Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #165: Aaron Warbritton’s Midwest Whitetail Public Land Tactics

Transcript

Wired To Hunt Podcast #165: Aaron Warbritton’s Midwest Whitetail Public Land Tactics · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyon. This episode number one Tay in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the show, we're joined by Aaron Warburton, a d i
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Y public land hunting specialist and a member of the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Midwest white Tail team, and we're going to great detail
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: on his public land journey and the tactics he uses
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: now to kill mature bucks on heavily pressured land. Welcome
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Sit to Gear, and today we're joined by Aaron Warburton,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and Iowa bow hunter and a longtime member of the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: team over at Midwest white Tail. And Aaron is found
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a niche in the hunting world as a public land
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: bow hunting specialist and in recent years over on the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Midwest white Tail web and TV shows his public land exploits.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: They've they've gotten quite a lot of interest him and
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a team of other guys who are doing this. And
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Aaron and this group of folks over there that are
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: focusing on this public land stuff, they have without a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: doubt proven that killing big mature bucks on public land.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Even in states like Iowa where you would expect there
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to be a lot of nonresident hunting pressure on those
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: public lands, you know, it is definitely possible. You can
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: go to these places without owning any land, without leasting
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: any land, and you can have success. So as you're
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: gonna come to hear, if you haven't been watching what
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: they've done over on Middlewest white Tail, they are absolutely
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: getting it done. So today I get to chat with
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Aaron in detail about his background as a public land hunter,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the different philosophies and tactics he uses to find and
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: kill bucks in these situations, and particularly interesting, we get
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to dive into the specifics of a much talked about situation. Um,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: if you follow to us white Tail, you're familiar with
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: this spot of public land where Aaron and a couple
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of his friends were hunting that they referred to as
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the buck Nest, where they're seeing a lot of really
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: really nice bucks back on public land. And so we
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: get to dive deep into how we found this spot,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: how they approached, how they scouted it, how they hunted it,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: their plans for this year. Very very interesting stuff. I
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: think you're gonna enjoy this episode. But before we get
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to that, I do have my co host Mr. Dan
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Johnson with me for the intro here, and I want
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to offer fair warning if you're new to the podcast
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and if you're if you're right, if you're not interested
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: in hearing rambling conversations here at the beginning here about
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: screaming kids or hunting pronghorn or pack rafting in one
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: of the largest wilderness areas in the lower forty eight Uh,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: if you don't want to hear on that point stuff, yeah,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: brownie points. If you don't want to hear about those things,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: you can fast forward a little bit to get to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: our interview with Aaron. But uh, what do you say, Dan?
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Should we get into these These are fun rambling intro thoughts. Yeah,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and I like the warning, but don't fast forward because dude,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: life is like life in general, is what's interesting? Right?
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I Mean, we could sit here and talk about deer
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: all day long, but you know, it's it's life. You
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: know what happens in life that is uh that I
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: think is is different than what everything else that's out there.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: We Uh, I don't know. I don't know if our
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: lives are that interesting, but we certainly try to tell
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the honest truth, at least about what's going on. Right.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: It's a normal life though, Like I don't know how
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: many people's dogs crapped on their carpet last night while
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: they were sleeping. But this morning at five, when I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: woke up and went out to the kitchen to make coffee,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: either's about six little dog turds all over this brand
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: new rug that my wife bought. And uh, I got
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: mad and I said, swear words the dog. I cleaned
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: it up. And you do you remember that one time
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: where you accidentally ate dog food and didn't realize it.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up again. A high point
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: in Dan Johnson's life. Hey man, I've I've had to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: climb out of the gutter to get where I'm at today.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: You know, I like you know Don Higgins, our guest
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: last week, he said that he just he lives in
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the gutter. So if you scraped the bottom of the barrel,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: that's where you feel like. That's where we find you too, Dan,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: That's where I hang out. Those are my people. So
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: what what's what's new in the gutter today? Well, in
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the gutter? Uh, all right, So me and my wife
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: never really had a honey mute moon. And she is
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: like dot un She's a wine freak, right, she loves wine.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And so today I just bought plane tickets for it's
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: not this year, but for uh summer of next year
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: for Napa Valley. So I'm gonna I'm gonna surprise her
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: on her birthday, which is next week. I'm having a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: surprise birthday party for her. Um. So when she gets
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: home from work, all of all of her friends, all
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: of our friends and family are going to be at
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the house, and we are going to uh surprise her.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And then I'm gonna surprise her with these Napa Valley
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: um Air airline tickets uh for June of next year,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and she the baby, she might be so excited that
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the baby pops out. Well, get that done over with, right, absolutely. Man,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: you weren't kidding about the brownie points. Yeah, I gotta
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: get gotta get the brownie points, and then that should
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: get me a secure foothold for about just about any
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Western trip that I want to take next. That'll be
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: really good. Now, one thing I'm a little worried about, though,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you said this is gonna be a surprise, aren't you
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: worried about her listening to this episode. Are you kidding me? No,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: she doesn't even listen to my podcast. Oh man, that's cool.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: That's a good plan, a very good plan. So Brownie
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Party order a couch too. Dang, yeah, that should get
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: you some October hunts this year. Then I'd say, I
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: don't know about that. Come on, it's just a couch, man, Right,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: you should see our couch. It has like kool Aid
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: stains all over it, just like milk stains, like kids.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Like the other day you guys even had kids, right, Oh, Mark,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: throw it in the low blows. I like it. The
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: other day we had pizza. You know, it's one of
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: those days where as a parent, you'll have days like this, Mark,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: where you will that's the weird by the life. What
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that you're making that reference that I'm going to have.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: You're gonna days like this where everybody's busy the only
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: thing that you know time will allow. You're so tired,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you're okay, screw it. Let's just put a frozen pizza
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: in the oven. The kids eat the frozen pizza. And
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: if your son is too for my son's too. He
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't eat like with a fork and little bites. He
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: takes a pizza piece of pizza, puts it in his
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: hand and makes a fist and then like punches himself
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: in the face with it repeatedly. And that's how he eats, right, So,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: so he gets all over his face, right and all
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: over his hands. And we always take a shirt off
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: when he eats because he gets it all over his clothes.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And you know, so that's how he eats. So I
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: picked him up off the table and I set him
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: down on the kitchen around the dining room, uh floor,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and he runs out. He gets away from me, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: he runs out like mac, no, get back your stop, no,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: no no, and he runs right onto the couch just
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: like an airplane lands and just smears everything that was
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: on his stomach and hands and face all over the couch.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like Jesus. And then he looks at me with
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: looks up at me with a smile, and I'm just like,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to do right now, go to
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: time out or pick up? I don't know, you know,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Just like that my life. Man, oh hey, on the deer.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: On the deer note though this weekend, you know, I
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: always talked about the truck camera switch that's coming this weekend.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: You're gonna head out and shift them to the fall
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: range spots. Yep, shift them for fall range. And then
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take part of something I'd like to
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: call stay out September, which means don't go into your
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: hunting property for the month of September. Yeah, it's been
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: kind of nice. I've had like a um a doubly
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: imposed stay out since mid July on my main Michigan properties.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Now because of my trip, it will be the least
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: pressure that the area has ever been because usually I'm
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: in there all in in August dealing with food plots
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and hanging last minute stuff. But I was forced to
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: get all that stuff done super early this year. So
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: holy Field is going to be in your living room
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: when you get back. That'd be nice. Hopefully is at
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: least leaving on living on the property. That's That's what
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping. Excuse me, So wait a second, now, all right,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I go to your Instagram and I see all these
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: cool things you do. Yeah, okay, and you did some
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: antelope hunting. I did, and I was extremely jealous. And
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I see all these Instagram updates of you getting close
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and then then the antelope running away. So listen, what
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: what was antalope punting light for you? It was like
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: that getting close and then watching the run away. Oh man,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I had a ton of fun and I only got
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: to hunt one day. So I've only had one day hunting,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and yet I'll get more in um later when I
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: start my white tail um. But it was totally like
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: no preparation whatsoever. I knew nothing of the area at all.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I just found some public land that looks good on
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the map based on the very little I know about antelope,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and I had a free day where I didn't have
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to do any work, and Kylie, it's some other things
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: going on, so I just drop off during the morning
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and I it basically was a was a mixture of
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: state land and blm land and looked relatively flat with
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a few rolling hills and grassy sage brushy type cover.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So that seemed like good antelope habitat to me. And
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I get my stuff. I hike up this first hill
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: that that kind of leads up to this flat area
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: on top, and as soon as I crashed that rise,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: there's a big anilope buck. Like I hadn't even been
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: hunting for ten minutes, and I had already seen my
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: first antelope buck, my first prong horn. I didn't even
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: know if i'd see any at all. I had no
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: idea if they were prong horn. Even there, I was
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: just hoping, hoping there'll be some goats, and there's a buck.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: So and that was basically the start of like a
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: whirlwind day, like it was so much fun. So I
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: see this buck. He's looking right at me, though he's
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: probably a couple hundred yards away. So I dropped back
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: down the way I came back down that hill, and
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I stay, I keep that hill in between me and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: him in circle way around, and then I get all
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the way around up behind him because he's kind of sitting.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: He's halfway down another hill. So I stay behind my hill,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: then get up behind the other one, and I get
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: all the way to behind him, and I keep I
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: keep on sneaking to the edge and peeking over to
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: see where he is, and I'm keeping tabs, and um,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I get to with him like seventy yards probably, and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: he's bedded down there on the side of this hill now.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And so at that point I'm like, holy crap, like
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: is this actually gonna happen. I've been hunting problem one
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: for half an hour and I'm about to shoot one. Um,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I knock an arrow. I dropped my pack and grab
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: my range finder. I'm checking stuff. I start crawling. Um,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: just close the distance on him, and then I feel
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: that wind shift. The wind had been kind of like
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: quartering to me and so cutting across my face. So
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I was trying to angle so I would be able
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to be within the range of him just before my
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: wind would get towards him. Um. And unfortunately that wind
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: shifted about forty five degrees, went right to him, and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: you saw him all of this stand up and I
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: get my bowl ready. He's still probably sixty five yards away.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: And UM. Then I wasn't gonna shoot an antelope unless
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: it was pretty darn close. Just because of the fact that,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: you know, as we talked about last week or two
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: weeks ago or whatever it was, you know, I'm shifting
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: up my shooting process my whole Um, I'm kind of
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: relearning a new way to shoot my bow. So I
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: really want to I don't want to shoot any long
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: shots early on. I want to be safe and make
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: sure I get a good shot. So sixty yards is
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: too far away from me right now. So he stands
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: up and I'm looking at him, and he didn't like
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: look at me or look at my in my direction,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: but just all of a sudden bam, like a bolt
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: of lightning, he just just sprinted away full speed and
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: went just running off forever. And I just I stayed still,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and he stopped every hundred yards, stopped and look back
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: in my direction. And I just stayed frozen all the
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: way till I don't know, like five minutes maybe, until
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: he disappeared over another rise, and then I just sprinted.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I sprinted all the way across this wide open flat
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: expans for as long as I could. Finally got over
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: this next rise, and there's this little basin there's a
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: water hole down the bottom, and some cattle, and I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: could see him pretty far away now but angling back
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: into this other like kind of draw heading up behind
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: these other hills. So I'm like, all right, maybe I
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: can cut him off go in that direction. So I
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: started running the other way, and um man, I absolutely
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: wore myself out in this day. I put on more
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: than ten miles in the boots, lots of ups and downs,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and um well, long story short on that I try
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: to cut him off. I come over another hill and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: here's ten more bucks just over the edge of property,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the property land, so they were on the private side.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And so I'm I won't walk you through the entire day,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: but that was like basically the day I was in antelope.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Whole day. I had three stocks. So I had that
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: first stock that I got within like seventy or sixty
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: five yards, and then he winded me. I had another
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: one where um, I was making a move to another
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: group of better antelope I saw across the way, and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I was going through these little ditches and gullies down
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the bottom spot here, and as I came over a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: little bump, I saw the back of an antelope. And
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: then eventually as I got I kept sneaking in getting closer,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and then that they're into being six bucks there down
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: this bottom and I got really close to them. I
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: had them at probably fifty five yards, but if super windy,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and I'm sitting there on my knees, I'm ranging them,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and at this point they had they had seen me.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: That's I mean, I'm sure you when you were hunting
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Muley's slash, she has an antelope with you in Nebraska.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you saw this. It's like everyone says they
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: have incredible eyesight, but it's like you don't actually feel
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: that until you're actually there, and like not even if
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: you're not moving at all, like you can be completely
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: stock still and they just see you no matter what.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so fifty five yards. They kind of knew
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I was there. They knew something was there, but they
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: weren't totally freaked up. But one of them would be
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: looking at me of the it will be feeding and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: then move off, and I'm sitting there, I'm like, gosh,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: a fifty five yard shot. You know a lot of
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: guys would take that shot going after antelope or something
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: out west. But I just I just didn't want my
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: first shot with this new shot sequence and shot process
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to be along poke like that in the wind. So um,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: so I watched them. They go over a little rise,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: then I do like some super crab crawling to try
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: to close the distance. And when I get over that
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: next little rise of right to the edge of and
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: peak over, there's nothing, nothing there, And they had booked it,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: And so I had one more stock like that later
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: in the day. Um, same deal. I got close, not
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: quick close enough, but um I saw a lot of antelope,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: had a lot of fun, and it was public land,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: free to anyone to use. The first time I've ever
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: set foot there, and I had like an incredible hunt.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: So it's just a great reminder to me of how
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: achievable or something like that is, you know. Now, Yeah,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I did get lucky that I picked a good spot,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: but um man, anyone can do it. It was awesome.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: It was so much fun. Yeah, I definitely want to
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: get out. I think that's something that me and you
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: need to do together, to do an antelope punt in
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: a couple of years. I think that'd be a lot
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: of fun. And there's places to do it that aren't
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: too terribly far away from you, and maybe we could
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: do like you did Nebraska or South Dakota or all
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: the way out to Montana or Wyoming. But it's not
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: too bad. I don't care where it's at. I just
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: want to go and hunt stuff and super pretty country,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: you know. I think it's kind of like what you
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: were dealing with in the sandhills. He's rolling kind of
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: golden amber hills of grass, huge vistas like the horizons
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: never ending. It was just it was super cool. So
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and I think we had to talk about that a
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: while ago. You know, it's like mountains are awesome, but
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: at the same time, there's something about the prairie man
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: that's just different but at the same time breathtaking. Oh yeah, yeah,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: I love I love the planes. It's yeah, very very cool.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: What I found is, like, I think the one thing
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: that both of them have in common those two different
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: kind of ecosystems were general relizing here. But why do
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: open space, big views, big skies. I love just being
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: able to see often the distance. Um, I really like
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: that rather than being hemmed in deep in a force.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: And there's something cool up being in a force too,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: But I like those views. So absolutely, man, who's super cool?
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: And now, um, I'm heading out in a couple of days,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: so when people start listening to this, I'll actually be
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: out there. I'm heading out on a four day backpacking
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and pack rafting trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness in
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: northern March. So that's gonna be quite an adventure. We're
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: gonna be paddling up this lake into the mountains and
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: then getting out packing up the rafts hiking. I don't know,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: fifteen or more miles up this river up into the
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: core of the wilderness and then spending it up there
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: and then rafting our way back down, um down all
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the way back out. So that's gonna be uh, that's
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: gonna pretty cool. We're gonna do much fly fishing all
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the way. And the wife is going to be with you.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: The wife is not going to be with me. She's uh, yeah,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: we decided this one was going to be a little
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: bit too much for you know, her being pregnant and everything.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: So she's gonna hang out in town. And my buddy Andy.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've met Andy et, but Andy's
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: actually flying out here and he's going to join me
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: for it. Andy May not Andy May sorry, Andy Brad
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Andy Bratt one of my another buddy of mine in Michigan.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: So yeah, man, so that's my story. And and then
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I get back from that, get back from that, and
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: like three days later it's Alaska and then White Tails.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: So it's gonna be a whirlwind. Yeah. You you're gonna
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: be busy. Yeah, very like choke it in, man, choke
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: it in. Yeah. And in no way can I complain
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: at all because it's like the coolest schedule stuff, but
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: it is like a little overwhelming, Like I'm a little
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: bit like holy smoke, there's so much going on. Um Like,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I have not been able to like put as much
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: time in planning any one of these as I wish
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I could. Um So like this backpacking trip has been
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: like thrown This about Marshall trip has been like thrown
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: together all last minute. And then I get back for
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: three days and then like try to get everything packed
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: and ready to go to Alaska, and then I'm there.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I get back on the ninth and that day I
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: get back, I'm just gonna grab the camper and drive
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: across the state to where I'm going to try to
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: white tail hunt. And then I I budgeted myself four
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: days to try to kill a white tail and a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: pronghorn in Montana, and then I got driving to North
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Dakota and I have four more days to try to
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: get a white tail there. And all I've done I've
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: never seen any of these places. I've only just looked
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: at maps. But I spent like three hours last night
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: studying maps, trying to pick the best public pieces and
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: dialing in where I think the best access points will
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: be to them. And so I've got like I focused
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: on Montana last night. I've got like five different sections
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: of public land I think have potential, and I'm probably
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: just gonna drive out there the first morning or first
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: night whenever I get there and just glass and try
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to pick whichever one looks to the most promising. And
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: then it's just like learning the fly. It's gonna be
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: one of those kinds of septembers, just learning on the fly. Hey,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: that's uh, that's part of the Uh, that's I guess
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: that's all that's intriguing in a way. You know, Yeah, yeah,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: it'll be. It'll be a learning experience for sure. And
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: like the the Adventure, that a lot of adventure, just
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: like a lot of unknowns. So right, one way or another,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I'll learned something. I don't know if I'm gonna fill
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: any tags, but i'll learn something. Hey, you might learn
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: where not to hunt. That's true. That's true. Hopefully it's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: not what I learned, but the worst case scenario. Yes,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that's so. I don't know anything else you want to
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: cover before we kick this over to the main interview. No, man,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I you know, I'm just a dad with two and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: a half kids. I'm a dad. Well, I'm a future
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: dad with about half a kid. Yeah in the in
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the oven and uh yeah. So all right, well, let's
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: let's shut the centro down next week. I think we've
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: got a good guest on on on Tap for next
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: week that you'll be able to be with us for
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the whole one. You weren't able to join us for
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: today's interview because of some scheduling things on my end,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: but thanks for happening on for the intro, Buddy Mark,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure to to be in your digital presence.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Well you flatter mere, we go, here we go. All right,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: let's let's stop while we're still barely ahead, and we're
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: gonna kick it over to our sick story, and then
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: after that we will get Aaron on the line. For
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: this week's side story, we're joined by Montana Wilds Travis Botton,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: who tells us about an elk count that became something
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: more so. Was October and at the beginning of rifle season.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: The plan was to take my dad out on a
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: first l cont to hopefully still his tag. The conditions
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: were perfect. We had a little bit of fresh snow,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and right away we found fresh bowl tracks, and so
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: my dad and I. We just started following the tracks
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: of the snow, hoping we'd catch up to the elk,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and we actually caught a glimpse of the bowl looking
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: at through the timber what we see about dred and
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: fifty yards away, and unfortunately we bumped the bowl. So
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: he just continued to follow the tracks and my dad
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: hit this patch of trees where it actually stopped him,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and he was kind of, I guess, discouraged on trying
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: to break through the brush and potentially, you know, scare
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the the bowls away any further, and I ended up
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: finding a new pathway and as I cleared the trees,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I could see a black on white moving through the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: forest about hundred yards away, and instantly I thought it
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: was a bear, but had a long two ft tail,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: so I dropped to a knee. I instantly knew it
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: was a wool and one shot later the wolf dropped
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: in his tracks and I had filled my first wolf
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: tag ever. On Travis's hunt, which you can see on
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Montana Wild's Vimeo page, he was wearing a storm front
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: jacket and mountain pants. If you'd like to create a
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: sick Of story of your own, or to learn more
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: about Sitka's technical hunting apparel visit sitka gear dot com.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Alright with us on the line now is Aaron Warward
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: and welcome to the show. Aaron. Thanks for having me Mark. Yeah, absolutely,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I've for a long for pretty a long time now.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I've been following what you've been doing over at Midwest
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: White Tail and have seen a pretty cool progression with
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: what you've been doing, both from a content standpoint and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: from a hunting standpoint, especially with a lot of public
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: land stuff going on. So I'm glad we can finally
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: connect and talk more. You know, it's just been kind
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of quick highs and hellos at shows or emails, So
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I'm glad we could do this. Thank you for making
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, no problem. I'm looking forward to Yeah,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: definitely Land. I'm sure you've got the it's that I've
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: got right now, these these late August days are getting
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: me pretty pretty anxious to get in the White Hill Woods.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: You feel in the same way. Oh yeah, we've already
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: been out Oh, I mean between three and five times
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: a week for the last month or so, you know,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: whether we should be or not, we've so been going
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: out there and uh and you know, getting cameras out
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and scouting some new areas, trying to plot some tree
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: stand locations for the fall, and checking out some new
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: public lands that you know, just became available in some
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: different spots. Because we try to keep it, we try
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: to keep a close eye on that all the time
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: as well. You know, these states um sometimes purchase extra pieces,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: you know, depending on the year and what their goals
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: are and what their budgets are, and whenever they buy them,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: we like to go and check out the new stuff.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: We've been We've been doing a lot of that here lately.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: That's exciting to find one of those spots and you
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: one of the first people to get in there. That's
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: always a good situation. Yeah, sometimes they forget to sign
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: them for a couple of years and it's pretty pretty
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: good hunting as you can imagine. But yeah, any any
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: time we get to get on new ground, which luckily
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: for us hunt in public land, there's there's a good
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: amount of it, if you know, if you're willing to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: drive a few hours to get there, So we're never
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: short on new spots and adventurous scouting missions. That's awesome. Well,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I want to dig into a lot of that stuff.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: You mentioned, you know, finding all these public land spots
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: and the scouting are doing all that stuff. But I
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: guess before we get there, um, can you just give
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: us the the one oh one on how you got
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to this point with the Midwest white tail and then
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: maybe what you're doing now today too. Okay, Well, I
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: mean my story is is pretty basic redneck from northern Missouri,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: from a little bitty town of about nine thousand people
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: called Paris. And uh, when ever, since I was really young,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: we were hunting and fishing in the woods. You can
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: imagine rural community like that, that's sort of part of
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: your lifestyle for a lot of families and mine was
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: no different. So growing up, we were always in the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: woods hunting stuff and total cameras around and uh, you know,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: I mean from an early early age, like nine years old,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the first hunting videos that I saw. This is kind
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: of what I wanted to do. So early on, you know,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: we had video cameras floating around. Old you know, take
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: cameras and stuff that I think my dad's still got
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: a few of them in his house that are just
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: sitting back there collecting dust. But that's uh, basically started
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: when I was very young. And just slowly progressed, um
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: into what I'm doing now. And that's, uh, that's my passion.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: It's it's filming you know, hunts and trying to really
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: trying to recreate content that the average hunter can relate to.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: That's kind of what that's what drives us, um, you know,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: specifically us here in the office and the public land guys,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: we all sort of have had the same interests in
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that regard. Whatever we're doing, I mean, whether it's helping
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: somebody on private or or you know, hunting private occasionally
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: or hunting public, that's what we're always trying to do
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: is just relate to the average guy. So um, you know,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: because that's who we are, that's where that's where I
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: came from. So I like, I'd like to think that
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I relate to those people or try to anyway. Um.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: But yeah, the whole video thing started at a young
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: age and just progressed through it and eventually met some
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: folks in the outdoor industry going to Turkey colong contests
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and stuff, and just sort of grew the network from
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: there and uh, and always was involved in video editing
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: even through college and and doing other things when I
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: was younger. I've always stayed involved in video editing and
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: and doing stuff kind of freelance for the hunting industry
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: for a while before I started here. I've been I've
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: been at Midwest Whitetel now for uh I think six years,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: started here in two thousand and eleven and been here
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: ever since. And that started an internship? Is that right? Yep?
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Started as an internship as most of our employees UM
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: at Midwest Whitetel did start the as an intern except
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: for Greg. He came on full time in two thousand
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and ten. And then I was an intern with four
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: other fells in two thousand eleven. That's awesome and uh,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and so what what's officially your role now? What exactly
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: do you have your your your hands on? Oh, I'm
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: then I'm a video producer first and foremost. UH, I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: just work on all kinds of projects from from you know,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: different accounts and stuff that we have with sponsors and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: brands that support our show. UM. Right now, I'm starting
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to work on the Cabella's White Tail Season series, which
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: is something that UM I do for them in their
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: website every year. And then uh, we also produce lots
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of how to and gear tips for their YouTube channel
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and some of their other stuff that they have going
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: on in the house, and I I kind of head
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: up all the Cabella's accounts that we have, um as
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: far as that goes. And then uh, I managed the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: office here in Midwest Whitea. We've got three employees including
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: me and three interns this fall, so it's gonna be
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: pretty hectic place. But I kind of oversee operations and
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: make sure that that the interns are, you know, on
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the straight and narrow, and we're we're getting work accomplished
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and and that sort of thing. It gets real hectic,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: but it is definitely a lot of fun. Man. You've
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: you guys have just have so much different content coming
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: out and I can't imagine trying to keep track of
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: it all because, like you said, you've got things going
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: on for Cabella's. You guys do the Chasing November show
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: kind of later in the year. That's kind of that
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: more produced version of the Live Hunts you're putting out
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: for all the day from shows and then holy smokes,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and I don't know how you keep your head straight
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: during the season or at any point when you have
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: so many and then the Turkey stuff in the spring. Uh,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: how do you how do you remember what you have
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: for breakfast in the morning after all that. It's pretty
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: it's pretty tough. But we drink a lot of coffee,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: let's put it that way. Um, and we don't have
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: your average work hours. Um. That may that may have
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: something to do with why I'm not married yet, but yeah,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Uh. We uh, we stay extremely busy
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: and and uh we have the freedom to work here,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: you know, at night when you can't legally hunt, So
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: we we work here at night most of the time.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: That's when we get most for editing done throughout the fall,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and are are uploading our web content stuff to the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: different sites that we manage, including this Midwest white Tail.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we spend we spent a ton of time
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: in the field hunting during the day, work during the night.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: And that's a pretty good schedule. I think a lot
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: of guys that like that. Yeah, yeah, um, And that's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: and that's one of the things that gets gets us
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of intern applicants every year. And then once
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: they get here and they realize, you know, two hours
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: of sleep on average every night for a month and
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: a half straight, eventually starts to wear a little bit.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah that can you can see that being pretty brutal
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: for sure. Um, yeah, it's grueling, but it's fun. Yeah. Yeah.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: But I think to something you alluded to earlier, I
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: think that adding what you guys have been doing from
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: a public land standpoint has been a really great way
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: to counterbalance some of the things that Bill is doing
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and some of the other guys on the team, Um
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: that have a bunch of land in a great state,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: heavily managed and that that's fun to see, but sometimes
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: not everybody can can relate to that. So I think
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: you guys have done a really nice job of of
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of showing what Bill is doing, which is amazing and
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: people love seeing that, but then also seeing what you
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: guys are doing, which seems much more within the reach
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: of you know, the average guy or girl. So, um,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: you guys are doing great work. Big props to you
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: guys for that. I've enjoyed falling along And um, I
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: guess related to that public land aspect, you mentioned that
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: you know, that's a lot of what you're doing now
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: from a hunting standpoint. When did that start for you?
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: You've been hunting public land for pretty long time, is
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: that right? Yeah, Um, To be honest, I've been hunting
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: public since I since I started hunting when I was
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: really young. The first buck that I ever killed with
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: my bow, I think I was twelve, um, And I
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: could be off a year one way or the other there,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: but I believe I was twelve, and that buck actually
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: walked off a public land with another one and onto
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the edge of private land that I had permission to
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: hunt at the time, and uh, and I got a
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: shot at and been killed him. So we hunted that
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: that public land back home a ton when I was younger.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: We spent a ton of time on it all the time,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: and we in back in those days it was much
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: easier to get permission on private land, so we also
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: had lots of private land to hunt. But you know,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: when that permission started drying enough, as I got older
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: into my teenage years, hunting that public started to come
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: more of a priority, because you know, I didn't want
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: to quit, honey, so that was sort of the option
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I was left with in that particular situation. So I
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: started hunting more public and and uh got up here
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Kiowa in eleven and just kept on kept on doing
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the same thing, you know, I mean I and and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: the other guys in the officer the same way. Greg
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: came from eastern Nebraska and he hunted public there for
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: many years before coming here. And then Uh and Zach
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Farrenbaugh Um from out in Ohio. He he hunted public
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: a lot out there with his friends and family before
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: coming here. So it was really just a natural fit
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: for all of us. And of course the interns that
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: come here and I want to be in the woods
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: all the time, most of them don't have access, so
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: it makes it nice and we can just go out
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: to a place where we're all equal and have a
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: level playing field and can store work as a team,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: and it really works out good. Yeah, yeah, it seems
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: like a good situation. Especially to your point, there's if
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: you're willing to drive there. There definitely is quality public
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: land hunting available in a lot of states. I mean,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: especially by you guys, there's there's some exceptional quality from
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: a public standpoint, But really, if you're willing to put
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: in the work in time looking for it, you can
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: find places most areas of the country you can get
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: out there at least and have a good experience. Um.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I'm curious though, you know, in recent years I know
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: you've killed and the other guys on the team have
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: killed some really nice bucks in public land. Um, and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I know pretty recently the last couple of years curtain
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, But the last couple of years, I
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: think you've been pretty heavily influenced by guys like Dan Infalt,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: you know, guys that we follow and learned a lot
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: from two. Um, did you see a dramatic change in
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: your success after you started using some of these different tactics,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: some of these betting area focuses and some of those
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: scouting tactics that Dan talks about. Or were you still
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: having the same type of success before that and this
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: is just changing a little bit of what you do. Um,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: we had some success before, but it's definitely helped. And Uh,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: one reason why I gravitate to Dan so much is
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: because I relate very much to his situation throughout his life.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, and I'm sure a lot
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: of your listeners have listened to those podcasts that you've
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: done with Dan. They're awesome and uh, and learning from him.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: You know, when he was younger, he sort of just
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: hunted hunted him to death. You know, he was just
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: out there all the time and eventually would would quote
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: unquote dumb into one, you know. And that's that's kind
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: of what the way we were prior to that knowledge.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: We we spent I'm thinking, you know, throughout my younger
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: years and leading up to that point, before we started
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: concentrating on bed hunting, we spent most of our focus
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: on scouting still, but we scouted a lot of dough
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: betting areas. You know. We we always tried to find
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: local dough groups on these public lands and then we
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: would pretty much surround our entire strategy of round those
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: spots during the rut. Now, we we had success doing that,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: just hunting strictly during the rut, you know, all day
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: every day for the entire month in November. That's the
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: advantage we have here. And I was you can bow
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: hunt throughout the entire rut um. So we did have
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: some success. But since the betting tactics have come along,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: it sort of started flipping on these light bulbs in
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: these other times of the year especially and uh and yeah,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: it definitely definitely helped them. Has had a big impression
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: on me for sure. Yeah. So so for those who
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: maybe aren't familiar with some of these high level things
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: we're talking about, Can you kind of tell us what
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: were those light bulb moments for you? What were these
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: you we've talked about, we've kind of alluded to some
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: bettings type stuff, but can you just give us a
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: little more details specifically what these things were that you
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: started focusing more on that that made these things start
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: working better for you. Well, a lot of the a
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: lot of it was wind based buck betting. Um. When
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I started figure and now that a lot of bucks
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: bed with the wind of their advantage, we were able
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: to to kind of confirm that theory very quickly, whereas
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of folks won't be able to do that.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: And the reason being is because we have so many
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: years worth of footage here in the office. We have
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: so much whitetail footage from great process that we've got
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: all over the country. You know, we've got trail camera
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: images on you know, millions of us you're hearing on
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: our servers. So when I started learning that stuff from
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Dan about how a buck beds, I started, you know,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: checking back into all these previous experiences whenever we whenever
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: we would encounter immature buck filming mature buck, you know,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: we started looking at all that previous footage and then
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: starting to kind of think where that buck is coming
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: from or where he's going to as far as his
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: betting locations go. And after after doing a bunch of that,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: it started making sense to us. So I mean that
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: that was really when the light bulb came on. I
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: heard about it all at first. We actually did a
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: podcast with Greg Litzinger, I believe, and uh, he's a
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: he's a killer from up in the northeast part of
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: the country up in New Jersey, I think, and uh
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: he started, uh, he started bringing up those tactics in
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: a podcast, So we started researching more into it, and
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: I think, uh the betting stuff aside, the the part
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: about white tail hunting um that it really intrigues me
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: is it's very situational. No matter what you do. I mean,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: you can you can hunt here an aislea on a
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: piece of public land and drive ten miles up the
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: road to another piece that hunts completely different. And it's
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: just because those deer are so adaptable, you know, and
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: they used that habitat and each one of these areas differently,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: so being adaptable as a white tail hunter never being
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: become set in your way, so to speak, is gonna
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: help you kill more, dear, and people hear that as
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: a blanket statement all the time, but it is true.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: Don't ever, don't ever think that you know, you're one method.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: You might have one method that does work, but if
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: if you want to continue to learn more, especially learn
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: more about deer, then start trying some some other things,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: and uh, try some of these other off the wall
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: tactics that you hear. I mean, the betting stuff is
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: definitely it's it's definitely proved h to help us out
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: a bunch, you know. And in the lightbulb moment, I
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: guess we we we already had a lot of confidence
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: into it going into last year. But the lightbulb moment
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: for a lot of the viewers happened that the buck
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Nest video that a lot of folks that I'm sure
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: I've seen on the Midwest Light Tale show, you know,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: up to that, up to that point, everybody kind of
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: looked at us like we were crazy. But then when
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: all these bucks started staying up out of these beds,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: they're like, ohly, oh, like yeah, maybe these guys actually
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: are onto something. But yeah, yeah, that's pretty ridiculous. That
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: was some pretty ridiculous footage and encounters you guys had.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Um So, so a couple of things. Number One,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I agree with you one hundred and fifty on what
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: you just said there about the fact that you just
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: always need to keep an open mind and never get
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: set in your ways. I mean, if there's anything I've
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: learned from doing this podcast and talking to so many
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: different successful hunters, it's that there there's a thousand different
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: ways that skin the cat. You know, there's so many
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: different ways to go about hunting mature bucks, and and
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: I'm always a big believer and take in every single
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: different opinion and perspective as you can, and then run
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: that through the filter of your own circumstances and find
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: whatever pieces and parts you can apply to your own
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: um So, it's it's great to hear that you've got
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: a similar philosophy on then obviously it's working for you.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Taking some things you've learned from your own experiences, some
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: things from these guys you've talked to, whether it be
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Dan or Greg or Bill or whoever, and kind of
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: kind of mix it all together to get the Errand strategy,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: which is always pretty cool to see um. Now, before
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: we get to the buck nest, you talked about the
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: wind based betting um, So this being how wind direction
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: might influence where buck chooses to bed. Can you elaborate
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit on that and what you found after
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: you started looking at your pictures and your videos, you know,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: what was the correlation there um or what was the
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: aja specifically with the wind and how it influenced betting. Well,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: we started looking through our pictures and we noticed that,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: like every once in a while, say you're getting a
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: buck pretty regular on your trail camera. I'll just use
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: this and as an example. So you got a buck
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: that's living on your property, you're getting pretty regular on
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: one trail camera, and a couple of days and a
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: matter of weeks, you get him in daylight, you know,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: almost doing something a little bit differently than he did
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: the the other times that you picked him up. Well,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: the more we got to look at those images and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: trying to measure like daylight activity and all this, we
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: we got to thinking, you know, maybe he's not necessarily
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: just being more daylight active that day. Maybe he's betting
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: closer to the dead gum camera, you know, I mean
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: maybe because that would make total sense. Why is he
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: showing up there in the middle of the night five
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: nights out of seven and then boom, all of a sudden,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: he's here. You know, it's an hour before dark. Well,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: we found is that a lot of times it depends
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: on their betting locations. You know, there's mature buck don't
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: for the for the most part, they don't move very
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: far during daylight. So if you're going to intercept them,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: it makes sense to be hunting close to their betting locations.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: If you can start to predict where those are as
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: far as wind direction goes, then you're obviously going to
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: have more success in my opinion. But yeah, we started
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: looking at those pictures and looking back at all that
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: footage and and everything, and then comparing historical weather data
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and and going and using WonderGround to do that. But
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: that was what we were noticing is a lot of
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: these areas, not all of them, but a lot of
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: these areas bucks with bed in a specific area with
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: a specific wind, and a lot of a lot of
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: guys you'll hear talking about how bucks will move with
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: the wind of their advantage. I don't know enough about
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: that to say if that's true or not just for
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: my observation, but I will say that theory could come
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: from wind based betting. For example, if a buck is
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: bettered in an area on a northwest wind, and you
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: and every time there's a northwest wind, you know, you
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: see him moving through that area that you're hunting near it,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: maybe because he's betted in that area, Maybe because the
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: wind is putting in there so bad, not necessarily to move.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So that makes a lot of sense. And
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: and and basically what I think you're saying too, is
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: that a buck is using the wind. When we're saying
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: that the wind is is kind of influencing them to
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: better specific places because they can use that wind to
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: their favor while they're bettered. So correct me if I'm
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: if I'm wrong on this, But I think most scenarios
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: that I see or hear about, you've got a buck
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: that's better than the location where he can look out
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: in front of him, and he's got the wind to
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: his back, so you can smell behind him, he can
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: see ahead of him, and that kind of gives them
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: three relatively three sixty degrees of safety. Um, is that
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: kind of the same thing that you're either seeing or theorizing,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: and when you think about it, all makes total sense.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: When when is a mature buck most vulnerable, it's when
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: he's laying down during the day, not moving. I mean
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of your listeners, I'm sure, have been walking
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: through the woods and jumped to mature buck almost like
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: a rabbit out of a brush pile, you know, I mean,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: right next to him. And Uh, the reason is is
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: because that's when they're That's when they're at their most
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: vulnerable point. So if they're not using their senses to
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: their ultimate advantage throughout the day when they're bedded, then uh,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: they're gonna be in trouble. I mean they're gonna get killed.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: And the interesting thing and Dan's talked about this a
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: lot too, but they always watched that back trail. Remember
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: they go into a bed or a betting area, they
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: always slip around and they're watching down a back trail
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: of some some sort. They're monitoring that somehow, And it
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: makes total sense. You know, when they walk in there,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: they're laying down, sense, how is the predator going to
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: come in and get them? A lot of times that
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: predators gonna track them into that bed. And if they're
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: if they're turned around and they're watching down that trail
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: that they walked in on. They're gonna see a kyote
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: or a bobcat or mountain lion or whatever it is,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: or you know, they're gonna see any of those predators
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: coming down the trail coming at them, and they can escape.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Most of the best betting areas that we find are
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: set up like that. They've got covered back when coming
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: over the top of them, and then they're looking back
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: down that trail, and uh, the best locations offer great
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: escape routes for him, you know, where they can just
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: pop out of there and then not hardly be seen
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: and be gone in a way. But every time, and
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned, habitat and training is gonna gonna dictate
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: how they bed and how they use an area, so
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: to speak. But the one consistent thing is they're always
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: betted with one to pack. I mean, if you find
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: a buck bed, you know with and and look at
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: how it shaped, you can usually tell which direction he's
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: laying by by looking at the shape of the bed.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: And is a lot of your October hunting strategy now
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: revolved around knowing that you guys have I don't know
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: fifteen different potential buck betting locations. You guys have scouted
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: out now and you know the given winds that hypothetically
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: a buck would use them. So it's October seventeen maybe
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and a coal front came through and you've got a
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: northwest wind. You know that there are three different beds
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: that potential beds that maybe there's a buck in there,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: and you make a move based on that. Is is
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: that a lot of what your strategy looks like now? Yep?
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: It sure does. And the strategy is is different, only
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: changed because now we don't necessarily always hunt with the
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: wind to our advantage. We're looking just to hunt a
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: buck with the wind to his advantage. And that's another
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: one of those kind of general statements that you hear
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: a lot. But that's what we need, is the wind
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: to the buck's betting advantage. Yep. So you're not actually
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: the you know, some people when they say that, they're
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: talking about the buck when it's on the move. So
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: saying like you mentioned earlier, like a buck wanting to
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: move with the wind in his face or quartering to him,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: you're most more so concerned about how it influenced where
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: he beds. And then that is that's that's probably a
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: little bit of a safer bet as far as the
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: variable a better chance of that being accurate versus how
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: it moves, would you say so? Yep, Yeah, And we've
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: learned some interesting stuff just in the last few years
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: when we've when we've kind of switched our strategy to this.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's really changed how you look at
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: how you look at deer hunting period Um, when you
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: really when you really commit to this and see a
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: lot of people are still real skeptical about it, but
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and the and they go out and they have trouble
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: finding the beds and everything. But when you really commit
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: to learning how they bet and how they survived during
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: the day, you're gonna you're gonna figure out so much
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: about deer and deer hunting. It's it's unbelievable. Um, just
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: just how deer will will use your property, you know,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: betting with the wind to their advantage, like that you
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: know where where that where's the pressure at on your property?
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know where are the betting areas? Don't
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: just look at don't just look at these little pockets
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: to cover like they're a betting area that you gotta
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: bounce around and hunt on all sides because the deer
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: may not be there but only a certain few days,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: depending on depending on the wind. And really it makes
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: sense to pay attention to betting ears rather than you know,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: travel or of course there's different times of focus on
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: different things. But the betting area is the is the
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: hub of a wheel. So at any given time, that
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: is the spoty is going to be the most And
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: if you know those locations, it's much more easy or
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: much more possible to start predicting how he might be
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: moving out from within that core spot. It's a lot
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: harder to start from the outside and try to figure
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: your way in. Um So, so here's what I want
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: to do. I want to try to break down this
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: a little bit more with an example. Um but I
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: want to start like really high level and then drill in.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the buck nest. But let's first
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: start like how what I'm curious about is how do
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: you find a quality piece of public land? How do
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: you start scouting a piece of public land? How do
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: you determine where the best places are within that piece
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: of public land? And then we'll start to talk about
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: hunting it. Actually, so with the buck nest. Example, if
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: you're comfortable talking about that, can you can you talk
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: us through first, you know, how do you find a
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: spot like that? How did you figure out? Hey, this
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: is probably about worth spending some time on, and then
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: we'll drill from there. Well, what's interesting is I think
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: most people have access to spots similar to that. UM.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: You know, maybe can maybe it's not Iowa buck nests
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: where there's five, you know, four or five year old
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: bucks round around. So if you're hunting the Missouri, for instance,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: in your and your target buck is a two or
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: three year old buck, you've got areas like that around.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, there there's not just one necessarily bucked nests
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: quote unquote that we have found. There's lots of other
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: areas that set up just like that, UM that probably
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: have similar situations. Now, whenever we went into that specific property,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: it's a few thousand atures in size. So the first
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: thing you do is lay out the public map of
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: the area, and then you start because you're not where
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: all the access points are, UM, start looking at where
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: the pressure is. So you're looking for boot tracks, you're
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: walking those access trails, you're you're looking for you know,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: tape in in the tree marking, um tax. Anything that's
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: gonna mean mean hunters is what you want to stay
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: away from for the most part. Um. So you you're
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: taking that map and you're crossing off a lot of it,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: but you can't umm kind I put this, You've you've
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: got to keep an open mind when it comes to
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: every inch of that public piece. So if that's a
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: couple of thousand acres in size, and you cross off
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of the access points and the area is
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: most likely to to harbord hunters, then you still end
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: up with quite a bit of land that may be
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: untouched and a mature buck. The interesting thing with them
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: is they will go wherever they don't ever encounter humans.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: I mean sometimes you'd be surprised. It may only be
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: thirty yards off of gravel Road because nobody goes there,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: and they have that wind advantage on a specific day
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: or whatever, like, they may well bed there and and
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: spend a lot of time right there. So and that's
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: really that's kind of how the buck nest is. That
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: area gets hounted. A lot of people think when they
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: watch the buck Nest video that that area doesn't get
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: a ton of hunting pressure, but it's actually the opposite.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: If you watch the second video in that video box series,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: you'll see hunters walk round or need to stand um
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: that night when they're headed out. But uh, there's tons
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: of hunting pressure on that piece. It's just one little, small,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: out of the way area that those bucks bedding, and
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: there's a couple other ones like that on that public
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: area as well. So the I guess the point there
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: is is don't overlook. Don't overlook anything really. I mean,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: the more you learn about the more you learn about
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: buck betting in how they use that when to their
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: advantage and stuff, is gonna help you decide which one
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: of those areas you're gonna spend time in. But don't
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: overlook any single one of them. I mean, I've made
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: that mistake ready in the last few years, is just
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: walking by open hardwood hills to get back to the thickest,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: nastiest spot possible, when in fact that buck, the biggest
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: buck on the property, may be betted in those open hardwoods. Um,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: if he is set up in the right spot with
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: just a little bit of cover. And that's another thing
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: that that folks miss. It does not take very much
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: cover to back for a buck to feel comfortable. I mean,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: it can literally be a couple of multi floor rose
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: bushes with a dead log land in front of it,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: in the middle of wide open timber. He can bet
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: up against that little patch of thick cover and look
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: down wind. And if that's an area where nobody ever goes,
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: it's possible that he may bed there. So don't overlook that.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: Don't ever overlook that stuff, um, you know, and it
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: may not be like the buck. And that's where there's
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: five of them that stand up out of there. That
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: area itself is is a couple of acres in size,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: and it set up really well for buck betting, but
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: you have just as much success in killing them. And
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: those other areas that may only hand it may only
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: have one or two, you know, it may only be
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: able to hold one or two bucks. Now, was there
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: was there anything that you saw when you're looking at
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: this property, like before you set foot on it, like
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: when you looked at on a map and we're looking
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: for these pieces of public land and when you saw this,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: did you say, well, okay, it's a couple of thousand acres,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: it's definitely worth taking a look at. Or was there
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: something else's that that made you say, yeah, this is
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: a good one. What I'm I guess the larger question
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: I'm getting at is is there anything I can look
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: at digitally beforehand to say yes, this has potential or no,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: this is not worth spending time on. Yeah, I should
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: get more specificate in that. Like you've mentioned, um, if
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: you if you take that piece and you and you
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: look for the edges of it, you look for the
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: areas that are hard to access, and then you look
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: for the overlooked spots. You you kind of measure up
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: each area to the next one. So the spots that
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: we avoid are those chunks that are accessible from all sides.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: We don't and we don't I wouldn't say we necessarily avoid,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: and we just don't prioritize them as high as some
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: of the other areas. You know, if there's an area
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: where you can only access from one side of it,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: it's a huge block. You know, it's gonna take some
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: serious leg work to get to the back of it.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Then then those are the ones that we're spending the
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: most time on. You know, those back corners. A lot
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: of times of the boundary lines are are good, the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: ones that required you to to you know, cross the
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: creek or whatever. We're always looking for access access barriers,
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: you know, are areas that are harder to get into.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: But with that said, a lot of times those than anymore.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: It seems like people are are getting braver and they're
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: going back there that far. Well, they may walk right
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: past the spot right next to the parking lot that's
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: pretty dead. I'm good, and we do, we do see that.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: So I think sometimes people try to think too big
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: whenever they look at those big public areas and they
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: look for they try to find biggest public area possible,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: and then look for the farthest back corner of that
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: big area. And we do the same. But don't overlook
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: these little thirty and forty acre chunks that have one
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: access point where you can monitor hunting pressure. If you
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: drive by that thing a couple of nights a week
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: and you don't see a truck park there at that
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: access point, there's probably a couple of good buck betting
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: areas on that piece. And and the one advantage those little,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: those little areas like that is that they a lot
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: of times they have private land around it may not
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: get hunted. It's hard, so it doesn't take much Um,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Obviously it doesn't take much hunting pressure on those little
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: areas to push them off, but it also doesn't take
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: much of an absence in hunting pressure to bring him
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: back on. Does that make sense? Yeah? Absolutely, Those little
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: honey hooles very often like to exactly like you said,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: they get overlooked because people want the big, wide open
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: areas that they think they could, you know, find some
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: tucked away place. But sometimes the tucked away place is
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: actually just a small property that everyone thinks the same thing.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: So your spot on I think. Now, Okay, so you
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: you identified this several thousand acre pieces a good looking area. Um,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: you started kind of crossing off different access points or
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: places that you didn't think would be as high priority
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: because of, you know, the ability to get in there.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: How did you end up finding the buck nest? And
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: how did you know that this was going to be
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: a spout or did you did you know it's gonna
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: be as good as its gonna be? Um? No, I
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: found it by a lot of boots on the ground time,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: and that's usually what happens. We're getting better at it anymore.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: The more we learn about this, the more we can.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: Like I said, you gotta you've really gotta research betting
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: and how they bed, why they bed there. And the
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: more you do that, the more time you spent thinking
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: about that, the easier it's going to be from this
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: point forward. But how I found the buck nest was
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: actually using my old tactic where you just you go
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: to a public peace and you walk the entire exterior,
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: you walk the entire outside boundary, and you basically work
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: in so you're looking. You're still looking for the same thing.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: You're looking for an overlooked spot are you're looking for
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: an area that that doesn't get much human traffic. And
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: I actually found the buck net. Let me think when
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: it was, uh, I believe the summer. I was in
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: there scouting in June, and I was walking a creek
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: and I came up out of a creek and I
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: jumped the giant buck um. He was just in the
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: middle of this grass field, and uh, you know, he
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: hadn't he wasn't fully grown, you know, aunt or wise
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: at the time that I could tell it is a
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: really big deer. So I kept that spot in mind,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I figured, you know, why in the world
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: is that deer all the way down in here? He's
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: a mile a mile away from the nearest soybean field, which,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: as you know in southern Iowa, that's a huge girl
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: in the summer or the soybean field. And I and
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: it is. It was curious to me why he was
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: so far away from one of those when that was
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: where I was seeing all the deer. So fast forward
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: a couple of years, we hadn't been back into that spot,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: and I'm picking up trail camera photos about a mile
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: from there of several bucks that I want to hunt,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: and all the photos are at night. But I was
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: I started thinking more about the optimal spot for a
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: buck to bed and where is a location on this
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: property where nobody ever goes? And it hit me and
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, I jumped the biggest buck I've
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: ever seen on this property a few years ago in
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: that in that little CRP field back there, like so
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: Zack and I that night when we checked the camera
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: and we thought we had all nighttime pictures, that was
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: and that's a mile away from the buckon mass Granted,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: we figured, man, they've they've got to be back in
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: there somewhere. You know, they're coming from that direction. They're
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: not getting here to the middle of the night, so
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: they're not bedded anywhere close to this camera, so why
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: waste any time right here? So we just go of
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: all the way in and we went back there, and
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: if you'll notice in the footage, we don't die straight
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: into that spot. The first night, we we sit an
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: observation stand and that's why we're able to watch all
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: those bucks stand up. But the very first buck that
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: we've seen was the big buck that I've been getting
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: trail camera pictures of a mile away, and he was
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: in the same exact bed that I jumped that giant
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: buck out of, you know, two years earlier, in the
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: middle of the summer. So what was That's sort of
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: how we found it. Okay, we're gonna take a quick
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: break here for a word from our partners at White
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: Tail Properties. And if you haven't noticed yet, with this
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: seven we've been having each week the land specialist working
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: for white Tail Properties, they are just incredible resources. And
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: you know, whether you're trying to better understand how to
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: start preparing someday to buy property, or how to manage property,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: or just how to hunt it, you know, there are
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: so many folks on their team that can help and Today,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: our producers spent some new hearth is with one of
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: those very land specialists again this week with white to properties,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: we are drawn by Blake Farah, a land specialist out
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: of Texas, and Blake is gonna be telling us about
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: what a potential buyer should be looking for improperties in
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: states like Texas and Oklahoma. You know, I think that
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: it's probably pretty much the same answer no matter where
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: you go, even if it's outside of Texas. You don't know,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: But the main three things I'm looking for in a
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: piece of property, you know, to translate to you know,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: as big a white tail as you could possibly grow
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: in the region, really is you gotta have good food,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: you gotta have good water, and you've gotta have good cover.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, the different regions of Texas offer a
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: variety of those different type of categories. But at the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: end of the day, if you get a property that
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: has a really good diversity of those three things and
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: has a good balance of all three of those things,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have it just an outstanding hunting property. And
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: it's gonna hunt differently depending on which region in Texas
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: obviously that you're in. But at the end of the day.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: If it's got those three things, you absolutely can't go wrong.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: I'd say the one other key factor that I would
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: also plug in there, specifically related to exes, is the
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: fact that you know the land is gonna hunt much
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: larger in Texas, I would say than maybe other different
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: parts of the nation. Um, you've got a lot larger
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: pieces of property. The deers, you know, range, how far
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: they're going to travel is probably a lot bigger um.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: And so you know, these places aren't necessarily you might
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: find a honey hole here and there, but at the
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: end of the day, you're gonna have a lot bigger
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: country to hunt. And and that translates to the size
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: of the neighbors that you're hunting around you, how cooperative
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: you are with them, that kind of thing that's really
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: going to translate to the good hunt ability of a
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: property and overall age structure of the deer, which is
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: probably the most important factor. If you'd like to learn
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: more and to see the properties that Blake currently has
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: listed for sale, visit white tail properties dot com. Backslash Farah.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: That's f A R R A R. So let's talk
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: about why why do you think that that's such a
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: great place for all these bucks to be better in there?
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: What specifically other than the fact that it sounds like
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: it's relatively unpressured, um, what else about that area? What's
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: the terrain or the cover or what's drawing them there? Well,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: it's all surrounded by timber um trees that you can
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: get a stand in, and uh, lots of other deer
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: insulate them back there, like you have to bump deer
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: to get back to them. So if you're not, if
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: you're afraid of spooking deers, and this style definitely is
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: for you. Um. But with that said, this is the
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: one area where there's no trees, um. And I think
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: that's simply it. There's no trees right there, so people
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: can't hunt there. They won't hunt on the ground. Everybody
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: that's in there has got a tree stand on their
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: back or is is planning on hunting out of a
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: tree stand that they hung prior to that. And it's
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: surrounded on all sides by these big timbered hills that
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: attract quite a bit of hunting pressure. And those hills
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: hold a lot of sign too, And you can go
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: through there in a good acorn. You're in their giant
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: ruds ripped up everywhere. But what what makes that spot
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: so good is those bucks are bedded right next to water.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: I've noticed that a lot. They love bedding next to
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: water or in very very close proximity to it. It
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: can be a big body of water, a lake, upond,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: a creek or river or whatever. They love water. They
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: love being close to it. And like I mentioned, there
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: are no trees. Once you start trying to figure out
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: how to hunt those bucks in the buck nest and October,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: it becomes really hard because you just can't get within
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: a couple of hundred yards of them in a tree stands,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: and they just don't they I think that's why they're there.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: It's because everybody's walking around the edges that that that's
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: the RP field and they're hanging in those trees h
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: or or way up in the big chimber where they're
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: finding a lot of that sign. But nobody's actually going
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: down in there, or they very rarely are. When you
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: look at it's just a grass field. You know, there's
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: not really any other terrain change or habitat change other
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: than the grass bucked up to a creek. And right
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: there where that edge forms is where they like to
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: bet and there's no trees along the edge of the
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: creek that you can even get us stand in, so nobody,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: nobody ever goes in there now. And that's another misconception,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: is is uh, how far away people can be from
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: those beds um without bumping them. And people walk the
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: edge of that field all the time. I'm talking like
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: two hundred yards and those deer they walk in and
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: out of this public property in that field, but they
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: don't ever go go back into that corner because there's
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: nothing that they can hang a tree stand in. So
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: just keep that in mind and think about that for
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: any property that you're hunting, if you're trying to keep
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: the pressure off, even on private land. When those bucks
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: are betted, they they don't mind you walking two hundred
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: yards away from mog times they don't know that you're there,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: you know, if you've got the wind right to where
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: they're beted at. But in this situation, they people walk
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: and hunt the heck out of that timberline that's two
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: yards away from those bucks. But it keeps them out
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: of there. Those The lack of trees does interesting. So
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: so I've seen I don't think I saw every one
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: of your guys video blogs hunting back there, but I've
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: seen I think most of them. Um. But for those
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: that haven't seen that, can you walk us through your
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: through the series of hunts that happened last year as
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: you guys are trying to figure this out and trying
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: to have a successful hunt there, what you did and
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: what your thought process was as you made those adjustments.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: We basically, um, I already told you how we started
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: there was you know, backtracking those bucks after getting the
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: trail camera pictures of them back to that location. And
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: that initial hunt was set up by all the prior scouting.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: That's so crucial. You've got to walk these areas you um,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: You've got to spend a ton of time out there, Uh,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: just getting familiar with how the train lays, if nothing else,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: figuring out how you get in and out of those
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: areas you know efficiently is is a huge deal. But
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: after that initial hunt where we observed from a distance
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: we watched those bucks stand up out of the beds,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: we started plotting ways to get in there tighter to
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: them now. And on the next hunt we actually went
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: in and we set up about a hundred yards from
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: the beds on an exit trail where the first night
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: we sat there, we watched one of the bucks walk
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: right underneath this little tree along the edge of the field.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: So we went down in there and we we uh
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: popped up in the tree, and it was a windy day.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: I don't think we'd have been able to get two
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: stands in the tree to film it if it would
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: not have been windy. That was that was a huge
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: deal because the wind was blown so hard. We're able
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: to get up in that tree quiet and uh and
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: kind of over top of that field where those bucks
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: couldn't hear us or see us. As we were getting
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: set up, we went up the back to the tree,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: got set up, and UH, I was doing my interview
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: and I was pointing back there at the at the
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: willow where I thought they were gonna bed. About five
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: minutes after I did that interview, they both stood up
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: right there and they were a hundred yards away. Um.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: That night we didn't get a shot. We had a
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: nice younger buck that was bedded close to those to
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: the mature bucks come by underneath this, but the mature
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: bucks stay just out of range. I think they got
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: about sixty yards, but that was as close as they
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: as they got and ideally I would have liked to
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: have been set up closer to them, but there was
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: no tree. So the next time we just kinda we
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: left the stands in the in the truck and said,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: to heck with it, We're going in there on the
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: ground with gilly suits on. And there's a little waterway
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: that runs down through the middle of that grass. And uh,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: the grass is too tall to shoot through if you're
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: standing in your crouch, but that waterway is just short enough.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: Then it forms kind of a little edge there at
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: the deer like to walk out of their beds down
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: this waterway to hit another patch of timber. So we
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: set up along the edge of that waterway with gilly
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: suits on, trying to trying to kill one of them,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: you know, leaving their beds. And that night we got
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: about fifty yards from them in their beds, but they
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: they stood up and uh, actually had another but get
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: up out of a out of a different bedding area
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: to the I guess to be north of us, about
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: fifty yards away, and he came by first. The problem
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: was that he wasn't a buck that we wanted to shoot.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: We could have killed him, but um, we weren't hit well,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: we were just in the edge of that grass there,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: and uh, he kind of busted us a little bit
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: and took off, and the mature bucks were out in
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: the field. I caught a glimpse of one stand up
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: and kind of start moving away from us, just feeding
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: out there, browsing on on stuff. But they didn't really
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: ever even spook when that dear spook, But they definitely
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: didn't come that direction. They eventually just kind of worked
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: off the other way. It they would have got there first,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: it might have been a different story, but we took
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: that chance. You know, we swung and we missed. And uh.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: Then I think our last hunt in there was in
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: late November and during the rut and Seawan and Zach
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: saw a pile of bucks in there running does and
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: just couldn't get one close enough for a shot. During
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: the rut like that, they weren't in the actual bed.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: Go back in there to that security and there was
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: a handful of bucks in their honor, and they just
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: you know, with the chaos of the rut, they weren't
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: able to get one close enough. But we tried multiple
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: things to get in tight those bucks and kill one.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: It just didn't work out. I'm hoping that that we
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: can get back in there again this year and maybe,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: uh maybe do something with them. But every time we
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: sort of changed our strategy and we got close, we
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: just didn't quite close the deal. As most of you
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: know with bow hunting, that happened sometimes it does, so
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: so us the game plan. Then this year, did you
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: do any additional scouting anything in the off season to
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: try to to put yourself in a better position this year,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: or you're just taking what you know and you're gonna
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: try a few different hunting tactics. No, we did more
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: scouting and I found a tiny little tree out there
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: that if I was hunting by myself, I think I
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: could maybe pulled off, or not just me, any of
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: the guys were hunting by themselves, they could. But because
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: we're filming, it's gonna be tough. However, if we get
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: another one of those high wind days. It's a tree that,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, maybe five inches wide, and
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: I think we can get a couple of stands in it,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: and if we are, if we're able to, we'll we'll
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: be shooting twenty yards to a scrape that's located about
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: sixty yards from the bedding, which is which is ideal. Um,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: that's right where those bucks headed the very first night
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: we sat there. They went right to the point of
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: little island out there to work for scrap. And if
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: we can get into that tree without being busted, we'll
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: be in uh in a great, great spot to skill one.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: I just don't know if we if we can get
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: in there without getting busted, if we're gonna get seen
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: in the tree as we're setting up, or if if
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: the tree is too small to afford us enough covered.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: It kind of depends on who the first bucket is
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: that shows up. Yeah. Um, there's so many of them
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: in there, that's the problems. But if a younger buck
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: comes in first, then they may blow the whole deal.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, a good problem to have, I guess, being
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: so many bucks in there. Um yea. So well, here's
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: a question I have related to when you're going there.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: When you go into hunt, you mentioned that you hopefully
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: will have a windy day to go in there hunt.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: A lot of times when we are hunting, maybe some
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: private land that we know there's not gonna be other
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: people on it, Like I don't build lots of times
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: will time some of his best you know, move into
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: some of his better spots when he gets that cold front.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: There's some type of condition like that he wants, and
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: that of a situation before he dies in there on
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: public land, when you're dealing with a lot more hunting
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: pressure and other people going in there all the time,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: are you still gonna wait for those conditions like that?
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: Or do you have to get in there early and
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: as soon as you can because you know other people
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: will start messing these things up if you don't. We
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: usually dive right in. Um we've scouted most of these areas.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: We've we've scouted the heck out of them, and we
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: know where most of the betting is on. And some
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: of them were more familiar with than others. The spot,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: the buckness spot in particular, we're very familiar with because
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: we've spent so many years hunt in the immediate area.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: And what we noticed after we started putting more pressure
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: on those bucks is they didn't leave. They just I
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: mean they would eventually filter out. The very first day,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: there was a ton of bucks in there, but the next,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: the the next few times we went in there were
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: fewer and fewer bucks. And then I also noticed that
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: I started picking them up on different parts of the
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: area on my other trail cameras, you know, at different
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: times of the day. I started picking up one of them.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: I remember in daylight in the middle of October that
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: we saw the very first night at the suck nest
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: and never saw him back there again for the rest
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: of fall. What I think happens there is they are
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: eventually detecting us from where we're in there hunting them.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: But all they're doing is moving a few hundred yards
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: and it's not really impacting the way that they're moving
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: or behaving other than they're change in betting areas. Does
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: that make sense, Yeah, it does, And that's what that's
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: what we're seeing a lot of places too, Like we
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: we dive right in to your point because of the
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: added pressure. But you know, on public land, if they're
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: dealing with that much pressure and you still can't push
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: them out of there, I don't. I think a lot
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: of folks on private land that are hunting super careful,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: are almost too careful, you know what I mean, because
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: they have they have so many betting areas and sanctuaries
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: on their property. If we're seeing bucks move, but not
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: pick up and leave the county, the country. I mean
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: that every situation is different, like we talked about earlier.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: But um, that is one thing that we have noticed
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: a lot. Is they just what they detected. You're there,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: They'll just go to the next best spot. Yeah, speaking
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: of different betting areas, did you find with the buck nest?
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: Was that wind based at all? Did you find them
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: there on a certain way and bangs others or was
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: it it was this was just such a great spot
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: or the only really good spot that they were there
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: regardless of wind direction. No, it was wind based. Um
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: for the most part, I hunted it was mostly a
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: westerly wind. Um a northwest wind or a west wind
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: was best for that location. I hunted it a couple
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: of times on the south and we did see mature bucks,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: but they weren't In many cases, they weren't right there
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: in the same beds. They were in the general area,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: you know, but they might have embedded a couple hundred
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: yards away from that exact spot. The advantage of that
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: location is we can get an observation stand and we
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: can watch the whole thing. And on the south wind days,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: they weren't right there in those bed by the willow tree.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: I'll just use that as a marker. But yeah, I
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: mean on the on the northwest wind days, they were there,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: gotcha every time. And that's gonna differ, you know, spot
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: to spot, you just gotta you just gotta scout it
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: and and try to think inside out, like you talked
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: about earlier with the wheel. Yeah, you mentioned earlier with
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: this spot in particular the fact that you would have
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: to bump deer getting in there. There's a lot of
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: deer in between however you had to get in and
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: this betting area. Um. With that being said, I still
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: know that you guys do take some particular care when
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: it comes to access. I remember watching one of your
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: videos that you guys waited extremely long time after the
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: deer moved through after dark and then didn't get back
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: to your truck till like twelve thirty at night. Um,
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: can you talk about your access situation on this and
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: the different ways you found to get in and out
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: of there with at least minimizing the impact you're making. Yeah, well,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: that's that particular situation you're talking about. We actually had
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: one of those bucks in the buck ness coming bed
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: right underneath to stand he was laying there. He was.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: He actually came in right after camera light and it
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: would have been it would have been right after the
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: end of legal but I could see him. He came
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: in and he laid down right there. So Zach and
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: I set up in the street, and we were thinking
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: to ourselves like can we wait all night? And then
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: you know, making Yeah. But we we sat there for
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: a few hours and we got to thinking like, no,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: this ain't. We got to get out of here, you know,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: we just didn't want to spooking. But eventually we heard
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: him get up and kind of meander off. Um, and uh,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know if he was. He could have been
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: within thirty yards of us when we climbed down, but
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: it took us about an hour to get from the
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: end of the base of the tree and then sneaking
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: out of there. So yes, we are very cautious about
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: entering and exiting those areas, but mainly just really close
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: to the bedding. Um, when we gotta go somewhere that's
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: a mile two miles back in we don't mess around
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: for the first, you know, two thirds of the trip.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: But when we get in there, really tight to the beddings.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: We we're going into snail's pace. I mean you're stepping
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: over twigs, making sure that you don't snap them. You're
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: waiting for the wind to gust so that you can
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: move some of these areas in timber, Like if you're
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: hunting hardwood timber, for instance, and you're going into a
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: bedding location, you want you want it to be windy
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: and wet is ideal. And uh if it's not, if
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: you're going in for like an evening hunt and the
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: leaves are crunchy and it's pretty calm mid afternoon, you're
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: you're just not gonna be able to get real close
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: to those those bedding locations because they're just gonna hear
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: you before you get there. Um, but we do. We
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: we go in a lot of times in the middle
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: of the night, almost like uh, two or three o'clock
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: in the morning. I'm a pretty firm believer and going
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: in from morning hunts way ahead of daylight because I
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: think deer can see you better at gray light than
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: they can when it's dark. And uh, and and getting
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: our stands set up, you know, about thirty minutes before
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: that gray light even hits. And using those headlamps that
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: we use. That's a That's another big thing, um as
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: far as access goes, when it's when every single hunt
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: we use those headlamps in and out and we're always
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: waiting for the cover of darkness before we're going in
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: or or going out on an evening hunt. We're always
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: going in in the dark in the morning, and I
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: think that has has something to do with with our success.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: That's what I did that morning that I killed the
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: my buck last fall. The redder green lens head lamp
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: for something that or what specifically you're using there. Yeah,
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: we're using one of the uh Cabella's Princeton Tech head
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: lamps and the one the one we've all got is
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: the green beam that switches to the brighter white beam.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: But the green I definitely don't think they can see
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: it if it's the pitch black dark, and to be honest,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: I think they have a heck of a time seeing
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: the white beam. Um. I just I'm not real certain.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: I did a podcast not long ago on this and
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: and trying to research more about deer vision and that
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: sort of thing. But from my experience, I've got a
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: deer close enough to touch in the dark with these
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: light songs. If you're in a spot where you know
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: you're not making a lot of noise and you're you've
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: got covered. They'll walk right pie you where I know
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: for a fact that ain't gonna happen during the day.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: You know they're gonna pick up and they're gonna look
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: at you. Um, especially at gray light. UM. Gray light
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: is that that's the time when you want to be
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: set up or almost waiting in your truck to walk in.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think you want to be walking
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: in a gray light in most situations. I just every
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: time we do that, with the head lamps on or
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: without them, we get we get busted. It seems that's
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: when dear most active, and and I think that's when
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: they can see the best. It's my personal opinion, but
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: we always use darkness to our advantage if we can. Yeah,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: I'm right there with you. I always try to get
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: in there super early in the mornings and set up. Um.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: And especially when you're in a situation like I think
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: you guys are in most cases, and many times I
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: am too. And that's when you're setting up, when you're
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: running gunning, when you're setting up a new stand or
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: two stands in your guys case um, right then for
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: that hunt, um, And that's a challenge in the morning,
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: in the darkness, and that's a challenge, you know, in
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: the middle of the day when you're setting up for
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: an afternoon hunt. Can you talk about some of the
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: things that you guys have learned about how to hang
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: and hunt in a somewhat efficient way without spooking dear,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: any tricks or specific methods you guys have to get
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: in there, uh, without blowing it all up. Well, you've
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: got to make sure that all your dear is sound um,
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: sound proof before you go in, and like, don't just
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: don't just kind of half fast your sticks onto your stand,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, don't don't just wrap them around
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: there and then have them clanking and falling off and everything.
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: Really take the time to make sure everything is fashioned,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: fastened and secure. You've got a good set of straps
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: because you've got to be comfortable. And that last little
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: bit when you're getting to the tree with that stand
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: on your back and it can't be making any noise.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: I mean they there's lots of little products out there
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: that you can use to help dampen the sound on
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: your stands Um, stealth strips or one of them. They're
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: really cool little product that you can you can put
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: on like your platform, um, you know, your your seat
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: bar and everything in case that you have a buckle
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: clank against that or something, you want those stell strips
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: on there to dampen that sound. Um. And then we
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: use we use those uh, those rope can sticks, those
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: climbing sticks with the ropes for muddy and that is
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: a huge advantage having something with fewer buckles, anything with
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: the less metal of the better for the most part
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: when it comes to get when it comes to your gear,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: you know, and uh, and those go up very quickly,
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: very quietly, without without any metal on metal contact. We're
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: always trying to avoid that. And and really it sounds
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: like a huge shore to hang two stands and all
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: that gear in the tree. It's not that hard. It's
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: just time consuming because there is two of us there.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: So we have a we have kind of a little system.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: You know, one of us will go up, we'll hang
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: the initial stand and then the next guy will send
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: the rest of the stuff up so that you're not
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: going down and back that sort of thing. But having
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: a good lineman's belt, uh, Lineman's rope is probably probably
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: like the number one thing when it comes to hanging
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: a tree, stand by yourself, we're with somebody else for
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: that matter, you need a Lineman's rope to go around
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: the tree so that you can lean away from the
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: tree and use both hands to get to stand up.
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: It's just it is so much easier to do it
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: that way. If you're going to be serious about doing
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: any amount of hanging and hunting, you want Aligneman's belt
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: of some sort or a Lineman's rope. Very true. Speaking
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: of the of the of the ropes too, I agree
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: with what you mentioned about the muddy sticks. I really
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: do love that rope camp system. That is to your point.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: It's it's super quiet. It's a little bit letter weight too,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: I think, and just anything anytime I can eliminate the
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: chance of that metal and metal contact, man, I'm gonna
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: do it. And that that's a huge because I feel
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: like there's other sticks I use too, and I like
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: other picks. But you've got those buckles swinging around. If
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: by chance that comes off somehow, or when you try
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: and get all set up, just any little variable you
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: can put in your favor. I like to do that,
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: and that's one piece of gear that while there's lots
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: of other good options, when I have my that's my
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: number one set of sticks. If I have to go
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: in to the best spot and off all my sticks
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: are available, I'm grabbing the rope sticks because it's just
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: one more thing I don't need to worry about. So Yeah,
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: they go in and come out with us every time,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: you know, and most of the time the stands come
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: in and out too. Um. We we usually hunt just
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: the same too, muddy stands all year. You know. We
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: may have eight trees picked out, but pretty much at
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: the time we're hanging and hunt. Yeah. No, speaking of
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: stand locations and stuff. Um. You know, we talked a
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: lot about the buck nest and we've talked about some
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: of the different things you know, hunting these buck betting areas. Um.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of people and I think a
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: lot of your hunts that we've been talking about have
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: been taking place in October around buck by in areas.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: But once we shift into November and those rut phases, Um,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: are you still keying on those same types of spots,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: or do you guys have a different rut strategy for
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: your public parcels um for the rut. We we we're
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: extremely mobile, and mobile does not just mean standing stix
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: on your back. That means checking out tons of different
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: public areas. So in the rut, we've already scouted all
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: these areas. We kind of know where the deer like
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: to hang out or whatever. But what we'll do, especially
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: in the early part of the rut, is we'll just
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: drive around and monitor pressure, or we'll hang and we'll
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: have trail cameras in late October in spots that are
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: set up to monitor hunting pressure, and some of those
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: do get stolen, as you can imagine on public but
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: we want to monitor where hunting pressure is at during
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: the rut as much as possible because that's when hunting
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: pressure is at its highest point. Now I'm gonna I'm
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: gonna really drill on that. During the rut is when
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: pressures at its highest point. So that means if you
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: find a spot where there's no hunting pressure, guess what's
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: gonna be happening right there? Those bucks will have pushed
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: that estraus dow in there and they're gonna have her
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: corral in that one spot where they they haven't been
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: harassed and you can have some insanely awesome hunts during
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: the rut on public land. That pressure works to your advantage.
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: Most of those most of those folks are just bumbling
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: around the woods or whatever, you know, hunting designed the
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: big timber Um. In our situation, there's a lot of nonresidents,
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: and I would I that's you. That's wrong for me
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: to say they're bumbling around the woods, because they do
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: have a lot of success most of the situations we've
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: had with non residents. They're pretty hardcore, skilled hunters that
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: that do very well here. But the advantage we have
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: is that we know these properties so well and we
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: can bounce around and see which parking lots are getting
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: the most pressure. I mean, we spend more time looking
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: at entry roads for rush tire tracks. Will take a
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: rake or our foot and we'll brush the dirt over
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: the end of that road before we leave, and then
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: check it again in two days. And if there's no
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: new tracks over that spot where we where, we sort
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: of rake the dirt over. We know nobody's been there
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: in the last couple of days, and it doesn't take
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: much in the rut. Like I said, the absence of
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: pressure earlier the absence of pressure in the rut. If
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: you just have a few days where there's an absence
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: in hunting pressure, it can really benefit you. I mean,
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: those deer will move right in there. And uh. And
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: at times if we if if we just can't find
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: a place that's not getting hammered, or if it is,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: even if there's a lot of hunters in there, we'll
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: just put a stand on our back and we'll just
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: scout and hunt. You know, we'll have our bow in
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: hand and we'll move quietly through the woods trying to
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, and we're constantly looking for boot tracks and
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But a lot of times you
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: can bump into those dear when they're running. If you
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: bump into that dough or those bucks or whatever, yeah,
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: you're gonna spook them and they're gonna move. But if
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: you see them, then you see the direction that they go,
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: and you have all those other betting areas scouted. A
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: lot of times you can make a play on them.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: You can just you can cut around them and then
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: set up in the area that they or the direction
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: that they headed. Because I mean, if you think about it,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: she's in heat. If you bump a big buck with
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: the dough she's in heat, and chances are he's not
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: the only one that knows. So you want to go
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: where she's going, even if she's running away from you spooked.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: That's where you want to end up is in that
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: in that same area, And we we've had a lot
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: of success doing that as well, just cruising around on
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: a windy day with stands on her back until we
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: bump into some deer and then setting up now other
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: than other than actually seeing deer, what stuff would you
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: then look for? Otherwise? Do you pay attention to you
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: know sign and set up on that or are you're
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: just looking for lack of hunter sign or just a
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: terrain funnel other than bumping it? What's gonna make you
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: hang a stand? No, we look at doe betting a
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: lot um. We we concentrate on scouting dough betting at
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: all times of the year, including buck betting, you know.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: And one one thing we've noticed with doz is there
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: they're much more They seem to be homebodies much more
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: than bucks do. Bucks are more nomadic at times, especially
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: when they're younger, but a dope family group will live
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: in one spot for you know, a long period of time,
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: and you can predict that now if you're hunting that
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: spot quite frequently. If everybody knows how um ornery those
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: mature does are and how good they are walking out
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: of the bedding and staring straight up in your tree
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: and picking you off time after time after time. That's
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: because they live there and they have adapted to your
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: presence there. That doesn't mean that they have to walk
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: down past your stand or not stand there stomp and
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: blow at you. So when when we find those bill
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: betting areas like that, we we stay off of them
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: until the rut, until we get a situation where we
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: can hunt maybe an edge feature on the down wind
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: side of bill betting, or maybe there are maybe at
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: the morning hunt, you might want to hunt entry trails
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: in between bedding and food on along a doe betting
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: area doesn't necessarily have to be on the down wind side,
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: because you know that's not always always the case, but
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: we are usually associating our hunts during the rut with
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: bill betting, and that makes sense. Um. I want to
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: hop back to something you mentioned a little earlier ago
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: that I that I wanted to get a little more
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: clearance on or clarity on which was using your trail
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: cameras to monitor hunting pressure. Can you elaborate specifically, Are
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: you just setting up one camera on the main trail
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: coming out of each parking lot or how how are
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: you doing that? Um? Yeah, I mean that's that's a
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: way to do it, and we've definitely done that before
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: most of the time. The ideal set up is if
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: you follow that trail in, you pull up to your
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: general your generic public land piece, you know, the parking
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: lot there, and then there's the walking trail in. You
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: hop on that walking trail and you walk back far enough,
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: maybe you come across the scrape that's right along the
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: edge of that walking trail. That's pretty common thing to find.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: And when we find that, we'll hang and lock a
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: camera to a tree over that straight and you'd be
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: surprised how many big bucks you'll get on that straight.
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: They'll be there in the middle of the night most
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: of the time because it's real close to the pressure.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: But they've adapted to the pressure to the human scent
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: on that road, and that's why they don't show up
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: there until one in the morning. But that's what we'll
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: do in the ideal scenario is hanging over a scrape
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: for a trail like that that intersects with the walking trail,
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: so we can monitor those bucks in the middle of
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: the night kind of see who's around, and we can
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: also monitor who's walking in and out of there. Now,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: you gotta be you gotta be creative when it comes
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: to camouflaging those cameras or they're gonna get stolen, you know,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: or use if you use a lock box, that definitely helps,
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: or if what we've been doing more and more lately
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: is using those rope cameras climbing sticks and just climbing
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: two or three sticks up in a tree and then
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: shim and the camera so that it points down at
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: that trail on that and that's great, so there's its
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: way above them. You know, they're on their way in
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: for a hut most of the time, and they look
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: up in the tree and see that camera. They may
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: not go to the effort of climbing all the way
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: up there and grabbing it. And um, to be quite frank,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: used cameras that aren't super expensive on public those those
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: won't get stolen near as often as you know, you
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: you put one of those expensive trail cameras out there
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: and it don't It won't matter if you lock it
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: or not. If they figured they figure out that the
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: four camera, they may come and steal it at some point,
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: Like they'll make a point of going to the house,
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: getting bolt cutters, coming back out there and taking it,
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: whereas they won't do the same thing with a cheaper camera.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: And if you do lose an eighty dollar camera, it's
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: not quite the same, uh, not quite as bet of
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: a bullet to take if you lose that five. So right, yep, Now,
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: what about your trail camera just just outside of monitoring
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: hunting pressure. Um, we're talking just trying to understand, dear,
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: are you just are you doing the same type of
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: things scrapes and um, you know, well used trails or
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: anything else as far as setting them up or how
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: often you check them, when you check them throughout the season,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Well, we kind of separate that
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: into two categories. We call it short term and long
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: term trail camera strategy. Um, I'm a huge fan of
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: long term trail camera strategy. What that is is this
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: time of year when we're doing our last bit of
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: scouting or in midsummer, you know, July, early August, when
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: we're going into those betting areas, we're going in there
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: and we're diving in. We're scouting the heck out of
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: those during that time of year to try to figure
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: out our plan for the fall, and then we're not
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: going back in there until shed season. And those are
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: my favorite camera setups. We'll put them in the betting
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: area most of the time. When you're in the middle
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: of these betting areas, you're gonna find hot scrapes, you know.
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: You can hang them over deer beds, you can hang
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: them over trails entering and exiting the betting area. And
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: we're not afraid to put the camera there in early
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: August and leave it up for the entire fall, you know,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: and then we'll come back in during shed season, and
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: you can learn so much from that falls trail camera
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: pictures for the next year, and you can learn more
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: that way on just general dear behavior, you know, as
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: a whole, maybe not just the bucks in your specific area,
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: but you can learn so much about about dear behavior
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: and cross and then check it with the historical weather
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: data from that fall and compare those uh each every
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: day with your trail camera photos, and you you'll start
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: to see patterns emerge that helped you capitalize on killing
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: bucks later down the road. Um, then the short term
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: trail camera strategy are the ones that we're checking, the
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: one that this is the strategy everybody likes because it's
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: the one that they get to check every week or
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: two weeks, you know. And and those are the ones
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: that I just mentioned where we hang them most of
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: the time over scrapes. Scrapes are pretty ideal. And that's
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: the misconception with scrapes is that, uh, we'll hang them
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: over scrapes early in the season. You know, they tend
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: to travel through those areas still and use that licking
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: branch at all times the year. Um, they may not
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: use it nearest frequently as they do and in October,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: you know, after develop comes off and their testosterones going up,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: but they still tend to travel through those areas. You
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: can get a scrape or a licking branch scrape area
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: that is in a spot where several trails meet. That's
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: the ideal and most of the time where we're looking
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: for in the short term strategy, there is the spot
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: that other hunters are are going to be you know,
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, we know that the chance to have a
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: buck coming by that scrape and daylighter, real slim. But
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: the good thing with the other hunters in the human centres,
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: they've sort of adapted to that, so they still will
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: come and check the scrape and then you backtrack them
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: to their bedding areas that you've already pre scouted. But
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: those cameras we're not. We don't worry about control anything
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: like that, and we check them once every two weeks,
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: you know, just to get a bearing on what bucks
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: are in the area and are you going in there
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: specifically just check that camera or are you trying to
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: time it to go with a hunt when you already
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: passed by there, or do you wait for rain or
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: anything like that. Now, Um, we do time it with
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: the hunt a lot of the time. Um, we'll we'll
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: go buy it with the stand on on our back
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: in the laptop in our backpack or something, and we'll
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: check it and we'll see what what's been there in
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: the last few days and kind of see which direction
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: a buck may or may not have been coming from,
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: you know, and really, when you when you scout an
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: area completely and you try to understand every betting area,
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: even trail camera pools where you don't get any pictures
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: of target buck can be beneficial, because that's actually what
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: led us to the buck mass last year. We checked
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: that camera and we didn't have a buck on there
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: for the last ten days, and we're like, you know,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: is it that early October time frame when the bucks
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: are kind of shifting around or moving around a little bit,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: And we we thought to ourselves, well, if they're not
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: here right now, they've gotta be somewhere else. You know,
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: they were here during the summer, now they're not, So
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: that crosses off a lot of those betting areas in
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: proximity to the camera. So really, you learn you can
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: you can learn something from every single trail camera pool
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: that you have and the ones that don't have bucks on. Okay,
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: we're gonna pause here for our final break of the
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: episode and a word from our partners at the White
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: Tail Institute of North America. And if you're planning food
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: plots this fall, hopefully you already have that seed in
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: the ground or at least have a plan in place,
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: but if not, today we're gonna hear about a great
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: option for you to consider for this fall in your
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: food plots and Spencer, New Hearth. We'll take it from here.
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: This week With White Tail Institute, we're talking to consulting
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: John Cooner about their special blend of Imperial white Tail
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: Peer Attraction, which will have dear hammering your food plot
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: all season if you're attracts. Is one of our annual
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: Forge products that's designed for planning in the fall. Uh,
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: and I would not be overstating it to say that
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: it has brought us a lot of customers. It's dynamite stuff.
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: There are two main parts to it, and the advertising
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: guys say it's a one to punch, but basically you've
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: got early fall uh. And primarily that's gonna be white
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: tail white tail oats, which is an old variety that
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: we were all did to buy some some researchers that
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: was so they were doing a grain production trial and
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: so attractive the deer that they had to had to
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: pull it out of the trials. And we tested it
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: and also found it to be very cold tolerant. That's
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: for early fall moves into the later fall and then uh.
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: The other part of it is the White Tail Institute Braskas,
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: which come up very quickly and the deer will start
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: hitting them. Uh, they'll get even sweeter with the first
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: frosts of fall. So it's the one two punch that
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: takes you from fall all the way through the dead
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: of winter. It is. It is absolutely one of our
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: our big sellers and one of the neat things. Other
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: neat things besides it being extremely attracted deer is with
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: the droughts we've been having in the fall, people who
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: have realized that the white Tail oates oates plus will
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: will come up and provide a good nurse crop with perennials.
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: And for that reason, we've had folks asking us can
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: we take the oats and take white Tail Institute Braskas
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: and plan them together. And the neat thing about this
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: is you don't have to. We've already done it for
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: you and we've are testing has shown that the ratios
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: in that product are optimum to provide maximum attraction. If
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: you'd like more info on White Tail Institute's forage products,
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: check out white Tail Institute dot com, where they also
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: carry some of the top supplements, attractants and herbicides available.
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: How many cameras do you like to try to have
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: on a public piece or I don't know, on a
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: per acreage I mean, if is it one camera per
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: public part property or do you try to have you know,
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: one per acres, hundred acres or anything like that. Oh,
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: ideally you'd like to have one for two acres, but
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: that it's just not possible to do. I mean, if
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: you're hunting various public spots and some of the heat
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: cameras or three quarters of a mile in means your
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: whole life and job would just be trail cameras. So
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: what we shoot for is just a one per area
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: on every area. We'll try to find a good community
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: scrape that we expect about to be using at night,
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: and uh so it's one that we will go in
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: and check frequently, and we'll we'll ideally get a lot
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: of the bucks in that area. You know, maybe only
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: just a picture or two of them, but we're not
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: particularly worried about it. Just as long as they're around,
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: we know the betting areas that there that they could
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: be using or likely are using. This one per area.
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: I would say we probably only run six to ten total, okay,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: throughout you know our whole I mean we've got I
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: don't know a dozen public plan pieces that we hunt,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: so about one per Okay, so zooming out a little
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: bit here. I mean, we we've covered a whole lot
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: of different things as far as different parts of the season,
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: how you're finding these places, how you're hunting these places,
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: how you're getting in out um from your experiences so far,
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: and then kind of from the outside talking to so
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: many other hunters about some of these things. What do
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: you think is is probably the biggest mistake people are
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: making when they either consider hunting public land or when
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: they start hunting it. What's where people getting tripped up
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: there the most? You think, can they consider hunting it
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: or start hunting it? Mm hm? You think here, probably
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: the amount of scouting time, let's say, has a has
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: a big deal or a lot to do with it,
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: um And and it's it's possible for you to go
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: in and just hunting area and have success, but most
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: of the deer that we're killing or getting on, we're
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: not necessarily just walking in there, you know and picking
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: a spot. The scouting is such a huge deal, and
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: not just boots on the ground scouting, but you know,
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: lots and lots and lots of areal scouting. That would
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: be the number one thing. And and the second thing
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: would be the typical stuff that you that you see
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: people sit and field edges and that sort of thing.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: When they look at an aerial photo, they'll think, well,
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: here's a food stores. There's gonna be deer around it,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: and they're probably here, but there may not be a
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: mature buffer on it. Yeah, and and they get intimidated
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: by the pressure. You mean, I was gonna ask have
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: you found in all your public land experiences? Because to
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: your point, I think a lot of people assume that
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna hunt public land, you're gonna be dealing
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: with other hunters all the time. It's gonna be paying
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: the butt. It's not gonna be as much fun because
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with other people messing up your hunts. Have
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: you found that to be the case? Or is it
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: not as bad as a lot of people think. No,
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: it's not near as bad. Um. We definitely have hunts
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: that are messed up. I mean, it happens frequently, but
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: most of the time it's honest. You know, it's not
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: somebody intentionally screwing you up. You gotta keep that in
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: the back of your mind. It's not just you that's
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: out there me. You're sharing this resource with everybody else.
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: And uh, once you accept that, it actually is pretty cool,
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: you know, um, because you can work together with those
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: guys if you have an open mind. Um, you can.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: Especially in our situation, we run in a non residence
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: all the time, and they want to know, like good
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: places to go hunting because they've been waiting for a
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: long time to draw the tag. So why not help
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: him out? You know, we have the luxury of living
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: here and scat it all. So we help him out
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of times and tell them give them some
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: pointers on maybe where to try to go, and uh,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: more times than not they returned the favor and they
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: tell us what they saw and like it helps us
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: down the road. People just have that And yeah, people
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: have that misconception that that hunting pressure is is bad
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: and that it can that it can ruin things. It can.
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: But when you really think about archery hunting pressure during
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: bow season, most of the time it's just a it's
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: just one guy going into an area hunting it, climbing
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: down and leaving. It's not like it is a gun
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: season when there's two dozen in a group that are
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: just wide swath going across you know everything and and
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: form for the most part and most of the seasons
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: that we have in in the White Tail States, the
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: gun season is pretty short and placed towards the end
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: of the season most of the time. And and the
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned before, the pressure a two yards is
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: a long way to abeded deer. Yeah, yeah, it's it's
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: a nice situation. You guys have an Iowa with that
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: late gun season. Um, I know, in Michigan or even
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: your homestead of Missouri, that mid November opener is kind
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: of a bummer. But when you don't have that, You're right,
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: you can definitely take advantage of much less pressure during
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: this time periods, that's for sure. Yeah. And the good
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: thing with Missouri is that the season opens early. Know,
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: you can hunt one of September, whereas we can only
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: hunt on the first here in October. And if you're
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: onto this buck betting stuff, uh she may find that
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: hunting that first two weeks of them the very season
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: is more productive for you than hunting hunting the rut.
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: Really early season is often overlooked, that's for sure. Oh yeah,
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: so I've got I've got one final question for you.
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: We've we've taken a lot of time of your time
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: here but you've got a unique opportunity I think in
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: that you get to, you know, work closely with someone
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: like Bill Wink. You obviously has a lot of knowledge
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: and experience and perspective when it comes to white tail hunting.
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: And then you also be able to do these things
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: that are different than kind of what Bill does these
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: days and work with some other people on the public
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: side and hunting in this type of different way. I'm curious,
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: on one hand, what do you think is the greatest
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: lesson you learned from Bill about white tail hunting? And
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: then number two, what do you think is the biggest thing,
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: if any, that he's learned from you guys, or has
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: anything he's thought previously been proved wrong by your experiences. Oh,
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Um that I'd be a hard conversation
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: to have with me and him. I'd say, um, yeah,
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: he I think he said it in an ask Winky
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: not long ago. He said that those guys kind of
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: do their thing and I kind of do mind, And
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: that's probably true. Um, you know, and we have our
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: opinions and to how you know the deer move around
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: on his property, because we've done a lot of time
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: out there and he's got his own. Um. But you know,
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: like we were talking earlier, you don't you don't have
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: to hunt one way to harvest uh good buck or
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: to kill deer, do do anything. That's the beauty of
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: what we do is you can you can skin the
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: cat a million different ways. And I guess, uh, yeah,
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know how much he's taken away
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: from what we do on what we do on public.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: He told me the other day that he that he
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: would get if he went to hunt in public. He
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: would just hang two trail cameras around the woods until
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: he started picking up the day like mover. I was
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: just like, good luck, You're not gonna have very many
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: cameras in a few weeks. But uh, but yeah, I
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: mean that's that just goes along with our with our
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: point that we made earlier in the podcast of you
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: know you you just uh you try to adapt to
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: lots of different methods and and take little bits and
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: pieces from every one of them and and try to
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: sharpen your own skills. But any anything that you've taken
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: from Bill, oh yeah, I mean his access theories are
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: all are all proven true. Um. And that was sort
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: of whenever I was first watching Midwest White Tail like
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: back in two thousand and eight, you know, before I'd
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: even got here. That was one of the things that
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: you know that I made a lot of sense with
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: and identified with back in those days, you know, using
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: using a creek to your advantage or a ditch or
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. Um. You know, he's wrote, I think
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: he's written a couple of books on that, um, that
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: tactic and strategy. Now here's the rub whenever you start
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: thinking about that as far as buck's bed and how
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: they bed, um, if you if you marar those two
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: strategies together, you start to realize that some of these creeks,
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: some of these ditches are buck betting. You know, they
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: bed right there in the ditch or right along it,
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: maybe not maybe not in in a lot of situations.
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: So that that tactic and strategy still works. And that's
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: something that we employ all the time. But as I
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, if you can if you can anticipate where
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: those bucks are gonna bed, you're gonna know how to
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: get in and out of those areas. And then if
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: you use those that creaks and ditches strategy that he
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: kind of coined years ago to your advantage and move
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: around those bucks and places where you can't be seen,
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: you can, you can definitely get in tight on them,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: and that's what we're trying to do. Yeah, you guys
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: just bumped a couple of nice bucks out of the
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: creek earlier this month scouting, didn't you. I think I
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: just saw a video showing that. Yep, yep, And that
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: was a unique situation. Like like we continue saying, every
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: every place is different, and every spot is different. That
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: location we've been in a drought, as you know. Um,
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: not so much in the last week we've had rain,
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: but back when we were scouting that creek, we were
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: in a pretty severe drought. And when I got to
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: that creek, I noticed it still had water in it.
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: It was the first creek that I'd seen in almost
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: a month that had water in Everything else had been
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: dry on all these different areas. And as soon as
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: we noticed there was water, and we started picking up
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: buck tracks in the creek, and I looked at Brody,
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: the intern who was who was filming with me that day,
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: and we both were like, you know, there's gonna be
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: bucks in here, probably right on top of the creek,
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: and no more than ten seconds later we crept around
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: the corner. Sure enough, one got up out of the
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: brush pile. He's betted in the creek and moved off.
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: But there was a reason he was better there, you
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. It was it was so dry
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: and it was drowning so bad that all those bucks
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: moved right down on the creek. It's hot, so they
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: want to be right next to that water where that
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: that ground moisture kind of keeps the temperature a little
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: bit cooler. And he was in a in a spot
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: up up against a brush pile where he could look
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: up and down that creek and he saw us coming. Yeah.
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: I think that brings up a good point, which is
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: to always realize to always ask why whenever you see something,
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: whether that be a trail camera photo or an observation
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: while you're hunting or something while scouting. It's not enough
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: just to see the thing. You also want to ask why.
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: And you just described the why there for that deer.
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: And I think that's a great just surminder for all
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: of us to to always take a step back from
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: the observation and then try to understand the bigger picture,
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: because the bigger picture is what tells the story. Oh yeah,
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: especially with matured bucks and even mature does like if
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: they do something, they're probably doing it for a reason.
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: And uh yeah, once you start figuring figuring that that out,
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: just by asking yourself that question, like you said, it
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: will definitely help you. Yeah. Well, Aaron, this is uh,
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: this has been a lot of fun. I know you've
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: got stuff that you should be getting to get scouting
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: to do, or stands to hang with a season coming up,
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: so we'll let you go. Um, but if people want
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: to stay up to data and all the different things
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: you guys have going on, Um, where can they go
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: on line to find everything? Um, just check it out
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: at Midwest yitel dot com. We've always got new stuff
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: going up there. I think the first episode just came out. Um,
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: what today's Monday, isn't it. Yeah, yes, yeah, just came
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: out today for the this fall. So you can check
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: out everything there on our Facebook page or Instagram. We're
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: always posting new stuff whenever we whenever we get in
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: the field and try to keep everybody kind of updated
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: throughout the fall. So awesome. Well, we'll make sure to
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: have links on the website for all that stuff. And
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: uh man I appreciate you taking the time and do this, Aaron,
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: and good luck this season. Thanks Mark, you too, and
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: there you go, folks. Episode number one sixty five is
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: in the book. And before we go, though, I want
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: to send out a big thanks to our partners at
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: Sitka Gear, Yetie Cooler's Matthews Archery, Maytheon Optics, the White
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: Tail Institute of North America, Trophy Ridge and Hunt Terror Maps.
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: And finally, of course, thank you all for listening. I
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. I hope you got a kick out of
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: our public land discussions today. Until next time, stay what
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: you're to hunt.