Hunters Set Their Sights On The Big Bucks

Fall hunting is underway across the country, with white-tailed deer and turkeys being the most popular targets. Many members of our Atlas Roofing family are avid hunters, not just for the thrill of the kill, but because they love nature and want to help keep wildlife populations healthy and thriving for generations to come.

While some people argue that hunting is cold-hearted or inhumane, hunters play an important role in preventing wildlife starvation due to overpopulation. They also may help cut down on the number of deer-versus-auto collisions that can prove fatal to humans. In addition, most hunters use the meat to feed their families or donate it to those in need.

We spoke to a few seasoned gamesmen who shared their personal hunting philosophies, favorite tools and gadgets, most memorable experiences and more.

Jason Arnold

Owner, Arnold’s Home Improvement | Toledo, OH

Jason Arnold began hunting with his father, brother, uncle and cousins when he was 8 years old — a family tradition he continues with his 13- and 16-year-old sons. Starting out with small animals when he was younger, Arnold eventually progressed to his favorite big game: white-tailed deer. “I bought 75 acres of land in Michigan just for deer hunting, and 66 acres in Ohio,” he says. “I put in about 22 food plots every year, and I probably planted 2,000 trees this year.” He now enjoys building the habitats so much, in fact, that his new goal is to become an outfitter.

Q. What comfort items do you take on your hunting trips?
A. Hand warmers. Other than that, I have a favorite cushion I like sitting with that's comfortable because there are days I sit in the stand from sunrise to sunset.

Q. Where’s your favorite hunting spot?
A. Currently, it’s on my own property in a stand I call the “Old Man Stand.” It’s a four-person box blind elevated 16 feet in the air. I spread my old man’s ashes underneath it when I erected it, so when I’m out deer hunting, he’s out hunting with me. I shot one of my biggest deer ever out of it, and my oldest son shot his biggest deer last year out of that stand with me in it, and my youngest shot his first deer out of it too. So, that stand has a lot of sentimental value to me now.

Q. Do you use any high-tech hunting gadgets?
A. I use trail cameras that get submitted to my cell phone. I use several cameras on the property to help track and determine where the deer are moving.

Q. What are the best and worst things about hunting?
A. The best thing about hunting is the peacefulness of being out in the wilderness by yourself. It definitely gives me time to unwind, to recharge. I do a lot of thinking and I make a lot of business decisions while I’m out there in the blind, and come up with a lot of good ideas. One of the most unenjoyable things is the cold weather — the struggle to stay warm when you’re up in a tree stand.

Q. What advice do you have to share with other hunters?
A. Scent control is key to success. The deer will smell you before they see you. Their noses are 10 times stronger than a human being’s. Before I go hunting, I take a scent-free shower, use an ozone machine to take all the odors out of my clothes, I spray myself down with a spray, I brush my teeth with a non-smelling toothpaste and I rinse my mouth out with hydrogen peroxide, I put cover scent on my boots, I wear rubber boots so they don’t retain smell and I use deodorant that’s scent-free. I go all out. I also use a carbon mask because your breath is probably about 90 percent of the smell out in the woods.

Pete Radakovich

President, Inter-State Roofing Service | West Allis, WI

Pete Radakovich has been a hunter for 44 years, tracking turkeys in the spring and deer in the fall. “I hunt because I love being outdoors and in the woods, watching all the different animals,” he says. “I also really enjoy eating wild game meat.”

Q. What types of weapons do you use, and which is your favorite?
A. I used to use a bow, but now I use a crossbow. The crossbow is my favorite because you need to be closer to your prey. I also use a rifle during our nine-day hunt in Wisconsin.

Q. Where’s your favorite hunting spot?
A. My favorite spot to hunt is on private farmland in Waushara County, WI.

Q. What’s your favorite hunting tool?
A. My turkey calls

Q. What’s your most memorable hunting experience?
A. I was deer hunting in northern Wisconsin and had five wolves come to my tree stand.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
A. For me, hunting is just being able to get away from the hustle and bustle of running my own roofing business. There’s nothing like being able to relax in the woods after a long workweek, watching all the wildlife and taking it easy.

Dave Reynolds Jr.

President, Schaefer & Co. | Troy, OH

Dave Reynolds Jr. started hunting when he was 13 years old. “I hunt because I like to eat the wild game, to be part of wildlife conservation, to witness nature firsthand and, first and foremost, to get young kids into the woods and teach them about hunting and conservation,” he says.

Q. What types of weapons do you use?
A. I use a Diamond Archery compound bow for deer, a shotgun for turkey and a Savage .308 bolt-action rifle for predator hunting.

Q. What’s your favorite game to hunt, and why?
A. My favorite game to hunt is the white-tailed deer because of its elusiveness and the adrenaline rush I get while hunting.

Q. What’s your largest harvest so far?
A. The largest animal I’ve taken is a 140-class white-tailed deer.

Q. What’s your most memorable hunting experience?
A. Several years back, a buddy of mine and I went to southern Ohio during deer-hunting season. We were sitting in a natural ground blind and I fell asleep, during which time my buddy pulls a caterpillar off my neck, and I had an extremely bad reaction. My eye swelled up and the whole right side of my body was covered in quarter-sized welts. At that point, I didn't want to stop hunting, so I covered myself with mud to try and stop the itchiness, but didn’t help. I ended up going to the hospital to be treated. It wasn’t funny then but, as I look back on it now, it was pretty priceless.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
A. For outsiders looking in, hunting may seem cruel, but as a hunter I feel remorse every time I harvest an animal. However, I know at the end of the day that I’m helping in many ways. I’m able to support my family with food that I’ve harvested on my own. And I’ve taught so many kids what it’s like to spend time in the woods and be part of such an amazing effort to manage wildlife.

Sam Shaver

Outside Sales Representative, Northwest Building Supply Inc. | Andover, NJ

Sam Shaver — also known as The Field Archer — has been a bow hunter for the past three and a half decades. He hunts all year round, including deer, the meat of which he often donates to Hunters Helping the Hungry. But he’s not always aiming for a critter. “I use both bows and crossbows,” he says. “I prefer the vertical bow. When I come home, I’ll go in the backyard and shoot a dozen or two arrows. I love to do that and unwind.”

Q. Where’s your favorite hunting spot?
A. My favorite area to hunt is Morris County, NJ. Many years ago, I was going to pick up my cousin there because we played indoor lacrosse, and I came across an accident. A car went into a tree and I found out the next day it was a schoolteacher. She had her kid in the car and a neighbor’s kid, and a deer had come through the side window, knocked her unconscious and she hit a tree. She was killed, and I think one of the kids was killed also. Shortly after that, there was another accident on the same road. That route has a high concentration of deer because of all the parks, and the houses are on large-acre lots where the deer aren’t being hunted and end up wandering out onto the street causing collisions.

Q. What’s your favorite hunting tool?
A. My safety harness

Q. What’s your most memorable hunting experience?
A. My last hunt. I just took a nice New Jersey buck. He came out and kind of took me by surprise — he was chasing a doe. I’m a camera guy, so if I’m not going to get it on camera, I’m not shooting him. I had to bring the camera across my waist to get him from a spot that I never expected him to come from and by the time I got situated, he was walking after her pretty quickly. I had to give some grunts to get him to stop, and after the third grunt I was able to get the camera situated on him and finally take a shot, and he went down on camera. So the way that whole thing went down was just awesome.

Q. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made while hunting?
A. Taking for granted that you’ve got everything down and not concentrating on the shot like you should.

Q. What are the best and worst things about hunting?
A. The best thing is sharing the game with family and friends, and making donations. I make an awesome enchilada. I also make sauerbraten. We used to have that for Christmas all the time. The worst thing is the anti-hunters and them not understanding… that type of stuff.

Chad Strander

Office Manager, Strander Roofing and Seamless Gutters LLC | Lodi, WI

Chad Strander grew up in a hunting family. The first time he could deer hunt was at 11 years old and he’s been hunting for the past 34 years since. “Especially with deer hunting, you get out there before it’s light out and you get to listen to the woods wake up and come to life,” he says. “It’s very peaceful, even if you don’t harvest an animal.”

Q. What do you hunt?
A. I have three Golden Retrievers, so I do a lot of pheasant hunting. I turkey hunt, I deer hunt and, not as much as I used to, I rabbit hunt. I also grouse hunt. About every eight to 10 years, I go to Canada for moose hunting.

Q. What’s your favorite game to hunt, and why?
A. Pheasant hunting. I really love white-tail but, with pheasant hunting, watching the dogs being in their element, they are absolutely on top of the world when they’re hunting and flushing pheasants and retrieving. They totally just come to life. That’s what they love and that’s their world — us having fun pheasant hunting.

Q. Where’s your favorite hunting spot?
A. North Dakota. That’s where there’s a large pheasant population and a great group of people to hunt with. The property owners who let us hunt their properties. Being from Wisconsin, we bring them cheese and brandy and deer sausage, and we give them tokens of appreciation.

Q. Do you use any high-tech hunting gadgets?
A. Deer Hunter’s Edge app. It’s an electronic gauge of feeding patterns. It measures barometric pressure and temperature and tells you when game is going to be moving.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
A. Take a child, friend, family member or someone who’s never experienced hunting — even if you’re not going out to harvest — and let them sit in a turkey or deer blind so they can experience the enjoyment of being in the outdoors. Everyone we’ve ever taken out who’s never experienced it either becomes a hunter or has a totally different view of people who hunt.