Latest / The Hunt Lift Eat Podcast / Tuesday Tips Ep 112: Whitetail Gear
Transcript
- Carter (00:02.43) Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Tuesday Tips brought to you by the HuntLiftEat podcast. I'm Carter McKenzie. I'm hanging out with Luke. What's going on, dude? Luke Cox (00:15.474) Not much, man. Just living that camper life down in Louisiana, waiting to get out of the Army. Carter (00:22.05) That's Starlink and Camper Life. Luke Cox (00:24.998) Yeah, startling fast as hell and it's awesome. The problem is, is my camper is parked in the middle of some trees. And so the satellite will hit the trees and cut out. So if I get all choppy, apologies. Carter (00:38.09) Well, we're both sitting here sipping our coffee. It's been a good morning for my, uh, reveal trail cams that I set up recently on all the properties I'm watching. And coincidentally, you're getting your life together with your white tail gear. You went hunting yesterday for the first time in a long time. How was that? Luke Cox (00:59.686) White tail hunting for the first time in a long time. Yeah, it was different. It was actually, I was like sitting in the tree and I was like, it's been like two and a half, almost three years since I've hunted white tails. Hadn't been in a tree in a long time. Been doing a lot of Western hunting. And yeah, it definitely was different, little nostalgic. And I was a mess. Like as you can imagine, as you and I can be. I like popped open my tough box. I've got a Pelican case that's got all my white tail, my saddle, my sticks, all my shit. Carter (01:01.568) Yeah. Luke Cox (01:28.338) And it took me a minute of like staring at everything to even remember what it all was. You know, trying to go through it all. And so I like pulled everything out, sorted it all. And I forgot at the end of the last Whitetail season when I actually used the saddle a lot, I had upgraded a bunch of stuff, but then just thrown it all in the tub. And so I had all these little bits and pieces and things that were like little upgrades to the gear. And I didn't even, I couldn't remember what it all was, but it was good. It was good to get back into the Whitetail woods. The one thing that I don't like about Western hunting and I love about Whitesail hunting is just the ability to just get out there. I can go out and hunt for two or three hours in an evening. It's not like this whole ordeal where I gotta pack up all the gear, go out, have a place to stay, walk for 10 miles, I can drive into the area, jump out, hunt for two, three hours, come back. It's just, it's a little bit more conducive with my crazy schedule right now. And it's perfect for what I'm doing down here in Louisiana. So we've got a... It was good to get out. I was linked up with old Ron Jitter, John Ritter, we and him were hunting last night. And then I might go back out this evening. I haven't decided yet, but tomorrow there's a big cold front coming in, high of 50. It's been in the high 80s here in Louisiana. So that's gonna be a big shift. And where we're at in Louisiana has the rut earlier. So that's gonna be good. The rut's actually probably in pre-rut right now. And we'll start seeing rut activity in the next couple of days, which is awesome. Carter (02:56.49) Yeah, man, it was 85 here yesterday. So the hunting has been slow, but it's cooling off now. 57 tomorrow, 55 Monday, 30 on Wednesday, 31 Thursday. So could be game time, man. I'm getting a little giddy about it. We just finally got all my hung a few new sets this past weekend up in Dahlonega put out some cameras, um, and the pictures are rolling in. So. Luke Cox (03:13.481) Yeah. Carter (03:25.354) picked a good spot. So that, that feels good. That's reassuring. So now I think on this slow Sunday afternoon, I might start getting together my, you know, end of October, beginning of pre-rut gear for these next couple sits coming in, um, for this upcoming week. Luke Cox (03:47.642) What are you primarily hunting ladder stands or do you have lock ons? Like what kind of stand setups are you looking at? Carter (03:56.458) Yeah, I'm not mobile at all on the properties I hunt. Um, with the access I have and I guess proximity to where I live, I can, I prefer hunting out of a ladder stand anyways. Um, so I can set those up and if I need to move them, I can move them, but set those up in pretty established areas. Cause I have, I'm familiar with the properties over the last 10 years. So. I have a couple of lock-ons that I can hang different sets for and use for archery in different areas. And then the ladder stands, that's kind of like my rifle season spots. But you know, scouting this past weekend, checked out a part of Ed's property actually where we turkey hunted and it was kind of behind where we turkey hunted and found just when I've always wanted to figure out how to hunt that hillside. It comes off a really steep ridge. And that property is down in that valley that pasture that we hunted out of. I've always wanted to figure out how to hunt that ridge, but it's really steep. It's literally the beginning of the Appalachian trail right there. And there's always so much activity in there. A lot of scrapes, a lot of rubs. So I was like, yeah, let me go in here and see if I can try and figure it out this year. And I found a really, uh, well traveled scrape and rub line. Um, kind of right above maybe a third of the way up that hill, mountain, foot hill thing, right? And we won't call it a mountain. And I was like, okay, this is cool. Like, how can I figure this out? But it's, it's so steep. It's hard to figure out how to put a stand in there. So that's where, you know, a saddle on a set of climbing sticks would be really crucial. Um, so I'm trying to figure out how to play that cause you followed the rub trees. all the way down to the field edge and there's a massive scrape. I like, I knew it was going to culminate in a massive scrape and that was an awesome reward once I got to the field edge, just this huge scrape, really fresh scrape right under this tree. So trying to work that puzzle in my mind, but yeah, mostly ladder stands, except now I wish I had a, I was cool. Like you saddle guys. Luke Cox (06:17.13) Do you have any climbers or any lock-ons that you could have a more mobile setup with? Carter (06:22.61) Yeah. So I think I'm going to throw my, I've got a set of climbing sticks, three or four climbing sticks, and then a lock on. I think I'll go hang about 25 yards back from that scrape on the field edge where I can see that path coming in and then also have a visual on that scrape. And then hunt that with the right wind. Hopefully with this cold front this weekend that might this coming week, Friday, it's going to be 34. So I don't know. Figures cross man. That could be really cool. Luke Cox (06:53.67) Yeah, I'm down here now and I'm hunting public land in Louisiana. And it's always challenging. I was in Colorado for four months prior to the season, so I had no ability to do any sort of scouting. And I got back down here and basically yesterday was my first day even in the training area. I've been in that training area before when I was a lieutenant, coming from Fort Campbell down here to train, but definitely a little bit different now. So it's definitely been interesting. It's tough coming in without scouting. And I think that, you know, a couple tips that I have that have paid off in the past, hasn't yet for my one sit in Louisiana, but it's just kind of what to look for, especially in like kind of deep timber in the South where there's no agriculture, there's not really any open pastures. It's just, you know, timber and what to look for and kind of what my strategy is. And this is what John does as well. And it's really, you know, looking for some sort of topography. I like to look, you know, where there's some elevation drop. And then if you can find anywhere where you've got some ridges or a couple ridges coming together with those draws, where they're converging. And then ideally you're looking for different transition areas. So the spot that I went last night, I just walked in and just kept walking until I found over to like my left or my right, excuse me. I had like some early succession. It had been a burn. probably two, three years ago. And so it's all that, those young brush and trees growing up into that, and intermixed with some old plantation pines that have been thinned. And so that's great browse for the deer. They'll eat all that young stuff. And then down in the bottom, there's a big, big creek. So in that bottom, it's really thick brush, what you typically see down there. And it's right at the transition as it goes from the conifers into the hardwoods. So that's... That's the kind of the areas that I'm always looking for and just set up, try to get the wind right. You always got to play the wind and always check it. I don't really, I still spray with scent control, but I'm not as, I used to be crazy. I would drive to the, you know, to the stand in my, or where I was going to hunt in my underwear. Ritter still does that. He was stripping down yesterday. I'm like, dude, I don't care. It's really just where the wind is and, and play the wind and then just look for those transition areas and then look for sign. I saw some tracks in there and I was like, good enough. Luke Cox (09:20.57) especially for my first set out. So obviously right now, as you're in, I would really be looking for scrape lines. I didn't have the time yesterday. If I get out today, I'll probably go out earlier and then do some walking and try to find some scrape lines. I'll probably take a leak on all of them. We're just spraying with some buck here and then circle back around later this evening and try to hunt them. But it really just, depending on where you are in the country. And I don't. I'm not familiar with Louisiana. I'm told it's earlier, but if this was like back home in Virginia, like where you are Carter, like right now is kind of hard because the bucks are, they're starting to daylight a little bit, but only mostly it's only the younger ones that are really showing that activity. The big boys are still in that feed, rest, feed, rest, rut preparation kind of pattern. They're very predictable, which is good this time of year, but you're only getting tiny windows to be able to catch them. You can always get lucky and things shift, but for the most part, that's what those guys are doing. So it needs to get a little bit later when they all start getting on their feet and really start chasing and sniffing around. But scrape lines, I think right now are a great bet. Carter (10:31.83) Yeah, all my big boys are about an hour before shooting light currently. They know they're smart, right? It's not there. They don't need to be out in the open during the daytime, man. It was just doing their thing. Luke Cox (10:42.79) Well, you know, and Jeff from coags and I sat down and we talked about he was we were talking about whitetail mule deer elk. It was just stuff I had never really thought about it in that context. It's, you know, in the species, they all are very different. You hunt them differently. But the same general behavior has patterns, which I thought was really interesting. Right. Like, as they start to. As they go through their progression towards the rut. those bigger mature deer, they need significantly more calories. They're the ones that the dominant deer are they're gonna be having that massive load throughout the rut, right? They're gonna be fighting, they're gonna be running, they're gonna be breeding all the does. And so they have a biological understanding of this. And so they're trying to conserve as many calories as possible. And so it's not in store as many calories as possible. So it's not even just the hunting pressure or the risk of that. It's... where are they going to burn the least amount of calories? They're not going to be on their feet when it's 85 degrees, right? They're not going to be moving around. They're going to be bedded down. They're going to be resting. They're going to be conserving all that energy because they're warm animals. They're big, especially a big buck. The bigger the buck, you know, the more surface area, right? It stands to reason there. And so when we start to kind of understand these patterns and that's why those younger bucks start to get up and they start moving a little bit quicker because they're they don't have that caloric load. They also order that. the clorac need and they also don't have quite the experience in that old age. And so they're gonna get up and they're gonna be the ones that are sniffing early. That's why you see a lot more of that little buck activity. And it's really right at that last second. And when those does actually start hitting estrus that those big boys will start getting on their feet. So that's a, just because you see some deer chasing doesn't mean necessarily that the rut is on. And that's been something that I've mistaken in the past. Carter (12:39.938) What kind of gear are you carrying in at this point in time? What are some of your favorites? Luke Cox (12:45.522) Yeah, I've got, my setup isn't exactly how I want it right now, but I've got it relatively dialed in because I was running pretty mobile before. So I've got a tree saddle that I run. I utilize tethered and I've got the one sticks. I've got three. I actually just ordered an 8er, which is basically a nylon strap that I can hang on the last step to then give me some more height because three sticks is... It's enough usually for me. I actually have a silly climbing technique that I've developed where I actually use a knee and so I can get them a little bit higher because I got short stumpy legs. So I can climb up with a knee. It hurts like shit. You're putting your knee on those like metal pieces but hopefully with this ater that's coming in tomorrow actually that I'll have a little bit of more height on those sticks. But I also, I'm not one of these guys that needs to get 30 feet up in the air. Depending on the... the topography, I've really started to try to utilize terrain to get me higher. So if you can sit up and actually be on like right on that corner of a ridge line, or if there's a depression down into a creek, like I can be 10 foot up in the tree and still be 30 feet above the bottom that I'm looking into. And so I think there's some benefit to utilizing your, your train too. But, um, but yeah, I've got the tree saddle tethered one stick I'm running. running or the tethered one sticks, run a three of those. I've got, I utilize a Badlands, I don't remember the model, Caroline got it for me for Christmas a couple years ago, but I really like it. I wanna make some modifications to it, but it's a fanny pack, but it's pretty big and it can strap around the tree. And then one of the zips, you unzip it and it opens up into a big basket, which is like super cool. So I can set my thermo cell, water bottle, you know. phone, like whatever can just be sat in there. So like everything's, cause I'm always like, you know, you get into the tree stand or you get into the saddle or you get on your hang on or whatever and like, it's like, where do I put my shit? You know, it's like, this is like a really nice piece to have everything kind of set there organized and you can get out and really can just conducive to long sits cause I can have a thermos full of coffee if I'm hunting cold mornings, I can throw my lunch, if I'm gonna think I'm gonna do a dark to dark sit or anything like that. So I really dig that, that bag. I do wanna make a modification. Luke Cox (15:06.878) because I want to be able to strap it because it doesn't have shoulder straps. I want to try to be able to rig it up so it can connect to my vinyl harness and so that it'll sit it up a little bit. So that's going to be a project whenever I get back home to have the sewing machine in the offseason is try to rig that up a little bit. But yeah, that's the basic setup. And then I use I don't remember it's like the gear tether from. And then there's a Genesis 3D printing makes a bunch of attachments. It's this guy started his little business. for tree stands and saddle hunting and mobile hunting setups. And so I've got these two hooks that go in there and they're good for a bow, but they're also good for when you're rifle hunting, you can have them on the tree and it gives you a little bit of a rest depending on the angle from the saddle. So I actually really liked that. And then you can hang the rifle off that too. So that just gives, just allows to be a little more. more stable when shooting from a saddle because it's a little bit difficult. Carter (16:12.798) Yeah, it's something I've never tried, man. Luke Cox (16:12.947) But yeah, that's my bit. Yeah man, you should uh... Carter (16:18.218) I think maybe for rendezvous, I'll ask Perry if I could borrow his or something and give it a whirl. Luke Cox (16:23.09) Yeah, I'll bring mine too. And you can definitely try them out. It's. Carter (16:29.49) One more thing to buy. They're not cheap. Yeah. Luke Cox (16:31.138) Yeah. Oh, yeah. And dude, it's a whole book because everybody's setups different. My John and I run different setups. Perry and I run different setups. Evan, like it's all going to be customized to you and how you want to move, how you want to like I want less shit. But then I feel like I always got too much. And so I'm looking to streamline. I want to carry less straps everywhere. Like I do. I was trying to climb up. John was funny. I was like, dude, I haven't touched this stuff in two years. He's like, you better leave. extra early because it could take you 40 minutes to get into the tree. And he it wasn't quite that long, but it took me a hot minute because I just hadn't climbed in a while. And like just knowing where you have all your shit set, where your ropes are, where's your lineman's belt, you know, like just the general where all your stuff is on your person. I highly recommend that people climb a bunch before they go hunting. I've climbed in the past and like it came back and I was safe. I was much more safe than I've been in previous years of my life. I only had one sketch moment where I had to completely detach everything because I have some tree limbs. But there's been a lot of guys in the Southeast chat pushing out. I guess there's been some friends of friends falling in tree stands and stuff. So that's been it's been going through the channels for the team of making sure everybody's tying in and, you know, I think getting a little older. especially having kids, you realize you can't take some of these stupid risks. When I was younger, I never harnessed in, ever. Definitely not in a ladder stand, but I would run a climber and not be tied in. I'd run, yeah, just silly. So definitely need to make sure we're doing the right thing and being safe cuz that shit can get bad. I think it was what Forest, one of his buddies, just broke his back. Carter (18:19.57) Yeah, not a good way to end your hunt, man. Luke Cox (18:24.486) No, it wasn't Forrest. It was Chris. But it doesn't matter. Yeah. One of the guys from the release just fell and broke his back. Like that fucking sucks, man. Carter (18:35.018) Yeah, that would way suck. Luke Cox (18:39.071) What camera setups are you running, man? Carter (18:42.282) Um, I have converted completely to reveal cell cameras on all the properties that I have. And so I just bought a bunch and got those set up. I'm trying out the rechargeable battery packs right now. Really curious about those to see how long those last. Got those in there. It's nice. Uh, batteries get expensive really quickly. So. We'll see if they hold a charge long enough. They're sending great pictures, um, which is awesome. So I got them all set up. I have on each property, I have at least one on a scrape and a travel corridor. And then I have a one on trying to get as much field of vision as possible on whatever's in front of the stand, just trying to collect data. I haven't hunted either of those properties in two years since I've been hunting at the house so much. Um, so we're just trying to collect data, but those reveal cams are. Unreal. I mean, it's crazy. Like I used to have to drive all the way out there to pull SIM cards and it feels antiquated now and now like you, like you just mentioned, like two kids now and like I'm busier than I ever have been, it's not always conducive. And it's one of the reasons why I haven't hunted those properties in two years. Um, even though it's only an hour away. That's a That's a lot of time to get up there and go up there and pull cards and bring them back. And so anyways, the reveal cams have been phenomenal. So that's been a huge. Value add this past year. Luke Cox (20:25.022) Have you had any issues with bears tearing them up? Carter (20:28.222) Not yet, but the property, I just put them on Ed's property. It's going to happen for sure. Longtime listeners will also remember my favorite episode, six minute, six generation mountain trash way early on in the days. I've had a lot of trail cams and shit stolen from that property too, from the neighbors. So, uh, reveal makes a lock box and they make trespassing signs that are basically like smile, you're on camera kind of things. So I put up some deterrents this year. Luke Cox (20:59.442) That's the awesome. Carter (20:59.458) That's the other benefit too. I was telling you yesterday like if they come and steal it It's set up in a spot where I'll have a picture of them at least Luke Cox (21:06.566) Well, the reveal pro has a GPS tracker in it. So if they steal it, you can give it to the police and they can actually go recover it, which is incredible. Carter (21:17.883) Yep. Way cool. Luke Cox (21:20.602) Yeah, it's a it's badass. Yeah, I'm a big fan. We're we're actually dealers now for tactic cam and reveal which is awesome. We only sell them to the team for basically our cost plus a little bit. But we might open that up later because we have a few extra cameras we need to clear out but I'm a big fan you know it for any sort of one if you're busy as hell like we are and then two if you're remote which You know, I just finally got my family farm fully under lease, which is awesome. Um, going forward. And then this is a separate one. This is my, my old man's side of the family, a separate one from the one that Perry and I, and I've grown up hunting on, but it's going to be so much easier to being, I can sit in Colorado and then manage, you know, get fucking pictures of bucks and stuff to me. That's gonna be pretty awesome. I'm pretty stoked for it. Carter (22:19.67) Yeah. Checking those two properties also made me put two more items back in my pack. Um, Folding saw, like a small hand saw. I hadn't checked a couple of those stands in a minute. Um, climbed up in them, checked them and that's going in my pack. So when you're there and hunting, you can adjust, which will pay dividends later in the season. So I have a Fiskars folding saw. And then, uh, I'm going to start carrying my grunt tube with me. I use a illusion systems. extinguisher, the black one. I'm going to start carrying that for the remainder of the season. Just some, maybe some light grunts here at the beginning. Um, sometimes I mostly think it's just to keep me from getting bored. Gives me something to do every once in a while, but I've had good success grunting in bucks, even if it's fun. It's fun messing with the younger bucks too. So, um, those are going in my pack for the rest of the season. Luke Cox (23:19.726) Yeah, I'm a big fan. One, I definitely needed a saw the other day. I forgot a saw and I forgot a hoist. So that was not fun climbing. I got to when I finally got to where I was getting, I was sweating my ass off and was dying because I had my pack on with the rifle strapped to it, trying to climb. There's tree limbs that I was like trying to weave around. It was, it was sketch. But so yeah, the folding saw. I'm a big fan of you can pick trees, especially down here. Louisiana, Georgia, kind of more in the deep south. You can definitely pick, there's plantation pine, yellow pine where you can just go straight up on them. But it's just good to have it in case you do need it because it can make your life a lot easier to clear out. Plus if you're hunting and you're getting into some hardwoods, even if you can climb and go around the limbs, just when you get set up, you can drop a couple, open up some shooting lanes. Now, you know you're. local regulations, some areas you can't, you're not supposed to drop a limb or two. I don't think it's that big of a deal, but I don't set the rules. But yeah, they didn't ask us. Man, I, back in Virginia, I was having a lot of good results. Just running a little bit of a drag line coming in with some of the Tink's Estrus dough, and then just hanging that in. Dude. Carter (24:26.466) They didn't ask us. Carter (24:43.374) Classic. Luke Cox (24:45.914) It is so cool when you watch a buck just moving and then he hits that drag line and then just immediately like, just stops on a fucking dime and then just comes right at you on a rope. It's really cool. So this is definitely the time to be using that. I think guys overuse it. It needs to seem real. What I'll do is I'll run a piece of like 550 cord. I use tampons actually. So I'll take, you can buy the wicks, but like they're expensive. Tampons are way cheaper. and I'll just tie it to that 550 cord, have, I don't know, 10 feet behind me, coat that tampon in the dough urine, and then just walk and then just drag it. I try to do it in an area where I think, like you've seen traffic, so it feels like a natural movement, and rolling that is, it's been pretty good, and I don't hang it right where I'm at, right? You walk it in and then hang it kind of in that spot. up in the tree where you have a good shooting line of sight to that and then go back into your into your stand. Carter (25:57.738) Yeah, it's fixing to heat up a little bit. And that's what makes whitetail hunting so addicting and fun. Luke Cox (26:05.658) Yeah, this is prime time. I mean, we're, I'm excited. It'll be cool to hunt down here in Louisiana. I've got no large aspirations with the lack of preparation I've done to hunt down here. But if I, you know, if I can kill something. The one thing that's weird down here, and I think it's just the WMAs we're hunting, but after today, you can't shoot does. It's buck only, which is weird for whitetailing, but I don't know, it's probably because all the pressure that these WMAs get, buck only. But it's any bug, no antler restrictions. So, there ain't a 4 key that's safe. Carter (26:39.473) I hope you get one down there, man. Luke Cox (26:42.662) Yeah, it'd be cool. I'm not really sweating it. Not in the meat crisis that I was, now that we got an antelope and a mule deer down and still got two more tags down and. Colorado, back in Colorado, here in a couple weeks. I'm stoked for that one. Carter (27:01.634) A lot of season left. Luke Cox (27:03.266) video. Well, there was a, that was more of like a fucking bullshit episode than a, than a true tips, but that was good. It's fun getting back into the white tail woods. I feel like I'm coming home. Carter (27:19.062) Back to your roots. Luke Cox (27:21.136) Oh yeah. Carter (27:23.894) Hell yeah. Well, cool. You got anything to round us out? Luke Cox (27:28.134) No, as always, which is a really common thread here, but just prepare more than Carter and I do. Take the time to actually prep. Don't wait till the season starts. Just get after it and check your gear. Always check your stands. Use your safety harnesses. If you have stands that are up, you leave them up here around, that's fine. Check those straps and every couple of years add a strap. Right? we'll just we do that tree will start growing around one and you just add another strap to it and just kind of is what it is. It becomes part of the property. But just don't, don't take that shit for granted, especially on hang ons. Ladder stands are at least leaned up against, but just be careful out there. A lot of guys this time of year and gals get, get hurt in tree stands. And it can be life altering, you know, paralysis or even death. So really be safe, take care of yourselves. Make sure you're checking all your equipment, checking your gear. And good luck. I mean, this is, we're getting into prime time for White Tails. This is the fun part. Carter (28:29.806) That's right. Yeah. Good luck to everybody listening. Carter (28:37.262) Appreciate the help you guys. And we'll talk to you next, well, wait, whoa, team applications lose. Luke Cox (28:43.418) Oh yeah. Yeah. Go apply for the team. If you're interested in building or getting to be a part of a community and helping build a community that centers around this lifestyle, you know, go to the website under the our team tab and read it all. Make sure that's something you're interested in and drop an application. We're actually leaving a couple slots open a week open probably for the rest of the year. We're trying to kind of a trickle instead of open them up and just getting bombarded with a couple hundred interviews where going to try to do a little trickle interview deal. So we'll see how this goes. And maybe it's what we do going forward. Maybe we'll pivot again. But yeah, we're stoked. We just added, I think probably around 40 new folks this past week and we're just going to keep growing. If you're into this sort of thing, hit us up. Carter (29:31.818) Yep. As always, appreciate the help you guys. We'll talk to you next week.