Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #176: Rut Radio 10/18/17 & Don Higgins’ 200 Inch Buck Story

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #176: Rut Radio 10/18/17 & Don Higgins’ 200 Inch Buck Story · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This episode number one seventy six,
0:19
Speaker 1: and today we've got another rut radio episode in which
0:22
Speaker 1: we're getting updates from hunters across the country about current
0:25
Speaker 1: dear behavior and activity conditions and the tactics that are
0:29
Speaker 1: working right now. And we also have a bonus follow
0:33
Speaker 1: up interview with Don Higgins, who earlier this year on
0:35
Speaker 1: the podcast told us he was going to kill a
0:38
Speaker 1: buck and now he's done it. All right. Welcome to
0:46
Speaker 1: another episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to
0:49
Speaker 1: you by sit gear, and we're back here today with
0:53
Speaker 1: another one of our radio episodes, which we're doing every
0:57
Speaker 1: week throughout the hunting season. And as you likely know,
1:01
Speaker 1: each week during the radio episode, we are checking with
1:04
Speaker 1: a handful of hunters from across the country to get
1:07
Speaker 1: real time updates on what's happening right now. So what
1:11
Speaker 1: kind of dear behavior, what kind of conditions, how are
1:15
Speaker 1: these things impacting dear behavior? Um, all that kind of
1:18
Speaker 1: good stuff. And then we're also talking to people about
1:20
Speaker 1: you know, hey, what are you trying now? What's working,
1:22
Speaker 1: what's not, etcetera, etcetera. So that's what we've been doing
1:25
Speaker 1: so far for the last i don't know, for four
1:28
Speaker 1: or five weeks or something like that. And now, at
1:31
Speaker 1: least in my mind, it's getting even more exciting because
1:34
Speaker 1: the rut part of the rut radio is going to
1:37
Speaker 1: start kind of showing up here in the coming days
1:40
Speaker 1: as we're heading into that pre rut time period. Um,
1:44
Speaker 1: I know I'm getting a little bit, uh, a little
1:46
Speaker 1: bit pumped up and excited. I gotta believe the bucks
1:49
Speaker 1: are slowly getting a little more pumped up and excited.
1:52
Speaker 1: Um what about you, Spencer? Are you there too? I
1:54
Speaker 1: am there? And like you said, with the bucks, I
1:58
Speaker 1: think the best evidence was my trail cameras this last week.
2:01
Speaker 1: Um oh yeah, started having a little bit of buck
2:05
Speaker 1: activity on some scrapes on like the seventh, eighth, ninth,
2:08
Speaker 1: and then we hit the eleven through and all of
2:12
Speaker 1: a sudden, it was seven different books on those three
2:14
Speaker 1: nights that were checking the scrapes, and so it is
2:16
Speaker 1: definitely that time of year. Yeah, I've been seeing the
2:19
Speaker 1: same thing. I checked trail cameras on one of my
2:22
Speaker 1: main Michigan properties. Um, just at the end of last week.
2:26
Speaker 1: Over the weekend kind of and same thing. There's been
2:29
Speaker 1: some more activity in the scrapes. I've noticed a lot
2:31
Speaker 1: of a lot of new scrapes popping up as I
2:34
Speaker 1: was driving through the woods. Um. All the mock scrapes
2:36
Speaker 1: that I've created are now freshened up by actual deer
2:40
Speaker 1: seeing rubs out there in the whole nine yards and
2:42
Speaker 1: even UM, I've been hunting public land over the last
2:45
Speaker 1: week and lots of scrapes back in there, two back
2:49
Speaker 1: in the cover. So we're definitely ramping up. That's an
2:52
Speaker 1: exciting exciting thing to see. And I think the best
2:56
Speaker 1: the best is still ahead of us. So UM, I'm
2:59
Speaker 1: excited to hear what people are saying around the country though,
3:01
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see if if what I've been kind
3:04
Speaker 1: of experiencing is the same as everybody else or not. UM. So,
3:10
Speaker 1: before I ask you for my little preview that I
3:13
Speaker 1: usually to try to get from you at the Spencer, UM,
3:15
Speaker 1: I just want to note that for anyone listening, if
3:19
Speaker 1: you're not already aware, we are gonna have a little
3:22
Speaker 1: bit of a different episode today because we're gonna throw
3:24
Speaker 1: in a little bonus story. Um, if you're if you'll
3:27
Speaker 1: allow me, Spencer, since since you are the man in
3:30
Speaker 1: control of the show here, if you'll allow me, I
3:32
Speaker 1: want to toss in a bonus story from Don Higgins.
3:36
Speaker 1: Will you allow that? I will because I loved listening
3:39
Speaker 1: to it and I think everyone else will too. Yeah,
3:42
Speaker 1: exactly so. So for those who have listened to the
3:45
Speaker 1: wire Hunt podcast this summer, we had done on on
3:49
Speaker 1: episode one and he talked about how he was targeting
3:53
Speaker 1: two different potential two bucks this year, and um, he
3:58
Speaker 1: had a really in depth game plan for how he
4:00
Speaker 1: was going to get it done, and he felt particularly
4:02
Speaker 1: confident when he was talking about one of the bucks
4:05
Speaker 1: he was after, named Smokey, and just a couple of
4:08
Speaker 1: days ago, Don made his prediction come true and he
4:12
Speaker 1: killed this two hundred class buck in Illinois and he
4:16
Speaker 1: joins us today on this episode of the radio to
4:19
Speaker 1: tell us how that all happened, how he got that done. So, UM,
4:23
Speaker 1: little bonus here on our RT radio. I'm excited about that.
4:26
Speaker 1: But what else do we have in store? Because in
4:28
Speaker 1: the second here, you know, once we get our little
4:30
Speaker 1: chit chat out, of the way, we can drop it
4:32
Speaker 1: over to Don. But then what's our regular episode gonna
4:35
Speaker 1: um gonna have for us today? What We dropped down
4:38
Speaker 1: to Mississippi and talked to Kyle Bennett with q D
4:40
Speaker 1: m A. And then we go to the Great State
4:43
Speaker 1: of South Dakota and talked to Jake Gregors from a
4:45
Speaker 1: Daybreak ranch. Do we have Nick Kravitz and Pennsylvania was
4:48
Speaker 1: flatline White Tails, And then we talked to Josh McDaniel
4:51
Speaker 1: from Real Tree in Indiana. Awesome it was there. Since
4:55
Speaker 1: you've listened to all these people, is there any common
4:59
Speaker 1: consistency or anything that kind of across the board you've
5:02
Speaker 1: noticed is worth noting? Um, I guess one would be
5:06
Speaker 1: the weather. That seems like it is the trump card
5:09
Speaker 1: right now. If we have a front, uh, you want
5:12
Speaker 1: to be there and hunting, and that's the time to
5:14
Speaker 1: maybe be a little more aggressive. If not, if you
5:17
Speaker 1: haven't had the weather, or if you haven't been able
5:19
Speaker 1: to haunt those fronts yet been still just sit back
5:23
Speaker 1: and be patient. The other one I would say is
5:25
Speaker 1: the changing in food sources, and that being um, you know,
5:30
Speaker 1: the artificial food sources as far as agriculture, the soybeans
5:34
Speaker 1: are coming out right now, the corn is coming out
5:36
Speaker 1: in a lot of areas, the sunflowers are coming out. Um,
5:39
Speaker 1: so that is changing some things as far as where
5:41
Speaker 1: the deer betting and obviously where they're feeding. Yeah, yeah,
5:45
Speaker 1: for sure. I think to your first point when it
5:47
Speaker 1: comes to the fronts, I mean, if you've listened to
5:49
Speaker 1: this year's series of radio episodes, I think we've talked
5:53
Speaker 1: about that on every single episode, and it's just another
5:56
Speaker 1: reaffirmation of how important these cold fronts are. And every
6:00
Speaker 1: time when passes through the country you see a spike
6:03
Speaker 1: in in buck kills. At least as far as what
6:05
Speaker 1: I've seen all my social media and just my my
6:07
Speaker 1: own personal network, I know this last front that came
6:10
Speaker 1: through for a lot of people, at least in the Midwest,
6:12
Speaker 1: it hit kind of this past Sunday and Monday, and
6:15
Speaker 1: you saw a lot of big deer hit the ground. Like,
6:17
Speaker 1: like we said, Don Higgins killed one during that front. Um.
6:20
Speaker 1: Another well known TV guy out there, Lee Lakowski, killed
6:23
Speaker 1: a giant during that front. Um. A bunch of other
6:26
Speaker 1: people I just personally know or that I saw on
6:28
Speaker 1: Facebook and stuff the same deal. So I am looking
6:31
Speaker 1: forward to the next front um which will be hitting
6:34
Speaker 1: for us here in Michigan next like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
6:39
Speaker 1: somewhere on that looks like Tuesday might be the first
6:41
Speaker 1: really good day, um, at least for war. I'm at
6:44
Speaker 1: in southern Michigan this weekend, this coming weekend, Saturday Sunday,
6:48
Speaker 1: it's gonna be the seventies, but by Tuesday it's gonna
6:52
Speaker 1: be down to the fifties and all the way down
6:54
Speaker 1: to the forties on Wednesday. Um. So I couldn't ask
6:58
Speaker 1: for any better conditions as far as I concerned. For
7:00
Speaker 1: that last week in October, when you already got that
7:03
Speaker 1: pre rut ramp up and then you get a cold front,
7:05
Speaker 1: I think it's just gonna be awesome. So I am
7:09
Speaker 1: as excited as I could possibly be for next week. Yeah,
7:12
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun. But pretty soon that stuff won't matter,
7:15
Speaker 1: and you know, the rut is going to rule. All Yeah,
7:18
Speaker 1: that's true. I just gotta be in the woods. Then
7:20
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cut you off more because let's get to
7:22
Speaker 1: this interview of Don Higgins. Good call, talk to you
7:25
Speaker 1: next week. All right, thanks, be alright. So we've got
7:28
Speaker 1: Don Higgins now on the phone with a little special
7:34
Speaker 1: many interview here because don you you've had some You've
7:37
Speaker 1: got some good news to share, don't you. Yeah, I
7:41
Speaker 1: was able to fill one of my Illinois buck tags,
7:44
Speaker 1: and uh it was a buck that I've had my
7:46
Speaker 1: eyes on. So yeah, I'm pretty happy at the moment. Yeah,
7:49
Speaker 1: I'd say that that might be an understatement. Um. I
7:52
Speaker 1: guess it was back in August. I think when you
7:56
Speaker 1: were on the wire Hunt podcast with US, episode number
7:58
Speaker 1: one six or we spent a ton of time talking
8:02
Speaker 1: about this buck that you were after that you call Smokey,
8:07
Speaker 1: and I think, if I remember right, you said that
8:10
Speaker 1: you thought you had a nine chance of killing that buck. Um.
8:14
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people probably thought, wow, this
8:17
Speaker 1: guy is maybe a little overconfident, you know, being able
8:19
Speaker 1: to kill a potentially two type buck um and being
8:23
Speaker 1: that sure of it. But you made it happen. How
8:26
Speaker 1: does it feel to have major prediction come true? M hmm. Well,
8:31
Speaker 1: actually it kind of feels like a relief, because, to
8:33
Speaker 1: be honest, after I did the podcast and I got
8:36
Speaker 1: to I listened to it, got to thinking about it.
8:38
Speaker 1: I thought, man, that guy sounds just a little bit
8:41
Speaker 1: arrogant and overconfident. Then I started sweating and my rest
8:47
Speaker 1: isn't really gonna happen. So it was kind of a
8:51
Speaker 1: relief when it did. But yet and and just plain
8:56
Speaker 1: exciting to I bet, yeah, I'll probably never make that
9:00
Speaker 1: kind of prediction again. But Smokey just happened to be
9:04
Speaker 1: a buck that I knew really, really well, So you know,
9:07
Speaker 1: that's why I was so confident. At the same time,
9:09
Speaker 1: we talked about the other buck home after Trump and
9:12
Speaker 1: how I thought I only had about a ten percent
9:14
Speaker 1: chance with him. And to be honest, now I think
9:18
Speaker 1: my chance to killing Trump or about one percent instead
9:21
Speaker 1: of ten. I think they've gone down and stood up.
9:24
Speaker 1: But that's a different story for a different day probably.
9:27
Speaker 1: But but Smokey, Smokey, it's a dent because he's on
9:32
Speaker 1: the ground now. Um, So would you be willing to
9:35
Speaker 1: share with us, you know what, because we heard about
9:38
Speaker 1: what your plan was heading into the season. Um, but
9:41
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be interested to hear how you actually executed
9:44
Speaker 1: on that up to this point. So did you hunt
9:47
Speaker 1: him multiple times up to this point or was this
9:49
Speaker 1: the first time you went in after him? Or how
9:51
Speaker 1: did things actually play out over the course of October
9:53
Speaker 1: leading up to the final successful kill, well, I had
9:59
Speaker 1: one uh actually elevated blind what even a tree stands
10:04
Speaker 1: an elevated blind and closed blind that I thought I
10:06
Speaker 1: could kill him just from past history. And I needed
10:11
Speaker 1: a north northwest or a straight west wind to hunt
10:15
Speaker 1: that blind, and all we got was straight south winds
10:20
Speaker 1: for the first ten days of season, so I wasn't
10:22
Speaker 1: even able to hunt for Smoky for ten days. And
10:25
Speaker 1: then on October eleven, I was able to slip in
10:29
Speaker 1: and I had a cameraman with me, Kyle Harmon from
10:32
Speaker 1: Team Radical Outdoors and doesn't live all that far from me,
10:36
Speaker 1: and volunteered to come and and film anytime I was
10:38
Speaker 1: after Smokey because I was so confident in getting a
10:42
Speaker 1: shot at him. And so on the eleventh Kyle shows
10:46
Speaker 1: up for the first hunt, and uh, I knew the
10:49
Speaker 1: buck like the bed in a patch of real world
10:52
Speaker 1: switch grass. I get a let's see three or four
10:55
Speaker 1: different patches of native grasses on my property, and and uh,
11:00
Speaker 1: there was one particular patch that's probably about the I'm
11:04
Speaker 1: going to guess ten acres in size and the dominant
11:09
Speaker 1: boxing m I properly really like the bed in that patch.
11:12
Speaker 1: It's just kind of essentially located and it doesn't get pressure,
11:15
Speaker 1: and they'll just stay in there for uh, you know,
11:19
Speaker 1: year round, it doesn't matter if it's summer or winter.
11:22
Speaker 1: And I've seen Smokey come out of that patch a
11:24
Speaker 1: few times this summer. Whenever I would go lass in
11:26
Speaker 1: the evenings, he wouldn't come out early. I mean, I
11:29
Speaker 1: was trying to get some video footage of him in velvet,
11:31
Speaker 1: and he just wouldn't cooperate at all. He wouldn't step
11:33
Speaker 1: out until it was past a good camera light. But
11:37
Speaker 1: I didn't see him three or four times, so I
11:40
Speaker 1: knew he was. He was right there where he's always been.
11:42
Speaker 1: And then on September eleventh, the first hunt, sure enough
11:46
Speaker 1: he steps out of that grass. But you know again
11:49
Speaker 1: it's it's still shooting light and still good camera light,
11:52
Speaker 1: but it's fading fast. And he stepped out of about
11:55
Speaker 1: eighty yards into a clover firebreak. And he could have
11:57
Speaker 1: went one or two directions, either right to us, right
12:00
Speaker 1: away from us, and unfortunately we went the other direction.
12:04
Speaker 1: But Kyle happened to get some really good footage of
12:06
Speaker 1: him that evening and got him working a scrape as
12:09
Speaker 1: well as a couple other bucks working the scrape, so
12:12
Speaker 1: you know, we knew he was he was right there,
12:15
Speaker 1: had him in our lap. It was just a matter
12:17
Speaker 1: of waiting for the right conditions to come back and
12:19
Speaker 1: do it again. So we didn't get another west or
12:22
Speaker 1: northwest wind until the fifteenth, which was Sunday evening. I
12:26
Speaker 1: had had a cold front come through on Saturday. I
12:29
Speaker 1: was outside working and it was like in the mid eighties.
12:31
Speaker 1: I mean I was literally sweating. And then on Sunday
12:36
Speaker 1: it was in the mid fifties, so you know, it
12:38
Speaker 1: dropped about thirty degrees and had a little rain shower
12:42
Speaker 1: come through early Sunday morning, and and then Sunday evening. Uh,
12:48
Speaker 1: you know, the wind blew pretty hard Sunday, but it
12:51
Speaker 1: started laying uh as it got closer to the dusk,
12:56
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we were sitting there in the
12:58
Speaker 1: blind and we wouldn't see in the deer activity that
13:01
Speaker 1: we had seen on the eleventh. Um having just three
13:05
Speaker 1: or four doughs and fawns come out and they were
13:08
Speaker 1: feeding in the clover and such, but we hadn't seen
13:12
Speaker 1: another buck. And then I was getting towards uh, you know,
13:17
Speaker 1: quit in time, and I asked Kyler said, how much
13:19
Speaker 1: more shooting light do we have left? How many more
13:23
Speaker 1: minutes for you to get good footage? And he checked
13:26
Speaker 1: his camera and he says, well, we probably got fifteen
13:28
Speaker 1: minutes a shooting light anyway. And so I'm thinking we're
13:31
Speaker 1: not going to see anything. And there was still a
13:33
Speaker 1: little bit of wind, and I figured that's what had
13:35
Speaker 1: the deer um, you know, hold up, and there probably
13:39
Speaker 1: wouldn't be good activity until Monday, when we were supposed
13:41
Speaker 1: to still have a good win. We just come back
13:43
Speaker 1: the next day and get a hunt in our odds
13:45
Speaker 1: to be a lot better. But I had no more
13:47
Speaker 1: asked Kyle about how much more shooting light we had left.
13:50
Speaker 1: I turned and looked out the prairie grass and I
13:52
Speaker 1: see the grass moving, you know, not moving from the wind,
13:55
Speaker 1: but moving. Something was moving through it, coming right towards us.
14:00
Speaker 1: And uh, right in front of the blind is a
14:02
Speaker 1: real world deadly dozen food plot and they've been hitting
14:05
Speaker 1: that pretty hard as well. So there was a deer,
14:07
Speaker 1: single deer, it looked like, coming through that prairie grass
14:10
Speaker 1: right towards the food plot in front of listen. But
14:13
Speaker 1: that grass is so tall, you know, I couldn't only
14:15
Speaker 1: see what it was. I got my binoctors out and
14:18
Speaker 1: I could see antler tips kind of mixed in with
14:21
Speaker 1: that prairie grass. And uh. And then finally he got
14:25
Speaker 1: that close enough where I could see that it was him.
14:27
Speaker 1: I seen those deep forks on those G twos, and
14:31
Speaker 1: I whispered to Kyle, that's him. And he stepped out
14:34
Speaker 1: of the prairie grass, probably you know, thirty to forty
14:36
Speaker 1: yards from us, and uh uh. He stepped into the
14:42
Speaker 1: Deadly dozen plot, took a few bites of some of
14:46
Speaker 1: those plants, and he started working down along the edge
14:49
Speaker 1: of the plot, and um, he happened to stop yards
14:53
Speaker 1: from the blind and just a perfect opportunity for me
14:57
Speaker 1: to shoot. So I sent an arrow through him, and
15:01
Speaker 1: he took off, bounding a way down the clover firebreak
15:05
Speaker 1: and he stopped out of about I don't know, sixty
15:07
Speaker 1: seventy yards from our bond, and he didn't run all
15:10
Speaker 1: that far, really, and and he stopped and looked back,
15:12
Speaker 1: and when he did, you know, Kyle was running the camera,
15:16
Speaker 1: and I grabbed the manatos a little quick, and you
15:18
Speaker 1: could just see blood pouring out of him. Um, and
15:21
Speaker 1: then he he was like licking his lips and his
15:24
Speaker 1: nose with his tongue just real fast, and and then
15:28
Speaker 1: he started to tip back like they do when they're
15:30
Speaker 1: gonna fall. And as he started to tip back, then
15:33
Speaker 1: he just kind of crashed off to the side into
15:35
Speaker 1: the prairie grass and we knew he was down. So
15:38
Speaker 1: it's uh it really, from the time when I first
15:41
Speaker 1: set him coming through the grass until he dropped was probably,
15:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess less than two minutes. It happened real quick.
15:51
Speaker 1: So but you know, Kyle captured it all on film
15:55
Speaker 1: and as well as the previous hunt, so that footage
15:58
Speaker 1: will be airing somewhere. I'm just not you exactly where yet.
16:02
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So what was going through your mind or
16:05
Speaker 1: what were you feeling when you finally walked up on
16:07
Speaker 1: him after all these years of watching this deer and
16:10
Speaker 1: thinking about him and planning for it, now it actually
16:13
Speaker 1: had all come to fruition. Well, you know, we we've
16:18
Speaker 1: seen him drop. But uh, like I had mentioned in
16:21
Speaker 1: the earlier podcast, I wanted my dad to be there
16:24
Speaker 1: when I walked up on him, and uh so we
16:28
Speaker 1: just slipped out and and uh, you know, I'd called
16:30
Speaker 1: my dad and then we needed some some more better
16:33
Speaker 1: lights for the recovery to get it on video. And
16:36
Speaker 1: so I called my partner and good friend Kevin Bowyer
16:41
Speaker 1: to bring us some some lights for video. And and
16:45
Speaker 1: so we was back at my house waiting, uh for
16:48
Speaker 1: everybody to show up to go on and on the recovery.
16:50
Speaker 1: And actually, by the time we went on the inn
16:52
Speaker 1: on the recovery, there was about eight guys there. Uh,
16:56
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine, Alan Foster, I've talked about
16:59
Speaker 1: a lot in past podcasts and such um mentor mind
17:04
Speaker 1: when I was young. Kind of yes, I say all
17:08
Speaker 1: the time. He saved me about ten years on the
17:10
Speaker 1: learning curve as far as hunting Big Bucks. And well,
17:14
Speaker 1: he showed up, so he was along, and then my
17:16
Speaker 1: dad was there, and and Kevin Bowyer, my partner was
17:19
Speaker 1: in real world, was there. So yeah, we walked up
17:23
Speaker 1: there and it didn't take us any time to find him,
17:25
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, my dad was kind of a
17:27
Speaker 1: little bit reluctant to be the first one to go
17:29
Speaker 1: up there, but I dug him up there, and him
17:32
Speaker 1: and I grabbed that rack about the same time and
17:34
Speaker 1: picked it up. And it was pretty awesome. I mean, now,
17:39
Speaker 1: I said on the interview in the Blind right after
17:41
Speaker 1: I shot the buck that I'd waited thirteen years for
17:43
Speaker 1: that at tap And what I meant by that was
17:47
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and four, I'd shot my first
17:49
Speaker 1: two buck and I've been on a quest to do
17:52
Speaker 1: it again. But I wanted the first one was not
17:54
Speaker 1: on video or anything, and I wanted to do it again.
17:58
Speaker 1: I wanted to do it on video. And uh, you know,
18:02
Speaker 1: for thirteen years, I've been stomping the woods trying to
18:05
Speaker 1: find another two buck and came close to a couple
18:09
Speaker 1: of times. I found a couple that were well into
18:11
Speaker 1: the one nineties, but other hunters ended up shooting him
18:13
Speaker 1: before I did. Um. But you know, when it all
18:17
Speaker 1: came together, Kyle Harmon said, he said, I don't think
18:20
Speaker 1: I've ever seen you get worked up while you're hunting,
18:23
Speaker 1: and uh, but he said he was worked up on
18:27
Speaker 1: that one, and I was a little bit. I mean,
18:29
Speaker 1: it was all post like shooting my first dear again.
18:33
Speaker 1: It was a pretty sweet feeling. Yeah. So now that
18:36
Speaker 1: you accomplished this quest that you've been on for thirteen years,
18:40
Speaker 1: is it Is it everything you thought it would be
18:43
Speaker 1: that you hoped to be. Do you feel like a
18:45
Speaker 1: sense of fulfillment that you thought you would have accomplishing
18:48
Speaker 1: this goal, or I don't know, I mean, where's your
18:50
Speaker 1: head at now that you've you've checked this off the
18:53
Speaker 1: list that you've been trying to achieve for so long. Well,
18:59
Speaker 1: it's really a mix of emotions. You know. I'm I'm
19:04
Speaker 1: obviously happy and elated I did it, um. But at
19:08
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, others there's almost a sense
19:11
Speaker 1: of regret that Smokey's not there to chase anymore, because
19:15
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been anxiously checking trail cameras for the
19:19
Speaker 1: last few years looking for his picture, you know, in
19:23
Speaker 1: the summertime when I put the cameras out for the
19:26
Speaker 1: first time, I can't wait to get smoke these pictures
19:28
Speaker 1: for that that year, to see if he's put on
19:30
Speaker 1: any antler growth over the previous year. And uh, you
19:35
Speaker 1: know that there's a little bit of regret that that's gone.
19:37
Speaker 1: And you know, in a lot of ways, I don't
19:41
Speaker 1: feel any different, uh than I did before. I'm still
19:45
Speaker 1: the same person I was. And um, I think I
19:51
Speaker 1: mentioned to earlier that you know, I I didn't even
19:55
Speaker 1: measure the rack until this morning, which is about almost
20:01
Speaker 1: forty eight hours later. Um, and I'd almost resigned myself
20:07
Speaker 1: to the fact that he might not make two. And
20:11
Speaker 1: you know, he was gonna be what he's gonna be.
20:12
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna stretch the tape or anything or making
20:15
Speaker 1: something he wasn't. It's if he made it, he did,
20:19
Speaker 1: if he didn't, he didn't, you know it, it's gonna
20:22
Speaker 1: be no different. So it's just kind of hard to describe. Yeah, yeah,
20:31
Speaker 1: I can't imagine, but I'm very I'm very happy for
20:35
Speaker 1: it Down. I'm glad that the hunt came together, and
20:38
Speaker 1: I know that feeling of hunting a deer for multiple
20:40
Speaker 1: years and finally be able to walk up on him
20:43
Speaker 1: and have that that mixture of excitement and gratitude and
20:47
Speaker 1: yet also you know, some some sadness or remorse knowing
20:50
Speaker 1: that deer won't be won't be around any longer to
20:53
Speaker 1: kind of fill your mind with dreams and to think
20:56
Speaker 1: about every time he head into the woods. So I
20:59
Speaker 1: hope there's another one soon for you down to get
21:01
Speaker 1: you excited. I'm sure there will be. And uh Man,
21:04
Speaker 1: just want to thank you again for sharing the store
21:06
Speaker 1: with us now and uh congrats again, Well, thank you Mark,
21:11
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and I appreciate every time you have
21:14
Speaker 1: me on um. You know, I every time I'm on
21:18
Speaker 1: one of your podcasts, I just start getting messages on Facebook,
21:22
Speaker 1: people saying how much they loved it and such, And
21:25
Speaker 1: I just want to thank you for what you do
21:27
Speaker 1: for the industry. You know, you bring a lot of
21:32
Speaker 1: people out there and give them a platform to to
21:35
Speaker 1: speak and for the rest of us to learn. And
21:37
Speaker 1: you know I listened to other people on your podcast,
21:39
Speaker 1: So keep up the great work and I wish you
21:41
Speaker 1: the best of luck this season. Well, thanks so much
21:44
Speaker 1: for saying that down. I really appreciate it. And uh,
21:46
Speaker 1: let's plan on getting on an episode again here soon
21:49
Speaker 1: next time you kill one of these big old giants
21:51
Speaker 1: and you can you can teach us all or continue
21:53
Speaker 1: to teach us all. How you do it, well, I'll
21:55
Speaker 1: be glad to get on anytime. Mark, you just let
21:57
Speaker 1: me know when. But before we get to our first update,
22:01
Speaker 1: don't let's pause it. Thank our sponsors at sit gi
22:03
Speaker 1: Gear and for this week's Sitka story, we're joined by
22:07
Speaker 1: Sitka investor Brandon Knightzel, who tells us about an early
22:10
Speaker 1: season whitetail hunt where everything came together. So every years
22:14
Speaker 1: I go out high and I always try to get
22:16
Speaker 1: a buck early season. Um. I always tried to get
22:19
Speaker 1: in the first week or two because I've actually gotten
22:21
Speaker 1: pretty good at parents having me in the different bucks.
22:23
Speaker 1: And Um. This long buck, in particular to split G
22:26
Speaker 1: two on his left side, so it's pretty cooarly had
22:28
Speaker 1: a lot of character. He was missing his browl turned
22:30
Speaker 1: on the right side. UM. And I had just tons
22:32
Speaker 1: and tons of pictures of him. I thought I had
22:34
Speaker 1: him patterned really really well. UM. And I actually had
22:38
Speaker 1: thirteen out of fourteen days in a row he was
22:41
Speaker 1: in the same location within a half an hour. UM.
22:44
Speaker 1: So I wasn't able to hunt on opening day. I
22:46
Speaker 1: had a friend that was getting married that day. But
22:48
Speaker 1: on the second day I was able to go out
22:50
Speaker 1: to the tree stand. Um and I actually had a
22:52
Speaker 1: dough and a faun bust me. I don't know if
22:55
Speaker 1: they caught wind of me or what the deal was,
22:56
Speaker 1: but they took off, and I thought the whole night
22:58
Speaker 1: was ruined. Um. About seven o'clock at night, this buck
23:02
Speaker 1: ended up coming up by himself. He was speeding. He's
23:05
Speaker 1: being along the side of our court or the soy
23:07
Speaker 1: bean field and he was fifty yards away and I've
23:10
Speaker 1: been practicing at that distance and beyond, and I thought
23:14
Speaker 1: that was the only chance that I get, So I
23:15
Speaker 1: took the shot and there was a perfect double long shot. Yeah,
23:18
Speaker 1: run too far, and that was it for my season.
23:20
Speaker 1: It was opening weekend of archery season, and like I said,
23:23
Speaker 1: that's something I wanted to do every year but definitely
23:26
Speaker 1: doesn't pan out that way. So it's pretty cool having
23:28
Speaker 1: to work out in my favor on that On that
23:30
Speaker 1: particular book on Brandon's hunt, he was wearing sick his
23:34
Speaker 1: Core Lightweight hoodie and Equinox pants. If you'd like to
23:38
Speaker 1: create a sikest story of your own, or to learn
23:40
Speaker 1: more about sitkaus technical hunting apparel, visit sitkey gear dot com. Alright,
23:46
Speaker 1: and joining us on the podcast first is Kyle Bennett
23:49
Speaker 1: with q d M A out of Mississippi. Now, Kyle
23:52
Speaker 1: in Mississippi, what would you say the buck activity has
23:54
Speaker 1: been lately on a scale of one to ten? All right, now,
23:59
Speaker 1: think well at about a six for the year at
24:02
Speaker 1: this point in the season in October, we're still in
24:05
Speaker 1: uh In in an early season type tattern um. We
24:10
Speaker 1: are still seeing a little bit of buck movement, especially
24:14
Speaker 1: in the late evenings on on food sources, and uh
24:18
Speaker 1: in the mornings also if you can catch them between
24:20
Speaker 1: the bed and food. So, if you are on that
24:23
Speaker 1: early season patron right now, how far off of like
24:26
Speaker 1: pre rut do you think you guys are? Well, we're
24:30
Speaker 1: kind of in a unique situation in the part of Mississippi.
24:34
Speaker 1: I hunt in southwest Mississippi where our rut is between
24:40
Speaker 1: Christmas Day and the years every year, so our pre
24:43
Speaker 1: rut typically doesn't kick in until November time frame, um,
24:49
Speaker 1: early to mid November. So for us, most of October
24:53
Speaker 1: and early novemborough's all in uh pre rut type situation.
24:59
Speaker 1: Uh that puts us probably still three or four weeks
25:02
Speaker 1: from from good pre road activity. Well for this next
25:07
Speaker 1: month or so. Then, while you're in those early season patterns,
25:11
Speaker 1: what does a typical set up look like for you guys? Right,
25:15
Speaker 1: We're typically in the evenings where you're still gonna hunt
25:18
Speaker 1: food sources of these are typically green food plots, hunt
25:23
Speaker 1: a lot of native food sources of white oaks and
25:27
Speaker 1: red oaks that dropped during the various times on a
25:30
Speaker 1: lot of native per semon, a lot of native honey locusts,
25:34
Speaker 1: all those food sources are great places to catch bucks
25:37
Speaker 1: this time of year, in the mornings, we're typically hunting
25:41
Speaker 1: travel routes between bed and food. If you can get
25:44
Speaker 1: a few hundreds youngers off of a big destination tout
25:47
Speaker 1: food source, especially somewhere joking to some real thick covers,
25:52
Speaker 1: you can catch the bucks coming back from bed and
25:56
Speaker 1: have pretty good success during that for this next month.
25:59
Speaker 1: Then while you're in those early season patterns, what are
26:02
Speaker 1: you doing for your trail cameras as well? So my
26:06
Speaker 1: trail cames right now. I'll recently just pulled off of
26:10
Speaker 1: all my summer type patterns, which I generally have them
26:14
Speaker 1: on mineral sites and and protein feeder sites. I just
26:20
Speaker 1: pulled all of those off in the summer. That's where
26:22
Speaker 1: I uh take inventory of all my deer and move
26:26
Speaker 1: them all to travel routes and food sources. To travel
26:30
Speaker 1: routes are between bed and food, typically close to the
26:34
Speaker 1: food source. If I can find an area where the
26:37
Speaker 1: deer typically enter a food source, that's a great way
26:40
Speaker 1: to a great area to place a camera and also
26:43
Speaker 1: directly on the food sources. Um that way I can
26:48
Speaker 1: get a good idea of at what time they are
26:50
Speaker 1: hitting the food source and also helps me to take
26:54
Speaker 1: stock in which bucks are entering the fields, witch bugs
26:58
Speaker 1: are entering which fields at what time and where? Well,
27:02
Speaker 1: is it too late then for bachelor groups? Are you
27:04
Speaker 1: still seeing some bucks grouped up then at this point right,
27:08
Speaker 1: because of our later n scheduled in other parts of
27:11
Speaker 1: the country this time of year, we typically do still
27:14
Speaker 1: have bachelor groups. Uh. In fact, I just saw a
27:17
Speaker 1: bachelor group over the weekend. Well, going forward then in
27:21
Speaker 1: this next week or so, what do you think the
27:22
Speaker 1: buck activity is going to be on a scale of
27:24
Speaker 1: one to tend In Mississippi, we actually just got a
27:30
Speaker 1: really huge co front this time of year, So how
27:33
Speaker 1: would bumped the activity, especially in the evenings up to
27:36
Speaker 1: at least of seven and a half maybe in eight
27:39
Speaker 1: the temperatures dropped probably ten to fifteen degrees off of
27:43
Speaker 1: the average at tempts that it has been the past
27:45
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. All right, Kyle, Well, good luck with
27:48
Speaker 1: those early season bucks and hope to hear from you
27:50
Speaker 1: later in the year. Fantastic, thank you and joining us
27:55
Speaker 1: on the line. Next is Jake Gregor's A guide for
27:58
Speaker 1: Daybreak ranch in South Dakota. Now, Jake in South Dakota,
28:02
Speaker 1: what would you say the deer activity has been lately
28:04
Speaker 1: on the scale of one to ten, I would say
28:07
Speaker 1: it's somewhere around uh five or six, with some days
28:11
Speaker 1: uh maybe up around eight or nine even And so
28:15
Speaker 1: what has been making some of those days better than
28:17
Speaker 1: the others? Well, going back about a week ago, um,
28:22
Speaker 1: four or five days after the full moon, we had
28:25
Speaker 1: some fronts come through that um, you know, high pressure
28:29
Speaker 1: days and then chiley nights. It got down to seventeen
28:33
Speaker 1: right here where we're at one evening, and uh, deer
28:36
Speaker 1: work coming out of the woodwork those days. Um. But
28:41
Speaker 1: with some warmer weather in and out of those days,
28:45
Speaker 1: some days they're just better than others. Well, Jake, living
28:49
Speaker 1: in the heart of egg land there, how do you
28:52
Speaker 1: think harvest has been affecting deer patterns so far? And
28:54
Speaker 1: how do you think it's going to affect your patterns
28:56
Speaker 1: going forward? I don't think it's affected much yet. Guys
29:00
Speaker 1: are just wrapping up harvesting soybeans right now. I know
29:04
Speaker 1: some guys are starting on corn and sunflowers here. So
29:09
Speaker 1: in the next week or two there'll be some big changes.
29:12
Speaker 1: Deer are really spread out right now, living pretty much well,
29:17
Speaker 1: I should say, spending most of their days in those
29:19
Speaker 1: standing crops. And once those are harvested, I think it's
29:23
Speaker 1: going to really um dictate where the deer spend their time.
29:27
Speaker 1: So you're gonna see deer going from these crop fields
29:30
Speaker 1: to spending most of their time in farmyards and shelter
29:34
Speaker 1: belts and and even you know, big bucks will probably
29:37
Speaker 1: even head for these patch weed patches in the middle
29:41
Speaker 1: of the open prairie, you know, some wild sunflowers or
29:45
Speaker 1: kochcha weed. So um, yeah, there'll be some big changes
29:49
Speaker 1: here once these crops start rolling out. Now, are you,
29:52
Speaker 1: personally or any of the clients, have they been hunting
29:55
Speaker 1: any mornings yet or has it been pretty much strictly
29:57
Speaker 1: evenings up until this point. Yeah? Both Actually, uh, typically
30:02
Speaker 1: earlier in the year, you'd think you just want to
30:04
Speaker 1: hunt evenings. But with the right conditions, and we've had
30:08
Speaker 1: some pretty good days for cooler weather, especially in the morning,
30:12
Speaker 1: frost on the ground. Um, we got a lot of
30:15
Speaker 1: places we can get um kind of in between where
30:19
Speaker 1: the deer are making their rounds at night and headed
30:22
Speaker 1: back to headed back to cover in the morning, and
30:25
Speaker 1: and we can be in the right at the right
30:27
Speaker 1: time in the morning to intercept him. So um, deer
30:30
Speaker 1: activity has been actually pretty good in the mornings as
30:33
Speaker 1: well as the evenings. Um, some of those days when
30:37
Speaker 1: it was really chilly, the bucks were moving actually really late,
30:41
Speaker 1: I mean thirty nine o'clock in the morning, and some
30:43
Speaker 1: of the big bucks were still still visible and making
30:46
Speaker 1: their way back to the bed. Now, I know you
30:49
Speaker 1: run a number of trail cameras there, and what if
30:51
Speaker 1: those have been telling you lately, are there's still a
30:53
Speaker 1: lot of bucks that are moving, you know, in the
30:55
Speaker 1: middle of the night, or have you been getting better
30:58
Speaker 1: movement as we've gotten deeper into October. Uh, yeah, they're
31:02
Speaker 1: they're moving a lot at night. But they're all Um,
31:06
Speaker 1: like I said a little bit ago, they're coming from
31:09
Speaker 1: what I gather, they're they're coming out of these crowd
31:12
Speaker 1: fields in the evening and they're making their way whatever
31:16
Speaker 1: distance up to a few miles two trees wherever there's trees,
31:21
Speaker 1: you know, groves, farmyards, and they're they're really starting to
31:26
Speaker 1: scrape and rub on everything. So um, I mean there's
31:30
Speaker 1: apple trees in the backyard and that's just covered with
31:33
Speaker 1: scrapes underneath it. Um, So they're they're doing a lot
31:38
Speaker 1: of that at night. But once these these crops come
31:42
Speaker 1: out and they're forced to spend more of their time
31:44
Speaker 1: closer to the where those scrapes and rubs are, I
31:47
Speaker 1: think they'll be doing that, you know, more more killable
31:51
Speaker 1: times of the day. Well, we're coming up quickly here
31:55
Speaker 1: on South Dakota's pheasant open and living in the pheasant
31:58
Speaker 1: capital of the world. How do you think that's going
32:00
Speaker 1: to change things for you and deer hunting wise? It
32:03
Speaker 1: always makes it a little tougher. Um. It pushes deer around.
32:07
Speaker 1: You know, if you if you have a big deer
32:09
Speaker 1: patterned and pheasant hunting goes on anywhere near where he's at,
32:14
Speaker 1: it could definitely spoil that for you. Um. On the
32:18
Speaker 1: other hand, it can push in deer from neighboring properties
32:21
Speaker 1: and and all of a sudden you might have a
32:24
Speaker 1: big deer that you you never knew us around and
32:26
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, he's he's a deer you're hunting.
32:29
Speaker 1: So um, it's good and bad, but it will definitely
32:34
Speaker 1: push deer around, and that, along with the harvest getting
32:37
Speaker 1: rolling good here in the next week or two, there'll
32:40
Speaker 1: be a lot a lot of changes going on, all right, Jake, Well,
32:43
Speaker 1: going forward in this next week or so, what do
32:46
Speaker 1: you think the Deer ACTVT is going to be on
32:47
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten, Well, I think the
32:50
Speaker 1: bucks are getting more and more ramped up every day.
32:52
Speaker 1: It looks like we have a few warm days here,
32:55
Speaker 1: and then after this weekend, the twenty one, I think
32:58
Speaker 1: it starts to cool down, and they extended forecast shows
33:02
Speaker 1: every day getting a little cooler from there, I believe, so, Um,
33:07
Speaker 1: the hunting should actually get pretty good. The bucks are
33:10
Speaker 1: gonna the well deer in general, and the bucks they're
33:12
Speaker 1: gonna get kind of pinched down. Right now, they're still
33:16
Speaker 1: spending most of their time where they did all summer
33:18
Speaker 1: in these standing crowd fields, and they're gonna start getting
33:21
Speaker 1: pinched down where where if you're you're hunting any of
33:25
Speaker 1: these places that they are rubbing and scraping and spending
33:29
Speaker 1: more of their time. Now, Um, you'll be able to
33:32
Speaker 1: catch them doing though, you know, those activities maybe morning
33:36
Speaker 1: and evening and then also on their way to food
33:41
Speaker 1: sources from there. So in my mind they kind of
33:43
Speaker 1: do the opposite. They're gonna end up doing the opposite
33:46
Speaker 1: of what they're doing now. Now they spend their time
33:47
Speaker 1: in the standing crops in the evenings they had for
33:51
Speaker 1: for cover and trees and snoop around. And then now
33:55
Speaker 1: I think, um, things will kind of reverse and they'll
33:58
Speaker 1: spend their time and more those farmyards and cover and
34:02
Speaker 1: make their way in the evenings to food sources and
34:05
Speaker 1: and the bucks will be checking out those as we
34:07
Speaker 1: get in the later October here. So going forward in
34:10
Speaker 1: the next week or two, I would say that the
34:12
Speaker 1: hunting is only gonna get better. It'll probably be probably
34:16
Speaker 1: an eight or a nine. All right, Jake, Well, thanks
34:18
Speaker 1: for joining me, and good luck to you and your
34:20
Speaker 1: clients going forward. Thanks for having me. Take care. Before
34:24
Speaker 1: we get to our next call, though, let's pause it,
34:26
Speaker 1: thank our sponsors at white Tail Properties. This week with
34:29
Speaker 1: white Tail Properties, we are joined by Adam Hayden, a
34:32
Speaker 1: land specialist out of Ohio, and Adam is going to
34:35
Speaker 1: be giving us some tips on how to fix target panic. Well,
34:38
Speaker 1: those numerous things you can do to get over target panic.
34:41
Speaker 1: I mean, at one point or another, I feel like
34:43
Speaker 1: just about every archer out there, I struggled with this
34:46
Speaker 1: in some way, shape or form, And you know, I
34:48
Speaker 1: think it'd be best just to talk about my experiences. UM.
34:52
Speaker 1: You know, I shot competitively for several years on a
34:54
Speaker 1: national level, and one thing that helped me and helps
34:59
Speaker 1: me to continue to stay ahead of it. UM, you're
35:03
Speaker 1: just doing some blank bell shooting. And by that, I mean,
35:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's a simple as hanging a target without
35:09
Speaker 1: a face on it, or you may maybe maybe you
35:11
Speaker 1: just put a blank face up. Uh. And you're not
35:14
Speaker 1: really paying attention to your pins. You're not paying attention
35:16
Speaker 1: to where your pins set, You're not even paying attention
35:19
Speaker 1: to the movement or anything. The only thing that you're
35:22
Speaker 1: trying to do is make a good shot. And by
35:24
Speaker 1: that I mean you're not punching the trigger, you're not flinching,
35:26
Speaker 1: You're just letting the pin kind of just settle in.
35:29
Speaker 1: You're wanting it to steady up. Your relaxed, and you're
35:33
Speaker 1: pulling through the shot. You're following through and there's you know,
35:37
Speaker 1: it's just one of the numerous things that you can do. UM.
35:41
Speaker 1: And I typically do that with a back tension release. UM.
35:44
Speaker 1: You know, over the past couple of years, I have
35:46
Speaker 1: began shooting with the wristtrap release while hunting. UM. But occasionally.
35:51
Speaker 1: I still uh, I still use a back tension as well,
35:55
Speaker 1: but again just just also something that helps me is
35:57
Speaker 1: switching back and forth between releases. You know, shoot a
36:00
Speaker 1: restract for a while, she thumb button for a while,
36:02
Speaker 1: she's a restract for a while, and it helps me
36:05
Speaker 1: to kind of stay ahead of it. If you'd like
36:07
Speaker 1: to learn more and to see the properties that Adam
36:10
Speaker 1: currently has listed for sale, visit white tail properties dot com.
36:14
Speaker 1: Backslash Hayden that's h A Y D E N alright
36:19
Speaker 1: and joining me on the line next is Nick Kravitz
36:21
Speaker 1: from Pennsylvania with flat Line White Tails. Now, Nick, in
36:26
Speaker 1: your state of Pennsylvania, what would you say the buck
36:28
Speaker 1: activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten,
36:32
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say probably a six at the moment, and
36:36
Speaker 1: possibly seven. And the reason I would say that would
36:39
Speaker 1: be is because recently we had a cold front come
36:42
Speaker 1: in on the sixteenth, and I think that just increased
36:47
Speaker 1: the buck activity. Well, for those of you who don't
36:50
Speaker 1: follow flat Line White Tails, go and check them out,
36:53
Speaker 1: because three people on Nick's team, including Nick, just tagged
36:57
Speaker 1: out on some awesome bucks. So I'm surprised to hear
36:59
Speaker 1: you a nick that it's only a six or seven,
37:01
Speaker 1: But what did those setups look like for you guys
37:04
Speaker 1: to take three bucks on the evening of October six, Well,
37:09
Speaker 1: we actually had two similar setups. Myself and actually my
37:13
Speaker 1: brother was the other one that shot a buck. We
37:16
Speaker 1: were both hunting corn fields and Um, Brooke Williams our neighbor,
37:22
Speaker 1: she was actually hunting in Oak Ridge, And that's pretty
37:25
Speaker 1: much what sealed the deal for us. They were up
37:28
Speaker 1: on their feet early in daylight hours and they were
37:31
Speaker 1: just sitting the food sources man, and those food sources, Um,
37:35
Speaker 1: it sounds like he's diverse as corn and acorns right now.
37:39
Speaker 1: Where they were mostly focused on acorns, Well, where Tyler
37:44
Speaker 1: and I were hunting, um, it's kind of like there's
37:47
Speaker 1: only corn, and where Brooke was hunting, there's a lot
37:49
Speaker 1: of acorns. She's hunting more of like a mountain buck,
37:52
Speaker 1: and Tyler and I were hunting more of, uh, like
37:55
Speaker 1: a fireland agricultural buck. And so you don't think had
38:00
Speaker 1: you not had that cold front, that you'd have seen
38:01
Speaker 1: those dear. Um, Judging by the way it's been the
38:06
Speaker 1: past couple of weeks, it's been super warm, and I
38:09
Speaker 1: really think like and I'm talking like seventies eighties. It's
38:13
Speaker 1: been miserable, sweating to get to your tree stand. Almost
38:15
Speaker 1: not even worth going out, I mean, because you're just
38:18
Speaker 1: gonna be pressuring your stands. And the fact that this
38:21
Speaker 1: cold front rolled in and it dropped down into like
38:24
Speaker 1: almost freezing temperatures, um, was just the ticket. I'm sold
38:30
Speaker 1: on it. I mean, there's living proof of it. Speaking
38:32
Speaker 1: of that buck, what is your history with him? Did
38:35
Speaker 1: you know this dear was around or have you seen
38:37
Speaker 1: him in the past. Actually, it's a funny story about that.
38:41
Speaker 1: After Tyler and I approached this deer and we realized,
38:44
Speaker 1: you know what I had done, and we gave it
38:46
Speaker 1: a good look, we kind of looked at each other
38:48
Speaker 1: and said, you know what, that's actually a buck we
38:51
Speaker 1: called Slingshot. From a couple of years ago, um, two
38:54
Speaker 1: or three years ago, we had got pictures of him
38:57
Speaker 1: as a two and a half year old, and then
39:00
Speaker 1: the next year we had pictures of him on the
39:02
Speaker 1: trail camera as a three and a half year old,
39:04
Speaker 1: and then he disappeared the last couple of years and
39:07
Speaker 1: then we hadn't even seen him on camera. And I
39:09
Speaker 1: went in there actually the night before to hunt a
39:12
Speaker 1: different buck, and sure enough, this slingshot came out, came
39:16
Speaker 1: out of the blue. I don't know where he was. Well,
39:19
Speaker 1: are you seeing much yet for pre rod sign as
39:22
Speaker 1: far as scrapes, robs, or any chasing. We do notice
39:26
Speaker 1: they seemed to be running their scrapes and checking them,
39:28
Speaker 1: and definitely this cold front had them up on their feet,
39:30
Speaker 1: and I think they were checking their scrapes a little
39:32
Speaker 1: more in the daylight hours. And we're seeing, you know,
39:35
Speaker 1: quite a few rubs. I mean, there were some nice
39:37
Speaker 1: rubs around where I killed my buck, And it's just
39:41
Speaker 1: it seems like things are starting to turn on a
39:43
Speaker 1: little bit. But I mean, we still got a couple
39:45
Speaker 1: of weeks till it's really money time. So all three
39:49
Speaker 1: of you with flat line white tails that were hunting,
39:51
Speaker 1: you guys were all hunting evening setups. Have you been
39:54
Speaker 1: hunting any mornings yet? Up until this point. I did
39:57
Speaker 1: hunt a couple of mornings. Um, I didn't have the
40:00
Speaker 1: sightings that I would have liked to see. I mean,
40:03
Speaker 1: most people aren't hunting mornings that much in the early season,
40:05
Speaker 1: but I like to get out a few times here
40:07
Speaker 1: and there due to my work schedule. But yes, we
40:10
Speaker 1: were all three of us hunting evening sets, and it
40:13
Speaker 1: seems like the evening sets have been the tickets so
40:16
Speaker 1: far this year. All right, we're going forward, Nick, in
40:19
Speaker 1: this next week or so, what do you think the
40:21
Speaker 1: buck activity is going to be on a scale of
40:23
Speaker 1: one to tend in Pennsylvania? I would say it's probably
40:28
Speaker 1: going to stick around the same, if not drop a
40:31
Speaker 1: couple because I did here. I mean, it's gonna get
40:33
Speaker 1: a little bit warmer again, and uh, I just think
40:37
Speaker 1: that's going to deter them a little bit. But I
40:39
Speaker 1: think it's gonna probably remain around a six or seven
40:43
Speaker 1: for the next couple of days. All Right, Well, thanks
40:46
Speaker 1: for joining me, Nick, and congratsating us and buck Thanks man,
40:49
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. It's an honor, you know, God
40:52
Speaker 1: is good. Alright, And joining me on the line. Next
40:55
Speaker 1: is Josh McDaniel of Indiana with real treaty. Now, John
41:00
Speaker 1: in Indiana, what would you say the bucket activity has
41:02
Speaker 1: been lately on a scale of one to ten, I'm
41:05
Speaker 1: looking at probably about a four out of ten right now.
41:08
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's pretty slow here. We just come out
41:11
Speaker 1: of a nice little front that that's kind of that
41:14
Speaker 1: last little front. I feel like of the the early
41:17
Speaker 1: season that if you needed to get on one to
41:19
Speaker 1: get on him, then it looks like it's gonna warm
41:21
Speaker 1: back up on us a little bit. So it's just, uh,
41:23
Speaker 1: they're tough right now. It's um, dear, movement's pretty slow.
41:28
Speaker 1: It's uh, we got a mask. We've got a bumper
41:30
Speaker 1: crop on acorns right now, so they're pretty much lay
41:33
Speaker 1: in her food all day. They don't really have a
41:35
Speaker 1: need to get up super early. And of course it's
41:38
Speaker 1: not been quite cold enough, so right now at this moment,
41:40
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty slow, man, it's not really good. Well,
41:43
Speaker 1: those hunters who are finding success, what kind of tactics
41:47
Speaker 1: are they using right now? So right now, you know,
41:52
Speaker 1: we had pretty good luck last week on that first
41:55
Speaker 1: little little front of the early season. There. Uh, if
41:58
Speaker 1: you're in on tight on food, if you got a
42:00
Speaker 1: nice little cutaway killed plots somewhere that's half acre three,
42:04
Speaker 1: you know, an acre somewhere that you're right on their
42:06
Speaker 1: bed where they're not going far. You know they're you're
42:09
Speaker 1: getting a lot of good daylight pictures morning and evening
42:11
Speaker 1: where you know you're right there. Um, those guys are
42:14
Speaker 1: doing pretty good probably if if that bucks um showing
42:17
Speaker 1: any kind of daylight activity at all, or if he's
42:19
Speaker 1: sewing up right, you know, last light, our first light
42:22
Speaker 1: in the morning and last light and the evening and
42:24
Speaker 1: you get a little cold front and those bucks right
42:26
Speaker 1: now are a lot of guys are shooting, but they're
42:28
Speaker 1: far in a few between right now. I mean there's
42:30
Speaker 1: you got fifteen target bucks or after you know, two
42:33
Speaker 1: of them might be showing anything like that. UM. And
42:37
Speaker 1: I just said, we just just kind of come out
42:38
Speaker 1: of that this last little front. It's gonna start warming
42:41
Speaker 1: back up on us. So it's definitely slowing down right
42:44
Speaker 1: for what I call the wall period there. So it
42:47
Speaker 1: sounds like, Josh that you have just not been very
42:50
Speaker 1: aggressive at all unless you get the right weather. Is
42:52
Speaker 1: that correct? That's correct. Yeah, we've we got a little
42:55
Speaker 1: aggressed of this last week. We killed a nice half
42:58
Speaker 1: RealD buck we've been after yuh, but it was it
43:01
Speaker 1: was a perfect scenario, like when we have the perfect storm.
43:03
Speaker 1: I don't mind get a little addressed that we had
43:04
Speaker 1: been waiting on a north wind and we put in
43:07
Speaker 1: this kill plot. But I don't don't know, three quarters
43:09
Speaker 1: an acre size and I have a two acre lake
43:12
Speaker 1: for a long lake that kind of comes up to it,
43:14
Speaker 1: and we literally got on the boat the south end
43:16
Speaker 1: of it and just pader and went all the way
43:18
Speaker 1: up to the plot almost we literally have like thirty
43:21
Speaker 1: yards and then we're in the set and sounding like
43:23
Speaker 1: a little boats when we come up out of the
43:25
Speaker 1: out of the lake and uh, we're in our set.
43:28
Speaker 1: So that that was about the most aggressive. Like for
43:31
Speaker 1: the most part, we're stopping on edges, and like I said,
43:33
Speaker 1: with these these acorns like they are, it's hard to
43:35
Speaker 1: dive off in there without disturbing much. So we kind
43:39
Speaker 1: of had to sit back and serve. And we've just
43:41
Speaker 1: not had much luck. Everything's a lot of dose, a
43:44
Speaker 1: lot of little bucks, but um but some of the
43:46
Speaker 1: scrapes and rubbs trying to pop up like typical, you know,
43:49
Speaker 1: but nothing nothing real aggressive yet for sure. Well, you
43:54
Speaker 1: just referenced, you know, doing a lot of observing right now,
43:57
Speaker 1: and so what are you doing with your trail cameras?
43:59
Speaker 1: Are you changing anything now going into this lull period? Yeah, yeah,
44:04
Speaker 1: this is about that time. I'm I'm pulling all my
44:06
Speaker 1: cameras off of a lot of my food that I
44:08
Speaker 1: had just because a lot of it's just it's all
44:10
Speaker 1: drying up. Beans are done turning on us. Uh go
44:13
Speaker 1: on all especially right here southern Indiana, we're getting uh
44:17
Speaker 1: everything get picked. Everything's getting hard of So now what
44:19
Speaker 1: we're doing is a lot of these sub scrapes are
44:21
Speaker 1: starting to pop up, and uh, we'll go in. We'll
44:24
Speaker 1: do is refreshing those, or we'll go into a historical
44:28
Speaker 1: spot that normally always has a lot of big scrapes
44:30
Speaker 1: on it, and I'll go ahead and start opening those
44:31
Speaker 1: up and making mock scrapes and well ahead and start
44:33
Speaker 1: getting their cameras put on those. And then you know,
44:36
Speaker 1: a lot of time it will be nighttime right now.
44:37
Speaker 1: But it's just giving me an inventory on what's in
44:40
Speaker 1: the area. Uh, just kind of getting repped up into
44:43
Speaker 1: that next phase here before long. And um, you know,
44:46
Speaker 1: and if we get a front here moving forward during
44:49
Speaker 1: that law parade there, you can still get one killed.
44:52
Speaker 1: And if you get anything coming in, get any pictures,
44:54
Speaker 1: anything coming in, like said, right at last light, you
44:56
Speaker 1: getting on the front, you might be like getting killed.
44:58
Speaker 1: But yeah, right now I'll start get that exciting time
45:01
Speaker 1: for us for starting to get that those first good cameras.
45:04
Speaker 1: We want the inventory of the year going into the
45:08
Speaker 1: you know, the pre rut. So we're going forward then
45:11
Speaker 1: in this next week or so, Josh, what do you
45:12
Speaker 1: think the bucket TV is going to be on a
45:14
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten? Oh man, I have not
45:17
Speaker 1: looked too far ahead on the weather. But because weather
45:20
Speaker 1: trump's everything right now, I don't want to give it
45:23
Speaker 1: too low a number. I'll go another four probably moving forward.
45:26
Speaker 1: But if we can get the guy can get one
45:28
Speaker 1: that he's got pretty patterned right now. Uh, as far
45:30
Speaker 1: as at least at that last light or first light
45:33
Speaker 1: in the morning. If the guy can get a good
45:35
Speaker 1: front right now, um, he can still get one killed.
45:38
Speaker 1: It's not the it's not into the world, but that
45:40
Speaker 1: weather is that weather makes uh makes a big deal
45:43
Speaker 1: on that. But right now I'm moving for and I'm
45:45
Speaker 1: not real optimistic right now. A matter of fact, right
45:47
Speaker 1: now it's about the time we'd like to go and
45:49
Speaker 1: start harder and some dose um just to kind of
45:52
Speaker 1: knock the dust off. And uh, you gotta get ready
45:54
Speaker 1: for that that next phase there. But yeah, four I
45:57
Speaker 1: attend propress what I'd say, all right, Josh, Well thanks
45:59
Speaker 1: for go to me. And good luck going forward. All right,
46:02
Speaker 1: Thanks buddy, and that concludes this week's episode of Wired
46:07
Speaker 1: Hunt's Radio. Good luck to everyone out there was taking
46:10
Speaker 1: advantage of some gun seasons that are starting to open,
46:13
Speaker 1: as well as those of you who are going to
46:15
Speaker 1: be taking advantage of the cold front that's moving through
46:18
Speaker 1: next week. It is almost the twenties of October everyone,
46:23
Speaker 1: and is getting to be that time of year now.
46:26
Speaker 1: We'd like to think our sponsors at Sitka, white Tail Properties,
46:29
Speaker 1: white Tail Institute, Maven Matthews, Ontera Yetti, and Trophy Ridge,
46:35
Speaker 1: and we thank you guys for listening. As always, stay
46:38
Speaker 1: weird to Hunt