Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 473: Bill Winke's Evolving Approach to the Whitetail Rut

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Ep. 473: Bill Winke's Evolving Approach to the Whitetail Rut · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and this week on the show, I'm joined
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: by the one and only Bill Winky to dive into
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: how his approach to hunting the white tail rut has
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: evolved in recent years. All right, welcome to the Wire
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light. Today,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: We've got a good one, ladies and gentlemen. We're talking
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the white tail rut and I'm joined by Bill Winky.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Most of you, I would assume know who Bill Winky is.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: He was the founder and the host of Midwest white Tail,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a little show that has been on the air for
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: many a year now wildly successful. Um. Bill has made
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a living hunting, talking about, writing about filming big white
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: tailed deer and teaching folks how to hunt them. And
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: he's recently now kind of taking a step away from it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: He's gotten away from the media side of things, and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: he's hunting new country in new ways, and all of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: that I think has led him, um kind of having
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a refreshed, new perspective on some certain things. And so
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: what I wanted to do was dive in with Bill
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: on a his general approach to the White Tail Rut.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Everything from how he believes the rut evolves over the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: course of the year, to his favorite stand sites, to
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: how he thinks about wind and access and exit and uh,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: different phases of the rut, how to kill deer right
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: now in late October, all that kind of stuff. We
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: we break down a lot of the essentials that you
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: need to know to hunt this upcoming time of the year.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: But I also wanted to dive into how things have
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: changed for him, how he views things differently maybe now
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: than he used to, what he does differently now than
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: he used to. There's some really interesting stuff in here
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that I think might surprise you, and I think will
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: represent a new view on hunting the ruck compared to
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: maybe some things you've heard from Bill in the past.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited for you to get to hear that,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and I'm also excited just in general for what we've
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: got ahead of us, because this is it, guys. This
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: is what we've dreamed of for eleven months or however
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: long it's been since the last time you saw running action.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: It's here. When this podcast comes out will be October
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: twenty eight, which for most parts of the country is
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the kickoff. I mean, it's it's happening. I'm hoping you're
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: spending a lot of time in the tree right now
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in the weeks to come. Um, I've had a crazy
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: few weeks. I've got a crazy few weeks ahead of me. Um.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I guess you know, since I don't get to do
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: as many of those long BS sessions with Dan like
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: we use two back in the early years, I haven't
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: got to update all of you on what's actually happening
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: in my personal hunting life. Let me give you a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: little uh teaser, I suppose on some of those things,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: because if you follow me on Instagram, you know what's
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: going on. It's at wired to hunt, um. But if not,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: you might be in the dark. And it's worth noting
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: there has been a lot going on, and I will
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: be doing full podcasts on some of these trips that
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I've been going on, but I'm not going to run
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: those until later in the year. I want to make
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: sure we spend the hunting season period giving you guys
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: helpful information, stuff that's gonna help you hunt. Right now,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I don't think maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you want to hear me John about a story when
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: you're just trying to figure out how to kill a
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: deer tomorrow or next week. So I want to try
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to stay focused on that how to stuff now and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: then once we get past the at least the heart
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: of this season, then I'll feel you, guys and on
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: all the details of how these trips went. But a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: couple headliners, I guess Number one, you might have heard
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that I was hunting in wash Shington, d C. We're
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: hunting the suburbs of d C actually over in Virginia
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: back in early October, and this is part of that
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: series that I described. I think it was last week
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: or two weeks ago I described, UM this new project
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I'm undertaking in which we're, you know, traveling the country,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: meeting with different experts in whitetail hunting with with very
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: unique styles and approaches and then very different unique regions.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: And I'm going in there and I'm spending a day,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: day and a half with each of these people to
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: learn about how they do what they do, following them
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: around the woods, UM, watching how they approach hunting, talking
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: through with their strategy, talking through the types of areas
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: they look for, just basically trying to do a podcast
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: but in person, breaking down everything they do. And then
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I'm tasked with trying to hunt in this area, using
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: what I learned from them, and trying to get a
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: deer killed. So that first trip was d C. I
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: was with Taylor Chamberlain, the urban bowman. He's specialized in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: killing these deer in the suburbs, and I will tell
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you that was an incredibly challenging hunt. It was very
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: tricky because you know, I had to spend that day
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: in a half of Taylor trying to learn about what
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: he does, and then I had to actually go out
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and try to get permission myself. So I went and
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: knocked on doors on dozens of homes. That not dozens,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I think thirteen homes is what I ended up knocking on.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: And these are like mega mansions outside of d C.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: So I had some very interesting interactions. I did get
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: permission a couple of spots um and I will save
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: most of what happened, but I will give you one teaser,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: which is amidst all of that. Amidst that hunt and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: everything that followed, I had the cops called on me.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I was not doing anything illegal, we were, we were
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: in the right, but just as an indication of how
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: bizarre things are out there and how out of the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: norm hunting is and doing stuff out there, uh, hunting
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: in neighborhoods. I had the cops on that one. So
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that's trip number one. Trip number two I went to
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Arkansas hunting in the National Forests, the Mountains of Arkansas,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Big Woods Public Land, dear and I was visiting with
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: my buddy Clay Newcomb. Clay Newcomb is the host of
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the Bear Grease podcast is part of the media team.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So we went out there. We packed in on his mule,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: got back there several miles into the national forest, and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I set up camp. Spend a morning with Clay walking
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: around scouting, getting his whole approach that he has learned
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: from his mentor, James Lawrence, who's a Big Woods mountain
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: hunter that he kind of tutored underneath. And the interesting
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: thing from that one, I'll give you the final outcome,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: which is pretty exciting, and I figure it's worth mentioning
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: because it just happened recently. Is that after a really
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: tough hunt in tough circumstances with a very few deer
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and not a lot of hope. I killed a buck
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I got in Arkansas deer uh about four miles back
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: into National Forest, got one down, nice little light pointer,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and you can see pictures of him on the Wired
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Hunt Instagram as well. So those were the two big
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: trips I've had so far this year, other than that
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Idaho public land hunt that I did do a podcast on.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Much more to come on both of these, but as
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, will wait until we get later into the year.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I've also got in I had a couple of hunts
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in Michigan, and then just now this week I get
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: to hunt more in Michigan again, but I'll save what's
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: happening there for a later time as well. So that's
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: that's kind of the latest on me. I want to
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: give you a quick, uh a quick update. Otherwise, today's show,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the bill is a good one. I suppose I want
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: to leave you with just a couple other thoughts because
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: this is gonna be the last podcast you hear from
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: me until November. Um, We've got an episode with Tony
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Peterson lined up again for next week, so you're not
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: gonna hear from me at least until almost the middle
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: of the month. So I want to leave you with
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: some parting words, a few things to think about before
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: we get into bills um, additional rot, honey, insight, I
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: think the big the big thing I want to remind
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you all of. And this is something that we've talked
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a lot about over the years, But it's the fact
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: that the rut is this wild roller coaster of emotion
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: for a lot of people. Right there's the there's the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: excess of votes, excuse me. There's the xs and os
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: for hunting the rut, which is what we're gonna talk
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: about with Bill, which is knowing how to find the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: right places up your tree, standard your saddle, which is
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: knowing the right time to hunt, which is knowing you
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: know how to get in and out without spooking deer,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: how to play the win, all that kind of stuff.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: How do you use trail cameras a pattern deer, so
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: on and so forth. That's obviously a part of this.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: But then there's this whole other part, which is can
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: you keep your head in the game. Can you stick
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: it out for thirteen hours or twelve hours on stand
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: all day and stay positive and stay focused. Can you
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: get up at three thirty or four am every day
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: and still have the energy to roll out of bed
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and go do the thing. Can you hunt for seven
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: days straight, finally get a shot at a buck and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: then miss him, and then somehow rastle up the energy
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and the tenacity to go back out there tomorrow and
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: try again. Can you get out there, travel thirteen hours
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: to Ohio or Kansas for this big trip you've dreamed
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: about for three years and you get out there and
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: you find out that the neighbors seven dogs have been
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: running over the property every day you're out there, and
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: keep on going through that, Like, there's so many different challenges,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: there's so many different things that can go wrong, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: you've built up all of this excitement and anticipation and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: you have such expectations for the rut that those two
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: things when they collide, when adversity and expectation collides, it
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: can be It can be tough. It can be tough.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: And what I have learned over the years has has
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: maybe could be distilled down to two big things, because
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you've heard me in the past kind of go on
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and on about these things in different episodes. Right, I
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: think the two things that have helped me the most
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: are this number one. As hard as this is to do,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: sometimes try to remember to enjoy and find your joy
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: in the process, not the end result, because there's a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: whole lot of things that can happen that are outside
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: of our control. That might be part of what determines
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: if we actually fill a tag, if we actually kill
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it deer, if we actually kill that big giant buck,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: whatever it might be. That's not ultimately within our control.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So if all of your fun enjoy for your trip
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: or for your hunting season is wrapped up in that
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: one thing, you're really setting yourself up for a lot
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of failure and misery. And you know, hunting should not
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: be that. This thing is supposed to be fun. We
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: do this because we love it. We do it because
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: we're passionate about it. We do it because this is
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: something that is supposed to be a net positive in
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: our lives. If we only focus on the end result,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: it won't be. So you've got to remember to enjoy
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the present, enjoy each step along the way, enjoy those
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: early mornings, and and try to have fun along the way.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: And if you lose that fun, if you're doing something
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and you get to the point you realize, you know
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: what this isn't fun anymore. Well, then maybe you gotta
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: take a step back. Maybe you do need a break,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe you need to rethink what you're doing or how
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you're doing it. Um At least for me, that's where
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I've ended up. It might be my phase of my
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: life might be you know, some of the experiences I've had,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: but I'm at the point now we're feeling a tag
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and being miserable. Isn't worth it. This thing is supposed
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to be fun. Enjoy yourselves out there and do whatever
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: you need to do to make sure it is still
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a good time. Now, that all said, if you are
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: goal oriented and you really do want to kill that
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: mature buck or whatever your personal goal is, you do
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: need to be dedicated to it. You do need to
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: know that this is going to be hard. And that's
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: what the second part of my advice comes down to,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: which is dedicating yourself to execution. Right, there's so much
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: that we know to do. You've heard me talk on
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: this podcast, You've heard Tony talk on the Foundation's podcast.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: You've heard every week on fresh Radio one we talk about, well,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you should do this idea, you should try this thing,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you should sit in these kinds of spots. You look
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: for scrapes at this time of year, and funnels at
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: this time of year, intill betting years at this time
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: of year, and you should take the long way around
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and not spooked deer out of the fields. So on
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and so on and so on. Most anyone listening to
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: this podcast knows the things to do, but there's a
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: much smaller portion of this audience who will actually do
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the thing, because so many of these things aren't easy,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: they aren't convenient, they're not simple, they require work, they
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: required determination, And my my experience has been there's got
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to be this balancing act between making sure you stay fun,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: stay having fun, but then also kind of steal yourself
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: for those tough times. Harden yourself to the fact that
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: there will be adversity, there will be toughness, there will
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: be some hard things you have to do if you
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: want to achieve your goals, and be willing to look
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: that hardship right in the hairy eyeball and take it on,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: because in the long run, that kind of thing is
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: fun in its own way. Pushing through tough times is
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of fun if you can do it,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and you can get to the other side. So enjoy yourselves,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: find joy in the process, but be ready and prepared
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to handle the tough times, push through them, work hard,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: and execute on the stuff you know you gotta do.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: If you can do those two things, if you can
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: balance those two sides of what the rut requires, you
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: can achieve your goals and have a whole hell of
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun along the way. And that is
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: what I'm hoping for each and every one of you.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I am hoping and wishing and crossing my fingers that
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: you guys have an unbelievable white tail Rut. I know
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: you've been working hard. I know you've been looking forward
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to this. I have to I am going to be
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: spending the next few days here trying to feel a
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: tag in Michigan that I'm off to Iowa, that I'm
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: off to Nebraska, and uh hope I'll bring back some
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: great stories and a few lessons learned along the way
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: as well. So thank you all for tuning into the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Wire Dunt podcast and let's go enjoy ourselves. And before that, though,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: let's learn from Bill Winky as he describes his evolving
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: approach to hunting the white tail Rut. Enjoy all right
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: here with me now is Bill Winky. Bill, thank you
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: so much for making the time to jump back on
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: the show with me. Yeah, my pleasure. Hopefully the audio
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: comes off all right, I'm driving my truck heading up
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to my hunting spot, so there might be a little
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: background sound. That's gonna be the wheels on the highway.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: That is okay. That that's actually the best possible scenario.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Knowing that you're fully locked in and ready to go hunting.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: That's that's gonna make this conversation better than most I think.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: So you're you're feeling You've gotta be feeling pretty good.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: It's October twenty five, I think when we're recording this,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: it's uh, it's just about the best time of the year,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I think so. And we've just
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: had this pretty pretty strong front go through. We had thunderstorms,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: a bunch of rain, high wind um today right now
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and in central Iowa head and north it's forty two degrees,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: so you know, high let's say in the forties. Uh,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in a probably in a blind this afternoon.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: But this is really the official kickoffs. I think I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: was figured October is kind of when it all starts,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and you can get the I buck on a daylight
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: pattern before that. But you know, from here on out
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: you should expect it to be you know, solid action
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: pretty much. Whatever the temperatures are cool enough, catch the
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: right dough in the right place, and you're gonna have
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of you know, a lot of buck activities.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's time to start. I haven't I haven't
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: done any deer hunting yet. I spent some time up
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: in British Columbia. Then since I got back, I've been
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: moving blinds around, kind of taking care of a few
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: things around the house, and you know, helping some far
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: vers and stuff like that. But you know, it's just basically,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't like to get started too soon,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: just because I'm afraid that I'll educate the deer before
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: they're actually moving well during the day, you know, unless
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I've got one on a day life pattern, I just
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: wait until about this time. Can you can you give
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: us a little context for your hunting situation these days,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: because for folks that are used to hearing from you
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: over the last you know, ten fifteen years, you've traditionally
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: been spending a lot of time on your home farm
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: in southern Iowa. You've got a whole new kind of
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: world around you. Now, can you give us the details
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: on that, what your situation is now. We sold that
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: back in the summer of two thous so it would
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: have been the summer before this past one. Last year
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: was my first year hunting someplace other than our farm
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: for eighteen seasons. I think I hunted eighteen seasons on
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: our farm in southern Iowa, and then, uh, last year
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: was my first time kind of back out into the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: real world, so to speak. But it's still not the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: real world. I mean, I've I've got really good places
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: to hunt, you know. I the area where I'm going
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: to right now is where I hunted last year, and
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: this is where I grew up, you know, and I'm
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: fourth generation on both sides of my family in that area.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: So as far as knowing people, knowing places to hunt, uh,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I've got a good running start there. It's
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: not it's not like I went out and you know,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I have to start completely from scratch, but you know,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: you have to learn a new property. Uh. But that
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: style of hunting up in northeast Iiwa and the Bluff
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Country is pretty straightforward. You know, people think that it's challenging,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: but it's really not because the you know, the deer
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: utilize that terrain in a really predictable way. So as
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: long as you know there's good, solid, mature bucks around,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: you can usually figure out pretty quick how they're moving
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: through that country. So it's uh, you know, I hit
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the ground running, I guess. Uh, I don't feel I
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: don't feel like I've got a lot of enough to do.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think this is actually easier then where
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I used to hunt down there in southern I wh
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: where you at a little bit more random movement. So
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I know last year you at least correctly if I'm
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: wrong on this, But as I understand it, you sold
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: your farm and you were planning them buying new ground
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: up in this new part of the state. But that
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: didn't work out, so you least something. Are you still
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: hunting that same lease or do you have new spots?
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: What's that situation? Yeah, still hunting that least. It was
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a piece of ground I tried to buy. The fellow
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: didn't want to sell it, and uh, you know, I
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: figured if I leased it, then uh, you know, at
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: least I'd still have a chipped in the game in
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: case he changed his mind. But you know, I don't
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: see him change in his mind. I've worked on him
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: pretty hard and and he's pretty he's a he's a
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: pretty definite no. But it's good hunting. It's a it's
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a really pretty area. And it's an area that I
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: hunted when I was a kid, you know, so that
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: kind of you're going back full circle. It is pretty
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: fun for me, you know, going back to hunt spots
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: that I hunted thirty years ago. And uh, you know,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the land ownership has changed almost universally. There's almost none
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: of the same people owning the same properties in that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: neighborhood because it was thirty years ago. But there's still
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: people that I know, they're just different people. Yeah. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in in that situation with the least, do you have
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the ability to make any land improvements? Have you done
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: food pluts? Or is this the kind of hands off
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: just hunt and don't mess with the with the farmer's crops.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: What's that? Yeah, that's kind of it. And I'm sure
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: that you know, if I wanted to spend the time
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and the money, the landowner wouldn't say don't do it.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: It's just you know, there's a limit to uh, you know,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: what a guy can spend on on the least dround.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: But I like it if he actually put the food
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: plots in. Um, that's you know, that's uh, that's that's
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: neither here nor there. But there's still enough crop in
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: there and you know, left over from the combining, and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: you know that food is not really the issue. Being
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: able to concentrate the deer isn't even really the issue either,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: because like I said, the train is so predictable. Um,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: if I owned it, I would set it up a
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: little bit differently and it would be probably even easier
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: yet to hunt. But it's, uh, it's pretty straightforward. I'm
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: not saying that I'm gonna go in there knock over
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a great big John Buck right away. That's not necessarily
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the case. But as far as like figure out how
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: to set up and and what these they are going
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: to be doing, I don't have any real you don't
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: have any problems there because again, like I said, I
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: grew up doing this, and this this is kind of
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: in my you know, in my history. Yeah, I want
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to dive into how you do that, Like why why
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: this seems so relatively straightforward and what your approach is
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: going to be in that habitat. But but but real quick,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I want to circle back to something you brought up
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: at the beginning, which is the fact that October it's
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: kind of your kickoff and you're viewing from here on out,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: is you know, the the rise of the rut and
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: all that activity is going to you know, begin here
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: and continue on through November. I've heard you talk a
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: lot about kind of the way you view the process
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of the rut and the timing of when different things
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: happen and how you evolve your approach throughout that you know,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: three to four week period whatever it might be. Um,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: can you just walk us through the timeline that you
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: kind of how you place the rut on the timeline
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: if it kicks off around October? Could just walk us
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: through what how things change when you see them changing,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: and what that means to you as a hunter as
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: we go from now till whenever you view the end being. Yeah,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: so I think that the rut, in my opinion is
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: roughly October through November seven somewhere in there. So it's
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: aboutom month and the very best thinking of the whole
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: season can be this last week of October, if it's pulled,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: if we get a cold front come through, and like
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I said, we've got you know, a pretty pretty decent
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: conditions right now. Um, you know, I wish it was
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: just a little bit brisker, but it's still pretty good
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: for October. You know, that's that's sort of the best
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: case scenario because you're always trying to catch that buck
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: when the first dove in his range, you're even closer
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: to his core when she comes into Astris, because there's
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: gonna be sort of a reckless abandon that takes place
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: at that time. And then after the first dough or two,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you know, then they sort of settle into the business
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of the run and then it becomes a lot tougher.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: You don't get nearly as much daylight movement as you
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: as you really sink into the middle of the rut.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Nobody thinks that the middle of the run is when
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the action is at that. I really feel like the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: action is that the front is. You know, before those
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: bucks get a whole out of breeding under their belt,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: they're a little bit you know, a little bit perkier,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: a little bit more active. They're covering ground they might
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: be they'd be uh sibly you're trying to find that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: next dough. Uh So, I feel like right now you
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: want to hunt as close to the areas where you've
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: been getting pictures of a buck. You're coming into this
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: time frame as you can, you know, without because he's
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: not going to be traveling a lot. Like I said,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: it's kind of best case scenario. The ruggets got him
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: fired up, but he's he's not really uh leaving his core.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: We're gonna find him where you expect to find him.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Uh So, I like this time. You know, I feel
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: like I killed a nice buck last year and the
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: of October, and the year before that, two thousand nineteen,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I killed a really nice one on October. You know,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: I was a little bit earlier in my start that year.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Uh you know, like I said, I gotta a definite
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: favoritism toward this last week of October. Then the first
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: maybe ten to twelve days of November, you're hunting the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: dose because they're still using their their more traditional areas.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: You know, they're feeding still for the most part, in
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: the places where they've been feeding all fall, and they're
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: betting in the places where they've been betting all fall,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: and then you hit a certain point in the run
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: where everything kind of falls apart, and that's sometime after
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the twelve I call it the lull of the run.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: You know. It's just a time when it seems like
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: most of the doughes that most of the dose, but
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the highest number of dose are an estris, you know,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: so the box have really settled into into the business
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: of breeding. It's not this fever paste like you've got
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: early in the run. They're just taking care of business,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and they do most of that at night. They're not
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: active really pursuing doughs during the day. They're not covering
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of ground. They don't have to because so
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: many of them are an esters um and the doughs
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: themselves have been badgered enough that they're not really used
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: in their normal areas anymore. So it gets a lot
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: tougher I feel like during that part of the run,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and sometimes I'll take a few days off there just
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: get away from that, you know. But that's uh, that's
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the hardest part. I feel like to to hunt. All
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: you're doing I think they're in that part of the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: run is just being out there and hoping that the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: hot dough comes by. Because if you get a hot
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: dough to come through, so usually have a buck or
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: two behind her. It's not like like the early in
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the run when there might be five or six bucks
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: chasing after her, but you should have something trailing behind
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: her and uh, you know, trying to catch up. So
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you're typically hunting a little bit further away from the
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: open areas back in the in the heavier cover those doors,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: are trying to get away from being badgered by every
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: single buck out there. Uh. That that time frame, I
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: feel like takes takes this up until about roughly of November.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: And in a lot of states, your your past the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: bow season, you know, so you're not really hunting natural
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: movement patterns anymore. You're hunting, you know, more of the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: forced movement that comes with the firearms season. But in
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: the states that I've been hunting, mostly like Iowa, Kansas,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: you're still during the bow season, which is my preference.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Of course, I'd like to be able to hunt the
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: rut the hole. The November was my bow. So if
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: you're in one of those places that you'll see after
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: about the November as you'll see the does and going
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: back to food, but you'll see that little burst of
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: extra movement said by the older aged last bucks trying
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: to pick off that last you know, hot dough. That's's
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: on the kail end of the of the bell curve.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: So if you think of you know, the number of
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: those in Estrius as the in the bell shape, you know,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: early in the rut there's not very many. Then in
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the middle of the rout, which is roughly about November
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: fift in most parts of the country, that's when the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: highest number are in Estris, and then the bell starts
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: sweeping back downward. Then you get to, you know, with
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the lower end of that, and that's somewhere around of
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: November where the you come to the end of the bell.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: So when you have less, does you know the bucks
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: haven't quite completely lost interest in the run yet at
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: least the older one seven and you'll still see them,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: just maybe a second wave of of natural movements during
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: that last part of the rut, and that's mostly around food.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: You can still do well in the mornings, you're getting
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: around bedding areas, you know, but it seems like the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: bulk of the action is in the last part of
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: November is back around food again in the in the evenings,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: um so hopefully I didn't throw too much at you.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: But that's I've just seen that. I guess I've hunted
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: every day of the run for thirty some years, um,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: like the whole month of November, the last week of October,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: for that five weeks, for thirty years, uh, in some
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: pretty good areas. And that's just what I've seen, you know,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the accumulation of all those experiences. And you'd have a
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: hard time convincing me that that that's not the way
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: it goes down. That's that's super helpful. I want to
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: rewind now, So if we ended there at the end
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of November, let's rewind back to the end of October,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: which is where we are right now. You mentioned that
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: last year you killed one on the twenty nine, and
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the year before you killed it on there. Tonight you're
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: heading in You're probably gonna kill one tonight. So and
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: when this, when this podcast drops, will be the so
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: people listening on the day it comes out, you know,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: we're right at the tail end of October. So I
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: think it's worth expanding a little bit on this just
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: because people will be, you know, ready to put this
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: into action right away. Can you just dive in a
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: little bit more specifically those last days of October. Maybe
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: there's an anecdote from last year's hunt or the year
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: before that would illustrate it. Maybe not, but just a
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: few more of those next level things to be thinking about.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I know you mentioned that these bucks are still you know,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: pattern or bull, They're still in their home range, but
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: they're feeling a little more frisky. Uh. What are those
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: next level things that you've been able to do to
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to actually take advantage of those behavioral things that can
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: help you this time year, but some people aren't able to.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, there's there's not a a big
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: difference in the way that you hunt the last week
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: of October versus the first week of November. You might
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: just be a little bit more aggressive once you get
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: into November. But I still go up on the on
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the ridges and the mornings, and you know, hunt near
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the betting areas. I might not, like I said, dive
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: quite as deep is what I would a week later,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: because I always feel like, you know, push comes to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: shove on an average year, normal conditions, normal weather, Nomember
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: seventh is pretty hard to beat. So I'm always trying to,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: you know, sort of build up to that that time frame.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: So I want to make sure that I don't hunt
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: all of my best spots too hard, too soon, because
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure I've got some places to
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: fall back on, you know, during that time when I think,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the bucks are going to
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: be on their feet, you know that that last hard
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: push before the majority of the does or a high
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: percentage of the does are in the asterisk. Uh. So
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I'm still in late October. I'm hunting around the food
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in the evenings. I think you can't go wrong there,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm hunting closer to the betting areas. And you
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: don't have to know exactly where the buck is betting. Uh.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure it would beneficial. But right now
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: he's covering from the ground. I mean, he's not getting back,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and he may not even go back to his betting area.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: He may have five different betting areas, you know. I mean,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: they're not that predictable. So it's not as if you
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: know you're programming at a computer, you're gonna come up
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: with the same answer every time. Uh. They do a
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff that's still a little bit unpredictable. Even
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: once you know where they live. So just be back
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: in there in places that makes sense from a hunt
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: ability standpoint, in places where you're not gonna bump anything
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: on the way in and out. You know, the wind
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: is completely in your favor while you're on stand don't
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: take any real risks the last week of October and
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: just rely on the fact that they're feeling their oats
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit and they're gonna they're gonna be moving more.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: You don't have to go to dam as much as
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: you have to be in their core someplace that you
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: know that's favorable to you. Uh. But you would hunt
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: the buck's core born. You know, as you get into November,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: you might spread out a little bit more and hunt,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: you know, do concentration areas. But if you know where
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: there's a buck living, you'll hunt around that spot. Uh.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: And I guess that's the main thing I would say
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: for October is you know he's still around there someplace
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: he hasn't He hasn't you're kind of giving up his
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: his early fall patterns yet, Yeah, it would it. Well,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: let me throw you my strange situation. And I'm just curious.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I think I know what you'll say, but I'm curious
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: if you've got any different thoughts than what I have.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: I have a set of trips coming up that are
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: gonna send me out of state for almost the entire
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: month of November. So that leaves me just this week,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: so the last week of October, to try to kill
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: one of my target bucks on my local spots. Um,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: So if you only had this last week of October,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: is the entirety of your rut related hunts in your
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Let's say this, you know a spot that you're a hunt,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: a bunch of the spot that you would you would
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: like to hunt a bunch of typically, Uh, would you
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: do anything different than what you just described other than
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: just being more aggressive? Yeah, be more aggressive. I would
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: get to where you think he's living quicker. Um, you know,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna ease in like this evening. I'm gonna be
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: on the bridge tomorrow morning. I'll probably what I'll probably
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: do this evening is I'll go into one of my
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: redneck blinds. I moved some trailer blinds around a few
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: days ago. I'll probably go into one of them this
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: evening and then just take my sleeping bag and sleep
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: in there tonight tomorrow. That way, I don't have to
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: bump any deer leaving. Um, I don't have anybody to
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: drive in and run the deer off from the spot
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: run rather to be hunting. So I don't want to
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: walk out of there, you know, even climb down and
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: get onto a four wheeler and spook those deer back
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: in that area. Um. But he could come out there.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's basically on the edge of a
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: cornfield right below the ridge where I think this deer
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: mostly live. Um, So he could be there tonight, and
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I certainly don't want to run the risk of of
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: educating any deer on the way out. So I'll sleep
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: in the blind tonight, hunt it tomorrow morning, even though
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: it's not an ideal morning spot. And then uh, I
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: may do the same thing for a couple more days
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: in other parts of that same cornfield below that ridge,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: just kind of bounce around a little bit on the fringe,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: not really getting in there. But then, you know, towards
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the end of this week, I'm gonna be up on
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: that ridge where I think he's living, and uh, I
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: may go. I may go in there for an you know,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: an afternoon hunt set to stand up. But I've got
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: a little system I brought with me. I don't know
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: if it's gonna work or not yet. I haven't haven't
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: quite decided, but I've got a warm sleeping bag and
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: a little bitty stack. It's basically, you know, a super
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: lightweight bag that goes over the top of my sleeping bag.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna carry that in for the afternoon hunt
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and then, uh, you know, at the end of legal shooting,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: tip just climbed down to the ground and sleep at
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the base of the tree and once again. Yeah, so
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I mean we'll see. Like I said, in theory, it
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: all sounds good. But if it's twenty five degrees and
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, thrilled up at the base of the tree,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: that might not be very much fun. But the idea,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: of course, has not spooked this deer coming and go.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: So if you're gonna be aggressive, you have to be
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: cautiously aggressive, if that if that makes sense, and that
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: means that you can't take risks with your entry and exit,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: but you can go in there where that deer lives
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: if he doesn't know you're coming and going. Uh So
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: that's what I would say, is, you know, just be
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: aggressive and go to where you think he's living as
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: long as you can get away with it. But if
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: you don't think you could get away with it, then
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: it's not worth it. It's not worth a foolish risk,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: uh at any point of the season. But you know,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: uh kind of a well considered you know, I'm playing
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the risk reward game here and it seems to follow
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: my way. Uh. I'd say you'd be aggressive then because
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: you don't have you don't have to save it for
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: you know, November seven, you can you can play all
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: your cards right away. Yep, no downside other than using
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: up those six seven days I have and then wait
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: till next year. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's too bad
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: that you can't say. Well, I mean, I'm sure you've
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: got some fun hunt Una. It's too bad you can't
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: put it all together on on your local spot there
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: for longer. Yeah, it's gonna be a different kind of year.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm used to getting some quality time chasing
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: some of these these dare I know well, so hopefully
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: can pull it off early, but if not, it will
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: make for a good, longer story that continues into next
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: year and learn some stuff. Um, you mentioned that you're
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: gonna sleep in your blind, your red neck blind maybe tonight,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: and you mentioned sleeping at the base of a tree
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: once you get later into the week. I mean that's
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: some hardcore. You know, you're really dedicated to these access
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: and exit kind of situations and making sure you're not
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: spooking these deer. I was gonna ask if you get
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: more lax with your access during the rut. It sounds
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: like that's not the case. Can you can you speak
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: to just in general, how you feel about entry and
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: exit during the rut and how you think about differently.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Are there things you do different this time of year?
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Do you allow yourself to cut some corners or be
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit riskier with it because you know it's
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: the rut and you have to try things. What's what's
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: your take on all that? I think you can you
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: can be more aggressive if you're hunting peer travel rouse,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're hunting endpoints, you know where the
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: deer kind of pool up, like I say, a betting areas,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: an endpoint, in a feeding area, in an endpoint, but
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: there are spots in between, like maybe there's a ditch funnel,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: you know, where the deer go up around a ditch
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: when they're walking. You know, just cruising back and forth
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: between betting areas, or they're going from a betting area
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: to a feeding area or whatever, those kind of spots,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: because the deer aren't necessarily going to be there when
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: you're going in and out. Uh. In theory, at least,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: you know you're going in before they traveled through, and
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you're going out after they've traveled through on the on
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: an afternoon hunt and vice verst on the morning. Um,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: you know you can come and go a little bit
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: more freely, but when you're hunting near those endpoints, and
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: again I'm talking feeding areas and betting areas, uh, you
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: have to be super careful because if you educate the
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: deer in those places, then the whole the whole system
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: breaks down, um, because then they're more cautious and they're
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: not moving naturally anymore, and you're not gonna have nearly
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: as much daylight activity in those areas. So that's kind
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: of my sense. I don't I don't get riskier during
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the run. Uh, I don't take more chances. I hunt
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: super cautious through the whole season. Um. I'm just being
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: a little bit more hardcore now because I don't have
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: a cameraman there's nobody that's gonna these laying there saying,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: you know, how come we're out here again? You know,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: what was you? What were you? What were you thinking
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: when you said we were going to sleep at the
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: face of this tree? Remind me of that again, you know,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: So you can be a little bit more hardcore when
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: it's just you. But I don't think i'd subject to
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: cameraman to two you know what I'm gonna go through. Uh.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: The other thing is we never really did this kind
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: of stuff because we had to produce those daily up
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: as notes all the time. But there was really no
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: way to do that. Can't hunt like this, Yeah, but
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: we also had we also had people around that could
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: come and you know, blow the field, and you know,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: there were ways, there were ways to get out of
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: a feeding area the evening. It's harder to get out
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: of a betting area, you know, in the that it
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: is to get out of a feeding area, because you know,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: you can't just drive in there with a four wheeler
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: and mount the deer off like you get a feeding area. Yeah.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: This this is just a quick aside. But people watching
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: from the outside, I'm sure watched you hunting your home
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: farm for years and years and producing Midwest white tail
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: and killing all these big deer and all that kind
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: of stuff. Um, And now they might look at you
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: and say, oh, he's just hunting a farm. He can't
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: do anything special to it. He doesn't even own it.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: He has to get in here hard and sleep on
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: the ground, and he doesn't have a show. And there
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: aren't people do menting everything, and they might think that, oh, man,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Bill must be missing what he used to have. But
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I'm curious listening to you. I'm wondering. I'm thinking, maybe
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: is this unbelievably liberating? Is this incredible if we get
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: to go back to this, or or what is your
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: thought on this new phase of your hunting life you
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: find yourself in. And I haven't been too secretive about
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: you know what I did. I like helping people get
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: better at deer hunting. I liked producing Midwest white til.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: It was a good business. You know. I got to
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: do it on my own terms, on my own land.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: I didn't have to travel. I could watch my kids
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: grow up, you know, I could. I could be around
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: so I got the best of really a lot of
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: world there. Now. You know, if I don't feel like
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: going hunting. Sometimes I just won't do I'll go see
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: mom and dad, or I'll go watch the high school
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: football game or whatever, you know, and and uh or
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll go sit on a piece of public land
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: just because it's a beautiful view of the Mississippi River
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: or something like that, you know where. You know, back
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: in the day, everything had there was an agenda attached
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: to every hunt. You know, we had to get viewership.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: We had to maintain you know, our storylines. We had
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: to uh, you know, react to the audience. We had
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: to you know, produce something. We had to create value,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: and uh aren't have to create any value just go
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: deer hunting. So from that standpoint, it's it's a lot
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: more liberating. I mean, I I missed uh opponent land.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of headaches to go with
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: that too, as you know, um, you know, it's not
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: it's not just this perfect world where you wake up
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: and you go, oh, this is awesome. I've got a farm,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: you know, there's Cole's getting out, and there's all kinds
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: of stuff. You gotta deal with it, you know, if
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: you're just leasing it or hunting on provision, or hunting
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: public land or something like that. You don't have all
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: those issues. Uh, but what you do have when you
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: own it is the ability to set it up so
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: that it's very productive. Uh. And uh I do. I
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: do miss that, and I do miss uh spitting a
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: tree and looking around and saying, well, you know, if
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: I cut down, you know, these twelve trees over here
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: in this corner, I have another, you know, brushy spot
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: for the deer to bed in or whatever. You you're
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: always thinking when you're hunting about your management projects. Um,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: but I don't do that now because I'm not on
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: land that I have any control. Yeah. Overall, I'd say
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: it's way more relaxing, uh, now that it's been for
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: quite a while. Yeah, yeah, imagine that's great. So back
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: to back to how to kill deer. Now that we
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: know how to kill deer and have a little more fun, Um,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: back to the house of the hunting part. You know,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: you have been writing about hunting the rut and talking
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: about hunting the rut uh longer than almost anyone these days.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I feel like I've been doing it for a lifetime,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: and I have been out nearly as long as I have.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I been doing as you have. So what I'm curious
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: about is this there's these two major pillars of rut
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: hunting strategy. I guess you could say, right, it's the
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like scripture. It's recited over and over
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: every year. Every single article about the RUT is going
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: to include this. Every you know, it's it's the basics
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: that everybody knows. It's hunt the does, and it's hunt
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: pinch points or funnels, right, I mean, those two things
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: are kind of tried and true concrete. This is the
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: the two foundational principles of hunting the RUT. I'm curious
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: what are we missing or what has been oversimplified, or
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: what are we getting wrong? If you were to review
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: conventional wisdom and all the things you've said over the
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: years and other people have said in in this line
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: of business, now that you've seen it all, you've read
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: it all, you've wrote it all, is there anything that
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: we're missing on those two fronts? What would you add?
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: I think that every situation it is different, and we
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: try to stereotype because we want to help people. We
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: have to generalize certain things. You know, we have to say,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: you know, this is the trend or this is how
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of things usually go, but every situation
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: is a little bit different. And you know, the art
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: of hunting, I think is playing that risk versus reward
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: game where risk is how much impact that you're making,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: what your chances are of educating the deer that you're hunting,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: and then the reward is, you know, what of them,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: the likelihood of one of the bucks I would like
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: to shoot walking through during daylight? You know. So I
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: think that's the that's the part that you know, maybe,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: like I said, every situation is unique. Uh. You know,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: if you're hunting public plan, it's a way different way,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: different setups. If you're hunting on permission and there's two
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: or three other guys there, or you're hunting you know,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: acres versus hundred acres, that that formula changes, you know,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: every single place that you go. And there's a perfect
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: way to hunt. It may not be perfect from the
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: standpoint of this you're gonna kill, but there is a
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: best way to hunt, uh, in each one of those situations. So,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: you know, I think maybe we overlook the heart of
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: deer hunting a little bit and and uh, but no,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: you can't go wrong hunting, does I mean, that's that's
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: the underlying principle of I think you know the pitch points. Uh,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: you know that's that can work really well too, But
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: you know it's still in the in the context of
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: hunting goes and hunting around does Uh. You know, there's
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: there's there's The run isn't very complicated. Um, you know,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot that you have to do
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: really well, but you know you can't let them even
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: know that you're hunting them, and you gotta hunt ideally,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: you know, close to doms. So I don't know. I
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: think sometimes we're trying to make it more complicated because
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: we have to sell articles and we have to try
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: to try to get people so interested in in some
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: new philosophy. You know, there's been a whole lot of
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: discussion of buck betting areas all this stuff, and I'm like, well, maybe,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I guess I don't know. I mean, I've
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: hunted a long time and I've never really felt like
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I had to know where they bet. You know, I
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: need to know which part of the property that I'm
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: hunting they live in. But you know, I feel like
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: they've got options, so they might have two or three
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: different places where they bet. I just need to know,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: you know, how I can hunt their general area without
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: them knowing that I'm there. That's the heart. Is there
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: anything when it comes to that art that you have
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: had to change in recent years? Is there any way
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: that you're thinking or or approach to that side of
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: things has evolved recently because you've had a lot of
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: time to fine tune this. I gotta believe, even though
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: you've been killing deer for decades now successfully, that you
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: must be better now than you were obviously. Yeah, youliminate,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: you eliminate all risks, you know. I mean, let's say
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: you've got fifty tree stands down. Let's just say for
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: the sake of argument, and there's only six of them
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: that are no brainers. That's set up really well, those
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: are the only six I hunt down. I've got forty
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: four tree stands sitting there that I don't hunt anymore.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: That's what's changed. Uh. I don't take any risk with
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: educating deer. And again that kind of goes back to
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: the places that I hunt. If I was hunting more
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: places where there was competition with other hunters, I would
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: probably have to be more aggressive. But you know you've
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: got the spot, know you've got one. Maybe you've got
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: five of them. Like, man, I just love hunt there,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: but I know that when I go in there, I'm
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: gonna bust solfing coming out. But I just can't help myself.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go in there anyway. Don't hunt that spot,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: you know, find it, find a different way, a different
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: creative way to hunt it. Put a blind in there
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: and sleep in the blind. Do do something else, but
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: don't both close deer. You know, you think that it
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't create that much damage, but it does. M That's
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: that's the reason that we aren't consistently successful is because
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: the deer know that we're hunting them. It's not because
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: they're smart. Uh, they really aren't smart. They're just really
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: good at knowing when you're there and when you've been there.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: And then they're nocturnal, and with the bow hunting natural movement,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: you know, a nocturnal buck is your enemy, you know.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: So it's that's what I think it really Maybe that's
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: what's happened to be over the past ten years, that
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: that I wouldn't have thought about earlier, because I would
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: have hunted all fifty of those spots and just taken
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: my lumps. Now, the amount of sanctuary in the properties
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: that I hunt is fast. You know, Let's say I'm
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: hunting a five acre area you know I might be
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: I'd never go into just because there's no easy way
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: to hunt it without bumping something. So what do you
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: it's more of the more extreme, more extreme. I'm curious
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: what do you do when one of your bulletproof sets
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: ends up not being bulletproof? Though? So you've got to
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: one of these places that you've got figured out, and
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: then maybe your target buck surprises you and goes down
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: wind and wins you, or a family group of dose
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: does something like that and blows for half an hour
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: at last light. Uh, what do you do when they
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: figure you out? And and now you have to react
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: to that? Well, it was probably never bulletproof to begin with. Then, Um,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: there's there's not very many really really perfect stand locations. Um,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: you might find a dozen of them in your lifetime,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: maybe more. If you own land, you can create them.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: You know, I know how to create some of those
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: kind of spots. Basically, you have to have a safe wind.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: You have to have a direction where the wind can blow,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: where you know that they aren't gonna get down wind view. Uh,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: that's what makes the bulletproof. And then you use that
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: for your entry and exit because for whatever reason, maybe
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: it's a lake, maybe it's a river, whatever it is,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: there's something that prevents them from getting down wind. Well,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: that's your entry at eggit ground whatever that you know,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: whatever that thing is, that trade feature, that's that's how
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: you're getting get it out. That's how you get a
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: bullet throop. Stand Um. The other thing I've done a
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: lot more up your recently. You know, I get criticized
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: for hunting these red neck blinds all the time because
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: people would rather see me in a tree. Well now
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: they can't see me doing anything, so nobody criticizes me anymore.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: But if you if you close up the doors and
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: windows on those things, uh, the deer don't smell you.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: And and uh, you gotta have some of the more
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: recent blind Some of the stuff that they made, you know,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: six or eight years ago didn't have as many hinges,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: you know, and and the gaskets weren't quite as good,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: and they weren't air tight. The current batch of blinds
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: are almost air tighting. I mean, towards the end of
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: filming for Midwest might tell that was what we were
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: doing and we were never getting busted. We'd have two
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: people in those things, and I was sitting there until
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the very last second with the windows closed and then
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: just speak, open the window real quick and then take
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: my shot out and that would be uh, that's his
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: cloth as the bulletproof that you can get in in, uh,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: especially getting around small feeding areas. You know, it's hard
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: to hunt a ridge top, you know, with a bunch
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: of cover out of the blind. But if you're in
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: a feeding area or a small opening, natural opening or whatever,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: the spot where the wind is really tough to play,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: just stay in the blind with the windows closed and
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: open it right at the last second to get your
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: shot and you're not gonna spook any deer. But that's
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: that's the other extreme, is uh, you know, finding ways
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: to completely eliminate the chance of getting winded. So speaking
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: of these, you know, potentially bulletproof sets, it brings to
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: mind for me, Um at least when you're when you're
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: talking through this, I'm starting to envision different places like
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: that that I've seen, or I'm starting to kind of
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: draw up ideal scenarios in my head, which makes me
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: want to hear from you could you could you maybe
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: either think up imagine a couple of these ideal sets,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: or could you describe a handful of these that you
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: have yourself hunted in detail? Like I'm talking a perfect
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: rut hunting stands. I'd love to hear what the terrain
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: and habitat features around it that make it so good.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about how you have the access
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: planned and makes it so good. I'd love to hear
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: about what the wind situation that makes a bulletproof, um,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: how high in the tree, what kind of true whatever
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: it is like that. I'd really be interested if you
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: can think of two or three examples like this, I
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: think would really help people to visualize and put something
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: like this into action themselves. Do you have anything that
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: comes to mind? Yeah, oh yeah, a bunch of of them.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: So the I can give you a terrain related one.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: I used to hunt a spot when I was a kid.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: I haven't hunted their sins, but it was on the
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: up edge of a rock barry and some of this
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: bluff country. You know, there's limestone in the in the bedrock,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: and they'll eat away at it from the bottom, you know,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and create these these you know, big I don't know
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: what you called. You know, craters in the side of
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: the ridge where they taken out the stone and grounded
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: up they travel out of it. Well, that's a sharp
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: drop off, that's like a cliff that that creates a
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: funnel for one thing. You know now that here that
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: are traveling that side of the slope, they have to
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: go up around that quarry because they can't they can't
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: go through the quarry because of just the sheer drop off,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: so they go up around it. Well, that creates a
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: funnel at the top of the wary edge. And then
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: if you hunt it with the wind coming to safe
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: from the the ridge towards the quarry, so it's blowing
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: across the top of the ridge, taking your stand out
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: over their quarry, and you've got your tree stands that
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: maybe twenty yards or fifteen yards and wary edge. Uh,
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: there's no way you're ever going to get sented. So
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: now the trick is how do you get in and
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: out of there? You know with how think any deer? Well,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: they're not going that side hill because the quarry is there.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: So you park at the quarry and then you walk
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: up along the edge. You know, like the cliff edge,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: you know, from the bottom of the valley up you
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: work your way up around the cliff edge and get
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: in your tree. Well, they're never gonna smell where you walked. Um,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: that's a no brainer. I did a spot like back
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: quite a bit when I was a kid. Um I'd
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: just spotted in Kansas. There was another no brainer. There
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: was all of the cover was on the on one
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: side of this creek, and the creek was fairly deep.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: You had to have waiters in order to cross this creek.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: And on the one side of the creek where I
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: park was all winter wheat. On the other side of
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: the creek was this like maybe area of habitat. It
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: was just the spot that didn't get farmed. It was
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: too rough for something. I can't remember why. But I
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: would just park, you know, back on the opposite side,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: on the away from the you know, back side of
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: the winter weed, away from the creek. Walk across the
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: winter week field. Usually I try to follow a tree
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: line or something, a fence line, something where I'm not
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: just walking right across the middle of the field, get
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: into the creek, walk the creek up to the base
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: of your tree, stands, climb up the creek bank and
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: get into your tree. So you hunt that with the
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: wind blowing from the habitat on the other side of
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: the creek across the creek out into the winter wheat.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: And granted you could get the odds deer that would
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: come into that winter wheat on the other side of
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the creek, but there's no habitat on that side, and
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: it's really hard to cross that creek. You know, it's
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: about waist deeper. So and the deer don't really mess
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: with it because I've got plenty of food on the
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: side that you know has the habitat. Uh. That was
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: a no brainer. Uh. Anything that has to do with
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: rivers or lakes, you can always find a spot where
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: the deer can't get down window you. And you know,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: whether you need a little boat or sometimes you can
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: get by with waiters, but you access it from that direction,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: there's not gonna be are there because the train features
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: they prevent the deer from from going there to begin with.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Another one that you run into quite a bit is
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: in pasture country. You'll get areas where the cattle have
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: access to a field and and they've they've eaten it
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: right down to the ground basically, but on the edge
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: of that there's a wood lot and the cows are
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: fenced out of the wood lot, or maybe it's on
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: the neighboring property. Whatever. Well, the deer don't really go
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: across that old pasture. There's really nothing there for them.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: So you might get the odd one that goes across
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: if there's something to know that on the other side
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: of it that they're trying to get to, like a
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: standing cornfield or another wood lot or something like that.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: But normally they don't travel across these wide open pastures.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: They stick to the fence lines and they stick to
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: the cover. Well, now you've got a spot where the
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: deer aren't going to be downwind of view. You know,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: you can use maybe a little low spot in the
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: pasture or whatever, you know, anything you can do to hide.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: You slip in there, step in a little ways into
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: that into that wood lot, you know, twenty ars or
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: so in set your tree stand out with the wind
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: blowing out into the pasture. Um, you know, your odds
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: of you're messing that up are pretty low. Uh, it's
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: even better yet if it's a travel area, you know,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: over the deer going from you know, point A to
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: point B and passing through that spot. I mean, if
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: you start, if you start thinking about it, just come
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: up with tons of spots like that. Another one that
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: works really well too, really quick is you know, if
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: you get high enough on a ridge similar to like
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: like I said, talking about the edge of that quarry,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: but if the land drops away from you fairly quickly
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: on the downwind side, uh, the deer passing on that
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: side of you are going to be below your senstory
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: and you want to be up close to the top.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: So because someways you get swirling, you know, where the
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: wind comes over the top of the ridge, then it
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: starts to swirl dropping into that valley. So if you're
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: above that swirl point, uh, your sense is going to
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: stay above the deer in the entire valley down the
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: downward side of you. Um. That's kind of how I
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: set up in betting areas. I tried to get situations
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: like that on these ridgetop betting areas because then I
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: can approach it into the wind, get into my tree
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: on the downwind edge of the ridge, and then any
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: deer that travels, you know, through there, even if they're
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: you know a little bit down windom me, Um, they're
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: not going to pick up I sent. So those are
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: just a few, uh but you know, you study an
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: area long enounce and you'll figure out, you know, how
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: to turn sponsor we're a little bit tougher to hunt
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: into no brainers by just tweaking them a little bit.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: On that example, that last one related to ridges, I
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: think this is a good time to dig a little
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: bit more into that specific terrain feature because so many
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: places across the country have some version of a ridge
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: that deer use in relatively predictable ways. And I know
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: that you mentioned in this new area hunting and that's
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: kind of the name of the game, and you described
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: it as pretty straightforward. Can you elaborate a little bit
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: more on how you're setting up like eight number one,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: how do you believe these deer are using those ridges?
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: And then be maybe a little more detail on how
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: you're choosing whearing the ridge you want to set up.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: I understand that you're getting up there, uh down on
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: the down wind side, blowing your wind into the valley,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: but more detail on that would be helpful. Well, then
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: I'll start with that first. Whenever possible, we'll try to
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: find there's a like a little uh, I guess it's
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: a little valley or a little hollow or draw leading
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: up the ridge, leading up the side of the ridge.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: We'll go around the tops of those little draws. So
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: if you have an erosion, bitch, let's say, for example,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: that comes down off of off a ridge. Uh, that's
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: a that's a prime example of of a train feature
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: that they're going to go around. But it can be
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: more subtle than that. It can be just that you know,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: five ft six foot deep dip, you know, where the
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: the terrain kind of you know, it's kind of hard
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: to I'm showing you on a topo map, but you
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: can probably envision it. It's not Most bridges aren't just perfect.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: They've got play them, you know, going on either side.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: So all you to go up the draw and then
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: set up at the top of that draw, because then
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: you get a little bit of a bottleneck the fact
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: at the top, because the deer are gonna, like you said,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: tend to follow that contour around, and then you get
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: to keep a little bit more out of sight coming
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: and going because you're down in that little draw. In
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: places where you don't have those draws, really what you're
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: doing is playing a trade off of how far out
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: towards the end of the point that you want to go,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: because the density of betting seems to get higher the
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: further towards the end of the ridge that you get,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: like the point. And you know, sometimes you don't have
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: bridges I guess that don't have points. Uh, you know,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: they're just like long ridges that run along the side
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: of a creek or something like that. But normally they
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: go out to a point. You know, it's because there
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: their valley that joins you know, the one that that
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: overlooks you know that the that the ridge overlooks normally
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: to go out to a point, and that's where the
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: the key betting area is. The deer will bet, will
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: bet all along the ridge. But they really do like
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: to favor that very in because then they can see
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: in every direction. They don't really have stuff that sneaks
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: up on them. They can smell what's behind them, and
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: they can see everything that's out in front of them.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: Um so, so naturally they like to get out on
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: those points. So I don't like to set up right
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: out on the point because I feel like it's hard
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: to get out of a morning stand of the deer
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: betting close to you, and if you're gon try to
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: hunt that spot at the afternoon for whatever reason, it's
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: gonna be super hard to get in there because the
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: deer are gonna be there, you know, are anyone you're
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: trying to sneak in. So that's the other thing I
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: would look at is trying to anticipate where the deer
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: are actually going to be vetted. And uh, I don't
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: want to set up right on top of where they're
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: going to be vetted. I would rather be a little
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: ways off and let the move but you know, let
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: the run in the in the activity that takes place
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: in those in those areas, you know, move a buck
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: within bow range rather than runt of the risk of
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: being right on top of the deer that are betting there. Yeah,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. You know, when when thinking about a
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: situation like this, like hunting a ridgeline or you know,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: the head of a ditch that kind of funnels deer
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: along as they cruise along that ridge or any other terrain,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: pinch point funnel, etcetera. A lot of times we envision
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: those types of setups as being as being a spot
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: where you wait for you know, opportunity, you wait for
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: any buck that's gonna come through there, or what any
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: buck of your age, target rain or whatever it is.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: It's not the kind of thing that you typically think
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: about when trying to kill a specific buck. And really
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: I think that applies a lot of the time to
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: the rut in general. Right when people think about the rut,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: folks claim that, yeah, you can't pattern one. I'm curious
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: if you if you have a thought on approaching the
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: rut with a specific deer in mind, you know, do
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: you do anything different? Can you pattern a deer in
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: any kind of way during the rut or is it
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: kind of hoping and praying? So I think you can.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: I think that they they may not be quite as predictable,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: but they're still gonna be staying somewhere near there their
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: typical core, you know, like wherever you found them in
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: the middle of October, they're gonna be in that general area.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: Some of them will just take off, think you know,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: their on the odd box. They will leave and go
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: file away or whatever two miles away. Do you hear
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: those stories all the time, But that's not been really
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: my experience. In general. The bucks usually don't just take
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: off and leave. Um. They may, they may expand their
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: range a little bit, but more than anything, they're just
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: tied up with does and they're breeding does and they're
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: not really moving. Um. So I don't feel like you
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: can't kill them in in their in their normal rages.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: They're normal, you know, on near their normal core, in
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: the spot where they spend most of their time in October.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: It's still the spot where you should be able to
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: find them, uh during the run, just not quite as
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: consistently because they're not there every day. That's the that's
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: prime to the difference, because you know, there might be
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: on one end of their range for two days breeding
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: a dough and then on the other end of their
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: range for two days breeding a dough, whereas in October
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: they might have been in their core or near their
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: core every single day. But you can still kill them,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: you know, on purpose during the bun. You don't have
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: to abandon the hope of of you know, trying to
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: kill a specific buck. Yeah. Yeah, I've seen the same
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: thing in a lot of places too. And I know
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: that some studies have even shown when radio coloring or
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: GPS coloring these bucks that you know they do have
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: those core key places that they keep returning to, like
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: those dope beetting ears or a doe feeding ear, and
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: they they cycle through often. So I do think that's
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: one of those things that's gotten overblown, is that people
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: think these deer throw all caution and reason to the
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: wind and they just run around willy nilly. But they
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: still have a goal in mind. Of course, when they
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: get on a dough, then it does become kind of wild.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: But when they're seeking a dough trying to find those doughs,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: there's there's a handful places where they usually will be
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: in any given spot, and those bucks know it. So
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: we'd be wise to do the same thing, right, Yeah,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: I think so, you know, it's just unfortunate that that's
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: the run only has a few really good days, you know,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: like you're saying, people think it's willy newly, you know,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: wide open from the beginning to the end, but it's
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: not because they just don't move really really well very often.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: Uh And and I think a hot dough is one
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: of the triggers. And sometimes it has to do with
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: the weather, and sometimes it's just stuff. I don't know why,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: but you'll have days during the rotten where you'll see
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: you know, ten bucks and you think, oh man, things
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: are busting loose, this is gonna be awesome. Then the
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: next day you don't see any and you're hunting, you know,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: basically the same areas. So it's not like it's an
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: end to end action packed time. Uh. You know, you
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: still have to be there, you know, as often as
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: you can, you know, put your time in so that
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: you're there during those five or six days when it's
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: really good, you know. And they're not five or six
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: contiguous days either. They're just five or six days, and
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: sometimes you can predict them and sometimes you can't. It's
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: it's a yeah, it's it's an interesting game. I've learned.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: I learned that the hard way too, that it's not
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: it's not good all the time. So curious about the
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: upcoming conditions. Speaking of days that are better than some
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: across at least a lot of like the Upper Grade Lakes,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: the Midwest, central parts of the country, we've got a
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: lot of rain pushing through and you know, a lot
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: of wind as these fronts are moving across the country. Uh.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: As far as that rainy days or just after big
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: rainy days and then windy days with the fronts pushing through.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: What's your take on on how dear activity, your buck
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: activity in this time of year is impacted by that.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think they move very well when
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: it's raining hard. Um, A light rain doesn't seem to
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: impact them that much. And people think that they don't
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: like to move when it's windy, but that's not been
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: my experience either. You know. I feel like windy days
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: can be really really good. Some of my very best
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: hunts have been on pretty windy days, So don't let
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: the in throw you. In fact, I've had a lot
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: better success on windy days than I have on still days. Um.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know if the deer they just kind of
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: get a little bit edgier on those still days. I
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: think it's because they can hear everything, and so they
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: just stand there listening. You know, like they'll hear vehicle
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: on a gravel road two miles away and they'll stop
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: to listen, you know, where if the window was blown
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: fifteen miles an hour, they wouldn't hear that truck und
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: yards away because of the leaves, you know, the leaves
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: rattling in the trees. So I feel like they're they're
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: hyper sensitive on still days and they don't travel as
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: well as they do on windy days. Yeah, it's a
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: it's just the opposite of what some people think they're Yeah, well,
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: I'd say that's good news for for folks across across
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of the country this week at least, because
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: that seems to be in the forecast. Yeah. I know,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: you've got to run here pretty quick because you you've
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: got a big hunter head of you, and I know, um,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: I know that you've got high hopes for it. I
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: do too, So I to just wrap it up with
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: one last kind of thought here. Question. I've always thought
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: that a lot of rut hunting success. Of course, that
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: the excess knows matter and spending out time out there
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: that matters a ton, of course. But there's this other
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: side of the rut that is happening between our ears.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: There's this whole mental side of you know, hunting, this
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: this high pressure like this is we build up the
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: rut so much all year, right, we were eat, sleeping,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: and breathing just to get to this period. This is
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: the super bowl of our season. And then it gets
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: here and it's the million different things that are possible
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: during the rut UM, I'm curious for you, Bill, what
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: do you view as maybe the greatest mental challenges we
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: typically face during the rut and how have you learned
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: to overcome them? Or when I bring this topic up
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: of the mental challenges of the rut, what comes to
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: mind do you? And how have things evolved for you?
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: I think the biggest challenge that we have is we
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: treat it like a sprint and not a marathon. Um.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: You know, we we get into it and we're so excited,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: and we go to our best spots and we burn
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: them out, and then we go to our next best
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: spots and we burn them out. And you know, we
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: need to treat the rut, especially if you have enough
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: days to hunt, you know, where you don't have to
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: go for broke right away. You need to treat it
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: as a marathon and not a sprint, um, because you
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: have better success, you know, over the long haul by
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: being patient and working your way in on the stuff
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: that makes sense rather than just diving in on top
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: of it right from the start. Um. But other than that,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: you know, you can get worn down. But you know,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: as hunters, we love this stuff, so it's not like
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: when you get worn down It's not the same as
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: if you're you know, going out and running five miles
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: a day and you're like, I need a break from this.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: It's more of a you know, it's a different kind
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: of worn down. It's not the kind of worn down
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: that you're hoping to get away from. It's it's the
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: kind of worn down that you love. Um, So I
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: don't look at that and say, well, I've gotten burned out.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: I never get burned out on hunting the run. Um,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: it's just you just have to be patient and and
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: and not get too uh, you know, too crazy right
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: off the bat, because you can ruin your season by
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: being impatient. And Uh, that's just what I would caution people.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: It's you know, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Wise
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: wise words, Bill, Well, I know you've got to get
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: out there and hit the woods. Since I want to.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: I want to let you get that get after it. Uh.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: Is there anything you want folks to keep an eye
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: out from you? Or is there any place people can
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: still keep in touch with you or stay abreast of
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: what you're up to these days that you want to share.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: I'll probably get back into media a little bit more
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: again at some point I'm taking a break, kind of
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: hitting the reset button. But I mean I do have
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: the bill Winky dot com website going. I haven't got
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of content on there. Um, you know,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to, you know, pop into it's a while
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: and answer questions that people might have and and that
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: sort of thing. But um, you know, for the most part,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of flying under the radar, hitting the
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: reset and then kind of seeing you know where I
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: you know where I come back to the surface again. Uh.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: You know, it just thirty some years of going as
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: hard as I could go, It's time to take a
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: little break and reassess, you know, everything about it, not
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: only just the business part of it, but even my
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: own motivation and you know what, what about it that
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: fires me up? Um. So, so I'm not really doing
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: a whole lot, which is fine with me right now,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: but I do have to get back to work, so
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: it's not like I can go on forever like this. Yeah. Well,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: it sounds like a much a well deserved rest, and
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: I'm glad that you're enjoying it. I don't know if
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: it's deserved, but it sure is nice. I bet I'm
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: jealous of all the trout fishing you've been doing. In particular,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: I've seen that. Yeah, I've been see. That was something
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: I did growing up as a kid too. I was
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: a big time trout fisherman. Not awesome at it, but
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: I went all the time, you know. And just getting
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: back to that, you know, and having fun, you know,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: getting that little tug on the end of the line
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: is because uh, that's been that's been good for me too. Yes. Well,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: if you're ever swinging through eastern Idaho or western Wyoming,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: you're welcome to go fishing me at my cabin out
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: there any summer. You just let me know. Well, we
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: might have to hit the h Henry spork at some
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: point then, oh man, the heater spork is right, it's
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: in my backyard. Well, let's go. We'll plan on it.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: It'll be you tell me when it's best and I'll
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: be there. All right, Let's let's talk soon. Bill. Good
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: luck tonight and the rest of your rut. Yeah sounds
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: good to you too. Thank you. All right, that's it.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this one. Thank you for tuning in.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: We'll keep this short and sweet. Get out there, get
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: your button a tree or a ground blind or a
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: patch of weeds, whatever it is, get outside, chase those
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: dear and have a good time. Execute, but have a
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: good time, and until next time, stay wired, don't m hm.