Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 404: Open Country Hunting Masterclass with Jared Scheffler, Eddie Claypool, and Andy May

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Ep. 404: Open Country Hunting Masterclass with Jared Scheffler, Eddie Claypool, and Andy May · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: oh four, and today we're back with our habitat specific
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: series in which we're getting an expert panel to dive
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: deep into one kind of hunting terrain and today that's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: open country and our panel includes folks such as Andy May,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Eddie Claypool, and Jared Scheffler. All right, welcome to the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx. And
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: as I mentioned, we are back with this series that
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: we kicked off last week, in which we are diving
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: into one specific kind of habitat and pulling in a
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: group of people that have some great experience in those
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  Speaker 1: types of places and getting different ideas about how to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: approach it, comparing and contrasting these different perspectives and tactics
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: for hunting the same kind of place but in wildly
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  Speaker 1: different ways, as we did last time. I'm joined by
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: my buddy Andy May, who who's a friend and one
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: of the best white tail ball hunters I know in
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the world, and and he as well as myself, have
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  Speaker 1: been more and more interested in hunting in these kinds
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  Speaker 1: of open country habitats, whether that's Nebraska or Kansas, Oklahoma,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: parts of Iowa, even some open prairie kind of stuff
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: in some of the further east states you can find
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  Speaker 1: pockets like this. Um But of course anywhere around the
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  Speaker 1: edges of the Great Plains are are perfect example. There's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of great white tail hunting in these types
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  Speaker 1: of areas. But it's different than your typical Midwest or
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Northeast or southeast hunt where you've got mixtures of timber
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and fields and crops and whatnot. This is this is
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a different world. This is an ocean of grass in
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: some cases where trees might be quite rare, but deer
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: deer are there. And today we're talking to Eddie Claypool
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  Speaker 1: and Jared Scheffler about how to find those deer and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: how to kill him with a boat. And these two
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  Speaker 1: guys have done it consistently and to uh to an
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: impressive degree. They're doing it in wildly different ways, I
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: mean totally different. You've got Eddie Claypool, who approaches things
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: in a little bit more standard approach with the tree
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: stand and waiting in the right spots, while you have
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Jared who is on the ground chasing them down, getting
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: in close and getting him killed with a long bow.
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  Speaker 1: Both of these guys have been on the podcast in
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the past, but it was quite a ways back. Um,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: back in twenty fifteen. Maybe, UM, I think you're likely
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: familiar with two guys, but let me give you a
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: really quick introduction. Eddie Claypool has written for a number
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of outdoor magazines, including Peterson's Bow Hunting, where he's still
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: writing now today. He's a very experienced deer hunter as
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: well as a Western big game hunter. Uh. He hunts
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and spends a lot of time in Oklahoma, Kansas places
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: like that. Um, you should go back and listen to
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that original episode I have with him back in two
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen. It's really great. Gives you a good
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: high level idea of who Eddie is and what he's
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: all about. Now. Jared is the the founder and and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: and the host mostly of the White Tail Adrenaline DVD
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  Speaker 1: series where he him and his buddies go out and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: do some pretty crazy things. They chase these deer on
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the ground. They use decoys, they sneak up and close. Um,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: it's just a really interesting way to deer hunt. And
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  Speaker 1: as I mentioned already, he's got it nailed. So we're
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: gonna explore how these guys go about it. Andy and
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  Speaker 1: I are going to chime in with our experiences and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: our questions, and in short, it's it's it's just cool.
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  Speaker 1: It's just got me. I just finished with this conversation.
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  Speaker 1: We just recorded the conversation and I'm still kind of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: riding high. I'm still for lack of a better and
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  Speaker 1: just jacked up and wanting to drive out to one
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  Speaker 1: of these places and and try to find a deer
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  Speaker 1: in this kind of environment. It's it's just a really
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  Speaker 1: cool thing and something that's worth doing at least once
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  Speaker 1: in your life if you haven't already. So without any
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  Speaker 1: further ado, let's get into this conversation with Andy, Eddie
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  Speaker 1: and Jared. I know you're gonna enjoy it. And even
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  Speaker 1: if you don't hunt these kinds of places, I really
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  Speaker 1: do think that you can learn something that you'll be
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: able to apply to your own neck of the woods.
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  Speaker 1: I'm even gonna take some of the stuff and apply
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  Speaker 1: to what I do in Michigan, even though it's very
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: different there's some applicable things, and uh, with that, I'm
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: just gonna tune this one down and let's get into
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  Speaker 1: it all right with me on the line. We have
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  Speaker 1: got one heck of a trio here to discuss open
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  Speaker 1: country hunting. We've got my right hand man, Andy May
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  Speaker 1: and then our two special guests, Jared Scheffler and Eddie Claypool. Um.
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  Speaker 1: Since there's four of us on the line, we're not
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  Speaker 1: going to try to do the whole individual introduction. I'll
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: have taken care of that already by now. But but
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: sup as as, I thank you all for being here
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  Speaker 1: for this. Uh, it's gonna be really interesting, I think
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  Speaker 1: for the four of us to dive deep into one
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  Speaker 1: specific type of habitat, um that being this open country.
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  Speaker 1: It could be you know, why do open grasslands and
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  Speaker 1: Kansas and might be scattered timber and fence rows in Oklahoma,
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  Speaker 1: might be what I've seen up in the bad lands
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  Speaker 1: in Montana or North Dakota. Me and Andy have hunted
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  Speaker 1: some stuff like this in Nebraska. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: places across the country where you have this relatively open environment.
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  Speaker 1: You might even be able to take some of the things.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about today and apply it to northern
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  Speaker 1: Ohio where it's just wide open egg fields with very
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: little traditional timber cover. Um. That all said, there's there's
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of different ways to approach deer hunting in
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  Speaker 1: places where you don't have your traditional big timber broken country, etcetera, etcetera,
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  Speaker 1: And and and that all brings me to you, Andy,
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  Speaker 1: who I know the two of us have shared at
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: least we've shared one hunt in this type of country.
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  Speaker 1: I know it's something you are more and more interested
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: in every year we're talking. You're like, Yeah, I gotta
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: get back out there. I gotta go to Wyoming or Nebraska,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: these different places because there's something special about hunting these
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  Speaker 1: locations of those big s guys, those wide open vistas. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And I know it's something you're you're curious about. You
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  Speaker 1: want to scratch that itch more, just like last week's
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: conversation with Hill Country. So I'm gonna only kick it
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  Speaker 1: to you again because you seem to be a better
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: host than I am. Sometimes. Where where do you want
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: to start this conversation with Eddie and Jared well Man? First,
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  Speaker 1: I just want to say how excited I am to
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: have these two particular guys, UM for two different reasons. Eddie. Uh,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: you know, I've I've been reading Eddie's articles for a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: long time. UM. I've admired him, his his longevity in
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: in bow hunting and his consistent success. I just think
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  Speaker 1: it's so cool and in just a vastly different style
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  Speaker 1: I think than Jared in and on. You know. On
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the other hand, with Jared, it's just like we've we've
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  Speaker 1: been able to actually watch this guy on videos do
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  Speaker 1: things that I'm not sure, however, how many more bow
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  Speaker 1: hunters could actually pull off some of the stuff he does.
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  Speaker 1: So it's just it's just really cool to have these
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  Speaker 1: two guys on. I'm I'm super pumped about it. UM.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, I I love the open country. I just
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  Speaker 1: don't get to hunt it as much as I think
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  Speaker 1: our two guests have, UM. But I try to make
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  Speaker 1: it a point to get out there now, um every
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: year at least for a couple of days. But I
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  Speaker 1: think we'll start let's just start the conversation with just
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the basics, like like, what are you guys looking for?
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  Speaker 1: If if I was a new guy and I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: head out west, you know, to Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska. What
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  Speaker 1: is it you're looking for in a piece of ground,
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  Speaker 1: um that we would consider open countries? There is there
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  Speaker 1: something you're looking for on the map that sticks out?
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  Speaker 1: Or are you just kind of going there and and
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  Speaker 1: hitting it? You know, as soon as your feet hit
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  Speaker 1: the ground, you're not even familiar with the area. I'm
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  Speaker 1: just kind of curious how you guys both approached that.
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  Speaker 1: So why don't we start with Eddie? Okay, Well, it
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  Speaker 1: goes without saying. The first thing I'm looking for, of course,
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  Speaker 1: is access, and often that means public land. Uh not all,
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  Speaker 1: not all of the states qualify. They're like Oklahoma. You
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: can get out in western Okahoma and have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of open public land access, But Kansas is, you know,
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  Speaker 1: a little thinner on it. Nebraska's got tons of it,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera, on up into the Dakotas and stuff. But
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  Speaker 1: access is my first priority. I don't worry about looking
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  Speaker 1: at the habitat. I don't care. Uh. It doesn't take
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  Speaker 1: a brainchild a rocket scientists to figure out, you know,
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  Speaker 1: what you're gonna do with it. If you're a decent
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  Speaker 1: bow hunter. Uh, it may intimidate you at first, but uh,
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  Speaker 1: you've got to realize that open country white tails love it.
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  Speaker 1: I've hunted the prairie of Kansas for ever. It's the
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  Speaker 1: first year Kansas even opened up to non residents, and
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  Speaker 1: I've taken a lot of bucks out of places that
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  Speaker 1: nobody hardly ever even looks at when they're driving by.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, there might be three cotton woods in a
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  Speaker 1: square mile. Um, so don't don't overlook the open spaces.
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  Speaker 1: The deer numbers are there. They're not as high as
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  Speaker 1: they are back in the traditional farm you know, woodlock country.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, if you're after a lot of you know,
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  Speaker 1: quality time, that's the reason I go. I like to
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  Speaker 1: wide open spaces and the quiet and the no people.
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  Speaker 1: That's a ingredients of a good hunt for me. So
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  Speaker 1: I I don't look for any specific habitat types you can.
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  Speaker 1: I think I could jump into any of it, whether
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  Speaker 1: it be high plains or prairie or you know, desert.
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  Speaker 1: Even uh hunt the COO's deer, the white tills, a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: little white tails in open country. So my main goal
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  Speaker 1: is to find access where I can get it. And
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  Speaker 1: if not public, then you better go early. You better
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: start working, you better start calling, and you better start
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  Speaker 1: researching to get your public lanned access. There's a lot
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of people that will let you hunt, you know in
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in the midwestern central States where the planes are, but
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you know, it takes time to make sure you get
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: on somebody and procure a relationship. So anyway, that's my
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: main goal is to just make sure that I'm gonna,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: you know, have a place too when I get there.
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  Speaker 1: And if it's a state it's got a lot of
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  Speaker 1: public it's a non issue. If it's not, I researched
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: the public that is available, and if not, I go
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: take a vacation in the summer or come through there
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: sometime and spend maybe even a week knocking on doors.
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  Speaker 1: You've got as a blue collar do it yourselfer, you've
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: got to work hard on access one way or the other.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Quick follow before we jump to Jared Um. When you're
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: you're not as worried about property habitat it sounds like,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: so what I'm wondering then, So that's beforehand. But when
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: you show up to a piece, I'm curious, how do
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: you determine if it's you know, how do you determine
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the quality? How what's your first quality check on a
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: piece of property? Um? Is it is a quick walk.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just wondering because it seems like open country, the
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: sign that's available, where you can find sign all. That
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  Speaker 1: seems a lot different to judge than traditional farm country
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  Speaker 1: where I can walk a property in five minutes. I'll
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  Speaker 1: find the big rubs of the scrapes of the highways
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  Speaker 1: of trails, and I can tell you, oh yeah, there's
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a bunch of deer here. It seems a little bit
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  Speaker 1: different in open country. So how do you judge, you know,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: is it worth spending time as property or not? Well,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I I have a lot of time that most people don't,
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  Speaker 1: So I can go to a lot of these places,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and I spend a lot of time in the spring
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: when I'm turkey hunting, I go to these places. I
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: beat him down in the spring. I look for shads.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I look all the old signs right there in front
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: of you during the spring when you're turkey hunting. So anyway,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to site other than going and
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: putting your foot on it, you know, and you might
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: have instead of walking a wood lot in Illinois, you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you may be walking a ten hour day. I mean
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I've literally put in ten hour days, walk fifteen eighteen
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: miles in that country, and you know, if you're looking
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: for a really big buck, you're gonna have to look
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: for the big sign either a fourth I call it
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: a four finger track type scenario where you've got big
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: mature animals or the big big rubs. And it can
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: be deceiving because a lot of places I go, like
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: in Nebraska and stuff, I can see some rubs that
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: will pop your eyes out, and come to find out,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: those deer that are doing that a lot of times
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  Speaker 1: aren't necessarily really large antler deer. They're big mature bucks.
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  Speaker 1: It could be six seven eight year old bucks their bruisers.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: But a lot of times the genetics ain't there in
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: certain places I hunt. In Nebraska, I don't hunt, you
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: know where they have the better quality deer In Nebraska,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the most deer I hunt that may die of old
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: age with a hundred and thirty or forty inch rack
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: on them. And so you just throw up some cameras. Uh,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: if you're in the fall, you know, get out there
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: and throw some cameras up in the string or cover.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: There's always if you're a deer hunter, you can look
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: on Google Earth and if even if it's ten miles
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of open country, there's gonna be some string or cover
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: somewhere of some type of you know along a creek,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: um fence lines, you know, get some cameras up and
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: uh let him tell you what quality of deer you're
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: messing with. You know. Yeah, I love that. I love
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: that answer, Eddie because it's you know, tried and true, Um,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: you know, working hard doing your pre scouting and and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: finding those areas. And what I what I love about
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: this question is that I think Jared's Jared's answer is
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: going to be different in a lot of ways. So
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I'm really curious, Jared, how would you answer that same question. Well,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I think one thing that Eddie brought up is he
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: doesn't really zone in on one particular type of habitat,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and right away I reflected on that that's one thing
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: that I don't either. I focus on trying to to
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: actually get a visual on a big buck. So if
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I haven't hunted an area, or if I haven't been
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: there in a year, which is usually the case, um,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I'll start out that first day putting the miles on
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the vehicle, driving by a lot of different public land,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and I'll get a pretty good idea by the time
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that day is done, of where other hunters are hunting,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and just just a general feel of what's going on.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And usually that's one thing I'm very blessed with is
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a good set of eyes. And so I spend a
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: lot of time glassing. Uh some pieces I'm glassing to
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: three miles out sometimes. Um And and this year especially
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I noticed, uh, it seems like the pressure level on
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: public has been going up quite a bit over the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: last couple three years versus the way it's been the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: last say, ten years ago or five years ago even,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: And so that's a whole another game, and in and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of itself is like, I'm you really trying to, you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: keep a low key on pieces that that I'm that
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I'm hunting. So, uh, I'm setting up on some of
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: these pieces two miles out sometimes just so other hunters
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: don't see what I'm up to. And and uh, the
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: point that Eddie brought up about the habitat, Yeah, I
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: don't look at areas or do any of that prior
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: to my hunt. I get to an area or a
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: pocket and then I just start putting the miles on
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the vehicle, driving by a lot of different public and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: you don't always get a visual. We run a hunt,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: uh this past fall. It was a new new pocket,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: new area I noticed where there was a lot of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: different hunters hunting, and there was a there was a
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: big piece of public about a square mile, I guess,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and uh, it looks like crap land. It literally looked
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: like crap land. We didn't leave. It's the back half
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: of it. It was you know, open country, no brush
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. But the back half of it
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: you couldn't see from any road. There was two miles
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: beyond that of private grounds, so you couldn't glass it
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: from anywhere. And it was getting down to one of
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: our last day and we only had a few days
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and it was about eleven eleven thirty before we walked
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in there. And once you know it there that's where
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: all the big mature deer we're hanging out. Um, we
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: got onto a big drop time and and I should
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: have got that deer, but just things didn't quite come together,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and we ended up extending the hunt. We were going
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: to leave that day, and and the next morning here
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: was a a Mega eight on the on there a
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: different one, and um, that's a piece that all these
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: other bow hunters I was watching them. They were they
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: were hunting the creek bottoms, and and it seems like
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: on public land that stuff that really pops out in
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: an area, that stuff seems to be what a lot
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: of other hunters target. So I find a lot of
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: times the mature, older class public land bucks, you know,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: aren't aren't usually in that stuff. Usually I'm finding them
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: and the stuff just like Eddie kind of said, you know,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: he mentioned you might have three trees out there and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: it might not look like much, you know, the little tiny,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: you know, spots that other hunters are overlooking. At least
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: we're talking public land, open country, you know, that's land
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: anybody else can hunt. And and so that's that's kind
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of my general I guess, uh, how I go about
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: it As I get to an area and I just
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: start putting the miles on and I get a pretty
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: good idea where other hunters are, get a feel for things.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Hopefully I get a visual on a big buck, and
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: once I have that visual, I make a play and
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: and put together game plan from there. So Jared, if
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: if you don't say say you're going on, I don't know,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: it's it's a bad year or whatever. You just two
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: days in and you don't got a visual on something
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: that piques your interest. I've seen on I've watched you know,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: many of your videos. I've seen how you you do.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: You will get out of the car and kind of
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: move around glasses. Is that pretty much like you describe
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: this pass on? Is that kind of what you're doing.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: You'll just kind of pick spots way off the road
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and you'll hike in and give him a try. And
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: if if there's deer in there, you're in the money,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: and if not, you're hiking back out and doing the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: same thing. Yeah, exactly. If if if there's a pocket
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: that you just get a feeling about that you can't
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: like in a lot of that open country, I do
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: find a spot where I can get on a high
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: point with from the vehicle and and and long range
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: glass it. And if if if I don't see anything visually,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I'll just move on to the next piece. But there
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: are pieces that you just in your gut, you just
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: feel like, you know, I haven't seen anybody else hunting there.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: It looks like crap. There might be a little tiny
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: ditch you know, that you see on your area. Once
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: you're there, and it's like things just kind of click.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: And you know, unfortunately, one of my favorite pieces in
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Kansas that I discovered a few years ago, that was
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: a piece where you have to walk back into it.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: But unfortunately there was a there was another fellow hunt
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: here from Wisconsin in there for ten days straight and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I never got a chance. I didn't want to mess
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: up his hunt, and so I didn't go in there.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: It was about a square mile piece, but it's open countries,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: so it's like, you know, one of them deals were
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a square mile doesn't that's not a lot of ground
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: in the open country. Um, and and so I just
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I never actually got to go in there. But that's
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: a piece where I But I did discover a spot
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: about three and a half miles out that I found
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: that I never looked at before, where I was able
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: to glass more than I more than I could ever before.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: So I started looking for pieces this year. I really
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: noticed how I was looking to three miles out. Sometimes
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: it was just so other hunters wouldn't see what I'm
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: up to. And because that turns into a whole another game.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I guess you bring up a good question or good point,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the fact that in open country it just seems like,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you know, a square mile of open country is very
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: different than a wear a mile of thick timber and
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: mixed fields and egg and all that kind of stuff.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: So how do you and maybe I'll throw us to
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: you Eddie first, Eddie, how do you look at hunting
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: pressure on open country differently than you might in Illinois
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: or Iowa and traditional egg land? Is it? Do you
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: have to react to it more or differently? Or do
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: you think that, dear, give you a break in some
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: kind of fashion? Uh? How do you think about that? Well?
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I think you have to deal with it very differently
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: than in traditional country, because you're not talking woodlock white
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: tails here, that'll go over on the next forty over
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and white you out and be right back. A lot
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: of open country, dear, they are very vigrant, especially the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: bigger mature bucks, and especially especially during the rut. Uh.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know how to put into words
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: what I do. I really don't other than you know,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I've spent the largest portion of my hunting career before
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: bo hunting got high tech, before trail cameras, before GPS,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: before Google Earth, before anything. I had to just you know,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: go out and spend an absolutely enormous amount of time
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: in the field. Um, well, you get a feel for
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: what you're doing. Because I don't know if that's a
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: good way to put it, but you just gain savvy.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: You get to where you can look at country and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: you can make judgments on it that you know other
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: people aren't making. And now I know that's not going
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: to help anybody with their own personal strategy. Everybody's looking
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: for shortcuts nowadays. They want you to tell them the
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: secret formula. You know there may be one, but I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: don't know it. Maybe the younger guys nowadays have figured
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: it out and can put it into a formula. My
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: formula was just time and savvy and on open country, dear.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I mean I have went out in places that literally
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I would hunt for the entire on and off for
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the entire month October nover remember, and even in the December,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and never see another human being. Um, nobody in the
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: right mind would even hunt out there. Um be a mile,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: two miles maybe in any direction to the nearest pocket
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: of white tail cover. Um, but I have patients of Joe.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: But I I know what goes on out there in
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the rut, and I will set a fence line maybe
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a cottonwood tree. If I can see for three or
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: four yards in every direction, I'm gonna call one in
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: if I have to, you know. I mean, all I
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: need to do is get my eye on a big
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: rudding back crossing the open country somewhere during the rut,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm gonna call him in and
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: kill him. Um. I don't hunt the hubs where everybody hunts,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: like he like you know he mentioned a while ago.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: You know, we'll find out where everybody hunts. Well, they're
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: all gonna hut where all the deer sign is and
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: where all the deer are. I hunt exactly away from
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: all that. For a lot of reasons. I can't. I'm
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: not gonna mess with the people. I'm just not. I'm
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: antisocial to begin with. But anyway, I'm gonna get out
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: there and catch that buck when he travels from this
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: creek bottom here three miles over to the other one. Uh.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: And if he'll be walking down a fence line of hedgerow,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a brushy finger draw or something. And you know, I
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: sat sometimes for days on end and they'll hardly see
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: a deer to speak of. But when I do, it's
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: usually a really good you know, mature deer because I
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: mainly employed this strategy during the peak of the rut
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: during November. Um, I've I've jumped these deer living out
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: there in October many many times on my scouting trips.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I've dumped them out in the grass. The prairie of
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Kansas were literally they were batting out there all day
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: long in blue stem prairie grass, and the nearest tree
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: would be over an hour mile for three hundred and
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: sixty degrees in ever direction. People don't even believe those
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: deer live out there, but the big ones, the big
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: ones specialize on it. They live with their eyes, they
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: can see. They bet on them prairie knoles, they can
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: safer half a mile in ever direction. They're like analope almost.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: And so you just gotta get savvy and convince yourself
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: what's possible out in that open country, because if you
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: don't have it in your head to begin with what's
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: out there and what you can do with it, you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: won't go out there, daddy. Um. So that's a a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: really cool description of kind of what kind of the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: areas like you tend to pick out, um right is
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: or would you you mentioned like a cottonwood tree. Um.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: And one of my questions, UM, one of my questions
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: that I had written down was was like, what I
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: guess what I call like landmark trees. I've heard the
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: guys that Open Country mentioned landmark trees that are kind
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: of just out in the open, one single tree or
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: a little standard cotton or something. Is that Is that
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the kind of stuff you're looking for? Are you actually
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: going out there and finding like, uh, maybe something like
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: a primary scrape or something under that's worked and you're
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: expecting a lot of deer to come from or is
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: there really something to like these landmark trees that where
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: deer kind of come and go to and from them.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I think there is a lot to that from my
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: you know, deer like a dog. I believe they've got
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: scent posts. That's what a lot in my opinion as
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a signpost drub is. It's more of a scent marker
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: than anything. It's like a dog that will walk around
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: his territory maybe you know as a city block he
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: lives in, and he'll pee on each fire hydrant on
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: each corner of that block. Well, dear, I think socialize
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: a lot by smell. And you know these trees like this,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I don't hunt them because there maybe say what they
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: call a landmark type tree that every deer is gonna
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: come to. I mean, if I find a giant sign
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: signpost drub out in the prairie, which I have done.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you real quickly about a buck I
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: killed up in the prairie of Kansas a few years ago.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Square mile of blue stem and had one little I
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: call it a swag. It was a general ravine that
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: wound through it. And in the entire length of that mile,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: through that little swag there might have been a half
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: dozen cottonwood trees scattered about every two to three d
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: yards up and down it. No brush cover, just grass,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a few scattered cottonwoods. I went out there and one day,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: you know, walked that ravine and there was a little
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: sumac tree there and it had a little rub. I
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: walked over to it, and right there beside it wasn't
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: cottonwood about four inch in diameter that had been grown
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: up by it, and it had a big old rub
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: on it. And I said, okay, you know, case closed.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: There's one right here close. Probably I've already run them off,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and all I gotta do is get back here, getting
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: one of these trees here close where I can see
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: this entire area right here, and he's going to show
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: up during the run. I'll see him somewhere. So I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: sat there two complete days and dark morning till dark evening.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't see a close deer anything of any eyes.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I think I only saw like two total there on
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the earth in those two days, and they weren't close,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and they weren't big. On the third day, right at dusk,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: I looked out there and this buck was standing on
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the knoll out there at three hundred yards in the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: prairie grass, just standing out there, looking around. I clicked
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: my antlers a couple of times and seen him look
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: in my direction, and he dropped off into the ravine
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: uh above me, maybe three hundred yards, and I thought, man,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: you know this could be good. Staid there at full
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: alert for about ten minutes, and the next thing I know,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I catch a slight movement. The blue stem prairie grass
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: was literally close to four ft tall, and I looked
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: to my ride as far as I could, and he
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: was standing there at thirty five yards, just like a statue,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: looking around. He had eased up that ravine took him
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: about ten or fifteen minutes to get there, and he
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: was the full alert looking for what he'd heard, you know.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: And uh, it was one of them nip and tuck
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: deals to get that dear bowshot because it was dead
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: calm that day. You could hear a pen drop out
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: of the tree. But to make long story short, he
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: ended up getting himself bow killed right at dark and
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: maybe fifteen minutes of shooting, light left, and he had
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: been batted out there in that prairie grass and got
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: up late in the evening and he was so old
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: he didn't hard to have a tooth in his head.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: He was one of these old ancient bucks that was
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: just a prairie monarch that had lived out there all
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: his life and survived with his eyes. And for me
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: to accomplished killing him out there in that type of
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: habitat with my bow, you know, those things rank right
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: up there on the top of the totem pole with
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: you all your days. You know, you're you're just really
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: satisfied to pull it off. But anyway, you know, that's
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: kind of what it works with me. I just I
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I believe they come to those certain trees as a
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: landmark sometimes, but especially if you got any overhanging lambs
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: like you've mentioned where you can find a scrape. If
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: you ever find a scrape out in the open prairie,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: it ain't there for no reason, and there will be
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: a dominant buck, right because if you take the prairie
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: grass I hunt in up the Flynn Hills of Kansas,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: you know every square mile up has got a large
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: ant or dominant buck in it, and he may live
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: out in the grass, but he sign is there somewhere.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: So if you get out there and look for it
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and find just a little bit of the sign. To me,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: if you put that with the patience of job, then
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: you ought to have a chance that deer probably m eddy.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Do you think, uh, you mentioned calling a few times.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: It sounds like that's been a big part of your
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: success or a tactic you often used. Do you think
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: because you pick these spots that are away from like
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: the obvious where all the other hunters are, the creek
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: bottoms that you know have more trees and stuff, that
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: you're you're kind of out in these spots where typically
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: they don't ever encounter other humans. Do you think that
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: is part of the reason you're calling? Is so effective.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Always absolutely. I mean I've always said this right here, redneck,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: but it's simple and at some point, I'm a great
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: hunter of dumb deer. I mean, you give me, dear,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty good. You know. You put me in the
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Northeast with most educated white tilts in the world, I
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: may become a very average bow hunter, but I love
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to hunt dumb animals. So I go to the extremes
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: of getting dumb animals in front of me. And yes,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: out in a prairie like that, those big mature bucks.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: If you really know their lifestyle, if you can really
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: grasp it, they don't come down to the standard cover
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: hardly ever. Um, they don't live down there with the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: rest of the deer. They're vagrants, their loaners, and they
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: don't get bothered. They don't get educated a lot. So
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: when you get out there, you know, and you're sitting
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: up like a diamond and a goats, we're in you know,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: with your bow, and when I'm comes by, then you know, yeah,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with a dumber deer. In a way, it's
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: not a dumber deer because it's usually if it's an older,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: mature bucket, it's still got got the goods, but you
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: catch them with their pants down. The deer that are
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: down there is creek bottoms. Those two three four year
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: olds that are getting meshed with all the time. I mean,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: it's just like anything else in life. The the you know,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: give me dumb eilk, I can kill him. Give me
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: dumb whitetails, I can kill him. Uh you got everybody
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: else can cut their teeth on the one just getting
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: hammered olday long. I won't be there for a lot
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: of reasons. I don't want to hut super educated deer
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the ones I'm after and gonna be a number down
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: there because they get killed and um, I don't deal
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: with people too well. I think Eddie hit one nail
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: on the head there too when he said that that
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I can definitely attest to. And that is those those
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: big mature dear like that. They don't go down in there.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: That's that's pretty rare. Maybe a fluke hoto old rag
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: one down there once in a while or something. But
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like that piece that I was talking
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: about that me and Matt walked into, or these mature
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: bucks were we're back in there. I mean that was
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: a mile from prime lush crieck bottom, the kind of
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: stuff that you just most white tail hunters would be
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: drooling over. And I never stepped foot in there because
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: those and those big deer, I never seen them hardly
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: even get to where you could see them, you know,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: like they stayed. They stayed, they knew where they were at.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: And the reason I kind of hit on that pieces
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: because I went back late season. I had to cut
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: that trip short. Went back late season, and in that
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: square it was a big square, uh with no road
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: going through it. Most of it was private, but with
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: this public I ended up seeing I don't know, probably
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: six more bucks that I figured were five to six
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: year plus old animals, you know, in the in the
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: course of I don't know how many days I was
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: there there in late season. The one day I had
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: twelve bucks together bacheirt up, which was kind of a
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: crummy deal. If you're trying to late season bow hunting
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: and play the ground game with them like me, that's
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: pretty tough when you got post that's eyes and it
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: ain't rut, you know. Yeah, Jared, what about the landmark
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: tree thing that the Andy brought up? Do you and
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I know most of the time you're you're on the move,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: you're trying to get eyes on a deer. But do
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: you ever find yourself in a situation where you haven't
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: found one, but you come across a piece of sign,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: like a loane tree with a big scrape underneath it
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: or a huge rub do you ever take a second, say,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: you know what, this is the spot that might be
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: worth waiting as a as a you know, scouting point
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: or anything that. Do you put any value into something
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: along those lines. You know, there's been many times over
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the years since we quit running tree stands back in
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: on nine that I said, boy, if I handed to
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: a tree stand, that would be a hell of a spot.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: And I do think that a person that has a
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: balance of both. I just love hunting white tails on
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: the ground and I'm too impatient to uh to to
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: to wait a real long time. But there's been many
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: times where, you know, I know that I'd be better
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: off sometimes, you know, having that as a strategy. It's
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: just like Eddie out up calling. That's a tool that
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: you can use and sometimes that works, you know, And
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: it's like that's the way I kind of look at things,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: like we have that decoy, that's the tools it's not
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: for every situation, but for the right situation, will break
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: that out or chance he he's he's great at calling,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: you know, and and uh, sometimes you break that out.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: You've got all these different you know, things in your arsenal,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: your your hunter's toolkit, whatever you want to call it.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: That it's like, you know, different strategies apply and to
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: certain scenarios. And I think, you know, if I wasn't,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: if I had more patience, then there's been many times
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that have come across situations just like Eddie described there
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: that it's like, yeah, if I put my time in
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: there for five days, I'd probably kill a big one.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: And then sometimes we get the visual and and yeah, yeah,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, catch one walking by or or
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: he wasn't bedding too far away from there. Um, you
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: know that we see that quite a it often. Let's
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: let's dive into something that both of you mentioned, but
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: I'd like to get in a little more detail. It's
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the whole calling thing, which it sounds like, at least
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: in your perspective, Eddie seems to work better in these
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: areas uh than others, maybe because these deer aren't pressured
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: as much as maybe they are here in me and
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Andy's home state of Michigan. Um, can you can you
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: walk through in detail the types of calls you think
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: work best in open country or the scenarios when you
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: would use some kind of call in this kind of country. Maybe, Jared,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: you can kick us off with this kind of rundown
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: of the detailed um the details behind how and when
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: you might call in these places. You know, a lot
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: of people don't my kind of ground game strategy. So
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I I generally, because I'm going to try
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: to put together a game plan to go to this dear,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I generally hold off on calling myself unless he's covering
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: too much ground and I can't get ahead of him,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: or I don't have embedded, you know, or sometimes there's
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: one across the line, ry he gets over across the
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: line under private, that's another scenario I'll pull calling out.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: But other than that, my strategy is usually like I
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: like to lay quiet, not let them know, bet them,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: or maybe I've already got embedded and and then I'm
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: going to plan a route in like that. You know.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: The the one thing about calling an open country to uh,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: you know, Eddie brought it up. It is very effective
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: and it's really effective when you got a decoy on
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: top of it. You know, a lot of those open
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: country areas they not always but you know, like the
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: planes of Cans is the population dear, populations generally aren't
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: too high. So I think that that helps make the
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: calling you know better, um, and maybe Eddie can hit
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: on that a little bit more. Yeah, would you say, Eddie, Well,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: definitely the population is you know low in the prairie
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: top country, but so is the people population, which makes
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: you to go for me because you know, to me
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: as I've gotten older, and I don't get me wrong,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I've lived through most of the stages of by hunting maturity,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and I don't knock anybody for whatever stage they're in.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: But you'll learn if you get to be blessed to
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: live long enough and do it long enough, you'll eventually
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: get to be hearts about a lot more than just
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: killing those giant antlers. I've chased them giant antlers for
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: forty years and I've got my share of them. Now
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: it's more about, you know, the quality of the outing,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: wide open spaces and quiet, unplugging from the rat race.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's why I hunt the perry and as
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: far as the calling goes, here's the deal with me.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I've always admired a guy that can get on the
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: ground and go after these things. I can't be a specialist,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: you know in that, because I just I said, a career.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: You know, I have not felt like I am good
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: at getting on the ground and killing white kilsa. I
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I totally admire the ability to do that. I'm envious
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: of it. Even though I'm accomplished at what I do,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I'm not accomplished at what you're doing, you know what
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, And so you need to know that I
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: totally res am awed by the fact that you pursue
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: these big bucks on the ground and kill them effectively
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: with a bow. I sat somewhere, so the calling is
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a lot more effective for me. I can totally see
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: why you wouldn't want to call on the ground. It's
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: going to focus that deer on you, you know. Um.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: To me, it would be a buddy system. If I
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: was going to be on the ground and call, I
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: would want somebody with a decoy off to the side
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: of me calling, you know, and and maybe have me
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: be the shooter. I don't know, I don't know. I'm speculating.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: But for me setting in a tree, it's deadly because
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to bring a deer to me that is
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: not going to be able to see me when he
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: gets there. And yew. The decoy thing can be really good. Uh,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: you know, if I have one, Uh, I've had him
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: react to it every type of direction, you know, good, negative, whatever.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: I've just about got to where I don't use the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: decoy calling anymore, because, um, if I see a rudding
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: buck that I call prowling in other words, he's crossing
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: country and it's he's he just stumbled along looking to
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: get somewhere to go harass another though, I just feel
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: like I can call the thing in almost all the time,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: and I do it mainly with a grunt call. I
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: just standard. Oh, I don't get fancy a couple of
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: grunts if he's so far away that he's not going
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: to hear it. I always care a large set of
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: antlers to get their attention, because I've actually stopped him
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: from probably a third of a mile or so off
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: in the prairie with a big set of antlers, just
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: to get him stopped and get him to listen, and
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: then give him a couple of loud grunts, and then
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: just I've watched him walk a third of a mile,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: I'm broken to walk right up ten yards in my
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: tree and stop. And uh so, grunt call is deadly.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I don't ever call if unless i'm absolutely half to.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: In other words, I'll call to get his attention, to
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: get him started. I don't make another sound unless he
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: loses interest. Don't overcall. They'll get far more a suspicious
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: of overcalling than they will undercalling. Keep their curiosity, yet,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: don't let them pinpoint you anymore than necessary. If they're
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: coming from a long distance, you know they're not going
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: to know within you know, x amount of feet where
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: your ad over there. So let them get over there
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: and then give him a chance to walk around you
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: a little bit, trying to see you know where you're at,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: and give you a good shot. If you're calling when
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: they're walking in, they're gonna have you pinpointed, and they're
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: gonna walk right up there and stand there facing you,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: looking and you know, so anyway, grunt call and have
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: a big set of antlers to catch one's attention from
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Why y'all, what about wind direction? You know in in
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: broken country and egg land here. Um, a lot of
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: times we're not gonna see Dear as far away as
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: you might. But one of the things I'm thinking about is,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: is this dear generally on my downwind side. If that's
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: the case, I might not I probably won't call to him.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Even if I'd love for him to come in closer,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: I'd be worried about him swinging down on wind all
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: the way and catching my wind as he comes in. Um,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: do you worry about that same thing? Because it seems
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: like an open country where there's maybe no obstacles, it's
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: it's really easy for them to swing down. When do
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: you see them do that? What do you? What are
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: your considerations there? They do sometimes I've had them, especially
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: if it's I like to kill these suckers during the
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: absolute picker up when they're they're literally just staggering around
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: in a stupor. And I'm talking like usually from about
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: the twelve of November on the breeding is starting, they're
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: kind of getting goofy. The big ones finally show up,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: the really big ones that you don't even know exists
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: will show up by around you know. Sometimes I have
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: bucks out in that prairie that will show up around
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: the week of Thanksgiving that I don't even know existed.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: They're coming from somewhere and they are usually the absolute biggest.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: You'll see them one time. You had better get them killed.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: That time. You're never going to see him again. They're
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: liable to be five or eight miles from there the
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: next day. I don't know where they go. They're like vapors,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: but they will at times. You know, if it's earlier
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: in the rut, earlier, especially in October, you might start
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: trying to call the one. He might start coming, but
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: he's really more alert, he's really more uh thinking, and
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: he will swing around and get you, and so I
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: don't Usually I just look at the deer in the
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: time of year and what he's doing, and how goofy
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: I think he is. And you know, if if he's
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: goofy out of his mind with the rut, usually at
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: first call, they just be line it right to you,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: just be line it is. There is there a certain
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: grunt call that you have come to, has become your favorite,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: or you just kind of whatever you can get at
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: the store. Well, I'm you know, I'm a simpleton, I
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: really am. I actually never even bought a grunt call.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: For like, well, I first got one about ten years ago.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Now that tells you a lot. I used to just
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: use my vote. Literally, I could sounds just like about
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: grunt with my voice, and I just did it with
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: my voice. I finally end up getting I think it
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: was a Primost hard wood or something, just something. I
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: know what they sound like, and anything that will make
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: that sound suits my blows my skirt up. So no,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: I don't have a I don't have a favorite. Yep,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: where do you want to go next? Andy? Well? So Jared, Well,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: you guys both could probably answer this, but I know
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I think I've seen it on some of your videos. Jared,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: but are you seeing sometimes like individual mature bucks kind
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: of in the same general area of open country year
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: after year? Like, uh, they're like like like they obviously
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: mature bucks have a home range. It varies depending on
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: you know, terrain and habitat, but it seems like an
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: open country sometimes get on those same bucks and very
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: similar areas, right, Yeah, you know, but Eddie brought up
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: a good point there about you know, sometimes they might
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: be coming from five eight miles away, and he said,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: you better get him killed that day when you see him.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: You know, that. That just made me think about over
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: the last few years, I've had three different Big Bucks
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: that by the next day I had a straight line
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: distance on him of over four miles that they had
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: went um, it's crazy and and and uh fo, sure
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: the same dear, you know. So I was just kind
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: of thinking about this about a month ago when we
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: had one that was just over four and a half miles.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: That's straight line, that's no fooling around, that's right right
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: to a t I had. I had a you know,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: a marked spot that you could see on the ariel
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and all that. But it got me thinking about like
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the range. So if I got a Big Bucks spotted
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: one day and I don't get him killed in that
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: open country, I know that they can be that far away,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: but that makes it pretty challenging for like myself to two.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: I got my hands full trying to find him a
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: lot of times the next day because he could be
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: anywheres let's just say four miles from that spot. So
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: now you're talking about an area that you've got to
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: cover that's eight miles by eight miles. Most of it's
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: probably gonna be private, and you're gonna hope maybe you've
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: got a couple of pieces of public three four maybe
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: in that eight mile by eight mile section, you're talking
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: about forty acres that he could potentially be on. You know,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: that's the kind of range that some some of those
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: west you know, those open deer cover. Um. But as
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: far as year to year, you know, uh, I don't
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: actually see generally the same buck. Like you know, I
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: go out there, I'll find new bucks every year and
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: wonder what happened to this one the year before? You know,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: So I don't know, you know, I haven't had much
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: success on that. But for people that know my style,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: I don't do any preest scouting. I don't run cameras.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I spend very little time in an area if I
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: don't get a visual and I'm pulling the plug and
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: moving on. Um. So uh you know, and I'm not.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I try not to get attached to a deer. Um.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: I love big bucks, just the same as all all
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: of us on here do. But I try not to
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: do that, um because I you know, there's it's it's
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: easy to get hung up on them and they might
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: be on private and I had that happened to me
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: two years ago. You know, a big, massive deer that
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I thought would end up on public I I kinda
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: let some opportunities go on some good, beautiful public land
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: deer that I shouldn't have, you know. But so yeah,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: that's interesting because I I haun a lot of uh
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: it's a little different. I hunt a lot of northwest
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Ohio in a couple of counties where it's I mean
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: it's open flat, grand flat ground, but it's egg so um,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you know, once the what's the core and the beans
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: come out, it's just flat marbled like flat top open country.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: And the deer do have very like they are very nomadic,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: I have noticed. But what what I did start to
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: key in on is I I was starting to find
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: out that certain mature books are showing up. You know, say,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: I often found books that would be two three miles
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: apart at various parts of the season, but then they
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: would show up as specific little areas of cover during
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the same time of year. And it wasn't like a
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: a guaranteed thing or every deer was doing that, But
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I will starting to see trends where I was kind
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: of picking up the same deer in the same small
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: pockets of cover very similar times year to year. So
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: I was just curious if you ever saw that out there. Yeah,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I think that generally. I think that if
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I found a big buck in that open country and
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I had my heart set on him and I didn't
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: get them one year, you know, I do think if
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: I dedicated myself to that area and didn't move on,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: if I didn't find him eventually, I'd probably find him.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: If he wasn't dead, he would probably be somewhere. You know. Well,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, my buddy Tanner there, he shot one that
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: he should have gotten last year, and that it took
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: him four or five days to find him in that
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: deer was six miles away from where he was on
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: him the year before. So uh, and he did end
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: up getting him and that was a that was a
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: big one. But um, but yeah, I mean I I
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: don't think they're gonna be fifty miles away or five
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: miles away. I think you have a rare case of
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: that happening, you know. But but yeah, they cover ground
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: in that open country. What it's been my findings that
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: they once they get him, I don't know. Let's just
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: say that you get about four and a half years
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: somewhere in there where the breaking point is where they
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: become fairly much of a loan or out in that
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: open country, they will I don't know at that point
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: when they finally kind of decided to become the vapor
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: type duck if they're gonna stay around where they were
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: born and raised, or if they're gonna leave country and
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: go make their way in another spot. But when they
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: get to where they're going and they finally start into
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: the older part of their life from let's just say
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: four and a half on up, they develop a very
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: finely tuned plan on where they can live and not
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: be bothered, and they figure it out real quick. And
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily conform to what we the people UH
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: would would think of maybe, but it works for him.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: And I think they pretty well stay in a small
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: area most of the year out in that open country.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, once they get done running, they
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: go to their their highy hole I call it area.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: And it may not be a hole. It might be
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: right out in the wide open grass. It could be
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: a big old prairie basin. Um I've seen them bed
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: in a basin that didn't have that was a half
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: a mile wide in all directions, that only had a
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: couple of little spots of waist high buckbrush out in it,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and and for some reason that's where they liked and
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: that I think they live in those spots until the rut.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Then they get up and they start to travel, and
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: they don't go very far, I don't think until they start,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: you know, once they start breeding, they finally loose their cookies.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: They get goofy them. That's the time of year when
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: you're Liabelcy, when I'm walking across the interstate, We're standing
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in the front front of your truck in the county road.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: They get out of their mind. Around Thanksgiving. They've been breeding,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, they can't find another hot dough
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: hardly and they lose their cookies looking for that last
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: little flurry erupted, you know, that last hot dough they
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: can find. And they're liable to travel literally countless miles
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: during that time of season. But as soon as that
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: starts to get over there in December, they'll migrate right
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: back to their HIGHI hell, I do believe because they
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: can live and get into seven or eight years of
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: age by staying in a heidi hill somewhere. They don't
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: get that old by walking around in different places. All time,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: they'll get the rare ms poached or shot off by
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: some ranch hand. Something would happened to them. They have
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: a heidi hill area out in that open country that
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: makes them a living. So you mentioned right there, you
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: mentioned some of that, you know, some kind of little
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: brush that might be a hidy hole for a buck
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: out there. And and earlier you mentioned a handful of
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: other kind of habitat features that might attract dear movement
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: a little. You mentioned that swag like a kind of
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: low ravine, You mentioned fence rose, you mentioned, you know,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: some of these isolated patches of trees. Um for someone
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: new to this type of hunting who's considering going out
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: to open country for the first time, Um, are there
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: any other habitat features to consider? I'm just thinking, as
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: a new guy, if I came out there and I
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: had a list like ten different things that should be
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: looking for, Um, one of them is going to be
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: a swag, a low a low ditch through there. One
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: of them gonna be some tree lines. Are there any
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: other cover or terrain features that someone should put on
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: their list of of check on this or consider watching
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: for deer in this type of zone. Well, you know,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: when you asked that, one little thing pop into my mind.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Now this isn't real common, but it occurs, and I've
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: found them, especially up in Nebraska. Lot um I call them.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: They're not potholes, but they're close swampy, little swampy spots
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: that are low iron and they're out in the middle
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: of nowhere in open country. Maybe they have cat tails
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: or maybe they don't, but they stay wet way more
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: than anywhere else. They'll grows some stuff. It's a little
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: bigger and taller, and I'm telling you, I just personally
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: believe that's where a lot of these bucks makes are
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: living in those little spots like that um they've got,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: you know, usually a little bit water there. And I
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: mean these I have watched mature bucks pre rut out
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: in the prairie a mile from any trease in any direction,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: get up already ments for dart, start browsing in the
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: prairie grass in the grass. Now there's like seventeen or
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: I don't remember, I read it somewhere. There's like I
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: don't know how many kinds of species of things that
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: grow out in that grass that are all high priority
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: to a deer. People look at that grass and they say,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: let's just cattle land them deer can't make a living
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: out there. Don't even kid yourself. They can make an
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: awesome living out on that grass. There's all kinds of
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: things they eat out there, and it's all down at
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: the ground level. Because I've watched them put their head
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: down in that blue stem and browsed down on the
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: ground level for a minute or two at a time
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: before every picked their head up, you know what I mean.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: So you know a little a little swag. Do you
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: ever find out in the middle of nowhere with some
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: brush or you know, reads and high grass or weeds
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: in it? Uh? Let it pick your brain, because you
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: may have found a spot where one I'm likes to
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: bed often. And there's a couple of points that you
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: were bringing up there to mark. You said you hunt
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of open flat crop in that north part
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: of Ohio. And that got me thinking about a big
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: buck I was on a month ago, and this buck
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: was literally living in a cut corn, very barren cut corn.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like a weedy one, and he would just
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: find a little tiny low spot and bedding it. I
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: caught him out there six days in a row, and
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: I just didn't have wind on on on to two
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: days that I really needed it to to put a
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: stock on him. So I never ended up getting the deer,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: but it was really cool. And when you find those
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: big bucks like that in those pockets, it's really fun
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: to sit back and kind of observe how they'll play
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: their cards so fine tunedly with if the wind switches
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: a little bit. You know, I had a situation the
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: year before on a big one. I had six stocks
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: and seven days on him, and uh, you know, he
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: he really liked this one. Kind of it was open country,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: but kind of a ditch draw. And that's one thing
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: too in Kansas I find is a little tiny ditches.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: You can't hardly sometimes see him on an area, but
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: if it's it don't need to be very deep. But
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: especially you get a wind day, you can about bet
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: that there'll be a there'll be a good one that
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: they like bedding in those kind of like little ditches.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: We find them in there quite regularly. Yeah, I see that,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: that's a fact right there. I hadn't thought about that.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Out there in the prairie, the wind can blow like
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: a band sheet and they will get down in the
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: little bitty depression or behind a you know, a no
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: small no And I watched some uh this year, one
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: big button particular, come and go from this one spot
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: out in a in a real broad, low low spot.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: He come and went with two or three different dos
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: over a period of a week that he was breeding.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: And that's another thing. You know, those big deer they
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: might make a trip down to the more traditional cover
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: at night and you know, you go down there and
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: you walk that out, you see these giant rubs and
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh my god, you know I'm gonna hunt
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: down here. This is when they're at well, they're just
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: down there at night. They come down there at night,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: cut them a dough out of the herd and take
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: her back out into the wide open. The breeder. They
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: do not want no competition with that dough. They don't
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: want to stay down there because some other bucks are
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: gonna come by and try to kick their rear ends
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: for her. And you know it's natural you take your girlfriend,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: take her out in the country to go park and
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: you don't you know what I'm saying, but anyway, that's
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the way it works with them. You know, they play
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: the game pretty smart. And if you ever watch when
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: I'm coming and going with a dough to a spot
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: out in the open country, you may have found what
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: I kind of think might be I kind of I
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: don't know this. I don't even know when I'm enough
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: of a redneck that I'm repeating stuff at standard terminology anymore.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: But years ago I started call them breeding sanctuaries. They
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: have spots they like to take their dough to out there,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: and they will dominate her. I've watched and run him
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: like a cutting horse until both of themse tongues would
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: be flopping out their head, hitting him upside the head,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and they will eventually domineer that dough and make her stay,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: and she'll give up and stay and then they breathe,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: And you know that usually lasts for like a day
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and a half. They stay there and do that, and
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: then the next night he's liable to go down there
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: at two in the morning, cut him another dough and
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: head back out there. But if you find every one
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: one of them out in that open country breeding, you
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: better believe that that's one of his favorite little spots
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: right there. Yeah, there's a couple good points you brought
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: up there about that is that's that's a lot of
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: times why I don't like to get hung up on
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: sign that I do find out, Like I'm cautious of it,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: knowing that those deer could very you know, you survey
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: the situation. I think he brought up a point earlier.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: The more you do it, the more you just you
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: go with your gut. Your gut gets very sharp at
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: being able to detect like is this a public land
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: here making this sign? Like is he coming here in daylight?
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: And I see many times hunters I think, in my opinion,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: they'll get hung up on that sign, and it's like,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: well that's that's those those deer a private land here
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: that are coming over here at night making that sign.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: And you might get lucky, but you know, and that
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that all sign is that way, but I'm
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: just kind of cautious of that um And one other
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: point to in that open country that we look for
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: a lot when it's rut, when we're putting on the
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: miles and we're spending this much time glass and a
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: lot of times what tips us off on a big
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: mature buck, you know, is an actual satellite buck. You know,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: just you know, if you're if you're covering ground, if
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: you're glass doing a lot of glass, and we do that.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: We do this in the timber too. You know, I
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: killed one a number of years ago doing this in
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: the timber. I ended up some satellite bucks. I called
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: in and I was like, there's a big buck up
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: on that ridge. I bet with the dough and that
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: was all woods. But I use those satellite bucks is
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: they're the ones that let me know, you know, and
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: uh so we'll look for that. You know, you see
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: a little little tiny buck out there, you know, standing
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: in that grass or whatever, and he doesn't look quite right,
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: like he's just standing around, and it's like, what's he doing, Well,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: he's probably satellite And you park it there and you
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: start glass and you might catch a big bucks rack.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, pretty good chance there's gonna be a big
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: mature buck lockdown with the dough, especially in that open
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: country like that where those dough numbers aren't very high.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: Usually if a dough is hot, a mature bucks gonna
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: find her and and you're gonna you're gonna have that.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: You mentioned the satellite bucks kind of tipping you off
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: to locating a buck like that. I know that glassing
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: and generally getting eyes on a good buck is is
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: such a huge part of your whole strategy. Are there
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: any other things you've picked up over the years that
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: help you spot more dear, whether that's where you choose
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: the glass from or the actual glass you use, or
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: gear you use, or glassing techniques, anything like that that
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: helps you actually get your eyes on one. Yeah. There, there,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of things. One thing is is if
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: you're gonna do this open ground and you're gonna kind
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: of do this spot and stock kind of thing, you know,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: I I absolutely have to have good glass, like I
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: can't be without it because I won't get I won't
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: get nearly as much accomplished. So you know, get some
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: good glass. But one one trick that I learned last
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: year and now I use it all the time is
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: I have a pretty good tripod and I've had it
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: for fifteen years. But it's got a nice fluid head
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: on it, and it's got a wide enough base that
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: I can just drop my binoculars right on that. And
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes you get a wind day where you got our
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: winds and you're trying to glass grass, You've got a
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: lot of movement and it's very hard to pick up
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: just randomly if you unless you betted one. You know,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: if you bed one and you know he's out there,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: obviously it's easier to find it. But if you're just
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: free floating glassing and you haven't gotten a visual yet,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: what I like to do is set that tripod up
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: and then I pulled down on on it with my binocks,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: and I can about get rid of most of that wind,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: you know that that I couldn't otherwise do. And you know,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: my buddy Tanner, he was doing some hunting with me
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: this year and and and he he's a really really
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: good hunter, and I showed him that trick and he
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: immediately was like, whoa, this is a game changer. This
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: is a serious game changer. Um, so try that. You know,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: that's that's a good one. I always like to have
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: good optics with a good steady rest, you know. And
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: in fact, in the vehicles, I make my own sort
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: of there's not a window mount that I like, so
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: I'll take an actual fluid head and then I put
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: one of the window clamps on it. So, um, because
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: having a good steady rest, when you're glad, when you're
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: glass and stuff half mile it ain't is big of
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: a deal. But when you're trying to glass, you know,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: beyond a mile, and sometimes you're getting out there to
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: three miles. I mean I've picked up Dear. I mean
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: people would probably you know, think I'm be Austin, but
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I've picked him up right around five mile Dear before.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: But you've got to have a steady rest if you're
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: and good optics if you're gonna do that, you got
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: to have both. Though. If if you're gonna have to
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: pick just one optic for your long distance classing so
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: you're from the car or or really long distance type stuff,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: would you use a spotter or would you like a big,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: you know, high power set of binoculars for that? Okay,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: So if I had to pick one optic and that's
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: the only optic I could use all fall, I would
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: take my twelve by fifties and those are those ones
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: are vortex L tra hds UM. I generally will spot
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Dear with the binoculars first, then transfer over to the
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: spot or to you know, how big a buck are
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: we dealing with? Here? Is there other you know, and
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: try to pick up you know, if there's you know,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: that's one thing when I get a visial on a
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: big bucket. I'm gonna make a play. I gotta know
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: is he alone? Does he have just a dough? Is
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: there one satellite? Buck to three? Where they at? Because
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: I gotta plan a route to get in there, and
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: not just get into compound range. You know, I'm trying
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: to get in long bowl range, and so that's a
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: whole another end a camera guy and trying to weasel
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: in there. And you know that's the one thing about
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: doing that game is a lot of times we aren't successful.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: But sometimes it all comes together. And sometimes it's the
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: ones that you think there's not a chance you're gonna
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: pull it off. But let's try it. That come together
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: real smooth. That's funny. You know you don't always get them.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: Let me interject something right here, because I gotta tell you.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you how um much I am stymied
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: by the thought of getting in on these big deer
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: and killing him off the ground with a longbow touched scenario.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Um you the man, I'm telling you you deserve I
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: bow down, No kidding, I'm uh. I mean, I know
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of way to skin a cat, but
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: of all the route to choose, you make bow hunting
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: bow hunting, Okay, and uh, you do it at the
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: most incredible level. I mean I I look for the
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: you know, shortcuts to kill them, setting a trace down,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: let him stumble by. It don't get any better than
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: what you're doing. And I applaud you. Okay, well, I
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: appreciate that. But you know, like with it though. I
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: mean sometimes I've had ten fifteen stocks where I didn't
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: get them. They're unsuccessful. But the cool thing about it
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: you learn, you learn things along the way that sometimes
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: you know and you can I'm sure attest to that
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: with your style of hunting as well. You know, you
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: learn the ones that you don't get are the ones
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: you always you know, learn the most from. Yeah, well
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: I tell you to try to figure out what you're
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: doing and make it work. Um, i'd have to start
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: back over. I'd have God, I have to give me
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: twenty or thirty years back to get started because I'm
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: I just I'm not a great stalker and get into
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: you know, wooden stick bow range, uh, and get it
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: pulled off. I couldn't hit a hit him anyway. But
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I know what you're doing, and I
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: give you all due credit okay, so so so tell
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: me this, Eddie. Um, with your style of hunting in
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: open country, how important is glassing and optics and all
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: that to you? Um? Do you do you do any
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: long distance scouting like that beforehand? Or is it all
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: ground and pound hike it until you find a good tree? Um?
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: How does that fit into yourself? I do use optics.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: I don't use them, you know, at the level that
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: we're talking here. I mean I always have a set
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: of ten Empire, you know. I have a little small
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: set of Swarovski ten Powers that go with me, and
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: they're right there in reach because I do you know,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: even though I'm not as much into big bucks as
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: I used to be, I still am into them. Uh.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: I want to know what I'm like that, you know.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: And I see them a lot of times at the
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: distance and I can't tell if it's a hundred or
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty five inch, you know, I don't know.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: So yes, I use them, I really do. But you know,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: I'm just to the point in my life now, in
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: my early sixties, to where if I see a good deer,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: I want to try to get it that day I
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: go with, you know, if I if I don't have
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: a wedgie that day, and I'm in a good mood.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: I want to kill a deer, and I try to
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: do it. You know, if it's I might shoot a
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty inch deer anymore, which I used to
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have walked across the street for a hundred and
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: forty inch here. But things have changed, and uh, you know,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: I'll go with my heart anymore. I didn't even shoot
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: a good deer this year up in Kansas. I I
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: didn't even shoot one. I just let them all go
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: and let some one fifties go and finally, just you know,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: I just you know what I mean. And so I'm changing.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: I'm going through manopause right now, and it ain't funny
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: telling you guys. Live it up while you can. Take
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: this old man's advice. And when you get close to
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: starting to feel it to hit you, shift it into
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: high gear and don't let it get you down. Go
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: go get hormone replacement therapy, do something. Just don't go
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: get old, because um, it's not gonna be fun on you.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: If you if you've lived large like like we try to,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: I've lived large for forty years, and it's hard to
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: get old, you know what I mean, it's hard to
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: accept the limitations. So you know, I just uh, I
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: take really good optics, but I'm sure they don't play
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: nearly as integral part in in my hunt as they
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: do Jared. You know what what's next for you? Andy? Um?
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: I know there's so many things that we're talking about
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: here that make me think about some of the stuff
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: we were doing in Nebraska a few years ago. And
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: even though we were able to get on you know,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: I got on really early and you were on one
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: pretty quick to we were able to figure it out
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: in that scenario. I'm already thinking, you know, if we
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: had if we'd stayed ten days, or if we were
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: more picky, I wonder if we could have found deer
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: over in this area, or I wonder if we could
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: have went about it a little bit different. And that's
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: about we're hunting. It was slightly different than some of
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: these scenarios, and that we're hunting kind of sandhill type
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: habitat with big, wide, open grassy hills and then very
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: thick covered river bottoms in the middle. So he had
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: one swath of great, big cover surrounded by an ocean
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: of open grass. Um so I'm thinking about that scenarios
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: we're talking through here, But what are you thinking about, Andy? Yeah,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about that too. Um. Here's here's a
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: good question for you guys. UM. And I know this
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: depends on the time of the year, like early season
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: versus rutt versus late and you guys can can expand
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: on that if you want. But in my experience, like
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: I've seen bucks bed in this type of country like
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: seemingly using the wind to their advantage. But then there's
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: other times I'll see them like it seems like they're
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: looking more for shade and they're not using the wind
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: to their advantage. And then other times, like maybe in
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: some real cold weather, they're out in the sun more
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: so it seems like sometimes they're betted more for a
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: wind advantage, is which is what I'm more used to
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: like back home around Michigan, monitoring you know, pressure monitoring
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: their backside and setting up you know, facing down wind.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: But I don't always see that in open country, and
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: I've often we'll see dear just kind of moving around
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: to like shady spots if it's like maybe a real
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: sunny day or unseasonably warm. Have you guys seen that
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: same kind of thing. Jared, you probably have a lot
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: of experiences because you get to observe so many bucks betted. Yeah,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: you know. I Here's what I find is when I'm
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: hunting you know, big bucks early season, late season, I'll
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: find them using you know, betting a lot. They're a
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: lot sharper with how they bed with that wind at least.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: And what I'm saying is mature bucks, you know, so
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: four plus we'll just say, okay, so semi mature to
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: mature level. Those there are sharp. They're on another level
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: from from those younger two two year old bucks and
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: even the threes to where they get yeah, I mean
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: they don't like it the wind switches a little bit,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: and they'll get up and re bed thirty yards to
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: accommodate it. They're they're just on a different level now.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: During the rut there's so many times we sneak up
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: on big Bucks that they aren't looking where the you know,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: the where that you know that the generalal thumb is okay,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: they're looking where they can't smell. I I find that
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: not to be the case nearly as much during the
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: rut um. But also if their bachelor grouped up. That
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: changes too, So you've got to three bucks with this,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: you know, big Buck. If usually they're playing it pretty smart,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: like this one's got discovered for visual, this one he's
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: he's got it covered for. It's fun to watch him
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: in these types of situations. And and we had a
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: pretty good situation where we were able to document some
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: of that a couple of years ago pretty well, um,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: with a big one that I was chasing. But but yeah,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: you know a lot of times when I'm putting a
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: sneak on him, I'm still just kind of cheating that wind,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: you know, just off of their their nose. That seems
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: to be the route that i'd say gets picked over
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: any other. You know, it's not that often that we
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: can come in straight down window a big Buck, even
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: even during the rut. But I do see where, Um
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: it's not like, hey, he beds down and he's looking
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: where he or you know, he's not looking where he
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: can smell or can't smell. It's not like that's like
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: a rare thing for me to see during the rut. Um,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: that's pretty common. So I don't know if that answers
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: your question. Yeah, Ednie, have you have you been able
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: to observe that much. I'm pretty much rot in line
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: with that. Early season. Late seasons totally different ball game.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: They're on a survival, you know, pattern, and they don't
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: compromise much there during the smaller, lesser crap shoot and
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: all invariable sea mentioned plays into how there, how it's
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: gonna play out. I think it's just the roll of
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: the dice in the rut. And uh, to me, what
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: I'd say is, if you know which, to me, that's
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: most of the time when somebody's gonna be trying to
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: get up on a buck on the ground, it's probably
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: during the rut, I would think. I don't. I mean,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know how much everyone that hunts him on
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: the ground goes out and hunts him in October and
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: in December. I'm sure they do, but their success has
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: got to be mainly in that month of November when
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: the cards turn their way a little bit better in
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: the bucks show their weaknesses. But you know, I have
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: to play the win pretty bad. Even out in the prairie.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: I still am cognizant of it NonStop because I'm trying
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: to stay in them immobile spot, and so I always
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: try to pick the one direction and the one spot
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: to where it. I think it's the absolutely less likely
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: that somebody's when I'm is going to get around behind me,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: whether he's crossing country on his own or whether he's
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: running a dough out there. You know, the wind is
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: just I live and die by it. I don't worry
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: about all the scent stuff I did for many years.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: I run myself crazy messing with scent and burn myself
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: out on sent elimination. And finally just said, I'm going
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: back to the old school. And if they smell me,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: they smell me. But I'm gonna try to keep them
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: from it. But you know, I haven't found it to
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: be much of a you know, I don't what tells
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: a whole lot in the first half October and the
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: last part of the December anymore. I don't do it
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: a lot, uh hind them mainly when they're breeding mid
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: October through late November, and so it's a crap shoot.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: It's a crap shoot on what they're doing on anyone
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: given day. My advice so that is this, get your
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: eye on the thing, whether on the ground or in
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: the tree, and get that thing over there and get
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: it killed. Juice common sense, do what you gotta do,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: you know, be a man and get the job done.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: And if you have to strip off and walk naked
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: backwards to it, if that's the tactic that works that day,
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: smear mud all of yourself and get the job done.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, don't don't go by all this. We have
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: refined white til hunting down to a book. We've got
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: the rules and the regulations. That's a bunch of crap.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: Everybody wants to you know, a book that can tell
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: him how to do it. Well, the book is get
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: your rear end out there and do it and learn
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: and figure it out and it'll all work out. Yeah,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: I think you got I think what's what you just said.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: I mean you two are a perfect example of two
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: completely different strategies, but both get it done. And I
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: think you guys both play into your strengths. Like Eddie,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: you said, you you're so patient, so you're able to
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: put in those days upon days in a single location
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: and and waiting for a good buck to make the
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: mistake and come by. And Jared admitted he's a little
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: more impatient and it just enjoys chasing on the ground
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: and that's his strength. So it's just so cool, you know,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: to hear two different perspectives. Um, I I kind of
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: want to dive into a little bit of the stock.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: And I guess this would probably be more to Jared
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: because he does more of this. But yeah, um, there's
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: so many things to keep in mind, um obviously, uh,
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: And I'm hoping you could dive into a few things.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: But like you know, from from the camel the lack
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: of camel that you use, I've noticed that you tend
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: to pick out colors that really match that prairie grass. Um.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: You know, the direction of the sun, which way the
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: animals facing, um, even to the best time of the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: day to do this. So like for me, like when
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: I'm hunting mule deer, I often, um, I'm often bedding
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: them down and I have to keep all that stuff
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: in mind obviously, the wind direction, which way the wind
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: is the sun is facing, and all that stuff. And
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: then I like to go after him kind of in
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: that noon to one o'clock time frame because it seems
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: like they're real kind of groggy at that time. They
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: got their head down a lot, they're a little bit sleepy.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, do you do put do you pay attention
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: to some of those things when you're going in for
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: a white tailers, like when you see him, you're going
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: in now. You know. I used to be rammier to
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: where it was like we gotta go, we gotta go now.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: But more often now as I'm getting older, and sometimes
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: I get burnt on this, but I'll put on that brakes.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: Like a few years ago or no, two years ago,
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: we had a we had a good one that betted
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: first first light. I mean within a couple of minutes
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: of shooting light. He was betted already, And I was like,
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: you know what, we we need some win to pick up.
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: So that's another good thing about a lot of times
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: we'll just look at weather dot com or whatever, and
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of times you know your wins gonna pick
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: up late morning and that's gonna be a better time
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: for you to you know, have the noise cover that
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: you might need to get in there close. Um. So
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: so that's that's a good factor there. Plus they get
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: settled in and comfortable. So like on this particular dear,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, he betted right at first light,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: and he's going to get up on his feet and
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: stretch his legs. Probably within about two hours, whatever somewhere
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: in there is for that particular day is what I figured.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: And I've seen a lot of deer do that. Now,
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: sometimes you'll get lucky and they'll bed right back down
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: there or reposition ten steps. But I've had situations where
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: if I got a stock and I'm gonna have to
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: lose my visual throughout this stock. I've done those before
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: and hadn't waited for them to get settled in comfortable,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: and they got up and repositioned, and then I had
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: to crawl back out of there and find him back,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: and maybe they moved two hundred yards, three hundred yards
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: for nderd yards find him back, and usually don't find
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: him back until they get back on their feet, which is,
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: you know, a good chunken of the day. And now
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: I might not have enough time to make a stock,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: So I think exactly what you said right there, that's
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: that's usually when I think it's the best time is
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: right that midday you wait for the wind to pick
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: up um and that don't always happen. Some days you
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: don't get that wind picking up, but that's pretty common,
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: you know. I like a day that starts out where
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: it's not very windy at all, if it's windy up
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: sun up, your activity is going to be very very
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: low if it's plus at sun up, but it'll be
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: a better late morning mid morning, you know, movement not
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: not maybe great, but better than first light is what
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: I've found. Um. Well, one thing I do want to
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: hit on, uh, when I do get a vigil on
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: a big because you brought this up about sometimes we're
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: just wearing tan clothes or whatever. It's not even a camel.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: So we tried Guilly suits the number of years ago.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: The problem with gilly suits in the sun the open
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: country is unless you're laying flat on the ground, they
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: get really dark on the backside where the sun you know,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: can't get to and then all the bunches of material
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: if the sun's hitting him on a cross know like
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: cross ways, you've got these bunches of material and you
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: basically have a valley so you have a shadow, so
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: they get real dark on the opposite side. So I
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: don't like gilly suits for for that reason. I picked
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: up I pick up I'm fortunate enough to pick up
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of our mistakes in video, you know, when
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: I'm editing, um, But when I get a visual on
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: a big buck, and I bet him most of the time.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: I can pull this off, not every time, but I'm
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: gonna plan my route obviously based off a wind direction
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: being one and and and then other factors beyond you
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: know after that. But I'm going to try to come
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: straight in. You know, I'm not gonna you know, And
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: I used to do this in the woods too, Like
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: even if I didn't have a visual on a big buck,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: I try to picture where I think they're gonna be
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: betting an approach that betting area where I'm coming straight
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: out it because you've got so many shadows and highlights
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: in the woods. I know we're talking more open country here,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: but I do the same thing in the open country.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: If I'm coming straight out of deer, there's a lot
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: less movement than me coming in at quarterine to or
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: even broadside, So I don't you know, I'm very careful
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: on approaching a deer or a betting pocket where I
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: think I might be able to visually pick one up.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: I'm always trying to come in straight on on it
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: because there's a lot less movement for them to pick up.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: I you know, I've realized that I didn't realize I
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: was doing that for a while, and it's just one
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: of the things that I'm like, that's something I always do,
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: and it makes a lot of sense. And and uh
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: so I think it's a good point to bring up
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: to somebody that's maybe never stocked before. Keep that in
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: mind planning your route to just coming straight in on
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: that deer. So sorry, Jared, can you I'm just not
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: tracking when you say straight on coming in straight in,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: so that straight on in relation to the sun or
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: straight in is in like you were just walking directly
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: at where the deer is. Just explain that a little
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: bit better. I'm all right. So from the deer's position,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: you know, you know a lot of times I'm crawling,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: but I'm gonna crawl straight, you know, so i might
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: have to back out and do a loop to get
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: the wind right, but then I'm to come straight straight
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: head on. Does that make sense? So so so, so
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: next time you and Andy are together and just put
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: him a hundred yards out in the woods or in
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: the open country. If he's coming in quarter into a broadside,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: that's a lot more movement than straight on. I know
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: it sounds silly, but a lot of people don't. I
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: think factor that in and and obviously when you're sneaking.
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: The other thing is is I don't like to take
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: my eyes off when I'm moving because the second I
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: do that, They're gonna pop their head up at some
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: point and I gotta be all freeze in that moment.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: And if I'm looking at where my I'm gonna plant
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: my feet or whatever while I'm moving, and then I
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: look up and they got me. So, um you got
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: That's one thing. I can look at where I'm gonna go, like, Okay,
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: I gotta move my leg like this, but I don't
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: do that movement until I'm back looking at the deer.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: So if he picks his head up and and looks
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: my direct action, I can instantly freeze. And if I
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: didn't do that, I would get pegged a lot more
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: substantially more minor little or major detail. But Jared, real quick,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: uh do you ideally is would you rather come at
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: that deer kind of from the side, um, like, so
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: you you gotta deer. Let's say he's he's bedded on
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: just on the down or on the back side of
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: a little hillside, you know, with the wind coming over
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: the hill, and he's kind of facing down are you
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: going to try to come in more from the side
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: and slightly above or it seems like a lot of
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: times you end up like literally like right over top
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: of their back. So what ideally, what do you try
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: to do? You know, That's the one thing. Every situation
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: is different, you know. Um, if I can cross one,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: kill him, that's the way I like to generally do it.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: And I think the reason I just like to do
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: it that way is because generally I can't come in
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: directly down wind, and the cross winds the best I
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: got and some you know, you got to really watch
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: that wind though, because I mean I I missed out
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: on a big one this year. I had a great
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: win for a while and I was making a play
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: on him and I was in compound range, but all
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, I felt it on the back of
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: my neck. It switched forty seconds and he got me. Um.
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: So that happens from time to time. But it was
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: really our only route. We only had an eight mile
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: in our wind. Um. We had just just just the
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: right setting to be able to pull this off with
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: this situation, and unfortunately that wind just kind of switched
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: on me. But a lot of times I'll I find
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: that cross wind. Coming in on the cross wind is
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: going to be the best route. Um. You know, I
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: you know, in recent years, I found myself coming over
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: the top a little bit more than I used to. UM,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: I don't like to do it generally when I'm trying
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: i'd to actually, uh, when when I'm moving in on
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: the deer, I don't like to do it as much. Um.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: It's just hard to film. It's really hard to film
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: that you're coming over the top skyline. Skyline is already
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: a tough deal. But when I'm like going into a draw.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: Let's say I'm hunting open country and it's kind of
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: got some broken draws, and maybe I think there could
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: be a big buck bedded down in this drawer, this
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: ditch I find myself. I realized this last year. Over
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: the last couple of three years, a lot of times
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: I am coming over skyline so um, which isn't probably
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: the way most guys should start out. UM. But I
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: think I just over the course of time, I kind
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: of developed a system to how I scan the open country,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: the draw system or whatever, to where I'm very confident
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: about doing it, where I'm gonna have them spotted before
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: they get me. Um. But the reason I I like
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: doing it that way is because oftentimes I uh and
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: I mean a lot better position to actually spot them.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: And I think a great example of that is actually
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: the newest video we have out. There's a bonus disc
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: in there. And there was a big buck that I
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: was chasing and I had seven stocks and seven days,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: six were with him, and almost all those I think
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: actually all those situations we had to come over the
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: top to to move in on and but also to
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: get the vision we didn't have. He was a deer
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: that was bedded down at first light a lot of times.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: You know, he was a smart deer. It wasn't rut
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: yet and and uh, we didn't get busted ever doing
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: that over the top. But um, that's a fine line there.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: But I love doing that because usually I got a
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: higher position to get a visual on them. So it's
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: easy for me and that that particular system, you know,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: sometimes there'd be three, four or five different bucks in that,
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: maybe a couple of does here, and I gotta know
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: where all these deer are at. And if I'm coming
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: like on a draw system, if I'm half way down, yeah,
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not skylined anymore. But now I might be missing
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: a deer or two that is gonna really screw me
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: if I don't have their position. So if you can
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: get good at spotting them first in a skyline type
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: scenario where you're coming over a ridge, that's one thing
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: that I think, uh I realized over the last couple
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: three years, I started doing more of and I don't
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: know how to describe that other than uh, I used
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: to see more tails going the other way. Um, but
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: I I think I just I do a really good
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: job scanning the pockets where they might be betting, and
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: then I'm confident of that that I've scanned that good
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: enough that I don't go back there, and I focused
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: on you know, when I move up a few more inches,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: now I just focus on this little sliver that I
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't see before and kind of eliminate that. If that
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: kind of makes sense. When you're coming over the top,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: you're really thread the needle on the wind. If obviously,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: if they're bedded with the wind of their advantage, right,
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yes, some of those situations. Yeah, I mean,
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: sometimes I'm coming over skyline and I have the wind
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: working for me. But but that's a good point you know,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: And that's that's one thing in the open country when
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: you're talking not the flat ground, you know, flat Kansas
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: prairies that we've hunted, and he's hunted a lot, you know,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: then you go to kind of like that more. It
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: sounds like you guys had a hunt here a couple
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: of years ago where it was probably more like draws
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: open country kind of stuff. Is that right? It is fun,
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: you know, one thing that I realized by sitting back
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: and glass and it's really fun to look at what
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: the wind is gonna be, like how much wind are
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: we getting today, and then be able to just set
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: yourself up to be like, okay, all these deer are
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: gonna be betting on this side, these types of draws,
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: these types of ridges, and it gets pretty fun to
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: be able to predict where there. I'm actually gonna take
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: all that knowledge that I learned, and I'm planning to
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: do more wooded stuff like I used to do again,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: because I can't wait to take what I've learned by
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: watching them in that type of setting and how they
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: use wind and and you know, I'll be able to
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: eliminate a lot of acreage on a wooded set, you know,
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: if there's a fifteen mile plus our wind in the woods,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: I'll be able to eliminate a lot of that acreage
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: that I didn't ten years ago in a hunted woods,
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't really do that is as much. So just
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: just so people can follow along at home, how would
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: you how would you apply that to the wooded setting?
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: So when you're getting that strong wind, where is that
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: going to push the bedding? Okay, so if I'm hunting
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: ridge type stuff like say like the bluffs of Wisconsin
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: or you know a lot of those types of rid
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: Not all hills are like this, but a lot of
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: that type of hill terrain, those you know, the bigger
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: bucks are bedded right over the top of that ridge
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: quite often. But you know there's different hill systems where
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: that's not true. But that type of setting, now I
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: would just take a look at the top. Okay, we've
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: got a fifteen mile per hour plus wind today. They're
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: not gonna be bettered, you know, in these types of settings,
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: are gonna be out of that wind, catching it coming
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: over the top. And I could just go into a
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: wooded scenario and eliminate more of that acreage based off
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: the kind of what you described. You know, Okay, the
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: winds out of the west. You know, there's a draw
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: you know, they're catching that scent coming over the top
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: just a little bit, and they're out of the wind,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: so it's not you know, it's it's nice and quiet,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: you know, where they don't have a bunch of noise
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: going on around them. Um, deer don't like that. The
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: only deer that I've seen get comfortable with that is
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: those flat planes, like Kansas deer. They just gotta get
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: used to it. You know. Sometimes they can find a
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: ditch like we were talking about earlier to crawl into.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: But and Eddie, you can probably expand some more on
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: some of that. I don't spend I don't know why
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: I spent my whole life stalking but not white tails.
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: A lot I spent you know, meal deer, alk, antelope, whatever.
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: And I don't know what I do compared to the
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: think thinking process of everyone else. But like if I'm
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: on the ground after something, I guess I would say
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: the very first thing my mind assesses is the lay
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: of the land, to where my first thought is, how
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: can I get the absolute closest to this animal using
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: the lay of the land. Before I even have to
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: start thinking about the next step, which might be the
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: wind or the sun angle or the cover or whether
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: I can you know, am I gonna have I will try,
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: Like if I spotted at five hundred yards, I want
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: to if I can get to two hundred yards real
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: quick by using the lay of the land, that's step
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: one for me, you know. And of course I'm not
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: going to run into that animal. It goes without saying.
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: I don't even say this. Anybody with a brain knows
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: you don't run in there and let them smell you, you
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But using the wind, you're
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: going to run in there and get as close you
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: can using the terrain, and then stop, crawl up there,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: look at the scenario and assess how to do it.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: Whether you're gonna crawl on a sidehill or come over
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: a skyline right behind them, It'll all depend on where
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: they're batted in the cover and the wind. You know.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: The last part is the wind and the cover equation
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: of a stock. To me, the first part is the
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: lay of the land, because unless it's wide open, pull
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: table flat, there's always usually some kind of hell or
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: some kind of a swag you can use to cut
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: your distance and half, you know, But anyway, I don't
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: know if that was exactly what you asked me, but
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: that's what I went on a tangent on. No, that's
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: that's that's good stuff that that last moment though, So
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: you use the land to your to your favor. Um.
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: Jared described a little bit of what he's thinking about
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: as he makes those final approaches. Can you give us
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: a few more thoughts for your final approach once you
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: do have to think about the wind, the sun, um,
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: crawling versus sneaking, um, any other tips from your experience
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: talking in on mule deer and whatnot. Yeah, you know,
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: I get as close I can with the land, and
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: I of course, like I said, I've already got an
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: idea of what to win prevailing you and I will.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: I will use the land in conjunction with the wind
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: from the start to get around on some side of
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: that animal. That's as close as I can get to
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: where I'm going to have the wind. That were when
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: I start my final stalk, I know I've got the
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: wind at least usable. I don't want to get as
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: close as I can to the animal, and you know,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: and then end up with the wind not favorable to
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: make the final part of the stop. So you've got
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: to put them both in conjunction. But the lay of
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: the lands the first part. When I get close, you know,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: then I'll stop for quite a bit of time and
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: really watch like he does, and look at the surroundings.
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: Pick him apart, because you know, you don't know what's
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: laying there. There might be three or four him you
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: haven't seen. There may be some more over there four
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: hundred yards away in a bowl across the prairie that
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: you know we're going to stand up. I've had I
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: don't know how many times I've been stalking a particular
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: animal and it get up and run off because another
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: deer stood up over their four hundred yards away and flagged.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: You know. So you know, you gotta get close as
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: you can to begin with, and then assess the situation.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: And then I'm just a firm advocate of all my
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: stalking I do pretty much. It's not all, but it's
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: if I can, I'm gonna do it on my knees
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: and elbows. You know. If I'm a stalking hunt type guy,
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: like an oper, whatever, elk anything, I'm keep as low
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: profiles I can get I'm gonna belly crawl. I mean,
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: the shadow you're throwing is significantly less. And you know,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: if you've ever watched the cow walk across the pasture
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: in the early morning or late even and the thing's
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: throwing at eight foot shadow, maybe that's moving along with it.
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: Get as low as you can, you know, get down
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: there where there there's no more for them, the spot moving,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: then your physical body, you know. And and really really important,
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: really important to me is the part about he mentioned
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: earlier about keeping your eyes on. I just absolutely don't
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: move on an animal, hardly. If I'm in the final
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: stages in the open, I won't move unless I'm watching
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: that thing and knowing that he hasn't tuned into something,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: and that he's not alert, and that he's not goking
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: right my direction at the moment I watched the you
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: don't basically don't move if you can't see them good
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: enough to tell what's going on. Wise wise words. H.
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: I got a question on that. Uh, And I know
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: this is going to depend completely on the situation, But
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: which do you guys prefer? So, like, Uh, you sneak
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: into a white tail mule deer or whatever, and he's
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: betted Um, do you prefer to shoot them bedded down
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: or is it something where you sneak into bow distance
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: kind of wait for him to stand up and and
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: give you that shot. I was. The reason I asked
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: is because I was forced with this decision in Nebraska
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: this year on a giant Muley, and I could have
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: shot him in his bed. I was over him. I
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: came from over the top like you're describing Jared, and
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: he was twenty I don't know, three yards or something.
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: But I had a great shot. He was facing directly
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: away from me, but I don't know just the way
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: that the way the hill was was kind of tapered down,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: and what I could see of his of his body,
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: I just didn't feel super confident with it. So I
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: just kind of sat there and waited, which was risky
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: because you know that wind could have swirled at any time.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: But I just kind of let him do this thing
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: and start. You know, he could tell he's starting to
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: move around a little bit, move his head around, so
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: I knew he was gonna stand. And then you know,
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: after I don't know forty minutes or so, he stood
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: and then gave me a shot. But what do you
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: guys typically do. I know it's it's completely situational. But Jared, well,
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: I think you made the right call. If you don't,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: if something doesn't feel right or you're not confident about
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: that shot, you don't take it. Um. You know, a
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: few years ago, Chancey snuck up on a big buck
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: bedded in the plains of Kansas in the grass and
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: that was after Thanksgiving. Um, but he snuck up there.
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: I think he got six or seven yards from it,
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: and it was a big old one. Um, and he
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: shot at betted And I think that's the first betted
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: deer that we ever had on a video that we shot.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: You know, I just wasn't really a big fan of
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: it ever. But he brought up a good valid point
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: and he said, you know how many times they stand
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: up and they have us pegged, And now you're dealing
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: with a deer that's just on pins and needles and
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: might get ten inches a drop on you. There's a
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: lot of variables in there. And I think if you
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: have a good shot on a bedded deer, I don't
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: think there's anything you know wrong with that. I don't
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: think I've ever taken that shot, but I'm a lot
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: more open minded to it than I was, because he
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: had a lot of good points on that. I was like, yeah,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: you know, that's that's a good point, you know, I thought, so, Um,
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, my favorite shot is a head on shot,
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: but I'm hunting deer on the ground, not out of
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: a tree stand, and that's a whole different ballgame. Um.
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: And the first time I did it, it was an
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: accident and I realized how deadly it really is from
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: ground zero. And so my favorite is a head on
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: shot then quartering to then broadside. But a lot of
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: people wouldn't probably agree with that, but about everyone I've
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: ever seen lost as a broadside. So if you're shooting
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: a good setup, that's what I like. UM on that
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: and so many times on the ground that happens I
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: head on a recording to um, we find that to
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: be pretty common. Um. So I know I kind of
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: got sidetracked there, but no, that's good. But but you
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: said it, you know, like I guess I kind of
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: want to stress that to the listeners. A good setup
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: is key. Oh yeah, A heavy, heavy arrow a good
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: penetrating broad head. Right, So what do you you use?
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: Something pretty darn heavy, don't you? I do. I actually
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: just got a grain scale the other day. I was like, God,
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: I've needed one of these for a while. I knew
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: I was up there in the seven hundreds, but I waited, waited,
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: and I got eight oh eight, and then uh I
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: realized I had a lighted knock on there. So I'm
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: a little bit under eight hundred on my heavy, heaviest setup. Um,
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: and I'm shooting a two blade head, which I have
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: my theories on that it's a cut on contact, but um,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: I look at a two blade cut on contact head
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: like it's really a one blade head. Because when you
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: got a split bone, you're only splitting in one direction
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: versus a three billade. You actually have to break the
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: bone three different directions. Um, you know which I'm all
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: about least two. You know, getting through bone as easy
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: as I can to get you breaking bone never never
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: kills kills a deer, So you gotta get through it.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: And uh so I'm not afraid. You know, I've shot
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: you know, a handful on that quarter into her head
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: on with with the longbow, and I've never had a
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: penetration issue. Um, so yeah, that's what I shoot. Eddy.
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: How about you? I know you haven't stalked a lot
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: of white tails, but even you know, even I think
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: hearing some mule deer stories can even be helpful for
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: guys that they were gonna hunt open country for white tails.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: But are you shooting them more bedded? Are you kind
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: of situational? Well, I've shot a few bad as a
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: couple over the years, and I can't tell you up
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: front that I ever felt comfortable maybe with that because
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: it's just a much more compact target that I feel
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: a little less comfortable getting through the sign because you
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: never you just never end up rarely shooting them in
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: their bed or you're around on the belly side facing
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: yet you know the sides you can get through the easiest.
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: You're usually trying to shoot through their back or down
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: off of a rise above them or something, and you
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: just have a lot of bone structure. But I've shot
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: him that way and managed to kill him real well, Um,
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: I've had a wound or two over it. I won't
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: hide that. But you know, the biggest thing was why
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: I hate stalking is because I can get right up
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: there to him a lot of times and then not
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: get the bowshot accomplished, because you know, trying to get
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: the bowshot accomplished without them being onto you and running
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: off or jumping up and spinning around and you know,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: facing you, which you know I have a mental block.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: I have a literal mental block about shooting a deer
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: facing me. I back in my early elk hunting career,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: I tried that a few times. Of course, now it
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: was elk and it's a different ball game. I didn't
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: get through their front structure, well I can. I have
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: a literal brain dead spot up there that will not
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: function in the heat of the moment that tells me
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: to shoot them in the base of the throat. I
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: have more of a tendency, like an idiot to try
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: to shoot him in the chest and it, you know,
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: trying to get through that stern hum is ridiculous. But
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: I I have a problem getting them shot, you know,
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: on their feet, uh, without them jumping up and running
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: out there and looking back at me broadside at fourty
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: or fifty yards, And then I'm into what I call
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: a hope shot then and I just end up don't
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: even take in the shot because I don't feel comfortable
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: with it. I haven't had time to range it when
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: it stopped usually and I'm not flinging in an arrow
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: at it. So you know, that's the biggest problem I've
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: had with my stock, and it's just getting the thing.
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: I can often stock up to an animal and feel
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: like I should have killed it, absolutely should have killed it,
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: and it gets away from me because I'm just too cautious.
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: I guess with my shots or something. But I haven't
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: done it on the extent. You know that some of
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: you guys have maybe to where I've got comfortable with
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: shooting him at some oud angles and stuff. I'm I'm
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: old school. I'm kind of a a sissy about you know.
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: I need them where I know that I have a
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: straight path into the vitals without a massive bone structure
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: in the way. And uh, if I was going to
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: shoot him like that a lot, I would definitely go
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: up to that super heavy arrow and get as much
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: kinetic energy and have it, you know, a good stout,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: built two blade cut on kept broadhead like he described that.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: That's good sense right there. So we have kept you
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: guys are quite a long time. So I think we
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: gotta wrap this one up. Even though I know that
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: both Andy and I have a lot more we would
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: love to talk about. But but maybe one last question
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: from both of us. Um, if you guys are okay
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: with that, Um, yeah, I'll drop one here and then Andy,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: I'll let you close this out. You both mentioned using
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: decoys in one way or another, but we haven't really
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: gone into the details of it, and you hear a
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: lot about, you know, how effective decoys can be in
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: that open country environment, because it's it's all you know,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: it's a site game and in so many different ways
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: in these open environments. So I just would be curious
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: to hear from both of you on exactly how you
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: how you would use one. I know that, uh Eddie,
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: you mentioned that you use one less than you used
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: to that now you don't, but I still would like
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: to hear you know, what the ideal decoy set up
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: would be for you, you know how far away you
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: put it, what angle you set it up at, when
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: you would use it, etcetera. And then on the flip side,
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: when I get to you, Jared, UM, I know you
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: started using one maybe like ten years ago, and you've
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: been using these, you know, self made decoys that you
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: walk up, you know, behind, and I'm curious how your
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: use of them has evolved because we talked maybe five
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: years ago on the podcast Last Time about it, and
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: you were talking about, you know, how you were figuring
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: that out and getting aggressive with it and and kind
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: of the crazy, dicey nature of sneaking up on a
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: deer on the ground, holding a decoy out in front
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: of you, and then getting these bucks to want to
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: come in right at you. UM So, when I get
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: to you, what I'm most curious about is how your
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: use has changed over the past couple of years. Off
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: at all, But let's start with Eddie. Can you can
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: you run me through your decoy set up when you
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: do use one and best practices. Well, you finally penned
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: me in a corner. I may disappoint you with this one,
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: but I can't help it. I gotta tell the truth. Honestly,
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: I don't really feel qualified to really give out advice
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: on d CON because I don't feel like I know
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: enough about it. Um. I would be at infancy stages there,
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: so I probably need advice instead of giving it. UM.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: My my experience with it out in the open country,
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: it's absolutely there's times when it is performed miracles, and
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: I have never done it enough to refine down my
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: opinion on what is the best way to do it.
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: I have stuck up a dough decoy before by itself.
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: I like it high. I don't want it better. I
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: want them up for like if I crack horns one
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: a quarter mile away, I want to be able to
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: turn and can see a deer over there, you know.
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: And I've used small bucks, and I've used the two together.
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: I've had all kinds of reactions, everything from eight to
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: is the I've had those get really seriously. I rate
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: it though, decoys and spitting, hiss and kick and run
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: off and you know. And I've had bucks, young bucks
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: come into them, real good old bucks come in. I've
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: had them. I've had you know, bucks that literally seen
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: repulse by another buck decoy. They're timid, some bucks have personality.
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: Some of them are extremely aggressive, even when they're young.
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: I've seen young bucks that went around trying to run
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: everybody in the whole place off. And I've seen old
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: bucks that wouldn't fight for nothing, and anybody that wanted
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: to mess with them, they just turned and got away
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: from them. So I think a lot of it more
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: has to do with the the deer and the scenario
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: and the time of the day, you know, the time
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: of the uh season. As far as me telling you
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: excellent der decoy set up and how to use it,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: I got a reflect on that one. I just don't
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: feel like that's my wheel house, you know what I mean? Hey,
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: that's that's fair enough. We appreciate that honesty. What what
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: about you, Jared? You want to kind of update us
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: on where you stand on the use of decoys while
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: hunting on the ground and what what you're doing these days? Yeah,
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: you know, Um, as far as the decoy, I treat
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: it kind of like we talked to earlier. It's it's
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: it's a tool. It's it's not gonna um it's not
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: gonna be something I go to every time. In fact,
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: I go to it less now than I I used to.
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: You know, Um, what you were talking about there is
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: how we were using a lot of that decoy you know,
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: in the early years. That was ten years ago, Yeah,
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, ten years ago when we uh
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: and we kind of developed that one or built that
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: that homemade one. I wouldn't manufacture them because there's some
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: dangerous in fault here with it, but a couple um.
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: But anyways, Uh, my ideal situation. If I got a
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: big buck he's locked down with a dough, if I
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: can't sneak in on him and close that that that distance. Um,
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: to make that shot. A great way is to crawl
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: in there with that decoy without him knowing, and then
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: when he's looking the other way, you gotta break that
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: perimeter zone though, And that's a very fine line. Like. Um,
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: what I mean by that is there's a certain point
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: where another buck gets close enough to this mature buck
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: and his dough that he's gonna run a run that
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: other buck off. And every deer has its own threshold,
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: just like Eddie was saying. They all have their own
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: attitude and personalities. And some I could pop that decoy
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: up at sixty yards and they'll come, they'll leave their
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: dough to come over and cause you know, run me off. Um,
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: And I'll be right behind that decoy if that's what
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna gonna do that. But other bucks, uh, you
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: might need to get the thirty forty yards. Well, for
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of compound shooters, you're in range there. Um.
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: For me, that's kind of pushing it on where I
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: feel comfortable shooting longboat wise. Um, So that's how I
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: like to use it. Now. Chance he's been using it
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: a lot when he calls, so he'll go into places
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: you know, um to do rattle sets. He loves to
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: do that, you know, late pre rut, pre rut, late
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: pre rut and then post rut. He loves to do that.
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: And he loves to set that decoy in a spot
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: that's kind of tucked into where if they come in,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: they'll they'll catch it, but it's kind of blended in,
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: you know. And and he loves doing that because it
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: gives that dear. I mean, we're set up on the ground.
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: We're very um, not concealed. I guess you would call it.
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know that the camera is pretty big
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: that we use. So you've got two guys, they're set
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: up on the ground. So Chance he really likes, you know,
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: if you're a solo hunter. I think Eddie brought up
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: some great points about how you know, it's worked magic
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: and it's also drawn a lot of attention in a
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: negative way to so um. But as people can see
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: or have seen in the videos, he he does it
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: for calling a lot and has had some pretty good
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: success doing that. Um. But yeah, that's kind of where
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: I said, you just gotta be careful if you're gonna
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: set up behind that decoy like what I'm talking about, Um,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: you gotta be looking for other hunters. Uh, you don't
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: want to get shot. And that's kind of a dangerous.
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: So I don't really advocate it too much. Um, And
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: you definitely don't want to use one during guns season
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: obviously you're already hunting public lands. And and uh, I've
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: already heard one horror story where it could have been
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: a lot worse. But you know, it was during the
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: bow season. But some young fellas that have been drinking
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: or something and uh fired a gun, thought it was
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: a big buck and uh, luckily they missed. It wasn't me,
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: but it was somebody that I ran into in the
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: can planes of Kansas. That could have been a bad deal.
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: So I always if I see a vehicle coming up
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: the road and I got the decoy out and the
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: big if I can do this, I'll pull that decoy down.
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: I don't even want that other guy to know him
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: what's going on. Or Yeah, I mean that's just kind
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: of how I am anyway. But you know, and and
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: then too, it's it's a it's a rush when you've
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: got a big buck inside of ten yards coming to
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: charge you, it's a rush, but don't kid yourself, there's
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: nothing safe about that. Yeah, So a couple of things
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: to think about. I think it's if we're gonna talk
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: about that kind of decoy and it's wise to just,
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: you know, understand, think about things in that in those
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: two departments. Yeah, yeah, very very important. Thank you for
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: for bringing it up for sure. Okay, So so there's
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: our decoying ideas, whether from a tree standard on the ground.
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: Uh andy, how do you want to wrap things up here? Man?
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: You know what these guys have, They've pretty much answered
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: everything that I had down. I just I guess I
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: just want to end it with telling them thank you
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: for coming on. I really appreciate it. Two guys that
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: I really admire, look up to, and uh I thought
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: it was really cool to hear the two different perspectives
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: from two guys that are beyond successful, consistently successful in
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: this type of country. So just thanks again guys for
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: coming on. Yeah, thank you guys for having us. I mean,
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: I think I've absolutely, like, absolutely thank you much. I'm
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: glad to be in the brotherhood. It's a great group. Well,
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: right back at you, guys, I I'll second what Andy said.
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: This has been a lot of fun. I know we
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: all learned something and everyone listening for sure too. And
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: the and the biggest thing is that now I am
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: just chomping at the bit ridiculously to schedule my own
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: open country hunts this year and definitely make sure I'm
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: back out there because uh man, just just thinking about
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: these scenarios and thinking about that swaying grass and the
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: big blue skies overhead and looking off in the distance
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: and seeing times coming through the grass, you just, uh
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: it gets like the hair is standing up on my
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: arms and I'm just ready to do it. So thank
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: you guys for inspiring that feeling in me right now.
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely it is all right. Let's wrap this one up,
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: and that's a wrap. I enjoy this a lot. I
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: hope you did too. If you want more from these guys,
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: I would suggest going and picking up a copy of
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: Peterson's Bohuni magazine where you can read some articles from Eddie,
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: or head on over and follow White Tail Adrenaline on
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: their Facebook page or check out their website where you
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: can pick up Jared's most recent DVDs. There are a
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: lot of fun. You get to see some of the
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: things you just talked about, and it's it's just as
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: crazy as it sounds. So go out and support those
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: guys and try adding some of this stuff to your
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: repertoire um. Trying new things is one of my absolute
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: favorite parts of deer hunting. I constantly want to learn more,
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: I constantly want to grow and evolve, and I think
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: that there are ample opportunities for us to take some
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: ideas here in our open country discussion and do just that.
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: So thank you again for your attension, thanks for your time,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: and until next time, stay wired. Tell h