LET’S GET REAL

As I stood over the 4½-year-old buck I’d just dropped, I struggled with wrapping my mind around just how unbelievably lucky, blessed, privileged, spoiled and a host of other adjectives I was to describe my situation. In a smidge under 24 hours, I’d filled my Illinois bow tag with a buck that I was confident was either 7 or 8 years old. And now, the first day of shotgun season, I’d just filled my gun tag with another mature buck. To say I was on cloud nine was a massive understatement.

As a bonus, I self-filmed both hunts. No, they are far from the primo footage one gets with a dedicated professional behind the camera, but that’s just not my cup of tea. Although it may surprise some to hear, I sincerely have no desire to be in front of a camera. I view it merely as an effective tool for helping to repay those who have regularly followed my work, empowering me to have these experiences.

With that being said, hunting is a very personal act for me. After one season, many years ago, of companies that I worked with sending professional videographers to film my hunts, I knew