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The Benefits of Hunting - FF Ep 18
15 Plays5 days ago
What makes hunting so much more than harvesting a deer?
In this Fatherhood Friday episode of the Preacher Dad Podcast, Jarod Hinton sits down with Matt Stewart for an honest conversation about the traditions, lessons, and lifelong memories forged in the woods.
Matt shares some of his favorite stories growing up hunting with his dad, the practical wisdom he wishes every beginner knew before heading into the field, and why introducing his own children to hunting has become one of the greatest joys of fatherhood.
Whether you're a lifelong outdoorsman, just thinking about buying your first hunting license, or simply looking for ways to build deeper relationships with your kids, this conversation is packed with encouragement, laughter, and timeless lessons.
You'll discover:
- 🦌 Matt's favorite hunting memories with his father
- 🌲 Practical advice for new hunters
- 👨👧👦 Why hunting creates unforgettable family moments
- And more!
At the Preacher Dad Podcast, we believe dads are called to lead with courage, love, and faith. Sometimes that leadership happens around the dinner table. Sometimes it happens in a deer stand before sunrise.
So grab your coffee, pull up a chair, and join us for another Fatherhood Friday.
Subscribe for weekly conversations that help dads lead their families with biblical wisdom, practical insight, and a little bit of fun along the way.
Check us out on the Web: PreacherDad.com
Email: Dads@PreacherDad.com
#PreacherDad #FatherhoodFriday #Hunting #ChristianDad #BiblicalFatherhood #DeerHunting #Outdoors #FamilyTraditions #FaithAndFamily #JarodHinton
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:12
Speaker
Well, hello, everybody. You've reached Fatherhood Friday. This is the Preacher Head Podcast. And on Fridays, we like to do Fatherhood Friday. We talk about fatherhood issues. We talk about the challenges of being a parent or a husband or a friend or both.
Guest Introduction: Matthew Stewart
00:00:32
Speaker
And because I don't have all the answers, I try to bring along some of my friends that have a lot more answers than me. And so our fatherhood panel tonight is a ah singular fellow, Mr. Matthew Stewart, a longtime friend of me and of this program, of course.
Program Sponsorship: Cornerstone Fellowship
00:00:51
Speaker
I want to quickly remind you that this program is brought to you in part by Cornerstone Fellowship. Cornerstone Fellowship is a small little country church just a little north of Tombsboro, Georgia.
00:01:04
Speaker
And we love to love Jesus and love people. And so we'd love for you to come and join us. You can find us on the Internet. at
00:01:17
Speaker
dot o r g That's cornerstonefellowship-ga.org. And come on by, check us out. You can check us out online. You can call us, you can email, and we would love to hear from you.
The Significance of Hunting
00:01:31
Speaker
But we're going to go ahead and dive into Fatherhood Friday. And where're we're talking about some hobbies that men like to do and enjoy. And one of those hobbies, I don't know if I should call it a hobby. Maybe that's downplaying it, Matt, is is is hunting.
00:01:48
Speaker
Hunting is as ah maybe a little bit bigger deal than than just a hobby. It's certainly a survival skill, and it's certainly much more than just a sport.
00:01:59
Speaker
But Matt has done a good bit of hunting in his day. Matt, when did you start hunting?
Early Hunting Experiences
00:02:07
Speaker
Well, my dad said he took me when I was two. Woo. we So, um, yeah, but no, I do remember I was probably not two. I was probably three or four. I remember sitting on the ground with him and he, he built a fire. Like it wasn't really hunting, but we were out in the woods with a gun. and So, um, but Hey, memories, that was good.
00:02:29
Speaker
So I've been, now I've been hunting my whole life. Cool. That's kind of like fishing. You know, the point of fishing is not necessarily to catch fish, but just to experience fishing. yeah so you were experiencing hunting out in the woods. That's pretty pretty cool. So um a guy like me hasn't been hunting very much. I hunt so i hunted squirrels once.
00:02:51
Speaker
I don't think I've ever been deer hunting. I've hunted for possum in my own backyard that we did not eat. Please make that make that clear. but um Matt, what would you say to somebody like me who's kind of a beginner. I can handle a weapon, but I've never really been hunting.
Advice for Beginner Hunters
00:03:10
Speaker
What, how, how would you get started into it if you had to get started today?
00:03:16
Speaker
Just go with somebody, find somebody who loves it. And i would say probably don't start with like, I'm passionate about deer hunting. That's my biggest thing, but I've done it all. I've done squirrel, raccoon, dove, turkey, whatever.
00:03:31
Speaker
But, um, Start with something like squirrel hunting or where you don't have to like, we, it's a little bit harder to, to find, I guess, but we started out yeah with dogs, squirrel hunting. You don't have to be quiet. You were hunting dogs with dogs. Like the dogs would go find the squirrels.
00:03:52
Speaker
And so, but anyway, well, squirrels though, you can literally walk around in the woods, pull vines to make them jump, shoot and nest, whatever you want to do, just get out there and have fun. And, and, so and, you know,
00:04:03
Speaker
practice shooting, hitting something running, you know, with a shotgun because they're going to always run. But um find somebody with ah with a lot of land who's um got a food source and has some does that come out in the field in the afternoons and see if they'll let you take a shot at one.
00:04:22
Speaker
you know it's Go ahead. It's going to be hard to to go like find some public land and scout and do all that yourself if you're not really an experienced hunter. So you're going to have to find somebody to go with.
00:04:33
Speaker
and um And usually you can find somebody if you ask around enough. Okay.
Approaching Landowners for Access
00:04:41
Speaker
How do you approach a landowner and if you want to hunt on his property?
00:04:46
Speaker
I've never done that. I never have. No, it's just just people on I've always hunted. Just ask around. free Yeah, friends and i see acquaintances at church or whatever it may be. Yeah, that's what I've ended up doing. But but fortunately um for me, I've either had I had a good friend growing up.
00:05:04
Speaker
We hunted together a ton. He had hundreds of acres and then um got married. Well, I had family land in Alabama, moved up here to Virginia.
00:05:16
Speaker
my My wife's family had some land they had permission to hunt on. I live on 10 acres now, so I've never really had an issue with finding a place to hunt. But yeah, just find somebody and, and, um you know, I,
00:05:33
Speaker
If somebody, you prayed well, first of all, if I had a lot of deer and somebody approached me and said, man, I'd really love to kill one. Can you please take me and show me how to do it or whatever? I'd be happy to do it. Now, 75% of the time i go, I don't see anything. So it's not goingnna it's not going to help them out a whole lot. But but yeah, most people would be happy to let you kill your first
Memorable Hunting Stories
00:05:55
Speaker
deer. So you'd say that hunters tend to be open to helping a new person get started?
00:06:01
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. I, um, at least for my, my first buck that I killed, um, it was actually a girl in my, um, in my class growing up. See, in Alabama, that I'm sure it's probably the same way in Georgia.
00:06:19
Speaker
Everybody hunts. I mean, at least a few times to say they have, you know, unless the, you know, the, except for the Hoosier transplants like me, everybody hunts. Yeah. But now this girl in my class, um,
00:06:33
Speaker
Her dad, i guess he I guess my dad reached out to him, I don't know, and he's he's like, hey, Matt really wants to kill a buck. Do you have one, a small buck he could shoot? And the guy's like, yeah, for sure. took I remember we saw like 30 or 40 deer. And he's like, which one you want to shoot? And then he's like, you know, that and he was happy. like He let me shoot his own, let let me shoot his gun, and it was it was a good time. But um so, yeah, I would think a lot of people would be like that if they have the animals.
00:07:03
Speaker
what would you What would you think is, what would you say is the biggest deer you ever took down?
00:07:11
Speaker
Um, well, it, it depends. You got, mean, cause you got weight, you got points, size of the antlers, you know, but, um, I killed a really, really pretty 10 point, um, in Alabama, um, the January the 30th, it's like 2000 eight or nine hunting with my good buddy, Jacob, the one I mentioned earlier, it was like 200 yards away.
00:07:40
Speaker
shot it with my rifle and didn't quite drop him, but he ran just a few few yards. But yeah, it was a, he wasn't a huge body deer, but during the, during the rut, when the bucks are chasing the does a lot, when they're in heat, they don't, they lose weight.
00:07:55
Speaker
So like they're, they're not going to be typically from what I've experienced, not going to be very fat, you know? But I mean, he was probably like 160 or 70 pounds, but beautiful antlers.
00:08:06
Speaker
thats It's the only one I have um mounted in my in my house that you can see. My wife kind of makes me tuck some of them up in the attic, but um but the one that's sticking out, it's a big 10 point. And then maybe the the biggest body deer and the most points, not the biggest rat, but the most points and the biggest deer was probably my favorite hunting trip I've
Hunting with Family
00:08:34
Speaker
ever had. It was three years ago.
00:08:38
Speaker
um We had just moved into this house. We moved in November 3rd and I'm out hunting with my son who is oh five. I think he's five. And um I'm hunting on a power line and a buck came out of the power line And I did what I typically do, pulled up and shot, like was so impatient, just boom, just before I even had a time to see how big it was, I shot. Well, um didn't hit it or didn't think I hit it.
00:09:08
Speaker
And then couldn't find any blood. And then two weeks later, right around Thanksgiving, um it was dark. It was getting dark. It was not dark. I was not hunting at night. it was But it was getting dark. Is that a big full paw?
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, you can't do that. That's illegal. Um, so it was, it was getting late. It was like, literally it was like the last minute or two of the, of the hunt. And I told my son, said, all right, going to I'm going to look through the scope one more time down the power line. Just see if I see anything.
00:09:37
Speaker
And I'm scanning kind of like a hundred yards out. And then I scan over to the left and it's like 15 yards in front of me, stands this buck staring right at me. And so I didn't even have a chance to tell him to put his fingers in his ear. and I just shot. And, uh, of course I got him with it being that close.
00:09:54
Speaker
And big deer, probably close to 200 pounds, biggest one I've ever killed. And um it had between probably seven and 13 points.
00:10:07
Speaker
So that was a big variety. Yeah. So a mainframe, seven. You could clearly, everybody would count seven. And then my pawpaw, he would always say, if you can hang a ring on it, you can count it as a point.
00:10:21
Speaker
Well, you can hang a ring on one that's about a quarter of an inch long, you know. And so it was, I counted as an 11 point. And it was, um it just had like at the base of the horns, um it had this just had them sticking out all over and the back and sideways. And one was kind of going down like weird stuff. It was an old deer.
00:10:42
Speaker
um So ended up getting back to the house and cleaning it and then realized I had hit it the first time. and found my muzzleloader bullet stuck in his rib cage from two weeks earlier.
00:10:58
Speaker
But the problem was his, um it was infected. Like he was all, like he his rib cage was all like just messed up and kind of pus and all stuff all over it. So I ended up throwing ah throwing away the whole deer. I was really disappointed.
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah, it probably would have been 60 70 pounds of meat But man everybody advised me to stay away from it since it was possibly infected. But you probably infected it by your first shot. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And so it was, but that was special for, that was my first deer to kill with, with a kid. Yeah.
00:11:36
Speaker
And so, children so, and it was, ah and it was a big one, only kind of like non-typical when I've killed. So that was exciting. Well, ah how did you get it back to the house?
00:11:47
Speaker
have a four-wheeler. Oh, I see. I just drag him as very simple, take a rope and throw it around his antlers or his hand, his head and just pull him out. See, I think that's something that a new, a new person hunting would not think about. It's like, Hey, get out there and shoot the deer.
00:12:03
Speaker
Well, after you kill him, then what do you do? I've always kind of, uh, yeah, well, they, they make these, i mean, none of them, nothing is easy. Like, I mean.
00:12:14
Speaker
except for driving a four wheeler a truck right up there to it. That's the like only truly easy thing, but they do make, um, carts that have two big wheels, you know, two, in two feet in diameter or whatever. And, um, it's kind of shaped like a, like a wide V or something. You can kind of pull the deer up on it and you can just pull it out of the woods and it can bounce over small tree limbs and stuff. I see. Again, if it's a,
00:12:43
Speaker
If it's a buck and it weighs, you know, 150 to 200 pounds, it's gonna be hard to pull out of the woods. yeah But if you don't, but you know, back in the day, we just grabbed the antlers and start walking.
00:12:54
Speaker
And i take breaks, take breaks like every minute huffing and puffing. Cause usually have warm, you have a lot of clothes on cause it's cold. But then you start to get so hot from pulling it.
00:13:08
Speaker
But hey, it's worth it. Yeah. you'll You'll have to take me hunting before too much longer. Yeah. Um, well, so that was, that was great advice for beginners now have being an experienced hunter.
00:13:24
Speaker
I'm sure there are some experienced hunters out there that are listening. Uh, what advice would you give to somebody who's done this a lot, um, to maybe make their experience better or maybe, maybe one of the best, the best tips anybody ever gave you that has really made your experience as a hunter just really good?
Tips for Experienced Hunters
00:13:47
Speaker
Well, I would say um two parts to that to that answer. One, i would advise, like, if if you've killed him if you've killed a big buck or if you've killed several deer and um and you're not as concerned maybe about getting that trophy, whatever, take your kids with you. That would be my advice because it's so much fun. I killed a six-point two years ago with four kids in my, in my, uh, blind with me.
00:14:17
Speaker
So that's what advice I would give to experienced hunters. Take kids with you. Cause it's so much fun, but they're going to also scare deer away. And, you know, you gotta be okay with that. Yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
Um, but what great advice on fatherhood Friday, I gotta say that's awesome. Yeah. And, uh, uh, tied. We blinds tied. We blinds.
00:14:40
Speaker
They, um, they make, like six or make two blinds. They connect together. It can hold five or six chairs and it really nice blinds. That's we end up hunting out of. But anyway, my other thing was even when I take the kids, well, it depends.
00:15:02
Speaker
if If my little ones want to go out there and just, yeah I'll take them out there middle of the day. i don't worry about scent. I don't worry about camouflage and I worry about guns, like whatever. I just take them out there just to have fun. But if we're actually going out on an afternoon or a morning and and it's nice weather and I'm hoping to kill something, good time of the year, you got to play the wind.
00:15:23
Speaker
You got, that's, that is my, um, that's my best advice I would give to brand new hunters and ones that have been hunting a lot. You just, and they know that any experienced hunter knows that you have to pay attention to the wind because you can,
00:15:41
Speaker
I wash my clothes with scentless detergent. I use scentless deodorant, scentless shampoo, spray stuff on me. Some people are like, that stuff doesn't matter. Well, it may not. doesn't hurt anything, right? Like it may not solve all the problems, you know, but but if that wind, it doesn't matter what you do. And in my opinion, if that wind is blowing directly to where the deer is, it's probably going to smell you.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah. if it's so If it's a mature buck, or a mature doe, maybe even more so a doe. Because all times the bucks have their attention on the doe and the does, they're the ones who are very alert.
00:16:18
Speaker
um So if you're putting up a tree stand or you're just just deciding which one to hunt or whatever, think about the wind.
00:16:29
Speaker
And like I said, I have one spot to hunt on a power line and it's just, and if the wind is blowing straight down the power line, I'll just tell the kids, I don't even want to go this afternoon.
00:16:40
Speaker
like it's not going to be worth it. The second, like they're probably not even going to make it into the power line. And if they do, they're going to go, they're going immediately run. Yeah. And so, but, um, that's important.
00:16:52
Speaker
That's their, that's the deer's greatest, um, defense mechanism or whatever, in my opinion is their nose. Of course they can see, they can hear incredible, incredibly, but, um, but the, their sense of smell is the best.
00:17:07
Speaker
So, uh, so play the wind and, Take kids with you. And that's just really great advice. And buy a... Tide We Blind.
00:17:20
Speaker
Tide We Blind. is that Not a sponsor. Not a sponsor yet. But we would would we would be willing to take their money if they want to send it. It's a really cool blind because you can see through it.
00:17:34
Speaker
So you can be sitting in the blind and you got, of course, it has windows, but you can also see through the blind. but they're not supposed to be able to see you. i don't know if they really can or not, i you know, but they're not supposed to.
00:17:47
Speaker
Right. I killed a couple of deer. mean, I said I killed, I had four kids in there. Now the buck that I killed, he did step out in the power line and took one step and looked at me and was staring.
00:17:58
Speaker
And so he knew something was, was up, you know, but. um It's amazing how their senses are attuned to things like that.
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00:18:59
Speaker
What's one of your... go ahead. No, was just going to say, i have been hunting before, well, probably dozens and dozens of times where the wind is perfect. like it's blowing into my face.
00:19:13
Speaker
I am not moving. I see a deer coming before he even, even thinks to look up at me. Like just, I mean, it's perfect. And I'm not, I'm not barely even blinking, like nothing. And it walks out there and it stops and just stares at me.
Deer Senses and Hunting Challenges
00:19:28
Speaker
And I'm like, what in this world? I'm not doing a thing. And it'll keep on going and look up again and keep going and look up again. And and usually in that situation, they don't see me they're not going to run.
00:19:40
Speaker
but they just have that sense that something's up there in that tree. You know, that's funny. What's one of your ah craziest hunting stories? um Got a couple.
00:19:54
Speaker
One is my first pretty big buck was a nine point that I killed with my buddy, Jacob. like He's hunted, we hunted with each other a ton. He never killed one with me and I killed all my big ones with him. So I'm very thankful for him. But,
00:20:11
Speaker
He just got hey just gotten in this land. It was their first year. And he goes, he said, all right, up this road. My dad said there's a field up there and there's ah and there's a shooting house. Just go up there, just walk up the road and you'll find it.
00:20:23
Speaker
And I'll be back to get you on the full wheeler at dark. like, okay. And so i'll walk up there and most of the shooting houses are just wooden, like four by four or six by six, whatever, wooden platforms. mean, wooden little houses up on a platform.
00:20:41
Speaker
maybe like a tin roof or something like that. And I look at this thing and I'm like, what is that? And it was a big like black plastic thing on top of a, like eight feet high probably on ah on a platform.
00:20:56
Speaker
And i go up there and I climb up there and I realize it's a huge trash can. Not even joking. You had to, I had to open the lid from the top and I climbed down in it.
00:21:11
Speaker
and theyhow And they had cut windows. And well, my my buddy had it was they had left the previous owners had left it there. And so I'm like, OK, well, this is interesting. Not much wiggle room, but my God, that's OK.
00:21:24
Speaker
And so i have this. Nine point long story, but he ends up coming straight below, straight below me so I can look out and I can I can look down and I can see his head.
00:21:39
Speaker
but I can't see his body. So he was that close. Well, I start shaking, getting nervous. And by the way, I still 39 years old and they've killed 50 plus deer and I still get nervous and get buck fever. But I started shaking. I was shaking so much, Jared. I'm not not joking. The whole trash can was shaking.
00:21:57
Speaker
It was wobbling some kind of way. I mean, sure it was secured, but it was, I would, I mean, it was like
Humorous Hunting Stories
00:22:04
Speaker
this. And he, of course, he's looking up and he's like, what? That deer's like, what in the world's going on? And so basically then I just stick the gun out the window and point it straight down you just go ahead and shoot. And I kill him.
00:22:18
Speaker
Oh, wow. But he was going he was going to run soon. He knew something was up. Um, that was a crazy story. And, um, why is that, why is that tree shaking? What's going on? Yeah.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah. But I got a lot of crazy ones, but the, the, the other one that, um, I did not kill a deer, but my dad and I were hunting somebody else's land and it was time to go late in the afternoon.
00:22:48
Speaker
And we're sitting on a, um it's like a shooting house, like I described, like a four foot platform. And it's got, but it's not, doesn't have walls. It's just got a, a rail will going around it.
00:23:03
Speaker
Okay. so like a platform with a couple of chairs. and a rail going around it. And so we stood up to go. And when we but and we both stood up, the the platform had disintegrated.
00:23:19
Speaker
And the next thing I knew, my dad and I were both hanging on to the rail. I was holding on to the one rail. He was holding on to the other one. We're like eight, 10, maybe eight feet high. i don't know. where Usually they're probably, I'd say minimum of eight feet high, probably 10 or 12, you know, I don't know.
00:23:36
Speaker
So we're both hanging on and we're like, what in the world? And then, so not only is he hanging on and he has his gun, he's got his, like the rail is, you can see the rail is here. He's got his gun on this side. And so he's hanging, hanging like that. And so anyway, he ends up dropping, like he drops the gun and he lets go.
00:24:00
Speaker
He catches the gun some kind of way as he hits the ground. The gun's fine. He's fine. And then, of course, I'm little, so I i fall and he catches me.
00:24:10
Speaker
But that was a crazy one. Wow. How old were you? Probably like seven or eight. Okay. Oh, one
Nighttime Hunting and Coyotes
00:24:19
Speaker
more story. Quick one. We had killed a friend of ours. Our cousin had killed a two does. And he said, i need all to come back and help me find him. this is it This is like an hour after dark. He's like, the coyotes started barking too much and scared me. And I had to get out of the woods. i need y'all to come with me. So, of course, I'm terrified. But they my dad's like, it's okay. We've got guns. Don't worry about it.
00:24:41
Speaker
And so we go back out there. And we're crawling through like a just briars and a thicket following the blood, just crawling on our hands and knees. And we finally get to the opening.
00:24:52
Speaker
And we see the deer or what's left of it. it's it's It's steaming. You can just see so steam all over And there's a few little bit of remnants of like blood and guts and you see bones. And anyway, then my dad or the other guy, I don't remember, picked up their flashlight and shined it around us. And there were like 12 or 15, 16 eyes all around us.
00:25:20
Speaker
And then you could hear the, hear them panting. And. oh my word. We were like within, i would say, six or seven yards from them.
00:25:34
Speaker
And so we took off running through the back through those, those briars that we crawled through, we ran through them. And I was, I was so upset. I think I was screaming to my dad like, it's okay, man. They're not going to get us. I'll shoot them if we have to.
00:25:49
Speaker
But they were about well it was probably seven or eight. Coyotes. I don't even know how many. Yeah. a bunch of coyotes. Wow. It seemed like a hundred of them to me, but it could have been two. just, I just remember seeing guys all around me. Wow.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah. Man. Oh man. Did you ever, have you ever shot a coyote or been able to
Hunting Coyotes
00:26:11
Speaker
take one down? Yeah. yeah I've heard they're very elusive. I killed two or three. They're always moving.
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's hard to, um, everyone I killed has been on the, either on the run or a jog. Yeah. Yeah, and they're small, so they're kind of hard to hit. Yeah, so I'll kill them. Yeah, they're a problem in our area. We have to, ah I mean, they're not a problem anymore, but they have been.
00:26:35
Speaker
took out One time took out almost an entire a chicken house worth of chickens. probably killed Probably killed eight to ten birds and and then really didn't eat any. They just killed them.
00:26:49
Speaker
They were just having fun. Anyway, wow, that's a cool story. Yeah, I think I'd think I'd head for the house, too. Yeah, I wouldn't have been hanging around. I tell you, so even as an adult, you know.
00:27:03
Speaker
If I were and I haven't heard any cavities in a while, but if I were hunting and there was some started howling within, like you know, within 100 yards of me or something, get you know, makes me little nervous.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Even though they're probably not going to mess with me and I've got a gun most of the time, but still, I just whoo. If you don't have ah if you're in the wrong state and you don't have an extended magazine and you get hit with a pack of more than seven or eight.
00:27:31
Speaker
but me Yeah, that's. You're in trouble, man. Yeah. Anyway. Well, that's great, Matt. Thank you for sharing these stories and um just giving us some of your perspective
Hunting and Relationship Building
00:27:41
Speaker
and experience. I think that getting out into nature and, and being, being connected to the world God has made. Yeah. Even.
00:27:52
Speaker
even, you know, hunting animals and shooting them. I think that, uh, you know, you're being responsible in the way that you do it. You're not randomly just killing things for fun. You're actually eating the things you kill and, and, uh, being responsible, uh, uh, hunter and sportsman.
00:28:12
Speaker
But I think that that can be incredibly valuable to our own soul and also to the relationships that we have with others. Because if you, as you've been talking, I mean, So much of your experiences and your fond memories are because you've had either relationship with your dad or with your kids or with your friends. It's, it's a relationship building exercise.
00:28:36
Speaker
And I think that there's ah an incredible value to it. So whether, yeah whether you hunt or you do something else, whether you fish, maybe you play basketball, maybe you, uh, there's all kinds of, maybe you just go camping and, and the only thing you cook is s'mores, uh, You know, all of those things have value in relationship building and also in just connecting us to nature and the world God has
Financial Aspects of Hunting
00:28:59
Speaker
made.
00:28:59
Speaker
That's very, very valuable. Yeah, let me, yeah. um Let me, a few things I want to share before we, before we stop this, few yeah quick, quick points. One related to what you had to say is um as much as I love hunting, I will truthfully have, have never said,
00:29:19
Speaker
yeah, I worship God in the woods. Like, it's just me and him. And I'm like, no, no. When I'm, when I, I mean, yeah there's, I've prayed at times, yes, but it's not like, it's not like, oh, you can go to, you know, yeah, church is important, but I can do church in the woods. Like, that's, that's, that's a lot.
00:29:35
Speaker
Yeah. You're, you're watching, you're thinking about deer, you're, or sleeping or, or whatever. Like, yeah, no, but it is, it is fun being out there. um And I do eat,
00:29:50
Speaker
every deer I kill if it's edible. you know, that one wasn't. But and that's something I did want to say to to people who are considering it. There is an investment. You do have to have you do have to have a gun. you I do all the processing myself.
00:30:04
Speaker
And so back in like 2000 and probably 10 maybe or 11, I bought a meat grinder, L-E-M, meat grinder.
00:30:16
Speaker
It was for $450. That was a of money. Yeah. But... yeah but I still use it to this day. And I do on average probably 125 pounds of meat a year.
00:30:27
Speaker
And so um that's a lot of money that I've saved. That's right. I mean, I paid for that meat grinder. It was like half ah you know half the deer in my second year, i had already paid for it. And so for the last however many years, it's been, i mean, having to buy a few supplies, i have to get fat to mix with the deer meat.
00:30:47
Speaker
um I grind it all up into hamburger meat. And so you have to mix fat with it or it's not any good. And so beef fat, pork fat, lamb fat, I've used it all.
00:30:58
Speaker
And it all tastes good. So um that's the way to do it. If you take it to a processor, they're going to charge you $150 and might as well just go buy hamburger meat from the store. I mean, it's if you're trying to save money, you're going to have to make a little bit of investment. But it is worth it long term.
00:31:15
Speaker
I wanted to say a couple of other things too.
Perseverance in Hunting
00:31:19
Speaker
just for um maybe not like super dedicated hunt hunt hunters like me, but ones that go every now and then or whatever. um I used to tell my Pawpaw, he would always be like, hey, Matt, I hadn't killed anything this year. I'm like, well, how many times have you gone?
00:31:38
Speaker
He's like, well, I went three or four times. I'm like, when what time of day did you go? Well, you know, I slept in. and then I went and sat and went and rode out in the woods in my four-wheeler and sat on my four-wheeler. like, Pawpaw.
00:31:49
Speaker
If you want to kill a deer, you're going to have to go hunting, right? Like anything. If you want to catch a fish, you got to go fishing. You got to get up early. You got to sit out in the cold.
00:31:59
Speaker
You got to go on the hot days. You got to go on the cold days, the rainy days. Just go. Because deer, think, this is another bit of advice. I think that we care more about the weather than they do.
00:32:10
Speaker
Like we're like, oh, it's so hot outside. They're not going to move today. It's January. It's but supposed to be, you know, in the 20s and it's 72 and mosquitoes out. They're not moving to today.
00:32:20
Speaker
Well, I promise you the week between Christmas and New Year's in Clanton, Alabama, I have killed at least five bucks during that week.
00:32:33
Speaker
And every time it's been raining and or mosquitoes. ah one of the One of the biggest deer I've killed, it was so hot and I was tired of hunting. It was like 8.30 or 9 in the morning.
00:32:47
Speaker
I literally took all, I had shorts on. and a white undershirt. I took all the camouflage off and I walked from one stand to another. I wanted to get up in the stand and I wanted to look out in the clear cut.
00:32:59
Speaker
And I was there for like five minutes and I heard a deer coming to my right and looked and it was a big eight point, 15 yards away. And it just so happened that his head was behind a pine tree.
00:33:10
Speaker
And so I was able to flip my gun up and came around shouting left-handed oh and a white t-shirt. And it was had to be at 70s or 80 degrees. was awfully hot. And so you got to go hunting.
00:33:26
Speaker
And you need to um just just suck it up. If you want to kill one, you got to give it a shot. but Well, that's partly what makes the accomplishment feel worthwhile and feel good is because it takes some effort to get there.
00:33:42
Speaker
And it takes some skill and takes some strategy to outthink You know, this elusive elusive prey. So I think that's, you know, anything that's that feels good when you do it was hard to get.
00:33:56
Speaker
And you have to work hard to
Personal Value of Hunting
00:33:58
Speaker
get it. Yeah. If it's easy, it doesn't mean as much. Yeah. Like I said earlier, there's friends that I grew up with that had see they could see 30 or 40 deer. And, you know, i was I was happy to see one every time I went, you know. And so it's been like that ever since. I mean, even to this day, I still don't. Most of the time I go, I don't see deer.
00:34:18
Speaker
But there are moments when you least expect it. That keeps you coming back, don't they? Yep. Yep. It's exciting and it provides for my family. And my wife would, she she doesn't quite see it. Like I, you know, I think of it as providing for the family and doing stuff with the kids. And she sees it as, oh, it's another two or three hours. I'm to have to take care of the house by myself. And he should be here with me on a Saturday. and But no, I,
00:34:48
Speaker
I try to go, um as I try to, I go often, but I try to go for short periods of time since I have my own land. I'll just run out there for 45 minutes, the best 45 minutes of the day, even though they move other times, but I still try to try to make it as short of as a hunt as possible so I can get back with the family. Do you ever bring her with you?
00:35:11
Speaker
No, goodness. yeah That is the last thing that would happen. that's not her thing i guess no goodness she will yeah look she supports me she does support me and she loves the food she loves fish that i bring in she's a guns you know she's okay that i have rifles sitting around the house or whatever she's a fine with all of that but she's not going to touch anything okay that's fine no that's fine all right well listen matt thanks so much for sharing from your life and your experience
00:35:45
Speaker
Um, today on fatherhood Friday, I hope we've been, uh, in some way encouraging or entertaining to somebody out there that's considering this, or maybe you've been doing
Podcast Conclusion
00:35:54
Speaker
it a while. Uh, you know, you can put a comment on this video or, wherever you're listening to this podcast, you can make a comment and give us your thoughts about what you have enjoyed as a hunter.
00:36:07
Speaker
Or if you think Matt is just full of mess and, uh, doesn't know what he's talking about. You can tell us that too. We would love to hear about it ah because we have a good time laughing at you when you're when you're wrong.
00:36:20
Speaker
But but the the thing is, if you want to reach us by email, you can do that at dads at preacherdad.com. That's D-A-D-S at preacherdad.com. We would love to hear from you. We'd love to read your comment on the air, maybe have a mailbag day. and so please feel free to reach out to us.
00:36:44
Speaker
And we look forward to to hearing from you. We look forward to sharing the next episode with you of the Preacher Dad podcast. And as always, if you like this video, if you subscribe to the channel or to the the podcast in general, it just helps us out. it helps this message to get out to other people if you like what you're hearing.
00:37:06
Speaker
So God bless you. And we hope that you enjoy the world God has made. and that you enjoyed in some some form or fashion. And we hope that this has been encouraging you tonight.
00:37:18
Speaker
So God bless you guys. Have a great Friday. and We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Bye.