Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 455: Dissecting September Success and Failure with Clay Newcomb, Josh Hillyard, and Justin Michau

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Ep. 455: Dissecting September Success and Failure with Clay Newcomb, Josh Hillyard, and Justin Michau · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and today in the show, we are joined
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: by Clay Newcome, Josh Hilliard, and Justin Michow to break
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: down to September white tail hunts. Let's see what we
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: can learn from these two very different experiences. All right,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: by First Light. Today, we're playing a little bit of
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Monday morning quarterback. By that, I mean we're gonna take
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: a look back at two different hunts that just happened
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: here in September, and we're gonna analyze what happened, what
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: went right, what went wrong? What do we learn from this? Uh, YadA, YadA, YadA.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: And what's interesting is we've got two very different kinds
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of hunts. We've got one private land hunt, we've got
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: one public land hunt. We've got one American hunt, we've
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: got one Canadian hunt. We've got one hunt with a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: guy who prefers wearing overalls. We've got one hunt with
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a guy who prefers wearing a semi flat bill hat.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So this is all about contrast. Today we've gotta me
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and me and further Josh Hilliard are me talking about
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: our recent Western public land white tail hunt. And then
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I've got Clay Newcome and Justin Michow who're gonna talk
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: about their Manitoba white tail hunt. Um so that's the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: game plan, and I think we should kick it off
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: talking Canada. Clay, give me some background on on what
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: this is all about. How did this hunt come about?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: You know, how how did this happen? We're just so
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: first of all, if you're gonna hunt in Canada and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: you're not from Canada, you have to have an outfitter,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So you have to go through an outfitter. So there's
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: really no do it yourself hunts for guys like us
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: coming from the States going into Canada. But as Justin,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I think would agree, this is probably the best case
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: scenario for kind of a do it yourself guy wanting
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: to go there. And and I do have some three
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: years of history on this farm with this outfitters name
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: is Tom Ainsworth, and it's it's probably mark my favorite
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: hunt of the year, Like above everything I do. It's uh,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you know a lot of the hunts that I'm doing
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: bear hunting backcountry stuff is it's hard. I mean, it's
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: like you're sleeping under the stars. You're fighting against you know,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: your tent camping, your um doing a whole lot of deficit,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: your hiking. Physical fitness is an issue low density animals. Man,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: This to me is like exactly opposite of that. You know,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: we're staying in the house, we're eating three meals a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: day at a dinner table. Um. Aside from at times
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: in Canada tough weather to deal with, which we did
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: not in this early season hunt, and it's just an
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: incredibly fun hunt. We see a lot of deer and
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the people that we hut with have kind of become
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: like family to me, Um, Tom and deb Ainsworth. So
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: this was my fourth year to go there. I've been
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: there the last three years, well the last four years
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: minus COVID. Last year I didn't go. This is my
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: fourth year and I've had incredible luck up there in Canada.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I've I've killed. The first year I was there, I
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: killed a hundred and fifty two inch buck with my bow.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Second year, I killed a really nice eight point that
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I would shoot every year of my life. For the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: next However, many years that is, um, it didn't score
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: real well, but it was a real heavy horned tall
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: G two's just a really gnarly old buck um. And
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: then the third year I went, I killed a hundred
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: and fifty six inch deere, so a ton of history.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And but this year I couldn't go during the run.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Every the three times prior have been, I've been the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: first seven days of November essentially, and this year I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: couldn't do that, so we bumped it all the way back.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Manitoba has an early white tail season that starts on
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: August thirty one, and so that's when I went. We
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: are first hunting day was the evening of August one,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and um, yeah, just to describe the type of hunting,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: we were hunting alfalfa fields. There are it's crop land
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: that juts right up against what the Canadians called the bush,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: which is what we would call national forest. And their
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: bush is thick. There's really not a lot of opportunity
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: for getting back in there and finding travel patterns like
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: back in the timber. For these deer coming out in
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: these fields, it's super thick, very thick, and uh so
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: we're hunting these deer and crop fields and this year.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: The every year the farms a little bit different with
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: what crops are there, and this year there was a
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: very limited amount of alfalfa and a lot more oats,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and that I felt like it was advantageous to us
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: because the deer seemed to prefer alfalfa. They also eat
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the odes. But yeah, so that's that's where it all started. Mark,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: that's perfect. What was like, what was the the game plan?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: And like where was your head at leading into day one?
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've had three previous years of experience, So
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: did you come into this knowing, okay, based on what
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I know, I'd really like to hunt in this spot
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: or spot in this spot, and I think they're gonna
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: do this, this and this, or did you come into it,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you know, thinking that this might be totally different because
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the crops are in different places and and all that
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. You know, it's the kind of place
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Mark that I I pretty much had a there was
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: eighty percent chance that I knew exactly what was gonna happen,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: and that that was true. I mean, I pretty much
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: hunted in the places I assumed that I would hunt.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: These deer are pretty unpressured and there pretty predictable and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: it worked out just about like what I thought. Um,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: so okay, so then talk to me about what you
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: know you got there? Day one? You've you you drove
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: in right in. Yeah, we drove up to Canada. For me.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: It was an eighteen hour trip. I picked up Justin
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and we uh we arrived early in the morning, like
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: at three am, and we were out scouting shortly after
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: daylight and uh saw some deer, saw some bucks on
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the alfalfa, right where we hoped they would be. It
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: was the first place we pulled into. Basically we saw
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: bucks on the alfalfa. And so basically it was a
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: ten acre rectangular block of alfalfa that had a big,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: like forty acre track of oats to the side of it.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And the wind that first so our first afternoon, the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: wind was coming out of the south, and so we
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: hunted the north side of the of the south alfa
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and it's big, you know, I mean, it's you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: it's fifty yards probably to the other end, and so
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: you're kind of just guessing, hoping that they are coming within,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: you know, forty yards of your tree. And uh, we
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: just and I both had saddles, and so we were
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: able to set up in a reel small tree that
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you know, had never been hunted to our knowledge. I
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: mean we we had to trim it out and everything,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and I got in the stand probably four hours before dark,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and uh, that first evening we had bucks come on
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the field, you know, just kind of prime time, you know,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: an hour to an hour and a half before dark
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: had bucks come on the field. And then the last
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: thirty minutes of daylight, Justin said, oh man, there's a
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: stomper buck that just stepped out. I don't remember his
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: exact phraseology, but I'm pretty sure stomper that seemed to
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: be something. Is that? Is that your phrase, Justin? Is
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: that what you said? No, I can't remember what I
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: said At this point, I was gonna piggyback though. Um,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: you know what was cool I've I've not to take
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: away from where Clay was going, but it was what
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: was neat was I've only been to an outfit there
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a couple of times, never for white tail, and like
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Clay said, this place was like as close as you
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: could get to just like knocking on the door and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: getting permission. Um, you know, there were stands set but
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: like like Clay mentioned, like we we went in that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: morning when we went into scout. Um, we we came
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: up to that field and as soon as Clay came
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: around the corner, he'd like dropped down and he said,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: there's a shooter right here. So we like we felt
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: good right away about that alfalfa because there was art.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was probably you know where we were
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: way into daylight and there was a shooter that didn't
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: see him, but you know, had his head to the
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: ground eating and so we backed out and and knew
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: like that that we had a pretty good scenario there,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and we drove around a bit more and a lot
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: of the fields that typically held alfalfa, from what Clay said,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: in previous years, we're somewhat empty. So again, like it
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: just kind of stacked the deck a little bit more
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: in our favor as far as like there's not a
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: ton of places that these deer are gonna want to
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: be right now. And um, but yeah, we were you
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: know that that first night set up we you know,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: we're positioned in a way that we could both have
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: eyes and we both had binos and uh, yeah, we
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: had a doe and uh probably it's hard to tell
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: you like you know at home now would be probably
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: a three and a half year old book, but place
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: whereas that those deer two and a half there, um
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: did or that size because their bodies are just huge.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: But we had a dough and a buck come out early,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and you know, he was in full velvet. I don't know,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: he's like a nice eight was it an eight or
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: ten clay? Nice deer came out fed a little bit,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: and then he and Doe went late on the field
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: edge and just decided it was a great place to nap.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: So we watched him for probably an hour, and um, yeah,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: we watched deer messing around and they started coming out
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and I call it a slammer lambor, that's I do.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It started with an H and then next next thing,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you know, man, I had been watching this deer in velvet,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and I was like, gosh, that's kind of that's a
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: nice dear, you know, like for for being the first
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: year that we saw. I'm like, all right, this is great.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: And then this this other deer came out and all
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of a sudden that that other buck, the velvet buck,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: just was dwarfed, and um, I had seen a few
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: photos and then we were at Tom's house and I
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: got to see one of the deer he had on
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: his wall, which I would think was a two oh
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: eight or two oh nine um that was from that property.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: And they have this their frame seems pretty unique. I mean,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like seems like a genetic thing there.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: And when he came out, he just his rack looked
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: like it was glowing red. I mean, it was just
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: like you could tell it hadn't been too long since
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: he had shed. It just looked fresh, and his body
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: was like a cow. So I was like, man, we
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: were in the game. So the slammer stepped out in clay.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: How far away was he at this point, probably two
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty to three hundred yards, you know, it was
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a good ways off, And we pretty much knew we
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: were out of the game because the deer stepped out
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: on the total opposite edge of the field. But being
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the first day, that's all we wanted. We just wanted
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: to locate a shooter buck. And the thing about too,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: about uh this outfitted hunt is Tom and I've learned
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to love this. He doesn't do a lot of reconnaissance.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't like he he has kind of
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: a philosophy that he wants his hunters to hunt, and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: so he knew there was a big buck there, but
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: he didn't give us much intel. He didn't show us pictures,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and so you know, we kind of discovered this buck
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and we're like, Okay, that's the deer we're after. And
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Mark I I believed it to be a hundred and
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: fifty inch main frame ten. He he might have he
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: could have been seven, or he might have been one,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: you know, but just a classic ten and in heavy horned.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: And man, those deer from having killed three deer up
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: there that they'll weigh in at two hundred fifty pounds
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: almost on the dot. I've killed three one way to forty,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: one way to and one wayed. Um, I don't think
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I ever killed one actually the way to fifty one.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: The biggest one was totight. So you know they're they're
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: just big deer for us. You know, a big deer
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: at Arkansas is gonna weigh a hundred and seventy five pounds,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: big mature buck and so um, when they when they're
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: that big body and the horns look fairly big, you're
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: talking about a hundred and fifty inch deer. Usually if
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: it's a ten point you know. And um, so we
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: were in the game. Uh that night Tom came and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: picked us up in the field. We so we busted
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: these deer off the field, you know, to get out.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I felt like that was the best thing to do. Um,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: justin feel free to tell any of these stories, man,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: But I'm just gonna kind of march through, Mark if
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you want me to, Yeah, Mark, march me through. But me,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I wanted throw in one thing before you give me
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the full detail in day two. I really want to
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: know the thought process behind how you were planning to adjust, Like,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: give me the full rundown of how you were thinking
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: about where to set up day two, because I'm imagining
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you're taking into account where you saw that deer. You
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: gotta take into account the wind direction, and god knows
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: what else. So so walk me through that. Okay. So
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: there's timber on three sides of this field. One side
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of the field butts up against another big oat field,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and I just felt like we were gonna swap back
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and forth sides based pretty much every day there was
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: some some version of the north wind or some version
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: of a south wind, so you could hunt one side
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of the field or the other and we were watching
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: these deer kind of where they're at. And Tom had
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: a shooting house, I mean basically like an enclosed blind
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: upon a platform. It looked like a porter party. Let's
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: just a green porter party. Yeah, and it's about the
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: same size. Yeah, that's about right. And and all these
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: deer were within bow range of that porter party. And
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: uh so so the next day we actually went in
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: trying to hang. We were gonna hang a set hang
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: out of our saddles, and I convinced Jess and I
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: was like, dude, we need to get in that thing
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: because it's gonna protect us from any kind of swirling wind.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: And all those deer were pretty close to that blind.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And mind you, mind you, that first night we probably
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: saw you know, fifteen to twenty deer, and most of
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: those deer came out on that and towards the blind. Yeah. Yeah,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: so that the well, our plan was to hunt the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: south end the next day and so eventually we would
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: end up there. But the next morning, Mark, and this
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: is probably the most unique stand on the property, and
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: from a white tail strategy perspective, I would be interested
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: if Mark Kenyon and Josh Hilliard would come to this
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: property and would see this stand and would not be
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: like you would be interested to see if you would
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: have thought if it was a good spot, because I didn't.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I was the porter potty spot or a morning I'm sorry,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I'm about to describe where we sat in the morning perfect.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And so basically there's a main county road that bisex
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the property. I mean a main county road the south
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: foul of field. Let's say it sets three yards off
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the road, and it's gonna be really hard to describe
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: in boring if I take ten minutes trying to describe
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the exact layout. But basically, through observation over decades, Tom
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: has been like, those deer always come by this little
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: corner and cross the main road and go back to
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: bed on the other side of the road. And I
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: just don't think you would be looking at an aerial
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: map and figure that out. I mean, it just you
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: just wouldn't. It's just not it's just not intuitive that
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: those deer cross right there. In the first year I
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: hunted with Tom, he put me in that stand and
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I was just thinking, oh boy, here we go. You
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: know the rancher. You know, Tom's a rancher. Man. I mean,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: you know he doesn't. They don't white tail hunt kind
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: of like we do because they don't have to. They
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: know the patterns of these deer so well that you know,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: they kind of cut through the riff raff of sometime
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: and they're just like, hey, let's deer cross right there,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: just hunt there, wor about. You know, we'd have been
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: thinking like, all right, let's try and get in close
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: to bedding and blah blah blah and times like you
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: see this two track, I put that in there so
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: that you walk down it. And sure enough, you said,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: on this stand, it's like ten yards off of this
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: two track, so that he runs his quads around like
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: that's just how he accesses around his property. Bear you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: just to the dirt. And you would think like, well,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: kind of got screwed here, Like I literally you're in
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the stand within like thirty seconds of being dropped off
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: from the road. So yeah, you're you're you're hunting. I mean,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: you've got acres and you're within you know, A muzzleloader
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: shot of a main road that like school busses are
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: driving down, you know, and uh, it's a gravel road.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: There's not a lot of traffic on it, But I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think Justin saw the school buses,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: but usually I do. But but I've hunted there three years,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and I'm telling you I believe that if a man
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: were to go there, and it's is usually six days
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: of hunting, if you set in that tree for six days,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: you'd kill a big, mature Canadian buck. I mean, it
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: would be so boring because you don't always see deer.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Just some percentage of the time these deer exit these
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: fields and come that way. I would say thirty percent
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: of the time, I think. So if you set there
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: ten mornings, I think you would have deer within bow
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: range three to four times starting rupt. But now that
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: you've actually sat the spot right, so it's not like
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: you've only looked at the map. You've actually been on
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the ground and actually seen it. Is there any Is
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: there any rhyme to why can you understand now why
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the deer passed through? Like is there some little topography
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: thing or something. I think it has to do with
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: they could walk in the timber the whole way and
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: be covered by timber across the road. I think these
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: deer so unpressured. It's just easier than walking through timber.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: So they walked down the edge of this timber and
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: now they're I'm serious. There are multiple things that they
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: could do that I would have predicted that they would
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: do before they do this. So there's not a lot
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: of reason to it other than it's highly predictable because
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in three years I have personally seen multiple mature bucks
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: crossed within bow range of that stand. And if you could,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: if you could picture it, there's a bit of a
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: curve on this two track, So if you followed the
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: curve to the road, then that's like how we would
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: get in, right, But if you are like a really
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: open j right, and what's happening is there walking down
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the straight part of that j and right as it
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: starts to curve, which is probably clay, would you say
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: forty from the road, Yeah, okay, So right when that
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: jay starts to to curve, they cut into the woods
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: right there. And you know, again I don't we didn't
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: investigate too much, but what they end up doing is
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: crossing that road. But for some reason they're cutting in
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: right there, and maybe they just don't want to go
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: in the driveway. I don't know, but that like consistently.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: That's what they're doing, is just following that road straight in.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: So you you sat next to the road, did you
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: see the big giant Well, so this is a great
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: morning stand though, because you can't even see the alfalfa field.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So these deer on the alfalfa, you walk in the dark,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: just out of the truck, climb up in this tree.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: You don't spook any deer, and then your position for
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: their exit. That's what it that's what it happens. So
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: on the next morning, mark uh, just after daylight, we
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: saw three bucks exit the field and come within ten
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: yards of our tree. One of the deer was a
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: was a nice full velvet eight points. I would have
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: suspected him in the one twenties as score wise, I mean,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: a nice looking deer, but not a deer that I
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: was interested in shooting, which spoiler alert, there's a little
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: bit of there's a little bit of drama involved in this.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: So I passed this, I passed this deer, but they
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: come right in. What's interesting too, is this whole time
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: we're watching a very large bear out in the oats,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: probably five yards from us. Um so afflicted, oh, not
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: really conflicted. I was pretty interested in the deer. But
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: it was kind of cool to be watching these deer
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and a bear out of the same tree stand, you know. Um,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: So I passed these deer on the first morning. So
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: that evening, Mark, we go to the porter potty stand
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and uh, it's not it's bigger than a porter pot
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: It would be like a two seater porter potty. Is
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: this is this the night you sent me your second video? Yeah,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that's it. That's it. That's it, the second video. I
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoyed that. We're not gonna get that because there's
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: another conflict of some people, don't you know. Well, now
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you gotta explain, just kept. I don't want to. I
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: don't want to ruin. I don't want to wreck people's
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: world views on scent control just yet. I mean later later, Mark, Okay, okay, later,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I want to. I don't want to bankrupt the scent
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: control companies. These guys are just trying to make a living,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: that m um. So the next day we get in
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: probably four hours before dark and setting this stand, and Mark,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: it was like it was perfect. We saw fifteen bucks.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to fast forward because uh, we saw fifteen deer,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: many of them within bow range of our stand. We're
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: looking over this alfalfa, and thirty minutes before dark, we
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: see the stomp what stomper buck? Slammer buck? Justin says,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: there's a slammer buck, and he's looking four or five
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: yards across the oats. And here comes this buck that
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: we've seen the evening before, coming from the total opposite direction,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: crossing a wide open field for several hundred yards, enter
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: into the alfalfa, and he walks within probably eight yards
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of where we were sitting the night before in our
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: tree saddles, and we basically watch it get dark while
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: he is just prancing around within bow range of where
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: we set the evening before. And um, it was pretty incredible.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, at this point, I've seen it there twice
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: now on the alfalfa. It's just a matter of time,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: you know. And I just tell Justin, I mean, we
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: had the same thought. It's just like, dude, we just
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: got to keep doing this and eventually you know he's
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: gonna end up here. But it was interesting too, because
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: you know that that alfalfa field was just like so
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: lush and green, and I was surprised how much these
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: deer were spending time in these oats. And and when
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: we say oats, like they were like brown, like tall
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: brown oats. It's not fresh green growth. Um. And they
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: were in there just like you know, hitting them, hitting
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: them hard. So you almost had to you almost had
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to keep eyes in the oats as much as you
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: did in the alf alfa. Again, that that alf alfa field,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: how how big would you say that field was? Clay?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I think Tom said it was seventy acres now that
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I think about it. That the oat field was a
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: lot bigger than the off Alpha field. But I mean
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: it was nothing to see these deer scoot right out
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: of the alf Alpha field and start feeding in these oats,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: and you know it looked like dry soybeans. Um. But yeah,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: that's that's where he came from. That night, he just
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: was cruising across the air, taking his time and uh yeah,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: just he started working our way. But you know, dark
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: got to us. So next day, okay, so we the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: next day we go back to the county road stand
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and I'll give you a couple of clues and then
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: we'll dial this in here and and and the story
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: will be finished. Okay. Um, the Big Buck was hard horned,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and probably eight percent of the other deer were in velvet. Okay,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: so that's that's one thing that is in my mind
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: that the big deer is hard horned. Um. So the
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: next the next morning, we climb up in the stand
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: where we'd passed the deer to day the day before.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: This is the county road stand, and it's it's overcast,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: so it's kind of dark, but the sun starts to
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: come up. We're ready, and I pull up the buyos
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and I see three deer coming out of the Alfa
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: alfa turn and start coming our way. And I can
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: tell their bucks, but it's there, you know, they're three
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: yards away, and I can just see racks on all
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: of them, and I can tell the one in the
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: lead is hard horned. And this is where I made
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: a mistake. Um. And you know, it's kind of cool
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: making a mistake because I don't know, you just learn
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: a lot from it. And and I go back and
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: I just like track what happened, and uh, you know,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: it was so dark, I couldn't see these deer real well,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: but I could see him through buyos and and um
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: and and I mean you can see them with your
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: naked eye but I'm but once they make the corner,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: they're coming fast, you know, I mean, they're they're steady walking.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: So I pull up the bottoms one time and the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: first deer is hard horned and his horns come out
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: to his ears, and he just looks like he's got
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: a solid rack. And I just made the decision that
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: is the buck we're after. And that was it. Like
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: he's the one from the night before. That's right, I say,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: that's the big one. He's in the front, and man,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I put the bottos up and I never looked back,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and they were like once they once they came around
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: that corner, they made their way out into that oat
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: field and started feeding their way towards us. So it
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't they weren't hauling down that road like the three
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: we had seen the day before. They were kind of
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: taking their time, but you know they were they were.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: We knew where they were gone. Yeah, and and basically
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: quit what stay three is this day three of the hunt? Yes,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: morning of day three, because we we fed a bear
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: hunt in between in that one second day, right, I think,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: So I'm trying to remember that. Ye. So basically this
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: deer just comes into twenty five yards and I never
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: scrutinized him, and I could tell that the deer behind
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: him was bigger, but the way the wind was blowing,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: they were gonna cross right into our wind. Like so
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I felt like I needed to shoot the first deer.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: And I felt like the first deer was a hundred
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and fifty inch deer, the one behind him was slightly bigger.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Tom had seen a bigger buck the day before, and
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I I felt like, Man, I'm not gonna get greedy
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: and let this one fifty walk past me and get
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: down wind waiting for this bigger one. And so, man,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: he comes into twenty five yards and you know it,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: it's minutes. I mean it's early, you know, I mean
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's go shooting light. But it is overcast
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and it is early, and um, and I mean I
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: pulled back, and I mean I can see him perfect
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: through the peat and but I'm not scrutinizing Hornson. I
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: mean I just tendering him at twenty five yards. Just shoot,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and I mean just double. Um. We hear a twap,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: he runs off falls in the field and I'm elated,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: and uh, we go out there and that's it is
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: not the buck at all. It's um, you know, I
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: don't even want to say what he would score, uh
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: because I don't know, but it was. It was a
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: two year old eight point buck and uh man, to
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: say I wasn't disappointed would just be a lie. I mean,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I was disappointed. I've been to Canada three times and
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: killed really nice deer. We were after a really nice deer,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: and uh so I was very disappointed. Um what, I
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: hate to say it. I hate to say it because
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, there's just there's just no no
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: getting around it, you know, I mean, I I shot
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: the wrong dear. So Clay tell me this, how do
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: you so? I'm gonna ask this to you Clay first,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: and then I'll ask justin next what does disappointed just
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: shot the wrong buck Clay look like and sound like
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: in that moment. You know, I'm pretty hard on myself.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: I mean I really am. I mean I in some
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: some some ways, you know, people might see me as
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: just kind of like happy, go lucky, whatever happens, not
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: a trophy hunter. When it comes to white tails, I'm
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: probably a little bit different. I mean, um, uh yeah,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: I was. I was. I was quite disappointed. I really
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: was and and and partly because everything was in place
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: for us to kill a good deer, you know, and
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: in to end the hunt that quick. And I have
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: a elaborate, elaborate spiel on judging Canadian white tails. That
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: is killer. I about all the people that didn't kill
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: big deer that he brought He so I knew what.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I knew what we were up against. Oh, Mark, I
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: have every the other three years I've been to Canada,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I've brought people with me, and every single person nobody
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: has walked out of Canada with a big Canadian white tail.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Every single person I brought up there has made a
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: mistake and shot two year old deer. One guy shot
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: one guy probably shot a three year old deer. But
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: it was a It's just like anywhere. I mean, they're
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: not all big, you know. So you could have a
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: mature four year old deer that had a rack. You know,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: that's possible. No, absolutely, I mean I could tell you
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: stories and it um. But every single one of them
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: killed two year old dear, And so I have Oh,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: I should write an article about judging trophy whitetails in Canada.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: And you gotta tell me what what's the secret to
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: properly judging a trophy whitetail in Canada, Well, you've got
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: to make sure that you're looking at a two hundred
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: and fifty pound deer. You know, this deer probably weighed
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: two hundred ten pounds is what I would have guessed.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: It is a big deer for me, and and the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: scale of his rack to his head. If he had
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: weighed two fifty, he would have been what I thought
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: he was. So when I judged him, I was like,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: that is a full size, full sized Canadian white tail buck.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: So you're you're looking at that body shape, body size,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and then you gauge the horns because the first day
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I ever killed a Canada um, I saw him at
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: eighty yards and I thought, oh, that's nice, dear, that's
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: probably a hundred twenty deer based upon the scale of way,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the way his horns looked, based on his body, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: you know, assuming I'm looking at hundred and sixty d
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: seventy pound deer, that have you know, hucks. Anyway, I
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: thought this deer was a hundred deer. I shot the
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: deer and he scored uh one fifty two, so massive
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: ground swell. I walk up that there like holy cow,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I said, I had no idea that their bodies were
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: this big, and uh, basically those two and three year
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: old deer can look like studs, um, and they're not.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: So that's primarily my spiel. It's like, you really need
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: to look at a lot of deer. You need to
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: see these big deer up against these two year olds.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: You need to look for that mass um. The older
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: deer almost always gonna have really good masks, and um,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: you know, you just you just gotta be careful. So
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: so now I gotta switch it over to justin. So
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: two questions for you justin number one, when you saw
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: this butt coming in and Clay said, oh, what's the
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: one in your head where you're like, oh, yeah, that's
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the one? Or did you have this whisper in the back.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: That's like, I don't think that's the right dear. Honestly, man,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: I was Uh. I really didn't get a chance to
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: get good eyes on them. This was I think the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: first hunt that on the trip that I didn't bring
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: my binos and at the speed they were coming, I
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: was just trying to make sure I had my act together,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: so um, you know I was filming. I was just
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: more focused on filming Clay, and I was shooting pretty
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: wide at that point, so, um, you know, being in
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: my spot, there's just more things you had to be
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: concerned with than you know, where those other situations. I
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: had the camera set up, everything was good, I had
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: every you know, I felt confident in everything. It was
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: still early, so we were trying to be careful and
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: quiet and not do too much, um, you know, before
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: realizing the situation and and you know, figuring out where
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: deer were. So I hadn't like really spread my wings yet.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: And so when I saw the deer coming, I could
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: tell they were bucks, but I wasn't able to really
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: assess whether or not. And and Clay said, he's like, man,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: there's a big one. He's at that corner and he's
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: hard horn. There's three of them. He's like, the second
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: one is bigger. And he started to you know, I
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: started to get the like what he just said. I thought, oh,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: that second one must be um, the one maybe that
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Tom had had seen as well. But I could tell
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Clay was going for the lead deer, and so I
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: was just trusting his you know what he could see.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't really have time to get eyes on it.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: And like he said, man, the bodies on these things, like, oh,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: I could see was you know he they were in
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the oats. It was brown, you know, and it was
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: like overcast, and I wasn't able to pick the antlers
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: out like I could in that alfalfa yield. And so
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: they were coming and I was just making sure I
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: was ready. And then when Clay walked up on him,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: like does Clay secretly laid on a bunch of cuss words?
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Or is there is there some secret part Clay that
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: we don't see that comes out when he shoots the
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: wrong buck? What does that look like? And he was
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: he was swearing at me like no, and he here
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: like I'm in a unique situation because you know, here,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: I am filming right, like that's my thing that I'm
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: doing there. But I'm like, I'm I'm hunting. I'm just
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: not shooting right, I'm not getting to kill anything. And um,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time in the tree and
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: in the field, and so I get the same range
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: of emotion that you guys do, like when we you know,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: when your dad shot that year on the back forty
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Like I'm feeling all the same things. And so when
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: those deer came came around the corner, like I, you know,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: my heart rate lifted and the like, making sure I
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: got my my stuff together. But I'm also I also
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: feel that anticipation that I would feel if I was
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: where Clay was, and just you know, trying to like
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: keep my head together. So when he shot the deer, man,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: we were we were just so pumped, like because we
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: kept having encounters with this deer, and you know, there's
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: always that like that like crux where okay, here's the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: deer and the bows drawn and the only thing now
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: that you hope for is a good shot. And when
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: he shot, I mean it just you know that sound
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: from heaven, just like that deep cavity, you know, clump sound.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: And he ran off and he got to the top
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of this little ridge and he tipped right over, and
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: so like it was it. That was it. It was
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: like it was done. It was awesome. We celebrated, you know,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: you know, here we go now he can now we
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: can shift focus a little bit and we go walking
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: up to it. And man, I can tell you like
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: exactly what I started to think. I'm walking up and
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: again he's laying in oats that are brown hand and brown,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: and Clay's like, here's a deer. And I look up
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: from the camera for a second and I'm like, my
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: first thought was, gosh, did he shoot a dope? And
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: just just for a split second, and then I then
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: I then I saw the andlers, and then I was
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: looking at Clay, and man, it hit me like a
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: brick wall, just like that disappointment that he felt. I
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: could see it in his face. And I felt like
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I was paralleling what he was feeling because I just
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: felt all of that. So he handled it well. It
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: was one of those situations where, you know, if I
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: had a tripod, I probably would have stuck the camera
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: on a tripod and just like walked walked away, But
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: I filmed him, you know, Like I think most of all,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: what you have to do in these situations is like
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta be authentic. You gotta realize, like,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: all right, like, Okay, we killed a deer. It's not
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: you know, it's not this deer's fault, right, he's dead.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: And and Clay is not like slinging things and throwing
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: his hat and being like, oh gosh, you know, he's
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: like he's absorbing the fact that like all right, I
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: killed this deer. I killed the wrong deer. But here's
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: just here at lace, you know, and I could, uh
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: it was. It's a very unique thing to be able
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: to go in as a as a cameraman and and
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: do this. But but you're participating in a way that
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't if you were just on a film set.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: You know, you it's raw. You get to you get
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: get to like win a dobe blows at us in
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: a tree, my gut saying, just like it does for
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: you guys. So uh, it's it's a very interesting thing.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: And yeah, he was disappointed. I was disappointed, and I
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: think then we were just like, you know, it's just
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: like if you were by yourself and you killed this
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: deer and you walked up on it, You're like, this
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: isn't what I wanted. But we got meat, and we
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: have a story and it may not have played out
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: like we hoped it would, but um, you just gotta
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: swallow it and and move on. Yeah, so Clay, you
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: this happened, You were disappointed, you got at him, you
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: brought him home. Yeah, did all the other stuff. You
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: went out there and tried to kill a bear, YadA, YadA, YadA.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: When you look back on it now you've had some
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: days now to think about it, to process it. Uh,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: what did you learn from this experience? Like? What did
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: you learn? What would you do different? If anything? What
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: what's the big takeaway here for you? You know, it's
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: it's kind of like we my wife and I have
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: something that we say to each other when things don't
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: go right, and we say, when you ride bulls, you
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: get your teeth knocked out sometimes, and uh, you know,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: when you're you're in Canada and there's just no cahoots
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: about it. We're not like meat hunting in Canada though.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: The meat from these grain fed deer is incredible and
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I brought every stitch of it home and we will
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: use that meat. But you know, I mean, I'm not
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: saying that I went up there just to shoot a
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: meat buck, you know. And uh so you kind of
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: get your teeth kicked in, But it's, uh, it's a
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: pretty good problem in your life. If you kill a
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: deer in Canada and you know you're disappointed about it,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: you know, you probably have a that's not really that
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: big of a problem. But no, I just made I
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: just judged him too quick, you know, and uh, you know,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: I've killed a lot of deer with a bow, hunted
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: up there a lot, and this every little thing that happens,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: you you learn from it, and um, it's just another thing.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: I just I didn't have enough data points and I
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: made my decision too quick. And here's the main thing,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: another main thing I learned without getting into our bear hunt.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: This was a combo hunt, and I was trying to
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: bear hunt and deer hunt. And I don't think I'll
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: do that again because it just put too much pressure
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: on me. Because the whole time we were deer hunt
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: and we're thinking, man, we gotta kill a deer so
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: that we can bear hunt. We're not gonna have time
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: to bear hunt. And I feel like the kind of
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: this overall pressure that was on it was on me
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: solely by my choice, kind of put a a bit
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: of urgency on me that I typically wouldn't be hunting with.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: And so in that regard, perhaps I've bit off more
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: than I should have, you know. And uh, you need
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: six days to go up there and kill a good
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: white tail usually, and uh, I guess I just had it.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I was very confident going into the hunt. Now, I
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: told I texted Justin and told him there I felt
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: really humbled, you know. I mean I've I've been fortunate
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: with some good deer and I mean I think even
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: from a kid, when I started bow hunting, I didn't
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of let a lot of stuff get past me.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, I I capitalized on a lot of good opportunities,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: and so I've kind of built kind of my perception
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: of myself as a bow hunter. It's like, yeah, I'm proficient.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Deer walks by, I'm probably gonna kill it, and uh,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: and that's just kind of a dumb thing to think
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: about yourself because it's such a complex moment with so
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: many different things. And now I was just humbled. I
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: really was, uh, just kind of humbled by it and
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: grateful that I made a clean shot on a deer,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: very grateful for the deer and uh, but but also
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: kind of evaluating my standards too. I mean, because when
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: you kill a deer, you shouldn't feel bad. So I'm
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: kind of personally moving through that. I've never shot a
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: deer with that much ground shrinkage, never, so that's a
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: new experience for me to shoot one that was that
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: far off, you know, I mean, so I'm kind of like,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: it's kind of dumb to feel bad about shooting a
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: deer and kind of goes against my principles and a
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: lot of other areas of my hunting. So kind of
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: evaluating that thinking about it. You know interesting, well, you know,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: you never I've never yet gone on a hunt or
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: had a season where I don't come out of it
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: on the other end having learned something new and learn
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: something new about myself. And uh, certainly seems like you
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: guys both had those kinds of takeaways. I mean, yeah,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: big buck or not, you grew, you learned something, Cary
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: tell us about your hunt. Mark, Yeah, I wanna. I
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: wanna now throw uh throw a little bit of the
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: hosting responsibility over to you guys. Now. I think I
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: want to walk through some stuff. So I'll kind of
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: talk through some of our thought process around this trip,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: and me and Josh can can tell you what happened,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: but you guys jump in with all the you know,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: foult questions that you want and what details we miss
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: out let us know. Um, So we went on a
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: hunt just about the exact same time as you guys.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I think our opening day was the day before, so
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: August and this was public land, and this is the
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: same place that me and Josh went and hunted last year.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Last year, I think we started on September three or fourth,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: so we're a little bit late. We missed opening day
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: last year. Um, this year, we'd be there the day
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: before opening days. We'd be able to scouting all that. UM.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if you guys heard the story
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: from last year, but listeners will remember that we went
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: on this trip last year was our first time down
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: to this piece of public land out there, and we
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: kind of had a for lack of better word, of
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: ship show kind of thing. It was just like every
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: day there was other hunters kind of blowing our stuff up. Um.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: There was one day where I'd gotten on two really
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: good deer the night before, made a move on them,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: and then that next day a group of like teenagers
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: on UTVs came driving through, like banging metal pots and
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: pans or something together and screaming, hooting, hollerd and driving
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: all over the place. So I had this kind of
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: negative experience. Um. But at the same time, you know,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: we saw a good number of deer. I mean, we
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: saw a lot of deer and a couple of nice ones. Um.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, Josh, you had one hunt where I mean
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: the first hunt you had there was like the best
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: hunt in your life. What did you see? Yeah, yeah,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Just an insane number of deer
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: um and a lot of a lot of bucks, like
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty bucks, with a couple of those being shooters. So,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: I mean the first night out of the gates and
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: we're like, all right, this this place is awesome. Yeah. Um.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: And then after that the wheels just kind of started
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: to fall off. Yeah. So so we knew this place
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: had this potential um, but also the fact that it
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: had the potential to be a mess because it's it's
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: a little closer, it's significantly closer to a larger city
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: center that I usually like to do out in these
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Western public plan hunts. Uh, it's it's it's outside of
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: what I would normally do. But we're trying to find
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: a place that was close to my cabin out there
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: that had quality deer numbers, and this was the best
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: I could find. Um. So all that said, after last year,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: I wasn't sure if I want to go back or not. Um.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I guess I never really asked you, Josh. I mean
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: I know we bounced back and forth in this, but
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: what was your gut reaction coming into this summer? Like
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: when you and I were talking should we hunt here?
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Should we hunt here? Were you always like I wish
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: should really go back? Or was there something in your
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: mind was like, now we really shouldn't. Like I know
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: what I was thinking, but I was torn on honestly, UM,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: And I think ultimately we made the right decision going
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: back to the spot, just for the sheer number of
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: UM deer. UM. The spot is just gonna be It's
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: just gonna hold a lot more deer than UM some
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: of the other spots we were looking at. UM. I
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: knew there was a chance we would be dealing with
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: more people, almost guaranteed at this spot. UM. But even
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: though we saw people last year and it was kind
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: of a goat rodeo at times, I mean, we were
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: still in deer almost the entire trip. UM. So I
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: think ultimately it was the right decision to go back here, UM,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: just for the sheer number of deer that are in
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: the area, as opposed to some of these other lower
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: density spots we're looking at UM that may have some
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: good good bucks and maybe low pressure but we could
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: have gone the whole week without seeing a single deer
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: too at some of these other spots. Yeah, we w yeah,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: what's up? What's the what is the terrain? Like? What
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: are you what are you hunting? Yep. So this spot
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: is a river bottom, So there's there's hills on one side,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: and then uh down in the river. There's a big
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: river that runs through a valley, and then there's public
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: land that runs along the border of that river, and
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: that public land is mostly uh grasses, shrubs, cottonwood, trees,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: some sage brush, and then just a bunch of other
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: cover just like thick Russian olive kind of stuff that
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: runs along the edge of that river. So that's the
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: public land. It's long and skinny. Um, there's two access points.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: There's two different roads that go on either side of
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: this that are separated by I don't know, four miles,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: five miles something like that. So it's like a four
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: or five mile skinny stretch of public land that runs
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: along this river that we have access to. And then
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: outside of the public land there are crop fields on
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: the private land. Some of these crop fields are ALFLFA.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Some of it looked like maybe win or wheat. Uh,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: some of it was corn actually. So you know what
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: we saw last year was that these deer obviously bed
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: back in that cover along the river and then they
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: transition out towards the private land crop fields every night
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: to feed. So you know the general pattern of what
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: these deer do is is simple, and that they had
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: from the betting area which is all on this side
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: and the head to the feeding area, which is all
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: on that side. Uh. The tough thing about it is
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: that there are there's very little pronounced difference in any
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: of those spots. So where those deer pop out, like
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: how they choose to go from north to south, it
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: could be almost anywhere. It's it's relatives is different than
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: honey on the back forty justin where we kind of knew, oh,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: here's our little like three acre great betting area, and
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: we there's a pretty darn good chance that there's a
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: big buck around here. He's gonna be in this little
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: three acre betting area because that's the best thing around.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: He's probably gonna come out to this food source. No,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: it's like we have five miles of the same kind
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: of great adding cover, and we have five miles of
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: the same kind of great food, and you know, they
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: could come in and out anywhere, and there's just very
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: little that differentiates. And so our task was to do
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: two things. We had to try to find something that
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: would differentiate and help us pinpoint like narrow down where
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: these bigger bucks would come out. And then secondly, how
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: do we do that knowing that there probably would be
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: a bunch of other hunters again like last year. Um
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: and ultimately, like my my mental calculus was that I
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: knew there's gonna be other people like we we we
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: both came into it knowing, Okay, this place is probably
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: blown up with other people. Would just let's assume it.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: Let's just like go into this knowing that every day
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: we're gonna see people, and just knowing that off the bat,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: off the bat, it will hopefully make it less stressful
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: when it actually happens. It's like every day I was like, Okay,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: don't get stressed out when you see other trucks here,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: don't get upset when you see someone walking in, because
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: it's just gonna happen. Know it and have a plan
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: for that. And ultimately, what I believe is that I
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: thought we could out hunt them. I thought that there
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: was enough targets that we would be able to um
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: have success despite these other people. We could get back
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: and behind him, We could hunt them in a different
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: way than everybody else out there wanted to do. UM.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: So that was you know, that's the mindset we brought
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: into it. UM. I mean that's basically where your head
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: was that too, right, Josh, No, for sure that that
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: was the same same type of thing where we thought
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: we could maybe work around them getting further than them, UM,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: get deeper into the cover than what most people would
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: like to do. And some of that was based on
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: last year were you know, a lot of the kind
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: of the preset stands that we saw and a lot
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: of the hunting pressure we saw. It was kind of
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: tight to the private um. You know, it didn't seem
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: like there's many people that were getting too deep in
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: there or um really kind of going the extra mile UM,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: And I think we just thought we could we could,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: we could work around them. Yeah. Yeah, So that what
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: you guys did was go, if there's this five miles stretch,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, assuming you know, two and a half miles in,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: you're kind of in the middle of it, and that's
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: that's a pretty good buffer that probably a lot of
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: people wouldn't walk that far. Where How far were you
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: guys in? Yeah, so so I think I think, as
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: I'm saying this, as as I've been talking this a lot,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I measured it and it was like
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: right around four I think, was what the distance was
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: between the two points. And so, yes, exactly what you said. We,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: you know, last year, trucked in as far as we
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: get in one direction. We got in there pretty far,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: right about into the middle of it. And then this year,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: you know, the the the idea was to start at
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: the place where you know, I'd seen the most and
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: that ended up being about that far in. So by
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: the time we got to the end of it, I
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: was doing a two mile hike in to my stand
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: every day. Um. Now, the problem that we eventually get
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: to and that we saw a little bit last year
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: and it continued this year, was that some people were
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: getting access through the private land. So some of these
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: people had you know, locals had connections, were able to
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: shortcut in that we just couldn't do. Um But you know,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: we did what we could, and that we got there
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: the night before opening day and we decided to split
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: up and glass that first night and try to see, like,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: are these deer doing what we think they're doing. Is
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: there any way we can get some intel they will
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: pin down a little bit more of exactly where they're
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: coming out under this private land, that might be able
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: to help us choose where to start. Um. So, Josh,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: you know, he was able to get up on one
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: of those hills I was talking about on the one
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: side of the river, and I was able to drive
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: along a road on the opposite side of the river
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: along the private fields, So we had two different perspectives
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: looking in at the same general area. And then that night,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: you know, we just glassed as much as we could
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: and saw as much as we could, And I don't know,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: it was sort of useful in that it just confer
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: our general idea, which was there's a lot of deer.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: There's a bunch of bucks. There was several bucks that,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: you know, they're far enough way we cannot tell exactly
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: what they were, but I think we each saw a
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: couple of deer, Josh that both you and I were like, Okay,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: that could be a potential shooter, right. Um. It was
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. And I don't think either one
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: of us was able because of the various like topographical
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: features and cover features, Like it wasn't like we could
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: pinpoint exactly where they came in and out of private,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: but we knew in general, like, Okay, this little corner
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: that we thought would be good, there was a bunch
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: of deer that came out over this little zone by
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: that little fence gap that we liked last year. This
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: seemed like there was some deer coming out around there.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: So we basically confirmed our hunches and and told us that, yes,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: this is a a spot worth starting on. UM. A
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: second thing that confirmed for me was that the this
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: was more towards like the eastern access point was a
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: little bit closer to the eastern access on the western
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: access point was a spot where when I had actually
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: been out here in the summer and checked it out
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: once in the summer, it looked like the fields were
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: not going to be planted into green food source UM.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: It was look like we that have been harvested or something.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: And so in my head in the summer, I was like, oh,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: they're not gonna be on the west side as much
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: because of that. But when we came back now in September,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: they had replanted something or something was coming back up
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: green because now there was a big green, lush food
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: source coming in there. So so now both west and
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: east sides might have something going on. So that was
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: another thing in the back of our minds was that, Okay,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: the whole whole stretch now might still be attractive. So
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: that all leads us to nine number one, where Josh
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: and I both had two zones that we liked the
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: previous year. Um. The previous year, we had walked into
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: this area about a mile and a half in from
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: one of those access points and passed the spot where
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: the private land comes about as close to the public
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: as it does anywhere, and there's an alf alfa field
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: but right up to it, and there's a there's like
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: a barware fence the runs along the whole edge of
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: the alf alf alfa field, and then one opening in
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: that fence like a big open gate. And it just
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: seemed like, oh, this is obvious. This is an obvious spot.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: A lot of people are going to go in. And
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: I think that day last year, like I don't know
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: if it was drawing straws or whatever, but for whatever reason,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: you got that spot last year, UM, and hunted it
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: and liked it, and I had gone past you then
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: that day and you know, got on a couple of
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: really good bucks, like six seven hundred yards further way.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: So now we kind of said, hey, you know, you
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: want to start back at that spot you like last year.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I'll go to that spot where
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: I saw the big ones last year, and those will
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: be two good starting points. Um. So that was what
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: decided to do with those two spots lined up with
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: the general movement we saw the night before. Uh, the
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: wind was you know, if if I was hunting in Michigan,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: I would have said the wind was really concerning um
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: in that it was blowing generally towards betting um. But
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: it was gonna be blowing generally to that direction the
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: entire week. So we knew we were operating within the
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: fact that we had to make some kind of sacrifice.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: So the trick was, you know, your wind's gonna blow
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: into some of the cover no matter what, every single day.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: So we just had to think about, you know, which
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: corner do we want to be blowing into when we
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: positioned ourselves, and hoping that we could position ourselves in
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: such a way that the majority of the deer traffic
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: would be coming, you know, from the front, so if
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: you can vision, like all the covers to our north,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: all the foods to ourselves. But we have southerly winds
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: the entire week, so we had to hunt when it
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: was like if it was like a south west wind,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: you know, we'd position ourselves so that we would hopefully, um,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: be a little bit to the east of where we
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: thought these deer were going and try to catch them
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: in places where they'd be crossing in front of us
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: versus like coming from directly above us or something like that.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: So so that was a little bit of just like
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: a burden we're gonna have to bear the whole week
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: because of it. But you know, I think here, I
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: don't know, I want to say that there, I don't know.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say they're less pressure than like Michigan
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: deer at home deer, but I don't know. I mean,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: these deer get hammered there. Um for some reason, they're
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: just a little bit dumber, I guess, I don't know
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: how to describe it, but they almost I almost wonder
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: if it's because they're just so used to having people
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: in and out of there. Um that they just take
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit more. Um, they just allow a little
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: bit more of that human odor to be present before
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: they really get boggered up in there. Um. I wonder
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: if that's part of it. There are so many people
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: in there, and not even just hunters, people recreating back.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: There are people recreating in the river. Um, they may
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: just be used a little bit more human pressure than
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: or be more tolerant of it than some other places. Yeah,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: I think there's there's something to be said to that.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: It was at times it almost felt like we were
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: suburban bill hunting with the types of stuff we were seeing.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Like that night we were glassing, I saw a guy
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: who was not a hunter. He was like wearing like
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: a blue jogging suit, like taking a walk on the
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: edge of this public land, and these deer were out
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: in the field and they kind of looked at him
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: and then just went about their business, and this guy
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: just kept on on stroll. Um. So you know, I
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: knew we were operating under different rules than some places
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: I hunt. Um. At the same time, as soon as
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: hunting season begins and hunters start pushing into these places
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: where deer aren't used to it, we knew that would
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: also still have an impact. Um, so you know, night
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: number one, I decided to go back to the general
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: area where I saw these two slammers last year. I
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: saw two really really good bucks last year. I was
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: like sixty yards from them, just a little bit too
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: far from me to feel comfortable. I made a move
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: last year, and then you know, I made that move
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: right to the spot. But those guys came in and
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: did a bunch of crazy stuff and I never saw
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: those big ones again. But I did see a couple
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: other decent bucks within range that it passed on. So
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: I thought this year was like, Okay, I know this
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: little spot seemed to funnel a bunch of movement down
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: into this little area. Happened three different nights last year. Um,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: I want to hunt that same general line of movement,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: but I know there's gonna be other hunters coming in,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: so I'm gonna backtrack of ways. And I positioned myself
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe a hundred and fifty yards further
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: back in the cover. So that's basically went due north,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: trying to follow those main main trail system that I
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: thought they'd been using to come in. And I positioned
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: myself up there closer into the bedding where I thought
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: they'd be coming from, so that even if other hunters
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: come in, I'll be deeper than they will be. Even
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: if these deer move later in the evening, I'll be
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: far enough back that i'll catch him in daylight. Um.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: And you know, basic gist of night number one was
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: that I thought I wasn't a great place. Uh. And
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: I saw some deer, saw some does, saw some fawns,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: saw a couple of small bucks. Um. About an hour
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: before dark, had two other hunters come through that I
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: could actually see biking in on a trail that I
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: could see about a hundred yards away from me. So
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: two other bikers came past me and heading towards where
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: Josh was. UM. And then I saw one decent two
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: year old buck. And that was it for night number one.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: So it was pretty disappointed because I thought, opening night
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: of the season, I'm in a spot that I know
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: these bucks that'd come through and didn't didn't see a
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: good one. Um, plus the two other guys. So that
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: was that was my first day. Uh, Josh, you want
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: to give me the highlight of your night? What happened there? Yeah? Yeah? Sure? Um,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I kind of stopped at that same area
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: that I had hunted last year that I liked. UM.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: I did go in, I don't know, th yards deeper
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: than I than I was the year before, get back
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: in a little bit more to the cover. UM. But
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: I also still want to be able to see this
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: kind of it's almost like a secluded alfalfa field back
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: in there on the private So I wanted to be
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: able to see that and see if there's deer come
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: out the private or kind of how they were using
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: that this year. UM. So I kind of got said
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: up and and just pretty slow. UM for the first
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: part of the night, saw some does and bonds UM.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: And I had saw those saying two hunters coming down
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: that that trail that I could also see. They worked
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: their way down to me. UM, but they kept moving on,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: which is probably good news as best as it could
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: have been. UM. And then things started to pick up
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: a bit towards the last half hour or so of light.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: UM had a couple of like a bachelor group of
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: probably a couple of year and a half old bucks
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: and I think there's like one two and a half
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: yeorld and it was a decent little like a little
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: forky six point with like a seven point coming off. Um,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: his main beam like just a nub, but he was wide.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: He's like to his year. He's kind of a cool
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: looking buck. And and uh I saw that that deer
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: and then UM had randomly turned around just kind of
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: checked behind me, check the theflfa field. Um. I had
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: my back to the half alfa field. UM I was using.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: I was in the saddle using the tree is cover
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: um from deer that would have been coming out of
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: the cover towards the alf alfa. So I had positioned
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: myself where I had to turn around to see the
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: alf alfa field. And I had turned around it at
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: one point and there was a what was the term
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: justin the slammer slammer slammer buck, slammer bucks standing there
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: on that kind of main access trail that probably a
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: half hour ago there was two kids walking their bikes down.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: There's just big old buck standing right on this trail
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: and kind of trotting along and and um he was
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: now headed Uh he would have been headed west UM
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: and I lost sight of him. UM. But that was
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: obviously a confirmation that I was in a good little zone. There.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: There's some good deer in that area. Um, saw a
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: lot of deer that night. Um, and then saw I
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: saw one really good book that that I knew, uh
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: what was definitely a shooter. So I couldn't really tell
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: where he went, but kind of at last light, I
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: saw him retrace his that that trail he had taken
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: and head into the alfalfa under the cover of darkness
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: that I could just see him through my binoculars. Um
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: before I was I was ready to get packed up
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: for the night. So definitely definitely good one in that
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: general area. I couldn't tell you where exactly he came from, um,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: but but he was close. Josh, how big is a
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: what's a good one out there? You think? Yeah, I
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: bet that deer is probably um he was involved, so
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: he probably looked a little bit bigger than he actually was. Um,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: I bet he was hunter forty year Yeah, real nice
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: time length and and uh I just got a quick
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: glimpse of them. But kind of judging by that, I
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: would have seen his right side, judging by kind of
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: what I saw from the time, length and everything, and
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: I bet he was year really really nice gann deer
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: for sure, Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Yeah. So so our
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: our plan for this trip was to for the first
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: like half or so first handful of days of the trip,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: our plan was to focus just on the evenings because
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: there was there's no way to get into this stuff
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: without being in front of an alongside these big elf
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: alfa fields where all these deer feeding at night, so
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: that there's no good way to get in the morning
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: without these deer know when you're going in. So our
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: thought was, let's try to have you know, at least
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: three really good, unscrewed up evening hunts, and then if
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: we still haven't killed once we get towards those last
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: parts of the trip, then we would start hunting mornings
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: and just throw caution to the wind and see what
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: would happened, so we could up our odds a little
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: bit in a different kind of way. Um, so we
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: didn't hunt that next morning. Ah. The thought process then
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: was that, you know, Josh is gonna make a play
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: on that buck. Hyesaw, But I felt kind of lost,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: like I hadn't seen anything worth going to move on
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: after my first night. UM, so I'm sitting here thinking, well,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: you know, one of my ideas was to push in
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: deeper from that, Um, but then we had this other task,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: which was we wanted to go put some cameras on
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: the other side of the property, way over by that
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: other access point, just to see like is there anything
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: going on over there? And like I mentioned, like, we
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: did see there was some green food on that side too,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: so there probably was dear But at the same time,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: there was also a spot that's easier to access. There's
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: like an easier parking lot to get you know, settled in,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: there's an easier trail to get into that side. So
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: I kind of had this assumption that, you know, if
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: there was gonna be more pressure, it would be on
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: that side. Um. But I kept going back and forth
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: in my head. I'm like, well, I could go back
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: in where I went and pushing kind of blind and
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: find something, or I could just like suck it up
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: and be the guy who goes and puts cameras on
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: the west side and go in there and see what
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: might happen. Um. You know, I don't want to just
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: assume it's blown up, because maybe it's not. And that
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: does like that spot was the spot that Josh had
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: that night where he saw like sixty in fifteen bucks. Um,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: so maybe there haven't been people there yet, and if
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: there haven't been people there yet, it actually could be
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: really good. Um So I was going back and forth
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: between like, assuming there's gonna be a bunch of people
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: and it's gonna suck, or maybe I should go there
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: and check it out and see what happens. Um So
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: I finally decided, you know what, I'll go. I'll just
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: go and see and we can check that off the bot.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: We can check it off the map. Either have a
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: great hunt or um you know, we learned that, yeah,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: that spot's not the place to go. So I went
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: over there, hiked in, hung a camera, and my game
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: plan originally was to, you know, even though I was
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: going to go on this side, knowing that there was
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: probably um you know, it's kind of like this high
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: risk hiro war kind of thing, I still was like,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: I'm still gonna go deep in the cover. I'm still
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: gonna go away way back in there so that even
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: if people do show up, it won't blow blow up
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: my hunt. But as I got in there, I got
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: just under a mile in. There's this spot that Josh
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: was able to watch last year on that first night,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: where a ton of these dear cross into the alfalfa.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: There's like three different fences that all come together and
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: like these are like you know, low barbed wire fences,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: and there's three of them that all come together, and
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of like strands down and then there's
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: a gate that's lower and so I think because of
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: that reason, a lot of the deer cross out of
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: the cover right here. The problem is it's it's right
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: next to that access trail, and it's like the easiest
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: spot you could get to if you wanted to walk
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: in down this main trail, you would get here and
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: you'd be like, oh wow, this is an obvious great spot.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: This is where all these deer crossed by. Um. So
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: I got to that point and in my mind, I'm like, okay,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna cross the fence. I don't hike another like
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know, third of a mile in here or
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: something like that to get back in this cover. But
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: then I had this little like feeling in my head.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: I was like, God, there were so many deer that
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: came through here last year. And that was like the
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: third of the fourth day of the season, and they
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: were still doing it. Um. Now, after that day, other
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: people showed up and it's got screwed. But I don't
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: know what's been happening here the last night. This is
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: only day two of the season, so I was basically
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: saying I was trying to termine, like, hey, if no
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: one was in here last night, this might still be dynamite. Um.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: And it's actually a concentrating feature that you know, would
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: really concentrate movement if they're still doing it and i'd
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: be able to see it, versus if I go deep
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: in under the cover. It's a jungle, and I'm kind
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: of you know, I'm gonna see what's happening in a
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: forty yard radius, and I better hope I picked the
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: one feature that's right, because there's a whole lot more
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: area that they might be passing through and I'm making
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: a blind guess on it. Um. So again I'm back
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: and forth, back and forth, and finally I decided to
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: settle on the riskier option, which was hunting close to
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: that crossing, close to the access trail, close to the
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: food And it was either gonna be the stupidest night
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: ever and I was gonna have it blown up with
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: hunters and I'm gonna sit there and fee look an
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: idiot or these deer would be still on their normal
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: summer pattern. It would actually come right by and I
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: get a shot at one. All right, let me ask
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: you something here. How early were you in there? I mean, like,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: presumably you didn't walk in there and there's somebody hanging
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: there already. Like what time were you going in? Correct? Uh?
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: End the shooting light was around eight thirty pm, and
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: we were getting in there, I'd say around four ish.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: I think we we we end up going in progressively
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: later every day. Um, but I think on that second
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: day we might have even been in there, like three thirty.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: We were in there pretty really marked. Mark. Sorry, I
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: think it was right around four o'clock those first couple
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: of nights. Who were we were getting in there? So
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: those people that you guys kept seeing that we're walking by,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: you were they just trying to get deeper? Like did
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: you ever figure that out? Well? You know, there's a
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of different examples, um. You know, on on
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: in previous years, there are some people that were going
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: in further but seemingly hunting, like close to the private
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: but going past in this cation um on the west side.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: That was the case because there's actually a spot where
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: the private land um. This main trail continues onto the
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: private land, and we found out by talking to some
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: other hunters that some locals had permission to cross that
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: private land that we couldn't do, but other people did
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: have access to do um on the side that Josh
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: hunted that we both hunted night number one and the
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: Josh was hunting night number two. We historically had not
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: seen other people hiking that far coming from the public
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: We've seen people hike a short distance in because they're
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: coming off the private UM. So in my case though,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: on nine number two, i'm, you know, just under a
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: mile from the public access um, but pretty close to
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: the private So I think it was a hundred yards
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: off the private off that field. So if someone came
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: in there, you know, they wouldn't have to go all
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: that terribly far and they'd be right there and right
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: on me. But I don't know. For For whatever reason,
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: I decided, you know what, I gotta try it. I
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: have to try it before assuming that's screwed up already.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: And to make a long story short, I sat there
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: most of the night and saw nothing. And then we
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: get to prime time the final hour of the day
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: and I see a flash of movement of ahead of
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: me up towards the field. And remember at first and
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: like a deer got past me, and I throw out
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: my binoculars and I look at him and it's not
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: a deer. It is a hunter. Uh. And he's sneaking
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: in with like an arrow knocked. He's like spotting stock
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: on the ground, sneaking down this trail towards me. Uh.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: And he ends up walking like right in my direction.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: I whistle at him, waved, and he looked up and
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: saw me and had that like deer in the headlights
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: look like oh no, we both probably had this hunting public.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: It wasn't, but he was. He definitely was taking a page.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: He was taking a page as X book. He probably
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: listened to your podcast from three weeks ago, you probab.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: You probably did, so, you know, God bless this guy.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: He he saw me, he waved, and then he turned
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: and went back the other way. UM. So that was
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: the best case scenario there at least. UM. But I
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: did think, well, you know, this will be interesting because
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: he just walked up this way, blowing his wind basically,
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: you know, having walked that whole direction, final hour daylight
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: and blown his wind. With the way the wind was
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: going that day, he would have basically blown his wind
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: across everything. I was hoping Dear would come through UM
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: and then turn around went back. So my hope was like, Okay,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: best case, he'd just keep on going a long ways back.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: But if he just goes, you know, a little ways
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: back the way he came and sets up, he'll be
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: really blown into all the stuff that I was hoping
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: would be safe from a wind perspective. UM light fades
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: were down like the last ten ments of light. I
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: haven't seen any deer yet. In my head, I'm like, well,
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: this was the stupid hunt you figured it would be.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: You didn't see anything. It was a bust. Well you know,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: at least now you know now focus on the other side.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: But last ten minutes, all of a sudden, I hear
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: like crunching and crashing stuff from behind me. And here's
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: a dough and a fawn and another dona fawn and
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: they're coming out like twenty yards from me, passing, heading
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: right towards that gap in the fence. UM. And now
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: it's like five minutes left and I'm hearing more movement,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: but you just can't see it. It's dark enough now
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: that we're down to like the last like four minutes
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: or three minutes. I keep like looking at my phone
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: and then pull up my binoes and trying to see
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: these deer. It's enough that like I need my binoculars
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: up to really see what's happening off further into the cover.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: And we're down to just like those last couple of minutes,
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: and I see another bigger body deer coming to like
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: a little opening, and I pulled my binoculars and it's
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: a shooter buck It's like a nice hard horned This
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: isn't like a giant buck um, but for this trip,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: for me, he was definitely a shooter maybe like one
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: twenty hard horned eight pointer looking deer. But he's like
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: behind a tree. I can see him through pine boughs
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: um and he's standing there and he just is there.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: He's not moving, he stopped walking. Some does are walking past.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: He's just kind of looking around, looking around. I'm looking
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: at my phone. I'm like, God, dangn like two minutes left,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: Like I need him to go like another five yards
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: in either direction for me to be able to get
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: a shot. He's within range. I would say, he was
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: right around that thirty ish yard mark, but just no
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: way I could get a shot, and so I let
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: out a little I decided to do just a little
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: contact grunt, just like a little like rock, just just
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: in case maybe I'm get him to be curious and
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: do something. I let the little rock, and it does
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: get him to move. He kind of like bounces back
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: a couple of steps back the way he came um,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: but doesn't stop in the lane. So he bounces back
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: a couple of steps, still within range, but still behind cover.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: And as I am panning with my binoculars over to
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: his new spot, I see another dear step out behind him,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: and this is maybe like twenty yards behind him, and
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: this one's like a big shooter, like this one's like
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: a one forty plus buck in velvet, but he's like
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: fifty sixty yards away And that's definitely not a shot
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: I was gonna take in the last fading moments of light. Uh.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: And so that was it. Light faded. They were right
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: there out and just you know, the one was in range,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: one was just out of range, but no clear shot um.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: And you know, I basically left that hunt feeling pretty
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: happy about it. Because I had taken this risk. It
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: almost seemed like it was going to be a really stupid,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: worthless night, and they ended up doing almost what I
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: thought they would do. Right they came through. They still
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: had not been so pressured that they wouldn't do what
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: they're gonna do, and I was just, you know, a
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: couple of branches away from killing one. So that was
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: encouraging because now I had something to work off of.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: I knew that for day three I can make a
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: move on what I saw and hopefully get in behind
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: them and catch them earlier, even if they had been pressured,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: even if they did smell me or the other guy
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: and decided to move later, I thought I could adjust
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: for that. UM. So that day two ended up pretty
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: good for me, Josh, Day two is pretty good for
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: you to write, Yeah, I did. Two was another decent
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: day for me. I adjusted again, or I guess I
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: adjusted for the first time. UM on day two. There
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: I had moved forty or fifty yards to what would
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: have been my west A lot of the deer I
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: saw the night before. I had been using um a
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: different trail than what I had set up on the
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: night before. I think I only had like one dough
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: and maybe like one year and a half old buck
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: use that trail that I thought they might use that
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: previous night. A lot of the other deer were shifted
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: forty fifty yards to my west, so I I moved
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: further that way to get set up. UM. And I
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: was really in dear all night, UM, within range, just
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: just not the right deer unfortunately. UM. But again getting
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: towards the last light last, A lot of the movement
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: was pretty late. UM. At least the better deer that
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: we were seeing. We kind of like it seemed all
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: we could and be like in two waves like that
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: first wave was pretty early movement. UM does fawns seeing
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: young bucks. UM. And then really you know, anything of
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: note wasn't moving until pretty late UM. Uh you know
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: last last half hour, fifteen minutes something like that. UM.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: So again late movement, UM end up seeing. I'm trying
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: to remember exactly what all I saw that night, but
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: the key part of that night was just before maybe
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: the last five ten minutes a light, I saw a
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: really nice eight point or different duder than the night before. UM.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: It was like broadside at fifty yards UM, some junk
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: in between me and him, Um, maybe could have squeezed
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: off a shot. Um Man, that's just a that's a
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: pretty far shot on a white tail for me. UM
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: just wasn't quite confident taking that shot. Um. He was
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: on alert. There is a dough I think blowing back
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: in the cover. I'm not sure what I would have
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: alarmed her because she was not near me. I don't
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: think she smelled me. My wind was blown in the
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: other direction, so something had her on edge, which had
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: some other deer on edge. And just again fifty yard
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: shot was was not one I wanted to take on
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: that deer. And and while all that was happening, I
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: I looked further to my west and there is another
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: deer walking through another trail again further another you know,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: just out of range, further to my west even more um.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: And then behind that probably two and a half rild
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: deer was a really really nice eight point I'm not
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: exactly sure what he was um in terms of like size,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: but definitely a big body on him, great time length. UM.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: And I got some good eyes on those two deer
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: where they where they crossed into the private um. And
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: I made a mental note of that. Uh. And again
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: kind of like on myself in between uh two shooter
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: bucks on either side of me, So kind of in
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a interesting dynamic of which way
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: do I move to the next night? Maybe um to
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: to try to make a play on them. Um, so yeah,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: another good night, another know, another too close encounters with
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: with really nice box. Um, just feeling like they're maybe
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: one step ahead of me both nights at that point.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: So far, we're feeling pretty good after that night, wheren't
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: we Yeah, yeah, we were feeling real good after that
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: night and both both getting into good deer. Yeah, now
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: it should be pointed out. So we get done with
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: a hunt like that, right, and then we're moving every
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: day pretty much because we're running gun hunting with sticks
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: in the saddle. So shooting ends at eight thirty. Then
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: we have to tear down our whole set in the dark,
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: so we're maybe down out of the tree fifteen minutes later.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: In some cases we had to wait for deer to
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: get past us. So let's say nine o'clock we get
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: out of the tree, and then we have about a
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: forty five minute walk to hike out, you know, about
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: you know, between a mile and a half and two
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: miles to hike out. So you're talking about not getting
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: back to the truck until getting close to ten o'clock
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: at night. We get back to the truck at like
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: ten o'clock, and like on night number two, I had
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: to get my vehicle and then drive all the way
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: to the other access point where Joshua's. We get there,
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: takes it ten minutes to get undressed, packed up and going.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: So we're packed up and ready to go a little
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: after ten, and then we have an hour drive back
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: to the place we're staying. So we weren't getting home
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: every night until after eleven. So we're making dinner at
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: like eleven fifteen at night, eating dinner, doing whatever work
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: we have to get done, and getting to sleep, you know,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: like twelve thirty one o'clock every night. It was very
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: exhausting from that perspective. Um, it just felt like a grind,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: especially when we started hunting mornings. Um. So I'll fast
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: forward a little bit for what happened to me that night,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: because I wanted to make a play on those bucks,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: of course, and my thought process was that I could
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: get back behind them. And you know basically what I did.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: I went in that evening, I went and got above
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: where they came in, so now I knew like we
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: had the southerly wind, I know the basic path they
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: were going basically from northeast to southwest. So I would
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: get set up to the north and the west of
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: the route that all those deer came through. And like
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: all these deer came through a narrow swath, so I
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: felt pretty confident with where they were going to be
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: generally moving. And my idea was to get farther back
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: in the cover and up wind of that spot, so
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: that even if they moved ten minutes later, I would
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: still be within range of them if they came through
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: on that same general you know, route of travel. And
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: I got in there and it looked really really good,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: like I found this area where all these trails came
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: crossing together really felt like the spot, and uh, get
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: settled in, and I don't know, a couple hours for
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: a daylight, here come three people, um but not hunters,
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: like just random people like shouting. It was like they
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: were looking for something. First I thought they lost their dog,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: and then I heard someone say something about it sounded
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: like maybe he said arrow, Like did I did you
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: find your arrow? I thought they said that so I'm like, oh,
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: that someone shot something and then they're looking for the
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: deer or something. But when I got a better look
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: at these people, they did not look like hunters, So
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know what they're doing. But they walked all
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: over in the I'm in a jungle, like, I'm in
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: a thick, nasty jungle of cover at this point, so
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know why they were way back there, but
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: I could never figure it out. They never went behind
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: me too terribly far, but they definitely mucked a lot
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: of stuff up. Um, but they're out of there. The
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: night comes to a close. Zero deer moved past me
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: until after shooting light and then shooting light fades and
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: then I start hearing deer moving, so deer start moving
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: past me. But after shooting light. UM, so super disappointed.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: Like I thought it was going to be the night
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: I really felt confident. I set up and then you
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: know that that whole thing happened. Um, that was my
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: evening did not go too well. Uh, Josh, your night
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: number three was was kind of similar, right, yeah, very similar,
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: very similar. I readjusted again and set myself up in
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: a position where I could, um, I could see and
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: and have a good shot to that trail that I
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: saw that Uh, that good buck walked the night before
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: and then also was able to shoot behind me to
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: the other trail had set up on the set up
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: on the night before. I kind of gave up on
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: that one buck that he was. He was like near
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: the main access trail. I just didn't think that, um,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: that was a super high percentage spot where that that
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: they would be again. Um, So I had moved again
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: and it was a pretty slow night, and I think
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: that was a night I saw a moose come through,
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: like a cow moose come through. She read the script perfectly.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: She would have been a big, old mature buck. It
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: would have been game over. But um, that was pretty
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: pretty quiet night, uh that night. Yeah, so we're halfway
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: through the trip. I was definitely starting to stress at
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: this point. Um, and I'm thinking about, Okay, you know,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: there was all these people like crazy in here. The
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: day before there was the other hunter, and I actually
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: forgot that second night after I saw the two shooter bus.
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: Not only was there the guy's botting stocking, but after dark,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: as I'm like tearing down my set, another hunter comes
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: walking in along the edge of the private land the
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: heap he had been on the private land he comes
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: walking by. So so there have been at least two
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: hunters in there, plus these three random people. So as
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to decide what to do for night number four,
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: um one option was to try to push in deeper
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: to where I was on this side and try to
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: hopefully rediscover where these bucks are moving through deeper where
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: they feel safer. But on this side it's it's just
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: an absolute jungle. Like the there's I could not find
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: any rhyme or reason for why these deer were doing
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: what they're doing, you know, other than when I saw
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: that one route that that one night the deer used.
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: Um So, I I could either do that, or I
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: thought to myself, Or I can go back to the
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: east side, where Josh was and where I had had
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: previous success. And over there there's a there's like a
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: channel of the river that runs back into this really
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: good cover. And I always thought to myself that you
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: could use the channel of that river as a concentrating feature. Right,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be spots where these deer want to cross,
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: and those will be spots will be abill find. Um
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: So I I ultimately decided, you know what, I could
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: just like go hodgepodgs through the jungle on the west side,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: or I could relocate to the east, go back into
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: that section. I know there's deer because we saw him
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: the first night scouting the previous year. I know I've
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: seen him coming in and there's this island back there
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: that I know there's deer. They've got to be betting
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: on this island. So I could go in there and
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: find the best set of crossings, and like that is
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: something that could actually concentrate movement and give me like
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: a good chance at a bowshot versus going blindly the
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: other side. And so I finally ultimately decided to do that.
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: I slipped back in. This is a full two plus
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: mile hike in to get to this spot. And I
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: got back to this river channel, and I walked this
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: river channel right into the belly of the beast, I
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: mean like really thick jungle type stuff, and found where
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: there was three four different crossings all in this one
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: narrow stretch of the river channel. Um coming off that
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: island onto the mainland set up there, and um, you know,
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: the the moral of the story there is that it
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: came really, really really close to working out, had a
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: bunch of deer come through, and ultimately had a shooter buck,
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: a nice velvet I think he was a nine or
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: ten pointer, probably in that like one thirty type category,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: come through and right at thirty yards. But there was
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: these darned bushes, like a little a little bushes or
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: something that he was walking behind, and so I can
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: see his head and his back line, and I just
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: can't shoot through these bushes with good conscience. Um. I'm
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: trying to like stand up taller, kneel down lower, or
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: like get different angles to see if there's like some
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: kind of hole I can find, um that I think
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: I could slip an arrow through, and I just I
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: can't find anything that I can get a reasonable shot at.
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: So super nice buck goes walking by thirty yards. I
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: think he was even at twenty five yards at one
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: point as he kind of angled his way out. Um,
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: but no good shot. Um. What I did see though
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: that night was that that buck and the dough that
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: was with him, and then another like fifteen deer, including
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: another what I thought was a buck. I could never
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: see his head, but I could just see this big,
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: dark gray body. Um. They all did the same basic thing.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: Uh just most of them a little bit too far
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: out of range. They were all following this tree line
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: along the edge of the island that goes from northwest
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: to southeast, and they're all angling down the edge of
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: this island. So I thought to myself, I can relocate
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: tomorrow for tomorrow morning. I decided we're gonna start hunting
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: mornings now, and I can get to a new tree
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: where I'd be able to shoot to where this buck was,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: but also to where all the rest of those deer
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: were another like thirty yards further back. Uh So, after dark,
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: I tore it on my set in the dark that night,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: and actually went and set up my stand or my
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: saddle platform that night before going out, because I wanted
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: to be there in the morning. Um So did all that,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: and then hiked the two miles out after that. So
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: that was night number four. Really close call. Thought I
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: was set up for a dynamite hunt in the morning.
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: I thought, these deer, I mean, the fact that I
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: saw twentiesome deer all funnel down this one tree line
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: following the edge of this island, it just seemed like
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: they're gonna do it again. And now I'm set up
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: for the next morning. They're gonna come back and they're
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: gonna come back to bed, and this is gonna be it.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: I felt really good about that. Um, Josh, night number four,
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: you did see him. I did not see any shootures
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: at night. I saw a ton of deer. I I
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: pushed back in deeper to the cover. UM. I had
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: crossed this little channel as well. I got into this
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: little spot. It was like a point basically where there
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: was this channel and then there is a like a
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: dry creek that that runs out then to the the
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: the main river there. UM. And it was just kind
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: of this like perfect little train feature that I thought
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: would would kind of dictate some movement from the cover.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: From the thick, nasty cover. UM. A lot of the
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: deer that I had seen the previous nights, I could
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: tell they are crossing this little channel somewhere in this
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: area and then they'd make their way to the f
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: alfa fields. And Man, I saw a ton of deer
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: that night. It's like this perfect little staging area where
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: they were just coming out of thick stuff and it's
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: almost this little bowl um like either side of this
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: little flat in the cottonwoods had like a berm on it,
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: and they kind of come up over this berm and
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: they just kind of browse around in this this flat um.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: And it was like early movement and movement all night long.
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: A lot of little books, a lot of does a
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: lot of bonds, but but again just kind of waiting
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: for that that later movement of those older deer, and
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: it just never happened that night. But I felt really
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: good about that spot. Um. I felt like that there's
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: gonna be something that's happened that's gonna happen for me.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be in this this general area. Um. So
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: I was feeling pretty good for that that, just leaving
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: all my stuff up there and hunting that spot in
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: the morning too. Yeah, So the next morning was going
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: to be the day. Right, Um, we're gonna go start
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: hunting the mornings. After seeing what we've seen in all
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: these people and stuff, we decided, you know what, we
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta give the shot. We're way deep
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: in the cover. To get in into the morning, we
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: do have to go pass some of these fields. We're
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: just gonna take it. We're gonna we'renna cross these fields.
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: We're gonna walk normal and hopefully we'll be able to
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: get away with it for a couple of days, and
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: we far enough back that hopefully they will be deer
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: that weren't bothered by us that will still transition back.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: Um and and I'm gonna give you the whole rest
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: of my hunt right now, because I don't want to
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: keep people here sitting for too long. This is going
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: on the edge of our seat. Mark. Yeah, here's about
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: this morning, hut Man. This morning hunt definitely felt really good.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: I get in there that next morning. We got in
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: there super early to the parking lot with Parker truck,
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: and another truck parks up and I'm thinking, like, there's
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: no way nobody else is doing this. We're here two
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: hours before daylight. We're hiking in two plus miles to
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: our spot. Nobody in a western state hunts white tails
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: like that, Like, no one likes white tails enough to
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: do stupid stuff like this. But someone else pulls up
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: next to us, gets out of their vehicle and I
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: go over there to see, like what they're doing, and
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: it's another hunter. We start talking this dude. He's got
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: a saddle and climbing sticks and he's like, oh yeah,
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going right back to that same place, Like, no
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: freaking way do we find that one white tail nut
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: that's out here a million miles away from whitetail country.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: Crazy as us. Um, So he ends up hiking with
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: us all the way back. Um and and I cut
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: in into the cover sooner than he did. He was
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: gonna keep going on. It was actually hunting closer to
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: the food. Um. But so here's another hunter and does
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: this thing with us. I slip into this spot that
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: I had made the move from last night, and basically
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: just what happens That deer start piling in and they
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: start all following a consistent traveler out just like they
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: did the night before, but instead of being on my
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: side of the island, they all were on the opposite
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: side of the island. Imagine that this imagine this island
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: is kind of like a like a hot dog, like
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: it's it's a thin, narrow hot dog like I said,
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: that runs from northwest down to southeast, and there's a
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: tree line and cover on the outside of the island,
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: like all around the boarder of the island, but it's
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: kind of opening grassy in the middle. And so the
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: night before they had all been on that southern edge
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: heading down to go feed in the field. Um, and
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: they seem like they're gonna go all the way to
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the island, to the end of the
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: hot dog and then crossed down there. And then this
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: morning I sat there, positioned on that south side, but
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: instead of coming along the south edge, they took the
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: north edge. Um, and here come a bunch of deer,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: Here comes a bunch of little bucks, and here comes
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: a shooter buck passes by, like six seventy yards away
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: from me, maybe, but along that north edge. So I
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: saw that was super disappointed. I wasn't sure if it
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: was the same deer or not that I saw the
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: night before. This one was hard horned, so maybe it was.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: I didn't get as long with a look at this
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: one this time. Um. And then I waffled back and forth, like, Okay,
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: do I chase that movement and move somewhere else? Do
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: I move over to that side for tonight? Or is
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: my belief that maybe you know, in the mornings they
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: go that way back to bed, but in the evenings
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: they're gonna come back and do what they did last night.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: I decided to I decided that was more likely the
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: case I thought, you know what, I gotta at least
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: sit here at night and see if they're gonna come
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: back down this way. And I did. I said that
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: night they did not come my way. They came out
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: on the north again and followed that edge down. Didn't
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: see a shooter. The next mornings, our last day of
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: the hunt, I decided I was going to just get
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: kind of aggressive now. I actually slipped in on the
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: ground and snuck in on foot and set up in
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: a bush like a clump of bushes and sat in
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: the ground along that north edge and hope that these
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: bucks will come back through. A bunch of deer did
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: end up coming through within range and passed by like
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: six yards from where I was sitting, but never was
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: a buck I wanted to shoot. Last night, I decided
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: that I would just spot and stalk and just again
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: ground pound my way all the way up that island,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: all the way to the tippy top northwestern corner where
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: the bet like the bettiest, nastiest bedding cover ever was at,
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: and basically got like right on the edge of it.
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: Because at this point now it's been a day in
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: a half since I saw a shooter. My thought is
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: like Okay, they're they're onto us. I know where they're betting.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get right there. This is the last chance.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: And they're not moving as much as they were, but
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: I know they're still in here. But maybe I can
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: catch him move fifty yards out of their betting or
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: ten yards out of their betting. I'll be right there.
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: And the ending of my story was that they did not.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: I did not end up seeing a good buck come
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: out of that betting. I was right in the thick
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: of it, and I'm sure that deer were in there
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: at times, but they weren't it that night, and I
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: did not kill a buck. Um. So that was the
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: end of my trip. Josh, I want you to tell
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: me about the climax of your part of the hunt.
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: Did I have to? I don't have much more talk
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: about either. You can, I guess you can choose to.
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: You can choose whether or not you want I'll talk
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: about it. Um. Yeah, so uh jeez um. That that morning,
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: that next morning, hunt was pretty uneventful, not much going on. Um,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: but kind of the the climax of my hunt would
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: have been that Friday night, so second second to last day,
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: and the movement kind of patterns were very similar to
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: the night before. I was like, all right, this is good.
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: These deer are still um because this would have been
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: my third sit now in this general spot. UM, feeling
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: good about it. Uh some of that early movement um
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: you know young bucks does pons all moving through. They're
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: all kind of just picking their way through, not really
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: uh alarmed or or feeling pressured. They didn't seem like
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: they were pressured much. And and I was like, well,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: all I needed, All I need is is for one
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: of these big deer in the area to come in
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: here and feel we're pulling and do the same thing.
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: And I'm in the game. And and uh man, about
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: time after eight something like that, I had about fifteen
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes shooting light um costs of movement over to
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: my right, come out and thick stuff. And there's a
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: nice buck and see some more moving behind him. And
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: there's a really big buck and then another a little
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: bit smaller eight point but still a shooter and velvet
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: comes out behind him and they work their way up
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: over this little berm and are right out in front
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: of me at forty yards. I've got three shooter bucks
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: um with one really really big deer, the biggest dear
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: of my life that I'm gonna have an opportunity at.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: And they just kind of keep let me guess, Josh,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: hold on, you shot the small one the same story.
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: I wish I maybe would have would have Um, I
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: wish I maybe would have gone after that one. I
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: may be telling for a story right here. Um. But
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: they kind of keep work working from my right to
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: my left, and and they get into a spot, um
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: where if they kind of keep working up this this
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: same trail, they're gonna be at like twenty five yards.
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: First one kind of gets to that spot and he
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: starts to kind of beer away from me. I was
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: like a shoot, um that that big buck is his second,
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: and he's about just a little over thirty yards and
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: he's pretty calm, but he looks like he's on the
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: same trajectory of this other buck. And I need to
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: make a move now if I'm going to get a
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: shot at this year. And he was kind of quartered
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: away from me, still good you know, good position. And
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: I draw back and I go in just to total
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: blackout autopilot mode, like the bad kind of autopilot work.
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: I just rushed everything and just at the moment gets
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: the basest to me and I by the next thing
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: I know, I'm looking at an arrow that that went
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: under him. Um. And I missed that buck. And I
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: wish I could tell you what I did. Um, But
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: I've been replaying that that moment over and over and
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: over in my head, and I just I think I
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: just I just rushed it. I rushed it a bunch
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: of trigger. I didn't check my bubble level. I didn't
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: do the things that I know I should have done. Um,
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: And it cost me the biggest deer of my life
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: up to this point. And Uh, I've been kicking myself
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: ever since, you know, ever since that moment. UM. And
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: I had been gone for at this at this point,
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: like eleven days from my family or something like that,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: had a work meeting out in Idaho before this, I've
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: been out there for four or five days before the hunt,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: and now we're on the second to last day of
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: the hunt. And I just felt, you know, all the
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: way to the world was on my shoulders at that moment,
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: just like this feeling of failure and like, you know,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: just just a lot of doubt running through my head. Um.
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: And uh, it was a it was a sucky position
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: to be in. UM never feels good. No, not the
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: first time I've missed. I'm sure it won't be the last,
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: but um, that one's going to sting for a long
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: long time, just given the scenario and UM having just
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: an awesome deer probably like a hund public land and
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: a heavily pressured area and shoot under him. Just not
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: a good feeling. But got down, you know that deer
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: kind of bounded off, kind of looked around, all three
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: of them. They didn't really spook out of there. Um
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: kind of went back in the cover and before dark,
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: I saw the deer that I missed kind of work
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: his way back across this little opening in this flat
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: I don't about seventy yards out from me, and just
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: kind of browsed on through and just kind of kept, um,
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: you know, steered somewhat clear of that area. And but
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: you didn't seem too spooked. You. I don't think you
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: really knew what happened. Um, you know, I got down,
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: found my arrow perfectly clean. Miss. There's nothing, no hair,
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: no blood, nothing, So UM, no best case scenario if
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: you're gonna miss, right, I mean clean miss is a
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: good is good? And uh, you know, I went right
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: back in there that next morning. I was like, you
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: know what this is, you know, I know that dear
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: is any here. He didn't seem too alarmed, and I
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: actually saw that son of a gun again that that
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: next morning, UM, coming about sixty yards to my south,
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: across the river, across the creek there at a different spot. UM.
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: But it was like half hour or four or five
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: minutes after daylight, just working his way back in there
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: like like nothing was wrong. So a part of me
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: felt like I was maybe still in the game for
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: that last hunt um of the trip um. But ultimately
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: that that last night was probably my slowest night. I
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: saw a few deer, Um, I saw a couple of
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: young bucks, but but that that bachelor group of three good,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: good shooter bucks never never show back up. So I
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: left Idaho with my my tail between my legs for sure.
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: So m m, that was it. That was man, that's
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: tough to hear. Man. Yeah, yeah, not fun, not fun.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: And it's hasn't gotten really any better, you know. Yeah,
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: Well you're right, and that it could have been worse,
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, a clean myth is sometimes a blessing,
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: you know, rather than a bad hit or something. You know,
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: there's always a positive. Yeah, you know, you know I
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: feel good about that. I just wish I could have
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: controlled my emotions or buck fever or whatever you want
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: to call it. I just wish I would have I
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: could have controlled my my myself a little bit better
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: in that moment. That's why I said maybe I should
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe I should have taken a shot at that, a
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: little bit of a smaller buck at that at that moment.
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: I don't think it would have mattered. You've got three
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: good deer coming in any like that. It's it wouldn't
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: matter what do I shot it. I think it would
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: have been just um, a cluster so um. But yeah,
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: you live, and you learn and and try to try
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: to learn from that the next time I'm in that scenario,
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: and hopefully I'll have a better outcome. Yeah. And if
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: that's not a if that's not a moral of both
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: of our stories, I don't know what is all right.
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: I mean that you gotta you gotta take the good
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: with the bad. You gotta learn to recover from the unexpected.
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: You gotta just grow, try to find the silver linings
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: and all these things, because no hunt ever really goes
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: the way you plan it to. Very rarely does it
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: go exactly how we want. Very infrequently do we think
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: one thing and have it happened just that kind of way,
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: And nine times that tend you going to hunt and
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: you don't end up achieving whatever goal you had. So
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: it's these kinds of pills we gotta swallow a deer hunters,
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: I think are always bitter in the moment, but I
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: think that with time, I guess from my experience, at
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: least you're always better for that medicine give it enough time.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: Um So I think I think there's maybe something to
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: that with both of our stories. Even though your pill
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: was much less bitter to swallow, Clay, since you got
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: to wash it down with a nice steak or two,
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: we both we all learned a thing or two when
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: we um. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I had
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of frustration coming out of this hunt not
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: ending the way I wanted to. But at the same time,
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: I guess the only thing that and I fall back
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: on this every time I have an unsuccessful hunt. So
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: it's the same old, same well, but I guess I
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: gotta remind myself that, you know, did you do everything
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: you could did you did you put in the work
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: you knew you should have. Did you leave it on
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: the field. You know, by the end of the trip,
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: we were I was hiking eight miles a day on
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: a white tail hunt in rubber, knee high boots, acting
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: in and out a tree standard, a saddline sticks every time.
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: I amount of busting my balls trying to get this
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: thing done. And it didn't work out. But you know,
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: I had a couple of really close calls, and you know,
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: we we battle through adversity and you know, it is
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: what it is, and you just got to accept the
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: results and uh, you know, not beat yourself up too
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: much if it doesn't fall away you wanted to, I guess.
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: And so that's that's kind of where my head's at now. Mark.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: Here's my question to you. My question is, I mean,
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: you know, hearing the story and not being involved in
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: the drama and the amount of work and seeing these
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: people which can be so disheartening, and then not bringing
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: home a deer, which is disheartening. I mean, it sounds
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: like you were in a good place. I mean, both
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: of you guys. I mean, for two guys to go
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: hunting on public land and one guy to have a
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: legitimate shot at a hundred and forty plus deer. I
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: mean that sounds like a win. So are you going
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: back going back to this spot? Yeah? Man, that's the
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: ultimate question. Um. I've been going back and forth on
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: a thousand times because like still like the potential is
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: absolutely there. You know, if if a couple of little
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: tiny things went differently, we could have been talking about
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: how Josh killed a hundred fifty inch and I killed
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty inch white tail in public land. Uh,
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: you know, it would have been awesome. We would have
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: been Yeah, we had despite having seen all these guys.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: So so part of me says, yeah, we should absolutely
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: go back because we're this close, Like we're the tiniest
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: of tiniest little bits of details away from having the
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: ultimate success. On the flip side, there's this other part
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: of me, like, when I look at this western white
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: tail hunt that I do every year at the beginning
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: of the season, it's like supposed to be my fun hunt.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: This is supposed to be the one where you go
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: somewhere where people don't care about white tails, and the
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: white tails are kind of dumb and there's lots of them,
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: and you can go there and you see lots of
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: white tails and it's just like super I mean, I
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: kind of want to be like your hunt Clay, like
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: up in Manitoba. Like I've had other Western white tail
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: hunts where there's tons of deer, they're not too worried
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: about people, there's no nobody else out there hunting them,
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: and you just get to be in a beautiful place
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: and hunting deer being deer um, and it's it's fun
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: and do some fishing. Um. So I was hoping that
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: this trip could be that kind of trip because I
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: kind of need that to prepare myself for the grind
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: that's the rest of the season. Um. But this hunt
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: ended up just being like a grind of all grinds, right.
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think I hiped like forty plus miles
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: chasing white tails in rubber boots, um. And you know,
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: like I described, like, especially when we're hunting mornings, right,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: so we're we had to get up at three thirty
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: in the morning in order to get set, drive down
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: to this place, hike in an hour, do the hunt
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: that I hike two miles back out, then we do
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: something midday, then we'd hike back in two miles, get
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: set up, hunt pulled on the set, hiked back out.
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, we're not getting home and to sleep
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: till one o'clock at night. We're not waking up at
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: three thirty. We're hiking eight miles a day. I mean,
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: it was just suffer fest there for a while, and
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: so part of me is like, you have enough suffer
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: fests during other parts of the season, does this one
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: need to be one? To Um? Maybe I just want
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: to go try to find a easier fun spot for this.
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: Hunt Um trying to say, is the four of us
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: are going to Manitoba next year, that that might be
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: the case I was gonna I was gonna say, it
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: seems like you guys did a lot of things right
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: and stuff that seemed to be like that went wrong
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: with someone out of your control as far as like
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: trying to get away from people and whatnot. But like
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: if you went back to the same spot now being
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: a third time, like what kind of things would you
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: do differently? Well, I can tell you what I do
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: really fast. I would basically cut off what I did
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: on nights one through three and skip all that, So
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: I would skip the kind of like I went further
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: back into the cover nine number one than I did
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: all of year one, but not far enough. And in
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: day two and day three I made that play on
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: the other side where you know, I almost had a
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: shot there. But I think, like there's just too much
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: uncertainty over there. There's just people all over the place there.
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: So I think I would have skipped all that and
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: I would have jumped right back to where this island is.
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: I think I think if I were to go back,
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not hunting anywhere except for these islands, like the
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: farthest back stuff you can get to um, And I
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: think if I had more time to work on this
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: island and or others even deeper in there, I think
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: that's where we could catch these bucks in a way
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: that they're not like nobody else is going back. There's
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: like I finally knock on wood, um, even if someone's willing,
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: they might. Well, you did have one guy the last morning,
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: so that's true. But I think you're right. I think
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: that's exactly the ticket though. Just get back into these
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: these these areas that are are heavier and cover, we're
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: less people are likely to go crossing a crossing the
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: creek or the channel or whatever, want to call it,
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: anything that we can do to put some more terrain
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: features that other people aren't willing to go through. Um,
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: just start there, just cross off the rest of it
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: and get back in there deeper from from day one,
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: And I actually think i'd try to hunt the morning
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: is more like the entire trip. Maybe I think we
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: found that, you know, I think we're gonna put more
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: pressure on it, um, but I think we've found that
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: we can get in there um and hopefully we kill
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: it earlier and then not have to worry about it. Um.
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: But definitely decent morning movement, better than I thought there
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: would be. Yeah, we seem to be able to get
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: away with that. So yeah, you know, I don't know.
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: You could also say we should have just done exactly
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: what we did again, and you know, the tennis thing
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: could have got our way and we might have worked out.
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: But it's you know, that's that's hunting, right. Just sometimes
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: it falls away, sometimes it doesn't. I the only thing
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: I can tell you for certain is that I don't
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: feel bad about what we did. Like we worked our
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: tails off, We did a lot of things right and
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: it didn't fall our away. But I'm I'm not gonna
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: beat myself over that too much. Yeah, well sounds like
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: a good hunt. I mean, you guys were on deer
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: and and uh yeah, it's kind of disheartening to not
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: get much reward after that much work. But man, when
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: it does come together, it will be that much better.
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that is the cliche friend thing to say.
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: What I just said was like classic. You should record
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: that and like have it play on your phone, like
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: for when you need a little encouragement. Yeah, but it's
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: it's cliches, is it's it's just the truth of it too. Yeah.
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: I need to drive around that with my in my
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: truck for the next uh you know, three months of
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: the season. Just listen to play tell me that to
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: get over this miss Yeah. Yeah, man, Hey, I I
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: last year I made a list of all the dear
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: that got away that I felt like we're killable. And
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: I find that those deer are often more memorable than
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: the racks I've got hanging here in my office. And
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: I just went down and sat down and made a
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: list and and as of last year, I had eleven
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: deer that I mean, I could tell you more about
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: those hunts than the hunts that you know, we're successful,
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: and there's value in those animals, you know, there really is,
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: and and I like to think that because of those
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: eleven deer, that's the reason I've got the deer that
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: I've got on the wall. You know, it just takes
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of opportunity to kill a big deer. You
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: just gotta you just gotta get out there and do
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: it well. And you probably replay the the moments from
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: that hunt. Are those ones that you don't bring home
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: more so than the ones you do, because it's like, Okay,
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: what could I done differently? Or what happened here to
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: cause him to do this? Or what happened here that
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: caused me to do that? Um, you just play those
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: over and over in your mind, where you know, you
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: may think back, oh, that was an awesome hunt when
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: I shot that deer and it all came together, but um,
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe scrutinizing the details like you did on
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: on one that didn't happen, Yeah for sure. Well, boys,
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: this one's gone longer than I thought, so I should
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: probably wrap it up. But I think we both we
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: all four had a hell of a week health experience,
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: learned some stuff, had some good times, had some bad times.
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: And uh, I guess that seems an appropriate way to
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: kick off a deer season. Huh for sure, pretty far
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: for the course. Yeah, and uh, off we go to
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: the races for yet more. We'll see, we'll see what
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: happens next. But thank you, Josh Clay justin appreciate you
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: guys taking the time to round up and talk through
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: all this stuff. Yeah, thanks Mark, thanks, thank you. And
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: that is a rap. Another episodes in the books, and uh,
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: you know, as is to be expected, another season is
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: off to a start, a startup some kind. You know.
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: It wasn't the start I wanted, but we learned some stuff.
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: We had some close calls, We had a fun hunt
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: in a lot of different ways, and uh, you know
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: onward you always learn, always grow, Take something from a
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: hunt like this, use it as a kind of jumping
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: off point for the next one. So that's my game plan.
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: Hope all of your hunts are going well. If you're
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: already out there, if not, get all those final pieces
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: of work done, get your head right, get your bow right,
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: get your gear ready. It's game time. Any day now
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: will be those opening days. And I'm excited for you,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: I'm excited for my own next hunt too, so until
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: next time, stay wired to