Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #135: How Tony Peterson Killed 3 Public Land Bucks Across 3 States In One Season

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #135: How Tony Peterson Killed 3 Public Land Bucks Across 3 States In One Season · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. In this episode number one, Tay
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the show, we're joined by public land hunting guru Tony Peterson.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We're going to be dissecting his incredibly successful two thousand
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: sixteen hunting season in which he killed three public land
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: bucks across three different states, plus another buck on private
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, brought
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to you by SI Gear and Taying the show. As
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I just mentioned, we're gonna be joined again by Tony Peterson.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And you might remember Tony from I think it was
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: early two thousand fifteen we had him on an TONI
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: is an outdoor writer. He's been published in places like
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Field and Stream, North American white Tail, and bow Hunter,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: where he's also a gear editor, I believe, And in
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that conversation we talked to him all about his overall
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: strategy and planned for hunting public lands, and I really
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: enjoyed that one. But now you know it's a year
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: later and this past hunting season, the two six hunting season,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: he actually went and applied a lot of the things
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: we talked about during that first podcast, and he applied
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: them with a level of success. That's what's I just think,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: very very impressive. He went and killed three bucks in
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  Speaker 1: three different states, all on public land, and that's not
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: an easy thing to do, I don't think. So what
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna talking about with Tony is exactly how he
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: did that. We're gonna walk through those three hunts. We're
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: gonna walk through exactly how he figured out these properties,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: how we scouted him, what ultimately led to that success.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: And I think he even killed a fourth buck on
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: some pride A land by permission. So we'll talk about
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff and and see what we
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: can learn. So what do you think, Dan, That's pretty cool.
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  Speaker 1: I would love to just be able to walk onto
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: some public grounds somewhere, and I'm sure he did. He
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: did a lot of you know, prep and research on it.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: But you know, have that kind of year, Oh yeah,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: it's it's a that'd be awesomest. The most the most
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: bucks I've ever killed in one year is one. Well
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I have some to shoot for. Yeah, my Max has
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: been too so far. So we're we're both a long
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: ways away from a four buck year, but I can't
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: we can't complain too much. We we both had a
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: good year. But you know, like I was talking about,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I think it was last episode. UM. You know, I
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: personally have been more interested in doing more public land
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  Speaker 1: hunting um and and part of it was because of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: what Tony had share this last year. And then you know,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I think we talked about this too. Last spring, I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: was working on an article for up to door Life
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that had me interviewing five different guys that did some
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: crazy hunting during the rut on public land. Did you
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: ever get to read that article? By the way, I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: don't think I did. I think you'd like it, um,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: because it was all about like people that are crazy
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: for the rut that just due to wild, off the wall,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: hardcore hunting strategies during the rut all d I y,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: it was like public land and UM and that was
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: kind of what gave me the kick in the butt
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to try doing that trip I did in Montana. UM.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: So I don't know, it's kind of fun. I know,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: we UM. We talked a little bit about those thoughts
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and ideas that for next year already, but long story short,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I'm pumped. So what else is new in your world?
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Not too much, man, Um. I've had to do this
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: thing where I've had to take my son's diaper off
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: in the bathtub before bathtime, or if I do it
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: outside the bathtub, he'll pee up. He'll pee all over
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the place. Why because I don't know the bathwater sound
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: or the I don't know. Just it triggers him to peace.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So he's his little man's has a mind of its own.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: He starts peeing everywhere. So have you got it in
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the mouth yet? Oh, dude, you won't even believe it.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: That was like day four. Okay, I gotta tell you something, Mark,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: you have an entire like you have an entire world
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: yet to be discovered as as a parent. And I'm
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: not I'm not giving you ship now. But little boys,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: you know, they don't wait for puberty to be able
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: to have their little man stand up, if that makes sense. Okay, okay,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: So sometimes when you take the diaper off, little man
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: is standing at attention. And I've had and that thing,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: if it's at attention, it's like a rifle, right, It's
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: very accurate and one of the very like it was
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: within two weeks of him being alive or being out
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: of the out of my wife. I pulled the diaper
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: off and he blasts one right in my face and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I got a little bit on the corner of my mouth.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And uh, I had a good laugh about it, because
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I can you know, someday I'm gonna hold that over him,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: like at a graduation speech or a wedding speech. I'll
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: just I'll tell the story about the time Mac pete
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: in my mouth. I feel like that's funnier for him
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: telling the story about the time he pete in his
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: dad's mouth. Uh. Yeah, fatherhood is Uh, fatherhood is crazy.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Especially so my daughter, you know, she's a she's a
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: girl and girls are different than boys. And uh, she
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: says to me the other day, Dad, I don't love
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: you anymore. I'm like, okay. And so I said, hey, Mac,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: do you wanna you wanna cookie? Mac? Oh, he always
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: loves cookies, and he was like, what about my cookie?
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you don't love me anymore? Dad? I love
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: you right now? Can I have a cookie? So she's
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a you know, she's a manipulator. She's she's a side switcher,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: which I'm gonna have to learn how to do a
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: better job at that. Yeah, I'm glad that you're that
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you have both a boy and a girl before I
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: have anything. So now I've I've got someone to turn
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to for either one of those issues if and one happens.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: So um, when my wife was pregnant, I my uncle's
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: got two kids, and I said, hey, give me some
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: advice on being a parent. What's the trick to raising kids?
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: And he goes, oh, you just gotta ignore them? How
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: does that worked? It's not It doesn't work very good
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: on my end because my kids are loud. That sounds
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: so shocking to me. I can't believe that. Transitioning and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: transitioning back to um to deer hunting. You're gonna hate me.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Don't tell me. Don't tell me what I'm wordering and
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: tell me because I was just about to ask you
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: about this with high hopes. Now tell me you know
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the answer. Dude. Man, I wish I could sit here
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and tell you, like I'm only going to be getting
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I might only get two more times, and that's tomorrow
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and Friday, and then I'm done. Or there's a chance
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I don't get Friday, and it's just tomorrow because I
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: have a work meeting on on Friday, and then I
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: had scheduled Sunday, but then my wife's said, I want
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to go out to dinner with a friend on Sunday.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I thought we talked about me going hunting.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Can can that wait? Uh? And then that right there,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that me asking that question was dumb because you don't question.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: You don't ask those questions, right, No, I disagree. I'm
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: gonna disagree with you on that day because you haven't
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: hunted in two months, and she knows that this is
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: like your favorite thing in the world other than your
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: family and all that, and it's also this like side
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: job you have. You run a deer hunting podcast, and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: you've been such an incredible both father and husband that
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you haven't gone out in two months. I think I
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: would be willing to, Well, I don't. I don't know
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: if I'll call your wife, but I'll text your wife
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  Speaker 1: and tell her that you deserve a few hunts. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you've sacrificed a lot that usually usually you'd be out
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: there hunting, but you've spent so much time with your family.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure. I don't think it's I don't think it's
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  Speaker 1: I don't think it's unfair for you to ask for
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  Speaker 1: a couple of hunts. Mark Mark, Mark Mark Mark. Um.
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  Speaker 1: I don't really know what to say right now. But
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  Speaker 1: if you called my wife and you said, hey, uh,
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  Speaker 1: Dan deserves to go hunting because he's been he's been
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: doing all these things. It's been since November, she would go, oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: okay to you, hang up the phone, and then probably
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the best domestic abusement. I'm sorry, man, I'm sure I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: don't I don't even I don't know your wife person
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  Speaker 1: at all, so I can't comment on that. I'm sure
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  Speaker 1: she's wonderful, right, but man, it's a long time. That's
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  Speaker 1: rutal to not be able to have a little bit
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of give there. I don't know, it's tough, and I
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: know there's a lot of other guys out there that
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: have the same kind of situation as me. Um. I
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  Speaker 1: I am truly thankful though, that I get the time
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: that I do when it's not so crazy busy. Um.
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  Speaker 1: Because she's crazy busy with her business. I'm crazy busy
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  Speaker 1: with not only my business but my job as well.
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  Speaker 1: And there's just sometimes you know, it's it's always a
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: give and take right, So I'm giving late season so
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I can go to the A T. A Show about
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: any dispute I got to. You know, I got a
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: lot of weekends in October. I mean this this year,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I really didn't hunt a lot. But you know, sometimes
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: it's good to have a short season, which may make
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: next season really hard for her, but you know, I
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: get to I get to get some brownie points and
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: I get a go on elk hunt in September, and
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: you want to go shed hunting in March and go
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to the A T A Show this year. So you know,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: sometimes there's sometimes there's battles worth fighting, and then there
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: sometimes there's battles worth backing up, letting whatever happens happen,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: And then you know there's that yeah, no, I agree
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: with what you're saying. I think picking your battles is important.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: So if that if this isn't a battle, that, if
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: this is not the right battle, pick I I will
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: trust your judgment. I will I will not argue with
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you on that one. Because there is something to be
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: said about peace before justice, um, which which definitely is
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: something to be said for it too. So there's also
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: that saying if mom was happy everybody's happy. My wife
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: very subtly hung a sign right over my side of
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the bed that says happy wife, happy life. That's right,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: so reminded that every day. That's a fat jack. But um,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: so no late season hunting for you yet. That's a bummer,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: but it is what it is. I I did go
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: out again since we talked, and I killed another dough awesome,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: which was awesome. Yeah, And it was a much better
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: hunt than the one we talked about last week because
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I did not miss any tear and I did not
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: have to get drawn like four different times before I
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: finally got shot. I was sitting in my hay bail
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: blind um, and that thing is awesome. Um, these deer
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: have no clue at all that you are in there.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: And um, I had dear ten yards and um I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: got drawn back really nice and nice, big mature dough
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: at like and uh double under and she was dead
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: fifty yards later and it was easy peasy. So did
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: you have another all night packing session? No? With this one. Actually,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: we are giving most of it to my sister in
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: law and her family. Um, they wanted some nison and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: so they were going to pay to have a process
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: for them. So I dropped it off with the processor
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: for them, and um, the when I found out that
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: they wanted everything ground, and I was like, okay, there's
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: no way that I am okay with a deer that
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I shot having the backstraps and tender and everything. So
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm going to keep the backstraps and the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: tenderloins and steaks and then you can have all the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: rest of the hamper and um. But yeah, so that
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: was cool, and it was cool that. Um. You know
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: what's what's neat is that, UM, I've got three nieces
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and a nephew and there they don't hunt like with
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: their family. But I've taken out my nephew a couple
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: of times in the past. I need to do a
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: better job of it. But I've gotten my niece into
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: shooting a bow. We got our bow for Birthday and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the new arrows and a target for Christmas, and she's
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: really getting into it. So I'm gonna start taking her out.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: But I'm excited about the fact that they're now gonna
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: have venison that came from Uncle Mark and I can
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: sit there and we can talk about that, you know,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: just like you talked about with your daughter. How cool.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: That was, um, you know, recovering that deer. I'm excited
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: about conversations like that with with the girls and talk
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: about you you know, the hamburger you're eating right now,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: you know that came from this and talk about that.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: So that's I'm excited about that. Um. And another interesting
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: thing really quick I want to talk about is I
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: ate dear Heart for the first time. Yes, I saw that,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and I'm a little bit jealous because I've always wanted
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to do that, but I've never never followed through on it.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I can't recommend it enough, Like it was always one
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of those things like, yeah, my family, we just never
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: did so I had no context with it, no experience
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: with it before, so it just seemed like, I don't know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I just assumed it would taste gross and didn't know
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: what to do with it. But finally I was like,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I gotta try it, um, And it was so so,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: so so good, and it was a lot less like
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: weird than I expected. I expected to have this really strange.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't expect it to taste like meat, but really,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: when you take off you know, when you take the heart,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you cut it open and you take off some the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: fat and there's some weird connective tissue and the valves
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and stuff, but otherwise it's just a big piece of meat.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: It's like a steak that's rolled into a closed burrito
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: kind of and you just take the filling out and
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you unroll it kind of and then you're basically left
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: with what's based steak, and um, it's got a slightly
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: different texture and it's slightly different kind of a little
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: bit of tang to it. Um, but man, it's really good.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: We we followed one of the recipes and Hank Shaw's cookbook, um,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and basically marinated the heart overnight and then grilled it,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: excuse me, grilled it along with peppers, and then slice
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: that up real thin the steak and then ate that
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: with the peppers, and dude, it was it was phenomenal.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Like it wasn't just bearable, which is what I was
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: kind of hoping for. I was hoping at least I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: could like stomach it and I feel cool about, you know,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: having eaten the heart and felt good about, you know,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: using more of the deer. But it wasn't just that.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: It was like something that I could crave. So, um,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: next time you shoot a deer, save a heart. Try
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: that recipe, Um, hands down a winner, looking forward to it. Yeah,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: so that's all I've got for stories on my end?
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Do you have anything else of note? No? Not, Well,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: then we got one more thing ton Um. Yeah, but
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I know you you actually have to go before our
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: interview with Tony. But before we let you go, can
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: you help me with our sick of story today? Okay?
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: What are we going to talk about? So, as you know,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: like every week we have to think, well, we take
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: a break to thank our partners a sick of gear
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and we usually share a story from some hunter who
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: had a particularly interesting or surprising or you know, compelling
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: or emotional experience while hunting in their sick of gear.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: So what I want you to do? Dan, I'm gonna
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: put you on the spot right now. Okay, will you
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: tell us a Sikest story from your two thousand sixteen
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: something that's surprising or interesting or compelling or was there
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: some moment this past season that we haven't talked about
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that you think would be worthy of the Sikest story?
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: What do you got? Well, I tell you I used
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: to be that guy who would wear when it would
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: get cold, where like fifteen hooded sweatshirts, fifteen pair of sweatpants,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: some car hard overalls, and then some camel on time.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: You know, like you know, like you were Hunter, right.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I looked like the kid off of the Christmas Story,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: all right, that kid who wore like fourteen snowmobile suits.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: That's what I looked like. And what would happen is
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I would I'd be soaking wet with sweat when I
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: would go to get to the stand and climb up,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: and then it was just a matter of time and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I'd be I'd be done right. I'd be so cold.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And I think it was a two thousand and fourteen UM.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Two thousand and fourteen, I was still doing that type
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: of that type of clothing. And then I got my
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Sitka gear in two thousand and fifteen, and instantly the
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: just the sweat wicking ability of their um, of their
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: lightweight Core series shirts and pants just you could I
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: could literally tell the difference in in where my moisture
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: was going. It was not hanging around on my skin,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: it wasn't hanging around on my clothes. It was going
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: somewhere else. And then as as you know, I transition
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: into late season, it gets not this year, but Uh.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: But but then I'm wearing less layers to stay warm,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and if I get cold, I can quickly just take
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: one of those layers off. Are hot, If I get cold,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I can put the layer back on. And I'm not
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: a scientist. I know we've you know, the first series
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: of commercials we've done with you know, when we we
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: talked with Sitka and they kind of break down all
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the science and technology behind their garments. Dude, it whatever
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: whatever they're doing is working, and just being comfortable in
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the stand is so important. I mean, it's one of
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the biggest parts of hunting. I mean, if you're not comfortable,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: if you're cold, if you're hot, if you're shaking because
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: you know you're so cold and your and your mind
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: is thinking about your body temperature or things that aren't aren't.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: You know, here comes a buck, but I'm cold. You
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: should be thinking about here comes the buck. I want
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to kill it, you know what I mean? Very true.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I think I want a trademark or we'll see if
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Sika wants to trademark what you just said. There you
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: are our new sick ist logans. Just be dude. I
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: don't know what they're doing, but it's working. That's pretty
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: good stuff. We make the best products, dude. We don't
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: know what we're doing, but it's working. That's scientific, right,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: That's that's beautiful. And with and with that, if you'd
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: like to learn more about what sick of Gear is doing,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: you can visit sick of gear dot com. And now
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: we're gonna let you go. Dan, thank you for your
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: impromptu sick of story, and we're gonna give Tony Peterson
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: a call. All right with us on the line now
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: is Tony Peterson. Welcome back, Tony. Thanks for having me man. Yeah,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I I've enjoyed getting the chat with you more just
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: you know, offline in person over the past year, so
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: since we had you on the podcast back in early sixteen. Um,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: so I'm particularly excited now to have you back on
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the show because I feel like I've gotten to know
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: you better and I also know that You've got a
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: whole lot more to share from a hunting perspective, and
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: then we even got to touch on first time. So
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: so thanks for doing this, Tony. There's no problem. I'm
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I am glad to be back. This is fun. Yeah, yeah,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I agree, And um, you know, like I just mentioned
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: off the air, Dan isn't able to be with us
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: here today. But I know he was bummed about that too,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: because I think he really enjoyed our chat back in
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: April fifteen. I think it was so I guess I'm
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: kind of curious, Tony. We're in January now. Um, most
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: most everyone's deer hunting seasons are done. You've had a
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: heck of a season. If you had to describe your
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen season in a word or phrase,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: how would you How would you describe it? Old school?
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: That's an easy one for me. Nice. I went back
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: to my roots this year. Um, you know, not entirely,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: but I made a considerable effort to you know, sort
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: of get rid of the technology and and hunt sign
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and hang stands, hang a lot of stands, and just
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: go back to the way I hunted the or I
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: had trail cameras and all kinds of access to information
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and everything. Um, and it was it changed a lot
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of things for me to do that. What did that
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: pay off? Do you think that helped you or hurt you?
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: This year? And doing that it helped me immensely. I
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: to put it in perspective, Not only did I mean
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I had a good season. I had a great season,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: but I enjoyed it so much more than I have
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: in the last few years because I felt like I
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: was really hunting. I wasn't just checking trail cameras and
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: going up nobody's coming by here in the daylight. I'm
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: not gonna hunt here or whatever. I was walking into
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: new places. Um. You know, mostly I spent most of
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: my season on public land, UM, mostly just looking for
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: sign and hanging a stand and observing. And if I
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: saw something, I moved in on it, or if I didn't,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: you know, just just I felt like I was hunting,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and I really enjoyed it this year. Yeah, I know
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: what you mean. It is funny how technology has infiltrated
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: so much of what we do as hunters, and I
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: think a lot of that can be good, but to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the same at the same point, I definitely sometimes feel
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: like it gets to be too much too And we
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: were just talking before we start recording about phones. That's
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: another one, like phone, How often we're just connected to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that thing all the time. That takes a lot away
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: from a hunt. I think, Oh, it certainly does. I
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: mean I read your article about leaving a phone at home,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and I did that. I did that accidentally this fall
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: and realize how much I enjoyed it. Um. So you know,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: like I said before we started recording here, I I
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: spent some time just shutting it down and sticking in
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: my pack, you know, and you see more animals, You
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: enjoy your sitting. Yeah almost. You're so dependent on that
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: phone and a lot of situations to you know, to
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: fill the gaps between deer sightings or whatever. And you
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: know that's not why we do it. Um, it's you know,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: we're all hypocrites with it for the most part. But
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: it's nice to step away from that stuff. And you know,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: I'm to the point and with that, I feel the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: same way about trail cameras. Um. You know, I had
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: grown so dependent on them and had let them, you
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: know what, they were showing me make my hunting decisions.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: And I'm sitting here going, well, I have to hunt anyway,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and now I'm I'm using these things and a lot
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: of times I feel like they're showing me that my
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: hunt's not going to be worth it. But I go anyway,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: And I just said, you know what, I'm gonna start
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: pulling these suckers and kind of hunting the way I
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: used to, and I found out that I was. I
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: got on a lot of good deer and I really
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: had a lot of fun doing this. And you know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: we can get into this later if you want. But
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: one thing I learned this year is I may have
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: had my best mid October hunting ever because I really
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: started doing that. And that's how I used to hunt
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: in October. You know, I never believed in the law,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: and I still don't really buy into it that much.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: But I saw more mature bucks in the middle of
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: October when you aren't supposed to this year than I
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: have in years. And I'm talking public land here, um.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: And you think that's because you weren't letting trail cameras
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: keep you out of the woods, Yeah, I was. I
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: was forcing myself to hunt, and I was hunt by
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: finding fresh sign and so I know, you know, and
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: not to see that I couldn't use trail cameras to
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: help me there. But so often, you know, that time
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: of year, our trail cameras are in places where we
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: may only get nighttime photos or you know, the the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: deer movement in general seems to go down a little bit,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and we used it as an excuse to say, well, heck,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I'll just wait for the rut or I'll you know,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: i'll wait for Halloween, the pre rud or whatever. And
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't do that. I just said, you know, no
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: trail cameras. I'm just gonna go keep hunting. And I
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: saw a lot of good deer, killed some deer, and
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I was just like, I was enjoying it so much,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and I realized that, you know, I've been missing out
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: on something by relying on trail cameras to scout for
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: me so much. Yeah, it's funny. Mentioned that we were
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: talking to Donny Vincent a couple of weeks ago and
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: he had talked about the same thing about how he
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: kind of wanted to go away from trail cameras, maybe
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: because he found that it kind of took away from
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the mystery of the hunt because he knew, well, there's
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: gonna be these four bucks and that's it. And you
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: saw him and you knew them. And there's something to
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: be said about a new a deer that you've never
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: seen before showing up in just that pure excitement of
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: what while it might be seeing a deer or just
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: wondering what might appear and knowing that anything could possibly
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: show up. That's kind of cool too. Yep. Yeah, it's
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you know, we've we've lost a lot of that mystery,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and you know, in some ways we've gone to you know,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: kind of raising deer and trying to get them to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the right age, and there's there's a different feeling about that,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and that could be super enjoyable, don't get me wrong.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: But there also is that, you know, that aspect that
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Donnie was referring to where you're just missing that you know,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: when you hear something walking in on you and you
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: look and recognize that deer immediately, It's it's just different,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: you know. Um, it's it's nice to look up and
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: see a stranger. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I agree with you.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I I there's something really enjoyable about both. But it's
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: nice to have both different experiences, which is a big
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: part of what you know, um, what I enjoyed about
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: my own public land hunt this year when I was
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: hunting a brand new property, whether it's public or private.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: When I hunt a brand new place that I'm just
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: kind of figuring out, I love that that question of
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: what might be coming, you know, what's going to be
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: around the corner. What am I going to figure out?
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: What's going to be like the aha moment um. And
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: that's a big part of why I've I've come to
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you being more intrigued with public land hunting and and
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: some of that goes to some of our conversations that
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you and me have had. Um, So I appreciate that
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: for you kind of kind of getting me excited Tony. Um. Well,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: it's you know, you forget that you get used to
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: a property and you get used to how the deer
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: use it, and so then that's why we kind of
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: invent these things where we're like, Okay, I want this
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: particular mature book. And that's why you see a lot
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of these people who have premier properties. You know, they're
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: setting their standards super high to make some sort of
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: challenge out of it because they know they're ground so well.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: And then like you did, you know, Montana, you go
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: out to a place you've never been to and you've
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: only seen maybe on aerial photos, and you get there
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: and there's a there's a whole aspect to that and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: a hunting that you sort of mess out on when
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you're real familiar with the property that you're you're managing
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: or taking care of or whatever. And and like you said,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: you know that's fun too, but it's nice to have both.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: And it's nice to go out and just challenge yourself
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and hunt those deers that you've never laid eyes on before.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And it's it's just a neat experience. Yeah. And I
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: also think by putting yourself in those new situations, whether
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: it's public or just a new spot in general, um,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: that provides learnings that you can then apply to your
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: usual places you always hunt. Because when you get when
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: you hunt the same place over and over, you get
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: stuck in a routine where you know what works or
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: what has worked well enough in the past, and you
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: stick to what's safe. And I think when you can
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: try new things and take new risks in a new area,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: or be forced to try new things because of this
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: brain new situation, all that stuff applies to the to
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: your other hunts too. And that that was a big
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: home a ha moment for me in chousand sixteen fall
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: without question. I mean, we get so locked into what
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: we think we know that we just we will we
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: ride that right into the ditch. I think. And you know,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: so often I talked to people and they're like, oh,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: the deer never do this, so they never do that
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: on my property, or I never see him here, or
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: you know, I got a buddy that owns a really
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: cool property down by um in southeastern Minnesota, and he's
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: got a little creek running through the back end of it.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: He will not go back there and bow hunt because
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: he's scared. He's gonna he's gonna blow all the deer out.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, during the rut, in the pre rut,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: those deer are coming in coming and going down that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: creep on them all day long. So you know, maybe
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: if you walk in there, yeah, you might blow some
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: deer out. But the risk reward there to me is
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: like go go take a look, go hunt it, and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: just see how bad it really is. You know, we
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: make up our mind about that kind of stuff. Or
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: you know, you can't kill a big buck in mid October,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: or you can't snort we's in a little buck or
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: something like that, and we take that stuff is It's
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: just back and that's not how things work out there. Um.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: It changes every day, and a lot of the things
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: that we really believe about deer, I think I think
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: that makes us become our own worst enemy. Yeah, I agree.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I was reading a book just last night actually, and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: this isn't really hunting, but it's I think you can
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: apply it to hunting, and like having strategies that the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: quote where this guy said this kind of life philosophy
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: he has was this, he said, I have strong views
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: loosely held. So he has strong opinions and he's, you know,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: willing to understand them really well and understand the logic
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: behind these things. But at the same time, he's not
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: so stubborn to stick to it no matter what else
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: he sees and no matter what other opinions might be
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: out there. So I think that's something that can really
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: be applied to hunting. You know, develop strong ideas about
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: how you hunt, but don't be so married to them
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: that you're not willing to open your eyes to new
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: ways of doing things or adjustments without questions. I mean,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I just I could not agree with that more. I
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: think that we just get so locked into what we
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: think is going to happen or should happen or shouldn't happen,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: and we forget that sometimes we're wrong, and and the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: situation changes every time you hunt, and every and me
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: go to a new stand and every time the wind
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: blows a different direction and the pressure changes, and there's
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: all of these variables that just that make everything different
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: in an instant. Yeah, we don't. We all like that,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean, we like to have control and
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: we like to say we know this is what's going
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to happen, but that's not how it works. And if
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: you give into that a little bit and just just
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: let it just go naturally, it can be it can
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: be a lot of fun out there. Yeah. Yeah, So
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: so let's talk real world. Let's talk about how you
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: actually applied some of these things here in two thousand
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: and sixteen. Your season started pretty early, I think sometimes
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: in September. So what I was kind of hoping we
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: could do was you, if you just want to walk
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: us through your season as it went, and I think,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: you know, as we get to some interesting topics, I'm
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: probably gonna want to jump in and and kind of
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: pry on some of these things and try to get
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: some of the details out of you. But but maybe
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: walk us through it, and um, we'll see what we
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: can learn about how you apply some of these tactics
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: to your public land hunts across all these different states,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: and I'm interested to hear about because I haven't actually
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: got to hear about these hunts. So, um, so what
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: what happened? Um? You know, I started out when got
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: my butt kicked in Colorado for elkin and antelope and
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: came home to white tails, which are usually treating me
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: a lot better. But I started out in Minnesota on
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: a dairy farm. I got permission on UM mostly because
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I've been watching this book. We talked about this deer
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: UM the last time I was on. I've been watching
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: a deer that you know, he's a legit uh Matt Booner,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the kind of deers that I've never really felt I
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: had a good chance to hunt. And that deer, you know,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I looked for him this summer and I found him,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and he was in the same place that I expected
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: him to be. And so I spent a lot of time,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you know, running cameras and looking for that deer, which
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: is this. That deer is one of the reasons why
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I said enough and decided to to take my cameras
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: down and just go hunt for fun, because no matter
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: what I did, that dear seemed to be moving at night,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: even in the summer. UM. And I had one place
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: that I thought I might kill him, on a little
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: tiny water hole close to his betting area, and he
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: was like maybe showing up once in a while, right
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: at shooting light in the morning, before he lay down,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: and right before I had a chance to haunt him,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I got pictures of a dog running through there, and
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: everything everything went away, at least in the near term,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and so, you know, I had tinned my hopes on
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: this year that you know, has evaded me for three years,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: and you know, it's just I was like, this is
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: just probably not going to happen. Why am I Why
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: am I losing sleep over this buck? And doesn't really
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: matter that much. And it just kind of decided after
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: that I was gonna I was gonna take it easily
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: on him. You know, I was still paying attention to
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: him and trying to see that there was a possibility.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: But that experience opening weekend, in the first the first
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: two weekends of the season, really I focused on that
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: uck and it just it just felt like I was
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: wasting my time. And I knew there were other people
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: going in there, and there were other people who had
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: pictures of him, and I didn't want to get rolled
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: up into that. You know, I wanted to have a
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: chance at him, but I was losing my enjoyment for it.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: And so after the first two weeks I ended up
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: heading to South Dakota for their opener out there to
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: hunt public land. And I actually went out there with
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Dave Hertel from Field and Stream uh Field and Stream magazine,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: and we got there a day early and just said,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna go hunt ponds. Because it's early,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: we're gonna scout. I walked him just about to death
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the first day we were there, because we went out
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: hung some stands, and we put on some miles. But
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: some of the places that I had scouted the spring
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: out there didn't look that good to me when we
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: got there. There was cattle in there, or the pond
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: was dried up, or you know, there was a fair
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: amount of h D kills out there that we found
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: some good books, and so, you know how it is
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: when you go out to the the public land. You have
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: this idea in your mind that this is my plan,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna do. Then you show up
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: and go, well, five things have changed, right, And so
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: we hung some stands and you know, hunted the first
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: morning saw some deer, and that that evening, the first
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: evening of the season, we had we had scouted this
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: ranch that looked really good. It looked like it was
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: just the place, but I thought it was going to
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: be overrun with people because it was opening day and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: it was public land. What sorry, really quick here, when
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: you say you scouted this property, how are you actually
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: scouting it? Are you walking the whole thing? You're just
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: looking at the map and observing from a distance, or
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: how are you doing in this situation walking this This
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: was the boots on the ground situation because we had
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: one day, so it wasn't like we were laying back glassing.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: It was just you know, go into this spot, look
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: at it if it's a good hanging stand, if not,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: during the stand out, and go to the next spot.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: And so we walked a lot um and I think
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I can't remember. I think we hung three or four
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: stands that day. Um. But the place that I really
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: wanted to hang a stand, I didn't because I thought
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: somebody else would be in there. And so the one
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: place where I was like this might be it, I
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: didn't hunt it. And there's a little lesson for everybody.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm just not going to do it because
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I know somebody's gonna be in there. While opening night,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I dropped Dave off. He went into a spot and
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I went to hunt a different stand, and the wind
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: was bad when I got there, and I was kind
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: of wrong all the time, and I thought, you know what,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go look at this property and see if
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: anybody's parked there. And there wasn't a single truck there
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and opening night and so I grapp to stand. I
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: ran in there and as I was hanging that stand,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: I was standing up there, finished finishing up stand hanging,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: a buck ran in to the water the pond that
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: I was on and I actually pulled my bow up
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: while he was drinking and at him before I had
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: to stand fully ready to go. And so, uh, it
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: was one of those things where and so the crazy
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: part is the buck that I killed. I mean I
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: got a photographed, gutted and drugged back to the truck
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: before it was even dark. That's how close this pond
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: was to the parking area. But it was one of
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: those deals where there just wasn't anybody there that day.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: The guy showed up later it things changed, but at
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: that moment when I walked in there and I saw
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: all those tracks on that pond and the way it
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: set up for the wind and the way you could
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: get in there. I was like, this is where I
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: want to hunt, but I'm not going to because I
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: think something going to be there. Well guess who nobody was,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it was just it was one
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: of those things where I was like, what I thought
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I knew was wrong, And so I started out there
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: and killed my first block of the season, and then
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I ended up getting the scout for four days while
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Dave hunted. He ended up killing the buck the last night.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: But what I found after killing my buck was there
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: were a whole bunch of bucks on that property, including
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: a deer that I walked up on um while I
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: was burning some boot leather. That was probably the biggest
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: buck I've ever laid eyes on. On the hoof. It
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: looked like to me, my initial impression was like one
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: eighties um, you know, and they're hard to judge. But
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: he was close, and he was huge, and he was
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: on public land and it was just one of those
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: deals where you're like, man, I never expected that to
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: be there, and there he was. And so that was
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: a really cool experience, you know what I mean. It
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: was just it was a new property. It was one
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: of those things where you're out there learning and it
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: was really good for me to get to spend four
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: days just glassing and walking and watching deer because I'm
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: going back next year and I feel like I got
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: a chance to killing a really big deer there because
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: they're there. So so here here's what I'm curious about.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Number one, what made you choose these properties when you
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: were scouting from home, when you're looking at the maps
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: and everything. What drew you to this initial area first? Well,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: so I started out UM. I went to this area
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: last year, UM because I had driven by it um
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: several times to go hunt western South Dakota for antal
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: open meal deer. And last year at it was like
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: during Halloween weekend, I was looking at maps and I
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: found a property that I liked, and I went out
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: there and I killed a buck on it. And so
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: this spring we went back, but a couple of buddies
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: and I didn't. We turkey hunted it partially so I
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: could scout it more because I like the area. There's
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: not a lot of people there, there's good walk in
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: land um plenty of deaner. You know, you're far enough
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: south where you don't get the winner kill. It's just
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of things to it. No big cities
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: anywhere near it, um, two places to camp everything, you know.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: And so after scouting at the spring, uh, you know,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: I felt pretty good about it, and so we went
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: back there and I'll be going back again. And one
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: of the reasons I like it is because there are
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: big properties there. So it's not like I'm hunting a
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: forty acre chunk or an eighty acre chunk. It's like
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: you may have a four thousand acre ranch to hunt
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: or five four thousand acre ranches to hunt within twenty yet.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: So my thing is to get away from people, which
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: is why I didn't set up on that pond originally,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: because I don't want to hunt around people. I want
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: to go. I'd much rather hike two miles in and
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: get away from people than than fight crowds and those
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: sides of properties in that kind of area, you can
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: do that. So that's why, you know, that's why I
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: really started devoting some time to it. When when you
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: went in there and started walking it, whether it be
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: during Turkey season, or that first day when you got
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: back there in the fall, what specifically were you looking
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: for on the ground? You know that day was it?
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: You know what specific things led you to say, Okay,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I want to hunt here. Um well, you know I
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: went into it looking for water because it was it
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: was going to be fairly hot. You know, it's South
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: daphotas Opener is. You know, I always like the third
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: weekend of September, so you might be like anywhere from
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: the twenties to maybe the twenty six or something. Um,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: so it's usually fairly warm, and even if it's not
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: those deer kind of water anyway, So I start by
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: looking at the areal photos of just finding water. I
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: love hunting water, and if I find, you know, i'll mark,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: you know, six ponds or eight ponds that I want
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: to check out that time of year. When I walk
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: in there and look at them, you know, you're looking
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: for tracks around the pond, of course, to see how
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: much use it it's got, but I'm looking for h
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: rubs as well. A lot of times in those bucks
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: come into water. They'll stage those places too, because those
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: ponds are they're cattle ponds and they're just situated in
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: places where they're you know, a couple hundred yards off
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the nearest field and there's cover between you and the field.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: It's it's amazing how often it works out that way.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: And so those bucks will come in there morning or
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: you thinking things tend to be a little better. But
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the water they'll spar a little bit, they'll they'll make
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: some rubs. So if I find one that's easy to
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: access or it's it's accessible without blowing everything out, and
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: there's you know a few random rubs around it, and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: the tracks are they're hunted every time, and so you know,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: it's not we've sometimes we overthink this stuff and I
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: just at that time a year, do you get thirsty
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: and I like to be where they can drink, you know,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: makes sense. Do you do you hunt mornings on those
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: early publiclan hunts too? Were you know, I don't. A
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: lot of guys tend to always always, you know, early season,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Like you were gonna say, you know, a lot of
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: guys are like, I'm not. I don't want to. I
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: don't want to ruin my stuff by going and in
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: the morning. And that's another thing that I just I
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: can never believe it's you know people will say, well,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: I can't hunt there in the morning, but I can't
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: hunt this property in the morning because they'll blow deer out,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: and like there's no situation you can find where you
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: can sneak in and hunt mornings. Like, to me, that's crazy. Um,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: I always if I have a data hunt, I always
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: hunt mornings meetings. I don't ever. I don't save stuff.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't. I don't play it safe. And
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: you know, if it can be hunted, now all hunted.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: They put it that way. Now, is that different when
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: you're hunting a piece of public plan like that with
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: you know, a limited amount of time versus like a
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: private piece of property that you've got soul access to. No,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: And here's what I don't have any private pieces of
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: property that have soul access to. And the closest I've
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: got is in Minnesota, where I can't count on the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: rut because our gun season opens the first Saturday in November.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: So for me to say of stuff just doesn't work.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I need to hunt. And what I found when you
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: go into it with that attitude is of you know,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: I am gonna hunt mornings and I'm gonna hunt during
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the law and I'm gonna hunt these times when deer
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: aren't supposed to move and you find out that those
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: to you are moving and you can kill them. So
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I don't you know, I'm not saying if you've got
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: a premiere property and you get to hunt the rut
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff, you know, you know, Savior dear,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: do whatever you Savior stands. That's fine. But my personal
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: strategy is I don't do it. And I mean, your
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: logic makes sense with that situation. I can't argue with that,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: um now, in a situation like you had there. You know,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: you mentioned how you ask someone what you can't find
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: a way to get in there in the mornings without
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: you know, without screwing it up when you're out there
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: on that public land. Did you have to do anything
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: unique to be able to hunt those spots in the
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: morning or to have Dave hunt in the mornings when
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: you were there. Oh, so we just I just look
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: for areas. I look for places where you can sneak in.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: You know, we were hunting water in the mornings as well,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: and I just look for a pond that you can
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: sneak into. That's that's just it, you know, And sometimes
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: you're gonna jump to here. But man, it's you know,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: versus not hunting. I'll take that every time, you know,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: I find you know, there are situations. I mean, I've
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: got places on my farm in southeastern Minnesota. I hunt
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: a lot where it's pretty difficult to hunt in the morning.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: There are ways I could do it, especially if I can,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: you know, get windy conditions or rainy conditions in the
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: morning to sneak through a cornfield or something. But you know,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: sometimes the winds are rung, or it's too calm, or
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: you can't you can't go where you want to. But
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: that's why I'm real hard to have planned B C.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: D E right on down the line, you know. Yeah.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: So what was Dave's set up that ultimately led to
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: him killing that buck on the last day? Um? We
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: put him on a uh, this goofy spot on a cornfield,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: UM that had a pond in the middle of it.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: And it just it was another spot that it looked
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: too easy. I was just I didn't really want to
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: set up there, but because I had time to scout,
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: I realized they were far more deer coming out there
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: than I thought, And so we went in and hung
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: a stand and he ended up having a big deer
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: come out, they didn't give him a shot, and then
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: right it last light had a couple other smaller bucks
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: come in and he thumped one of them. And so
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: it was just one of those deals where it was
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: public land with a cornfield on it. It was actually
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: the corn was chopped for silage um and there was
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: a pond in there that led to a draw, and
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: just one of those things. You know, it looked it
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: looked too easy, you know, but that's one of the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: reasons why I go to some of those places because
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: there's just fewer hunters, so there's less pressure. So even
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: those those gimme spots can pay off. You know, here
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota, I probably wouldn't be able to find something
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: that easy. You know, there's just there's more hunters. You know,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't in Michigan. That'd be real hard to do. Pennsylvania,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: you just it just would be. So So where'd you go?
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: What was next? Do you guys had an awesome south
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: to go to hunt? What what happened then? Um? You know,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: after South Dakota I came back and I I kind
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: of put my mind to Wisconsin. I'm starting to get
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: obsessed with killing good bucks in the big woods in
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: northern Wisconsin. I think we talked about that, UM the
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: last time I was on here, and so I felt
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: kind of stupid because I owned two little properties over
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: there that I didn't hunt at all. I let my
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: buddies hunt them, and I went and hunted public land
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: over there and just had an absolute blast hunting big
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: woods deer and looking for sign and kind of stand
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: after stand after stand until I caught up to one.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: So how did how did you do it? Because that
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: big woods hunting is like one of those I don't know,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: it's one of the questions we get the most about
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: because so many people hunting scenarios like that, like you said,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, and it's not
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: really talked about a whole lot in the hunting media.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: You know, you're not seeing you marjury hanging stand in
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: the big woods. Um, how did you go about doing that?
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Especially without where you're not using trail cameras for that
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: whole process either. No, it was not, um, partially because
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: the land, the type of land I was honey, which
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: has managed forest land to use trail cameras on it.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: You have to get permission from the owner because it's
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: it's private land open to the public through a tax program.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: And so you know, I didn't want to track down
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the owner, and I didn't want to use cameras anyway. UM.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: So what I did is I found I found a
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: parcel of land that was owned by a logging company
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: or is owned by a logging company, and that it
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: got logged probably about three years ago. And so it's
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: this little island, a thick cover in the middle of
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: miles of big woods where everything else seems to be
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: kind of the same. And this property has this little
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: tiny trout stream running through it, so it has it
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: has water. Um. And so I found it last year
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: grouse hunting and decided I was going to go back.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: So I scutted this past spring, and then I scuttered
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: in the summer and I went in there with a
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: stand on my back and got into that little crout
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: stream and started looking for rubs and set up. The
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: first night, let a buck go. I saw another buck.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Moved around that property until I got to a spot
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: where I saw a really good buck in the middle
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: October UM, one of the biggest year I saw all season,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: and I moved in on that spot after I watched
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: it for about three days. Um, and all the year
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: seemed to be coming off of this hill side and
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: just popping up onto this little ridge. You'd see him
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: come down and then they get a running start and
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: they'd run straight up it. And so I moved over
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: there and actually set up right where I had watched
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: that buck make a rub and got in. You could
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: hunt it in the morning and the evening to that
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: was an important part. You could you could sneak in
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: on this logging road either time a day and hunt
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: because they were coming and going through there. It wasn't
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: like a yeah, you know, I mean it's big with
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: so there aren't like a ton of deer in there.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: You're not worried about like blowing random deer out while
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: you're going in or anything. I mean, the population density's
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: pretty low. But I ended up moving in there. And
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: the first morning I sat on that spot, Um, I
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: don't know, it's probably making an hour into the morning,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: and I looked up at a bucket made it past me,
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: feeding his way, just browsing his way through the thunderbrush.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: And because he was passing, I couldn't hear him because
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: the creek was right blowing my stand, and so he
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: was already on his way beyond me. And it was
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I think October tenth or something, um,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and so I grunted at him and he did nothing.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't he wouldnt even pay attention to it. So
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: I snart when he's got him, and he stopped and
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: I could tell I got his attention, and I start
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: wheezed again. He stayed there. It took me five snort
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: wheezes in a row, and he literally tipped his head
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: back like he was rolling his eyes, saying all right, buddy,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: and he turned around and he raped brushed the whole
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: way and he came to twenty hours and I shot him. Wow,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: that's awesome. So it was so cool. I mean, it
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: just it was one of those deals where you know,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: you see deer using a specific spot move in there,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: and that a buck comes through, and not only that
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: you get to call him in. It was just it
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: was neat. So when you started out, like you walked
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: down this creek, he said, and you were looking for rubs,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: and so did you start this whole process basing your
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: stand location simply on I can access with this trout stream,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: and I'm looking for some sign that a buck has
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: been here, and so that rub was and then from
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: there it was sit observed, moved to where you saw
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the movement, and then continued that is that exactly what
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: you did, or how are you choosing to set up?
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Pretty much? I mean I I looked for sign. I
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: like rubs a lot, I hunt rubs a lot, and
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: I like to observe, so on that property I hunted
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: it probably I don't know, maybe seven days before I
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: killed that buck total in October. And I probably move
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: stands a dozen times um and then just just moving
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: where I'm seeing deer and if I'm not. If I
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: sit somewhere and I don't see deer in a morning
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: or an evening, usually i'll give it to you. I'll
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: give it both the morning and an evening. If the
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: conditions are right and I don't see something, I move.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: And so I ended up going up that creek, and
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: the first time I did it, I didn't go far
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: enough up, and I bailed and watched some other stuff,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and then I knew I was kind of missing something.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: So I came back and I just needed to go
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: a little farther up the creek, and it was just
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: the place. That's just what they were using. There was
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of good security cover there and they were
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: they could they could play the wind, well, they could
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: travel through it well. It was it was just the
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: right spot, you know. Did you have any other issues
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: of other hunters back in there was anybody else there?
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: There were people there, Um, there were a fair amount
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: of people driving through there on four wheelers. Um kind
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: of hunting grows and not. I didn't see a lot
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: of boat hunting activity, but there were there was a
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: fair amount of people activity. And that's one of the
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: reasons why that spot was so good, because it was
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: one of the few places on the property that you
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: couldn't access with a four wheeler. H Yeah, that makes sense.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: I mean that's you find that all the time out
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: there on pul The plans so moving moving around as
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: much as you did, sounds like you were moving stands
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: sometimes multiple times a day or stuff like that. How
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: what's your what's your process for getting in and out
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: with hanging new stand pulling it down. Do you have
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: any trick to how you're doing that in a quiet,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: slow fashion or what specific stands sticks et cetera. You're
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: you're using, UM, I used, you know, primarily I used
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Lone Wolf sticks this year. UM because you know a
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: lot of those, a lot of public land you can't
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: use anything screw in, so you can't just carry in
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: a handful of screwing steps. And so I got my
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: system down this year where I was using you know,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Lone Wolf climbing sticks, and then I was using a
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: Millennium tree stand. I can't remember what the heck the
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: model is, but it's really lightweight. They're like seven and
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: a half pounds, so they're not very big. But I can,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I can, you know, put the whole set up on
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: my back with my my safety harness and everything and
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: you know, only be out about twenty five pounds and
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: go in and just take my time and pick the
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: right spots. It's it takes. It takes the comfort level.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: It's just like using a climbing stand or anything like that.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Like you're you'll be much better with it if you've
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: done it a whole bunch and you know enough to
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: be patient and not rush yet and understand that if
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: you put a stand up and it's not gonna work
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: for some reason, if it's really uncomfortable or you can't
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: shoot or something. You just kinda pull that sucker down
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: and start over. That's a hard part. It ends up
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: being a lot of work, and you know that's that's
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the part that released amount of fun. I mean I
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: had times where I was hanging stands this year when
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, I want to go on and
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: outfit it hunt bad. I just want to go have
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: somebody else to to work, you know, because you know
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: how it is, You're just it's just you and you're
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: doing it and you can't you know, I don't want
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: to waste to fit. So I had a lot of
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: times when I'd hang a stand, I didn't do it.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: I look around and go nope, and I have to
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: pull it start over. Yeah that's brutal. I had it is,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: but you know, when you get it right, it's awful. Yeah,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: for sure, I had. I had a hunt this year,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: um in early November where I've been observing a buck.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: I was after moving in a certain location, but I
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: didn't have a stand there, and I kept making excuses
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: for why I shouldn't go over there. But finally, like
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna do it. Even though it's
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: like a hard access place, and I was worried about
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: spooking deer. Better close to it. Um they were cutting
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: a corn field right next to this kind of betting
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: area type spot, and so I had this idea that
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: I would sneak in there with my sticks and stand,
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: and I would time when I walked to when the
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: combine was close so that I could scurry as quickly
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: as I could when the mine was close, making a
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: lot of noise, and then as the combine moved away,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: I would i would freeze and I would crouch down.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: I'd wait because it was one of those really crunchy,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: completely quiet, no wind type days, so any noise I made,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: I knew these deal were gonna hear me. So I
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: spent like an hour getting to that stand, and it
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: wasn't that far of a distance, but just trying to
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: be perfect about it, waiting when the combine was tim
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: and everything. Finally I get to this spot where I'm
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: I find the tree. I'm ready to climb up in
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: here and get all situated. I was so proud of
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: myself for doing it the hard way and making sure
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't spook anything going in and I met the
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: base of the tree and I go to get my
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: sticks and I realized I left my climbing sticks at
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: my house. So that was one of those hanging hunts
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: that was really a fail. But but I've had the
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: same problems where either I forget something or I get
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: in there and I realized this wrong. And actually that
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: same hunt, I ended up being able to go back
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: get sticks. I actually had my wife drive. This was
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: a piece of private land. I was able to have
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: her come out with a four wheeler and drop them off.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: But it was a debacle. I end up try and
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: get in the tree, and then I came down on
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the tree because it wasn't right, and went up in
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: another tree and lo and behold, I actually did see
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: the buck I was after that night. Didn't shoot him,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: but it uh, it can be one of those things.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Hanging and hunting is is a great way to do it.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: But you've gotta you've gotta be like you said, you
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: gotta be willing to work a little bit, take take
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: some blows on the way you do, and you gotta
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: screw up like that. I mean, it's just things like
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: that happen, you know, And you can have the best
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: system in the world and you'll forget something eventually, and
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: or you'll pick the wrong tree, you know, get up
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: there and just find out that it's not right. I mean,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: it's that's just the way it's gonna happen. But the
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: reward for doing that is can be awesome. Yeah, what's
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: what's your tree trimming policy been this year? When a
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: situation like that where you're trimming much at all? Um
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: or do you just depends what kind of land you're on,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean a lot of places you can't
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: cutting things down if you're on public and so I
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: end up a lot of times having this it and
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: fairly open trees, you know, with not a lot of
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of limbs and branches on them, and I
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: tend to face my stands away from where I think
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: that you're going to come from and kind of try
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: to shoot around the trunk. But it's a major hassle,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: you know, when I did it. I did this the
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: same strategy in Minnesota as well, and then you know,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: I trim a lot more, and you know, it's it's
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: nice to be able to cut stuff down, but you
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: always want to be careful about doing too much. And
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: so I'm I'm pretty minimal. I try to leave you know,
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: as little impact as possible. Um, when I'm doing it
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: during the season, you know, preseason, if I gotta place,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: I cut stuff down, I go nuts. I love cutting
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: stuff down. But when you're when you're showing up the hunt,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: it's you know, gotta be a little more careful about that,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: you know. But that being said, if you have to
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: get something down to be able to shoot, you gotta
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: take it. You know, like you don't want to be
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: doing acrobatics in your stand and try to shoot around
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: a limb or something like that. That's not going to
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: help you at all. Yeah. The worst thing is when
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: you've got that shoot buck that finally does exactly what
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: you on to do, but the one limb in the
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: way is that one You're like, I'm not going to
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: cut it. Yep, that's definitely you know, if you hot
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: long enough, that will happen. Yeah, yeah, so true. So
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: when you look at this scenario, why do you think
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: that the deer we're using this spot that you ultimately
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: found like the best spot. Why were they using it
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: the way they did? Why was that buck there was
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: there a specific habitat feature or anything you saw that
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: led you to be like why it worked. There was
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: a just just a really subtle almost like a bench
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: on the hillside. Um yeah, and again I guess you
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: could call it a ridge, but it was positioned between
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: some private land to my west and the only field
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: anywhere near me to the east, which wasn't that close,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: but it was the only game in town. And last
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: year at least that far north. You know, this past
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: fall we didn't have hardly any acorns, and so they
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: were browsing and they were going the field that I
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: felt like they were willing to travel farther to get food,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: and that was just the place they could travel through
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: where they wouldn't expose themselves to the A TV trails.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: People weren't going in there, and they could get to
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: and from where they wanted to go without getting harassed.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: So it was it just set up well, you know,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: and next year that may be totally different. If the
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: acorns are dropping and there's something different in that field,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: that spot might die, you know, But this year it
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: was that. I think that's why it was so good.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Speaking of spots, you know, possibly dying or not. When
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: you have hunted some of these public land areas in
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: previous years and you're you're going into the new year.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: How how much of a chance do you give a
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: spot before you decide something changed? You know, is it
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: one hunt? And if that doesn't pan out, you're like,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I'm moving on to option B or C. Or how
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: do you gauge how much time to spend in one
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: of these areas? I mean, it depends, It depends why.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: It's why I think it died. If it's people, which
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: is most often the case, that I don't give it
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: very much time. Um, if I think, you know, a
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: bunch of a bunch of guys that moved in there
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: and are hunting, I can find something else. If it's
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: just you know, me not having figured something out, or
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: if I believe that's the case, then I'll stick it
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: out a little longer. You know, I always I always
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: think about um. You know, I hunted North Dakota for
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: five years on public land, and I figured out this
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: area pretty well. I killed four good bucks in there,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: and but I never killed one in the same tree.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: They were all in the same area, But every single
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: year I went there, something had changed where they were
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: crossing the river in a little bit different spot, or
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: they were bedding up in the hills where the newly
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: should have been or something, you know, you know, I
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: don't know why, but it was always a little bit different.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: And so it wasn't like you just show up and go, well,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: I can just climb into that cot and wouldn't kill
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: one when he crosses the river. It never happened for
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: me that way, and so it's always, you know, it's
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: always a process of just figuring out what's going on.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: That's why people like having land locked up so much that,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: you know, the less influence from people and makes a
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: big difference on how reliable your your stuff can be. Yeah,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: that's for sure, that's the truth of it. So you
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: killed your Wisconsin buck, Well, I'm first kind of curious
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: what did that feel like, because I feel like that's
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: like a challenge that you had set yourself is particularly difficult,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: trying to kill one in the big woods like that.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Did that feel more rewarding than some of your other
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: hunts at all? Without questions? It was awesome, I mean,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: it was just it was It was really awesome because
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: I had told everybody who would listen that I was
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: going to do it in there, and so I had
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: forced myself to get after it, and it was cool,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: and it was just it was one of those deals
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: where like, like I said, you know, I didn't have cameras.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: I was just hunting and I was seeing lots of
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: deer and I was having a lot of fun. And
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: then to have a deer do that that you get
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: to call in and he I mean he came in
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: like he was two fifty inches. It was incredible, and
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: just the overall hunt was awesome, you know. I mean,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: to me, that's that's way more fun than some of
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: the some of the times, you know, like I've done
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: industry hunts or something where I'll go on an outfited
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: hunt and you know, you shop there and they say,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: well this you're supposed to show up here, and then
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: it does and you shoot it. You know. I mean,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: people want to do that. There's nothing wrong with that.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: But to me personally, I just enjoy that going out
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: there to places where anybody can and and getting it done. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. So what happened after that? You've killed
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: in two states already? What state was next? Minnesota? I
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: had to I had to, you know, I don't I
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: don't feel like a real man unless I filled my
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: home state tag you know um, and so I had.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: I was getting my butt kicked a little bit. I
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: went back home and hunted a few places and had
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: a good encounter with a buck I did not expect
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: close to my house here in the Cities and got
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: busted by him. And I ended up pushing it until
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Halloween weekend, and uh, you know when it was real hot,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: and I ended up going out one morning and there
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: was a I have a stand, and I said every year,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: and I've never killed a big buck off of it, um,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: but it's always a good place to see a few deer.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: And that stand, I didn't intend to hunt it at all.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: I was doing the same thing when I was carrying
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: stands in um and setting them and I had been
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: doing that, and for some reason, I can't remember why
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: the wind was bad or something, I had a morning
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: to hunt and I didn't want to go to where
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: I wanted to go, so I played it safe and
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: I went back to the stand I've never killed a
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: big buck off of and part you know person because
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: I knew there was some does living around there, and
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: it was close enough to Halloween. It was like the
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: twenty nine or something. And I got into that stand
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: and I had a dough tag and I thought, well,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: it dol gives me a good shot. I'm a plunker
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: because I'm just I'm not going to see a big
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: one probably here. And I had this dough come in
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: and I had passed up this dough She's she was
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: a loner, pretty distinctive. I passed her up earlier in
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: the year because I didn't want to shoot her at
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: that point. And I saw her coming and I was like, oh,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna shoot just bill this time. And she got closer.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: I was like, she looks like she might be getting chased,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: and so I let her go past and nothing showed up.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, I could have you know, I
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: could put the benefits of my days. I didn't, And
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: you know, five minutes after she ran up, I heard
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: the loudest grunt I've ever heard in my life. And
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: I looked up in this buck was just barreling down
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: the trail, grunting like just like he was, you know,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: a zombie was crazy, and uh, I stopped him a
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: fifteen yard shot him and he ran up and tipped over,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: and my hunt was done. And I finally killed, you know,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: after like, I don't know how many years I've hung
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: a scan in that stupid spot. I finally killed going
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: in there. It was all because that little bill brought
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: him by the doll that I didn't shoot earlier in
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: the year. And I was like, that felt like faith
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: or something. So why do you think, I mean, was
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: it purely a luck hunt or was there something about
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: that set up that you know, made it likely that
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: a doe would bring a buck in? Well, there's always
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: doze in there. That's one of the reasons I liked it.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: And you know, I've killed bucks in there, but never
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: any real big ones. And I knew from where I
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: had set up the previous night, in the previous previous morning,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: I was close to where that buck. I knew where
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: he was living and a couple of his buddies. But
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: I just that area that just you don't have a
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: lot of big bucks come through their acts respect. If
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: you could hunt it all the way through the rut
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: without the shotgun season coming in, it gets real good,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: But it just usually doesn't. They usually hang back in
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: the thicker stuff. It's kind of a more open woods.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: It looks it looks more like a place you'd want
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: to sit and put your back to a tree for
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: a turkey. And but that buck he was, he was
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: real fired up. In fact, I ended up um after
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: I went and found him, I had to go pull
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: a through stands so I could go home. And out
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: in the cornfield where they had come from. It looked
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: like that had covered every square into that cornfield grind.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: It was just like he was out of his mind.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if that dough was coming into
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: Astris or what, um, but it's just it was one
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: of those deals, you know. It's one of the reasons
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: why we like hunting the last couple of days of
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: October and into November, you know. So yeah, definitely partially
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: luck because that was not where I was intending to sit.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: But I sat there knowing there's those coming in there.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: You know, now, when you said earlier that you knew
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: were this book and some of these other bucks were
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: hanging out their core or their betting area, how are
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: you figuring that out from these previous hunts. What made
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: you believe that um, well he was he was living
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: close to where the big one I've been following for
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: a long time is, and this year he was real distinctive.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Could be have split brow tigns um he was. He
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: seemed to be spending a lot of time at the
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: fringe of this valley where that big one was living.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: So I just kind of incidentally paid attention to him
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: quite a bit. Um. And I just knew, you know,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: I had actually gone in the night before and hunted
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: where I thought that buck was living. Um, partially because
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: of the rubs, partially because of the earlier trail camera
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: photos and stuff, and so I was set up not
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: that far away from him, but it was just it
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: was just one of the areas he liked, you know. Yeah,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: And I guess, you know, during the rut, like you said,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: if you're in the basic ballpark, you just need to
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: be where the does are and then he could show up. Well, yeah,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: and he was where I had went in and hung
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: a stand the night before to hunt. There was a
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: there's a staging area in there, and that buck came
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: from there. If I'd have been in, I think I
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: could have killed him on any stand I had in
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: that woods that morning. But I know he ran down
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: the trail right by where I wanted to sit. But
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: if I had gone in there, like we were talking
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: about earlier, I would have had to go by that
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: cornfield he was chasing in and I've probably would wrote
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: him out. So it's just one of those fields where
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: it's like, you know when when things like that, you know,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: you hunt so much where that doesn't happen, but when
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: it does, you're like, wow, look at all the different
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: things that had to go into it and make it happen, right,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: you know, And I'll take it. There was there was
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: a good level of luck there, and I'll take that
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: every time. Yeah, it's funny if you I feel like
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: any successful hunt, if you look at it, it's like
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: ten million tiny little things had to go just right,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: and if any one of them was off, you probably
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have had that hunt. Um. So yeah, there's always
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: some luck. But then also I think a lot of
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: times it's the attention to detail. It's the little things
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: that you did that maybe you don't even think about
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: it anymore because you just know to do them. That
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: probably a lot of those little things led to it.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: That's that's been a big paradigm like shift for me.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: Is it's just over the years realizing how important every
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: little step is, um, because they add up. It is.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: And you know one of the things that we don't
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: really assign any credit to for this stuff. If you
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: been doing this a long time, you kind of just
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: developed some intuition for it, you know, like I just
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: kind of feel like sitting here or there it look
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: how often it works. You never hang out with anybody,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: you know, any of these older dudes that have been
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: you know, I always I always think about like duck hunters.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, hunt around, hunt with somebody who
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: really knows how to duck hunt. They just they just
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: they have this critter sense and it's you know, they
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: know when to call, they know when to shut up,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: they know that when the deco spreads right or not right,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: and there's so many little things to it is so nuanced,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: and like you said, most of those guys they're not
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: thinking about it, I mean not you know, they're not
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: devoting you know, massive amounts of brain power to it.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: They're just going on, there's the way I do it,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: or if you know, we should be on this point
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: this morning or that point tomorrow morning or whatever. And
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: they're right a lot. And you know, we we we
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: we could probably develop the same thing with Deeter. You
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: know yet. It's that gut instinct. But the gut instinct
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: use you something like you said, that's developed their experience,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: and um, it eventually becomes ingrained in your subconscious, but
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: takes a lot experience to get there. I think, I
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: think wholeheartedly. Yeah, that's true. So state number four was
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: in your sights. Now what happened there? Uh, that was
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: Nebraska and that was that was a trip I wasn't
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: even intending to do. Um, I was gonna have a
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: buddy come out and hunt my Wisconsin stuff and I
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: was gonna just grouse hunt. But his plans changed and
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: we decided to meet at my spot in Nebraska, or
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: at a spot I like in Nebraska. And it was
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: during that week when it was real hot. It was
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: like we I think I got down there in November three. Um,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: in the day I got down there to this property.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: My buddy had gotten there a few days before and
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: said there was some dude from Michigan, probably one of
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: your buddies. Maybe that was driving a dirt bike. The
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: property is a is a section, so it SI but
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: you know a good portion is at its just wide
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: open grassland where you know you couldn't hide a kyote
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: pupp in there, you know, And so most of the
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: good hunting stuff is condensed into about half a section.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: And this dude had been hunting off of his dirt
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: bike with with the cross bow over his shoulder, and
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: judging by the tracks in the public land, he had
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: covered serious ground. Um well, the day that I got there,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: my buddy had told me this, but I wasn't there yet.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: The day I drove down, I assumed it was probably
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: somebody from the park service there h called hitting the
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: conservation officer and he came in to put an end
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: to that. But that guy, that one guy on a
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: dirt bike had like blown all the year off his property.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: It was like covered in sign and covered in tracks,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: and everything looked right, but you could not hardly see
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: it here. I sat the first whole day in a
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: spot where I've never had a bad hunt, and I
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: saw two random loan fall ons and that was it.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: And I could see a lot, you know, this was Nebraska,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: like I could. I could see some serious ground, and
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, well it's hot. There's been a
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: ton of you know, disturbance in here. And so I
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: went back to camp, grab the stand, walk the other
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: end the property. Hung it. I thought, I gotta get
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: as far away from where this guy in the dirt
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: pike was, which is you can only go a mile. Um.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: I hung a stand and came back. I grabbed another
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: stand and walk into a spot that I just I
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: saw it on the map, and I thought, you know,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: maybe a buck will come down cruise through right along
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: this little Charlotte stream because it's really hot. It was
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: seventy five degrees and it was really thick cover down there,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of that feed here stuff next to the stream.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: And so I carry a stand in there, and this
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: is the second standard hung that day. And I hung
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: that stand and looked around and sawn this little tiny
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: clearing the head of eight big rub in a scrape
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: and it was maybe like the size of a living room,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: but it was right by the creek. And just looked
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: it looked good. So I hung that stand and sat
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: down and kind of got ready, and I'm like, all right,
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: it's it's seventy five degrees. I'm probably I can see
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: any dear activity till you know, right before dark. And
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: like ten minutes later, I looked over and I saw
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: this rack come in through the brush and it was
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: the most miserable looking buck I've ever seen in my life.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: Like he looked like he just hated every step. He
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: had a tape, but it was November four and you
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: could just see it, like in his face. He's like,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: I'm so miserable, but I have to find a doll.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: He came walking in. I sat up, turned around, and
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: I stopped him at like twelve yards and shot him.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: And my hunt was over. And I spent the rest
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: of the time They're trying to get my buddy a deer,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: and so I had a false turkey take too, and
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to mess around a little bit.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: And I never saw another buck or a mature dough
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: on that property the entire time I was there. Wow.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: But and if I mean, you go down check out
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: a like a creek crossing down there, and it was
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: just pounded. So you know, those deer were there. But
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: one guy on a dirt bike changed everything. And you know,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that there was going to be some suppress
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: movement because it was hot. There wasn't going to shut
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: it down that way. Yeah it was, But I was
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: gonna say so, in that scenario, why did you decide
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: to still hunt that property despite the dirt bike debacle,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: because it's it's it's a good property, and it's it's
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: a creek bottom. And so I set up really close
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: to the property line where those deer would potentially come
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: filtering back in from the private land. And so I
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: would have moved if that wouldn't have worked on it,
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: maybe hunted at one or two more days, and then
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: I would have moved. Lot. I knew, you know, it's
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: the rout Um you're on water, you're in a place
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: where they like to cruise. And I knew he had
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: blown a lot of deer off that property. Could just tell.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: And so when you know, he was done righting by
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: the time I had showed up, So I figured it
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: was possible they'd start filtering back in, and you know,
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: one did, I guess, one really unlucky, miserable buck came back.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: So so again I've asked the question a couple of times,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: but why was that spot right for that buck? If
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: you think it was just because that was the good
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: cover of the creek and he was following it, or
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: was there something else going on? Um, he was following
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: the creek for sure, you know, I think he was
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: down there getting to drink. You know. I shot it
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: at like four or fifteen. It was it was still
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: real toasty out and I think what he was doing
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: was just checking a few places that were real thick
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: that he could stay close to water, and he wanted
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: to cruise, and that's where he was going to do it.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't It just wasn't the kind of
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: stay situation where you're gonna go sit up on an
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: open you know, on a grassy hillside or you know,
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: the grassy cop next to a field and see a
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: big buck cruising, you know, nose to the ground, going crazy.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: It just wasn't gonna happen then. So I just figured
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: the best bet was to get where they're going to
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: be the most comfortable. M hmm. What what do you think?
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: Or I guess did you learn anything this year from
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: these from these hunts that you think you'll apply to
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: future years. Was there anything that changed your way of
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: looking at the hunting world or your strategy? Yeah, yeah,
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: I'm going back to the way I used to hunt.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'll run I'll run cameras this summer, and
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: I'll have a few places where I'll run them. But
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go back to carrying a stand in
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: and looking for sign I mean not only because it
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: was defective, but it was just enjoyable. And so I
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: just I wanted to like rid myself of these crutches
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: that we think are helping us and then maybe aren't.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: And so that's one of the reasons I'm like big
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: into you know, proving things wrong, improving people wrong. And
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: so I if somebody sits there and tells me, you know,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: you can't kill and if the wind's gowing thirty miles,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: I'll hunt that wind every time and eventually I'll kill one,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: you know, like I just kind of like that style.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: And and after after this year, just seeing what I
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: saw and having consistently good hunting and lots of sightings
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: throughout times when you shouldn't, it just told me that
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: this is probably the way I should be doing it now.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: You know that's probably partially because maybe I'm playing to
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: my strengths. I love, you know, scouting, I love carrying
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: standing and hanging them, and I don't mind that work.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: You know, some people don't have the time, some people
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: don't have the places to do that, and so it's
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: you know, it's not a one size fits all strategy,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: but for me, that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah, can
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: you elaborate a little bit on the sign piece, because
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about, you know, looking for
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: certain things, but in general, how do you rank certain
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: types of sign I guess in importance to you and
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: like what specifically will give you a Okay, yeah, I'm
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: stopping right now. This is something I need to be
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: hunting on right now, versus this is something that is
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: going to be filed the way as a piece of data.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: But I'm going to keep looking rubs. I mean, for me,
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: if you know, like like I said before, I mean
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: I had a lot of water. I like water a lot.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: I think it's one of the most reliable things you
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: can hunt. So if I get to you know, secluded
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: upon and it's covered in tracks, I will hunt that
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: no matter what. Or a creek crossing or a river
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: crossing or something. I love all that stuff. But for
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: the most part, for me, I'm just looking for rubs.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: I mean big rubs, little rubs, any kind of rubs.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: If I see that, I know bucks spent time there,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: and if I see it in the thick cover, I
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: normally probably did that in daylight. And I'll tell you know,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: that big buck that I watched in Wisconsin, um when
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: I was kind of an observation stand, that was a
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: really good deer and I watched him make a rub
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: and when I went up to it, you would have
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: scored a forty made it. It was just this little
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: tiny rub that you would never guessed that size of
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: buck made it. And I've always kind of felt that
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: way about especially early season. You know, as you get
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: closer to the rut, all those rubs pop up, and
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: it's it's a little bit different. But if you find
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: rubs in September or early October, I love hunting there.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: I just I have had such good luck in my
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: life using that as kind of my compass and where
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: I should set my stands. Now, is there like a
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: certain number of rubs you have to see in a
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: certain amount of area to say, okay, this is enough
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: because I'm assuming like one rub on its own or
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: I guess that's question. Is one rub on its own
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: enough for you to say I want to hunt here?
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: Or do you need to see you know, five within
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: a hundred yard area or ten within that or what's
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: how what's that threshold on a single rub? In fact,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: where I killed that bucke in Wisconsin, that's what I had,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: That's what I was working off of originally. Um just
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: it's if I see a rub, if i'm if I'm
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: in good cover and I see a rub like that,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: especially early season, a lot of times start looking around.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: Now you might find it in a place where you
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: can't set up, or you might just think, you know,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: bet down this ridge a little ways, it's gonna be better.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: So it's not you know, like go find a rub
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: and just sit over it and hope he comes back.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: But it's like just such a good jumping off point
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: if you see one, or if you see a couple,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: it's a good time to start looking around and start
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: thinking about whether there's a good observation point or is
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: you're worth paying attention to more. And you know, the
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: one thing about not to totally beat this, you know,
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: dead horse here, but the technical strategy is if you
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: go out and find that, you hang a camera on it, right,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: or hang a camera on the nearest trail. But when
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: you start hunting this kind of stuff, maybe never come
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: back to that individual tree the entire season. He may
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: not rub it again, but that area he might be
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: using it a lot, so that camera might get him
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: or it might not. But if you sit there in
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: a tree stand where you can see around you and
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: see for quite a ways and here for quite a ways,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: you have a lot better chance to figure out what
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: he's actually doing there. And there's just a lot of
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: value to that, you know. I mean, I'm not saying
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: there isn't value to hanging the camera there, but if
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: you could afford to spend the time to set up
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: and watch, there's a lot of value to that. Yeah,
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. Now, why rubs and not scrapes Because
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: I hate scrapes. I have hunted scraped so much and
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: killed so few deer on them. Um. In fact, I
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: did a little experiment this year just for the heck
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: of it, and I took some nationwide sense uh running
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: buck scent. And the weekend that I killed my buck
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota, I went into where I thought that big
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: one was it out and I dumped a whole bottle
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: of that into a scrape and I hung a camera
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: on a video mode over it and left it alone.
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: I just thought, I'm just gonna see who's really coming
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: into this scrape during the time when they should be
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: and it was really interesting because I didn't hardly have
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: any visits from good bucks in daylight. And then one
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: day I had a couple of really good bucks coming
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: and worked that scrape. And then that big boy came
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: into the dark and worked it. And the crazy part
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: about it was only one of those bucks actually pawed
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: up the scrape, but every buck came in and worked
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: the liking bridge really incredible. And so what that tells
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: me is I probably don't know what I'm talking about
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: what it comes to scrape, because that really surprised me.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: And I just never you know, when I was younger,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: we used scrapes a lot and we hunted them, and
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: it just never it was never like consistently reliable, not
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: it for me to hunt. And so you know, I
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: don't mind seeing scrapes and that, you know, you don't
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: mind hunting around them. But when I'm walking in and
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: I see a scrape, it just doesn't It doesn't get
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: my spidy senses tigling the way of way a good
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: rub does. Interesting. Now, when we're leaving up to this,
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: we're talking about rubs. The first thing you said, though,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: you really to focus on is water? Um, is there
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: any times of year when that's going to change. I'm
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: assuming my assumption is that early season. Of course, when
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: it's hot water, for sure it is great. But you
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: are you still kiing in on water in late October
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: or early December or some other time of the year. Um,
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: you know, not by December? You know when I get
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: into when I get into the true late season, I
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: tend to hunt a lot of staging areas around food.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't have a lot of places where
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: I can sit and kill deer out in a good
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: food plot or a field. But that time of year,
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: it's primarily staging areas awful food. So it's a food
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: centered pattern. But the rest of the time, the seasons,
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: I'll take water over anything. I love. I love hunting water.
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: In part. Part of that is because a hunt a
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: lot of public lands, and so it's not like you're
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: relying on food plots or you're you know, a lot
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: of public land doesn't have agriculture on it, and so
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: you've got to look at what what are you gonna
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: be able to hunt that's gonna consistently draw deer in?
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: And there's there are very few things out there that
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: are more consistent than just water, the right kind of water.
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: Do you see any difference between that you mentioned the
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: right kind of war? Are there certain types of like
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: is a small pond better than a stream or a
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: big pond better than a river or anything like that.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: Um ponds are the best, I think because they're easiest
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: to hunt. It's so concentrated, and so there's a pond
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: draw more deer than a stream. Probably not, But one
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: thing I like about them is they're often located in cover,
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: which is always good. And there are ponds where I
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: can set a stand up over it shoot every single
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: animal that comes into that pond in any direction. And
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: so do you get down a stream you're hunting crossings,
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: you know, but you also have the benefit of deer
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: maybe cruising down it. But it's just it's situational, you know.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, it gets to the point where bigger rivers
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: aren't as much fun, obviously, But if it's you know,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: it's an easily waitable stream, it can be good. But
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: my ultimate is just the right pond because it's you
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: if you find that, if it can be so good
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: and you can have all the deer to yourself on
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: that little water source. How does the wind factor into
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: how you set up on those ponds? Are you setting
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: up to make sure that your winds blowing away from
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: the pond when the deer is actually there, or are
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: you considering, dear maybe using the wind to approach. What's
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: your thoughts there? They depends, you know, it depends where
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to come from. Um. A lot
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: of times I like to set up so the winds
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: blowing right over the pond um because either they won't
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: get me because they're not going to go right out
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: in the middle of a pond, or if they come
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: in and such way they might get me, I'm probably
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: gonna kill him first. And so it's just it's, you know,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: a situation. It's people ask me questions like that all
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: the time, like, well, I have this place to set up,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: but sometimes the wind is that and it's like the
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: variables are infinite, you know. So it just depends to
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: where they gonna come from, how are they going to
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: use it? Are you gonna be able to shoot him
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: before they get get your win? You know, just just
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of things like that. Yeah, yeah, that that
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: makes sense. What about so so one of the big
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: things you did this year that you think you're gonna
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: apply a future years is moving away from trail cameras
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: and being focused on you know, observing, adjusting, et cetera.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: That was something you did, right. Was there any big
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: mistake you made this year that you want to make
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: sure you don't do in the future, or series of mistakes? Yeah,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: kind of. Um, you know, I think that that big
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: one that I almost kind of hope he got shot
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: so I don't have to worry about him next year.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know if he did or not. Um, I
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: really don't hope he did, but he may have. Uh,
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: But just just so you know, singularity of focus on
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: that deer when there were quite a few deer that
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: I'd have been super happy with. And what happened to
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: me is I didn't want to go hunt anywhere else
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: but where he was or I thought he was, because
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to go sit there and have like,
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: you know, a great buck come by, but wasn't him,
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: And so I didn't enjoy hunting as much. And that
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: was stupid. You know, I should have just said, you know,
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: if I get the right wind, I get the right
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: chance to going after him. Great, but I'm gonna hunt
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: these other areas just as hard and just as smart
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: and enjoy it. And if a good buck comes by
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: and I'm happy with it, I'm gonna shoot him. You know.
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: I kind of fell into that trap, and I got
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: out of it pretty quick, you know, when the dogs
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: came in and things like that. But it just it
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: changed things for me. And I've got a buddy, you know,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: who I'd both hunt with a lot. He was a
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: good friend of mine, and he got into the same situation.
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: He had a buck within on a farm that only
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: he has permission to hunt, and just from the truck cameras,
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: we thought it was like one eighties for sure, and
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: he did the same thing where he's like, I gotta
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: try to kill this deer and he didn't, and that
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: buck got shot during shotgun season on the neighbor's farm
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: and ended up going to out two and yeah. So
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: so it's truly a once in you know, one and
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: one thousand lifetimes type of deer. But at the same time,
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: you know, you got little kids, you've got a family,
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: and you don't have tons of tons of time to
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: devote to these deer, and you're going out hunting specifically
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: for a buck you're probably not going to kill. It's
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: just it changes things, you know, and it's in the
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: right situation there was going after, but not to the
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: point where you start losing the enjoyment. And I did
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: that to myself and I didn't like it. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: It's one of those things kind of like we were
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: talking about early on, where you know, there's a certain
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: type of enjoyment of hunting a managed property versus a
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: certain type of enjoyment out of hunting public property. And
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: the same thing goes I think with this type of
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: thing where there's a certain type of satisfact with targeting
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: one single buck. But at the same time, there's something
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: to be said about just hunting and enjoying whatever you know,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: mother nature sends by you. And if you end up
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: losing the enjoyment out of it, well then you know,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: what the heck are you doing for well exactly? And
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I kind of look at it like you know,
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: for me, there's even a financial inside have to kill
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: big ones because they get more articles out of it
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: and more publicity and blah blah blah. But even that
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: doesn't really make it, doesn't It doesn't really feel like
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: it justifies it for me to lose the enjoyment and
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: you know, for a lot of people to focus on
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: dear that caliber. It's just like, you know, it's it's
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: it would be like if if I got divorced tomorrow
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, it's going to be
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: victorious secrets models for me here on out, I'd be
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: a lonely, sad dude in a hurry because my odd
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: they're just not good. Is that's going to shake out?
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: You know, like just you gotta play within your means
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: and you got to go have some fun with very true.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: That's some wise advice right there. So yeah, you can
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: have that. That's awesome. So I've got one final question
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: for you, Tony. Um, what is one thing that you
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: do or believe that's counterintuitive or counter to popular, you know,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: popular beliefs out there when it comes to hunting other
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: than some of the things we've talked about so far.
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: Is there anything out there that most people would think
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: is crazy but you strongly believe in when it comes
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: to how you hunt or things you do. Well, Um,
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: you know, probably a lot of stuff. You know, I'm
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty contrary and you know, I think you can
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: kill him in the wind and the rain and the heat,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: in all kinds of conditions, right, I think that's maybe,
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe the way I run against the grain
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: the most is that I'm just gonna hunt always every
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: chance I have, I'm gonna go sit and I'm gonna
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: find a way to do it. And if it's you know,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: whether it's sort of set of stand, I have a
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: lot of hopeful or play it safe and back off, observe,
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: I just am always going to be out there. And
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the advice out there is
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: don't do that, don't go in, don't risk messing it up,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: save it for the perfect conditions. And the problem is,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: now I'm sitting here with a job and twin five
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: year olds, and it's not like I'm just gonna have
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: every opportunity in the world to hunt no matter what.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: So if that you know, perfect day comes up, there's
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: a much better chance I'm taking my kids to daycare
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: in the morning and sitting in a tree stand and
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna hunt when I can, no matter what,
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: whether it's hot or windy or super crappy out or
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: something's going on. And a lot of times that really
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: works out for you. And so, you know, I guess
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: it's kind of the overarching theme to this conversation. Just
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: go hunt and have fun, you know, like you start
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: taking it a little bit too seriously and you start
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: losing that enjoyment and you start, you know, saying, well,
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: I can't hunt now because I'll ruin this. Well, what
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: if you don't and have a lot of fun, you know,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: like if you go sit in the woods, that it's
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: a great time. Even if you don't kill a big buck,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: that's probably still worth it, right, Yeah, Yeah, And I
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: think that's this is something that probably a lot of people,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: you know, need to hear this time of year two,
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: after a lot of us have you know, wrapped up
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: what for some people may it was a great season,
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: but for others, maybe it was a season full of
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: stress and frustration because of you know, getting caught up
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: in this stuff a little bit too much. I'm I'm
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: certainly guilty of at times. And um, it's it's always
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: important to take a step back and remember why we're
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: doing this in the first place. Sure, And you know,
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: I mean I think we all know that. I think
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: we forget it because if you were. I mean, if
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: if you were to look at the success rates, you know,
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: for bow hunting, it would seem insane for seventy percent
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: of the people to ever go hunting because they're not
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: going to kill one. But we all do. We all go,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: and a lot of people go that don't kill stuff
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: very often, and there's there's a reason for that. There's
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: more to it than you know, a bloody arrow at
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: the end of the day. Yeah, that I think that
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: right there is probably the best way we can wrap
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: this episode up, Tony. So thank you. Thank you so
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: much for chatting with us here and and kind of
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: divulging the secrets of your two thousand and sixteen season
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: because you're obviously doing a lot of things right and
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: I think it's gonna help a lot of people out there. Well,
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Man. Thanks for having me absolutely, Tony.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: Good luck, and you're scouting and work this winter leading
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: up to the next one. Thanks you too, And so
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: there you go. We're going to wrap this one up.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: So big thank you to our partners who helped keep
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: this podcast on the air. Thanks to Sick of Gear,
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: Redneck Blinds, Hunter, a Maps, Yetti Coolers, Osonics, Carbon Express,
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: Maven Optics, and the white Tail Institute of North America.
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: And finally, thank you all again for spending this time
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: with us and until next time, stay wired Ton