Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #94: How Ben Rising Consistently Kills the Biggest, Oldest Bucks

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #94: How Ben Rising Consistently Kills the Biggest, Oldest Bucks · 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 Kenyon, and this is episode number nine
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Tanna show. We're diving into the mind of big buck
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: killer Ben Rising with a goal discovering exactly how he's
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: killing the deer he is on such a consistent basis.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the wire to Hunt podcast, brought
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to you by Sick of Gear, and today you'll be
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: glad here. Dan and I are joined by a trivia
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: guest and someone who likely knows a heck of a
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: lot more about killing big mature white tails than the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: two of us do. This guest is Ben Rising, and
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Ben is a super serious deer hunter, an outfitter, and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: has been seen on a number of Dury Outdoors TV
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: shows in DVDs over the years. Even more impressive, I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: think Ben has killed I believe it is eight different
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Boone and Crockett caliber bucks, and who knows how many
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: other dandy mature white tails. So with all that said,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Dan and I are going to step back and absorb
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: as much as we can from Ben today We're going
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to do our very best to dig as deep as
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: possible has been to understand exactly how he's having this
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: kind of success, and ultimately our hope is that some
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of his mojo might rub off on us too. So
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: before we get been on the line though, me and
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Dan have a little bit of catching up to do. Dan,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: how you doing, I'm doing okay, well kinda did you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: get my text message pictures? Oh my gosh. Yeah, right,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: So my son has a rash right now that looks
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: like chemical burns. And his face was like the night
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: we the first trip to the e r We've he's
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: been there three times now, is it looked like Rocky
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: boub Bow. I mean when I was swollen shut The
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: other one was almost one shot. He had this this
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: swelling on his lip that looked like a marble and
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: it was hanging off his lip. It was nasty. And
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: they're saying it's a virus that they can't do anything about.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: It just has to run its course. Oh that is awful.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I just I felt so bad just looking at him,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: just covered with that rash and he just looks so sad.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Oh man, that's gotta be really, really tougher. For you guys.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I can't. I hope that. Yeah, I think I think
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: he's on his on the way out of it, though.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think the worst is over. He still
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: has a rash on his face and um back or
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: on legs and arms, but um, the back is almost
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: cleared up now, so hopefully he's on the He's on
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the up and up. I'll tell you what, You've got
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a way of making all my issues always look really,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: really trivial. I was gonna come on here today and
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: complain about how I'm so stressed this past week and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: all this stuff, and now here it is. Dan says, well,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: my kid's been in the hospital three times, and I
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: just can't stack up with that. I guess I can't
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: complain that my trail camera batteries died exactly. You're stealing
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: my thunder. Oh man, that's bad, though. Yeah, I got
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: nothing compared to that. I all this new in me
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and kind of interesting, is I had my first deer
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: related speaking event last week, really, so I did like
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a seminar for the first time. It was interesting. You know.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I didn't get to hide behind my computer screen or
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the podcast mike or the video camera. This is just
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: me in front of people, and uh, I don't know
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: have you ever done that? Damn, I don't think you have,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: have you. I've never given a speech to people based
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: on deer hunting before. I've given like a company speech
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: or a speech to a class, but nothing, nothing like this.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: What was it for? Yeah, it was for a Quality
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Deer Management co op meeting here in Michigan. So you know,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: this is something I figured, you know, at some point
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: in my career, I'm probably going to have to start
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: doing these types of things, so I better get started somewhere.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And this came up, and it was I figured be
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a small, safe way to get my toe in the water.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Um So, I you know, volunteered my services and thought, hey,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I'll go up there and talk for a little bit.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: So it was cool. It was probably about fifty people,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: um so, not huge audience, but enough that I you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: if I did something stupid, it would have been embarrassing.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I was nervous. I'll be honest with you.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I was. I was nervous because, like, like you have
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: done a lot of like I've done a lot of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: speaking in front of people for my old job, you know,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: sales pitches and speeches and different things like that, but
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: not about you know, not in my new career yet,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: so that was a new thing. Did you picture the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: crowd naked? H No, I did not, because it was
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: primarily older gentleman so wouldn't have been all that interesting
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: for me. Got you, got you? No? No, no naked,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: no naked ideas, Just like I did a lot of
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: did a lot of prep, try to make sure I
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: knew what I was talking about, and I think, you know,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: from what I heard, I think it went well. So
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't have any mess ups where I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: embarrassed myself. I didn't get booted off the stage, so
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that was that was a success as far as I'm concerned.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: So I had that going on. But man, that kind
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of thing, it was stressful, like it it took me
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: out of my like out of my workflow for like
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: two or three days. I couldn't focus on anything else
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: because I was thinking about that. And then this week
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I've had like some other things going on that have
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: just got me like, I don't know, just not able
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to focus on like the work I need to get done.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I'm like stressing about these like different business opportunities or
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: possible new projects or possible partnerships and all this kind
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: of stuff, and it's it's great stuff, but I'm just
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: like overthinking it and like worrying about if I do this,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I can't do that, and if I can't do that,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: will let mean this? And should I do this? Should
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: not do that? Where am I going? What am I doing?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So there's been a lot of just like in my head,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: like what where where are we taking this thing in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the future. So good problems to have, I guess, but
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I've just been like in a funk kind of because
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: of it. Um, I'll tell you. What's gonna cure that
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: for you is your shed hunting trip to Ohio this weekend.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: That is true, I hope, I hope that will help.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I think it should help. I'm looking forward to that.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Although the one bummer is as of right now, it
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: looks like we're gonna have rain every day. I'm gonna
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: be down there right same same here in Iowa. Yeah,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: so it's gonna be a wet shed rally weekend. But
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: you're still gonna go out, right, I think. So. I'm
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: gonna grab my frog talk best rain jacket ever, my
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: frog Talk rain jacket with your plastic We're gonna bring
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the plastic bag to wear underneath it too. Oh my gosh,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I guess the worst that you know, if it gets
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: too bad, I could just drive around and find him.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: You We actually did that a little bit when I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: was in Iowa. Me and Cory drove around in one
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of the fields in this truck. Were like, Hey, we
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: can get used to this. I was. I was at
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: my buddy's house, right and I took down a trail
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: camera and my last tree stand that I had to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: take down for the year. And we're driving back into
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: town and I took this different way for some reason,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and I see something out in this like CRP that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: looked like it had laid the c RP had laid down,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and I look at him, like that can't be. So
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I back up and there's there's two kids and a
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: mom playing out in this front yard. Um, So I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: backed up, and the mom instantly goes into like creeper
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: mode where she's like, who is that and what are
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: they doing? So I back up, I look at it
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: even closer. I'm just like, it's like a hundred yards
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: off the road. So I pulled on the driveway and
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I go up to this lady. I'm like, okay, I'm
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: sorry for bothering you, but there's something over there that
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: looks like a deer antler shed. Do you guys ed
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: hunt or hunt it all? And they're like, no, I go,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: do you mind if I go up and grab it?
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: If if it is in fact a shed? So I
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: grab it and it's like one of the top ten
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: biggest sheds I've ever found. This is awesome. Yeah, likeically
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: an awesome shift. I saw the picture that was a
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: sweet piece of bone. Yeah, it's it's not bad. It
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was I'm jack because I'm just you know, I would
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: love to have put in hours and hours of walking
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to find it, but hey, sometimes you just gotta, you know,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: take what you can get. I'd rather be lucky than good. Right,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: that's right. How did you It looked like like bigger.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I'd put her closer. I'd probably put it closer to sixty.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, the G four on it is not that big, gotcha.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: I guess, Yeah, it's kind of kind of crab cloud.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I guess if I remember, heck, that's still a nice
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: piece of bone. I'll measure it and then I'll I'll
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: let you know yeah, i'd be curious to hear. That's awesome, man,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: that's cool. That's that's a good sign for the next
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: big shif hunting trip. Right. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully they're not
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: all I mean, there's been no snow this cheer, so
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: hopefully they're not all chewed up by the time that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: that we find them. Yeah, that is the one concerned
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I've been having to it's getting a little bit late,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: and if they've been on the ground a lot, there
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: could be could be some issues, but you just never know.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited for for next week's podcast. Hopefully we'll
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: both have some good stories to share on that front.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: And uh man, I'm excited to find out if a
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: couple of my bucks in Ohio made it. I'm I'm
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: really excited for that because I'll be checking the cameras,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: checking the sheds. So we should have we should have
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: some answers by next week, some big answers. Well, Okay,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: so I talked to you about this just a little bit. Now,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: it's episode ninety four, right, this one, this one is
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: episode Okay, that means episode one hundred is coming very soon.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And and I'm the biggest I'm you know I'm a
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: fan as much as the next guy the listeners, So
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I want to know, are we going to do something
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: big for the hundredth show? I mean, do do we
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: got a contest or do we have like fireworks or
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: something like that. I can tell you this, we do
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: not have fireworks, but we do have some very cool
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: things planned. I can't share specifically what those things are yet.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I want to kind of keep it under wraps for
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a little bit longer, but we're going to make sure
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Episode one hundred is one to remember. We're gonna do
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: some cool stuff, so definitely stay tuned for that. I
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: think when I looked at the calendar, that's going to
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: be sometime in April, mid April, if I remember correctly.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So so yeah, stay tuned. Episode one hundred is coming
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna do it a big So it's uh
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about too for sure. Perfect. So, So with
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: that little tease out of the way, Dan, I think, uh,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I think we do need to get bet on the line.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: It is time for our call with the st rising.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: So let's let's take a pause here briefly for a
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: word from our partners at Sick of Gear, and then
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: we will give Ben a call. Alright, So, as we
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: do every week, we're talking to Sick of Product category
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: leader Dennis Zuck. And today I want to ask Dennis
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: a little bit about sick cause hometown Bozeman, Montana. Now
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of Montana. I want to think
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: of big Sky country. My mind jumps to elk and mountains,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: not necessarily white tails. So Dennis, do you guys have
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: any white tails out there? Testas gear on? Yeah. And
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: it's kind of funny because you absolutely your mind goes
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: right to the elk, which a lot of the folks
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: here you go right to the elk too. But you know,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: if you think about the Milk River or some of
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the things you've seen on outdoor television, you know that's
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: all in Montana, you know. And and I'll tell you
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: there's there's a ton of white tail deer in Montana
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and there's some great hunting here for for them. Um.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of interesting, you know. I tell
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: people all the time, if you want to go shoot,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: if you're really comfortable, I want to shoot a one
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: thirty five. You know, there's all kinds of one there
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: five type of animals in Montana, you'll see more of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: those than you will see lots of other parts of
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the country. So you absolutely can touch test product here
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: for white Tail. You can create some really good gear. Um,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: that's why we moved it here. We moved it somewhere
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: where we could we could go out and beat up
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: stuff for the white tailor but we could beat up
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: stuff for the elk guy. Or we could you know,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: go out and you know, test our next water idea.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: So you know, this place is exactly where you want
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to be if you're going to try to build clothing
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: systems for the hunting community, white Tail included. So then
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that leads me to my next question, which is are
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: you able to ever get into work done during the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: hunting season where there's so many opportunities out there. Yeah, well,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: you know that I can work from home philosophy, while
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I can work from the field too, So they're great
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: thing is is you know I can I can go
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: out test and product and I might answer an email
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: on my phone once in a while. You know a
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: lot of us say we don't do it, but we
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: all know we probably do. So we work a lot
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: from the field. We work a lot from the office. Um,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: it's the game we play, it's the world we live in. Yeah,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I am definitely guilty of similar work habits such as
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: that during the hunting season, so so I can totally relate.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with working from the field. So if you'd
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: like to learn more about Sick of Gear and the
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: white tail products they're putting out there, you can visit
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: sick of gear dot com. And now let's get back
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to this show and give Ben Rising a call. All
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: right with us. Now on the line is Ben Rising.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Welcome the show. Ben, Hi, guys, thanks for having me. Yeah,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: we're we're thrilled to have you, especially given the fact
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: that for the past like thirty minutes we've been trying
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: to have this interview and we've had some technical difficulties.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So so thank you Ben for sticking it out with us. Yeah,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: that's it's it's gonna be, I think an interesting conversation.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: I've been looking forward to chatting with you, um about
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: all sorts of deer hunting related things for a while now,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: so so I'm glad we're able to make this happen.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: And just before you got on the line, Ben, I
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: give our listeners a really brief introduction to who you are.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: But for those who aren't familiar, can you give us
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a a bit more background as to you know, what
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: you've been doing in the white tail hunting world over
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: past years and and now what you're up to today. Okay, yeah,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Well clear back in two thousand and one, I started
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: filming for Dury Outdoors. Um, you know, filmed for them
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: until just this last so I think it was two
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: thousand thirteen was my last season actually filming under a
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Dury contract. Um. And now I'm doing my own web
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: show going to be starting here this year, and it's
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: called Whitetail Edge. UM. And I've had an outfitting business
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: for the last five years called Wicked Ridge Outfitters in Killbuck, Ohio. UM.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So I've and I'm a logger by trade, by standing
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: timber for a local sawmill. And I logged for twenty
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: some years cutting timber every day. And just in the
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: last two years I've kind of got off the chainsaw
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a little more and doing more of the leg work
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: in the woods and estimating timber and you know, buying jobs.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So I'm I live in the woods basically, is what
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you could say. It's not a bad way to live.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: It seems like from from everything I've seen your you
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: were living the white tail life, seeing seeing whether it
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: be you know, scouting, shed hunting, scouting in the summer,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: it seems like you're doing something related to deer most
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: of the year. Would you say that's true? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: for sure. Um, and I feel that that's you know,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: my dad started me trapping years ago when I was
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: just a little boy. My dad was a big predator
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: caller and trapper. He wasn't a real big deer hunter,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: but you know, he knew animal habits and he knew
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: things like that, and I think that played a huge
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: part in making me into a good hunter when I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: developed the bug to want a deer hunt. You know,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I started bow hunting when I was thirteen, and obviously
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: a big learning curve, not having anybody in my family
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: that was a bow hunter. But by the time I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: was you know, early twenties, I'd really started to get
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: a good grasp on it, you know. So yeah, so
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: when when did you being in the wood felt? Yeah? Sorry,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I was just gonna ask when did you make the switch?
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And maybe it was an evolution or switch, When did
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: you move from just hunting deer to targeting a certain
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: type of deer or age or size or something like that.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: When did that happen for you? Well, I guess you'd
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: say it happened with my first encounter with the real
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you know, Boone and Crockett sized animal. And you know
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: that would have been that. It's funny because the very
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: first year that Durious contracted me to film for them,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I actually killed my very first dooner. My very first
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: deer on film was a four in nine point dear.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: And you know I had killed some good deer up
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: and to that point, but never you know, one eight
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: class type deer um. But just hunting that deer that
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: year on fifty acres of land against other people that
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: were trying to hunt the same deer. And you know
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: that deer. I killed him on October twenty three. But
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: that deer taught me so much. I've watched him in
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the summer some and build him, you know, um, and
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I just learned a lot about that deer and you
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: know how different they were, and you know, it just
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: really gave me the bug. And I call it buneritis.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: It's a disease I call it. And uh that just
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: you know, I wrote an article a few years ago
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: called buneritis, you know, and it just depicts the you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: once that gets in your blood when you kill a
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: deer like that, or you get to hunt deer at
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: that size, just nothing else to do, at least for me,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean, I enjoy killing big deer out
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: of state, you know, I mean obviously, you know, if
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I go out of state away from home, you know,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: my standards are different. If I only have five days
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to hunt. You know, a mature buck is a mature buck,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: you know, good four and a half five and a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: half year old deer, even if it's you know, one
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: forty class year is still a great deer. To kill
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: him four or five days, you know, and that's a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: very smart animal to kill. But if I have the
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: time to pick out a very large animal, you know,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: into is from different farms and trail cameras and you know,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: and that's why I kind of like to get multiple farms,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: even out of state, because I try to do my
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: homework and I try to pick the biggest deer I
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: can find to kill, you know. And some people say, well,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: you're just a horn hunter. Well, you know, I've killed
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: so many deer in my life that I just don't
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: get anything out of just shooting a regular buck anymore.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, my challenge is winning my putting my wits
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: against deer of that nature. You know. I still get
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: off on shooting, does I love it, you know, and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: taking my boys and shooting young deer, But shooting really
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: big bucks is the thing that turns me. Yeah, definitely.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Like like you said, there, there's something at least for me.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: It's not even necessarily just you know how big the
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: antlers are, just for the sake of the antlers, but
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: also by the fact that a deer with antlers like
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: that is so rare, so smart, So you know, those
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: types of animals just aren't. There's not many of the
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: mouth there, and the ones that are have had to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: be extremely smart to get to that point. So because
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: of that right there, it's so much more of a
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: challenge in and of itself. Um, it's running five of
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the white tail population exactly, and it forces you to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: do a lot of things differently, that's for sure. So
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: since that first boon and crack a buck, how many
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: how many other boon and crack a deer have you shot? Lastnight?
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I heard I think was eight? Is that accurate or
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: has it changed? Yeah? Yeah, I've shot eight booners, you
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: know in the last sense two thousand and two. Wow,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: and uh the biggest was the eight or bigger than that? Wow.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: So now the other growth scores, you know, right, I've
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: killed one seventy six eight and two eight. Um. I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: know I have to look at him here, but yeah
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: one two eight um. Um. Last year I killed a
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: one seventy four three. Um. It seems like I'm missing
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: one there somewhere, but in another one eight. So I
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: want to get into how you actually killed all these deer.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: But before that, I'm just thinking, as you're listening off
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: all these numbers and all the deer, is there any
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: one of those bucks that you've killed that stands above
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the rest from like a memory or an experienced standpoint
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: or is it you know? Or they all great in themselves. Well,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the deer I killed last year, um, I called him
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: high and tight um for a couple of years. Um,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: he's you know, he sticks to my memory really good.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: But I still think that, you know, the two oh
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: four was a special deer, but my very first being
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the U eighty four inch nine point. It's just hard
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to beat. I mean he's just a his typical frame
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: is ginormous and to have nine points and the growth
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: score that many inches of Vandler kind of gives you
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: a depiction of the size of rack that he carried
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: on his head. Um, you know, and just the ariants
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I had with hunting that deer then harvesting him, and
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: you know, it was just it was epic. I mean,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: it's just I've never had a reaction like that in
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: my life, you know, to kill him the deer. I
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: mean I've always get excited, but um, you know, I
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: literally thought I was gonna faint after I pulled it off.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: You know. But it's weird because I you know, I've
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: had a lot of guys sitting the tree with me
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and film and you know, I've killed, filmed and killed
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: numerous bucks, you know, from you know, hunting thirty inch
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: deer up to booner class you know, with a bow.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And you know, everybody just says that the one thing
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: that they notice about me is that, you know, like
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: ice in my veins, I just don't get rattled, you know,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and I just concentrate on what I'm doing. Um, you know,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I the way I look at it. I
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: just worked so hard to get to that point and
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: put myself in that position that that's not the time
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to get nervous and have a melt down. You know.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: It's the killer instinct. They say, it's interesting, it's interesting
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you bring that up, because literally just last week our
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: episode was all about this very topic of the killer
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: instinct and how you handle the moment of truth. Um,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: And so I'm curious and one of the things we're
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: talking about is are some people just born with it
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: or is it something you acquire with experience after killing
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: so many deer or having encounters so many mature bucks
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. You know, have you always had
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that killer instinct, that that ice in your veins or
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: is this something that has grown over time? Yeah? Well,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you know, I obviously think the more you're around the
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: type of animals you're trying to hunt, the more comfortable
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: you get you learn things. But I also credit a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: lot to be in at such a young age, you know, um,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: being a trapper and my dad hunting, and you know,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: you had to harvest animals and dispatch them. So the
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I guess you'd so to speak, taking an animal's life
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: was instilled into me. At a very young age, you know. Um,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: and I think and just you know, I mean, I
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I just but I also think that you're born with it.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: You know. I was catching red fox and kyotes at
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the age of thirteen years old, you know. And I
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: don't know if you know much about trapping, but red
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: fox are very smart. They're very kegy to scent. You know,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: they'll flip your traps, they'll turn around, and they'll take
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a dump on your traps if they smell human scent.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: So my dad taught me so much at that young
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: age about things like that that you know, I mean,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I literally was hated by adult men in our community
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: that were trappers that couldn't catch fox and I was
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: catching you know, twenty a year. And so I do
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: think that it's just a natural you know. Everybody has
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: a gift, you know, and I honestly believe that this
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: lifestyle is my God given talent, you know. Yeah, but
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I do think that people can overcome nerves and the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: ability to you know, settle in and get used to
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: you know, putting their selves in those positions and having
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: an animal that caliber in front of them and keeping
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: their cool. Yeah. Um, but I'll tell you a funny
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: little saying that my buddy Mark Jury always said. And
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: this is funny. After I went out there one time
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and I was filming with him turkey hunting, and we
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: had a guy in camp that he was filming and
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: this guy had missed about three turkeys that day already
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and after two already in the morning, and then after
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the third one, Mark Durry got up and he booted
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: the declar and he'd come over to me and he says, look,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: then he goes, this is how it is. He goes,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: some people are killers, or he goes, some people are hunters,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: some people like to hunt, and then there's killers. And
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: he goes, this guy he just likes to hunt. He
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: got so and he walked right to the drug. He
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: takes the personal you know. I mean, I mean, obviously
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: he wasn't mad at the guy. It was this. He
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: was mad at the situation, you know, because he's just
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: not used to that, you know, he's not used to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: having failed attempts. And you know, but I think that's
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the truth. There's some people that are out there just
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: because they want to be out there. They're enjoying, you know,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and then there's that type of people like don Kisky,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Jay Gregory, myself, you know watt l. I mean, you
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: can drop those guys anywhere in any situation and they're
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: going to drop the hammer and it's gonna count. You know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: everybody makes a bad shot. But you know a lot
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: of these so called what I call them computer and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Facebook hunters, they judge all of us because they think that, well,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: if I had the areas to hunt the pease guys
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: do or hunt those farms that they have, we could
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: kill these same deer. But you know that's not really
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the truth. I mean, there is a big separation, and
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: you know, they all had to start somewhere and work
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: their way to the point that they're at now. And
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: part of the reason they're at where they're at now
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: is because they can pull it off, you know, and
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: crunch time they make it happen. So that brings up
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: interesting Let's elaborate on that for a moment um and
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: talk about the places that you are hunting. Um, were
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: all of these booners killed in Ohio and were they
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: on uh public or private ground? You know? Is that
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: ground um basically maintenanced for killing big deer. Yeah? Well, so,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: like um my very first one, you know, was just
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a piece of land I got permission to hunt on,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: and the farmers family hunted there too, um you know,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't a very big track to land, so
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: that deer was being hunted. Um. Most of these deer
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: that I've killed have either been on say I might
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: acquire a lease, um, but you know, none of the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: leases are big enough that you can control the deer
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and you can control the neighbors. You know, everybody hunts
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: around me. Um, and you know, I literally have to.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: You know, I hate it when people even find out
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: where I'm hunting, because if they find out that I
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: have leased a farmer, I got permission to hunt farm,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: they think there's twenty five Boon and Crockett deer living
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: on it, you know, and so instantly you get pressure
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: around you, even harder than what you had originally. But
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I've walked into many farms over the years, and of
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the biggest deer on the farm the first year I
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: had had access to it, um, you know. And it's
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm talking even pressure deer, you know. I mean
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the one day I killed um, he lived on public land.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I didn't kill him right on public land, but it
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: was really close you know, I mean within fifty yards.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: So you know, it's just you know, and honestly, a
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: lot of those guys are the same way. I mean,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I've watched Michael Waddell, I've been with Mark Jury. You know,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: you can drop those guys anywhere and they're gonna they're
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: gonna make it happen because that's just you know, it's
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: in their blood. I mean, it's just what they were
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: born to do. And they know how to do it.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: They know how to read deer and sign and land,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: and you know, there's so many factors to it that
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: you know, Um, people overlook, you know, and I think
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: in today's world, because there is so much TV and
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: so much hype about killing deer, and they you know,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: and they see a lot of the shows, you know,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: where everybody's killing these big deer. Um, I don't think
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: they realize the work that's gone into that thirty minute
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: TV show to watch that happen. You know, even though
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: they may be hunting, you know, like you know, there's
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: no doubt and this is nothing against people like Lee
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: and Tiffany and you know, Mark and Terry and guys
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: like that that have large tracts of land. You know.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, they've worked their butts off to get to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: that point and have those but those deer are still
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a big deer and they still act like big deer.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: You know. They may be a little less pressure, so
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: they're more apt to move when things are good, but um,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: they're still not stupid, you know. And uh, you know,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: it's just a big misconception I think. But you know,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: people today, I don't think they I think they think
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: they're just gonna go out there, some corn on the
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: ground is gonna walk in and they're gonna shoot it.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: And they just don't happen that way. So, having having
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: known a lot of these different guys you've mentioned, and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: yourself having had a lot of success if you had did,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: if you had to kind of sum it down to
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: a couple of core concepts, is there anything that all
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of these really successful hunters that you know have in
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: common or that they do differently than your average you know,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: dump a pile of corn and hope for a big
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: buck to show up. Is there something consistent between all
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: these guys that they do differently? Intrusion? You know, pressure
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: is the number one factor in killing a large deer
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: once he knows he's being hunted. Um, it's a totally
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: different game, you know. You I'd say of the booners
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: on my wall and big deer, I'm talking you know,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: forty plus type deer. I've killed them within two or
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: three times of sitting on them, and you know a
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: couple of them the first time. So I think that
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: you really diminish your chances as you start to hunt
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: those deer. You know, they start figuring you out. And
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: deer have zones, you know. And I can get into
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: more in that in a little bit if you want.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: But intrusion factor is key, you know, exiting and entering
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: your stand setups is a major factor. And in staying
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: undetected and hunting the right winds obviously, um, you know,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: putting yourself in those positions where those deer traveling you know. Um,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And I think every deer has a weakness and you
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: have to pinpoint you have to locate that weakness somehow,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: either by visual observation, by running trail cameras in certain areas,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: you know, in doing it right, and um, just knowing
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: what the pressure of the people hunting the same farm
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you're hunting is doing to the deer. Yeah. So so
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: let's talk about that weaknesses that weakness aspect. You mentioned
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: a couple of high level ways you might bill go
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: about doing that. Does that start now? Do you start
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: trying to identify weaknesses and the deer or learning about
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: a deer during the spring or is this something that happens,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: you know, during the season. Well, I mean if you've
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: had a prior relationship with a buck from the fall
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: before and you didn't harvest it, well, yeah, you could
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: maybe learn some things right now from it. Um by
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: trying to find you know, obviously where he shed his
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: wher where he was feeding late season or after season. Um,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: maybe dig a little farther into his core and find
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: out exactly where he's betting if you can, you know
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of seeing. I think that's where a lot
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: of people struggle. They can't identify those things, um, you know,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and it's it's woodsmanship, you know, that's that's a lot
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of people apart from the average hunter, you know, and
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: it's just something that again you know, either you can
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: recognize it or you you don't, you know, and it's
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: it's just hard to say, it's hard to explain that
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to people, you know. And uh, but digging in this
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: time of year, can't help you. But I usually find
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: that weakness once I locate the deer I want to hunt,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: you know, if it's a new deer, a new farm,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: or you know, you know, you just you can either
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: run it. You can either figure that out by trail
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: cameras or where the food sources are, or you know,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: a glitch in the land that may stick out and say,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you know that is the weakness that he has to
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: walk through that spot to get there, you know. Um,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of how I killed the big bucket
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: killed this year. That just showed on bone collector. UM.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: You know, there was a little pinch between a creek
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: in the corner of a field. He wasn't gonna want
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: to expose himself. Yeah, the night before I watched him
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: farther down the creek with a dough but I knew
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: at some point he was going to walk that trail
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in that natural pinch, and he did the next morning,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and I shot him second time in um d for
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in the morning on October. You know. So it's just
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: you know, just being able to identify those those things
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: about the farms you're hunting, you know. So so how
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: about you know, let's let's say hypothetical situation. If if
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I could pick you up and drop you off a
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: new farm maybe you know, spring or summertime, you can
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: you can choose? Can you can you walk me through
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: how you would go about starting to hunt there, learning
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: about that property? You know? How would you go about
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: dissecting learning a property, putting together strategy? If I if
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: I just dropped you on a random hundred acres maybe
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and said, Ben, go kill the biggest buck here, what
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: would you do? M Well, the first thing I'm gonna
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: do is identify any type of food source you know
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: that the deer could be using, because the deer can't
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: live if you can't eat, and he's not going to
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: be there if there's nothing to eat. Um. You know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: now he may live on the farm because you have
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of cover, and he'll walk to the food.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: But you have to know where the food is. And
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: then you find the cover, you find where the deer
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: is going to bed um, and then it's pretty much
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: you piece it together from there. I mean, those two
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: things are the main factor in killing a big deer.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: I mean food in security. Obviously, the does come into
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: play at a point in time but a lot of
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: my bucks I have killed them before they really start
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: ramping in the road, or I kill them late season.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: You know, the rut is my least favorite time to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: hunt a big deer. I mean, it's fun and it's
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: action packed, but the deer is so unpredictable at that
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: point that you know, they're very hard to pinpoints. So
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: if I do want to hunt hunt rut and try
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: to kill a very large buck, I like to hunt
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: post rut because that's when the last ones are really
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: looking the last real giants are looking for hot dogs,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: you know, and they're a little more predictable at that point.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean like getting dropped off. You know,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I want to identify the food sources. I want to
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: know if there's any stands on the property lines where
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the hunters are, you know, pressuring my property lines, or
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: if there's hunters on the same farm, where are they
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: hunting at, what are they doing, how they're getting in
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: there to those spots, And you know, then I think
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: of it from a deer standpoint, you know, what is
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: that dear encountering during hunting season? You know, I just
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: try to put myself in that position and think, all right,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: if I'm a buck and I'm beating here and I
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: know this is the thickest area on the farm, or
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: this is a dough betting area, this is a buck
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: betting area where I can you know, bet on this
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: point and look down this ravine, watch my backside get
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: to win. Hit me in the face. Then I hear
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Joe Hunter pulling on his quad, or I hear him
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: shot the gate or banging around, climbing a tree. You know,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: those are all the things that go through my mind,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: and I don't even think about it, you know myself,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not even thinking that I'm thinking it. I'm just
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: thinking it, you know, to where some people I think,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: you know, need they need to make a list of
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: these things and and pick their farms apart, you know,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: right right it becomes intuition, probably after you've done it
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: so many times, right yeah, And I mean, you know,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: you you have to find those terrain features that you know,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: in good flat ground, you know, it's a little tougher,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: you know, because you don't have a lot of funnels,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of you know, natural forces
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: to move a deer you know through a certain part
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: of the hillside, or you know. So you you know,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: you find little corners or tree lines that connect the
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: block of woods to another block of woods, or crp
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: grass too, you know. Um there's always something that you
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: can find that depicts how the deer want to move. Yeah. So,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: so I want to rewind a little bit. I want
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to take you back to the summer. Let's say it's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the summer before you're gonna actually start hunting there. Do
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: you do a lot of actual glassing and scouting by
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: from the road or from the property at all during
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the summer to try to figure out, you know, what
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: deer there or anything like that, or is that something
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: you wait till the season happens. No, I do. I
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: mean I do a lot of that if I can,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: you know, if the farm permits it, for sure. You know,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I want to spend a little time doing that. Um,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: I don't spend as much time as I used to
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: doing that. You know, I used to really spend tons
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: of time watching you know, fields and things like that.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: But in today's world, if somebody sees me part somewhere,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: you know, glass in the field or you know, it
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: just really makes my life harder, you know. Um, So
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: it's hunting has become I don't know how you say it,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: but it's not It doesn't seem like it's so much
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: just an enjoyable sport, camaraderie wise with your buddies anymore.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: You know, it's become this like, I don't know, this jealousy.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I've never seen anything in my life that has the
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: jealousy that killing a big deer does. And it's sad,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: you know, um, but it disappears that you know, somebody
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: sees you somewhere, then they think and they know, and
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: then things start happening and you know, but that's another story.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean definitely you can watch dear and
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: you have the grounds you can do it on and
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: do it safely from a distance where you're not intruding
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: on those deer. It's a great way to find a
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: weakness in a buck because you'll notice a lot of
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: times deer will enter fields and food sources on different
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: winds and the different spots, and those are key things
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: to notice for an early season hunt. So so that
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: behavior that you're seeing in the summer is that applicable
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: actually during the hunting You just mentioned early season hunting,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: So is that is that kind of data that you
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: store that you just apply to the first couple of
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: hunts of the year, or is that somehow useful later,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: you know, in later in October and November December. Yeah, no,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: I think you can use it a lot. I mean,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: as long as you know, if they're using that food
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: tours or those trails you know, are leaving that betting area,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: you know, there's certain ways that those are going to
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: do it, you know. And you know Don Higgins, I don't.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've heard of him. He wrote a book,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: you know. And one thing that I noticed that he
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: wrote in his book years ago I read and you know,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: and I agree with it totally. I just never stated
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: it like he did. He wrote a thing about you know,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: and I think he stated that the best for people
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: to understand a lot of times to hunt these big gear,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: you have to hunt a win that is almost wrong
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: for you, and the deer almost it thinks it's right,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, It's like it's right on
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that fine line of being wrong, but yet it's just
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: good enough. Yeah, and um, but not always. I mean,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't always work that way. But I
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: have noticed that, you know, deer will move better. You know,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: on a wind that they definitely feel is in their favor,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: you know, for sure of go heading to the area
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: they want to be. Yeah, do do you do? You
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: typically see that you're finding most of his mature bucks
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: moving with the wind in their face or quartering. Um.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: You know, I feel like I've talked to We've talked
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: to so many different people about this, and it seems
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: like everyone has everyone kind of agrees that, yes, a
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: mature buck likes to use the wind, but there's lots
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of varying answers as to how they use it. Have
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: you seen one or the other be the most common
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: from your experience? Well, so, like in his natural setting
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: early season, you know, they're definitely going to use the wind,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: you know, to their best advantage, you know, checking that
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: food source before they come in. But you know, I've
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: read articles where these guys talk about these deer used
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the inner buck trails and you know, circle a food
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: source before they enter, and I think that's a bunch
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: of hogwash. I mean, I've never once seen a deer
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: do that unless he was so pressured and scared to
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: death at that is the only time. But that then
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: if that's the point he ain't even gonna hit that
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: food source still dark, you know what I mean. So
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: I think people give them too much credit sometimes, you know,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: if a deer is not on edge and he's you know, now,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say that, I don't think you have
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: to slide into the timber a little bit and catch
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: him in a staging area before he hits the food.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: But you know, and when they're in those there is
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: there a lot less The closer they get to the
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: food or the opening, the more nervous they're going to get,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: and the more alert they're gonna get, you know. But
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: if you go too far into the woods too much,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: you're going to bump them out, and you're very limit
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: on how many times you can hunt a staging area. Yes, So,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: so elaborate a little bit on that for your early
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: season hunts. So you've identified, right, there's a buck here
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: with your scouting, you know he's coming in and out
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: of a food source. Do you typically is that how
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: you typically like to approach that early season couple hunts?
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Is that finding that staging area or do you use
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: any other information to figure out what you're gonna do? Yeah? Well,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: I mean if it's if I've got a big buck peg,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: then I think I can kill early. You know, that's
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: exactly how I try to kill him. I try to
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: figure you know, I I definitely figure out where he's vetted, um,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: and I figure out where he's going. And then you
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: can only hunt those trails, you know, on the right
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: type of winds where you're not going to bust all
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: the other dear also, you know, and give your location up,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: and you gotta hunt them on the right days. And
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: you know, you don't go in there when it's degrees
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: on opening day, no matter how bad you want to,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: even if it's the right wind, you know what I mean. Um,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: little factors like that is what depicts your success rate
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: of a mature gear moving in daylight hours to get somewhere. Yeah,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: we we we'd like to I personally geek out about that.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: You just mentioned that the little factors that get a
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: mature buck on his feet and all the different things,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: whether be weather related or precipitation or anything like that.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Are there any specific things that you really pay attention
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: to that when you see happen, you know that you
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: have to be in the woods, you know, a cold
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: front or anything like that. Are there some things you
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: really key in on. Yeah, well, I like high pressure,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: you know, I truly believe you know, I've killed a
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: lot of deer on the cold front, but I see
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: way more dear activity high pressure after up front, you know,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: the deer just really ramp up. And one thing I've
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: noticed too is stagnant. Any kind of consistent weather pattern
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: sucks for deer, whether it is cold or whether it's heat,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: you know, or constant rain or you know, constant dry.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Any switch up in any of that stagnant weather pattern
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: makes deer move. In my mind, Um, you know, obviously
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: the colder it is in a longer period, the more
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: they got to go to food. So that is a weakness,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: you know. But you know, the morning times hunting, you know,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: when it's like that is very fruitless in my mind.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: You know, we in my outfitting business and you know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: muzzleloader season and late bow hunts, we won't even hunt
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: mornings unless we have a deer peg that we know
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: exactly how he's doing, what he's doing, and he may
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: be a morning type deer, you know, and we can
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: get in and catch him coming back to bed. But
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: most of the times they're already back you know, and
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: laying you mentioned you mentioned trying to find that pattern
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: between the betting area and the food source. So how
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: are you how are you finding that that betting area? Well,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: I guess what are you looking for? And are you
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: using trail cameras to abuse help you scout? Yeah? Well
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: I don't really use trail cameras in the woods very often, um,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: you know, and I think that's for a lot of
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: people make a big mistake. You know. They get a
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: they get a farm, and they go blowing in the
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: woods and they find all these awesome trails, and you know,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: they want to check out this creek crossing or they
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: want to you know, put a camera face in this
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: trail yards in the woods, you know. Um. I'm an
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: edge guy, you know, And that's why my web show
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: is called White Jailed Edge, because I like to stay,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: you know, on the fringes and wait for the deer
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: to come to me as much as I can. You know,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: I will slip in the timber at the right times,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: you know, like those staging areas and things like that.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: But all my cameras, you know, are pretty much on
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: the edge. And I use that information because, like I said,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: deer have zones. I feel, and I think once you
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: cross you know, they're used to human activity in this
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: pretty much in the whole unit. It states being in field, farmers,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: you know, anything like that in open area, you know, roads, trails,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: you know, they're used to encountering some sort of human
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: scent in those spots. Well, you know, you start leaving
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: those spots. You know, like a lot of my trail cameras,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I'll check on some of these farms or places I
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: have permission I'll check. I'll drive my truck right to them,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: you know, and I'll try to have areas where I
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: can drive my truck right around these farms to get
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: to these spots to check them. You know, even scrapes.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'll drive right up to a big old
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: hog scrape on the edge of the field, if you know,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: if I can, if I'm permitted to do it, and
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not tearing up the farmer's field, and it works out,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: you know, um, I'll drive my truck right up to
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: it cop out and jump right back in it. Because
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: they're used to that doesn't bother them, It really doesn't.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: You know. It's the sneaking in there and walking around
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: and you know, it's what a lurch those deer that
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: something's not right, you know. Um, So I try to
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: run my cameras on scrapes, on the edge of the
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: food sources, you know, anywhere where I can check them
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: that that zone isn't being crossed at. These deers so
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: alerted that, and they get used to you being in
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: those spots. When you check those cameras every two weeks
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: or you know, a week or however your des depends
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: on how aggressive you're trying to hunt at the time,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: they somewhat I think they get a comfort level with it.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: But if you start blowing into the timber and you
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: cross that zone, it's over. I mean I'm not gonna
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: say it's completely over, it's just there on guard and
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: they know then that this isn't right, you know. And
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: if they keep smelling that you're doing that, then eventually
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: they'll either I think they'll either leave or they'll just relocate,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: or they're just gonna go nocturnal on you. Yeah. Is
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: there a typical frequency for checking those cameras that you
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: like to stick to. I know you mentioned that you
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: know everyone's got their own level of aggression. What's your level?
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Do you like to stick to. Well, like, what if
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you're hunting the food source, it's act of you know,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: in the deer really hitting it, and you're trying to
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: catch a pre rut buck, you know, maybe coming to
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: that food source to check those doughs. You know, how
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: I first figure that out is if he's going to
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: hit that food source in daylight the scrapes, you know,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: if they start hitting those scrapes, then big dominant bucks.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: You'll notice too that a lot of times you're smaller
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: bucks or if there's other mature bucks in the area,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: a lot of those other mature bucks we'll start disappearing
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: off your cameras and it gets down to one really
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: big deer, you know, and then you you start figuring
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: out which buck is the dominant buck in that area,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: because you know they'll all hit those primary scrapes and spots.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: But you know, each dominant buck, in my mind, has
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: this core area, and he starts controlling that areas it
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: gets closer to the pre rut and he starts brooting
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: out those other bucks out of that area. And you'll
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: start noticing on your camera some of the mother bucks
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: aren't gonna show up there very often because they know,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: they're going to get their butt kick or they're gonna
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: have a confrontation, you know. Um. And so when you
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: start catching that buck cruising his area and hitting and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: scrapes closer to daylight, you know, or closer you know,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: gett into the food source before it gets dark, that's
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: a prime time. And you know, when it's starting to
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: get to that pre rut, sometimes you've got to check
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: those cameras and those edges where you can get in
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: and out, you know, undetected. You can check them every
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: three or four days if you need to, But you
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: gotta make sure the wind is right and you're not
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: blowing your wind down into the timber and blowing the
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: deer out of their bedding areas. Yeah, yeah, see, And
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: that's another thing. People don't. They throw caution to the wind,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: you know, when it's just checking cameras. They don't think
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: about it, right right, Yeah, I mean they if they're
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: down in the woods yards better than a thicket off
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: that field, you know, and they smell you up there
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: every three or four days. They don't like that, you know.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: So I try to do it when the wind is
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: right or if it's nasty weather, you know, windy, rainy.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: You know, I'll move sets in the same kind of
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: conditions if I need to move on a deer. And
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I also, like I don't shower, and it starts for
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: me in July normally, you know, I started going to
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: scentless soap. You know, everything's washed sentless for me all
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: the time. Um, just my regular work clothes, street clothes, everything.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: I don't wear clothes and nothing. And that's just how
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: I live my life, you know, up until you know
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: about this time of year. To give my wife at
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: least a couple of months of smelly good you know, nice, Nice,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Can you elaborate a little more on what your your
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: full scent control kind of regiment is in addition to
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: that everything you do. Yeah, I mean, like I said,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I think just being clean, you know, just being clean.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: I don't need a lot of stinky foods, you know
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: when it comes time. You know, I don't need a
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: lot of onion, let's say, away from stuff like that,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: you know, but just keeping your clothes clean. And you know,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: I don't really feel that you always have to have
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of good clothing linds out there,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: you know, And um, I've used them all in the past,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: and you know, I mean obviously for our white Tail
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: led show, you know, we've getting sponsored. You know, we
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: have different people that are you know, but I think
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: there's so many good products out there, But I think
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the number one factor is keeping your clothes clean. You know,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: you're not pumping gash, you're not wearing the same boots
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: jumping into dairy Queen and that you're gonna walk into
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: the stand with you know. Um, I just feel that
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: that's you know, that's imperative, is just trying to be
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: as clean as you can and keep all your equipment clean. Definitely,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: It's one of those things that's that's easier said than done, though,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: right sometimes it's easy to at least I occasionally find
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: myself tempted to try to cut some corners when it
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: comes to that type of thing, because you know, especially
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: later in the season, you've been being obsessive about send
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: control for months and months now. But but like you said,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: it's just so important you have to pay attention to
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: those details, right, Yeah, I think so, And I mean,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: but I will tell you this. You know, the right
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the wind is the right wind, I mean, you know,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: and that's why you hear the stories of people killing
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: deer smoking cigarettes, and you know, a guy gets off
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: work at the factory, walks out and pounds of one nineties,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: you know, with a shotgun or whatever. I mean, it
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: happens all the time, you know. Um, But I do
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: believe that, you know, if you throw, if you hunt
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: the wind right, you can get away with more if
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: you have your stands set up in those situations where
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of other deer aren't going to nail you,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and you know, you could hunt however you wanted, as
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: long as the wind right, you know, and an ate
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: swirling and the thermals are good and you're not hunting.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: You know, there's so many factory you could talk for
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: three days about this. I mean, you really could. I
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: Mean I even amazed myself sometimes that the things that
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: come up into my mind when I'm being asked, and
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: I always forget that I'm even thinking about you know. Yeah, yeah,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: that's the truth. I guess that's part of the fun
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: of it, right, is there's there's so many different aspects
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: of this to to obsess over and think about. Um.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: It definitely keeps me and Dan up late at night
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: thinking about these things all year so glad, no one,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: We're not the only ones I gotta. I got a
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: question about when it's time to make your move. Are
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: are you identifying a buck? You you know that he's
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: in an area, and you know he's working a particular
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: field edge or or coming through a certain trail. Are
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: you setting up an observation stand first, or are you
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: going right in because you have a gut feeling or
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: you have hard evidence that this buck is gonna be
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: coming through this particular area. Yeah, well I'm big on
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean, if I can use observation stands,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: you know, in a distance like before season, or like
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: you say, for instance, that I go to a farm
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: like my lease in Illinois that I just picked up
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: last year. You know. Um, and this is a funny
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: story because like the guy was trying to lease this
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: farm out and nobody wanted it because it was too thick.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: If I never heard of such a thing in my
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: own line, you know. Um, So when the guy told
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: me that I was on the road, you know, I
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: looked at the ariel and then I went out there
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: and I leased it, you know, because um, I like thick,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, and I know that that's what big deer like,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: you know, they like to be alone and they like sick,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: and you know, pretty timber doesn't hold bucks, you know,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: they don't have deer, but it doesn't hold big deer,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: you know. Um, And so in that aspect, the very
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: first time that I went out there to hunt, you know,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: in the fall, I'd ran cameras and had good information,
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: knew what kind of bucks was on it. And it's funny,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: so there was two booners on this farm because it
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: was so thick and they could they could get away
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: from each other, you know, they could bed each end
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: of this one picket and they didn't have to look
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: at each other, and so it worked for him. And
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: nobody else would really mess with it because it was
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: ow things, so it was hard for them to you know,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: hunt it. And but anyways, you know, so for that instance,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: I did set up an observatory stand because I had
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: never hunted the farm, so I wanted to know how
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: the deer in general moved on this farm, you know,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: from one side of the farm to the other. How
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: did they get there, how did they use these tree line?
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: You know, And day number four I smacked at one
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: seventy four, So can you can you share this a
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: little bit more about what you saw that put you
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: in position to shoot that buck? Seas up an observation
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: stand what happened to get you there to where that
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: one seventy was? Yeah, well, I mean it just I
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: had a good idea from running trail cameras where he
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: was at anyways, and just the lay of the land,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: and you know where there was a nice transition from
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: open timber to the thick timber. Um really made it
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: appealing to me. Um. But from an observation point, you know,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: from the one area where I could watch the fields
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: a little bit, I did see, you know, I could tell, oh,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: where the does were coming from, and I could see
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: it seemed to tell where the bucks like to be. Well,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: you know, as pre rod gets around, you know where
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: that's gonna switch around and the bucks are gonna go
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: to the doughs. So um, you know, I got in
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: that transition that that funnel what I call a travel
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: for it, or from the buck area to the dough area,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: and I set up and I waited for the right wind,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: and you know the first time with the right wind,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: we killed him. It's awesome when it works out that way.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: Isn't it. Yeah, when it does, it doesn't always, but
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: you know, but I also feel that, you know, if
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: God you're meant to kill that deer, that's gonna happen
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: no matter what you do wrong or whatever. But if
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: God doesn't want you to kill that deer, no matter
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: how hard you try, you're not gonna kill it. Because
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: I've encountered that so many times. You know, the biggest
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: year I ever hunted in my life, it just wasn't
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: meant to be. I had a two fifteen minutes deer
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: three times within fifty yards of me on hard hunting ground,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: and I could not get a narrow to that deer.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: It just wasn't meant to kill it. Jeez. I came out.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Imagine how frustrating that must have been. It was, but
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: you know, it tore me apart, but I just had
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: to accept it. And I finally gave up on that
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: here the next year and realize, you know, I'd lost
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: some ground where I was trying to hunt it and things,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: and you know, it got it got smashed first day
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: of gun season from a guy to want a deer drive.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: You know, they've seen it from the road and they
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: walk up in the woods and they got pushed to
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: him and he killed it. So that's just how you know,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, it just was not meant for me to
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: kill that deer. I mean because I did everything I
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: could do to get myself on that deer, and I
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: did three different times in daylight. If you learned fifteen
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: inch monarch, you know, but I just I wasn't gonna
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: take the bad shot. And you know it just I
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: passed the deer when he was won sixties. Just one
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: of those things. But you know, I still believe that,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: you know, you can really do a lot of things
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: to put yourself in the right driver's seat to make
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: it happen. How many how many times did you change
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: your standand location for that for that buck that you
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: ended up not shooting? Three times? Three times? So in
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: three days, three different times you are are you running
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: and gunning or like a running gun set up where
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: you you pack in. Well, if you're talking about that
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: biggest deer, you're talking about the deer I killed this
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: pastor you're talking about the big deer I didn't kill.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: In general, I mean it depends like that big deer.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: I hunted that deer harder than any deer. I literally
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: almost hunted that deer every day. I mean literally, you
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: know that I had any any time I had the
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: right window that year. Because he didn't live on the farm,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: I could hunt, and I knew I had to be
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: there if I was going to catch the one time
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: that he was going to walk through there, you know,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: And it just so happened. At three different times I
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: was able to get on him, but I just couldn't
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: get him close enough. And I do believe I was
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: going to kill him the last night that the last
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: time I had him, which is on New Year's Day,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: but a neighbor ended up um coming down to the
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: woods and messing things up, and I just couldn't get
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: so he shrunk down and he took off. But I
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: think that was the night I was actually I thought
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: I was going to get a shot. Well then it
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: just wasn't meant to be and it didn't happen. So um,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: But you know there's times I'm really aggressive and I'm
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: moving on deer, you know, um, especially when you're out
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: of state and you only got so many days to
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: make it happen. You know, you've got nothing to lose,
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: you know, you gotta move you gotta hunt the fresh sign.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: And you know, I'm sure you've heard of Andre. You know,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: he still lone wolf. I mean, he is a very
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: aggressive hunt, you know, he is. His style is way
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: different than some people's, you know. Um, Andrea does things
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: that most people like me would crawl under the couch
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: and go why are you doing that? You know? But
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: it works for him, you know, I mean his bumping
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: dump tactic where he actually literally goes into the thickets
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: and bumps those deer out, and then he sets up
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: and on to the next morning early and catches him
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: coming back, and it's worked for him, you know. Um.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of that depends too, though, on
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: what areas you're hunting and what them deer are used
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: to experiencing. You know. Um, I think if you're in
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: a very hard hunted area, you can't do that very often.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: You know. If you're in an area that the deer,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I haven't been pressured so much, you can
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: get away with that a little more, and those deer
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: going to come back to their betting areas and not
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: feel so so bad about it, you know. But you
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: know there's different texts. Sometimes you just got to feel
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: the deer out. You know, you just got to know
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: that dear's personality and how he reacts to things. How
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: how many times do you need to see a buck
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: do something before you change your strategy to take advantage.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm thinking of it a specific instance, you know
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: that I had recently where you know, I hung a
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: new stand, went in there and hunted, and I saw
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: mature buck that I want to shoot, but he can't about,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: you know, a hundred hundred yards away from where I
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: want him to. So then that next day I was, Okay,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: I know he came out there. Do I move my
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: stand to be there because that's where it was last night?
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: Where do I wait one more night to determine if
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: that's a pattern or if he's gonna you know, maybe
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: he would have been right by my stand if I
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: would stayed there. How do you make that decision? Do
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: you move right away? Or do you wait and try
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: to learn a little more? Well a lot of time
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: it's time factor too. But the first thing I try
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: to do is figure out, okay, well, what why did
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: he come out down there instead of right here? You know,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: So then you look at the wind, you look at
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: the different factors and you try to figure out, Okay,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: is he betting somewhere different than I saw it, or
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: is he betting in that area? And the wind was
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: right for him to come into the field there, and
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: so he felt good about it. Um, did you see
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: a lot more deer come out in that spot with
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: him than where you were at? Um? You know things
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: like that. I mean, that's kind of the factors. I know,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: there's really a right answer for that. But you know,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, I I will move eventually if it's not
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: paying it out, And sometimes I may just go ahead
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: and put a stand there anyways, leave the one I
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: already had, and put one in that position to be
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: able to take advantage of that wind again, because say,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of times I'll base it on
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: the movement that I saw, you know what I mean,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: because you never know, it might have just been a
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: smelly dough that brought him out in that corner that night,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: you know. Um. But then I also look at Okay,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: why did I have the stand where I had at
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: the very first time? You know, you obviously put that
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: stand there for a reason, and so then you have
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: to depict what have you seen him there before? With
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: a new farm and you just set up on the
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: field and you saw a consistent deer movement, you know,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: in one area, Well, then I definitely moved you know. Yeah.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: I want to take a step back to something you
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: kind of touched on a little bit ago when you
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: were talking about I can't wra how we got there,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: but you mentioned like during the late season, lots of
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: times with your clients, specifically, you won't even have them
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: hunt in the mornings. Um, because all of you be
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: back to bed. Can you can you share me a
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: little bit more about your thoughts on morning hunts in
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: general throughout the season, because at least me and Dan
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: talked about this a lot, and I tend to shy
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: away from morning hunts in the early season in the
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: late season, Um, what's your philosophy on morning hunts at
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: different times in the year. Yeah, well that's pretty much
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: my philosophy. I mean, you know, um, early season, that's
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: very hard. I feel. I'm not saying you can't, but
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: I just feel that you're really lessening your chances of
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: a particular deer. Now, can you kill deer in the
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: mornings on acorn flats and the timber? Yeah, you sure can't,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: you know, but you've got to figure out how you're
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: getting in there and how you're getting out of there,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: you know. And that's where a lot of people don't
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: understand that. Yeah, I mean it may not be affecting
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: the general, dear population, but what it is affecting is
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: the deer that they ultimately wanted to shoot. You know. Um,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: if you're lucky enough, can you get in here and
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: you killed at the first time in and you knew that, dear, well,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: that's different. But um, the more times your trapes and
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: in there in the mornings or hunting field edges in
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: the morning, I mean you're you're bustling those deer out
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: of those fields in the mornings even going in there,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: you know, um that time of year. So I typically
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: I typically do not hunt mornings until about the twenty
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: third twentieth of October. If the deer's even telling me
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: that I can hunt him at that time. Yeah, so
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: some late season is the same. Okay, So you got
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: me thinking about something else when you mentioned October twentieth
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: time frame, give or take. There's you know, there's this
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: uh popular buzz worth the October lull. Do you do
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: you believe in the October lull. Do you have a
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: certain way that you hunt during that mid October time
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: frame or do you just stay away completely? Well, I
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: mean I got I hunt when I got time to hunt,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: you know, and if the deer is telling me I
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: can hunt him, I'm gonna hunt him. Um. You know,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: I do think that deer kind of take a little
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: fiesta to a degree, you know, especially if it's really
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: hot weather. You know, they're not going to move the greatest,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: you know, but that's when you really have to be
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: tuned in on your gear and what they're doing, you know,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: being an outfit or I gotta produce gear all the
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: time for these guys, you know. And so again it
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't always work. I mean it really don't. You know.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we struggle and we're you know, get frustrated and
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: you know, so it's one of those things where you know,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: the guys tend to generally listen to me. Then they
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: start figuring out that you know, we kind of do
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: know what we're talking about. Instead of trying to hunt
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: mornings and you know, at certain times a year, because
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: the deer movement generally becomes good it maybe the last
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: half hour of daylight, but they're going to see a
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: lot of deer, you know, um so, but I do
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: believe that there is a little bit of a lot
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: over law, you know, especially if the weather is really
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: hot and stagnant. You know that that can affect the
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: big times. But I also think that deer move a
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: little better than some people think. You know, everybody wants
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: to hunt Halloween, November. I really like, I love that
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: I've killed two booners on October. Wow, Why do you
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: think of that time frame? So good for you? Because
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: I just I think them bucks are they're just getting
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you say it, but there they
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: can just feel it. I guess I think they just
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: start to feel bucky. You know, their testosterone is getting
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: to that level where they know that. You know, they're
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: just feeling a little more dominant. They're rubbing harder, they're
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: really marking their territories, um you know. And I mean
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: the big big Bucks seemed to be the last ones
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: to really partake of the breeding and start the chase phase.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: And but they're also the last ones to stop, you know.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: That's why. You know, Thanksgiving Day and in November, you're
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: driving home from Grandma's and you see a one n
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: slob standing in the middle of a field, you know,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: by a house, you know, just walking across her like
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: he loves, you know, because they're just that's what they do.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: You know, they're they don't want to stop, you know,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: it's harder to get him going, So you feel that
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: they're they're the big mature bucks are don't go and
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: seek out the very first dough that's hot. Well, I'm
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: not gonna say that they're. I mean, if they know
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: where there is one, I'm not gonna say they're not
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: that they won't go after him. But I just don't
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: feel that they do it in a manner of where
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: all these year and a half and two and a
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: half year old bucks running all over like Matt, and
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: everybody thinks the ruts. Everybody's thinking the ruts on, you know,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: because you see it all the time. Where these guys are.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: You know, I saw six bucks today, Well every one
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: of them was, you know, a spiker to you know,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: two a hundred inchindeer running wild, you know, and everybody's
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: thinking the ruts in. Well, you know, and I mean
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be a smart but when I
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: say that, I'm just saying, you know, my experience as
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: an outfitter and hunting, and just the crowd of people
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: that I talked to that are successful big deer killers.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: You know, we all agree. I mean it's those bucks
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: don't move. You know, it's still early, you know, those
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: bigger ones. You know they'll start roman but you just
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: don't seem to see him, you know. But where I
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: catch them, like killing that deer last year on you know,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: I caught him in his core area though, you know,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: And I was just inside the timber in a good
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: funnel between betting and dough betting, between his betting area
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: and the do betting area. That's where I caught him.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: So do you think that you know, we always talk
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: about when to take your vacation, and a lot of
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: guys are taking it the first or the second week
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: of November. And you're saying, you like the last weekend
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: in the last weekend in October and the third weekend
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: in November. Yeah, well, I mean I'm going by size
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: of deer now too. I mean, you're not going to
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: see near the amount of deer, you know, And that's
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: where it's hard for guys. So if they if they
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: want to be in action and have their chances. Obviously,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: you've got a better chance that's shooting a decent buck
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: when the run is really kicking, you know, because you're
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: just gonna see more gear and you you know, and
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: them big slobs get shot at that time. And you
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying they don't, you know, But when I
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: find hunting a lot, with this fiddy country and things,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: I encounter too many times the deer that I really
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: wanted the kills tied up with that dough because them
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: does seek those bucks out. People don't think that, but
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: them does. In this hilly country where I live, the
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: does look for the big bucks. They know where the mature,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: dominant buck is at and they go to him, and
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: sometimes he never has to leave that hollow. M So
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: when you are when we are into that rough phase,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: you know, let's say somewhere in November for a lot
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: of us here in the Midwest at least, how do
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: you go about trying to get on that most mature
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: buck in the area, Because I know, like you mentioned,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: there's other times the year that might be better to
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: get a hold of him. Um, how do you best
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: take advantage of that time if you have If that's
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: when you're hunting. What do you do to try to
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: find that mature buck that's that's hold up somewhere. Well,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: I don't. What I try to do, honestly, is I'll
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: either hunt, I hunt thick, you know, if I got
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: to be in the timber, I mean, because what happens
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: is a lot of times the dough is quick going
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: to the opening because they quick going to food because
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: they're gonna get harassed by every buck in the country
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: and they know it, you know. And I don't know
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: if you've noticed that, but they start backing off one
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: of those foods worses and making big appearances. Um So
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of times. With I'll do then, is I
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: have to find ways if I'm out of state or
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: even here, if i'm crunch time, I'll get in deep
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: and I'll hunt those six spots where I know those
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: bucks bed or where I know because a lot of
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: times he'll bring him back to his bed um, you know.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: Or I'll try to hunt the doe betting areas where
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to catch him looking for that dough
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: and cruising, you know, cruising that area for hot dough
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: in his core. Gotcha. It's all about getting getting in
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: there where where most other guys don't want to go right. Yeah,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not saying guys won't go in there.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: It's just a matter of doing it in the right way,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: you know. An I'll hunt the down wind sides of
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: those areas. I don't dig right in the middle of it.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: I hunted outside edge, you know. I hunt that transition
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: zone on the down wind side. You know. Um, because
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: you know, big fat bucks are lazy. You know, they'll
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: get in the thick stuff and route em does out,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: but he's not going to do it till he smells
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: her in there, because I mean, they can smell a
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: trillion times better than a human, you know. And what
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: they can smell, I mean, they can smell a hot
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: dough so far away it's ridiculous, you know. And so
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: them just cruising the down wind side of a thicket.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: That's why a lot of times you'll see them in
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: the hill country, they just run half hillside and they'll
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: check every trail along that hillside that comes off the
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: ridge or up the ridge that goes up to it.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: And they're just running hillside, checking trail to traield to
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: trail until they hit the track the top and then
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you'll see them shoot down or
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: up whichever way they felt you went. Yeah, speaking of
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: speaking of hillsides and stuff, given the fact that you
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: live in hilly country and hunting love areas like that, Um,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: are there any specific types of terrain features like that
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: or in addition to that that you found deer you know,
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: behave consistently around or us in a certain way. Can
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: you elaborate on any of those types of types of
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: features you mean as far as like in the hills
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: or just any you know, yeah, you mean any kind
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: of it could be any Yeah, Well, I mean like
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: in the hills, and I noticed a lot the bucks bed.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: You know, you'll get a lot of bucks to bed,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: you know, three quarters of the way up. You know,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: they bed in a manner to where they can watch
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: below them and get the wind in their back, you know. Um,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: and and you know, and you'll see that even in
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: a little more open timber, they'll bed notes areas that
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: they got a law of the roof ball that's popped
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: up to taken because they have access of escape. You know,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: they can get away, um, because they can see you
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: coming from a long ways, or they can smell you
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: from a long ways. Um, But you know, I noticed
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: it just seems to me that, you know, I'll catch
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: big bucks up on the ridge. And I like to
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: hunt ridges because I can keep my wing consistent, you know. Um,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: but I'll catch a lot of those deer up on
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: those spots, you know, late mornings, you know, when I
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: am hunting mornings, it seems like that's when I'll catch
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: those bucks in those areas. It's coming back up into
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: those spots, um, you know, in the evenings. I typically
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: we'll try to hunt a little lower, you know, um,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: catching them coming down to the food sources you know,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: or to a food source, and you know, looking for
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: those catching them on those dough trails, you know, if
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: they're smelling for those Okay, okay, I mean transition is
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: a major factor. I mean that that's one thing that
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: people learn to pick out transition zones. And what I
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: mean by transition it could be you know, small timber
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: to big timber, thick brush to medium sized timber, um,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: you know, swamp to hardwoods crp to you know, would
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: any of those areas you're going to find buck tracks,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: you know, and those are good places to try to
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: scout from this especially this time of year. You know,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: like backtrack and just see what you're doing. It's it's
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: all about that edge, right, just like you, Just like
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: you mentioned with with your upcoming show. Um, so with
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm as I meant, as you're talking about
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: some of these different places that you're setting up, and
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: I got to thinking about your actual setup. Do you
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: have any typical things that you always do when you
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: set up a tree stands? There a certain height or
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: certain way you like to face or stand. Um, any
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: anything specific about how you actually get your your stand
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: setups up that you like to share. I'm big uncover,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean I'm not necessarily a big believer
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: in that you've got to be high. I'm I'm more
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: a believer in your background has to be you have
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: to be hidden. Um. You know I've killed you know,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: I fill my partner Kim Wood shoot a deer seven
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: feet off the ground. We was in a little cedar
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: tree and I mean we literally could almost There was
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: times I could have kicked the dough in the face.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: I think. Um, but you know it's all about cover
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: in my mind, you know, being hidden. Yes, the higher
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: you are, you can get a little better wind consistency,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: or maybe get away with something. But like I said,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: we try to hunt the wind anyways, and so we're
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: not so much worried about that. We try to get hidden,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: especially when you've got two guys in the tree and
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: your run cameras wherever I can get into the cover,
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: into a crotch and feel hidden, you know, And I
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: try to place my stand where I don't have to
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: do a bunch of moving to get the shot if possible. Um,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I some times you have to pick just
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: a straight pole type tree, which you know is not
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: my favorite by no means, but um sometimes you have
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: to that's all you got. But um, I really like
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: to pick you know, limmi forky type trees. You know,
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: trees are holding their leaves and they're in a good spot.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: You know a lot of your white oaks and beach
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: will be holding their leaves light in the year. Scarlett,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: hope those are good trees to pick if you have them. Interesting. Yeah,
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: I love hearing about all the different specific details like that.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: Once you it definitely seems like there's patterns that emerged
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: with different types of hunters. But when it comes right
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: down to it, covers it is probably the most important thing.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: If you can make sure you're not getting spotted in
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: the tree, you can you can get away with some
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: things that maybe other things that maybe aren't perfect. So yeah,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: I agree Dan, Dan over there, I know you probably
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: need to bounce soon. Do you have any final question
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: for Ben before we wrap things up? Anything that's still
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: in your mind? Well, like he said, I have probably
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: thirty seven thousand more questions I'd like to ask, but
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: we don't have time time for that. One question I
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: always ask people, though, is what do you feel what's
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: one thing that sticks out in your head that most
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: hunters do wrong when going after a big buck? Mm hmm. Boy,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: that's a tough one there. I mean, you know, I
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: think sometimes hunting too much? I think, you know, Um,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: That's one thing I've taught myself over the years is
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: hunt smarter, not harder, um, you know. And it all
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: depends on the deer. You know. If you know that
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: that deer isn't living on you and the only time
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get him is to be walking through you
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: on your property, then maybe you have to hunt harder
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: than normal, you know. Um. But if you're if you
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: think you can be in that deer's roundhouse. Then I
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: think you have to play your cards right and you
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: wait for the movement to be correct, you know, um,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: whether it be a weather front or a high pressure system,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: or the right wind or the correct moon. You know,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: a rising moon, you know in the fall. Um. You
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: know when you're driving down the road and you see
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: that moon in the sky, you know, two three o'clock
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, already starting to rise. Those are great
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: days to be in a stand. But if the weather
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: coninsides what it makes a lot better, you know, I
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: mean um and saying with the late falling moon in
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: the morning, you know, morning's hunt. Morning hunts are really
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: good catching deer coming back to bed later from a
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: food source for you know, staging areas when that moon
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: is falling, because they just they're upfeeding again. Yeah. I
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: couldn't agree with you more on that, On that basic principle,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: I think hunting less will actually lead to you killing
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: more if you're especially if you're targeting these mature bucks.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: It really is about quality over quantity um. But that's
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: it's a hard pill of swallow, right, because people want
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: and that's what I tell people. Look, I think if
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: you just really love to be out there and you
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: love to hunt, and there's nothing wrong with that, you know.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: I love to be out there and enjoy mother nature,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: you know, and just watch deer in general. But I'll
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: fit certain spots for that. You know, I'm gonna go
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: hunt a farm that I don't care about or that
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: I'm not worried about, you know, trying to kill the
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: biggest deer on that farm, you know, I mean they're
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: trying to harm us the dough or you know, something
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: like that, or just in general be in the woods
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: watching gear movement, um, you know. But I'm not going
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: to consistently go pounding into the area that I'm trying
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: to kill a hundred nineties deer that the neighbors are
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: trying to kill also, and I'm not going to do
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: anything in my power. It's gonna pushing him to somebody
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: else before I get the chance at him, you know. Yeah, Yeah,
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: that's that's that's the trick is figuring out where that
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: fine line is that you can walk where you can
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: hunt enough to have the chance for success, but not
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: some that you blow them out of the country or
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: lose that. And I think that's for people if they
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: pay attention. You know, if they learn how to run
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: the trail cameras correctly, and you know they're not blowing
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: into the timber, and they're they're smart enough to understand
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: that the information in the data or they're collecting from
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: the trail cameras on the edges or the scrapes or
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: the food sources. You piece that part of the puzzle together.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: You know, you look at the times that those pictures
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: were taken. You know, if you're if if those deer
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: aren't hitting your food source un till an hour or
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: two hours after dark consistently, well they're betting a lot
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: farther away, then you probably have access to you know,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: so you either got two choices. You either got to
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: find get access to where they're at, or you gotta
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: hunt deeper on your property and find a way to
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: get in there to catch them. Come into that food
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: source before they before it gets dark. You know. Um,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: but if you know, if it's real late, then you're
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: you know, you've got a big battle against you, and
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to wait until the rut, you know,
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: or that pre rut time when those bucks are really anty.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: Then then that's when you can somewhat catch those deer
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: in an unpredictable spot, you know, when they're normally not there.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: You know, if they start hitting those scrapes on your
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: farm and hitting those food sources, cruising around looking for
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: those and that pretty right at a better time, getting
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: closer to you know, the end of day darkness or daylight,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: then you can somewhat put it together. Yeah, I think
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: something you mentioned there um relates to you. I think
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: I hear from so many guys who talk about I've
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: got all these pictures of big Bucks on a trail camera,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: even during the season, but you know, I can never
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: get I never see him and when you talk to him.
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: It's because it's a situation like well, in some cases
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: like you just mentioned, where all these pictures are at
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: midnight or one o'clock, you know, four or five, six
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: hours after daylight, before daylight the next day, and these
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: deer like you mentioned are probably you know, far far away.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: They're not they're not living on that farm. So there's
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: guys that are thinking that they just keep hunting over
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: and over and over that magically, one day this deer
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: is going to appear during daylight right where they've been
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: sitting but in a lot of cases, either they are
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: pressuring the deer so much that he's become nocturnal, or
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: he only shows up in your property three hours after
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: dark because he's not living there, and so to your point,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: you need to wait until the rut when maybe there's
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: a better chance of him cruising through during daylight. So
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: it's it's all about trying to put those pieces of
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: the puzzle together and figure out how you read that
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: intel and how that fits into what your strategy should be.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: It seems like, yeah, I agree, and I mean, you know,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: it's it's hard to display and sometimes those deer are
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: on that property. It's just that they may be so
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: pressured that they know that they're not going to move.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: So that's good and dark yeah you know. Um so yeah, yeah,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: that's definitely a situation you don't want to be in.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: But many people find themselves in that for sure. So
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: so I want to I want to throw one more
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: question that should been um at least for me, every season,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: no matter you know, no matter how well the previous
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: season went. For me, every year, there's always at least
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: one thing that I go into the next year thinking
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: that I want to improve on. I always managed to
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: find something that I've done not quite the way I
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: wanted to. So so this year there's there's a couple
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: of things in my mind that I want to do
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: differently this season to try to become just a little
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: bit more successful. Is there anything for you this year
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: that you want to try to specifically improve on it
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: or fix for the two thousand sixteen season that you
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: can think of? Um, you know, I always I always
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: want to be a better shot, you know, I mean
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: I so I always try to make sure I practice
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: enough and you know, put myself in those positions. And
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you something that's really made a big difference
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: for me. Is uh the h A optimizer site single
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: pin adjustable. Um, that site has changed how I shoot,
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: especially as I'm getting older. My eyes are getting a
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: little you know, less than what they were and on
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: forty one now and you know, I don't see like
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: I did when I was twenty. But that site has
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: really that single pin site has really changed the game
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: for me. Um, you know, and I really did. I
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: had a great success this year shooting here with that
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: and so you know, and I never was a believer
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: in those kind of sites until I tried it, and
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: it really so I you know, I want to fine
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: tune that, you know a little bit this year, getting
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: better you know with that. And you know, I think
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: just in general, as you get older, you get calmer
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: and you start paying a little more attention to things.
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: You know, you just realize where you can always improve,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: and it's it's always you know, you can maybe find
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: better ground, you can maybe you know, hunt smarter, you know,
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: just different things like that. Um, you know, getting my
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: kids involved more as they get older, you know, as
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: a key factor. That's awesome. Yeah, I think there's at
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: least for me, that there's never a shortage of different
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: little areas I want to tweak something or explore something
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: a little bit differently, or just what I do. It's
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: it seems to be an endless and never ending puzzle
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: that we're always trying to figure out. Yeah, it's but
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: it just seems to always go back to the basics,
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: you know, true, it just really does. You know. It's
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: funny how I mean, I can remember shooting my first
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: year years ago with a illuminum arrow that was the
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: size of a baseball bat. Seemed like and you know,
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: triple headed broad head or you know this crazy stuff
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: and you know it's just you know, and they work.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: It's just a matter of you know, we've gotten so
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: high tech anymore that sometimes we lose sight of just
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: the simple things that are effective. Very true, very true.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: So so Ben, this has been this has been super interesting.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: I like Dan said a couple of minutes ago, we
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: could probably sit here and talk to you for three
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: more days, Um, but we do need to wrap it up.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: So I know you mentioned a little while ago white
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: Tail Edge. Is this new web show you've got going on?
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: Do you want can you tell us anything more about
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: what what that is? When we should expect to see
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: more from it where we can find it? Yeah, well
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: you'll be seeing is here in the next couple of weeks. Um.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: We have a website called white Tailed Edge dot com
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: and it's it's actually gonna be aired um through Woodberry Outfitters,
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: which is a store out of Coshocton, Ohio. He has
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: a big online web sales, has three different locations for stores. Um.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: And you know he's basically wants to be the white
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: Tail authority for you know, your shopping needs, you know. Um.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: And as this gets going, you know we're going to
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: carry the products. You know, we already carried. He carries
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: everything already, but he wants to, you know, we kind
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: of want to have our own line of specific things
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: that we carry, you know. And right now we're sponsored
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: by Wicked Tree Gear, Redneck Blinds, h h A Sports, um,
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: Rocky Boots you know. Um, so just different things like
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: that Big Time which you know here in Ohio you
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: can supplemental feed dear and uh I was just introduced
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: a big Time last year and the results for amazing
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: to me as far as you know what it can
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: do for your dear, especially this time of year after
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: their sheding. Awesome. Awesome. So you said white Tail white
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: tail edge dot com. Yeah, white Tail edge dot com. Um,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: we have video blogs. You can go to what very
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: outfitters dot com too and you can take some things there.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: But we have a Facebook page and I'm on Twitter
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: and Instagram. Uh so is Tim Woods, which he's you know,
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: my other main guide is going to be a part
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: of it. And then I got a couple other buddies
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: that are part of it in my wife. So um
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean we're just basically gonna be killing
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: deer and trying to show people what we do, and
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: you know, hopefully it's entertaining and informative like it has
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: been tonight for you guys. Hopefully definitely definitely a little
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: different twists. You know, web shows are different. They're not
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: dirty minutes shows. You know, they're gonna be eight to
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: twelve minutes, but hopefully it's pretty darn entertaining. You know.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to check them out. I know I've enjoyed
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: your videos in the past with the juries, so I'm
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: sure this will be This will be great too. So
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: we'll make sure to link to with the website and
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: your Facebook page and various other social media links that
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: you mentioned there, and we'll have that up on the
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: blog post for for this episode, So Ben, thank you.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: We we also have Wicked Ridge out Fitters, so you
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: can go there to find us Wicked Ridge out Fitters
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: dot com. That's my outfitting business. And then, uh, the
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: Hantah is just funny about the high and tight deer
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: that hunter fours just your that's actually on Bone Collector,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: which it showed already in January, but it'll show again
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: two more times this season, I think. So if people
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: want to watch a Bone Collector, you know, I'll show
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: they'll be able to see that nice perfect That would
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: be cool. How how big was that one again? Three
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: and like three eights or something? Wow? Yeah, we'll definitely
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: want to check that out. So this has been great, Ben,
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you joining us so so thank you
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: so much. And good luck this next season. Okay, buddy,
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: you have a good night. Thanks for having me. Alright,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: So there you go. Interesting stuff, don't you think. Ninety
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: four episode us in And I gotta say, I still
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: haven't heard from a single guest yet who doesn't at
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: least have some little unique angle or slightly different way
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: to go about things. And I love that. I love
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: that every time we talk to someone we can learn
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: something new. And everybody's got a slightly different way of
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: going about them so there certainly are a lot of
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: different ways to skin this cat, and I suppose that's
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: part of what makes all this so much fun. There's
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: lots and lots to learn, no doubt about that. So
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: well that I all said, before we wrap this up,
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: we do need to give a big thank you to
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: our partners who helped make the Wire to Hunt podcast possible.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: So big thank you too. Sick a Gear Trophy Ridge
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: Bear Archery, Redneck Blinds, Hunter a, Maps, Ozonics, Carbon Express,
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: Lacrosse Boots, and the White Tail Institute of North America.
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: Please help the Wired Hunt podcast by supporting these companies
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: and letting them know that you're enjoying the show. So, finally,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: and most importantly, thank you for joining us today. We
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: appreciate you tuning in and spending a little bit of
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: time with us. So until next time, have a great week,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: good luck shed hunting, and stay Wired to Hunt. M
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: h M m