Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 735: Two Booners in One Year and Late Season Tactics with Bryan Lemke
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
- 0:04Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods presented by First Light, creating proven
- 0:08Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First
- 0:13Speaker 1: Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. This week on
- 0:23Speaker 2: the show, I'm joined by Brian Lemke of The Deer
- 0:27Speaker 2: Society to discuss his double booner twenty twenty three season,
- 0:31Speaker 2: the lessons he learned along the way, and his favorite
- 0:34Speaker 2: late season protactics. All right, welcome to the Wired to
- 0:47Speaker 2: Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light in their
- 0:50Speaker 2: Camel for Conservation initiative, which I love, love seeing him
- 0:55Speaker 2: give them back to the National Deer Association and making
- 0:58Speaker 2: good things happen for deer deer hunters. And today on
- 1:02Speaker 2: the podcast, we are talking to a deer hunter who's
- 1:04Speaker 2: had some pretty good things happened to himself this year,
- 1:07Speaker 2: talking to Brian Lemke. He is the co owner of
- 1:10Speaker 2: Almandai Productions. He is the host of the Deer Society
- 1:14Speaker 2: podcast and a frequently seen hunter on the Deer Society
- 1:18Speaker 2: YouTube channel. You know, diehard deer hunter from the Upper Midwest,
- 1:22Speaker 2: and he has wrapped up or has just about wrapped
- 1:24Speaker 2: up and absolutely banner hunting season. This year. He has
- 1:30Speaker 2: killed his biggest buck ever, not once but twice this
- 1:35Speaker 2: season and broke that magical one hundred and seventy inch
- 1:39Speaker 2: mark both times. You know, it's it's not every year
- 1:43Speaker 2: that that happens, not every lifetime that that happens for
- 1:46Speaker 2: a lot of people. So I want to have Brian
- 1:48Speaker 2: on the show to talk through this season, talk through
- 1:51Speaker 2: those hunts, talk through the kind of unique circumstances in
- 1:55Speaker 2: each one. One was one of those hunts that goes
- 1:58Speaker 2: on for years, and one of these hunts was in
- 2:01Speaker 2: some ways a surprise, and you know that's how hunting
- 2:03Speaker 2: goes sometimes. So I wanted to talk to him about
- 2:05Speaker 2: how these came together, what he learned along the way,
- 2:08Speaker 2: the tactics, the strategies, the approaches he took that led
- 2:12Speaker 2: to this extra special season, And then I wanted to
- 2:14Speaker 2: wrap it up with a discussion around the late season.
- 2:17Speaker 2: You know, for those of us still trying to fill
- 2:19Speaker 2: a tag at this time of the year in December
- 2:21Speaker 2: or January, what are some of those things that can
- 2:25Speaker 2: work that can help you close the deal and wrap
- 2:28Speaker 2: up your year on a high note. So that is
- 2:30Speaker 2: the game plan today. I think it's a it's a
- 2:33Speaker 2: fun conversation. We cover some good stuff. I think you're
- 2:36Speaker 2: gonna enjoy it, and I think it's a perfect way
- 2:38Speaker 2: for us to head into the holidays kind of on
- 2:40Speaker 2: a lighter note. Right, We're gonna hear, We're gonna hear
- 2:43Speaker 2: some fun stories, We're gonna learn some things, but mostly
- 2:46Speaker 2: we're gonna celebrate hunting season. We're gonna celebrate this great
- 2:49Speaker 2: fall that is now kind of edging towards the end,
- 2:52Speaker 2: which is always bittersweet. But as we approach Christmas in
- 2:57Speaker 2: the new year, I think heading into with a smile
- 3:00Speaker 2: on her faces is the way to go. So well,
- 3:02Speaker 2: that all said, and without any further ado, let's get
- 3:05Speaker 2: to my chat with Brian Lenkey. All right with me
- 3:14Speaker 2: now on the show. First time guest. We've got Brian Lemke. Brian,
- 3:19Speaker 2: welcome the show.
- 3:20Speaker 3: Appreciate it, thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm excited.
- 3:23Speaker 2: I'm glad we're doing this, glad to connect. We haven't
- 3:26Speaker 2: really got to talk at all in the past, but
- 3:28Speaker 2: I've been checking out your work for a number of
- 3:32Speaker 2: years now, watching some Dear Society videos, listening to some
- 3:35Speaker 2: of the podcasts, and I've enjoyed it, and so you've
- 3:38Speaker 2: you've been on the list of like, hey, I got
- 3:40Speaker 2: to get a hold of Brian someday. So glad it happened,
- 3:42Speaker 2: and appreciate you making time to do it.
- 3:45Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate it, man, And have obviously seen and
- 3:48Speaker 3: listened to a lot of your guys' podcasts and you
- 3:50Speaker 3: do a great job. Definitely a fan and yeah, fortunate
- 3:54Speaker 3: to jump on here with you and have a conversation
- 3:57Speaker 3: and feelings mutual.
- 3:58Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's there's good, good things to talk about today,
- 4:01Speaker 2: because it seems like you've been having like a season
- 4:03Speaker 2: for the ages. Is this ranked right up there at
- 4:07Speaker 2: the top for you?
- 4:09Speaker 3: Yeah, it does. You know, it's it's crazy to think,
- 4:12Speaker 3: you know, growing up as a little kid, you know,
- 4:14Speaker 3: started hunting. I grew up in Pennsylvania. My dad got
- 4:17Speaker 3: me into hunting and been hunting since a little kid,
- 4:20Speaker 3: you know, watching all the old school guys, you know,
- 4:22Speaker 3: the Michael Waddell's and the Buckmasters, and you know, it
- 4:26Speaker 3: was always a dream of mine to you know, hunt
- 4:28Speaker 3: big deer, and not just hunt big deer, but be
- 4:31Speaker 3: in the industry and all these things. And then you know,
- 4:34Speaker 3: you look at you know, Pennsylvania, we didn't have giant deer.
- 4:37Speaker 3: I mean, I can remember my first year was still
- 4:40Speaker 3: still super out of his little nine pointer, and you know,
- 4:44Speaker 3: you grow and your goals changed as a hunter in
- 4:46Speaker 3: different things, and always had dreams of shooting a deer
- 4:49Speaker 3: of a certain caliber, whether it's a booner or you know,
- 4:51Speaker 3: a big one, and have had, you know, a lot
- 4:55Speaker 3: of opportunities over the years to shoot some pretty good deer.
- 4:57Speaker 3: And I can remember, you know, growing up as a kid,
- 4:59Speaker 3: it's like, man, I'm by thirty years old, I want
- 5:01Speaker 3: to shoot a deer that's one seventy year bigger. You know.
- 5:04Speaker 3: Then the years go on and go on, and I'm
- 5:06Speaker 3: thirty four years old, and you know, it's something that
- 5:08Speaker 3: you dream of your entire life. And fortunately in Minnesota
- 5:13Speaker 3: finally was able to shoot my first year. It was
- 5:15Speaker 3: over one seventy a booner, and then a few weeks
- 5:19Speaker 3: later go to Iowa and shoot another one. So to
- 5:22Speaker 3: say it was a dream season is kind of an
- 5:24Speaker 3: understatement for me. I mean, I'm fulfilled, definitely. I've made
- 5:27Speaker 3: a lot of memories over the years, but as far
- 5:29Speaker 3: as deer hunting wise, it's definitely go one to remember.
- 5:32Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think there's a lot of us that
- 5:34Speaker 2: grew up in a place like Pennsylvania or Michigan like me,
- 5:38Speaker 2: or other states like that, you know, down the southeast Northeast,
- 5:42Speaker 2: those regions where we watched TV. We watched the hunts
- 5:45Speaker 2: in the Midwest, and we see these big, giant bucks
- 5:48Speaker 2: and then we're thinking, man, I want to someday kill
- 5:50Speaker 2: a big deer. But you know, maybe that's not around.
- 5:53Speaker 2: It is more and more of these days in many states,
- 5:55Speaker 2: but maybe we're not seeing one seventies in Pennsylvania all
- 5:57Speaker 2: the time. Definitely not in Michigan all the time.
- 6:00Speaker 3: No doubt.
- 6:01Speaker 2: What what do you think it was it for you
- 6:03Speaker 2: when you first made that switch to at least trying
- 6:06Speaker 2: to target like older deer. And I'm not sure when
- 6:08Speaker 2: when that was for you or if that was right away,
- 6:10Speaker 2: but I know for me, like for most of my
- 6:13Speaker 2: childhood and teenage years, it was like, I want to
- 6:15Speaker 2: kill any buck that was like was a challenge that
- 6:17Speaker 2: I hadn't figured out. And then it wasn't until I
- 6:20Speaker 2: was like twenty one, I think when I decided okay,
- 6:23Speaker 2: three and a half year old, I want to try
- 6:24Speaker 2: to kill a deer like that, and that required a
- 6:26Speaker 2: huge shift in everything I did. When did that? If
- 6:31Speaker 2: you had a shift like that, when did that happen
- 6:32Speaker 2: for you? And what were the things you had to
- 6:35Speaker 2: change or saw the most success with once you changed?
- 6:40Speaker 3: Yeah, you know it's interesting. So, you know, started bowl
- 6:42Speaker 3: hunting when I was twelve, and was fortunate shoot a
- 6:45Speaker 3: deer when I was twelve with a ball and thirteen
- 6:47Speaker 3: and again just we're talking little little deer and it
- 6:50Speaker 3: was so happy. And fourteen and then I think I
- 6:53Speaker 3: was It was a fall of when I was fourteen
- 6:55Speaker 3: or fifteen. My dad had always wanted to go on
- 6:59Speaker 3: and outfit at on his entire life and finally saved
- 7:02Speaker 3: up enough money and thought I was at the age
- 7:04Speaker 3: and kind of experience level that he could take me with,
- 7:08Speaker 3: so he booked a hut at Bluff Country Outfitters in Buffaloky, Wisconsin.
- 7:12Speaker 3: I know you've been there, you know, Tom and Laurie
- 7:15Speaker 3: and Shane and absolutely unbelievable people people. So went up
- 7:19Speaker 3: there and ended up shooting I probably a three and
- 7:24Speaker 3: a half year old one hundred and thirty five inch
- 7:25Speaker 3: year and was like on top of the moon. I
- 7:28Speaker 3: thought I was a rock star. I'm like, I am
- 7:30Speaker 3: fricking Michael Waddell. This is it, Like I am the man,
- 7:33Speaker 3: you know. So in doing that, just built a really
- 7:38Speaker 3: good relationship with Tom and Laurie, fell in love with
- 7:41Speaker 3: their place and the people in the Midwest, and actually
- 7:45Speaker 3: started coming up here in the summers to Wisconsin and
- 7:48Speaker 3: working for Tom and just learning as much as I could. So,
- 7:52Speaker 3: you know, it was one of those things where he
- 7:54Speaker 3: would like ended up going to college in Madison, Wisconsin,
- 7:58Speaker 3: and I'd come up all summer and work and then
- 7:59Speaker 3: he'd let me on some but it was just spending
- 8:02Speaker 3: time around Tom and Shane and Lori and those kind
- 8:04Speaker 3: of people. I started learning as much as I could,
- 8:09Speaker 3: So I think, you know, kind of at that point
- 8:12Speaker 3: is when that gear kind of switched for me. My
- 8:14Speaker 3: goal has changed a little bit. And I think the
- 8:17Speaker 3: number one thing is, you know, I mean I became
- 8:20Speaker 3: obsessed with deer hunting, and just you know, for me,
- 8:22Speaker 3: it was more than just like even killing the deer,
- 8:24Speaker 3: it was filming them. I mean, Shane and I were
- 8:26Speaker 3: going out every night and filming deer in the summer
- 8:29Speaker 3: and just seeing those bigger deer. I think what's got
- 8:32Speaker 3: to change is just that that level of patience, you know,
- 8:36Speaker 3: like you know that that want to if you want
- 8:40Speaker 3: to shoot a bigger deer or have a different goal,
- 8:44Speaker 3: you have to be willing to put the time in.
- 8:46Speaker 3: But you have to be willing to you know, pass
- 8:48Speaker 3: a smaller deer to have an opportunity at a bigger
- 8:51Speaker 3: deer like that, because typically you know you're going to
- 8:54Speaker 3: have opportunities that before, you know, you had take in
- 8:57Speaker 3: a heartbeat. So it's just kind of switching that mindset.
- 9:01Speaker 3: And I was fortunate enough to be around it, and
- 9:02Speaker 3: for me it was like, Okay, I'm going to learn
- 9:05Speaker 3: as much as I can about white tails and big
- 9:08Speaker 3: deer and just engulf myself with it. And you know,
- 9:13Speaker 3: it's it's transitioned into to where I am now. And
- 9:16Speaker 3: you know, for me, it was never really about you know,
- 9:19Speaker 3: maybe as a kid is like I want to shoot
- 9:20Speaker 3: this big deer and scoring deer and whatever, but you
- 9:23Speaker 3: know you mentioned it earlier. I think it's that transition
- 9:25Speaker 3: into you know, shooting deer of older age and understanding
- 9:28Speaker 3: what that quality deer management means. And you know, I
- 9:31Speaker 3: think that there's now that I've been around enough deer
- 9:36Speaker 3: and filmed enough, dear, you know, I that's what I
- 9:38Speaker 3: do for a living, is film, you know, filmed enough
- 9:41Speaker 3: other people shoot deer of a certain caliber, and man,
- 9:45Speaker 3: I think you could walk up to one hundred and
- 9:47Speaker 3: seventy inch deer, and you could walk up to one
- 9:50Speaker 3: hundred and fifty inch eight pointer that's just massive and gnarly,
- 9:54Speaker 3: and like they're even a different caliber of deer, even
- 9:56Speaker 3: though one scores more than the other. Like you walk
- 9:59Speaker 3: up to a deer that's that's old, and just like
- 10:02Speaker 3: you pick them up, and that's a different feeling, like
- 10:05Speaker 3: a different level of even appreciation. You know, I think
- 10:08Speaker 3: you should appreciate all deer you shoot. But when you
- 10:09Speaker 3: get to deer of those upper age structures, there's just
- 10:12Speaker 3: gnarly warriors. That's a that's a different game.
- 10:14Speaker 2: That's pretty dark special. Yeah, that's for sure. I've yet
- 10:18Speaker 2: to lose the sense of awe of a really old
- 10:22Speaker 2: deer even like like you said, like even a smaller
- 10:25Speaker 2: scoring deer still gets me way more fired up than
- 10:28Speaker 2: a young, high scoring deer. There's just like the body
- 10:32Speaker 2: you just see that big bowl walking through the woods
- 10:34Speaker 2: and the way that all the other deer react to them,
- 10:36Speaker 2: and the way they can carry themselves in the woods
- 10:39Speaker 2: and the things they do and the savviness they bring
- 10:43Speaker 2: to the table. Just man, I I've yet to get
- 10:46Speaker 2: sick of it.
- 10:48Speaker 3: Well, that's that's why white tail hunting is so awesome.
- 10:50Speaker 3: They're all so unique, you know, everyone is so unique,
- 10:53Speaker 3: and like I look at it. You know, I like
- 10:55Speaker 3: to do a lot of shed hunting too, And it's
- 10:57Speaker 3: like when I pick up a shed and it hits
- 10:59Speaker 3: me with a shed more than like when I pick
- 11:01Speaker 3: up a lie or not a live deer but a
- 11:04Speaker 3: harvested deer for some reason. But you like, you pick
- 11:06Speaker 3: up that shed and you hold it in your hand
- 11:07Speaker 3: and you're like, man, think about what this this piece
- 11:10Speaker 3: of bone went through, Like you know, whether that deer
- 11:13Speaker 3: is two years old or a year older, five years old,
- 11:15Speaker 3: six years old, Like a deer grew this thing on
- 11:19Speaker 3: his head right, carried it around the entire year and
- 11:23Speaker 3: then shed and here you are now with it in
- 11:25Speaker 3: your hand. It's like, how crazy is that when you
- 11:27Speaker 3: break it down and think of it? If you know,
- 11:28Speaker 3: it's cliche to say, you know, if only the thing
- 11:30Speaker 3: could talk, But I mean if you could learn so
- 11:33Speaker 3: much from that. It's I just think that's the coolest
- 11:35Speaker 3: thing in the world.
- 11:36Speaker 2: I just sit there and spin them around my hand,
- 11:39Speaker 2: just like stare at it, looking at all sides and
- 11:41Speaker 2: thinking about those very same things. I'm right there with you.
- 11:43Speaker 2: I could just spend like an hour just yea daydreaming,
- 11:48Speaker 2: no doubt. So I tried to go ahead.
- 11:51Speaker 3: Oh god, I was just gonna say, I try to
- 11:52Speaker 3: tell my kids about that. My five year old, you know,
- 11:54Speaker 3: he's at the age he's he's got a dog or
- 11:57Speaker 3: we have a dog, and you know, go out there
- 11:59Speaker 3: and shed.
- 11:59Speaker 2: Hi.
- 11:59Speaker 3: We're on my Minnesota farm this this past winter and
- 12:03Speaker 3: we were shed hunting and we walk up and there's
- 12:06Speaker 3: this little spike shedhorn laying there. And he runs over
- 12:09Speaker 3: and he picks it up, and I'm like, dude, how
- 12:10Speaker 3: cool is that? You know? And he's looking at it,
- 12:12Speaker 3: and he looks looking at me and he's like, this
- 12:15Speaker 3: isn't it shed Dad? And he throws it back on
- 12:17Speaker 3: the ground. You know, It's just it's funny. But like,
- 12:20Speaker 3: you know, you try to instill that in your kids
- 12:22Speaker 3: and in the next generation, you know, just that appreciation
- 12:25Speaker 3: how cool that is, you know, to just have the
- 12:28Speaker 3: opportunity to enjoy that that kind of stuff.
- 12:31Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty done. Great. So Sticker ten, right, that's
- 12:36Speaker 2: the name of that first buck you killed this year, right,
- 12:38Speaker 2: So that was your first, your first booner. It's funny
- 12:42Speaker 2: you mentioned the booner before thirty. A hunting buddy and
- 12:46Speaker 2: I had a bet to see if we could each
- 12:48Speaker 2: get a booner before thirty and and he did. He
- 12:52Speaker 2: got his on his thirtieth birthday. And then on my
- 12:55Speaker 2: thirtieth year, I shot a buck that I thought was
- 12:58Speaker 2: and I was like, I did it, shot the buck
- 13:01Speaker 2: and walked up in the absolute giant and then we
- 13:04Speaker 2: scored it and he ended up scoring one sixty five.
- 13:06Speaker 2: And for a half second afterwards, I was disappointed. And
- 13:09Speaker 2: then that's when I realized, like, it's so silly to
- 13:12Speaker 2: get worked up about a number, right, because it's such
- 13:14Speaker 2: an incredible deer no matter what it scores. So that
- 13:17Speaker 2: was a moment for me when I realized I had to,
- 13:20Speaker 2: you know, get back to what we were just talking about,
- 13:23Speaker 2: just the impressiveness of the animal's self, regardless of whatever
- 13:26Speaker 2: numbers attached to it, regardless of what anybody else thinks.
- 13:28Speaker 2: But all that said, it still is pretty durned cool
- 13:31Speaker 2: to kill a deer like that, no matter what. So
- 13:34Speaker 2: the sticker ten no doubt, give me the story how
- 13:37Speaker 2: to go down?
- 13:38Speaker 3: You know, it was crazy. So there's a piece that
- 13:41Speaker 3: I lease here in Minnesota with a few other buddies
- 13:45Speaker 3: and we've had it now for I think five years,
- 13:48Speaker 3: and I've had a lot of success on it. It's
- 13:51Speaker 3: a really good piece. You know, we kind of all
- 13:52Speaker 3: worked together put in the work and it's been good.
- 13:57Speaker 3: But low pressure approach, like we all you know, going
- 14:00Speaker 3: there with the right wings. We don't don't over hunt it.
- 14:02Speaker 3: And you know, I guess it was two years ago now,
- 14:08Speaker 3: I still had a tag lead season and was hunting
- 14:10Speaker 3: with the muzzloader. We had snow on the ground and
- 14:12Speaker 3: I was over standing beans and saw just a ton
- 14:15Speaker 3: of bucks and I think I ended up seeing like
- 14:18Speaker 3: nineteen bucks that day. It was awesome. Nothing that I
- 14:21Speaker 3: wanted to pull the trigger on, but some really good
- 14:24Speaker 3: deer that we're three and a half years old, that
- 14:27Speaker 3: you know, No, we wanted to make it till the
- 14:28Speaker 3: next year. So anyways, fast forward to the next year
- 14:33Speaker 3: and this deer shows up on trail camera early and
- 14:38Speaker 3: he I mean, he looks like a giant. He's huge framed.
- 14:41Speaker 3: That's where he got his name, Sticker ten. Just a
- 14:44Speaker 3: big frame ten pointer and he had that year he
- 14:47Speaker 3: had matching stickers on it, just on one side. He
- 14:50Speaker 3: had two stickers coming off as G two. A clean ten,
- 14:52Speaker 3: big frame. And so got talking with Lance and some
- 14:55Speaker 3: other guys and he's like, man, that's that deer from
- 14:58Speaker 3: the year before. So we started looking at pictures and
- 15:00Speaker 3: we matched him up and I had actually filmed him,
- 15:03Speaker 3: Andrews filming me that day, had actually filmed him that
- 15:07Speaker 3: that day, late season. So he was a three and
- 15:10Speaker 3: a half year old ten pointer, nothing super special to him.
- 15:13Speaker 3: Beautiful deer, but just young, clean, you know, not a
- 15:17Speaker 3: deer that I would even, you know, think about really
- 15:21Speaker 3: even matching up looking like this. But we broke him
- 15:23Speaker 3: down and like, man, that's him for sure, just same frame.
- 15:26Speaker 3: But he, I mean he put on a top. And
- 15:29Speaker 3: I think that there's deer out there that that just
- 15:33Speaker 3: have it, and there's deer that don't. And you know,
- 15:36Speaker 3: you can have a deer that gets old and gets
- 15:38Speaker 3: gnarly and massive and all this stuff, but never reaches
- 15:40Speaker 3: that that big frame, high scoring potential, and I think
- 15:44Speaker 3: this year it was a parent that he had it.
- 15:48Speaker 3: So we all sat down, We're like, okay, what do
- 15:49Speaker 3: we do, Like, is this the deer a deer that
- 15:52Speaker 3: we target he's four now, yeah? Or do we try
- 15:58Speaker 3: to let him go? We have pretty good neighbors, but
- 16:03Speaker 3: they you know, their their standards aren't necessarily as high
- 16:06Speaker 3: all the time. And we're like, well, let's try. Hey,
- 16:10Speaker 3: we we can't see what happens if we don't try it,
- 16:12Speaker 3: So we're gonna we're gonna all agree to pass this year.
- 16:16Speaker 3: So lo and behold, this year becomes one of the
- 16:19Speaker 3: most killable deer on the property all year. Of course,
- 16:21Speaker 3: I mean like I had to stop looking at my
- 16:22Speaker 3: reveals because like there's places I wouldn't even go and
- 16:25Speaker 3: hunt because I'm like, I don't even want to see him.
- 16:27Speaker 3: I don't I don't want to put myself in that
- 16:29Speaker 3: that scenario. So a few encounters with them, not personally
- 16:34Speaker 3: with some of the other guys had encounters with them,
- 16:36Speaker 3: passed him all year round. Fast forward to late season
- 16:40Speaker 3: that year, I was tagged out on another deer. Uh
- 16:45Speaker 3: my business partner Adam was trying to shoot his first buck,
- 16:49Speaker 3: so he that's another kind of long story. But Adam
- 16:52Speaker 3: has produced hunting content for a long long time, you know,
- 16:55Speaker 3: over ten years. But he's never hunted, didn't grow up
- 16:58Speaker 3: in a hunting family, never hunted himself. And he's got
- 17:02Speaker 3: two young boys, five and three. And he said, you
- 17:05Speaker 3: know what, he said, I've seen all the good that
- 17:07Speaker 3: hunting does for you and for the people around and
- 17:10Speaker 3: the values that teaches, and I want to get into
- 17:12Speaker 3: hunting so I can pass that down to my boys.
- 17:14Speaker 3: So cool, will you take me? Will you take me?
- 17:16Speaker 3: And I'm like, heck, yes, I'll take you. So, you know,
- 17:21Speaker 3: we start hunting and he's got limited time. We hunt
- 17:23Speaker 3: a couple of times and we have a couple encounters
- 17:25Speaker 3: and late season it's just like the time that, okay,
- 17:28Speaker 3: we get out there so we can talk about some
- 17:31Speaker 3: of the strategy later on, because I think it's kind
- 17:33Speaker 3: of cool. But we crawled into this blind and I
- 17:37Speaker 3: actually I got a picture on a cell camera like
- 17:41Speaker 3: seven hundred yards away of stick or ten right, and
- 17:46Speaker 3: he's coming that direction. Well, we were sitting over standing
- 17:48Speaker 3: beans and I'm like, I'm like, dude, we're going to
- 17:51Speaker 3: see this, dear, And he's like, well, what are we
- 17:53Speaker 3: going to do. I'm like, man, I said, I would
- 17:57Speaker 3: love for you just to shoot that deer. I said,
- 17:59Speaker 3: I hope we don't see him, to be honest with Yeah,
- 18:00Speaker 3: I said, because you know, we all had an agreement.
- 18:04Speaker 3: Sure enough, it was like ten minutes later outcome sticker
- 18:07Speaker 3: ted right into the field and he was hunting the
- 18:09Speaker 3: crossbow and stood there and fed for fifty yards and
- 18:13Speaker 3: I had fifty yards for ten to fifteen minutes and
- 18:15Speaker 3: we just watched him. Got some epic footage of him.
- 18:18Speaker 2: Wow.
- 18:19Speaker 3: And it was just a cool encounter, like to just
- 18:22Speaker 3: see him on the hoof like that and know that
- 18:24Speaker 3: he was probably gonna make it. So kind of kind
- 18:28Speaker 3: of a twist there. But anyways, he makes it through
- 18:30Speaker 3: the year, sheds on our property to the guys at
- 18:35Speaker 3: least with picked each picked up one of his sheds.
- 18:38Speaker 3: So it was like, man, success, it worked. You know,
- 18:41Speaker 3: we got him through. So you know, the next year,
- 18:43Speaker 3: it was like, hopefully he was gold to keep his home.
- 18:45Speaker 2: I got ask him, I got the time out in
- 18:47Speaker 2: here and ask you a question leading into the is
- 18:50Speaker 2: the coming year that year killed him at five?
- 18:52Speaker 3: Yeah, so the coming year would be the show.
- 18:54Speaker 2: Okay, So one of the things that I've been curious
- 18:57Speaker 2: about as I've listened to you tell some other stories
- 18:59Speaker 2: on the Deer Society podcasts and stuff, and you just
- 19:03Speaker 2: shared a couple examples of this. You guys hunt with
- 19:05Speaker 2: multiple guys in the same property. And I've always thought
- 19:09Speaker 2: I've done this on a small scale with one other buddy,
- 19:12Speaker 2: but I've never had like a pile of buddies all
- 19:14Speaker 2: on the same property, especially when you've got like a
- 19:17Speaker 2: target deer. I've always or I've wondered, how do you
- 19:21Speaker 2: do that in a way that doesn't become just tough,
- 19:24Speaker 2: Like I know, when I have on a target deer,
- 19:26Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure them out, and then once I
- 19:28Speaker 2: have an encounter, then I'm like right back in there
- 19:30Speaker 2: after them. Or I'm super strategic with where I'm going
- 19:32Speaker 2: and what I'm doing. But when I've hunted a property
- 19:35Speaker 2: with a buddy, it's kind of like, you know, well,
- 19:37Speaker 2: let's flip a coin to see who picks where today
- 19:39Speaker 2: or who's gonna hunt war. And you're trying to be
- 19:41Speaker 2: fair about it, and you're trying not to, you know,
- 19:44Speaker 2: be a jerk about anything, but it would seem really
- 19:46Speaker 2: hard to be able to like make a strong play
- 19:48Speaker 2: and a deer when you're constantly have to shuffle around
- 19:51Speaker 2: with other guys or where you're stepping on toes or
- 19:54Speaker 2: I'm sure you're trying to do this in a way
- 19:55Speaker 2: that's not ruining your friendship. So how do you How
- 19:58Speaker 2: do you do it?
- 20:00Speaker 3: Man? I think it's hard, and I think that there
- 20:03Speaker 3: is no great answer to it. I think that you
- 20:05Speaker 3: have to, you know, find a group of people that
- 20:09Speaker 3: are like minded and understanding and understand that. Look, sometimes
- 20:14Speaker 3: you might get them, sometimes somebody else might get them.
- 20:16Speaker 3: And it's hard. Like I'll be honest with you, we
- 20:18Speaker 3: talked about at the beginning of the year because we
- 20:20Speaker 3: knew that was going to be a target. The target
- 20:24Speaker 3: and there's a other good deer on this property, but
- 20:26Speaker 3: like that was the one. And you know, we talked about, okay,
- 20:29Speaker 3: do we split up the property into three sections? Well,
- 20:32Speaker 3: that's hard to and you know, so and so put
- 20:35Speaker 3: in work over here and they might not get to
- 20:37Speaker 3: benefit for it. So like that that was an option
- 20:40Speaker 3: that was thrown around. When it came down to it,
- 20:41Speaker 3: it was like, look, you know somehow and it's way
- 20:44Speaker 3: easier said than done, right, But like we have to
- 20:46Speaker 3: all be on the same page and say, look, you know,
- 20:49Speaker 3: we got to work it out somehow. Maybe you go
- 20:51Speaker 3: and hunt and then you get first picked tonight. And
- 20:53Speaker 3: if we're going to hunt next Tuesday, well then you
- 20:55Speaker 3: get first pick on where you're gonna hunt. And I
- 20:59Speaker 3: won't say that I have a great answer for it,
- 21:01Speaker 3: because I don't think that there is one, but I
- 21:02Speaker 3: think it's you have to put yourself in the mindset
- 21:05Speaker 3: of Look, it's a team effort, as hard as that is.
- 21:09Speaker 3: And you know what, I'm gonna be happy if Lancer
- 21:10Speaker 3: Kyle gets them, and you know if I get them, great,
- 21:13Speaker 3: I think they'll be happy for me too. Again, Wait,
- 21:16Speaker 3: that sounds like a perfect environment or scenario, and it's
- 21:21Speaker 3: hard to feel that way, but you know that's just it.
- 21:24Speaker 3: So you know, I think we all have a pretty
- 21:27Speaker 3: good understanding of you know, what stands we can hunt,
- 21:31Speaker 3: what stands we can waiting for the right time. You know,
- 21:34Speaker 3: a lot of us are busy, so like a couple
- 21:36Speaker 3: those other guys are filming or guiding during the fall too,
- 21:39Speaker 3: So it's not like any one of us has the
- 21:41Speaker 3: opportunity to just go in there and pound it every day.
- 21:43Speaker 3: Like I might have this week and Lance might have
- 21:46Speaker 3: next week or you know, so it all works out
- 21:49Speaker 3: in the end, I guess, is the simple answer.
- 22:02Speaker 2: So if you have it sounds that you kind of
- 22:05Speaker 2: rotate who gets first pick to some degree, right, But
- 22:08Speaker 2: what happens if you have an encounter, like if you're
- 22:10Speaker 2: in hunt multiple days in a row, and so today
- 22:12Speaker 2: you have a close encounter with the sticker ten and
- 22:15Speaker 2: now tomorrow you had and you had first pick that night,
- 22:19Speaker 2: so you had first pick, you picked a spot, you
- 22:21Speaker 2: almost killed him but didn't quite come together. You of
- 22:23Speaker 2: course want to be right back there tomorrow or wherever
- 22:25Speaker 2: you think he's going to be. Do you get do
- 22:27Speaker 2: you get like a Mulligan and get to go in
- 22:29Speaker 2: again because he had the close call and you kind
- 22:31Speaker 2: of have like that, or or do you guys have
- 22:33Speaker 2: to rotate?
- 22:35Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'll tell you it kind of happened this
- 22:36Speaker 3: year kind of bit. So you know, I think it's yeah,
- 22:40Speaker 3: if you if you have an encounter with a deer
- 22:41Speaker 3: and you want to go back in there, it's like,
- 22:43Speaker 3: I'm not going to say no, don't go back in there,
- 22:45Speaker 3: like like I think you should, and I'll tell them
- 22:47Speaker 3: the story Lance was super close to killing this deer
- 22:51Speaker 3: a few days before I killed him, and I would
- 22:53Speaker 3: have been super happy if you did just worked out
- 22:56Speaker 3: that I was there and shot him on that day.
- 22:59Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, if you have an encounter with
- 23:01Speaker 3: the deer, I think it's it's only right that you
- 23:03Speaker 3: go in there, you know, back after them, and you know,
- 23:05Speaker 3: we try not to step on each other's toes, and
- 23:08Speaker 3: you know, it's it's what it is. I've accepted the
- 23:10Speaker 3: fact that's the hard thing about group hunting, you know,
- 23:12Speaker 3: you accept the fact that, hey, that's part of it.
- 23:15Speaker 3: I couldn't lease this piece just on my own, and
- 23:19Speaker 3: neither could they. So that's that's part of the give
- 23:21Speaker 3: and take of the whole deal.
- 23:21Speaker 2: Yeah, and I got to believe that you more than
- 23:25Speaker 2: make up the possible downside of the hunting being a
- 23:29Speaker 2: little bit more challenging. I'm betting you make up for
- 23:32Speaker 2: it with the fun and the camaraderie you have getting
- 23:34Speaker 2: to like do all this stuff with your buddies, right.
- 23:37Speaker 3: Absolutely, definitely, you know, sharing that intel back and forth,
- 23:40Speaker 3: like you know, early season, those first couple weeks of
- 23:42Speaker 3: the season, it's like, man and the half was Sticker
- 23:45Speaker 3: ten it was like, okay, where's stick or ten? You know,
- 23:47Speaker 3: I'm running five ten cameras, Lance Kyle, They're all running cameras.
- 23:53Speaker 3: So it's like, you know, in the morning and sending
- 23:55Speaker 3: pictures like okay, where was he last night? Yeah? And
- 23:58Speaker 3: that deer the cool thing about him. I actually kind
- 24:00Speaker 3: of changed his name right at the very end of
- 24:02Speaker 3: Waldo because that year traveled more this year than really
- 24:06Speaker 3: any other deal that we've had on that farm. I mean,
- 24:08Speaker 3: he was north to south, to east to west, all
- 24:11Speaker 3: over the place.
- 24:12Speaker 2: So I guess, let's let's hear it. How did it?
- 24:14Speaker 2: How did that year five come together?
- 24:18Speaker 3: Yeah? So he started showing up in velvet looking huge.
- 24:22Speaker 3: I mean he was. He was a giant. He had
- 24:25Speaker 3: made that that next leap and turned from sticker ten
- 24:29Speaker 3: into really sticker twelve. His main frame six by six
- 24:32Speaker 3: had matching stickers. He actually had a little pigtail drop time,
- 24:35Speaker 3: split brow times like, I mean, he was he was
- 24:38Speaker 3: the man. And you know, it was one of those
- 24:43Speaker 3: things where we were just getting intel and you know,
- 24:45Speaker 3: he was there all the time, but he was all
- 24:48Speaker 3: over the place. We this this particular section is like
- 24:51Speaker 3: four hundred acres and it kind of splits up, like
- 24:54Speaker 3: we have the north section, the middle section, in the
- 24:57Speaker 3: south section, and a lot of time the deer on
- 25:00Speaker 3: the north side, stand north side, south side, deer stand
- 25:03Speaker 3: on the south side. Well, this year he would be
- 25:06Speaker 3: on the north side in the evening, south side in
- 25:09Speaker 3: the middle of the night, west side in the morning.
- 25:12Speaker 3: It was crazy. There was no rhyme or reason what
- 25:13Speaker 3: he was doing. So, you know, I just started trying
- 25:18Speaker 3: to understand, you know, what he did the previous year,
- 25:21Speaker 3: So like, where was his core area? Once October came,
- 25:24Speaker 3: where was it? And breaking that all down, we're sharing intel.
- 25:29Speaker 3: Kyle actually went and it was one of those deals
- 25:31Speaker 3: where this is kind of a good example. So you know,
- 25:34Speaker 3: early season opening weekend, that deer was there. I don't
- 25:37Speaker 3: think that he was going to be super killable yet.
- 25:40Speaker 3: He daylighted maybe a couple of times. But Kyle, he
- 25:43Speaker 3: had time to hunt. He's like, guys, I'm gonna hunt
- 25:45Speaker 3: opening opening week you know, is anybody else gonna hunt?
- 25:49Speaker 3: And I think Lance was gone. I said, man, go hunt,
- 25:52Speaker 3: I I can hunt. I'm not gonna I'm gonna stay
- 25:54Speaker 3: out of there, like go get him, and he hunted.
- 25:57Speaker 3: Didn't end up seeing him, but like he had quite
- 26:01Speaker 3: a stretch there where he hunted, and the deer was
- 26:03Speaker 3: around just pretty nocturnal. Yet so finally as we get
- 26:08Speaker 3: into and I had maybe hunted once before, kind of
- 26:12Speaker 3: that mid October time, and I'm a big believer in
- 26:15Speaker 3: scout more than you hunt, so like, I try to
- 26:18Speaker 3: get my cameras, let them do a lot of the
- 26:20Speaker 3: intel and scouting for me, but I try to stay
- 26:23Speaker 3: out of there until those windows are kind of right.
- 26:25Speaker 3: And I don't mean to say this arrogantly, but when
- 26:29Speaker 3: I go and hunt, like I legitimately think that I
- 26:32Speaker 3: have a chance of killing the deer, right, So I
- 26:34Speaker 3: don't trust me don't always get them, but like when
- 26:38Speaker 3: I'm gonna go, like I want to put all the
- 26:41Speaker 3: odds in my favor. So anyways, this deer, we start
- 26:45Speaker 3: seeing that he moves kind of to the northwest side
- 26:48Speaker 3: of our property, and it's kind of what he did
- 26:50Speaker 3: last year around that mid October time, kind of started
- 26:53Speaker 3: to shrink his core area down. And then it was
- 26:56Speaker 3: like boom, We're getting pictured on in the same spot
- 26:58Speaker 3: every night, you know, every morning. It wasn't during the daylight,
- 27:02Speaker 3: but ended up going in at this point crops are
- 27:05Speaker 3: starting to come off, and I hung a new stand
- 27:10Speaker 3: kind of in the in the middle of this. We
- 27:11Speaker 3: call it the deep middle field. It's it's kind of
- 27:13Speaker 3: a big field. Right in the middle of the property
- 27:15Speaker 3: was corn. It just got cut and hung us out there,
- 27:21Speaker 3: and I'm like, this is where I think, you know,
- 27:23Speaker 3: we can kill this deer with a north wind. We
- 27:25Speaker 3: had a bunch of stands on the other side of
- 27:26Speaker 3: the timber that we can help on the south wind.
- 27:30Speaker 3: And anyways, lo and behold. I never had a picture
- 27:34Speaker 3: of that deer coming out that way, but I just
- 27:36Speaker 3: knew that. I figured he was going to do that
- 27:38Speaker 3: because he did that a lot last year.
- 27:39Speaker 2: It's so sorry. I was going to ask, why is
- 27:41Speaker 2: it just based off of that historical pattern or was
- 27:43Speaker 2: there something about how that terrain set up or something.
- 27:47Speaker 3: So basically, yeah, so basically it's a it's a big
- 27:50Speaker 3: drainage ditch and we never go in there. It's all
- 27:53Speaker 3: sanctuary and it's probably I say it's a ditch, I
- 27:57Speaker 3: mean it's it's a significant section of tim We're probably
- 28:02Speaker 3: oh three hundred and fifty four hundred yards wide, but
- 28:05Speaker 3: just a big ditch with egg on either side. And
- 28:08Speaker 3: he usually goes out to that north side, but I
- 28:10Speaker 3: know when he comes out to that south side, like
- 28:12Speaker 3: he's got to be coming by there somewhere. There was
- 28:14Speaker 3: a big scrape there. A lot of dolls were coming
- 28:16Speaker 3: out there, and I know that the previous year I
- 28:18Speaker 3: got a lot of pictures of him coming out that way.
- 28:23Speaker 3: He was coming out more on the other side, but
- 28:24Speaker 3: we can't hunt that side with a with a north wind,
- 28:26Speaker 3: so it was tough. I just knew we needed to
- 28:29Speaker 3: have something on that other side for that north wind. Well,
- 28:34Speaker 3: Lance was coming in to hunt and across that field
- 28:37Speaker 3: probably two hundred yards away, we have a groundbline there
- 28:41Speaker 3: and Lance was coming down to hunt. I think it
- 28:44Speaker 3: was Thursday. He's like, I'm going to go to that
- 28:47Speaker 3: groundbline and I said, well, I said, just hung this
- 28:51Speaker 3: other stand. I said, maybe you should go sit that
- 28:53Speaker 3: other standing. It's close to the timber. And he's like, well,
- 28:55Speaker 3: I'm gonna go and kind of observe and see what happens.
- 28:58Speaker 3: I said, okay, you know, I said, I I may
- 29:00Speaker 3: go in and hunt that other stand Friday. It was
- 29:02Speaker 3: gonna be Friday morning and see what happened. So that
- 29:06Speaker 3: was kind of the plan. I didn't hunt that Thursday.
- 29:08Speaker 3: He goes in there Thursday night. Guess who shows up
- 29:12Speaker 3: walks right under that stand stick or ted. So he
- 29:17Speaker 3: sees the deer and he comes out and he actually
- 29:21Speaker 3: called to him, and that deer just stands up bully
- 29:24Speaker 3: walks four steps towards him, and I'm like, I'm watching
- 29:26Speaker 3: the video. I'm like, oh my god, that dear's gonna come,
- 29:28Speaker 3: you know. After he's showing me, and a dough ran
- 29:32Speaker 3: out behind him and he ended up circling and chasing
- 29:35Speaker 3: that dough off. Well, so he's like, well, next morning,
- 29:40Speaker 3: I want to go back in there. I'm like, yeah,
- 29:43Speaker 3: go back in there. And he's like, I know you
- 29:46Speaker 3: were going to sit that stand that you hung and
- 29:47Speaker 3: it's just across the field. He's like, you can still
- 29:49Speaker 3: go sit there. And I'm like, dude, we got plenty
- 29:52Speaker 3: of ground here. You go hunt that deer you know
- 29:55Speaker 3: this morning and whatever, like you saw him go on him. Well,
- 29:58Speaker 3: he goes and sits there. Sure enough, that deer comes out,
- 30:01Speaker 3: walks right under that stand again and comes out and
- 30:04Speaker 3: he sees him and ends up following a door. So
- 30:07Speaker 3: it's like, oh, at this point, I'm like you know, man,
- 30:11Speaker 3: I wish that, you know, you have encounters this deer,
- 30:14Speaker 3: like I wish that you could shoot him. And on
- 30:16Speaker 3: the other hand, I'm thinking, like, man, I knew that
- 30:18Speaker 3: deer was going to do this. It's just a gut instinct,
- 30:20Speaker 3: like he should have sat in that standard or I
- 30:22Speaker 3: should have been there.
- 30:23Speaker 2: Whatever.
- 30:24Speaker 3: Well, he had to leave that evening go back and
- 30:28Speaker 3: take care of some family stuff, and so I went
- 30:31Speaker 3: and jumped in that stand in the evening and had
- 30:36Speaker 3: a guy that just started working for us names Patrick,
- 30:39Speaker 3: and he was filming me and sitting there and we
- 30:42Speaker 3: see this buck chasing the doo below us, and he's like, man,
- 30:45Speaker 3: that looks like a good deer, and I said, oh,
- 30:47Speaker 3: that's Wide nine. It was a deer called Why nine,
- 30:49Speaker 3: and he's just a big name, but he was just
- 30:56Speaker 3: this five and a half year old heavy He's one
- 30:58Speaker 3: of those deer that's like super impressive. I mean, he
- 31:00Speaker 3: has basis for days, kind of short times, but like
- 31:04Speaker 3: just a gnarly old like big face. So he asked me,
- 31:10Speaker 3: He's like, if that deer comes out, you're gonna shoot him.
- 31:13Speaker 3: And I'm like, man, I don't know, I said, I
- 31:16Speaker 3: you know, game time decision, I said, maybe. Well, he
- 31:19Speaker 3: ends up coming out in the cornfield, probably one hundred
- 31:22Speaker 3: yards away from us, and right about that time, a
- 31:24Speaker 3: doe comes up the trail right under us, and I'm like,
- 31:26Speaker 3: we're about to find.
- 31:27Speaker 2: Out off your wheel, so decision.
- 31:30Speaker 3: Anyways, that deer turns and here he comes bline right
- 31:34Speaker 3: to us, and we're that standing I hung was in
- 31:36Speaker 3: a big oak tree. We weren't very high off the ground,
- 31:38Speaker 3: probably twelve feet off the ground, just the way the
- 31:41Speaker 3: limbs were. And he stops at fifteen yards and starts
- 31:44Speaker 3: making a scrape on the oak tree that we're sitting in,
- 31:48Speaker 3: and I had my bowl there and I'm a release
- 31:50Speaker 3: on it and I'm just looking at him like God,
- 31:53Speaker 3: And for whatever reason, in that moment, any other day,
- 31:57Speaker 3: I probably would have shot this year and I didn't.
- 31:59Speaker 3: It was just like I didn't feel it. They turned
- 32:03Speaker 3: and he walked down the trail and Patrick looked at me.
- 32:05Speaker 3: I'll never forget and he says, what are you doing?
- 32:07Speaker 3: And I'm like, man, I don't know. I don't know.
- 32:11Speaker 3: But then it was like boom, here we go. The
- 32:16Speaker 3: next morning went and jumped right back in that same stand,
- 32:20Speaker 3: and it was interesting because this deer. So I was
- 32:24Speaker 3: going in the gate, going the gate on the south side,
- 32:26Speaker 3: and it's a hike to get into the middle. I'm
- 32:28Speaker 3: going in the gate and I just pull up my
- 32:30Speaker 3: reveal up quick, and I look and there's sticker ten
- 32:33Speaker 3: on the far east side of the property, like way
- 32:37Speaker 3: far east side, Like well, I'm not gonna go and
- 32:40Speaker 3: chase a picture, like I know where he's been, where
- 32:43Speaker 3: he wants to be. I'm still going both my plan.
- 32:46Speaker 3: It wasn't an hour half hour after daylight that year
- 32:51Speaker 3: got all the way around me. And I'm talking this
- 32:53Speaker 3: is probably seventeen hundred yards ish. That year got all
- 32:58Speaker 3: the way around me, ended up coming out my west
- 33:00Speaker 3: so on the complete other side, comes out in the cornfield,
- 33:03Speaker 3: and here he came. I mean, he just came across
- 33:05Speaker 3: that cornfield. He was cruise and he checks some does
- 33:07Speaker 3: on the way and ended up shooting him at like
- 33:10Speaker 3: I think he was like thirty nine yards out in
- 33:12Speaker 3: that standing cut cornfield. And that was it just fortunate.
- 33:18Speaker 3: You know, a lot of intel, a lot of history
- 33:19Speaker 3: played into that. Going with the gut. I think waiting
- 33:22Speaker 3: for the right time to hunt him was kind of crucial.
- 33:24Speaker 3: Like I didn't. I didn't need to go in there
- 33:27Speaker 3: and burn days just to burn days, Like I wanted
- 33:29Speaker 3: to wait and let him do what he was going
- 33:31Speaker 3: to do and become killable before you go in and
- 33:35Speaker 3: try to kill him and then just I mean, there's
- 33:37Speaker 3: obviously a lot of luck involved there, me being the
- 33:39Speaker 3: one that was there, and and the deer showing up
- 33:42Speaker 3: when I was, you know, when I was there.
- 33:44Speaker 2: So did that deer teach anything after hunting him so
- 33:48Speaker 2: hard this year and watching him the year previous and
- 33:51Speaker 2: and all that history. Is there anything you can take
- 33:53Speaker 2: away from this? Yeah?
- 33:55Speaker 3: I think, you know, one of the main things is
- 33:58Speaker 3: big deer. And I've noticed this several other other big deer,
- 34:01Speaker 3: and not just ones of shop ones have filmed big
- 34:04Speaker 3: deer like that that have a core area that you
- 34:06Speaker 3: can hold their habitual so they will do the same
- 34:10Speaker 3: things over and over again. Like I look at a
- 34:13Speaker 3: lot of yearly historical data, I pay a lot of
- 34:15Speaker 3: attention to intel. Well, my cameras are telling me. But
- 34:18Speaker 3: like from four to five years old, that deer did
- 34:21Speaker 3: a lot of the same things. I killed another big
- 34:23Speaker 3: deer a few years back, like to the te you know,
- 34:26Speaker 3: it was like when the rut hit. He was in
- 34:28Speaker 3: this same spot for five days. Like I think those bigger,
- 34:32Speaker 3: older deer figure out what's safe, right, and they just
- 34:37Speaker 3: learned that after doing it year after year, and they'll
- 34:40Speaker 3: continue to do those, you know, same things. So I think,
- 34:44Speaker 3: you know, looking at that historical data if you can,
- 34:47Speaker 3: I think is really really crucial. And then you know,
- 34:50Speaker 3: not over pressuring your deer before you go in and
- 34:53Speaker 3: he becomes killable. Some deer become killable the first week
- 34:56Speaker 3: of the season, right, you get him on a pattern whatever.
- 34:59Speaker 3: I thought this year potentially would be killable, maybe the
- 35:02Speaker 3: first week, but he just wasn't. He was nocturnal. He
- 35:05Speaker 3: was coming to food, but just at night. So it
- 35:08Speaker 3: was like, Okay, wait till the time is right and
- 35:10Speaker 3: then go in there and kill him.
- 35:12Speaker 2: How do you keep track of that historical data? That's
- 35:15Speaker 2: something that I personally geek out about a lot, and
- 35:17Speaker 2: my buddies give me a hard time about the spreadsheets
- 35:20Speaker 2: I make trying to keep track of all that kind
- 35:22Speaker 2: of stuff. But I've always thought, like, how do people
- 35:24Speaker 2: keep the cell in their head? Are you are you
- 35:26Speaker 2: one of those guys that can just store it up there,
- 35:28Speaker 2: or do you have to write it down or put
- 35:29Speaker 2: it somewhere.
- 35:31Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, so that's an interesting question. Like I
- 35:33Speaker 3: learned from Tom uh Interbow over there, who's got thirteen
- 35:36Speaker 3: million yellow note pads with notes of what this dough
- 35:41Speaker 3: did back in nineteen seventy two, you know, with the
- 35:45Speaker 3: wind direction and all that stuff. So yeah, I do that.
- 35:49Speaker 3: I'm a big one of keeping. Like I make sure,
- 35:53Speaker 3: even though I'm running cell cameras, like to go get
- 35:54Speaker 3: those cards after the season or whenever I can log
- 35:59Speaker 3: all that day to try to organize it the best
- 36:01Speaker 3: that I can right at the moment. So when I
- 36:04Speaker 3: excuse me, when I go back, you know, I can say, okay,
- 36:06Speaker 3: look here's kind of what that deer did and make notes.
- 36:09Speaker 3: You know. Fortunate for what I do. Like, we film
- 36:12Speaker 3: a lot of our stuff, so like I can always
- 36:14Speaker 3: go back and look at footage too, and you know
- 36:16Speaker 3: that stuff's all really organized some big server system here,
- 36:19Speaker 3: so you know, it's easier for me to go back
- 36:22Speaker 3: and kind of compare footage to trail camera and that
- 36:24Speaker 3: kind of thing too. But I don't have a long
- 36:28Speaker 3: list of stuff. It's you know, I guess a lot
- 36:30Speaker 3: of it's up here and just you know. I guess
- 36:33Speaker 3: I'm always thinking about it.
- 36:34Speaker 2: So yeah, man, speaking of the uh, you know, storing
- 36:39Speaker 2: all of your trail camera pictures and logging all those
- 36:41Speaker 2: I've had, I don't know, you'd call it just a
- 36:45Speaker 2: folder system of all of my bucks, like older than two.
- 36:49Speaker 2: I usually save every buck that's like two or older.
- 36:52Speaker 2: Since two thousand and nine, I think I've had them
- 36:55Speaker 2: all on my computer, organized by property by year, and
- 36:59Speaker 2: I've kept that going so fourteen years or whatever it is.
- 37:02Speaker 2: And last week I was I ran out of space
- 37:06Speaker 2: on my computer, and so I was clearing out some
- 37:08Speaker 2: old podcast files and different things like that, and so
- 37:12Speaker 2: I wiped a whole bunch of stuff like that, stuff
- 37:14Speaker 2: that I didn't need anymore, so i'd have some you know,
- 37:16Speaker 2: space in the computer. And then the other night, I
- 37:19Speaker 2: was looking for a camera picture, looking for some picture
- 37:22Speaker 2: that I wanted to reference back to him, like why
- 37:24Speaker 2: is my trail camera folder not coming up? Where's my
- 37:26Speaker 2: trail camera folder? And I somehow deleted my entire trail
- 37:32Speaker 2: camera archive. It's gone.
- 37:34Speaker 3: That is brutal.
- 37:36Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my goodness, I yeah, that's devastating.
- 37:41Speaker 3: I'm glad.
- 37:43Speaker 2: Like the only silver lining is that the last two years,
- 37:47Speaker 2: all of my camera I've used only sell cameras the
- 37:50Speaker 2: last two years and then use them partially for the
- 37:53Speaker 2: last like probably three or four. So I have a
- 37:55Speaker 2: lot of that stuff still in the cloud. So at
- 37:57Speaker 2: least like the recent dead like deer, I'm still hunting. Now,
- 38:00Speaker 2: I'll be able to look back on and and get
- 38:02Speaker 2: that stuff. But still like all the pictures I have
- 38:05Speaker 2: of all these bucks over the years that you sometimes
- 38:08Speaker 2: go back there and look or I need a picture
- 38:09Speaker 2: of this deer, that deer like it's gone.
- 38:12Speaker 3: Man, that's brutal. Yeah, that's a good lesson. Back it up.
- 38:15Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you know, so, yeah, I do know,
- 38:17Speaker 2: and I just didn't didn't follow follow the advice I
- 38:20Speaker 2: would have given. So, man, anyways, start a new catalog. Yeah,
- 38:37Speaker 2: so you killed stick or ten your first booner, and
- 38:42Speaker 2: you're flying high and then you go to Iowa. How
- 38:46Speaker 2: did how did this buck in Iowa come to be?
- 38:48Speaker 2: It looks like, am I right that that buck's even bigger?
- 38:51Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks and then and there maybe substantially, Yeah, yeah,
- 38:55Speaker 3: he's they're actually pretty close, to be honest with you,
- 38:59Speaker 3: score wise, the buck in Iowa is kind of that next,
- 39:04Speaker 3: next level up, you know, kind of what we talked about.
- 39:06Speaker 3: I mean, you you hold stick or ten and he
- 39:08Speaker 3: is just big. He's big framed, he's just that beautiful
- 39:12Speaker 3: stack tie and he's got it all. And then you
- 39:15Speaker 3: hold this Iowa deer and he's just heavy, gnarly like
- 39:19Speaker 3: probably you know, I don't know exactly how old this
- 39:21Speaker 3: deer was, you know, for sure five could be six,
- 39:26Speaker 3: easily seven, you know, like in that that upper eight structure,
- 39:29Speaker 3: but super massive heavy. The only thing that I think
- 39:33Speaker 3: the reason that they score real similar that year in
- 39:36Speaker 3: Iowa actually had pretty short beam. So like he on
- 39:39Speaker 3: the one side is one beams right beam was only
- 39:41Speaker 3: eighteen and a half inches, and I think this other
- 39:45Speaker 3: one was twenty one. But again, he had it all.
- 39:47Speaker 3: He had a big inline time and that deer, I
- 39:52Speaker 3: you know, it's it's interesting, kind of a different story.
- 39:54Speaker 3: I don't have a lot of history. I didn't put
- 39:56Speaker 3: in a ton of time with that deer outside of
- 40:00Speaker 3: of killing him. So I was hunting with some friends
- 40:04Speaker 3: of mine down a big Buck outfitter or big Buck
- 40:06Speaker 3: down outfitters in Iowa, and I've known those guys for
- 40:10Speaker 3: quite a few years, and one of the shows that
- 40:12Speaker 3: we produced Love the Grind, those guys hunt down there
- 40:15Speaker 3: quite a bit and hunted down there this archery season,
- 40:17Speaker 3: and they were going back down there. Trey's wife Kira
- 40:22Speaker 3: was going to be hunting, and I had the opportunity
- 40:25Speaker 3: to go down there during the first shotgun season and
- 40:28Speaker 3: hunt with all those guys. So you know, I was
- 40:30Speaker 3: pretty excited still, like you said, flying high from this
- 40:33Speaker 3: this other Minnesota buck. I mean, my season was made already.
- 40:38Speaker 3: And there was a deer that that Jeff from Love
- 40:42Speaker 3: the Grind actually had had two encounters with during the
- 40:44Speaker 3: bow season and talking to Corbyn somebodies down there, they're like, man,
- 40:50Speaker 3: this deer is still there, and like he is, he's there,
- 40:54Speaker 3: and I think we got a good chance at him. So,
- 40:57Speaker 3: you know, the week before the season sending me lots
- 41:00Speaker 3: of tru camera photos and this year is like he's
- 41:03Speaker 3: all over the place. He's you know, here mid days,
- 41:06Speaker 3: three times a day in the day, ladies there and
- 41:09Speaker 3: he's going to this food, big food source, a big
- 41:12Speaker 3: standing beanfield, and I think, you know, there's probably still
- 41:15Speaker 3: tail end of the rout there. That's why he was
- 41:16Speaker 3: moving during the day a lot. So I was like man,
- 41:19Speaker 3: I was getting excited, you know.
- 41:21Speaker 1: And.
- 41:23Speaker 3: Probably three days, four days before I got down there,
- 41:27Speaker 3: deer quit doing it, Like he absolutely changed his pattern,
- 41:31Speaker 3: wasn't shown up on the north side of the farm anymore.
- 41:34Speaker 3: And they're like, man, what what happened? Where'd you go?
- 41:37Speaker 3: And I think it was just, you know, he was
- 41:39Speaker 3: at that point where you know, temperatures were mild, didn't
- 41:43Speaker 3: need to drive him to food. He wasn't you know,
- 41:45Speaker 3: really focused on dos anymore. Well, the south side of
- 41:50Speaker 3: the farm is big crp tall grass, just some little
- 41:54Speaker 3: creek bottoms, and they said, maybe we need to shift
- 41:58Speaker 3: our focus down there. Well, set up some cameras. Boom,
- 42:02Speaker 3: there he was, and he had shifted from the north
- 42:05Speaker 3: side of the farm down to the south side of
- 42:06Speaker 3: the farm.
- 42:07Speaker 2: How far is that?
- 42:10Speaker 3: Oh, you know, probably, you know, not super far if
- 42:14Speaker 3: you look at like a section, you know, north side
- 42:18Speaker 3: south side, but I bet probably from where he shifted
- 42:21Speaker 3: his core area was fifteen hundred yards. Yeah, so not
- 42:26Speaker 3: a super long ways, but like from him religiously doing
- 42:29Speaker 3: what he was doing to now not doing it at
- 42:32Speaker 3: all anymore, and just in those few days and they said, okay,
- 42:36Speaker 3: well here's where we got to change. They went in there,
- 42:38Speaker 3: put a blind on that CRP. You know, it's kind
- 42:41Speaker 3: of backwards, so like you're switching. You're in those December
- 42:44Speaker 3: months and you're thinking, Okay, got to start focusing on food. Well,
- 42:47Speaker 3: now we're shifting away from the food. And it was
- 42:50Speaker 3: one of those deals, like, man, we got to kill
- 42:52Speaker 3: this deer in where he's feeling comfortable. He's living in
- 42:55Speaker 3: the CRP, nobody's bothering him. Just and we got down
- 42:59Speaker 3: there and I remember climbing into the blinding to get
- 43:02Speaker 3: light and it was like there wasn't a lot of
- 43:04Speaker 3: timber around it all. There was some across the road,
- 43:06Speaker 3: but it was just like these little tiny creek drainages.
- 43:11Speaker 3: And man, we saw pile of deer the first day,
- 43:13Speaker 3: I mean a pile. Didn't see him, saw some bucks,
- 43:16Speaker 3: a lot of doughs, just working through the CRP. You
- 43:19Speaker 3: could tell they just felt comfortable there. Second day we
- 43:23Speaker 3: went in there. We were in the morning, in the evening,
- 43:26Speaker 3: and it was the second evening we were actually watching
- 43:30Speaker 3: some deer out the right side of our blind and
- 43:34Speaker 3: I saw him spun all the way around Connor, who's
- 43:35Speaker 3: filming me. He looks down to the left and say, hey,
- 43:38Speaker 3: there's a buck coming down the creek and this is
- 43:39Speaker 3: probably an hour before dark, and he's like, it's him,
- 43:42Speaker 3: it's him. And sure enough, I turned around and I'm like,
- 43:48Speaker 3: I don't see him. Where is he? He's like, he's
- 43:50Speaker 3: right there, He's right there, right in front of us.
- 43:52Speaker 3: And I'm like, Connor, I don't see him.
- 43:54Speaker 2: Wherethy right there? Right?
- 43:57Speaker 3: We're running some secondary angles in there, and it's cool,
- 43:59Speaker 3: Like that's kind of the coolest part for me is
- 44:01Speaker 3: just watch this interaction back and forth. And finally he
- 44:05Speaker 3: was just in one section where the blind, you know,
- 44:07Speaker 3: the corner of the blind was there, and I peeked
- 44:08Speaker 3: out to the left and there he was, and he
- 44:10Speaker 3: was coming and kind of had to wait for him
- 44:12Speaker 3: to get clear because he was behind some crp and
- 44:15Speaker 3: then it'd be open and whatever else. And yeah, made
- 44:18Speaker 3: it and made a shot. I was shooting a custom
- 44:21Speaker 3: muzzloader from Elevated Arms. That was a sweet, sweet gun,
- 44:26Speaker 3: and shot him in one hundred and eighty seven yards,
- 44:29Speaker 3: I think, And that was kind of end of that deal,
- 44:33Speaker 3: you know. It was. It was interesting because I had
- 44:35Speaker 3: seen a lot of trail camera photos and videos of
- 44:37Speaker 3: that deer and you know, some of he looks like
- 44:39Speaker 3: he's you know, one sixty. Other ones he turns, he
- 44:42Speaker 3: looks like he could be two hundred. So there was
- 44:44Speaker 3: a lot of and when I saw him, you know,
- 44:46Speaker 3: it was like I looked at one side and that
- 44:49Speaker 3: was it. Didn't look at him again. Everybody's like, how
- 44:50Speaker 3: do you look? How do you look? I'm like, I
- 44:51Speaker 3: couldn't tell you. I just know it's him. And I
- 44:55Speaker 3: remember walking up and there's a group of us that
- 44:57Speaker 3: walked up there, and it was like, man, that hit
- 44:59Speaker 3: me like a freight train. When I walked up there
- 45:01Speaker 3: and picked them up. It was just like, you know,
- 45:03Speaker 3: I was so appreciative this season I already had, and
- 45:06Speaker 3: then to have this year now holding this year, it
- 45:09Speaker 3: was like am I dreaming? Somebody pinched me because it
- 45:12Speaker 3: was like this year is a whole different even caliber
- 45:15Speaker 3: than that one. And you know, then it was like,
- 45:19Speaker 3: oh my god, this dream season. Everybody saw me and
- 45:21Speaker 3: I'm like, look, everybody, just calmed down. I want to
- 45:23Speaker 3: appreciate this one for what it is, you know, like
- 45:25Speaker 3: I don't want to take away from that one or
- 45:27Speaker 3: take away from this one. It was just, man, I
- 45:32Speaker 3: still kind of surreal it didn't really sink until I
- 45:34Speaker 3: got back here and started getting back in the in
- 45:36Speaker 3: the swing of things, and it's like, man, it's been
- 45:38Speaker 3: an incredible year for sure.
- 45:40Speaker 2: So when you look back on this whole season, and
- 45:43Speaker 2: you kind of talked like, you've had this progression since
- 45:46Speaker 2: you moved up to Wisconsin and started taking it more serious.
- 45:49Speaker 2: And now over the years you've gotten deeper and deeper
- 45:51Speaker 2: and deeper, and you've killed a lot of good deer,
- 45:52Speaker 2: but you still hadn't crossed that, you know, that pinnacle
- 45:55Speaker 2: mark that so many of us kind of obsess over,
- 45:58Speaker 2: and then you did twice. When you look back on
- 46:01Speaker 2: this year, is there anything can you attribute this success
- 46:05Speaker 2: you had this year to anything different that you did?
- 46:08Speaker 2: Is there any step that you've taken that you think
- 46:11Speaker 2: was like that thing that got you over the hump,
- 46:13Speaker 2: or or was there was this really just hey, this
- 46:17Speaker 2: was your year and you've been doing the right things
- 46:19Speaker 2: all these years and this just happened to be the
- 46:20Speaker 2: year that it all lined up just perfect.
- 46:24Speaker 3: You know, that's a good question. I think it's a
- 46:26Speaker 3: combination of both. I think it's one. You know, I
- 46:32Speaker 3: think I obsessed this year even more and I've done
- 46:34Speaker 3: this for years, but like obsessed over you know, the
- 46:37Speaker 3: strategy and looking at on X I mean daily and
- 46:40Speaker 3: pictures and like just trying to build these strategies and
- 46:44Speaker 3: take you know, eliminate as many variable as I can
- 46:47Speaker 3: and take it to the next level. I won't say
- 46:50Speaker 3: that I did anything more crazy than that. I think it.
- 46:55Speaker 3: You know, I think I had the opportunity at two
- 46:59Speaker 3: deer that we're of that caliber. Not saying that I've
- 47:03Speaker 3: never chased a deer that big, but I mean not
- 47:05Speaker 3: one that sticks out that's like, man, I had an
- 47:07Speaker 3: opportunity to chase that dear. So I think the deer
- 47:10Speaker 3: we're there.
- 47:10Speaker 2: You know.
- 47:10Speaker 3: It's the old adage you can't shoot a booner or
- 47:12Speaker 3: two hundred each year if you don't have one. So
- 47:15Speaker 3: I think that all lined up this year. And I
- 47:17Speaker 3: do think the other thing too, is and this is
- 47:20Speaker 3: even outside of hunting kind of an awful one, is
- 47:24Speaker 3: just building relationships, like you know, building relationships with not
- 47:27Speaker 3: only people that you have opportunities through so like you know,
- 47:32Speaker 3: building those those friendships in Iowa and you know, with
- 47:35Speaker 3: love the grind, having that opportunity to go down there
- 47:37Speaker 3: and hunt, building the relationships with the people on my lease,
- 47:41Speaker 3: you know, having the Deer Society guys over here, JJ
- 47:44Speaker 3: and Brian and Chris, like man sitting down and looking
- 47:47Speaker 3: and going through these strategies almost daily and what did
- 47:49Speaker 3: the deer do last night? And you know, getting those
- 47:52Speaker 3: different opinions. So like, as much as I was the
- 47:54Speaker 3: one that shot these deer, there's so much more behind
- 47:58Speaker 3: the scenes that I that I look when I look
- 48:00Speaker 3: at the rack setting there, like, those are the relationships
- 48:04Speaker 3: and those strategies between people that that I think was
- 48:09Speaker 3: a big standout for me this year.
- 48:11Speaker 2: Yeah, that's such a great point. And so I have
- 48:16Speaker 2: a hard time convincing my wife of this. But I'm
- 48:19Speaker 2: trying to explain her the value of my mounts or
- 48:22Speaker 2: keeping the euros and all that kind of stuff. She's like,
- 48:24Speaker 2: I just don't get why you need these all over
- 48:26Speaker 2: the place. And it goes back to what you said, Like,
- 48:29Speaker 2: when I see that animal again, it brings back not
- 48:33Speaker 2: just the hunt, but it brings back everything that was
- 48:35Speaker 2: going on. It brings back the relationships and the friendships
- 48:37Speaker 2: and the ups and the downs and all that stuff
- 48:40Speaker 2: just comes flooding back to you every time you stop
- 48:42Speaker 2: and look at it, and you stop and look at
- 48:44Speaker 2: them so often, and it's it's pretty special, how you know,
- 48:49Speaker 2: something like an animal can capsulate encapsulate so many other
- 48:53Speaker 2: things too.
- 48:55Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt. And then you know it's again talking
- 48:57Speaker 3: about cliche things, but like you know, talk about in
- 49:00Speaker 3: anything in life, enjoying the chase and enjoying the process.
- 49:04Speaker 3: You know, like when I look at the deer they're
- 49:05Speaker 3: on my wall. I hardly ever say that deer scores
- 49:09Speaker 3: one fifty or that deer. It's like, man, remember that,
- 49:12Speaker 3: remember that hunt, Remember that everything that went into that.
- 49:16Speaker 3: And that's why you know it's hard. I guess it's
- 49:18Speaker 3: easy for somebody that's tagged out to say to somebody else,
- 49:21Speaker 3: like enjoy the process. Who still has tagging their pocket
- 49:24Speaker 3: or is having a tough season or whatever, But like, man,
- 49:28Speaker 3: that's that's what it's about. Like you gotta love the
- 49:32Speaker 3: for lack of better terms, love the grind, love the
- 49:35Speaker 3: strategy involved in it. I can tell you, like when
- 49:37Speaker 3: I shot stick or ten, like it was a bittersweet moment,
- 49:41Speaker 3: like it was one of those things like man, I
- 49:44Speaker 3: don't get to look wake up in the morning and
- 49:46Speaker 3: try to figure out where he is or like it
- 49:48Speaker 3: was like it's almost like this connection or this this
- 49:51Speaker 3: intimate relationship that you have and it's like you kill
- 49:54Speaker 3: him and that's the goal, right, But then it's like, man,
- 49:58Speaker 3: you know, you almost miss that, Like I missed the
- 50:00Speaker 3: It's like right now I'm tagged down Minnesota. I wake
- 50:02Speaker 3: up and I'm like, I might look at my cameras.
- 50:05Speaker 2: I might not, but I love that, you know, Yeah,
- 50:07Speaker 2: that's true. It's a weird thing when you realize like, oh,
- 50:09Speaker 2: I didn't I didn't obsessively check my cameras already. When
- 50:13Speaker 2: that when that deer's gone, it is a little different.
- 50:16Speaker 2: So so let's let's imagine a different scenario though. Let's
- 50:20Speaker 2: imagine you didn't kill the stick or ten. Let's imagine
- 50:23Speaker 2: he was still out there right now and you still had,
- 50:26Speaker 2: you know, a few weeks this season. What would you
- 50:30Speaker 2: be doing at this time of year to try to
- 50:32Speaker 2: kill a deer like that? What's your late season approach
- 50:35Speaker 2: that you would that you'd be leaning on now?
- 50:38Speaker 3: Yeah, So you know, it's interesting because this year, like
- 50:41Speaker 3: right now in Minnesota, it's mild, you know, we have
- 50:45Speaker 3: no snow, Mild temperatures typically late season, Like I'm going
- 50:51Speaker 3: to focus one hundred percent on food for the most part.
- 50:54Speaker 3: Now that food a lot of times for us is
- 50:56Speaker 3: standing corn, standing soybeans. Standing soybeans can be absolutely lethal
- 51:00Speaker 3: this time of year and can be one of my
- 51:03Speaker 3: favorite times to hunt if I still have a tag,
- 51:06Speaker 3: just because those deer they get back on their patterns.
- 51:09Speaker 3: You know, they're going from betting to food. So you
- 51:12Speaker 3: know what I would be doing is finding where the
- 51:16Speaker 3: food is and really hunting evenings waiting for those those
- 51:20Speaker 3: deer to come to me. Now, I think talk about food,
- 51:25Speaker 3: you know, it's easy to say, well, standing beans, standing
- 51:27Speaker 3: corn right now. I don't think it's cold enough where
- 51:29Speaker 3: we have the temperatures here that are driving deer in
- 51:32Speaker 3: the daylight to standing corner beans. I think there's when
- 51:37Speaker 3: you talk about food, there's a lot that's overlooked. Like
- 51:40Speaker 3: I think woody brows, deer feeding in the woods right
- 51:44Speaker 3: now is a huge thing. Like if you have any
- 51:45Speaker 3: kind of downtree tops or hinge cutting or or anything
- 51:48Speaker 3: like that, there's a lot of deer utilizing that right now.
- 51:52Speaker 3: I shot a deer with in Buffalo County shoot there's
- 51:55Speaker 3: probably twenty ten over at Tom's and it was January second.
- 52:01Speaker 3: I'll never forget it, and it was a big a
- 52:02Speaker 3: point and I shot him in the woods. Now he
- 52:04Speaker 3: was going to a food source, but wasn't getting there
- 52:07Speaker 3: till night. Got in the woods and that deer was
- 52:10Speaker 3: feeding on what he brows. It was negative eighteen degrees.
- 52:12Speaker 3: We had snow, but it was it was a matter
- 52:16Speaker 3: of getting in there and understanding where that deer was
- 52:18Speaker 3: feeding in the daylight. So I think that's that's really
- 52:22Speaker 3: the key to any late season hunting right now. Understanding
- 52:25Speaker 3: that these deer aren't doing a whole lot like they're resting,
- 52:29Speaker 3: they're recovering from the rout. They're going from bedding to
- 52:33Speaker 3: food whatever that food source is. So if you can
- 52:37Speaker 3: try to understand that and then get in a position
- 52:39Speaker 3: where you know they might move in the daylight, you know,
- 52:44Speaker 3: I think that's that's your best option. It can be hard,
- 52:49Speaker 3: I think, you know, like last year, I want to
- 52:52Speaker 3: go back to that encounter a stick or ten. So
- 52:55Speaker 3: we had snow last year, it was cold, and this
- 52:57Speaker 3: was the last days of December and our season goes
- 53:00Speaker 3: out December thirty first here in Minnesota. We had the
- 53:04Speaker 3: farmer leave an acre and a half of standing beans
- 53:07Speaker 3: and all he did, though he didn't he didn't give
- 53:10Speaker 3: us the option of where we were leaving it. Like
- 53:11Speaker 3: he was going to leave one head row and that
- 53:13Speaker 3: was going to be it, and he left it right
- 53:16Speaker 3: along the wood edge, so it was going to be
- 53:19Speaker 3: hard to hunt with a bow. Like you could try
- 53:21Speaker 3: to get in the middle of it and put a
- 53:22Speaker 3: tree standing in the middle. But like south wind, you're
- 53:26Speaker 3: blowing into the woods into the bedding, north wind you're
- 53:28Speaker 3: blowing out into the beans. And it was like, what
- 53:32Speaker 3: do you do? So Adam had a tag and I'm like, man,
- 53:36Speaker 3: I know there were deer coming there. What do I do?
- 53:39Speaker 3: We had like five days left of the season, and
- 53:41Speaker 3: I said, you know, the only option is I don't
- 53:43Speaker 3: like this option, but the only option is to go
- 53:45Speaker 3: and put a ground blind right in the middle of
- 53:47Speaker 3: the field. There was nothing else there. Put a groundline
- 53:49Speaker 3: right in the middle of the field, so we can
- 53:51Speaker 3: hunt it with the north wind, stay you know, south
- 53:53Speaker 3: of the beans, be able to shoot it right in
- 53:55Speaker 3: the middle and hope the deer put up with it. No,
- 53:58Speaker 3: I'll never forget, you know, I had my doubts. I'm like,
- 54:02Speaker 3: you know, I'm all for hunting in blinds and things
- 54:04Speaker 3: like that, but like putting a groundline out in the
- 54:06Speaker 3: middle of nothing, you know, snow, and going and hunting it.
- 54:11Speaker 3: I said it one afternoon, we went and climbed in
- 54:13Speaker 3: it the next day and man, we had that was
- 54:16Speaker 3: the day that we saw stick or ten. Andy came
- 54:17Speaker 3: out and fed at fifty yards and it was like, man,
- 54:21Speaker 3: it worked and it didn't bother him. Now, I'm not
- 54:23Speaker 3: saying that that'll work every time. And you know, I
- 54:28Speaker 3: think it's there's something too when you set a blind
- 54:30Speaker 3: like that. I think they honestly feel more comfortable if
- 54:33Speaker 3: you put it right out in the middle of nothing
- 54:35Speaker 3: and you're like or you try to half ass brush
- 54:38Speaker 3: it into the woodline like they they feel like almost
- 54:41Speaker 3: like you're hiding from them, you know, or like go ahead.
- 54:45Speaker 2: I was gonna say, it's funny you bring that up.
- 54:47Speaker 2: I had the exact same scenario that time. I went
- 54:50Speaker 2: and hunted with Town and there was a little food
- 54:53Speaker 2: plot he had, but there was not a blind on
- 54:54Speaker 2: it to hunt with specific winds. I was like, Hey,
- 54:57Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna go in there and put a
- 54:58Speaker 2: pop up up. And so I was kind of describing
- 55:01Speaker 2: to him, like you're asking him like, hey, you know,
- 55:03Speaker 2: is there a fencer wrong along there where I'd be
- 55:05Speaker 2: a you know, kind of brush myself in And he's like,
- 55:07Speaker 2: oh no, don't brush yourself in. Put it right out
- 55:09Speaker 2: in the open. Like, ah, that doesn't sound like a
- 55:12Speaker 2: good idea of Tom. It's like, no, trust me, they're
- 55:14Speaker 2: gonna be more weirded out by you kind of brushing
- 55:16Speaker 2: it in than if you just stick it right out
- 55:18Speaker 2: in the middle and they'll just assume it's kind of,
- 55:21Speaker 2: you know, farmer stuff. And so that's what we did,
- 55:24Speaker 2: and they, you know, all sorts of deer came out
- 55:27Speaker 2: and weren't bothered by it at all. So that was
- 55:29Speaker 2: a very interesting Like you said, I'm not sure that
- 55:31Speaker 2: would work every time, but there certainly seems that there's
- 55:34Speaker 2: something to it.
- 55:36Speaker 3: Yeah. I think, you know, as we get to the
- 55:39Speaker 3: end of the season here, like if you have a
- 55:42Speaker 3: tactic that you think you should try, man, you might
- 55:44Speaker 3: as well try it because you're gonna run out of time.
- 55:47Speaker 3: But I think the big thing is thinking outside the
- 55:50Speaker 3: box when you think of what the food source is.
- 55:52Speaker 3: Don't always necessarily focus on corn and beans obviously that
- 55:56Speaker 3: they're the big ones or braskas or food plots whatever.
- 55:59Speaker 3: But you know, if your dear aren't coming to there,
- 56:02Speaker 3: try to figure out what they're doing. I mean, you're in,
- 56:04Speaker 3: You're in your last ditch efforts, so you know, focus
- 56:07Speaker 3: on that. We do have a little flurry of a
- 56:08Speaker 3: second rout that comes in. You know, if you see
- 56:11Speaker 3: any of that on your cameras, definitely getting get out there.
- 56:16Speaker 3: But you know that it can be really hard late season,
- 56:19Speaker 3: Like if you don't have a buck that that you
- 56:21Speaker 3: think you can go after, you know, it's like, you know,
- 56:24Speaker 3: must give up. And what I've done a lot of times,
- 56:26Speaker 3: Like there's a streak a few years ago where I
- 56:28Speaker 3: think it was like five years in a row I
- 56:29Speaker 3: didn't shoot a buck, not that I didn't have opportunities,
- 56:32Speaker 3: it was just like not the right one or something happened,
- 56:34Speaker 3: And you know, it can get hard towards the end
- 56:38Speaker 3: of the year and you're gonna eat another tag. I
- 56:40Speaker 3: think late season is also a good time if you
- 56:43Speaker 3: don't have a buck to go after a buck to shoot,
- 56:46Speaker 3: like get excited about something, go shoot some dose or
- 56:50Speaker 3: or something like that, Like you'd be amazed. Like I
- 56:53Speaker 3: still get excited going to shoot dose. You know, if
- 56:55Speaker 3: like I didn't have a buck to shoot, Like man,
- 56:58Speaker 3: go out and get excited about you know, find what
- 57:01Speaker 3: the does are doing and go shoot one and enjoy
- 57:03Speaker 3: that with you know, the people you hunt with, or
- 57:06Speaker 3: just for yourself. So you know, I think it's that's
- 57:08Speaker 3: a lot of mindset. You know, towards the end of
- 57:11Speaker 3: the year can get grueling, can be one of the
- 57:13Speaker 3: best times, I think to get out there and hunt.
- 57:15Speaker 3: If you have good weather, if you have a food
- 57:19Speaker 3: source that that you know de you're going to can
- 57:21Speaker 3: be one of the best times. But you know, it
- 57:24Speaker 3: all just depends.
- 57:25Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm right there with you on the dough thing.
- 57:27Speaker 2: Like it seems like even even if I do have
- 57:29Speaker 2: a buck tag in my pocket, if it gets to
- 57:31Speaker 2: the last week or two of the season and there's
- 57:34Speaker 2: not like an incredible reason to really really really focus
- 57:37Speaker 2: on that buck, I'll usually just just shift to dough season, like, hey,
- 57:41Speaker 2: it's time to just do some management and relax a
- 57:44Speaker 2: little bit and have fun with it, Like go into
- 57:45Speaker 2: it with a target rich environment. All of a sudden,
- 57:48Speaker 2: it totally changes the way you feel when you go
- 57:50Speaker 2: on that hunt. When you know, like man, I'm there's
- 57:52Speaker 2: just a really good chance I'm gonna shoot a doe
- 57:55Speaker 2: tonight probably, you know, invite the buddies out or take
- 57:58Speaker 2: the take my son's out, like that is so much fun.
- 58:01Speaker 2: I took my son out last night, and I've got
- 58:03Speaker 2: a couple of friends coming up tonight to do the
- 58:05Speaker 2: same thing, gonna mentor a new hunter tomorrow, like, and
- 58:08Speaker 2: that's all so much easier when you're shifting to those
- 58:12Speaker 2: doughs and and can just enjoy that. So it's a
- 58:16Speaker 2: very good idea.
- 58:18Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of excitement that occurs around that,
- 58:21Speaker 3: you know, like even you know, for for guys that
- 58:23Speaker 3: that's the thing to shoot big box. It's like when
- 58:25Speaker 3: you go out and you know, like I'm going to
- 58:27Speaker 3: shoot a dough, like you can't help but not get
- 58:29Speaker 3: excited about.
- 58:30Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I still get fired out. Yeah, something
- 58:34Speaker 2: I'm curious about back to kind of tactics when you're
- 58:37Speaker 2: after and I guess this could be a buck or dough.
- 58:40Speaker 2: But I've heard you and and Mike and JJ and
- 58:42Speaker 2: those guys talk a lot about water throughout the year.
- 58:46Speaker 2: Is that something that ever you think about in the
- 58:48Speaker 2: late season. I mean, that's not something I typically would think,
- 58:51Speaker 2: but I'm curious if that does fall within you guys,
- 58:55Speaker 2: you know, set of tools.
- 58:57Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I think water all year around it
- 59:00Speaker 3: super crucial. I have seen over the years so much
- 59:04Speaker 3: success over little water holes, and I think, you know,
- 59:09Speaker 3: it's easy to understand why water works early season when
- 59:11Speaker 3: it's hot and that kind of thing. Throughout the whole
- 59:14Speaker 3: entire season. I think they just get better. Like during
- 59:17Speaker 3: the rut, water holes are can be killer even now,
- 59:21Speaker 3: Like deer still need to get water right and it
- 59:24Speaker 3: becomes tougher for them. So if you think about it,
- 59:27Speaker 3: like right now out there, it's as much as it's mild,
- 59:30Speaker 3: like a lot of the water is frozen. So like
- 59:32Speaker 3: if you have you know, brassicas, there's some of those,
- 59:35Speaker 3: plus that those some of those plants hold some water,
- 59:37Speaker 3: you'll find more deer on there. Water can be killer
- 59:41Speaker 3: late season if you can find an open water source.
- 59:43Speaker 3: That's the hard thing though, is most of the water
- 59:46Speaker 3: sources are frozen. I do know some guys that will
- 59:48Speaker 3: go in. It's like it's almost like they're duck hunt.
- 59:50Speaker 3: You know, guys going in, they'll break ice and you know,
- 59:52Speaker 3: little pockets and maybe ducks coming in land. But I
- 59:56Speaker 3: know guys that will go out and try to break
- 59:57Speaker 3: some ice. Now that's hard because a lot of it
- 1:00:00Speaker 3: freezes back overnight. But if you can find an open
- 1:00:04Speaker 3: water source late season this time of year, man, I
- 1:00:07Speaker 3: think again, it's understanding what the deer need, like, they
- 1:00:11Speaker 3: need water. So if you can find an open water
- 1:00:14Speaker 3: source late season, heck, yeah on it.
- 1:00:16Speaker 2: Yeah makes sense. Are there any other off the wall
- 1:00:21Speaker 2: late season things you're trying or would try, or any
- 1:00:24Speaker 2: other thing we haven't covered. That's like tape, one more
- 1:00:27Speaker 2: thing they have in your back pocket.
- 1:00:29Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's a good question. I guess one
- 1:00:38Speaker 3: of the things that you could try. And I am like,
- 1:00:41Speaker 3: if you talk about talk about calling, I guess I
- 1:00:47Speaker 3: am not a guy who does a lot of calling.
- 1:00:50Speaker 3: I will call very minimally when I have to, but
- 1:00:53Speaker 3: I don't do a lot of calling. I think there's
- 1:00:56Speaker 3: a certain window, like pre rout where it can be
- 1:00:59Speaker 3: game changing. But I am a guy that will do
- 1:01:03Speaker 3: a little calling early season and even late season. Now,
- 1:01:07Speaker 3: you have to be careful when you're calling like that
- 1:01:11Speaker 3: late season because it's not like I'm going to go
- 1:01:12Speaker 3: and bang horns together. But I do think, say you're
- 1:01:16Speaker 3: hunting a food source that's close to bedding, right, and
- 1:01:20Speaker 3: you know there's a buck in there potentially because they're
- 1:01:22Speaker 3: not going very far, but he's not moving until just
- 1:01:25Speaker 3: after dark. I would not be afraid to go in there,
- 1:01:28Speaker 3: and as it's getting close to maybe like that last
- 1:01:31Speaker 3: half hour, last fifteen minutes, you know, take the black record,
- 1:01:34Speaker 3: take any kind of call, like rallying horns, and just
- 1:01:37Speaker 3: tickle them together, because what you're doing is you're not
- 1:01:40Speaker 3: challenging him. Well, all you want to do is convince
- 1:01:42Speaker 3: that deer that hey, there is other deer out there
- 1:01:45Speaker 3: in the food plot. He's laying there like he's going
- 1:01:47Speaker 3: to get up. He's probably hungry. It's just when if
- 1:01:51Speaker 3: you can convince him for even a second to get
- 1:01:53Speaker 3: up two minutes earlier and think, hey, there's deer out there,
- 1:01:57Speaker 3: you know, it's creating this illusion that hey, I maybe
- 1:02:01Speaker 3: it's even convincing him a few minutes early. Not be careful.
- 1:02:03Speaker 3: It's just think about what you're seeing. That's when people
- 1:02:07Speaker 3: ask me, how do you call? It's like, well, I
- 1:02:08Speaker 3: call based on what I'm seeing out there, what are
- 1:02:11Speaker 3: the deer doing? And that's how I do it. That
- 1:02:12Speaker 3: time of year. But like you'll see little bucks out
- 1:02:14Speaker 3: there just kind of tickling around, messing around. Try it.
- 1:02:19Speaker 3: You know, at that point, if you can do anything
- 1:02:22Speaker 3: to get that deer up two three, one minute earlier
- 1:02:25Speaker 3: before you know, shooting light ends.
- 1:02:26Speaker 2: I hope you know, might help. Yeah. Yeah, that's a
- 1:02:30Speaker 2: great point. And I do think sometimes we discount how
- 1:02:34Speaker 2: important just that little bit of social confirmation matters to
- 1:02:38Speaker 2: a buck. Just enough, Hey there's a other deer out here,
- 1:02:40Speaker 2: and they're feeling safe. The coast is clear. If you're
- 1:02:43Speaker 2: hearing some bucks sparring, that means the coast is clear.
- 1:02:45Speaker 2: If you a little if you hear a little contact grunt,
- 1:02:48Speaker 2: you know, Okay, hey it's safe enough that there's a
- 1:02:49Speaker 2: couple other deer out there, Maybe I'm gonna start edging
- 1:02:52Speaker 2: my way. I mean, that's uh, that is important stuff. Yeah,
- 1:02:57Speaker 2: no doubt so, Brian. If my five year old son,
- 1:03:04Speaker 2: who is nuts about deer hunting, wanted to go on
- 1:03:09Speaker 2: YouTube tonight and watch one of your guys's YouTube videos
- 1:03:15Speaker 2: there that you've produced for Deer Society, or really, I
- 1:03:18Speaker 2: know you work on a whole bunch of things. Where
- 1:03:21Speaker 2: would you send us if you were going to send
- 1:03:23Speaker 2: us to one video that you've worked on or that
- 1:03:25Speaker 2: you are in that you think my five year old
- 1:03:28Speaker 2: will get a kick out of. Give me one recommendation
- 1:03:30Speaker 2: on that, and then and then give me the rest
- 1:03:32Speaker 2: of the resume of things we can be looking for
- 1:03:35Speaker 2: ways we can connect with you and your work.
- 1:03:38Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, that's that's a that's a really great question.
- 1:03:44Speaker 3: You know, there's one that pops out, but I you know,
- 1:03:47Speaker 3: I don't know if it it would resonate yet with
- 1:03:50Speaker 3: your five year old, it would resonate with you. There's
- 1:03:52Speaker 3: a film we did a few years back and it
- 1:03:55Speaker 3: was called Love Dad, and it's on Deer set of
- 1:03:58Speaker 3: YouTube channel, and it was a film based on the
- 1:04:02Speaker 3: premise of me going on my first meal deer hunt
- 1:04:07Speaker 3: and it was an Alberta and but it wasn't about
- 1:04:12Speaker 3: me shooting this deer. It was a letter to my son.
- 1:04:14Speaker 3: So that's how the film progresses. So you know, it
- 1:04:17Speaker 3: opens up with you know, me writing this letter and
- 1:04:20Speaker 3: it says to my son Barrett and at the time
- 1:04:22Speaker 3: he was just born. That was here he's born, and
- 1:04:25Speaker 3: it walks through this process of the hunt. But what
- 1:04:28Speaker 3: hunting has taught me and how it's molded me as
- 1:04:31Speaker 3: a person, and like the lessons I've learned and failures
- 1:04:35Speaker 3: and all of these different things. I'm pretty passionate about
- 1:04:39Speaker 3: that one just because I think it's well produced, but
- 1:04:41Speaker 3: it's it's really from the heart, you know, and and
- 1:04:44Speaker 3: it meant a lot to me. Now, my son's five
- 1:04:46Speaker 3: and and took him turkey hunting for the first year
- 1:04:48Speaker 3: this year. And you know, I look at him when
- 1:04:51Speaker 3: I was writing that letter. It is just a little baby.
- 1:04:53Speaker 3: And now he's five years old and teaching him those traditions.
- 1:04:57Speaker 3: So I think that's a pretty special one. So you
- 1:05:02Speaker 3: could try to try to have them watched that one.
- 1:05:03Speaker 3: It's it's pretty cool. It's a good message there, and
- 1:05:06Speaker 3: and uh, I think I think maybe you'd enjoy watching
- 1:05:09Speaker 3: it with them, So that'd be the one that I recoon.
- 1:05:12Speaker 2: All right, that's the one. So so then plug everything else?
- 1:05:15Speaker 2: Where can we see the other videos? Where can we
- 1:05:18Speaker 2: get the podcast? Anything else you want folks to know about.
- 1:05:22Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of our content, some of the
- 1:05:24Speaker 3: film content, stuff you'll find on the Deer Study YouTube channel.
- 1:05:30Speaker 3: A ton of stuff out there, really great hunting there, too,
- 1:05:33Speaker 3: lots of different stuff, some some engaging off the wall stuff,
- 1:05:36Speaker 3: so entertaining stuff there. Also host the Deer Study podcast
- 1:05:40Speaker 3: that's obviously up there on the dear Stety YouTube channel
- 1:05:42Speaker 3: as well. And then as far as other almond I stuff,
- 1:05:46Speaker 3: you know, we produced Love the Grind TV which is
- 1:05:48Speaker 3: on the Sportsman channel, do the post production for uh
- 1:05:51Speaker 3: for being the Help with Thrick and Julie, and then
- 1:05:54Speaker 3: do a lot of other films and and things across
- 1:05:56Speaker 3: the board, working with just different brands and and and
- 1:06:00Speaker 3: people within the hunting industry as well as outside of it.
- 1:06:04Speaker 3: So kind of more of that stuff is all over
- 1:06:07Speaker 3: the place. You can check out almond I Productions on
- 1:06:10Speaker 3: Instagram and Facebook. We try to do a good job
- 1:06:14Speaker 3: keeping up with that, don't always do the best, kind
- 1:06:16Speaker 3: of get get lost on focusing on our clients there,
- 1:06:19Speaker 3: but definitely gonna get get better at that. But yeah,
- 1:06:23Speaker 3: so almond Ie Productions and stuff kind of all over awesome.
- 1:06:28Speaker 2: Well, Hey, you're doing good work, man. I'm enjoying it.
- 1:06:30Speaker 2: I appreciate the effort and hard work you guys put
- 1:06:34Speaker 2: into it, and I'm glad that you had a heck
- 1:06:36Speaker 2: of a season. Congratulations.
- 1:06:38Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate it very much. Again, I appreciate the
- 1:06:41Speaker 3: invote or invite to be on here, big fan, you
- 1:06:44Speaker 3: guys do a great job. You do a great job
- 1:06:46Speaker 3: and and really enjoyed the conversation.
- 1:06:48Speaker 2: Thanks man, I appreciate it all right, And that's a wrap.
- 1:06:54Speaker 2: Thank you all for listening, Thanks for being here. You
- 1:06:57Speaker 2: know I say it every week, but I really do
- 1:06:59Speaker 2: mean it. I appreciate you being a part of this community.
- 1:07:03Speaker 2: It's been the privilege of my life to get to
- 1:07:07Speaker 2: hear from you, to share these stories, to learn alongside
- 1:07:11Speaker 2: of you on this journey. It's been I don't know
- 1:07:14Speaker 2: fifteen plus years now for me and ten ish years
- 1:07:18Speaker 2: on the podcast, and it's been a wild ride. So
- 1:07:22Speaker 2: here's to another great year coming up. Hope we all
- 1:07:25Speaker 2: have a wonderful Christmas, happy Holidays, have fun with your
- 1:07:27Speaker 2: friends and family, get out there. I hope you get
- 1:07:30Speaker 2: a chance to fill another tag or two before the
- 1:07:32Speaker 2: end of the year, and until then, stay wired to Hunt.