Hunter Spotlight: Colby Hodnett

CARNIVORE 2 is currently on stands, and we're featuring hunters who share our passion for everything that leads up to putting food on the table. We welcome the hard work, accept and learn from errors, and then rejoice when we connect and put game in the freezer. If you're interested in being featured in this Hunter Spotlight series, please email [email protected]. 

HUNTER SPOTLIGHT: COLBY HODNETT

RECOIL: Tell us about your first hunt.
CH: My first real hunt my dad took me out to kill a whitetail. I had shot opossums in the yard with my 22 before that, but I wouldn’t consider that a hunt. I was 6 at the time and in the years leading up to the hunt my dad made me carry around a toy gun everywhere I went to teach me muzzle safety.

I can remember also sitting in his lap every time we got a new magazine issue and I would go through and draw crosshairs on all the animals we saw and through that, he taught me where to aim. I can remember always being so excited when those magazines came in. Back to the hunt, the deer walked out of the woods at about 100yds and I remember taking forever to pull the trigger because I wanted to make sure I made a heart shot. When I finally did pull the trigger the deer ran about 50yds and fell. I heart shot the first 8 animals I killed.

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Went elk hunting this past week. Only ended up with a couple nice trout to show for it, but it was easily my favorite hunt I’ve ever been on. #archery #elkhunting #flyfishing #rainbowtrout

A post shared by Colby Hodnett (@colbyhodnett) on Sep 4, 2018 at 6:07pm PDT

RECOIL: What was your favorite hunt and why?
CH: I can’t really pinpoint my favorite hunt because every time I go into the field something special and different happens. That’s why we love hunting right? I will say I’ve loved the hunts that my dad had come on more than my solo hunts. When he spots a buck he does this gesture of the size of the antlers with this grin on his face that will always stick with me. It’s probably the picture of my dad that will stick with me the clearest through the years.

To narrow down a hunt though, I’ll say I loved my first bow hunt. My dad made me shoot a pig before he let me go out hunting for deer. So we set out some feed right below the stand and had a large group come into the feed. Well, I shot my first pig, but the pigs didn’t really know what happened so they ran maybe 20yds out and then just came back to the corn while the other pig went off and died. I ended up shooting all the arrows in my quiver and had to wait until well after dark for the pigs to leave so I wouldn’t scare the pigs off. I had to bring more arrows the next hunt, ha.

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A post shared by Colby Hodnett (@colbyhodnett) on Jan 4, 2018 at 5:00pm PST

RECOIL: What is the one piece of gear is your “must-need” for every hunt (other than your weapon)?
CH:  Well my one piece of gear for every hunt would have to be my havalon knife. It’s just so easy to skin and clean animals with it that I’ve never gone back to another knife. Obviously, there’s other gear that I would consider a need for different hunts, but all those vary with the type of hunt. For example, I wouldn’t take my binos if I was bushwhacking through dense east Texas forest bow hunting pigs.

RECOIL: Is there anything else you would like included, i.e. public lands, types of hunting, etc… or anything you're passionate about?
CH: Well not so much. I’m passionate about fly fishing. I just completed a 57-mile hike into the Wind River Range in search of golden trout. Of which I caught six! For anyone who loves hunting, I would suggest fly fishing because it becomes almost a hunt in itself. Especially trips like the one I just did where you hunt the lakes and tie your own flies. Everything I love about hunting is included in fly fishing. It’s different than regular rod and reel in that everything matters from the presentation of the fly to actually crawling up to some streams so you don’t spook some types of fish.

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