Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #162: Planning & Executing DIY Deer Hunting Trips with Andy May – LIVE From the QDMA Convention

Transcript

Wired To Hunt Podcast #162: Planning & Executing DIY Deer Hunting Trips with Andy May – LIVE From the QDMA Convention · 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, and this episode number one sixty
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: two taine the show. We've got a special episode recorded
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in front of a live in person audience, and we're
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: talking about how to plan and execute d I Y
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: deer hunting trips with my friend and super successful deer
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: hunter Andy May. All right, welcome to the Wired to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, brought to you by six Gear, and today
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we have a very very special episode for you. Today's
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: episode was actually recorded last week in front of a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: live studio audience down New Orleans as Louisiana for the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Quality Dear Management Association National Convention, and man it was
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: it was a super super cool event. Myself, my nine
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Finger co host, and our special guest all flew down
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to the Big Easy and at am last Friday, we
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: got up in front of a crowd of I guess
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: maybe a couple hundred people and we throw on our headsets.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: We attempted to act semi professional even though I was
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: wearing flip flops, and we talked about planning and executing
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a do it yourself whitetail hunting trip, and then when
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: we wrap that up, we answered some audience questions and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: then spent the rest of the day checking out the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Sports on expo, talking to other deer hunters, eating some seafood,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and then later that evening we actually got to go
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: out with a bunch of Wired Hunt listeners at our
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Wired Hunt meetup, have some cold beverages, catch up, talk
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: about all sorts of good stuff. So overall, it was
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: just an awesome time. And Dan Dan is not on
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: here for a little intro, but in the future episode
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the two of us will talk more about this experience.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: But in short, I think we both had an absolute blast,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and you know, after doing the live recording, both of
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: us were so kind of jacked up about it. We
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: got us thinking about doing more of these kinds of
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: live events, So keep your ears tuned for more info
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: on stuff like this in the future. I think there
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: may be some cool things in store. But with that said,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: for you guys listening today, for this episode, we brought
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: on a guest I've wanted to have on the show
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: for a very very long time, so I'm really excited
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: about this, and I give a longer intro in the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: actual in studio recording or the in I don't know,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: in front of an audience recording. But very briefly, if
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you follow the wire hunt website for any amount of time,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: you've probably seen some of the articles that this guest
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: has written, or you might have seen the d I
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Y Dear profile or that's I guess it's a d
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I Y Dear hunter profile series he's been putting together
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: for us. But this guy is just a machine. And
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about my friend and d I Y Big
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: buck killer Andy May, So you know, if you're not familiar,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you are in for a treat on this one. As Andy,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Dan and I discuss all sorts of different topics related
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to going on these kinds of trips, planning on them,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and pulling off a successful hunt, and I think, honestly,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of stuff we talk about will actually be
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: applicable to, you know, anyone out there hunting a kind
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: of d I Y situation, especially as Andy talks about
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: a lot different tactics related to scouting, and you know,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: how is hunting kind of plans and processes changed throughout
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a trip or even a season so whether or not
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: you're gonna go on a trip, I think you're gonna
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: find things you can apply to your own hunts, and
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I know you're gonna enjoy this. So finally, before we
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: get to that recording, I do want to give a
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: quick shout out to the Quality Deer Management Association for
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: many here because we just had such a great time.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And I've been a member of the q dum AY
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: for coming up, but I think a decade now and
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I really think, without a doubt, I can tell you
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: that there's no better deer hunting conservation organization, resource, or
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: community that's better to be a part of them. The
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Quality Deer Management as social creation. You know, whether you
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: own or least land and manage it or just hunt
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: private land or public, the cutium MAY is is for you.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I think that they are working really hard to make
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: sure that all deer hunters, all deer hunters feel welcome,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: and that all deer hunters find the Cutium MAY beneficial.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, just off the top for no other reason.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Their magazine is just a top notch resource as far
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: as educating you on dear biology and habitat needs and
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: how to age deer and how to manage deer and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: all that good stuff. But then there's also lots of
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: great hunting stories and hunting strategy pieces and their website
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: and seminars and online courses and in person events. They're
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: just there's just so many tremendous resources that you have
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: access to through this group. So this past week I
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: was just reminded of that. I guess how what a
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: special organization that is. Um The people that are part
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: of it are awesome. Um So I'm just I'm just
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: very appreciative the fact that this organization is out there
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: and that they invite us down to record a podcasts
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: at their convention. And what is also really cool is
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: that the qt um A is offering a special opportunity
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: for wire tent listeners if you'd like to become a
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: member all the Quality Deer Management Association, which I would highly,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: highly highly recommend you do. So, if you go to
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: their website at q d m A dot com and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: hit the join button, you can use the promo code
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: deer Con that's d E E R c O N
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: deer Con through the end of two thousand seventeen to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: get five bucks off your membership cost and you'll get
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a q d M a hat he grunt to a
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: d kal and the cut M a Aging and Scoring
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Bucks dvity which is which is an awesome resource for
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: learning how to age deer or you know, estimate the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: rack score. And then of course that membership gets you
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: access to all the events I mentioned and their magazine too,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: so it's a heck of a deal. So again, you
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: can head over to cutum a dot com after this podcast,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: click the joint button and use the promo code deer
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: con to get five bucks off your membership and all
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: those other great items. I really think you will all
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: benefit as members. I hope you'll join me as a member.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: And now, without much further ado, we're going to take
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: a break for a word from our partners at Sick
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of Gear, and then we'll toss it over to our
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: live recording down in New Orleans at the q d
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: M a National Convention Enjoy. For this week's sit of Story,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: we're joined by sitcom Ambassador Chad Stearns, who tells us
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: about a memorable white tail hunt in Michigan where he
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't even behind the trigger. Okay, last fall, um, I
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: was hunting a buck that we had deemed the name Dozer,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: three year old buck in central Michigan, and I had
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: been after him for a couple of years, just a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: unique rack, and it was interesting my son was the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: one who actually gave him his nickname. So I've had
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: a couple of long distance encountered during archery season, been
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: trying to hunt some primary scrape areas and could never
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: seem to connect. And one evening late in our Michigan
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Rifles sas in here, my son was with me running
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the video camera and we had kind of change tactics,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: started hunting some food sources, hoping the deer would come out,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and he appeared at about two hundred and fifty yards
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: following a dough out into a picked cornfield. So, you know,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: between he and I trying to coordinate our efforts and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: in Guineamon video and and finally got an open shot.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: We were able to take this deer. And it was
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: special to me because I've spent a lot of time
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: trying to guide my son and a lot of my
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: time recently has been taking him. Sort of share that moment. Buck.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: We've been after, had countless trail camera pictures. I was
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: really kind of special to share that with him. I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: think he was more excited than I was. So, you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: anytime you can take kids out and introduce them to
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the outdoors and have some success, that's just ultra special
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to me. So that one stands out to me as
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a sick moment. He was wearing Fanatic system. If you'd
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: like to create a sick of story of your own,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: or to learn more about sit because technical hunting apparel,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: visit sick of gear dot com. Well, thank you, man,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Um, And this
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: is gonna be very different than what you guys have
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: heard so far today, what you saw maybe yesterday. So
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: before we go any further, before I introduce these guys
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: or talk about much that you'll be interested, I want
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to make sure that everybody knows what a podcast is.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Why we've got these funny things on our heads while
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: we're sitting here instead of standing up and having a
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: great presentation. If you're not familiar, Basically, a podcast is
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: like radio for the internet. So instead of you know,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: listening on your m FM radio, you're gonna be able
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to get our radio show on your phone, your tablet,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: your computer. And because we're not you know, within the
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: constraints of a network, we can talk about whatever we
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: want to talk about, and that just so happens to
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: be dear. So, what we do on the wire Hunt
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: podcast is every week myself and my co host right here,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: we talk to different deer hunting experts, deer related experts
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: about what we love deer hunting. We spend hours dissecting, deciphering,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and digging into exactly how they do what they do
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and then how we can apply that to our own hunts.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: So with the word podcast, we've been doing that for
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: almost four years now, and UM, we've been able to
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: talk to some really really interesting people, including many people
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: you'll see here this weekend or you already have seen. Um,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and somehow we've suckered tens of thousands of people to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: listen to it. So that's kind of cool. So that
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: being said, what we're gonna be doing today is just
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: that we're gonna record a podcast. We're gonna sit here,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: we're just gonna have a conversation three of us. Um,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be loose, gonna be casual, it's gonna be fun,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk about something very different than I
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: think what you'll usually hear about at a Quality Deer
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Management convention, and that's gonna be planning and executing an
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: out of state hunt. So not on land your own,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not on on a great big lease. We're talking about
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: how can you go out and have an adventure on
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: your own land maybe I've never seen before, maybe in
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: public land, maybe in private land. And that's something I've
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: been fortunate to have some sex success with Andy as well.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: So before we get to though, who are these other
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: two gentlemen? To my left? Is my co host, Like
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Matt said, Dan Johnson. He's an avid Aioba bow hunter.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: He is the coast of the wire Hunt podcast. He
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: also hosts his own show, The Nine finger Chronicles. He
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: has only nine fingers, and he's also the father of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: two soon to be three. And it wouldn't be a
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: wired Hunt podcast if we didn't hear something about the tyrants.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So how are the kids? My wife is pregnant right now.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: She's at home with two literally maniacs, so I think
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: she wanted to come and me stay at home, but
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: she doesn't know much about deer hind. Well, I'm glad
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you're to make it. It's funny, you know, we record
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: this podcast at home, so I'm in my home office.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: He's in his house. So usually when we are doing this,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I'm in my pajamas and he's at this house with
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: his wife or his kids matching on the door. Wanted
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to be in here, so this is very different. To
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: my right though, is our special guest with us here today.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: He's a guy who have wanted to have on the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: podcast for a long, long long time and he's refused
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: to do so. So somehow I convinced him to the
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: first time to do it, to do in front of people.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: His name is Andy Man, and he is a hunter
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: from Michigan, someone I've looked up to for a very
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: long time. Um. I think he is the single best
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: d I Y bow hunter I know. Personally. He's an
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: absolute machine. He doesn't like to talk about it. He's
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: very humble, but he's been doing these types of odd
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: state trips for more than fifteen years. He's killed more
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: than six mature bucks on these trips. Every year he
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: is going to three or four or five different states
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and he's killing three or four or five mature bucks.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: It's very impressive. I also hate him for it because
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you know, every every season seems like I'll be sitting
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the tree stands October November, and just when I'm getting
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: really down things haven't been going well. That's the point
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: where I get this buzz on my phone and I'm
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: sitting there hating my life because things just have gone
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: wrong and wrong and wrong. And then there's this text
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: from Andy. Got another one, So he's kicking you while
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: you're down, basically, So thank you for returning the favor
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: finally and helping us out with something. Yeah. Andy has
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: a lot to share, so I'm excited he can be
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: here to have this conversation with us. And like I said,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: we're talking about something that's outside of I think the
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: norm is for this organization in many cases. I've been
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: a cut M A member for almost a decade now,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and I've been really lucky to be able to have
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: some properties that I have exclusive access to where I
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: can do some management on small scale, where I can
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: do some habitat improvements, where I can get to know
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: a local deer herd and do some things along those lines.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: And I love that. It's a lot of fun, and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I think it's amazing that the stuff that we learned
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: here this convention. A lot of people is tremendous, But
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I also think that I'd be missing out if that
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: was the only thing I did. I think there's been
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: something kind of profound that I've been able to learn
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: from these different types of trips, going outside of the usual,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: expanding my borders, comforts and arizons, getting out of the
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: comfort zone. And I think that it's an incredible adventure
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: to go somewhere new, to try something new, to to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: be put into a tremendous challenge and figured out that process.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: But it also actually, quantifiably I think has made me
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: a better deer hunter, right And I can take that
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and bring it back to my home properties. I can
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: bring it back to my spots that I manage and
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: have food plots and and and and focus on specific
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: deer um. So I think there's value in that. And
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: that's that's why I thought would be important to have
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: this conversation here, because I think there's a lot of
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: people here within the Quality Management Association who have tremendous
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: amount of deer hunting experiments, experienced deer hunting management experience,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: but maybe haven't tried something like this. Maybe they haven't
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: gone and tried to hunt public land in a different state.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Maybe they haven't drives and slept at the back of
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the pickup truck trying to learn and learn new property.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: That's not for everybody, right, but it is for some people,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of what we want to talk about.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: And Andy, you're a guy who has almost more experienced
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: with this than anyone to know. So I'm just kind
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: of curious. I mean, that's my thoughts on on why
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I love doing this drips Why I went to Montana
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: last year and, like like I said, slept in the back
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of my pickup for a week. Um, why do you
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: do it? Um? It kind of started for me out
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: of necessity, Like I'm from Michigan. Um started kind of
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: later in life, uh, with bow hunting. And within a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: few years I started having some regular success in Michigan.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: You're allowed to buck tags, um, And over time I
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: was starting to get consistently, Uh I was. I was
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: able to consistently fill those tags in Michigan. So it
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: just kind of made sense that, you know, I need
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: to start looking elsewhere to kind of expand that season.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I was completely eating up with it as
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I am now, and um, so naturally I just started
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: kind of looking into some options out of state, and
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: around that time I kind of drugged my feet on
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: it and I was talking to Dan about that, really
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: kind of mad at myself that I didn't jump into
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: it sooner. I was kind of maybe a little overwhelmed
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: or um, you know, just a little worried about, you know,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: going into a new familiar area with nowhere to go.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: But I had some acquaintances that at that time had
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: been going to Iowa and that was kind of that
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: was kind of when Iowa was really getting a lot
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of recognition and they were going out there on these
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: d I y trips and they were I just kept
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: hearing stories of them coming back and I was like, man,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: it's gonna blow your mind. And you know, we saw
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: you know, we saw ten Mature Bucks and three days
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and and you know I hadn't seen like ten Mature
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Bucks in my whole career, so you know it it
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: was It's kind of sparked that fire to kind of
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: to try something new. So that was my That was
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the first step, as I put in for a point
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: for Iowa started doing that and it really became something that, um,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: it's kind of evolved from that that that first year
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: where I did that first hunt, it's evolved into something
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: now where I mean, that's what I looked. Or two.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I hunt in Michigan. I hunt hard in Michigan. I
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: like hunting Michigan. But it's tough and it's it's different. Um.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I get kind of used to, you know, the properties
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: that I hunt there, and I get real you kind
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: of figure them out, you know, and you kind of
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: know what the know the deer that are there, you
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: know what they're gonna do. You know the spots that
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: can produce. So you know, when I go out of state,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like for me, it's like an adventure.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: It's a how how can I tackle this ground here?
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: How can I figure out this ground? How can I
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: you know, how can I get an arrow into some
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: of the better deer in this area? And I found like,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: for me personally, that's that's what hunting is for me,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: what I get the most out of and what I
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: enjoy the most about that stimulation. It keeps me sharp. Um.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I love I love constantly trying to think of of
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: tactics and and figuring out ground and terrain funnels and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: all that and just trying to just trying to I
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: guess expand my horizons and then you know, it started
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: off with one state, and then I threw. I started
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: throwing in a second state, and then you know, you
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: kind of learned that area. And then and then I
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: started working into my schedule a third and fourth states.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: So what's crazy about your schedule those is he works
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: at a school and he doesn't get vacation time, so
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: he hunts three days at a time, four days at
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a time, and somehow I was able to to get
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: that done. It's kind of remarkable. But to your point,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: it's it's like that chess match, and I think I
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: love figuring out a single property like that. I hunt
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: a lot. That's fun. But then, like you said, sometimes
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: you figure it out and you know, all right, well,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: if I'm in that funnel and November four, it's going
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to happen, or I've I've put in these food plots,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I've I've put a terrific plan together. You start to
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: figure that out. For me. One of the things I
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: absolutely love the most about Honey Mature Bucks is that
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: chess match. It's constantly trying to figure I want to
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: put myself in that situation where the pieces are all
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: over and I'm like, how do I put this together? Right? Like?
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: That is the ultimate challenge for me that I love.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: And so these when you're putting yourself in these new situations,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: you're forced into the beginning that puzzle every single time.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: And I think that's it's just an absolute last right
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: And I mean you've done some of this too, like,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and I know, not only is that challenge fun, but
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I know, like just for you, the adventure of going
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: somewhere new and that the sand Hills in Nebraska you
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: went to a few years ago, went out to the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: sand Hills and U I'm a tree stand hunter and
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I went to Arthur County, Nebraska has the only water
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: in that entire county is either in cattle tanks or
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: maybe pools. When it rains. If you're not familiar with
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the sand hills, it all soaks down into the into
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the water. It's the lowest, at one point was the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: lowest populated uh county in the entire United States. And
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: there's way more cattle than there is people and there's
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: no trees. So I'm a tree stand hunter in Iowa
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: hunt you know, bench points, funnels, whatnot. So going out there,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I pulled up to this property and I had an
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: awakening and it was just when we get back to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: this experience, this experience where it makes you have to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: use your brain again because once you get into a property,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: for example, the property that I hunt in Iowa, it's
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: from like my seventh year on this property, and I'm
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: getting to the point now where I'm I'm still learning
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: something new every year, but it's I mean, I'm putting
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: my tree stands in close to the same location, tun
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: fine tuning, knowing where there those funnels are going to be,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: knowing where those pinch points are going to be. And
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I've done that over let's say a seven year period.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Now I'm going out to someplace new, and I have
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: to do that in a four day period. So and yeah,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely so. So Okay, at least I know that
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the two of you are convinced of the importance of
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: trying to trip like this. If we're gonna do a
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: hunt like this, we'll start. And if when you're starting,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: let's say this year, you decid, hey, I want to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: hunt a new state. I'm going somewhere new I haven't
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: been before, and you're starting that decision making process. Okay,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: how do you pick a state or an area, like
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: where do you start that? Uh? Well, for me, I
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: kind of looked at my situation, like Mark said, I
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: work at a school. I don't get vacation time, but
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I do. I get three personal days a year, and
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: our vacations are our spring break, our Christmas break, that
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: sort of thing. So, um, I'm pretty much limited to weekends.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And then you know, sometimes I come down with a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: cough and I call in money, I take a personal day.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: So you know, three to four day trips. Obviously, I'm
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: not gonna go to Wyoming on a three to four
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: day trip. So I'm in southern Michigan. I'm very close
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: to the Ohio border. I'm very close to the Indiana border. Something.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I'm somewhat lucky that I have those states right there.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Those are kind of, you know, kind of no brainers
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: for me that I can get to. In fact, there's
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: some properties that I can get to in Ohio. Um
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: on on a on a week on a weeknight after work,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I can buzz on down and if I got the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: right conditions on a you know, in October evening, I'll
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: do that. So um, I kind of try to pick
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: those you know, two or three states that are close by,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and I try to you know, learn those really well. Um,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily look for the best areas. Um. You
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: know a lot of guys will look at the stats
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and stuff, you know, the best zone in Iowa and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: this is where all the boot and Crockett bucks are taken.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: And I actually go a different route, you know, I
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I kind of ignore that. I like to go. That's
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to the places that are a little unknown or the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: places that aren't known for big bucks and just figuring
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: them out. I don't need a me personally, I don't
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: need a big hunter and sixty inch buck to make
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: me happy. Um, I'm I'm perfectly happy. Uh, you know,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: chasing good representative bucks for the area, and and there's
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: there's hunting pressure all you know, everywhere, but you know,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: kind of go to those areas that are a little
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: less popular, a little less uh you know, kind of
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: more overlooked, not as publicized. You might find yourself, you know,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: maybe not hunting quite a big as bigger bucks, but
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: you might have a little less pressure and you can
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: really kind of there's some areas that I've I've been
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: hunting for years and years and years, and it took
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of you know, trial and error, but I
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: have them. Really, I'm really zoned in out a few locations,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and now I know that these properties, you know, when
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the timing is right, um, through experience, through trail cameras,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Now I know if I go
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: down at this time period with these conditions, you know,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: I've I've routinely now been able to have success. So
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: then over years and years of experience, I've just been
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: able to kind of map that out in time, that
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: out over several different states. And I started looking into
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: you know, started doing Kentucky to try to get something early.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: And now I'm looking into some August seasons which aren't
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: really white toe related, but you know, I'm gonna do
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: my first antelope before school starts, so I start trying
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to to find those. And then I always kind of
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: bank on, you know, io when I draw that tag,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that kind of takes precedence. And when I have hunted
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Illinois a bunch, so I think, you know, jumping in
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: real quick, I think one of the things I look
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: forward to your point you mentioned earlier. You know, Iowa
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: get a lot of press obviously, great state. You're lucky man, um.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: But some of these big name states that are always
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: on TV and everything, they have a lot more nonresident pressure,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: more people trying to go in there where they have
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of outfitters, so it's harder for someone to
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: come in and try to get free access. UM. So
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I've tended to do the same thing, trying to hunt
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: some of these states that aren't quite at that upper
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: echelon but still dramatically different than my home turf in
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Michigan or even within like Iowa. Uh. The southern units
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: of Iowa famed for their big bucks and for the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: opportunities down there, but that's also where all the outfitters are.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: That's also where a lot of a lot of pressure is.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So I've tried to find different units within that state
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: that aren't nearly as popular but are still incredible, so
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: I can hunt there a lot more often. I can go,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and I can get access and hunt places for free,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: which a lot of people don't think is possible. But
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: there's if you go these places where there's not hunters
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: of outfitters dozens of outfitters, you can still find free permission.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: You can find public land with good hunting, and I
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: think you know we've demonstrated that in our own experiences.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: That's absolutely possible. It just takes some work. Um, it's different,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: but it's absolutely possible. I think we can elaborate a
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: little bit on that to the gaining access right. And
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: one thing I am really good at is talking, schmoozing
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: schmoozing and talking to landowners and getting my foot into
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: a door and you know, in a way that they
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: can learn who I am. They can, you know, because
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: even though Iowa is a big buck state, there's still
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and they're still high pressured public land. And I will,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: believe it or not. So I don't own property. I
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: don't lease property. So I knock on doors and I
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: talk with these landowners. I ask them, you know, first off,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I'm only a bow hunter. I don't I don't take
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: advantage of the gun season. So I tell them that
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: straight off the bat. I asked them if I could
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: shed hunt. I asked him if I can maybe turkey hunt,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: or you know, I think that's just a great little hack,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: right or or gaining access for mushrooms, which is the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: hardest of everything, but you know, getting your foot in
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: the door, proving to your to them that you're a
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: good person. You're not gonna go drive on their wet
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: field destroy their property. And then at that point, year two,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you know you're one. You don't get permission. Year two
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: you do, year three you do establish that relationship. That's
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a crusted That is such a great way to start
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: getting access to these places outside of your normal area. UM.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I think it probably it goes a long way. Yeah,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: like just just you know, being personal with them. UM.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I've we've had good luck just getting permission. You know,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: it's it's definitely gotten a lot harder. But um, you know,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: especially kind of the older population, Like you know, people
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: are rude now and you know, don't really take the
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: time they want they want the land hunt and you
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: know they'll ask if they say no, then you know,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: see you later, or you know they might just offer
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: a you know, a sum of money or something. But um,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: you know what I found is that you know, if
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: if you're very polite and um, you know, you might
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: get told no, but you just take the time to
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: kind of to be personal with him. I've gotten permission
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: on an Iowa farm for a one day of chopping
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: wood for their wood burning. Um. I got permission on
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: an incredible um three hundred acre piece in Iowa. Um.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: This there's this older gentleman and you know, he his
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: his family had his his wife had died, his kids
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: were out of state, very lonely. He lived in this
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: called an old Rundown house and a buddy and I
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: went up there and we knocked on his door, and
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: you know, he he didn't say yes right away, but
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: he was very talkative. He could tell he just wanted company.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: He wanted the company. So we sat there and we
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: talked with him, and he's talked. He's just talking about
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: a fence out back that was broken down that he,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: you know, couldn't get back to to repair it. So
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: my buddy Mike and I we helped him fix that up. Um.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: And then you know, after that, he invited in his
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: home and he's telling us, you know, his life story,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and it was kind of a hot situation. But you know,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: he was showing pictures of his family and stuff, and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: he could just tell he just really wanted there, you know.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: And and then and then after that, he invites us
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: out for burgers in town. So we went and got
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: some burgers. We noticed that he, you know, he was
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: an avid sprite drinker. So he long story short, he
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: ended up giving us permission. You know at the end,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: at the end, you know we did, uh we threw
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: him a little out of money, um, not much, and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: we we brought him a bunch of sprite, and you know,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: he was just was just really happy. Um he was.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: He welcomed us onto his property, excited for us to
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: have there, and he had actually turned down several outfitters
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: that had offered him money. And uh, so you know,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: there is still opportunities out there to get permission if
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: you're persistent about it. I actually go into those situations
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: with a very long list of people that I want
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to ask permission, but also with the public lands that
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: you know that I'm in a key on and that's
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: kind of where I I focus my area, so so
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: on the private land piece. Really quickly, I want to
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: run through kind of my process for how and I
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: think we all kind of use a similar process. Um. Basically,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: what I'm looking at is if I pick a general area,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Let's say, all right, I want to hunt southern Ohio
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and somewhere in this neck of the woods. Because I've
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: got a friend nearby that says it's good. Let's just
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: hypothetically say, then I'm gonna go and there's a lot
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: of online resources right now where you can go, and
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: you can see a plat map basically that shows all
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the property parcels, the property owners, the border information, and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: you can have that overlaid over an aer aerial map,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: so you can see what these properties look like from
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: a cover standpoint, from a terrain standpoint, and then you
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: can see, okay, which properties actually hold this cover I
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: want or whatever it might be that looks like it
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: could be, you know, positive for deer um. And then,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: like you said, I'll put together a long list of
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: these landowners and their addresses. And then for me, the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: way I like to do it is I need, I
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: need to get wrong with it. I'm not like you
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: like I get. I get nervous before having to go
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: on there knock on the door. And I think a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: lot of people that's uncomfortable, that's intimidating. So for me,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: that first door knock is kind of brutal. But if
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I have a list of fifteen of them, and I
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: just tell myself today I'm doing it, knock on fifteen
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: doors today, I don't care. How lous do you feel
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: about it? Mark, I don't care that you've got pit stains.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: You're gonna knock on fifteen doors and you're just gonna
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: do it. And so the first one I'm like, oh jeez,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: and they that's fine. And the second one is a
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: little better, and the third one is a little better,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and then it's snowballs and by like twelve thirteen four.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: It's a long day. It's a lot of work, but
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: it's a numbers game. I think getting permission these days,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people get frustrated because
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: they hear, okay, yeah, you can get free permission if
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: you knock on the doors and still knock on a
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: door and they get to know and I'm like, this
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: is it was horrible. If I had your face, I
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: would get every door that I knocked at now if
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: you had this go so. So for example, in Iowa
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: several years ago, I know I know where to hunt,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: but I want to try to get access. So I
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: did this. I took good day. I had fourteen addresses
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: on a list, and I took you know, it was
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: like twelve hours. I knocked on fourteen doors and had
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: also of situations like that. I had lots of nose
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: but then I had lots of people who just want
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: to chat and we started talking and we kept talking
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: and talking. By the end of it, two different farm
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: owners said yes, and I had a total of actually
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: acres to hunt for free in Iowa, and it was
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people think that's possible,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: but it is. UM. So that's kind of a process
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: from a private land access standpoint, getting that list. Knocking
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: on those doors another thing I always do. I don't
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: know if this has worked for you, Andy, but whenever
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you're talking to someone, even if they say no, I
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: always ask do you happen to anyone else I should
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: chat with? Is there anyone else in the area would
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: be worth, you know, catching up with? And so many
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: times like wow, Joe around the corner, might he lets
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: one guy in gun season? Most of my leads have
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: come from something like that, gaining knowledge of the area.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And one more thing to touch on that before we
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: move on is keeping that relationship. So I have a
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: in Iowa. I have had permission on this one farm
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: UM for probably going on eight to ten years, and
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I call him on the phone. I sent him a
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Christmas card with usually like a Walmart gift card because
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: that's where they do their shopping. Um, when we go
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: down there, we're you know, we go into their home.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: We spend an hour or two talking to them and
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: seeing how they're doing, and uh, you know, you kind
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: of take care of them and and and show them
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: how much you appreciate that, and that you respect their
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: property and and just really appreciate, you know, the kindness
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: that you're given. And that goes a long way. There's
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: been several other people on many, many parcels that have
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: had permission with me that are gone. But you know,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I rarely lose one, unless like something gets leased out
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: from rom or something like that. But you know, you
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: take the time, you know, several times a year to
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: stop in and talk to him, bring him some fresh walleye,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you know, caught out a lake eries, you know, stuff
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: like that. Just people don't do that anymore. And I
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: think to that point an important thing to know when
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: it comes to try a trip like this and out
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: of state hunt, whether it's hundred miles from home or
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: from home, there's something to be said for the prep
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: work and that Let's say you've got seven vacation days
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to the year, you're gonna work with. You could either
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: take all seven of those days for the actual hunt,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: or you could take one of those and go out
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and February or March or June and do a day
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: like this where you try to get access or where
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: you scout the land on foot. And I think you'd
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: be much better set up if you take that, if
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: you find a way to make the trip beforehand and
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: get access or look at public land or whatever it
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: might be, UM, versus trying to show up on day one,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: because it's very difficult to get permission by phone or
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: anything like that. It's very difficult to really figure out
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: a property, UM without seeing it. Now you can't do
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: it with with maps these days. UM. But that's what
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about next. I want to talk about.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Let's let's say we we found an area we went
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: down in in February, knocked on a lot of doors,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: got permission, or there's a piece of public land that
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: looked good on the map. UM. I'm curious next, how
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you go through this, how you start that scouting process. UM.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of scouting, like I said, online,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: looking at maps, figuring things out from a high level UM,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: and then you go from there. You go you kind
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: of ground trouth it. But what's your process andy, Um,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm definitely a map freak. Um. I have
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: you know, uh binders of each state with the properties
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: that I hunt, the properties that I plan on hunting,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: and the proper backup properties you know, public, you know, private,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing. And I have you know, the aerials,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and then I have, um, the the topo maps and
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: all that stuff, and I do I really zone in
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: on that. But for me personally, I can find out
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the obvious stuff, like the stuff that probably everyone in
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: this room can find, which is what your your typical funnels. Um.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: You know, you' somebody. It's very easy to to see
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: like river crossings um. Now with Google maps and stuff,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: you can zone and you can actually find deer trails
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: um you know, and see where there's a lot of
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: intersecting trails um, you know, betting areas you know, and
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: depending on the type of habitat, very easy to see
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and predict. Um. So what I find more for me personally,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: I get I get more um detail with boots on
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: the ground. So I always try to and it helps
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: because these states aren't terribly far from me. Montana would
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: be hard to do this, um, but I like to
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: get out there in the spring, early spring, you know,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: after the snow melt, but before green up, especially if
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: I'm planning like a rut, a pre rut rut trip
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: late October, you know, early November, maybe that second week
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: in November. That's when that sign is really visible. You know.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: You can see the rubs, you can see the scrapes,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: you can see the trails. Everything is, you know, was
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: just made a few months ago. You can really dial
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: in and see where kind of everything comes together and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: really pick out those high percentage spots. So for me,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: boots on the ground is as as a kind of
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: a necessity, and to be honest with you, for me,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: that's like just part of the enjoyment of it. I
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: like that as much I like trying to scout and
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: figure out dear and going on these adventures in brand
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: new areas where I don't even know what's their success
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: or not. I actually enjoy that maybe more than actually
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: getting getting a buck on the ground, you know what
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I mean. I just I've really come I've just become
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: addicted to that constant stimulation of new you know, put
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: me in an unfamiliar area with the bow in my
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: hand and the wind in my face, and it's like, yeah,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: I'm always impressed of all the people I know, I
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: hear that. Oh and he's going a new spot and
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: it's like within three days or four, bam, he's got
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: one down. Like you're you seem very adept at finding
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: those high as locations very quickly and being able to
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: key in on them at the right times. And you
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: kind of alluded to a few of the specific things,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: but can you give us like a specific example of
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: a time where you showed up at a property you
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: did you're scouting, you said, Okay, X and Y are
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: the right spots for my rut trip or whatever, and
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: how that worked out. Okay, So like if I was
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: going on a rut trip, you know, again, I picked
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: the you know, on the map, I kind of zone
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: in on some obvious spots. But by getting boots on
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the ground, and I think, just, um, you know, well,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: by boots on the ground, I can really zone in
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: on an area. We talked a little bit about the
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: spot within the spot, like guys can pick out funnels, um,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: you know, and they're they're great spots. They produce UM
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and what I found is a lot of times there's
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: there's there's funnels or or downwind of like a dough
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: betting area during the rut can be dynamite, but there
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: will be an actual like a tree or a very
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: small location that is the spot within the spot. When
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I say that, like, for instance, I'll give you an example. Um,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: there's a spot in There's a three of them that
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: come jump right into my head, but one in Iowa. UM.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: When we went in the spring and we scouted, um,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: we found this. Um, there's this ridge system that kind
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: of there's you know, a ridge point that comes down
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: this way, a ridge point that comes down this way,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: at a ridge point that comes down this way. So
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: we got a lot of things converging. Typically you don't
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: want to hunt low in a ridge type country because
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the wind swirls. Well, this situation was different and I
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: found it out through you know, hunting it and a
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: lot of trial and airror. But the bottom was so
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: wide that I could with a certain direction get some
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: pretty steady wind. If it was coming over the ridge,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you get all kinds of you know, every deer that
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: comes down in that area will smell you. But this
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: one direction, because of the wide bottom. It would blow
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: me right up this way. Now it would cut me
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: off this way, which deer would come from sometimes. But
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: again I'm I'm in the in the rut in Iowa.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: You know, deer coming from a lot of different directions. Um. So,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: but this this spot in scouting that really stood out.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of big rubs, so we knew
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: so there was some big deer in the area, and
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: there was a very big, giant primary scrape right there
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: surrounded by perimeter coverter our perimeter cover, um just kind
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: of your your text book, um, like early November, late October,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: big big scrape and perimeter where it's like, man, this
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: is this is the spot. I'm gonna kill him here.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: So you know, we hunted that spot and we we
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: killed deer. They're like, you know, we'd see we'd see
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: some bucks come down the ridge and about half of them,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: half of the deer we saw came by the spot.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: But then what I noticed over experience, and it took me,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: it took me some some time to develop this. What
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I noticed is that fifty percent of the deer we're
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: coming through here, but right over there, fifty yards away,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: nine pent of the deer went by that and there
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: was no sign there that pointed that out. There was
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: no rub or scrape or anything like that. It was
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the way the terrain worked. And you know, you go
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: in there in the spring because these bucks are cruising,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: there's no beat down trails. Really, there's some faint stuff,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: but this is stuff that happens very briefly in the season,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: you know, during the during the cruising phase and um
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: of the rut, so you don't get that beat downside.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: But what it was is that's the terrain. The way
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: the terrain worked. It funneled everything down that point, even
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: though there was no specific sign there that screamed out
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: at you. So what we did is we moved a
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: tree stand over there and that you know, that was
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: the trip um where I think you were in Ohio
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: and I was in Iowa. This is exactly one of
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: the scenarios. I was frustrated in Ohio. You're having a
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: tough time and and frustrated, and um I sat for
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the first day in Iowa. UM sat in that spot.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: We waited for the right timing. It was November six
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and ten thirty in the morning, a nice twelve point
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: was split. Brows came down and just like just like
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: every other buck cruising through that area, almost every other
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: buck crossed her that spot, and you wouldn't know it
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: if unless you were really observant. You thought back, um
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: about a lot of previous hunts and what you saw
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: and what my hunting partners had saw and told me, I,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm able to um. One thing that
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I've noticed that I'm that I'm able to do is
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: like the information kind of stays in here, I'm able
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: to pull it back pretty quickly. Good recall, Yeah, good recall.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: And then you know, when a friend sits there or
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: or anybody that hunts down that area, I'm I'm constantly
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: asking questions because I want to learn turn from them too.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: So and what we found out is just that spot,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: it just kind of everything came together there and uh,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: it's turned into one of those spots. If you if
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: you go there November five, it's November ten and you
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: sit in that spot with that wind, you're you're going
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: to kill a good buck. There's no I mean, you're
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: gonna get a crack at one. I mean you might
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: blow the shot, but there's a It's just one of
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: those spots and now and now you know, I've found
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: several of those in different different areas. I think something
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: you mentioned though, is really important uniquely on one of
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: these types of trips, because I think when you're hunting
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: your own land and you hunt there often, you can
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: learn this stuff over a long period of time and start,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: like you said, like you're in the process on your
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Eyowa property, you're fine tuning. You know that, Okay, next year,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna shift it a little that way. I saw
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: this and that when you're on a trip like this,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: when you have four days or seven days, you go,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: like you said, you do some pre game scouting if
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: you can, and then you start out and you have
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: to make game time decisions very quickly. You have to
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: be much more aggressive on a type of trip like
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: that because you have a short time for him to
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: get done. So I think your example there, you've got
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: a great spot. You're thinking this is terrific, and you
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: though see that a significant percentage is there. It's only
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: maybe a fifty yard difference. And maybe if this is
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: my own property that I was gonna be hunting a lot,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: I'd be like, I'll stick it out here a while longer.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: See how it goes next year and make a shift.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: When you're on a trip like this, you don't have
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: that luxury, right you have to, at least in my
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: opinion and from a lot of people I talked to
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: have similar experiences like this. You need to get aggressive
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: with making that decision now and moving because you're on
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: a short time frame. Everything needs to be accelerated on
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: a trip like this, so at least from real quick.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: At least when I'm starting a trip like this, you know,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: whether it be early season or the rut, I'll start.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I'll scout if I can. In the Montana situation, I
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: didn't get to do any physical scouting. I just looked
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: at maps and did a drive by, and then I
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: went into it, said, okay, first hunt of that trip observation,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be somewhere I can see as far as
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: I possibly can and try to learn something by way
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: of that um and then I'm gonna all right. I
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: know that I'm gonna hang a stand the first night,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: and if it's not exactly where I need to be,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I know that day two I need to shift. In
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: day three, I need to shift and keep moving. Or
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I know some guys that do trips like this where
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: day one they don't even hunt, they just do a
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: full day of scouting, and they'll do stuff that a
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: lot of people would think is crazy, that managed landing.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: If you let's say, you know my ninety acre farm
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: in Michigan, I hunt the most. I keep like half
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: of that like completely off limits, have a sanctuary. I'm
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: not going to go in there. But if I only
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: had four days to hunt this property all year, and
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: if I never went into more than the property with
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: only four days of AWL, well I'm probably not gonna do.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna be able to see those opportunities. So
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: what this guy, Eric Piser I'm thinking of right now.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: He'll go on day one, he'll walk at all, specifically
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: during the rut, so he knows he's gonna bump some deer,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: and that's gonna make a lot of people cringe's people
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: just don't go through the betting ears. But he does
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: that knowing that, yes, I'm going to damage something within
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: this area, but there's other people hunting already, maybe it's
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: public land. But he's able to learn really important data
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: that he can use over the next four days and
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: in a rut hunt situation where you've got a lot
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: of deer coming in now you can you can get
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: away with that, So you need to know what you
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: can get away with. Like I knew in my my
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Montana trip. It was early September, and I knew that
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: they would be very sensitive to pressure. So I was
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: gonna stay off on the edges. I was gonna watch
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: and then make very calculated moves every day. But I
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: knew if I blasted into the bedding air or something,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: it became over. So Day one I set up, I watched.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Day two went from a different angle start of fine
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: tune where I had beaten on day three, and the okay,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: based on what I learned day one and two, I
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: gotta be just a little bit closer into the spot
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: set up in there and four thirty here he came
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: filled the tag um. But I think a lot of
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: people would be afraid to make those moves. And and
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: that's what I mean, even that biggest on the shorter hunts,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: whether it's a spot in stock or a tree stand hunt,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I've always been on a conservative type hunter. Set up
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: those observation stands and try to wait him out or
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: sit in a pinch pointer of funnel and wait him
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: out right, not necessarily in all day sit because I
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: hate sitting all day year old have bad knees. But um,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: you know time it's from a day standpoint, all right,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: this buck hasn't been in here for two days. The
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: third day he might come in or you know, making
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: sure my access route it is right. But on a
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: on a those shorter hunts, it's gonna be let's say
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: it's a four day hunt. Day three, you haven't made
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: a move. You're you've just realized that, oh crap, I
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: need to get something done, or this was just another
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: scouting mission. So it forces you to be aggressive and
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: developed different hunting skills. Absolutely, and like we like we
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: said the earlier, I think forcing yourself into these situations
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: makes you better hunter back home because you're constantly working
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: on a new puzzle, right, and you learn things throughout that.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: So so what else for you when you're when you're
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: figuring out these new properties when you're in there, you
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: mentioned doing that pre preseason scouting and you're kind of
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: launching it rate you're you're trying to spot your adjusting.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Are there any other common setups or things that you're
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: thinking about? Maybe maybe we haven't talked about trail cameras,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: how you might may or may I use those on
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: these types of hunts. Is there anything else as far
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: as executing this hunt that is important to how you're
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: you're having success? Um? I think the biggest The biggest
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: thing is is getting out there and doing it and
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: over time, pick pick an area, um, you know, make
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: sure that there's some quality here there that you're gonna
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: be happy pursuing. And then and then really learn that
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: area and and go go as often as you can,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: scout as much as you can. Um that some of
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: those farms in Iowa and Kentucky and in Illinois, like
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: I know them, I've hunted them, and I've I've killed
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: big deer on them. Yeah, I still want to go
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: scout him every year in the spring because there's that
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: that one thing that might get me in just a
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: little bit better spot or or find another spot that's
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: kind of like this. So, you know, when you start
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: to learn those properties intimately, I think that's when you
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: can really you know, dial it in where you can
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: get it done on a on a shorter hunt. Now,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: like you brought up eric pics are and being aggressive
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: and stuff like you know, I hunt very SIMI learned
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: to him. And you know, when we're on these trips,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: we're not hunting a specific buck. So you know, if
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: you own ground and you're you know, you got you know,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: you know, Big Louis, that's one a d and you
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: don't you you probably don't want to do that, right
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: but so but but like I said, I go there
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: um with the attention. I'm very happy shooting a good
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: representative buck, a nice pope and young buck. You know,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: we've we've killed much bigger. But you know, a good
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: solid deer you know, makes me happy. And and that's
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: what it's all about. You know, you just gotta find
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: what type of hunter you are and what what what
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: kind of drives you and what stimulates you and makes
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: you happy. So you mentioned Kentucky and last year at
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: the same time I was on that hunt, I just
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: mentioned Montana. You were in Kentucky and you got thrown
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: into a situation where you had to hunt new areas
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: and you had to figure it out. We kind of
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: had sort of similar hunts and and that you were
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: able to figure it out and things came together. Can
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: you describe that situation a little bit? How you know,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: the challenge you had there and how you adjusted and
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: were able to get some spots and make it happen. Yeah.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: I started out um with on public land, UM and
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I was literally this was a kind of different than
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: most of the time. Most of the time I would
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: I would go and do some pre scouting be because
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: but because it was early season, um, and I didn't
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: have time to uh at you know, at home and everything,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I didn't have time to really go out and do
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: much like glassing and that kind of thing. So I
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: just kind of went and I just was like, you know,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna just do this. I went to I was
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: planning on going to an area that I was somewhat
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: familiar with, ended up in a different area because this
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: one public piece that I had hunted in the past
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: actually moved there opening day back, which was kind of weird.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: It wasn't on the traditional Kentucky opening day, so I
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: was forced into a new area. UM and you know,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: stand on my back and I was just kind of
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: scouting and I was going off, you know, just prior
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: knowledge looking, you know, trying to get in deep where
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: you're a little unpressured, moving a little more freely looking
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: at sign that was right now signed because it is
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: early season, like the sign that I was seeing is
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: is right now and by a little island air. On
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: day two, UM, in the evening, UM, I saw a
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: very large buck UM. I don't know how big. He
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: was a very large buck on public land. UM. And
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: then I set up on him the next evening and
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: he didn't show up. And then I kind of had
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: had a couple of slow hunts in between, so I
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: was kind of regrouping and I was driving down. I
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: got out of there, and I was regrouping, and I
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: saw some deer crossing this like CRP type ground UM,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: kind of rolling hills, large CRP and I could just
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: see and I could see one of them had a
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: rack and it looked like they were going into this
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: piece of timber kind of angle back towards this river bottom.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: So I was like, well, you know what, I had
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the on X maps. That's a great tool. UM could
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: immediately find the landowner's name address. Oh, it's right here.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: So I just stopped UM, asked permission, UM, and he
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: said that there's some guys that come down that that
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: that hunt during the rut, but no one is there
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: during not right now. So he he said he would
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: work with me on like a kind of like a
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: daily trespass fee, very four wild, very cheap, and I
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: was like, you know what, Okay, I just figured I'll
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: try it, so gave him a little bit of money.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Um got to stand on my back, kind of headed
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: back towards where I saw those deer going and there
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: was a secluded hayfield that was freshly cut there probably
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: maybe a week of growth, and there the deer were
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: really hammering. I was immediately saw like a lot of
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: deer tracks, so I started kind of circling the field,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: seeing some dough and fawn tracks. Then I saw a
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: couple of buck tracks while as I was getting around
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: in this backside. Then the tracks really started accumulating and
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: I saw some really good sized tracks, so I know there,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I knew there was a an older buck hitting this field. Now,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: knowing what I know about you know, food sources and
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the way thermals work, you know, dear like to enter
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: those types of fields in the low spot typically, So
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: there was a low spot across the field. I started
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: edging my way there and checked the wind the whole time.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I found a spot where the wind was iffy. Um,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: But I thought I could make it work. It was
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: going to be kind of a risky deal. I found
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: a tree set up and um, that evening had some
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: deer come out, and the wind was kind of just
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: teetering on like busting me or being just off and
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: that that that deer came out and he literally he
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: had the wind. He was smelling the field and I
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: was twenty five yards this way and he was I
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: was just missing him. I mean, it's it's what you want, um,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: I kinda I got a little lucky with the stand
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: location and and but he he came out of that
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: field right in that low spot, and I arrowed him
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: in the field. And I'm not a field edge hunter typically, um,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: but it's Kentucky. It was early season. No one had
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: been out there. I didn't see a single boot track.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: I knew the pressure was low, so I had a
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: good feeling I was going to see some deer and
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: I didn't want I didn't know how being familiar with
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: the property, didn't know how far in they were betted,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: so I didn't want to go in there. Too far,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: didn't have have anything trimmed. I didn't want to go
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: in there hacking. So I sat where I had a
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: little shot into the woods, a little shot to that
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: low spot. And I think you were conservative in that
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: because you didn't know you wanted hang back a little
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: bit observed, but you're also willing to take a risk
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: from the windsday point, which usually if I'm in a
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: premier location, I'm you know, I don't want to risk
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: blowing deer out. But when you've got four days, you
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: need to work with what you've got, and sometimes that's
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: hell Mary's. Sometimes that's swinging for the fences. In this case,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: it worked out. I'm very I think, you know, on
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: these short trips or out of state trips, like being aggressive.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: You know you you gotta be aggressive, and you know
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: out of the deer I've shot, you know, I was
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: trying to work it out in my head, but it's
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: something like n or killed on that first sit. So
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: I like fresh sits and I like aggressive sits. I
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: don't do a lot of observation sits on those out
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: of state trips because you know, I'm just now. If
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: I was gonna go early season, ideally i'd get there
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: a few days early, trying to identify a deer to
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: go after, but just the way that the thing worked
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: last year. It was like I was going and I
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: was hunting that next morning. So that's that's an important point.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: And I think Dan, you can speak to this too.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, all three of us utilize this type of technique.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: And when you're hunting in this kind of way new
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: properties where you don't, you're not able to go in
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: there and have a bunch of tree stands pre hume,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: you're not able to have the property mapped out just
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: the way you want it. So you need to as
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: you mentioned, going with a stand on your back, running gun,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: running gun and make it happen. Um, we all utilize
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: that type of setup. I'm curious maybe, Dan, if you
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: want to walk through first your your thoughts on how
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: you manage that. How do you what kind of basic
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: equipment or how's your setup to be able to get
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: in hanging stand the day of and not spook every
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: deer out there? Right? I am a you know, just
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: like you guys first time in best time in title
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: of hunter. Uh. And then from there, if you go
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: back to the same stand, you're gonna see less dear
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: and less dear and less dear. So from an equipment standpoint,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: something light, something that's gonna get me, uh high enough
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: to shoot but not too high that and it a
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: lot of it depends on the time of year. So
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: if let's say it's early season and I do a
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: running gun on a buck, maybe I saw still on
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: a summer pattern. Um, I need to get and I'm
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: not gonna go high as yeah low, So I'm not
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: trimming so many shooting lanes because they're still leaves on
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: the tree. As the season progresses and the leaves start
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: falling off off the tree, I'll go up a little
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: bit and I'll make sure I'll have have a pulse
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: all with me right or a saw where I don't
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: necessarily need to shoot. I mean some there's some guys
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: in Heroes cut shooting lanes. Is why does this room.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: I won't do that little pockets and focus on maybe
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: one trail or two trails you know in that in
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: that pinch point, but a lightweight hang on stand with
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: sticks and uh, I'm a huge fan of the lone
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Wolf tree stand in the stick system that they have.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: There's others out there that can do similar things. And uh,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: you know, for me, first time in best time in
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not looking for, uh a good area where I'm
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: looking for the right tree. So my setup has to
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: be able to fit. You know, some times those trees
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: are crooked. Sometimes those trees are not telephone poles, right,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: So I I want to have equipment that's going to
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: allow me to set up in the not ideal tree.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I think that's a pretty consistent thing with a lot
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: of people that do these kinds of trips is that
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: they utilize that set up and they have the sticks
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: and stand climbers can work, but you're a little bit
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: more restrained trees, so having a hang on, a lightweight
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: hang on stand you can throw on your back, having
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: climbing sticks, and I think something we all do as
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: well is we try to silence those tree stands in
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: some way and your sticks, so put duct tape or
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: hockey tape or some type of cloth to find where
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: those contact points. So before we move on, we need
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: to pause briefly for work from our partners at White
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Tail Properties, and today we've got a great segment on
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: a topic that really related to what we've been talking
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: about here with Marcus Spencer. New Heart will take it
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: from Noise and you obviously don't want to be spooking
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: the doughs that are better right there that you're hoping
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: are going to pull on that buck. Let's say. So
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: you need to be able to go in there with
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: as best as a possible chance to do it quietly, stealthily.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: And so I think preparing your equipment, having a process.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: I think practicing doing this kind of thing is good
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: if you don't hunt this way often, Like go out
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: there in the summer with your sticks and stand and
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: practice setting up. Have a have a plan of how
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get all four of your sticks up there,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: how you're going to get them off your backpack, how
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: you're gonna pull up your tree stand. Because it is
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: different than doing it in it's June. Yeah, it's all
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: about eliminating mistakes and uh, you know a little clank
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: on your tree stand that could be the end of it.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: You know, conficiency could ruin your hunts. So um, like
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Mark said, you know a light tree stand, um sticks,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: some guys use a tree saddle. I use a tree
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: saddle quite a bit. Um and then silencing your equipment.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: There's a great company called Stealth Outdoors Um, and they
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: make these things called stealth strips and they're pre cut
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: strips that are are there kind of spongy and they're
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: they're pre cut to fix fit your sticks. And he
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: sticks you have, he makes several different sizes your low
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: wolf tree stands. You know, I have all my gear.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: I mean there's there's, there's enough, and that's gonna if
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: I drop something or it swings down, and it's gonna
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: be adulphood, it's not gonna cost me a hunt. And
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: I eliminate those mistakes. Um. And then, like Dan said,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: you know a process of hanging your sticks, hanging your stand,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: being able to do it efficiently with very little movement,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: very little um chance of noise, and efficiently quiet, very quiet.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: I practiced that, and I've gotten real good at being
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: able to get up in a tree stand. Once you
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: find that tree, it should be you should be on
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: autopilot from there and you don't have to think. All
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: you have to do is go up the tree. Yeah.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's funny. Um, when you think about this
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: kind of trip compared to like the when you think
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: of the amount of preparation and work that someone puts
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: into a property hunt every year, I mean food plots
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: and hinge cutting and clearing out access lanes and hanging
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: fifteen tree stands. That's a lot of work. And maybe
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: you might assume that when you're going on a d
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: I Y trip. Well, these guys sound that they're running
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: out their haphazard throwing tree stands up the day of.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like the same amount of work and
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: amount of preparation goes into it. But this is different.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: It's different. You need to prepare your tree stand ahead
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: of time. Um In these types of ways, you need
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: to do a lot of scouting, but in a different way.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: It's back home on your computer. Um Or it's six
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: months ahead of time on that one day you can
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: drive out there. Um Or it's thinking through a game plan, knowing, Okay,
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: I'm showing up on November three, and I have a plan.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: I know that day one, I'm gonna try here, and
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: then I'm gonna iterate and I don't adjust, just and
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: you and you go into it. I think knowing these things,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: being prepared, however, you possibly can to know. Number one,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be adversity, there's gonna be challenges. Things aren't
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: gonna go the way I want them to, probably, But
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I have a plan for what to do. I love
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: the idea of the fact that you have backup properties.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: I think that's really smart. Go like, if you're gonna
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: drive ten hours to go to Nebraska and you only
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: have one place to hunt, and you show up there
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: and have have backup problem. There's been plenty of times
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: where I've went out and uh, you know, the property
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: was getting logged or it was overrun with hunters and
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: then and then then what do you do? You know,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: you're kind of like WHOA, So you have those backup properties,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, you always have something to kind
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: of plan and be probably plan for plan C two
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: because things are constantly changing. You know, those those landowners,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: Uh they don't always let you know when something gets
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: leased out. You know, they're just you know, they just
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: live there and there they give you permission, so which
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: is great, but it could change. Things can change there.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: There's there's so many little details and little as aspects
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: of what we're talking about that like are important to understand.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: I wish we could get into all of them, but
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: we kind of are in a pretty tight time frame here,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: so we have to wrap this up much much sooner
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: than I wish we had to, but I want it
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: really quick, try to do some rapid fire things here.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: I think a big question a lot of people have
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: when it comes to a trip like this is is
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: kind of afford it? You know? Can I afford to
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: go and travel out of state and do all this
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff? And I found that a lot of
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: times you can um but it comes out choices, just
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: like anything else. I think. You know, you can choose
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: to invest in hunting, or you can choose to invest
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: in a new best boat, or you can buy a
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: new big screen TV or a big new truck. If
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: try and like something this is important to you and
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: you'd like to do that, make some choices. But I
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: do think it can be much more affordable when people realize.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: And three really quick ways that I have managed to
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: make this pretty affordable, and I've alluded to a number
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: of them. But number one, hunt low cost states sometimes.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: So there's a your states like Kansas or Iowa or
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Illinois that are five six hundred bucks to get at
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: tagged to buy points over a couple of years, that
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: that's a significant cost. But you can go to Ohio
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: or Indiana, Kentucky for hundred fifty bucks or two and
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: fifty bucks and still have a great experience. UM. Lodging
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: is a huge expense for a lot of people. A
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: lot of people want to be in a hotel being
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: nice and comfortable. Nothing wrong with that, But if you're
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: trying to pinch pennies, camping is a great option to
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: do this, UM. And I've done that in a lot
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: of trips and had a lot of fun with it.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: It's not for everyone, UM, but I've never had a
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: more enjoyable experience in waking up at four thirty in
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: the morning in the back of my pickup truck and
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: I opened up the back cab and it was frosty outside,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: and there's anteal open the field, and I had a
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: little backpacking stove, hot coffee, and just like there was
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: no one four miles. All I can hear is like
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: these little crickets and there's a river, and I can
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: see snow covered mountains and I'm hunting white tails. A
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: day like that is an awesome feeling. And I didn't
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: pay a dime for it. I didn't pay for access.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: I was on public in I didn't pay for lodging.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: It was I mean, that's an opportunity available to us
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: that's pretty neat. And then finally food. If you can
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: plan your meals ahead of time and not go out
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: to dinner every day, you can save a ton of
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: money in that. So we my wife and I well
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: cook a bunch of meals and frees them up throwing
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: the cooler and then I know, just every night I
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: come back and I can just heat him back up
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: on the little stove. My Nebraska trip was the cheapest
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: mayonnaise I could find with white bread and ham loaf.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: With that, those little cheese nuggets that are in it,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: oh man, they're horrible, but they give they give me energy,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: all right. So so do you have any other cost
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: savings or any other like, uh, you know, just if
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: you find the right partner. Um, yeah, it's a good one,
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: you know, split and cost. There's there's a state that
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: I go to with three guys, um, you know, two
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: of my best friends, great guys. Um we sack her face,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: maybe some big bucks and some better hunting for the
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: sake of just going together. You know, we've had some
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: great luck. We killed deer, we killed good deer. And
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: it does it makes the trip affordable that that, you know,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: those Illinois and Iowa texts you can get pretty expensive.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: But that's one way. UM, and I think I think
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: you pretty much kind of touched on everything else. That's
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: kind of what I do to cut costs as well.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: I'll throw in one more lesson learned. And you've heard
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: this story, and some listeners of our podcasts in the
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: past have. But I'll just say, if you are going
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: and your significant other isn't gonna be there with you,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: make sure you have a communication plan in place. I
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: didn't do this on one of my trips. I didn't
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: have a good sound schedule of when I'd be checking
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: with my wife, and I happen to get caught up
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: in the experience. I was having so much fun I
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: forgot to check in with her for a day or two.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: She called the cops, had people searching searching for me,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: and I was like five hours away fly fishing because
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: I had filled my tag. So I have a plan
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: in place, because you didn't talk to me for a
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: while after that, so I don't make that mistake. And UM,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: and then I'll just say to other quick things. UM,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: you know, we we've talked a little bit about this,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: the fact that there are these opportunities either for free
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: from permission or public land. And there's a lot of
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: things going on right now in the in the country
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: related to public land where there's some politicians that are
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: toss around is crazy idea of selling off our public lands.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: And if you want to try something like this someday,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: that's not gonna bode well for you if we lose
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: these places. So I just encourage everyone to try to,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: you know, google public land transfer or something like that.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Learn a little bit about what's going on right now
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: with this whole deal, and um, if you're interested in
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: exploring these places a hunter or hiking or backpacking or
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: try anything else, um, learn a little bit and stand
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: up to try to make sure that doesn't happen. I
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: think that'd be a good thing. And then finally I'd
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: just like to say, yeah, thank you, Lindsay. I thought
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: that was like the clapp in the off stage. I
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: get out of here, you're done that. And then I
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: finally just say, UM, try this if you if it's
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: something intrigues you, if it's something that you've always thought, man,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: I'd always love to try something that maybe but next
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: year or some nail do it um or gosh, it
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: just seems like a lot of work or just yeah
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I got my thing. Um, I would just encourage you
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: to take the leap, give it a shot once. It
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: may not be the perfect trip that you see on
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: TV that everyone has and you kill the giant buck
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: and it's like, oh perfect, But I guarantee you if
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: you try something new like this, the experience itself will
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: be will be well worth it. You'll have great memories,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: you'll learn a lot, and it's something to look back
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: on and say, hey, I did this, Yeah, getting outside
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: of that box. So that's those are my couple of
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: thoughts on it. I know that we're tight on time.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: If we still have time, we'd love to take some
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: questions from the audience if if anyone has them. Um,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: we go from there. Okay, So in the second here,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: we're gonna get to some audience questions, but first we
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: need to break for a quick word from our partners
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: at White Tailed Properties and the White Tailed Institute of
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: North America. Now, in our White Tailed Property segment, we're
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: gonna hear just a little bit about the unique challenges
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: of targeting the churr bucks in heavily hunted areas. Something
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: you know, I can definitely relate to and a lot
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: of people that might want to go on a d
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I Y trip like we're talking about, I imagine they
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: might be able to relate to this, So that's pretty
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: relevant to what we're discussing. And then from White Tail Institute,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: we're gonna hear just a little bit about a great
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: forage blend for your fall food plotz. This here something
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: that could come in handy for those of you working
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: on your own properties. So long story short, this is
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: gonna be some interesting stuff and we will quickly get
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: back to our audience question and answer as soon as
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: we get done with us, and from here I'll throw
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: it over to Spencer new Hearth. This week with white
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Tail Properties, we are joined by Tony Hanson, a land
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: specialist out of Michigan, and Tony is gonna be telling
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: us about how hunting strategy changes in pressured states like Michigan.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: I'd say the biggest difference is that just the availability
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: the number of older deer is much much lower, so
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: you don't have, you know, a bunch of them to
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: pick from, so you've got to be pretty you do
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: have to hunt, and you know me, it's it's all
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: about trying to manage to the growing that I've got
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: so that I do have that AH structure because it's
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: it's probably not going to be there on the neighbors.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to learn more and to see the
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: properties that Tony currently has listed for sale, visit white
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Tail properties dot com. Backslash Hanson that's h A N
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: s e N. This week with White Tail Institute, we're
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: talking to consultant John Cooner about their special blend of
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: Imperial white Tail Peer Attraction, which will have deer hammering
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: your food plot all season. Pure Attracts is one of
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: our annual Forge products that's designed for planning in the fall.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Uh and I would not be overstating it to say
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: that it has brought us a lot of customers. It's
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: dynamite stuff. There are two main parts to it, and
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: the advertising guys say it's a one to punch, but
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: basically you've got early fall uh and primarily that's gonna
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: be white tail white tail oats, which is an old
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: variety that we were alerted to by some some researchers
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: that was so they were doing a grain production trial
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: and so attractive the deer that they had to had
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: to pull it out of the trials and we tested
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: it and also found it to be very cold tolerant.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: That's for early fall, moves into the later fall, and
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: then uh, the other part of it is the white
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: tail Institute Braskas, which come up very quickly and the
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: deer will start hitting them. Uh, they'll get even sweeter
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: with the first frosts of fall. So it's the one
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: two punch that takes you from fall all the way
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: through the dead of winter. It is. It is absolutely
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: one of our our big sellers and one of the
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: neat things. Other neat things besides it being extremely attracted
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: deer is with the droughts we've been having in the fall,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: people have realized that the white tail oats oats plus
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: will will come up and provide a good nurse crop
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: with perennials. And for that reason, we've had folks asking
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: us can we take the oates and take white tail
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: Institute Braskas and plan them together. And the neat thing
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: about this is you don't have to. We've already done
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: it for are you, And we've are testing has shown
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: that the ratios in that product are optimum to provide
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: maximum attraction. If you'd like more info, on white Tail
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: Institute's forage products. Check out white Tail institute dot com
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: where they also carry some of the top supplements, attractants
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: and herbicides available. Okay, we're gonna go over there to Kyle, right. So,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: so for those who couldn't hear, the question was how
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: far ahead of time do you need to plan these trips?
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: Especially if you're going to go somewherehere you need to
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: draw a tach. I think that's a great point where
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: we didn't really touch on that. Um, but there are
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: a number of states that require, you know, several points
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: and our ladder systems. I would definitely like January be
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: like thinking about this, like try to read the regulations.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: Some of these states can be a little bit complicated.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: I was a little bit tougher. Um. So yeah, I
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: think a year ahead of time, well ahead year ahead
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: of time. Make sure you read through everything like that,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: because I would take several years of applying for points.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: I would for you know, I was an example. There's
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: several other preference points states where you're not going to
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: hunt that state year one. But Ohio and I believe
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: Illinois talking all over the counter states, Michigan yep, yep,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: so nobody's coming there, so so well that takes is
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: reading regulations, finding the stats to say, Okay, I want
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: to go hunt Iowa, I want to do it with
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: a bow, I want to hunt this part. Look at
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: those stats and then say all right, I'm gonna do
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: it in three years, I'm gonna do it in four
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: years or whatever. That that magic number is anything you'd
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: quickly had on that or yeah, there's a couple out
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: West states too, if you if you if you want
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: to go that route, that do require a couple of
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: points even to get in general units that there's plenty
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: of that over there that are over the counter as well,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: but Iowa's is the one that kind of comes to
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: mind that you do have to play ahead. If you
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: do your research. There's some zones where you can go
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: more often. You don't need to wait for or five years,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: need to wait four or five years, So you just
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: kind of you know there might be if you look
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: in the record books, there might be less Boone and
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: Crockett deer there, but a lot of that has to
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: do with the habitat. There's less cover there, there's a
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: few less deer. But if you can get on some
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: ground or find some decent public ground tune these there's
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: still great hunting. Yeah. Yeah, so this is a reverence
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: to your Montana trip if you're in that campaign campaign situation. Yea, yeah,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: So sending control is an issue and it is a challenge. Um.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: You know, if a perfect situation, you've got a camp
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: or something that has a shower or something because of course,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: and you want to do your best to minimize your owners.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: In my case, I didn't truck camping. So what I
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: do is is is follow everything else I can to
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the t So I'm still all my clothing and stored
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: in a send free tote outside of the truck, around
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: of the truck or somewhere. I'm only getting changed when
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: I'm actually about to go hunting. I'm spraying down with things.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: I use a couple of different ozone related products to
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: help me out. I use that nosonics in field generator. UM.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: I know there's different bags he like sent crusher bags
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: of different things like that where you can use utilize
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: ozone to to take care of some of that bacteria. Um.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: So those are some options I also do kind of
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: like a couple I don't know hill billy shower options.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: I guess either with scent free wipes, there's being out
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: there's full wipe down in front of my truck, or
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: I mean just a big old bucket of water over
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: my head twice, you know, once rants, so get done.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: And it's not necessarily the most enjoyable shower, but try
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: to do that a few times. I I had a
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: guy I interviewed for an article and he lived in
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: his truck on public land in Iowa for six weeks.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: I believe he he didn't he must quit his job.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: He wasn't married. He quit his day job in like
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Kansas or I don't know where he was, and went
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: to this public land spot. And what he would do
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: He would literally wait till big storms and would go
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: out of this truck and just stand the rain and
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: take showers. So maybe I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend it,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: but it's an option. Yeah, state, Yeah, that's a great question.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: And just for anyone who didn't hear her, the question was,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: what do you do in a situation where you've got
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: vast amounts of area, like a western state, very different
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: than maybe midwestern small parcels um and and so I've
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: experienced some things like that, like in the Montana hunts
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: we talked about um, and I've hunted other species out
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: there a lot, and I think you just have to
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: you can be overwhelmed by the vastness of it. So
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: I think, at least in my opinion, I would try
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: to zero in on a on a on an area
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: that looks promising, either based off of your own intel
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: or talking to people locally, talking to biologists in the area,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: talking to a game wardening there and they say, hey,
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: you know what, oh, by the way they drainage or
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: this river bottom tends that we sent tend to see
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of deer, and just get a starting point
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: and then say, okay, I know that this. Even though
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: I've got this and this and this and this, all
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: these different areas, you can really get lost in that.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: So I would try to pick a core area and
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: then focus your time and learn that zone it down. Yeah. Um,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: but to your point, tremendous amounts of public land out
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: west that is underutilized in a lot of cases, especially
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: from the white tail front um. Unbelievable white tail opportunities
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: in some of these Western states, amazing adventure, great deer numbers,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: great dear quality, the age structure in some of these
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: states is like astounding, UM, and I had the most
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: fun I've ever had my life out there. So hopefully
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: we'll into the good story this year. Anything else mm
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: hmm yeah. So in a lot of the low like
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: the valley type situations out west, you what you are
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: going to have cell phone service, but I have found
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: myself in circumstances where I don't. And so because of
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: because of the aforementioned communication issue I had with my
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: wife last year, UM, I did get a GPS slash
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: Satellite UM device that gives me UM the base of
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: GPS functions. It gives me an s OS function, So
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: if if things go badly and I fall out of
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: my tree standard, if I'm el kunning and I break
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: my leg or something, I can hit a button and
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: that calls out to emergency responders. And then there's also
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: a said like text message option, so even without cell
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: phone service, I can text my wife or someone and
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: say hey, I'm alive, I'm doing okay. UM that type
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: of thing, and that specific device is the Garment in
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: Reach Explorer UM that I just picked up recently, and
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: so far it's been great. UM. I haven't somely been
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: half a year, but so far, so good. Well, thank you, Mark,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: how about one more running for them? Thank you? And
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: that's it our first podcast in front of a live audience,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: And like I said, it was just a really cool experience.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: One quick heads up though you might have noticed that
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: in this conversation sation because we are limited by a
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: strict time block that we had there, we had to
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: keep things pretty high level. We were not able to
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: dive into a lot of the topics I really would
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: have liked to have covered with Andy. So with that
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: being said, Andy has actually agreed to come on for
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: another episode, which I'm pumped about, and we'll be diving
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: much more deeply into all of Andy's tactics and deer
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: hunting philosophies, whether that be on one of these d
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: I Y trips, or on the properties he's hunting near
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: his home in Michigan or all over the country. He's
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: got a lot more share. I'm excited to be able
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: to dive into that, and I know you're gonna find
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: it very very interesting. So keeping out for that episode
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: in the coming weeks. And with that said, we will
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: wrap things up here with the big thanks to our
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: partners at Sick Gear, Yetie Cooler's, Matthew's Archery, Maven Optics,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: White Tail Institute, North America, Trophy Ridge and Hunt Terra maps.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: And finally, of course, and most importantly, thank you all
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: for listening. Thanks to those of you who were down
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: in New Orleans and who are actually in the live audience.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: That was awesome and I hope you all enjoy this
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: special episode. Hopefully we're gonna see many more of you
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: at future live events, and until next time, stay wired
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: to Hunt M M