good spot.
And so that's, that's where I killed my deer out of this past year.
With that said, do you do any type of modifications to any of your equipment?
Yeah.
So, I mean, obviously anytime I get a new saddle, I, I'm going in and I'm, I'm tweaking
all kinds of things.
It may be putting loops of, you know, extra molly loops on a certain part in maybe adding
paracord loops so that I can haul my sticks up a little bit better.
You know, any saddle gets, gets tweaking.
I may be hunting out of a new saddle this year.
That is, that is yet to be seen, but I'm going to stick with the same one.
I know I need to restel strip pretty much all of my gear, all of my climbing sticks.
I'm, I'm a little bit fanatical when it comes to stealth stripping things just because, you
know, when you're, I have a harder time when I'm being super mobile, especially in new
and unfamiliar places, I have a much harder time putting the effort in to be quiet.
You know, I'll, I'll, you know, just getting a rush or you get inside your head or you
got other things on your mind.
And so that's probably the biggest, I guess, modification that I make to everything is,
is just trying to really silence everything.
Yeah.
And then dial it.
I'm, man, I'm still rocking the old lone wolf sticks.
Those may get a little bit of extra modding this year with maybe putting some double steps
on them.
I've got one stick that's double steps instead of the single, you know, flop left or right
kind of method of those old sticks.
And I like that a lot better of having two sticks to stand on, especially when you're,
you know, hanging from a saddle and, and trying to get everything set up.
Yeah.
Yeah, man, I'll tell you this stealth strips are great.
They, they're awesome, but I just take it as I back it off of a stealth strip.
Okay.
So here I'll tell you a little funny story.
I got kind of a creative hair in my butt one day and I went to a sporting goods store
and I bought hockey tape.
I bought a bicycle pedal, you wrap your pedal or your, your handlebars with the grip tennis
racquet grip baseball grip.
And I, I did all these things and I wrapped them.
I wrapped the, the sticks with all my lone wolf sticks with a variety of different methods
there.
And dude, I'm telling you, if it wasn't so expensive base, it wasn't, it was tennis, was
it tennis racquet grip could have been tennis racquet grip.
It had a little grit to it.
And so it was either, it was either tennis racquet grip or baseball grip for a baseball
bat.
And I'll tell you right now, it had a little grit to it and, and it had some good traction.
So you could hold on to it, but it was also very lightly padded.
And so it was not only quiet, but it had awesome grip to it.
But that, so that would have been a more expensive option to wrap all of that.
And I think it would have cost you like 30 bucks or 40 bucks to wrap four sticks at the
top.
All right.
So I went the other route and I just bought green, like forest green or black hockey tape.
And I wrap my sticks in, in that.
And it quiet, it actually does quiet it down a lot, but over two years that it starts to
fray just a little bit, in which case I'll just wrap another layer around it.
So most of my, most of my climbing sticks are wrapped in like, for my mobile sets anyway,
because I have a couple that are out hanging in trees that are my rut sets that they don't
have any mods done to them at all.
So the only modding that I really do is hockey sticks, hockey stick tape on my tree stand
or on my climbing sticks for my mobile, on my mobile sets only.
Now, other than that, I don't do like all the, that, the one stick method or the, you
know, the cables or the straps that they, the additional stuff that they add.
I just, I don't do that.
Yeah.
One, one other cheap option for, for tape.
And I actually switched to this probably two years ago, maybe three years ago now, but I
swapped over to using that tape.
It's just like a, like a cloth bandage kind of tape.
Yep.
It works pretty well.
It's, it's not nearly as durable and it'll get like birds and stuff stuck in it.
But, you know, so you have to redo it every season, but for like three bucks, you can
do all your sticks.
Right.
You know, and it's, and it's really, really cheap.
But man, I don't, I don't know about you, but as my kids get older, I just don't have
the time to tinker and mod things anymore.
Like I don't have a lot of time and I don't have a lot of money, but I've got more money
time these days, it feels like.
Yeah.
And so I'm focusing a lot more on, on buying the right thing rather than buying something
that I need to take home and tinker with and modify and, and all of that, because my hunting
time is, is limited and I'm, I, when it's time to go, I've got to go and I've got a week
or two weeks to get it done.
And, and that's my window.
You know, I don't have a bunch of evenings to come down to the basement and tinker with
stuff.
Yeah.
Hey, I'll tell you another thing I did.
I took apart a lone wolf stick and I sprayed the tube with spring on bed liner.
And that was actually, that was actually really cool.
Man, it, it was black.
It had kind of a rubber type gritty texture to it.
And if I had the time, I would, I would take my stuff into like, what's that spray and
bed liner called?
Like rhino lining?
Yeah, rhino lining or something like that.
And take it to one of their dealerships and see if they would just experiment and coat
one of my tree stand platforms in that stuff.
Oh, yeah.
And quiet it down.
It would quiet it down dramatically because it quieted my sticks down really well.
But the only issue is it gained, it, it gains a mass on the stick.
So it's real tight to stack the lone wolf sticks then at that point because all of the,
the tubing is now bigger because of that extra coating on it.
And so, and so I had to be creative in how I, you know, in how I stack my sticks are,
and I learned that on the small portions where the stick stack, I don't, I didn't spray them
or I don't wrap them.
So I, so the stick stack perfectly well, but then outside of that, man, it's, it's, it's,
I don't know, it's legit.
Yeah.
So on a, on a tree stand note, are you doing anything?
I mean, you've got a pile of stands at this point.
Yeah.
You've been kind of the same ones forever.
Are you, are you trying anything new?
I mean, the last two or three years, there have been a lot of new hang on stands at the
market.
Yeah.
I'm not opposed.
They're in, yeah.
They're intriguing.
Yeah.
I'm not opposed.
A couple that kind of stick out to me would be elevate the elevate, um, lone with lone wolf
custom gear, the beast stand.
The thing about some of this, these new, these really, I guess the, the new hang ons is if
they do not adjust in the tree, like if I cannot adjust the platform or I cannot adjust
level that I'm not interested in it at all because there's options out there that do that.
So unfortunately, like some of the hawk tree stands, they don't do that.
I'm trying to think of what's another hang on that I don't think.
I think if you tinker with them, a millennium, you might be able to get a, you know, get
that.
But here's, here's one thing that I thought would be cool for a new company, like to start
a new company.
And that would be a bracket that you can hang on a tree that can connect to whether you
make one bracket for millenniums, one brackets for summits, one bracket for, you know, whatever
the brand is.
And then it, that bracket attaches to the tree, then the tree stand attaches to it.
And then you can level it based off of that bracket and that tree stand connection.
And so it makes any tree stand gives the, it gives any tree stand the ability to be self
leveling.
Yeah.
So the bracket itself has the leveling component.
You're not relying on the stand to be able to self leveling.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you would, you would be able to put this bracket on the tree and then you could, I
don't know, it would go one way or the other and then you could slide your tree stand on,
onto it, but it's secure enough to where it wouldn't move.
Yeah.
Man, I really liked that idea.
Yeah.
I really, I might have to steal that.
You go for it.
Go for it.
Just know who gave you the idea when you make millions off of it.
Just remember, remember my humble.
Are there any other, are there any other products out there like that that you wish,
you know, you could redesign or here, I'll, I'll, I'm going to give you one more that
I've been thinking about lately.
All right.
So lone wolf, right?
The old lone wolf.
So I've used the assault in the alpha for many years, throw it on my back and I go into
the woods, right?
But it is even the assault with a smaller tree stand, the, the footprint of it is pretty
big still compared to like if you're trying to compare it to a saddle.
So one thing that I thought would be some kind of folding platform to where you could
fold it and then put the seat down and somehow just compact it down more than what it already
is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those, those stands lay real flat, but if you could then again, fold it into and make it
kind of lock into each other, it might, the, the, it might be a little thicker, but it
won't be as wide and you might be able to stick it in actually into a backpack or strap
it to the side of your, you know, to the side of your thing.
Now I don't know if that would, you know, I'm obviously not a designer.
So I don't know if that would take away from the stability of it or the functionality of
it, but I just feel like there would be a place in the market for a collapsible hang on
tree stand that's ultra mobile because it packs down to the size of, I don't know, like
a shoe box or something like that.
Maybe, maybe even smaller, fold it, unfold it here, unfold it here by popping it up.
You lock it into place and there you go.
So I don't know though.
I don't know.
Yeah.
It seems like they, they should be able to pull that off.
I mean, because then you're looking at a, at a profile that's what six inches thick,
but you don't, you don't have the size necessarily.
You can drop it down in your pack.
I like that a lot.
Right.
Or, or maybe like a, it would be like a tripod, you know, the size of a folded down tripod
that you can slip into your at the actual container in your pack that you would put a
tripod in and then all you gotta do is pull it out.
And so, but I don't know, I don't know how like you would have, you would really have
to mess around with putting hinges on it and being able to fold it up and, or, or maybe
it comes in multiple pieces to where you can like put it together.
And then by putting an arm down across it or underneath the vid or something, I'm just
brainstorming here.
You would lock it into place and there, so there would be a little bit of assembly required
at the bottom of the tree.
But once you lock it into place, it's not going anywhere.
And so I don't know, I feel like, I feel like there's room in the market for that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think so.
And I think one more thing that I have been, I mean, I've, I've hunted almost exclusively.
I mean, this year, I only hunted out of a saddle and on the ground.
But almost exclusively out of a saddle for three years now, maybe four years.
One of the things that I'm not seeing from the, the saddle platform manufacturers, they're
doing a good job of getting some adjustment.
Like if you've got a leaning tree that's leaning away from you or to you, you know, with the
way they cam over, you can get a good, you know, a good bite into the tree and then adjust
it so that your feet are comfortable and everything.
I would love to see the ability for the bottom of the platform to twist left to right so
that the, the post can be perfectly up and down with the tree so that you're getting
maximum bite and you don't have to have that post at an angle on the tree or anything.
Yeah.
But you can take the, the bottom of the platform and twist it left to right, you know, depending
on what you're, on what the tree is giving you as far as a lean because there are a lot
of just really wonky trees that.
Yeah.
And when you're saddle hunting, you can get into them.
They're, you know, smaller than a, than a volleyball, they're tiny little trees that
you can climb up into.
But then you get there and they've got, you know, just a funky lean.
It's not just in a perfect world, you know, they're straight or they're leaning away or
leaning to you.
But you know, maybe you want to be on the side of the tree.
I find myself, you know, wanting to be on the side of a leaning tree quite a bit.
It'd be great if that platform could compensate for that instead of feeling like it's going
to dump me off to the right or dump me off to the left.
Does that make sense?
Yes.
Now, here's the way I look at it.
A platform, a saddle platform is literally just a tree stand with a smaller platform and
no seat.
It's really, yep.
It's really all it is.
And so I feel like the, there should be, you know, like how the old lone wolves had the
bat wing on the back that you can, you slide over and that adjusts everything.
That's what, that's all they need.
That's all they need on those to make that work.
And so it's not the actual stand that needs to rotate.
It's the top portion that connects to the tree and then you strap it in and then you
cam, you know, you cam it down to where it would, where it would be stable.
But if you haven't noticed, it's patents that prevent some of these, these other things
from happening.
Like, not all tree stands can have that type of technology on them because it's patented
by another brand.
But some, I'm not saying all, some of the, how do I put this?
Measurements are the same or very close to where maybe you could put some washers in
between them.
Take out what comes out there, take a bat wing off a lone wolf, put it on and then, you
know, put, put the bolt back in that came with the original stand.
So it's all safe, put the nut back on.
Maybe there's some washers that need to go in there, put it back on.
And now you have an adjustable platform.
Yeah.
But I don't know it would be, I'm not recommending anybody do this.
You'd have to look, you'd have to take it apart, make sure the measurements are the
same.
But there's that, that could be a possible option.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. And you know, one thing that I think too, as people think about what they
would like to see from a, from a, from a tree stand company or a saddle company or whatever,
one of the big things I've been learning as I talk with more and more people who are involved
with the design piece of some of these products, it's, it's that these patents, there may be
nothing else like it on the market, but the patent owned by somebody.
And so they start signing it, start working on the product.
They get an email or a letter from so and so as attorney that says, Hey, we own a patent
for that.
And they're like, well, but you're not producing it.
It's like, doesn't matter.
We own the patent.
Right.
So you can either royalties or you can buy this patent from us or you can just not make
this idea.
So a lot of this stuff that we think, man, why won't this come to market?
It's like, well, somebody out there owns the patent, they're not producing it right now.
I mean, they're just on the patent rather than letting it, letting it come out.
And you know, I get it.
I mean, intellectual property, right?
You don't want to, you don't want to start to mess with that and take that away.
But yeah, it is a pain because there are a lot of products that we can dream up that
at the end of the day, very well could be on the market.
It's just somebody's got a piece of paper somewhere that says nobody else can make it.
Or yeah, I did this first, you know, so yeah.
And that, that's, you know, I look at something like that.
I say it's only fair.
So because I mean, I've talked with several guys before who they have really good ideas
and they don't have, they don't have the money to start the business off or, you know, or
they're, you know, they have good ideas.
They do start a business.
It's much smaller.
And then another company tries to rip them off and they don't have enough money to fight
it in it in the legal system.
And so all I'll say is this.
Look at how certain risers in bows are, right?
And how there, there are certain, I'll put this without giving it away too much.
I'll, I'll just say this.
There's a dual riser system that does have a patent on it.
And as you will see, there are some bows that have dual, dual risers or not all the way
through.
So maybe that's the loophole.
But once an idea comes to market that is actually really good, other companies will
rip it off.
I mean, man, we saw that at the ATA show, handful of years ago, where like a legit company ripped
off every like four or five products that this new company put out just so it could
fill a skew and be, you know, and, and introduce it at the same time at the market.
And it was available for the upcoming year.
And now I think they actually got in trouble for some of it.
But the rest, I mean, it's not just the hunting industry.
That's all over the place.
That, that, that, that happened.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Yes, sir, anything else hunting related that or hunting year related that we need to bring
up today?
Man, I don't think so.
I'm, I'm slowly shifting away from, from Turkey mindset at this point.
So I'm sure there'll be some, as we get into the summer and I start dreaming whitetails
a little bit more.
But I'm, I'm kind of mourning the loss of Turkey season right now.
It's, it's about the end here in Georgia and my tags and other states are filled and I
think I'm pretty much done for the year.
So I'm going to go cry for a little bit and then then we'll think about whitetails.
Don't cry.
Just look forward to your next adventure, dude.
Go fishing or something.
That's right.
Go fishing.
So.
Well, Josh, man, I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to hop on and be us
with us about gear.
I'll talk to you when I talk to you, man.
All right.
Sounds good, brother.
I'm going to go.
I'm going to go.
I'm going to go.
I'm going to go.