Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 356: Answering Your Most Pressing Hunting Questions with Andy May

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Ep. 356: Answering Your Most Pressing Hunting Questions with Andy May · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the wire to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:12
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the wire to Hunt Podcast. I'm
0:17
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three
0:20
Speaker 1: fifty six and todayan's show. I'm joined by my friend
0:23
Speaker 1: and d i y Bow hunting Extraordinaire Andy May, to
0:27
Speaker 1: answer a whole bunch of your dear hunting questions. All right,
0:34
Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by
0:37
Speaker 1: on X. Today, we have got a great I think
0:43
Speaker 1: a great episode in store for you because two things.
0:47
Speaker 1: Number One, we're gonna be tackling listener questions and these
0:50
Speaker 1: are always some of my favorite episodes because we get
0:53
Speaker 1: to discuss exactly what you the listener want to discuss,
0:57
Speaker 1: specific questions, challenges, issues that you're dealing with. So in
1:01
Speaker 1: my mind, that's always a good thing. Number Two, I
1:04
Speaker 1: think this is gonna be a really good one because
1:06
Speaker 1: my good buddy and one of the best deer hunters
1:08
Speaker 1: I know, Mr Andy May, is joining me to help
1:12
Speaker 1: us do that. So Andy, thanks for making the time
1:14
Speaker 1: to do this. Okay, no problem, man, this is this
1:17
Speaker 1: is fun. I haven't done one like this, so I'm
1:20
Speaker 1: looking forward to it. Yeah, and I feel like you've
1:23
Speaker 1: been on I guess, I guess I'm not a hundred
1:25
Speaker 1: percent sure on this. I'm I'm assuming that you've been
1:28
Speaker 1: on extended leave because schools and everything have just been
1:30
Speaker 1: shut down. So have you had to do any e
1:32
Speaker 1: work like work from home stuff or are you are
1:35
Speaker 1: you out completely? Nope, We've We've actually been working remotely
1:40
Speaker 1: with our our families. I work with children with special needs,
1:44
Speaker 1: so we've been doing contacting all of our families and
1:50
Speaker 1: basically seeing how they want the therapy provided. Um. Some
1:55
Speaker 1: families want, you know, like video therapy. Some Uh, families
1:59
Speaker 1: were just emailing activities that they can do at home
2:03
Speaker 1: that we typically would do during therapy. UM. Some families
2:06
Speaker 1: are choosing not to participate at all. UM. So I
2:10
Speaker 1: have a you know, a caseload of students are so
2:15
Speaker 1: um that I have to keep in touch with weekly,
2:18
Speaker 1: but not everybody is participating so UM. And then uh
2:23
Speaker 1: quite a few zoom meetings and stuff. So it's it's
2:27
Speaker 1: definitely been a reduced workload, but we're definitely still working.
2:30
Speaker 1: And then I have a second job. Um that one
2:33
Speaker 1: has all been has continued as well, all through just telehealth,
2:38
Speaker 1: so like phone phone monitoring and stuff. That's cool. I
2:41
Speaker 1: was gonna I was gonna say, Um, if you had
2:45
Speaker 1: just been able to spend the last two months doing
2:47
Speaker 1: nothing but scouting, I would just be very jealous and
2:50
Speaker 1: know that you are. You already out hunt us most years,
2:53
Speaker 1: but if you had two full months off with nothing
2:55
Speaker 1: but scouting to do, uh, then we'd all be in
2:57
Speaker 1: real trouble, and animal would just be tearing it. Glad
3:02
Speaker 1: they're still making you do a little work, and yeah
3:04
Speaker 1: they are. I have. It's been. I mean, I'm ready.
3:07
Speaker 1: Obviously this has been a bad situation for a lot
3:11
Speaker 1: of people, but I've been trying to make the most
3:13
Speaker 1: of it being outside and been doing you know, a
3:17
Speaker 1: lot of turkey hunting, a lot of deer scouting, and
3:20
Speaker 1: uh a lot of fishing, which is something that something
3:23
Speaker 1: I really love to do. But over the past you know,
3:26
Speaker 1: ten fifteen years, is kind of taking a back seat
3:29
Speaker 1: to to my hunting and family times, so I don't
3:32
Speaker 1: get out as much. But I've been out quite a
3:34
Speaker 1: bit fishing, and so it's it's been. It's been nice.
3:37
Speaker 1: Hidden the wally, yeah, walle I Um, I hit the
3:42
Speaker 1: Detroit River a few times. We got you know, a
3:44
Speaker 1: couple of limits down there. Um, and then I was
3:47
Speaker 1: up north this past weekend and did some bass fishing.
3:53
Speaker 1: We caught over eighty bass over the weekend, and uh
3:57
Speaker 1: some pike and it was just it was a good time.
3:59
Speaker 1: Were they a the bess off the beds already or
4:03
Speaker 1: still spawning? They were actually somewhere on the beds depending
4:07
Speaker 1: on the lake. The shallower lakes they were on the
4:09
Speaker 1: beds um and then the cooler water lakes, so they
4:13
Speaker 1: were kind of like pre spawned. So they were like
4:15
Speaker 1: really really aggressive in the shallows feeding. That is fun. Yeah,
4:18
Speaker 1: it was cool. Yeah, the Smalley's were just tearing it up.
4:21
Speaker 1: So oh man, I'm itching to just get out and
4:24
Speaker 1: do any of that kind of stuff. I've been doing
4:26
Speaker 1: some turkey hunting, a bunch of habitat work over the
4:28
Speaker 1: back forty. That's that's kind of been consuming my life
4:31
Speaker 1: this spring. But I'm about to head out west to
4:34
Speaker 1: Idaho tomorrow when we record this. It'll be tomorrow when
4:39
Speaker 1: this actually airs, I'll be out there. But I'm itching
4:42
Speaker 1: to get out there and do some fly fishing. So
4:44
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's my next thing I'm looking forward to.
4:46
Speaker 1: But but right now, Andy, we gotta stay focused. We
4:48
Speaker 1: gotta talk deer because kind of crazy. But we're already
4:54
Speaker 1: three months out from opening day for a lot of
4:57
Speaker 1: those early season states, so it's game time here before
5:01
Speaker 1: we know it. And I actually talked last night with
5:04
Speaker 1: a mutual friend of ours, acquaintance friend, Joe rent Mester,
5:08
Speaker 1: and coming out of that conversation, I just had like
5:11
Speaker 1: a new like my excitement level got turned up a
5:14
Speaker 1: couple of notches. My brain is shifting more and more
5:17
Speaker 1: to getting pumped for the summer velvet time period and
5:20
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So it's a good time for us
5:22
Speaker 1: to be talking because I'm I'm getting amped, umho with
5:26
Speaker 1: something else, isn't he He's good he Uh, I'll tell
5:31
Speaker 1: you what I mean. A lot of people know who
5:32
Speaker 1: he is, but at that age to have that, to
5:35
Speaker 1: be that driven and have the knowledge and the skill
5:38
Speaker 1: that he has, it's just I'm just so impressed by
5:41
Speaker 1: that guy. Um we become buddies and talk regularly. But yeah,
5:47
Speaker 1: he's he's he's just a great hunter. Yeah, it was
5:50
Speaker 1: a fun conversation. You came up Actually in the conversation
5:53
Speaker 1: we talked. We talked some ship, so you better not.
5:56
Speaker 1: You better not listening to that one. But okay, kid
6:02
Speaker 1: a kid um. But yeah, man, today, what I thought
6:06
Speaker 1: we could do is tackle listener questions. We I post
6:10
Speaker 1: a couple of things online and just had hundreds of
6:13
Speaker 1: questions probably come in and we can't hit them all,
6:17
Speaker 1: but I'm hoping we can hit as many as possible.
6:19
Speaker 1: I know that we could probably spend two hours discussing
6:23
Speaker 1: just five of these questions if we wanted. There's enough
6:25
Speaker 1: to talk about there. But what do you think about
6:28
Speaker 1: as much as we can kind of going rapid fire
6:31
Speaker 1: through them, so we can just cover as many different
6:34
Speaker 1: things as possible. Yeah, that sounds perfect. If I get
6:37
Speaker 1: a little long winded, just shut me down. Yeah, I'm
6:41
Speaker 1: I'm willing to jump in there and tell you to
6:42
Speaker 1: shut the hell up. But I think there'll be some
6:46
Speaker 1: where we can dive in deeper. Like I think we'll
6:48
Speaker 1: kind of feel it out, but when there's one that
6:51
Speaker 1: we can get through it quick and keep going, we'll
6:53
Speaker 1: do it. Um. So I don't know if you're game,
6:58
Speaker 1: I think we should uh start the timer and just
7:01
Speaker 1: take off. Let's do it all right, let me get
7:06
Speaker 1: my and my notes here. I probably should have sent
7:09
Speaker 1: you some of these questions so you could choose to
7:11
Speaker 1: the questions. So I'm the only one in control. Sorry. UH.
7:15
Speaker 1: First question is going to come here from Travis. Travis
7:21
Speaker 1: asks what are the most important summer scouting tactics for
7:25
Speaker 1: early bow season hunting? Uh. I will give a very
7:31
Speaker 1: quick answer, and I'll let you expand on Andy. I
7:33
Speaker 1: would say when it comes to summer scouting, the things
7:35
Speaker 1: that I care the most about would be inventorying whatever
7:39
Speaker 1: bucks are in the general area through trail cameras and
7:42
Speaker 1: then number two, getting some glass against some long range scouting.
7:46
Speaker 1: And that's important midsummer and late summer, just to see, okay,
7:50
Speaker 1: what kind of quality bucks are in the area if
7:51
Speaker 1: you're if you're just learning a new spot, or if
7:53
Speaker 1: you just want to note did this buck make it
7:55
Speaker 1: through to the next year. But then in that week
7:58
Speaker 1: or a few days leading up to opening day, UM,
8:02
Speaker 1: that's when you could start glassing to try to actually
8:06
Speaker 1: learn something you could hunt on opening night. If you've
8:08
Speaker 1: got one of those early seasons that open September one
8:10
Speaker 1: or something, watching those last few days of August can
8:13
Speaker 1: really help. UM. So that's that's a high level kick
8:17
Speaker 1: on on my part. Andy thoughts, Yeah, I completely agree. Um,
8:22
Speaker 1: the inventory thing is is good. I do a fair
8:26
Speaker 1: amount of summer scouting, like you know, velvet type stuff,
8:29
Speaker 1: but I don't I honestly don't get super h super
8:34
Speaker 1: serious with it right until um, you know, that last
8:40
Speaker 1: week week and a half before the season starts. So
8:43
Speaker 1: if you're in a state that opens early, like let's
8:46
Speaker 1: just say Kentucky, UM, where I like to hunt early season,
8:49
Speaker 1: sometimes you're at a major advantage because um, the deer
8:55
Speaker 1: still in velvet, still batstrew it up really well and
9:00
Speaker 1: be on a very routine UM pattern that you can
9:04
Speaker 1: capitalize in. So if the past few kills I've had
9:08
Speaker 1: in Kentucky early season have been you know, observing um
9:13
Speaker 1: either fresh sign. One was just fresh sign in a
9:16
Speaker 1: in a UM like kind of like a secluded backfield, um,
9:21
Speaker 1: and then the other one was actually glassing and seeing
9:25
Speaker 1: you know, a shooter do something and then setting up
9:27
Speaker 1: and capitalizing that way. So those that last week or
9:32
Speaker 1: two right before the season starts, that's when I really
9:35
Speaker 1: turn it up, because what I what I see um
9:39
Speaker 1: here in Michigan, Um, if you got a little bit
9:42
Speaker 1: later opener like October one. Um, you could see, you know,
9:46
Speaker 1: these bachelor groups all summer in July and August, and
9:50
Speaker 1: then somewhere usually somewhere around that beginning September, mid September,
9:56
Speaker 1: they'll start shifting around. It's maybe that buck you're after
9:59
Speaker 1: is is going to hang in the area. But a
10:02
Speaker 1: lot of them disappear and they just go to you know,
10:05
Speaker 1: they differed over to their fall ranges. So I don't
10:08
Speaker 1: I try not to get too hung up. I've been
10:11
Speaker 1: It's happened to me so many times where I've last
10:13
Speaker 1: a really big buck and I'm so excited, and I'm like,
10:15
Speaker 1: I'm gonna live on this deer all summer and I'm
10:17
Speaker 1: gonna know exactly what he's doing, and just to have
10:20
Speaker 1: him disappear mid September and I'm just you know, I
10:23
Speaker 1: had all my scouting and all my efforts for that one, dear,
10:27
Speaker 1: and he's just nowhere to be found. I have no
10:28
Speaker 1: no clue. So if you could still those last week
10:34
Speaker 1: or two, if you turn it up a notch with
10:35
Speaker 1: the long distance scouting and cameras, that's your best bet.
10:39
Speaker 1: If you're if you're shooting for an early season killed yeah,
10:42
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, and I know you've experienced this
10:44
Speaker 1: some as well. Those really early season hunts as September
10:49
Speaker 1: hunts are some of my absolute favorite all year. Like
10:53
Speaker 1: I just love that observed from a long range scout.
10:56
Speaker 1: Scout scouts see and then make a move off that.
10:58
Speaker 1: I love that style, like those kinds of hunts. That's
11:02
Speaker 1: that's a lot of fun about That's one of my favorites. Well,
11:05
Speaker 1: all right, next question, Brent, He asks, do you guys
11:09
Speaker 1: organize your ONEX way points in any particular fashion to
11:13
Speaker 1: separate hot sign from this year m versus things from
11:17
Speaker 1: previous years? So he says, for example, maybe this year's
11:20
Speaker 1: way points are orange, but last year's are white, anything
11:23
Speaker 1: like that. Do you do any kind of organization with
11:25
Speaker 1: your map way points or or even any other data
11:28
Speaker 1: you keep from here to year. Yeah, I do. I don't.
11:31
Speaker 1: I don't do exactly what he said, but you know,
11:35
Speaker 1: I definitely don't just use the the generic way point
11:39
Speaker 1: icon like I'll do access um, you know, routes, I'll
11:42
Speaker 1: have marked um. If it's like a water source, I
11:45
Speaker 1: use the actual symbol, but i'll color code. So usually
11:49
Speaker 1: my accesses are white um. Betting areas are yellow, uh
11:55
Speaker 1: water sources. I'll usually do blue um that sort of thing.
11:58
Speaker 1: But UM, I never leave um the title of the
12:03
Speaker 1: way point, just as like waypoint the date and time,
12:07
Speaker 1: because I'll I have so many across so many states
12:11
Speaker 1: now that I'll forget what they were. Some of them
12:14
Speaker 1: are just ones that I plopped down because I think
12:16
Speaker 1: they look good and I want to check them out.
12:17
Speaker 1: And then you know, a year or two go by
12:19
Speaker 1: and I look at those, I'm like, what what what
12:21
Speaker 1: was it about this spot? You know, did I get
12:23
Speaker 1: a piece of advice from somebody or did I observe something?
12:27
Speaker 1: So I when I when I make a waypoint, UM,
12:32
Speaker 1: I will actually title it what what I'm marking it for.
12:36
Speaker 1: So maybe check this out. This looks like a good
12:39
Speaker 1: betting area, you know, scout this ask permission here? Um,
12:43
Speaker 1: you know, the Big the Big nine UM traveled through
12:46
Speaker 1: here on this date in the morning. So I'll organize
12:50
Speaker 1: it in that way. But the color codes that I
12:53
Speaker 1: have have to do more with like the feature um
12:56
Speaker 1: that I'm marking. But that's that's that's essentially what I do. Yeah,
13:00
Speaker 1: that's pretty similar to what I do. I've not gone
13:03
Speaker 1: so far as to color code, and I use some icons,
13:06
Speaker 1: but lots of times I just put the generic one
13:09
Speaker 1: in there. But I do what you do. As far
13:12
Speaker 1: as the labeling, I try to get detailed with my
13:14
Speaker 1: label so that I can go back and look at it.
13:16
Speaker 1: And really, as far as I'm concerned, lots of times
13:19
Speaker 1: when I like the value in the way points for
13:23
Speaker 1: me is in the long term. So even though it
13:28
Speaker 1: might be fresh signed just this year, that that's helpful
13:30
Speaker 1: to me right now as I'm marking that, but it's
13:32
Speaker 1: also helpful to me next year because I can look
13:35
Speaker 1: back and see all that previous year's sign and how
13:38
Speaker 1: that matches up, and you start seeing, you know, at
13:40
Speaker 1: a high level, you'll start to sese big picture stories
13:43
Speaker 1: even if it was old signs. Sometimes, as you know,
13:46
Speaker 1: many times a new buck will come in and do
13:49
Speaker 1: something similar because it's a terrain feature or something with
13:52
Speaker 1: cover or something to do with typical hunting pressure that
13:56
Speaker 1: will make Dear use certain areas. So you know that
14:00
Speaker 1: historical data is still helpful. Um, if I was better,
14:03
Speaker 1: maybe labeling in such a way so you could discern
14:06
Speaker 1: fresh versus not fresh, that would be good, but I
14:10
Speaker 1: just haven't gone that far. Yeah, I used to. Um,
14:12
Speaker 1: it's been so nice to being able to use on
14:14
Speaker 1: X because in the past, UM, like I have essentially
14:20
Speaker 1: like binders for each state and they are full of maps,
14:25
Speaker 1: and I used to color code like my marker marks
14:28
Speaker 1: and like pen marks, UM, and I would mark everything
14:32
Speaker 1: down so like you know, when I would see a
14:34
Speaker 1: dear travel, I would mark that, like literally draw it
14:37
Speaker 1: on the map and I put the date in time.
14:39
Speaker 1: So I mean, it's just it's just so much data
14:41
Speaker 1: of you know, like my my Michigan binder, my Ohio binder,
14:45
Speaker 1: my Kentucky, Maryland, UM, Iowa, Illinois, like all of these,
14:50
Speaker 1: and it's just so much data over years. And now
14:53
Speaker 1: now they have on X, it's like you can put
14:55
Speaker 1: it all, put it all right on there and make
14:58
Speaker 1: it you know, so it's all in one spot. But UM,
15:00
Speaker 1: that's what I used to do in that much detail.
15:04
Speaker 1: But I would just do it all by hand. Now
15:06
Speaker 1: do you still I know, I don't know. A couple
15:08
Speaker 1: of years ago, I think we talked about some of
15:09
Speaker 1: your journaling that you used to do. Are you still
15:12
Speaker 1: doing journaling hunting, you know, per day by day stuff
15:16
Speaker 1: or is that change to No, I've absolutely absolutely still
15:19
Speaker 1: do that. I just haven't done the handwriting map markups
15:23
Speaker 1: as much. You know, it's kind of pretty much almost
15:28
Speaker 1: all mobile now. Um. Sometimes I'll still carry like a
15:31
Speaker 1: hard paper map. Um, you know, like if I'm going
15:34
Speaker 1: to a new area and I you know, I just
15:37
Speaker 1: want something quick, or maybe service might be questionable or
15:41
Speaker 1: I don't have downloadable maps. But for the most part,
15:43
Speaker 1: I'm going all on X. But the the daily logs
15:48
Speaker 1: of hunts, yeah, I still do that, and I'm still
15:51
Speaker 1: very detailed with that. I wish I was better every year.
15:54
Speaker 1: Every year I tell myself I'm gonna do it, and
15:57
Speaker 1: I start and I do it here and there, and
15:59
Speaker 1: then it's usually sometime during the rut and I'm tired
16:02
Speaker 1: and ship hits the fan and I lose track. Yeah. Ah.
16:08
Speaker 1: Jordan's asks how big was your first white tail buck
16:12
Speaker 1: you ever harvested, and how to influence your expectations as
16:15
Speaker 1: you became more experienced. It's funny. This question is funny
16:20
Speaker 1: because I took a picture of I have a h
16:26
Speaker 1: crept on a deer in my mom's basement Will Ferrell style.
16:32
Speaker 1: Uh yeah me low, yeah, So I was over there,
16:40
Speaker 1: uh earlier, I was last week and I was down
16:43
Speaker 1: there and I was just kind of looking through them
16:45
Speaker 1: and you know, going through I don't get to see
16:47
Speaker 1: them that often. And I follow my first buck and
16:50
Speaker 1: it's a little spike. Um, it's got a shape kind
16:53
Speaker 1: of looked like a bull bullhorns like a they kind
16:56
Speaker 1: of go up and then they point forward like a
16:58
Speaker 1: little bull. And he's probably six inches wide. Um. And
17:03
Speaker 1: I put it in the palm of my hand, like
17:05
Speaker 1: my hand spread out. I got pretty big hands, but
17:07
Speaker 1: like it's like it's smaller than the poem in my hand.
17:11
Speaker 1: And I snapped a photo of it, and uh, it
17:14
Speaker 1: was just so funny. But that was my first buck,
17:17
Speaker 1: and um, it was. It was so cool because I
17:20
Speaker 1: went hunting with a buddy and um, I just made
17:23
Speaker 1: You couldn't make a more perfect shot, um than what
17:27
Speaker 1: I did on this deer. I mean it just perfect
17:29
Speaker 1: double lung. He ran twenty yards and died and I
17:33
Speaker 1: was just in heaven. You know, I was so pumped. Um.
17:37
Speaker 1: But I guess how it I don't know how that
17:39
Speaker 1: influenced me, but I from that very first day, I
17:44
Speaker 1: was always I always wanted to do like I never
17:48
Speaker 1: wanted to really shoot one that size again like I wanted. Okay,
17:52
Speaker 1: I was always of that mindset, was like, you know,
17:54
Speaker 1: bigger older, bigger older. So I kind of followed that
17:59
Speaker 1: that progression right from the beginning, and like as you know,
18:02
Speaker 1: like there's no family that got me into hunting, so
18:05
Speaker 1: I didn't really go for that through that phase of
18:07
Speaker 1: like where I shot like you know, maybe a bunch
18:11
Speaker 1: of year and a half year old bucks. I mean,
18:12
Speaker 1: I shot a couple maybe like two, um, and then
18:17
Speaker 1: you know, then I started, you know, killing some twos,
18:19
Speaker 1: and then I started killing some twos and threes, and
18:21
Speaker 1: then I started killing some threes and four you know
18:23
Speaker 1: what I mean. So it was just I've always been
18:26
Speaker 1: of that mindset, and I think it's because I did
18:29
Speaker 1: get it into it on my own and just um,
18:34
Speaker 1: I don't know, it was just kind of the natural progression,
18:37
Speaker 1: I guess the way my mind worked. Uh now, how
18:43
Speaker 1: this isn't you know, this is a little off topic,
18:46
Speaker 1: but that progression that a lot of us go through.
18:50
Speaker 1: You you get get figured out, you kill a few,
18:53
Speaker 1: then you want to take the next step. You want
18:54
Speaker 1: to take the next step at some point, did you
18:57
Speaker 1: reach Okay, I've done that enough now I need to
19:01
Speaker 1: like rethink what my goal is because I can't keep exceeding.
19:04
Speaker 1: You know, there's a story of like I'm Andre de
19:06
Speaker 1: Quisto talking about how for years he would never kill
19:09
Speaker 1: a buck unless it was an inch bigger than the
19:12
Speaker 1: last one or something, and he kept on trying to
19:14
Speaker 1: do that for I don't know how long. UM. And
19:16
Speaker 1: then for a long time he was trying to kill
19:18
Speaker 1: like a world record typical buck or something. Was so
19:20
Speaker 1: obsessed with a single minded goal like that. UM. And
19:24
Speaker 1: I know he's eventually transitioned off of that to some degree,
19:27
Speaker 1: but I'd be curious to get his to hear from
19:31
Speaker 1: him as far as how that mentally affected his joy
19:34
Speaker 1: of the hunt, if eventually that took something away from it. Um.
19:38
Speaker 1: Have you gotten to a point yet where you've had
19:41
Speaker 1: to rethink that? I think you have, because I know
19:43
Speaker 1: now that you you know, you're not always killing the
19:45
Speaker 1: biggest buck in the world if it's a certain situation. UM, explain,
19:49
Speaker 1: explain how that kind of came about for you. Yeah,
19:52
Speaker 1: absolutely so. I don't know, I don't know what year
19:55
Speaker 1: it was, but like somewhere kind of you know, maybe
19:59
Speaker 1: you know, nine ten years in something like that. I
20:02
Speaker 1: I got to I looked up to guys like like
20:06
Speaker 1: Andre and some of these other guys that were very visible,
20:09
Speaker 1: you know, and magazines or videos and stuff, and it's
20:13
Speaker 1: like you kind of tried to you know, they were
20:15
Speaker 1: very motivating, you know, and um, there was so much
20:19
Speaker 1: emphasis on like score and stuff like this. And I
20:22
Speaker 1: knew I was from Michigan, and I knew, you know,
20:25
Speaker 1: deer you know, aren't gonna happen here, uh with any regularity.
20:29
Speaker 1: So but but I I got to a point where
20:32
Speaker 1: I started putting an actual score in my head that
20:36
Speaker 1: I wanted to achieve. And it was very brief, um,
20:41
Speaker 1: and it was it got to be right around that
20:43
Speaker 1: like one, because I had done it for a few
20:47
Speaker 1: years here in Michigan, and I was like, okay, that's
20:49
Speaker 1: my minimum. Well then I literally went like two years
20:55
Speaker 1: without as much as seeing or a trail camp picture
20:59
Speaker 1: of anything over one twenty. And I kind of was like,
21:03
Speaker 1: you know, getting a little disappointed or whatever. And and
21:06
Speaker 1: it did it. When I started focusing on like score,
21:10
Speaker 1: it did take a little bit of the enjoyment away,
21:13
Speaker 1: um for me personally, and I've never been a score
21:17
Speaker 1: chaser since. Um, that was very short lived, but I did.
21:22
Speaker 1: I did get to that at one point where I
21:24
Speaker 1: was like kind of worried about that and because everybody
21:27
Speaker 1: was like so stressing score so much, you know, and uh,
21:31
Speaker 1: then I just realized, you know, it's just not for me.
21:33
Speaker 1: I'm going to focus on just the best quality books
21:36
Speaker 1: that I can find in the area i'm hunting, and
21:39
Speaker 1: and that's kind of what I settled in on. And
21:42
Speaker 1: of course, like you know, there's years where I have, uh,
21:46
Speaker 1: you know, maybe there's a maybe there's a buck around
21:48
Speaker 1: that's a hundred fifty, two hundred sixty, you know, somewhere
21:51
Speaker 1: in that of course, I'm going to concentrate on that
21:54
Speaker 1: deer and and hunt that deer smart and put some
21:57
Speaker 1: effort into it because it's rare. And you know, I'm gonnam.
22:01
Speaker 1: I want that challenge, but I don't have I don't
22:04
Speaker 1: have a number in my mind anymore because there's there's
22:08
Speaker 1: just you know, last year, you know, um, the buck
22:11
Speaker 1: I shot, he's a beautiful ten, but he's not like
22:14
Speaker 1: an incredible high scorer. He's like you know, mid mid
22:17
Speaker 1: to low one authorities or something, and um, I'm just
22:20
Speaker 1: guessing I don't even score, my dear, but you know,
22:23
Speaker 1: that was the one of the better ones I could find,
22:25
Speaker 1: and that's one of the ones I hunted, And that's
22:27
Speaker 1: kind of that's kind of my that's kind of the
22:30
Speaker 1: way I think about it now. I just don't I
22:32
Speaker 1: don't worry about score. I worry about um maturity to
22:37
Speaker 1: a point, but just the top end bucks in the
22:40
Speaker 1: area I'm hunting, that's kind of what I'm after. And uh,
22:43
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe I'd be different if I owned,
22:46
Speaker 1: you know, a sweet farm in Iowa, and you know,
22:49
Speaker 1: you you have the confidence when you pass a some
22:52
Speaker 1: of these three or four year old bucks that they're
22:54
Speaker 1: gonna make it and you can get them to that
22:56
Speaker 1: age where they can grow some world class anglers. I
22:58
Speaker 1: probably would look at the is different, But that's not
23:00
Speaker 1: my situation, and I don't know that I even wanted
23:03
Speaker 1: to be my situation, to be honest. Yeah, I hear you,
23:07
Speaker 1: I too, I too found that as soon as you
23:10
Speaker 1: go down that road, it quickly leads to disappointment in
23:13
Speaker 1: most situations. So yeah, for me, it's it's usually I'm
23:17
Speaker 1: trying to have some kind of goal, reasonable goal for
23:20
Speaker 1: an area that's that's essentially whatever that top tier is
23:23
Speaker 1: so usually I try to go age or sometimes experience
23:28
Speaker 1: will infiltrate it, you know. So you know all the
23:30
Speaker 1: stories where I'll get hung up on a specific buck
23:33
Speaker 1: and get really stuck on that one, even though I
23:36
Speaker 1: might pass on larger antler bucks or maybe even a
23:39
Speaker 1: buck that's possibly older, because I'm so stuck on trying
23:42
Speaker 1: to kill that one. So that's the only time I
23:43
Speaker 1: kind of go off of my own little weird wormhole.
23:46
Speaker 1: But that's fun. That's like a cool different challenge that
23:49
Speaker 1: I've grown to to have a love hate relationship with.
23:52
Speaker 1: But I keep I keep getting suckered into it. Um.
23:55
Speaker 1: But my first buck was a five point there with
24:01
Speaker 1: like a normal little three point side and then a
24:03
Speaker 1: funky fork that kind of it was like you had
24:06
Speaker 1: a two pronged fork and then you melted it over
24:09
Speaker 1: a flame. So those forked ends like weirdly twisted, just
24:13
Speaker 1: a funky little guy. Um, just a year and a
24:16
Speaker 1: half old. And my only regret with that deer is
24:21
Speaker 1: that for some reason, and I think it was just
24:24
Speaker 1: like a family tradition in that I grew up in
24:27
Speaker 1: kind of an old timey hunting family. We hunted up
24:30
Speaker 1: north and we never shot Doz, so it's like the
24:32
Speaker 1: only shot Bucks. So I got into hunting and I
24:35
Speaker 1: thought I had to shoot a buck. So I passed
24:39
Speaker 1: up on lots of opportunities at does because I really
24:41
Speaker 1: wanted to shoot a buck. But I think that if
24:43
Speaker 1: I had not done that, if I started shooting Doze
24:46
Speaker 1: at a younger age, I would have gotten a lot
24:48
Speaker 1: of those kinks out of the system, you know, earlier,
24:50
Speaker 1: and been more effective at killing some bucks later if
24:54
Speaker 1: I had done that instead of waiting so long to
24:55
Speaker 1: get that shot. So so I screwed up on some
24:59
Speaker 1: bucks that I hope ler that. I think I would
25:00
Speaker 1: have got a shot and missed one. I've knocked an
25:03
Speaker 1: arrow off because I wasn't you know, I wasn't experienced
25:05
Speaker 1: with dealing with those final seconds of an encounter. So
25:08
Speaker 1: that's the one thing I think, as far as expectations
25:11
Speaker 1: is if I learned anything, it was when you're just
25:13
Speaker 1: getting started, you gotta get some of that in the
25:18
Speaker 1: moment of the kill experience under your belt. Don't don't
25:21
Speaker 1: be too picky when you're getting started. Don't feel bad
25:24
Speaker 1: even though Anie May and Dan Johnson and Andrew d
25:28
Speaker 1: quis star shooting big Bucks every year. Don't feel like
25:31
Speaker 1: you need to be doing the same thing if you know,
25:33
Speaker 1: if you're just figuring it out and if that's not
25:35
Speaker 1: what you're trying to do yet you know, absolutely, yeah,
25:38
Speaker 1: for sure. And I want to circle back real quick
25:41
Speaker 1: to what you talked about. Another thing you know, for
25:45
Speaker 1: me is um as far as like you know, going
25:49
Speaker 1: after a certain deer or maybe a certain situation where
25:52
Speaker 1: I might you know, shoot a deer that you know,
25:56
Speaker 1: maybe maybe a smaller or something than some of the
25:58
Speaker 1: bucks I've shot in the past, is like the the
26:01
Speaker 1: actual experience of that situation. So like, you know, I've
26:05
Speaker 1: been in situations where you know, I saw a buck betted,
26:09
Speaker 1: you know, like in a CRP field, and I was like, man,
26:12
Speaker 1: it would be so epic if I could sneak up
26:14
Speaker 1: on this and shoot him while he's betted, and it
26:16
Speaker 1: might be you know what I mean. So it's like,
26:20
Speaker 1: sometimes those experiences drive me to make decisions to take
26:25
Speaker 1: an animal just because it's a cool hunt or it
26:28
Speaker 1: would be an epic story, you know, and and uh,
26:32
Speaker 1: just something different or something challenging. There's a lot of
26:34
Speaker 1: times where you know, I I would choose to to
26:39
Speaker 1: take an animal just because of the scenario. I guess yeah.
26:42
Speaker 1: I mean, when it comes right down to it, you know,
26:45
Speaker 1: we're doing this to enjoy it, right, So if if
26:49
Speaker 1: you're having a good time, if it gets so excited,
26:52
Speaker 1: more power to you, exactly. Ye all right. Landing's got
26:56
Speaker 1: a question here. He says, do you think bucks to
26:58
Speaker 1: get old from being a elusive to humans or do
27:02
Speaker 1: you think they just have a pattern that you haven't
27:04
Speaker 1: quite figured out yet. I believe some of them get
27:06
Speaker 1: old simply due to the fact that they live in
27:08
Speaker 1: a spot that humans don't typically hunt. So I think
27:12
Speaker 1: it's kind of saying, do some bucks make it because
27:16
Speaker 1: they're lucky, or they just naturally are in spots of
27:20
Speaker 1: humans don't go, or do they actually pattern us and
27:24
Speaker 1: figure us out? Um, I don't know, how do you
27:26
Speaker 1: think about that? I think it's I think both those
27:30
Speaker 1: answers are correct. You know, in areas that have high
27:35
Speaker 1: um hunter density, you know, these these deers just become
27:39
Speaker 1: experts at being elusive and moving very little in daylight
27:44
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, seeking out those spots that are
27:48
Speaker 1: that are really hard to get to, maybe not even overlooked,
27:53
Speaker 1: but hard to get to without alerting him. They just
27:57
Speaker 1: seek out those spots that are almost bulletproof. Um. And
28:01
Speaker 1: then you know, there's there's other times where, like you know,
28:06
Speaker 1: the I think both. I think both of those answers
28:09
Speaker 1: are correct. It just depends on on the situation really, um,
28:12
Speaker 1: you know, in in the type of the type of habitat,
28:16
Speaker 1: the type of pressure that that area has. Um. I've
28:20
Speaker 1: seen bucks that have personalities that they move a ton um,
28:26
Speaker 1: but they just seem to always make the right move
28:28
Speaker 1: and never put themselves in danger. And then there's other
28:31
Speaker 1: books that just move that's a very last couple of
28:34
Speaker 1: minutes of daylight, you know, and you you literally need
28:37
Speaker 1: to be on top of them to get a crack
28:39
Speaker 1: at them, and and sometimes it's not even feasible or possible.
28:42
Speaker 1: You have to wait till like the rut when they're
28:45
Speaker 1: out moving. More So, I think both of those scenarios
28:47
Speaker 1: are correct and any any given situation, Yeah, agreed, I
28:52
Speaker 1: think there's a little bit of both. But I do
28:54
Speaker 1: definitely think that in a way we are selecting four
28:58
Speaker 1: the dumber dear or the more active dear. Like if
29:01
Speaker 1: you look at the average hunter, the or the majority
29:04
Speaker 1: of bucks that get killed, are those bucks that were
29:06
Speaker 1: probably predisposition to be a little bit more active. Those
29:10
Speaker 1: are the ones that end up getting killed on average
29:12
Speaker 1: at a higher rate than the ones that are predispositioned
29:15
Speaker 1: to be you know, scott old timers that just stick
29:19
Speaker 1: in the stick in the stuff, and they never like
29:21
Speaker 1: to move around. I mean, the deer that naturally is lazier,
29:25
Speaker 1: naturally doesn't want to get up move a whole lot,
29:28
Speaker 1: regardless of hunting pressure. That's the buck that's going to
29:31
Speaker 1: make it to an older age, even if he isn't
29:32
Speaker 1: particularly smart or hasn't learned anything. That's just kind of
29:36
Speaker 1: his evolutionary gift that's helping him make it to an
29:39
Speaker 1: older age. So there's some of that. But but yeah,
29:42
Speaker 1: some of these dear do somehow figure it out. I
29:46
Speaker 1: don't know if it's you don't want to pen too
29:48
Speaker 1: much human knowledge to them, right. They're not like thinking, oh,
29:52
Speaker 1: what's marking to do tonight? They're not doing that, but
29:55
Speaker 1: but they certainly know how to survive. Yeah. Absolutely. Benjamin
30:02
Speaker 1: asks what's the number one thing that a great hunter
30:06
Speaker 1: does that the average hunter doesn't do? And he defines
30:10
Speaker 1: great hunter as successful most years going after their target buck.
30:14
Speaker 1: But you can define however you want, I would say, um,
30:21
Speaker 1: you know, making sure they're scouting, um, scouting enough, making
30:31
Speaker 1: sure you're you're doing more scouting than hunting. Most great
30:35
Speaker 1: hunters that I know that are you know, kind of
30:38
Speaker 1: d I y guys like ourselves, you know hunting I
30:42
Speaker 1: guess areas that aren't like managed and whatnot. Um, they
30:49
Speaker 1: scout more than they hunt. That seems to be a
30:51
Speaker 1: very common quality, unless unless some guys are just like
30:56
Speaker 1: strictly rout hunters, you maybe can get away from that. Um,
31:00
Speaker 1: but so scouting more than you hunt. And then also
31:04
Speaker 1: just being prepared and that that could be you're scouting,
31:09
Speaker 1: that could be um, you know, your your equipment, your
31:13
Speaker 1: your archery shooting, you know all that stuff that the
31:16
Speaker 1: really good hunters they don't leave a lot to chance,
31:21
Speaker 1: I think. I mean there's always some, but they do
31:23
Speaker 1: everything in their power to be prepared and ready going
31:26
Speaker 1: into the season so that it will ensure the likelihood
31:33
Speaker 1: of success. Yeah. Yeah, what I was gonna say was
31:37
Speaker 1: being detail oriented. I feel like almost all of the
31:40
Speaker 1: really successful hunters are very detail oriented. All the little
31:44
Speaker 1: things matter, because like you just said, there's there's so
31:47
Speaker 1: many things out of our control. When we're trying to
31:49
Speaker 1: kill a deer, especially mature deer, there's so many variables
31:51
Speaker 1: outside of our control that if you don't take control
31:55
Speaker 1: of everything you can, there's too much left up to
31:59
Speaker 1: fate that's gonna keep you from being consistent. So if
32:02
Speaker 1: you want to be consistent, all the little things matter.
32:04
Speaker 1: Tuning your bow just right matters. Making sure you think
32:07
Speaker 1: about every scenario when you're heading into access or exit,
32:11
Speaker 1: or the details of your your sent control, or what
32:15
Speaker 1: you think the wind's gonna do, or you're scouting, or
32:18
Speaker 1: you know what days are gonna hunt, what days you
32:20
Speaker 1: are not gonna hunt, or what days to take your vacation,
32:22
Speaker 1: or I mean every little bit the squeak of your
32:25
Speaker 1: seat that might make the difference between a kill and
32:28
Speaker 1: not getting a kill. So those guys that become consistent
32:32
Speaker 1: find a way too. You know, they don't skirt, they
32:35
Speaker 1: don't cut corners, they don't take the easy way. They
32:39
Speaker 1: try to you know. My uh the coach at Michigan State,
32:43
Speaker 1: the football coach up until last year, Mark D'Antonio, he
32:46
Speaker 1: always said it was a game of inches, and I
32:48
Speaker 1: always think about that with deer hunting. It's that last
32:51
Speaker 1: inch usually there's little inches add up to make a
32:54
Speaker 1: big difference. So always always think about that. And every
32:57
Speaker 1: time I find myself wanting to get lay in something
33:01
Speaker 1: where every time I'm saying I'm probably good enough, I
33:03
Speaker 1: try to catch myself and think, no, man, this little
33:06
Speaker 1: thing could be everything. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right
33:11
Speaker 1: one thing real quick for me personally, and there's probably
33:15
Speaker 1: other guys out there. I'm sure that I feel this
33:17
Speaker 1: kind of the same way. But I can't. I can't
33:21
Speaker 1: accept failure if it's due to um, my own doing,
33:28
Speaker 1: like if I make a mistake, or if I'm unprepared,
33:31
Speaker 1: or if I go into a season and I didn't
33:33
Speaker 1: scout enough and I come out of that season having
33:36
Speaker 1: a you know, a poor season, or um, you know,
33:41
Speaker 1: not having success, and I can literally put the blame
33:44
Speaker 1: on you know, my shooting preparation, or my lack of scouting,
33:47
Speaker 1: or my lack of commitment or giving up too easily
33:50
Speaker 1: or you know, not wanting to get up early, um
33:54
Speaker 1: you know, any one of those things. Though, Failure because
33:58
Speaker 1: of any of those just eat me live. And I've
34:01
Speaker 1: I've failed in the past many times for all of
34:05
Speaker 1: those reasons. And uh, I just won't. I won't do
34:10
Speaker 1: that anymore. I won't tolerate that anymore. So, like you said,
34:14
Speaker 1: I try to control and work on everything that I
34:17
Speaker 1: can so that I'm prepared if I fail, because you know,
34:20
Speaker 1: the deer don't cooperate the buckum after it gets killed,
34:24
Speaker 1: he just doesn't come by my stand another hunter gets him. That.
34:27
Speaker 1: You know, I can take that, that's that's out of
34:29
Speaker 1: my control. I can accept that. I can be you know,
34:33
Speaker 1: move on to the next year or the next season
34:35
Speaker 1: with a good attitude. But if it's because of something
34:38
Speaker 1: I did or didn't do, that's the stuff. I just
34:41
Speaker 1: it just eats at me like a cancer. And and
34:45
Speaker 1: I've had it happened before, and now I just I
34:47
Speaker 1: just don't leave any of that to chance. I just
34:49
Speaker 1: I've said it to you before. I feel like I
34:52
Speaker 1: over prepare. Um, I try to overprepare, if that's even
34:55
Speaker 1: such a thing, so that I would I would really
35:00
Speaker 1: need to be unlucky in a season for me to
35:02
Speaker 1: not have at least some success. And I think that's
35:07
Speaker 1: that really kind of ties together. Both of those two
35:10
Speaker 1: ideas we talked about comes down to that that over
35:13
Speaker 1: preparation and the people that are most consistent. I think
35:18
Speaker 1: that's that's absolutely a uniting factor, and you're you're a
35:22
Speaker 1: perfect example of that. Um, here's a different here's a
35:26
Speaker 1: different one. That's that's kind of interesting, Adam asks. I
35:31
Speaker 1: know enough to know that finding sheds isn't the biggest
35:34
Speaker 1: piece to the puzzle, but it is a piece. If
35:38
Speaker 1: you find the sheds to an incredible buck two years
35:40
Speaker 1: in a row, what are some of the things you
35:43
Speaker 1: would do to help in the fall track that buck down?
35:46
Speaker 1: So I guess to rephrase this question a little bit,
35:50
Speaker 1: how do you think sheds factor at all into a
35:53
Speaker 1: hunting strategy? And how would you use that information if
35:56
Speaker 1: it's helpful when you're trying to kill him the next year? Yeah,
36:01
Speaker 1: you want me to take this one? Uh? Yeah, you
36:03
Speaker 1: can start, okay. Um. I think it really depends on
36:09
Speaker 1: a lot of these answers. Uh, really depend on the
36:14
Speaker 1: type of situation, the type of habitat, the type of
36:18
Speaker 1: property that you're talking about. So, um, just let's for instance,
36:22
Speaker 1: around here, let's say like mixed Tagg country where I'm
36:24
Speaker 1: at here in southern Michigan or northern Ohio. If I
36:27
Speaker 1: find a set of sheds two years in a row,
36:30
Speaker 1: off a buck, and that that tells me that he's
36:32
Speaker 1: in the area, um, you know, maybe even in that
36:35
Speaker 1: specific area towards the end of the season, you know, December.
36:38
Speaker 1: If I'm finding his antlers like in January, you know,
36:41
Speaker 1: there's a there's a safe bet that he was close
36:44
Speaker 1: by towards you know, the end of the season. So
36:46
Speaker 1: that's that tells me that, but it doesn't necessarily tell
36:49
Speaker 1: me that's where he was early season or during the rut.
36:52
Speaker 1: So here, it's very common for bucks to be in
36:55
Speaker 1: a certain area, you know, early season and then transition
37:00
Speaker 1: and slightly to another area, um for more of like
37:04
Speaker 1: the breeding part of the season. Um. Some some deer
37:07
Speaker 1: that I've hunted completely disappear, you know, Like let's say
37:11
Speaker 1: it's a it's in an area that's mainly privately and
37:13
Speaker 1: they completely disappear. I have no idea. I don't have
37:15
Speaker 1: access to any of this ground. UM, So you know,
37:19
Speaker 1: I don't know, even though I might have found his
37:21
Speaker 1: sheds on mine, Like, I have no idea where he
37:23
Speaker 1: is the rest of the season. But what at least
37:25
Speaker 1: around here, what I can say is if you're finding sheds,
37:28
Speaker 1: he's probably in the neighborhood so what I would do, um,
37:32
Speaker 1: you know, maybe it's a maybe it's a mile, maybe
37:35
Speaker 1: it's to two miles you know radius or something that
37:38
Speaker 1: he's he's probably in that area. So I would utilize
37:42
Speaker 1: finding those sheds that you know, this is kind of
37:44
Speaker 1: his broad home range, and I would if it's If
37:50
Speaker 1: it's public, you're probably pretty good. You got some room
37:53
Speaker 1: to roam and try to figure things out and try
37:55
Speaker 1: to locate this deer. If it's private, I would do
37:59
Speaker 1: you know, some knocking on some doors, um and and
38:02
Speaker 1: and trying to to maybe pinpoint where this deer is early.
38:06
Speaker 1: Um it just so then I got another I got
38:09
Speaker 1: a buddy in Maryland who finds tons of sheds and
38:13
Speaker 1: he will literally find sheds in the same little wood
38:17
Speaker 1: lot where he'll shoot that deer the following year. The
38:20
Speaker 1: deer pocketed up in real high deer density, and they're
38:25
Speaker 1: not a lot of cover due to uh city sprawl.
38:28
Speaker 1: It's kind of like you know, suburban type hunting um,
38:32
Speaker 1: you know, and they can live in and around these
38:35
Speaker 1: small wood lots year round. So he'll find sheds off
38:40
Speaker 1: these bucks and shoot him in that same woods sometimes.
38:43
Speaker 1: So he for him, it's it's a huge piece of
38:48
Speaker 1: the puzzle on even where to hunt that deer? Where here?
38:52
Speaker 1: If I find them? A lot of times i'll find them,
38:56
Speaker 1: uh in an area where I won't maybe actually be
39:00
Speaker 1: hunting for that dear. It's probably close by, but it
39:03
Speaker 1: might be you know, a half mile away, or it
39:05
Speaker 1: might be you know, it could be only five yards away.
39:07
Speaker 1: It could be you know, two miles away. It just
39:10
Speaker 1: it just depends. So it's it's a piece of the puzzle.
39:13
Speaker 1: It could be a very big piece of the puzzle
39:15
Speaker 1: in certain situations. It could be a smaller piece of
39:18
Speaker 1: the puzzle than others. Yeah, I feel like the most
39:21
Speaker 1: the most helpful thing it does for me is just
39:24
Speaker 1: confirm life. It confirms that buck made it through the season.
39:29
Speaker 1: Now I know, okay, he's a buck. I can focus
39:31
Speaker 1: on next year. If I don't find those sheds, and
39:34
Speaker 1: if I don't see him, maybe I haven't seen him
39:36
Speaker 1: since November, Well, then how much time do I really
39:38
Speaker 1: wanted to vote to formulating a strategy around him or
39:42
Speaker 1: making changes to the property or my setups to kill
39:45
Speaker 1: that buck or anything that. How much time do you
39:47
Speaker 1: want to study past trail camera pictures, study his patterns?
39:50
Speaker 1: Um if I don't know he's alive. I'm still I'm stuck, waiting, stuck, wondering, stuck.
39:56
Speaker 1: You know, well, maybe maybe not. But if I find
39:58
Speaker 1: the sheds now, you know it's game on now. Yeah,
40:02
Speaker 1: something could happen in between now in the season. He
40:04
Speaker 1: could get hit by car, could get killed by disease.
40:07
Speaker 1: But you've got a pretty good chance he's gonna make
40:09
Speaker 1: it now. You know, Okay, he's alive. Now I'm going
40:13
Speaker 1: to really focus on him. So that means Okay, in
40:15
Speaker 1: the off season when I'm not doing something, if it's
40:18
Speaker 1: if it's June one and degrees outside, I'm not going
40:21
Speaker 1: to do something out in the property, but I want
40:22
Speaker 1: to get something done. Well, if I know that he's
40:25
Speaker 1: there still, I'm going to study pass trail cameras and
40:28
Speaker 1: start finding whens those couple of windows of time when
40:30
Speaker 1: he moved during daylight last year or the year before. Um,
40:34
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff you can attack with so
40:36
Speaker 1: much more focus now that you know he's there. Um.
40:39
Speaker 1: The second thing I'd say is you can get a
40:41
Speaker 1: little bit that might be helpful during hunting season if
40:44
Speaker 1: you find those sheds in something like a betting area.
40:48
Speaker 1: You know, if you find that and you can actually see,
40:50
Speaker 1: oh wow, this is a buck bed, and I know
40:53
Speaker 1: that this buck was betted right here, and you know
40:56
Speaker 1: it was in the late season, in the winter, this
40:58
Speaker 1: is where he betted. That's a really important helpful clue
41:01
Speaker 1: to get if you're going to hunt him in the
41:03
Speaker 1: late season. Again, so if if you get to December
41:07
Speaker 1: of the next year and you're still hunting him, well,
41:09
Speaker 1: now you can know, okay, well, during the winter with
41:11
Speaker 1: this kind of food source, this was a place he
41:14
Speaker 1: felt safe, and that can be a helpful piece of
41:17
Speaker 1: the puzzle. You now know one of the hubs of
41:19
Speaker 1: the wheel and plan accordingly with that knowledge. Now that
41:23
Speaker 1: you can you know, lots of times you can make
41:25
Speaker 1: assumptions are and I think he's betting around here, I
41:27
Speaker 1: think he's better around here. But if you know I
41:29
Speaker 1: know he betted right here at least once in January
41:33
Speaker 1: or February or something, that's pretty good. I mean, that
41:35
Speaker 1: can tell you something. Um sit in that bed, just
41:39
Speaker 1: like if you found a bed while out scouting, If
41:41
Speaker 1: you know that that exact buck was laying there sitting there,
41:45
Speaker 1: think about it, figure out why he did it. If
41:48
Speaker 1: you're really lucky, if it was a fresh drop, you
41:49
Speaker 1: might even be able to see his tracks coming in
41:51
Speaker 1: and out of it backtrack, see how he walked to
41:54
Speaker 1: that spot. Um. You know, in a lot of cases
41:57
Speaker 1: you won't people have that information. But if you get
41:59
Speaker 1: lucky and happen upon it when they're still snow on
42:01
Speaker 1: the ground and you can see those big tracks, you know,
42:03
Speaker 1: take advantage of that kind of thing, if you get that.
42:06
Speaker 1: Um last year or this year, I guess I found
42:09
Speaker 1: the match set off the buck I'm after this year,
42:11
Speaker 1: that that buck tran that I really want to get
42:13
Speaker 1: a shot at. Now, I don't think I get anything
42:16
Speaker 1: from that is other than just knowing he made it.
42:18
Speaker 1: I'm not learning anything very helpful because it was in
42:20
Speaker 1: the middle of a cornfield right by the road, so
42:23
Speaker 1: he was out there. He was out there mill of
42:24
Speaker 1: the night dropped. Um Um. All I know is that
42:28
Speaker 1: he was still in the general area in the late season,
42:31
Speaker 1: which which I knew because of sightings too. So I
42:35
Speaker 1: think Adams right and that he said they are a
42:37
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle, but they're not the biggest piece,
42:39
Speaker 1: and just take everything a canna right. Every little detail
42:42
Speaker 1: could help flesh out that bigger picture. Yeah, I kind
42:46
Speaker 1: of tackled that question under the assumption he had just
42:49
Speaker 1: found the sheds and didn't have any sightings or history
42:52
Speaker 1: with it. Like if you obviously, like in your situation
42:55
Speaker 1: with Tran, you had so much data of sightings and
42:58
Speaker 1: and trail cameras, um, you know, so you you kind
43:02
Speaker 1: of know a tentative gameplay how to hunt that deer.
43:05
Speaker 1: And for you it was just like you said, confirmation
43:07
Speaker 1: of life. But if you just find a set of sheds,
43:11
Speaker 1: and you know, you've been hunting this general area of
43:13
Speaker 1: the last two years, but you found these sheds, you
43:15
Speaker 1: haven't seen this deer. You haven't got any trail camp pictures,
43:18
Speaker 1: this dear, you're probably not hunting the right area, but
43:20
Speaker 1: he's probably in the neighborhood. So that's what that's what
43:23
Speaker 1: prompted me to say, you know, check venture out, you know,
43:27
Speaker 1: check you know, a different wood lot, check the swamp
43:30
Speaker 1: over here, check this marsh, you know, expand your search. Um,
43:34
Speaker 1: knock on some doors, use all the public land, run cameras, glass,
43:38
Speaker 1: you know, really try to to hone in and if
43:41
Speaker 1: it's a if it's a substantial dear like around here.
43:43
Speaker 1: A lot of times, um, there there might just be
43:47
Speaker 1: one big mature buck. So if I find big mature
43:50
Speaker 1: buck sign There's been many situations where, like I've it's
43:54
Speaker 1: almost certain that this is the deer that I'm after.
43:57
Speaker 1: You know, this is almost certainly him because all the
43:59
Speaker 1: rest of the deer and sure, so you know, just
44:02
Speaker 1: think about that. If you do find a set, you
44:05
Speaker 1: don't have any history with the deer, haven't seen him
44:07
Speaker 1: actually hunting or scouting or anything like that. He's probably
44:10
Speaker 1: not far off. He's probably in the neighborhood, but you
44:13
Speaker 1: need to go out and do your work to find him.
44:16
Speaker 1: Have you have you killed one? You found his sheds before? Oh? Yeah? Yeah?
44:22
Speaker 1: How often a thing is that for you? On? Not
44:25
Speaker 1: not super often, um, because I honestly I don't find
44:29
Speaker 1: a lot of sheds here in Michigan. Um. I don't
44:31
Speaker 1: have run here. Yeah, And I don't really have any
44:35
Speaker 1: you know ground that I hunt that has like good
44:37
Speaker 1: late season food sources really um uh, you know, maybe
44:42
Speaker 1: maybe a couple a couple of pieces that you don't have,
44:44
Speaker 1: some some draw and some some late season I've found
44:48
Speaker 1: a couple of sheds, um, and a buddy has killed um.
44:53
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's there's a there's a few, um that
44:56
Speaker 1: I have, but not not a not a lot here
44:58
Speaker 1: in Michigan. I just don't you know, if I find
45:01
Speaker 1: I think this year I found seven or eight, um,
45:04
Speaker 1: you know, and that was I went out. I put
45:06
Speaker 1: on the miles, you know, I went out at least
45:09
Speaker 1: a dozen different times for anywhere from four to five
45:12
Speaker 1: hours each time. And that's that's pretty average, you know,
45:14
Speaker 1: with that amount of effort I've had. The most I've
45:17
Speaker 1: ever found was twelve. I've had plenty of years where
45:20
Speaker 1: I found like four, you know. So yeah, that's that
45:23
Speaker 1: sounds about about right. Yeah, I think my best, well
45:27
Speaker 1: this year is my best Michigan year ever. And I
45:29
Speaker 1: found eleven good but but well, I mean it's not
45:33
Speaker 1: that good compared to a lot of guys or girls,
45:35
Speaker 1: but for Michigan, it's not that. But I found the
45:39
Speaker 1: I found the match set from the number one buck
45:41
Speaker 1: hum after so that's huge. And then I found a
45:45
Speaker 1: left side off of another mature buck that I'll be
45:50
Speaker 1: after maybe. And then I also found the left side
45:55
Speaker 1: of another buck that could be a shooter on the
45:57
Speaker 1: back forty maybe to be a three year old. I
46:00
Speaker 1: think it's the best, but that might be the best
46:01
Speaker 1: we've got out there. So so as far as you know,
46:05
Speaker 1: finding sheds off bucks that might hunt, this is not
46:07
Speaker 1: a bad year. Yeah. What I find, what I find
46:10
Speaker 1: out here just because it is, you know, vast majority
46:15
Speaker 1: is is is private land, very little public land. If
46:20
Speaker 1: you're if you're hunting in this area, there's a lot
46:22
Speaker 1: of very small parcels and if you're lucky enough to
46:25
Speaker 1: get permission on you know, any of these, you're you're
46:28
Speaker 1: hunting a very very small window of you know, where
46:33
Speaker 1: this deer's life is. And that's why I kind of
46:35
Speaker 1: go back to, you know, finding those micro patterns and
46:38
Speaker 1: seeing those that historical data of when you can hunt
46:42
Speaker 1: this very small, tiny area for a particular deer and
46:47
Speaker 1: only hunt it during that time, and the chances of
46:49
Speaker 1: finding a shed there and killing him there, you know,
46:52
Speaker 1: in most of these cases are these small areas with
46:56
Speaker 1: really really high pressure. It's just it's it's just a
46:59
Speaker 1: hard thing to pull off down here, unless you've got
47:01
Speaker 1: a big private farm or something like this, or a
47:04
Speaker 1: nice big chunk of public land, which there's just not
47:07
Speaker 1: a lot of it around here. Yeah, So let's keep
47:10
Speaker 1: on with this kind of theme a little bit of
47:12
Speaker 1: trying to figure out, you know, what these pieces of
47:15
Speaker 1: the puzzle are for a buck. Here after we had
47:18
Speaker 1: a question here from guy nam Joe, and he says,
47:20
Speaker 1: if you're monitoring an area with trail cameras, how close
47:23
Speaker 1: is too close to a Buck's core area, let's say
47:26
Speaker 1: his betting area or some of those potential betting areas. UM,
47:30
Speaker 1: how tight in there are you willing to get with
47:32
Speaker 1: your cameras when you're trying to figure out those pieces
47:34
Speaker 1: of the puzzle and zero it in. UM. I use
47:42
Speaker 1: most of the time I put my cameras that are
47:44
Speaker 1: in areas that are fairly easy accessible, meaning I don't
47:51
Speaker 1: have to go through like betting cover or anything that
47:54
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna spook dear. I. I kind of put
47:58
Speaker 1: a lot of effort in thought into if it's something
48:01
Speaker 1: that I'm going to be checking throughout the season, I
48:05
Speaker 1: won't I won't get too close. UM. All I really
48:08
Speaker 1: need to know if it's an area, if it's an
48:10
Speaker 1: area that I know well, all I need to know
48:14
Speaker 1: is that he's in the area. The rest of the
48:17
Speaker 1: knowledge is has been laid down from previous scouting, knowing
48:23
Speaker 1: the lay of the land and the habitat and where
48:25
Speaker 1: the traveler rolts are, where the likely betting is, where
48:28
Speaker 1: the water is, where the food is. That that's what
48:32
Speaker 1: you figure out when you get those boots on the
48:33
Speaker 1: ground and the map scouting and all that. For me personally,
48:37
Speaker 1: the trail camp picture is just like, Okay, he's here now,
48:40
Speaker 1: you know, this is where he was, you know, uh
48:43
Speaker 1: on this day. And now if if I feel like
48:46
Speaker 1: he's in this area consistently or now is the time,
48:49
Speaker 1: and then I'll go dive in and hunt him. The
48:51
Speaker 1: other situation is I will put in I will put
48:55
Speaker 1: trail cameras in sensitive spots, but I'll leave them there
48:58
Speaker 1: almost the entire season, you know what I mean. It's
49:00
Speaker 1: more it's more for intel for future seasons, future hunts. Um,
49:05
Speaker 1: you know, just an area where I don't want to
49:08
Speaker 1: go in and bust your out, but I'm gonna get
49:10
Speaker 1: some good information. That's that's I think. That's probably the
49:16
Speaker 1: way I mostly use trail cameras. I know some guys
49:19
Speaker 1: put them at their stand locations. I do that occasionally,
49:22
Speaker 1: not not real often, but occasionally, like and I'll check
49:25
Speaker 1: it as I go in and hunt. But for me,
49:28
Speaker 1: most of the time I'm not hunting certain stands repetitively.
49:31
Speaker 1: It's it's very rare that I hunt stand more than
49:34
Speaker 1: two or three times if that, you know. So that's
49:37
Speaker 1: that's kind of the way I look at it. Um.
49:40
Speaker 1: I think people utilize them in different ways, though, yeah,
49:43
Speaker 1: I would. I would echo a lot of that. I too,
49:47
Speaker 1: prefer to be pretty conservative with my trail cameras. Mostly
49:50
Speaker 1: I'm trying to pick easy access spots that just confirm,
49:54
Speaker 1: you know, is he in the area, how close to
49:56
Speaker 1: daylight is he moving in this area that's easily accessible,
50:00
Speaker 1: And if he's in there in daylight or just on
50:02
Speaker 1: the edge of daylight, that means he is moving in
50:04
Speaker 1: daylight a little farther back in the spots that you
50:06
Speaker 1: might want to hunt. So so it can still be helpful.
50:09
Speaker 1: But so I wouldn't go too tight into like a
50:12
Speaker 1: core betting area with my cameras unless the thing you
50:15
Speaker 1: just said, which is something that I've done live in
50:17
Speaker 1: the past, you know, stick a camera back in a
50:19
Speaker 1: betting area, back in a sensitive area, and then leave
50:21
Speaker 1: it over the season. But this year I want to
50:23
Speaker 1: do a lot more of them. I want to make
50:25
Speaker 1: a point this year to dedicate a big chunk of
50:29
Speaker 1: my maybe not a big chunk, but a substantial enough
50:31
Speaker 1: chunk of my cameras too, Just collecting a bunch of
50:35
Speaker 1: information that's not gonna help me this year, but it's
50:37
Speaker 1: going to help in the future. Um. Because there's a
50:40
Speaker 1: number of those spots. Every year I hunt them and
50:42
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, it's great back here. Would I
50:44
Speaker 1: never get any pictures because I never want to go
50:46
Speaker 1: in there and throw camera. Um, but I hunt it
50:48
Speaker 1: once a year, twice a year or something. There's so
50:50
Speaker 1: much more going on that I could be learning if
50:52
Speaker 1: I had my second set eyes there. So this year,
50:55
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make a point in August, probably when I
50:58
Speaker 1: get my final scouting prep work, and I'll stick a
51:01
Speaker 1: couple of cameras and these tough to reach spots with
51:04
Speaker 1: great set of lithium batteries in a big camera or
51:07
Speaker 1: big SD card and just let it run until January,
51:10
Speaker 1: because I do think that's really helpful stuff. Especially like
51:14
Speaker 1: we talked about many times, these bucks do somewhat similar
51:17
Speaker 1: things year after year, or even if that buck is killed,
51:22
Speaker 1: other bucks will come in and use an area in
51:24
Speaker 1: the same way because there's there's something there that that
51:27
Speaker 1: makes it conducive to to a deer doing something. Yeah, right, Um,
51:33
Speaker 1: how do you speaking of, how do you organize all
51:35
Speaker 1: your trail camera gear? This is from Project hunt h Q.
51:39
Speaker 1: Do you do you have any good organization system for
51:42
Speaker 1: your cameras or or pictures? Um, like organizing my my pictures,
51:48
Speaker 1: like on my computer. Let's do both. Let's actually your
51:51
Speaker 1: trail cameras and trail camera related gear actually the physical thing,
51:55
Speaker 1: and then also the pictures themselves. Okay, well the pictures
51:59
Speaker 1: them else. Um. Yeah, I put them all into folders,
52:03
Speaker 1: usually labeled by the area I'm hunting, like you know,
52:07
Speaker 1: so and so state game area or blah blah blah
52:11
Speaker 1: farm or you know whatever. Um, and then I'll i'll
52:15
Speaker 1: label within that folder, I'll have another folder of the
52:19
Speaker 1: camera location in that area. And then i'll also I
52:23
Speaker 1: usually do it's usually seems to be broken down. Um,
52:28
Speaker 1: it kind of depends. But like if it's one that
52:31
Speaker 1: I'm saying, maybe I'm checking, you know, more frequently, it
52:35
Speaker 1: might say you know, so and so drainage early October,
52:40
Speaker 1: and then there'll be a next folder so and so
52:42
Speaker 1: draining the same drainage. You know, uh, mid to late
52:46
Speaker 1: October and then so so drainage early early November. So
52:50
Speaker 1: I kind of break it down like almost like into
52:52
Speaker 1: like two week periods UM, just so they're at least
52:57
Speaker 1: so there's somewhat organized by time and loca shan um.
53:01
Speaker 1: So I'll do that UM. And then I'll also if
53:04
Speaker 1: if I start zeroing in on a particular deer and
53:08
Speaker 1: like I'm after a deer and he makes it so
53:10
Speaker 1: now that history is starting to build, then I'll have
53:13
Speaker 1: a folder of just information on that deer, and that
53:16
Speaker 1: that's going to include all his pictures. So now I
53:19
Speaker 1: can go in and really start mapping out what this
53:23
Speaker 1: deer is doing. I'll go back and I'll cross across
53:25
Speaker 1: the reference like historical weather data, and I start looking
53:29
Speaker 1: at the wind, I start looking at the temperatures and
53:32
Speaker 1: all this stuff to see if I can come up
53:33
Speaker 1: with something, and usually I could. I could start to
53:38
Speaker 1: come up with some sort of pattern that will at
53:40
Speaker 1: least give me, you know, a beat on him, a
53:42
Speaker 1: when and where I need to to kill this deer. UM.
53:46
Speaker 1: So that's why I'll really dive in if it's a
53:50
Speaker 1: If it's a deer, I'm getting history with UM. But
53:52
Speaker 1: then if it's just a particular area, those same types
53:56
Speaker 1: of patterns can materialize as well, like you'll see, you know,
54:02
Speaker 1: maybe maybe maybe if you have it in like a
54:05
Speaker 1: funnel or um like on a scrape or something like that,
54:08
Speaker 1: you'll you'll start to see when the activity really starts
54:11
Speaker 1: to pick up, you know, and then maybe there's a
54:14
Speaker 1: short window of in early November or late October or
54:18
Speaker 1: whenever it is, where I'll boom, all of a sudden,
54:21
Speaker 1: you get this five day window of mature buck sightings.
54:24
Speaker 1: It's maybe not an actual individual buck y're after, but
54:27
Speaker 1: maybe there's maybe there's two or three in there that
54:29
Speaker 1: you'd be happy to shoot, you know. So I start
54:32
Speaker 1: I start to look at those patterns as well. And
54:34
Speaker 1: it's when you when you do that over a lot
54:37
Speaker 1: of years, over a lot of areas, it starts to
54:40
Speaker 1: really kind of lay out a lot of options moving
54:44
Speaker 1: forward from year to year. So not that my whole
54:47
Speaker 1: hunting season has played out and I know where I'm
54:49
Speaker 1: gonna hunt October one, I'm not saying that, but it's
54:52
Speaker 1: it's kind of a it's almost like a tentative layout
54:55
Speaker 1: and things change, you know, in the season, because you're
54:58
Speaker 1: doing in season scouting and other deer show up, or
55:02
Speaker 1: this deer gets killed and you gotta change, or pressure
55:04
Speaker 1: creeps in and changes everything. But you know that's why
55:08
Speaker 1: in season, scouting and being able to move in immediately
55:12
Speaker 1: as important as well. But that's kind of how I
55:16
Speaker 1: organized my pictures. As far as my trail camera gear,
55:19
Speaker 1: I guess I don't really understand the question. I mean,
55:23
Speaker 1: I guess I will, I will. I will answer it
55:25
Speaker 1: myself and then see if that spurs anything for you.
55:28
Speaker 1: As far as that, I simply have to places that
55:33
Speaker 1: I keep my cameras. I've got like a plastic tote,
55:36
Speaker 1: and then I've got actually a bag that was created
55:38
Speaker 1: for trail camera stuff Multure makes. It's kind of like
55:40
Speaker 1: a sling over your shoulder kind of bag that's got
55:43
Speaker 1: padded compartments where you can put cameras, and then there's
55:47
Speaker 1: some side pockets where you can put in batteries or whatever.
55:50
Speaker 1: And then there's actually a really nice little um SD
55:53
Speaker 1: card sleeve or booklet almost where you can put my
55:56
Speaker 1: own twenty SD cards in there. So I put cameras
55:59
Speaker 1: and all my equipment and that, and then this plastic
56:01
Speaker 1: tote I will put whatever other cameras. I have plus
56:04
Speaker 1: extra batteries, plus extra SD cards, plus UM. I usually
56:08
Speaker 1: got a knife in there if I have to cut
56:10
Speaker 1: something as I'm you know, putting up a camera or
56:12
Speaker 1: something like that, or popping out batteries out of the
56:14
Speaker 1: trail camera card or trail camera UM. Also any accessories
56:18
Speaker 1: for mounting, like I'll have lots of stick and pick
56:21
Speaker 1: um mounts sometimes to get you know, on a tree
56:24
Speaker 1: in a certain way off, extra straps and buckles. I
56:27
Speaker 1: try to have all that in this box, and so
56:30
Speaker 1: I will have either both of them with me. If
56:33
Speaker 1: I'm in my a TV or my truck or something,
56:36
Speaker 1: I can have that stuff with me. I'll take the
56:37
Speaker 1: tope with everything. If I'm walking to a spot or
56:41
Speaker 1: if I'm heading out I don't know, for some reason,
56:44
Speaker 1: I can't take the big thing on a TV or something,
56:46
Speaker 1: I'll throw that one over my shoulder. And it's just
56:49
Speaker 1: nice to have like everything you need. Because something that's
56:51
Speaker 1: happened to me a lot, and it always pisces me off,
56:54
Speaker 1: is that I'll go out thinking I'm just pulling a card,
56:57
Speaker 1: and so I'll be in a hurry and I run
56:58
Speaker 1: out there and and I get to the spot, and
57:01
Speaker 1: then I realized you open it up and the camera's dead,
57:04
Speaker 1: and I wasn't prepared and I didn't bring batteries, or
57:07
Speaker 1: I didn't bring an extra SD car or something. I hate.
57:10
Speaker 1: It's happened to me too many times over the years
57:12
Speaker 1: when I got lazy or stupid. So now I'm trying
57:14
Speaker 1: to this is the situation, trying to be over prepared
57:16
Speaker 1: when I go check those cameras, because every time you
57:18
Speaker 1: go in there, you are putting scent on the ground,
57:21
Speaker 1: you are possibly pressuring deer. So I want to be
57:25
Speaker 1: able to minimize those entries as much as possible. I
57:28
Speaker 1: don't want any in and out, in and out stuff.
57:29
Speaker 1: I want to go on once, knock it out exactly
57:31
Speaker 1: what I need, and get out of there as quietly
57:34
Speaker 1: and as carefully as possible. So having a nice little
57:37
Speaker 1: like go bag ready has helped me out with that
57:39
Speaker 1: the last year or two. So that's my gear. As
57:43
Speaker 1: far as pictures for me, pretty similar to you. UM.
57:47
Speaker 1: I have a folder for every property, and then for
57:52
Speaker 1: each property, then I break it down by year, so
57:54
Speaker 1: then I have another folder for every single year, UM,
57:57
Speaker 1: and then I just save pictures of Buck two or older. UM.
58:02
Speaker 1: And I'll get I'll keep every two year old buck
58:05
Speaker 1: or older picture in that folder. Um, and then I
58:09
Speaker 1: haven't organized chronologically. And then sometimes if I get a
58:13
Speaker 1: specific buck I'm after, like you said, I will make
58:16
Speaker 1: a subfolder just for that dear, but I'll keep I'll
58:19
Speaker 1: keep his pictures in the full year one as well,
58:21
Speaker 1: because I still want to go back and sometimes, like
58:23
Speaker 1: you just said, go back and scroll the whole year,
58:26
Speaker 1: and then you'll start to see, you know, like those
58:29
Speaker 1: little windows. Oh man, look at this in two thousand
58:31
Speaker 1: seventeen from the nine all these bucks were moving in
58:35
Speaker 1: daylight for some reason. Um, that's interesting. But then I'll
58:39
Speaker 1: also want to zero it in on that specific buck,
58:41
Speaker 1: and I can do that with with that. I also
58:45
Speaker 1: sometimes will go and use deer lab. So again, if
58:47
Speaker 1: I'm going after a specific buck, I'll bload pictures of
58:50
Speaker 1: that buck to that website where you can analyze specific
58:54
Speaker 1: patterns and you can start tying things together. But I,
58:58
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I find it helpful, and I do it,
59:01
Speaker 1: but I somehow end up going back to my little
59:04
Speaker 1: custom spreadsheet maybe more often. So I also have online
59:09
Speaker 1: spreadsheets for these specific bucks I'm after two where I
59:12
Speaker 1: will log every daylight sighting in every daylight trail camera appearance,
59:17
Speaker 1: and I logged every time there's a daylight sighting of
59:19
Speaker 1: some kind. I log it along with all the weather,
59:21
Speaker 1: all the different factors, where he was, what direction, where
59:24
Speaker 1: he's going, what the wind was doing, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Again,
59:28
Speaker 1: trying to you know, unearth some kind of pattern. So
59:31
Speaker 1: that's what I've gone. Yeah, I'm just saying pretty much
59:34
Speaker 1: the same. Yeah. And as far as like just storing
59:37
Speaker 1: my cameras, they're all they're just all on a tote,
59:40
Speaker 1: well sent free tote, and they go in there to
59:43
Speaker 1: all the batteries come out. They go in there until
59:46
Speaker 1: they're ready to go back out. It's about it. Yeah, alright,
59:50
Speaker 1: rapid fire continuing. We got a question from Scott uh
59:55
Speaker 1: top books that have influenced your success in the field.
59:58
Speaker 1: You got any books, Andy that have helped you? Yeah. Um,
1:00:03
Speaker 1: certainly when I started out, Um that even Hurt books
1:00:08
Speaker 1: were uh, we're influential. Um, mainly like um, you know,
1:00:14
Speaker 1: I hunted maybe a little bit different than John in
1:00:17
Speaker 1: some ways and in some ways not so different, but um,
1:00:21
Speaker 1: they were really influential in the fact that I could
1:00:26
Speaker 1: see how much detail and dedication and time and how
1:00:32
Speaker 1: important scouting was to be consistent, to be consistent on
1:00:36
Speaker 1: mature deer in a in a state like Michigan. So
1:00:39
Speaker 1: it was it was almost like a kind of a
1:00:41
Speaker 1: blueprint of you know, the way, the way he hunted,
1:00:46
Speaker 1: in the effort he put in. So that that was
1:00:48
Speaker 1: a good one. Um, let's see what else. Uh, you know,
1:00:55
Speaker 1: some some of these, some of these are are really
1:00:58
Speaker 1: good for what I would say maybe maybe like beginner
1:01:01
Speaker 1: hunters or maybe people that are just getting past like
1:01:04
Speaker 1: the beginning phase and they're trying to venture out, get
1:01:07
Speaker 1: some new experiences and some new terrain, new habitat. But um,
1:01:11
Speaker 1: I really liked that mapping Trophy White Tails. It's it's
1:01:14
Speaker 1: it's very basic, but it's uh it is it's very
1:01:18
Speaker 1: good in terms of the features of hill country. How
1:01:23
Speaker 1: dear use some of them? Um. You know, if you're
1:01:27
Speaker 1: kind of if you're an experienced hill country you don't
1:01:30
Speaker 1: need that book. Um, but it's a it's a it's
1:01:34
Speaker 1: a very good book for someone that's maybe just getting
1:01:37
Speaker 1: past that beginner phase and going to tackle some hill country.
1:01:40
Speaker 1: I would definitely recommend that. Um. Then there's actually some
1:01:46
Speaker 1: some there. They're mart geared towards out West, like mule
1:01:50
Speaker 1: deer type stuff that that I've really liked. And I
1:01:53
Speaker 1: know that's not what we're talking about here, so but
1:01:55
Speaker 1: probably those two stand out. Um, I really liked more
1:01:59
Speaker 1: for entertainment purposes. The Benoit books, Um, you know, I
1:02:02
Speaker 1: always I have those on the bookshelf. Those are great.
1:02:05
Speaker 1: How to bag the Biggest buck of your life and
1:02:07
Speaker 1: then big Bucks the Benoit Way, Um, those are all
1:02:11
Speaker 1: those are all real good. Um. I really like the
1:02:15
Speaker 1: out West bucks. Uh are the merely Hunting with Dwight
1:02:18
Speaker 1: Sho I've really enjoyed those. He's he's a hunter that
1:02:21
Speaker 1: I kind of kind of a legendary be oldier hunter
1:02:26
Speaker 1: in the mountains that I kind of look up to. Um,
1:02:28
Speaker 1: So I really like that. If if there's a guy
1:02:31
Speaker 1: that's a looking to get into some Western stuff, that's
1:02:34
Speaker 1: a good one. Um yeah, yeah, those are those are
1:02:38
Speaker 1: all good ones. I would echo a couple that you said, Um,
1:02:42
Speaker 1: definitely Eberhart ones. Um Precision Bow Hunting, which was the
1:02:46
Speaker 1: second one they did. I think that is my better
1:02:50
Speaker 1: that's my favorite. And that's the one that was the
1:02:53
Speaker 1: first one I read of theirs, and that was I
1:02:55
Speaker 1: said this many times before, so long time listeners know this,
1:02:57
Speaker 1: but that was like my lightbulb moment. I read that
1:03:00
Speaker 1: book and then everything started clicking. Um, So that one
1:03:04
Speaker 1: for sure. And then my next favorite one of theirs
1:03:06
Speaker 1: is actually the most unique one of their four, which
1:03:09
Speaker 1: is White Tail Access, which is the one that Chris
1:03:11
Speaker 1: Eberhardt wrote, which isn't just a how to, It was
1:03:14
Speaker 1: actually the story of one season where he traveled across
1:03:17
Speaker 1: the country hunting all these different places. And then he
1:03:20
Speaker 1: tells the story of all those hunts and that those trips,
1:03:23
Speaker 1: and then throughout those stories he also kind of describes
1:03:26
Speaker 1: his thought process. He shows maps and diagrams, the how
1:03:29
Speaker 1: too of everything is doing. And that's that's one of
1:03:32
Speaker 1: my absolute favorites where you it's actually it's a fun read.
1:03:34
Speaker 1: You kind of get to go on the hunting season
1:03:36
Speaker 1: with him, but then you also learned something. Um. If
1:03:39
Speaker 1: I ever write a deer hunting book, adjust a deer
1:03:41
Speaker 1: hunting book, I'd wanted to be something like that, um,
1:03:44
Speaker 1: because that was the fun read but but interesting he
1:03:46
Speaker 1: you read that one, Um No, but I have. I've
1:03:49
Speaker 1: had it in my hands and I've kind of you know,
1:03:52
Speaker 1: browsed through it and read a couple of stories, and
1:03:54
Speaker 1: I really like the layout of that. That's one I'll
1:03:56
Speaker 1: have to have to sit down and read. Yeah, you should,
1:03:58
Speaker 1: you should read. You can borrow my cop be some day.
1:04:00
Speaker 1: It's it's a good one. Um. And then I will
1:04:03
Speaker 1: so ebra hard ones for sure. I really like the
1:04:05
Speaker 1: mapping trophy box when you mentioned. And then I will say,
1:04:08
Speaker 1: for the one thing I do different than you, and
1:04:10
Speaker 1: you do a little bit helping out with your buddies,
1:04:12
Speaker 1: but I do a little bit of habitat work, whether
1:04:14
Speaker 1: it be on the back forty or the one other
1:04:15
Speaker 1: local property to have. And so as far as like
1:04:18
Speaker 1: habitat management stuff, um, probably my favorite books on that
1:04:23
Speaker 1: topic are Jeff Sturgises. I really like his analytical, very
1:04:28
Speaker 1: strategic way of approaching different ways to improve a property
1:04:32
Speaker 1: in a way that helps you from hunting perspectives. So
1:04:35
Speaker 1: Whitetail Habitat by Design it was his first one, and
1:04:38
Speaker 1: that's probably my favorite. Um, that'd be one i'd suggest
1:04:41
Speaker 1: if you're going to try that kind of thing, how
1:04:45
Speaker 1: about oh stuff to choose from? But um, all right,
1:04:53
Speaker 1: punisher is this guy's name or handle? Here's a question
1:05:01
Speaker 1: I have. Oh, let me okay, Yeah, I have a
1:05:05
Speaker 1: farm area that I hunt has a high dough population.
1:05:08
Speaker 1: I tried to hunt an exit trail that I watched
1:05:10
Speaker 1: the buck used during a certain wind. But when I
1:05:13
Speaker 1: moved in between the bedding in the field edge the
1:05:15
Speaker 1: doughs in the field, we're catching my scent and blowing
1:05:18
Speaker 1: out like crazy. The bedding is close to the field edge,
1:05:21
Speaker 1: and this buck exits next to a shallow ditch in
1:05:24
Speaker 1: the field. How do you locate a stand when surrounded
1:05:28
Speaker 1: by so many doughs and also set up next to
1:05:33
Speaker 1: something like a ditch that might impact thermals or something
1:05:35
Speaker 1: like that. He's kind of asking, So I think that
1:05:37
Speaker 1: to make it a little more generic, how do you
1:05:39
Speaker 1: go out trying to set up in a scenario We've
1:05:41
Speaker 1: got tons of doughs that are going out to feed
1:05:44
Speaker 1: out into like your open safe space during the first
1:05:47
Speaker 1: part of the afternoon or starting the latter part of
1:05:49
Speaker 1: the afternoon. But then you've got bedding close to that,
1:05:52
Speaker 1: so you your wind can't blow into the timber because
1:05:54
Speaker 1: that's where the box betted. But you don't want to
1:05:57
Speaker 1: blow it in the field because the last hour of
1:05:59
Speaker 1: daylight all the dough is there, gonna be there's gonna
1:06:00
Speaker 1: be that go out there, and then they're gonna wind
1:06:03
Speaker 1: you and then buck never comes out. This is a
1:06:04
Speaker 1: scenari I found myself in a lot on one of
1:06:06
Speaker 1: the properties that hunt. Um, how do you how do
1:06:10
Speaker 1: you try to do that? That this this weird wind
1:06:12
Speaker 1: cutting corner stuff. It's one of those big challenges for
1:06:14
Speaker 1: a lot of guys. Yeah. Yeah, that's a tough situation
1:06:18
Speaker 1: when you have a really uh abnormally high amount of
1:06:24
Speaker 1: doze um, like your ratio is as out of whack,
1:06:27
Speaker 1: and it makes it really tricky. There's so many eyes
1:06:30
Speaker 1: and and knows is that you gotta beat, you know,
1:06:32
Speaker 1: before the buck. Um. So I guess in that situation,
1:06:36
Speaker 1: like I almost would never um hunt that type of
1:06:40
Speaker 1: situation with my wind blowing right out in the field,
1:06:43
Speaker 1: especially if I knew, dear we're gonna be entering the field.
1:06:45
Speaker 1: I would try to get like maybe some sort of
1:06:47
Speaker 1: cross wind um type scenario and enter, you know, in
1:06:51
Speaker 1: from the side. Um. It reminds me a lot of
1:06:54
Speaker 1: some of the areas I hunt in UM A couple
1:06:57
Speaker 1: areas specifically in northern Ohio, and you know, entering entering
1:07:01
Speaker 1: through the field and going into the woods. Um, you know,
1:07:05
Speaker 1: with the with the wind kind of in your face,
1:07:07
Speaker 1: bow and back out in the field. It's it's a
1:07:08
Speaker 1: kind of a recipe for failure. Um. It's what I
1:07:12
Speaker 1: found is I'm much more effective if I can come
1:07:15
Speaker 1: in from the side like kind of a hunt, like
1:07:17
Speaker 1: a side wind, and then hunt perpendicular to the travel um.
1:07:23
Speaker 1: And and the wind also, you know, per kind of perpendicular. Um.
1:07:28
Speaker 1: So like, uh, you got you gotta How do I
1:07:31
Speaker 1: explain this? It's kind of hard without being able to
1:07:34
Speaker 1: like show a map or something. But if the if
1:07:37
Speaker 1: the wind is just blowing like straight out into the field, um,
1:07:41
Speaker 1: and you're kind of off to the side, you know
1:07:44
Speaker 1: you can you can get away with it a little bit.
1:07:45
Speaker 1: But a lot of times I'll I'll cheat the wind
1:07:48
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. Well, that's a tough that's a
1:07:51
Speaker 1: tough question. I'm kind of fumbling over my words here
1:07:53
Speaker 1: because I keep thinking of all these different scenarios. Is
1:07:57
Speaker 1: he saying the wind has to be blown out into
1:07:59
Speaker 1: the field. I don't know. If can you hunt it
1:08:01
Speaker 1: from a different wind. Let's say you can. Let's say
1:08:03
Speaker 1: you can hunt it from a different wind or whatever
1:08:05
Speaker 1: scenario you want to paint. Yeah, Okay, So like if
1:08:09
Speaker 1: that was happening, if the wind, if you're hunting it
1:08:12
Speaker 1: and the winds blowing out in the field and you're
1:08:14
Speaker 1: getting caught, Like, that's not a scenario I would set
1:08:17
Speaker 1: up for anymore. I'd use more of a like an
1:08:18
Speaker 1: off wind or a or a perpendicular wind, like blowing
1:08:22
Speaker 1: to the side. I guess, um, you know, try to
1:08:25
Speaker 1: try to hunt that movement coming in perpendicular instead of
1:08:28
Speaker 1: like in line with it. Meaning you know, if deer
1:08:31
Speaker 1: coming out and coming by me, um, and then they
1:08:36
Speaker 1: end up behind me and that's right where my wind
1:08:38
Speaker 1: is blowing, that's that's not gonna work. But you can
1:08:41
Speaker 1: hunt kind of to the side of that travel with
1:08:43
Speaker 1: the wind in your face, and you could be perfect,
1:08:46
Speaker 1: perfectly fine. Um. So it's it's it's a matter of
1:08:49
Speaker 1: just finding that that perfect position, Um, you know, where
1:08:54
Speaker 1: you can be where you can get away with that.
1:08:56
Speaker 1: I guess one thing I will say, in areas that
1:08:59
Speaker 1: have really high deer density, um, from my experience, a
1:09:05
Speaker 1: lot of times, like you know, there's a big emphasis
1:09:07
Speaker 1: on you know, getting close to buck beds and stuff.
1:09:09
Speaker 1: But I've hunted some really high deer density stuff to
1:09:12
Speaker 1: the east, um, the east part of the country, and
1:09:16
Speaker 1: that's a really difficult um set up, is getting close
1:09:22
Speaker 1: to where the bucks are betted because there's so many deer.
1:09:25
Speaker 1: So what I found is the better approach is to
1:09:27
Speaker 1: hunt way way back because there's so such high competition
1:09:32
Speaker 1: that you know, this group of deer, the younger deer
1:09:34
Speaker 1: and does get up first, then the younger bucks, and
1:09:36
Speaker 1: then those big bucks will get up and move, assuming
1:09:39
Speaker 1: all the other deer have, you know, traveled undisturbed. So
1:09:43
Speaker 1: I've actually had a really good success at older deer hunting,
1:09:47
Speaker 1: hunting back like where I would never hunt in Michigan,
1:09:50
Speaker 1: closer to the food source or way away from the bedding.
1:09:54
Speaker 1: You know, I don't, I don't. I'm talking on like
1:09:56
Speaker 1: a bed defeat pattern, but backing off and letting all
1:09:59
Speaker 1: those dear um and and hopefully you know you got
1:10:02
Speaker 1: your wind and your setup right, and then you're just
1:10:04
Speaker 1: patient and waiting for all the deer to come or
1:10:06
Speaker 1: come through. That's kind of how I got killed my
1:10:08
Speaker 1: buck last year. Yeah, But as far as uh, I
1:10:14
Speaker 1: don't know, I hope, I hope that's clear it's a
1:10:16
Speaker 1: it's kind of a tricky question because I wasn't sure
1:10:19
Speaker 1: where he was going with that with the wind. But
1:10:20
Speaker 1: I wouldn't hunt like in line where my wind is
1:10:24
Speaker 1: blowing out into the field. If if deer we're gonna
1:10:26
Speaker 1: end up in the field, you gotta think of it
1:10:27
Speaker 1: in terms of you gotta stay undetected for that buck
1:10:31
Speaker 1: to you know, if he's gonna come out, you've got
1:10:34
Speaker 1: to stay undetected. Or if it's a situation where you can't,
1:10:37
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I wouldn't hunt it. I only hunt the
1:10:39
Speaker 1: wind where I could do that, And it might it
1:10:41
Speaker 1: might mean if there's no tree, it might mean you're
1:10:45
Speaker 1: you're crawling, or you're hunched over and you're sneaking in
1:10:49
Speaker 1: and you're hunting from the ground, or you're hunting from
1:10:51
Speaker 1: a you know, inside of a behind some some cover
1:10:54
Speaker 1: or something. Whatever you gotta do to get in the
1:10:56
Speaker 1: spot where you can utilize that wind and stay undetected it. Now,
1:11:00
Speaker 1: as far as he said that the deer was entering
1:11:03
Speaker 1: from a ditch, I'm assuming low he's entering the field
1:11:06
Speaker 1: at the low spot. That can be tricky. What you
1:11:09
Speaker 1: want to do in those situations is do not hunt
1:11:12
Speaker 1: it on a calm evening. You need you need an
1:11:15
Speaker 1: evening where there's a stiff enough breeze that it's going
1:11:18
Speaker 1: to override those thermals like I've been burned so many
1:11:20
Speaker 1: times where you know, it says there's gonna be you know,
1:11:23
Speaker 1: ten to eight mile per hour winds, and I set
1:11:25
Speaker 1: up in a situation like that and then it just
1:11:28
Speaker 1: the last twenty minutes, it goes down to nothing, and
1:11:32
Speaker 1: then everything pulls down in that area, and then I
1:11:34
Speaker 1: hear a deer snort, and you know the game is over.
1:11:37
Speaker 1: So you really got to pick and choose. Don't just go,
1:11:40
Speaker 1: you know, hunt that set up Willie nearly on any night.
1:11:44
Speaker 1: Really look at the forecast, see what the winds doing,
1:11:46
Speaker 1: make sure it's consistent, make sure it's blowing into an
1:11:49
Speaker 1: area that's unlikely to have deer get down wind of you.
1:11:55
Speaker 1: So that that's I guess that's how I tackle that question.
1:11:57
Speaker 1: I could I could go more ways with it, but
1:11:59
Speaker 1: you know, I was a little confused at first, but
1:12:02
Speaker 1: I think that kind of touches on it. Yeah, I
1:12:04
Speaker 1: would just I would like the simple way I would
1:12:07
Speaker 1: look at it is that you either you you got
1:12:11
Speaker 1: to give up something. Either you give give up nothing,
1:12:15
Speaker 1: and by that I mean you you just choose not
1:12:17
Speaker 1: to hunt it, because you can't hunt that spot without
1:12:19
Speaker 1: spooking to any deer, and if you're spooking all those dose,
1:12:21
Speaker 1: you're spooking the buck. So maybe that's the spot you
1:12:23
Speaker 1: just can't hunt. Um or number two, you have to
1:12:27
Speaker 1: give up something, and so you just use whatever intel
1:12:31
Speaker 1: in past history. You have to determine where the lowest
1:12:34
Speaker 1: risk spot is. And then as you describe hunting off
1:12:38
Speaker 1: wind that rather than blowing straight out into the field
1:12:41
Speaker 1: instead comes parallel to the field, blowing cross ways. And
1:12:45
Speaker 1: then get as far down as you can so that
1:12:48
Speaker 1: you know you've got you know, two seventy degrees or
1:12:53
Speaker 1: something like that of safe space and just that small
1:12:57
Speaker 1: wedge down to the other side of the field that
1:13:00
Speaker 1: is you know, at risk, and hopefully that's going to
1:13:02
Speaker 1: be the spot that is least likely to have to
1:13:05
Speaker 1: have deer coming out there. But but I have this
1:13:07
Speaker 1: exact scenario that plays out on one of the properties
1:13:10
Speaker 1: that hunt and it's a spot that I've seen bucks
1:13:14
Speaker 1: that I want to take a crack come out when
1:13:16
Speaker 1: I'm not there, and so I always try to give
1:13:17
Speaker 1: it a shot, you know, once a year something, depending
1:13:20
Speaker 1: on what's going on, and it is really hard to
1:13:23
Speaker 1: pull off. Um, I've had to below my wind cross
1:13:27
Speaker 1: and into the woods a little bit, but knowing that's
1:13:30
Speaker 1: the one least likely corner that they usually don't come out.
1:13:33
Speaker 1: So as I've gotten to figure out the spot better,
1:13:35
Speaker 1: I know the winds, I can hunt more safely now
1:13:37
Speaker 1: on it. But it is a little bit of a
1:13:39
Speaker 1: risky proposition when you have so many deer. But you know,
1:13:43
Speaker 1: if you're spooking, if you're spooking those doughs, it's it's
1:13:47
Speaker 1: just as bad as spooking the bucks sometimes when there's
1:13:49
Speaker 1: that many deer because you get that cascade effect where
1:13:52
Speaker 1: you spook that first group of tendos that comes out
1:13:55
Speaker 1: and they push everything back when they run in into
1:13:58
Speaker 1: the woods, and then your bucks never gonna come on. So, yeah,
1:14:03
Speaker 1: it is, that's a good question. It's it's it's really
1:14:05
Speaker 1: it's kind of that situation. Is it can be really
1:14:09
Speaker 1: high risk, higher reward, like if I'm gonna move in
1:14:11
Speaker 1: and it's a it's a touchy situation like that. I
1:14:13
Speaker 1: want to be I want to be sure, like if
1:14:16
Speaker 1: if I saw that do that a few times, or
1:14:18
Speaker 1: I have some intel that he had done that. You know,
1:14:21
Speaker 1: I would absolutely move in and and give that a shot.
1:14:24
Speaker 1: But just do like what you said and try to
1:14:26
Speaker 1: keep that wind blowing into the least likely spot where
1:14:29
Speaker 1: a deer will get down wind, and there's usually you
1:14:31
Speaker 1: can usually do that, you know. Um, it's just sometimes
1:14:35
Speaker 1: you gotta get creative. There might not be a tree there,
1:14:37
Speaker 1: or I like what you said to it just might
1:14:39
Speaker 1: not be the spot. It might not be the spot
1:14:41
Speaker 1: to kill him, which is a tough thing to kind
1:14:43
Speaker 1: of terms with. It's really hard. It's really hard to
1:14:46
Speaker 1: give up on a spot if it if it looks good,
1:14:49
Speaker 1: or if you know, if you've gotten pictures of a
1:14:52
Speaker 1: buck there, or if you've seen a buck there, it's
1:14:53
Speaker 1: really hard to take that off the off the table
1:14:57
Speaker 1: as an option. But again, if you keep on educating
1:15:00
Speaker 1: them every time you go there, you're never gonna get
1:15:02
Speaker 1: the shot, even though you see him every time you're
1:15:04
Speaker 1: not hunting there. Um, sometimes you get know when to
1:15:07
Speaker 1: pull the plug. Okay, seth asks, And this is a situation.
1:15:14
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can really answer this one,
1:15:16
Speaker 1: because I don't know if I've hunted this scenario. I
1:15:18
Speaker 1: gotta think about a little more, but I don't think
1:15:19
Speaker 1: I've hunted. Yeah, I've found something kind of like this,
1:15:23
Speaker 1: but I know you for sure have um seth asks.
1:15:27
Speaker 1: What are some tips you have for scouting or hunting
1:15:30
Speaker 1: a sixty acre woods or let's just say a small
1:15:33
Speaker 1: chunk of timber that's surrounded by agg on all four sides.
1:15:36
Speaker 1: He hunts in Ohio. So this is a situation. I
1:15:39
Speaker 1: know a lot of guys deal with up in northwestern
1:15:41
Speaker 1: Ohio where there's tons of agg and then there's these
1:15:44
Speaker 1: small wood lots, like a little square wood lot ten
1:15:46
Speaker 1: acres or forty acres, and then it's agg all the
1:15:49
Speaker 1: way around it. Um, what are some tipts for scouting
1:15:52
Speaker 1: hunting something like that. He says that he gets deer
1:15:55
Speaker 1: and camera all summer, but then their patterns changing the
1:15:57
Speaker 1: fall and they disappear. Um, what's your take on those
1:16:01
Speaker 1: isolated wood lots surrounded by egg? Yeah? I get the
1:16:05
Speaker 1: same experience. Um. You know, I'll scout out bachelard group
1:16:10
Speaker 1: of bucks all summer. Um. And at least I'm assuming
1:16:15
Speaker 1: you know, if he might hunt a fairly similar area
1:16:18
Speaker 1: where I hunt in Ohio, where the farming communities. They're
1:16:21
Speaker 1: just really aggressive and they'll a lot of times get
1:16:23
Speaker 1: the food out really fast, sometimes like right as season opens,
1:16:27
Speaker 1: and it just changes everything. You know. And those those
1:16:30
Speaker 1: wood lots in the area where it's a lot of
1:16:33
Speaker 1: little wood lots, you know, my and his and and
1:16:37
Speaker 1: every other hunter, their first instinct is to go and
1:16:40
Speaker 1: hunt those wood lots. And the mature deer figure that
1:16:45
Speaker 1: out really quick. And I have killed, uh, outside of
1:16:53
Speaker 1: the all of my mature deer in that part of Ohio. Um,
1:17:00
Speaker 1: outside of those woodlots on the ground. Um, I've killed
1:17:05
Speaker 1: a couple from a tree, but they were more like
1:17:07
Speaker 1: kind of late October rut type thing funnels. But if
1:17:11
Speaker 1: you if that, if you look outside of those woodlots,
1:17:14
Speaker 1: think of those woodlots as they get a lot of
1:17:16
Speaker 1: traffic from humans, other hunters, et cetera. Unless you're in
1:17:20
Speaker 1: an area that has really low bow pressure for some reason,
1:17:22
Speaker 1: then they could be good. Um, sixty acres is pretty big.
1:17:25
Speaker 1: That's a lot bigger than anything I have up around here.
1:17:28
Speaker 1: But um, the ditches and the drainages and the hedgerows
1:17:33
Speaker 1: that connect all these woodlots, the little island of trees
1:17:37
Speaker 1: the cornfield edges, the clump of trees that's on the
1:17:40
Speaker 1: edge of the corn field. Um that by you know
1:17:44
Speaker 1: the bisects like a corn and bean field, like where
1:17:47
Speaker 1: the edge meats and there's a clump of trees there.
1:17:50
Speaker 1: These are the spots where I find the big bucks lay.
1:17:53
Speaker 1: And that's where that's where I've been able to to
1:17:58
Speaker 1: scout these deer and get on these deer and kill
1:18:00
Speaker 1: him from the ground. Um. That's not to say this
1:18:03
Speaker 1: woodlock couldn't be good if there's you know, maybe some
1:18:07
Speaker 1: oaks in there and there's nobody hunting it and it
1:18:10
Speaker 1: gets relatively low pressure. But it sounds like he's seeing
1:18:14
Speaker 1: them in the summer and then there's just kind of
1:18:16
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. Um. Up around here is a
1:18:20
Speaker 1: fairly low deer density. And once that food starts coming
1:18:23
Speaker 1: out early season, and it comes out early, like the
1:18:25
Speaker 1: first few days of the boat season, and it starts
1:18:28
Speaker 1: coming out really quick the deer. A lot of the
1:18:31
Speaker 1: deer travel and they almost do like almost like a
1:18:34
Speaker 1: little migration and gravitate towards those big chumps of private
1:18:40
Speaker 1: property that have just that supreme cover or these like
1:18:43
Speaker 1: little metroparks, like little parks where there's no hunting that
1:18:46
Speaker 1: are within like five miles all of a sudden, you know,
1:18:50
Speaker 1: some of these deer are are literally traveling. They're very
1:18:53
Speaker 1: nomadic in that type of situation, and they'll they'll they'll
1:18:56
Speaker 1: go to these these properties that have much better cover
1:19:01
Speaker 1: or lighter pressure, um and they'll they'll travel um and
1:19:06
Speaker 1: and totally relocate. But if it's a if it's a
1:19:10
Speaker 1: situation like last year it was really wet and a
1:19:12
Speaker 1: lot of those crops and everything stood uh stayed standing
1:19:16
Speaker 1: into November, early November, then you could still be in
1:19:19
Speaker 1: for a good hunt, especially if there's like corn and
1:19:22
Speaker 1: beans and good food like around those wood lots. Um.
1:19:25
Speaker 1: So last year I saw a lot of the deer
1:19:27
Speaker 1: hung around, you know, these hedgerows and these ditches and stuff.
1:19:31
Speaker 1: But if he's having trouble finding them in that particular
1:19:35
Speaker 1: wood lot, and maybe that that wood lots kind of
1:19:37
Speaker 1: like mature timber, there's not maybe not a real good
1:19:40
Speaker 1: food source or anything in there, or or just good
1:19:43
Speaker 1: thick betting you know, betting cover. Look outside of that,
1:19:47
Speaker 1: Look at the little the little features, the little drainages,
1:19:52
Speaker 1: the little ditches, the little creeks, um and and focus
1:19:56
Speaker 1: on those and really walk those, and that's where these
1:19:59
Speaker 1: deer will high and they will they will bed in
1:20:01
Speaker 1: those are behind the old abandoned farmhouse, um you know,
1:20:05
Speaker 1: in actually in the standing corn you know, where you
1:20:09
Speaker 1: see like a little island of trees or a soil
1:20:11
Speaker 1: where the farmer couldn't plant. These are the spots that
1:20:13
Speaker 1: these these bigger, mature bucks are hiding. Like I said,
1:20:16
Speaker 1: outside the rut. Every year i've shot down there has
1:20:18
Speaker 1: been from the ground. It's pretty interesting. And I haven't
1:20:21
Speaker 1: hunted that kind of country where it's so much eggland
1:20:27
Speaker 1: and just those small wood lots like that. But I
1:20:28
Speaker 1: know a guy talked to a few years ago that
1:20:30
Speaker 1: hunted something just like that same kind of area of
1:20:33
Speaker 1: Ohio we're talking, and he did something very similar to you,
1:20:37
Speaker 1: and that he only hunted fields, and the only hunted ditches,
1:20:42
Speaker 1: and he was using trag gear hunting on the ground,
1:20:45
Speaker 1: hunting ditches, just hunting along little creeks or whatever that
1:20:48
Speaker 1: run through or swales that run through standing corn fields.
1:20:52
Speaker 1: And he killed some really nice bucks like that. So
1:20:54
Speaker 1: I think that makes a lot of sense because the challenge,
1:20:56
Speaker 1: I think, as he alluded to, with a lot of
1:20:58
Speaker 1: those relatively small wood pots. Is either a the corn
1:21:02
Speaker 1: comes out and then there's these little tiny islands to cover,
1:21:05
Speaker 1: and it's really hard to penetrate into there at all
1:21:08
Speaker 1: without spook and deer out the other side. And so
1:21:11
Speaker 1: either the too open the whole deer or you spook
1:21:14
Speaker 1: everything when you go in there, or you know it's
1:21:16
Speaker 1: just so wide open that they never come out. So
1:21:19
Speaker 1: so yes, I really like your idea of of attacking
1:21:21
Speaker 1: it from a different angle. That makes a lot of sense.
1:21:25
Speaker 1: Here's one that's kind of, um, kind of similar. JB
1:21:31
Speaker 1: asks what terrain feature or piece of deer sign has
1:21:36
Speaker 1: brought to you the most consistent sightings or opportunities and
1:21:40
Speaker 1: is this different for different times of the year. Um.
1:21:42
Speaker 1: And when I hear this, the first thing I jumped to,
1:21:45
Speaker 1: if I had to pick something would be I'm probably
1:21:52
Speaker 1: gonna go with dope bedding areas because from late October
1:21:57
Speaker 1: through November, it's it's some thing that's universal. You can
1:22:01
Speaker 1: find that anywhere you go. Whether we're hunting in Nebraska
1:22:04
Speaker 1: or we're hunting in Montana or Maryland or Michigan or Ohio,
1:22:08
Speaker 1: there's gonna be doe betting areas somewhere Like that's a
1:22:11
Speaker 1: great starting point if you're hunting a new place and
1:22:13
Speaker 1: you're trying to figure it out, and if you're hunting
1:22:16
Speaker 1: anywhere within that pre rut to rut to post rut
1:22:19
Speaker 1: kind of time period, there's gonna be bucks that relate
1:22:22
Speaker 1: to doe betting ears. Like that's just a it's gonna
1:22:24
Speaker 1: happen no matter where you are, So it's a really
1:22:26
Speaker 1: good thing to to look at as a starting point
1:22:30
Speaker 1: there at least that's that's gets a hub, I know,
1:22:32
Speaker 1: like buck beds are hub, but doe betting airs are
1:22:35
Speaker 1: hub too, because where those doughs are for most of
1:22:37
Speaker 1: the day is where the bucks want to be um
1:22:40
Speaker 1: and you can figure those out relatively easily, probably more
1:22:44
Speaker 1: easily than you can in some cases find bucks because
1:22:48
Speaker 1: you know those doughs typically are bedded in spots, they
1:22:52
Speaker 1: are a little bit easier to get to. You don't
1:22:54
Speaker 1: need to go as far into nasty stuff and possibly
1:22:57
Speaker 1: spook stuff. So that's that's a piece of intel you
1:23:01
Speaker 1: can pick up with a little less impact and know
1:23:04
Speaker 1: that bucks will be relating to it in some way,
1:23:06
Speaker 1: you know, coming into it from a downwind side sent
1:23:09
Speaker 1: checking it trying to get in and around there at
1:23:12
Speaker 1: some point. So if I think back on a lot
1:23:15
Speaker 1: of my hunts, anything that's within that rut larger window
1:23:20
Speaker 1: almost always in some ways related to a doe betting area.
1:23:23
Speaker 1: So I think that would be my my first, my
1:23:26
Speaker 1: first crack at that one. Yeah. I think that's a
1:23:29
Speaker 1: great answer, um. That that if a guid did nothing else,
1:23:35
Speaker 1: you know, and only hunted the rut and hunted just
1:23:37
Speaker 1: doe betting areas, that's a great strategy, you know what
1:23:40
Speaker 1: I mean. That's I love doe betting areas specifically, you know,
1:23:43
Speaker 1: kind of like getting in there in the interior of
1:23:45
Speaker 1: the down wind side, favoring the downwind side a little bit. Um.
1:23:49
Speaker 1: And then you know those those those situations where you've
1:23:53
Speaker 1: got to maybe to dynamite doe betting areas that that
1:23:57
Speaker 1: are connected uh with with some sort of fun like
1:24:00
Speaker 1: kind of river bottom ground or you know, a creek bottom,
1:24:03
Speaker 1: or or maybe just a pinch where the woods narrows down.
1:24:06
Speaker 1: Another great one, um, I mean those those edges, those
1:24:11
Speaker 1: downwind edges and those funnels. I mean they probably almost
1:24:17
Speaker 1: almost every kill you could relate as somehow to some
1:24:20
Speaker 1: sort of edge or funnel, you know that kind of
1:24:22
Speaker 1: pinches down movement um or or encourages that type of movement. Um,
1:24:29
Speaker 1: there's no real there's no real. H I wouldn't. I
1:24:32
Speaker 1: wouldn't say a bucket bed because buckbeds are all different,
1:24:36
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, you got the ones in the swamps,
1:24:38
Speaker 1: and you got the ones you know, in the corn
1:24:40
Speaker 1: and in the marshes and everything. So I really like
1:24:43
Speaker 1: your answer as far as the best of the best,
1:24:46
Speaker 1: that's that's gonna that's gonna give you good action for
1:24:50
Speaker 1: nearly four weeks of the season. Yeah, Um, okay, well
1:24:57
Speaker 1: let me see here here one is more directed at you,
1:25:01
Speaker 1: but I might be able to give it, give something
1:25:04
Speaker 1: to it. Tim says that in a different podcast that
1:25:07
Speaker 1: you did with Jesse Coots, you mentioned that you had
1:25:12
Speaker 1: sought out Jesse's advice to work on a weakness of yours,
1:25:16
Speaker 1: which you had said to be hunting in the early season. Possibly, Uh,
1:25:20
Speaker 1: that was in the past. What weakness would you say
1:25:23
Speaker 1: you want to improve on now? If there is anything
1:25:26
Speaker 1: else that you're working on next? Um, I still feel
1:25:31
Speaker 1: like I a couple of years ago, UM, when I
1:25:35
Speaker 1: really kind of looked back over my hunting seasons and
1:25:39
Speaker 1: all the year I've killed. You know, there's certainly have
1:25:43
Speaker 1: been you know, quite a few killed during the rut,
1:25:46
Speaker 1: certainly quite a few and kind of that mid October
1:25:49
Speaker 1: time frame, and certainly quite a few in the early season,
1:25:53
Speaker 1: you know, and then there was like this this kind
1:25:55
Speaker 1: of gap you know later in the season. Um, you know,
1:26:00
Speaker 1: from maybe well, I mean really it was kind of
1:26:04
Speaker 1: like from mid November through the end of season there
1:26:07
Speaker 1: was just I had I have killed. So but it
1:26:10
Speaker 1: was like a handful you know, over you know, twenty
1:26:13
Speaker 1: some years. It just wasn't It just wasn't a time
1:26:16
Speaker 1: of the season where I was very effective. And a
1:26:21
Speaker 1: lot of that has to do with just not having, um,
1:26:24
Speaker 1: you know, areas that are are conducive to good late
1:26:27
Speaker 1: season hunting, and you know, a lot of it comes
1:26:29
Speaker 1: down to having good food available and that. And I
1:26:32
Speaker 1: realized that. So what I what I've tried doing the
1:26:35
Speaker 1: last few years was to start traveling, um during that
1:26:40
Speaker 1: time of year to some other states that maybe have
1:26:44
Speaker 1: a little bit higher deer density, UM, maybe a little
1:26:48
Speaker 1: bit lower pressure, maybe a little bit higher selection of
1:26:52
Speaker 1: older deer, and UM I've started to the last few years,
1:26:58
Speaker 1: I've killed some some really good like mature, like truly mature,
1:27:03
Speaker 1: like five six year old dear that I believe UM
1:27:08
Speaker 1: in the late season. So I've used that I've kind
1:27:11
Speaker 1: of left Michigan because it's just one of those I
1:27:14
Speaker 1: don't know, it's just one of those time frames I
1:27:15
Speaker 1: really struggle with here. But I think it has more
1:27:17
Speaker 1: to do with like the quality of the areas that
1:27:21
Speaker 1: I hunt and uh and lack there of of food.
1:27:25
Speaker 1: So I started traveling to those areas where it's just
1:27:27
Speaker 1: a little bit more target rich environment and you can
1:27:30
Speaker 1: you can kind of go and implement some of those
1:27:35
Speaker 1: strategies that you hear, you know, some of the guys
1:27:38
Speaker 1: that live in some of these other states that maybe
1:27:41
Speaker 1: your traditional big buck states are less pressure and you
1:27:44
Speaker 1: hear these strategies about post route or late season. Well,
1:27:48
Speaker 1: I've been able to go to some of these other
1:27:50
Speaker 1: states and actually put those practices to use and have
1:27:53
Speaker 1: some success. So that that's probably still my weakness and
1:27:58
Speaker 1: and something I'm still trying to get two better at
1:28:01
Speaker 1: and more experience with it. Honestly, I just needed more
1:28:04
Speaker 1: experience with that. UM. Like I said, in Michigan, a
1:28:08
Speaker 1: lot of times you're limited to these really smaller areas,
1:28:12
Speaker 1: and um, I mean if the deer there, they're not there,
1:28:14
Speaker 1: You're not gonna There's nothing you can do to kill
1:28:16
Speaker 1: a big mature buck there if they're not there. So
1:28:20
Speaker 1: so I went to areas where there's more of those
1:28:24
Speaker 1: and I can you know, track them down, basically on
1:28:26
Speaker 1: them down. Oh yeah, well, so much of this stuff
1:28:29
Speaker 1: is location dependent. When it comes right down to what
1:28:32
Speaker 1: you just said, I mean, you can't kill them if
1:28:33
Speaker 1: they're not there. And it is nice when you go
1:28:37
Speaker 1: to these different states, these different areas. It's it's very
1:28:41
Speaker 1: different than we deal with here in Michigan, as we
1:28:43
Speaker 1: both know. And uh, it's pretty fun when you find
1:28:46
Speaker 1: yourself in that kind of scenario. Yeah. Um, you know,
1:28:51
Speaker 1: I think one of the windows that I want to
1:28:53
Speaker 1: work on, as you started talking about times of year, UM,
1:28:57
Speaker 1: I found that I I really like the very very
1:29:01
Speaker 1: beginning of the season, early season. I really feel strongly
1:29:03
Speaker 1: about how I approach it. I feel like I've got
1:29:05
Speaker 1: a good thing nailed down, and I you know, if
1:29:07
Speaker 1: I've got some spots, I can get a crack of something. Um.
1:29:11
Speaker 1: And then again when it comes into pre rut. In
1:29:13
Speaker 1: the rut, I've got it. When it comes to late season.
1:29:17
Speaker 1: It's very spot dependent, like you just said, but I've
1:29:19
Speaker 1: always got at least one place that i know it's
1:29:21
Speaker 1: going to be pretty decent late season because I've got,
1:29:24
Speaker 1: you know, some control over it. So I've been able
1:29:27
Speaker 1: to find some local success on one of my late
1:29:29
Speaker 1: season spots. But for me, my wood window of weakness
1:29:34
Speaker 1: has probably always been um like mid October. You know.
1:29:38
Speaker 1: I usually I usually hit it hard the first few
1:29:40
Speaker 1: days of the season, and then once you get into
1:29:44
Speaker 1: that second week or even like the fourth day of
1:29:47
Speaker 1: October on until like the twenties of October, I have
1:29:54
Speaker 1: either I'd say two things. I said Number one, For
1:29:56
Speaker 1: a lot of years, I just was too risk averse
1:29:59
Speaker 1: at that time of year, and I was just worried,
1:30:01
Speaker 1: you know, the the October lull thing kept me from
1:30:04
Speaker 1: hitting stuff hard for a lot for a lot of years,
1:30:07
Speaker 1: and so I just stayed out for a long time.
1:30:09
Speaker 1: And then I've tried to as i've as I've kind
1:30:12
Speaker 1: of gotten more and more comfortable and seeing more and
1:30:15
Speaker 1: more examples of the fact that hey, yeah there's there's
1:30:18
Speaker 1: a shift there, but there's certainly still dear to be
1:30:20
Speaker 1: killed for sure. Um, I've started hunting more at that
1:30:23
Speaker 1: time of year, but I still probably have been tiptoeing.
1:30:27
Speaker 1: And a lot of that is because the spots that
1:30:32
Speaker 1: I end up hunting in many cases are the spots
1:30:35
Speaker 1: that I'm also still wanting to try to hunt in
1:30:38
Speaker 1: the rut, and so I'm not willing to blow it out.
1:30:40
Speaker 1: So I a couple of years I've said I'm gonna
1:30:43
Speaker 1: do this, and then stuff gets crazy or work or
1:30:45
Speaker 1: life for whatever, and I don't I'm doing it. But
1:30:48
Speaker 1: I want to dedicate more time from October four through October.
1:30:53
Speaker 1: I really want to get time and experience killing bucks
1:30:56
Speaker 1: from October four to within that window because I know
1:30:59
Speaker 1: it can be done, and I know it can be risky.
1:31:02
Speaker 1: So I just need to find spots where I'm okay
1:31:04
Speaker 1: swinging and missing a few times metaphorically um, and not
1:31:09
Speaker 1: screw up my rut plans. So that means traveling different places,
1:31:13
Speaker 1: or that means hunting some public stuff that I'm not
1:31:15
Speaker 1: as worried about. Um, But that's a window where I'd
1:31:18
Speaker 1: like to get more aggressive and and be more risk
1:31:21
Speaker 1: tolerant because I know I know people are doing it.
1:31:23
Speaker 1: I know I can do it. I just need to
1:31:25
Speaker 1: be willing to get in there and do it. So
1:31:26
Speaker 1: that's that's one of my areas I want to work on. Yeah,
1:31:29
Speaker 1: that's a good one. That's a that's that time of
1:31:32
Speaker 1: year that could be tricky and when really zeroing in
1:31:36
Speaker 1: you know on those those those buck beds that you
1:31:40
Speaker 1: have scouted and found in the past, that's like a
1:31:43
Speaker 1: great time to start bouncing around on those. And and
1:31:46
Speaker 1: I totally understand, like you know, in your situation, it's
1:31:49
Speaker 1: not something maybe you want to do like some of
1:31:52
Speaker 1: your your home turf. I guess um, you know, because
1:31:56
Speaker 1: you don't want to screw up maybe what could be
1:31:58
Speaker 1: the best time of year. But if you do, you know,
1:32:02
Speaker 1: for guys listening, you know, you know, take a page
1:32:05
Speaker 1: out of like Dan Infalts book where you know he
1:32:09
Speaker 1: has scouted so many of these buck beds, you know,
1:32:13
Speaker 1: over years and years now he's got this big library
1:32:16
Speaker 1: of buck beds and he can systematically hunt those on
1:32:20
Speaker 1: that you know, at the times of the year like
1:32:21
Speaker 1: this when uh that you're talking about, when the bucks
1:32:24
Speaker 1: aren't moving far, but they're in there, they're bedded somewhere,
1:32:27
Speaker 1: and you know, with some with some scouting and reading
1:32:30
Speaker 1: some fresh sign and maybe using a little truck cameras,
1:32:33
Speaker 1: you can zero in on where these deer are likely betted,
1:32:38
Speaker 1: and then it's just a matter of getting in into
1:32:40
Speaker 1: that window where you can encounter them in daylight and uh,
1:32:44
Speaker 1: that time of year. That's just I'm really kind of
1:32:47
Speaker 1: I'm doing a lot of in season scouting, but I'm
1:32:49
Speaker 1: I'm hunting a lot of those those buck beds that
1:32:52
Speaker 1: I've scouted that maybe I don't always know if it's
1:32:56
Speaker 1: a mature buck um betted there, or maybe I don't
1:33:00
Speaker 1: know for sure that you know he's bettered there, but
1:33:03
Speaker 1: I'll give it a sit because it was a really
1:33:05
Speaker 1: well used buckbed um And on other scenarios it might
1:33:09
Speaker 1: be where, hey, I'm still getting picture of this deer.
1:33:13
Speaker 1: I know he's in the area, he's likely betted here,
1:33:15
Speaker 1: and the conditions are right, the little drop in temperature,
1:33:19
Speaker 1: the winds perfect, I'm going in to hunt this particular bed.
1:33:22
Speaker 1: So that's kind of like how a lot of my
1:33:25
Speaker 1: hunts in that kind of small window you're talking about
1:33:28
Speaker 1: end up panning out. So this is something kind of
1:33:30
Speaker 1: related to that one. A little bits from a guy
1:33:33
Speaker 1: named Joe, And if I can paraphrase. His question here
1:33:36
Speaker 1: basically describes the situation where he's got a somewhat small
1:33:40
Speaker 1: property where if he leaves it alone, he usually going
1:33:44
Speaker 1: to have some pretty good action during the rut. But
1:33:48
Speaker 1: he has a new property owner one property away. It's
1:33:52
Speaker 1: a new neighbor who's coming and is now like a
1:33:55
Speaker 1: super serious deer hunter. Where previously nobody hunted it. Now
1:33:58
Speaker 1: there's a new deer hunter and he's planning food plots
1:34:02
Speaker 1: and putting in all this food and doing all this stuff,
1:34:05
Speaker 1: and now he's worried that there's going to be you know,
1:34:07
Speaker 1: this new competition one property away that you know, could
1:34:11
Speaker 1: pull this deer away. Where typically he knew that he
1:34:13
Speaker 1: would be the buck would probably still be there by
1:34:15
Speaker 1: October or November and he could hunt him. Now there's
1:34:19
Speaker 1: this new competition, all this new food. Um, how would
1:34:23
Speaker 1: you approach to Andy? Would you would you get more
1:34:25
Speaker 1: aggressive early or would you still, you know, play it
1:34:29
Speaker 1: safe and play on the rut. I don't know. It's
1:34:30
Speaker 1: a tough one. Yeah, that's tough one. I mean you'd
1:34:33
Speaker 1: let your I guess you'd let your you're scouting, which
1:34:37
Speaker 1: could be your you know, observation sits your trail cameras
1:34:41
Speaker 1: and and all that dictate what you're actually going to do.
1:34:44
Speaker 1: You know, if you're gonna I would never make that
1:34:48
Speaker 1: decision ahead of time. It would it would be a
1:34:50
Speaker 1: game time decision based on the information that I had
1:34:53
Speaker 1: in front of me, and I would try to seek
1:34:55
Speaker 1: that out through observation, sits, trail cameras, classing, whatever, whatever
1:35:00
Speaker 1: would be most conducive to that terrain that he's in.
1:35:03
Speaker 1: I don't know, um, but that's something that happens all
1:35:07
Speaker 1: the time. There's always factors that are changing, and if
1:35:11
Speaker 1: you want to stay consistent in an area that has
1:35:14
Speaker 1: higher pressure, you have to you have to constantly be
1:35:18
Speaker 1: evolving and adapting to that change. I mean there's spots
1:35:21
Speaker 1: that you know, there's spots that I've hunted um in
1:35:26
Speaker 1: the past that we're good that are just so crappy
1:35:29
Speaker 1: now I don't even bother. You know, you can't. You
1:35:31
Speaker 1: You've got to be constantly working at scouting new ground,
1:35:37
Speaker 1: accessing new ground, finding new areas so that when stuff
1:35:40
Speaker 1: like this does happen year, whole season isn't in shambles.
1:35:45
Speaker 1: You can just fall back on Plan B or C
1:35:47
Speaker 1: or d um. You know it takes a lot of time,
1:35:51
Speaker 1: It takes a lot of effort. But if you're getting locked,
1:35:53
Speaker 1: if you don't own the ground, if this isn't your
1:35:55
Speaker 1: own personal farm, and you get locked into one piece, man,
1:35:59
Speaker 1: I would feel so handcuffed by that because I don't
1:36:03
Speaker 1: have any single piece that can produce, uh, the kind
1:36:05
Speaker 1: of deer I'm after. Every year I have to go
1:36:07
Speaker 1: out and search many different areas to find one or two.
1:36:11
Speaker 1: And you know, if I didn't have those spots and
1:36:14
Speaker 1: constantly be looking for new ones like, I wouldn't have
1:36:17
Speaker 1: nearly the success that I do. So that's what that's
1:36:21
Speaker 1: what I would recommend. I would, you know, look for
1:36:24
Speaker 1: some real time information when season start picks up. Um,
1:36:29
Speaker 1: if the buck's there and you know where he's at,
1:36:31
Speaker 1: going after him. If if he's not, he's not moving
1:36:35
Speaker 1: much in daylight, you don't know where he's betted, and
1:36:37
Speaker 1: you think that you need to wait, you know, maybe
1:36:39
Speaker 1: towards that later part of October. Then wait, you gotta
1:36:42
Speaker 1: you gotta do you're scouting and make the best decision
1:36:45
Speaker 1: with the information you have in front of you. Would
1:36:49
Speaker 1: you ever swing for the fences earlier than usual? Though?
1:36:55
Speaker 1: If you if you felt like, hey, I know that.
1:37:00
Speaker 1: I mean it kind of is similar to the situation
1:37:02
Speaker 1: like when we're approaching opening day of guns season, when
1:37:05
Speaker 1: November is breathing down your neck, you know that, Okay,
1:37:08
Speaker 1: a few days from now, just gonna hit the fan.
1:37:12
Speaker 1: I'm gonna swing for the fences because I gotta get
1:37:14
Speaker 1: ahead of that competition. Well let's let's you know, so
1:37:17
Speaker 1: in this scenario where you know there's going to be
1:37:19
Speaker 1: like a bunch of guys, are more guys hunting now
1:37:23
Speaker 1: than usual, even if your most recent sign or even
1:37:26
Speaker 1: if everything that you would typically do doesn't tell you
1:37:31
Speaker 1: to go for quite that hard. If you know that, hey,
1:37:34
Speaker 1: the weekend's gonna arrive and I know these three guys
1:37:36
Speaker 1: are gonna be hitting it hard, will you push the
1:37:39
Speaker 1: limits a little bit because of that? Or still you're
1:37:41
Speaker 1: gonna stick to your guns? Yeah? I mean, if if
1:37:44
Speaker 1: it's high competition like that, yeah, I I swing for
1:37:47
Speaker 1: the fences. I'll go for the aggressive sit and and
1:37:50
Speaker 1: go for it early. Again, it's situation dependent, you know,
1:37:54
Speaker 1: is it are the guys hunting weekend guys and they
1:37:57
Speaker 1: always hunt by the field edge up front? You know,
1:37:59
Speaker 1: then maybe it's not something you need to worry about
1:38:02
Speaker 1: if the you know, the buck here after is you know,
1:38:04
Speaker 1: towards the back of the swamp. Again, You've got to
1:38:07
Speaker 1: analyze all that and make the correct decision. But there's
1:38:10
Speaker 1: some spots that I hunt like some a lot of
1:38:12
Speaker 1: the private pieces, almost all of them, um are shared
1:38:16
Speaker 1: by many other hunters, and I will swing for the
1:38:19
Speaker 1: fences right from the get go on a lot of
1:38:21
Speaker 1: these pieces, um, you know, I'll go. I'll dive into
1:38:24
Speaker 1: that best that best spot, that best betting area for
1:38:28
Speaker 1: an early season kill. If if there's let's say there's
1:38:31
Speaker 1: I don't have a beat on a different one, I
1:38:34
Speaker 1: will definitely do that because it only takes two or
1:38:37
Speaker 1: three days for these guys to screw up the whole
1:38:40
Speaker 1: thing for the rest of the season. So I've definitely
1:38:42
Speaker 1: done that in the past. But you just have to
1:38:46
Speaker 1: For me personally, I have um a lot of areas
1:38:49
Speaker 1: too to go back on. So I'm just constantly analyzing what, Okay,
1:38:55
Speaker 1: what's what's the best move for this situation. And it
1:38:58
Speaker 1: sounds like for that guy particular, like maybe that's like
1:39:03
Speaker 1: his only piece, and I would work on I would
1:39:07
Speaker 1: work on, you know, finding some good public and knocking
1:39:10
Speaker 1: on some doors and getting some backup just in case
1:39:13
Speaker 1: you know that happens, and you know, his fears come
1:39:16
Speaker 1: true and and his season kind of goes down the crapper.
1:39:20
Speaker 1: You know. Well, that's one of those things that you
1:39:22
Speaker 1: do better than almost anybody I know, which is just
1:39:26
Speaker 1: always having a backup to your backup, to your backup,
1:39:29
Speaker 1: to your backup. And that's just not easy to do.
1:39:32
Speaker 1: I know that that takes a lot of time, a
1:39:34
Speaker 1: lot of work to get all these different spots by
1:39:37
Speaker 1: permission or scouted out on public and to keep access.
1:39:41
Speaker 1: And uh, that's tough. Like I know from personal experience,
1:39:43
Speaker 1: I've lost a lot of spots. I don't enjoy knocking
1:39:46
Speaker 1: on doors. I hate dealing with that side of things,
1:39:49
Speaker 1: and so I'm constantly lacking. I constantly end up settling
1:39:53
Speaker 1: for too few places. And every year I tell myself
1:39:55
Speaker 1: I need to do better. And some years I do better,
1:39:56
Speaker 1: some years I do where some years I've got circumstances
1:39:59
Speaker 1: that just don't allow it. But um, but you consistently
1:40:03
Speaker 1: do a good job of that. And and if, if,
1:40:07
Speaker 1: if ever, I had to point to like some of
1:40:08
Speaker 1: the things that differentiate your success from a lot of people.
1:40:11
Speaker 1: That's definitely one of those um you don't ever let.
1:40:15
Speaker 1: And again it goes back to what we started with.
1:40:17
Speaker 1: It goes back to being overprepared. You're not gonna let
1:40:20
Speaker 1: fate or bad luck to tear you from success. Maybe
1:40:24
Speaker 1: one of your property gets blown up, but on another
1:40:26
Speaker 1: property someone kills the buck here after and the other
1:40:28
Speaker 1: property to take off the crops and just plow everything up.
1:40:31
Speaker 1: And that one's crap. But you've got a plan D
1:40:33
Speaker 1: in a plan E. And uh, I think that's an
1:40:36
Speaker 1: approach a lot of guys could benefit from. Yeah, that
1:40:39
Speaker 1: stuff happens every year in Michigan, like every single year.
1:40:44
Speaker 1: You know, the spots get blown up by other hunters.
1:40:47
Speaker 1: The buck I'm after it gets killed, you know, this
1:40:49
Speaker 1: one gets posted, this one disappears, you know, and you know,
1:40:53
Speaker 1: if it's a spot I have permission on, this guy
1:40:55
Speaker 1: gets permission or I lose permission. Every year something happens,
1:40:58
Speaker 1: So you have to stay ahead of the game. You
1:41:00
Speaker 1: have to stay ahead of it so that you know
1:41:03
Speaker 1: when things do like that, things like that happened, it
1:41:06
Speaker 1: just doesn't wreck your season. And so say, Okay, you
1:41:08
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna fall back on all these other backup
1:41:12
Speaker 1: plans and then you know, in the off season, I'm
1:41:14
Speaker 1: gonna get back to work and scout some new some
1:41:16
Speaker 1: new areas, and the cycle continues on and on. Right,
1:41:20
Speaker 1: that's right, all right, man, Well, I feel like I
1:41:24
Speaker 1: feel like I've kept you here for a long time.
1:41:26
Speaker 1: We've got a bunch more we still haven't answered. But
1:41:28
Speaker 1: I think we got to pull the plug. I had
1:41:30
Speaker 1: to pull the plug. Actually, we're gonna have to We're
1:41:34
Speaker 1: gonna have to try to do some more of these.
1:41:36
Speaker 1: And because this is this is fun, and I think
1:41:38
Speaker 1: we're covering some good stuff. So yeah, those are those
1:41:41
Speaker 1: are good questions and a few of them are kind
1:41:43
Speaker 1: of challenging to think about. So I had a good time. Yeah,
1:41:45
Speaker 1: me too. Well, I appreciate you taking time to do it, man,
1:41:49
Speaker 1: and let's get together, shoot your bows and scout some
1:41:53
Speaker 1: velvet bucks here soon. Huh yeah, let's do it all right,
1:41:56
Speaker 1: all right, that's gonna do it for us today. Hope
1:41:58
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this one. Thank you for listening. If you
1:42:01
Speaker 1: have more questions, be sure to post those over on
1:42:04
Speaker 1: social media, whether that's the Wired Hunt on Facebook page
1:42:07
Speaker 1: or Instagram account. I try to do this Q and
1:42:10
Speaker 1: a podcast once every month or two, and we'll try
1:42:12
Speaker 1: to tackle some of your questions again come up here soon,
1:42:15
Speaker 1: so be sure to do that. Good luck with all
1:42:18
Speaker 1: your summer hunting prep, and until next time, stay wired
1:42:22
Speaker 1: to hunt.