Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #225: Tom Ware’s Tactics for Consistent Deer Hunting Success

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #225: Tom Ware’s Tactics for Consistent Deer Hunting Success · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number two
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: anton the show. We're joined by Tom Ware, a former
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: outfitter and one of the most consistently successful mature buck
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: hunters in the country. And before we get started, big
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: thank you to Lacrosse Boots for their support of this
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: week's episode. I've been wearing La Cross rober boots for
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: all of my white tail hunts since I was I'm
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: pretty sure in early high school, and despite my baby face,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that was actually a long time ago. Over all those years,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking it's almost two decades now, I have not
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: yet been disappointed. I've always worn rubber boots to maintain
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: is sent free of a footpath as possible, and to
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: stay dry when crossing what areas, and of course stay warm,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and my La Crosses they just simply have done that
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: for me over and over while also being very comfortable
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: to hike around in two So if you'd like to
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: learn more about my favorite knee high rubber hunting boots,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: head on over to Lacrosse Footwear dot Com. And with that,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: by Onyx. And today on the show, we've got Tom Where.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: And Tom is is pretty well known in the white
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: tail hunting world these days because of his work with
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: our friends over at Drury Outdoors, and he's been featured
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: in their videos and shows for quite some time now,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and everyone they've had on the cast there, he's been
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: one of the guys that have just been getting the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: job done year after year after year, more consistently than
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: almost anyone else I've seen out there. And that being
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the case today, I wanted to get him on the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: show to to just get a better idea of exactly
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: how he does that, and the conversation ended up being great.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Now Tom is a guy who owns and manages his
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: own land, so we do spend a good amount of
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: time talking about his management and habitat improvement ideas. And yes,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: he kills some giant deer that a lot of us
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: in other parts of the country, or maybe those of
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: us who hunt in public land, we're just not going
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to be seeing deer like that ourselves. But I do
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: think there are ideas and lessons learned here that we
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: can all learn from and apply to our own hunting
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: situations in one way or another, you know, regardless of
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: if that's in Iowa or Georgia, Maine, or Texas. So
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: we cover a loss of today and we we touch
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: on things such as how he tracks individual box, how
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: he learns and hunts specific deer. We talked about food
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: plot placement. We talked about different habitat ideas. We talked
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: about the value of having smaller food plots versus larger.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: We talk about summer preparations, handling, the moment of truth,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: all sorts of interesting things. We kind of go all
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: over the place, but I think you're going to enjoy it.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So with that said, before we get Tom Ware on
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the line with us, though, we do need to take
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: a little bit of time to uh to go off
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: on our usual pregame tangents. So if you're if you're
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: new to the show and don't care about what's new
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: in my life or my buddy Dan Johnson, you might
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: want to fast forward about twenty minutes. If you are
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a longtime listener, though you'll want to stick around. I
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: do have my good buddy Dan Johnson back for our
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: pregame show. And I gotta tell you, Dan, I'm excited
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: because pretty soon here, like for me, four weeks, four
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: weeks from now, these pregame shows are going to take
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: on a much more higher degree of importance because we're
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: gonna be talking about actually hunting. Can you believe that? Yeah?
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I got four weeks worth of exercises and losing a
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: little bit of weight and shooting my bow before I
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: make uh like a fourteen hour drive to Colorado to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: chase the milk man. How on a scale of one
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to ten? How excited? Right? Dude? This is crazy. I
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: should be jacked right, but I'm not because I'm so
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: busy with life right now that it's probably good. Right.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I'm getting I'm I'm getting my workouts in. I'm kind
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: of changing my diet a little bit, um, you know,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: laying off laying off the sugar and all that stuff,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and uh just thinking about it, but not like going
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: overboard with it. I'll save that for probably the week
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of But yeah, that's funny. I feel I'm the exact
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: same way. I've got Montana Whitetail and Montana Elk, and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I feel like there's just so much going on. I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: haven't even hardly been able to plan anything or figure
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: anything out. Um, So I yeah, I'm not to the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: point where I'm like overly excited. It's more so like
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: just get through the next week and then I'll think
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: about the week after that and then the week after that.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: But it is nuts. That's thirty days away or so,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna be bow in hand man. But all
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the things that I'm excited about right now, I'm gonna
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: have to say that what is getting me jacked up
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the most is this Saturday evening and Sunday I will
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: be setting tree stands and checking trail cameras for the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: first time. So I'm thinking a lot about that, to
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: be honest with you. Okay, so the cameras have been
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: soaking for probably almost a month, isn't that right? Um,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: let's see no, um, all of July, so seven weeks okay, Yeah,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that's a pretty good long spell. So have you you
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: haven't been back to the property at all? Right? Nope, nope,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: have not. How many cameras I have sit cameras out? Okay?
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I think yeah, six cameras. How many of those will
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: not be working properly when you go check. I'm driving
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to Michigan to kick your butt. But you know how
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: it goes right, going with low expectations, assume that something
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: will be wrong, and then you'll feel okay if it's not.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: So if anything's wrong, I don't know. I don't want
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to say. I don't want to say it's like the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: trail camera or me or whatever. But I'm that guy
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: now who I'll set my trail camera, I'll walk around,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: do funny movements in front of it to try to
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: trigger it. I'll go back and check it, make sure
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that it's it's triggered, and then I'll leave, right. So, yeah,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: so I make sure it's working before I before I leave,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and then from there, man, it's uh, just you know, God,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: now that you got me thinking about that, it really
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: just kind of ruined my night because I would I
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: would flip out if that happened. Yeah, oh man, I
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: mean how many times that's happened to me? So many
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: times over the years. I just go into it like
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: assuming that maybe a quarter or a fifth of of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: something's gonna go wrong, whether it be of the card
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: or or something that just seems like you can't get
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a perfect card pull almost ever. At least for me. Um,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: if you have enough cameras though, Yeah, knock on wood,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I've had. Anytime there's been a malfunction in the past,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: like three or four years, it's been because I have
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: made that mistake, not the camera. So I mean, I've
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: been blessed with some pretty good card polls in the
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: last couple of years, aside from when I keep it
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: on set up and forget to turn it to on.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean. Yeah, you know Further has
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: done that at a time or two on our Ohio property. Yeah, man,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: you need to get Further a break. Man. I feel
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: like I feel like you talked sh it on him.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: When he's not here to defend himself. It's the best
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: time to do it. Dan, You're probably right. That's what
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I do with all my friends too. Um. Yeah, Me
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and Further we got work to do on our side though,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: because we have to go pull all of our stands
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: off the Ohio property, and because I've been gone. I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: just got back last night in Michigan. Um, so sometime
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: here soon we got to drive down to the Ohio place,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: pull all of our stands, get everything out of there. Um,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and I actually leave this weekend again for Colorado and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Nevada for a week. So I'm home for four days
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and then I take off for Colorado. Um doing some
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: writing projects stuff out there. Um. So it's just not
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: much time to be the last stuff done. I've got
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: all the stuff I still need to prep on my
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: main Michigan farms. Got to go up to our northern
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: place and do some work up there. It just seems
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: like the the year, the summer has gotten away from me. Yeah. Yeah, man,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: it's out of control. How fast life starts to go. Like, man,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I just you know, when the memories come up on
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Facebook and I click on it and it takes me
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to the picture and then I find myself in like
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: this black hole of looking through old pictures and I'm
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: just like, I'm just looking at pictures of Ava when
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: she she's a baby. Oh, by the way, this is
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a This is a warning to the guy who doesn't
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: like me talking about my kids. So you can fast
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: forward for the next couple of seconds. So can you
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: imagine that guy's reaction when he saw last week's podcast.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Oh dude, I bet you, I bet I hope this
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: isn't true, but I'm crossing my fingers that it is
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: he it spiraled him out of control to start using
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: drugs and alcohol are really heavy again, So like that's
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that's the trigger. That's what triggered him to like fall
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: off the wagon raising outdoor kids, back back to Ava,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: back to Eva. What were you what we're saying about her?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Just like you know how fast time is going, man,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And then you look at you look at the goals
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you want to accomplish with your family, and you look
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: at the goals that you yourself want to accomplish, and
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: how you feel you're gonna make that work. I mean, Mark,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I turned thirty eight years old this year, right whoa yeah,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and uh, the knees aren't what they used to be.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: So if I ever want to go and start doing
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: some of these crazy hunts, I gotta do them, and
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I gotta do them now. Okay. So so yeah, so
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: speaking of that, Um, how is the ELK prep coming?
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You said even working out adjusting the diet. We we
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: haven't really covered that in detail. Um, what's what's what's
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: going on? I mean, as you know, it is hard
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: to prep for an elevated hunt when you live in
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the flattest land of all the lands. You know what
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I mean. So, I mean I've been doing my weighted packs,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: change my diet, and um, uh doing a lot of workout.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: So I'll do this workout where I'll row and then
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I'll go run on the treadmill and uh, I mean
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: really that's really all you do. I mean I've laid
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: off the uh the weights a lot, and uh try
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: to do a little bit more cardio. And I've lost
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: ten pounds probably in the last month or so that
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: you know. But you know, I will think I'm in
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: good shape and then I'll get up there and uh.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: But our plan is, you know, I'm going with my
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: buddy Ryan Iberg, and so our plan is we're leaving
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: on a Friday. We're gonna get there on like a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: on Saturday afternoon, and we're not gonna hunt Saturday. I
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: think part of the problem I had in Idaho was
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: there was zero acclamation time we got out of the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: car and we went. So we're gonna be about three
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: thousand foot higher than what we were in Idaho, and
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be I'm gonna get there chill that night,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: pound as much water as i can, get acclimated, try
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: to get a good night's sleep, get up Sunday morning,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and then started. So, uh, I'll see if that helps.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I've I've had a couple of will reach out to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: me and tell me that's what I needed to do.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: We'll give it a try. Man. It's funny. Literally, just
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: three days ago, I was in Jackson at the sporting
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: good store that you spent your your entire life savings
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to get a tent in the in the emergency situation.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you, I'll tell you right now. I can.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I can still remember that conversation I had with my
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: wife and she's like, you can't cost how much? You
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: don't understand Sarah. It was an emergency. I had to
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: do it because there was no way in hell Mark
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was gonna let me sleep in his tent. Can you
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: imagine if we both try to fit in there though,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: with all our wet gear and everything, that would have
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: taken that trip to a whole new level of punishment.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you had the taj Mahal though for the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: rest of the trip. That was nice to get everything
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: aired out in there. And are you taking that for
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: this one? Yep, yep. I just opened it up and
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: slept in it for the first time last weekend with
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the kids since that trip I had I had, I
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: mean I I cleaned it, put it away, and then
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: opened it up for the first time. Worked like a
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: charm and uh so that was the fourth time I've
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: ever slept in it since I bought it. Well, you're
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: gonna get your money is worth after this trip, hopefully,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I know. But I'm jacked. What So you're back in Michigan.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Huh Yeah, yeah, I got back last night. Home for
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: four days and then gone for a week and then
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I'm back for three weeks and then back to Montana
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: to start whitetail hunting. Right, So are you going back
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to that some of that same public ground again. Yeah,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to the spotty hunting. Last year, Um,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: you know, it didn't seem quite as well. I don't know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: it was. It was pretty it was pretty dark good
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: last year. I just I passed on like a bunch
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: of decent bucks. But I was hoping to see like
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: a knocked me off my socks buck and I didn't
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: see that. So then I was thinking, Okay, maybe this place.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of these, like, you know,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of bucks, a lot of deer, but maybe
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: not what I was thinking there might be. But then
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I went back in shed hunted this spring, you know,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and me and further found lots and lots of antlers
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and some good ones too, So now I know, like
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of mature bucks. I saw a
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: few last year that we're like, Okay, I think these
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: are some mature bucks. Um, but it's a little They're
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: a little bit different body size from I guess the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Midwestern deer. So I had a little have a hard
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: time judging sometimes too. Um. But now that we've kind
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: of seen what's out there a little bit better, I
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: feel pretty confident if I put in my time, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: now that I know more about the area after shed
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: hunting and walking basically everything around there, I definitely have
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: a good idea of how to approach it this year. So, um,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: are you getting South Dakota to or was that North Dakota?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: North Dakota and and that is going to be kind
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: of um, We're gonna see how it goes. I'm see
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: how much patient your wife has left. Well, well, no,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I think what I'm doing is I'm gonna budget like
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: ten days to um my Montana white tail hunt, and
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: I gonna hit Montana first, But if I happen to
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: get lucky and tag out early, then I can just
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: swing back and on the way home. Is uh, North Dakota?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Is that over the counter hunt? Yeah, you can get
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: it as as I understand it, unless it changed since
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the last time I looked, just last year. But as
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I understand it, you can get a white tail only
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: archery tag. Um. I bought it a lot online last
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: year over the counter, and I understand that if you
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: get it during the season, maybe you have to go
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to a specific town to pick it up in person
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: or something. But um, but I can figure that out
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: if if I get if I get lucky in Montana,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I will I'll take that and take that. I don't
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: even know what I'm trying to say. I'll figure it out.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I trying to say. Is Burger coming with you? You know?
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think he is. I've asked him if you
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: want to come, and he said he's gonna look into it. Um.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: But since we're our Ohio property bailed, he I think
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: he's got a little bit more flexibility with timing. Be
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: sauce we're not going to do our big trip down there.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: So there's a chance he might come. I might try
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to weazle my way into that one, to that North
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Dakota hunt. I might try to weasel my way in
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: with further give him some like SOB story and then
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe it hits her right out there with him.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: It's a cool it's a cool area. There's a lot
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: of there's a lot of stuff to explore out there. Um,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: it's fun. So I'm hoping. I'm hoping that works out.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: But uh, but yeah, I mean I realized that other
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: than that hunt, which I do, I figured out, I
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: feel pretty well prepared for that. But I got this
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Montana Elk tag, and I'm not prepared for that anyway whatsoever.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: So this is the first time I'm hearing of that.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: So what's the deal with this Montana Elk hunt. There's
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: no deal at all. Like literally, I applied for Montana Elk.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I applied for the combo tag, so you get Elk
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and a deer tag, and I kind of sussumed, Okay,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I'll figure something out. And then I just kind of
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: got busy with life and planning all these other things.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: And now I have this Elk te and I'm gonna
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: budget a week, but I have I'm not I'm going solo,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I have I have no I don't have an area
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: picked out yet, I have done no scouting, I have nothing.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: So literally in the next week and the next and
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: it's just there's just too much going on. I just
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: like I haven't even planned my trip that I'm leaving
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: in four days for Colorado. I haven't planned anything for
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: other than getting a plane ticket and a rental car.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: And I have a friend who were doing this thing,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and I have not picked which mountains were climbing. I
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: haven't picked where we're in a camp. Nothing. So like
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I'm living on like a week to week basis right now. Boy,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see the Facebook post. Have you
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: seen this hiker? You know, like Mark Kenyon has been
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: missing for ten days? What so this elk hunt in Montana?
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Is that gonna be in Grizzly Bearer Country? Well, if
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I go solo, which is how it's looking right now, Um,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to not go on grizzly country just
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: because you know, hunting elk hunting anything in grizzly country
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: is a little sketchy, let alone doing it completely by yourself.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: So I think and that would be my first solo
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: elk hunt too, So I think I think a solo
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: hunt will be really cool. I like the idea getting
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: back there on my own kind of just you know,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: it's a different situation when you're working yourself exactly, testing yourself.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: You're a hundred percent dependent on yourself. And I've done
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I've out cut it enough. I feel comfortable. I've done
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of backpacking, a tone of hiking. I'm really
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: comfortable in the wilderness, but it's always been with someone.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: So I kind of like the idea of doing something
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: that's out of my comfort zone, you know, just just
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: to see how it goes, and like you said, to
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: push myself. So I kinda I kind of intrigued by
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: doing it that way. Um. Fortunately, I know enough people
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: in the southwestern General Montana area that if I do
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: get something down, I could probably call someone to help
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: me pack it out, which is which is uh what
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I'd be crossing my fingers for. But um, but yeah,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I need to try to look into these different mountain
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: rangers that that aren't you at um covered with grizz
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and I am planning on doing some some scouting on
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the maps over the next week or two and just
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: kind of going with low expectations just to try to
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: find some elk could be kind of fun, I guess
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: because the other thing about where I el cut it
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: in the past, where you came with me, like that
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: was a spot I learned about from a friend and
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: like a friend took me out there, and then I
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: started going myself afterwards, but I never found it myself.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: So there's there's a kind of cool challenge of discovering
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: a new place all on my own, try to figure
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: out where the elker they're all on my own. Um
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: and see if I've you know, figured any of this
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: elk stuff out, or if I'm as much of a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: dummy as I probably sound. I'll tell you what. That's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: my goal. One of my goals in the upcoming years
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: is to not only plan hunting trips, but plan scouting
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: trips as well, to where I can go out in
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: mid to late August to the you know, basically go
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: look for a game to hunt, right Like one of
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: my one of my dream hunts is a high country
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: meal deer hunt. And you don't just from what I understand,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: you don't just go high country meal deer hunting right.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: It's there's so much prep work that's involved to just
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: locate something. Uh, and there's a lot of scouting. I
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: mean just just really for any out of state hunt.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: But I want to do I want to be able
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to go there, do some camping, uh, do some hiking,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: go basically scout for these animals where there's where they're
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: going to be hopefully and you know, late August, early September,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, put a plan together, so we'll see.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: We'll see how that works. That's a smart way to
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: do it. Yeah, don't show up. They don't show up
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: on the trip saying I'm gonna figure it out as
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: we go. Yeah, right right, that doesn't happen very often.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you how it goes. Yeah, uh yeah, But
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I guess it's for good reason. I've got I've got
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: so many cool trips that I am a little behind.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: But I can't complain about that. So we'll see, we'll see.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: But anytime you feel stressed, just text me. I'll send
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: you a picture of my uh my cubicle when you're
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: getting out of that thing. Dude, dude, I don't know,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: like you know, you know how it is. You just
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: keep grinding until it happens, and uh, I don't know.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, it's like I can't. I'm
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: in a position right now where I really can't even
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: think about it. Three kids, right, yeah, but you are
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the cut and make Communicator of the Year. I cannot wait.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: You know what. That's I'm pretty proud of that, right However,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I can't. I can't flex on that. I can't go
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: up to to like a predict sponsor and be like,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: give me fifty K. I'm the QT may signpost Communicator
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: of the Year Like that don't work. Now, That's exactly
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: how it worked for me, man, That's how I quit
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: my job. I just said exactly. I just walked up
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and did that exact spiel you did, yes or no,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: take a risk on me, yes or no. Yeah, but
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: you had zero kids at that time. Oh yeah, and
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I definitely did not do what you just said. Yeah, exactly.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I totally understand. There's a lot of it's
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: not an easy leaps take, but you're man, you're making
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: good progress. It's gonna happen soon, I'll see. Or I'm
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: waiting for that executive position to open up within Wired
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: to hunt and then I'll I'll just kind of a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: sidestep right into that. There you go. You're high earning executives, right,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I I wish we were. I wish I had that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: kind of money. I'd probably I'm probably in line behind
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: further though. He does have a few years of of
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: experience with me on you. But but you do grow
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: a better beard, yeah, and you snuggle better on the tent.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: So last question, last question, Yeah, how's your goat doing?
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Oh the goats and prime Form? Man, That mountain air
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: really helps my facial hair grow. Um, so I gotta
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: believe that by the time September rolls around, I'll have
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: like a quarter into stubble. Maybe it should be pretty impressive.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Are you trimming it or you letting it kind of
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: go back with nasty? I have to. It's so embarrassing
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to talk about my facial hair like this. It is
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: so bad that you're sarcastically bringing it up on the podcast.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: It's the only thing I have on you. Just let
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: me have this one win, you've got it. Yeah, I
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: had to trim it up. The wife doesn't like it
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: when it gets too long and straight. So yeah, I
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: get to if you don't have a goat, you look twelve, yeah,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: And when I do have a goat, I look sixteen maybe.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: So it's funny though. We just I got my new
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: passport the other day or today actually, and they sent
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: back the old passport with it. So I compare the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: picture of me now versus a picture of me when
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I was fifteen or whatever it was when I got
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: my first passport, and that was pretty comical to see
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that braces, long hair, like big bowl cut kind of thing. Um,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the facial hair wasn't too different. But I can't have
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: it all, right, have it all? Can't have it all. Well,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: We've got a lot of exciting stuff coming up this year,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: elk hunts and all that good stuff. But I guess
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: we should stop. We should break here, get to our
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: main event with Tom Ware, who is just a white
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: tail legend. The guy just he gets it done. So
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: let's take a break here and then we'll get to town.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Before we do that, though, I do want to think
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: our partners at ONYX, and as we're just discussing, I
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: am in the midst of some last minute elk hunt
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: planning and a big part of that planning and digital
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: scouting is gonna be done with my Onyx Hunt app
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: on my phone, which provides me with aerial and topographical maps,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: plus the public land designations and borders that are important
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: for me to know when deciding where to hunt, where
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I can access these places and all that kind of stuff.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: And then of course, once I'm actually out there hunting,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: I can use the app on my phone too as
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: a GPS, which is gonna show me where I'm at,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: where I've been, and all the other information I just mentioned,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: which can be done and used even if I don't
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: have cell phone service. So it's going to be a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: very handy tool for me in the coming weeks. And
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: if you've got anything like that coming up yourself, you
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: might want to check out Onyx as well, so you
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: can pick up their app on your favorite mobile phone
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: app store, or you can learn more at onyx maps
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: dot com. All right with me now on the line
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: is Tom where. Thanks for joining me. Tom Hey, thanks
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: for asking Mark. Yeah, I uh, you know, we we
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: got to chat a couple of years ago on the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Wild podcast with Matt Um. I can't believe it's been
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: that long, but I but I enjoyed those chats and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I've always enjoyed watching you from afar Via. You know
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: everything you're doing with Drew Outdoors. So man, I'm just
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: glad we can do this. Absolutely I look forward to it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I Uh. One thing is I love hunting with Drew
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Outdoors and and I love kind of teaching others how
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: to how to hunt better and and and I've learned
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: from some of the best and just been blessed with
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: being surrounded by people in the industry that know what
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: they're doing. And I love to pass it on and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: help other people. Uh, you know, harvest, harvest big mature
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: white tails and make memories. That's what it's all. That's
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: what life should be all about, you know. Yeah, yeah,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: I agree. So so how did that start for you?
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: How do I mean, how did you get to this point? Um?
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Because I think a lot of people see you and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: and the type of success you're having from a hunting standpoint,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and there's like, wow, this guy has got all figured out.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: But I gotta believe that that didn't just start from
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the get go, right, Oh absolutely not. No. I Actually
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I grew up, Um my father was a big duck
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: hunter and goose hunter, and he paid no attention to
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: white tails whatsoever. And I was. I was duck hunting
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: with him one time and we were walking back from
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the duck blind uh back to the cabin and uh
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I found a ship handler and I was asking me
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: and I was just a kid, you know, and I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: was just like, damn, this is cool. You know, like
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: when those deer broke his hand on it off and
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: he's like no, and he told me, he's like no,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: they actually shed them and they grow, you know, it's
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: a memory and they grows every year and sometimes they
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: get bigger. And he and I was just intrigued with that.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I was like what. And he started telling me about
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the velvet you know and all that, and as a kid,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just so interesting to me. It was
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: to me anyway, and so I, uh every time we'd
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: be duck hunting, every now and then you'd see deer.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: You know, we hunted next to the Illinois River and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and uh Pike County, Illinois, and so anyway you'd see
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: some deer up there, and I'd always be instead of
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: looking for ducks, and ducks will be coming in and
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: they shooting. I'm looking at these deer, you know. And
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: so anyway, I kind of grew into uh where I'd
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: always asked him in the evenings if we could go
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: out and look for deer, and you know, he was
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: probably like, oh, this kid is interested in the wrong thing,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: you know, but it, uh, it was great. And eventually
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: when I was in college, he bought into a farm
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: and they there was four guys and they called it
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: four Guys Farm, and I was the fifth tag along.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I was a fifth wheel, I guess. And uh, we
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: just shotgun hunting. We knew nothing about deer hunting whatsoever.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: We'd always we'd, you know, opening day of deer season,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: we'd we'd rush out there and pay no attention to
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the wind or anything at all. We just get on
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: like four corners of the farm, you know, and four
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: and I'd be in the middle or something like that.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: You know. Everybody had their little place, and we weren't
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: very successful whatsoever, but we we had we had fun,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: you know, So it all started. That's awesome. So so
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: then who who helped you or how did you then
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: take that next step? Because he went from just going
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: out there and having a good time to all of
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: a sudden getting to a point where you're, you know,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: consistently having success targeting and killing the chure Bucks. Did
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: you have like a mentor or some influences that got
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: you there? It was just well, I started getting into
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: uh my cousin. It was kind of finger shooting a
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: bow one day and at the duck club and I started,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know, Dad, I think I want
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: one of these bowl in air. I was, you know.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: So he went and bought me a golden eagle, and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I was a finger shot. And I remember again going
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: back to duck hunting, and I was duck hunting coming back.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: I was, actually I was. I didn't start till late.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I was already married. I was with my father in
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: law and brother in law and we're duck hunting and
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: we came around the edge of this tip of this
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: timber and there was this on the way back to the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the cabin again and there was this big scrape and
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: next of this cornfield and it's kind of open country,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: not very much timber, but we saw this big scrape
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: and I was like, man, I'm gonna put a stand
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: right here. I've been I've been shooting with this bow,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and you know, I got I bought a stand, had
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: an old chain all, you know. So I I drove
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: down on a four wheeler and didn't get there till
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: like three o'clock trying to put up this stand. Again,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: really knew nothing about it, you know, put the old
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: screw and steps in and uh and got up there,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, it's kind of getting
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that time where deer start moving. By the time I
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: got it up, took me a couple hours. And uh
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: climbed up in there, and the four wheelers literally ten
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: yards behind me, just right by the tree, you know,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: and I had my bow and I was like, you know,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: I climbed up with that and and and uh again
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: knew nothing, and uh the wind happened to be in
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the right way, and and sure enough, here comes this buck.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: It comes right into that scrape and starts pawning, and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: I lit. My heart was just pounding. I still remember that.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: And and I drew back and I couldn't even find
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: the peep site. I was. I was so just jacked up,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you know, And and I remember he was so close.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I was like, I gotta be, you know, I gotta
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: be on him. And I shot and I knew it
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: hid in the body, and uh, he ran all the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: way up and like for a couple of hundred yards
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and then went over the levee and and I remember
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: calling my dad. I had a bag phone. This is
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: how long ago. So I had a bag phone in
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: the car and yeah, and I called him and I
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: was like, dude, I shot this monster buck, you know.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: And he ended up score. We found him the next
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: day after a long I could tell you long story,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: but we don't have enough time. And uh, and I
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: we found him. And from that day on, man, I
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: was a bow hunter and I didn't even want a
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: duck hunt anymore. I just I was all about deer hunt,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: you know. So and so then the next step was
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: we had a farmer next to this four guys farm
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I told you about previously, that had about a thousand
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: acres and he he was a deer hunter and he
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: didn't lease it out. It was kind of before is
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: when outfitters just started kind of coming around in Pike County, Illinois.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: And uh, he would always let us kind of since
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: there was the four guys farm was a hundred and
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: fifteen acres, so it was kind of tight with all
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the agriculture and stuff. It was kind of tight for
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: five guys. And he would usually in day two, day three,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: he would say, Hey, if you guys want to go
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: over in this timber or whatever, I'll let you go
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: over there. And so, uh, we we do that, and
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I we shotguned his property for a couple of years
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: and then, uh then I asked him that first year
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: when I after I shot that deer with the bow,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: I I asked him if I go bow hunt? And
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: he said sure. And the next year after that he
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: called me up. He said, hey, I'm going to lease
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: it out. And this was in he leased. He said,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna lease it out. Um to uh that one
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of these outfitters. And I asked him, I said, what's
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: an outfitter? I didn't even know what they were. He's like, oh,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: they they you know, they bring in these non resident
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: hunters and they kind of kind of a vacation for
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: him and they come hunt for like a week and
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and the you know, they charge them and and uh
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: they you know, sometimes they have a cabin, sometimes they
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: get hotels. And so I started looking them up and
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, this would be great, you know,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and I'd like to be an outfitter, you know. So
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: so I actually said, hey, would you I s this landowner,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: would you would you split the money with me if
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: I was an outfit the first year and and least
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: out to me instead of these other guys. And he's like,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'll do that, And so that's kind
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: of how it started. I didn't even know, um really,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: you know, I had only shot that one deer and uh.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: I was just such a green amateur. I had no
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: clue how to really do anything, and um so um uh.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: The next step is I was an out for the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: first year. I had a friend named Joe giz Dick,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: which he's he works for White Tell Properties. He was
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: an outfitter, if you know Joe. He Uh, I hadn't
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: add in the paper, um for trying trying, like in St.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Louis paper, trying to get customers and stuff. And he
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: saw that and he called me, says, do you need
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: any help? And I said, well, I can't afford any employees,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: you know. And he was like, I'll tell you what.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: I'll trade you out, um work for you know, putting
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: up stands and everything for for hunting rights. And I said,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: you got a deal. And so Joe came over and
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: he really helped me out. He knew he'd been working
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: for another outfitter in central Illinois for a few years,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and um so he knew a lot about just the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: afita industry. He he really helped me kind of get going.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: And uh I had been working for my family's convenience
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: store chain, and so I was kind of I grew
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: up in the business world, so I knew a lot
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: about business, and Joe wanted to start his own outfitting business.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: So I kind of helped him on the business side,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: and he helped me. Excuse me, I got a frog
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: in my throat. He helped me on the just how
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to play stands, and you know, he helped me a
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: lot on just uh win you know, win direction and
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: just get just getting to know the basics. And uh
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: so that's kind of how I started out, So the
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: very beginning. That's awesome. So you started the outfitting business
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and how long did you have the run the outfitting
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: there for? Well, I I started in ninety nine and
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: uh actually in about two thousand that I got one
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: more story for you that the next step was Joe.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Joe worked with me, but I kind of wanted to
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: be able to go to you can't you can't you know,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: major in college in in white tails, I mean, you can.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: The only thing I can think of is there's like
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: a guiding school out in Colorado or something like that.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: But I was like, I want to be able to
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: excel quickly and learn as much as I can. I've
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: always been like that. I just whatever I get into,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I want to learn as much as I can, as
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: much as I can, as fast as I can. So
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: I was talking to this car salesman and he said, hey,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: you ought to hire that stand Potts and I was like, yeah,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: I've heard Stand. I didn't know much about him, but
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: you know, the TV shows were kind of just getting
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: started at that time, and so I called Stand and
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I remember I offered Stand, which in the this was
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of money, and this about all the money
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: I had. I had three thousand dollars and I offered Standing.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Met him at Steak and Shake, and uh, he was
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: really kind of in the beginning. He was like, you know,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: really nervous, like who is this kid? What's he wants?
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: So I just I just sat it down. I just
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: said Stand. I told him exactly. I said, I've been
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: a duck hunter. I know nothing about deer hunter. I
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you know, I started my first year outfitting, and we
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: got I think, you know, I had a few customers
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: in but really lost lost a lot of money in
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: that first year, not knowing what I was doing, and
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and I said I need to I would like you to. Basically,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: it was around February, and I said, if you could
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: just walk the woods with me this time of year,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: we'll look for shed, antler and stuff like that. And
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: if you can just think out loud and just tell
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: me what you're thinking. Why you would hunt this stand
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: or put a stand here, Why would you pick this tree?
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: How would you access it? You know, and and and
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, you know, when you look at it.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: We didn't have as many deer cameras at that time,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: you know, so we look at deer tracks and say
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: it looks like a three year older, that looks like
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: a mature deer, you know, and stuff like that. It
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: was totally different. Or a scrape line or a rub line,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. And so that's what he did. He actually, um,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I hired him to take me out ten full days
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: for that money and spend a full day with me
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and just think out loud and and uh stand and killed.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: He was one a few that he killed some giant
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: deer at the time. I think he he had Illinois
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: second in the state as far as typical to oh one,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: I think something like that. So he killed some giant
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: deer around Clinton, Illinois, and uh, I hired him and
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: he kind of took me under his wing and taught me,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: just taught me a ton about white tail hunting. And
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: uh then through the outfitting industry, I had people in
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: like Bill Winkie, h Greg Miller. Um. I ended up
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: buying a farm in Iowa later from Don Kisski, and uh,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: you know, met a lot of guys in the industry,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: and they all hunted differently. They all had different thoughts
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: of how to hunt. And I just kind of soaked
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: all that knowledge in and and you know, put it
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: in my file cabinet in my brain and try to
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: learn from everybody. That's yeah, heck of a set of
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: influences there. Yeah, I was. I was just surrounding myself
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: with the right people and was very lucky to be
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: able to meet them, meet him, and and they were
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: willing to share their knowledge and it was it was awesome.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Do you do you remember anything on those on those
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: days with stand was there any like light switched moment
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: for you with him that first you know mentor to
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: watch you around for ten days. Was there anything that
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: still stands out today that you remember, Oh when Stan
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: brought this up, or this thing I learned from Stand
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: changed everything for me. Is there anything like that that
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: stands out still? Uh? Well, I I know, you know,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: if if if I would compare it like how Stand
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: hunted and killed big deer compared to others. One thing
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Stand did is is different than like Bill Winky, completely different.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Bill would pay all attention to how he accessed. He
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: would go up like a lot of times he would
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: go up a deep ravine to the tip of it
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: where the bucks would go around on the agricultural side
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: of it. They go around the deep ditch, you know,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: just they kind of walked timber, just like people do.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: They go the easiest route. Well, that's kind of how
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Bill hunted. He would he would pay a big attention
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: to access For Stand. A lot of times Stand was
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: getting invited to go to an outfitting location and he
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: might be hunting there, you know, the sixth or the ninth.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: So he knew that during the peak of the rut um,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: he's just got to get to the main travel corridor
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: where the most does are and maybe that part of
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: the timber where they're going to be traveling all day.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: And he didn't really he just said I remember asking him,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: how am I going to get to this load this
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: tree right here standing? He was just like, don't worry
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: about it during those times. Just get here. I don't
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: care if you have to trample all through here. You
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: just get your butt in this tree and sit here
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: all day, you know, and you don't have a good
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: chance killing the big buck, you know. And and uh
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: so he just it was he he was, you know,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: he would find the tree. I remember he at the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: end he would quiz it. It It was kind of fun
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: because he would say, okay, in this timber right here,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: I've got a tree picked out. Now you pick out
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: the tree you would you would pick out, and then
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: tell me why you would pick it out. So I
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: was it was kind of like a little test. Let's see, kid, here,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: let's see if you're going to pass this test or not.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: And and near the end there about eighty percent a
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: time I was picking out the same tree, you know.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: And it was it wasn't just like you know on
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: ten yard radius. It was like you know, in this
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: hundred yard or two hundred yard area, which tree would
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: you pick out? And why? And how would the wind
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: currents flow? And you know, it was, it was, it was,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: it was. It was a great learning experience for me.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: But that that's really the main thing I remember about
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Stannus and and all the others. I usually remembered how
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: they hunted compared to everybody else. Was there anyone else
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: of that group that stood out as being really different?
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: You mentioned how Billy You's really focused on access. Stan
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: was all about getting the best stuff right away. Anything
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: with like Don Kiski or any of those other guys
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: that stands out that was interesting or unique? Yeah, Don was. Uh.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I went to I was getting older and working for
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: the family business and and had a little bit more money.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: And then uh uh, when I met Don was when
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: I actually stand recommended. Uh. I said, I had seen
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: the peak in Pike County and the land values go
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: from like nine dollars an acre two um, kind of
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: you know, almost five thousand dollars an acre. Now they've
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: dropped back off. But and I said, where's the next
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: ripple effect going to happen? And you know we were talking,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: I said I think southern, I will up there, and
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: he says, I agree, And I was like, I wish
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: I knew a farm for sale, I'd go look at one.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: He says, well, it was Turkey season. He goes, well,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Don Don Kandy Kiski gotta I got a farm for sale.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: So I was like, well, when you want to go
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: up there with me? And we couldn't schedule other than
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: he goes, the only day I got availables tomorrow. So
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, let's go. So we went up
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: there and I fell in love with this piece of
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: gram But don you know, that's kind of when I
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: really first started seeing I had messed around with food
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: plots as an outfitter, but Don Don did a great
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: job of really kind of you know, putting a lot
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: of food plots out and larger food plots, and you know,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: that was kind of the beginning of the food plot era.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: And uh, I would say, that's kind of what I
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: learned from Don. You know, he just had a lot
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: of big Bucks and in Iowa and not near as
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: much pressure, and it was a little bit easier than
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: in Pike County trying to compete against fifty different outfitters
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: in the state, and you know, he had non residents
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: that were uh coming in from Pennsylvania, New York that uh,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: you know, if they saw one twenty that there was
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: a big might have been the biggest deer they've ever
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: shot in their life. And then so, uh we we
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: tried to man it. I was the first outfitter in
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Pike County to go to a hundred forty and I
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: got a lot of grief from that. You know, a
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: lot of the non residents, you know, they wanted to shoot.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: And I remember putting a five fine on it and
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: boy and trying to get you know, through that process
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: of of saying, hey, I wanted to have you know,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I wanted to basically go from a two year old
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: to a three year old or a three year old
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: or a four year old to make that progression. And
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: it was tough. It was tough to be the first
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: to do that, but um we you know, we got
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: it done and um you know, and I eventually sold
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: the outfiting business in two thousand ten, I think it was.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: I was. I was an out for for about eleven years.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: But I learned a lot, learned a lot and not
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: to overpressure stand and you know, only put that a
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: few customers in the state we had we had three
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: hundred sets and um and and some some stands didn't
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: even get hunted, you know. So I was all about
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: just just not putting very many customers in the in
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the same stand day after day, you know. But you
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: have to have a lot of land to do that.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I've always thought that being an outfitter has
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: got to be one of the most one of the
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: best ways to get like a PhD on deer because
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: it's not like you're just hunting yourself. You're hunting for
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: a dozen people or dozens of people or ever thinking
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: through how to place all these different people and then
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: getting reports back from each one of them. So it's
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: it's like you can test something and then get the
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: feedback on it right away. So I got a lot
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: of Yeah, yeah, it was fun because we i'd have
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: I had I had fully guided camp, and then I
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: did offer a semi guided camp, but the fully guy
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: that I'd have dinner with the guys every night and
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: we'd sit around the table and we just sit there
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: and talk about, Hey, you know, they saw this big bucket,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: how did you how did you get coach where did
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: he come from? And you'd mentally note that and then uh,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: you know, did he busting in the stand or did
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: he catch your win? Did he? Um? You know, we
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: didn't have all the of course, we didn't have any
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: box blinds or anything like that back then. Um. If
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: they did, they were kind of homemade, homemade platforms that
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: we had put in the fork of a tree or
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: something like that, you know, and I tried to stay
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: away from those as an outfit or just for safety.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: But um, yeah, you definitely learn on a much quicker pace,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: in which that's what I loved. I loved learning. So yah,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: is there is there anything from that time period that
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: that you learned during that kind of like overload of
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: information that you still come back to now today just
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: hunting on your own. Were there any big takeaways from
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: that period? Um? I would say one big takeaway is,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: you know, when you get the guys out of East
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: there's you know, the high density of Pennsylvania New York
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: hunters that wanted to come to Midwest Austin. They're used
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: to hunting all timber, and everybody wanted to go in
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the biggest block of timber you had, and it seemed
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: like that's that's not where we killed the big box,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean sometimes we did, but it seemed
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: like I always learned that those CRP fields and the
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: edges of this or a you know, a little water
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: and hole and maybe a little bit on the edge
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: of a timber and c RP or stuff like that
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: is where it seemed in. Now now it's all about food.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's that's what I do now. We
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: can probably get into that later, but you know, I'm
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: a big advocate of food, food, food, you know, plant
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: the food. So so yeah, let's let's talk about what
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: the situation is now. So you went from running this
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: outfitting business too, now you're doing your own thing. I
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: know you've got some buddies hunting with you and family
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But um, but is it right
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: you hunt in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri? Is that correct? Yep, yep.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I got farms in all three states. Yeah, So how
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: do you manage like, how do you do you manage
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: the time between those spots? Because I've got a couple
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: of spots. I hunt a lot, and I can do
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: some property management and things, and I can do some
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: hunting on both of those. But It's always a challenge
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: of mine to figure out how to split the limited
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: time I have between all these different places when it
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: comes to all the off season work and then actually
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: during the hunting season, Like how do you manage your
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: time between those farms both, you know, whether it is
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: like preseason work and management or actually out there during
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: the season. Well, as far as hunting them, uh and
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: where to hunt, I usually let the deer tell me
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: where to hunt, you know, if I let the you know,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the reconics cameras I put out, I let them kind
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: of you know by checking them. Um. And and now
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: I'm actually buying some quite a few cell cameras so
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: I'll be able to actually look at my phone and go, Okay,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: what state do I need to be in tomorrow. It's
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: the technology is crazy. And I know some people hate
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the technology with deer hunting, and they think that hunting,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: you know, it should all be about not having technology.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: But um, it's it's still it's still nature. When you're
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: sitting out there in a tree stand or a box
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: blind to me, uh, you know, I try to put
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the phone away and uh and and just enjoy you know,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: God's work. But but as far as getting there and
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: where to hunt. I do use the technology, but I
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: let that kind of guide me where the biggest buck are,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the most mature buck might be, and during daylight, and
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: and then I'll try to hunt there and maybe if
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: there if there's a reconics camera or food plot um
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: that did this show our scrape or something that's showing, Hey, this,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: there's a mature buck visiting often this this location during daylight,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: he's probably the easiest to kill right now. Then I
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: usually will kind of go, you know, let that guide me.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: What about when it comes to the work you're doing,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, how much I feel it. I feel like
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of people there's there's sort of this kind
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: of growing um. I don't know if it's resentment or
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: something within the hunting world, where there's people that that
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: do have properties and they manage them and they have
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: a great time and they're killing great bucks, and there's
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: some people that don't have those same resources opportunities, and
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: and sometimes they look at stuff that's going on TV
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: and they complain, oh, well, that guy only kills big
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: deer because he's got this big farmer, he's got so
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: much money, or etcetera. Etcetera, etcetera. Um, but I think that,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: you know, I think there's value in looking at all
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: sorts of different types of situations. So I think that
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: if you hunt public land, it's important to learn from
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: guys that hunt in public land too. But at the
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: same time, you can learn things or take things away
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: even from people that hunt in a different situation. But
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I have found that a lot of people assume that
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: folks with their own properties just haven't made in the shade.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: Like just because you own property all of a sudden
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: that means big deer going to be there, Or just
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: because you have a farm in Iowa or Illinois or whatever,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: it's just a piece of cake. But after talking to
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: people that are in those situations, you inevitably find out
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: that there's actually and unbelievable amount of work that goes
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: into that. Um oh yeah, can you speak. There's a
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: lot of there's a lot of preparation, and you know,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: I would say the biggest thing, I I am blessed
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: with property. You know, I'm able to you know, I've
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: worked hard and I you know, you can say all that,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: but I do have different properties. And the biggest thing
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: I can say about you know, buying farms, and um
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: it is you have the biggest thing to get big deer.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: You can have big farms, but that doesn't mean you're
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: gonna have a big deer. You have to pass. You
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: have to pass the big deer. I mean, people won't
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: believe me. I mean, but I do have video to
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: back it up. I mean I've passed them, just gigantual
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: on deer, and then I've regretted it later. I remember
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: passing a big buck just just a few years ago
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: in Iowa, and he was a five year old, and
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: my goal was to shoot a two inch deer still
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: having shot one. Actually shot one, but I didn't kill it.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: I did recovered and he lived and grew another act
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: the next year. But I uh, I remember the buck
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: I was referring to earlier was I passed. We found
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: his sheds and it was a hundred and he came
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: right into a decoy and it was just like a
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: chip shot. But we we knew by We had tons
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: of reconics pictures of him, and we're like, you know,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: he's not a two year He's on the best part
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: of my property where he's least likely. He was kind
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: of a homeboy and I was like, you know, he
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't wander too much, so I don't think and even
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: if he does, or he wandered onto a lease that
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: I had next to my property and it was in Iowa,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, I just don't think.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: And the and the neighbor to the north was a
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: friend of mine and we had talked to me. He's like,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not shooting to me there. In fact, his wife
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: had had passed the same deer and his nickname was
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Sly and uh, long story short, the next year he
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: went from a one. He shed his antlers at the
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: end of November, so he was sick with Mark. Mark
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Drewy thinks that we talked a lot about it. He says,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: I probably had a tad bit of e h D.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: And he just fought through it and lived. But he
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: dropped his um. He dropped his antlers early, and then
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: the next year he grew a set of like one
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: sixty And so we passed him again the next year,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: thinking well, he'll recover, he'll come back again the next year.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Well we actually found him dead at the end of
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: that year. And uh so it was you know, I regretted.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: I was like dang. I wish I would have shot him,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: you know, but it's you know, you'll never you never
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: shoot two inch if if you shoot No. One nineties,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: you know. So that was my goal and I still
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: haven't got there, but one of these days I'm hoping to. Yeah,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: And I think it's it's it probably it's it's all
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: relative to where you're at and what's around there. Right,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: So in your situation, as could be a one forty,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: it could be in yea as the one thirties. Absolutely,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: I'm just blessed to be in the Midwest where you know,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: they can grow just enormous racks. Yeah, that's a that's
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: a unique situation. But certainly something that it is is
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: awesome and it's got to be a lot of fun
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: to be in that kind of area where you can
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: see a deer like that and followed deer like that
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: year to year. Um, what do you I imagine would
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: you would you agree that a lot of your success
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: probably is um would you pin a lot of your
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: success on the property work you're doing, the ways that
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: you are improving the property, thinking through the property, strategically
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: planning things. Is that a big part of what you're
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: doing is leading to this success. Would you say, yeah,
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's everything. I think it's uh when you
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: you know, it could be anything from when I buy
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: a piece of property. A lot of times many of
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: the pieces of property I bought have been like maybe
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: old pasture they used to have a lot of cattle
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: running on it. And then you know, you can just
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: one year will make a huge difference on a property
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: like that, where all that you know, if the cows
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: aren't on there anymore, then that's all growing up in
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: the nice betting area. The deer going to bed there
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: a little bit more often now that the cattle aren't there,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: and they're getting bumped up all the time. So um,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: and there's you know a lot of fresh new growth.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: They're gonna come in and bed there. And then you
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: might add some crp. You might add some switch grass. Um,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: just a lot of brush grows up. You might add agriculture.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: So they have food betting. They got a lot of bedding,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: like you know, switch grass, and just secure betting where
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: they feel secure, feel comfortable. It's just a lot different
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: than the past year. And the uh, maybe the timber
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: that's eight down from the cows, you know, like it
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: used to be. They it'll just change it and all
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: of a sudden you'll have more white tails living on
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: your farm and uh, and then you know they might
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: have not managed that property in the past. So then
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: you have to go through years of of literally passing
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: you know, to three and actually literally passing four years.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: I don't believe a deer is at its potential until
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: it's five. And and that's just me and everyone's got
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: you know, everyone's got their different opinions. I tried to
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: let Tear reach five years old, and I just think
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: they I've seen him so many times, especially between three
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: and four, but even between four and five, they'll just
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: grow another you know. I have a deer this year
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: on one of my farms. I don't want to say where,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: but he was about one one sixty and uh last
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: year as a four year old and uh this year,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: I just got pictures of him just like three days ago,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: and we pulled them off off three conics and I
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: was like, oh my gosh, and he just grew and
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: we I sent him Mark Jury and I was like,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: how big do you think this deer is? And and
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: I said, I didn't tell him what I thought it was.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: And he came back. He said, to one ninety is
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: his guests and and uh I was He said, how
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: big do you think it is? And I said, I
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: was hoping he would make one. And he says, I
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: think he probably will. He goes, I think I'm being
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: a little conservative. And um so anyway, you know that's
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: if if I would have shot him last year. It
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: has been a trophy deer one sixty. Everyone's super happy
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: with those, and uh, even in the Midwest. And I
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: think I won sixties. If everyone can say is a
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: trophy deer, you know, something to be very very proud of.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: And but you know, if if I would have shot
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: him last year, he wouldn't he wouldn't have grown extra
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: thirty inches. So uh, you know that that's what I
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: really specialize in. I would say, is is this the willingness?
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: I'm lucky though I I get to hunt more than
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: the average person. Uh, and so you know I'm out
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: there hunting a lot. If if I if I only
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: got to hunt on the weekends or you know, one
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: day a week or one day a month, Um, then
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: you know I'm going to shoot that dear and and
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: and and then that's the difference since Uh, I am,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: I'm just very lucky. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean to
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: your point, there's something we said about having that time
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: and uh being able to be a little more cheosy
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: because of those opportunities. But well, you mentioned like when
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: you're picking up a new farm and you look for
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: sometimes spots with pastures and kind of almost a blank
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: canvas when you've gone to that purchasing decision, because it
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: sounds like you you bought a couple of handful of
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: farms of the years. Are there any other things that
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: you're looking for that have been like a good thing
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: to have on a property when you start, like I
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: always want to look for X, or it's great to
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: get a property with Y on it because it sets
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: you up, you know better, Anything like that that stands
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: out that you look for. Yeah, a lot of times
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: when I'll look at the first thing I look at
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: when I'm looking at farm as the aerial photo. You know,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: usually when you're searching for farms for sale, that's how
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: the realtors they put them on their website or whatever,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: so you're you have access to the aerial photo and
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: then I'll try to zoom out from that aerial photo
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: and I'll look at what timber is around it is
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: they're connecting timbers that maybe might carry a big deer
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: than it might be able to carry more big deer
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: because they're during the rut, they're going to travel onto you.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: Or is your farm the only area with timber um,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: or maybe your farm doesn't have much timber than the
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: neighbor farm has timber, but you can draw them in
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: there by planting food. So I look at things like that,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: and then I look at the access of how um.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Like let's say, UM, I buy eight acre um farm
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: that's in the shape of a rectangle or something. UM.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Usually I'll try to I'll try to put my food plots.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm big on food, Like I mentioned earlier, I'll
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: try to put my food plots, usually on the exterior
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: of the farm, no matter how big it is, UM
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: and so that I can access that farm. Hopefully I
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: have access from each direction. That would be ideal, but
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: that's very rarely the case. But when I'm when buying
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: a farm, I try to have at least two spots,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: you know, let's say the north and the south or
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: the east and the west or something like that. And
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: then I'll put those food plots, so that basically, when
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: you're going into that food plot, um and putting up
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: a box blind or a tree stand, you want the
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: wind in your face blown away from where the deer betted.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: And you know that's it sounds common sense. But you know,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: back in the day when I was hunting the four
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Guys farm with my dad, I mean, we know that
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: that was never even considered. And I I still talk
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: to people today, like my buddy I hunt with Clem.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: We call him. His name is Mike Clements and his dad,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: you know, he says they still all hunt the way
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: four guys farm guys, did you know. I mean, they
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: they're just shotgun hunters, and they wonder why they don't
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: kill anything, and well, a deer lives by his nose,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know they know those guys are there.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: And and so we just paid try to pay attention
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: to the really the common and sense things. And hey,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: if you can get into your lot, your location, whether
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: tree stand, a ground blind, a box blind, something like that,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: and hunt food where you know those deer are gonna
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: come to that restaurant, so to speak, um, and you
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: can be there waiting for him without them knowing beforehand,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: and your odds are going to significantly increase. And it's
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: just I just try to use the you know, it's
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: not rocket science or anything. It's just you know, I
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: try to plan a lot of food and and and
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: bring them to me. Yeah. What other things are you
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: thinking about when you're planning a food plot, planning or planting?
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: I guess. I mean you talked about the importance of
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: having these plots located on the Exeter years you've got
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: easy access, But is there anything else that you're thinking through,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Like do you try to have them tight to betting
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: ears or far from betting ears, or do you anything
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: else like that? Yeah? Absolutely, I was just going to
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: say that before you said it tight to betting areas,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: because it seems like they will if you want those deer.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: I mean you can make them, uh, not so tight.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: And I'm not saying you won't see deer there, but
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: it seems like you see the dough you know, anybody
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: that's a hunter, they see the doughes come out first,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: and then those mature bucks, you know, all of a sudden,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: if you do see him, they'll be in that they'll
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: step out in that back corner. Just fifteen minutes before
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: dark or whatever. But if if you have some of
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: these um these food plots that are they're tucked in
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: tight to betting um, it seems like, you know, all
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, they're showing up an hour an hour
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: and a half before dark, and you're like, man, I
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: can't believe this deer's on the field during this daylight. Well,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: it's just you know, he's getting up stretching his legs,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: and he's he's not he's been he's not betted very
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: far from there, and he feels comfortable. He's been there
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: and there's been no other intrusion. You're not out there
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: throwing a football in the backyard and and letting you know.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: It's I mean, it's it's where he goes every day
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: and feels comfortable. Maybe there's you have water clothes. Sometimes
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: you can play them right next to water where they're
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: gonna want to get a drink and and eat. So
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: things like that you try to think about it might
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: be tougher to get to those locations. Maybe they you know,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: maybe your block of timber is kind of in the middle,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: and you have to plant in the middle of your
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: property because that's the only thick betting area. Then then
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: do it? I would I would say, do it. I
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: have a farm like that in Missouri where my best
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: food pod, my most successful area is is right in
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: the middle of my farm. I have to So that's
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, against the grain or against what
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: I normally do. But in that on that farm, I
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: have to do what it takes. I have to get
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: in there next to the biggest chunk of timber and
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: betting area that I can to be able to see
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: those mature bucks during daylight. How do you do that
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: then without screwing things up? From the access standpoint, Um,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: what kind of scenario or what have you done to
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: allow yourself to be able get in the middle without
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: screwing the pooch? Well? You a lot of times it's
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: just by testing it, you know, like all access. I
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: used to access this particular location from more the northwest
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: and used to come in through the middle of an
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: agri cultural field and kind of and I realized there's
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: an old homestead and this this farm in Mercer County, Missouri,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: and uh I uh now, I just I realized that
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: there's no dear betting bedded up where I thought they
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: would be. It's kind of not a super thick timber,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: but it's a it's a draw that leads to this
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: food plot. And now I just walked down the edge
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: of it. I actually mow up a moa path um
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: during during the summer, and I kind of keep it. Uh.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: One thing you did one here's a little tip, is
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: is I keep my paths that I walk into the
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: stand mode all year and you only I mean you
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: just got a mom maybe once every two, three four weeks.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Because if you mow him, uh, if you mow that
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: some of that longer grass right before the season, just
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: one time, that grass gets uh, the stems on it
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: get real hard and crunchy. If you keep it mode
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: during the year, they're real soft. So so you can
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: access that that path real quietly. Um. So yeah, one
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: thing we do is we'll we'll just take a usually
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: a smaller bush hog or uh, some kind of mower
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: that doesn't have you know, just you know, maybe four
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: or five ft wide is all, and we'll we'll mow
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: our access pass and we'll keep them mode all year round,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: even to our box lines. So people probably wondering why
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: are we doing that during the middle of summer, Well,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: it's just to keep those that grass nice and soft,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: so in the fall when it dries up a little bit,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: it's it's it just got soft stems on it. Yeah,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. Yeah, speaking of food plots, another thing
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: I've heard you talk about on this front. Um. You've
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: mentioned how you you feel or you've seen on some
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: of your places, how it seems like each food plot
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: in the area around it kind of has a king,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: so like they'll kind of be a mature buck that
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: decides to call this plot in that little area home.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: And because of that, rather than having one big plot
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: that has just one king, I've heard you talk about
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: the idea of having multiple smaller plots, so maybe you
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: can get more of these quote unquote kings or big
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: mature deer to stick around. Can you can you expand
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: on that, explain that a little more? Absolutely, It's it's
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: actually a strategy we've we've really picked up on the
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: last couple of years. And in fact, I did a
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: UM segment on bow Madness this year with Drewies called
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: King of the Plot, and uh, it was basically describing
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: that exact situation you just mentioned, and the analogy I'll
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: use maybe too kind of an in human terms is imagine,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: see these big mature bucks that are five plus years old.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: Is they're all dominant and and they hang out together
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: all year long until the rut and then they hate
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: each other. You know, they're best friends and they hang
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: out in these bachelor groups, but then during the rut
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: they fight and they beat each other up really bad.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: And we had a lot of antlers, a lot of
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: bucks on our farms, especially in Iowa. It seemed like that.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, all, my all, my big bucks
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: get busted up. I mean, they get busted up pretty early.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: You got to shoot him really if you want him
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: to have a rack. I mean, it seems like and
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: so I was like, well, how do you? How do you?
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: I guess it was because we were managing the farms
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: and there was more bigger bucks living there, so I
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: wanted to kind of spread them out and see so
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: they don't run into each other as often. And so
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: you know, we have a lot of switch grass. And
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: the best analogy I can use, it's kind of my
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: sound goofy, but it might help some people understand. Imagine
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: if you had fifteen Mike Tyson's Okay, everybody kind of
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: knows who Mike Tyson is. He's a big Johnet boxer
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: that you know, mean and he beats people up, you know.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: But imagine if you had fifteen Mike Tyson's in a gymnasium,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: walk around playing basketball whatever and there and and there.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: You know, they have the the hormones are a full tilt,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: and they only breed once a year, and they're all
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: off to going after the same woman. You know, they're
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: going to fight and and and beat each other up.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: And that's that's what these bucks do. But then imagine
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: if somehow you could put almost in that gymnasium. You
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: put walls up and almost make it like a hotel.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: So in essence, you're you're, you're putting so they can't
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: see each other, and it's more like rooms in a hotel.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: So you you might be in a hotel right next
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: to another Mike Tyson, but you're kind of you're you're
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: not You're kind of in your segment where you're you're
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: separated from him and you really don't know he's there.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're so in essence, that's kind of what
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: we we've done with food plots. We try to make
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: different areas where a lot of doughs might hang out,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: but hopefully they're kind of spread out so that hey, uh,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: you know, we we've noticed a lot of times we'll
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: sit on one food plot and the same big buck
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: comes out and he'll almost make a round around that
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: food plot. Let's say it's a one acre food plot.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: You know, he'll come around, you know, just kind of
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: walk the other smaller bucks off the field. Have you
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: ever seen that? And so and and then you know,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: maybe that's the five year old, but he's pushing off
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: any other little smaller buck maybe three year old, two
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: year old, and and sometimes even another five year old
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: will come out there, but he kind of pushes him,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: and so one is more dominant than the other. So
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: if if you could plan another food plot just two
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: or three hundred yards down, then maybe that other five
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: year old will will go down there. And that's what
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: we've seen actually is happening. And so we plant instead
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: of one maybe two acre clover field, it might be
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: half braskas and half soybeans, or half clover and half
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: braskas or something like that. We'll maybe plant to one
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: acre plots not far from each other, and it seems
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: like they kind of you know, hey, maybe that non
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: dominant five year old that was just run off the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: field by the dominant one might now go old kind
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: of hang out in that other clover field because they
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: know that all you know that that big old buck,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: that's the dominant buck. He's always hanging out there. So
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go hang out over here. And that's
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: that's actually what they seemed to happen, and and our
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: reconics has told us that, And so then you can
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: monitor the reconics and see, oh, this buck's hanging out
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: here more more often than not. I'm not saying they
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: never go in there, of course they do, but they
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: it just seems like they have a favorite spot or
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: a favorite food plot. And that's kind of how we've
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: maybe not a good analogy with with Mike Tyson. That's
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: the best analogy I can with. We try to we
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: try to separate him, and that makes sense. Now, do
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: you try to plant the same thing in each one
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: of those plots so it's not like at one time
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: of year they all all the deer want to be
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: in plot A, and then all the deer want to
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: be in plot B at late season? Do you try
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: to have the same kind of thing, So they do
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: spread out throughout the year or is it different kindness?
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I do, sometimes they don't. I I do know.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: I can tell you that I usually try to plant
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: clover nearly in every food plot, at least around the edges.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: If it's a circle plot or you know, whatever the
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: shape is, I usually try to plant clover in part
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: of that field. And the reason is I had actually
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: a biologist come to my farm and probably ten years
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: ago and and said, hey, if you want to create
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: a deer's habit and you want them to come to
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: this food plot every night, he goes plant clover because
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: clover is going to be there year round. Even during
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: the winter when they're pawing at it and snows on
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: the ground, they can at least get to that green
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: underneath the snow and that clover and clover is pretty
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: much their year round. So um, I do try to
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: have clover in nearly, I would say, of my food plots,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: even if it's a small amount, because I want deer
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: just getting in the habit of coming there. If it's
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: a braska or soybean field, cornfield or something else, then
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: you know that they might die off or they you know,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: let's say it's radishes. Then once their ashes are gone,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: you know they uh you know there are soybeans or
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: something that once they're gone, they're they're not going to
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: come there anymore. So Clover kind of prevents that from happening. Yeah,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: it's it's that incredible perennial attraction year after year and
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of just most of the year, it just
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: does the job. There's there's no absolutely. I've heard Mark
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: say and then several guys, you know, just Clovers that
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: it seems like when we've tracked what where we actually
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: kill these big deer, it seems like Clover is is king.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it seems like we kill him
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: on clover it. You know, it seems like they'll be uh,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: they'll it's more than fifty percent of the time, it
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: seems like you'll they just they just love it people
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: and they're diet. Before moving on, we are going to
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: take our last break of the day to thank our
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: partners at White Tail Properties and today, continuing my bi
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: weekly recommendations of resources put together by White Tailed Properties,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: I want to mention another one of their land beat videos,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: and this one's titled Creating Better white tail habitat and
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: it features Dr Craig Harper. He's the guy I've mentioned
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: many times before and he's one of the foremost experts
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: on managing habitat for white tails. And in this one,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: he walks us through how he goes about making decisions
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: on how to improve an area for native vegetation. And
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: he does this by selecting certain trees that he's gonna
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: cut or girdle to open up the canopy above this area,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: letting in more sunlight, which then allows deer level food
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: to grow. So in this video, correct is a really
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: good job of really I guess, showing us exactly what
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: he's doing, you know, which trees he's choosing, why he's
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: choosing them, how he's then going to deal with that tree.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: It's very helpful stuff. So head on over to the
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: white Tail Properties YouTube channel if you're interested in checking
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: that one out, or visit white Tail properties dot com
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: to learn more about their land specialists and the properties
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: they have for sale. Now back to the show. So,
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: so we're talking right now, it's uh, it's August one today.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: Um for me, I usually August is like a really
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: really busy month for me. In the white tail woods.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: A lot of work going on, and then I try
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: to stay out one September hits to to leave it
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: and leave the area alone before hunting season. Um, so
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: what are you what are you doing right now over
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: these next few weeks? What kind of projects do you
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: have coming up? What kind of prep work are you
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: gonna be doing here in this last month of summer?
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, August is filled with fall food plots. It's
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: just we're actually about a week ago we're spraying and
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: killing all the the plots. Um that we're going to
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: plan at Braskas in so um everything like winter bowls
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: and sugar beets or by logic maximum um uh you know,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: any kind of radishes and turn ups things like that. Um,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: we are we are planning in August in the first
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks in August. Um all the way up
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: you can plan them a heck, and Midwest you can
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: plan them all the way up into September. Well. I
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: try to get mine in usually around mid August sometime.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I try to ideally if you if you're
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: only planting one farm or something, um, I would say
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: you kind of you get it killed down and prepared
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: and ready to plant, and then you just wait right
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: before the rain and if you can, if your job
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: allows you, you can get out just the day before
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: that rain. That then that's ideal. You know. Sometimes you
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: don't even have to CULTI pack it in or roll
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: it in. Some people use different Uh. Usually with Nebraska,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: you want to be able to Ideally, I usually disc
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: it up or or till it up and then I'll
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: actually cult up pack it and then spread the seed
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: and then could to pack again. And that that has
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: worked the best for me. Um and then you know,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: ideally if you can do it right before rain. Uh,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: sometimes you don't have to cul to pack it in
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: that rain. If it's going to be a strong rain,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: that will just pounded in the soil and it would
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: be perfect. So but that's mainly what I'm doing. And
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: of course putting up tree stands and uh uh you know,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: box blinds or whatever, you know, whatever you hunt out
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: of your your you know, some some people don't want
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: to put out ground blinds this early because some of
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: them fade or something, you know, they wind a bloom
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: or you know, Um, I don't think you need to.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: I I'll pray usually wait till it spends if you're
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: going to hunt the rud or early season, but I
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: you know, if you get them up a couple of
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: weeks early, it's usually good enough. Yeah. Are you doing
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of trail camera inventory scouting that kind of stuff? Yeah,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: tell me about what you do that front um. Doing
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: the trail cameras, Uh is kind of fun because it's
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: the first you know, you're It's kind of like all
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the hunting shows start about this time, the new ones
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: get out, and then you're checking your trail cameras to
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: see all what he grow into or did he make
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: it from last year? Maybe a buck disappeared and all
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: of a sudden he's there, and he's been there the
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: whole time. He just didn't know, never found his antlers
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: or shed antlers. So that's kind of fun. It's you
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: feel like a a little kid opening, you know, opening
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: presents on Christmas morning. You're just you know, like, what
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: do I got? What do I got? And uh, So
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: it's kind of fun and and uh and then yeah,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: we're glass in glass and fields don't have to do
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: that nearly as much. I remember when I was an outfitter,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: that's all I did. I mean before trail cameras. I mean,
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: my wife were like, you're ever gonna come home at night,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: you know, and uh, every single night, I mean I
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: was out just trying to you know, find the tip
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: of tip of some velvet antlers out in the back
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: of the bean field, you know, and um, the cooler
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: nights were always much better. I got a couple of
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: guys that, uh, I'm also very lucky to have friends
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: and uh that that that enjoy this passion is of
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: hunting as much as I do. And and they they're
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: not scared to work, and they say, we all help
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: each other and you know, get on the tractors and spray.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: And I got a couple of guys that I call
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: them farm managers that kind of really help a lot,
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: you know, and they do a lot of the ground
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: of the work. So but anyway, they they called me
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: last night and they were they're all my Illinois farm
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, glassing because I think the high
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: last night he got down to right before dark, it
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: was like sixty seven degrees and yeah, and and and
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: they were like, man, there was bucks everywhere, every every book,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: Every deer was up on his feet, and you know,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: before sundown and just in the in the bean fields
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: and just uh they said they saw a lot of deer.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: I love nights like that. I love love that summer glass.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: So what's the what's the plan this year? Do you have?
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: Do you have some bucks that have made it that
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: you're thinking that you want to target or are you
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: still waiting to figure that out or what's your what's
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: your eye on so far? Yeah, it's um, it's uh,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: we have some we have some mature bucks that uh
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: we were targeting. Um. Iowa kind of was tough last year.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: I had a big kill. UM. I had five out
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: of my top six bucks that we were hoping would
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: make it to two eighteen we found either shed season
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: or turkey season. We found dead um and I don't know.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: We found one by road of course you think you
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: gud By car um, and four others were just uh,
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: we don't know, you know, we just I don't know. Again,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: I talked a lot with Mark Drewy and uh, you know,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: he thinks it might have been just that touch of
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: e H D. Because we did that. I can't remember.
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: I think we had a really dried um. We had
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: dried uh August last year, because I remember the food
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: plots I was stressing out weren't growing um. But you
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: know it's I think June it rained good. Last year.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: I can't remember actually in the years it seemed to combine.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: Now I'm getting old, I'm almost fifty f my mind
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: isn't as good. But yeah, this year we've had a
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: pretty good UM. I know there's been touches of Missouri
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: that that have got a little drought, but most of Iowa,
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: in Illinois I've gotten In fact, on my farm in
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: Illinois just two nights ago we got four and a
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: half inches. So just we've gotten just a ton of
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: rain this year. It's been it should be a good
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: growing season for antlers. They always say if it rains
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: a lot, and they do have less stress. And so,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: you know, hopefully e h D is not is not
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: I'm knocking on wood right now as I'm talking to you.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: So I'm hoping the e h D isn't a factor
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: this year. But it's I don't know where I'm going
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: to go. I I need a little bit more time
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: with reconics um to see what, you know, take a
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: good inventory of those bucks and which mature bucks are there,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: and then and then kind of get a strategy a
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: little bit closer to October first, probably in the last
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks of September, I'll probably really be figuring
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: out where I want to go. I feel like from
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: from watching past segments where you've been on the show
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: or YouTube videos and everything, that seems like most years
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: are a lot of years you're hunting bucks that you
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: have history with, you know, you've seen over the years
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: or had sheds over the years. How do you how
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: do you go about keeping tabs on these deer? What's
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: your process there? And then how do you use that information?
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: Are you are you really big on looking at past
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: year stuff like like Mark jury is, or more so
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: like just focusing on what they're doing right now? Um,
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: what's your approach on that front? I definitely do. I
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: think Mark has got um Uh. I didn't say earlier
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: when I was telling about all those people I've learned from.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: I mean the one I've learned from the most and
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: in the in the last ten years has been Mark.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: I mean the Mad Scientists as everyone knows him, he's uh, gosh,
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: you're gonna think it's an advertisement, But I mean, seriously,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: this guy, he's got almost a photographic memory for just
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: different tasks and strategies and things he's thinking about. And um,
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: last year we tested out that new app. Um they
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: let the Drewy team tested out, and um dear test
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: and and uh he remember we have a little drew
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: get together every year every summer where the Drewy team
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: gets goes down and and uh, they all get together
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: and they were telling us about him, and he said,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: it's an algorithm that's basically Terry and and and Mark's
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: mind and everything they think about as far as atmospheric
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: pressure to the weather conditions and every all everything combined
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: all in one. And he said, really, it's just it's
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: just conditions we're getting from technology now from our phones,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: and we're putting it all together. And and they put
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: it in an app and we use that last year
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: and it would say either poor or good or great
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: conditions and you know, and it even had hour by
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: hour if it would get better maybe the pressure is
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: rising through the day or the moon was rising at
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: this time. And they put it all together in an
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: app and uh, again using technology to hunt I'm taking
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: I took advantage of it last year and it was
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: it was dead on so but anyway, Um, I forgot
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: where I was going with that, but oh I started
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: telling you about Mark and just everything I've learned from him.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: It's just it's just amazing. I mean I used to
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: text him all the time, like, you know, should I
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: be hunting high low? Should I? And you know, now
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: I you know, I don't have to do that because
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: of that app. But I also he's just taught me
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: and I've I've learned a lot myself. And now I've
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: guys texted me, you know, saying where where should I hunt?
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: You know, and off like hay Clover's where it seems
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: to be really good right now, or they they're in radishes,
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: or they're in you know, maybe the soybeans have dried
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: up enough where they're they're in the soybeans, or maybe
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: the soybeans are are just turning yellow and it's a
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: lake planet and they're not in soybeans. So, you know,
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of times we have just a lot of
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: friends texting each other back and trying to communicate where,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: you know, where it seems like the deer hanging. Yeah,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: that's that's nice to have that real time network. Yeah,
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: on the on the on the individual buck deal, though,
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to tracking those deer, are
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: you keeping were years and years worth of photos that
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: you're that you're keeping tabs on and looking back at
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: or how do you how do you just manage all
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: that information? Because I gotta believe over three or however
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: many farms you have now three states at least, there's
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: a number of different bucks you're kind of following over
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: the years. How how's it work? Well, I've if if
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: you've ever talked to me before, I do believe that
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: deer are a lot like people. And have you ever um,
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: it seems like have you ever maybe gone with your
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: family you take a vacation about the same time time
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: every year? It seems like you're doing you almost have
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: deja vu and you're like, man, I feel like I've
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: done this again. Well, it's like you're doing the same
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: thing every year, like all of a sudden. You know,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: people are golfing and they cook golf and they get
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: into hunting or about this time of year or you know,
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: they're just habitual And I think dear that way too. Um.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: I think maybe even you can combine it with when
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: dough a certain dough comes into destris. I think within.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: I've heard from deer farm managers they say the dough
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: will come into the same day almost every year. You know,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: if they come in November three day, that same dough
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: in that high sense area will come in every So
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: it's probably the very same in the wild. Again that
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know that for sure, but I'm assuming that. So. Um,
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: if if a certain dough comes in and all of
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: a sudden you get a big buck on camera in
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: in a certain area of your farm, um or on
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: a public ground or whatever, and I think, you know,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of articles written that that say,
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: you know that that deer will will be in that
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: area again the same year. Maybe he lives two miles away,
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: but he comes over to this farm November six through
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: the ninth or something like that. I I believe in that.
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: So we'll go back through pictures in the past. Um.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: You know, if I'm in uh, if I'm on a
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: certain farm and I have a north wind to hunt,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: and maybe there's two different food plots that I can
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: hunt with a north wind for that food source, maybe
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: they're in radishes and it's a north wind, and so
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: I want to want to hunt radishes on a north wind.
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: I'll go back between those two and I'll look at
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: I keep all my re conac photos like in files
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: by food plot or by camera like if they're in
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I'll name a certain part of the timber
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: or a pond, I'll name it frog pond or something
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: weird like that, so that I'll keep that file on
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: my computer with all the pictures from that camera from
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: years and years and years. So then I'll go back
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: during that time frame. You know how you can group them, um,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: and you can look on your computer and you can
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: have it group chronologically, uh, in order by dates. So
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: I'll go back during that time frame. So if I'm
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: hunting October one, then I'll look at October one pictures
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: for those two different food plots, and I'll be like,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: which deer was in there? Was there a deer in there? Oh? Boy,
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: look at this year. I have daylight pictures of this book.
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: He should be six now, you know, or stuff like that.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: Or of course you look at the most recent That's
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: probably what I look at first. What deer has been
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: there on their feet? Um? You know. And I'm going
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: but if I don't have any recent deer in there,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: I'll look you know in the past and be like, Okay,
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: what's and very often, very often, um, that deer that
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: that may be wandered in from somewhere else is there
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: again during that same time and boom you or you're
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: there ready and you know a year later he's going
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: to be there. It's just crazy. It's kind of fun
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: to try to figure all that out. Yeah, I've definitely
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: done a lot of that that too, and been been
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: watching that and definitely seems to be something to it.
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: But something I wonder about a lot is do you
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: think that these patterns I guess we'll call him. Do
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: you think it's condition dependent or not? So by that,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's say you got pictures last year of
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: this buck on your Radish plot on October one and second,
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: So coming into this year, you'd say, Okay, there's probably
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: a good chance he's going to be here, maybe around
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: October one, second third, something like that. But do you
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: try to match it with the wind direction that he
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: had last year or the weather conditions. Um, so maybe
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: there was a cold front last year, So do you
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: worry about that or do you say, I don't care
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: what the conditions were like last year. I still think
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: that annual pattern exists, there's a chance at the same time. UM,
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: good questions. Uh I usually uh, I don't. I usually
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: don't try to match the wind condition. Uh. Unfortunately, I
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: don't know that. I don't know. I think Mark does though, UM,
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: but I don't go back and look at what the
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: wind direction was when that Reconics picture. I wish the
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: camera had the technology, and they do. I'm sure some
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: of them do. Now that would show the wind. You
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: know that it knows that you're in you know, um,
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: Decatur County, IO or whatever, and it can match during
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: that time. What uh the you know it was a
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: west wind at four pm when that picture was taken,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: but the Reconics doesn't show that right now, So, UM,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: I don't go back. I know that Mark has talked
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: about in the past going back and and matching that up. Now.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: Usually I'm only hunting that tree or that food plot
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: based on a certain wind direction. Anyway, Usually you know
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: I can northerly win and or you know, maybe a
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: certain food plot I can only hunt with an any
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: east wind, or sometimes I have some that are really
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: specific that you know, are only a south southwest wind.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: I can only hunt this one tree a lot of times,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: you know, if I can filter it down so it
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: blows down that creek um stuff like that. But but
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: most of the time you usually have a little bit
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: better pick, like any southerly wind will work for this
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: tree or this box line, and uh so usually I'm
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: only going to be in there on this so I
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: I just kind of go, hey, I know he's in
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: this area. I really the old articles that used to
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: be in North American Whitetail and Deer and Deer Hunting
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: and all those magazines where deer will always walk into
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: the wind. I know that's not true anymore. I think
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: that people used to think that, and dear I do.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: I do know deer live by their nose. But during
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: the rut, you know, they're just gone from dough bedding
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: area one bedroom to the next bedroom, going hey, is
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: there another hot dough in this area. I've seen him
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: walk down wind, up wind, cross the wind. I've seen him,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: you know, mentally seen it myself, So I know that
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: I I don't believe they always walk into the wind,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: So I don't pay as much attention to that as
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: as much as when the older mature buck the older
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: it seems like they get the smaller home range they have.
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: So again, like people, the older guys that you know,
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: they probably don't travel as much as they used to,
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: and they sit in their chair as they get older,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: and they kind of just you know, they've been there,
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: done that, and they're just happy sitting around home, being
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: around family. You know, I think, Um, I think dear
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: kind of like that too. They just you know, hey,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: they know they're safe and secure. And this this area,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: this hundred yard, this hundred acre timber, and I'm gonna
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: live here the rest of my life, you know. Um.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: I have seen, though, I have seen for some reason
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: that seems like I've seen a few six year old deer. Mark.
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: Mark and I talked about this a couple of years ago. UM,
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: six year old deer. Sometimes I've seen him at six.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: You think it's super mature. But every now and then
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: I've seen some six year old deer. We'll just wander.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: I had this buck. We just found him dead. He's
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: one of the five I was just telling you about
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: the found dead. He's he was eight, um, but at
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: six years old, he literally was he was He actually
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: was over two inches at six, and uh, I was
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: gonna start hunting him on the twenty five October and
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: I got a I had a cell camera and I
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: got a cell camera and I came out of a
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: meeting that I had. I was like, I said, I'm
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: gonna leave the next day, and I on my cell
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: camera gave me a text and that it was him
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: with half his rack broke off at the base. And
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: I just went into depression that season. Um, but anyway,
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: he was a wanderer that year, and we saw him
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: everywhere and he only in half a rack, but he uh,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: he just was on every camera. I had probably twenty
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: five cameras on that fire is a big farm, seven
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: seven acres, and I had him. I had him. I
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: bet you seriously, probably twenty three out of cameras. He
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: was just one of those deer. But then at seven
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: he tightened back up, and at eight he tightened back
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: up even more, and he was just real homebody. So
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: sometimes they do weird things, you know, they're not always predictable,
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: but um, it's fun trying to figure them out. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: that's that is what keeps us coming back here after year,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: no doubt about that. So you you've talked about, you
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: know a lot about kind of what we're doing from
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: management standpoint, how you're tracking these deer, and like you
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: talked about earlier, you've got a great situation. You've got
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of mature bucks, you have several different properties
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: you can hunt. You're in a terrific place that some
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: people might feel they can't relate to. But your last season,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: from what I understand, is something that a lot of
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: guys can probably relate to. I want to talk to
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: you about that because correct me on this if I'm wrong.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: But I think I saw that you didn't kill your
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: first buck of the year last year until December two
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: after Yeah, and I think I saw that was sixty
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: days of hunting more than a hundred individual sits. That's
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: something that kind of challenge, that kind of frustration. I
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: know I've experienced that. I'm sure a lot of other
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: people have. Um, what was that like for you? How
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: did that? What was that? What was the mental side
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: of that? Because at least for me, I know that's
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: where the big challenge comes, especially after months and months
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: ago and at it, I'm sure that was tough. Can
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: you can you talk about that? Oh? Yeah, I remember
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: it well. I basically what I did is I set
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: my sights on one deer and I went after one
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: deer and you know it was he was a giant.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: And you know, I just said, hey, I've had a
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: lot of years where you know, you to me, I
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: least stories about even tracking an eight year old that
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: we find dead is just is rewarding to me. Um,
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: And and knowing just knowing how he acted like he
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: at six, he went crazy and while you know he
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: was like a little kid running everywhere, and then and
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: then finding him dead, you know, it was sad when
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: we found him, but we we've figured he disappeared off cameras.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: I was like, I bet he died, and sure enough
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: we found him. But um, it's not all about the kill.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: To me, I don't I don't have to. Um, I
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: don't have to kill a buck. Although during the season,
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of my friends would would say
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: quite the opposite, because I get stressed out, Like it
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't it does. It is nice when you kill on
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: early season and kind of the stresses off of you.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: And I think part of that is for the dreary team,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: because you know, they give us all these points and
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: rewards if you if you get one on the board,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: you know, and that's how they they have their systems
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: set up. But honestly, to me, I uh, it started
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: out outfitting. I love to watch others harvest the biggest
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: day of their life, and and outfitting. Of course, you
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: get to see that quite often, especially when you get
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: guys that are from states that maybe don't um grow
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: as as big as bucks as the Midwest. And they
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: would come in and they you know, they give you
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: these bear hugs. I remember I had these these brothers,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: these three brothers that would always come and they were
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: from out east, and and every time i'd I'd have
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: to almost wear football pads because if if even one
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: of them killed the big buck, they would just tackle
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: me and they would. It was so fun. I mean,
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: it's just so fun. And I was. I have three
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: daughters and uh eighteen, fifteen, and seven. So I've taken
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: my older two many times and they've each harvested at
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: least gosh. I think the oldest ones harvested five big
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: bucks and a bunch of big turkeys, you know, big
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: mature tom's. And in my fifteen year old, I think
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: she's harvested four four big ones and a bunch of
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: does and all that and just a smile on their
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: faces and the excitement um of others taken other It's
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: just I mean, the friends of it. We kind of
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: got like a group of friends that we hang out
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: with that that all help and food plots and they
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: all help strategize where should we put this food plot?
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: How you know, and stuff like that, and it's just, uh,
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: it's fun. Kind of the they kind of know their member,
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: they get their their member of the text group. They
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: may be a group text and hey, I got this,
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: and they know to be super secretive to you know,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: like we don't. We don't want the neighbors knowing about them.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they've known them because they got pictures of
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: them too, but sometimes they don't, so we we don't tell,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: you know, we we keep that pretty tight lipped. And uh,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: it's just fun figuring it all out and and and
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: and being a part of a group. The camaraderie, you know,
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: sharing around when we're cooking at night or around the
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: grille or camp fire and stuff like that, or maybe
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: in the summer, even fishing in the boat and talking
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: about I wonder what this deer? We name them all too,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: And that's kind of everybody makes fun of us. But
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: you know, when you have different it's just a lot
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: easier to call him a certain name versus hey, the
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: big twelve point. You know, maybe there's two big ten
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: points or an eight point. And it's hard to imagine
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: if you didn't have names for your kids or you know,
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: or your friends. I mean you just say, hey, the
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: brown aired kid. You know, it's a lot easier to
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: have names. It's a lot easier you just name them.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: So that's what we do. Yeah, No, I can totally
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: relate to that, that aspect of it. It's a lot
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: of the process. The process is what's really what I
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: think it's so compelling. The kill, of course, like you said, yes,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: that's what we're ultimately shooting for, but everything else that
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: goes into it is what makes it so special. I think, Um,
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: so you had a heck of a process trying to
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: get after this one big deer. What happened? It was unsuccessful,
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: I I believe it or not. I only saw him once,
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: but I had re conics pictures of him just over
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: and over and over, and uh, you know, some weren't
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: even daylights. And I was like, man, why I'm just
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: I'm just picking the wrong stand every I've never set
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: so many stands for a deer. I literally got aggressive
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: on this dear, and and I'm usually not aggressive. I
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: just kind of wait for the right conditions, and but
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: he was really big, and I was like, you know,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: I probably got a little too aggressive, and all of
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: a sudden he disappeared on November nine, and I kept
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: on thinking, well, I just don't you know. Sometimes I
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: didn't even go in and check the reconics pictures because
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: you're going in right and where he lives, and I
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: just kind of wanted to stay out there thinking he
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: was there. But then even after uh I just even
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: after I checked him, you know, a couple of weeks,
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: even after that, there was just none. He just disappeared
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: and I don't know where he went. Um just so
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: finally I just kind of gave up and went off
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: to another deer and never I've never seen him again,
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: never found his sheds. He just disappeared. I hope he
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: We never found him dead. So I don't know, but
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: it was worth it. I would do the same thing
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: again this year, if if you know, I he was
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: that big. He was like, you know, to big, you know,
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: like world class. Once in a lifetime if once in
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: maybe three or four lifetimes, you know, so I would
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: do the same thing again. Yeah, yeah, that's a tough thing.
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: I I've been in a similar situation, although not with
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: the two buck, but here in here in Michigan. Um,
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: a big buck for us out here is like a dty.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: And so I've been after this buck that last year.
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: He was I think he was a five year old
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: last year, So it was it was him or bust here.
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: And the same kind of thing. I put all my
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: time into this deer. I anceled other trips. I just
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: obsessed over him, trying to make it happen, and you know,
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: similar to your kind of deal. He disappeared on the
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: fourteenth of November, and um then I kept thinking, all, well,
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: he's got to be around. So the late season came
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: around and I tried for more and nothing, nothing, nothing,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden the season was done
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: and I realized, well, you did nothing but chase around
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: this ghost that might have been gone for the last
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: month and a half, and uh didn't fill a single
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: buck tag because of it. Um. So, yeah, it was
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: in a similar situation where I was sitting there postseason
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: thinking should I have done something different. Should I do
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: something different this year? Um? But to your point, it's
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: uh that that chase though, even just trying absolutely see.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: And I do want to point out, you know, I
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: know a lot of your listeners are nationwide and they're
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: not hunting that the as far as the score goes. Um.
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: But to me, um, it's all about setting your sights
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: on a certain deer, like there was a bug. Um gosh,
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: problem is this trying to we name him? Now? As
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm getting old, I can't remember his name,
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: but oh he could We call him Mossy Oak actually,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: and uh he had there was a picture of him
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: with losing his velvet and it was just an eight
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: pointer and he was probably when he said one thirty
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: reminded me we put him right into one thirty range.
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: And but we knew he was a six year old
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: and he was on my Mercer County, uh, Missouri farm
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: and uh we called him Mossy Oak and we and
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: we went and he was a regular on this and
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, he's showing up a lot on
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: this one camera. It was the same food bloss talking
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: about earlier. That's kind of smack dad right in the
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: middle of my my farm, and uh, sure enough we
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: go in and and what I'm getting at is I
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: can get just as excited about once I set my
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: mind on a deer. I don't care if he's a
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: hundred inches or seven years old or four years old
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: or whatever. You know, it's it's it's just about them.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: It's just challenge, you know, the challenge can I I
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: like going after deer that we know about. And you know,
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: I I told Mark last year, I was like, I've
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: never had a giant deer walk in that I don't
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: know because of all the technologies cameras and everything. Now
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: he says, you will. He goes, you wait, it's exciting
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: because all of a sudden, the giant deer comes in
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: and you've never You're like, I don't know that deer
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: what I cannot recall. I mean a real big one.
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: I've seen, you know, nice deer come in that I
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: don't know, but I haven't seen a mega giant come in.
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: And and he said, you will, It'll happen. It's just
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: it's really cool. But um, I going back to I
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: I get just this excited shooting you know, a hundred
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: and twenty five inch deer uh in in the Midwest
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: as I do about killing a hundred eighty inch deer
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: uh in, My heart beats just as much once you,
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: you know, and he comes into the food plotter, he
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: comes into the timber where you're at, and you know
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: that you might get a shot that adrenaline. I've never
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: done any drugs other than alcohol, but I have always said,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: I imagine that there's no drug out there that can
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: make you feel like that um and that excitement. It's
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: just it's just awesome. And that's that's why I hunt,
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: you know. And and it's just as exciting too when
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: you're behind the camera film and one of your buddies
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, you almost like don't want to mess up,
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: and you want to get him on film for him,
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: and it's just it's almost more challenging. It's harder for
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: the cameraman. But it's Uh. I just wanted to point out.
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: I don't want people think that, you know, a you know,
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: a guy lives in the Midwest, he's got all these
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: farms and he's only after the top end here. It's
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: it's it's that's not the case at all. I'll tell
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: you what we uh, it's goot Manifold, who's who I
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: hunt with the most, and we talked about it. We
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: still feel that same way even with Does. We love
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: hammering the does. You know we usually do it late season,
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: but um, it's it's fun. It's just when you are
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: able to harvest the deer and then eat the meat
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: from that deer. Um, you know, that's that's something special
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: about that. It's like you feel like a pioneer or
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: something back in the day. That's the way to do it. So,
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: so speaking of that, you know that feeling you get
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: there when you you set your sights on a deer,
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: you set a goal and you're actually able to to
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: get a shot at that deer. You have been in
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: a situation now over the years where you have been
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: able to see a lot of big mature bucks coming
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: and you've gotten shots at a lot of big mature bucks. Um. So,
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: more than a lot of people, you've been in that
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: situation that a lot of us dream about. But maybe
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: we don't get to have that moment as many so
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: we don't have as much experience handling the moment of
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: truth with that dream buck in front of us. Um,
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: can you talk to us a little bit about how
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: you've been able to get good at handling that moment
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: of truth and and another thing I'll add, I'll kind
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: of give you a double question. I've also seen a
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: couple of past shows or YouTube videos that you were
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: in where you missed a deer, but you came right
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: back and we're able to overcome that adversity, Like the
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: next day it killed that same deer. You were able
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: to get over that mistake or whatever happened, and you
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: got right back to us. So how do you how
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: do you handle this mentally, whether it be on your
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: average shot or your average situation, or when you you
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: blow it one day and you can turn around and
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: flip the switching and get it done the next Well,
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I think when I was younger, like when uh,
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not super old, I'm forty nine, but I think
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: up until about I remember making a statement to a
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: guy I worked with, um and I was like, you know,
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: somehow I'm able to stay calm until after the shot
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: and then I would go crazy and I kind of, um,
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: I kind of was, I feel bad. I was kind
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: of bragging to him in a way. Just it was
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: just he and I were close friends, and I was like, yeah,
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: I'm able to kind of have ice in my veins
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: until that time, and then the last I shouldn't even
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: have said that, because like the last five years, I've
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: blown so many shots and missed so many big bucks,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: and just like the older I get, the worst I get,
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: and so I I blew it by I think bragging,
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: you know, or just teasing him and saying, you know,
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: we're just kind of jarring each other. But you know,
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: I think if you can, I do remember this story,
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: I remember, you know, I don't. I don't see Stan
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: Potts anymore, but I I used to. But I I
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: remember one time he told me. He was like what
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: he does to control it? And I've you I've told
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of people this story. He said he used
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: to almost get mad at the deer. So somehow he
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: would like when that deer showed up, he would get
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: this mental attitude in his brain over and over, like
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: he would be could be so mad at that deer,
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot you did whatever he said
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: to himself, you know, to to kind of keep himself
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: calm um, but almost overcome whatever can go on between
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: your ears. You know, you know a lot can go on.
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: A lot of people are like worried and they're checking
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: their you know, they're they're arrow falls off the rest
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: and all this stuff. I do try to eliminate as
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: many things as I can, Like I use a whisker
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: biscuit um. A lot of people laugh at that too.
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: I I think it's the best. I've used it since
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: the day came out years and years ago, and uh,
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: it just eliminates a lot of things that can go
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: wrong if you can do that. Uh, you know, whether
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: you see that buck walking into your stand and you
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: have to get on the ground and crawl, it's a
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: lot easier for Uh. There's a lot of rest now,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: different rests that will hold your arrow on there instead
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: of just you know, kind of resting on there. Um.
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: Things like that. You I use a range finder to
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: you know, put the odds of my favor so I
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: know what that that yardage is. And of course I
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: practice a lot too. I try to practice every day
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: at least a couple even if I only shoot one
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: or two arrows, to make sure it's on um. After
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: I travel state to state, I'll shoot my bow too
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: because of being in the car or whatever. Different different
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: temperatures in your card and your how us to back
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: on the cold. I just want to make sure everything
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: is uh is on. Uh. Did I answer your question? Yeah? Yeah,
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: I mean I think that that's helpful hearing about some
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: of the things we're doing and stands stands idea there. Yeah.
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily do that. I don't necessarily get mad,
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: but I've noticed. I know Brick. I hunted with Brick
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: Stewart who's on the Dreary team, and he used to say,
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: he's like, man, how do you remember a big buck
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: came in. We're hunting together and the goal was for
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: him to kill a big buck. He was coming up
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: to Iowa and I said, well, there's one buck. There's
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: one buck I want to shoot, and there's a bunch
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: of bucks that you can shoot, and there's and uh
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: uh uh let me see. It was a buck called
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: stall back and it was years ago. And I remember
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: I was like, stall bucks in this area. But he
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: probably won't show up. But I said, as soon as
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: I say that, you know I will. I'm sure enough.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: First buck we see coming in a stall back, So
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: I have to get the camera to him and uh,
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: and he's got to put down his bow and I
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: have to grab my boat, which is hanging real high
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: in the tree, and you know, and he was just like,
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: I can't believe he Brick Brick is so passionate about
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: but white till hunting that when he sees a big buck,
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: he gets I mean it's you know, he's literally like
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: a five year old waiting to open that present. I mean,
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: he he gets shaken and everything. I love it. I
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: love it, and uh, it's just awesome to see it.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: And uh, but you know, I was able to stay
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: calm and get the shot off, and uh, he nicknamed
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: me the werewolf after after that he was like, man,
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: he was just so called. And then after I shot him,
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: I just couldn't even always stand up, you know. But
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I I think it's you know, how
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: have you ever you don't have if you've seen, uh,
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: if you're with anybody ever gotten an accident, car accident,
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: some people kind of freak out, and some people stay
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: real calm until everybody's safe. And I've luckily been able
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: to be one of the guys that can be calmer
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: now last few years. I don't know, but in my
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: younger days, I think I was able to. I got
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: to figure out what I was doing back then and
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: go back to that. But I was when I was younger,
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: I was able to stay calm. Yeah. It's it's no
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: easy task, that's for sure. Yeah. So I've got one
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: last question for it, because I know we're short on
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: time here, UM, but I want to ask you one
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: thing here. What do you And I asked this because
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of the people I talked to that work
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: UM the film for the Juries, a lot of them,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: just like you did earlier, point to mark Er Terry
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: as as a mentor or someone who's helped them or
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: someone they've learned a lot from. Um, but is there
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: anything that you do differently from the juries or that
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: you believe differently where they say X and You're like, no,
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: I think, why is there anything like that? Mm hmmm,
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: uh boy, nothing really comes to my mind. I I
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: will say, you know, Um, I've been in the industry
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: going you know, I used to go on the E
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: A T A show years ago, and I've been to
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: all when I was an outfit, I went to all
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: these shows. One thing that I it's not different. So
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: I'm really not answering your question, but I will say.
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: One thing that just came to my mind that I
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: that I love about Mark and Terry that they do
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: right is you know, there there's some of the biggest
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: guys in the industry, and I think when someone else,
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: even another TV show that there may be competing against
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: or whatever, when somebody else, um kills a big deer,
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: it seems like those guys are genuinely happy for him,
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: where instead of looking at it like competition, like hey,
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: that's another show they're competing against, they really they killed
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: a giant two dings. I think those guys are just
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: different and they're not there's no jealousy and and that's
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: the way everyone. I wish everyone can can replicate that
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: mindset and just be happy if your neighbor kills a
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: big buck, or if you know a close friend of
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: yours or or you know, a lot of times you
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: see a lot of Chelsea and it hurts the whole industry.
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: And when when they fight over big box and everything
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: is just like God, you know, just be happy for me.
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: And sometimes your neighbor is going to get them. Sometimes
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: you are. But um, I've seen it ruined relationships. Uh
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: uh and and and and within my own uh you know,
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: family of friends. I've seen I've seen guys getting fights
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: and me getting fights back in the day and jealousy
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: over it. So you know, I'm talking a little bit
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: to myself too. But I think we've gotten better at
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: it by learning from those guys of of what what
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: not to do and be to be a good person
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: and try to just be genuinely happy for other guys.
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: And that's the only thing that really comes in my mind.
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: It wasn't not what what they do different, but what
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: they what they do, so right, Yeah, well I think
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: that's I think that's a good it's a good usage
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: to end with because this stuff is it is supposed
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: to be fun. It's it's an opportunity to to share
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: in a wonderful activity with friends and family. And it's
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: just you know, all the Facebook envy and like you said,
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: the jealousy, it just it does it does no one
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: any good. So yeah, no, no, no place for it.
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a great reminder. So Tom, I mean,
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: This has been fun. Yeah, Mark, I appreciate the invitation,
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: and uh, hopefully we can draw more young deer hunters
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: to the sport and uh, that's that's Scott Scott Manifold.
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: That's like I said, he's a he's a main partner
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: I hunt with now he's got more time than Mike Clementson.
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: And we talked a lot about you know, what, what
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: are we gonna do. We have to pick a theme
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: for the Drearies every year of what we're going to
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: name a show or something, and and I I just
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: told him this year, I was like, and he agreed.
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: He I was like, you know, let's just let's just
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: try to teach as many people as we can how
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: how how we're successful, what we've learned, or maybe what
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: we've learned not to do, whatever it might be. Just
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: just like we've learned from others, let's try to do
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: the same thing and help others too to be successful.
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of why I when you when
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: you email me and said would you like to be
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: on the show? I said, you know, I I'm not
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: a self promoter. I don't I'm not out there saying
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: look at me with this big buck. I hope that
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: is the message. I do not portray whatsoever. I really
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: just enjoy helping others and and if I've had some
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: people come up to me and go, I learned, you know,
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: I saw you on this and I learned from in
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: that work for me, and that's you know, that's kind
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: of that's kind of the biggest reward you can get. Yeah, No,
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's that's an awesome goal,
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: and I think you're doing it. I think a lot
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: of people are seeing the success you're having and you
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: guys have been able to do a good job of
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: helping share how you guys are able to do that,
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: and today I think definitely happened again. So thank you.
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: Tell man best of luck in two thousand and eighteen.
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: I hope you have an awesome season. Yeah, keep me
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: posting how you do and send me some pictures aren't
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: but it sounds a good plan and that's gonna do it. Folks.
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: Hope you enjoyed this one. Um. You know, as we
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: talked about, Tom is involved with Jury Outdoors, and I
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: do want to mention you know, you may have been
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: listening in the past to the one Percent Wild podcast,
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: which was the show that I was doing with Dury Outdoors.
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: I've had to step away from that because of other projects.
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: I'm working on. But Matt Dury is continuing the podcast
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: with Tim chel Vick. I think it's his last name, Tim.
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: If you're listening, forgive me if I butchered that. But
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: they're continuing the podcast, so be sure to stay tuned
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: for that. And and actually, coincidentally, I believe I just
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: saw that Tom was on the most recent episode of
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: the pcent Wild podcast too. There was no communication there.
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: That's not on purpose, but it kind of works out well.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: So if you enjoyed our conversation today with Tom, check
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: out one percent Wile to get more from him too.
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: So with that all said, just want to remind you
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: if you hadn't left a rating or review on iTunes,
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: that's amazing. If you could, I would give you a
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: high five if I saw you in person, if you
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: told me that, big thanks in advance. Make sure also
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: that you're following us. That's Wired Hunt on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: uh the YouTube channel as well. And finally, most importantly,
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: I just want to thank you all for listening. I
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time. I appreciate you being a
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: part of this community. I mean, I sit behind this
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: desk all my own here every week putting these things together,
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: and then I get to put this out in the
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: world and I hear from so many of you about
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: what you're learning from these things. If you're enjoying them,
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: that means just it means a ton. So thanks for that,
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being a part of everything we're doing here,
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: and until next time, stay wired to Hunt.