Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 929: Back 40 - Do Great Hunters Really Shoot a Buck Every Year?

Transcript

Ep. 929: Back 40 - Do Great Hunters Really Shoot a Buck Every Year? · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Every buck doesn't need to be a high scoring trophy buck.
0:03
Speaker 1: You're actually doing the herd disservice if you focus solely
0:07
Speaker 1: on score and not directly on age.
0:09
Speaker 2: To me, a great hunter can go. Dude, I don't
0:14
Speaker 2: have a pressure pressure to shoot a buck. I don't
0:16
Speaker 2: need a buck to post. There's nothing that you know
0:19
Speaker 2: I is of the age class that I want to shoot,
0:22
Speaker 2: So I'm just not going to shoot anything this year.
0:24
Speaker 3: Welcome to back forty, brought to you by land dot com,
0:28
Speaker 3: the leading online real estate marketplace to find your perfect rural, recreational, agricultural,
0:33
Speaker 3: or hunting properties here in the US, and for the
0:36
Speaker 3: next two weeks only go to the meat eater dot
0:39
Speaker 3: com backslash back forty for a chance to win a
0:43
Speaker 3: white tail kit work one thousand dollars. The contest ends
0:47
Speaker 3: August twelveth so don't wait. Sign up for your chance
0:50
Speaker 3: to win the day at the meat eater dot Com
0:54
Speaker 3: backslash back forty. Each week we're going to be diving
0:57
Speaker 3: into an exciting white tail dilemma or question we all
1:00
Speaker 3: face as whitetail hunters, and I brought in a panel
1:03
Speaker 3: of experts carefully hand selected to hopefully help everyone no
1:07
Speaker 3: matter where they're at in their land journey, their white
1:09
Speaker 3: tail journey across the Midwest. The expert panel includes Steve Hansen,
1:14
Speaker 3: Don Higgins, Bobby Kendall, Jeff Sturgis, Skip Sly, Bill Winky,
1:19
Speaker 3: Thomas Mills, Nutt, and Mark Kenyan. To kick off the series,
1:23
Speaker 3: It's a question I feel all hunters face at some
1:27
Speaker 3: point internally externally, and the question is do great hunters
1:32
Speaker 3: really shoot a buck every single year? The panel of
1:34
Speaker 3: experts I brought in it seemingly feels like they shoot
1:37
Speaker 3: their target buck every single year. And as we're building
1:40
Speaker 3: up our own excitement and anticipation for the season, I
1:43
Speaker 3: often feel that it builds up like a pressure cooker
1:47
Speaker 3: and you feel like you have to shoot a buck
1:49
Speaker 3: in order to feel like a great hunter or a
1:51
Speaker 3: good hunter. And this is the question we dive into
1:53
Speaker 3: because I think it provides a clarity and context of
1:56
Speaker 3: how often these experts are really shooting a buck every
1:59
Speaker 3: single year. What does it look like your target buckets
2:02
Speaker 3: killed by EHD or get hits by a car, or
2:05
Speaker 3: you're just having a really tough year. Is it relatable
2:07
Speaker 3: to these folks? And I think you guys will really
2:09
Speaker 3: enjoy this. This kicks off the Back forty podcast and
2:12
Speaker 3: each week we're going to be diving into a different
2:14
Speaker 3: white tailed dilemma and question with the same expert panel,
2:17
Speaker 3: so you can get a good perspective from a variety
2:20
Speaker 3: of different folks on how they feel about a question
2:22
Speaker 3: that we all likely ask ourselves throughout the build up
2:25
Speaker 3: and anticipation of the season.
2:27
Speaker 4: So I hope you.
2:28
Speaker 3: Guys enjoy it and stick around for next week, and
2:30
Speaker 3: let's get into our expert panel to dive into the
2:34
Speaker 3: burning question, do great hunters really shoot a buck every
2:38
Speaker 3: single year?
2:39
Speaker 4: Here we go.
2:40
Speaker 5: I don't want to shoot a bunch of one seventies
2:42
Speaker 5: because I look at it up as those year could
2:44
Speaker 5: be real giants a year from now. I'm wanting to
2:47
Speaker 5: shoot the biggest bucks I can possibly find, and to
2:50
Speaker 5: do that, you got to let a lot of really
2:52
Speaker 5: good bucks go.
2:53
Speaker 6: Hey, guys, Mark Kenyon here and I want to let
2:56
Speaker 6: you know that you are tuned in today to a
2:59
Speaker 6: brand new mini series here on the Wired to Hunt
3:02
Speaker 6: feed with my good buddy Jake Hofer, who's sitting next
3:05
Speaker 6: to me right now. If you're watching this, and I
3:08
Speaker 6: hope that you listen to the full Wired Hunt podcast
3:10
Speaker 6: that me and Jake did last week in which we
3:13
Speaker 6: fully discussed this new series, the motivations behind it, what
3:18
Speaker 6: we're trying to achieve, what the new format is, and everything.
3:21
Speaker 6: So go back and listen to that episode if you
3:23
Speaker 6: have it. But if you don't want to go back
3:26
Speaker 6: and listen to that, and instead you're in vested in
3:28
Speaker 6: the thing that you just hit on your phone and
3:30
Speaker 6: you want to listen to this right now, Jake is
3:32
Speaker 6: going to introduce himself in the concept real quick for
3:35
Speaker 6: you now as we kick off this brand new series,
3:38
Speaker 6: the Back for You podcast.
3:39
Speaker 4: It's gonna be great.
3:40
Speaker 6: You're an enjoy it. And Jake, what is in store?
3:43
Speaker 7: Man?
3:43
Speaker 4: We have a lot of exciting things.
3:44
Speaker 3: We all face white tailed lemmas, you know, similar questions
3:47
Speaker 3: here after a year, anticipation and excitement is building like
3:51
Speaker 3: a fever pitch for the season, and so with excitement
3:54
Speaker 3: comes to nervousness. And I had wrangled eight people I
3:58
Speaker 3: really respect, I know really well, and I thought back
4:01
Speaker 3: through my own questions, questions I hear every year, and
4:04
Speaker 3: each week you're going to get a panel of eight
4:07
Speaker 3: coaches for one question, one dilemma leading all the way
4:11
Speaker 3: up into the season, and we're gonna be covering a
4:14
Speaker 3: variety of different topics, and this week we're starting with one.
4:17
Speaker 3: If you've been behind all year, and I hope everyone
4:19
Speaker 3: tunes in each week because there's a lot of value,
4:21
Speaker 3: a lot of different perspectives you can figure out. I
4:23
Speaker 3: wonder what this person thinks about this question and what
4:26
Speaker 3: a different from the next person. And you're going to
4:28
Speaker 3: tune in and get your own information, and I think
4:32
Speaker 3: that you'll find a lot of value and all of
4:35
Speaker 3: the answers under one topic. First up, we have none
4:38
Speaker 3: other than Bill Winki from Michigan, move to Iowa, pioneered
4:42
Speaker 3: Midwest white tail, and is now sharing his own progression
4:44
Speaker 3: on a new farm on his YouTube channel with Bill
4:46
Speaker 3: This Bill Winki. I really hope you guys enjoy this.
4:49
Speaker 3: Bill's going to be on every single episode for the
4:51
Speaker 3: next eight weeks, answering each and every question. And we're
4:54
Speaker 3: leading with obviously, do great hunters really shoot a buck
4:58
Speaker 3: every single year? Okay, simple question? Do great hunters shoot
5:03
Speaker 3: a buck every single year?
5:10
Speaker 8: Do a great hunters shoot a buck every single year?
5:13
Speaker 7: I probably shouldn't say no, because I've certainly had years
5:16
Speaker 7: where I didn't shoot a buck, So I think that's
5:20
Speaker 7: the risk if I say, yes, they do, but I
5:23
Speaker 7: think yes they should, you.
5:26
Speaker 9: Know, I think that put it this way, I think
5:29
Speaker 9: great hunters depends on the definition of how you how
5:33
Speaker 9: you want to you know, put that is, is a
5:36
Speaker 9: great hunter based on success or is it based on
5:41
Speaker 9: you know, doing the best they can in the situation
5:44
Speaker 9: where they find themselves, et cetera.
5:47
Speaker 8: So I don't know. I guess if I had to say,
5:50
Speaker 8: a great hunter is.
5:52
Speaker 9: Only as good as the as the scouting and the
5:55
Speaker 9: research and the effort that goes prior to the season
5:59
Speaker 9: in the preper as far as you know, shooting his
6:02
Speaker 9: bow and so forth, I would say they should be
6:07
Speaker 9: successful every year, whether you're gonna have the idea when
6:10
Speaker 9: you're not that the great hunters are going to find
6:13
Speaker 9: a way before the season opens to make sure that
6:17
Speaker 9: they're in place to fill at least one tag. I
6:20
Speaker 9: don't know very many great hunters that have years when
6:24
Speaker 9: they don't shoot.
6:25
Speaker 3: Anything in the last twenty five years. How many years
6:28
Speaker 3: have you not shot a buck?
6:30
Speaker 9: To put in that perspective, twenty five years, probably two
6:34
Speaker 9: or three?
6:35
Speaker 4: Two or three?
6:36
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, OK.
6:38
Speaker 9: And it's been sometimes that mess up, you know, and
6:42
Speaker 9: the buck'm hunting gets away. But sometimes, like recently with
6:46
Speaker 9: this new farm, you know, I've been stubborn enough that
6:50
Speaker 9: I say, I'm only going to hunt this farm and
6:53
Speaker 9: if there's not a good shooter there, you know, it's
6:55
Speaker 9: kind of hard to put it this way.
6:58
Speaker 8: The more sure bucks are in a person's.
7:01
Speaker 9: Hunting area or the on his properties that he has
7:04
Speaker 9: access to hunt, et cetera, the more.
7:06
Speaker 8: Successful he's going to be.
7:08
Speaker 9: And you know, it's just a numbers game then and again,
7:13
Speaker 9: like I said, a great hunter doesn't leave it up
7:15
Speaker 9: to chance.
7:16
Speaker 8: He's gonna make sure that he's.
7:18
Speaker 9: Got enough options that he's got to plan ABCD.
7:22
Speaker 8: You know they're usually gonna fill tax.
7:24
Speaker 4: Next up we have Don Higgins.
7:26
Speaker 3: Don is typically hunting a specific bucks, so I wanted
7:28
Speaker 3: to get his perspective if this is accurate. Do great
7:30
Speaker 3: hunters really shoot a buck every single year? Here's what
7:33
Speaker 3: Don has to say, simple question. Do great hunters shoot
7:38
Speaker 3: a deer every single year? A buck every year?
7:41
Speaker 8: Well?
7:41
Speaker 5: I think some of them do. I think it's all
7:44
Speaker 5: a matter of individual goals. Personally, I'm not one of
7:48
Speaker 5: those guys that goes out and looks to shoot a
7:49
Speaker 5: bunch of deer every year. There's some great hunters out
7:53
Speaker 5: there that shoot multiple bucks every year. I only want
7:56
Speaker 5: to shoot the biggest one I can find, and I
7:59
Speaker 5: don't want to shoot a bunch of one seventies because
8:01
Speaker 5: I look at it as those year could be real
8:04
Speaker 5: giants a year from now. I'm wanting to shoot the
8:07
Speaker 5: biggest bucks I can possibly find, and to do that,
8:10
Speaker 5: you've got to let a lot of really good bucks go.
8:12
Speaker 5: And I just I've been the kind of guy that
8:16
Speaker 5: or the kind of deer hunter that one buck a
8:18
Speaker 5: year is enough for me. Some years I will shoot
8:21
Speaker 5: two and in certain situations, but you know, typically I'm
8:26
Speaker 5: a one target buck a year and possibly use the
8:30
Speaker 5: second tag for a management buck.
8:32
Speaker 10: But I just think.
8:36
Speaker 5: You can't really define all good hunters as following one
8:39
Speaker 5: set of rules. Some of them, like I said, they
8:42
Speaker 5: just like to shoot a lot of deer, and they do,
8:45
Speaker 5: and nothing wrong with that.
8:47
Speaker 3: What's the last year that you did not fill a
8:50
Speaker 3: buck tag that you can remember?
8:52
Speaker 11: Huh?
8:52
Speaker 5: I think it would have been twenty eighteen, the year
8:55
Speaker 5: right after I shot Smoking and Trump on back to
8:57
Speaker 5: back hunts. I've got enough bucks on the wall, I
9:00
Speaker 5: don't need to hang another one up here, and you're
9:02
Speaker 5: running out of room that too, So I'd say twenty
9:08
Speaker 5: eighteen was probably the last year that I can think of.
9:11
Speaker 3: And what about the season before the time before that,
9:15
Speaker 3: I'm putting you on the spot.
9:16
Speaker 5: Now, Yeah, I don't know. Back at that period of time,
9:22
Speaker 5: I was probably going about every other year and not
9:24
Speaker 5: shooting a deer, and definitely wasn't because I couldn't. It's
9:28
Speaker 5: just that my goals were a little more lofty than
9:31
Speaker 5: what was available. And as I've started covering more ground
9:35
Speaker 5: multiple states, and as I've been able to take this
9:40
Speaker 5: farm to the next level, I'm able to shoot a
9:44
Speaker 5: buck every year now and in some years two bucks.
9:46
Speaker 5: But I'd never shot more than two bucks in a
9:49
Speaker 5: season ever. And what this season will be, I think
9:53
Speaker 5: it's my forty forty eighth year of deer honey and
9:58
Speaker 5: never shot more than two bucks season, and I have
10:01
Speaker 5: no desire to.
10:02
Speaker 4: Next up, we have Jess Sturgis.
10:03
Speaker 3: He's from Michigan, moved to Wisconsin, lives in Minnesota now
10:07
Speaker 3: Minnesota and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania every single year, and here's
10:10
Speaker 3: what he has to say. If great hunters really shoot
10:13
Speaker 3: a buck every single year? Do great hunters really shoot
10:16
Speaker 3: a buck every single year? In your opinion?
10:20
Speaker 12: Oh boy, I'd say that consistently. Yes they do. And
10:26
Speaker 12: maybe it's not every year, but it's you know, eighty
10:30
Speaker 12: percent plus. And I've talked about that in videos. Eighty
10:33
Speaker 12: percent rule. If you do things right on your property
10:36
Speaker 12: where you hunt public land, private land, that you should
10:40
Speaker 12: see that eighty percent mark over a ten year period
10:43
Speaker 12: right around they're shooting those target bucks that you want
10:45
Speaker 12: to in whatever neighborhood you're in.
10:47
Speaker 3: Do you think that's relative to where they're at in
10:50
Speaker 3: the country too? Obviously? I think I think it still
10:53
Speaker 3: sticks true to eighty percent of you know, I think
10:55
Speaker 3: representation of the area.
10:56
Speaker 10: I think it's most white till properties.
10:58
Speaker 12: And the reason I say that is especially on private land,
11:01
Speaker 12: and you can apply this to public in a lot
11:02
Speaker 12: of ways too, is that you do something than ninety
11:07
Speaker 12: five percent of other hunters don't.
11:09
Speaker 10: Whether it's the discipline.
11:11
Speaker 12: Of how you hunt, really the choices you make of
11:14
Speaker 12: where you go when you go, being more limited in
11:17
Speaker 12: your hunting approach, and being more of a tactician, A
11:20
Speaker 12: lot of people just fall into the same routines and
11:22
Speaker 12: rots every year. And that's why I firmly believe that
11:25
Speaker 12: only five percent of the habitat holds the majority of
11:29
Speaker 12: mature box during the daylight.
11:30
Speaker 10: Now at night they have a three mile.
11:32
Speaker 12: Home range, And unfortunately people focus on that so much
11:34
Speaker 12: and it almost is disheartening. But when you look at
11:37
Speaker 12: it where bucks actually spend their daylight time, it's less
11:41
Speaker 12: than five percent of the habitat, and you either find
11:43
Speaker 12: it on public land or you build it on private land,
11:46
Speaker 12: and then that allows you to tap in if you
11:48
Speaker 12: make smart, smart hunting choices, then that next step to
11:52
Speaker 12: not ruin that five percent and allow you to tap
11:54
Speaker 12: into the majority of those bucks every year.
11:56
Speaker 10: So I believe you can do that just about anywhere.
11:58
Speaker 10: White tail rooms.
12:00
Speaker 3: Okay, how many how many people do you think that
12:03
Speaker 3: that would I would put in the category of serious
12:05
Speaker 3: hunters that are at eighty percent success right over a
12:09
Speaker 3: ten year period.
12:09
Speaker 12: Well, that's good question. I would say ten percent or less.
12:14
Speaker 12: And I have a I call it five percent club.
12:16
Speaker 12: You know, whether you're whether you're you're in that club
12:21
Speaker 12: building it, or you have that land that's a five
12:24
Speaker 12: percent club, or you're a hunter, it's in that five
12:27
Speaker 12: percent club, and it's not. It sounds, you know, almost
12:30
Speaker 12: condescending to other hunters or the majority of hunters to me.
12:33
Speaker 12: But at the same time, you're just doing something different.
12:35
Speaker 12: It's no different than in life. There's people with small businesses.
12:40
Speaker 12: If you've been a successful entrepreneur, you know what it
12:43
Speaker 12: takes to do that. It's a lot of hard work.
12:45
Speaker 12: And I'll give a quick example public land. How many people, Jake,
12:49
Speaker 12: do you think dedicate ten whole days to scouting public
12:53
Speaker 12: land per year?
12:54
Speaker 10: What do you think that percentage would be? It's probably
12:57
Speaker 10: five percent, and so ten days.
13:00
Speaker 12: If you think about that, how can someone who's hunting
13:03
Speaker 12: public land devote ten days? Now, maybe they don't have
13:05
Speaker 12: a family, but let's say they have a family, they
13:08
Speaker 12: have kids. When are you gonna do that during the
13:10
Speaker 12: week Are you going to take time off from work
13:11
Speaker 12: to do this? So you usually do it on the weekend,
13:14
Speaker 12: that's a Saturday and entire Saturday. What if I used
13:16
Speaker 12: to hunt Ohio, I drive seven hours to Ohio this
13:20
Speaker 12: year again we'll drive. Since ninety three, I've hunded more
13:23
Speaker 12: years than not. I've hunted Pennsylvania and that's a twelve
13:26
Speaker 12: to fourteen hour drive from home. So think of that
13:28
Speaker 12: amount of time it takes to devote ten days on
13:31
Speaker 12: our private land.
13:32
Speaker 10: We work one hundred days. Yeah, one hundred days.
13:36
Speaker 12: And so to be in that five percent club on
13:40
Speaker 12: private land, I'm not saying you have to work that
13:42
Speaker 12: many days, but you're just doing more. You're working more,
13:45
Speaker 12: you're planning more, you're strategizing, and that's your approach or
13:48
Speaker 12: access everything.
13:49
Speaker 10: So it can be done by anybody.
13:51
Speaker 12: But does everyone want to have that more entrepreneurial spirit
13:55
Speaker 12: and bust their butt and sacrifice to do that?
13:59
Speaker 4: Next time we have Bobby Kendall.
14:01
Speaker 3: Bobby's from New York, move to Illinois, hunts all across
14:04
Speaker 3: the Midwest, typically hunts a specific deer or works to
14:08
Speaker 3: find a specific deer. And here is his answer to
14:11
Speaker 3: a white tailed dilemma or pondering question. Do great hunters
14:14
Speaker 3: shoot a buck every single year?
14:16
Speaker 4: Simple question?
14:18
Speaker 3: Do great hunters shoot a buck every single year? So
14:21
Speaker 3: I think it's a little bit of a loaded question.
14:23
Speaker 11: I think if you strip it down and you say,
14:26
Speaker 11: you know, if a great hunter has the ability to
14:30
Speaker 11: hunt a buck, him versus the deer, and there's no
14:32
Speaker 11: other outside factors, I think ninety eight percent of the
14:36
Speaker 11: time they're going to get it done. There's obviously other
14:39
Speaker 11: factors though, you know, ehd comes in and kills her deer,
14:43
Speaker 11: a neighbor kills her deer. But part of what makes
14:46
Speaker 11: great hunters great hunters is they're great at finding deer.
14:49
Speaker 11: So in generally, generally they're going to have multiple deer found,
14:52
Speaker 11: so they're gonna hedge those you know, things from happening.
14:56
Speaker 11: And you know the other phenomenon that kind of happens
14:59
Speaker 11: is I think as hunters, as we as we go
15:03
Speaker 11: along in our journey, our bar gets raised. So like
15:06
Speaker 11: I know, guys their bar is so high that they
15:10
Speaker 11: might not shoot deer because your odds are just thing
15:13
Speaker 11: so much less to find that deer to hunt. But
15:15
Speaker 11: I think if you strip the question down and say
15:19
Speaker 11: the great hunters in this country they found a deer,
15:22
Speaker 11: there's no outside factors and it's them versus the deer.
15:26
Speaker 11: I think the odds are they're going to get a
15:28
Speaker 11: crack at them high ninety percent of the times, if
15:31
Speaker 11: not one hundred percent.
15:33
Speaker 3: Do you think that the progression of a deer hunter,
15:35
Speaker 3: their goal gets higher and higher and higher that it
15:39
Speaker 3: almost truly becomes a game of one in one hundred,
15:43
Speaker 3: one in one thousand, just to find a deer that
15:45
Speaker 3: they want to pursue, and that becomes the hardest part.
15:49
Speaker 11: I say all the time, the hardest part about killing
15:51
Speaker 11: a big deer is finding a big deer. You got
15:53
Speaker 11: to get really good at finding a big deer to
15:55
Speaker 11: get really good at killing a big deer. So yeah,
15:58
Speaker 11: I think you can kind of almost phase yourself out
16:01
Speaker 11: or make it very hard on yourself. I for one,
16:03
Speaker 11: still am a sucker for it, so I don't discriminate
16:07
Speaker 11: a whole lot when they get big, I'm chasing, so
16:10
Speaker 11: but yeah, I think I think the great hunters we
16:14
Speaker 11: just learned so much now with trail cams and information
16:17
Speaker 11: and stuff. It's just it's really hard they have so
16:21
Speaker 11: they're always ahead of the deer, you know, and they
16:24
Speaker 11: have so much opportunity to catch up with them through
16:26
Speaker 11: the season because of their knowledge and their strategies and stuff,
16:30
Speaker 11: and it's I think it's it's really hard for the
16:33
Speaker 11: deer to get away from the true killers in the
16:36
Speaker 11: in the countryside.
16:38
Speaker 3: One tip to find more big deer you mentioned, that's
16:41
Speaker 3: that's the almost the name of the game. People have
16:43
Speaker 3: a good foundation of maybe for you, for example, setting
16:47
Speaker 3: up a farm and making it really efficiently. Is there
16:51
Speaker 3: a silver bullet a finding big deer or is it
16:53
Speaker 3: a game of a million? It's just math, it's just probability.
16:58
Speaker 11: I mean, where we're sitting now, it's one of the
17:00
Speaker 11: most awesome setups I've ever seen, right here next to me.
17:03
Speaker 11: But it doesn't matter if there's not a big deer here.
17:05
Speaker 11: And even though it's a really good area there's they're
17:08
Speaker 11: very well could not be a really big deer here.
17:11
Speaker 3: So you have to you have to.
17:14
Speaker 11: The tip is always searching, always trying to find one.
17:18
Speaker 11: Running cameras. That's that's a trick to it. Running cameras.
17:22
Speaker 11: That's the most efficient way you can glass and stuff,
17:24
Speaker 11: But running cameras in every nook and cranny you can,
17:26
Speaker 11: and always trying to gain new spots, whether it be buying, leasing,
17:30
Speaker 11: scouting public or permission pieces. So I think a lot
17:34
Speaker 11: of the great hunters I've met, they've got this personality
17:37
Speaker 11: trait where they like obsess almost and they almost like
17:39
Speaker 11: won't accept failure, like letting the deer be with them win.
17:43
Speaker 11: And so I think that personality trait like not giving
17:47
Speaker 11: up on them and then there's one other way. I
17:49
Speaker 11: think these people that know what they're doing might not
17:53
Speaker 11: kill one, and that's you know, very close to where
17:56
Speaker 11: we're at, and you remember the story. Uh, you know,
17:59
Speaker 11: you get a really special deer and you're willing to,
18:02
Speaker 11: you know, play the long shot game, and you know
18:04
Speaker 11: you're not really in the game, but he's around, and
18:08
Speaker 11: so you spend years chasing one deer that is hard
18:12
Speaker 11: to hunt in the sense that he's not really on
18:14
Speaker 11: your farm, and so there's not a whole lot you
18:16
Speaker 11: can try to do stuff, but you know certain deer
18:20
Speaker 11: you know, in this case, it's deer with swimming across
18:22
Speaker 11: the Illinois River and spending his fall range on the
18:24
Speaker 11: other side of the river. So so yeah, sometimes it's
18:28
Speaker 11: just a matter off. You make a decision to chase
18:30
Speaker 11: a certain deer even though the odds are low and
18:32
Speaker 11: he might not even ever be on your farm. So
18:34
Speaker 11: that would be another reason I think great hunter. So
18:36
Speaker 11: I guess the answer the question is not necessarily a
18:39
Speaker 11: great hunter is not going to kill a big buck
18:40
Speaker 11: every year, because there's different factors and different reasons why not.
18:44
Speaker 11: But if they have the ability to play the game
18:46
Speaker 11: with that deer, in his core or right there around
18:49
Speaker 11: his core, and there's no outside conditions. They're almost always
18:52
Speaker 11: going to have multiple opportunities. With or without a farm developed,
18:56
Speaker 11: they're going to have multiple opportunities thinking like a deer
19:00
Speaker 11: and get getting a shot at them.
19:06
Speaker 3: Next up we have Skip also from Michigan, moved to
19:09
Speaker 3: Iowa twenty some years ago and is a white tail fanatic.
19:13
Speaker 3: Is all about improving habitat and giving deer everything they need.
19:17
Speaker 3: But the question is do great hunter shoot a buck
19:21
Speaker 3: every single last year? Okay, here we go, do great
19:24
Speaker 3: hunters really shoot a buck every year?
19:26
Speaker 2: I would say no. I would say a great hunter,
19:31
Speaker 2: in my mind, would be somebody who doesn't have that
19:35
Speaker 2: pressure anymore to shoot a buck. And there's just certain
19:38
Speaker 2: circumstances in certain certain years where unless you're going to
19:43
Speaker 2: like the extreme, extreme lengths to go travel to new
19:48
Speaker 2: areas that you just don't have a buck you want
19:50
Speaker 2: to hunt, those years just happen. I don't care if
19:53
Speaker 2: it's on big farms, I don't care if it's on
19:55
Speaker 2: small farms. Maybe it's an EHD breakout that hits a
19:58
Speaker 2: whole region. Maybe you're like, hey, I had ten farms
20:01
Speaker 2: to hunt and Ehu went through there and there literally
20:04
Speaker 2: is nothing I want to hunt. So to me, a
20:08
Speaker 2: great hunter can go Dude, I don't have a pressure
20:12
Speaker 2: pressure to shoot a buck. I don't need a buck
20:14
Speaker 2: to post. There's nothing that you know, I is of
20:17
Speaker 2: the age class that I want to shoot. So I'm
20:19
Speaker 2: just not going to shoot anything this year. And I've
20:21
Speaker 2: had those years where it's like there's really nothing I
20:23
Speaker 2: want to shoot, and I probably would still end up
20:26
Speaker 2: shooting something, but i'd go after like, you know, I
20:29
Speaker 2: would put a bigger target on like a six year
20:32
Speaker 2: old cold buck that you know, if I wanted to
20:35
Speaker 2: shoot one really good high score in dear year that
20:38
Speaker 2: that wouldn't fit into that category. But you know, in
20:44
Speaker 2: my younger years, when I had like the crazy ambition,
20:49
Speaker 2: but my standards were maybe slightly less, I would say
20:52
Speaker 2: I was. I was a good hunter in my younger years.
20:54
Speaker 3: I was.
20:55
Speaker 2: But we had so many different trips planned because I
20:57
Speaker 2: was so ambitious and so over the time with where
21:00
Speaker 2: I'd go.
21:00
Speaker 3: So we'd be like, Okay, we'll go.
21:02
Speaker 2: To Michigan, we'll go to Illinois, we'll go to Kansas,
21:06
Speaker 2: We'll go to Iowa. Fill in the blank. I mean like, well, yeah,
21:09
Speaker 2: I'm going to get a buck with all those places.
21:12
Speaker 2: But you know, so now, I'd say a lot of
21:14
Speaker 2: more mature hunters that are a little bit older, they
21:17
Speaker 2: don't haunt like that. They don't hunt in all these states.
21:19
Speaker 2: They're not doing it to film a TV show. Where
21:22
Speaker 2: if you're filming a TV show, you know, and you
21:25
Speaker 2: just need to get footage of kills, you're probably shooting
21:30
Speaker 2: several bucks every year. Now, if I ask those people truly,
21:33
Speaker 2: did you really want to shoot those bucks? Where those
21:35
Speaker 2: really what you aspired to do? They say, no, I
21:38
Speaker 2: just wanted to get footage. Well, I don't want to
21:39
Speaker 2: do that. I'm not here to get footage. I'm here
21:42
Speaker 2: for my own experience. So it depends what your goals are.
21:46
Speaker 2: Like I said, if you're filming, it'd be different. But
21:48
Speaker 2: I don't count that because they're literally it's part of
21:50
Speaker 2: their business. But I think like for my I just
21:55
Speaker 2: answer it for myself. And I'm not considering myself a
21:59
Speaker 2: great hunter. I'm not saying that at all. But I
22:01
Speaker 2: can get on mature bucks every single year. Some of
22:03
Speaker 2: them just might be lower scoring, and you know, I
22:07
Speaker 2: might have some mature bucks around every year too, that
22:11
Speaker 2: I could shoot and I'd be like, hey, I got
22:13
Speaker 2: a seven year old buck, but it's not gonna like
22:17
Speaker 2: make me like super amped to do it. So I'll
22:20
Speaker 2: make sure like somebody else has a chance at him,
22:23
Speaker 2: and I'll try and get like a friend on it,
22:24
Speaker 2: or a kid or my son or my nephew or whatever,
22:27
Speaker 2: somebody who's like, wow, this was amazing this you know
22:31
Speaker 2: this buck. They go nuts because I'd rather see them
22:34
Speaker 2: shoot it now than me and be like, yeah, you know,
22:37
Speaker 2: it's a nice buck. It's older, and I'd be appreciative,
22:40
Speaker 2: but I know they'd be far more appreciative. And that
22:43
Speaker 2: just comes with like getting older, maturing, getting super old
22:48
Speaker 2: like me and complacent. You're just like, yeah, I don't
22:51
Speaker 2: need to shoot another deer, and watching other people shoot
22:54
Speaker 2: it is rewarding to me. So there's my long winded
22:58
Speaker 2: brand answered that doesn't really answer the question. So I'd say, no,
23:01
Speaker 2: they don't shoot him every year out of the last
23:03
Speaker 2: ten years. How many how many years did you not
23:06
Speaker 2: shoot a buck out of the last ten.
23:08
Speaker 3: If you have to think, I don't think.
23:10
Speaker 2: I No, I didn't ever have any issue. There was
23:14
Speaker 2: a few where I'm like, you know, there was a
23:17
Speaker 2: giant that went through my ground that I just picked
23:19
Speaker 2: up on or a farm that I had, and I'd
23:23
Speaker 2: try and hunt for him and then he'd vanish or whatever.
23:26
Speaker 2: Just like, yeah, my opportunity's gone, So let's refocus on
23:30
Speaker 2: a deer that I could have been hunting the whole time.
23:32
Speaker 2: And it's kind of like, yeah, that still would be
23:35
Speaker 2: fun and it'd be a challenge. You know, maybe there
23:39
Speaker 2: was a just a giant, you know, one nineties or
23:42
Speaker 2: something that was old that I lost a chance at,
23:44
Speaker 2: and I'm like, Okay, there is still this one seventies.
23:47
Speaker 2: It's very hard to hunt, and he's kind of unique.
23:50
Speaker 2: Like I actually coincidentally looking at some sheds that could
23:53
Speaker 2: maybe fit into that example, like like like this is
23:58
Speaker 2: a deer that we actually like go last year that
24:01
Speaker 2: will be unique this year and he'll be old, and
24:07
Speaker 2: if there was nothing else to hunt, like I could
24:10
Speaker 2: be like if he puts on a little more mass,
24:12
Speaker 2: a little more size, I'd be a little well, he
24:17
Speaker 2: can still add some more so that we let him
24:19
Speaker 2: go and I would hunt that if if like, hey,
24:22
Speaker 2: there's nothing gigantic to hunt, which or might not be,
24:27
Speaker 2: and then I've had years where there's a giant to
24:29
Speaker 2: hunt where I'm like, yeah, I've shot some bucks like
24:32
Speaker 2: that before, so I'll let him go. I don't want
24:35
Speaker 2: to shoot him this year. We'll see if he can
24:37
Speaker 2: make it. We'll just see what he does next year
24:38
Speaker 2: as kind of an experiment and just as a fun challenge.
24:41
Speaker 2: So no, I think I've shot a buck every probably
24:45
Speaker 2: every year for the last ten years. But I also
24:47
Speaker 2: have like farms all over the place too, where I
24:50
Speaker 2: can just be, well, there is a good one over here,
24:53
Speaker 2: and just when you farm and you have different pieces
24:57
Speaker 2: all over the place, it's just so much more opportunity.
25:00
Speaker 2: It just is my younger years, it was harder. It
25:02
Speaker 2: was all it was all permission, and you know, you
25:07
Speaker 2: couldn't even run back then. I didn't even run trail cameras. Really,
25:11
Speaker 2: it was just go hunt there and hope you get
25:12
Speaker 2: lucky and just throw things at the wall, like hey,
25:15
Speaker 2: I'll put up fifty tree stands and just try all
25:17
Speaker 2: these different farms and hopefully I get lucky. And a
25:20
Speaker 2: lot of times they did. Sometimes I didn't. Yeah, but yeah,
25:25
Speaker 2: I'm pretty consistent.
25:26
Speaker 3: Now. Next up we have Steve Hanson grew up in Illinois,
25:30
Speaker 3: was hunting Puple Ground in the eighties, moved to Iowa
25:32
Speaker 3: in the nineties, and I really think you guys will
25:35
Speaker 3: appreciate his answers. Steve has a bunch of experience of
25:39
Speaker 3: working on so many different farms over the years and
25:42
Speaker 3: really tries to do the best for the resource.
25:44
Speaker 4: Here's what he has to say.
25:46
Speaker 3: There's this pressure that everyone feels like they need to
25:48
Speaker 3: shoot a buck every year. Right, do you think great
25:52
Speaker 3: hunters really shoot a buck every year or should shoot
25:54
Speaker 3: a buck every single year? Yes, but.
25:58
Speaker 1: They should concentrate him on harvesting mature bucks. Every buck
26:02
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be a high scoring trophy buck. You're
26:04
Speaker 1: actually doing the herd disservice if you focus solely on
26:08
Speaker 1: score and not directly on age. So you know, like
26:12
Speaker 1: a state like Iowa where we're allowed three bucks, it
26:15
Speaker 1: would be you know, most people, the average person or
26:18
Speaker 1: even someone who has access to a lot of land.
26:21
Speaker 1: You'd be doing the farm and injustice if you harvested
26:25
Speaker 1: the three best genetic bucks and left all the call
26:30
Speaker 1: bucks junkers. You know, old mature bucks that need to go. So,
26:35
Speaker 1: you know, if someone who considers himselfs an expert hunter
26:37
Speaker 1: or however, you want to, you know, discuss that they
26:40
Speaker 1: should absolutely be harvesting bucks every year, whether they're high
26:43
Speaker 1: scoring or just old mature bucks.
26:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's there's true conservation and management. Yes potential
26:49
Speaker 3: by hey, I don't have a high scoring quote unquote
26:52
Speaker 3: giant who hunt. I need to focus on this old.
26:55
Speaker 4: Scrappy exactly eight point that's.
26:57
Speaker 3: Seven years old or six years old or five year
26:59
Speaker 3: old top Now where.
26:59
Speaker 1: You're ac and and even you know, you get into
27:02
Speaker 1: a state like Kansas, they've got a little bit more
27:05
Speaker 1: of a problem because they're only allowed one bucks. So
27:08
Speaker 1: that's gonna you know, those people would have a bigger challenge.
27:11
Speaker 1: They would have to probably devote more of their time
27:13
Speaker 1: to hunting for a high scoring mature buck. But before
27:16
Speaker 1: the season ended, I would recommend you still harvest something
27:19
Speaker 1: because there's a segment of the buck population that needs
27:22
Speaker 1: to be harvested that I've noticed has been overlooked on
27:24
Speaker 1: a lot of properties.
27:25
Speaker 3: Do you think there's always some sort of self pressure
27:29
Speaker 3: people typically, Yeah, you know, throughout their own season. Doesn't
27:32
Speaker 3: matter if you produce content or right, you just regular guy.
27:37
Speaker 1: I think everybody because because you know it, and it
27:40
Speaker 1: builds because all year long, you're doing projects on the farm,
27:44
Speaker 1: you're doing things to aid in that the ultimate goal
27:47
Speaker 1: of harvesting that buck. So if that's not occurring, you know,
27:50
Speaker 1: your co workers, your family or wife, she's like, well.
27:53
Speaker 4: Doing vacation.
27:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've been out there for months doing stuff and
27:57
Speaker 1: you haven't got one. You know, it's kind of so
27:59
Speaker 1: you got to kind to look past that and make
28:01
Speaker 1: sure you're hunting for the right reasons and you know,
28:04
Speaker 1: focusing on maturity as your number one goal and then
28:08
Speaker 1: you know score as a second one.
28:10
Speaker 3: Do you think that pressure is the self Pressure is
28:13
Speaker 3: a good thing or a bad thing.
28:15
Speaker 1: It depends on the individual. You know, some pressure is
28:18
Speaker 1: obviously good because it forces you to work harder and
28:21
Speaker 1: you know, get up earlier, hunt later, you know, all
28:24
Speaker 1: the things that should make you more successful. If it
28:27
Speaker 1: manifests itself to the point where you're obsessing over it,
28:31
Speaker 1: or you're actually harvesting, change your goal and you harvest
28:34
Speaker 1: a lesser quality buck because you're under so much pressure.
28:37
Speaker 10: In that case, it's a negative.
28:38
Speaker 3: So next up we have Thomas Mills now lives in
28:41
Speaker 3: Wisconsin in the Driftless region, hunts a shared permission property
28:45
Speaker 3: primarily and has set the county record multiple times for
28:48
Speaker 3: archery big bucks. And here's what he has to say,
28:50
Speaker 3: if great hunters really shoot a buck every single year?
28:54
Speaker 3: All it's a simple question. Do great hunters really shoot
28:58
Speaker 3: a buck every year?
29:00
Speaker 10: Oh?
29:01
Speaker 13: No, they definitely do not.
29:04
Speaker 10: That's it.
29:05
Speaker 13: You know, to be a great hunter, you have to
29:07
Speaker 13: set a certain level of standards. And if your standards
29:11
Speaker 13: are set high enough, then you're not going to achieve
29:14
Speaker 13: those standards every time you step foot in the woods, right,
29:17
Speaker 13: You're certainly not going to achieve them every year. And
29:21
Speaker 13: you know this is a kind of reversus this concept, right,
29:24
Speaker 13: the enemy of great or the enemy of good is great,
29:27
Speaker 13: you know, when you're trying to like be too much
29:29
Speaker 13: of a perfectionist. On the other side of that, if
29:31
Speaker 13: you truly want great things, then you have to give
29:33
Speaker 13: up good things. Which I say at clients all the time.
29:36
Speaker 13: You can't kill great deer if you're killing good deer.
29:39
Speaker 13: You have to be willing to eat your tag from
29:43
Speaker 13: time to time to increase the quality of animals on
29:48
Speaker 13: your property. Right, it specifically bucks, So you're not going
29:52
Speaker 13: to kill a big deer every year. And also, you
29:56
Speaker 13: know there's always going to be situations. Some of the
29:58
Speaker 13: most challenging deer to hunt. The reason why they get big,
30:01
Speaker 13: you know, depending on the area you're in, especially, it's
30:04
Speaker 13: because they're not that easy to kill, right, So you
30:07
Speaker 13: can't always expect to figure out a dear in one year.
30:10
Speaker 13: And sometimes there's things that we can do as land
30:13
Speaker 13: managers to improve our odds year and year out where
30:16
Speaker 13: you know, maybe that four year old bucks on our
30:19
Speaker 13: property X amount of time this year, look at their habits,
30:22
Speaker 13: look at where they're spending time. How can I improve
30:24
Speaker 13: that situation? So maybe next year he spends more time
30:27
Speaker 13: or he's more consistent. Every year is a building year,
30:30
Speaker 13: and you're not going to kill a big buck every year.
30:34
Speaker 13: And if you want to kill big bucks the best
30:36
Speaker 13: bucks you can, then then you can't kill the lesser
30:38
Speaker 13: bucks in a year just because you don't have a
30:40
Speaker 13: bigger buck or you couldn't kill that buck, and you know,
30:42
Speaker 13: you settle for something else. So absolutely, without a shadow
30:46
Speaker 13: of a doubt, I would say the best hunters out
30:48
Speaker 13: there understand that patience is beyond just sitting in a
30:53
Speaker 13: stand one day or even you know, grinding out one season.
30:58
Speaker 10: It is a long term.
30:59
Speaker 13: Game and the more you learn that, or the more
31:03
Speaker 13: you observe in general, the more you will learn that
31:06
Speaker 13: from every situation and how it pays back dividends.
31:09
Speaker 3: So over the last ten years, how many times have
31:11
Speaker 3: you ate a Wisconsin tag?
31:13
Speaker 13: Oh, in the last ten years three and those three years,
31:21
Speaker 13: I had encounters with my target book all three of
31:24
Speaker 13: those years. I've also gotten a lot pickier with the
31:27
Speaker 13: shots that I'll take. You know, I had a buck,
31:29
Speaker 13: one of my bucks at thirty five yards for fifteen
31:32
Speaker 13: minutes one day, and there's just it just wasn't confident
31:34
Speaker 13: in taking the shot. You know, stuff like that happens.
31:37
Speaker 13: That to me was a success. I crossed paths right
31:40
Speaker 13: where I wanted. You know, all the things that I
31:42
Speaker 13: anticipated putting my theories together panned out. It was just
31:46
Speaker 13: that one little thing, and I chose not to force
31:48
Speaker 13: the execution because I don't want to injure the animal.
31:51
Speaker 13: And then a couple of the other ones were dear
31:54
Speaker 13: that their home shifted, their home range shifted a little bit,
31:59
Speaker 13: so when they were younger, they were actually on our
32:01
Speaker 13: property more, which kind of threw me for a loop
32:04
Speaker 13: as far as like you're anticipating historical data to repeat itself.
32:08
Speaker 13: But it's actually changing in a way that's not positive.
32:11
Speaker 10: Now.
32:11
Speaker 13: Normally, if I would recognize that, I would shift away
32:14
Speaker 13: from them, but I didn't have a better option than
32:15
Speaker 13: those years. They're kind of a slump lot of surrounding neighbors,
32:19
Speaker 13: harvested four year olds, five year olds, and you know,
32:22
Speaker 13: trying to target a little bit older age class.
32:24
Speaker 10: So there just wasn't a lot of opportunity in those years.
32:27
Speaker 13: But three out of the last ten years, I've eat
32:29
Speaker 13: my tag and then usually when I do that, the
32:32
Speaker 13: next year pays back dividends, right, So that's just kind
32:36
Speaker 13: of the way it goes.
32:37
Speaker 4: That makes perfect sense.
32:38
Speaker 3: And I've asked the question everyone and I should have
32:41
Speaker 3: asked the same follow up question every time of you know,
32:43
Speaker 3: over the last ten years, how many times you know,
32:46
Speaker 3: eight a tag? But I would say that seventy and
32:48
Speaker 3: eighty percent of you know, filling attack on a successful
32:52
Speaker 3: buck has been the trend for the most part. So
32:55
Speaker 3: if someone's out there, they don't feel if that leer
32:59
Speaker 3: was last year where you didn't fill your tag, maybe
33:01
Speaker 3: this is the year. This is the year when you
33:03
Speaker 3: get a two ex return by maybe passing a year.
33:06
Speaker 13: Yeah, and I would just say, you know, if I'm
33:09
Speaker 13: after my target book and I have that encounter, like.
33:12
Speaker 10: I said, I see that as a success.
33:14
Speaker 13: If I'm after my target book and I'm not having encounters,
33:17
Speaker 13: that's what I see as a failure in my mind, right,
33:20
Speaker 13: I want to have encounters with that buck. I for
33:22
Speaker 13: a long time, I worked really really hard to have
33:25
Speaker 13: one opportunity at a mature buck of season. Now I've
33:29
Speaker 13: kind of figured things out right, and I've also made
33:31
Speaker 13: some tweaks on the property, and now it's not uncommon
33:34
Speaker 13: to have five, six, ten encounters with mature bucks, you know.
33:37
Speaker 13: But again, there's always that one buck that I'm focused on.
33:41
Speaker 13: And sometimes it's hard. You know, you're crossing paths, maybe
33:45
Speaker 13: you come through, then he comes through on camera, you know,
33:48
Speaker 13: so you know he was there, you're just timings off
33:51
Speaker 13: a little bit, or you see him but not within
33:54
Speaker 13: range of the stand, or things change, you know, pressure
33:58
Speaker 13: increases in the property, unforeseen circumstances. Those are things that
34:02
Speaker 13: I look at as a failure, and also what are
34:06
Speaker 13: things that I can do to get better to prevent
34:08
Speaker 13: failures like that from happening in the future, And you know,
34:11
Speaker 13: kind of break that down it's like a postseason debrief, like, oh,
34:14
Speaker 13: you know, what could I have done differently? Essentially, But
34:17
Speaker 13: on the other side of that is just not having
34:20
Speaker 13: the target buck that you want, right. So I've been
34:22
Speaker 13: there before too, like, oh, there's a year where there
34:25
Speaker 13: really wasn't a buck that I was crazy to go after.
34:28
Speaker 13: So I you know, we're all busy, and for me,
34:31
Speaker 13: it's like, you know, I don't need to just go
34:33
Speaker 13: out and kill one hundred and forty ish inch four
34:36
Speaker 13: year old, you know, and the size is all relative, right,
34:39
Speaker 13: I'm going for age class more than anything. So if
34:42
Speaker 13: there's not a higher caliber deer out there, I'll probably
34:45
Speaker 13: still hunt, but I'm not going to hunt as hard,
34:48
Speaker 13: you know, if I don't have that deer, and I'll
34:50
Speaker 13: have the patience to just let some of these younger
34:52
Speaker 13: up and comers stay on the property, not pressure them off,
34:55
Speaker 13: not let my guard down to where I'm just like,
34:58
Speaker 13: there's not a buck out here I want to kill,
34:59
Speaker 13: So I'm gonna you know, I'll be doing projects, has
35:02
Speaker 13: at work, checking cameras, all willing nearly like totally off
35:05
Speaker 13: script of how I would normally operate if I was
35:07
Speaker 13: trying to pursue a target book, so you just back off,
35:10
Speaker 13: keep the pressure, have that patience and self control so
35:13
Speaker 13: that those four year old deer five year old deer again.
35:17
Speaker 10: Whatever is lower than the age class you want.
35:20
Speaker 13: Those deer are sticking around on your property more and
35:22
Speaker 13: setting you up for the opportunity and years to come.
35:25
Speaker 4: Last, but not least, we have Mark Kenyon.
35:27
Speaker 3: You know who Mark is if you're listening a Wire
35:28
Speaker 3: to Hunt from Michigan. And I really think you guys
35:32
Speaker 3: will enjoy his answer to this question. Here we go.
35:35
Speaker 3: There's a real simple question. Do a great hunter shoot
35:38
Speaker 3: a buck every single year?
35:41
Speaker 6: I think the answer is no, not necessarily. I think
35:44
Speaker 6: most would have an opportunity to do so, but I
35:49
Speaker 6: think many choose not to because I think most of
35:52
Speaker 6: the great hunters out there will always put themselves in
35:57
Speaker 6: a position to kill deer, will always themselves in the
36:00
Speaker 6: position to probably have a good chance at killing a
36:04
Speaker 6: mature buck. But also many of those greatest hunters get
36:08
Speaker 6: to a point where they can very picky, very selective
36:11
Speaker 6: about what do they want to put their tack on.
36:14
Speaker 6: And I think a difference between like pretty good hunters
36:17
Speaker 6: and great hunters is that once you get to great
36:21
Speaker 6: I don't think goals and expectations are the same as
36:24
Speaker 6: they used to be when they were just like really
36:26
Speaker 6: good hunters. And so I think when a really good
36:30
Speaker 6: hunter or a good hunter, there's this cliche thing about
36:34
Speaker 6: the stages of a hunter's life, right, It's like he start,
36:37
Speaker 6: he's like he's trying to figure out how to do
36:38
Speaker 6: any of this stuff, and you fear out how to
36:40
Speaker 6: kill your first dear, like awesome, I want to kill
36:42
Speaker 6: a bunch of deer. And then you faire out how
36:43
Speaker 6: to kill a bunch of deer, and then it's like, okay,
36:45
Speaker 6: now I want to kill like a bigger deer, and
36:46
Speaker 6: then I want to kill like a really big deer,
36:48
Speaker 6: and then maybe it's like the one deer, and then
36:51
Speaker 6: you get to a point where I don't even care
36:52
Speaker 6: if I kill anymore deer because I want my grandkids
36:54
Speaker 6: to kill a deer, I want my son to kill
36:56
Speaker 6: a deer. I want to just have this place or
36:58
Speaker 6: this experience or whatever. So I think for a lot
37:00
Speaker 6: of people, when they get to that like great deer
37:02
Speaker 6: hunter stage, many of them are at the point where like, hey,
37:06
Speaker 6: you know what, it's I want that one deer or
37:08
Speaker 6: I want this to be a puff that I've known
37:10
Speaker 6: for four years, that's an eight year old or a
37:13
Speaker 6: seven year old or whatever it is. And so I
37:15
Speaker 6: think just because of that, they care less about I
37:17
Speaker 6: need to kill a bunch of deer. And so I
37:19
Speaker 6: think that there's less pressure, like internal pressure or even
37:23
Speaker 6: like external pressure to like get a good deer every year,
37:27
Speaker 6: because at that point, if you've gotten to the point
37:29
Speaker 6: where you are a great hunter, I don't think you
37:31
Speaker 6: care at all about what the outside world thinks about
37:34
Speaker 6: whether or not you kill a deer every year, or
37:36
Speaker 6: you probably don't even care because you've killed so many
37:38
Speaker 6: deer to that point that really it's now what's going
37:41
Speaker 6: to make me happy in this moment, And maybe that
37:43
Speaker 6: means it's, you know, spending more time with the kids
37:46
Speaker 6: and killing a bunch of does. And yet if the
37:48
Speaker 6: one special deer or whatever it is isn't this year,
37:51
Speaker 6: no big deal next year. But I do think that
37:54
Speaker 6: anyone who's a truly great hunter would be in a
37:58
Speaker 6: position that they could kill it da nice deer every year.
38:02
Speaker 6: They just might choose not to. When I look at
38:04
Speaker 6: like most of the guys out there that I would
38:06
Speaker 6: consider truly truly great. I think that's the case. They
38:10
Speaker 6: certainly could, but they might choose not Tom, And you know,
38:15
Speaker 6: there's always gonna be weird freak circumstances too that just
38:19
Speaker 6: like take your goal out of the picture completely, right.
38:22
Speaker 6: I mean, there might be some people who all they
38:24
Speaker 6: would want to kill is this one deer and then
38:26
Speaker 6: EHD hits or something like that, and so for those people,
38:30
Speaker 6: that changes the game. So so yes, I don't think
38:34
Speaker 6: they have to kill a great deer every single year
38:36
Speaker 6: to be a great deer hunter, but I certainly think
38:38
Speaker 6: that they'd be in a position to do so because
38:40
Speaker 6: those truly great ones are always putting in the work,
38:43
Speaker 6: are always making sure they have options, are always making
38:46
Speaker 6: sure that they have their ducks in a row enough
38:50
Speaker 6: to be able to be to check that box there.
38:52
Speaker 3: You guys having That is the conclusion of the first
38:54
Speaker 3: episode of the Back forty podcast. It seemly feels like
38:57
Speaker 3: these guys that we just chatted with shoot their target
39:00
Speaker 3: buck every single year.
39:01
Speaker 4: But you heard it here.
39:01
Speaker 3: Great hunters may not shoot a buck every single year.
39:03
Speaker 3: So that pressure that you're building up throughout the year,
39:06
Speaker 3: don't let it get to you, because even these guys
39:07
Speaker 3: don't fill a tag every single year, so I hope
39:09
Speaker 3: you guys really enjoyed it. Next week, we're gonna be
39:11
Speaker 3: diving into a new and exciting question and dilemma, and
39:15
Speaker 3: that is the best part of my farm has bad access?
39:18
Speaker 3: Should I hunt it? How do I hunt it? We're
39:20
Speaker 3: going to get into that. So we will see you
39:22
Speaker 3: next week on the back forty podcast.