Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 464: Finding Whitetails Fast with Levi Morgan

Transcript

Ep. 464: Finding Whitetails Fast with Levi Morgan · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and today in the show, I'm joined by
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: world champion archer and lifelong bow hunter Levin Morgan to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: discuss his techniques and practices for finding, scouting, and hunting
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: white tails when time is short. All right, welcome to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Today we're talking white tails on a quick turnaround time.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We're talking white tails when time is of the essence.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: We're talking about how to find, scout and hunt deer
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: when you gotta do it fast. Maybe you've got a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: quick weekend you can hunt. Maybe you're on a rutcation.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: You've got one week to find and hunt deer in
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a new place and that's all you have. Maybe you're
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: just a really busy mom or dad with kids and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a day job and you can only get out to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: hunt a few times here and there, and you just
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: don't have a whole lot of time to squeeze in
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: this hunting passion, whatever it is. I think all of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: us have found ourselves at one time or another trying
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: to figure out, how can we turn up the speed
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: dial on this whole figure and out the deer thing.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: That's ah, that's one of those wishes that I think
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: most of us have. And our guest today is somebody
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: who has had to live with these same time constraints,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: but with really high stakes because he's going out and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: hunting across the country in a lot of different situations
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: on really short, quick trips, and he's got to get
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the job done. This is Levi Morgan. Of course, he
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: is I think arguably, maybe not even arguably, maybe it's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: just obvious, the best, one of the very best tournament
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: archers in the country. He's a world champion, multiple world champion,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and all every single different title in the shooting arena
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: he seemingly has won it. He is also a die hard,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: dedicated bow hunter. Levi is the host of Bowlife TV.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: He's been chasing white tails for for decades across the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: country and doing it very successfully and and also different
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: types of situations. He's been in the the Midwest, he's been
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the West, Southeast, uh d i y by permission leases everything.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's done it all. So he's got a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: lot of experience and that's experience that he can pull
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: from that we can all learn from. So today what
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I wanted to grill Levi about was how he does
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: it so fast, how he finds deer quickly on new properties,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: how he figures out a new farm quickly, how he
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: starts these short hunts knowing that he doesn't have a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: lot of time to get it done. So how do
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: you start right? How do you end right? How do
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you know when to pivot? How do you know when
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: to change up your strategy? How should you use trail
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: cameras and scouting without messing things up since you only
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: have a few days to get it done. All these
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: questions and more are what we covered. We also get
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: into some very interesting conversations around routines and mindset. That's
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: something that Levi has perfected within his archery career, and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: it translates to hunting. I think it's something that for
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: all of us on quick trips or quick weekend hunts,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, that kind of thing can make a
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: difference to So this is a fun conversation in one
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: that I really enjoyed and learned from. I know you
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: will too, So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: a long intro here. I think next week we're gonna
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: try to get on and fill you in on what's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: been going on in my hunting season and some of
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the other guys on the team. But for today, we're
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to get right into the interview. I will just give
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you a quick reminder if you're not already subscribed to
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: our Wired to Hunt weekly newsletter, make sure to go
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: do that as soon as you're done listening to this,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: or maybe maybe hit pause and go subscribe right now.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: That's where you're gonna get all of our new articles
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: were being published over Wired Hunt from our whole slate
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: of people. We've got videos coming out from people like
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Levi Morgan, like Tony Peterson, like myself. We've got articles
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: from folks like Tony Hansen, Andy may Beaumartinic uh John Eberhart.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: We've got, of course this podcast. We've got the Foundations
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: podcast from Tony. We've got ret Fresh Radio coming out
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: every Wednesday from Spencer. You'll get updates on all of
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: that through the Wired Hunt Weekly newsletter. If you just
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: go to the Meat Eater dot com slash wired, you'll
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: get the pop up to sign up for that newsletter.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Check it out. I send you an email every Monday,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: tell any what's up, what's new? High they recommend it. Finally,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: make sure you're following me on Instagram at Wired to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Hunt to get the day by day hunt recaps. I'll
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: be sharing updates on my Michigan hunts as I am
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: recording this right now. I am about to head to Washington,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: d C. For an urban bow hunt and that's gonna
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: be very very different kind of thing for me. So
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: you want to get the updates on that too. I'll
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: be share and it all over on the Wired and Instagram.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So check that out. And I think that's it. I
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: think that's all the updates I've got for you. Hope
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: your hunting is going well so far. It's uh, it's crazy.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: October's here. It's only gonna get better. So enjoy this
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: one with LEVI. Best of luck out there, and let's
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: get to it all right with me on the line. Now,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I've got Levi Morgan, Levi, thanks so much for being here. Yeah, man,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: know you're busy guy, this time of year, all over
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the place. Uh So carving out this time is no
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: small thing. I recognize that, and it's it's kind of
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: exactly the topic I want to talk to you about,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: which is making use of the little amounts of time
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: that we have. Whether you're, you know, someone in your
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: position where you are traveling around the country hunting and
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you've got you know, a week here, a week there,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: or if you're just someone who's got a regular day
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: job and you only have a week of vacation, or
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: you only have weekends and you have to find deer fast.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I think that's something that a lot of people have
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: to deal with, and you seem to have particularly gotten
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: good at it. Uh. I mean, she's just looking at
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: what you've done so far this season. You've gotten on
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: deer quick and figured him out and been able to
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: fill a tag. So when you when you hear that,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: when you hear finding white tails fast, what's the first
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: thing that comes to your mind? Like, what do you
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: think is if you had to just quickly your gut instinct,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: what's the most important thing to find dear fast? What
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: do you think that is? Cameras? Um? I think, yeah,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: that's been something I've had to do um and had
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to become good at if I wanted to be successful
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: you know, and over the last twelve or thirteen years
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: however long I've been doing that, but um, yeah, it's
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: just honestly a lot of pre planning, a lot of
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: getting cameras out in the summer and and letting those
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: do a lot of the scouting for me. Um And
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: in certain places like this past week in Ohio and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I shot my biggest deer ever first day opening day, um,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: which that was kind of a different story because that's
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: my family farm and I kind of know if like
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: if I'm getting pictures of a buck in a certain
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: area most year to year, the bucks, the big bucks
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: will use that area the same. So past history is
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: very important if you have history on a farm, and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: like really paying attention from one year, um, because normally
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: even a different buck when he moves in, he's going
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: to use that area very similarly to you know, maybe
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: a buck you hunted there five years ago. So um,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I knew when I started getting pictures of that deer
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: on the farm and kind of he would only show
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: up on one camera and I kind of knew where
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: his core was and so um it made it a
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: lot more simple to move in and and focus on him.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing that you know, I think I've
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: learned to do better over the years is just simplify
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: things instead of because you can like get spun out
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: pretty quick when you got five days and you're on
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: a new piece of property and you have no idea
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: where to even start. And so if I like sometimes
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I don't have the ability to run cameras previously, maybe
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I get permission late in the year and we've done
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: that before, like get permission and like the next day
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: it's like November six, and we have no idea, but
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: we're going in blind. And um, honestly, that's one of
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: my favorite ways to hunt, is just off of aerial
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: going in on Google Earth or or whatever, and and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: keeping the wind right and hunting my way into a property.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: So starting on the outsides and hunting in and learning
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: as I go as far as watching the deer movement
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: moving a little closer and just get more aggressive with
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: each day. Um, it's kind of my strategy in most situations.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little more on the trail camera front.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Is that when you show up on a new spot,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: or you show up for a hunt and maybe it's
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the place that you have hunted in the past, but
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: this is your your window to hunt it is now. Um,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: let's assume that you didn't get cameras out in the summer,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and so now it's okay, I need to figure out
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: what they're doing right now? Is is the trial camera
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: thing the very first thing you do, like when you
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: get there day one or you get there the night
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: before day one? Is your first plan going to be
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: okay tomorrow at some point I'm setting cameras. Uh. If
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: that is the case, how specifically are usually doing that?
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Is it always four cameras spread out here? Is it
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: twenty cameras? Or talk to me about like the specifics
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: of what you usually do in that situation. Yeah, And
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: that situation is going to be the least intrusive option, um,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: because like I'm not just gonna go, you know, strolling
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: through the property hanging cameras, because then you just pretty
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: much ruined it for the next three days. So what
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the cell cameras are really big for me? Um? Then
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: so I don't have to continually go back and check
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: my cards. Um, because every time I feel like, every
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: time I walk into a place, it's just my chances
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: of killing my target deer go down, you know, and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: So what I do in that situation is I'll have
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: a backpack of camera, Like I'll keep four or five
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: cameras in my pack that I hunt out of, and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I hang them as I hunt. So I'll hunt an area, um,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: maybe I walk over a crazy good scrape line or
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: see one going into a hanging hunt, and so I'll
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: hang a camera there. And so I'm just always got
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: my head on a swivel, like if I haven't been
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: able to scout this property at all and I just
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: get there. It's like using every bit of information that
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I possibly can um and being as unintrusive as possible,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: but still be aggressive. I don't even know if that
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: makes sense, but like I'm trying to watch my success.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be blowing the deer i'm hunting
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: out going in. And I might even hand cameras like
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: if I can see like Nebraska, for example, Nebraska is
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: an easy place to hang cameras on food because it's
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: all agg in alfalfa and all the deer going back
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: across the Platte River embedding in the cottonwoods and the cedars.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: So I'm not blowing them out trying to hang cameras
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: on the field edge. So yeah, if I get to Nebraska,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: you know, the day before opener, I might drive my
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: truck down that alfalfa edge, hand cameras on trails, uh, scrapes, whatever,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: and no, you know, no harm done. But southern Ohio
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: big timber woods, um creek, bottom cedar, thickets, deer could
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: be betted anywhere. I'm not going in there until I
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: go to hunt. You know, I'm gonna go from an
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: aerial hypercentage sit where I can maybe see and kind
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of gain intel with my eyes, and then hand camera
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: as I hunt. So that's kind of how I would
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: approach that, probably in two different scenarios. Yeah, Now what
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: about the specific like camera setups? You mentioned a couple
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: of different examples, maybe a scrape, maybe a trail. Can
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you just talk to me about I mean, you've you've
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: ran cameras as as much as almost anyone probably you know,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: where do you stand these days as far as how
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: far away from a scrape or where you think the
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: deer is gonna be. Do you do you like them
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: high in the camera so they're above eye level? Do
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: you not care about that when you're actually putting them up?
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: What are the specific details you're thinking about nowadays. Yeah,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: for sure. I think the more I run cameras and more,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I realized that big mature deer know they're there, and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: big mature deer will avoid them if if you know.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And and I've learned that certain deer don't care, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: certain deer dude, because I think we run forty cameras
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: just on our home farm, and I'll watch certain deer
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: walk around them like they will. I hardly ever get
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: a picture of some deer because they just they know.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they hear it going off, they
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: smell the electronics, something they do not like about it.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: So what I've found is is if I can get
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: it out of eye level, I like to hang especially
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: if it's um like a betting area, scrape line something
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: like that, I really like to hang it higher where
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: they're not looking at this camera the whole time, and
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: so um and I like to put like on scrapes
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: or trails. I'll put it on like three shot burst
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: every ten seconds, because you know, especially once we get
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: later in the year, when you know a buck might
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: be following a dough something like that on a trail,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I don't want to miss those things. And I'm not
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: leaving these cameras out for months at a time, so
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I'm not worried about batteries dying. I just want to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: make sure I'm not missing a piece of the puzzle,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I guess, but I do like to hang them above
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: eye level, pointed down. The deer just definitely don't get
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: bothered as much. It is kind of um, it takes
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: away from the quality da the picture because it's way
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: more busy, like when you're trying to see what that
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: animal is, like, his horns are going to blend into
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the sticks and leaves and all that stuff, And it's
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: harder to really get a good solid picture of a
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: buck when you hang it high, pointed down. But if
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: if you can see like, okay, that's a definite shooter
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: at that point. It really doesn't matter if you can
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: score him, you know, over the phone or not, or
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: count as stickers or whatever. But I just want to
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: make sure I'm not running this deer out of his
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: normal pattern. So I definitely like to hang cameras about
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: my head height, um and pointed kind of down at whatever.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I've got it on want it's a scrape
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: or a fence gap or something like that. Okay, And
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: do you ever run traditional cameras anymore in a situation
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: like that or is it all sell? No? I do.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I run a lot of traditional cameras just because I
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: don't have enough tell cameras. If I had enough, I
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: definitely would not run traditional cameras anymore, But I don't,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: so so yeah, so I'm in the same boat. Uh
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: in that case, then what's your take on checking those
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So you mentioned that you would either you'd hang them
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: if it was easy access, like the Nebraska thing, but
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: if not, you would only do that in and on
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the way to hunt. How on a short hunt like this,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Like how often are you gonna check those cameras? And
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: will you only check them when you're walking past hunt?
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Or in this case, will you get to day three
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and you're like, dang it, I gotta go and I
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: gotta walk a special walk just to find out what's
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: happening here? Yeah? Absolutely, I mean when you got five
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: to seven days in day three you're not on anything, uh,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and you got you know, four or five cameras soaking
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: on the other side of the farm, Definitely, that's the time. Like, Okay,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I'm hopefully gonna look and find the windiest part of
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the day middle of the day. Um, try to keep
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: my wind right, you know, make sure I'm as sent
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: conscious as possible and slip in their pull the cards.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna wear late text gloves because you know,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: everything you touch, I'm trying to touch as little as
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: possible and I don't want these deer to know him there.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: But you've got to find one, you know. If you're
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: not on one, then you need to go pull cars.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely going to do that. I mean, that's the
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: time where you take chances. And uh, it's so funny
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: because I hunt my home farm completely different than I
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: hunt when I'm on the road because baby, that thing,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you know, they don't even know they're being hunted. And
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: when I get on the road, I'm like really aggressive.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I'm like it's time to go, you know, and especially
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: if I haven't found one and we've got three days left,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: like we're moving different areas every sit, you know, pulling
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: cards and scrambling. So yeah. So so that that brings
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: me a good question. So you mentioned what you're doing,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: you know, on the final days of the hunt, but
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: day one of the hunt, you mentioned that usually you
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: like to start somewhere some kind of observation hunt. Um.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: But I remember hearing you once talking about when you're
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: moving in to to set up a new spot. You
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: talked about the ports of scouting with your eyes and
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: not necessarily walking all over new property to find that tree,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: but to actually glass or stop and look before you
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: walk all over the place. So so when you're heading
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: in for hunt number one on this new spot, can
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: you just walk me through that process of scouting with
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: your eyes before you actually pick your observation stand. Yeah, absolutely,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: So like hanging hunts, which is something we do probably
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: of the time when we're you know, traveling hunting. Um,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: because I've just found it, I feel like that's my
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: best I have my best success on like hanging hunt
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: type deals. So, um, when I'm trying to pick a tree,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: even an observation said, I want somewhere that's safe but
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: that I'm still in the game, um, where I'm not
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: blowing deer out, but I still have a chance to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: kill one. But what I meant by that was, like,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I guess when I was younger and a little more
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: like I would, I guess I'm just as aggressive now,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: but in a way smarter way, I would just go
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: right into the juice and like looking at trees like, oh,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: that looks like a decent tree. I'd walk over to it. Look, oh, no,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: it's crooked, or that fork comes off too weird, and Okay,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: that looks like a good one. Over there, go over
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: there and looking. So now, instead of like leaving scent
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: trails all over where I'm hunting, I'll stay back and
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: like really pick these things apart and make my plan
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: as far away from where I'm going to hang as possible,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: so I'm not wasting time in there and I'm not
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: spreading my scent everywhere where I'm actually going to be hanging.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: So if I can look at this spot from a distance,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: me and my brother who's normally running camera for me,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: we'll sit there in brainstorm and try to have the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: tree picked front when we go in there, so we
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: waste no time. We get there, we go up, we
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: set up, we're in, and uh, instead of getting to
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the spot and then trying to plan while we're walking around,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: you know right where we want to be sitting. So yeah,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: it makes a lot sense to use your use your
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: binoculars and those other tools to avoid spreading scent all
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: over the place if you don't have to. I mean,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: there's no quicker way to educate the deer than than
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: take a hike. Right, Yeah, it's unbelievable, man. And like
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: just how many times you know, walking in and I
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: always try to like walk in where I can shoot,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: like because I've had so many times for that deer's
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: coming in, coming in and he cuts my trail. It
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter how much you know, you take care of
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: your scent. Sometimes they don't get you. Sometimes they do.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: But a lot of times when they cut your track,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: they'll stand there for a while. Not so much when
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: they hit your windstream, that's the winds blowing. But when
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: they cut your track, a lot of times they don't know.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: You know, they're still searching, like where did it go?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: They're curious, they're not sure, they're not a lot of
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: times they don't just bolt, but they stand there and
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: there they're on alert, and they stop. They freeze a
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: lot of times. So I always try to walk right
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: where in a place that I can shoot. So if
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: that bucks in in bow range and he's coming in,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: and or he's walking by and he hits that trail,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: if he freezes, and I know that's it. I could
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: shoot him because I had several times where you know,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: I slipped through the thick stuff all the way to
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the base of the tree. Well that buck hits my
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: my track and freezes and he's in the thick stuff,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and I got no shot, you know. And then he
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: turns and goes back the way he came, and I'm like,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: dang it, Like I wish i'd have walked in tan
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: yards to the left. I could have killed him right there,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: you know. So I learned that the hard way a
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: few times. But yeah, I definitely can relate to that one. Ah.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: So scouting with your eyes, you know, from a distance,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: is one thing. But I also, of course, I know
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: that even though you are trying to walk around as
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: as minimal as possible, whenever you are, you're you're still
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: scouting and trying to learn as you go. I think
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: one of these same conversations I was listening to you
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: were talking about how there's this temptation to pick a
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: spot and say, okay, I just gotta get there, and
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: then you're just kind of trudging along, just covering ground
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: and looking at your boots. But really you want to
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: have your heads up, looking around, learning as you go along.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: What are the kind of things like what are the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: next level things Like I know when you're hiking in
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: you're looking for scrapes and rubs like we all are.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: But what's the details that you're looking for when you're
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: heading into a new property that you really want to
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: zero in on. That that get Levi Morrigan spiky senses
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: tingling and saying, Oh wow, this is this is what
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I need. This is I need to stop now. I'm
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: not going to go any further. Uh, this is the
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: thing that we're looking for. Can you give me like
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the nitty gritty Yeah, I can. Like I'll use an example.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Um So, like it really revolves around like those sneaky
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: food like like not obvious food like big bean filled
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: or like whatever. It's like that one wide oak tree
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: that this drop in in a rand spot that like
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the deer can eat and feel safe, or it's a
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: honeysuckle thicket, or it's a per semme tree that I
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: didn't know about. Um it's because those are the places
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that that big bucks coming to in the daylight, you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and he's where he might not be getting to those
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: big food plots. Or whatever in the daylight. Um, that's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: what I'm looking for when I'm coming in. Like it
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: may be a scrape line, it may be a rub line,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: it may be a sneaky little ditch um that he's
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: using to walk down, you know, because I've killed so
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: many big deer just on because they don't like to
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: walk in the open. They don't like to walk where
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: they can be seen forever. So um, and they don't
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: like to feed there either. So it's it's that acorn tree,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that white oak tree that they're feeding on her. Even
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: on years that a lot of the white oaks are
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: falling for some reason, those deer pick one that they
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: hit heavier those bucks are on. They like one tree
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: they'll walk over, you know, two ours of white oaks
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: to eat under one. So if I'm looking for that
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: one that has the most acorns popped under it. And
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: my dad told me this when I was really little,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: looking for the difference in an acorn it's eight by
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: a squirrel and one that's eight by a deer, And
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the one that's ate by a deer will be cracked
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: long ways in half and the squirrels will be chewed on.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And um, So if you find acorn holes that are
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: popped in half long ways, that's deer eating those and
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: so um my dad told me that when I was
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: really as young, and I've never forgot that, and so
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: paying attention to little stuff like that where I'm like,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: holy cow, there's like there's like white oak holes everywhere
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: right here, and then there's you know, deer droppings everywhere
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and scrapes all I'm like, holy smokes, Like this is
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a little sneaky spot that it's not obvious that I
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: would have just walked through and just thought it's another
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: acorn tree. But just those little things like that would
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: be like a real good example of you know, what
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for. And even so I'll use Mississippi as
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: an example. Two years ago, we're we're driving a little area.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: It's a swamp and like, uh, just big timber thicket stuff.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: It's hard to hunt. And there's a little place we
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: call the parkway on our on our lease, and we're
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: driving down the road and we're like, look at the
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: track crossing right here, like no reason like, but we're
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: just paying attention and it's like, uh, a highway of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: deer tracks crossing this sandy road. So we step out
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: and we walk seventy yards following these tracks and there's
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: like two percentmetries that are like falling and it looks
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: like a whole field of hogs had been in there,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: but it's white tail, and so we throw a camera
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: on it and half our shooters are showing up on
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: this persymmetry in the daylight. And it's just like those
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: kind of things where you just pay attention and you
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: don't you're not just powering through a spot just because
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: it hasn't been good in the past. Maybe those pursuing
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: trees haven't dropped in five years, you know, and you
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have noticed it, But now they're dropping in every
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: day within a half mile to coming to them. So yeah,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: ken in on that on those changes is so key.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Another thing though, that I'm thinking about when I hear
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: this is the the opposite. Well, let me take a
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: step back. It's when you find something like that looks
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: great you you you scout your way in, or you
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: found something something on the map that looked good. Your
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: head in there. You find this thing you want, you
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: set up on night number one of this quick hunt
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you have and you're expecting the world, but then nothing
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: shows like you're you don't see what you want to see,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and this always leads me to one of the tougher
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: things within a traveling hunt or a short term hunt,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: where you have it's it's really easy when you set
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: up in a stand and you see something to work with,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: right you see you see a ton of deer in
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a couple of pretty nice bucks, but they're just out
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of range, and then you think, okay, well then I
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: just gotta make a tweak. Or you see them five
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: yards away and you realize, all right, I got into
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the general zone. Now you need to zero in. I
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: realized I got to make a couple of hundred yards
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: shift down and and then I'll be in the game.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: But what happens when you find a spot that you
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: think should be pretty darn good and it just doesn't
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: give you anything to work with. You don't see any
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: deer or you see no bucks, And now it's this weird,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: this weird conundrum that at least I find myself and
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: where I'm like, Okay, do I believe in this place
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: so much that I need to stick it out even
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: though I haven't seen anything that's told me that outside
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: of the sign, Or do I move to another new
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: random place and start from ground zero and try to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: learn a new spot. Um, how long will you give
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: a spot or what are you thinking about when it
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: comes to that, like moving on or sticking a spot
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: out that that hasn't proven itself yet. Yeah, I think
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: you just explained bow hunting very quickly, because that happens
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: way more than like the pot of gold at the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: end of the rainbow. But um, yeah, that's the hard
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: part man. It's like, I think it's more based on
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: time of year two, whether I'm I'm staying or I'm leaving.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: So if I think that they're they're like early season
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: where they're close to bed and like where they're feeding,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: where they're betting, and they're doing generally the same thing
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: every day, then I'm moving. Like if I sit there,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: like if I give it a good like everything's right,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: conditions are right, and I still don't see him see
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the one I want, I'm moving because they're generally doing
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: very similarly the same thing every single day, and so
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: he's probably gonna do whatever he did today tomorrow and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: that ain't coming here. So Um, However, like late October,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: they're starting to cruise more. You know, maybe they're checking
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: scrapes every thread three or four days um, or even
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the rut where you know it's kind of wild card.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: You don't know what's coming or from where. Um, then
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I might stick it out. Like if it's a good pinch,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: it's a good like I know there's big to your clothes,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: and like it's a it's a spot. One's gonna come
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: in the next three days. I just need to be here, Um,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: then I'll probably stick it out. UM. I think the
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: rut it's when people jump around a little too much
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: because they you know, they sit a spot that's good,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: they don't see the one they want. They're moving. Well,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: it's such a random thing in the rut. That big
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: buck maybe tending a dough and he's gonna leave her tomorrow,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: you know, and he's gonna walk right through here when
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: he does. You just gotta sit there from daylight till dark.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: And sometimes that sucks when you're not seeing anything. But
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I feel like those are the times where I'm more
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: likely just to stick it out. Um. Where like if
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: they're keying on food early and late and I'm not
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: seeing the one I want in the daylight, I'm I'm
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: bouncing trying to find where he's moving in in shooting hours. Yeah,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. Can you can you tell me about
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I think that you did something just like what you're
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: describing on those early season hunts in Nebraska and Wyoming.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Can you walk me through kind of how those two
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: hunts looked and how you managed to pull off what
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: I think you're describing. Yeah, so Nebraska, I only have
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: one year under my belt on this place. It was
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: last year, UM, and it was incredible with the number
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: of deer, but it also makes it hard because it's
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: hard to keep those spots fresh. And and so what
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I did there is we ran cameras this summer. We
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: we sent a bunch of cameras out to the farmer
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and he scattered them up and down the alfalfa. But
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: it's like two miles of alfalfa on the on the
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Platte River, so they can only tell us so much.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: And so we knew areas that had shooters we'd get
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: a picture of every once in a while. So, okay,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: he's in that area. So what did um Trying to
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: make a long story short, I got there two days
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: before season and scouted and actually put my eyes on
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: um three or four different solid shooters on the south
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Alpha from like a mile away. The problem was getting
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: in there to hunt them without blowing everything out with
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the winds that we had. So I just kind of
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: hunted my way in still like I I came in
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: with a good wind, used the river for access, got
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: in like on the edge of where I thought the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: furthest straggling deer might be on that first set. UM
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: just just did not want to blow any deer out
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: because it's like a domino effect when there's that many
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: deer and you run one out and it runs over another,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and then they both run over the rest of them,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: and then they just all ago, you know, So it's
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: not spooking. You might not be running over top of
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: all the deer, but if you run over one and
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: then it runs over top of them, same difference. So
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I was trying to like be as safe as possible
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: get in there because I couldn't see exactly what trails
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: they were using in the river. I didn't have enough
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: information to be that aggressive and just go in and
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: blow in there and hang us thatt. I could just
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: see the general area they were coming out of in
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the river from our point of view. So I got
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: close enough that first day to kind of see. Then
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I knew, Okay, the bucks are using the same little
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: ravine all the bucks used it. I saw it that
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: first morning. They went back in, and I thought that evening, okay,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: maybe they're doing a little bit of a circle. I'm
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna give this tree one more sit. Well,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that evening they came right back out of that ravine.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: I didn't get a shot. So I was like, Okay,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: now I've got them, pegg. I know right where they're
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: coming out into this field. So the next day I
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: moved in a lot tighter, and then my buddy Andy
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: showed up, and so we could kind of double team
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: on on that river because two different groups of shooters
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: were coming out in two places, and we had them
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: pegged and so we had a different wind. And we
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: went in and uh, actually me and my brother sat
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: in a cornfield where they were kind of pinching down
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: in between um like feed, which is like what farmers
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: cut for silide. It looks like corn, but it's not.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: And then a cornfield and in the alfalfa kind of
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: pinched down like a hundred yards between it. So we
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: got the wind right sat in that corn and killed
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: one of those big shooters at first or that second nine.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: So that was one of those deals where Okay, they're
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: not they're not coming by this set. We got it. Now,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: We've got the intel we need removing, you know. And
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: so we just kept bouncing closer and closer until we
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: put ourselves in the game. Wyoming totally different. That was
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: a pure guess on my part when I killed that deer,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: and um, it was like a five acre alfalfa pivot
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: in the middle of nothing, so like Sage Hills you
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: can imagine that, and then a bottom with an alf
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: alpha pivot. And there was one group of car was
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: on one side and then just canyons and goalies on
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the other side. And so we saw this deer from
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: the interstate. Um, we saw some deer feed down the alfalfa,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: like eleven thirty in the afternoon. We're like, that looks
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: like a buck. We pull over glass it like, oh
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: my gosh, biggest deer I've ever seen in Wyoming. So
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: it's like, okay, all focus goes to this deer now.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: So me and Mike had tried literally we laid flat
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: in the south alpha field one night, um and we
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: had every deer over two deer come out into the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: south Alpha field. We beat him all except for one though,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: that then ran over top of our big shooter and
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: they ran out of the field. So that was awful.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Like I thought it's over, because they went into the
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: stage the next morning, gone, next evening, gone, next day.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: No show in the entire field. So we're like, okay,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: we were at him out for sure. You know, he's
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: just not going to tolerate that. And so at that point,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: it was like, there's only one place I felt like
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: that we couldn't see, and that was this cottonwood patch.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: It's like five six acres of like pond, old ponds,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: a little creek, like cattails, cottonwoods, just like somewhere he
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: would go like when he got pressured, I felt like.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: And so we went in there and I knew he
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't you know, he had changed. That's what I knew.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna be stubborn and just keep hammering this
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: spot when he's not there. I can see for a mile,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: you know, he's not here. So we just took a
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: guess and and me and Michael went in and hung
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: us set and all the other bucks did not come
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: and range. Like we were not hunting the group of
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: deer anymore. We were hunting just one single deer. And
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: we took a chance and moved instead of just doing
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: the same thing with you know, where all the other
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: deer were coming out. And I'll be danged if an
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: hour before dark I didn't look up and he was
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: walking right at us and thirty eight yards walked right
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: by us and broad day light. So um, that was
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: that was a little bit of luck. But it was
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: again one of those things where it's like he's not here.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: He's like, this is opening weeks. He's just bad to food,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: that's it. Bad to food. And if he's not in
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: this area, he's not I mean at least not in
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the daylight. There's no reason to keep keep coming back
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: and trying to hunt him where he was two days ago.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: But he's gone, you know, so well, it just kind
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: of started moving. It brings to mind, I mean, a
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: really important part of any trip where it seems like,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: at least in my situation too, you're head into a
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: hunt like this, you begin with a basic idea like
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: all right, I think I want to start in this
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: zone because of the what I saw in the map,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: or because of history or whatever it is. And you
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: go in and you kind of observe and hunting your
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: way in, and you hope that the scenario will play
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: out kind of like it did in Nebraska for you,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: where you got eyes on one. Then you can make
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: some adjustments move in and maybe do that a time
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: or two or a couple of times, and you're able
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: to close the distance and and make it all come together.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: But at some point on some of these trips, you
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: get to the halfway point or something and that hasn't happened,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and you're still kind of blind, and you don't have
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: something zero in on, and you get to the last
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: day or two or three, and um, I don't know,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you've done this more times than I have, I'm sure,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: so maybe you don't have this little little whispers a
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: panic in the back of your mind. But at least
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: I get a little bit of that. Just man, you're
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: only three days left now, only two days left now,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: and you you really have to control that concern and
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: and make good decisions still, but it's it's harder when
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: you don't have anything solid to work with except for
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: the fact that you can cross this spot off the
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: map and you can cross that spot off the map
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: because you know it's not happening there. Um, you just
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: gave me a really good example of of something that
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: you do, which is sometimes go to the one place
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: you haven't yet. But can you talk to me about
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: anything else you're thinking about when you get to the
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: back half of a short trip like that and you
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: you still don't have them pegged? What are what are
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: the things you're switching to now? Like what's your ace
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: in the pocket that you jump to? When it's day
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: four of a six day hunt or day five of
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: a six day hunting, You're you're striking out so far?
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: What are you doing? What are you thinking? Yeah, I
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: mean there's always that little bit of panic, you know. Um,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: there's no way around it, because I mean, because you
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: fail more than you succeed in bow hunting, you know,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: and so it's kind of hard not to have that
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: little bit of panic in the back of your mind
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: where you're like, dang, I don't I don't have anything
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: to chase, and I've got two days left and I
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: got nothing. You know, I feel like I've wasted the
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: last four or five days and like, I have no intel,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, you've crossed out a lot,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of what I try to go to.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: At that point, I'm like, Okay, I don't have any
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: good information, but I have a lot of places I
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: know not to go, you know. I know that's like
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: not the ticket. You know, they're the deer aren't using there.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: So at that point, I just start narrowing it down
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: on like and and sometimes it just doesn't work, you know.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you just leave empty handed and you did everything
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: you could and you made all the right decisions and
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: he just didn't come by, you know, something happened. But
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: I'm constantly at that point. Um, Like I said, if
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: it's not the rut or something I'm I'm moving. And
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I feel like that keeps my spirits up to like,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: once I hunt a stand for two or three days
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and I see nothing, it's hard to keep your like
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: morale high and your confidence. I'll be like, I feel
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: like I've been to those sets where I'm just like, well,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: let's go back and get skunked again over here, you know,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: because that's what's gonna happen, you know, which is not
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: a good place to be because you know, and I've
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: been there a lot, and uh where I'm just like,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: I know, like it's not gonna happen here. But so
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: I tried, like no matter what, if I go to
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: a new set or a hanging hunt in an area
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I haven't been for some reason, my confidence is just up.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: And so because I'm like, it feels fresh. I don't
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: know what's here. This could be money, you know, and
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: most of the time it's not. But sometimes, you know,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: just like in Wyoming it was, but I don't really
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: have like a like a secret sauce, you know. At
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: that point, it's just grinding, you know, and hunting is
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: hard the last day and the first day like never,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: you know, there's never like a lazy moment where I'm like, yeah,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: probably ain't gonna happen, and so like let's go out
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: you know, a little later and and you know, not
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: pay attention as much. Like I feel like I the
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: harder it gets is the harder I hunt. And I
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: feel like that's always been the key for us, is
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: like we we almost get more mad, like as we're
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: getting beat, like we're getting our bloods kicked, and it's
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: like not that like, Okay, let's just give up. It's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: like you know what, like let's dig in and like
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: let's let's figure these suckers out, like what are they doing?
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: You know? And so we're constantly, like you we'll be
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: sitting in a stand like looking at areals like where
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: could he be? Like okay, we saw him, he here here,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: or you know, we got nothing like this is this
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: side of the farm is just like ghost and so
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: like we're constantly strategizing, which to me is the fun
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: part of white till Like that's why I do it.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: I because there's so much strategy involved and they're so
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: hard to kill, like a big mature white tie with
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: a bow, like in five days. It's almost impossible, you know.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, like that's what's fun about it is it
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: seems a little bit unattainable to show up and you're
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: like no information, like okay, fine and kill a big
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: mature deer in five days, Um, okay, Like let's dig in.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Like there can't be any downtime, you know, you can't
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: be like eating doughnuts back at camp at night thirty
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: in the morning, because that's just you know, I mean,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: unless that's your like if you're cool with not killing
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: anything or not being successful, and hunting is just a
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: social thing for you, which it is for some people.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: You know. Don't make yourself uncomfortable, you know, enjoy yourself,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: but don't be mad at the end of the week
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: when you have a tag in your pocket. For me,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: the fun part of it is the grind. It's showing up,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: getting my butt kicked. That was a bad decision. Okay,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: let's move on next, Like, okay, next, What's what's next?
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: What's next? What's next? And so that's my mind is
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: always like if this sit sucks, what are we doing
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: in the morning, you know, And and then just keeping
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: my head on a swivel. And I feel like there's
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: really no secret to white to hunting other than that
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: you just have to like hate losing so much that
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: you won't give up. Pretty true, that's very true. You've
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: you talked about, you know, just how your your aggress
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: your aggression level has to change too throughout right, and
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: you gotta keep on grinding. But when you get to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: that back half of a trip and you haven't gotten
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: it figured out yet, what is aggressive when you say aggressive? Like,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: what does that mean? What does that look like for you?
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: When you're down in the last couple of days and
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: you're trying to figure out what's next. What are those
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: aggressive moves that you will pull out of the bag
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: of tricks or the the places that you'll explore on
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: day six or seven that you would never touch on
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: day one or two. Yeah, it's absolutely, It's it's mainly
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: the wind. So like I'm I'm so always like conscious
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: of which way the winds blowing the deer that I'm
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: blowing out whatever. So there's always the places where the
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: majority of the deer like using those those intersections, those
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: the money spots that are normally in the center of
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: what you're trying to hunt, and like there's that's where
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: you're most likely to get busted and you're always giving
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: something up. So those are the places I'm going. I'm
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: going in the betting areas. I'm getting close. I'm I'm
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: moving into bow range of the the most well used
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: you know, funnel on the farm and where i know
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: I'm going to spook some deer, probably some are gonna
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: get me, Like I'm giving it up, Like I'm giving
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: those up and I'm just moving in to be as
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: a as aggressive as possible. Um in those moments. So
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: like in the rut, that's gonna be let's move into
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: the bedroom. Let's get on that in that cedar thicket,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: like right on it, like in that creek bottom. If
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: deer come behind us, they come behind us. But we
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: got to get in there, um to try to get
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: within bow range and kill one. Um early season, that's
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: you know, let's move in on those four trails that
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: are dumping out, you know. And I know we've got
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: those three that some of the deer used sometimes that's
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: gonna be down when, but it doesn't matter. We got
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: to get in there, get right in the middle of them. Um.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: We got tonight and tomorrow left, Like what do we
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: what do we got to lose? Like, there's no reason
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: to sit back and hope one straggles by over here
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: for the sake of not spooking those five doughs that
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: are going to come out over here, you know. So
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: that's the kind of thing that that will do. And um,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: you know a lot of times it's kind of in
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: the rut. Andy my buddy called it finding them schooling
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: because he's a bass fisherman and so he uses that
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: term like when they're chasing. Does a lot of times
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: we'll we'll have stands on her back and slipping through
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: and because for some reason, they do in the same
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: areas every year, and then we'll see them with their eyes. Um,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: there'll be four or five bucks and like on our
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: place in Mississippi on a hot dough and they're just
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: running her back and forth and running or run her
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: all over the place. And then we wait till we
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: see that to get up in a tree, because they're
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: gonna be in that bottom. They're going to be on
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: that ridge all day, back and forth. And so like
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: we call it, you know, now after hunt with him
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit down there, it's like, all right, we're
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna walk until we see him schooling and
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: then we're getting a tree. You got you gotta give
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: me more details on this one because this is unconventional,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: so very so very talk to me, sorry, I was
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: gonna say, talk to me about like when do you
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: pull that one out? In what kind of places would
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: that actually work? And then I need to know like, Okay,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: what time are you getting out there, what's the how
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: are you using the wind to approach these places that
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: you think they'll be schooling? And then when you find
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: a bunch of them chasing a doll, how do you
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: manage to get set up close enough without spooking any
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: of them? So, so give me the whole rundown from
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the nutstables, right, Okay, So I'll just give you. Like
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: so two years ago on our place down in Mississippi, Um,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: we had a deer. It was a six five biggest
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: deer on the farm. It's an absolutely giant and so
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: it's super hard to hunt because down there it's just
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: just really just timber. I mean it's just thick, swampy timber.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: And so like you've got to be a very good
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: woodsman to kill him down there. I mean there's a
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: lot of bucks, but like to target one and go
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: after it, you gotta be a good woodsman. So, like
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: we had no intel, he hadn't shown up, so it's
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: like all right, let's just let's just get in there.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: So this is like December four, which is peak Rutt
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: and where we're at Mississippi. So this is like when
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: they're on dough is hard, like that week out of
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: the year that they're just chasing and like multiple bucks,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Like a hot dough has multiple bucks with her um
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: and it's just that so one mature buckle, I have her,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: and he'll be it's almost like he's fending off three
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: year olds and two year olds left and right, and
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: so that chaos when that happens. Those deer are so
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: occupied with each other you can get away with a
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: ton um and so it's almost like when two bowl
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: elk are fighting and you can move in on them. Um,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: they're so focused on each other that you can walk
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: right up to him and hit one in the head
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: with a hammer. He's not going to know it. So
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: that's what we're calling school. And like when those bucks
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: are like that one big one's got the dough and
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: he's just fending off bucks left and right, and so
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: that's like a school of deer just like kind of
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: migrating around in the woods, which is you don't find
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: every day, but there's like a week out of the
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: year where that's happening a lot. And so that's what
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: we would do. We were like, we like, let's go,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: So we put stands on our back and we went
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: into this place we call the Witches Dan, which is
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: on our lease, and it's like sanctuary almost like we
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: never go in there, you know, it's just hard to hunt,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: and there's really no way to hunt it safe. But
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: this week out of the year, the deer just like
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: running crazy in this because it's like they don't have pressure.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: It's like their home. So we just eased in, eased in,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: winding our face, winding her face, like I'm talking about,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: one step at a time, eyes peeled, one step at
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: a time, and all of a sudden we see a
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: buck and then a dough whether and then like all
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, there's just bucks walking circles around them,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: and we're like two hundred yards away, and so he'll
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: run one buck off. We move in a little closer,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: he comes back to his dough, he runs another buck off.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: We move in a little closer, and so we got
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: as close as we felt like we could. We're probably
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: five yards away, and but it's thick and and um
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: in this bottom, and so we just go up a
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: tree as quick and as quiet as possible while they're
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: chasing back and forth. We got bucks running under us,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: but they're just not as sharp as they normally are
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: during this week. They're just one thing on their mind,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: and um, it's a it's the most aggressive way that
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: you can hunt, in my opinion, And we we got
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: up in a tree and UM ended up killing that
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: that big six by five. He uh, he ran a
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: buck off and as he was coming back, I hit
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the horns together and he was just in one of
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: those moods and he ran straight to the base of
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: this tree and I killed him. So it was like
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: just and that would never work in any other scenario,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: but like when they're running that hard, you can be
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: really aggressive and just move right in on them. And
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I almost killed the buck the same week doing the
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: same thing called crooked brow, and he was the next
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: bagest here on the farm, which ended up killing last year.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: But we did the same thing. We moved into it.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: We found him with his dough and he was drowning
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: bucks off and we got up in a tree and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: had him come by three times that night and never
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: got a shot. So it's it's interesting because it sounds crazy,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: but you're not the only one who does that. I
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: remember talking to Andrea Quisto about something like this, and
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: he he talked about how they'll be these days, which
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: I think any one of us who's hunted a lot
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: during the ruck can think of. When you're sitting there
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: and what you think should be a great place, and
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: there's nothing happening right, it's it's dead. And days like
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: that are days when they're schooling up somewhere else and
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: every buck in the area is in this other draw
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: a half a mile away or something, and and his
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: recommendation is to get out of the tree, dummy, and
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: go find where they're all at, because they're all somewhere umr.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: And like you said, they're out of their mind to
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: a degree, so you can get away with bumping a
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: deer or two when you find that concentration because they're
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: in there for a reason and they're, like you said,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: not quite on their a game. Um So there's there's
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: something to this. My question though, for you is outside
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: of specifically when you're down there on this one property,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: when would you turn to that, Like what's the what's
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the queue or what's the point in a hunt? We're like, okay,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: it's time to find out where they're schooling. Is this uh,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: only the last day of the hunt? Or is it
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: when you realize like, oh, they're all locked down because
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: you happen to see it off in the distance when
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: you're driving and like, okay, I gotta do that, Like
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: what what it pushes you to do that because it
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: seems like, like you said, very aggressive, You're covering a
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: bunch of ground, you're walking around. It's high risk in
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: a certain way, it is, and it's but it's the
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: one week you can get away with it, you know.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: It's like I think it's not so much like, Okay,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: this is day five in my hunts as it is. Okay,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: today's when it's it's happening, like I only have five
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: days of this, you know, and so um, it's it's
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: kind of that more than it is anything where Okay,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: I'm driving there's a buck locked down with the dough,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: and and okay, there's a buck locked down with the
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: dough or you know people in the area, and my
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: buddies are like I've seen, you know, there's three bucks
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: ten the doughs over here. You know. You know, just
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: information tells me that that's happening. And when I'm sitting
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: in good places like like you were just saying, and
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: like it's crickets, there's only one reason that that could be,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: you know, and that's because there's eight bucks on the
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: same dough somewhere, you know, And so that's what I'm
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: looking for. You know. That's when I'm like, all right,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: you know it's time, like we gotta go find them.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: And so we're slipping, and I mean we're not just
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: like trampling through the woods were very carefully being super stupid,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: I guess, but we're like walking slowly and like because
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: they could all be betted. Normally, though there's there's several giveaways.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: There'll be young bucks standing before you'll see the big ones.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: There's normally like those little guys on the outskirts that
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: are just circling, just walking circles, trying to get in
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: there and steal this dough for a second, you know,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: And so when you see that, you better get your
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: buy nose up and start searching, because that magical time
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: when you see that there is a mature deer with
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: a dough somewhere right there. Like if you see young
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: bucks just not leaving an area and you're like, well,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: they don't have a dough, No they don't, but I
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: guarantee you within a hundred yards there's a hot dough
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: and there's a big buck. So like that's what that's
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: what we're looking for now, I know, Mississippi is unique
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: with the timing of the rut in certain places, but
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: across most of the country, when you're in Pennsylvania or
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Iowa or something like that, what would you say the
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: best window for this kind of thing is, I'd say
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the tent through the twentie of November, um normally is
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: when that's going to go down. A lot of times,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: that first week in November is a lot of young bucks,
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of so you'll see big bucks cruise into
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: but you're I think it's one peak Estra's or those
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: first few doughs really are hitting. And like when I've
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: seen that the most is like, yeah, second we to
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: third week in November where they're really um concentrated on.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: I guess it's not when most of the dose are
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: in heat. Um. I mean, and it could be too.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: I guess it's just situational. But I'd say I've seen
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: that happen more than like in the Midwest, that uh
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: tent through of November, And I'm sure that could happen
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: on the first of November in the right situation, you
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: get the right dough, when that first dough comes into heat,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: I'd say that that's happening somewhere Um, but you just
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: may not know it because if it's you know, you
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: might still be seeing bucks because there's only one dough
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: in heat, you know, But if she comes in there's
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: there's definitely gonna be bucks on her like that. And
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: so I just think I see it more that because
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: there's more does in heat, And so you see that
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: happening more visibly on the side of the road. You
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: see it kind of everywhere. So, um, if you're paying attention,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: you'll know when when that's happening. Yeah, Well, what do
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: you typically do? Leave when you're up in a tree
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and you spot a shooter like the buck or one
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: that definitely catches your eye and he's locked on a
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: dough and it's just the two of them and they're
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: just kind of working away from you, or you see
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: them bedded down, you know, a hundred and twenty yards
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: away or something. Are you are you ever going to
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: get out of your tree and make a move on
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: him or are you always gonna wait? Or do you
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: ever call? What's your what's your move? When you see that? Yeah?
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: If I see a buck with a dough, like a
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: big deer with a dough and it's just them too,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: like and that's why, Like that's after I think that
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: schooling like we've been talking about happens, like when he
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: like finally finds them all off, and then he's taken
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: her somewhere that is off the beaten path, away from
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: a high concentration and deer out in the middle of
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: a c rp out in a little hedgerow somewhere. Um,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: I don't call to him at all, because that's what
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: he's trying to avoid. And and um, when I see that,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: I just let him be and try to find where
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: they bead. Um. Because if it's out in the hedgerow,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: like in Illinois where we hunted for years, like they
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: used hedgerows a lot, big Bucks. You you'd watch them
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: walk a dough a half mile out on a little
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: brushy hedgerow and they'd keep her there. Um. So what
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: we would do is set up that afternoon or the
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: next sit on you know, on that hedgerow, like for
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: when he either left her or like he pushed her
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: back down that hedgerow, Like normally they're gonna come back
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: down at some point, right, So we would try to
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: get between where we thought that dough might want to
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: go or where he might go whenever he left her,
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: um or we would try to make a play on him,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: like a spot in stock deal, you know, if the
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: terrain would allow it. Um Or maybe it's the last
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: day and I see that, you know, and i gotta
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: leave when I'm getting down and I'm I'm going, I'm
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: getting the wind right and I'm gonna make a play
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: like let's go, you know. So that's tough. I do
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: not normally ever call to him, because I've watched that
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: push him. He would just take her and push her
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: further and further away, just to get her, get her
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: away from that. Um. Now, if there's alright, but like
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: if he runs a buck off, if he if that
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: schooling's happened, calling and calling still works for sure, because
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: he's still like very aggressively running bucks away. Um And
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: so like that buck in Mississippi, he literally locked up
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: and plowed this other buck like just sent him through
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: the freaking woods like cartwheeled him. And like he was
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: like and he like had that cocky attitude and every
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: deer's got a different attitude. You could just see it.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Like he was like I'm the man, you know, Like
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: and as soon as he did that, I like snort,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: weez and hit the horns together and he was like
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: what you know, like and he just barreled right into
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: the tree. But we were in that bubble. You know.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: You can't do that from five yards away and have
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: it work. You gotta be like on him and like
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: he's got to think like you're a threat to take
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: his dough and then it then it would work, Um
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: for sure. But like if he's got her by himself,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I've very maybe never have called the deer off a
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: hot dough that was just alone with her. You know,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: it just doesn't work. You that's a tough nut to crack. Yeah,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: if you figure that out, let me know. I've never
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: been able to get him to leave that dope for anything.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: So one thing on their mind talking about all the
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: different aggressive things that you're trying on these hunts, one
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: thing we haven't really touched on would be like decoy.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Is there anything like that? Is that ever anything you
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: ever pull out for certain situations like this? Yeah, very rarely.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: But I did kill a deer last year just and um,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: he didn't come as a decoy, But the decoy is
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: the only reason I killed him. So I did everything
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: we talked about his first sit in Illinois. Um, I
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: was like, I know there's some shooters. There's a farm
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: we call the South Farm, but I never killed a
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: deer on it, and I'd really only hunted it maybe
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: once or twice in my life. It was just a
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: property that we had permission to hunt. And it's a
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: big open switch grass farm on a river bottom, like
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: very little woods, just patches of trees. And so I
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I'm gonna go in an
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: observation tree. Like I was literally a hundred fifty yards
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: off a grawl road, but I could see the whole
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: farm from this spot. And I was like, I'm gonna
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: get in a tree. I'm gonna put a decoy out,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: and if a big bucks, you know, cruising or something,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll kill him. You know, I still want to
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: be in the game, but I want to get eyes
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: on a big shooter and try to find one. And
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: so first morning and um, we're sitting there and literally
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: had me and Mica had like yet he's full of coffee.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Like we're just like enjoying the morning, right, We're just
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: up there drinking coffee, washing little bucks cruise the bottom
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: like and then all of a sudden, this big shooter
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: opts out like nine o'clock with a dough and he's
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: like fending bucks off, fending bucks off. And then all
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: of a sudden he starts pushing her right to us,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, holy cow, dude, like this might work,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: you know. Well, he pushes her under us like fifty
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: yards and this these briars that are like eight ft high.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: So I only know he's there because I can see
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: these briars when they move, I can see where he's going. Well,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: my decoy is out to the left. He still hadn't
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: seen it. Well, all of a sudden, like she gets
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: tired of his business or whatever. After they've been there
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: for like an hour, she darts right by my decoy
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: across the field and into the switch grass. Well he's
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: out on her like big hundred six deer, like big deer,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: and and as he blazes by, he locks up his
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: brakes on my decoy and just like bristles up for
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: like three seconds, and I shoot him. And like so
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: he didn't come to the decoy, But when he busted
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: out in the open and seen that buck standing there,
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: he like just fro like he just locked on him,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: and he wasn't going to hit my decoy. He was
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: like walking by it, like to go get the dough,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: but he like stopped him long enough for me to
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: get an arrow in him. And it was the coolest time. Like,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: holy cow, it was one of the few times I
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: ever killed a deer on a decoy, and it was
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: just slowed him down enough like to kill it, you know.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: So it was a it was a cool hunt. But
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: that was an observation sit that just worked, you know.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: But it only worked because of the decoy, I guess.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: Is that is that something that you employ often on
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: observation hunts like that, because that's something I never thought about,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: But it does make a lot of sense. If you're
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: in a place that's not high deer traffic but good visibility,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: why not throw out that decoy just in case? Yeah,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: I do that. That's mainly when I use a decoy.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: If I'm going somewhere where I can see a long
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: ways or a deer can see where I'm at from
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: a long ways, I'll take a decoy set it out
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: because I'm like at work, I'm not going to run
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: deer off with it, you know, And that's always my fear.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: But like if a giant buck is two hundre yards
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: away and I snort, we is at him, he looks
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: and sees a buck standing over there, He's way more
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: likely to come over, you know. So that's kind of
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: when I use a decoy. I normally like, if I'm
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: on a big buck, I hardly probably never am going
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: to take a decoy in there, you know, um, because
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: I just like to put a little attention on my
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: area as possible. But wow, what's your what's your decoy
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: set up? Like? How do you like to position it
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: in relation to where you are? How far away all that? Yeah?
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: I um, I put it about thirty yards away normally
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: if I can and face it at me kind of
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: at an angle, um, because what I've seen is most
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: dear like to come at him from the side. They
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: don't come head on. They'll come at him to try
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: to hit him from the side, and so and and
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: I'll put it where the wind is blowing from the
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: decoy straight to me, because they always a lot of
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: times those bucks will circle and try to come on
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: the down wind side to smell what dear it is,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: or you know, maybe it's a buck that you beat
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: them in the past. Or something. I don't know what
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: they're checking for, but a lot of times those bucks
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: are trying to smell what deer that is, so like
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: they I guess they don't recognize it maybe or something,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: and they're trying to circle down win. So that normally
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: puts them like top pin like right there, you know,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: So I try to face it at me and then
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: because they come like at the like broadside on the
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: decoy at the headside, normally, um, when they're going to
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: hit it. So yeah, obviously that's not a guarantee, but
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: that's what I've seen most most of the time. Yeah,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: I want to make a I want to make a
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: hard pivot here, and and kind of wrap it up
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: with one final theme. I guess, um, I'm gonna make
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: an assumption, and I know the assumptions, right, I just
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: don't know exactly how it manifests itself. But given just
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: given how successful you've been on the archery circuit, and
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: then of course in hunting to you must you must
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: have your men until game just dialed like, you must
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: have an unbelievable mental fitness level. And and I'm guessing
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: that you work on that in some way or that
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: you think about that or that that's important to you
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: in some way or another. Um, I guess he is
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: that Is that true? Is that something that you think about? Yeah?
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: I think, Um, I've been forced to with with the
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: tournament side of things, just to really figure out how
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: to exhale and and beat people with with strategy and
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: and um my mental approach. Yeah. So I mean that's
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: a huge part of everything I do, and I don't
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: even mean for it to be anymore. Yeah, that's and
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: then maybe that's why you've gotten to the point you've
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: gotten to. It's its second nature. UM. I'm curious about
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: your routines. I imagine, like before before a tournament, you
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: have some kind of routines before the tournament to get
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: your mind right. I imagine that you've got some kind
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: of routine maybe before you settle in for every single shot.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: I imagine you've got something like that. Maybe even after
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: a tournament when you're kind of winding down and trying
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: to think about what went right, what went wrong? What
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: can you learn from that something like that. Um. If
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: that's If that's the case, I'm curious if you have
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: anything similar when it comes to your hunting life. Are
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: there any routines that you have to help you get
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: get ready for a hunt or when you're struggling on
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: a hunt or anything like that. Yeah. Um, I think
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: it's all both down to where I'm focused on from
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: from the first, from from go, and that is the process.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: So even in a tournament, like I learned a long
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: time ago, if I focus on end result, it never
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: works out good. If I'm focused on this is a
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: world championship. If I screw up all the things that
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: are at stake, um, you know, I'm running out of targets, Like,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: none of that ever works. That mental approach is not
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: gonna work. I have to stay focused on the steps
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: it's gonna take to get me to my end goal.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: So that's like, first, what's my goal here? Okay, that's
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: the buck I want or I want a mature dear,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: whatever that is. I want to win this world championship. Okay,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: what's the steps is gonna take to give me that? Okay?
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: And then I never think about the end result again
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: and never think about that goal again. I'm literally focused
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: on step number one to step number two, the process,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: the journey, the strategy that's gonna lead to my end
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: goal because it does mean no good to look at
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: what's at steak? You know, okay, that could be the
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: biggest typical ever shot. You know, okay, what does me
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: no good to think about that anymore? How do I
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: get how do I get in on it? So like
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: then hunting, I'm not worked up on what's at steak
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: when he's coming in. You know, I'm not thinking about
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: anything other than the process, which is you know, from
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: so shooting it's I have a complete process from the
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: time I step up to the steak um where I'm
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: keep my mind busy because if you let your mind
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: just kind of sit there, it automatically goes to worst
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: case scenario. What's this ache, don't screw up, don't miss,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: don't punch the trigger, you know, all those things, and
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: when you think those, you automatically do them. Like your
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: mind is incredibly powerful, and if it's not working for you,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: then you are screwed most of the time. So that's
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: the same thing I think I take into hunting that
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: I don't even intentionally do it, but I find myself,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: like the other day in Ohio, when the biggest buck
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: of my life is standing there at thirty five yards
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: making a scrape I'm not even thinking about it, and
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: it was so weird. After it all happened, I was
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: just like, that was maybe the calmest I've ever been.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: And I was self filming eight in Typical that I
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: hadn't had a daylight picture of since September five. You know,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: It's like I felt like I was just like, oh, cool,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: look at that. It's a giant, you know. But like
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: I never even the thought never came into my mind
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: what was at stake, and I didn't realize it until
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: after it was over. I wasn't panicking like if I
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: don't get this done right here, I'm never going to
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: see him again, which is probably the truth, and like
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: I just didn't let my mind go there. I just,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: I guess have I've shot tournaments since I was six,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: compiledly competitive on my whole life, and so I'm almost
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: numb to some of those Like as soon as those
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: thoughts come into my mind, I think I just block
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: them out so far that like they don't even register.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: I guess, I don't know. It's hard to explain, but
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: it's like I don't know. I think it's really kept
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: me grounded, and it doesn't mean I don't get nervous
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: or don't don't love it, or get super excited, because
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: I do. Like if you watch me win a tournament
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: or they're compete against me, you know, like I'm shaking,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: I'm nervous, I'm like pumped hunting, like I get jacked,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: but like I don't crumble. I guess it's a difference.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: I don't panic. It's more of an excitement. And um,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: it's not anxiety. It's excitement, you know, like, oh this
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: is cool, you know, like this is happening. You know,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: like Okay, let's make sure like we got a good range.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: Like and that's the main thing with me, honey. I'm
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: constantly ranging, and it keeps my mind focused on how
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: far he is rather than everything else that could go wrong.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: So my range finders in my hand non stop. So
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: I'm clicking him every time he moves. I'm like okay,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: forty one, okay, thirty eight, okay, Like it's constant, and
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: so when he turns broadside, my mind is only on
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: how far he is. So then as I knock up,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: it's only on what pen to use and where to
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: put it, and so I'm at full draw. Breathe take
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: a breath, forty yard pin bottom of him, squeeze, boom,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: It's over. You know. So it's like then I get
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: nervous because I'm like, Holy Day was the biggest deer
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: in my life. He could have turned at any second,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: you know, Like none of that stuff went through my
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: head until it was over. You know. So I think
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: the main thing is just focusing on the steps in
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: the process instead of just looking at the rack and
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: focusing on what you could screw up and what's at
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: steak when that big one coming in, and even the
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: whole week. You know, you're just so focused on you know,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: the steps and the process and the strategy that you're
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: never really letting your mind go to a you know,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: a bad place where like you think you don't have
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: a chance. I guess, yeah, and that's that's kind of
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: where I was gonna go next, because that's it's it's
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: hard to do. It's hard not to let your mind
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: go to a bad place, at least for me, because
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: of what you just said, Like there's this temptation to
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: always be looking at the end results and how your
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: chances are slipping away, or how opportunities were past or
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: all these different things. You know, it can be being
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: a goal oriented person, like like I'm a very goal
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: or a very competitive person, and so it's very hard
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: not to do that. But what you're saying, like trying
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: to focus on the process has been like the the
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: one thing that I keep on trying to actively do
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: and get better at, and that does help. Is whenever
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: you start feeling that way, just just banish that and
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: try to remember just what's the next step, what's the
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: next thing I can do? Um. I know it was
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: a year or two ago for you. I think you
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: you went to Iowa for the first time, I think
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: it was, and you had like eight or nine days
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: that just could not get it done. And I think
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: that was unbelievably frustrating for you. Uh. Is there anything else?
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, is there anything else you're doing too actively?
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: I mean you, I know you mentioned that sometimes you
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: don't even have those thoughts anymore because you're self process oriented.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: But do you ever get that whisper and then you
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: have Is there a mental tool or is there just
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: like a word or a phrase or anything that you're
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: like snap you out of it? Um? I don't know, Yeah,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: I mean I still definitely they creep in for sure. Like, um, yeah,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: that Iowa trip was a brutal trip, man. I mean
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: I waited my like five years to draw that tag
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: and it was just like jeez, like this is the sucks.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: There's not a booner behind every trip? What going on here? Um? No?
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Like yeah, So like this year, like I constantly have
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: to keep myself in check, like in tournaments and hunting.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: It's not as bad because I think it's not. Tournaments
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: are high stress from target one because like if you
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: make a mistake, like it's pretty much most of the
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: time it's over. Those guys are so good, So it's
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: like it's way harder to keep those negative thoughts out
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: in tournaments and so and I do that literally from
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: January to August. So by the time hunting gets here,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: I've I've I'm pretty I guess um good at blocking
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: those negative thoughts out for hunting season. And I just
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: look forward to it so much that it's like the
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: negative thoughts I have in hunting or don't even compare
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: to the one that come into my mind when I'm shooting.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: Like I guess I'd be a world this year. Like
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: I had a great year, but I had got my
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: butt kicked on a few times by the same guys year, um,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: and so like I'd be a world. We were battling
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: it out for the World Championship and going into the
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: final day for the final ten targets, he having by
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: three points when and he doesn't make mistakes very often,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: and it was like, dang, you know, my mind started
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: to go to that place for like you lost, like
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: it's over, Like give up, dude, Like stop putting yourself
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: through this, because I'm like, I'm the type of person
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: that hates losing so much in every scenario that like
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: I will torture myself and think I have a chance
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: to win when I don't, you know, like I that's
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: my fault is I'm too dumb to quit, That's what
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: I say, because I'm like, I can still do this,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: you know, Like and so I'd be a world. I
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: probably should have given up, honestly, because it's like he's
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: not gonna make a big enough mistake for me to
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: get this back in tin targets. But I was like, no,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: like we can still do it. You know. It's the
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: same old, same old, same old. And I'll be thanking
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: if he didn't. And um, I come back and won
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: the iby of worlds, and it was like wow, Like
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: if my mental if I had just like let my
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: mind go there, I would not have been at the
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: place to capitalize on that. And that's the same thing
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: in hunting, like if you let yourself and we all have.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: I've been sitting there with my bottom lip stuck out
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: in a tree stand on day five and that's when
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: I turn and look and there he is. And I'm
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: so unprepared for that moment. Did I screw it up?
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: You know? And so I think that's the main thing.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: It's just being in a good enough mental place and
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: focused enough that when that opportunity does come, you can
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: capitalize on it. And so I think that's more what
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: I've gotten better at over the years than anything is.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: Even when it's been four days of crickets and I
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: think the chances of seeing a big buck are like
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: one per cent. I try to steal keep myself in
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: a good enough mental place that if he does step out,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: I'm ready. I know how far that tree is, I
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: know what I'm gonna do if he comes in over here.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: I know where I need to stop him in that window.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: So I'm constantly trying to think of the things that
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: are going to give me an advantage if this dear
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: comes in And yeah, I can still be in a
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: bad mood, I can still think it probably ain't gonna happen.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: But I'm normally mentally prepared enough to capitalize if I'm
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: giving that opportunity. And that's I totally learned that from tournaments.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: But it carries over into hunting so so much. Yeah,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: so what about when you do fail, when when you
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: you stayed ready and you were ready for it and
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: you miss or you wounded deer, or you are shooting
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: in a tournament and you're so close but you you
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: shank the shot and you missus by a little bit,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, how do you handle that failure in
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: the moment, How do you recover from it? How do
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: you get back on the saddle. Well, in tournaments, I say,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: I give myself one day to celebrate or to be
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: mad at myself, because we got to prepare for the
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: next one. So that's what I say, because I've I've
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: you know, you lose more than you win, and that's
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: just the way it is. Um in hunting in a tournament,
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: so um and hunting, you know, it's it's brutal, I guess,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: because it's more of jeezus not who knows when the
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: next chance is going to be, you know, in tournaments,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, the next tournaments next weekend, I'm gonna
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: win that one, you know, like I'm gonna I'm gonna
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: regroup and win that one. But with a giant deer
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: or an animal you're after, you don't even know if
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: there is going to be another opportunity. So it's a
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: lot harder to recover for me when I blow that
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: than a tournament, I guess. So like the main thing
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: I do is just regroup. I'm like I have to, Like,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: obviously you're gonna be down, like you're bombed, especially like
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: wound in a big buck is like the worst, you know,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: like it's like pretty final, like you know, he might die,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: he might not and he might never show up again. Um,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: and so it's like I didn't you know That's that's
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: probably the worst feeling as a bowl hunter that you
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: could feel, is sticking up you know, an animal and
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: then like not recovering it and not knowing like is
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: he still alive? Is he dead somewhere? You know? What's
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: going on? I don't know and so um, that's hard
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: to recover from. But you also have to realize that's
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: gonna happen, and that's part of it, and it's easier
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: said than done, but at some point you gotta be
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: able to be like, okay, like that's just part of it.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: It's a sucky part of bow hunting, and um, you've
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: got to do everything you can to make decisions to
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: try not let it happen again, but it probably will
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: if you're hunt enough and shoot enough. And um, you
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: know a lot of times I've found that when you
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: don't if you really put in the effort to recover
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: a deer and you don't recover him, most of the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: time it's because he's still alive. And I found that
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: out so much. You know, you shoot it here like
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: last year, I'll just be straight honest. I shot a
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: deer in Nebraska. Looked like I hit him absolutely perfect,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: and um, he wheeled as the arrow hit him and
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: it went in right in the crease, but it came
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: out like in front of the same shoulders. While we
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: found out later like your eyes see one thing, like
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: no I smoked him or what actually happened is something
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: totally different, and so We actually tracked that deer for
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: fift yards and jumped him, and I'm like, holy cow,
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: I this is the next day, still alive. And then
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: a rifle hunter kills him two months later. It's like what,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: you know, like I would have met everything in the world.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: That deer was dead, you know, and it was just brutally,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: like mentally draining. So I mean, I guess you just
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: have to put in every effort to recover them, every
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: effort to do it right. Um. But then if you don't,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: you have to be able to, you know, move on
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: or or I guess don't. I guess that's your call.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: But I tend to be on the more like I
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: hate losing side, and I'm gonna try to never let
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: that happen again. And you know, missing and is normally
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: because of bad decisions at some point. For me, you know,
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: it's not taking the time to get a perfect range
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: or not, you know, seeing that overhanging lamb or or
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: whatever it may be rushing myself. So um, I try
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: to think about what I did wrong, what I could
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: have done different, and then um learn from it and
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: move on. But you know, failure is definitely a part
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: of bow hunting. Um, a big part of it that
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to deal with and uh some form. Yeah,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: it's it's it doesn't sound very good to say, but
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: getting good at failing is actually a very important part
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: of bow hunting. It. Yeah, there's something that I got mad.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: That's what I told somebody the other day that somebody
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: that we were talking about I won't say who was
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: just always in a bad mood. And Camp like always
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: like something's going wrong, you know, like at the end
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: of the world, like all the time, everybody's probably got
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: that guy. They know it's like the negative Nancy. Nothing's
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: going right. And if dang it, if I wanted something
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: to be mad about hunting Camp, I could find it
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: at any given time, Like if I just wanted so,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: like there's always things that are frustrating or like that
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: just get on your nerves hunting. It's like, gosh, something's
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: not working out right. But you can't you can't have
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: that attitude. It's it's more about I mean, I don't
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: even want to say it, but it's like we're lucky,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: you know, to just get to be out here, you know,
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: hunting and chasing these critters, and like sometimes I just
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: have to remind myself of that because I get so
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: worked up, like chasing an animal, but like I got
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: blinders on, you know, and like I feel like God
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: sometimes brains me back in and it's like, hey, you
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: know what, Like is that really what it's all about?
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: You know, So I gotta really refocus and go, you
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: know what, if it works, it works, I'm gonna give
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: her heck. But I gotta be thankful for just being
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: able to be out here, you know, doing it could
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: be way worse. It could be way worse, and I'm
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: the exact same way. And the thing that has helped
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: me the most, I think just in the last three
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: and a half years is when I find myself in
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: that mental state where I missed a deer or stuff's
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: not going right or whatever, and I'm in the pits
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: there for that evening said or that moment when I'm
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: driving home in the truck or whatever, if I just remember,
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: like remember your kids, Like I just think about my kids,
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: like I'm so lucky to have these two awesome little boys.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: You're so You're so blessed, and and that little perspective
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: shift can always like help get me out of there quick,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: like yeah, yeah, the hunt's not going right, or yeah,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: you screwed up, you made a mistake, But gosh, in
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: the big scheme of things, this matters so little compared
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: to those really important things in life. But like you said,
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: we can get so worked up and all of a
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: sudden it feels like it's life or death. But really
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: we're just out there like idiots run around with a
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: stick and string, and uh. In the big scheme of things,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: there's there's a whole lot more important things to worry about. Absolutely, man,
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: that read that exact. It has got me through so
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: many like tournaments and and situations that were like high pressure,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: like because it's like it'll crush you with sometimes that
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: pressure will if you let it. And it's just like,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: you know what, in the big scheme of things, just
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: really ain't that important. You know. It's like my kids
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: are healthy, I got a lot to be thankful for.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: Like let's just enjoy it and move on. You know.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: So that's hard, easier said than done. And it's not
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: like I am in a great mood after I miss
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: a giant animal. It's not it. I'm still very upset,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: but it's like, Okay, I'll get over it. You know
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: life will go on. That's right. Well leave, I we
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: gotta we gotta wrap this one up. But great, great insight.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you sharing this, and it's it's I
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: know you don't feel good about this is what I'm
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: gonna say next. But I think it is probably reassuring
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: for a lot of people listening to know that even
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: you miss dear every once in a while, because if
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: that's the case, then everyone should feel like they're not alone.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: I guess out the best shoot of the world is
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: doing it too, so we're we're a good company. I've
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: missed sheep, olt beer, you name it, I miss so
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: it's part of it. Well where can where can people
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: go LEVI to to watch the show or keep up
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: with you and what you guys are up to these days. Yeah,
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: the show is on the Outdoor Channel and we uh
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: we air four times a week. It's called Bowlife. I'm
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: our main airings or Tuesday night, Thursday night, I think
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: Thursday night, like seven seven thirty something like that. I
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: don't watch my show because I'm normally hunting. But anyways,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: Tuesday nights and Thursday nights on the Outdoor Channel and
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: then pretty much can keep up with everything I'm doing
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, which is bowlife Levi on Instagram. So other
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: than that, yeah, we're just uh this time of year
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: full till hunting, so yeah, I gotta love it. Well, uh,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: you're already off to a great start, but I hope
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: this success continues for Levi. I appreciate you taking time, Chap,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: same to you, man, I appreciate it all right, And
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: that's it. Thanks for listening to Hope you enjoyed this
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: conversation with Levi Morrigan. Make sure to check him out
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: in all those places he mentioned, And as I said
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: at the top of the show, subscribe to that Wired
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: Dunt weekly newsletter. You'll get all the updates from us
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: and we'll keep you posted on the crazy amount of
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: new white tail content we're putting out there hoping to
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: help you have the best hunting season of your life.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: So best to luck out there, enjoy, Thank you for listening,
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: and stay wired to Hunk