By STEVEN JUPITER
CLARENDON—Fall in Vermont means foliage, cider, pumpkins, and, for a good number of our neighbors, hunting. Every year, people across the state pick up their bows and rifles and head out into the woods, hoping to bag a big-antlered buck or a fat, feathered turkey.
For childhood friends Shawn Mandolare of Clarendon and Dave Crossman of Tinmouth, their shared passion for hunting has morphed into something bigger. The duo, along with their videographer, Luke Wheeler, are creating a mini-media empire focusing on hunting, both local and afield. Their venture is called “Game Seekers” and currently includes a podcast on Spotify, a YouTube channel, and accounts on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
These guys, both new fathers who work as linemen for Green Mountain Power, have been at it since they were kids. Mandolare (“Man-doe-leer”) started hunting when he was 7 or 8, tagging along with his godparents. By the time he was 11, he was carrying his own rifle and going out as a full member of the hunting party. By the time he was 16 and could drive, he was going out on his own.
“I started hunting in the Tinmouth area,” said Mandolare in a recent phone conversation. “I met Dave at school and started going hunting in the Adirondacks. I went to Maine at 17.”
On that first trip to Maine, at just 17, Mandolare felled a 220-lb buck with a 9-point rack. Two hundred deer later, it’s still the biggest he’s ever taken down.
Mandolare’s passion for the sport comes through in his scientific knowledge of his prey’s habits and behavior. He even purchased land in upstate New York so that he could create the right botanical environment to attract deer.
According to Mandolare, deer especially love acorns, clover, and ferns. Old man’s beard moss and the buds on beech whippets are also delicacies to deer.
“If you find what they eat, you find the deer,” he said. “Especially as they prepare for winter. They don’t go too far from food.”
Though he hunts primarily in New England, he’ll go as far as Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio for bow season, which begins now and ends in November.
The Game Seekers don’t limit themselves to deer, however. Coyote, wild turkey, muskrat, and geese also figure in their quests. This week, Mandolare will travel to Newfoundland, Canada to track moose, a first for him.
“We try to captivate our listeners with new experiences,” he said.
And they turn each hunt into content for their social media. They videotape the whole process, from the time they enter the woods to the moment they dispatch their prey. A recent foray into local Vermont woods, videotaped by Wheeler, yielded another first for Mandolare: a black bear.
“We’ve been seeing an uptick in the bear population around Clarendon,” he said. “Lots of people are seeing them and they do a lot of damage to local farms. Not a lot of people are into bear hunting, and I wouldn’t do it if their population wasn’t doing well.”
But Mandolare reckons he got lucky that day. “Really, really lucky.” Unlike deer, whose behavior is very predictable, bears are more erratic, wandering almost at random through the woods. Mandolare and Wheeler had just climbed up into their tree stand when they spotted a black mass lumbering through the woods.
Mandolare was able to bring it down with a single shot.
“I was in shock,” he said. In the video of the hunt—an abbreviated version has racked up over a million views on YouTube—Mandolare expresses disbelief that he’d hit paydirt so quickly.
And while he’s chosen to have this animal taxidermized for his game collection, Mandolare and Crossman generally eat what they take down: their freezers are full of venison and wild turkey.
“We’re trying to replace all our beef with venison,” said Mandolare. He and his wife don’t buy meat at the supermarket. “This is a natural way to replace our groceries. We don’t see much of a life for farmed meat. Doing what we do, you have to be lucky enough to see the animal to get it. All our meat consumption now is through hunting.”
For those who want to get started, Mandolare suggests going out with more experienced hunters at first. And try out a bunch of different rifles to determine which feels best for you. Prices range from around $600 for a basic beginner’s weapon to $9,000 for a coyote rifle.
“I’ve been using a 7600 pump action since I was 15,” he said. He’s also become sentimental about his firearms, preferring lately to use rifles given to him by his godmother and his grandfather.
Mandolare and Crossman emphasize safety in their podcasts as well. Mandolare laughed when he recounted the ribbing he took from online commenters when they saw that he’d forgotten to fasten his tree-stand harness in the bear-hunt video.
“Don’t cheap out on safety,” he cautioned. Or equipment. When he started out, he’d head into the woods with a rope, a knife, and half a box of ammo. These days he goes out with lightweight high-tech clothing, sturdy boots (“I need the support”), and GPS. Location and mapping devices are essential.
Once, he and Crossman were hunting in Maine and their compasses stopped working in the middle of the woods. They were able to communicate a bit with Crossman’s father via walkie-talkie, but eventually that gave out as well. Crossman’s father wandered the woods firing his own rifle until the boys heard him and were able to follow the sound to safety.
On another trip to Maine, he lost his compass 7 or 8 miles into the woods. Without a clear sense of how to get to a road, he backtracked his own prints in the snow.
“I didn’t get out til dark,” he recalled. “It took way longer than I expected. Now your phone is generally the best way back to your truck.”
For those who are interested in following their adventures, check out the game “Game Seekers” podcast on Spotify, as well as their other social media accounts (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok).
“People can always reach out to us with questions about hunting,” he said.
