DIY Sportsman | Sportsmen's Nation

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett discusses what has become his favorite shotgun setup for specifically hunting turkeys. This is a gun he originally purchased for his wife, but after setting it up and making a couple of customizations, Garrett has been using it for all of his hunts as well. In the episode, Garrett breaks down the actual make and model of the gun, the choke setup, after market stock, pistol grips versus standard sporter style grips, sling mounts, and red dots compared to the standard bead sight. He also mentions a couple drawbacks of the concept that could be noteworthy depending on your preference. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett sits down with Mike Funderburk out of South Carolina to talk about the Hunt Better platform. This new content platform puts a focus on teaching and preserving woodsmanship skills through livestreams, detailed video hunt breakdowns, and long format video conversations. Mike explains what initiated the idea, what people can expect, and where things are headed. In addition to talking about the Hunt Better platform, Garrett and Mike talk about hunting in the South and how it differs from the Midwest, what types of deer habitat features that seem to be common across the country, technology, challenge hunts, and how experience can often be one of the best guides for learning skills first hand. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

In today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett lays out a short and sweet planning method to help you scout efficiently as we get closer to early spring and prime-time for most post season scouting. It's key to remember what the main focus is for post-season scouting, what you can learn, but also what you can't. Then use the amount of available time combined with goals to methodically pre-plan routes and loops and adjust as necessary. It's an easier method to ensure you gather the most amount of good intel in the time you have available.Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

On today's podcast Garrett speaks with guest Rendell Erik. He's been on the podcast now a few times to talk about scouting and hunt recaps. Based in Iowa, much of his focus is on finding and targeting the biggest and oldest bucks that he can find across a variety of public land pieces that he keeps tabs on. Today's episode is a little different. It's more about calling audibles, dealing with challenges, trying to make the best decisions on the fly as possible when plans A, B, and C blow up. Often Rendell Erik fills his tag earlier in the season before the rut kicks into full gear. This year, after sacrificing some of his season to scout and hunt with a good mutual friend of ours who had drawn a non-resident tag, he had to dig deep and hunt throughout the rut and even into the later gun seasons. He also saw more pressure this year than in years past, and had dry conditions and crop rotations that made early season patterns less repeatable than normal. This is an insightful episode because because it looks at how you can take a good mental approach and take the right actions when things aren't going your way. 

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett recaps his recent trip down to Alabama for the second annual Veteran's Hunt put together by Spartan Forge. This event helped raise money for two organizations supporting vets as well as provide a fun hunt atmosphere for everyone involved. Prior to the actual hunt starting, Garrett had driven down from Minnesota to do a day of scouting and still hunting a vast area of public land, which ended up yielding deer sightings at close range and confidence for any potential future trips going back. Once the hunt started, Garrett paired up with a marine corps vet to hunt with. They ended up killing deer on back-to-back-to-back evenings, and Garrett describes some of the hunts in more detail which were a combination of pre-sets, hang-and-hunts, and still hunting in the rain. Camp camaraderie, stories, jokes, and food were top notch. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

Today on the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett discusses five of the best things you could be doing right now related to hunting. Seasons have ended in most midwestern states, and if you're towards the northern edge of that you've still got 1 to 2 feet of snow on the ground. Seems like ice fishing could be your best bet. But there are some pretty valuable activities that you can still do during the winter months. Some of the items include analyzing certain details of the 2022 hunting season, some are more forward thinking, and others are just a bunch of fun. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more awesome content!

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett does a strategy review and analysis as a baseline for how to improve next year. He doesn't review any of the specific hunt details because those already have their own hunt breakdown episodes. This exercise is one that Garrett does each year with to help review and analyze what did or didn't work to try and improve for the following season. That action is something which can help anyone, and it's a useful tool even outside of deer hunting.Garrett will plan on doing much of the same weapon type hunting next year, using a combination of traditional and compound hunting across a handful of tags. But there might be a change to the location of the earliest velvet hunt, and there will certainly be a change in the location of any firearms hunting. Garrett also talked about an additional strategy he'd need to employ to help be better prepared to tackle his pre-rut hunts next year.Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more awesome content!

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett sits down with Troy Fowler (aka the Ranch Fairy) and Darrel Barnette, who some of you may have also seen on either the Ranch Fairy channel or watching the Hunting Public. Garrett put together a string jump timeframe dataset corresponding to arrow speed and time of flight for discussion. The data was derived entirely on video footage Garrett had from deer shot at inside of 30 yards, but mostly inside of 20. Much of the string jumping debate seems to revolve around longer shots and whether or not speed is irrelevant compared to how fast deer can react. But rarely do you hear people talk about the relationship for close range shots. The group discusses that topic and also some of the longer range unknowns. There's not really any agenda pushing in this episode. It's just open dialogue discussing a data set, how it might apply to your own decision making, what limitations are there, and what type of additional questions we still have and data we'd like to collect and analyze to continue to learn. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more awesome content!

On this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett breaks down his archery hunt success out of state. This hunt was during a firearms season as well. That pressure did play a role in strategy, but so did timing in proximity to the peak breeding timeframe of the rut. Garrett describes the thought process and strategy going in, how that changed over the first several hours in the woods, what type of sign he found to trigger setting up in a tree right away, and the play-by-play of the hunt. In addition, some of the details related to the frontal shot were broken down in this episode. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more awesome content!

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett reviews the hunt strategy and breakdown of his Wisconsin buck. In addition to discussing terrain features, setup relationship to bedding, and the actual hunt unfolding, he discussed some unforeseen challenges through late October that required a change of plans, strategy, and goals heading into the rut. This was also the first deer in a long time Garrett had shot using a lighter arrow and big mechanical, so he gives his performance observations there. 

On this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett does a recap of the season thus far, including early season hunts with the recurve, some things that really surprised him about observations in the woods and on camera the past couple of weeks in October, dealing with nearly record high warm weather in the pre-rut, and a breakdown of Sam's recent successful solo hunt on public land.

In today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett breaks down clothing for the rut. The rut entails two major considerations - wild ranges of potential temperature and weather along with sitting all day. In just the last couple of years in the upper midwest, temperatures have ranged from as warm as 70 degrees to below zero. True all day sits don't give much of an opportunity to recharge your metabolism throughout the day, meaning that it's easy to feel like your clothing warmth is underperforming if you don't plan correctly. Garrett covers keeping your feet dry and warm, choosing appropriate base layers, layers worn into the woods, and layers packed in along with accessories to keep hands and head warm and dry. For the purposes of the rut, Garrett's general plan and recommendation has shifted somewhat over the years from being more efficient while packing to being more functional while in the tree while making minimal compromises. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more awesome content!

On today's episode, Garrett talks about bowhunting in the month of October, which has become his favorite month overall to hunt in the Midwest. September can be nice because of the mild weather and of cover to help hide you in the tree. Bed to food patterns can be easy to identify, and deer can be less on edge. And of course November can also be incredible, though the second half of that month is usually the heaviest hunting pressure of the entire year with the various gun seasons, so often the best rut hunting is isolated, it can be very cold, and you can still put in long hours and slow days waiting for that one key flurry of activity. October seems to blend the best of both months. Dressing for the weather is very manageable. Deer movement can be average to very good, and it steadily improves over the course of the month. Deer movement is also much more predictable than November, both from a bedding perspective as well as year-over-year repeatability. The cover has been knocked down a bit since September which improves shooting lanes, but not so much so that the trees you're hunting out of are barren. Hunting pressure usually isn't too bad either. So in this episode Garrett covers eight tips to keep in mind to help making October hunting successful.For more awesome outdoor content, check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network, where you'll find this podcast and tons of other relevant, outdoor content.

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett discusses his mobile hunting gear along with key considerations to make when choosing between popular styles. While weight, noise, and bulk are items hotly discussed, a very key influencing factor for Garrett is versatility, function, and ease of use in a wide variety of scenarios, habitats, and states.Some of the main choices discussed are platform size, platforms versus ring of steps, multiple climbing sticks versus single sticking, fixed aiders compared to moveable aiders, minimalist packs against more rigid hybrid-frame packs, and self filming options. This podcast is also supported by a link which contains the gear talked about in more of a broken down list view: https://diy-sportsman.com/2017/12/29/deer-hunting-gear-list-2017/

On this episode of the DIY Sportsman Podcast, Garrett sits down with Bill Thompson, owner of Spartan Forge, and Johnny Stewart while at hunting camp in North Dakota. While Garrett's done this trip a few times of the past couple of years, a bunch of members all got together this year to share camp near some of Bill's old stomping ground. Garrett and Johnny recap what exactly they've been keying in on in terms of sign while the primary food source is shifting day by day and how they've adapted to pressure. Johnny goes over the moves he made while reading sign to set up in an area where he got an opportuntiy at a giant, Bill provides some historical detail and reference for how things have changed in this area since he hunted it growing up. The group also dives into one aspect of hunting which can really help drive success in low odds situations which is how and why to maintain a positive outlook and have confidence feed off of it. 

On today's podcast episode I have Shane Simpson on as a guest. While Shane has hunted a ton of different public hunting properties over the years, in the past two years he's begun a focus to try and learn a new, large piece with the intent to build a library of information and continue to focus on it for years to come. It's somewhat similar to what I've done on a couple properties. So the episode focuses mainly on the multiyear strategy to learn as much as you can each year while also having realistic expectations about what can be achieved each step of the way. We cover summer scouting, spring scouting, trail cameras, talking with other local hunters, focusing on rut vs bed hunting, the fall shift, and more. We also touch on some of the tracking data collected from over 150 deer recoveries with Shane's dog Callie. Shane and a friend of his had distilled the information down to determine what factors for broadhead and shot style led to the highest chance of recovery along with what some of the key findings were for order of operations with grid searching. 

In today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett talks about some of the items you should do your best to check or do prior to the season actually opening. With some exceptions, your first tag might be starting as soon as three weeks from now. Or it might be a little less than two months if you have an October opener and aren't traveling. Regardless, it's right around the corner, and checking some of these items as soon as possible can help give you time to make any corrections prior to the season actually opening. In the podcast, Garrett breaks down down key details regarding archery and gear checks, practicing with your climbing gear, double checking hunting properties even if you hadn't planned on glassing or using trail cameras prior to the season, and reviewing and analyzing the goals you've set for the season.    

On this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett discusses results from an in-depth round of testing different arrow weights and speeds for hunting. These ranged from setups shooting over 315 fps down to setups shooting around 200 fps. Test data included energy and momentum readings both out of the bow and at 40 yards, time of flight to the target, bow noise, arrow noise, broadhead grouping with both fixed and mechanical heads, and range estimation forgiveness for misjudging yardage around 30 yards as well as 60 yards. With Garrett's setup, he learned that the "happy medium" arrow setup he had been using probably wasn't the optimal choice for whitetails. 

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett has a part-two discussion with Rendell Erik. They talked about summer work in the last episode, but this one focuses a lot more on early season hunting and strategy. It's a conversational format, where they just talk and throughout the process dive into quite a few specific rabbit holes. The recording starts talking about hunting fresh sign versus hunting spots that you found in post-season without fresh sign. But then they shift to talking about crop rotations and early season ag field setups and bedding, how many deer will bed corn but you can still glass or set up on them while they're in that pattern before the harvest. They also discuss hill country, including how to take advantage of wind switches, learning to identify key transition areas in river-bottoms to set up on, primary versus secondary food and browse in staging areas, what to do differently in areas with a high tonnage per acre of browse, using wind and thermals, and even set up specifics like height in the tree on early season hunts among other things.

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman Podcast, we're talking summer scouting and strategies once again. This time, I'm talking to Rendell Erik who hunts primarily public land located in Iowa. This is a good contrast to the episodes I posted with Steve Sherk since the terrain is different. However, you'll still see similar tendencies in many cases for what deer are doing throughout the summer months and how to capitalize and maximize your intel. We talk about boots-on-the-ground scouting versus minimizing intrusion, running trail cameras, where to place them, how often to check them, whether it's better to cluster them or spread them way out, mock scrapes, glassing, and even how to start to transition some of the intel into early season plans. 

On today's episode we have Round 2 of taking to Steve Sherk from Pennsylvania as a guest. In the last episode with Steve, the discussion focused more on summer scouting and trail camera strategies. In today's episode, we're taking that information and transitioning into fall. Steve starts out with the story of his buck last year, how he used information from scouting to capitalize, and even how he shifted his strategy according to what he was seeing amongst multiple bucks he was following. Then we also talk about other fall hunting strategies, scrapes, clear cuts, ground set ups, and mature buck tendencies surrounding weather and time of year that Steve sees consistently repeat themselves.

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Steve Sherk is on as the guest. Steve guides deer hunters in the vast national forest land of Pennsylvania and gathers annual observational data from a huge multitude of trail cameras in addition to visual sightings from boots on the ground scouting year round and hunts in the fall. Steve and Garrett finally met in person for the first time recently at a Spartan Forge retreat. With summer right around the corner, Garrett asks Steve about scouting and trail camera tactics specific to the summer months. Steve doesn't have agriculture around in the areas he hunts, but the deer do have other summer food sources which are heavy draws in the summer months leading up into the early fall. They discuss those food sources, where and how to place cameras for inventory, how far a buck might shift from summer to fall, whether or not to dive into the bedding areas and fall hunt locations, how Steve sets up his cameras and whether he does any protection for ants or bears, how often to check cameras, observational sits, and what to do if you get a single picture of a new big buck and want to take the next steps to honing in your search and learning more about his patterns going into the fall. 

On this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett talks about his recent weekend trip to hunt public land in WI in which he shot two birds on back to back mornings. For the first bird, terrain layout and tree type played a massive role in the setup, because the bird appeared to be roosting in a place where his most likely travel after fly-down was likely to be in one specific direction. The second bird required a bit more trial and error to try and locate and roost, but the set up was driven more by prior experience hunting that area than it was strictly looking at the map. Garrett also talks about the opportunities for over-the-counter late season tags in WI and choosing between smaller areas with higher turkey populations versus larger areas with lower turkey densities. 

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett gives two hunt breakdowns from his recent Iowa hunt with Shane Simpson. On the first hunt, which ended in a successful setup, Garrett discusses the hunt details. However, perhaps more importantly, he dives into the decision making process of the access and set up pre-dawn, knowing exactly where to best position on the terrain for pulling the bird into shotgun range and not hanging up. On the second hunt breakdown, Garrett describes a similar scenario that ended up with a big tom hanging just out of shotgun range, and what the two could and should have done differently in hindsight. 

On today's episode, Garrett dives into his plan for filling a traditional tag this year, along with the detailed steps to build confidence along the way. In the past, Garrett has hunted with a traditional bow and even built a bow to hunt with. However, due to confidence and repeatability issues had largely kept it just "for fun" the past couple of years. But that doesn't have to be the case. There are many fantastic resources and training tools available to the modern archer, and there is no reason you can't build yourself up to the point where you have total control and confidence in your shot, despite the weapon of choice. In addition to talking through and reviewing some of those tools, Garrett also talks about the focus areas and how they'll change over the next several months leading up to the season.

In today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett talks turkey hunting. But instead of picking a particular topic and doing a deep dive on it, this one is more high level. There are a lot of guys who've just been getting into turkey hunting, and apart from being able to watch videos online, might not necessarily know what they might be doing right or wrong, or what gear is seen as essential vs just nice to have vs gimmicky. Some of the topics and items I'll cover might seem pretty basic to experienced turkey hunters, but some of it is stuff I didn't even realize, figure out or learn until several years of doing it. 

On today's Episode I have Rendell Erik on again as a guest. Today's discussion is focused on post season scouting. He's got a goal of hitting the 300 mile mark this season, and at the time this episode drops, he's already pretty close to if not over 100. Instead of spending large amounts of time on ultra vast landscapes, Rendell Erik casts a net over dozens of smaller properties to keep tabs on. In this podcast, we discuss what he looks for, how he stays efficient, how he qualifies a public property that's worth coming back to, and how he's thinking about the overall fall plan during the process. The episode starts off with recent intel gathered on a river bottom property; however, specific examples are given in multiple terrain types along with how successful hunts and observations relate to learning the land in the off season.

On today's podcast we have a little change of pace. One of my friends, Sean McVeigh recently took up ice fishing, which has been something I've done now for a couple decades. Being so new and not really being sure of all the ins and outs, Sean and I had talked quite a bit about how to get started. This included defining what the bare necessities are and what the pros and cons are for various levels of equipment. Ice fishing is another one of those things where it seems like you can spend as much or as little as you want, but there are definitely certain areas you don't want to skimp out on. We recorded this episode in the hopes that anyone else new to ice fishing might have a resource to look into and be able to help guide their decision making process for choosing rods, augers, line, reels, shelters, and electronics. 

On this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett discusses six benefits of spring scouting but also six pitfalls of spring scouting. It's never a bad idea to get out in the woods and cover some ground in early spring before the woods green up. But there is a risk to putting too much stock into certain aspects of what you learn. In years past, Garrett had chosen to hunt areas almost entirely off of intel gained in the off-season, which can be fine during certain times of the year, but could be wasting time in others without paying attention to additional contextual clues.

On today's podcast I'm going to discuss some of the biggest lessons learned through the 2021 season. Now that the season has been over for several weeks, I've taken time to reflect and write these things down for myself, in the hopes that I can make improvements for the next year. In the episode, I talk through my list and give some specific examples, along with what I'm doing this next year to improve. I tried to focus on items that most people can hopefully learn from as well. Some topics are specific to general deer hunting, some to travel hunting, some to trying to hunt older deer, some to hunting with others, some to trail cameras, and some to trying to easily film with minimal camera gear.

On today's Podcast we have Jared Shaffer on the line. He's a past guest and good friend of mine. Even though he's located out in West Virginia we end up seeing each other a fair amount through work with Tethrd. Jared has had an absolutely phenomenal season, shooting 5 bucks across various states, plus filming each of his family members filling tags, plus shooting a giant sika stag, and a bobcat. Jared and I discuss some of the specifics of his hunts, but also dive into what, if anything he did differently to see so much success this year in comparison to years past.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

On today's episode I'm discussing my recent Iowa trip. This year I'd gone down there to do a late season muzzleloader hunt, as it's still a somewhat easy tag to draw, but gave more time than the shotgun seasons, with less hunting pressure. I'll discuss the initial strategy, what changed, what things I wasn't expecting, where I located bigger bucks, hunt strategies employed, and things I would do the same or differently if doing it again in the future.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

On today's episode we once again have Paul Putera. If you didn't listen to the last episode, we discussed some of the tools and techniques that Paul uses for hunting, and it was full of a lot of great info. This episode is more of a BS session in which we discuss a variety of topics. Discussion areas on this episode include tag strategies, broadhead and arrow setups, shot selection and tracking dogs, proficiency tests, staying warm in colder weather, saddle hunting platforms, and tips for efficiency with both tree stands and saddles.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

On this week's episode I have Paul Putera on as a guest. This isn't Paul's first time on the podcast, but he's always fun to listen to and dive deep into the weeds on his very in-depth style of scouting and hunting, which seems to always bring him success in the some of the seemingly vast areas in the northeast. Paul's already taken a couple of great bucks this year by dry ground tracking them back to their bedrooms and setting up close. In the episode, Paul and I talk a bit about some of those hunts, but also his overall process, in how he tackles an area from an e-scouting perspective but also a year-over-year historical perspective. We spend a good bit of time on hills and how deer can shift even throughout the day, and how to pick up that a buck is in an area without necessarily even having photos or sightings and how to systematically figure out where he's spending most of his time.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

On today's podcast I've got Johnny Stewart on again as a guest, and we're talking about Late Season. Now, some might call Johnny somewhat of a rut and Late Season specialist, because his job doesn't give him a ton of free time in the early season. So he'll often hunt until the bitter end in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, or even Iowa, and has killed a number of good deer during that timeframe. We discuss big woods, like the national forest that we walked together during the Spartan Forge veterans hunt a couple of weeks ago, and how to find likely food sources in vast areas. Then we also talk about more pocketed areas of land where there might even be ag as a food source. In addition to finding food, we talk setups, access, pressure, weather, and off-the wall tactics like scouting at night when the deer are out feeding away from their bedding areas.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett sits down with Brian Dombrowski of Wisconsin, who he originally met while hunting public land on an out-of-state trip. Brian hunts many different habitat types but really enjoys tackling bigger parcels or timber or marshland, where he's been able to take several nice deer over the years. His methods and descriptions of hunting marshes differ a bit from the typical media we here describing them. In addition to talking about Brian's year round process and using in-season scouting to hone in on a particular area, we also do two hunt breakdowns... one for an old central WI buck taken this year, and another for a giant out-of-state buck that Brian shot in early September.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast we have a great guest, Rendell Erik. We'll be diving into the finer details of his public land Iowa hunt from this year, where he shot a giant, which is also a becoming a fairly regular occurrence for him it seems. One thing that becomes very apparent is the attention to detail for all of the little things, like access, wind, thermal pull, picking the right tree in the right spot the first time in, figuring out what the hottest food source was that current day, being able to stay hidden with deer going through. It's pretty clear that the thought processes and attention to detail, along with knowing what things are truly important and which aren't, are what really helps drive his annual success.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett discusses clothing. Instead of talking about layering philosophy or how to stay warm on stand, Garrett goes into more detail about very specific garments that he's been using new in 2021. These reviews include likes, dislikes, and the best times and areas for application. Clothing discussed in the review include almost all of the new offerings from Thlete, the Savanna and Windbrace sets from Scentlok, the IWOM XT, the new Sitka Incinerator bibs, and even a couple of new boots. DIY Sportsman is powered by Simple Cast.

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett talks about how to navigate the vast amount of changes that occur between the beginning and the end of the month. Changes include food sources, amount of available security cover, hunting pressure, and hormones. Garrett reviews data of daylight mature buck sightings from the 2020 season in locations near doe bedding throughout the month, and how it compares to sightings before mid-month. Strategy wise, being successful in early October requires a different mindset and skillset, and it can be important to not overpressure good pre-rut areas too early before bucks have started shifting over or showing up in daylight because of impact on the does. However, Garrett talks about a scouting strategy that has proven to be fairly low impact to gather intel before the pre-rut to help stay on top of anything that may have changed from the prior year.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

On today's episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett interviews Jake Bush about hill country bucks. Jake has lived and hunted in both New York and more recently southern Ohio, and has been able to find a great degree of success scouting, locating, and patterning bucks in the big woods hills. They breakdown each portion of the season and talk about strategies for each. Jake discusses why a less commonly sought after wind direction is actually his favorite for setting up because the wind and thermal interaction allow him to get set up more undetected. Jake also discusses his experiences hunting scrapes, and which ones he likes to focus on or ignore, and he talks about his scouting methods from shed hunting through summer glassing and trail camera work. DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

In this episode of the DIY Sportsman podcast, Garrett and his wife Sam discuss their recent Nebraska public land deer hunt. Nebraska is of course a large state with some varied habitat, but they decided to go to a region where mule deer were more sought after to reduce the likelihood of pressure from other whitetail hunters. In the episode, the couple talks about the challenges they faced, lessons learned about the area and habitat, as well as a recap of their hunting strategy. Sam was successful in shooting a doe, so she talked about her mindset during the closing moments and how it compared to some of her experiences earlier in the week with close calls and calming of nerves.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast

On this episode of the DIY Sportsman Podcast, Garrett outlines a list of things to do now before the season starts, to make sure that the opener goes as smoothly as possible. The three categories where there are some great opportunities are Archery, Gear, and final Pre-Season Scouting. We are close enough to the season in many states that if everything isn't already flushed out and tested, you can feel a little behind. The last few weeks before the season should be allocated for getting reps in and building additional confidence with a system that has already been locked. However, not everyone will find themselves in that type of a scenario. So in that case, Garrett outlines some things that you can do to try and play catch up and have maximum confidence going into the season.  DIY Sportsman is Powered by Simplecast