Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #125: Killer Rut Hunting Tactics with Don Higgins

Transcript

Wired To Hunt Podcast #125: Killer Rut Hunting Tactics with Don Higgins · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host Mark Kenyan. In this episode number one Tay
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in the show, we're joined by longtime outdoor writer and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: renowned big buck hunter Don Haggin's and we're talking all
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: about how he hunts the various phases of the rut
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: in pursuit of mature bucks. All right, welcome to the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Wire to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Sitka Gear.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And today on the show, we are joined again by
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: one of our past podcast guests, Don Higgins. And Don
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is a widely respected and experienced outdoor writer and deer hunter.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: He's one of the guys I've personally learned the most
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: from about deer hunting too. So that said, he was
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: an easy choice for us to bring back on the show.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: And the first time we talked with Don was back
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and fourteen and we discussed late season hunting.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Last year we had him on again and we discussed
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: traild cameras. And today we're going to have him on
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a third time to talk about the Super Bowl of
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the deer hunting year, the pre rut and rut time frames.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: So it's gonna be good stuff and applicable to your
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: hunts in the coming days and weeks. That said, though,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: before we get into that, I want to give you
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a quick update on something that's kind of cool. We
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: just launched a brand new Wire to Hunt T shirt
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: design this week. Have you seen that, Dan, I have
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: seen it. I haven't got it in the mail yet,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: but but I've seen it. Looks pretty cool. I will
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: have my wife's son one out today for you. So this, this,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: this T shirt design is pretty cool. I'm excited about.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: It features a bunch of our favorite hunting words and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: phrases and the last stuff we stay here on the podcast,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and he uses those words to form the Wired Hunt logo.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if you saw, Dan, but it
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: even says that being said on there. I know, I know,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I saw that. So yeah, pretty pretty cool. And actually
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: what's interesting is the shirt was actually the logo design
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was created by a Wired Hunt listener, so perfect. Yeah,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: very cool. So if you want to check out those
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: shirts and pick one up, you can go to Wired
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: two hunt dot com slash shop and also we are
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: going to be offering a ten percent off discount for
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: all the rest of our merchandise through the end of
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: November and celebration of the RUT. And you can get
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: that tempercent off by using the promo code RUT so
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: our u T that's the promo code so wired hunt
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: dot com slash shop pick up your shirts. And that
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is it for my little infomercial. I got a quick question, Yeah, uh,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: will they if I wear that out in the woods?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Will Will you guarantee me opportunity at a big Buck?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I can guarantee you and opportunity. I cannot guarantee you'll
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: make the shot count, Okay, alright, alright, as long as
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I get the opportunity, that's all I care about. I'll
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: do the rest, all right. I'm gonna count on you
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: for that one, Dan, Okay. So speaking of that, then,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the last thing we have to do before we get
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: done on here is share our updates from the field.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And we both have some stuff to share. Do you
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: want to kick that off? No? I don't. I'm interested
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: on hearing what you have to say about this whole
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: holy field, because I'll be honest, I've been freaking really
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: busy not only with work, but with family. And I
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to read your blog updates, so
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: feed me. Yes, Well it's been exciting past couple of days, dude,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: it's been as exciting as it gets. Um. So you know,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: this past weekend I was up north and our northern
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Michigan property, and um, that was actually pretty cool. We
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: put our first food plot in this year and it
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: did pretty darn well considering the conditions up there, really
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: a citic soil and we got two awesome bucks. On
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: trail camera. I saw a bunch of deer compared to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: what we usually do, so that was great. Um. But
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I got back Sunday night really late, and I wasn't
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: planning hunting Monday, just because I got home like one thirty.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I had a bunch of stuff to do. But I
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: don't know. I was sitting here working Monday morning and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I was looking at the weather you know how we do, um,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, we got really high and rising
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: barometric pressure. There was a great little cold front that
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: came through here. Temperatures or fifteen degrees lower than they
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: were the other day. I haven't hunted its main property
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: in ten days. Uh. Long story, short, I convinced myself
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I should go out there and try to hunt for
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: holy Field again, and I did, and it was awesome night.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I saw five different mature bucks, including two Well, I've
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: decided to go to this theme of naming the bucks
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: on this property after boxers, since since holy Field kind
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: of started off because of his ear. Well, there's a
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: three and a half year old nine pointer I think
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I've mentioned before that starts showing up. Um. Actually the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: summer he showed up, and I'm calling him Fraser because
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: it'd be pretty cool someday I shot him and I
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: can say down goes for a sure, um, and that's
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the only reason you would shoot him, so exactly, that's
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the only reason. And then there's another three or four
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: year old who really does not have a very impressive
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: set of antlers, but he looks a pretty big body deer. Um,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: he's just a wide like seven pointer. Um, so I'm
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: calling him Mayweather. And then there's so I saw all
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: these bucks. I saw Frasier, I saw Mayweather. I saw
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a new wide eight pointer that I've never seen before.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I don't think i've seen before. Um, I don't have
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a name for that buck. And then I saw holy field. Um, So,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: to keep this from getting too long, what happened basically
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: happened is I was watching Frasier and his two and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: a half year old buck. They'd emerged out of the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: cover and they were actually sparring out in the field,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, here crashing in front of me,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and I look out and from the neighbors kind of
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: brushy betting year, it comes a dough and then the
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: big buck right in her trail, running sprinting out in
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the middle of the bean field. Then they turn around
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and the dough runs right back from the way she came,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and he goes tearing up hinder and I'm like, frantically
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: grabbing a grunt. Call I just got out a big grunt,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and he stops right at the edge of the field.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: He looks at me, takes a couple of steps forward,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and then walks to the edge of the field, starts
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: making a big scrape, just ripping up the ground, ripping
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: up the tree, rubs up on a tree, and I'm like, oh,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: he's he's getting kind of feisty here. And they turned
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: again and looked at me, and then he starts walking
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: right down the edge of the field towards him, like,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: holy crap, this is gonna happen. The issue, though, is
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: it's like just before the end of shooting leg. I mean,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking, okay, if he gets to me, like now
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I can get a shot. But you know, we're running
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: out of time fast, like it's metter just a couple
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: of minutes or something like that. Um, So he keeps
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: coming down the field and then a couple of Does
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: step out and start heading in towards the food plot
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: where I'm sitting over and so now he starts jagging
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: towards me. My bow is ready rains. Friend is already
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: The Does cross the creek coming to the food plot,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and then he stalls up on the other side of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the creek, starts looking around, and he turns to head
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: back into the of it looks like and I'm like, well,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: i gotta try something. He's the big boy on the block.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to challenge him. So a loud snort. Wise,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: he stops, turns, looks at me, and then puffs up
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  Speaker 1: and hops the creek and walks right into the food plot,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: right at me. So yeah, so I'm pretty fired up.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: But it's like, now it's a minute later or whatever
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: it is, and I'm thinking, Okay, basically, if he comes
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: right into like twenty yards, I think I'll be able
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: to see well enough to get a good shot. But
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: any further than that, you know, it's just not worth
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the risk. So basically what happens. He came in and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: then those doors were in here, and one of those
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: doughs took off running, and he started chasing that dough.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: So he ran across the close or the first shooting
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: lane that I have in this tree. He ran right
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  Speaker 1: through it, stopped, and then when he came out the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: other side back into an opening, he was at like
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: forty yards or something, and I drew back on him.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: So when he when he came across the first shool,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and I drew back. And then when he finally came
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: out into the opening again, it was just too far.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see it was it was not there was
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: not in the flight. So he went rare off. And
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: were your pins too bright and then it was kind
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: of messing up the darkness in the background or was
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: it because your pins were dark too and it was
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: just way too dark all around? Yeah, it was probably
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the latter. The pins were dark and everything was too dark.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: And I actually don't have lighted sight pins right now,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: um because the battery died in it and I just
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: forgot to replace it. But I don't even if I
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: had the lip pins it would have helped in this case. UM.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: So I watched him chase is still back out in
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the field, and then like Frasier and holy Field and
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: some other random buck were like sparring and circling out
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: in the field. And then holy Field came and chased
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the doll back into the food plot and came underneath me.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: But it was like way after shooting right now, and
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I could just look at him with my binoculars. He
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: came to like twenty five yards or something. Um. And
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: then after a while later I had my wife come
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: over and picked me up on the a TV so
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I could get out of there without spooking these deer,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: at least with them known its me. So fast forward
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to tomorrow, well, sorry, the next day, which was last night.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Given everything I saw that morning, I couldn't hunt, but
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I scouted from the road for a couple of minutes
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and I saw holy Field and Fraser chasing does again
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: out in this being fields right next to the food plot.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: So I went in last night and saw a bunch
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: of deer again. Holy Field showed up again, like forty
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: five minutes before daylight, but he popped out, and the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: being feeling the same place he did, kind of looked
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: around the work and he doze out. Yet excuse me
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the hiccups. So he then though heard some rustling over
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: by me, because it was a two and a half
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: year old buck in the food plot in front of me.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: So we heard that, and he started running right towards me. Again.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, now it's gonna happen. So I got
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the bow already, I got my range friend er handy.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: He was coming right into the edge of the food plot,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: towards it the least, and then something over by the
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: road caused attention, and he stopped. He looked out towards
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the road, and because this is all you know, not
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: that far off the road. Um, he stopped and looked
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: that way, and then I just didn't like what he
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: saw or something. He just turned and kind of jogged
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: back into the cover. I watched him go off the way.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: This other younger buck had gone, and him and two
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: other bucks kind of circled around back along this creek.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I could see about a hundred yards away, and I
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: tried a couple of grunts and he just was not
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: feeling it, and um, he turned and went the other direction.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: And that was basically it. He did show up again
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: after dark, just like you did the night before, came
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: back out into that being field after shooting. Like I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: saw him maybe two hundred yards away, and he just
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: kind of fed out and was heading towards some does.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And he's just he's very active right now. And there
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: are bucks chasing does all over the place, and it
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: seems like something is coming to heat early because they're
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: really getting after it, even the three and four year
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: old bucks, which usually you know, you don't see happening
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: at least here until it really are some doughes and estress. Um.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: So it's been exciting. It's been nerve racking, but exciting.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Well man, Uh, good luck. Hopefully he doesn't connect with
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: the dough in the next couple of days and you
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: get another opportunity at him. Uh what I really want?
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: You have rattled yet, have you know? Okay, are you
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: afraid to? Yeah? You know, rattling just does not work
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: here at least in my experience, I've never I've never
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: ever ever had any luck rattling in Michigan. Um, and
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys like Johnny Everhart and a lot
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of other guys I talked to here usually do not rattle.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Maybe just a little. I mean, I've done some light
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: time tickling, but we just don't have knocked down, drag
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: out buck fights as often as you do an io
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Like it happens sometimes, and there
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: are bucks, of course, but the number of mature boxes
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: minuscule compared to most other you know, far out Midwestern states.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: And then there's just half a billion hunters who are
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: cracking antlers together all the time. So more often than not,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: when I used to try to rattle more, it would
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: just spooked. Here. I'd be seeing a buck and he
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: go run the other way, because nine times at ten
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that's just another hunter for him. Um. So I just
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I don't even It's not even part of my repertoire
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: out here anymore. I've just seen too many negative reactions.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So okay, so that's my situation. I'm gonna go back
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: out tonight as soon as we get done of this,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to sneak out there. It's really cool again.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: It's like ten or twelve or thirteen degrees colder than
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: it was yesterday and the only issue is raining a lot.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: So hopefully the rain dies down a little bit maybe,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: And um, I am going to try a new spot,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: my back kind of secluded honey hole that I haven't
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: hunted once yet this year. I think I think tonight's
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the night to get a shot. So that's the game plan. Alright, man, Well,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: good luck and hopefully it all it all works out. Yeah, man,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: what about you? What's what is new with you? Well?
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: As of right now, UM, I'll just I'm gonna only
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: talk about one hunt so far because it was last
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Friday night, and uh, because Saturday night was nothing. I
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: checked my trail cameras and decided to lay off the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: mornings as of right now because they weren't showing any activity.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: There was there's been a lot of activity on the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: farm with actually farming, so um, I think that's kind
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of jostled the deer up for the time being. However,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I went down to a stand, an observation stand along
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: it's in a fence row that is that splits a marsh. Uh,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the horse pasture, a cattle pasture and uh in a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: bean field. And I sat right on the intersection of that,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: and so I get up there. I set up, and
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: I pulled my bow up and I hang it on
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the tree, and I start hearing something running towards me,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: and it's three doughs. They hop the fence out of
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the horse pasture and they start they make their way
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: right by me. They did exactly what I was hoping
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: they were going to do, going into the bean field
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and working their way down this fence line um north
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: of this marsh. The dough stops and all three of
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the doors are looking behind her, and they're looking behind her,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: and they're looking behind her, and yeah, and it's it's
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: only four o'clock, right, so it's it's a little early.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, I you know something coming here.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: And I I heard some noise back there, but I really,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, it could have been a squirrel.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: You never know. So this dough walks over to a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: scrape that's on the bean field and works at like
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: a buck would work it, right, Uh, Paul, yep. She
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: paused it the dirt, she peed in it, and she
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: did the licking branch and yeah, and so from what
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I've seen over the past, uh she this means that
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: they're in heat or coming to you know, coming to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: get into heat. And this was a big old mature
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: dough and I was gonna shoot a dough that night,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: but with all this happening so early, and I saw
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: deer clear across the bean field. Uh from where I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: was at, I'm just like, Okay, something, something has got
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: these deer up on their feet, and I kind of
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: want to know what it is. And they're not spooked, right,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: So these deer, these three doughs are heading and they
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: worked there along this fence line. They worked their way
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: out of my view and then I from behind me,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I hear breber two big loud, which sounds like a
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: mature buck grunt, and I'm like, oh boy, it's gonna
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen tonight, you know. And
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: so I put my I put my seat up, and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm facing the tree. I'm I'm got my shooting
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: lane ready. And this is a complete running gun set up.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I did everything right before I got there. And I
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: start hearing steps coming towards this fence line. And then
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: behind me, I hear another bra bra, It's another buck,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: two big deep grunts, and I'm like, oh boy, it's
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you know, it's October, right This isn't supposed to really
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: be happening like this right now. And then I heard
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: this buck in there. He was murdering a tree. He
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: was just raking it up and down and up and down.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: And and then this other buck. And at this time
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I can't see him right this other buck he's in
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the grass out of my view, and he's pawing at grass.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: It sounds like he's either thrashing it with his antlers
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: or he's making a scrape in this tall grass. And
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: so I'm getting jacked up right, and everything is slow.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: He's starting to work its way towards me, and I
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: think I can see the butt end of a buck
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: through my binoculars into the timber. And then I hear
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: and the farmer of the cattle pasture starts to trim
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: trees that have fallen over his fence line so he
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: can fix the fence. Pull the top section of the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: barbed wire up and and address and fix the fence
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: so he can put his cattle in there. And I'm
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: going no, like in my head, I'm like, you son
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: of a bitch, and he uh, and so he he worked.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: He just continues to work his way, you know, by me.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: And obviously that grunning stopped. I didn't see any deer
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: close to me, but on a working farm like that.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: And by the way, this guy got within yards of
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: me and didn't see me, which is kind of cool.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: But um, I'm I'm watching deer still move across the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: field on the north end. So that just kind of
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: tells you a little bit about some of these working
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: farms and how comfortable some of these deer feel. Now, granted,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: none of them were mature bucks. But I saw a
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: handful of doze and a whole bunch of I shouldn't
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: say a whole bunch, but three young bucks um, you know,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: one two year old bucks um on the opposite side,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and they were just feeding in this in this bean
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: field while the guy's cutting trees. Um. They couldn't see him,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: but you know, when he started getting closer to mine,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: all they did was slowly walk right back into the timber.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: And then when he stopped. Um, I it was all
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: happened at primetime, right, so nothing was going to happen
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: after that, and uh then you know, I went out
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Saturday night and uh nothing, nothing showed up, not one
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: deer somber. Yeah, I've had a go ahead. I was
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: gonna say, what is the latest on trail camera? Do
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: you have any of your big boys showing back up? Nope,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I got kind of I kind of got a freeze
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: right now. However, I have I have two trail cameras
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: that I haven't checked since the first week in October,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and I won't check them until I go hunt those stands.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: So I don't want to go in this in this
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: area to hunt the stands. It's one of those trail
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: camera locations where I'm not gonna check them until I
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: actually hunt the area, just because I don't want to
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: put any additional pressure on the property. Um. However, I
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: did have a giant three. The body looks gigantic. He's
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I think he's three pounds, she huge neck, his antlers
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: maybe or one thirty you know maybe maybe not even
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that I sent you the picture. And yeah, and he's
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: blind in one eye, just like a true warrior. He's
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: been on my buddies property for two three years now
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: or two years now, and uh, he is definitely a shooter.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: He's is his body just screams like maybe a five
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: year old, uh, with just a like a scrub rack.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: But he's he's mature and he's so that makes my
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: hit list. Yeah, I love that buck is a scrub
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: buck for you, and well my best buck in Michigan
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: wanting to me. But I know what you mean relative
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to what else is running around over there. Yeah, So
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: then I went and I checked my other farm to
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the north west, you know where I had the buck
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: that I shot last year running around and uh, the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: only thing I got on traill camera was muzzleloader pictures
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and one picture of one of the shooter bucks in
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that area at like three in the morning working a
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: way through. So muzzleoader pictures, guy pictures of guys muzzleloading hunting.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: When was that, Uh this was October, I think ten through.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I forgot you guys have that weird mid October season
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: and which this is your main farm? No, this is
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: my uh, this is my uh farm close to my house.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Oh the one where the booner was, Yeah, exactly, I
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: don't know. We let other guys hunt it. Oh yeah,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: he lets uh from the looks of it. He lets
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: more guys than he knows on it. So I talked
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: to the guy and then they really don't care. Um however,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: all they do is care that you know everybody's safe.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's one of those things where you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: it's muzzleloader season that's over and now the only person
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: who's out there right now is me and uh, I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: have it until shotgun season starts, and then it will
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: get beat ship and then I probably ever see a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: deer on it. Well, get it done before then, okay, right,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: But I it happened to do some scouting on the
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: south end of of that property and I found some
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: of and I say this because I don't say it often,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: but some of the best betting areas that I have
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: ever seen. They logged this property in about two and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: it's got like six five or six years of growth
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: where it's those bushes that are about six ft tall
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and almost impassable, but there's little trails cut through there.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I cannot wait for the first north wind.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I think that might either be that might be tomorrow
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: night or Saturday here, and I'm gonna go sit on
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the down wind side of that and just kind of
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: see what happens, another running gun type of scenario. So,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: so which days are you hunting? Moving forward? Friday, Saturday,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and Sunday. No, I'm gonna try to get to see
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: today's I'm gonna try to get out. Um, I am
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: going to try to get out tonight, which is tomorrow night.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Friday is a very warm like it jumps twenty degrees
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: warm and windy day. I kind of talked to my wife.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I said, all right, you let me hunt tonight tomorrow.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I'll trade those nights for Friday night and we'll go
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: on a date, uh play, you know, pull some brownie
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: points out, and then I'll hunt Saturday and Sunday. And
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: because the temperature drops back down again on Saturday and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Sunday and uh you know, and then i work Monday,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the thirty one, and then I'm off from the first
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: to the sixteenth. So you're off the first, the first through. Yep,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that's a new development, isn't it. That is a new development. Wow?
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: So well, I knew I was going to take that
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: time off. It's still debatable on where I will be hunting,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: if it's gonna be on my main arm or close
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: to here. So yeah, about that I don't know I'll
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: be able to hunt. I just don't know if I'm
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: going to be able to, you know, be away from
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the family for that entire sixteen days. Right. Well, hey,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: either way though, that's that's gonna increase your odds dramatically
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: because I feel like we we record an episode last
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: week or something where you were talking about just having
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: like one week of vacation, right right, and uh, it
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: was It's just one of those things where I really
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: don't know what is going to happen until the day of,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and a lot of it, to be honest with you,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and I hate to say it is on my wife's attitude.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: So you know, I'm gonna I'm only going to talk
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: about it when she's happy, and if she's not happy,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: then you know, it may just but you know, I
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: just you just don't mention it. Uh. And I'll tell
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: you what. For all the guys out there who have
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: wives and you have kids, bow hunting this time of
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: year is kind of a very selfish sport, right, I mean,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: you're you're not part You're not involving your wife in
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: this except for maybe dropping you off and on the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: four wheeler. You know, I'm sure, she appreciate appreciates that mark.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: But but you know, it's one of those things where
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: let them know how much this means to you and
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: how much you know, you understand that you're walking away
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: for a while and if you're if your guys as
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: kids are like my kids. Uh, she is going to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: hate being a single parent for you know, sixteen days
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: or um, however many days there are. And I really
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: appreciate her. I love her very much for for doing that. Um.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: It's a battle at times, but she she gets it,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: she understands, and I understand the frustration that she has
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: to go through too. So make sure you guys tell
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: your wives or ship it's two thousand sixteen, you tell
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: your husband, uh, if that you appreciate them. Oh Dan,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: I uh, I really want to keep this on track here,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: all right? What I It's funny man mentioned this because
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I literally just before we started recording this podcast, stop
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: my wife and I was just like, hey, you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: keep it, keep it together, keep it together. Damn. I
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: told my wife. I'm like, hey, I just want you
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to know how much I appreciate you being cool with this.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: You know, from this point on, you it's probably gonna
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: be crazy hunting every day and working late at night,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be a bad husband for the next
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks. And you know, just like you mentioned
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: with your wife, she's she gets it and supportive, and
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: it's it's we're very luckily, very lucky to have supportive wives.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: So so that's said, my wife's to the point now
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: where some of the pressure on me. She puts a
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: little pressure on me, like, yeah, go out and kill
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: that buck. Why did why did you do that? Why?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Like she's asking me questions that you know sometimes need
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: to be asked. Why didn't you move that stand close
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: to the buck? Um, that's a that's a pretty good question, Kylie.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I wish that thing. Yeah, why don't you Why don't
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: you shoot one tonight? Uh? Well, um, yeah, I tried. Well,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: just hurry up and go shoot one. Like okay, I
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: have I have a like a white board next to
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: my desk that I sometimes put, like to do list
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: items on there, and then sometimes when there's like honey
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: dew stuff, Kylie will put some things on there. And
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: right now, in big red letters, she wrote killing old
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: buck exclamation point. So so she she's trying to keep
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: me on keep me on task. Yeah, oh you know,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: life life, but life life is exciting right now for
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: us as deer hunters. So dude, it is it is
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: pre rut right now. I've talked to so many guys
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: around here right now who are seeing heavy chasing right now, um,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and they are. You know, it's it's that time where
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I think, like what I saw from the stand on Friday,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: these first does are coming into Estrus. You know, we
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: talked about that bell curve all the time, that that
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: beginning of the bell curve is starting right now. And
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: what's what's special about that is when there's just a
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: few of those doughs coming in, all the bucks are
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: going to be starting to try to find that early dough.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: So if you happen to be in the spot where
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: that dough is hit it hard, right That's that's what
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: seems to be happening by me. Like like I said,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I've had mature bucks chasing doughs around already out in
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: broad daylight. So I've hunted two days in a row.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I'm back in today and hunting in tomorrow and just
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: try to be there one that getting is good man,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: maybe we'll get lucky. So I guess though, we should
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: wrap up our intro here and get done on because
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: maybe he'll hell the advice that you and me need
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to finally kill a deer. Oh, I need like more
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: than just advice. I need like someone driving my body
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: in my brain. I don't think you can do that
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: for it, but we can ask. I suppose all right? Well,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: with that said that, gosh, I said that said even
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: more than usual today, I feel like it's on the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: T shirt. On the T shirt, buy that T shirt.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: You're subconsciously trying to get people to buy stuff from you,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: aren't you. I think that might be it. So I
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: don't even know how to transition anymore. Moving on, let's
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: take a break for a word from our sponsors at
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Sick of Gear, and then we will give Don Higgins
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: a call. So, as we do every week, we need
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: to thank our partners at Sick of Gear for their
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: ongoing support of the Wired to Hunt podcast, and today,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: rather than another Sick of story, today, I want to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: remind you about si Cause Diverge photo contest that's going
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: on right now. As we mentioned earlier this year, Sick
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: is running this contest through December fift in which they're
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: looking for unique and creative photos from your hunting adventures.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: As they put it, we've come together to share the
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: very real things we've seen, the grit, the beauty, the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: truth of hunting, the rawness. Prizes for the contest include
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: sick hats and hunting apparel, go pros, the chance that
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: we published in print, and even in all expenses paid
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: trip to Bozeman, Montana. So if you think you have
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: an eye for authentic hunting photography, be sure to submit
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: your pictures by using the hashtag diverge five the number
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: five on Instagram or visit sitka gear dot com slash diverge.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: You need to. Even if you don't plan on submitting
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: a photo into the contest, you really should still visit
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: that site because on that site, sick of gear dot
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: com slash diverge, you can take a look at all
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of the current entries into the contest and there are
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: just some really awesome photos in there. So check it out.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Enter the contest at sick of gear dot com slash diverge.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: And now let's get back to the show and give
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Don Higgins a call. All right, will us on the line? Now?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Is Don Higgins? Welcome back to the show down. Well,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: thanks for having me mark towas a pleasure. Yeah, ditto
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: on our end, We're we're excited chat with you and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: like we're just saying, you're our first three time guest
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: on the show, so pressure is high on you today
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: because we're expecting great things. Well, you guys must be
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: getting pretty desperate. Yeah, that could be it. That could
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: be a um. But but that said, you know we've
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: already introduced you in the past. I think people know
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: who you are and what you do. UM. So what
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I'm most interested in right now because me and Dan
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: have just spent the previous twenty minutes talking about how
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: our hunting seasons are going so far, I'm curious for you.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: How are things going for you so far? Well, you
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: know the older I guess it seems like the last
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: hunting I do in October for the really big box.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I know every year you get on social media and
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: you see something really big when it's killed in October.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: But for a guy, that one guy to go out
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: and consistently do it stuff And I've just found that
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I'm a little better off to put less pressure on
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: my stands and hunting areas in October and then hit
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: it hard in November. So that's pretty much what I've done.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Have you gone at all? Yeah, I've gone, I don't know,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: maybe five or six times all evenings. I don't known
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: a single October morning. I probably not hunted a single
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: October morning in over twenty years. Now. Um, the older
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I get, the more I put things together, I start
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: playing the odds, and the odds are so slim on
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: October morning for one guy to do it consistently that
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I just don't even go out and put the pressure
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: on my stands or my hunt areas. So uh, I
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: will hunts October evenings because in the right condition, you know,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: you get a cool front coming there or something like that,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: and you can have success in October. But I like
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: to play the odds. Like I said, in November is
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: much better time. Yeah. So I've seen a little bit
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: on social media and your blog where you've been talking
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: about your number one buck for this year, you call
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: him Trump. Can you tell us about that buck that
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: he's he's an absolute stud. Yeah, He's a buck that
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: I have pictures of every summer since two thousand twelve.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: That was the first years that I could identify him.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Going back through old pictures. Um, he really has never
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: been I mean, he's always been a nice buck. Last
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: year he was probably maybe in the h he might
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: have hit one sixty. He was definitely over one fifty. Um,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: he's good. But I'm always looking for those really top
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: end bucks and he just wasn't wanted I put any
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: attention to at all. But in this summer when I
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: got his picture, he had exploded and I'm certain he's
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: over one eighty now uh sixteen points, and he may
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: even be over one try to be conservative. But the
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: bad thing is is that every year he's summers in
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: an area where I get his picture consistently throughout the summer,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: and then he disappears in early October and he's not
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: to be seen against the entire season in that area.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: And since he was never one that I really focused on,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: or buck that really showed potential to be something huge
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: in the future, I just never spent any time trying
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: to learn worry Wind or anything. Well, I got my
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: last picture of the October seventh, and ironically I went
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: in that that afternoon to hunt a stand, and I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: had a new cellular camera that I put up on
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: a scrape about twenty yards from my stand, and that night,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: about ten o'clock, I get my first picture from that
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: camera and it's Trump. He's at the scrape work, so
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: I think he was kind of rubbing my nose in
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: a little bit. But in the past, he's six years old.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: This year I figured from from trail camera history, and
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: in the past, you know, he was about like any
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: other buck. I get day pictures and night pictures. But
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: this year I probably got over two pictures pretty easy
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: over the course of the summer and early fall, and
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I have yet to get a single daylight photo of
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the buck. And during the summer when he was in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Fell that there was two three year old bucks that's
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: part of his bachelor group, and I would get those
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: those bucks. But every time I get Trump's picture in
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the summer at night, those bucks would be with him.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: But I would also get those bucks during the day,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: but Trump would never go with him and step out
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: with him during the day. So you know, he's truly nocturnal. Um,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: so it's gonna make it tough that the fact that
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: he's nocturnal, in the fact that he shifts his range
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: in the fall, is making it really tough. Yeah, you've
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: got You've got two really common issues. I feel like
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I hear stone people with this issue, like, Hey, I've
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: got this. He's here in the summer, but he switches
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: to a new spot when the fall comes around. So
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm curious about the two parts of this issue.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: So let's tackle the first part. When you have a
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: buck that typically does not spend time or as much
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: time when you're farm during the fall, how do you
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: go about, I mean, how do you go about trying
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: to deal with that? Are you trying to get permission
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: on new properties around there or do you just hope
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: he shows back up or what do you do? Yeah,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and this this funk is not on my property. He's
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: just on a property that I have permission to hunt.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: And it's not much cover at all, really, it's kind
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: of out and open. Agg area was like corn and
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: soybean fields, just some little draws and such here and there.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: And there's always a bachelor group that stays in this area.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: So that is why I've always got a camera out
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: there in the summer. Um. But during hunting season, there's
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: very few deer once the crops come out and the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: ground gets killed. Yeah, there's very very little hunting pressure
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: in that area or deer activity. There's there's plenty of
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: hunting pressure. But so when when he shifts his range,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: what I've been doing is shifting cameras in the direction
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: I believe he goes, and I've now got his picture
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: in four different locations. The extreme from one extreme camera
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: to the other is over three quarters of a mile away.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I was pretty confident two directions he did not go,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: because I hunt properties in those directions and I felt
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: that if that buck was alive in the past five
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: years in on those areas, I would have got his
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: pictures at some time. And since I did, and I
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: figured he was going one of the other two directions.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: So I've been shifting my focus that direction, moving cameras
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: that direction, getting permission on new hunting properties and such.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: But so far I haven't haven't got a crack at him,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: and things aren't really looking good. I actually figure if
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: I can just lay eyes on that buck one time
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: this season, that I'll be lucky. And well I'm really
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: doing is setting the groundwork for to kill him next
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: year or two. If he survives, if I can learn
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: some things through the trail cameras and such, and and
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: nowhere to be in the future. I'm kind of playing
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: catchup all the time. Now I'm on his tail, and
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: instead of chasing the deer's tail, I'd rather be in
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: front of him waiting on him to show up. I'm
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: just trying to I'm laying the groundwork now to make
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: that happen in future. So are you are you currently
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: hunting any their bucks or is this kind of an
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: all or nothing scenario for Trump? Well, it's not all
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: or nothing. I've got a couple of other bucks, uh
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: that I would shoot. One of them is uh actually
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: in Trump's area. He's a five by four with split
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: brows and split G two, so he's got thirteen total points.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: He's a five year old buck that I don't know
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: if he'll hit one seven he's he's easily over one sixty.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: But that's a buck that I would shoot in my
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: quest for Trump if that one comes along, and I'm
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: definitely gonna take a shot at him. So and he's
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: another one that it's the same scenario. He summers out
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: in that same area where Trump does, although this summer
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: they didn't. I never got their picture at the same time,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: so it's almost like there was two different groups of bucks.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Trump was there all summer, and then then the other
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: buck would pass through from time to time. And so
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: he's gonna be another tough customer that I don't know
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: they'll ever get a crack at at. Now. I'll give
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: it a shot. And then I've got another farm it's
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: good probably oh forty five minutes from there, that there's
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: a real good buck there that I've seen in development
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: this summer that I'll be after him. So how it goes? Yeah, Yeah,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: And I've got a pretty good buck on another property
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: that he's five years old and knows over one seventy.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I got his sheds from last year, and I've got
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: one video. I don't know two or three years, but
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I'd like to put one more year on that buck
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and let him get to at least six and hopefully
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: he's got a big grossberg. Anyone you get up close
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: to two, Wow, I will tell that would be that
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: would be pretty incredible. So I want to go back
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: to the sort of the Trump issue or any of
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: these things that you mentioned. In addition to him relocating,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: he's also completely nocturnal, at least as far as pictures go.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: What do you usually do in that kind of situation,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: when you've got a buck the year after he's mostly nocturnal,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: what's how do you deal with that? Well, I believe
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: in that case there's really only two times when you
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: have a legitimate chance to kill that buck with a
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: bow and now with again, if you're on drive or
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: something like that, it can always happen. If you step
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: on a buck's tail, he's not gonna be nocturnal any longer.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: He's gonna get help and run from you and maybe
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: run into danger. But the two times are he's either
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: with the hot though, um, he'll be on his feet then.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: But but even that is somewhat you know, to be
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: in the location where that hot doese out when she's
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: there and everything, it's a pretty slim odds proposition. So
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: but I'll be out there. I mean, if the odds
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: are one percent, I'm still going to back there trying.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: And that's that's a key time. The other is in
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the late winter, for the late season, when you get
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: a really cold snap and the deer on on the food.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: If you can find a good food source bearing a
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: really bitter cold spell in the late season, that's when
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the nocturnal bucks are on their feet in the daylight.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I mean that even Trumps. The rut so about the
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: thing about Trump is he's not hunting on any property
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: that I manage in any way whatsoever. It's just it's
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: just knocking on doors for permission, and um, the food
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: sources are gonna be what's there, you know, if a
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: farmer happens to you know, not harvest corner of his
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: field or something like that. And that's the only the
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: only food sources that that I know of, or I've
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: discovered yet where where Trump may be feeding. This winner
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: kind of have to hope to get lucky and have
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: a spout with decent food. That's that's a tough situation.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: I think so many of us, I mean, being able
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: to plant food plots and all that kind of stuff.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: It's it's even though us in the media probably talked
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: about a lot, I don't know if the majority of
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I think probably the majority of hunters out there don't
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: have that ability. And I think that's a challenge because
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: there's definitely some inherent advantages of being able to put
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: in the specific type of food you want in the
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: right place that you want it. I mean, that's a huge,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: huge benefit it's been helping me this season so far
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: and every year really on my main Michigan property. So
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: that's tricky. What. Yeah, And I mean I've got properties
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: that I'm my own or release or manage in some
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: degree where I'm allowed to plant food plots, and it
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: makes it several times easier on these bucks. But I
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: also I'm got a lot of the bucks I own
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: are not on properties that I managed, just like Trump.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: But it's just it's as real world as it gets
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: you out there competing with other hunters. For example, I mean,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: I was about a week or so ago, I put
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: a stand up on a new property where I can
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: hunt Trump, or where I suspect he may be running.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: And I got another cellular camera and I said, I'd
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: better put that up on that property. And I went
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: in and a week after I put my stand up
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: to put this camera up, and uh, in that week's time,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: someone put a stand twenty yards from the stand out
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: hunt for Trump. So if I get him, it's gonna
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: be right in the heat of the competition. It's not
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: gonna be an easy buck by any means. Yeah, that's
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: the worst. I don't know if I had mentioned this
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: earlier on an earlier podcast, Dan tell me if I did.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: But I've got a buddy who set a tree stand
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, and then he came back to
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: hunt it, and somebody used his ladder, climbed up into
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: his tree stand and set a tree stand eighteen inches
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: away on the neighboring tree. So this guy, he potentially
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: could be sitting right next to another guy if they
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: actually wanted to say, I guess they can shake hands
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and talk about the hunt. Well, they're sitting there. Yeah,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: what happens if they both both shoot the buck at
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the same time. I don't think it'd be good. Well,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: that'll probably make social media whatever happens, Oh yeah, that's
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: for sure. My my buddy was like, Man, if I
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: didn't like deer hunting so much, and if I didn't
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: actually want to shoot a deer, I would just sit
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: that stand every single day until he showed up to
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: try to hunt it. So I could like telling like,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: what are you doing? But the back on topic down.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: So here's what I'm curious about. It's late October. There's
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: you know, five days left this month or something like that.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: So I think a lot of people approach this and
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: they kind of lumping into this category of pre run
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: For most people, that seems to be that pre rut
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: time period. What is your approach during these last days
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: of October? You know, actually this time of the year,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: I'm getting projects done around the house, because when November
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: rolls around, I want to be hitting it hard. I
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: don't want to do anything else except h I try
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: to hunt every single morning, every single evening, and a
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: lot of times all day during November. Okay, so, and
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I say, I just wrote an article about this. Actually
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: it's not even come out yet. I think too many
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: guys jumped again with the rud hunting. They don't want
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: to start, you know, and the last week October and
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: ghat it hard. By the time mid November rolled around,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: or especially late November, um, they're burned out and they're
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: not hunting near as hard as they were. And I
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: feel a much better approach is to uh, I don't
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: even hunt hard the first few days of November usually,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: but when Thanksgiving rolls around, I'm still hitting hard. That
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: that's when you can kill a really big bucks. There's
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: two times during the rug when the big boys are
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: really on their feet, and one is the seventh and
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: eighthan November, And I know there's a lot of other
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: guys promoted their scene dates as well, Bill Winky for one,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: that's route about November seven many times. My friend Tim Walmsley,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: who's the official scorer for Boone and Crockett, tells me
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: that there's more booners killed on November seventh and eighth
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: and any other dates year after year, that that's the
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: dates when the big boys are on the move, but
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: that those aren't quite in heat yet. Once you get
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: past the eighth and the does are coming in and
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: the bucks are tied up with the doughs. But the
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: seventh and eighth or two days that I will sit
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: in and stand all day long. Um, so that's a
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: prime time. And then Thanksgiving weekend, uh a few days
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: following Thanksgiving. There at the end November, the does are
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: starting to hot dose becoming fewer and farther between, so
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: those mature bucks have to spend more time looking for him.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: So and I feel by that time of the season
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of bill hunters have burnt themselves out or
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: they're not hitting the air is hard. Um, They're starting
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: to sleep in more mornings and they don't sit in
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: there stand quite as long as they were in early November.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: So this time of the year, I'm really I'm fighting
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: the air because I want to be out there as
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: bad as anybody, but I know that I need to
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: keep them stands fresh. You can keep my hunting areas fresh.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: And so I back off a little bit. And I
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: was just looking at the weather forecast for this year
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: in our area, and Friday the fourth, we're supposed to
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: have a cold front come through. So I'm guessing Friday
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the fourth will be the first morning hunt that I
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: have of the year. But from that point I'll be
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: out there every single morning. So how do you how
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: do you factor the weather into your rut hunting, because
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I know some guys are like, you know, really planning
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: all their hunts around the rut or all the year
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: really around the weather. Some guys say, I don't care
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: what the weather is during the rut, I'm hunting the
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: entire time. How much does that go into your strategy? Well,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: I hunt every day no matter what the weather is.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: But when those cold fronts come through, then I'm I'm
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: staying longer in the stand. Those will be the days
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: that I hunt all day. You know, if we get
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: seven in three days, or if we get days where
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: the wind's holing forty miles an hour or something like that,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: I'll still hunt. But it's basically about three hours in
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: the morning and a couple of hours in the evening.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: And again, I'm just doing it. I don't want to
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: burn myself out, but studing every day all day and
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: to stand I'm kind of picking the days. I do
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: that based on the weather and the timing that I
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: just described. So the weather was a big, big factor,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: but I don't let it keep me from the woods. Okay,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: what about We ask everybody about this, but I don't
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: think we've ever asked you about it. What about the moon?
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Does that? Does that mean anything to you? Do you
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: pay attention to anything related to the moon and how
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: it may or may not impact your movement? You know,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: not a whole lot. I remember when Jeff Murray came
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: out with the Mood Moon Guide way back probably twenty
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: five years ago, maybe more than that, and the first
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: year that it was out, I started paying attention to
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: it from the opening day of the season, and what
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: I found was that it was dictating when I hunted
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: too much. I was I was using that Moon Guide
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: as an excuse not to go home, and I just
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: kind of quit using at that point, I mean, before
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: the first month was over. That way back then, I
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: was no longer using the moon Guy because of that reason.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: And it just so happened that this falls. I was
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: given a one of the current moon guides for this year,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and it was the same thing. Right off the bat.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: In October, I started looking at at that moon guide
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and planning a few hunts. My evening ounced a few
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: I do in October. I was trying to plant them
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: around those red moon days. And to be honest, I'm
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: probably not the best guy to be asking about how
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: much the moon plays into it, because I believe whether
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Trump's the moon every time. Now, what I am doing
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: this year is if I'm not working or whatever, driving
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: down the road in the prime uh movement hours, you know,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: of dusk and dawn, and if there's one of those
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: days where I'm seeing all kinds of deer activity for
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: no explainable reason, and I'll look at my moon guide
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: and see how it how it correlates. But to this
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: point that hasn't really been the case much, so I
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: can probably tell you a lot more in a couple
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: of years from now. Yeah, yeah, it's funny you mentioned
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: the moon guide. We you know, we've talked to Adam
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: hay Is about it a lot and a couple of
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: those guys. And so I'm kind of in the same
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: boat where I'm intrigued by it and you know, pay
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: attention to it, but don't really have any of my
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: own firm you know, beliefs or data to sip to
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: put behind it. But for whatever it's worth, there were
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: red moon days these past well Yesterday, Monday, Sunday, etcetera.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: And whatever means, you know, Monday and Tuesday. So yesterday
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: and the day before I've seen great, great dear activity
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: for mature bucks. Um, So, I don't know. It could
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: just be coincidence. You know, lots of times you can
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: fool yourself into believing something is correlated and maybe not
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: but interesting if nothing else right. So here's something I'm
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: wondering down. Does do your typical decisions on where to
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: hunt during the run during the month of November if
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: we just say this whole month, does it change throughout
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: the month, Like at the beginning of the month you
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: tend to focus on X. Then at the middle of
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: the month you tend to focus on and then it
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: changes for the end or are you kind of is
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: it different all throughout the month based on conditions or
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: something else. It does change, and it's based more than
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: anything on hunting pressure. I've got some properties I hunt
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: where I know there's not gonna be hunting pressure, and
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: particularly gun hunting pressure, which in the Illinois ramad is
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: right in the middle of the month. So those properties
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: where I know there's not gonna be hunting pressure during
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: guns season, I'll kind of save them till after gun season,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: and but the hunting pressure pushed some bucks into them
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: the But the properties I started out with in early
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: November are ones that I know we're gonna see the
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: pressure from other hunters. I figure I might as well
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: get in there before they get ruined and that they're
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: getting pushed out and see what I can do. But
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: but the hunting pressure to dictates it as much as anything,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: because I know that's going to dictate whether there's deer staying. Um,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: they'll be on those properties early where there's hunting pressure,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: but once it picks up a little bit, they'll stay
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: on the neighboring properties. They're not gonna just totally abandon
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: their range, but they'll shift where they're staying to get
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: away from that pressure. Yeah, that makes sense. So then
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: early November, how what's your game plan for early November?
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: What kind of stuff are you focusing on that first
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: week or so? It sounds like you said your first
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: morning will probably you're gonna wait for that first coal front.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: But where do you think you're gonna start sitting at
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: that time? Those properties where I expect some hunting pressure,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot of bow hunters that don't do
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of hunting in October. They kind of wait
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: for the rut and the first two weeks of Novembers
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: when at the hunting pressure is probably the hardest in
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: my part of this country anyway. And I'll get out
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: there and try to beat the the competition to some
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: of those properties at the beginning of November. Um, but
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: I see the month of November, you know, as a
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you would call it. It's not
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: a sprint, but it's more like a long distance race
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: where you pace yourself. You know, you don't run to
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: the finish line on the first day of November. Uh,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I'm only playing on her my hopes are to get
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: one buck within range, one shooter buck within range. It's
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: during the month of November, so I know that my
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: odds are doing it today is not good, but my
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: odds over that thirty day period or so are pretty
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: good if I play it right. So I don't want
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: to go into my best spot and burn it out
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: right off the bat. I want to, you know, kind
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: of have a game plan of the entire season. Start
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: out with those properties that are going to have some
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: other pressure and see if I can get a good
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: hunter two in on them before the pressure is too
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: great and pushes the box off, and then just kind
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: of build from there, saving my very best properties for last.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: It's almost like hunting a property on the outside end.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: A lot has been written about that where you start.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: You don't go to the heart of your property to
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: start with you. You stay out on the edge, just
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: let the deer have the heart of the property, and
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: then as a season wears on, you work your way
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: in to get closer and closer to close deer up
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: your odds. And it's the same way with me. During
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: the month of November, I start on those properties that
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: are going to have the most pressure and then I
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: move on to the ones that are going to have
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: the least at the end of November. No, No, what
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: about actual stand locations like you just mentioned. You know,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: lots of people will work their way from the outside
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: and throughout the season. But for you in your situation,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: since for a lot of your spots, that sounds like
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: you haven't really hunted very much at all till November
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: or not planning to, do you approach a property during
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: that month the same way? So you do you start
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: hunting in early November, still on the edges a little
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: bit to see what's going on, or since you know
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: it's the rut, you dive into your best stands. Well,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: A lot of it depends on the property, how they
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: lay out. If it's um one of these real world
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: properties I call it, we're compete with other hunters. A
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: lot of times I've got one good stand on the
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: entire property, and it might be in the very best
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: location on that property, and there's no looking from the
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: outside in. On those, you go right to the good
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: spot to start with. But if it's a property you've
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: got total control over, well, then you do the outside
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: in approach and slowly put your pressure on that property. Okay,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: So I mean there's just a lot of variables. So
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: do you have any stand locations that are are just
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: money no matter what when it comes to the rut.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like a pinch point that you can
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: hunt as many times as you want and maybe not
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: burn it out because you have good access to that
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: that stand location. Yeah. And in fact, I try to
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: build those locations on the property where I've got some control. Um,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: you know, you figure out where the best stand side
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: is for you for your access, for you to sit
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: there and remain undetected with certain wind direction or whatever.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: And then once you've found that stand side and you've
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: got your stand there, and then you do everything you
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: can on that property to push more dear activity that way,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: whether it be uh, you know, maybe blocking trails that
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: are out of range, or if it's a there's an
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: old fence on the property, maybe cutting a hole in
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: that fence. Player stand but you just find that best
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: location and make it even better. So, and I answer
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: your question, Yeah, I've got several of those on various
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: properties where depending on the wind direction, I mean, for instance,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: I've got some of my own property where if we
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: get an east wind in early November. I've got a
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: couple of stands and I know I can go to
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: and without a doubt, I will see a minimum of
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: five bucks some of the November mornings with an east wind,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: and I might see as many as ten or twelve
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: or fifteen. But you've got to have that rare east
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: wind for it to happen, and it's got to be
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: in early November when the bucks are on that cruising
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: and seeking face. So during that phase of November, can
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: you describe what your best types of stand locations are like?
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: I'd love to know in detailing, are you focusing just
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: on pinch points or just on betting ears or what
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: makes your dynamite early November stand site? The two factors.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: One is the pinch point, as you just mentioned, and
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the other is dough betting areas. A pinch point near
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: a doe betting area, those blocks are going to cruise
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: down the wind edges of those dough betting areas and
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: if there's a pinch point along that down wind edge
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: and then you got him, what what do those like?
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: What kind of can you depressed some examples of what
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: that might look like? Because we always talk about pinch
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: points funnel as we say those words, but sometimes it's
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: it's especially for newer hunters, they might not know what
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: that might actually look like in the real world, in
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: the real world. Can you provide some examples? Yeah, too
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: long my own property, there's one where there's within the
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: thick bedding area, there's a creek that comes through, and
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: that creek makes a big band that comes up and
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: pushes close to the to a field edge, so it
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: really narrows down. Between the creek and the field edge
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: is a narrow corridor probably I want to guess fifty
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: yards wide, and to either side of it, the creek
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: bends away and the covers a whole lot wider between
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: that edge of the creek. So as the deer traveler
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: the box travel that down wind edge that creek and
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: the field edge kind of pushes them through a narrow
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: travel corridor. Well, with the wind direction, they're always going
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: to be on the down the wind edge of that.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: So that smell it it's really absolutely deadly because anybody
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: that comes through is gonna be within twenty yards and
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: most of the time within fifteen or ten yards. Uh.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: And then another one is an inside corner the same
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: just right down the same field edge a few hundred yards,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: the woods makes a ninety degree turn and forms an
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: inside corner in a field. At the same time, that
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: same creek comes up and pinches right there at that
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: inside corner, And uh so it kind of funnels those
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: deer right through there. So what wind directions describing the way?
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: It makes sense, But what wind direction are are you
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: trying to hunt those on? Because I have I have
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: a scenario almost similar to that where I have an
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm accessing through the field on a south wind,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: so my wind is actually blowing to the stand location
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: because I can't access it from the north side. My
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: stand in that narrow strip of timber between the creek
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: in the field edge, and there's a ton of heavy
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: trails and that's where all the all the deer crews
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: during the rut. But I have to access it through
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: a south wind, and my wind is blowing to the
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: stand location. But once I'm in the stand location, it's
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: it's money. But how how are you accessing what you've
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: what you've just explained the inside corner, I'm coming right
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: across that open field, right into the corner where my
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: stand is located, and my sense right, my face is
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: blowing right back from my stand right out into that
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: open field. And with that situation, the deer, the bucks
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: can run either edge, and they've got either a wind
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: quartering into their nose or they've got a wind quartering
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: at their tail, and most of the time they want
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: it quartering into their nose. But they run those edges
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: with the wind quartering into their nose and they can
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: smell everything. It's the head of them in the cover,
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: and they can use their eyes to see everything out
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: in that open field, right, I mean, it's absolutely deadly.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: And the other situation where the creek comes up and
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: makes the big band and pushes are narrows down the
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: the wooded cover between the creek and the field edge,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: I use a across. Well, basically I'm coming across the
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: field to that one with the wind straight in my face. Again,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: but those bucks are traveling that edge with a cross wind,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: and the same thing. They can smell everything in the
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: cover that way, and they can use their eyes to
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: see everything out in the field, and so they kind
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: of hug that field edge to do that. So there
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: you're planning on a shot in the timber right. Most
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: of the time it is, but a lot of uh,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the percentage would be, but there's
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: also a lot of those bucks that are right on
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: the field edge too. Okay, how much do you this
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: is a this is a dilemma I often have. You know,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: when you're hunting the rut and you've got you know,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: it might be a little different for you because you're
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: able to hunt us a little bit longer time period.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: But for example, I go down to Ohile for a
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: week to ten day every year and basically, you know,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: I've got that time period to try to really try
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: to get done. So there's a I think a lot
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: of people have that too. So there's this tendency to
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: you know, be willing or want or need to take
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: more risks because hey, this is the super Bowl of
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: deer hunting. If you don't get done now, well you're
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: out of luck. So my question, the reason I set
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: this all up, is how much risk do you take
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: when it comes to wind when you're hunting during the rut?
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: Do you ever go into a spot where you usually
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: wouldn't because you know your wind is going to knock
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: out your chances for one of the directions, But you
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: know there's still two more that could be good or
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: something like that. No, I never give up the wind.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: I think the wind is so important for a mature bug. Now,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: if you're happy to shoot two and three year old,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: you can probably do that and be successful. But the
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: six year olds, when they can't do they're going to
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: have a wind advantager. They're going to think the winds
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: to their advantage. So I mean, once you can get
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: away with something three year old bucks, you can't with
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: six year olds. So I never ever give up the
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: wind ever. So can you elaborate on that last point?
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: You know how a buck wants to use the wind
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: in his favor. How do you believe they're typically trying
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: to use that wind during the run. They want they
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: want to be able to smell hot those in danger, um,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: basically in the direction that they want to go. Like
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of times when a buck's going to bed,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: you know he wants to check that for check the
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: area he's gonna bed for danger before he goes in
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: to do it, so he'll pass with a cross wind
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: on the down wind side they hook back into it. Um.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Everything they do is based on their nose telling them
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: it's it's okay, and if they can't, you know, there's
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: one company that's got the slogan forget to win, just hunt. Well,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: it sounds good in theory, but even if you even
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: if a guy could be totally sent free, sent free,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: no doubt about it, and he could just drop out
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: of the sky into his stand, never leaving groundson or anything,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: if he doesn't factor what that buck is going to
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: do in relation to the wind, and he's still not
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: going to be consistently successful because you've gotta to kill
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: the big ones consistently. You gotta know what they're gonna
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: do on purpose. I mean, you can't expect him to
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: commit suicide. You've got to know a bucket is moving
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: point A to point B, whether it be in the evening,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: from betting to food or whatever. And then you've got
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: to give him the wind direction that makes him comfortable
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: doing so. I mean, you can't expect him to move
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: from from his betting area out to feed with the
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: wind right at his back, so he has no idea
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: what's up front. He needs that wind too in his advantage,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: or he needs to think it's in his advantage for
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: you to have a success to kill him. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: it's hard to argue with that. It definitely seems like
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: these older deer they get old for a reason, right.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: I think a big part of that is probably because
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: they learned to use that to their advantage. Absolutely, So,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: speaking of risk taking, a second question I have related
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: to that during the rut is with the pressure you
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: put on a specific stand site. So do you I
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: think that it's okay to hunt a stand site more
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: often than usual during the rut because it's the rut
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: or I don't know what are your thoughts on that
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: whole deal. Is there a certain number of maximum number
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: of times instead of stand during this time period or
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: anything like that. Well, a lot of that goes into
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: two entrance and exit to the stand. If you can
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: get to that standard out of that stand without spooking deer,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: then you can kind of a hold up more often
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: because of the winds. Right when you're sitting there, you
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be spooking very many deer at all. I mean,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: occasionally you're gonna have one get down does unexpected, but access,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: entrance and exit is everything if you've got the right standing, Yeah,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: I'll huntest and two or three days in a row.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: If if there's a box that I know, I want
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: to shoot that area, and I'll do that during the
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: route when I witness other times of the year. Okay, Yeah,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: it's funny you mentioned the access and entry thing. This
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: year more than ever before I've been I've convinced my
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: wife to drive a four wheeler down to one of
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: the properties that hunt and pick me up in the
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: evenings so I don't spook deer off this field. And um,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: it has made a huge difference in the number of
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: deer I'm still seeing. I've been able to hunt one
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: specific little food plot area um way more than I
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: ever would UM. And I'm still seeing good activity and
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: mature bucks. UM. So that's made a big difference because
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: they don't seem to at least from what I've seen,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: they don't seem to be a spooked by a vehicle
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: coming in as they would a person coming out of
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: a tree and walking. You know, right, that's absolutely correct. Ah,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: back to the specific types of stand sites you'd you've
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: given us some detail on your funnel locations. Can you
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: give us the same kind of detail or examples of
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: some of your dope betting area locations that you focus
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: on during the run. Basically, they're just thicker areas that
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: have not seen a lot of hunting pressure. I mean,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: those are gonna are not gonna put up with hunting pressure,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: just like bucks won't and especially those older dose that
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: you bump them out of the bed and they're gonna
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: bed somewhere else. So six areas with undisturbed cover, UM
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: key in on those, um you know what the experience
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: you'd learned with a deer bed on particular property and
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: just get on the down the wind edge of of
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: where that is, and that's where the bucks are going
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: to be cruising as they check those those areas for
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: hot dose. How close do you typically try to be
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: to you know, if you could draw hypothetical circle around
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: where you think that doughe betting areas? Are you trying
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: to be right on the edge, like within ten yards
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: of it? Or is it more like I don't know,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: Like how close do you typically try to be? And
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: how do you choose that? I mean, how you determine
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: the right spot downwind of that doe betting air? A
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: lot of times that's the right spot. There's nothing more
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: than the right tree or an area where deer activity
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: is already funneled down anyway, but as I'd like to
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: get as close as possible, you know, right on the edge.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's even better if you can shoot into
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: that betting cover. Right So you are you? So this
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: is well? As you say this, I'm starting to wonder though,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: right you're we're setting up on this kind of location
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: because we're assuming a buck is going to be walking
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: the downwind edge of that betting area to try to
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: smell it. So do you you how far do you
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: usually see those bucks away from a dough betting And
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: I know this is different, and most you know it's
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: it's always different, but I don't know. I'm just kind
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: of curious if you've if you've seen anything in your
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: experience that on average they are right in the betting
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: air cover, or on average they tend to stay outside
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: so they can, I don't know, see a little more
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: as they come down wind of it. Have you seen
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: any consistencies there at all? Or is it just kind
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: of ran them? They want to walk right on the
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: edge of it. And I'm so close that sometimes the
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: bucks are actually on my down wind side, but I'm
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: high enough and my sense going right over the top
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: of their back, So that's how close I get. I
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: want to be pushing the envelope, but at the same time,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: I don't want him to smell me. So there's a
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: lot of variables. But I want to be right there
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: on the edge. Okay, speaking of your tree stand, Um,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: how high do you usually like to get up in there?
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Are you? Are you kind of guy that is like
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: super super high in the tree or is it more
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: based on tree cover and stuff like that. Well, you know,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: I was just talking the other day with a friend
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: of mine. Years ago. I used to think anybody that
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: used the ladder stand was as ciss secret. The older
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: I get, the more I like them. So it's all
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: about the cover. I mean, I want a comfortable stand.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: If I won't be there all day or for several hours,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: I want one that's big and comfortable. And I need
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: to get as high as I only go as high
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: as I need to get to stay hid. And then
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: I like to be at least fifteen feet, But fifteen
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: feet fine with me, and sometimes I have to I
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: would prefer the fifteen foot range with a lot of
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: cover around me. Okay, and um, and what about well, shoot,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: I totally lost my I lost my train thought, Dan,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: help me out here. Do you have a question for time?
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: I had something lined up and now I don't know
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: what it's at now on on these these betting areas,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: let's say you don't have a shooter necessarily on camera,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: but you you know it's a historically good spot that
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: throughout the years you've had good interactions with mature box.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: Is that when you're when you start to sit all
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: day or is it or is it like a travel
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: corridor or a pinch point not necessarily a betting area
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: when you're making your all day sets. Well, I'm on
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: and all day, said, I want being cover. I don't
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: want to be sitting out on you know, open timber
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: travel route between two thickets. I want to be in
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: the thick of it, um, because during midday, let's face it,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: the deer's a bus going to spend the majority of
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: his hours in that thick cover. If I want a chance,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: a real chance to kill him, I need to be
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: in the same place he's at. So, yeah, there's a
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: lot of bucks killed every year out on those open
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: travel corridors of fans row connecting two woods or just
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: open timber or whatever. But I would much prefer to
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: be in the thick stuff with the deer introduction, I
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: remember my question, So thank you for the filler there, Dan,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: speaking of excuse me now, I can't talk speaking of
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: all day sits. Do you have any advice for pulling
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: those off? Because that's a struggle for a lot of people.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: Anything that helps you get through a full day or
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: I am one of those people, right, this is for you, Dan, Yeah,
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: and I'll tell you I don't do a lot of those.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: It's uh, if you know there's a shooter buck on
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: the property and that's that will really help. I mean,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: your confidence has to be there if you're not cough
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: in your area. I mean, it's about impossible to sit
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: there all day. Um past success if you if you
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: do it a few times and you see some bucks
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: moving in the middle day, it makes it a whole
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: lot easier to do it again. So you know no
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: one you've got a shooter buck on the property, seeing
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: it a little bit of success helps you do it again.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: You need to be comfortable. I just older. I get
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: I can't stand them a little bit of tree stands anymore.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: I want a big, roomy stand for the comfortable seat. Um.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: Take enough food to make sure you're never hungry. Uh,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: just make yourself as comfortable as can be and has
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: a confidence. Yeah, very true. Well, quickly, before we move
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: on to our next question for don we need to
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: pause to think. Our sponsors of this episode may even optics,
• 1:12:00
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• 1:12:19
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• 1:12:23
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• 1:12:27
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• 1:12:32
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• 1:12:40
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• 1:12:43
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• 1:12:49
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• 1:12:52
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• 1:12:55
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• 1:12:58
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• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: you're making the outside of that glass look however you want.
• 1:13:04
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• 1:13:27
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• 1:13:30
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• 1:13:32
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• 1:13:35
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• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: the next day. Um, the customs take two to three weeks.
• 1:13:51
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• 1:13:55
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• 1:13:59
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• 1:14:03
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• 1:14:09
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• 1:14:13
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• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: use the highest quality glass. Um, you're just you're just
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: customizing the outside of the outside of the optic. I
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: gotta say the customization options are pretty darn cool. My
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: my buddies are always pretty impressed when they see wired
• 1:14:30
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• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: that said, if you'd like to learn more about Maven Optics,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: you can visit maven built dot com. And now back
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: to the show. Is there any particular part of November
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: that you tend to try to hunt those full days
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: more than more than another. Yeah, absolutely, November seven the Night.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: I've had a lot of success in November seven the Night,
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: and as I mentioned, that's more booners are killed on
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: those day any other day. Yeah, that's definitely a time
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: when it's hard to It's hard to beat that time frame.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: For me, I've seen the same thing like that. If
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: you could spand if you expand it a little bit,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: like the fifth through the twelfth, like that week for
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: me always tends to be pretty darn good too. Um.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: I read an article from you earlier this year and
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: it was talking about the idea of how small properties
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: aren't so bad. You know, how you'd rather, I think
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: you had said something on the lines of the fact
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: that you'd rather have a bunch of different small properties
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: than maybe just one big property. Um, can you can
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: you expand on that a little bit? Why do you
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: say that? And how does that factor into the rut?
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: How do you approach small properties during the rut, if
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: at all differently than a big managed property. Yeah, it's
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: ironic you mentioned that. Just before we started this interview,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: I got a text with a with a photo of
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: a young man, uh justin Repkis with Team Radical Outdoors.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: You may have heard of them, but he's just shot
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: a six by six blocks and he mentioned the same
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: article and was saying, how spot on it is that
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: having multiple small properties is has proven itself to be
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: better than one larger property. And the reason for it is,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: you know, you go and you've got a four hundred
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: acre property, you might only have one shooter buck on it.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: You have a forty acre property, you might have one
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: shooter buck on it too. Well, he's a if he's
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: staying on forty acres versus four hundred. You know, every
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: time you go into honey and he's gonna be a
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: whole lot closer to your stands if he's betting on
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: that property from the other big advantages. If you've got
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: multiple small properties, you're hunting multiple deer hairs and you
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: just increase your odds of having a shooter buck on
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: one of them or multiples. So you know, it's it's
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: something that a lot of people don't buy. You. You
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: get these rich guys that go out and buy hundreds
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: and hundreds, if not thousands of acres contiguous that that
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: they managed for deer and and they're successful. Don't take
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: nothing away from they're very sick accessful. But for the
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: average guy, I think you're better off having a lot
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: of small properties, even if they're only you know, five
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: or ten acres. I hunted some really small properties that
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: were situated in such a way that I mat you're
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: bucked with bet on him and has bet on them,
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: So you know, and if you've got multiple small property,
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: you burn one out, well, if you got others to
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: go to, it's not there as a big a deal.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: Burn out your only hunting property, no matter how big
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: it is, you kind of shut yourself in the foot
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: and your ads that went way down. Yeah, I had
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: a scenario like that last year That's an interesting point.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: So does that mean do you hunt if you have
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: a situation like that, we have multiple small properties, Um,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: do you hunt those more gressively during the run, then
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: just because you know you've got all these other spots
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: you can fall back on. All Right, A lot of
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: it all depends on the hunting pressure. If I'm the
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: only guy that I know can hunt, and I'm pretty
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: positive nobody's trespassing or nobody else is slipping in there
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: putting some kind of pressure. And even if it's not hunters,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: you know, pressure doesn't have to be from hunters, just
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: human activity. Um, how hard I will hunt them property
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: and push it depends on that the other pressure on it.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: If if I know it's one getting very little pressure,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: then I put very little pressure on because I want
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: to keep it to secure in the deer's eyes so
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: that when I do go on it, my odds are
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: really high to see it. Right right, Speaking of pressure, UM,
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: I know you're a big proponent of sanctuaries, preserving some
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: kind of sanctuary and your property. What what are your
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: thoughts on sanctuaries during the rut? Do you ever go
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: into them or how do you hunt in or around
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: them at this time. I consider a sanctuary of sanctuary
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: only as long as it's free of human intrusion. It's
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: because the first time someone goes in and hunts, it's
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: no longer a sanctuary. So I'd never go into the
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: sanctuaries during hunting season unless I've shot a deer. Okay,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: So you're hunting the fringes of that sanctuary right exactly,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: with my sense always flowing away from it. How close
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: is too close? When you see the edge? I mean,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: can you literally can you like, let's just hypothetically say
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: there's a swamp and you're saying, this swamp is your
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: is your sanctuary? Will you hunt you know, right within
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: that ten yards within the swamp or something like that?
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: Is that safe enough to keep it still sanctuary? In there?
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: I mean they might be able see you. You could
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: hypothetically spook a deer in there. Is that still a
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: hontable spot where you off it? Yeah? I hunt right
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: on the edge of the sanctuary where and if there's
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: a deer, you know, and fairly close to the edge,
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: you could see me slipping into my stand. But my
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: sense never gonna be in there. My ground sense never
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: gonna be in there, He's never gonna see me in there,
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: although they may see me on the edge. Okay, is
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: there is there a minimum size that you like or
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: is there something like, Yeah, if it's if it's an acre,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: it's not really a sanctuary. But if it's up to
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: five acres, well, now it's a sanctuary. Is there any
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: kind of quantification that you applied to an area that
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: you try to protect as a safe spot for deer?
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: Well and yeah, but not really. It's not really limited
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: by acre each but terrain. For example, I like my
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: sanctuaries to have some kind of physical difference around the edge.
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: In other words, a buck crosses this creek, he knows
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: that on this side of the creek he never smells
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: or encounters a human, or if he jumps this fence,
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: once he's on the other side of the fence, he
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: never smells or encounters a human. Or this road, and
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: once he's on this side of the road, he never
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: smells or encounters a human. You need some kind of
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: a physical obstacle or some kind of physical feature that
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: that deer can recognize that once I crossed this, then
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: I never encounter humans. And it can be a one acre,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: it can be well, I like him bigger the better. Um,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I like sanctuaries that are at least ten
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: or twenty acres. You know, it just depends on the properly.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: The bigger the better though, right, So are you I'm
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: making some assumptions here, but let's just say you have
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: a sanctuary. I'm assuming there's gonna be a lot of
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: does betting in there because it's a safe place. So
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: then are you typically hunting a sanctuary in the rut
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: basically as if it's a giant dough betting here? So
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: you're hunting the down wind edge of it and hoping
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: to catch something cruising. Yeah, that's exactly right, hut on
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: the down the wind edge, and that's where the bucks
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: are going to be. Okay, all right, So now let's
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: let's say we're hunting that kind of situation. I'm tight
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: to some kind of sanctuary or cover. Um and hypothetical
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: situation that I can see coming up is spotting a
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: big buck back there in the swamp or back in
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: the cover but it's too far away. What kind of
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: calls or any kind of calling technique do you typically
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: like to use during the rut to try to get
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: that buck to coming closer. Is there do you try
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: it all or is there a specific go to that
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: you really liked? Keyan On. You know, I'm not a
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: big and calling uh for them simply because I had
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: an area where there's a lot of hunters and I'm
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: sure you guys do as well. By the time a
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: buck gets to be six years old, Uh, he's pretty
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: educated to those kind of things. Yeah, so I hardly
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: ever call now in a situation like you described, I
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: may or I may not. It just depends on the situation.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: If it's a buck that I feel that I'm going
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: to get a crack at eventually, I'm probably not gonna
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: tippy offs to my stand location by calling in any manner.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: But if it's like the Trump buck, you know it's
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: a bucket, I feel if I can lay eyes on
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: him one time, I'm gonna be lucky. So if I
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: see that buck one time on his feet in daylight
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: and he's not gonna come past me, well then I'm
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: gonna throw everything I got at him and I will
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: try to call him that situation. But yeah, we started
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: talking about six years and older, and they know the
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: tricks and and calling whether me rattling, grunt calls, whatever.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: It's not really that effective. It's more effective at educating
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: them than anything. You're out of those naantlers and you're
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: telling that buck here's my stand, don't never come over here. Yeah,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: so what about this um nightmare scenario? During your hunt,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: you spook your target buck either he wins you or
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: sees you or your rattle and it sounds bad and
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: he runs away. Um, how how down does that gets
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: you during the rut? Do you feel like you get
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: a few, you know, get out jail free cards during
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: the run? Or is a game over if it's a
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: mature buck? And when I say matureal, I'm talking at
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: least four years old, and I'm really targeting bucks or
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: five or six and older. Yeah, when the bucks discovers
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: me and a tree standard or he gets down when
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: it smells me but never sees me, or maybe he
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: sees me but never smells me, or whatever the situation.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: Once a buck has me take to a tree, I
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: know it's over for that buck from that tree. So
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for a new place for stands. And I
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: don't think you're gonna spookhim totally off the property. When
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: that happens. But when he does jump past that that area,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: he's going to be looking for you in that tree again,
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: whether it's being down when trying to smell your or
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: visually seeing you. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a tough situation,
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: no doubt about it. Um, that's that's one of those
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: things that dealing with the whole trick of pressure and
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: the risk of putting pressure on deer and how much
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: can you get away with. I feel like I'm constantly
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: fighting myself on this, like trying to balance how do
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: I balance aggression and going here when the time is
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: right to the right places versus screwing it up for
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: the future. And I think that's such a big I
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: think that's one of the big cruxes of hunting mature
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: bucks is figuring out the right balance between those two things. Um,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, how do you how do
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: you make those decisions when you know, Okay, I need
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: to just back off out of here versus I need
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: to go in there. Is it solely based on whether
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: or do you take an other scouting intel or observations
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: or something like that? Yeah, weather trail camera pictures. If
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: I if I see a bucks, all his feet in daylight. Uh,
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: you know, fairly consistently. Then you know, I know it's
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: a buck that can be killed, So you know, why wait,
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: we'll get it done. Me if I know that certain
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: property I have permission to hunt is going to have
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: some gun hunting freshure on it when gun season opens,
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: and I get in there right before gun season and
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: go for it, because I know that my chances after
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: gun season are about zero. So you just gotta factor
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: in a lot of different things and and decide when
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: it when your time to move in and go for what. Yeah,
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: you mentioned trail cameras, and we did a whole episode
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: back I think it was episode sixty seven or sixty
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: eight somewhere around there talking about trail cameras. But for
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: for us right now, can you just tell us how
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: you're using them during the rut time period. I mean,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: you know, Dan, Dan focuses in krim if I'm wrong, Dan,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: but I feel like from everything I understand about your
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: strategy during the rut, a lot of what you do
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: is based on checking cameras and adjusting throughout your two
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: weeks of rut hunting based on what you're seeing on
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: those cameras. UM and you're moving them around and changing
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: stand sites all this time based on that. Are you
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: paying attention to cameras as much as that, or do
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: you kind of know Okay, these are my core rut
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: spots and I'm just gonna hunt these no matter what
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: the cameras tell me. Well a little bit of both.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: You know, I know where the bucks are gonna be
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: during the ret from past experience, But at the same time,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: my main reason for checking cameras more than anything is
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for target box and I don't believe that.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: I believe bucks are are fairly homebodies, maybe not to
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: the point that those are. It's very very rare that
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: I see a buck from a tree stand that I
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: don't have his picture, So I don't buy this that
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: during the rut these strange bucks are moving through properties,
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: although it does happen on rare occasions, so you know,
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: I'm checking the cameras for those rare occasions. But basically,
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: by the time the rut comes around, I know what's
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: on the property. I know if there's a buck I
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: want to target, but you know, at the same time,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: you never know, so I want to be up to
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: date as much as possible. So just stay in tune
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: that way through the trail cameras. How often do you
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: check them during the rut? Do you check more often
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: than you would some other time of year? Yeah, I
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: actually do probably, you know, during the summer, I won't
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: check cameras without once a month maybe, but um, during
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: the rut, it's more like about once every week to
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: ten days. I want to go in and I'll check
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: those cameras, like in early November, say the first from
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: from November one through the say about the fourth or fifth,
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: I'll check every trail camera I got, and I've got
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: him in five count he scattered all over the place.
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: So I mean, you just don't go out and check
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: them on one day, but right before the rut heats up,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: I want to get out and check every single one
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: of them to see if there's a bucket's moved in.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: And because this shift there range, you know, in the
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: early fall, and you can have bucks move in that
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: weren't there and say August or early September. I just
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: want to make sure I'm on top of things. But
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: then again, you know, I'll check them then I'll hunt
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: through that period of the seventh eight to you about
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: the twelve, and then I want to check them again
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: as the rut really heats up and those are coming
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: in to eat. You know, if if you've got a
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: family group of dose and a mature buck comes along
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: and breae one of them, well that bucks gona and
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: he's gonna be there to breathe the rest of them too.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: So you know, I want to check from early November,
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: mid November, and then again towards the end of the
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: Wember and Thanksgiving time period, so about three times, but
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: every ten days in November. Okay, speaking of that middle
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: of November breeding period, Um, do you change how you
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: hunt it all during the quote unquote lockdown period that
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of people refer to m M I actually do.
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: I'll I've got a number of stands and like out
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: of the way places, maybe a lone tree, a famil
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: of a corn field that's you know, a half a
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: mile from many woods, and occasionally I'll sit places like that.
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: I'll slip out there in the dark an hour before daylight,
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: and places where I've seen mature bucks pushed those in
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: the past during the rut. When a buck gets a
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: hot dog, a lot of times you'll push her out
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: in the places he typically wouldn't be. Drainage ditches is
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: another good one. I've seen a lot of mature bucks
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: push a hot dog put into a draining ditch in
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: the field. They'll stay down in that dish. And if
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: there's a tree or two along such a ditch, I'm
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: just going to out of the way places nobody else
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: would think to go. And where I've seen mature bucks
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: in the past push hot doughs. So on average, where
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: do you usually see is that usually where you're seeing
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: these bucks take their doughs? Is these out you know,
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: far away type spots or you also seen them go
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: and just like thick nasty cover. I mean, what other
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: places I guess could we expect to find a buck
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: with a dough at that time period. Well, the area
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: of the Midwestern arm hunting is pretty much open country
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: with some scattered woodlots and such cover along creeks and
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: ditches and things like that, so that we got a
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: lot of open country, a lot more open country than
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: we do cover. Of course, the deer relate to that
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: cover and that's where they congregate. But I want to
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: buck finds a hot dough, he wants to get her
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: away from the other box. And I've seen them out
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: in the middle of wide open soybeans stubble fields where
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: you know, the soybean stubble is not four inches at
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: tall and there's not a tree on the entire section,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: and there will be a bucket with a hot dough
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: out in the middle of it. So and I've seen
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: that many many times in the same way with corn
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: fields or or whatever. But it throws out of the
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: way places that away from the rest of the herd,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: that that those uh, mature bucks seem to want to
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: push those doughs. And sometimes there'll be a dough out
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: there and and the mature buck hasn't got her away
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: from the other bucks yet and there may be a
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: hot dog out there was five bucks with her. So
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: I've seen that multiple times as well. Yeah, that's pretty
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: crazy when that happens. I've seen some stuff like that
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: a couple of times, and it's it's pretty wild and
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: that's kind of funny too. Also, sometimes I don't know
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: if you've probably seen this and I've identified this, but
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: I feel like when a buck is with a dough
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: in some piece of cover, you know it based on
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: other bucks in the area, Like I've seen so many times.
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: There's a little patch cover and you can just see
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: these other bucks come up to this area and just
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: with their body demeanor, their body language, you know that
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: he's looking like it's like there's some kind of barrier
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: around this area that he knows he can't go into
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: without the big boy, and they're getting pissed at him,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: and he's just kind of circling around, like checking out.
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: He's like he wants to go on there so bad,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: but he just knows he shouldn't. Like I saw a
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: buck last night doing this and I was like, wow, Like,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: there's there's no question like that behavior right there is
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: has got to be looking at a buck with a
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: dough in there because of the way he was acting.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: And it's, um, it's always kind of exciting when you
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: know that something like that's in your area. It's almost like, well,
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: that's almost like the satellite bulls. Yeah, almost like a
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: satellite bowl as far as elks concerned. I want and
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: I had the same thing happened to me two or
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: three years ago where um, me and my buddy were
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: sitting in a tree stand and we were watching this
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: this it was actually no show Jones from a couple
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: of years ago. Uh, and we watched him fight off.
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: And I don't mean he didn't fight every one of them,
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: but he stood up and he would like do a
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: charge at him, or put his head down and wave
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: his antlers and let the other know the other dear. No, Hey,
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: I got a dough right here. If you hum and try,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get your ass beat. Yep. I've seen that myself. Yeah,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. Well, Dan, uh, do you have any
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: final questions for done? No? Man, Uh, not really Again,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: thanks for coming on the show man. Every time I
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: talked to you, I learned a little bit more and
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: and not necessarily just about how to hunt deer, but
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: being patient. And that's one thing I think that I'm
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: still in that running gun you know, blow into the
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: timber stomping and go into your best hands right away
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: type of scenario. But I'm learning as I get older. Yeah,
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: well I remember what that's like, Dan, I'll tell you what.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: Starting to get more than just a few gray hairs.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: As hard as I used to, but I have a
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: whole lot smarter, and nothing smarter. I see more deer
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: than I did when I was like a madman, when
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: I was younger. A right, I got I got gray
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: hairs in my beard now. Oh I think, uh, I
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: think all these kids are probably making that happend. Yeah,
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: that's the fact. That's a fact. Oh, don Do you
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: have any final item related to the rut that we
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: haven't covered that you want to make sure people know
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: about when it comes to try to have success during
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: these next few weeks. Well, the thing about the rut
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: is that your whole season can turn and about five seconds,
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: you can be having the worst season in your life,
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: and in five seconds you're having the best season in
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: your life. Because at that time of the year, you
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: can mature. Buck can be shot from about any tree
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: in the woods if you're there on the right day.
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: The key during the rud, they're spending time in the woods.
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: You need to spend every possible minute in a tree.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: Stand um, but don't sit there and and burn a
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: stand out. I mean, you still gotta hunt smart, but
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: you gotta be out there. And if there's ever a
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: time to get out of bed early day after day
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: after day, it's the rut. So I just encourage everybody
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: you know to don't give up. Try to keep a
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: positive attitude even when it seems like a your odds
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: of success are very slam because your whole season can
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: change in about five seconds. Yeah, so true. That's some
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: of the absolute best advice for hunting. The rut that
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: that I'm always trying to remind myself of two it's
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: it's sometimes easy to get down when you've hunted seven, eight, nine,
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: ten days in a row and it hasn't happened, and
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: it's tough waking up early. But just like, just like
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: I said, it all can change and just a snap
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: of the fingers. So awesome, awesome stuff done. Is there? Um?
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: Is there anywhere that our listeners can go online to
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: learn more about your books or anything you've got going on. Yeah,
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: you can go to my website, Higgins Outdoors dot com.
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: I've got two books on the market that they can
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: be purchased right there on the website. And uh, anybody's
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: into land management. Um. Real World Wildlife Products is the
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: company that I'm a co owner of. We specialize in
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: land management to products, food, plot seed, things like that.
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: So just visit those websites if you're interested, and send
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: me an email if you've got questions. I tried to
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: sometimes I'm really slow about it, but I try to
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: answer any question it comes my way. Yeah, I can
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: relate to that. I am eternally slow unfortunately sometimes. But
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: we'll make sure to include links to those sites done,
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: so if anybody wants to check out what you've got
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: going on, they can do that. And uh, and thank
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: you so much. We appreciate the time and wish you
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: all luck in the world on getting an arrow in
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: one of those big Illinois bucks. Well, thanks a lot,
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: Mark and Dan. I appreciate you guys having me on
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: and anytime you want to talk, just let me know
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: and I'll be glad to do it. Absolutely. We might
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: have to have number four coming up here soon again
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: because these you never failed to give us some good insight. Well,
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: I'm always ready to do it, so just let me know.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: Sounds good. Thank you done, and with that we will
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: wrap this one up. But a couple of quick updates
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: before we go. If you haven't listened to our new
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: bonus miniseries yet Wired Hunts Radio, be sure to download
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: that and give it a listen. Each week. You know,
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: if you're already subscribed to Wire to Hunt, you're going
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: to see these new radio episodes popping up in your
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: podcast player each week, and what the show is is
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: it features a handful of interviews every seven days with
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: hunters from all across the country getting the scoop on
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: what the rutting activity currently is and what tactics are
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: working at this very moment. It's an awesome resource for
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: staying on top of the progress of the rut all
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: across the country, so be sure to listen. We've got
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: two episodes out so far and more to come through November,
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: so be sure to take a listen to Wire to
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: Hunt's rut Radio. Moving on, we need to give a
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: big thank you to our partners who helped make this
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: podcast possible. So thank you to Sick Gear, Redneck Blinds,
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: huntera Maps, Yetie Cooler's Ozonics, Carbon Express, Maven Optics, and
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: the White Tailed Institute of North America. And finally, thank
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: you all for tuning in. I hope you learned something
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: today that can help you on your own rut hunts
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: in the coming days. So get out there being a
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: tree as much as you can grind it out. Good luck,
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: and stay a Wired to Hunt h