Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #146: How Mike Beatty Killed A 300″ Buck & How He Hunts Now Today

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #146: How Mike Beatty Killed A 300″ Buck & How He Hunts Now Today · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire 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 Wire to Hunt Podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This episode number one Tan the show.
0:20
Speaker 1: We're joined by Mike Batty, a man who tagged one
0:23
Speaker 1: of the biggest bucks ever killed the bow. And in
0:25
Speaker 1: addition to the story that buck, we're also going to
0:27
Speaker 1: be diving deep into how Mike continues to kill big
0:30
Speaker 1: mature bucks to this day. Welcome to the Wire to
0:46
Speaker 1: Hunt Podcast, brought to you by Si A Gear and
0:50
Speaker 1: Tan the Show. No big surprise here. We're talking white
0:53
Speaker 1: tails and we're joined by a fellow white tail nut.
0:57
Speaker 1: But this hunter is on a whole different level then
1:00
Speaker 1: I think almost all of our guests to this point,
1:02
Speaker 1: probably all of them, you know, just like most of
1:05
Speaker 1: the people we've talked to over the years, our guest
1:07
Speaker 1: today is a serious big buck killer. He's obsessed with
1:10
Speaker 1: dear and he's had plenty of success killing big mature bucks.
1:13
Speaker 1: But what none of our other guests have done is this.
1:17
Speaker 1: He has killed a buck. He just blew past that
1:22
Speaker 1: whole two mark and he killed a He killed a
1:25
Speaker 1: thirty nine point buck that, according to one article I've read,
1:28
Speaker 1: scored three D four and six eight inches. Um. I
1:33
Speaker 1: read that in North American White Tail, but in the
1:35
Speaker 1: Pope and Young record books it looks like that's a
1:37
Speaker 1: net toour. But regardless, whatever the score is, yeah, whatever
1:42
Speaker 1: the score is, it's it's a freaking giant. And this
1:45
Speaker 1: guest is Mike Batty. And you may recognize Mike as
1:50
Speaker 1: for a very long time, his mug was on the
1:52
Speaker 1: side of those Primos can calls. Do you remember that?
1:55
Speaker 1: Damn you can't call, you flip over us. Yeah, so
2:02
Speaker 1: Mike's buck and his picture was on the side of
2:04
Speaker 1: that and that can call. I still have the first
2:06
Speaker 1: one I ever got. I still have and it's got
2:08
Speaker 1: Mike on it. And uh. I actually met Mike earlier
2:12
Speaker 1: this year at the A t A Show, and then
2:15
Speaker 1: a couple of weekends ago while I was working down
2:17
Speaker 1: um at the Sick of Gear booth at the Ohio
2:19
Speaker 1: Deer in Turkey classes he was there too, and so
2:22
Speaker 1: we have to spend some time getting to know each
2:23
Speaker 1: other there and he was just a really interesting guy,
2:26
Speaker 1: had a lot of interesting things to share, and I
2:28
Speaker 1: thought he'd be he'd be someone we should definitely talk
2:31
Speaker 1: to because you know, not only did he kill that
2:33
Speaker 1: mega giant down in Ohio back and I think it
2:35
Speaker 1: was two thousand, but he's continued to kill some really
2:38
Speaker 1: nice bucks that I've been checking out on Facebook and
2:41
Speaker 1: different places. So I think he's got a lot to
2:42
Speaker 1: share and I'm excited to kind of dive into all that.
2:46
Speaker 1: So that's kind of the plan. Damn, what do you think?
2:48
Speaker 1: I like big Bucks and I cannot lie, and I've
2:52
Speaker 1: been I don't know about you, but I go I
2:54
Speaker 1: occasionally go to the ebbs and flows in like my
2:58
Speaker 1: um level of white till mania. Um, I mean it's
3:02
Speaker 1: basically every single day I'm doing something related to white tails.
3:05
Speaker 1: But there are certain days when like I'm up all
3:07
Speaker 1: night thinking about it and looking at stuff on my
3:09
Speaker 1: phone and looking at maps. You know we talked about
3:11
Speaker 1: all time. But then there's other days where you know,
3:13
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Alaska, I'm thinking about a backpacking trip
3:17
Speaker 1: or something. Um, right now, I'm like in full blown
3:20
Speaker 1: white tail mania. I've been studying trail camera pictures again.
3:24
Speaker 1: I have been reading a habitat improvement book that's got
3:27
Speaker 1: me thinking of all sorts of new crazy ideas that
3:29
Speaker 1: that I might try to take on this next couple
3:32
Speaker 1: of weeks. So I don't know. In shed hunting, there's
3:35
Speaker 1: been all that going too. So talked to the buddy
3:38
Speaker 1: today and even just last weekend he went out and
3:40
Speaker 1: found like nine sheds. So and then and then I
3:44
Speaker 1: got a guy who sends me an email in March twenty,
3:49
Speaker 1: which would have been this Sunday. Uh, he's got bucks
3:53
Speaker 1: on trail cameras still holding both sides. So that old
3:56
Speaker 1: shed hunting stuff just crazy. Yeah, I think that's what
4:00
Speaker 1: screwed me up this year. Um well, you know, a
4:02
Speaker 1: whole a bunch of different things possibly could, but I
4:04
Speaker 1: think that, um, these deer to your point, I've been
4:07
Speaker 1: holding a lot later than usual this year. I saw
4:09
Speaker 1: a buck holding both sides just a couple of days
4:11
Speaker 1: ago when I was shed hunting here in Michigan, and
4:14
Speaker 1: I worry it might have I might have blasted in
4:17
Speaker 1: after Holy Field too early, because um I probably I thought,
4:22
Speaker 1: you know, when I saw him early in March, I
4:24
Speaker 1: thought for sure he was gonna drop soon. So I
4:26
Speaker 1: came back from that Iowa trip and hit it hard,
4:29
Speaker 1: and I worried that he was still holding and maybe
4:31
Speaker 1: I pushed him out of the area. So the chance, yeah,
4:35
Speaker 1: I'm bummed about that. I was being so patient in
4:38
Speaker 1: January and February, and I thought I was gonna wait
4:40
Speaker 1: till I saw him drop on camera. But then, you know,
4:43
Speaker 1: I think we talked about a little bit. I just
4:45
Speaker 1: I wasn't getting any pictures of him. I so I
4:47
Speaker 1: had could pictures in January, could pictures in early February,
4:50
Speaker 1: and then nothing. So I pulled my cameras at the
4:52
Speaker 1: end of the month, and then I saw him and
4:55
Speaker 1: then I thought the way he was acting, oh he's
4:57
Speaker 1: gonna drop, And uh, I don't know. I've went one
5:00
Speaker 1: so many miles this year, um way more than I
5:03
Speaker 1: ever have in Michigan, and uh to no avail. So
5:07
Speaker 1: sometimes you get it. Sometimes you hit it right. Sometimes
5:11
Speaker 1: you don't hit it at all, And uh, I don't know, man,
5:15
Speaker 1: it's shed. Hunting can play with your mind, I think
5:17
Speaker 1: a little bit. Very true, very true. It can be fresh,
5:20
Speaker 1: but you just you just gotta keep walking. Yeah, that's
5:24
Speaker 1: all there is to it in the end at the
5:26
Speaker 1: or give up, right, I'm just about there. Can I
5:30
Speaker 1: tell you what I've been doing the last like a
5:31
Speaker 1: few days I have bench pressing and then taking the
5:37
Speaker 1: pictures of it. No, no, no, but something equally, something
5:43
Speaker 1: equally as impressive. I am becoming a handyman. All my
5:48
Speaker 1: all my buddies give me a hard time because I'm
5:51
Speaker 1: not handed all. I can't do crap when it comes
5:53
Speaker 1: to fixing things or anything. But by necessity I am learning.
5:57
Speaker 1: Because we're in the midst of, like frantically trying to
5:59
Speaker 1: get our camper that we bought this past fall ready
6:02
Speaker 1: to go for our trips, and we've had we found
6:05
Speaker 1: out that we had to replace the roof because there
6:08
Speaker 1: was some hidden water damage. And so for the last
6:11
Speaker 1: like five days, I've been spending most of the day
6:14
Speaker 1: or my nights up there doing various things. So so
6:19
Speaker 1: my question is, do you feel now that you've purchased
6:22
Speaker 1: this camper and the money and time you've put into it,
6:25
Speaker 1: did you get ripped off? So? I mean we got
6:29
Speaker 1: sort of ripped off a little bit and that um
6:32
Speaker 1: and I can't, you know, I think I've told you
6:34
Speaker 1: that I can't, you know, complain about the situation. I
6:37
Speaker 1: did tell you the story about this, right, I don't
6:39
Speaker 1: think so. Well, my wife's never listen to this, so
6:44
Speaker 1: I can, I can, I can say this story. Basically,
6:50
Speaker 1: we're looking for campers and stuff this fall and my
6:53
Speaker 1: wife really wanted to get one and I was kind
6:55
Speaker 1: of dragging my feet on it because it was the
6:57
Speaker 1: middle of hunting season and it was like early November,
6:59
Speaker 1: and she found one on Craigslist she liked. But I
7:02
Speaker 1: had to be in the tree because I was, you know,
7:04
Speaker 1: it was like November six or seventh or something. So
7:06
Speaker 1: I was like, go, take your dad, go look at
7:08
Speaker 1: this camper. You know, I'm gonna hunt. I gotta hunt.
7:11
Speaker 1: You guys can look at it and just send me
7:12
Speaker 1: pictures or whatever. So she did that. Her energad liked it. Um,
7:17
Speaker 1: it looked good. It was a good deal. And so
7:19
Speaker 1: she texted me, you know, pictures and told me the
7:21
Speaker 1: scoop and said it seems like a good deal blah blah.
7:23
Speaker 1: And so I just said, all right, just trust and
7:25
Speaker 1: just do it. Um. And you know, now we've found
7:30
Speaker 1: there's been more repair work needed to be done in
7:32
Speaker 1: the water damage and all that kind of stuff, but
7:34
Speaker 1: regardless of that, it was still it's been more work
7:38
Speaker 1: than I expected. But because we got such a good
7:39
Speaker 1: deal price wise, and other than this roof damage, um,
7:43
Speaker 1: everything else is really really good shape. I mean it
7:45
Speaker 1: wasn't used hardly at all. Um, everything seems pretty much
7:49
Speaker 1: brand new except for the roof issues. So it's been
7:52
Speaker 1: more time invested. But as far as money, like, for
7:55
Speaker 1: the total amount of money we'll put into it, we
7:57
Speaker 1: definitely couldn't get as nice of a camper as we're
7:59
Speaker 1: going to have by the time it's all said and done,
8:00
Speaker 1: so um, So overall, I still think it was a
8:04
Speaker 1: good deal. It's just been kind of frustrating as all Right,
8:07
Speaker 1: a little more work than what you originally thought. Yeah,
8:10
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be cool. Um And here in like
8:14
Speaker 1: a week and a half we gotta be done with
8:15
Speaker 1: it because we're taking off so behind Yeah, yep, it's
8:22
Speaker 1: not an RV. Not an r V. It's a twenty
8:24
Speaker 1: ft pull behind. Um, there's just like a little area
8:27
Speaker 1: where there was a built in bed, but we took
8:29
Speaker 1: that out and we've made it into like a fold
8:32
Speaker 1: out bed so when it's folded up, it's like a
8:34
Speaker 1: big couch. And then at night I'm building a big
8:37
Speaker 1: bench that will be like the floor support for the
8:40
Speaker 1: bed when it folds out and that will be the
8:42
Speaker 1: rest on top of um, so we'll have some extra
8:45
Speaker 1: room there. And then there's just a little table that
8:47
Speaker 1: could fold down into a bed if you've got someone else,
8:50
Speaker 1: and then a little kitchen and little kitchen out a
8:52
Speaker 1: little bathroom, and that's basically it. So the bare centrals,
8:57
Speaker 1: but it will be enough to get us out there
8:59
Speaker 1: and just sick of sitting and sleeping in a tent
9:02
Speaker 1: on these trips. Well, I love sleeping intent but we're
9:05
Speaker 1: just not we're not runting a house this year. Oh okay,
9:08
Speaker 1: I got you. So we're gonna live out of camper
9:11
Speaker 1: for three months. I got you, all right, So I
9:13
Speaker 1: can't convince my wife to live out of tent for
9:15
Speaker 1: three months. But there's a guy. There's a guy at
9:18
Speaker 1: a major intersection down by where I go to work
9:21
Speaker 1: at who's been there for over three months. He lives
9:24
Speaker 1: under a bridge. But we we liked the whole vagabonding thing,
9:30
Speaker 1: but not quite that level. You don't eat rats and pigeons.
9:33
Speaker 1: We're not gonna we're not gonna go that far. So
9:36
Speaker 1: so yeah, we're gonna save some money. We're not gonna
9:37
Speaker 1: rent the cabins like we did the past. Couple of years. Um,
9:40
Speaker 1: so we invested a little bit on the front end.
9:42
Speaker 1: But now you know, for future years, we're gonna have
9:44
Speaker 1: this to live out of and it's just gonna give
9:45
Speaker 1: us more flexibility. Um. You know, we'll be abill stay
9:48
Speaker 1: weeks at a time in different places and we don't
9:53
Speaker 1: need to drive as much. So it's gonna be an adventure. Man.
9:56
Speaker 1: We're gonna start in Utah and then Wyoming and then
10:00
Speaker 1: Montana and uh so we'll see. Well, I hope you
10:04
Speaker 1: have fun and just you know, while you're out doing that,
10:07
Speaker 1: remember the little guys who are sitting in the cubicless
10:11
Speaker 1: wishing they weren't in their cubicles. Well, are you gonna
10:13
Speaker 1: come visit me this summer? You talked about the fact
10:15
Speaker 1: that you might. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know
10:18
Speaker 1: nothing anymore, Like my brain is mush mashed potatoes some days.
10:23
Speaker 1: You know, I don't I don't know what. I don't
10:25
Speaker 1: even know what's going on. After I get done recording
10:27
Speaker 1: this podcast. To be honest with you, I hear you,
10:31
Speaker 1: I hear you. I know I know I gotta feed
10:34
Speaker 1: the kids and I gotta give them baths tonight. That's
10:37
Speaker 1: the only thing I know that's a hard like that's
10:40
Speaker 1: on the agenda for the next six months their essentials.
10:46
Speaker 1: At least you get there. That's right, that's right. Well,
10:49
Speaker 1: like you said, I, I tweeted out a question the
10:51
Speaker 1: other night and staid, like, what's your number one hunting
10:53
Speaker 1: goal for two thousand seventeen? And you're like, I can't
10:56
Speaker 1: remember exactly. It's just something the lines along the lines
10:59
Speaker 1: of fair of how not to us off my wife
11:00
Speaker 1: so I can count back. It was to hunt as
11:03
Speaker 1: efficient as possible while not pissing off my wife. Yeah,
11:07
Speaker 1: right exactly. So as long as you've got that part
11:10
Speaker 1: figured out. I don't have that part figured out. And
11:13
Speaker 1: I don't think any husband ever will have that part
11:16
Speaker 1: figured out right because if they, if they ever did,
11:19
Speaker 1: they would write a book about it, um and then
11:23
Speaker 1: it would be on Oprah's best selling list or whatever
11:25
Speaker 1: that whatever that is, and then uh, he'd make a
11:29
Speaker 1: billion dollars. You know, we gotta do that, UM Hunting
11:33
Speaker 1: Wives podcasts again. We've got to get some new UM
11:36
Speaker 1: significant others on the show to get their opinions on
11:39
Speaker 1: what we need to do. I might be sick for
11:40
Speaker 1: that one. You're never gonna let your wife on here. Right, Well,
11:45
Speaker 1: I might someday, but I might have to be like
11:48
Speaker 1: really drunk. I really want to make that happen. I
11:53
Speaker 1: would love that episode so much. Right, it would be
11:57
Speaker 1: one hour of us arguing. You won't even say any words,
12:01
Speaker 1: just pure gold as far as I'm concerned. Oh man, Okay, well,
12:06
Speaker 1: we we gotta wrap this one up and get our
12:09
Speaker 1: guests on the line. So we're gonna give a call.
12:11
Speaker 1: We give Mike a call, but first let's take a
12:14
Speaker 1: break for our sickest story. Alright. So our sickest story
12:19
Speaker 1: today comes from Dylan Lens, a guy who lives in Huntson,
12:22
Speaker 1: Wisconsin and films for the Breaking Point TV. And the
12:26
Speaker 1: Dylan story today is the one that actually doesn't have
12:28
Speaker 1: an ending. It's a story that hopefully we'll be able
12:31
Speaker 1: to share an ending to later this fall. There's this
12:34
Speaker 1: just absolutely stud buck out there. We've been watching and
12:37
Speaker 1: we actually started calling him in Narwhale. I'm not sure
12:40
Speaker 1: exactly why, but he's just a stun bug, huge times um,
12:47
Speaker 1: really unique, and you know he stands out from the herd.
12:50
Speaker 1: You'll be watching thirty year out in this march yards
12:54
Speaker 1: out and you can tell it's him, and he has
12:56
Speaker 1: the body, the stature, and you know, just a giant
12:59
Speaker 1: frame on him, and all the deer will be coming
13:03
Speaker 1: in and he just he gets smart. Um, we'll have
13:06
Speaker 1: anywhere from ten to fifteen dollars comes straight into the blind.
13:10
Speaker 1: And this past year, you know, I thought we were
13:12
Speaker 1: gonna seal the deal on him. He stopped about a
13:14
Speaker 1: hundred yards out. Eight dollars came straight into the blind.
13:17
Speaker 1: He stopped hundred yards out just survey the entire area.
13:21
Speaker 1: Wanted to make sure someone's right. He was the only
13:23
Speaker 1: deer that broke off from the pack, circled in three
13:26
Speaker 1: ft snow to get down wind of us, and busted us.
13:30
Speaker 1: And that's happened two or three times now with him
13:34
Speaker 1: over the last two years. So going into we're really
13:37
Speaker 1: gonna be hoping that he made it and that we
13:39
Speaker 1: can get an opportunity on him and hopefully out with
13:41
Speaker 1: him this year, because at this point it's it's almost
13:45
Speaker 1: personal and it's really fun to actually, you know, played
13:50
Speaker 1: chests with a deer of that caliber. It seems like
13:52
Speaker 1: almost because it seems like he's always one step ahead
13:55
Speaker 1: of us. So this is gonna be the year that
13:56
Speaker 1: really tests us just try and get ahead of him.
13:59
Speaker 1: So what are those of those moments like when every
14:02
Speaker 1: single time you see him he had, he ends up
14:04
Speaker 1: out smarting you and circling down away. It really, you know,
14:08
Speaker 1: it's just a kick, kick in the stomach, really, I mean,
14:11
Speaker 1: I mean, it just leaves you feeling so defeated. But
14:13
Speaker 1: at the same time, it just instills that hope of man,
14:15
Speaker 1: next time we're gonna get him, you know, yeah, definitely.
14:18
Speaker 1: So how many nights of sleep do you think you're
14:21
Speaker 1: gonna lose between now and then while dreaming about that deer?
14:25
Speaker 1: The normal keeps me up already, I can only say
14:27
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's going to continue throughout the year, and
14:30
Speaker 1: I just can't wait to get back out there after
14:32
Speaker 1: this year. That's awesome. Alright, this was a sick of story,
14:37
Speaker 1: and if you like to create sick of story of
14:39
Speaker 1: your own this coming season, you can visit sick kid
14:42
Speaker 1: gear dot com. And now let's get back to the
14:45
Speaker 1: show and give Mike Batty a call. All right with us.
14:48
Speaker 1: Now on the line is Mike Batty. Welcome the show. Mike, Yeah,
14:53
Speaker 1: glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely you
14:56
Speaker 1: caught me in Dan off guard just a second ago
14:58
Speaker 1: before we start recording, because you said, oh, Dan, I'm
15:02
Speaker 1: sorry for your loss, and we're both like, what loss?
15:04
Speaker 1: But you're calling him out on a shipwreck. That was good.
15:11
Speaker 1: That's uh, it's always nice when someone knows how to
15:14
Speaker 1: rag on Dan. I enjoy those types of guests. I'm
15:20
Speaker 1: you know, I know, I know it is so hey,
15:24
Speaker 1: you gotta be able to take and give ship in life,
15:27
Speaker 1: so very true. So so, Mike, I briefly, very briefly
15:33
Speaker 1: introduce you to our audience before you got on here
15:35
Speaker 1: with us, But can you just tell us a little
15:37
Speaker 1: bit about yourself, maybe how you got into white tail
15:40
Speaker 1: hunting and what kind of stuff you're up to these days? Sure? Um, well,
15:45
Speaker 1: it kind of it kind of all stems from, you know,
15:48
Speaker 1: the family life you're raised in. Um, My dad was
15:51
Speaker 1: a Korean War veteran and deacon on a church board
15:55
Speaker 1: and mom Sunday school teacher. So I had a pretty
15:57
Speaker 1: stripped upbringing. And my brother in law kind of took
16:00
Speaker 1: me under his wing and I started hunting at a
16:03
Speaker 1: pretty early age, just tagging along with him. Basically, it said,
16:06
Speaker 1: about eight years old, and we would go you know,
16:09
Speaker 1: groundhold hunting, squirrel hunting, a lot of small games. And
16:13
Speaker 1: then you know, back then you couldn't really get your
16:16
Speaker 1: your hunting license in the state of Pennsylvania to your
16:19
Speaker 1: age twelve. I'm not really sure if it's that way anymore.
16:23
Speaker 1: You know how they try and get youngsters involved now earlier,
16:26
Speaker 1: at an earlier age. So, um, I kind of cut
16:30
Speaker 1: my teeth on t a dear, uh, trying to provide
16:32
Speaker 1: feet meat for the family, you know, filling up that freezer. Uh.
16:37
Speaker 1: Right after, right out of high school, I joined the
16:39
Speaker 1: military and left and kind of went travel the world
16:43
Speaker 1: a little bit and started out at write Pad Air
16:45
Speaker 1: Force Space here in Green County, Ohio. And then a
16:49
Speaker 1: short short order after that, I received PCs orders to
16:53
Speaker 1: go to the Philippines. So I met a girl here,
16:56
Speaker 1: a local girl, and we ended up getting married before
16:58
Speaker 1: I left, and uh, she went over to the Philippines
17:01
Speaker 1: with me, where we had our first son, Andrew, And
17:05
Speaker 1: he's actually you know, the one that helped me find
17:08
Speaker 1: a baby buck whenever, whenever all that went down. But um, anyhow,
17:13
Speaker 1: we we left the Philippines after Mount Pinatuga blew up
17:16
Speaker 1: and we kind of had to be back out of there,
17:19
Speaker 1: traveling on to the Lower Island in the in the Philippines,
17:22
Speaker 1: and then off, you know, further on to the state
17:24
Speaker 1: side where I was able to get back to. I
17:27
Speaker 1: was offered the opportunity to go back the right path
17:30
Speaker 1: and be stationed there, you know, right right Patterson Air
17:33
Speaker 1: Force Space here in Ohio. So it was good to
17:36
Speaker 1: get back home to her family and where he's from.
17:40
Speaker 1: And that's kind of where we settled down. And then
17:42
Speaker 1: we you know, had our next child Britain, so we
17:45
Speaker 1: have to and I've been here ever since, and then
17:49
Speaker 1: just started started really focusing on on hunting here in
17:52
Speaker 1: Ohio quite a bit. And once I got back because
17:55
Speaker 1: one I was you know, I was craving it so
17:57
Speaker 1: bad because they were in the Philippines, I couldn't hunt.
18:00
Speaker 1: And then when I got back here, you know, it
18:02
Speaker 1: was obvious it was a big deer everywhere. So I
18:04
Speaker 1: just started bow hunting really really hard. Yeah, And and
18:09
Speaker 1: it's it seems like things got kicked off for you
18:13
Speaker 1: pretty well once you moved to Ohio and started chasing
18:16
Speaker 1: those big Ohio bucks. Was um, you know, of course
18:21
Speaker 1: we have to talk about your giant there in two
18:23
Speaker 1: thousand Was that your first really really big buck there
18:25
Speaker 1: in Ohio or were you getting on some other bigger
18:27
Speaker 1: deer before that too? Yeah, I I killed a couple,
18:31
Speaker 1: you know, close to pope and young with with archery equipment.
18:35
Speaker 1: One one was right at like one thirty eight from
18:40
Speaker 1: eight points, pretty good eight point. But I could never
18:44
Speaker 1: get you know, onto the well. Obviously, we we educate
18:48
Speaker 1: ourselves as we because we grow older. And I found myself,
18:52
Speaker 1: you know, pressure in the deer, you know, learning from
18:55
Speaker 1: my mistakes, and then you know, as time went on,
18:58
Speaker 1: I was able to get close are in closer to
19:00
Speaker 1: big deer and I and I've got a ton of
19:03
Speaker 1: stories of missus or close encounters where you know, I
19:06
Speaker 1: just messed up, you know, quite honestly, whether it would
19:10
Speaker 1: be you know, trying to sneak in, you know, up
19:14
Speaker 1: wind and just blowing my sin around, or you know,
19:16
Speaker 1: putting a tree stand in the wrong was a wrong tree.
19:19
Speaker 1: So I just I've learned a lot over the years,
19:22
Speaker 1: just you know, just trying to focus in on on
19:25
Speaker 1: how the beer you know, moving or moving patterns they're
19:29
Speaker 1: betting you know, where the food sources are, and just
19:31
Speaker 1: teen in on on you know, pinch pulling funnels and whatnot. Yeah, yeah,
19:36
Speaker 1: I think Dan and I can definitely relate. We we we
19:39
Speaker 1: have had lots of mistakes that we've tried to learn
19:42
Speaker 1: from two um, that's for sure. So so let's let's
19:46
Speaker 1: kick things off there. Um. I want to dive into
19:49
Speaker 1: some of your strategies and some of the things you've
19:51
Speaker 1: done in the years since. But let's kick things off
19:53
Speaker 1: there in two thousand, Um, can you tell us, you know,
19:57
Speaker 1: can you tell us a story of the baby buck?
19:59
Speaker 1: How to you find that, dear, how that whole season
20:02
Speaker 1: go until you kill them, and how that all end
20:04
Speaker 1: up going down? Well, you know, first, first off, whenever
20:09
Speaker 1: I went and not, I actually gained permission from a
20:13
Speaker 1: private landowner. Um, and he you know, was gracious enough
20:17
Speaker 1: to let me go in and hunt, which it was
20:19
Speaker 1: pretty open, to be honest with you. And there was
20:21
Speaker 1: there was a really nice funnel down this fence row
20:24
Speaker 1: and it you know, one side was beans, one side
20:26
Speaker 1: was corn. And I got back in this corner and
20:30
Speaker 1: I just really really liked this corner. And I was
20:32
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of deer, excuse me, and not, I
20:37
Speaker 1: just I never seen the baby buck. I just seen
20:39
Speaker 1: a lot of of good shooters, and I thought, man,
20:42
Speaker 1: I'm in just the honey hole, right. So it wasn't
20:46
Speaker 1: long after that, you know, somebody had had messed around
20:48
Speaker 1: by staying location and took some stuff off the tree
20:52
Speaker 1: and just really frustrating. So you know, I ended up
20:55
Speaker 1: talking to the landowner and he said, listen, why don't
20:57
Speaker 1: you just move up the fence row some you know,
20:59
Speaker 1: they're get away from the neighbor. And so I did,
21:02
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I listened to his advice. You know,
21:05
Speaker 1: he knows his car better than anybody else, so mean
21:08
Speaker 1: mean and his property. So he said, the deer always
21:10
Speaker 1: seemed to cross through the spencer down in this area
21:12
Speaker 1: of the field, so there was a sparse tree line there.
21:16
Speaker 1: So I went down there and hung a set, and
21:18
Speaker 1: I got in the little pino tree and I was
21:20
Speaker 1: only probably fifteen or sixteen ft off the ground. It
21:24
Speaker 1: wasn't very high because it wasn't a very mature tree.
21:28
Speaker 1: Um heavy enough to hold a set, you know, but
21:31
Speaker 1: um sunny how you know, if it has been scouting
21:34
Speaker 1: that area and me and my son would go out
21:36
Speaker 1: and we would just set on this knob at a distance.
21:39
Speaker 1: We would just scout these spence roads and fields, and
21:43
Speaker 1: and you would see just some of the nicest deer
21:45
Speaker 1: and just the big white racks, you know. So I
21:49
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out how I could get in
21:50
Speaker 1: on this. This one particular eight point is what I
21:52
Speaker 1: was chasing. He looking back now that I've been around
21:56
Speaker 1: quite a few year, if these shows, I would say
21:58
Speaker 1: that he was probably one fifty maybe one six is
22:03
Speaker 1: eight point um. He had actually came in to the
22:08
Speaker 1: stand location that night and I almost got a shot
22:10
Speaker 1: at him, and I mean another two steps and I
22:12
Speaker 1: and I would have flung an arrow at him. You know.
22:15
Speaker 1: So what time of year was that? That was, Well,
22:20
Speaker 1: we've been scouting early season, and then you know, I
22:22
Speaker 1: hunted pretty hard the first month. I mean I was
22:26
Speaker 1: twenty nine days straight hunting the same trouple sets, which
22:30
Speaker 1: you know now we all know probably not the best choice.
22:34
Speaker 1: But the actual might set of the evening of the
22:38
Speaker 1: harvest for the baby buck was November eight, two thousands.
22:43
Speaker 1: So basically what happened is I I didn't really want
22:47
Speaker 1: to go out that night just because I've been kind
22:50
Speaker 1: of burning myself out. Plus you know a lot of
22:53
Speaker 1: labor on the on the wife trying to pick up
22:55
Speaker 1: the kids from the center and all that stuff. So
22:58
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I I just won't go tonight. Well,
23:02
Speaker 1: it started drizzling rain that day at work. I was like, man,
23:05
Speaker 1: this is perfect. It's like it was real calm, and
23:08
Speaker 1: I was just like, just you just know the feeling
23:11
Speaker 1: when you know you should be in the woods, you
23:12
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So the front was coming in
23:16
Speaker 1: and I, you know, I got home. I didn't tell
23:18
Speaker 1: my wife I wanted to go, but I got home,
23:20
Speaker 1: and bless her heart, she had a note lane on
23:22
Speaker 1: the table on a kitchen table and said, hey, go
23:25
Speaker 1: ahead and go, hung I know it's gonna be a
23:27
Speaker 1: good night. You know I'll get the kids. Don't worry
23:29
Speaker 1: about it. Shoot, you ain't gonna tell me twice. You know,
23:33
Speaker 1: it's time for dinner. So I took off and I
23:37
Speaker 1: went while I pulled up into the to the back
23:40
Speaker 1: side of the property, and I pulled up this fence
23:42
Speaker 1: row and there's kind of like a big V on
23:44
Speaker 1: this nab of this hill where the farmers can't plant
23:47
Speaker 1: because it's kind of too steep. So I looked down
23:51
Speaker 1: the backside where I normally park. I looked to my
23:53
Speaker 1: left and there's the edge of the corn field in
23:56
Speaker 1: the grass has grown up and it's it's kind of
23:58
Speaker 1: overgrown briars and stuff. Well, these two or three does
24:01
Speaker 1: stand up. They were bedded right on the edge of
24:03
Speaker 1: the corn, right in this grass. And when I pulled up,
24:07
Speaker 1: I mean, they just jumped up and just trotted into
24:09
Speaker 1: the corn. And I was like, oh man, I just
24:12
Speaker 1: you know, boom erdis hunt. I just pressured whatever deer
24:15
Speaker 1: we're here. So I got out anyhow, and I slipped
24:18
Speaker 1: through the corn. I had kind of a mash down
24:21
Speaker 1: trail through the corn that I could slip through the
24:23
Speaker 1: edge of the corn and get to my stand. And
24:26
Speaker 1: I get up in the stand and I don't know,
24:28
Speaker 1: I let everything settle down. It was probably twenty minutes
24:30
Speaker 1: to half an hour. So I hit the grunt tube,
24:34
Speaker 1: get the can call, and then smack this little basket
24:39
Speaker 1: rack eight point antlers that I carry. So I did
24:43
Speaker 1: it like a little miniature rattling sequence. And I've waited,
24:47
Speaker 1: you know, hung the antlers up, and I just sat there.
24:49
Speaker 1: I'm just waiting. I looked over my left shoulder and
24:52
Speaker 1: there's a deer standard work working a scrape, and I'm like,
24:56
Speaker 1: holy crap, it's a big eight point. So I'm thinking, man,
24:59
Speaker 1: it's is it? So I stand up in the tree
25:02
Speaker 1: and I turned around, and the trees basically between me
25:05
Speaker 1: and the deer at this point because he comes in
25:06
Speaker 1: behind me right. So I grabbed my bow off the
25:10
Speaker 1: bow hanger, I knock or arrows area knocked that. I
25:14
Speaker 1: grabbed his put the release on my loop, and I
25:17
Speaker 1: go to pull back when he stops at this little
25:19
Speaker 1: over the sweeping limb that goes out into the corn,
25:23
Speaker 1: and he just would not come underneath that limb, and
25:26
Speaker 1: I thought it was hanging too low, and it was
25:29
Speaker 1: just shooting right into the to the corn, which gets
25:31
Speaker 1: on like a honey locust tree. So there's us like
25:34
Speaker 1: the big wait a minute tree, you know what I'm
25:36
Speaker 1: talking about, Like the tree you bump into and you say, well,
25:40
Speaker 1: wait a minute, because it's some big, big thorns, like
25:42
Speaker 1: he's scorn. Yeah, I like I thought maybe that was
25:46
Speaker 1: stopping him from coming underneath there all his scorns. So
25:50
Speaker 1: he stopped and he turned around and walked back where
25:52
Speaker 1: he came from one into the corn, and man, I
25:55
Speaker 1: was shaking so hard, like you could pin oak just
25:58
Speaker 1: carry his leaves along time around here, and they were
26:01
Speaker 1: all brown, but they've dried up, but you could just
26:04
Speaker 1: hear them leaves to shaken in the tree fly cow.
26:09
Speaker 1: That was him, and I just missed my opportunity, so
26:12
Speaker 1: he filters back into the corn. So I hung my
26:14
Speaker 1: bow back up, sat back down, took a couple of
26:18
Speaker 1: deep breaths, and just kind of settled in waited a
26:20
Speaker 1: few minutes, and it and it once again. It was probably,
26:24
Speaker 1: I don't know, fifteen twenty minutes later, I picked up
26:28
Speaker 1: the grunt tube and can hit him again three times,
26:32
Speaker 1: hit both of them three times, like alternating, and and
26:36
Speaker 1: then I took the low eight point and smacked it
26:39
Speaker 1: together again and rat a little bit and hung it
26:41
Speaker 1: back up. I look over, you know, at the time,
26:44
Speaker 1: I was turned around little bit to my right towards
26:46
Speaker 1: the corn. So I look over my right shoulder this time,
26:49
Speaker 1: and I see a dear standard and that's Scrape again.
26:51
Speaker 1: But he's got his head up in the lick brand.
26:54
Speaker 1: So he's got his head up working the lick branch.
26:56
Speaker 1: And I thought it was the eight point. Well here
26:58
Speaker 1: it was baby buck, But I phil didn't know what
27:01
Speaker 1: he was, you know, I just knew he was big,
27:04
Speaker 1: so he turns and he starts walking down the fence
27:06
Speaker 1: row and he gets you know, at that time, I'm
27:08
Speaker 1: I'm grabbing my bow, and I'm keeping the tree between
27:11
Speaker 1: basically his face and mind. So I'm just trying to
27:14
Speaker 1: keep something between us and the whole time. Soon as
27:17
Speaker 1: I think he was a shooter, I just started looking
27:19
Speaker 1: at his body, you know, And I think that's what
27:22
Speaker 1: helped me really hold my composers through the whole of them.
27:25
Speaker 1: I just put that tree between his head and mind
27:29
Speaker 1: and watched his body creep in and when he got
27:32
Speaker 1: to that low sweeping limb, his body posture you could
27:35
Speaker 1: tell it change, and his his knees buckled in the
27:38
Speaker 1: front like he like kneeled down and went underneath that limb.
27:42
Speaker 1: As soon as he want to underneath that limb, I
27:44
Speaker 1: was pulling back, so I went to full draw. He
27:46
Speaker 1: comes out underneath that limb. He's got his head up
27:48
Speaker 1: in the air, and I never really looked at his
27:52
Speaker 1: a snout because I was kind of focused, like you know,
27:56
Speaker 1: peachside pins, vitals and he and when I'm looking through
28:00
Speaker 1: all that, I could just tell he was doing something.
28:03
Speaker 1: You know, how like when you walk up to somebody
28:05
Speaker 1: that's got a hat on, and you could tell they
28:07
Speaker 1: got a hat on the in a logo, but you
28:08
Speaker 1: don't really look at it like. That's the sensation I
28:12
Speaker 1: had whenever he I feel that he was looked for on,
28:15
Speaker 1: like he had his mouth open. I could tell he
28:18
Speaker 1: was doing something, but I really never focused on it.
28:20
Speaker 1: So I'm assuming he was trying to taste taste the
28:23
Speaker 1: air because I had sent bombs further up the fence
28:25
Speaker 1: row about Chanter fifteen yards up the fence row, and
28:30
Speaker 1: you know in wicks hanging on the center row, so
28:33
Speaker 1: I'm assuming the wind was hitting right in the face,
28:35
Speaker 1: so he came in from down wind, so I'm assuming
28:37
Speaker 1: that's what he was doing. But anyhow, it kind of
28:40
Speaker 1: all played out pretty quick. But he if he's standing there,
28:44
Speaker 1: he's kind of taken like like baby steps, almost like
28:48
Speaker 1: he's I don't want to say he's prancing, but he
28:50
Speaker 1: was just like pushing his hooks down. He's just like
28:53
Speaker 1: moving and he's taking up the way my shot angled.
28:56
Speaker 1: So now I have no shot. So when he when
28:59
Speaker 1: he was turned and he was kind of turning to
29:01
Speaker 1: his left, which would have been my right, and I
29:04
Speaker 1: and I lost the angle boring, you know, back through
29:07
Speaker 1: his vitals. So I just picked his spot, like right
29:10
Speaker 1: on under his throat patch and tried to look at
29:12
Speaker 1: an angle that would get down into his boiler room.
29:15
Speaker 1: So I put it right underneath the throat patch and
29:18
Speaker 1: just touched one off and it smacked, And I mean
29:22
Speaker 1: it's like you hit the side of beef with the
29:24
Speaker 1: Louisville Slugger. It just sounded so loud, and I thought
29:28
Speaker 1: he spun around and took off running. When he ran
29:31
Speaker 1: ran back to that limb and then threw a bunch
29:33
Speaker 1: of other limbs down by the lick branch, and all
29:35
Speaker 1: I could see was wrath running away. And to describe
29:38
Speaker 1: it, it it looks like when you're watching a hunting show.
29:40
Speaker 1: It's like watching an elk run away from you in
29:42
Speaker 1: no timber. He was just banging and cracking and hitting
29:45
Speaker 1: the limbs as he was running away. So he runs
29:48
Speaker 1: off and he goes I could seem go out down.
29:50
Speaker 1: He was draw by I don't know, probably about a
29:52
Speaker 1: hundred yards and I've lost. So I sat back down,
29:58
Speaker 1: sat there and just kind of thought me and what
30:00
Speaker 1: am I gonna do? Now? I know, I feel like
30:02
Speaker 1: I put a good shot on him. So I tied
30:04
Speaker 1: off my bow, lowered it down, grabbed my pack, packed
30:07
Speaker 1: everything I've got down to the basis, undid my safety harness,
30:11
Speaker 1: and got down to the base of the tree and
30:12
Speaker 1: I just kind of light up against the tree and
30:15
Speaker 1: then slid down the tree and just sat there. And
30:18
Speaker 1: I was just sitting on my butt, and I was
30:19
Speaker 1: just like just started praying. I was just like, God,
30:22
Speaker 1: if you just let me find him, I'll be in
30:23
Speaker 1: church on Sunday, you know, just anything I could say
30:27
Speaker 1: to just make it happen, you know. And and man,
30:30
Speaker 1: I just I was just nauseous because I didn't see
30:33
Speaker 1: him fall. So I get up. I walked, had enough
30:38
Speaker 1: of the angle of the cornfield standing corn in front
30:41
Speaker 1: of me that I knew he couldn't see me. And
30:43
Speaker 1: it had been drizzling rain earlier in the day, so
30:46
Speaker 1: kind of like the field edge was wet, so I
30:49
Speaker 1: could slip around here a little bit and look for sign.
30:52
Speaker 1: So I walked over and I see where he was standing,
30:55
Speaker 1: to see his hook prints, and you can see where
30:57
Speaker 1: he turned like a cutting works and fun out to
31:00
Speaker 1: go to run backwards, you know, backwards boom from so
31:04
Speaker 1: right in that area, I looked around and I could
31:06
Speaker 1: see one little white feather and I'm like, oh no,
31:11
Speaker 1: I had a one of the at the time it
31:13
Speaker 1: was Matthews had that Z light out that real white
31:16
Speaker 1: bow they already showed in the advertisements with the balloons
31:19
Speaker 1: and stuff holding it up. So I had a Z
31:22
Speaker 1: light that I bought used off a buddy in line,
31:25
Speaker 1: and I had to restring it well, I had to
31:28
Speaker 1: do everything. Had a brand new setup right, and the
31:31
Speaker 1: rest I had on it. The arrow was hitting the
31:34
Speaker 1: rest early season, and I fletched my own arrows and everything.
31:38
Speaker 1: I dipped them in white and had white feathers so
31:40
Speaker 1: I could see the flight of the arrow because that
31:42
Speaker 1: was kind of before, like lighted knocks and all that
31:45
Speaker 1: stuff was out right. So I've seen that white feather
31:49
Speaker 1: lane there. And when I was trying to sight the
31:51
Speaker 1: bow in earlier and get it all tuned up earlier
31:54
Speaker 1: in the season, I kept hitting the rest and it
31:58
Speaker 1: would slice one of the white feathers off the hawk feather.
32:01
Speaker 1: It would slice it off in the arrow would twirl
32:04
Speaker 1: and I missed the target. So now I'm thinking the
32:07
Speaker 1: whole time that smack I heard was the arrow hitting
32:10
Speaker 1: a rock or the ground. So that's like the first
32:15
Speaker 1: thing I went through my mind, and I'm just like
32:17
Speaker 1: grave puke right um. And then all of a sudden,
32:21
Speaker 1: I see this big half moon spray of blood, real
32:24
Speaker 1: dark red blood. So then I just started smiling. I
32:26
Speaker 1: was like, yes, I got an arrow anyway, So now
32:29
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering about my shot with that white feather.
32:32
Speaker 1: So I waited until dark and I started walking the
32:37
Speaker 1: field edge and it was kind of when I say
32:40
Speaker 1: I draw, it's like a grown up pasture in between
32:44
Speaker 1: the corn field and the hillside and then another fence
32:48
Speaker 1: rown and beans. So I'm walking down through this grass
32:51
Speaker 1: and like I'm going, like every ten yards I'll set
32:54
Speaker 1: an arrow. Then I'll you know, go another ten yards,
32:57
Speaker 1: stick an arrow on the ground where I find blood.
33:00
Speaker 1: And then if I started running out of blood, I
33:01
Speaker 1: would stop and I would just go little circles and
33:04
Speaker 1: just keep bigger circles, bigger circles, bigger circles until I
33:07
Speaker 1: find the blood again. Right. So, because now it's dark,
33:10
Speaker 1: because I can't I can't really see a long way
33:12
Speaker 1: and see landmarks where he win. So I got out
33:16
Speaker 1: to about I would do like, you know, four arrows
33:20
Speaker 1: lay my bow down, go get all my arrows, pick
33:22
Speaker 1: them all back up, do it again. So I basically
33:25
Speaker 1: had my bow quiver, four arrows, my backpack, and a light.
33:30
Speaker 1: So I'm heading down through this draw and I get
33:32
Speaker 1: down to the end of the draw. Well that's probably
33:35
Speaker 1: about I would guess probably two two or fifty yards
33:39
Speaker 1: and there's a fence through a high tensile fence. I
33:42
Speaker 1: get down to this high tensil fence and I hear
33:45
Speaker 1: dear blow at me and I'm like, no, that's him.
33:49
Speaker 1: So I got all the standing corn around right, so
33:51
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't push this dear. It's him, because
33:56
Speaker 1: you know, the worst thing can happen is a combine finding.
33:59
Speaker 1: So I stuck a arrow. I just knocked it right
34:02
Speaker 1: on the high tensil fence and just left it there,
34:05
Speaker 1: packed up all my stuff, went all the way back
34:07
Speaker 1: to the truck and drove home. So it's by twenty
34:12
Speaker 1: minutes to the house. So I get to the house,
34:15
Speaker 1: I go in, I call every person I know and
34:19
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I just shot a big deer. How
34:21
Speaker 1: big is he? I don't know. I can't tell you.
34:23
Speaker 1: He's just huge. Well what's huge big? Because you know
34:26
Speaker 1: from I being from Pennsylvania and cutting my teeth on
34:31
Speaker 1: you know, a little bit smaller sized deer that you
34:35
Speaker 1: know that's basically growing up on eggcorns and bark or
34:38
Speaker 1: whatever brows. It's I was kind of ignorant to to
34:44
Speaker 1: what a big deer is or or what a true
34:46
Speaker 1: Boone and Crockett sized deer is. So I never really
34:50
Speaker 1: went to shows, you know, I just gear shows so much.
34:53
Speaker 1: I just pretty much hunted for meat and you know,
34:56
Speaker 1: filled tags. So I get, like I said, I get
35:00
Speaker 1: home and I started talking all my buddies and and
35:03
Speaker 1: it what was sad was every friend was just, you know,
35:07
Speaker 1: go getting who's dead. The next one would be like,
35:10
Speaker 1: oh man, I'd wait, the next one will be like
35:13
Speaker 1: getting dead. And I mean, I know you got your opinion.
35:18
Speaker 1: So I'm just like, man, I don't know what to do.
35:21
Speaker 1: So literally, I sat up all night on my couch
35:24
Speaker 1: in our family room watching ESPN reruns. And I'm sitting
35:28
Speaker 1: there watching ESPN and it just lets loose. It starts raining.
35:33
Speaker 1: So I opened a garage door and looked out the
35:35
Speaker 1: street light and it was just pouring buckets. And I
35:38
Speaker 1: mean literally I just about driving just right there in
35:41
Speaker 1: the parking driveway. So I'm like, man, I don't know
35:45
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do now. I'm never gonna find this here.
35:48
Speaker 1: So the next morning, my son had tests at school.
35:53
Speaker 1: My wife gets up. She says, you know you should
35:55
Speaker 1: take Andrew with you. I said, well, doesn't he have tests?
35:58
Speaker 1: And she said, yeah, but just take came went. You know,
36:01
Speaker 1: if you guys find it, just bringing back and dropped
36:04
Speaker 1: him off the school and go back and get it.
36:06
Speaker 1: I said, okay, So we took the the four wheeler
36:11
Speaker 1: and him and I went across this side this field
36:15
Speaker 1: with him, and about halfway across, I kind of knew
36:18
Speaker 1: where I needed to go, and I could see the
36:20
Speaker 1: high tensil fence and I could see with bnocators, I
36:22
Speaker 1: could see my white fletchings hanging on the fence, so
36:24
Speaker 1: I knew kind of where I was at. I'm looking
36:27
Speaker 1: in that direction just past the fence, went to top
36:30
Speaker 1: the fence and ditter up on the hill worth the
36:31
Speaker 1: deer blue and my sons like dad, damn, like pulling
36:35
Speaker 1: on my shirt tail and I'm like, yeah, he goes
36:38
Speaker 1: he's right there. And I got down on his level
36:41
Speaker 1: and I could because he was just a little guy.
36:43
Speaker 1: Then I could see across the field and I could
36:46
Speaker 1: see up in this this crick bottom. He was laying
36:49
Speaker 1: right there. So, you know, Loe, Andrew was just my
36:53
Speaker 1: best buddy at that point. Man. And uh, we get
36:57
Speaker 1: over there, and uh, this deer jumped the fence. He
37:02
Speaker 1: was twenty nine paces from where. I'm not the era
37:05
Speaker 1: because I paste it off what he was counting. Ammers.
37:08
Speaker 1: So I walked from the fence over to the deer.
37:11
Speaker 1: It was twenty nine paces and I said, I means
37:13
Speaker 1: he got buddy, and he said forty one. I said
37:17
Speaker 1: what I said, dude, you ain't gonna pass your test today.
37:21
Speaker 1: And he started laughing, Dad, forty one. Well, in Pennsylvania,
37:26
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of guys will probably tell you
37:28
Speaker 1: back in the day, if you can hang a wedding
37:30
Speaker 1: band on it, it counts as a point. Well, he
37:32
Speaker 1: was counting everything you can hang a ring on, and
37:35
Speaker 1: there was forty one, you know, points on it. But
37:38
Speaker 1: there wasn't that many scorable points, you know. But and
37:43
Speaker 1: what what an adventure with him? You know, what what
37:48
Speaker 1: was that feeling like when you actually saw him. I mean,
37:50
Speaker 1: before before this, you had just thought he was a
37:52
Speaker 1: big buck but when you walk up on him and he's,
37:55
Speaker 1: you know, this unworldly monstrous buck. What was that moment? Like, well,
38:02
Speaker 1: you know it was It was funny because where he died,
38:06
Speaker 1: he had he looked like he had run into like this. Now,
38:09
Speaker 1: how farms will cut down trees in their pasture, woods
38:13
Speaker 1: and they're like stack it up along against the tree.
38:16
Speaker 1: He fell into one of those and knocked one of
38:18
Speaker 1: the pieces of wood off and it was wedged in
38:22
Speaker 1: between his rack in the in the tips of his
38:25
Speaker 1: times in the back, and he he had his head
38:27
Speaker 1: like upside down, like his bottom of his chin was
38:31
Speaker 1: facing towards the sky. So I like was trying to
38:35
Speaker 1: get this. Literally, I had to like kick this wood
38:38
Speaker 1: out of his rack just to get it to get
38:40
Speaker 1: him spun around. And when I did that, I picked
38:43
Speaker 1: him up, and he was so heavy, and like I said, man,
38:46
Speaker 1: it's you're talking about, you know, somebody that's never killed
38:51
Speaker 1: giant beer before. I didn't know what to think. I mean,
38:54
Speaker 1: I just thought, holy cow, I never dreamed that they
38:58
Speaker 1: would grow this big around here. And I mean he
39:01
Speaker 1: was just a giant. He just heavy, like his his
39:04
Speaker 1: rack was, his head like everything was heavy. And I
39:08
Speaker 1: was just like, holy cowvit. Yeah, I don't know, man,
39:10
Speaker 1: it was just it was it was really cool that,
39:14
Speaker 1: you know, me and Andrew was there, and you know,
39:17
Speaker 1: it was just barely breaking daylight enough that you could
39:19
Speaker 1: see the white on his belly when Andrew seen across
39:22
Speaker 1: the stream. And Andrew took the first and only field photo.
39:26
Speaker 1: Um it's it's floating around on the internet somewhere, but
39:29
Speaker 1: it's it looks dark. But I mean back then it's
39:31
Speaker 1: like CAMRA's one, you know, aren't what they are today,
39:35
Speaker 1: you know, and it just looked like a dark picture.
39:37
Speaker 1: And man, just all kind of ruders start flying then.
39:40
Speaker 1: But I mean it was just it is what it
39:42
Speaker 1: is overcasting in the woods. That Um, yeah, it was
39:45
Speaker 1: just a really good feeling. Obviously, you know, I just
39:48
Speaker 1: aired the biggest deer in my life. But I still
39:51
Speaker 1: at that point, I still had no idea what I had.
39:55
Speaker 1: You know, I drove while I walked straight over to
39:58
Speaker 1: the truck, got the four wheler come over, loaded him up,
40:01
Speaker 1: you know, getting back to the truck, got everything loaded,
40:04
Speaker 1: and it just so happens that the Division of Wildlife
40:07
Speaker 1: is a checking station. Back when we had to put
40:10
Speaker 1: metal tags on our deer Well. It was on the
40:14
Speaker 1: way home their their district office is right here in Zenia.
40:20
Speaker 1: So I just swung in there and asked him to
40:23
Speaker 1: take mountain tagget deer well. It was flenty of the guy.
40:27
Speaker 1: The guy who worked there at the time, his name
40:28
Speaker 1: was Dan also. He he went out with a clipboard
40:32
Speaker 1: and he said, you know, how many points is it?
40:34
Speaker 1: He come out from behind the counter and I said,
40:36
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure, but I think it's thirty eight.
40:39
Speaker 1: And he said what and I said yeah. So he
40:43
Speaker 1: went out to the truck and I had like an
40:44
Speaker 1: F one fifty, was looked up a little bit and
40:47
Speaker 1: climbed up. He was a little short guy. He climbed
40:49
Speaker 1: up on the back of the truck and kind of
40:51
Speaker 1: looking down in the truck and part of the racks
40:53
Speaker 1: sticking up above the truck because it was pretty wide,
40:55
Speaker 1: you know, deer. So he's looking in and he's like
41:00
Speaker 1: he's like trying to count, and he's like holding his chin,
41:02
Speaker 1: like he down again and like trying to figure it out,
41:05
Speaker 1: and he starts scratching his head and he just like
41:07
Speaker 1: dropped his clipboard and everything and just jumped down off
41:10
Speaker 1: the truck and took off running back towards the building.
41:13
Speaker 1: I was like, crap, what's going on? Didnt want of
41:15
Speaker 1: them fall off? Or what what's he running for? Well,
41:18
Speaker 1: he came in and then that's when it all started.
41:20
Speaker 1: Like he's literally the guy that took the picture of
41:23
Speaker 1: me in the back of the truck holding on the
41:25
Speaker 1: drop times. So and then from there kind of exploded,
41:29
Speaker 1: like everybody in the division went out and started looking
41:32
Speaker 1: at it, and then you know, it wasn't you know
41:37
Speaker 1: too much longer after that. I mean, it's just like
41:40
Speaker 1: everybody starts showing up at the house and just phone
41:43
Speaker 1: started ringing off the hook, and it just stopt busy. Yeah,
41:47
Speaker 1: I got a question, did you when you went into
41:50
Speaker 1: hunt this property, did you know that this buck was there?
41:54
Speaker 1: Or was there rumblings by the neighbor of this buck
41:57
Speaker 1: in the area. Uh? Negative, As far as me seeing
42:02
Speaker 1: this bucker, knowing the buck was there, As far as neighbors,
42:05
Speaker 1: I didn't know anyone out there. So I just got
42:07
Speaker 1: permission At hundred fifty some acres of property that split
42:11
Speaker 1: by a road. Once I had woods, once I had
42:15
Speaker 1: field wide open field, a little bit of wood fence
42:18
Speaker 1: row and woods on each end. So I never really
42:21
Speaker 1: talked too many of the neighbors got you so. So obviously,
42:26
Speaker 1: killing a buck like this is incredible. It was a
42:29
Speaker 1: once in a lifetime experience. I'm sure it was an
42:31
Speaker 1: amazing time. Um. But you also talked about like rumors
42:36
Speaker 1: that happened and how all this kind of exploded and
42:39
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff where there's some downsides to
42:42
Speaker 1: this whole thing too. I mean, did this cause a
42:43
Speaker 1: lot of stress in your life or were you able
42:45
Speaker 1: to kind of get past that pretty quickly? Well, you know,
42:49
Speaker 1: I always, you know, give my wife the most credit,
42:53
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously my kids they got older, but
42:57
Speaker 1: you know, my wife being she's a good woman, and
42:59
Speaker 1: she keeps me on up straight and narrow path, you
43:01
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So I as long as I've
43:04
Speaker 1: got somebody behind me that helps me deal with the
43:07
Speaker 1: day to day when all this happened, that's where we
43:10
Speaker 1: that's how we kind of dealt with the stress. We
43:13
Speaker 1: kind of made it fun for the kids, like, hey,
43:15
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to another show this weekend. You're ready
43:17
Speaker 1: to go, you know, and then after you know, sho
43:21
Speaker 1: has been seven, sixteen years, seventeen years now, it's like
43:25
Speaker 1: you know, nobody wants to go to shows with normally
43:27
Speaker 1: it's just like it's this old news round here. But yeah,
43:33
Speaker 1: it was. It was pretty stressful and hectic at first.
43:36
Speaker 1: As far as downside, UM just not not really being
43:41
Speaker 1: able to talk to anyone that this has happened to before.
43:46
Speaker 1: Like I couldn't I couldn't call Marker Dan and bounce
43:49
Speaker 1: you know, questions off of you like hey, you know,
43:53
Speaker 1: should I do this deal? Or should I should I
43:55
Speaker 1: go to this show? Is this a good show? You
43:58
Speaker 1: know it's so far you know whatever? How the lock
44:01
Speaker 1: and I had no one I could bounce y of
44:04
Speaker 1: that stuff off of. Um. Milo Hanson, Um, great dude.
44:10
Speaker 1: When I met him for the first time, you know,
44:13
Speaker 1: it was it was like you know, meeting the ball players,
44:16
Speaker 1: you know, a pro Um. I just man, I really
44:19
Speaker 1: picked his brain a lot, and he was so helpful.
44:23
Speaker 1: Gordon Whittington from North American White Tail, I'm sure I
44:27
Speaker 1: would hand down he had to be the most health
44:30
Speaker 1: initially of anyone in the industry. Um, that dude is
44:34
Speaker 1: just so full knowledge, it's it's just ridiculous. Yeah. So
44:39
Speaker 1: what is what is the financial gain if someone shoots
44:45
Speaker 1: a giant buck? Like everybody, everybody is always wants to
44:49
Speaker 1: shoot one. But I mean there's also an opportunity for
44:53
Speaker 1: you and your family to make some money off this, uh,
44:56
Speaker 1: this endeavor. What's what's that like? Walk us through at
45:00
Speaker 1: a little bit. Oh man, it's just more taxes, you
45:03
Speaker 1: know now, I'm just kidding. Really, I'm just playing. Um,
45:08
Speaker 1: it's it's just supplemental income. I mean, I worked for
45:12
Speaker 1: the phone company before I shot this deer, and I'm
45:14
Speaker 1: still working for the phone company and willing to take
45:19
Speaker 1: that next step and jump off the ship of for me,
45:25
Speaker 1: responsibility with my family and holding down a full time
45:28
Speaker 1: job with benefits to be a provider and give her
45:32
Speaker 1: to them unless you're willing to, Like, if you're a
45:35
Speaker 1: single guy, you probably could have went and made a
45:39
Speaker 1: career out of, you know, hunting shows or having your
45:43
Speaker 1: own show, having your own podcast. Now, I mean, technologies change,
45:48
Speaker 1: but um, it's always changing. But I don't know, it's
45:51
Speaker 1: it's it's tough because I never really wanted to like
45:55
Speaker 1: what happens if if band shoots Shipwreck and it scores
46:00
Speaker 1: wor oh four, you know, or three oh seven, then
46:04
Speaker 1: what happens to to Mike Baby trying to provide for
46:06
Speaker 1: this family, and is you know it's white. So that
46:10
Speaker 1: always like lingered in the back of my mind, like
46:14
Speaker 1: I really need to watch and really tiptoe what I'm doing,
46:18
Speaker 1: try not to paint myself into a corner, so to speak,
46:20
Speaker 1: and and just be a little bit more you know, responsible.
46:23
Speaker 1: I guess I guess what I was asking was you
46:26
Speaker 1: were getting paid to take him to shows and showcase
46:29
Speaker 1: this buck to crowds of people, right, sure, okay, alright, cool? Yeah? No,
46:35
Speaker 1: And and you know you you basically at that point, um,
46:39
Speaker 1: if it's an attraction, it's a draw for the hunt
46:41
Speaker 1: for the public, right, So that's right for a promoter
46:45
Speaker 1: would would contact me and they would say, look, you know,
46:48
Speaker 1: we'd love to have you as a draw for our show.
46:51
Speaker 1: And you know, I would say, well, okay, what you know,
46:54
Speaker 1: what is the compensation package for this this weekend or
46:58
Speaker 1: what have you? And it would just throw bunch of
47:00
Speaker 1: stuff out here, whether it's room and board, you know, food,
47:04
Speaker 1: lodging and X amount of dollars per day for shows.
47:08
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's probably no different than not. I
47:11
Speaker 1: I tried to kind of compared to like Kevin van
47:14
Speaker 1: Dam from from the b A S. S Tour, you know,
47:16
Speaker 1: just mat. So it's just it's kind of having somebody
47:21
Speaker 1: there that's done something that everybody wants to hear about.
47:23
Speaker 1: So you're just draw at that point. So so I'm curious. Um, Mike,
47:29
Speaker 1: I've got a buddy who killed what at one point
47:32
Speaker 1: was a state record white tail um for the state
47:35
Speaker 1: he was hunting, and he very shortly after killing that buck,
47:39
Speaker 1: you know, just like your dear, it gained a lot
47:41
Speaker 1: of notoriety, um, a lot of people talking about it,
47:44
Speaker 1: and it ended up negatively impacting his hunting because people
47:48
Speaker 1: found out where he killed that buck, and everybody wanted
47:50
Speaker 1: to hunt there, and so there's all these other people
47:52
Speaker 1: kind of flocking it in his spots. Have you experienced
47:55
Speaker 1: anything like that, whether it be right after you killed
47:57
Speaker 1: the giant or in the years since, do you have
48:00
Speaker 1: an issue with people always trying to get in on
48:02
Speaker 1: your stuff or losing your hunting ground or anything like that? Yeah?
48:07
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean it's still happened to this day.
48:10
Speaker 1: Sam Galore is still trying to hunt in my backyard,
48:12
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Yeah, I'm just kidding. Yeah,
48:18
Speaker 1: it's still happens, and I'll find properties, and you know,
48:22
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of sad in a way because I
48:25
Speaker 1: get it. People want to hunt deer, and some people
48:28
Speaker 1: know that where the deer was killed. Some people don't.
48:30
Speaker 1: They just want to hunt. So you know, I don't
48:33
Speaker 1: fault anybody for trying to take up this sport. I mean,
48:35
Speaker 1: we need as many hunters as we can get. Um.
48:39
Speaker 1: The public properties around here are just overrun. I mean
48:42
Speaker 1: it's kind of like Pennsylvania. It's just it's tough to
48:44
Speaker 1: find a nice secluded spot where it's not pressured. Um.
48:49
Speaker 1: So yeah, there, that still happens to this day. All right.
48:52
Speaker 1: So we're going to take a very brief break here
48:55
Speaker 1: for a weekly segment with white Tailed Properties, and I
48:58
Speaker 1: let our producers, Spencer new Heart take it from here.
49:01
Speaker 1: This week with white Tail Properties, we are joined by
49:04
Speaker 1: Dave Skinner, a land specialist out of southern Kentucky, and
49:08
Speaker 1: Dave is going to be telling us about affordable habitat improvement.
49:12
Speaker 1: You know, the biggest thing by a chainsaw and or
49:14
Speaker 1: if you already on one, put into use, uh timber
49:17
Speaker 1: stand improvement is a is a great way to improve
49:20
Speaker 1: habitat and it'll pay your dividends from the timber value
49:23
Speaker 1: UM that that has increased by going in and removing
49:26
Speaker 1: those inferior trees. UM. Reducing the canopy increases the sunlight
49:31
Speaker 1: and the farest floor, which naturally grows cover. That also
49:34
Speaker 1: equals food UM. And you know the big thing is
49:37
Speaker 1: right now, do it now before spring green up so
49:41
Speaker 1: that you're going to get a flush of growth UM
49:44
Speaker 1: this summer and spring as things are growing. If you'd
49:48
Speaker 1: like to learn more and to see the properties that
49:50
Speaker 1: Dave currently has listed for sale, visit white tail properties
49:54
Speaker 1: dot com. Backslash Skinner that's s k I and and
50:00
Speaker 1: e R. And finally, we've got another quick update from
50:04
Speaker 1: our partners at Huntera Maps about the recently launched Huntera
50:08
Speaker 1: Mobile Map. Here's Hontera founder Ben Harshein with more details
50:11
Speaker 1: about their new digital offering. Well, the mobile map has
50:15
Speaker 1: three important features to it, and the first one is
50:19
Speaker 1: that you can drop pins for any points of interest.
50:24
Speaker 1: The most common ways you would use this would be
50:26
Speaker 1: marking all of your stands, trail cameras, blinds, scrapes, rubs,
50:33
Speaker 1: any of those points of interest. You can drop pins
50:36
Speaker 1: on the mobile map, change their color, label them, group
50:41
Speaker 1: them together. All kinds of things that you can do
50:44
Speaker 1: with labeling your point features. The second thing that you
50:47
Speaker 1: can do is measure distances in areas. So if you
50:51
Speaker 1: want to understand how far a certain shot maybe, or
50:54
Speaker 1: if you want to understand how big a certain area is,
50:57
Speaker 1: or a certain shape of your thinking about the designing
51:00
Speaker 1: the shape of a food plot a couple of different ways,
51:02
Speaker 1: and you want to understand the acreage of it, you
51:05
Speaker 1: can do that with the measure tool. And then third,
51:07
Speaker 1: which is what is I think the most exciting, is
51:10
Speaker 1: that it has GPS tracking ability, And what that means
51:14
Speaker 1: is that because the map is GPS enabled and it
51:18
Speaker 1: requires zero cell service anywhere in the world, this will
51:21
Speaker 1: work as you walk around. That little blue dot will
51:25
Speaker 1: follow you well when you're doing GPS tracking and you
51:28
Speaker 1: hit start as you walk, it will trace that track.
51:32
Speaker 1: It's insanely accurate and I actually used it last year
51:36
Speaker 1: whenever I was grid searching for a deer that that
51:39
Speaker 1: I shot, that the infamous pork buck. I shot him
51:41
Speaker 1: on November seven and ended up tracking him on November eight,
51:45
Speaker 1: and I used this feature to determine where I looked
51:49
Speaker 1: for him and where I didn't. And the reason is
51:52
Speaker 1: because the property was the area of the property that
51:54
Speaker 1: I was on was so thick that I was literally
51:56
Speaker 1: crawling through briars. So, uh, the GPS track will tell
52:01
Speaker 1: you where you went. And another really cool application, and
52:04
Speaker 1: it's applicable right now, is that it is we're in
52:08
Speaker 1: the thick of shed season and you can have this
52:10
Speaker 1: map on your phone and literally know everywhere you've walked
52:14
Speaker 1: for sheds and where you haven't yet. So that that's
52:16
Speaker 1: really cool. There's endless amounts of applications with the GPS
52:19
Speaker 1: tracking um and it's uh, it's definitely the ultimate. What
52:23
Speaker 1: we think mobile maps is the ultimate navigation and scouting tool.
52:28
Speaker 1: To learn more or to customize and order your own
52:31
Speaker 1: Hunterra mobile map, visit hunter ra dot com. That's h
52:34
Speaker 1: U and T E R R A And from now
52:38
Speaker 1: through April seventeen, while you're done, listeners can get ten
52:42
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52:45
Speaker 1: with every print in map order by using the code
52:48
Speaker 1: wired w I R E D. That's ten percent off
52:51
Speaker 1: your order and a free mobile map. And now we
52:55
Speaker 1: will get back to the show. Yeah, imagine that's tough.
52:58
Speaker 1: So so let's fast forward a little bit. We've been
53:00
Speaker 1: talking about two thousand. But um, you mentioned a couple
53:04
Speaker 1: of things that you did during that hunt that you
53:06
Speaker 1: realize now we're maybe mistakes, you know, like hunting the
53:09
Speaker 1: same spot over and over and over, some things along
53:12
Speaker 1: those lines. So now it's been fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years,
53:15
Speaker 1: and I know you've continued to kill some really nice
53:18
Speaker 1: mature bucks. So I'm curious to hear, Now, how would
53:22
Speaker 1: you describe your hunting style today and how has it
53:25
Speaker 1: changed since that point? Oh, it's it's it's it's very
53:31
Speaker 1: different now. I still the only similarity would probably be
53:34
Speaker 1: that I still to this day where I hunt it's
53:38
Speaker 1: mainly fields and centers. So a lot of people that
53:41
Speaker 1: come here and hunt with me, Um, they're just shocked
53:44
Speaker 1: that there's not very many woods. So I try and
53:48
Speaker 1: and hunt funnels, pitch points. And it has changed tremendously
53:52
Speaker 1: because you know, obviously, you know, you try to try
53:56
Speaker 1: to become a smarter hunter, especially as you know, get older. Um,
54:01
Speaker 1: but I you know, I don't know, like maybe uh
54:05
Speaker 1: like postseason, like you know, season just ended here, you
54:09
Speaker 1: know what a month ago, almost two months ago now,
54:11
Speaker 1: and and I I'll get out and I'm trying you
54:14
Speaker 1: know she had hunt right away. Um, just to see
54:18
Speaker 1: you know what what made it? Um, what's in the
54:21
Speaker 1: inventory for the following year. UM. I try and still
54:24
Speaker 1: run cameras a few a few weeks, it's not a
54:29
Speaker 1: few months after the season, just to kind of monitor
54:33
Speaker 1: the deer herd to see what kind of shape there
54:36
Speaker 1: in physically and if if they if they run down
54:39
Speaker 1: and like stressed out, if you would, um. Scouts for
54:44
Speaker 1: you know, new trails and betting areas do a lot
54:47
Speaker 1: of stand removal and maintenance, you know. And this is
54:50
Speaker 1: all right after season has ended, within his first couple
54:54
Speaker 1: of months before Turkey season. So and then spring, you know,
54:58
Speaker 1: I I focused a out on water sources, um throughout
55:02
Speaker 1: the spring, summer and fall. Um. If I have a
55:05
Speaker 1: farm that doesn't have a water source, I make a
55:08
Speaker 1: water source. Um Uh. Neighbors probably think I'm a little
55:11
Speaker 1: nuts sometimes because I'll run twenty five gallons of fresh
55:15
Speaker 1: water to every one of my water tanks every week.
55:18
Speaker 1: And I try and try and give my dear a
55:21
Speaker 1: fresh water source, a healthy water source. Can you can
55:25
Speaker 1: you talk about how you make those watering holes? Sure
55:29
Speaker 1: about have strokes? You know? As I get older, Austin. Um.
55:33
Speaker 1: I just know, seriously, I just take a you know,
55:36
Speaker 1: like a hundred gallon rubber mate tub and I'll dig
55:40
Speaker 1: that in to where it's sticking about sixty eight inches
55:44
Speaker 1: out of the ground, and I kind of just keep
55:47
Speaker 1: it full water and then I've got lines on it
55:50
Speaker 1: down to you know, I know what line is is
55:53
Speaker 1: twenty five gallons low. If it's not low, I'll take
55:57
Speaker 1: a bucket with me, and every bucket and I'll dip
55:59
Speaker 1: water out and then i'll fill it back up. Um
56:04
Speaker 1: maybe once every three weeks to four weeks. I'll put
56:08
Speaker 1: mosquito dunks in it and like out algae tablets, like
56:15
Speaker 1: I try and keep the water for like I don't
56:17
Speaker 1: like mosquito larvae in my water. I'm trying to keep good, fresh,
56:20
Speaker 1: clean water, and I fill it with well water every week.
56:24
Speaker 1: So are you doing this primarily just as something to
56:28
Speaker 1: you know, help provide a healthier environment for the local
56:32
Speaker 1: deer and you're just hoping you're going to stay in
56:33
Speaker 1: that general area more so because of it, or is
56:35
Speaker 1: it like these are specifically placed near stand setups because
56:39
Speaker 1: you're hoping to catch a deer coming into to drink
56:41
Speaker 1: there when you're hunting a little bit of both. I
56:45
Speaker 1: mean a little bit of both. I'm not I don't
56:48
Speaker 1: know why, you know, just quirky. I guess I just
56:50
Speaker 1: I've never really shot a deer as he's drinking, like
56:53
Speaker 1: always let him drink and get done and then you know,
56:55
Speaker 1: put an arrow during whatever. But um, but yeah, I
56:59
Speaker 1: I typically do it just for the health of the herd. Um,
57:06
Speaker 1: that's mainly all I do it for. Now. Are they
57:09
Speaker 1: strategically placed that I can utilize them in to my benefit?
57:13
Speaker 1: You know? Come fall? Yes, Okay, have you seen a
57:18
Speaker 1: director like a direct result in the health of your
57:22
Speaker 1: herd because you implemented these drinking stations? Um? I believe
57:27
Speaker 1: so well. I would like to think so. Um, we
57:30
Speaker 1: haven't had an outbreak of like you know, e h
57:34
Speaker 1: D or blue tongue or any of that stuff that
57:37
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I went to Division Wildlife down
57:40
Speaker 1: the road and I said, before I started, I said, listen,
57:43
Speaker 1: here's my plan. I want to start a water source
57:46
Speaker 1: from my dear. But I don't want to take any
57:49
Speaker 1: chance of giving giving them any type of disease. So
57:53
Speaker 1: what can I do? When they asked me what I
57:55
Speaker 1: was doing, and I told him, and they said, listen,
57:57
Speaker 1: you're probably giving them better water than what they're drinking
57:59
Speaker 1: out these streams around here. So that made me feel good.
58:03
Speaker 1: So I can tell you that that our deer seemed
58:07
Speaker 1: to to get through most of the summer, and like
58:12
Speaker 1: their our deer look really healthy. Like I don't know
58:15
Speaker 1: how to how to explain it than that they just
58:17
Speaker 1: look really healthy. They're thick, they're muscular, they're you know,
58:22
Speaker 1: they're just heavy. And I like to think that, you know,
58:26
Speaker 1: Ohio is food blot. You know, they've got corn and
58:30
Speaker 1: soy beans and our Falca and Timothy and I name
58:33
Speaker 1: it over just everything's all over because there's farmers. So
58:40
Speaker 1: I think I think they do sustain a little bit
58:44
Speaker 1: better throughout the year because they have fresh water and
58:47
Speaker 1: a lot of food. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that
58:51
Speaker 1: the whole water source thing, because this is something I
58:53
Speaker 1: was actually thinking about just last night. Um, in my case,
58:56
Speaker 1: I was thinking about using these just as one more
58:59
Speaker 1: small thing I can do to try to improve a
59:02
Speaker 1: couple of my stand setups that are in these little
59:05
Speaker 1: isolated food plots. And you know I've already you know,
59:08
Speaker 1: the first year when I put these food plots, and
59:09
Speaker 1: I was I've got food, and then a couple of
59:11
Speaker 1: years later, I was trying to ferret ways to tweak
59:13
Speaker 1: a little bit more. And now I've planted you know,
59:16
Speaker 1: fake scrape trees in that food plot to try to
59:18
Speaker 1: get a deer to possibly come into shooting range a
59:20
Speaker 1: little more likely with that. And now this year, I think,
59:23
Speaker 1: you know, one more thing I can do is I'm
59:25
Speaker 1: gonna put in some water, some little water tanks in
59:27
Speaker 1: each of these spots to just you know, maybe it's
59:29
Speaker 1: gonna give me a one percent better chance that the
59:31
Speaker 1: day I'm after might choose to come in here during daylight.
59:34
Speaker 1: But um, that's something I'm gonna try this year. So
59:36
Speaker 1: it's interesting to hear. Let's work for you? Oh yeah,
59:40
Speaker 1: yeah it it definitely has. Um. I'll kind of pick
59:43
Speaker 1: a day of the week that works for me, um
59:47
Speaker 1: to go water. And uh, that's typically when I check
59:51
Speaker 1: a camera if it's you know, if it's an s
59:53
Speaker 1: D card that I gotta change out, you know, obviously
59:55
Speaker 1: if it's wireless, and you know, I don't mess with it.
59:58
Speaker 1: But um, but I'll try and pick a day and
1:00:01
Speaker 1: then i'll just I'll leave the quad running while I'm feeling,
1:00:05
Speaker 1: you know, fresh water. And I don't stray far from
1:00:09
Speaker 1: the quad like I don't walk around, I don't go
1:00:12
Speaker 1: anywhere to look for more sign I already know the
1:00:15
Speaker 1: deer there and get pictures of them. I'm not stressing
1:00:18
Speaker 1: them out. I'm not correcting them. That to me, you know,
1:00:22
Speaker 1: every time you get busted, that equals pressure, and in
1:00:25
Speaker 1: my opinion, pressure equals little to know mature deer encounters.
1:00:31
Speaker 1: If that makes any sense, Yeah, it definitely does. So
1:00:35
Speaker 1: can you elaborate a little bit on You mentioned how
1:00:38
Speaker 1: you're using trail cameras there and you're being careful, but
1:00:40
Speaker 1: when you check them, can you tell us a little
1:00:42
Speaker 1: bit more about the specifics of um you know, how
1:00:45
Speaker 1: you're using those cameras in the summer, and then how
1:00:47
Speaker 1: that changes during the hunting season, and then again, you know,
1:00:50
Speaker 1: maybe how are you changing where you place them, how
1:00:53
Speaker 1: are you doing different things differently? Well, I mean, you know,
1:00:56
Speaker 1: it's no secret everybody. Everybody tries to get pictures of
1:00:59
Speaker 1: their dear you know. And and my thing is I
1:01:02
Speaker 1: try not to go in more than I have to, Like,
1:01:06
Speaker 1: I definitely try and not the pressure of the deer
1:01:09
Speaker 1: um in in the summer. Um. It's a little bit
1:01:13
Speaker 1: different because, like I said, I'm filling water and I'm
1:01:17
Speaker 1: like the deer pattern us, right, so they probably pattern
1:01:20
Speaker 1: us more than we patterned them, no doubt. So I
1:01:23
Speaker 1: try not to do anything other than do what I
1:01:26
Speaker 1: need to do and get out of there. But I
1:01:28
Speaker 1: try and let them know that I'm they're leaving the
1:01:30
Speaker 1: quad running um filling the water. I'm I'm praying that.
1:01:36
Speaker 1: My My thought process is that that that's training the
1:01:39
Speaker 1: deer to know that there's water there now or you
1:01:43
Speaker 1: know that you know. So, so when I train them
1:01:47
Speaker 1: to know that there's water there, then I get out
1:01:49
Speaker 1: of there while I'm there. If it's an s D card,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: I'll change it out. If I'm right beside it and
1:01:54
Speaker 1: I'm wearing rubber rubber boots that's sprayed down, you know,
1:01:57
Speaker 1: or haven't touched anything, but they're um. So I try
1:02:02
Speaker 1: to not leave in a scent, not pressure to deer,
1:02:04
Speaker 1: try and train them when I'm there. When I'm putting
1:02:08
Speaker 1: out there there you know, alternative food source for minerals
1:02:12
Speaker 1: in the summer, or water h fresh water, and then
1:02:17
Speaker 1: you know, I get out of there. Well, I you
1:02:20
Speaker 1: know I've actually seen like I used to do this
1:02:23
Speaker 1: this spray. Like when I would start a brand new
1:02:25
Speaker 1: site with cameras, especially out of state, I would take
1:02:28
Speaker 1: like a a sprayer, like a bug spray, I guess,
1:02:33
Speaker 1: or a long sprayer just uh one you would carry
1:02:36
Speaker 1: with a little handle, push down handle pump, and I
1:02:39
Speaker 1: would I would mix up. I would I would call
1:02:41
Speaker 1: it boody juice, but I would mix up like you know,
1:02:44
Speaker 1: concentrates to like I would almost bring to a boil
1:02:47
Speaker 1: like bananas, um apples, uh pairs sometimes uh. Sometimes I'd
1:02:54
Speaker 1: mix in like grape juice or great uh kool aid mix,
1:02:59
Speaker 1: and I would make up this mixture of concentrating and
1:03:01
Speaker 1: I would mix it with water when I get down
1:03:03
Speaker 1: to wherever these uh new locations were, maybe out of
1:03:07
Speaker 1: state for an example, and I would spray down everything
1:03:10
Speaker 1: as high as I could reach all around me. And
1:03:13
Speaker 1: I would literally have dear on that camera within twenty
1:03:18
Speaker 1: minutes after I leave. And it was from spraying down
1:03:21
Speaker 1: and getting the scent in that area, that sweet aroma
1:03:24
Speaker 1: and scent, and they were curious. They would come out
1:03:26
Speaker 1: and they would start nipping at the leaves that it
1:03:28
Speaker 1: was on, and I would just get a bunch of
1:03:30
Speaker 1: pictures within you know, twenty minutes to half an hour
1:03:33
Speaker 1: after leaving that location. M so. So to answer your question,
1:03:39
Speaker 1: I used the cameras on field edges H new locations
1:03:43
Speaker 1: around the water, uh, new locations out of state, you know,
1:03:46
Speaker 1: like a new set, just to see if there's anything
1:03:48
Speaker 1: in the area. Initially, UM, and then obviously I keep
1:03:53
Speaker 1: file after file after file on the computer. UM, A
1:03:57
Speaker 1: couple of different files on the phone of just pictures
1:04:00
Speaker 1: of deer that that may be on you know, my
1:04:02
Speaker 1: hit list. I guess you'd call it. So then I
1:04:05
Speaker 1: would just take inventory. And then as the season goes on. UM.
1:04:10
Speaker 1: You know, maybe I'm not if I'm walking by that camera,
1:04:13
Speaker 1: I'm checking in. It doesn't matter if it's two days
1:04:17
Speaker 1: later or two weeks later. If I'm walking by, I
1:04:20
Speaker 1: got an extra that Steed card in my pocket and
1:04:21
Speaker 1: I'm flipping switching out those chips. However, if I'm not
1:04:26
Speaker 1: walking by it, and I really want to think that this,
1:04:29
Speaker 1: you know, this location is getting hot because I can
1:04:31
Speaker 1: maybe see it from the road or or some some way.
1:04:35
Speaker 1: I just feel that this is this time of the year,
1:04:37
Speaker 1: this this location really gets hot. I'll go ahead and
1:04:41
Speaker 1: go in there at night. That way, if I bought
1:04:43
Speaker 1: my deer, they're not bumping over onto the neighbors and
1:04:45
Speaker 1: getting whacked in the daylight. I bought them at night,
1:04:49
Speaker 1: and then they typically don't know what I am because
1:04:51
Speaker 1: I want to flad, so they just run off. Sometimes
1:04:54
Speaker 1: I have a head lamp, I don't run off like
1:04:56
Speaker 1: thirty forty yards and just standing on watching and I'll
1:04:58
Speaker 1: change out the chip and they'll come right back in
1:05:01
Speaker 1: and come around there and start beating the boot water whatever.
1:05:03
Speaker 1: You So, when it's when it's time to go hunting,
1:05:07
Speaker 1: are you using that four wheeler again, um, so they
1:05:11
Speaker 1: feel comfortable or are you now dropping the four wheeler
1:05:15
Speaker 1: and making I guess a normal walk into your tree
1:05:18
Speaker 1: stand location. It depends. It depends on where it's at
1:05:22
Speaker 1: in a situation. Obviously, some places you don't want to
1:05:25
Speaker 1: take the quad in as much. UM. If I don't
1:05:28
Speaker 1: have a reason to have a quad in there, I
1:05:30
Speaker 1: won't take the quad in there. If it's I typically
1:05:33
Speaker 1: always walk to my stands UM. A couple of years ago,
1:05:38
Speaker 1: I started riding a bicycle once in a while, but
1:05:41
Speaker 1: it's just it just kind of gets cumbersome because you
1:05:44
Speaker 1: know where I'm riding, it's not really conducive to trails.
1:05:49
Speaker 1: But you know, you can't really ride through a bean field,
1:05:51
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So but yeah, I just
1:05:55
Speaker 1: I'll lose the quad. As far as when it comes
1:05:57
Speaker 1: to hunting time, I'm walking. UM A big thing with walking,
1:06:01
Speaker 1: you know, I've I've learned. I keep learning, you know,
1:06:04
Speaker 1: we keep evolving technology. More technology comes out, and the
1:06:08
Speaker 1: more I learned. UM, Like, you know, I know you
1:06:12
Speaker 1: guys are familiar with city gear, some of them their stuff.
1:06:15
Speaker 1: I layer now. So I'm a big fan of layering
1:06:18
Speaker 1: now and I've learned that through working with the guys
1:06:21
Speaker 1: from sit to so as the season goes on, I'm
1:06:25
Speaker 1: carrying more and more layers in my pack. And my
1:06:29
Speaker 1: big thing is when I'm walking in and I tell
1:06:31
Speaker 1: you I'm walking and not using a clod anymore, I'm
1:06:33
Speaker 1: not getting all you know what I call skunked up.
1:06:36
Speaker 1: I'm not getting all sweaty stinky from walking and sweating
1:06:40
Speaker 1: because I'm walking in thin layers. And then as the
1:06:43
Speaker 1: temperature dropper to even gets here and the sun goes down,
1:06:46
Speaker 1: I just throw another jacket on or a vest or
1:06:48
Speaker 1: the shacket you know, whatever I have in my pack.
1:06:52
Speaker 1: Speaking of them, Speaking of excess, you mentioned that a
1:06:56
Speaker 1: lot of the spots you hunt are big fields and
1:06:59
Speaker 1: fence rows and stuff like that. So I'm curious how
1:07:02
Speaker 1: do you handle access to those types of locations, because
1:07:06
Speaker 1: you know, I imagine a lot of the situations is
1:07:09
Speaker 1: kind of tough to get in there without having to
1:07:11
Speaker 1: walk across the fields sometimes, whether it be in the
1:07:13
Speaker 1: morning or in the evenings after you hunt. How do
1:07:15
Speaker 1: you deal with getting good access and excess strategies in
1:07:19
Speaker 1: those kind of wide open environments without blowing everything out
1:07:21
Speaker 1: every time you're going. And now, well, the first thing
1:07:24
Speaker 1: I do is I obviously start hunting from the fringes,
1:07:28
Speaker 1: and you know, I just stay out of wherever I
1:07:31
Speaker 1: think the core areas at, or I make a core area,
1:07:34
Speaker 1: I stay out of that unless it's dark. If it's
1:07:37
Speaker 1: dark and I have to go look for a deer
1:07:38
Speaker 1: that you know, a family member, a friend is arrowed
1:07:41
Speaker 1: or has drawn blood on blood on, then I'll go
1:07:44
Speaker 1: in there. But I only go in at dark. I
1:07:46
Speaker 1: won't won't go in there in a daylight. So that's
1:07:50
Speaker 1: one thing I hunt the fringes. Um Obviously, I only
1:07:55
Speaker 1: hunt when the winds in our favor. So if if
1:07:57
Speaker 1: the wind is not in our favor, I can't go
1:07:59
Speaker 1: in that way. I can't not that stand. So and
1:08:02
Speaker 1: as far as access, I try, and you know, talk
1:08:06
Speaker 1: to the neighboring landowners to maybe park on their property
1:08:10
Speaker 1: and just you know, just get a trespassword right or
1:08:13
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, where I can just
1:08:15
Speaker 1: staying access to walk across one of the sense wheads
1:08:17
Speaker 1: to get to my fense road. Then slipping, you know,
1:08:21
Speaker 1: I call easy of access whatever the easiest way in,
1:08:23
Speaker 1: the easiest way out without being detected. Yeah, that makes sense.
1:08:29
Speaker 1: Do do you ever have to um? You know, I
1:08:33
Speaker 1: get this question a lot and I've had to deal
1:08:35
Speaker 1: with it too. Where you've got deer out in the
1:08:37
Speaker 1: field and you know, how how do you how do
1:08:41
Speaker 1: you deal with deer around your stand? You know, when
1:08:44
Speaker 1: you're done hunting, do you just wait it out and
1:08:46
Speaker 1: wait till they disappear? Or do you do things to
1:08:48
Speaker 1: try to spook them off without them realizing it's a hunter? Um?
1:08:52
Speaker 1: How do you handle those such of situations? It just
1:08:56
Speaker 1: like I said, it depends on a scenario. But you know,
1:08:59
Speaker 1: most of the time and mornings, I just wait. I
1:09:02
Speaker 1: just wait until they move off. Um. If it's late
1:09:05
Speaker 1: late morning, I just wait. I just don't get down.
1:09:08
Speaker 1: I don't spook him, I said, as still as I can.
1:09:10
Speaker 1: I try not to move. Um as far as evening
1:09:14
Speaker 1: once it gets dark. Um, if they're still fairly close
1:09:18
Speaker 1: and there's you know, just a few does out there,
1:09:21
Speaker 1: what have you'r a couple of small bucks. I'll take
1:09:24
Speaker 1: like a water bottle and chuck it piny air away
1:09:28
Speaker 1: from me and let it hit close to them, and
1:09:29
Speaker 1: they just scatter, and then eventually they'll just walk off.
1:09:33
Speaker 1: They typically don't blow like, they just they don't know
1:09:36
Speaker 1: what it is, and they run off and they just
1:09:37
Speaker 1: stand there and they just know off the other way. Yeah, Yeah,
1:09:42
Speaker 1: that seems like the ideal is is to get him
1:09:44
Speaker 1: a move off without them realizing that there's some type
1:09:46
Speaker 1: of danger close by. But man, sometimes that's easier said
1:09:49
Speaker 1: than done. I've had a few times where I've tried
1:09:51
Speaker 1: things like that, throwing things or making the coyote howl,
1:09:55
Speaker 1: And you occasionally get those deer that just get curious
1:09:58
Speaker 1: and then they just hang out and keep looking out
1:10:00
Speaker 1: and looking around, and that can end up being a
1:10:02
Speaker 1: long night. Um know that I've said an hour past
1:10:07
Speaker 1: dark before waiting, and they just threw a water bottle
1:10:10
Speaker 1: and they still don't leave, and I'm still waiting. And
1:10:12
Speaker 1: then you know, of course now you're thirsty, big daddy
1:10:16
Speaker 1: who steps out and you know you can't shoot, you
1:10:19
Speaker 1: can't all my gears at the base of the tree
1:10:21
Speaker 1: already lower down. I just can't move, So I still
1:10:24
Speaker 1: sit there. My wife will be texting me, phone blowing up. Unfortunately,
1:10:28
Speaker 1: you just gotta sit. Yeah. Yeah, speaking of speaking of
1:10:31
Speaker 1: big daddy of the big buck, what what kind of
1:10:34
Speaker 1: goals do you have now, Mike? Because you've killed you know,
1:10:38
Speaker 1: probably most likely the biggest buck of your life. So
1:10:40
Speaker 1: now when you're hunting, is that you're just looking for
1:10:43
Speaker 1: a certain size or age of a deer or do
1:10:45
Speaker 1: you hunt for a specific buck? Or what's your thought
1:10:49
Speaker 1: process there? Now I kind of change it up. I mean,
1:10:53
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta make it interesting for yourself. You can't,
1:10:55
Speaker 1: you know, get away from that. And I haven't at
1:10:58
Speaker 1: this point. Um, I always looked for an older deer.
1:11:03
Speaker 1: I mean I'm not you know, I don't have you know,
1:11:07
Speaker 1: the acreage at some hunters have where I can let
1:11:09
Speaker 1: a deer grow to six seven years old? I just
1:11:11
Speaker 1: I just don't have that. UM. I try and take
1:11:14
Speaker 1: inventory of of the deer herd, and I typically try
1:11:18
Speaker 1: to go for the biggest buck, but get that bigger
1:11:21
Speaker 1: buck is only three and a half and the older
1:11:24
Speaker 1: bucks four and a half or vice versa. You know,
1:11:27
Speaker 1: bigger bucks four and a half and the older bucks
1:11:30
Speaker 1: five and a half. I'll let the bigger bucks go
1:11:33
Speaker 1: to shoot the older bucks in most cases because I
1:11:36
Speaker 1: want them to get as mature as possible. UM. I
1:11:40
Speaker 1: had both instances this year, and I left the deer
1:11:43
Speaker 1: walk he was five and a half. At four and
1:11:47
Speaker 1: a half, he was an eight point with one drop
1:11:49
Speaker 1: time it was about two inches long. At five and
1:11:52
Speaker 1: a half, he was an eight point with four drop times,
1:11:56
Speaker 1: so a twelve point and all four drop times were
1:11:59
Speaker 1: you know, the longest one was like three an the
1:12:02
Speaker 1: other one were like two and one inch. And I
1:12:04
Speaker 1: didn't want to shoot him. I had him at one
1:12:06
Speaker 1: of my water tanks for an hour in front of
1:12:08
Speaker 1: me in video the whole thing, and I just did
1:12:10
Speaker 1: not eat him because I wanted to see what he
1:12:12
Speaker 1: would be next year if he grew. If you want
1:12:15
Speaker 1: from one drop time to four drop times. I thought,
1:12:18
Speaker 1: holy cow, what what's he gonna be next year? With
1:12:21
Speaker 1: you know, five or six inch drop times? He's going
1:12:23
Speaker 1: to be a stud you know, just something to really
1:12:26
Speaker 1: right about. And unfortunately the neighbor shot. Yeah. Yeah, So
1:12:36
Speaker 1: in a situation like that, though, let's let's hypothetically say
1:12:41
Speaker 1: that the buck didn't get killed by a neighbor. You
1:12:44
Speaker 1: you got pictures of him maybe after the season, and
1:12:47
Speaker 1: now you know he's the deer that you really want
1:12:49
Speaker 1: this coming season. What would your you know, I know
1:12:53
Speaker 1: you've described kind of generic things when it comes to scouting,
1:12:55
Speaker 1: but what would your hunting season strategy look like if
1:12:58
Speaker 1: you're going into the two to two thousand seventeen years,
1:13:01
Speaker 1: it's opening day and you know that buck is alive?
1:13:03
Speaker 1: How would your season kind of progress? How would you
1:13:07
Speaker 1: be thinking about things if you were after one deer
1:13:09
Speaker 1: like that, Um, I would say I would probably um
1:13:14
Speaker 1: still hunt the fringes that well before she's come in.
1:13:18
Speaker 1: I would absolutely be scouting from a distance and just
1:13:21
Speaker 1: getting as gathering as much intel as possible. Where the
1:13:24
Speaker 1: deer's coming out, what field, what corner of the field,
1:13:27
Speaker 1: what was the win like, what time of the day
1:13:29
Speaker 1: was it and so on. So I would be gathering
1:13:31
Speaker 1: intel and I actually carry like a little I don't
1:13:34
Speaker 1: want to say, a diary, you know, but just like
1:13:37
Speaker 1: a little notebook and I'll flip through and I'll just
1:13:40
Speaker 1: start writing down like the day time, what what deer
1:13:43
Speaker 1: encounters I had, And I do that typically every season.
1:13:47
Speaker 1: It just stays in my pack. So I, uh, I
1:13:52
Speaker 1: would do that first, and then you know, second, obviously
1:13:55
Speaker 1: I would be making sure my my trail cameras. If
1:13:58
Speaker 1: I'm picking them up on one their farm, um starting
1:14:01
Speaker 1: to shy away from checking that trail camera once a
1:14:03
Speaker 1: week and less once again, I have to refill the
1:14:06
Speaker 1: water tank. If he's coming to the water tank and
1:14:09
Speaker 1: he's drinking out fresh water, I am not changing any tactics.
1:14:13
Speaker 1: I'm staying on that water once a week, checking camera.
1:14:17
Speaker 1: And then you know, I may end up having someone
1:14:21
Speaker 1: come in fill the water that day when season comes
1:14:24
Speaker 1: in and I slip off the you know, the quad
1:14:27
Speaker 1: and up into the tree watch running and then he
1:14:29
Speaker 1: takes off and leaves. I've done that before. Yeah, So
1:14:34
Speaker 1: I mean it just it just really depends on the situation.
1:14:37
Speaker 1: But but yeah, I targeted uh, not this past season,
1:14:41
Speaker 1: but season before. I actually targeted about a hundred and
1:14:45
Speaker 1: sixties some audience ten point and I knew where that
1:14:49
Speaker 1: deer was living. I knew we're he was sleeping, um
1:14:52
Speaker 1: all from a distance getting really pressuring, and I hunted
1:14:57
Speaker 1: on the fringe and what you know it early season
1:15:00
Speaker 1: he comes walking by on the fringe right past the
1:15:02
Speaker 1: two three I was in and all kind of cover.
1:15:05
Speaker 1: You had no idea I was there, and you know,
1:15:07
Speaker 1: double lundon six yards later, add my hands on him.
1:15:11
Speaker 1: That's that's awesome. Can you can you tell us about
1:15:14
Speaker 1: um you mentioned you're in in a cedar tree? Can
1:15:16
Speaker 1: you talk about the things you typically look for in
1:15:19
Speaker 1: a stand set up? You know, is there any type
1:15:21
Speaker 1: of tree or is there any type of you know,
1:15:22
Speaker 1: do you like to be up at a certain height
1:15:24
Speaker 1: or things like that that you like to particularly try
1:15:26
Speaker 1: to make happen when you're putting a tree and stand
1:15:29
Speaker 1: or standard in tree. Yeah, yeah, I well, there's a
1:15:34
Speaker 1: there's a couple of things when it comes to stand place.
1:15:36
Speaker 1: It's like like I'm not afraid to pick a day
1:15:39
Speaker 1: in a you know, in the midsummer when it's really hot,
1:15:42
Speaker 1: middle of the day, like I'll spend most of the
1:15:45
Speaker 1: mid day setting a set. Like I'll go out. I
1:15:50
Speaker 1: already know kind of what tree I want to get
1:15:52
Speaker 1: in always, you know, put my sticks together on the ground,
1:15:56
Speaker 1: lay them up against the tree. On one section. I'll
1:15:59
Speaker 1: take a rat to strap around the tree and ratchet
1:16:02
Speaker 1: it down. Then put the strap on for the for
1:16:04
Speaker 1: the step the climbing sticks and sent it down tight.
1:16:08
Speaker 1: And then pop the ratchet strap. And man, that things
1:16:11
Speaker 1: really sent down tight against the tree. It's no loosey
1:16:13
Speaker 1: goosey stuff, right. So I spent a lot of time
1:16:17
Speaker 1: doing that because I want to be as quiet and
1:16:19
Speaker 1: stealthy as possible climbing in and out of that tree.
1:16:22
Speaker 1: I don't want anything creaking, crackling, none of that metal popping. Um.
1:16:28
Speaker 1: So then I get up in the tree obviously you know,
1:16:30
Speaker 1: I've got like a lineman harness, and I throw the
1:16:33
Speaker 1: rope around the tree and belt off, and then I
1:16:36
Speaker 1: started hanging my set. I hang my set, get up
1:16:39
Speaker 1: and then start trimming my shooting lane. When I trimmed
1:16:42
Speaker 1: my lanes, I take my time, and if I have
1:16:45
Speaker 1: to climb up and down that tree fifty times, I'll
1:16:49
Speaker 1: do it. But you know who needs cross good at
1:16:51
Speaker 1: that point, right, So I'll I'll take on trim and
1:16:55
Speaker 1: shooting lanes and then you know, pack it up of
1:17:00
Speaker 1: the day and get out of there and not have
1:17:02
Speaker 1: to worry about messing with it anymore. Yeah. Yeah, that
1:17:06
Speaker 1: can be uh, that can be frustrating when you're a
1:17:08
Speaker 1: one man person, when you're single person trying to deal
1:17:11
Speaker 1: with shooting lanes and you're growing up and down, up
1:17:13
Speaker 1: and down, up and down someone. Yeah. Well, the other
1:17:18
Speaker 1: thing I do too is when I'm when I'm turning
1:17:20
Speaker 1: those lanes, Um, I I typically don't cut the tree
1:17:25
Speaker 1: limbs all the way out of my way, Like I'll
1:17:27
Speaker 1: just almost like it's almost like hinge cut him. I'll
1:17:32
Speaker 1: just cut him a little bit and let him fall
1:17:33
Speaker 1: down just enough out of my way. And I don't
1:17:36
Speaker 1: like I saved as much cover as possible. Yeah, make
1:17:41
Speaker 1: sure you stay hitting up in that tree. That makes sense. So, yeah,
1:17:44
Speaker 1: because once to get I'm in the Midwest, I'm in
1:17:47
Speaker 1: open fields and fence rows. You run out of cover
1:17:50
Speaker 1: really quick when fall gets here. Yeah. Yeah, bet so
1:17:56
Speaker 1: you talked about earlier how a lot of the beginning
1:17:59
Speaker 1: part of the season you're focused on the fringes and
1:18:01
Speaker 1: sometimes like that one year two years ago, that works
1:18:04
Speaker 1: out and they you're able to get a shout out
1:18:06
Speaker 1: of deer early in the fringes the type area. But
1:18:07
Speaker 1: what happens when you get to the rut um You
1:18:10
Speaker 1: still haven't killed a buck yet down there. You talked
1:18:13
Speaker 1: about funnels and pinch points um briefly, but can you
1:18:16
Speaker 1: elaborate on what your run hunting strategy looks like, what
1:18:18
Speaker 1: specifically like, what types of funnels are pinch points are
1:18:21
Speaker 1: you actually hunting down that part of the country, and
1:18:23
Speaker 1: what other things are you doing at that time of year? Well,
1:18:27
Speaker 1: mainly mainly the contour the land would be my what
1:18:30
Speaker 1: I would base my funnels or pinch points on. And
1:18:33
Speaker 1: the I used the fence roads to my advantage. So
1:18:37
Speaker 1: the deer are going to travel as spence roads are
1:18:39
Speaker 1: fairly within bow range of those spence roads keep from
1:18:42
Speaker 1: going out into the open fields. So you know, once again,
1:18:47
Speaker 1: I only hunt when the when the winds in my favor,
1:18:50
Speaker 1: and you know it doesn't really matter to me. You
1:18:53
Speaker 1: know how much scent control you practice, you still you
1:18:57
Speaker 1: know you a deer can breathe in one breath and
1:19:01
Speaker 1: you know he's breathing in like five or six different
1:19:03
Speaker 1: sense that he can tell apart. So I'm I'm practicing
1:19:06
Speaker 1: good scent control, you know, um, just making sure that
1:19:13
Speaker 1: that I'm in an area that the wind is in
1:19:16
Speaker 1: my favor the best. And then as far as like
1:19:20
Speaker 1: you know, I used cover sense like um during the
1:19:24
Speaker 1: rut and and even preseason, like if a deer's gonna
1:19:27
Speaker 1: smell me, I would rather smell something else that gets
1:19:31
Speaker 1: their mind off of me and my sense, even though
1:19:33
Speaker 1: I practice good scent control. Um. We were talking earlier
1:19:38
Speaker 1: about you know, layering like my I learned so much
1:19:41
Speaker 1: on you know, I was telling you, I don't know,
1:19:43
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago at that show where I
1:19:46
Speaker 1: see you at about an Alaska trip, I dumbfounded by
1:19:52
Speaker 1: how Marino Will worked with sent control. So now I
1:19:56
Speaker 1: apply Marino Will to my base lay or my skin layer,
1:20:01
Speaker 1: and I'll take like two sets and I rotate them
1:20:04
Speaker 1: every hunt, and in every two weeks, I washed them
1:20:06
Speaker 1: in nonsense soap and air drying and start to process
1:20:08
Speaker 1: all over again. So I'm really trying to practice good
1:20:11
Speaker 1: scent control by by using that Marino War with my
1:20:15
Speaker 1: bass layer. Right, So then I get in well, what
1:20:19
Speaker 1: if the deer can't smell something that's it's not quite right.
1:20:22
Speaker 1: I don't want it to be my smell, so I
1:20:24
Speaker 1: try and mask that smell. So I'll use a covered
1:20:27
Speaker 1: sin and i'll use a covered center like poon urine.
1:20:30
Speaker 1: So raccoons are from coast to coast, They're they're everywhere, right,
1:20:35
Speaker 1: So everywhere a white sail that you see a raccoon.
1:20:38
Speaker 1: So I'll use raccoon urine. And I call it like
1:20:40
Speaker 1: three points of contact. So I'll put a spray at
1:20:44
Speaker 1: at my feet level, at my waist level, and then
1:20:46
Speaker 1: above my head if I stand up in a tree.
1:20:50
Speaker 1: So but I put the year raccoon you're in on
1:20:54
Speaker 1: the actual tree. I never sprayed on my person because
1:20:57
Speaker 1: I don't want to contaminate my clothes at that point.
1:20:59
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. And so I'll use cover sense.
1:21:04
Speaker 1: And then when it comes time for rut, I'll use
1:21:06
Speaker 1: flower sense, what I call lower sense. I'll use like
1:21:10
Speaker 1: Sam's got some tremendous urine at uh, this is dough
1:21:14
Speaker 1: to the do and heat. I'll use that occasionally on
1:21:17
Speaker 1: like a drag rag or I'll use it with sent
1:21:20
Speaker 1: wicks and place them about fifteen feet apart in like
1:21:22
Speaker 1: a triangular pattern or a square, so where it's it's
1:21:26
Speaker 1: blown like a bigger sheet of scent if you would
1:21:31
Speaker 1: down into like their bedding or up a fence row.
1:21:34
Speaker 1: And then every once in a while I've had some
1:21:37
Speaker 1: luck to using the land mine, which is a bottle
1:21:40
Speaker 1: of urine is berried, so I've had some luck with that.
1:21:43
Speaker 1: I kill killed my thirteen pointition of off off the
1:21:46
Speaker 1: land mine. So as far as rut tactics cover sense
1:21:52
Speaker 1: lower sense rattling, I'll do some rattling um calling. I
1:21:57
Speaker 1: still do this day. Use the can from Primo us,
1:22:00
Speaker 1: use grunt two and try to mimic you know, a
1:22:05
Speaker 1: dough and a buck, you know, mating or they're mating
1:22:08
Speaker 1: calls to each other. Um. As far as rattling, uh
1:22:15
Speaker 1: seems like earlier in the season, I just kind of
1:22:18
Speaker 1: tinkle the antlers together and get you know, a little
1:22:21
Speaker 1: bit more aggressive as the season goes on and it
1:22:24
Speaker 1: gets into rut um. I typically started at the top
1:22:28
Speaker 1: of the tree with me like hanging on my pack
1:22:31
Speaker 1: and just tinkle one together, like right before dark or something.
1:22:34
Speaker 1: It just to me it mimics a couple of younger
1:22:37
Speaker 1: bucks just kind of sparring out there early season, trying
1:22:40
Speaker 1: to you know, shoulter out who's gonna be the man.
1:22:43
Speaker 1: And then you know, sometimes it will work where a nice, big,
1:22:46
Speaker 1: mature buckle just step out and see what's going on.
1:22:50
Speaker 1: And then as the season gets closer to rut or
1:22:52
Speaker 1: in the middle of right, like, I'll rattle y'all, tinkle
1:22:56
Speaker 1: it first case ups close and I want to scook
1:22:58
Speaker 1: them off, you know, so if nothing's close and the
1:23:01
Speaker 1: thickets around me, then I'll start really getting on them
1:23:05
Speaker 1: with the with the antlers, and then I'll tie them
1:23:08
Speaker 1: off to my pull up rope, you know, prior to rattling,
1:23:11
Speaker 1: and I'll just lower my pull up rope down to
1:23:13
Speaker 1: the ground and then I just just like I'm jigging
1:23:16
Speaker 1: while I'm fishing, i just pull up and let him
1:23:18
Speaker 1: fall and let him hit and flash together and leaves
1:23:21
Speaker 1: and man. That's that's been a really good tactice for me. Hm.
1:23:26
Speaker 1: I've heard about people doing that and I've never tried myself,
1:23:29
Speaker 1: but it makes sense. I mean, there's you get that
1:23:32
Speaker 1: added noise of the leafs and different things like that,
1:23:35
Speaker 1: and then you you got that sound right down there
1:23:37
Speaker 1: at ear level for deer. Um, that's that's interesting. Um. Yeah,
1:23:41
Speaker 1: and they come and they come in, they come in quick,
1:23:43
Speaker 1: and they come in with their head down, looking down
1:23:45
Speaker 1: and set it up in my general direction. If I'm
1:23:48
Speaker 1: rattling in the tree. Do you use decoys or anything
1:23:51
Speaker 1: at that time of year? Um? I have and I
1:23:54
Speaker 1: have never had any luck in this area with decoys. Um.
1:23:58
Speaker 1: It kind of turns my dear side out. I mean
1:24:01
Speaker 1: I've tried everything from you know, different you know, uh
1:24:05
Speaker 1: manufacturers of decoys. I've tried different decoys. I've tried you know,
1:24:10
Speaker 1: white uh like tissue paper or something on sent it
1:24:15
Speaker 1: on on the tale to give it a little bit
1:24:17
Speaker 1: of movement. I mean, I've tried it all, and it
1:24:19
Speaker 1: just seems like there's always like that those one or
1:24:22
Speaker 1: two mature does that come out here that just go
1:24:25
Speaker 1: inside out and they seem to just want to stand
1:24:27
Speaker 1: there all night and blow out, and I'm just like
1:24:32
Speaker 1: I'm done. So I I typically don't use any I
1:24:35
Speaker 1: tried hard for like four or five years. I really
1:24:38
Speaker 1: gave it a volume after it and just no luck
1:24:40
Speaker 1: at all. Yeah. It always does seem like one of
1:24:43
Speaker 1: those high risk, higher reward types of things and uh,
1:24:46
Speaker 1: I always worry about that risk too, but uh but
1:24:49
Speaker 1: when it happens, I finally had luck this past year
1:24:52
Speaker 1: pulling it off. It was pretty cool when it all
1:24:53
Speaker 1: came together. But there are a whole lot more unsuccessful
1:24:56
Speaker 1: attempts before that. So I get where you're coming from. Yeah,
1:25:01
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, and then you see like staying
1:25:03
Speaker 1: pots still sit out there, and I we're in Illinois.
1:25:06
Speaker 1: Man will just come in there and just they'll get
1:25:08
Speaker 1: in a bar fight with these decoys and I'm like,
1:25:12
Speaker 1: where's the does you know why aren't they blowing it
1:25:14
Speaker 1: to me? Yeah? Yeah? So uh so Dan, what are
1:25:18
Speaker 1: you thinking over there? What do you want to know? Well,
1:25:21
Speaker 1: all this talks got me, uh getting fired up for
1:25:25
Speaker 1: this upcoming season, right, So thank you for After this podcast,
1:25:31
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go, you know, try to have a conversation
1:25:33
Speaker 1: with my wife about something that's not deer hunting, and
1:25:37
Speaker 1: in my head, I'm gonna be thinking one thing and
1:25:40
Speaker 1: saying something completely out right. I guess I do have
1:25:46
Speaker 1: a question though, for you that moment you killed that
1:25:50
Speaker 1: big buck right back in two thousand two today and
1:25:55
Speaker 1: and learning what you've learned and you know, adjusting your
1:25:58
Speaker 1: tactics and you have your your own you know, the
1:26:02
Speaker 1: path that you take throughout a season, and listening to
1:26:05
Speaker 1: other guys maybe tell their story or talk to you
1:26:08
Speaker 1: over the years. Do you think there's one particular thing, um?
1:26:12
Speaker 1: And not necessarily one, because I know as as bow
1:26:17
Speaker 1: hunters we make a lot of mistakes and we have
1:26:18
Speaker 1: to be able to learn from those mistakes. But do
1:26:21
Speaker 1: you feel that there is a common mistake um, the
1:26:24
Speaker 1: average hunter makes throughout a year that um that if
1:26:28
Speaker 1: they just maybe tweet to that one way or the other,
1:26:31
Speaker 1: they'd be more successful. Uh, I would probably have to
1:26:37
Speaker 1: say really probably pressure. I mean, I just it just
1:26:43
Speaker 1: seems like over the years, if if I haven't learned
1:26:46
Speaker 1: anything else, it's just pressure. You get into an area
1:26:50
Speaker 1: where you you know, you you hunt too much or
1:26:53
Speaker 1: you hunt it too hard, and you just pressure the
1:26:56
Speaker 1: deer in general, the herd the deer or pressured. And
1:27:00
Speaker 1: if the deer pressured and they're not wanting to come out,
1:27:03
Speaker 1: and they're they're giving those reactions like they're constantly you know,
1:27:07
Speaker 1: looking around and and and they're not they're not comfy
1:27:11
Speaker 1: in their comfort zone. I never I'll never think that
1:27:16
Speaker 1: the big mature whitetail buck is gonna step out there
1:27:19
Speaker 1: with the deer herd. It's kind of uneasy or unsettled.
1:27:22
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? It does. Yeah, So I would
1:27:27
Speaker 1: have to say pressure. Um. Pressure can come in a
1:27:30
Speaker 1: variety of ways. Um, whether it be from you know,
1:27:34
Speaker 1: walking in the same trail every time, um, you know,
1:27:38
Speaker 1: getting in the tree every day at the same time,
1:27:41
Speaker 1: getting out at the same time. I mean, I see
1:27:44
Speaker 1: a lot of deer, Like I'm when I scan the
1:27:48
Speaker 1: woods before I get out of the tree, like say
1:27:51
Speaker 1: mid morning, I'm not literally looking in the field and
1:27:54
Speaker 1: seem anything can see me. I'm looking in the woods
1:27:57
Speaker 1: like I'm still looking for white patches. So subtle movement,
1:28:01
Speaker 1: a flicker of the tail, like I I've had deer
1:28:04
Speaker 1: stand in the fringe of the woods that they blend
1:28:07
Speaker 1: in so well, you know they're watching you. So that
1:28:11
Speaker 1: pressure could be from you getting in and out of
1:28:12
Speaker 1: your tree. Now you're educating them, you know, you just
1:28:15
Speaker 1: just like turkey hunting, you keep calling with that palm
1:28:18
Speaker 1: every day at the same time in the same spot.
1:28:21
Speaker 1: He's gonna gobble, but he's gobbling looking for another you
1:28:23
Speaker 1: know him. He's not gonna come into you. You're educating
1:28:27
Speaker 1: me and I feel God do that with deer using
1:28:30
Speaker 1: the same call all the time, the same rattling sequence
1:28:33
Speaker 1: all the time, you know, just change stuff up, don't
1:28:36
Speaker 1: be afraid to to. You know, we're evolved, be smarter.
1:28:40
Speaker 1: You've gotta be smarter than the deer. So, so that
1:28:44
Speaker 1: being said, you've gotta start thinking outside the box, and
1:28:48
Speaker 1: you know, maybe not listen so much to Mike Batty
1:28:51
Speaker 1: and rattle up in a tree. Maybe maybe getting the
1:28:53
Speaker 1: ground rattle on the ground, you know, hunt I have
1:28:56
Speaker 1: a ground blow and just change stuff up. Yeah, it's
1:29:00
Speaker 1: a great point. Um, speaking of these different lessons learned, um,
1:29:05
Speaker 1: I always find that one of the best ways for
1:29:07
Speaker 1: me to learn is hearing about, you know, specific applications. Um.
1:29:11
Speaker 1: So you mentioned you killed a thirteen point of this
1:29:14
Speaker 1: past season. Can you tell us what you did on
1:29:17
Speaker 1: that hunt or what whether it be on that hunt
1:29:20
Speaker 1: or in the days leading up to it, what about
1:29:23
Speaker 1: that situation led to you killing that buck? How did
1:29:26
Speaker 1: that all come together? Well? Um, I, first off, this
1:29:34
Speaker 1: particular spot, I actually had a cell camera in and
1:29:39
Speaker 1: I didn't have to go in there as much and
1:29:42
Speaker 1: it wasn't as pressured, So I think that that led
1:29:46
Speaker 1: to some of the success on this hunt. UM. Second,
1:29:49
Speaker 1: I went in with the intent of setting all day. UM,
1:29:53
Speaker 1: so I didn't want I got into. I always seem
1:29:56
Speaker 1: to get in an hour hour and a half, sometimes
1:30:00
Speaker 1: two hours, maybe even a little more, sometimes before daylight.
1:30:04
Speaker 1: And it just depends on where I'm going. Like if
1:30:07
Speaker 1: I know it's a good spot, I'll get in and
1:30:10
Speaker 1: I'll pour everything up, and everything is set up, and
1:30:13
Speaker 1: you know, you almost I almost can feel like each
1:30:15
Speaker 1: spot because you spend so much time in it throughout
1:30:18
Speaker 1: the year, Like I can almost feel like I know
1:30:21
Speaker 1: where I'm putting the bow hanger, where I'm hanging my
1:30:23
Speaker 1: pack in this particular set, and what side I'm pulling
1:30:27
Speaker 1: my bow up on, and and so on. So I
1:30:30
Speaker 1: try to get in as early as possible and try
1:30:33
Speaker 1: and get set and be quiet, like set in the
1:30:35
Speaker 1: dark and I can't see anything, not even my hand
1:30:38
Speaker 1: in front of my face. I don't use any lights, UM,
1:30:41
Speaker 1: no lights going in, no lights coming out. UM, gloves
1:30:45
Speaker 1: and masks on going in and out. You know, I'm
1:30:48
Speaker 1: a Caucasian guy. It's you know, a bald guy, and
1:30:51
Speaker 1: I'm pretty white, you know, and that suns out. I
1:30:54
Speaker 1: don't want it glaring off my beam, you know what
1:30:56
Speaker 1: I mean. So I'm wearing stuff that because deer can
1:31:01
Speaker 1: see at night too. So I'm I'm trying to slip
1:31:03
Speaker 1: in undetected and slip out undetected. And you know, if
1:31:09
Speaker 1: that means I said all day in in the best
1:31:11
Speaker 1: spot I have, I will, And that's what happened with
1:31:14
Speaker 1: this thirteen point I ended up. I was gonna set
1:31:16
Speaker 1: all day. It was kind of right before Rutt was
1:31:20
Speaker 1: kicking in, and these bucks were cruising and they were
1:31:23
Speaker 1: just trying to go for betting to betting, trying to
1:31:25
Speaker 1: find a hot dough. Um. I actually had three or
1:31:29
Speaker 1: four does come out run out of this thicket, and
1:31:32
Speaker 1: I thought, man, here he comes, He's gonna be behind him,
1:31:35
Speaker 1: and they would just by themselves and they just come
1:31:37
Speaker 1: running through and mild off and I'm like, what the heck,
1:31:41
Speaker 1: where's he? What scooped him? So of course we have
1:31:45
Speaker 1: a big tim tyote issue here. I believe in Ohio,
1:31:49
Speaker 1: just like most states anymore, they have no creditors here.
1:31:53
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking maybe some coyotes, you know, clumped them
1:31:56
Speaker 1: out of the ticket. So I'm looking at nothing. So
1:32:00
Speaker 1: you two or three times out and set in the
1:32:02
Speaker 1: past few years with bow, and I figured when we
1:32:05
Speaker 1: was gonna come step and grow. So I get up
1:32:08
Speaker 1: and I grabbed my boone and I'm just getting ready
1:32:09
Speaker 1: waiting on an them shows up. So I sat there
1:32:14
Speaker 1: for I don't know, probably know fifteen minutes. That's up
1:32:17
Speaker 1: in front of me. There's there's a little bit of
1:32:18
Speaker 1: a thinker of a food plot in this edge of
1:32:21
Speaker 1: the stick it and there's I put one of the
1:32:23
Speaker 1: land mines in and I don't know if you guys
1:32:26
Speaker 1: ever seen him through this, a small bottle of urine,
1:32:29
Speaker 1: and they got a whip on them, and I just
1:32:31
Speaker 1: altered out a hole, slide it down and pack around
1:32:33
Speaker 1: it and pull the wiout in the scents there what
1:32:37
Speaker 1: I can only use that in specific areas that I
1:32:39
Speaker 1: have active scrapes, Like I won't go make my own scrapes.
1:32:43
Speaker 1: I try not to do any of that stuff, like
1:32:45
Speaker 1: if it's not made by a deer, I try not
1:32:47
Speaker 1: to really mess with it or try and make them
1:32:49
Speaker 1: go there, like I want them to go to their
1:32:51
Speaker 1: natural areas and make those scrapes and scrape lines. So
1:32:55
Speaker 1: on this particular area, there was like four or five
1:32:57
Speaker 1: scrapes right in a row. So I picked one of
1:32:59
Speaker 1: the smaller straits and set this thing up. Well, I
1:33:02
Speaker 1: put a camp that wireless camera over it, and I
1:33:05
Speaker 1: had you know, four or five nights bucks coming in there,
1:33:08
Speaker 1: but one was thirteen point pretty good one. But anyhow,
1:33:11
Speaker 1: I ended up by I heard something coming from behind me,
1:33:17
Speaker 1: and I turned around and look. Before I could get
1:33:19
Speaker 1: you know, you know, arranged in the tree, he just
1:33:24
Speaker 1: like kind of gold the right out for an eathom.
1:33:26
Speaker 1: He shot out for anthem and he stopped and looked around,
1:33:29
Speaker 1: went over, got a drink and went over worked that
1:33:32
Speaker 1: that straight or the one next to it, and then
1:33:35
Speaker 1: walked into the thickot. It was an eight point probably
1:33:38
Speaker 1: on and I was like, yeah, gon, just enough to
1:33:42
Speaker 1: get your blood helping, you know. And I was just
1:33:44
Speaker 1: like on pins and needles, and then he left. I
1:33:48
Speaker 1: had along my hunt's gonna be over for you know,
1:33:50
Speaker 1: until the heating saw. I sat back down. Of course,
1:33:53
Speaker 1: you gotta set set all day, you gotta you gotta
1:33:56
Speaker 1: get a comfortable stand. So I had one that had
1:33:58
Speaker 1: textboom the crops on with really like So I was
1:34:02
Speaker 1: sitting in this stand and um, probably another five or
1:34:06
Speaker 1: ten minutes went by and I heard from behind me
1:34:09
Speaker 1: it sounded like squirrels playing in the leaves. Before I
1:34:12
Speaker 1: could even turn around and look off, running through the
1:34:15
Speaker 1: thickest part of the fens row and shot right out
1:34:17
Speaker 1: learning me close to where the eight point came out,
1:34:21
Speaker 1: and it was that thirteen point, and he just stopped
1:34:23
Speaker 1: right in front of me and like five yards and
1:34:26
Speaker 1: just was looking around into the thicket, like standing the
1:34:29
Speaker 1: thicket up into the thicket, and I mean I already
1:34:33
Speaker 1: have my bow my hand at that point. I just
1:34:35
Speaker 1: was like, man, dude, it's your unlucky day. I mean,
1:34:37
Speaker 1: he was right there and he just you know, he's
1:34:39
Speaker 1: probably mid one sixties, so I just like, boom, he's
1:34:44
Speaker 1: done day. You know. Yeah, for sure, for sure that
1:34:53
Speaker 1: encounters were it wasn't so so easy, you know, and
1:34:56
Speaker 1: I've learned from it. But this year went off thought
1:35:01
Speaker 1: it hits pretty easy. It's nice when it all comes together,
1:35:04
Speaker 1: that's for sure, no doubt. Yeah. So so I feel
1:35:10
Speaker 1: like there's a ton more we could talk about white tails. Um,
1:35:13
Speaker 1: but before we wrap things up, which we need to
1:35:16
Speaker 1: hear pretty quickly, I wanted to make sure we at
1:35:18
Speaker 1: least heard a little bit about the story you told
1:35:21
Speaker 1: me this past couple of weeks ago. You were telling
1:35:23
Speaker 1: me about your Alaskan hunt you went on this past year,
1:35:26
Speaker 1: and it's not like that was just amazing. Um, could
1:35:30
Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about that hunt and uh,
1:35:32
Speaker 1: and maybe why an Alaska hunt something we should be
1:35:35
Speaker 1: thinking about someday. Oh dude, It's like it's like where
1:35:40
Speaker 1: we were at it was like God has never let
1:35:42
Speaker 1: anyone walk up through there before. It's like literally untouched turf,
1:35:47
Speaker 1: and it's just it's just amazing. Every the only way
1:35:51
Speaker 1: I can explain every every place in Alaska, it seems
1:35:54
Speaker 1: like every direction you look, it's like a different postcard,
1:35:57
Speaker 1: and like you just can't get enough of it. Like
1:36:00
Speaker 1: even when you leave, you crave to go back just
1:36:03
Speaker 1: to see the mountains and just the scenery and just
1:36:06
Speaker 1: the atmosphere. But it's so wild and untamed, it's literally ridiculous. Um.
1:36:12
Speaker 1: We me and my son, my son stationed up in
1:36:15
Speaker 1: Alaska and my daughters in the military as well. But
1:36:18
Speaker 1: we uh, we drew a tag for a doll sheep
1:36:21
Speaker 1: tag in the top management area, which is like a
1:36:24
Speaker 1: one or two draw, So I mean, it's like hitting
1:36:27
Speaker 1: the lottery, right, So I'm thinking, man, we're gonna have
1:36:30
Speaker 1: sheep all over us. So anyhow, we we contacted an
1:36:33
Speaker 1: airline company, a taxi and they dropped us off in
1:36:36
Speaker 1: this river bottom. What it took us now, I'm locked
1:36:39
Speaker 1: in you this unbelievable. But it took us eighteen hours
1:36:45
Speaker 1: eight hours the first day because we didn't get in
1:36:47
Speaker 1: because we were socked in because of range. So we
1:36:48
Speaker 1: got any light eight hours the first day. We set
1:36:51
Speaker 1: up camp in this little white sand bar that actually
1:36:55
Speaker 1: rocks against this cliff edge. Then from there another ten
1:36:59
Speaker 1: hours the next day just to get to our base
1:37:01
Speaker 1: camp where we set up to start seeing sheep. And
1:37:05
Speaker 1: that was to two guys eight pound packs self guided. UM.
1:37:11
Speaker 1: I trained for ten months, twenty one days and three
1:37:14
Speaker 1: hours for that hunt. I mean just all in, hauling
1:37:18
Speaker 1: the mail every day, just as much weight as I
1:37:20
Speaker 1: could get on me, and hiking as much as I could.
1:37:23
Speaker 1: So we get up in there. And to make a
1:37:25
Speaker 1: long story short, it we've seen sheep. They were on
1:37:28
Speaker 1: the other side of the canyon. UM. And when I
1:37:31
Speaker 1: say canyon, it was like it was literally like a
1:37:34
Speaker 1: mile mile and a half across. It was just ridiculous big.
1:37:38
Speaker 1: So we've seen sheep over there, we've seen two shooters.
1:37:42
Speaker 1: We made plans that afternoon to go see what they
1:37:47
Speaker 1: were gonna do that evening. This was like two or
1:37:49
Speaker 1: three days into the hunt. Um, see what they're gonna
1:37:52
Speaker 1: do that evening and then make a move on the
1:37:54
Speaker 1: next morning and try and get up and cross the
1:37:57
Speaker 1: pack up camping down across the canyon stream and back
1:38:01
Speaker 1: up the other side. Um. So, anyhow, that evening, um
1:38:07
Speaker 1: too big grizzly showed up, one on each end of
1:38:09
Speaker 1: the canyon, and man, they just they beat everything out
1:38:12
Speaker 1: of the canyon. We had moose, like a sixty inch
1:38:16
Speaker 1: moose and in velvet um probably a four plus caribou
1:38:24
Speaker 1: on the other side of the canyon. They were all
1:38:26
Speaker 1: all the game was on the other side of the canyon,
1:38:28
Speaker 1: except for a black bear that actually came in close
1:38:30
Speaker 1: to camp, which we had a black bear tag, but
1:38:34
Speaker 1: we were early in a hunt and we wanted to
1:38:35
Speaker 1: kill our seats, so but yeah, the bear were everywhere.
1:38:40
Speaker 1: But yeah, we had a we had a bang up
1:38:42
Speaker 1: time and there was a lot of fun. We learned
1:38:44
Speaker 1: a lot um get much sleep at night because the bear.
1:38:48
Speaker 1: But yeah, it sounds incredible, and it makes me really
1:38:54
Speaker 1: excited to get out there. Like I was telling you,
1:38:57
Speaker 1: I'm tentatively planning on my first trip out there this years,
1:39:00
Speaker 1: so so I'm pretty pumped about that. You have a
1:39:03
Speaker 1: blast um if you if if your listeners do nothing else,
1:39:07
Speaker 1: that they can just get to Alaska. You don't have
1:39:10
Speaker 1: to go on a big game hunt, go on a hike,
1:39:12
Speaker 1: go go fishing. The fishing is phenomenal up there, and
1:39:15
Speaker 1: just in the little streams and rivers you catch silver
1:39:19
Speaker 1: salmon and pink salmon and they're just so delicious. Any
1:39:24
Speaker 1: single piece of advice you can give someone who's planning
1:39:27
Speaker 1: or going to be going on their very first Alaskan trip,
1:39:29
Speaker 1: is there anything you learned this past season that you
1:39:32
Speaker 1: wish you had known beforehand that you can pass along
1:39:34
Speaker 1: the listeners Now, I would say as far as like
1:39:39
Speaker 1: um stuff that really saved us and we really didn't
1:39:42
Speaker 1: think about it. It's time, Well one would be trained.
1:39:45
Speaker 1: You obviously need to train for for the environment you're
1:39:48
Speaker 1: gonna be in. If you're gonna be on a tundra,
1:39:50
Speaker 1: train for like spongy, soupy, nasty hiking forever to try
1:39:55
Speaker 1: and get close to caribou or bear. You're gonna be
1:39:58
Speaker 1: in the mountains, you need to train on a on
1:40:00
Speaker 1: a if nothing else will StairMaster with as much weight
1:40:03
Speaker 1: in the pack as you can get. UM as far
1:40:07
Speaker 1: as like gear, I think I was sharing this with you.
1:40:10
Speaker 1: Um we had gore pants and jacket on when it
1:40:14
Speaker 1: was raining one day and trying to to like hop
1:40:17
Speaker 1: across these little streams it's coming off these mountains. The
1:40:21
Speaker 1: streams are so violent. The water is moving so fast
1:40:26
Speaker 1: from like glacier runoffs and stuff, and there's there's like
1:40:29
Speaker 1: no fish in them. I mean, they're just it's like
1:40:31
Speaker 1: silk and stuff in there, like almost the gray. Sometimes
1:40:34
Speaker 1: they're clear and men. It's just so violent. So we're
1:40:37
Speaker 1: trying to get across these things, and we're trying to
1:40:39
Speaker 1: do it without getting our boots wet, because once you
1:40:41
Speaker 1: get your boots wet, you're kind of done. You gotta
1:40:43
Speaker 1: get them dried out because you don't get blisters, right,
1:40:46
Speaker 1: So we wore two para socks boots. And then what
1:40:50
Speaker 1: we found halfway through the trip was if we took
1:40:53
Speaker 1: the gators, UM doesn't doesn't necessarily have to sit? Is
1:40:57
Speaker 1: that sit that makes gators that they over top of
1:40:59
Speaker 1: your boots and as sticks from going up in your
1:41:01
Speaker 1: strings and your boot laces and stuff. Well, if you
1:41:04
Speaker 1: put those over top of your boots and then over
1:41:06
Speaker 1: top of your your gore pants, your rain your pants,
1:41:10
Speaker 1: and a waterproof they're literally like waiters. Like as long
1:41:14
Speaker 1: as you didn't stand in the water for forever, if
1:41:16
Speaker 1: you like got across quickly, you could walk probably fifteen
1:41:21
Speaker 1: to twenty yards wide. You could get across streams that
1:41:24
Speaker 1: wide that were knee deeper deeper as long as you
1:41:27
Speaker 1: didn't go over your waist, you know, and you could
1:41:30
Speaker 1: get across those and your boots still want what on
1:41:32
Speaker 1: the inside. So that would be my number one piece
1:41:36
Speaker 1: of gear if I was heading to Alaska, would definitely
1:41:39
Speaker 1: be a really good rain suit, like a Cortex rain suit,
1:41:42
Speaker 1: and then those gators and then obviously a good pair
1:41:45
Speaker 1: of boots. I think I had like lower Hunter gk
1:41:48
Speaker 1: X as they had a real heavy ran a rubber
1:41:51
Speaker 1: rain around the bottom to keep the shale from cutting
1:41:54
Speaker 1: your leather. But yeah, that and then you know, kill something.
1:41:58
Speaker 1: I guess that health well, I'd say that you have
1:42:03
Speaker 1: effectively gotten us pumped not only for white tails now,
1:42:07
Speaker 1: but also to try to go to Alaska someday, so
1:42:10
Speaker 1: that's a fact. Yeah, well this has been a lot
1:42:14
Speaker 1: of fun. Uh, Dan, do you have any final question
1:42:17
Speaker 1: or final thoughts before we wrapped us up? I think
1:42:19
Speaker 1: I'm good man, Hey, good luck this upcoming season. Yeah, hey,
1:42:24
Speaker 1: you two. Do you ever get to go back out
1:42:26
Speaker 1: to the shipwrecks shipwrecks resting place? I've I've been, I've
1:42:32
Speaker 1: seen the full body mount I've seen every time I
1:42:36
Speaker 1: go back and back home to that area, I uh,
1:42:39
Speaker 1: I go and visit. I go and stop by the
1:42:41
Speaker 1: shop and say hi to Sam. Yeah, that dude, Salt
1:42:45
Speaker 1: of the Earth man. He's a good stud man. But hey,
1:42:48
Speaker 1: it's been a pleasure. Guys. Be safe and best of
1:42:50
Speaker 1: luck to you guys in your your listeners. Um, if
1:42:54
Speaker 1: anybody shoots like a three or seven, please email me.
1:42:56
Speaker 1: I'll be able to see it and touch it. Yeah.
1:43:00
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe someday we can do the same with you
1:43:03
Speaker 1: or is that seems like a pretty incredible dear. It
1:43:05
Speaker 1: was an awesome story, So thank you Mike for for
1:43:08
Speaker 1: sharing all this, not only that story, but then also
1:43:10
Speaker 1: what you've been doing in the years past. It's been awesome,
1:43:13
Speaker 1: So thank you, yes, sir, Thank you guys, I appreciate you,
1:43:17
Speaker 1: and that is it for us today. Before we go though,
1:43:20
Speaker 1: big things to our partners at Sitka Gear, Yetie Cooler's,
1:43:23
Speaker 1: Matthew's Archery, Maven Optics, Whitetail, Institute of North America, Carbon Express,
1:43:28
Speaker 1: and hunt Terra Maps. And finally, thank you all for listening.
1:43:32
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed our chat with Mike today and
1:43:34
Speaker 1: I hope you'll stay while you're don