Meet Avid Hunter and Roofing Contractor Jason Arnold

Asphalt Life blog interviewed some of the Atlas Roofing family’s hunting enthusiasts.

Jason Arnold is the owner of Arnold’s Home Improvement in Toledo, Ohio. He 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.

Learn more about Atlas Roofing at www.atlasroofing.com.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on the Asphalt Life blog and can be viewed here.