The Hunt Lift Eat Podcast

Carter (00:03.84)
Do you want to intro this one, Luke?

Luke Cox (00:05.843)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Huntlyfty Podcast. I'm your cohost, Luke, here with my host. Passed it off to me at the last second. Carter, what's going on, brother?

Carter (00:15.412)
Sup man, we're kind of on a thematic kick right now. I guess it's on the mind currently. It's November, so it's in the forefront of everybody's mind.

Luke Cox (00:26.195)
Oh yeah.

It's that time of year for sure. And you know, speaking of which fucking old John Ritter, Ron Jitter himself just killed a public land, nice eight. He just sent me a picture. So as soon as I hang up from this podcast, I'm gonna head over there and help him get that thing caped out and butchered up. So pretty awesome.

Carter (00:47.356)
Yeah, that's exciting, man. Ron Jitter, the man.

Luke Cox (00:50.623)
Dude, he's a hunting fool. He's way more dedicated to hunting public in Louisiana than I am. I've been fucking. Ha ha ha.

Carter (00:57.504)
He is a hunting fool, which, you know, kind of brings us. Let's make some introductions here. Brings us to our guests this week. Probably. Yeah, we'll be a reoccurring guest on this podcast moving forward. But we got our team member, Cody Road, joining us from Indiana. What's going on, man?

Luke Cox (01:05.243)
Yeah, speaking of hunting fools.

cody rowe (01:15.348)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.

Carter (01:17.664)
Glad to have you on here finally.

cody rowe (01:19.737)
Pleasure to be here, absolutely.

Carter (01:22.914)
I think Cody and John Ritter would get along just fine, Luke.

Luke Cox (01:27.231)
Hell yeah. Yeah, I'll call John to talk about something with a hunt and we'll be on the phone for an hour and a half, just going. I feel like Cody's the same way. Especially looking at that wall behind him right now. Got some fucking booners up there.

cody rowe (01:35.874)
Absolutely. Got a couple.

Carter (01:42.386)
Well, cool. Why don't you introduce yourself, Cody? Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you got going on.

cody rowe (01:48.642)
Hello, Cody Rowe. I'm from Northwest Indiana. I've been hunting for about, successfully for about 20 years. I've been doing it about as serious as I can for the last 10. I hunt about 5-6 states a year if I can, multi-species, and just trying to make a living and stay as healthy as I can while doing it.

Luke Cox (02:12.927)
Hell yeah.

Carter (02:13.48)
Yeah, you definitely looked the part of HuntLifty, Cody.

cody rowe (02:17.326)
Thank you, thank you, I appreciate that. Definitely three of my favorite words.

Luke Cox (02:21.843)
Yeah, I remember doing, we did your interview, what, I don't know, it seems like a year ago. I don't know, they all blur together, honestly, but I remember when you were on that call and it was like, oh yeah, this guy's a no fucking brainer. Like you just eat, sleep, breathe, everything we're about. So it's awesome to get you on the call and be able to chat with you. You've had some pretty awesome success, man. Let's just kind of wind it back. Let's talk about your journey into hunting. How'd you get into it? When you started 20 years ago, you said as a kid.

Carter (02:21.897)
Yeah.

Luke Cox (02:51.182)
What did that look like?

cody rowe (02:52.988)
So my dad, he got me into hunting really, and we live on a good property. Our property backs up to about a thousand acres of forest preserve surrounded by all kinds of different corn fields and you know maybe about 20 miles north of the Kankakee River it really grows some giants right on that belt line.

Just always been able to find big sheds and kind of get a good head start at hunting from an early age. I'm a fourth generation hunter, all bow hunter. And that's about it. That's where I started out.

Luke Cox (03:26.923)
Yeah. At what age were you when you started killing big deer? What did that look like?

cody rowe (03:34.578)
I got my first Indiana. It's not, I mean, Giants cruise past you every year as far as my experience. So I killed my friend. Oh, absolutely. Come on out, guys. I got booners.

Luke Cox (03:42.015)
I guess we're going to Indiana Carter.

Carter (03:46.914)
I think next year we're hanging out with Cody.

Luke Cox (03:49.863)
Yeah, let's do it.

cody rowe (03:51.73)
My second year hunting, I was actually using a, it was a H&R Breakbarrel 410. And that was when I killed my first, he was about 130 inch buck, but I mean, I thought it was the biggest buck I'd ever seen at the time and couldn't have been more happy and proud of it and kind of just progressed from there. Couple mistakes, there's a little fog on the scope a couple times, I suppose, but.

try to keep them bigger from there on out.

Luke Cox (04:19.615)
Hell yeah. I used to have one of those little break barrel 410s. I wish I still had it. I'm gonna get a couple of those for my kids. That's like the perfect starter out. A break barrel, even like the break barrel rifles in that same model series are awesome because it's quick, you can identify loaded or not. Like it's the perfect, there's only one round. Like it's perfect for a kid getting started out with.

cody rowe (04:44.523)
Absolutely.

Carter (04:46.832)
the weapons laws like in Indiana as a state I've never hunted in.

cody rowe (04:51.358)
Indiana is pretty depending on where you're at. So we I live in a reduction zone because I'm in a more urban area. So Northwest Indiana has a lot of reduction zone where you can hunt from September 15th until January 31st. And I only use I only do archery the whole time, but I'm pretty sure you can use basically whatever you want from shotgun, Mosel loader, crossbow in a reduction zone all year. So they're really trying to.

you know, take them numbers down a little bit. So you get two bucks and we can basically fill out on does. I think it's something like six does this year.

Luke Cox (05:30.815)
Hell yeah. No rifles.

cody rowe (05:35.058)
I personally don't use rifles just because I like to kind of be silent to the rat. I don't want to traumatize my herd, you know what I mean? So I like to, when I'm out food plots, I only use my bow and I all use it for predator, you know, termination all day long. So

Luke Cox (05:43.219)
Yep.

Luke Cox (05:53.599)
Hell yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, that was something that I didn't learn until later. I was actually in Fort Campbell, which is right on the Tennessee, middle Tennessee, Kentucky line, just north of Nashville there. And that was the first state I hunted in where you couldn't hunt, where on post you couldn't hunt with a rifle. So it was just shotgun muzzleloader and archery. And that was actually what prompted me to get into archery about, what was that, 2016, I think. Got home from Afghanistan and wanted to, I missed the hunting season. I was like, I gotta jump in full bore and bought a.

cody rowe (06:09.476)
Thank you.

Luke Cox (06:22.895)
muzzleloader, bought a shotgun and bought a bow and ended up killing my first deer with a bow. And just, there's just something different about bow hunting. Like I still hunt with a rifle, especially out west. But when you kill a deer with a bow, like it's just, you're so much closer, more intimate. It's just a different experience, like across the board.

cody rowe (06:43.355)
Absolutely. I feel like it's definitely coded in our DNA.

Luke Cox (06:50.992)
Yeah, for sure.

Carter (06:51.272)
Yeah, it's something you have to do, right?

cody rowe (06:53.886)
Oh, absolutely.

Carter (06:57.96)
Yeah. What has prep looked like for you, Cody? I know you have your hands in a lot of different properties and you go to a lot of different states and it kinda seems like almost a full-time job with how much running and running around that you do. What does prep look like for you year-round? Say we're starting this past January, right? I would venture a guess that your success this season, you know.

is constant as soon as this season's over, you're thinking about the next one, right? So what does that kind of look like for you?

cody rowe (07:31.61)
Yes sir. So as soon as my tags are full, I basically wait for the antlers to fall off. The only thing I love more than hunting whitetail during season is looking for their sheds right after. That's basically when I gather most of my information, everything, I do my investigation. And I've come across a lot of public land. I meet a lot of people. I just do some networking here and there and try to get whatever.

I can and try to take it. I try to do it all you know on my own. I don't like to really be relying on anybody else for anything, but I definitely From January to April I shed hunt. I look for bedding areas I mean I look for me in highways and trails core areas try to find I started looking for my target buck basically You know 365 days a year

Carter (08:25.376)
So you're early on trying to identify your Megatron or whoever you're looking for next fall. When you're looking for sheds, does that help you identify bedding areas? I have not had a lot of phenomenal success with shed hunting other than like when I'm squirrel hunting and I come across sheds conveniently.

cody rowe (08:30.954)
Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

cody rowe (08:47.094)
Right. Well, since I like I said, I can basically start from my house. My property backs up to some really good areas. I got permission. I've lived in my house for my whole life. So I permission from all the neighbors to the south. We're all a pretty good community. And basically, I just check betting areas in between food sources. Running water is always nice. I mean, I found them. I always look for water and then sign from water to betting area, food coverage, crossways, all that stuff. I mean.

Last year was probably my best shed season yet.

kind of getting.

Carter (09:22.347)
Hold that shut up again. Golly.

cody rowe (09:25.602)
This is, I'm after him. He's got some brow tines and some split G2s and a couple of cool stuff going on. And this one is, that's another deer I'm after this year. Pictures don't really do him justice. I mean, I'm not the smallest, but I couldn't really get my hand around that if I tried. So that kind of keeps me excited and keeps my motivation up all summer so I don't really lose sight of it, you know. Then I got something to look at until it's time to check cameras and.

Get after it.

Luke Cox (09:57.735)
Badass man.

Carter (09:58.3)
And you and I started talking back in May, I was like picking your brain a little bit about some of your summer prep and what are you doing in the summer? Are you thinking about food plots? You're thinking about minerals? You're thinking about...

cody rowe (10:13.27)
So I definitely started, the minute I put out minerals as soon as it's legal, depending on what state, I hate to say it, but Ohio and Kentucky are some of my favorite states for that because there's a lot of, they do the bait thing, well, that grows a lot of big bucks. I mean, people don't get them all. It's kind of like a Jeff Sturges thing, OPB, other people's bucks, that's some of my favorite. Hate to say it. So if you can, if you find a good core area, look at...

Luke Cox (10:36.19)
Hehehe

cody rowe (10:42.486)
Basically a 10 square mile plot and you can kind of figure out You know where they're going from there and everything in the summertime. Basically, I do I do minerals and I do watering holes I just stay out I low pressure low intrusion on all my stuff I like I Like chip cameras instead of a cell camera because I see a lot of big bucks staring right at my cell cam

So as opposed to some of the HD night ops cameras they got that are just chip, I mean, they do pretty good. So in the summertime, I really just try to stay out of their bedding area and not spook them too much, but keep an eye on them at the same time.

Luke Cox (11:24.255)
Hell yeah. Let's, you killed a, was it two years ago? Or last year? Me killed that real big one. Let's hear about, let's hear that buck man. That was a stud. Let's get the kind of the backstory on him and how big he was and how that whole hunt ended up unfolding.

cody rowe (11:30.436)
Last year. Yes, last year.

cody rowe (11:36.824)
That was.

cody rowe (11:43.998)
So that's basically that was the one that made her made her broke me right there. I hunted him for three seasons The first season he was real easy to pass He came in as a as a mainframe 12-point he maybe had you know, nothing real crazy going on and That's when I really figured out the importance of minerals after shed season. He put on at least

you know, maybe 60, 70 inches in one season. He was just a 190 in 2022 or 2021. Sorry. He was a, I was hunting him as a 19.190 and he was a monster, but he wouldn't, he would never daylight for me. So I passed up. That's why I had quite a few big bucks the next year. I was passing up everything I saw and I ended up eating tag soup on him that year. I put in about 40 sits and

2021 and then I finally got one summertime picture of him the next year and he had just exploded. I mean he's got 23 scoreable points, he's got this drop tine here that's almost 14 inches long.

I basically put all my energy and resources and really figured if I was going to hunt deer this is the one that I'm going to hunt.

Carter (13:04.376)
After that season ended, that first time did you have a little anxiety that somebody else had killed him until you had to wait for that summer picture?

Luke Cox (13:04.799)
Hell yeah.

cody rowe (13:12.51)
Absolutely. There's to the south of the property, there are questionable hunters and they've been at it a lot longer than I have. So when they had the idea of the youngest hunter in the group kind of taking them out, they didn't like that. So he was very pressured. Everybody in town knew about this deer from, I'd hear about them all summer. And every time I'd hear someone shot a big buck, I'd be knocking on doors trying to get pictures of it. I mean, it was.

To say I was obsessed is a understatement.

Carter (13:45.824)
What did you, I like that you name all your boxes, a classic whitetail move, what was this guy's name?

cody rowe (13:51.574)
So we named him Christmas Tree. The first time he came out, he had snow all over his antlers, and he just looked like a Christmas tree, something out of a book. So me and my buddy, he kind of jumped the gun and beat me to it, and he said, Christmas Tree, and it stuck. And when I ended up taking him the following season, he stayed true to his name. That's absolutely how he was. He was holding a couple inches of snow on his rack from the webbing.

Luke Cox (14:16.979)
That's awesome. How'd that final sit and that interaction with him, how did that all turn out? Like what was your strategy? How'd you get set up? What did all that look like?

cody rowe (14:29.698)
So he was on a, it's about a, where he owned, the only place I ever saw him, he only showed up three times in the entire season. The third time is when he day lighted and I got him. Basically he was on a five acre plot that was at the very back of our property and everything. And he would only come through once in a very rare occasion. And...

just holding out for him. I mean, there was all kinds of megabucks and everything that would pass by. And, you know, I was always hoping he would come through. And one day, the first snow of the season, I had two or three booners and I basically gave up to him. I was on my 40th sit. I'd sit from sunrise to sunset. Cause I mean, that's everybody's dream is a 200 inch deer. And eventually he...

I got pictures of him at a neighboring property and I thought for sure that neighbor was going to get him. And November 16th, we got about two inches of snow and he came in with the snow on his rack and right before about an hour before dark and I was getting ready to pack up and head out of the stand and there he was.

Luke Cox (15:40.351)
Yeah. How far away was he when he shot him?

Carter (15:42.248)
What phase? Yeah.

cody rowe (15:45.175)
What's that?

Luke Cox (15:45.875)
How far away was he when you shot him?

cody rowe (15:48.154)
Oh, he was, he came right up on me, maybe 20 yards. He was right when I was starting to, you know, put my lower, my bow down from the stand and everything. And he came up when he was already ready to dip when I released the arrow. I mean, he was on his way. I was perfectly broadside and he turned and I just nicked his jugular. And that's how that went. So it was almost, it was almost.

Luke Cox (15:52.429)
Oh, that's perfect.

cody rowe (16:17.698)
It was almost a real sad story.

Carter (16:19.513)
Oh man.

Luke Cox (16:22.447)
That is that's incredible. That's awesome. What did he end up? measuring that

cody rowe (16:28.534)
So he went 205, non-typical, that's what he grossed. And that's for fishing, but you know, there's been a little controversy with Buck Masters and different expos, I suppose it depended on what was at stake, but when I had a Buck Master scored for field and stream, he was 205.

Luke Cox (16:35.336)
Yeah

Luke Cox (16:49.599)
Hell yeah, man, that's incredible. I mean, you guys got big deer out there, but I mean, that's maybe a once in a lifetime. That's fucking incredible. He's a stud.

cody rowe (16:59.237)
Absolutely. I'm very blessed. Absolutely. Indiana is definitely a sleeper state, that's for sure.

Luke Cox (17:05.383)
Yeah, it doesn't get the press that, you know, Iowa, obviously, and even Illinois gets, but I mean, it's the same, you know, general topography. They've got, you know, the corn fields, you've got all that feed, and then with the management systems that are in place that a lot of folks are doing these days, like, I mean, even Kentucky is another sleeper state. There's some really big deer that's been killed out of Kentucky recently. It just doesn't get the press that, you know, those other ones do.

cody rowe (17:33.702)
Absolutely Kentucky's my uh, I haven't pulled anything No megas out of there. Yeah, it's a bit of a heartbreak state for me, but definitely Definitely working on it. One of my favorite places to hunt by far

Luke Cox (17:46.335)
Where are you about to ask Carter? Sorry I interrupted you. Yeah, that one you killed this year is good. We'll get to that in a second.

Carter (17:47.016)
Meg is relative buddy. Meg is relative. Why did he daylight Cody? What was he doing? Like what phase of November was he in that was causing him to daylight?

cody rowe (18:01.782)
It was definitely the snow that got him up. I believe that his core bedding area was, it was within six hours of daylight, you know, sunrise. So he would start heading back from his rut area where he's chasing does and everything, and it would take him about six hours from wherever he was to get back to our property. So this day, it snowed, he definitely left early, because I never, he'd show up, you know, 9 p.m., 10 p.m., I mean, lost causes, so it was like.

I went out for a lesser buck that was showing up and was finally just going to fill my tag before it was too late, before the rut was over and lo and behold, he showed up.

Carter (18:44.864)
Do you have a, do you have like a magic date or date range in November where you're like, this is it, this is money?

cody rowe (18:52.338)
Absolutely. Any time from November, for me anyway, November 8th until the 16th has always been when if I don't have my target buck down by the 16th of November, I kind of start worrying a little bit.

Carter (19:06.932)
That's what Luke was just saying yesterday. Actually you gave that date range to Luke.

Luke Cox (19:12.283)
Yeah, yeah, that's when for most of the country, that's, that's the sweet spot for sure. When you start getting down south or super far north, it gets a little wonky, but down south, especially it's what's weird. Like where I'm at in Louisiana, it's, it's real weird cause you could be 25 miles away from where I'm at now. And they rut completely different at a different time than they do right here where I am. But no, that's, that's bad.

cody rowe (19:39.624)
Absolutely.

Luke Cox (19:41.791)
So this season, man.

Carter (19:43.854)
Nick, yeah, what do we got going on this season, man? You've already, you're crushing it already.

cody rowe (19:48.175)
This season I've had some pretty good, I got some pretty good luck. I had real short sits for both my out of state tags and definitely planned on, took a lot more time off work than I had planned so I had some extra days to work on my home property and everything. But went up to southern Indiana or southern Michigan and...

I got a pretty decent buck for up there. I got the biggest out of the herd that I saw that day, and I was more than satisfied with that. Just I basically run out of stakes and everything in the summertime, so I can't wait to fill my first tag.

So between Michigan and then, like you said, with the rut setting on late and everything, I didn't, at my home farm here in Indiana, I just hadn't had the same movement that I've had in years past. I think it was because the weather changed and we kind of had a bit of a drought here in my area this year and just a real late set on. I mean, it was 65 degrees here today. That's kind of a little off. So this year I went down to Kentucky, tried to get it done early and I saw deer movement.

From the minute I sat in my stand and everything, I barely got set up and I had one of my target bucks come through and, you know, sent the arrow, sealed the deal and couldn't have been happier to get back and try to get it done up here.

Carter (21:07.716)
Michigan's a state that doesn't get a huge positive rap for big bucks, right?

cody rowe (21:14.998)
know some giants in Michigan.

Carter (21:16.9)
Right, but isn't the, I feel like the stereotype is guys are up there shooting every dink that they see in Michigan, I don't know if that's true at all. It's not based on anything I know personally, but that's what I feel like I hear.

cody rowe (21:31.202)
That's definitely very true. They have one of the highest out of state hunters and the highest public land numbers is from what I, from the research I did this year. And the deer, they're almost like Saskatchewan deer. When they're in that cold all year and when the foliage and everything, it kind of, it's got its certain palatability time in the summertime and going into the fall and everything when they can really gain nutrition and it really creates this big body.

kind of small, messy antler type, you know, type of deer as opposed to Indiana. I'm really in the sweet spot right above Kankakee because of the Kankakee River there. Kentucky, all the deer I've hunted had real big antlers and they just don't have the same winter so they're not holding their fat like they do, you know, in Indiana and everything. So that fat is what I think really grows the buck in every way, shape or form when he's not searching for those specific nutrients.

Carter (22:29.644)
When you sent me that picture, man, I was like, holy cow, the body on this thing. Because the deer Luke and I hunt back home, where Luke's from and where I'm from. Well, you've got some big ones on your property too, Luke, but some of these Appalachian deer are just not as big bodied, man. And when you sent me that thing, you were like, yeah, he's a decent buck. I was like, holy shit, dude, that thing's a cow. That's, that's, that's huge.

cody rowe (22:53.49)
Right? Sometimes they, I got lucky and I got a, two seasons ago I got a unicorn buck and field dressed. We finally decided to weigh him and everything. And with his head, but completely field dressed, he was over 300 pounds.

Luke Cox (23:09.159)
Holy cow. Because Evan just killed a good buck up at our place, and it was 188, not field dressed, so on the hoof. And that's crazy. I got some cousins that always go to, they have a lease in Kansas, and they go out there. And my cousin's wife killed one that looks like a fucking cow several years ago. She's laying next to it. She's not a big girl anyways. But I mean, it looked like she shot a cow. That thing had to have been.

cody rowe (23:10.774)
So that was dope.

Luke Cox (23:35.867)
around 300 too, like they just, I mean, it's them corn fed deer, they just got so many more calories than if they're eating, you know, primarily grass and acorns, so that's awesome.

cody rowe (23:46.783)
Absolutely.

Carter (23:48.628)
What are you running for your, like your stand setups with so many different properties in different states? Are you leaving permanent stands? Or are you like a mobile guy? What are you doing?

cody rowe (23:57.919)
I definitely do what I can. I'm a big Walmart shopper as far as stuff like that goes. I buy whatever stand I can comfortably sit in for a couple hours. I mean I got all kinds I love Elevate stands just because they're I can basically carry it out with me and you know not trying to throw a pitch for them or nothing but absolutely most lightweight material and I don't have to worry about falling through I've fallen out of a stand before just because I set it up in the beginning of the year.

There must have been some dry rod or something. I came back to sit and it wasn't too good. So I make sure to pick the right stands these days. And I personally love hunting out of a ground blind. When I go to draw back my bow, I always get looked at. And that's just a, you know, I can draw back slow, whatever, but I'm always in the wrong position when, you know, the deer don't normally, sometimes they don't follow the rules, you know.

Carter (24:53.42)
Yeah.

Luke Cox (24:54.451)
That's, dude, I feel that so much. I watch these videos where these guys have these monster bucks in front of them, and they're like the camera man's moving around, they're like, oh my God, they're like communicating, and the guy pulls, and I'm like, that's never happened to me. Like, I'd like move just to shift so I can get in position, and you know, busted. I'm always like, where are you guys hunting at? Ha ha ha.

cody rowe (25:17.274)
Right. Yeah.

Carter (25:18.76)
Luke still has some heartbreak over a 10 pointer where that happened to him a couple of years ago.

Luke Cox (25:20.805)
Oh my god.

Luke Cox (25:26.703)
Yeah, that one was rough. Evan ended up killing him the next year, and he fell off a cliff. He was way smaller. But no, that's awesome. So you're doing, are you hunting primarily public, or are you doing a mix, especially when you're traveling? I know you got a blended set there at your kind of homestead, but when you're hitting these states, do you have leases set up, or is it just knock on door access? What's that all?

cody rowe (25:50.691)
So, my family always had farms down in Kentucky, so I hunt the Kentucky farms down there. I live real close to the Illinois state line, so I just got a lot of friends and family. Same in Michigan, my buddy said he had a couple of deer that were, he owns a two-acre plot and I mean, he didn't go 20 yards, so it definitely was a done deal up there. So I take whatever I can get.

for a big mature buck sign. I love public, I like the challenge of public. I've only sealed a deal on one public land buck, but that's because I didn't see any of my target bucks I was out there after. But I have seen some absolute monsters on public in Kentucky and in Indiana. So I am definitely not afraid to go try to set up a stand. I have gone out to my stand after I blow dried my.

or blow all the leaves off my path into the woods and found somebody in my stand before, so that's definitely a little bit of a deterrent. In Indiana, he was perfectly legal to do so, and I was actually harassing him. So, there you go. So I kinda don't like that factor, but you can find some really good spots on public if you're willing to put in the ruck and get a little farther out than some of the old timers and some of the newcomers.

Carter (26:59.869)
Hahaha

cody rowe (27:14.838)
You can definitely find some giants on public.

Luke Cox (27:19.239)
Yeah, public is definitely rewarding and I love the fact that we have it, but it gets frustrating, you know, when, because at a certain point it stops becoming about you and the animal and it starts becoming about you and the other hunters and you're having to adjust based on that pressure. And that's a whole tactic in and of itself. Like you're saying, you know, go into the places and you can, you can do your e-scouting and look, okay, this is, this looks great. This looks like it's got good access. So it's probably going to be heavily pressured. So.

If that's heavily pressured, what's that going to do? The deer movement, you can play that whole chess game. It's just another variable. But it is real nice when you can remove the variable of some guy. I mean, we've talked about it at Nausium at this point. But I've had, especially out west, I've had some real pain in the ass experiences on public. And it's kind of a double edged sword. It's really in vogue. Everybody wants to talk solely about public. But man, when you can hunt a property that doesn't have deer that are just.

abnormally on key. It's not like the deer out there just screaming, shoot me, right? The big bucks are big for a reason. You know, they're really savvy. They're still a tough critter to hunt, but they're just, there's another level of keyed in. Like when I was hunting Fort Campbell, I was watching this doe move in and she would take three steps and she was looking up and she was looking like for stands in the trees. I had never seen anything like it. I wish I had filmed it. I...

Carter (28:34.048)
stands. Wow.

Luke Cox (28:40.539)
I wasn't filming back then and like it was she would take three steps and then look and scan looking up three steps And I was like what is going on and they just they get to learn that shit She was a old nanny who got old for a reason right? She's savvy and identified that shit, so I'm definitely Yeah, yeah, she blew me for sure. She was she was gone she I was bow hunting and she came she got to about 65 and then she

cody rowe (28:57.209)
Okay.

Slow she goes.

Luke Cox (29:09.251)
scanned and saw my tree and I was wearing orange because it was in a I was bow hunting in a shotgun area and yeah, she Gone. I was like well

cody rowe (29:20.258)
Nathan.

Carter (29:23.992)
Now, will you take some doughs, Cody, or you're a bug? Only. Yeah, you will.

cody rowe (29:27.326)
Oh yes. You know, you can eat the antlers, that's for sure. And some of these bucks that I end up getting, I mean, Dozer, you know, the one that I said was 300 plus, he was probably a six or a seven year old buck. And I mean, he did, he tasted like a six or a seven year old buck, you know? So I definitely have a separate spot for my dough meat as opposed to my rutting buck meat. So I love...

I love taking some doughs. My problem with taking doughs is just genetics. I try to manage and everything and a lot of people don't know. I mean, 80% of the genetics of the buck come from the mother. So I mean, I didn't like to believe that until, you know, all the all of our doughs were disappearing and we weren't seeing any traits carrying out ever since we kind of only, you know, take it easy on one property with dough for about two or three years and harvest them from specified dough properties. You know, I know everybody doesn't get it.

have it like that but you know it's kind of what we tried to do just we're more motivated by the head gear I suppose but

Carter (30:35.86)
When do you like to take does? That's been not a point of contention, but a conversation going on recently in the Southeast region chat recently. Some people, I believe if there's a doe in front of you in November, then you got a live decoy. That's kind of what I think. And then some people are saying, you know, go ahead and shoot them and then there's less does around for the bucks to check. I don't know, what are your kind of thoughts on that? When do you like to shoot them?

cody rowe (31:03.15)
I like to shoot them right at the end of the rut. From what I've noticed, some of the younger does are more receptive to breeding. When the matriarch does kind of get older, those are the ones that we kind of take out. The young ones are more active. They're going to provide a healthier, birth a healthier fawn. So what we do is, you know, try, what I do personally is kind of try to take the older does.

At the end of the rut, I don't like to, you know, that could have been bred by him or something, you know what I mean? One of my, something I want to keep the bloodline going for. I don't, I won't shoot a fawn with their mothers. I don't blame people that do. I mean, meat is meat and it is what it is, you know what I mean? So I don't knock nobody for nothing, but if I could prolong, you know what I mean, that as long as I can keep the herd healthy, that's basically right at the end of the rut, right when all the ticks fall off.

Carter (32:01.076)
Yeah.

Luke Cox (32:04.159)
Yeah, that's something we've started doing, you know, when I was younger, growing up, shot a lot of does, shot a lot of young does, not really knowing what I was doing and not you know, a judge's size well. And now as we've been a lot more selective, one with the bucks that we're shooting and then two with the, you know, we'll still kill does and we try to remove because we have a ton of those and the buck to doe ratio is just very skewed where I'm from. And so we like to remove a lot.

Just shooting those more mature ones definitely makes, I think it makes a difference on the overall health of the herd. And then also it's just significantly more meat. An old nanny will have a, just, it's a night and day difference if you kill a five and a half year old doe versus a two and a half year old doe. Like it's just not a comparison when you're pulling those back straps out.

Carter (32:53.312)
I like that you have a philosophy and a process for every aspect, Cody. I appreciate that you, as soon as we started talking, man, you have a well-thought-out reasoning for why you do what you do. I appreciate that. I feel like not everybody, wherever they are in their hunting career, and it may not be any fault of their own. Like Luke was saying, I didn't know shit. Still don't really know anything. But through trial and learning, like you've really taken to the study and you've kind

Luke Cox (33:17.255)
Ha ha ha.

Carter (33:23.776)
crafted this philosophy on why you do what you do.

cody rowe (33:28.699)
Yes sir, it's definitely a life passion and no less comes cheap especially when I hung up the bow and said I'm never taking it off that hook again plenty of times.

Carter (33:41.535)
Ha ha ha!

Luke Cox (33:42.687)
I've said that about honey and plenty of times. There's days where you're just like, this sucks. But yeah, something just keeps pulling us back in, man. It is, it's an addiction. And it's more expensive than fucking cocaine.

cody rowe (33:44.94)
Yep.

cody rowe (33:48.846)
Oh yeah. Oh, it's big time, big time. Definitely adrenaline's most expensive feeling there is for sure.

Luke Cox (34:04.272)
How bad was your adrenaline dump after you shot Christmas tree?

Carter (34:09.899)
Hahaha

cody rowe (34:12.251)
I threw up a couple times. I got my composure. I called my dad and called my uncles and it was just surreal. I was all kinds of shaky. He didn't go more than 30 yards. I didn't hear a crash or nothing. Like I said, I fire a Montec out of the PSE and everything. So it's...

It's a straight arrow and I mean it's stuck into the ground clean as could be. There was not there was no speck of blood on it. So I my world started getting black clouds real quick and everything and I started following down the trail and all of a sudden it was like, you know, someone was misting a bottle, you know, with a blood spray or something. And I went way out past them and couldn't find any blood and started thinking the worst and came back towards my stand and there was.

Luke Cox (35:00.183)
Oh man

cody rowe (35:01.238)
Definitely a relief after sitting on him for 40 sits and eating McChickens and everything I could for the month to try to save as much money as possible and selling motorcycles, but I wouldn't trade one thing.

Carter (35:20.724)
That feeling is the worst in the world when you shoot a deer and you feel like you're not gonna find it.

cody rowe (35:26.722)
fathers. Yep. It definitely would be a different conversation right now if that wouldn't have happened. So, luckily I'll...

Luke Cox (35:38.055)
When Carter says that with us not having killed anything close to 205 inches. So you take that and you just exponentially compound it by 100, the idea of not having the opportunity finally. And then it being like, that's just such a representation of what this is. And it comes down to just a hair. And everything went wrong, but you still admit.

Carter (35:44.581)
Oh yeah.

Luke Cox (36:06.955)
a main artery and he bled out. And like, it just, it can, you know, a lot of times it doesn't happen. Everything goes wrong and you just miss or everything, you know, so just, it's just cool that it all ended up working out. And I was, I was talking to a guy the other day and in a camp I was in and he, he hit one in the back of the leg and it just, I don't remember, I think he hit a branch or it was a Western honey, he hit sage. And so it hit the sage, the arrow deflected and it hit an elk.

cody rowe (36:13.252)
So, thank you.

Luke Cox (36:36.379)
in the hindquarter, but it hit that major, it hit his femoral that comes down and is groin. And so he ended up bleeding out really quickly. And it's like not where he was aiming, but you know, the arrows in the air, you got a chance.

cody rowe (36:49.427)
Absolutely. That's how I'd like to go out.

Luke Cox (36:51.643)
Yep, same. Fast.

Carter (36:54.53)
Yeah, that's not a bad deal.

How'd you, uh, how'd you end up killing that Kentucky one, man? What was the setup there?

Luke Cox (36:58.463)
Hell yeah.

cody rowe (37:04.19)
I've been, like I said, I try to share my knowledge. I mean, I get to talking to people and sometimes people kind of, we work out deals, I kind of help them get the biggest buck on their property. And if they like me, and if I'm good enough, sometimes I ask for the second or third biggest buck on the property. And that's exactly what that was. I knew that there was one bigger, but he...

He daylights very, very more rarely. I mean, there's an absolute couple of giants down there and it's a. About a 500 acre cow farm and it's in the mountains just south of the Mississippi river. I mean, just right into Kentucky there. So you got all those Southern Illinois giants when they start traveling and you know, all that. So I basically set up on him. He, I saw him on camera the night before that he was daylighting that day.

Went down. I already had the stand set up and it was in the CRP field right in between two cornfields and He he came out an hour after sunrise

Carter (38:09.8)
Was that the one where it was, that one made you a little nervous? I know we were texting, but one of your bucks.

cody rowe (38:16.334)
The recovery was not fun, yes absolutely. The hunt itself was fun, but the recovery couldn't have been worse. He decided to, I hit him good. I mean it was a heart shot through and through. I mean, but he made all the right moves to not bleed where I could see it. And of course I decided to not watch him completely because I assumed he went down where he went down and that was it. I took my eyes off him and that is not where he went down.

So after getting the hold, there's so much vast land, after I figured out who was the property owner that lived next to my uncle down there, I finally got a hold of him and it was a done deal after that.

Carter (38:57.316)
I was getting nervous for you man, I was like God I hope he finds that deer!

cody rowe (39:01.33)
I appreciate that very much. Glad you care. I was definitely more than nervous on it.

Carter (39:05.524)
For sure.

Carter (39:09.648)
Sometimes it's better and I know you feel this way too because you help a lot of people kill big deer and that's one thing I love about you but sometimes you get more excited for other people being successful too, you know what I mean?

cody rowe (39:21.106)
Oh, that's my favorite thing right there. I've helped a lot of people get on their first year. And most of the time by the second or third year, I try to get them on a nice buck, depending on their property and everything and growing the herd. But that is definitely if I, you know, it kind of helps that I have a buck that is definitely the buck of a lifetime for me personally. I mean, I'm satisfied. So from this point out, helping people get their deer is, it's definitely just as good of a feeling.

Luke Cox (39:49.691)
Yeah, it's so rewarding when you can help teach people. Like it's just, there's nothing like it when you're there, when somebody can seal the deal. Like I was there with Perry with his first antelope on this last antelope hunt. And then he was there for, when I killed Mon. But it was just, when we started hunting antelope together several years ago, it was just, I don't know, it was just nothing like it when you're just sitting there and need all that energy. Like I think you absorb more of it when you're standing next to the person. Honestly, it's just badass.

Carter (39:49.856)
How did you kind of?

cody rowe (40:18.05)
absolutely. Bucybrius definitely contagious.

Luke Cox (40:20.484)
Oh yeah.

Carter (40:23.056)
Yeah, for sure. When Cole killed his first couple deer with me, he actually killed two bucks the first day he ever went hunting with me. One in the morning and then one in the evening. And I was like, this doesn't happen often, all right? So don't get carried away here, and be expecting this every single time because it's not gonna be the case. But it's just the greatest feeling in the world when you can watch someone else be successful and watch him, you know.

blood trail and find walk up on it himself and like kind of be removed from the situation a little bit. Uh, man, there's nothing like it.

cody rowe (40:59.086)
Especially watching someone else drag it, nothing like it.

Luke Cox (41:02.253)
Hahaha

Carter (41:03.522)
When he killed his antelope, I was like, Perry went over to help him. I was like, he can carry it himself. He can do it.

Luke Cox (41:09.875)
I love it, that's me rubbing off on you.

cody rowe (41:10.121)
Absolutely.

Carter (41:12.926)
It is. It does build character.

cody rowe (41:13.986)
Builds Care.

Luke Cox (41:15.903)
She does. Yeah, you have to. That was Evan taught. Evan was with me when I killed my first deer. Then I shot a doe. And then when we went up to her, saw another one, shot her. And that one, I was still amped from the first one. And so I gut shot the second one. So I got a good tutorial on a good clean shot and then a poor shot on gutting them. And I was like asking Evan for help. He's like, I'm not fucking helping you. I'll tell you what to do but you're getting in there and doing it.

He's like, you'll learn how to gut shoot these damn things. And sure enough, try not to do that. Not fun.

cody rowe (41:50.155)
No, that is not fun. That is definitely one of my least favorite smells on this planet.

Luke Cox (41:56.293)
Yeah, I couldn't imagine a gut shot antelope. Antelopes stink when you don't shoot them in the guts.

Carter (42:03.069)
Yeah, I mean we'll have to get you out West for a antelope on Cody

cody rowe (42:08.398)
I'd love it, absolutely.

Carter (42:10.768)
Although you probably want to chase him with a bow, man. I don't have the patience for that.

cody rowe (42:14.538)
Yeah, I've thought about that plenty of times. I guess I, you know, like I said, there ain't nothing. I'm out of my home state and out of my element. I'll try anything once, you know.

Luke Cox (42:25.159)
I would recommend getting your first one done with a rifle and then get that out of the way. And then if you wanna go chase them with a bow, they just, there's certain properties where it's doable, where you gotta sit in the ground blind fucking sitting on water in the ground blind 90 fucking degree. I just don't, if I'm hunting antelope, I wanna be on the move. And it's doable to spot and stalk them with a bow, but there's gonna be a lot of fucking crawling through cactus blown stalks. I hunted them with a muzzleloader in Colorado, it's open site only.

So you're trying to get sub 150 and that's hard as hell. So, but dudes do it.

cody rowe (43:01.602)
I'll definitely take your advice on that one, 100%. Don't want to have to go Ace Ventura style or something.

Luke Cox (43:04.604)
Yeah, that's good.

Carter (43:07.744)
Hahaha

Luke Cox (43:08.775)
Yeah, we'll get you one on the ground and then we'll start chasing my bows. I do want to kill one with a bow. I think it'd be badass. I don't think I have the patience to sit in a fucking ground blind for four days hoping one goes to water during the daylight.

cody rowe (43:21.93)
Well, I definitely, four days doesn't seem so bad after a couple of days.

Luke Cox (43:26.247)
The difference is the temperature when it's the inside of the internal temp of the ground binds 98 degrees. Just baking in that sun. It's fucking brutal. Yeah, it's brutal.

cody rowe (43:32.716)
Oh yeah.

Carter (43:34.068)
at WET lodge.

cody rowe (43:36.727)
I can't hold, I don't like that heat so much.

Luke Cox (43:40.027)
Yeah, August in Wyoming or Colorado on the plains is pretty rough. Not a lick of shade anywhere.

Carter (43:51.336)
I know we've been talking a lot about scrapes and I've been texting you about a couple of the properties, Ihaunt, Cody, and you've been giving me advice on how to set up on some of these bucks on these properties that I haven't been on in two years because we have our farm here, but I sold the back part of it this year. So trying to think of plan B and C now that I don't have that. And I was on MSU's DeerLab website, came across an article by them.

cody rowe (44:06.498)
Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started.

Carter (44:19.64)
Mississippi State they've done a ton of research on scrapes. I went down a rabbit hole after you and I were talking and came across a couple figures here that I thought I found really interesting, but they ran a Test and they were saying the average bucks per like active scrape that you find is 12 like 12 bucks will use a Single scrape and that blew my mind

cody rowe (44:45.299)
Oh, absolutely. That's my favorite way to get inventory right there is an active scrape. Find a good-looking licking branch. From what I've seen, even does will come hit it, but basically every buck in the forest pretty much wants to get their two cents into that scrape.

Carter (45:04.444)
Yeah, I found that fascinating. They even broke it down percentage-wise by age class. It was like the two and a half year olds are about 40% of the activity there, three and a half, 20%. And then, you know, the four and a half and older, they're about 9%. So I guess they're wised up and not checking it all the time, right? Which makes sense, right? The statistics make sense, but I found that really fascinating.

cody rowe (45:32.394)
I found they're much harder to fool. Sometimes you can get from a mock scrape to a real scrape is a big world of difference. Some of them big, they get nothing but smarter every year. They're kind of, sounds obvious to say, but they're deer 365 days a year. So they're looking out first during the season. They got predators and everything else.

From what I found, just like a big matriarch doe, I mean, you cannot fool their nose. Sometimes you get lucky, because a big buck will want to believe you because he wants to breed and all that, and that's about how it goes. But definitely one of the smartest animals out there.

Carter (46:13.216)
You think that's part of your fascination with them?

cody rowe (46:16.222)
Oh, definitely. I mean, I could give you an entire list of reasons. I just think that, you know, it's like, out of all the, everything that's hauntable, nothings is, to me personally, you know, I could see a whole herd of deer one year on my property and all mainframe typicals and everything. And then all of a sudden, you know, depending on the rain and everything, they start throwing kickers and drop tines. And I mean, it's just very fascinating.

Fastest growing bone in nature really, you know.

Carter (46:49.28)
Do you like the crazy looking ones or you prefer the typicals?

cody rowe (46:54.659)
I had my stereotypicals, so I'm definitely a non-typical guy now. There is a long time when the genes just, I mean we had big bucks and everything, but this last year, I mean even when it comes to sheds, since I've been supplementing mineral and everything, they like to throw junk from holes in the horns to kickers and drop tines. I mean the last three years have really been outstanding.

I'm definitely a fan of the non-typical, so.

Luke Cox (47:24.443)
right there with you. There's just something so unique, you know, and when they start throwing all that trash, like, you know, that's the only buck that looks like that, you know, and it's just, it's, it's really fucking cool. There's some crazy genetics on Fort Campbell. I'll send you a couple of pictures. There's one that my Sgt. Major killed that is the trashiest buck I've ever seen. It's unbelievable. I've shown you that one, right Carter? Yeah, that it's, it's wild. Like, his, his bases are like,

Carter (47:47.454)
Yeah.

Luke Cox (47:53.191)
the size of a damn saucer plate. Like it's wild and it's just trash coming out from there. It's a wild looking buck, but it's just cool because they're just, they're so unique. And white tails, like mule deer will throw, you know, drop tines and stuff, but not like what white tails will do.

cody rowe (47:56.074)
Yes.

Luke Cox (48:10.599)
Have you hunted any other species? Or have you pretty much just been whitetail?

cody rowe (48:14.862)
So I hunt everything that's within my within my states and I mean basically what I can afford and what I can eat. I try to you know only hunt what I eat and eat what I kill and all that so within reason.

Like I said, I don't knock any other hunters or anything. I've just never been a fan of waterfowl and everything like that. I like a little more meat to what I'm what I'm hunting everything to put my time into. But as far as big game goes, definitely only whitetails.

Luke Cox (48:44.615)
Hell yeah, we'll definitely get you out West, man. We'll set something up for next year. We have some pretty cool opportunities in the works and some cool relationships. So we'll try to get you on antelope or mule deer hunt for sure.

cody rowe (48:56.446)
I'm down for, I'd be honored, I'm down for anything.

Carter (49:00.22)
You're a hell of a fisherman too, man.

cody rowe (49:03.39)
Yeah, it definitely is a way to stop thinking about the deer for a minute. Had to figure something out.

Carter (49:09.2)
Y'all catching salmon up there? Have I seen pictures of salmon?

cody rowe (49:11.83)
Yeah. Yeah, we caught quite a few on in between the shores of Chicago this year. Probably next couple of days here, my buddy went up to Michigan City Lighthouse. He's been catching the Lakers. I've had some pretty good deer showing up, so I've kind of been trading in my salmon days for the whitetail days here this season, everything and resting when I can and letting them rest when I can. So.

Carter (49:39.776)
What's the rest of the season look like for you, man?

cody rowe (49:43.502)
I love, as far as whitetails go, I love hunting the late season. I mean, sometimes the late season is when deer that you don't see, you haven't seen all year, maybe you don't know them, that's the time when a mega giant shows up. I get a new mega giant basically every December, and at the end of January you really get to see who survived and all that. So normally if I get a pretty good buck that's fine.

I know isn't peaked out and he's not on the decline and if he makes it halfway through January I'll bet on him for the next year, you know what I mean, and try to grow him up and all that. But if I got a target buck and you know, I've been very picky with my tags this year, you know, ever since I got a pretty good one last year. So it's like, you know, it is what it is. I shoot the does for meat and I eat them and if I happen to see a good buck I'll take them and if not then that's just fine too.

Luke Cox (50:42.727)
When you're trying to hunt horns late season in December timeframe, what does that strategy look like? I mean, cause that's, it's kind of a mixed bag. I haven't had any luck once December hits, but I know there's a lot of guys that have some pretty good success there because their patterns are different, and they're shifting, they're hitting food more as they're recovering from the rut of daylight to eat more. Like what's, what are your tactics look like?

cody rowe (51:06.642)
In Indiana we got a lot of soybean and corn fields at our home property there. That's what our main food plots are. We got some winter turnips and some winter beets and all that. Alfalfa and some honeysuckle and all that stuff. Basically, I hunt the food after the rut. We got real big bucks up here that wear themselves down chasing does. I mean they'll be...

50 pounds down from what they were by the time the rut ends, you know, so they're really trying to build that back up. We get long winters through here. Last Christmas it was negative 20 on Christmas windchill here, you know, in Chicago and everything. So we get the windy city, all that weather and everything. So they're really food-orientated, completely focused on food. They give up on the females and they start going back to their bachelor packs about mid-December as far as around here.

And that's why I mean, I hunt around a lot of areas, you know, where there's Cook County and Will County have a lot of forest preserves where they're completely unhuntable. And as a deer grows and the herd grows, you know, they'll push each other out. One might travel five, 10 miles. So there's a deer that's never been seen by anybody, you know, and it's like. Those are the ones that I wish, you know, you kind of wish you hold your tag for and hunt them till the end and everything. So that's.

My strategy is basically I hunt food plots. Right now I do the mock scrapes and I hunt mock scrapes until about the peak of the rut. From the peak of the rut I start following the does. The does are, that's why I think does are a lot smarter than bucks because bucks are thinking with their hormones. The does aren't really like that. They're the same animal all year long. They're the same smart. They don't, you're not gonna fool a doe. So if you can get on them and really kinda.

If you got a good herd of does, then there's no telling what you could pull.

Luke Cox (53:06.387)
Hell yeah.

Carter (53:07.32)
What about you personally, man? How do you, you know, with how much you haunt, you run yourself down too, just like those bucks. How do you stay on top of your, how do you stay on top of your fitness in these later whitetail seasons, man? Cause you're, you're pretty jack dude.

cody rowe (53:20.346)
Thank you. Thank you. I try mostly climbing tree stands and setting them up and While I screw something in with the other you know what I mean, but Yeah Absolutely, so I try to just I you got to stay healthy cuz uh got to keep your heart healthy and everything I want to chase these animals as long as I can and I don't want to you know pass it on pass the torch on and Until I absolutely have to you know what I mean, so

Carter (53:23.839)
I'm sorry.

Carter (53:28.58)
and McChickens.

cody rowe (53:47.262)
I try to stay as fit as possible. All my workouts kind of go around daily routines as opposed to bodybuilding or trying to build muscle. I just look for functionability. I'll do drag bags, pull-ups, squats, all that stuff. Deadlift, just basically motions, lifting a deer into the back of the truck or dragging them out of a gully, stuff like that. Absolutely. Like I said, I eat what I kill.

Carter (54:10.688)
practical.

cody rowe (54:16.334)
I live in a good area. I mean our nutrition is outstanding for these deer so you're really getting a clean meat and I I'm always looking up new recipes and everything and trying to stay away from Hormone meat and farmed meat and all that stuff So it really kind of puts a new perspective on your nutrition, you know, and it's like You know all the way down to my body odor. I don't eat onions, you know during the hunting season I don't eat certain things just so I don't smell in case I happen to sweat. You know what I mean?

So it all depends on what time of the year. Right now I try to put a little fat on me so I can be a little extra warm in the, in the band for the late season. So I got a little extra so I don't, you know, I eat like whatever. But yeah, during seasons, there ain't nothing like being out of shape and having to drag a 300 pound deer, I'll tell you that.

Carter (55:07.892)
That'd be a different ballgame. That's what Luke and I are doing too, just a little extra to keep us warm.

cody rowe (55:10.114)
Great.

Luke Cox (55:13.895)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, very calculated.

cody rowe (55:14.086)
Absolutely. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

Carter (55:17.812)
Part of the plan. Part of the plan.

cody rowe (55:21.775)
Absolutely.

Carter (55:21.808)
Yeah, speaking of passing on the torch man, congrats on the little one that you have coming soon man. As soon as that becomes part of your hunting journey man, there's nothing like it. You saw I took my oldest for her first hunt, her first sit last week and man, I'm excited for you to do that. That's a whole different part of the journey there.

cody rowe (55:28.706)
Thank you.

cody rowe (55:45.803)
Oh, I can't wait. My woman's got her tag still and trying to pass it on through the, I guess through the womb, you know. See if she can't put her down. We found a, the other day we found our first, she found her first shed since she's been pregnant and all that when we were putting up a stand and everything. So that was, it's been a little good luck here and there. So I'm really hoping it turns out and if she hates hunting, so be it. That sounds about right anyway. But.

Carter (55:53.3)
Thank you.

Carter (56:13.044)
She's gonna go kill a giant nine months pregnant, man.

cody rowe (56:15.994)
Oh, that's another, you know, it's like, is that a good thing? She's going to be trying to hunt my deer too, so it is what it is. I can't wait. That's about the only person that I would let, you know, take my target bucks. That's a different kind of you're kind of living vicariously through them at that point. And you know, sleep in, send them out in the early hunts.

Carter (56:23.093)
Yeah.

Luke Cox (56:40.071)
Yeah, I've got a two-year-old and a 14-week-old now, and so my boy's not old enough yet. And I'm just watching Carter, and then with Perry, we've taken my nephew out and sit in the blind. It's just so much fun. And now Perry's been taking Jonah out a ton, and he's all fired up for it. So I'm just waiting for Perry to put one down. Like, Jonah will actually sit there and hunt, right? He can sit in the ground blind and be quiet.

The first time we took him out there, he just, you knew you weren't gonna see anything. It was just about getting him out. But now he's at the age where he can actually participate in the overall experience. And it's just, I have those memories of being young and being around the hunters and the camp and when somebody kills something, it's just like, it's so cool to pass that on. And when you talk about that, I think that's in our DNA too, right? It's the community and the camp around it.

sharing the experience and being able to bring the next generation up.

It's incredible.

cody rowe (57:44.039)
Very wholesome, definitely a breath of fresh air in this, I'd say, crazy world, but hunting

the one of the safer things to do these days and ain't nothing wrong with that.

Luke Cox (58:00.307)
Yeah, I think it's just grounding. That's what we found with the team, right? It's like, it's rare that you could grab 400 people from across the country and have such high caliber individuals. There's something about hunting and fitness and people that are passionate about it that just attracts a high value individual. And it's been really cool to see with what we're growing and the folks that we have as part of it and the relationships that are just forming nationwide. It's cool as shit. I love it.

cody rowe (58:27.478)
All right, absolutely.

Carter (58:30.308)
Yeah, we're stoked to have you be a part of it, man, and happy to have you on the team.

cody rowe (58:35.518)
Oh man, I couldn't ask to be with a better group of guys and like-minded people, I love it. Honored, thank you guys.

Luke Cox (58:44.711)
Now I'm just jonesing to get out on a hunt with you, man. That's what like, it's cool being able to build the relationships through the zoom calls and the virtual stuff and podcasts, but man, when you get, when you get the boys in camp, like it's just next level, you know, it's, it's so much fun. And that's the other thing is it's been crazy. When we get this, you know, a group of guys and gals from across the country who have never met. It's like everybody's been best friends for 10 years. You know, it's just, it's fun as hell. I love it.

cody rowe (59:08.901)
Oh, absolutely. I feel the same way.

Carter (59:13.44)
great equalizer.

cody rowe (59:15.742)
Oh yeah, definitely make you feel human real quick.

Luke Cox (59:19.048)
Yeah.

Carter (59:20.693)
For sure. Well cool dude. We appreciate you jumping on with us man. You got any whitetail words of wisdom for us before we wrap this one up?

cody rowe (59:29.386)
Oh, just hold on. I guess never give up, never get discouraged and, you know, everything happens for a reason. So if you if you miss one season or you don't luck out on one season, it's probably, you know, meant to be that way. And you might come back as 200 and a couple more.

Carter (59:50.245)
That's what I'll keep telling myself, man. It'll be at 200 next year. That's awesome. Cody, where can folks find you on Instagram if they want to look you up or shoot you a message or anything like that?

cody rowe (59:52.559)
Absolutely. Good way to... Can't lose.

cody rowe (01:00:02.626)
My Instagram is TarzanRoe. I'm on there absolutely frequently. Public profile. Everyone's welcome to shoot me a message. You got any questions or just want to follow for some of my nonsense? Absolutely more than welcome. The Tarzan underscore row.

Carter (01:00:21.364)
Awesome. You got any closing thoughts, Luke?

Luke Cox (01:00:26.323)
the arrows in the air you got a chance!

Carter (01:00:29.817)
Aim for the jugular.

cody rowe (01:00:30.275)
scary there.

Luke Cox (01:00:31.687)
Yeah, shoot him in the jugular.

cody rowe (01:00:35.178)
Hey, scared arrows don't kill deer.

Luke Cox (01:00:38.803)
True, and you talked about 40 sits. A lot of guys go out and they'll sit two or three times and get discouraged, especially for whitetails. It takes time. I mean, any hunting. I've had a couple hunts that were nice and it happened quick, but a lot of times it's when you are ready to quit and you're ready to leave. That's when it actually comes together. That's when it happens, when you're least expecting it, when you're getting tired, when you're on a mule deer stalk or a mule deer hunt and you're starting to look at your feet.

or you're tired of sitting and you're going to leave the stand early. An hour before light, you start packing up, or last light, and that's when the big boy walks in. So just like you said, just staying after it, understanding that this shit changes in a second. And that's why we love it. If it was easy, we wouldn't do it. It'd be fun for a season. And then we'd be like, eh, I don't want to shoot them. The hunting is what's fun. And falling in love with the process, which I think comes with the experience and the age. Because I used to be, if I didn't kill a deer, it was a failure. Versus now.

If I'm in the space, if I'm having experiences, if I'm experiencing new country, like that's the reward. And then just being able to take an animal at the end, it's just icing for the whole thing. So just perspective, I think really matters, especially for new hunters, they can get really discouraged really quickly.

cody rowe (01:01:54.88)
Oh, absolutely. I can't wait.

Luke Cox (01:01:57.928)
That's all I got.

Carter (01:01:58.176)
Well, awesome. Yeah, appreciate it, Cody. Looking forward to more episodes, more content, doing more stuff with you, man, and happy to know you and looking forward to following the rest of your season till Luke and I get to shake your hand in person.

cody rowe (01:02:20.054)
you know, eventually we'll do some renovating in your houses and get your walls looking right.

Carter (01:02:25.32)
Yeah, come on. Yeah. Hell yeah, appreciate it dude. And listeners, as always, we appreciate the hell out of you guys and we'll talk to you next week.

Luke Cox (01:02:26.111)
Hell yeah.

cody rowe (01:02:30.819)
Absolutely.