In the Field: Elliott Sadler (cont'd)

We have a couple guys who work at it year-round, but this time of year everybody who's involved pretty much has to chip-in and get everything ready to go; because once hunting season starts, it's hunting season.

There's no time for preparation, then; no doing this or doing that -- you hunt. It's just like getting ready for a race. You get ready for a race during the week -- Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday -- but when you're at the racetrack, you're there to race.

It's the same thing with hunting season. We get all our preparation done in advance, so when hunting season starts, we're ready to go at it.

There are seven consecutive weeks of deer season. During that time, you get one day off -- Sunday, when you can't hunt in the state of Virginia.

So we have seven weeks and we have guests coming in every week: CEOs of companies, some of our country music singer buddies and some of the wrestlers come in, along with just some other friends of ours.

We have guests all the time, so we have to make sure that the cabins and all the stuff in them is ready -- and we do all that ahead of time, so when they show up, everything is good and comfortable for those guys.

Now, that's seven hard weeks -- 14, 16 hours a day, easy. But it's pretty fun.

There are probably eight of us guys who are doing all of the work ahead of time, getting all the stuff prepared. We've got two different cabins, and each one of them can sleep about 10 people each.

So we've got to make sure all the grills are clean, because we cook for everybody when they come there. So we have to make sure every little detail is done -- we've dotted all our i's and crossed all our t's to get ready; because once hunting season starts, there are about 30 or 40 of us that hunt -- and everyone is responsible for doing their job.

It's just like a pit crew on a Sunday: Everyone's got their job during a hunt that they have to do and they're supposed to do.

You might be responsible for getting the standers in the right stands, or you're responsible for getting our guests in the right places. You might be responsible for the dogs and making sure they get let loose in the right places, or getting the deer tagged and properly signed-in, weighed and measured and the whole nine yards.

Somebody else is responsible for cooking, and then cleaning up and making sure everything is ready for the next day -- and that includes getting the dogs fed and cleaned up.

So there are a lot of different things that we're responsible for during the day. When it comes to the hunting operation, I'm kind of like an overseer, or the general manager: I kind of oversee everything and make sure it's going well for everybody.

I do try to feed my own dogs, but I'm into the planning -- like sitting at home the night before figuring out where we're going to hunt the next day and how we're going to do it and what strategy we're going to use.

I do that so when I get there first thing in the morning, I've got a plan laid out and my guys know how to follow it.

But you know, I love being, like, the quarterback of the hunt club and figuring out what we need to do and what's the best way to do it and trying to get everybody organized.

And one thing about it -- we hunt on about 50,000 acres of land, a lot of which we own and some that we rent; through friends and families and timber companies and things like that. And I have walked about every single inch of that land. So I know exactly where everybody's at all the time.

The first thing we're considering is safety, and the second is always how we can take in a really nice buck.

Bow season has just started, followed by some time for muzzle loaders; but the big season, with the dogs and all, starts the Saturday that we're in Homestead for the season finales, and then it runs through the first Saturday in January.

It's seven weeks of the most fun that you could possibly imagine. It's just a great time and a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoy it.