It’s that time of the year.
Deer hunting season.
And for Taylor Ardis, it’s not only his busy time of the year, it’s his favorite time.
For the past 4 hunting seasons, Taylor – along with his 6 year-old Australian Shephard, Mace – has been helping local hunters find their deer.
Over the last few years, they’ve been on over 120 tracks – roughly 40 tracks a season, with a focus on bow season. They’re state certified, and currently on a hot streak of 7 found dead deer in a row. Recently, the pair has been featured on a couple of hunting podcasts: The Fall Podcast, and Mic’d Up Outdoors.
And they’re loving it. A competitive athlete by nature, Taylor and Mace both enjoy the thrill and adventure of the hunt.
But there’s more to Taylor than just helping out other hunters.
Along with his wife, Melisa [Bazuin], and one-year old daughter, Hudson, Taylor – a 2012 Clare graduate – loves living the family life from his home in McBain. He works full-time from home as an independent insurance agent with Clow & Associates, juggling the responsibilities of watching his daughter while selling insurance. The family enjoys going to McBain sporting events, and being a part of the community. They wouldn’t have it any other way.
We caught up with Taylor recently and learned a little bit more about his life, his family, and his line of work. If you need his help with finding a deer – or finding insurance – be sure to contact him at 1-989-339-0580. We did, and we learned that Taylor Ardis is certainly more than just another face in the crowd.
Marion Press: Where were you born and raised?
Taylor: I was born and raised in Clare, Michigan. Graduated in 2012, and I went to Mid-Michigan right out of high school for two years, and then I went to CMU and graduated with my bachelor’s and master’s.
MP: What kept you busy as a kid? Were you always into hunting?
Taylor: I grew up in sports; everything I did was 3 or 4 sports a year. My stepdad was a huge hunter, and I shot my first deer when I was 12. I didn’t pick it up huge until I was done playing basketball in college. But I jumped into it hard; I’ve loved the obsession of deer hunting and anything related to it for probably the last 7 or 8 years; I’ve been about as gung-ho as you can get!
MP: So you played basketball in college too?
Taylor: I played two years at Mid-Michigan. Then I ended up coaching JV baseball and basketball at Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart for two years. Then I was the head assistant at Mid-Michigan for six years, and I just gave that up.
MP: Now tell us about what you’ve got going on currently. You’ve got a deer tracking dog?
Taylor: So a basic day in my life: I’m a stay-at-home dad who sells insurance; I’m an independent insurance agent – those are my two full-time jobs. My part-time job is with my dog – she’s a six-year old Australian Shephard. We’ve been doing professional deer tracking now for 3 years; this will be our 4th season. I never planned on getting into it; it was something that just fell into my lap.
MP: Tell us about that. How’d it all come about?
Taylor: We had a deer that was shot on our property, and we brought the whole family out to try and find it. We had no luck, but the dog ended up running 200 yards in one direction. Naturally, she’s a herd dog, so she wants to stay by us and circle the group… but she ran right to the dead deer.
We just went from there. She was a year and a half old then, and for the next two years we kind of did it for friends and family. I’d ask, “Hey, can I bring my dog, Mace, out for some tracks and some experience?” And she did extremely, extremely well.
So we started in 2020, and we’ve been charging a fee to come help people find deer. We’ve had a pretty good success record, and it’s a lot of fun.
MP: That’s gotta be pretty thrilling, helping people find their deer.
Taylor: [As a hunter] you get that own thrill, for yourself. You go out to the woods and you get the opportunity to harvest a deer: that excitement, that thrill, and everything on top of that. You get that high, and that thankfulness, and that opportunity… but then we get to experience that almost on a daily basis during hunting season – sometimes multiple times a day – when we help people find their deer.
MP: About how many deer has Mace found?
Taylor: We’re in the 50s right now. We’ve been on 120+ tracks, and I think we’re at 54 right now.
MP: That’s so cool. And nothing you ever planned for.
Taylor: Zero intentions on it. My wife is the one who wanted the breed. We showed up to Jay’s Sporting Goods parking lot, on a Sunday – that was kind of our thing when they still had puppies for sale in the parking lot. She’d look at the puppies while I’d go in and imagine buying hunting equipment! One time we ended up walking away with a puppy… and it turned out pretty dang cool.
MP: What do you enjoy the most about living in McBain, being a part of the community?
Taylor: I feel like there’s an overabundance of kind people. Every time you go to a bigger city, I feel like everyone’s in a hurry. People aren’t going to take the time to ask you how you’re doing, who you’re related to… I really enjoy that, and when I sell insurance, or go on a deer track, I get to have a little bit more time with people. Up here, it’s just different than anywhere else. Even though a lot of the community is either related or might know someone that [you know]. It makes it easy to connect with others and help grow the area around you. You have something invested and so does the person next to you.
MP: What is it about deer hunting that you enjoy so much?
Taylor: Two main aspects: One would be just being outside, with nature, being with your own thoughts without a care in the world. You get to be out there and just relax, and observe everything around you. Whether that’s just thinking about your day in a slower manner than when you’re doing daddy-day care or selling insurance. It’s just calming. It puts a little bit of peace in your day.
The second one is the competitive aspect. I love the challenge of trying to take down something that is just naturally trying to survive; that’s their natural instinct. Growing up in sports, always having that competitive itch; that competitive itch is definitely scratched by trying to harvest something that is extremely difficult to shoot.
MP: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Taylor: To be a continuous learner. And to be able to see things from other people’s perspective – be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes. Try to understand others’ point of view; it might help you better yourself, or help the situation that you’re in.
With being a continuous learner, you never know everything about something. You can always learn from it, whether it’s positive or negative. You’re never as good as you think you are, and you’re never as bad as you think you are. And take everything with a grain of salt.