Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 411: What Would Ben Rising Do?

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Ep. 411: What Would Ben Rising Do? · 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
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  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four eleven,
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  Speaker 1: and today in the show, I am joined by Ben
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  Speaker 1: Rising in Ohio, white tail bow hunting addict, and we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be running him through a series of hypothetical and
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  Speaker 1: challenging deer hunting situations to figure out exactly what he
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  Speaker 1: would do. All right, Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast,
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  Speaker 1: brought to you by on X. Today, I'm joined by
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  Speaker 1: Ben Rising. He's the founder and host of the White
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Tail Edge hunting series that you can find on YouTube,
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  Speaker 1: and he was also a longtime member of the Jury
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  Speaker 1: Outdoors team previous to that. He's one of the most
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  Speaker 1: well known and most consistent deer hunters in the country
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  Speaker 1: with a specific focus on hunting the biggest, oldest bucks,
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  Speaker 1: and he's doing that at a remarkable rate. So if
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  Speaker 1: if you're in that part of your hunting journey where
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  Speaker 1: you want to level up your chances that that kind
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  Speaker 1: of deer, Ben is definitely a guy you can learn from.
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  Speaker 1: And for this one I'm jumping back into the what
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  Speaker 1: would you Do? Series that I kicked off last year.
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  Speaker 1: The basic gist of that, if you miss those earlier episodes,
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  Speaker 1: was that I am going to pull together a series
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  Speaker 1: of different hypothetical deer hunting situations and run these past
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  Speaker 1: Men and then have him break down exactly you know,
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  Speaker 1: what he would do in those circumstances, how he would
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  Speaker 1: do it, why he would do these things, and really
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  Speaker 1: trying to get a different angle on how Ben thinks
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  Speaker 1: about deer hunting and how he would approach deer hunting,
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  Speaker 1: you know, issues and challenges and situations, so that maybe
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  Speaker 1: for us listening, we can learn a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: or learn in a different kind of way that becomes
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  Speaker 1: more actionable for us when we're actually out there in
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  Speaker 1: the field. So that's the game plan. It's a great conversation.
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  Speaker 1: I think you will be able to learn some things
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  Speaker 1: from Ben, and I'm excited for you to be able
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  Speaker 1: to listen. So, uh, you know, without further ado, I'd say,
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  Speaker 1: let's just get right into it. Here's my chat with
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  Speaker 1: Ben Rising all right now with me on the line,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: returning for a second appearance since I think it was
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  Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen. Ben, I think that's what you're saying.
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  Speaker 1: We got Ben Rising. Welcome back to the show. Ben, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for having me Mark if you were the first
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  Speaker 1: guy I ever did a podcast with. Man, I uh,
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  Speaker 1: I'm honored, and I'm I'm honored that you're back, that
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  Speaker 1: you were willing to come back onto the show, and uh, Man,
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  Speaker 1: it's a pleasure. It's it's been something that over the years,
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  Speaker 1: I've of course followed your hunting exploits all over the
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  Speaker 1: country and and you're just one of the most consistent
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  Speaker 1: guys out there that knows how to get the job
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  Speaker 1: done when it comes to deer hunting and target big
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  Speaker 1: mature bucks. So it's it's always something that our audience
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  Speaker 1: is going to be excited about. So so thank you, Ben,
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  Speaker 1: And I wanna I wanna propose something to you. This idea,
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  Speaker 1: which is something that I've done with a handful of
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  Speaker 1: other really consistent, really great deer hunters, which is have
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  Speaker 1: a conversation today that's kind of framed around a series
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  Speaker 1: of hypothetical scenarios. So I want to pitch a bunch
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: of different situations at you. I'll kind of paint a
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  Speaker 1: picture and then I'm gonna just ask you to walk
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  Speaker 1: me through what you would do in that scenario if
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  Speaker 1: this was happening to you, What would you do, how
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  Speaker 1: would you think through it? Why would you do certain things? Um?
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  Speaker 1: And then we'll just kind of play through a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of different things like that and see where it takes us.
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  Speaker 1: But uh, that's what I'm hoping to do. Does that
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  Speaker 1: sound Does that sound good? Yeah? Perfect, man. It sounds
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  Speaker 1: like a neat twist, the same old thing all the time.
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  Speaker 1: You know, It's just a lot of the podcast I
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: have listened to. It's just the same thing about scouting
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  Speaker 1: and everybody. You know, It's like the same things that
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  Speaker 1: everybody talks about. So this is just to be interesting. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's exactly my thoughts. We gotta keep people on their toes, right,
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  Speaker 1: So so here's here's where I want to start. Then
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  Speaker 1: I want to jump right into things. Uh, no softball
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  Speaker 1: has been so apologies here, but I read the other
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  Speaker 1: day that you described hunting season as your hardest fall
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  Speaker 1: in years, one of your toughest years in a long
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  Speaker 1: long time. So I want to know if we were
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  Speaker 1: to fast forward to the fall of let's say it's
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, middle of the way through the season,
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  Speaker 1: let's say so maybe we'll we'll put that somewhere in
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  Speaker 1: November and you're in the same position again. It's mid November,
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  Speaker 1: and you're thinking to yourself, my gosh, this is the
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  Speaker 1: worst season I've had in ten fifteen years. What's going on?
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  Speaker 1: Why is it so tough? If you find yourself in
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  Speaker 1: that same position again, what would your advice be to yourself?
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  Speaker 1: What would you tell yourself future Ben in mid November
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  Speaker 1: when you're having your heartest season and years, don't pass
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  Speaker 1: the deer I passed. It's that easy. Yeah, well, not necessarily.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, I ate a tag in Illinois this
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  Speaker 1: year for the first time in many, many years, and
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  Speaker 1: that's because I passed a really good, dear, solid, big
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  Speaker 1: mature deer trying to hunt a bigger deer. Which but
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  Speaker 1: that's what I do, you know, That's what I'm about,
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  Speaker 1: and so I'm not mad at myself. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't have been happy with the deer that if I
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  Speaker 1: would have shot it. It It was a great, big, mature dear.
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  Speaker 1: I would have been you know, I would have been happy,
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  Speaker 1: but I wouldn't I would have felt like I let
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  Speaker 1: myself down. Because I'm a challenger, you know, I challenged
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  Speaker 1: myself and I was trying to hunt a bigger deer
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  Speaker 1: that was in the area. It wasn't certaly always on
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: my farm, but he was in the area that I
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  Speaker 1: could hunt. So, you know, my cameraman wanted to push
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  Speaker 1: me out of the tree when I passed the deer.
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  Speaker 1: I passed, but I thought for sure i'd get back
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  Speaker 1: on that deer. But long story short, all both the deer,
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  Speaker 1: the one I passed and the one I was after,
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  Speaker 1: both got killed. So that's just the way the cookie crumbles,
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  Speaker 1: you know. Um So that made it an altered tough
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  Speaker 1: for me because then I didn't have a deer to
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  Speaker 1: hunt in Illinois, so that I wanted to shoot, I
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  Speaker 1: should say, and I won't settle. I'm not gonna shoot
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  Speaker 1: what I call just a video buck to produce a show.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that. I'm not a guy that's
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  Speaker 1: gonna sit there and be like, well, look at this big,
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  Speaker 1: mature buck and it's really a three year old that
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  Speaker 1: everybody knows it's a three year old, and you're just
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  Speaker 1: trying to make it up so you can look good.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not that guy. I'll eat my tag and talk
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  Speaker 1: about the story, show the footage of the deer we passed,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, build a hunt around that instead of
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  Speaker 1: actually harvesting an animal that I really am not gonna
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  Speaker 1: be happy with. And there's nothing wrong with guys shooting
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  Speaker 1: three and a happy year old deer if they're happy
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  Speaker 1: with them, you know, I mean, it's to each their own.
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  Speaker 1: It's just as you know, I've killed a lot of
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  Speaker 1: big deer in my time, so I'm not happy with
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  Speaker 1: a smaller buck like that. I'm past that stage and
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  Speaker 1: that's just what drives men big deer. I totally can
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  Speaker 1: relate to that, and I'm at a different level than you.
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  Speaker 1: But I've also found myself, you know time, you know,
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  Speaker 1: year after year, changing my goals and adjusting and having
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  Speaker 1: that same conflict internally between well, gosh, a few years ago,
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  Speaker 1: I would have shot that deer, or a lot of
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  Speaker 1: other people would have shot that deer, and they think
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  Speaker 1: I'm crazy. But you know, if for some reason, I
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  Speaker 1: feel like I'd be letting myself down by doing that,
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  Speaker 1: you know why, I don't need to settle just to
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  Speaker 1: make somebody else happier, just to make a TV show
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  Speaker 1: or something. So I I can relate to that for sure.
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  Speaker 1: But but here's my question, what just say, you know,
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  Speaker 1: but also there was some other factors that made the
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  Speaker 1: season tough. You know, I'm just it seemed like deer
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  Speaker 1: weren't like even in the late season, it seemed like
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  Speaker 1: the deer weren't going to the corn fields and different
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  Speaker 1: things like normal. And I talked to numerous guys that
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  Speaker 1: said the same thing, that the deer just didn't seem
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  Speaker 1: to be acting normal, like they weren't going to the
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  Speaker 1: food sources in the cold like typically in the past.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, just I don't know what it was.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't seem like we got the major cold cold
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  Speaker 1: till after season was almost out, and that could have
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  Speaker 1: been some of the factor. You know, we kind of
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  Speaker 1: had a mild fall and winter early winter. What do
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  Speaker 1: you do in a situation like that where the deer
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  Speaker 1: you're after get shot, you don't have something or you
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  Speaker 1: don't have conditions that are going the way you wanted
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  Speaker 1: them to, Like, how do you just how do you
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  Speaker 1: handle that? Mentally? Did you find yourself being like, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta totally reset and try something different, or I
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  Speaker 1: need to go somewhere new, or did you say no,
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  Speaker 1: Keep study to the course, keep doing what you know
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  Speaker 1: always works, and eventually things will go your way. Well,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: you know, so I can't trail cameras have changed hunting forever.
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  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Um, some to the goods,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: some to the bad, I feel. But you know, I'm
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  Speaker 1: really big on using my cell cameras to help scout,
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  Speaker 1: especially out of state. You know, I killed a big
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  Speaker 1: buck early in Ohio, so that was out of the question.
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  Speaker 1: So any kind of hunting I needed to do, I
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  Speaker 1: had to drive hours, you know what I mean, And
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  Speaker 1: so I was really relying on my sparting cameras to
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  Speaker 1: kind of tell me what was cooking, you know, on
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  Speaker 1: my on the places that I could hunt and out
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: of state, you know, And I had permission to hunt
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: a place in Kentucky, and you know, maybe I should
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  Speaker 1: have just went and hunted, but I didn't have anything
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  Speaker 1: showing up on any of the cameras. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: had a guy helping run cameras down there, and nothing
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  Speaker 1: was showing up. And so the same thing going on
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  Speaker 1: in Illinois. I had, I think I had twenty cell
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  Speaker 1: cameras or being twenty different cameras running and another guy
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  Speaker 1: helping check cameras because you know, it's an eight hour
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  Speaker 1: drive for me, and we just couldn't come up with
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  Speaker 1: a shooter. You know. Now, I'm not gonna say that
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't go out there sitting to stand and possibly
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  Speaker 1: a big deer come walking by that I not every
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: deer walks by your camera, but at that distance from
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  Speaker 1: home and taking away from work and my family, even
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: though I am producing a show or trying to, it's
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: not my living, you know, And so I have to
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: weigh all those options. And I just really couldn't prime
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: myself to go spend a bunch of seat time in
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the tree stand after what I would false hope. You know,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I'm big about recent information giving me telling me, okay,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: it's time make your move, because a lot of the
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: biggest year I've killed, I've killed him in the first
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: first sit to the third sit, you know, right in there.
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  Speaker 1: And so I'm big about how having that most recent information, Yeah,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: that makes that makes a lot of sense. Like I
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: get I get that focus on that most recent information
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and the value there, but it brings up something else
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  Speaker 1: that I have heard about you, which which is an
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: interesting maybe like into the yang of what you just
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: described where you're saying like you really focused on that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: very specific recent information. But I've also heard you talk
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  Speaker 1: about how you can look at the big picture of things.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And there's a quote I think this was on so
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: maybe share this on Instagram. You said, I'm just different,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I think different and this start This is a quote
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  Speaker 1: I said, I'm just different. I think different. And I
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  Speaker 1: see the forest for the trees, reading the land and
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: feeling it through my soul in the game I'm chasing,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and I can see how they use it. And it's
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: something that I cannot teach. So if if you had
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to teach someone how to see the forest for the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: trees the way you do, see the big picture of
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: something the way you do, how would you how would
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you try or what would be the very most single
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: important thing you would try to convey to them to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: help get someone to see the woods the way you do.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: If there was just one step that they could start
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: taking that direction, what do you think that would be? Well,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: woodsmanship is huge, um, and so one thing is is
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: is understanding animals, all animals and how animals use the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: lay of the land. Okay, I think that is that
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: is the book that is laid before us that tells you, Okay,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: here I am. This is the canvas you have to
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: work with or to hunt and to try to find
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: that buck that's living in that campus, that area, how
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: is he going to use? And the whole before I
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: even get to the farm that I'm gonna hunt or
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: look at or scout or never been foot on, I'm
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: king at what I'm driving around to get to it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: What's what's over here, what's on this neighbor, what's in
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the whole time I'm there, I'm thinking of those things
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: like whether I saw a standing bean field a quarter
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: mile away or corn or you know, cut off timber
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: or water sources or it's just something that like it's
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: like a checklist that just like in my head. It's
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: kind of like the wheel of fortunate wheel going around
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: stinging ing ing ing, nicking ingickickick inging. You know, those
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: things just resonnate with me. And it's almost like when
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I step into a property, then I just try to,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: like I guess you, I say, I try to become one.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever watched the movie, and
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: this is like I tried to explain it to a
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: guy the other day because he asked me about that
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: same post that I had made. And there's a movie
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: out there, uh, with Will Smith and he's a caddy
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: back and this is like a early two thousand movie.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I want to I think it's called the Greatest Game
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Ever Played, Or no it's not. It's called The Legend
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of Bag or Vants. That's the movie. But you gotta
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: watch that movie and it it shows where like the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: golfer that he's teaching, how the field just blurs like
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: like he just sees it and he sees how he
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: needs to hit the ball. Well, that's kind of how
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I think you need to approach when you get to
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: a woods or a new property or something like that.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: You just kind of need to to really see everything.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: You know, how the deer will travel on it, how
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: they will move through it, and the woods will tell
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: you that, I mean, whether the contour, how bucks will
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: use it, how deer will use it. And there's some
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: simple factors you know, as far as like if you
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: know dear at all or if you don't know here,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: but you know how mature dear will use areas that
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: some deer won't use, and how those will use areas
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: that they take over, the best betting, the best covers,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: the closest cal were to the foods. Horses, the box
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: are the biggest box I found are always left thick over,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: you know, the artist stuff to travel from and too.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: And I've learned a giant deer will walk a long
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: way to eat to feel safe when he goes to bed.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: You know, so what what are some other things like that?
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: When you talk about a couple things you found about
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: how those big old deer travel or act or live
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: differently than than the does a few of those rules
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: of thumb, Are there any other things that jump out
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: other than that? Yeah, for sure. I mean so I'm
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a very I guess I'm kind of a controversial little
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: bit in a sense of like, I'm not saying that
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: anybody's wrong, but you know, I've deer hunted long enough
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: and I've killed enough big deer that and I think
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: my wall speaks for itself. And I'm not I say
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: that in a humble way because I feel very pleased
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to be able to harvests deer that I have. But
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: it's not come by not working hard at it. We're
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: noticing things or you know, I don't listen to what
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: everybody else tells. You know, I'm kind of that guy.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I'll go against the grain and figured out, you know,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: because I taught myself out of Bola pretty much. Um.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: But one thing, like, you know, I read this all
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the time when guys are writing articles about deer hunting
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: or scrapes or you know things where it's like they
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: say that all bucks, big bucks will walk through the
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: timber and they'll stay fifty fifty yards down wind of
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: scrapes and check those and they won't go to those
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: scrapes so that way they can keep moving. I have
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: never seen it here, do that. I mean I've shot.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I shot the biggest deer this year that I shot
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: standing in a scrape, the black Widow's deer piece scrape.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's like, that's the whole idea of scrapes.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: You know. They want to be there to check it.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: They want to put their urine, and they want to
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: dominate it. They want to show everybody else like you
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: better get the heck out of my turf. Or they're
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: also saying, hey, i'm hot, I want to breathe. If
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you're a dove, you know what I mean. So it's
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: one of those things where their communications in a buck
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: can't communicate office gram fifty yards way. You know, I've
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: read this numerous times where guys says that you're staying
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: fifty sixty yards down wind of you know, scrapes, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: you're gonna kill the biggest buck. I think that's complete. BS.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: That's that's just one you know, Um, if that makes
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: sense to you, it does. And I actually would say
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I've seen more of what you're describing than otherwise. Um. Yeah,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: what other things have you seen that would make the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: typical status quo deer hunter, Uh surprise? Any other things? Yeah? Well,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: just like public land? You know. Um, I don't hunt
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of public land because I don't have to,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And I'm not set anybody
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: that does, because hey, that's the hardest stuff on the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: planet's hunt. There's absolutely no doubt about it. Uh. But
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: does that mean the deer on private land are any easier?
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Not necessarily. But I've I've gone to Iowa and I've
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: hunted a lot of public land, and when I go
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to IOH, that's pretty much what I hunt. And I've
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: killed some big deer on Iowa public and even in
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Ohio public that people think I've killed on private ground,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: but I've actually killed him on public land. But I
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: don't want to give that up because you know, then
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: you've got people, you know, horning in on you. But
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I have found that a lot of these really big
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: deer on public ground are a lot closer where the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: people are than what you think. Um, you know, I
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: think those deers that live on public have become survivors
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: in an instance of learning how to live and adapt
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: in that environment. And they know by being able to
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: do that is to keep taps on of people. I mean,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: I've killed a couple of deer on public land. Some
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I've gone really deep. It's just it's a process of knowing,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you know, you just gotta figure it out when you're there.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: A couple of big deer I've killed really deep on
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: public and then a couple I've killed within a hundred
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and fifty yards of a parking space. So it's just
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: a matter of doing your homework and kind of learning
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: that spot. And sometimes you do got to put your
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: time in, you know, in those areas. Like typically when
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: I'm out of state and I'm grinding like that, I'm
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: not killing the biggest deer within the first one or
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: two sis. Now at home where I live, and I've
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: got the ability to monitor those deer and cameras and
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: know what's going on through scouting. Yes, I don't hunt,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: you know, until I make my move, but out of state,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: I grind, you know, and I'm forever scouting and you know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: figuring out what those deer are doing and moving until
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I know, Okay, this is the pattern that makes sense. Yeah, yeah,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So that's a good segue to to kind of get
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: into a hypothetical hunting season. Then let's let's say it's
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the night before opening day in your home state of Ohio.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: What are you doing on both season? Eve, how are
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: you doing it? And why are you doing some kind
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: of scouting or preparation that night before or is that
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the night to spend with the family or what does
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: that last few hours of the last day before hunting
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: season look like? Well, the last few years it's been
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: pretty uh boring because I haven't had a deer I
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: wanted to hunt, you know, right off the rib um,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: which you know stink because I have killed you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I killed a one eighty three two years back opening day,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: you know, But um, you know, typically if you're on
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: a deer like that, if you've done your homework, there's
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: not a whole lot you gotta do the night before,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: you know, other than maybe you want to shoot your
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: bow and you know, you got the Willie's in your gut.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: But you know, one thing I noticed that people do
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of and it just blows my mind. And
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's completely wrong, but for me, it's
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: it's almost like kissing your sister on the on the lips.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: If you're you know, if you're like going to go
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: hunt opening morning of bow season and you're gonna go
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: hunt your buck in the morning and you know, the
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: first part of October or end of September, I mean,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you might as well just go run through the woods
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: with a dinner, you know, with a bell and just
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: ring it, because I mean, I just think that's nuts. Now.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I know people have killed some deer like that early,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: you know, but for the you know, especially guys that
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: maybe bad a lot. I know that there's been some
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: gear killed in the mornings like that. They may have
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: a dear pattern that direction, but you know, typically morning
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: early season like that, I'm not I don't even step
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: foot in the wood still evening, you know, hunting afternoons
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: or things like that. And then if I don't have
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: a deer doing what I want him to do early season,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: I just don't hunt. And it's hard. But because I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: know I want to hunt, but I don't hunt, I'll
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: go shoot those or something. Yeah. Now, now I totally
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: understand the reason to avoid mornings and favoring evenings, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I know that argument. Uh, but there's probably some people
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: that maybe don't. Can you explain why do you think
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: those morning hunts are so risky early in the season,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and why those evening hunts are typically a better option. Well,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: what I've just noticed is, you know, especially just monitoring
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: my own trail cameras, you know, those big mature deer
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: already back to bed, you know. There, unless you get
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: a phase where like maybe you've got a little extra
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: cool morning early and may be like, uh, you know,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the right moon phase where the moon is falling height late,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: you know, and it coincides we'll say, a red moon
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: or whatever. Well, then you know you might get a
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: deer on his feet a little later in the morning
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: right there. But you still got to get into those spots.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: And I think the intrusion factor that you're making and
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the scent that you're leaving around, you're just minimizing. You're
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: maximumizing your you know, scent and everything to set that
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: deer off, you know what. You want to keep that
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: at a minimum. So you know, that's why it's like, Okay,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I would rather take that those steps. If I'm gonna
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: hunt early, I want to do it in the evening
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: when I know he's getting itchy and wants to get
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: up and get a drink, take a dump, and head
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to his fields, you know, or wherever he wants to eat.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: And you know that's I just feel you're better off
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: to catch them them because you're not walking in bumping
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: them out of their beds. You know, you're hunting an
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: edge typically somewhere or staging area for I'm up betting
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to a food source like on an acorn flat, or
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: you know a little patch of grass or something that's
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: close to a thicket that they're they're walking through to
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: get to a bean field or something. So I just
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: feel the early morning stuff too early in the season
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: before they really start, you know, feeling their oaths is
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: just really telling them, hey, I'm gonna hunt you, and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: you know a lot of guys. I hear the story
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: all the time being he was there early, but all
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: year he was there and then early and then now
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: he's gone. I don't know what's going on. I mean,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I've hunted him a lot. I just never see him
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: well while you're not seeing him beause you're hunting him
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: a lot. Mean, I hate to say it like that.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: It sounds like a smarty pant because you know, we
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: all want to hunt, you know, and I don't want
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: to tell young guys or whatever they're like, hey, don't
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: hunt at all, you know, don't have fun because it's
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: all about killing big deer. But you know, maybe try
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to Just if you're on a big deer and you
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: really want to kill a big deer, maybe hunt somewhere
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: else for some dough so you can get your hunt
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: time in and get the get the edge off, you know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: somewhere else where it's not going to mess up the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: deer you're really trying to kill. Yeah, I've always thought
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: that was a good way to go about it. Um.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Now here's something that I always struggle with in balancing,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: you know, keeping pressure low while also getting enough shots
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: at that buck Let's say it's that opening day situation again,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: or the first couple of days of the season, and
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: you do have a buck you want to kill, but
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: you don't have daylight photos or you haven't seen him
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: moving in daylight yet. See you know he's there, but
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: you don't have that m iri that tells you, oh,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: it's go time. But at the same time, it's the
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: first day of the season or the second day of
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the season, and you know that every day after that
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be more and more pressure on that deer
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: from other hunters. There's the chance that things could happen.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: How do you think about that? Will you go in
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: there and hunt opening day because it's opening day even
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: if you don't have that intel that says he's daylight
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: or how would you what would you do? No? I
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: don't hunt at all. I mean if I don't have
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: any daylight pictures of them, or have seen him in
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: daylight in an area that I want to hunt, absolutely
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: don't hunt. Because I look at it like this, like
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: your neighbors helping, because they're they're gonna be hunt. The
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: guys that don't take it as serious as you or I,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: they will be hunting and they'll be tipping that deer off,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and he's slowly gonna start shrinking his core to the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: area that he's not being messed with, and that's gonna
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: just tip the odds in your favorite Now, would your
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: answer change it off? I told you that opening day
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: or the second day the season, there was a big
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: cold front hidden. Mm hmm. Not necessary. I mean, it
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: would have to be. Things would have to be really right,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I guess. But because I've I'm you know, I'm not
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: a giant being of cold fronts. You know, everybody says, man,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I got a cold front coming, I'm gonna get out there,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and I've heard it so many times, like, man, I
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: just didn't see the deer movement. I thought I would see. Well,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: I honestly believe that sometimes in the early season, when
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: you get too much of a cold front, it kind
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of shocks the deer to a cent. Now, there's times
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: in October when you get a nice cool front moving
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: through that really drops the temperature twenty degrees. If you're
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: sitting on a food source like a food plot or
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: a bean field or something that you can get in
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and out of with great access, absolutely hunted, you know
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: what I mean? Because anything can happen, and I've seen
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: it happen and you might get pictures those nights if
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: you weren't hunting, but you don't want to hunt those
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: spots and it not happened if you don't have an
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: access an egress strategy to get out of there, you
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like, that's the biggest thing. You
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: start tipping those deer off on the way out. Maybe
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: once you can get away with it, but if you
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: keep trying it and it's not working, it's gonna get tougher.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: So I'd say, yeah, you can do it, but make
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: sure that and it does work well in those early octobers,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: you know, because in October can turn into a October
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: real quick if you get the right weather patterns. Um.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: But I do believe that you need to know that
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the deer is there, that he's close to where you
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: want him to be, and that he might use that
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: scluted food plot or the edge of that field or
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: something you know, and you can get out of there
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: if he doesn't show, so you're not tipping him off
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: in the dark. All right. Now, what about the reverse situation?
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: What if you did have a daylight sighting of him
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: or daylight trail camera of him maybe two three days
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: before opening day, but it was it was cool, it
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: was pretty nice conditions when he was moving in daylight then.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: But now opening day arrives and it's hot, and maybe
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: it's just it's just hot and humid. It's just a
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: nastiest kind of day that you don't typically think at
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: least maybe maybe I'm wrong on this, but I would
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: not think as a great deer hunting day it's seventy
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: eight and humid. Um would you go and hunt that
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: subpar weather day because you saw him moving two days
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: or three days before end? Or would you say Nope,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: it's different conditions now, I'm not going to risk it. Yeah,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: probably not, because, Dear, this is one thing I've noticed,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Dear feel a lot like people do. I mean, I
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: just feel that way, like you know the days that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I look out that window, or the way the weather
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: feels other than the rut I think, Dear, there our
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: internal systems almost feel a lot of like I think,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: as far as you know that whole, just like man,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: this is a gloomy, low pressure day, it's early season,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: or it's blazing hot and I'm just gonna lay in
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: this shady creek bottom until nightfall, you know what I mean.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: So I guess I just don't see the point and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: having to risk risk those things when you know he's
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: gonna be on his feet sooner or later at the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: right times. Okay, Let's let's say you do go hunting.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Let's say the conditions look good, and you had some
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: kind of recent information that this buck was out there
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and moving in daylight. It's September, maybe the Ohio seasons open,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: and you went in there, and you set up on
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: a great evening location. You're close to some kind of
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: food source, you know where this buck's probably betted or
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: you've got a decent hunch on what you think he's
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: gonna do, and you feel like it's a killing night.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: You're set up, and then you hear a noise. You
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: look to your right and on the other side of
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: the neighboring property, so across the property line, maybe let's
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: say a hundred yards away from you. You happen to
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: be within sight of a property line, and you see
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: another hunter coming in on his side of the line,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: making noise blow and sent all over and he then
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: walks out of sight. Do you stick it out in
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: that location or or do you pull the plug and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: just bail and try to minimize the damage or try
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: to find a different spot. Uh, that can be a
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: tough one. I mean, you know, if the deer is
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: fedded close by to you, you and you're hunting close
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: to his bed, and that guy come through there, and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: you're pretty positive that the deer while in his bed
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: probably heard that fella or the commotion or it might
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: have set him off, then yeah, I would probably fail.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: But if the deer is farther back where you think
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: they're coming from, you know, on this travel route, because
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: obviously you're hunting a travel route, or you wouldn't be
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: sitting there where you think this deer is gonna come
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: through an early season in daylight, So you gotta be
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: hunting somewhere where you feel confident um that he that's
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: the kid. You just have to make that determination whether
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: you know, if he's too close, and why waste your
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: time to get out of there and let things settle
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: down for a while. Try it again. Would your answer
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: be any different if we change the date and said
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: it was November. Absolutely, Because one when you just start
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: getting bucks feeling their oats and you know, they started
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: hitting their scrapes in daylight, especially in the mornings, like
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: when you start getting bucks working scrapes and they're hitting
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: those scrapes on the way back to bed and late
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: October those are magical times too. Hunt. I've killed three
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: booners on October. Now that ought to tell you something.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I mean October, and I've killed two of them in
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: the mornings on October. So in both scenarios have always
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: been when those bucks are at that point where they're
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: cruising their territory a little bit at night, they're going
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: back to bed later, they're marking their scrapes, they're letting
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: all the other bucks know that they're there, and they're
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: starting to put shop the subordinate bucks because they're locking
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: down there major breeding area and they're the dominant buck
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: right in that corp. So when you get that situation
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: going on, it's time it's time to make moves on
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the deer like that. You know, it's time to be
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: in the stand because you're gonna see them. Um, So
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: that's when weather can really help. Yeah. But basically, if
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I'm reading you're right, you're saying, once you're in that
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: pre rut to rut, time frame late October into November.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: You don't care that the other guy came through, like
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: you're saying it's all right, Yeah, I mean I I
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: guess the thing is is you're going to get away
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: with a lot more at that point because deer kind
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: of getting a little bit, you know what I mean,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: they're starting to lose a little bit of especially when
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: they're full blown lockdown run you know, when they're in
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: that November phase. Were there in that trance. There's not
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: a whole lot that's bother knows it here, you know,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: So that last week of October time frame, Yeah, they're
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: still on their on alert pretty good. But they're doing
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: their thing and their romans. But they're not going to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: be easy. But I do think you're gonna get away
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: with more towards the runter. They see all they care
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: about is eating, you know, when they start thinking about
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the breeding phase in the hot doughs and where they're
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: they really left their guard down, just like males do. Yeah, yeah,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I have to make a few more mistakes. Uh yeah,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: going to that bar sounds good. One more drink, one
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: more drink. Um. Alright, what about this, It's it's a
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: tricky scenario that a lot of guys and girls have
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: to deal with in certain parts of the country. And
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: I know certain parts of Ohio are like this. I
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: think you've you've dealt with some of this, and that
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: is hunting in areas of big timber. Um when you're
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: in stretches that have a lot of hardwood timber, a
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: lot of oaks. Let's let's say hypothetically that again we're
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: talking October still um and for whatever reason, you're stuck
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: hunting one chunk of land, and this chunk of land
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: doesn't have big egg fields, doesn't have food plots, it's
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: mostly timber. How do you go about picking out your
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: focus areas in a situation like that? How do you
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: isolate a few key spots when it isn't as simplest saying, well,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: obviously the great big cut corn fields right here, and
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: all the deer want to head towards that. What would
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: your approach be if I dropped you on a new
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: piece of big timber like that. Well, so one thing
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I look for is bogged off areas, anything that's, you know,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: maybe had some clear cutting done or some recent logging
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: activity in the past year or two, because there's gonna
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: be a lot out of food right there. Um, that's
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: gonna be one of your major food sources. So those edges,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: those transition zones between bogged off areas and bigger open
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: hardwoods is major, uh place to find gear sign um
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: great place, great places to figure out what the deer doing,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: and you're gonna start seeing their scat manure, you know,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: things like that buck sign, rubs, anything that you know
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: they're doing, you're gonna start seeing it in those areas
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: that they're spending some time. And another thing is a
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: water source, because if those deer in that big giant timber,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: you know, they've got to still drink and so kate
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: some springs or you know, is there a creek. Where's
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: the creek that they're gonna be going to eat out
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: if they're betting up on these hills or in this
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: clear cut. You know, try to just pinpoint things that
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: can start narrowing down the puzzle. Where's the oak flats
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: that the acorns are falling on this here or are
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: none falling? And do you need to look for you know,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: a different food source such as the brows and you know,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: different kinds of shrubs and things like that, that they
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: might be feeding on you know this, uh, little berry patches, anything,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: apple trees. So yeah, again it's just a different you
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: kind of take that whole. Say you're looking at a
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: five acre block and that's all you got to hunt,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: which you know, we deal with a lot of that
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: in Ohio. Well, those are the scenarios that you just
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: start looking for and you start tearing them down, you know,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: and I think eventually walking to them kind of spots
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and looking at them will lead you to some sightings
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: or some pictures or you know, some success pretty you know,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: sooner than later if you were in that situation, would
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: you hunt more days? In a situation like that where
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: it's not quite as easy to or at least if
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: it's a new property and it's not as easy to
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: already pinpoint like exactly where you think these kill spots
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: are and you're kind of prospecting still and in that
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: kind of situation, would a quantity approach there? Absolutely? Because
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: like you know, if you're talking a lot about like
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: the guy traveling, you know, and he doesn't live there
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: or you know, things like that, he doesn't have a
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: chance to run trail cameras and figure that you've got
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: to hunt. I mean, like when I'm hunting out of Stay,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: I hunt every day no matter what I mean, because
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: I got to maximize my stand time. But I try
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: to be smart about the winds and where I'm hunting
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: and where I think those deer might be doing. If
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen them already, what could they be doing
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: that I'm not seeing them? And you know, there's nothing
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: more frustrating, though than getting nighttime pictures of those dear
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: and knowing that they are there, and then you can't
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: lay eyes on him at the daytime because sometimes they're
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: just nocturnal, you know, to a degree, until they're just
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: complete to be ready. I mean, I got a farm
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: that I call it the night Walker farm because I
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: feel like those tear just do not move in the
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: daylight until it's rout, I mean like almost full blown rout.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Then they start, you know, and then they'll be on
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: their feet pretty much the rest of the season. A
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: little bit. You can catch them in daylight, but man,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: that early time that farm is just brutal. What do
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: you do if that happens while you're there? So you've
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: got your weak time period and for whatever reason, it
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: seems like they're still on that night walking kind of pattern.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Do you just wait it out in hope, or do
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: you change your tactics at though, go to the local
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: gas station and pay four kids and push it out?
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: And he said it the telegram. I mean, I, I
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: honestly can't give you that answer because I don't think
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: there's anything you can do other than like bumping them
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: up out of their beds, you know, getting in there
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and stir them up, you know, and trying to has
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: them coming back. I've never been a big fan of
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: hunting that way. I know some guys do, and it works. Um.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that it don't work, because I know
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: it works, But I do believe that there's a time
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: where you could do something like that, maybe stir some
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: things up, But you're also taking that chance that if
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: you're not successful and that's the only farm you got
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: to hunt for five days, you could really be shooting
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: yourself in the foot too, you know. So I think
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: in my mind that's kind of like a just the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: way that I hunt. That's like my last resort ditch
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: effort is trying to pull the dupe on a buck
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: pipe off of them out. You know. I'd rather try.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I try to plan my hunt's more based upon the
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: timing of the year when I leave out of state
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: for recent information, saying that it's early season. But I
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: got this buck coming to a food source all the time,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: or use it this water hole or this creek crossing daily,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: you know. Then yeah, I mean I'll make my move.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: You know, I used to be we used to have
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: to use trap catchers to make that stuff. Take a
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: break to the woods, break out a trail and just
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: figure out what trails because we didn't have cameras when
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: I was younger, you know what I mean, just to
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: tie strings across the trails and you know, not time tight,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: but when the tier would come through the trails, they
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: break the string with their chests and set the timer
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: off on those trail timers. And I tell you, okay,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: like eight thirty five, something walked down the trail, had
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: no idea what it was, you know, the good old
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: days right there? Man? Yeah, is there anything you know?
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Trail cameras are pretty I mean, they're standard fair for
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: almost everyone these days, and you've been using them for
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: years and years and years now, But is there anything
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: substantially different with how you use them today? Than maybe
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: five years ago. Have you had any kind of like
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: ah ha moments that have really changed things there or
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: is it do you kind of have your tried and
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: true method just stick with up? Well, um, you know,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: one thing I've definitely learned is like, especially if you're
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: just using regular card cameras that you know, aren't relaying
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: pictures to your phone app or something. You know. I
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: used to I just couldn't resist, man, I'd have to
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: go check that camera, you know. And I'm going back
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: to the days and when you had thirty five million
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: meter film and you can only get thirty five pictures
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: on the role, you know, and you take it to
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: the drug store and just couldn't wait to get your
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: film back and you just wasting all that money. But
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: you know, even then, I would check my cameras too often.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: And so I've learned to be a lot more patient
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: in those areas where I have cameras like that, especially
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: and I and I mean this more or less than
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the off, don't just don't be going in there all
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the time, you know. And that's where cell cams, you know,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: some people are like, well, I can't afford a spark
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: camera in my personal opinion. You can't afford not to
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: have one, you know, because of the time that they
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: save you, the amount of gas they save you for
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: running around looking at you know, checking your cameras and
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: all that stuff, and the information that they can relay.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: You can save you so much time and effort and
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: intrusion on a deer, you know. And let's not kid
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: ourselves this day and age, there's not less hunters, you know,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: at least not in my area. You know, I've watched
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: my area completely changed in the last ten years. I mean,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: everybody and their brother is sitting on a corn pile
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: on twenty or forty acres with a box line, you know,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: and a crossbow hanging out the window. And I mean
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: it's just it's brutal. Wan You you've got to know
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: what your deer doing. Yeah, how do you how do
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: you adjust to that? What have you had to do
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: differently now than you did ten years ago to account
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: for all that new pressure around you? Well, again, I've
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: got to know what my dear doing. But I don't
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: hunt as much. I mean I hunted one time in
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Ohio this year. I killed my box the first night
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: I hunted him, and I didn't sit him till October six,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: fourteenth of me wait season was in two and a
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: half weeks before I even sat. But I killed him
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: the first night. And what made you sit that night?
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Why was that the night that you decided to finally strike?
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: Because he had hit his So I put some black
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: widow mock scrapes in that area of his betting, and
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I knew that he was I knew the pressure was
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: going to put him in that farm, and that's what
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: it did. I knew that I knew he was getting
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: pounded on the neighbors both sides of me, and and
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: he was I mean, and uh, just nothing against how
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: they hunted, just that they wanted to hunt, you know
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: what I mean? And I get it. But that's how
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I killed that deer because it actually benefited me to
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: the point that I could back off of him and
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: just be patient because I knew he was old enough
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: and he knew the deal, and I knew everybody else
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: was baiting a snot out of him, and he'd used
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: their bait. But he wasn't a deer that went to
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: bait a lot to daylight, and so I just kind
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: of had him on them scrapes and the second, I
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: knew he was feeling just a little bit too comfortable
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: hitting scrapes going back in the morning and then in
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the evening a little bit before he could do his thing.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I was like, I got you. And on the thirteenth
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: I had him standing on that scrape, showed him on
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the fourteenth of his name scrape and that was daylight
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: showed up. Yeah, so man, And that was a card
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: camera because we're that I couldn't get service right there,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: because it was such a deep bottom that I couldn't
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: get self service on cellf cam there. So I literally
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: had to use a regular spartan camera that just you know,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: took pictures and uh, I had to go in on
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: feet to check that. But I was waiting. You know,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: he actually been on that camera day like two days
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: before that. Even um so, I knew he was right.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: I'm like, he's so comfortable right now. And I had
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: already hung the stand for this whole situation. I had
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: done that, you know, in September, and um so I
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: was ready for me. So all I had to do
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: was slide in and hunt. It was risky walking in
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: because you know, it's two hillsides looking down at you.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Um and the thermals were a little bit tough, but
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: I knew I had to try it. And you know,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty big about my sand control and using the
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: phase system for pollution and all that, and and along
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: with some black woodow deerp as a cover sent spraying
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: it in the air every so often. And I literally
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: had doze bedding down window me on the sell side,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: and I you know, they started to come down the hill.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: They busted me for a split second. Then I started
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: spraying the urine in the air again because even what
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: even before they couldn't quite tell what I was. But
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I've really found that mixture of illusion system, space and
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: the deer urn together I can almost beat any geer. Now.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible. And it's on film. I mean I
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: literally show you these here laying down. And then a
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: little while later that block comes out of his betting
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: area and pushes some dose around. He's just it's in
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: a staging area. He pushes some dose around and then
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: he finally I grought to him a little bit because
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: he was grunting in some dose. So all I did
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: was to him two times, made it act like I
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: was messing with the dough back there because there was
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: some younger bucks around, And I mean he instantly just
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: turned and grunted. Crape got mad, He started working up
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: his scrape, jumped up in the air on his hind legs,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: breaking the tree. As soon as he came down, I
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: slammed him. Yeah. I love it when it works out
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: that way. Yeah. Yeah, But I'm just saying, you know,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: those are scenarios that you know, people just have to
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: learn too to be patient, you know, And I hunt
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: hunt smarter, not harder, you know, in in pressured areas.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: You know, That's what I've had to learn to adapt
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: to in Ohio with so much hunting pressure around. Now. Yeah,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: now you kind of alluded to this earlier, um that
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: some of these things change a little bit when you
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: get into the rut. These deer will deal with pressure
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: a little bit differently. They're a little distracted thinking about
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: other stuff. So I want to I want to get
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: into a few rut related issues or questions, but I
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: first want to understand your process of just preparing to
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: hunt for the rust. So imagine it's I don't remember, one,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: you're off on your rut trip somewhere, or maybe you're
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: hunting local, but whatever, it's November, the ruts on the
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: alarm clock goes off in the morning. What does your
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: pre hunt morning routine look like? This is a weird question,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: but like what are you when are you getting up?
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: What do you do before heading out to hunt? What
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: are the things you're thinking about? What are the things
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: you're making sure you don't forget to pack? What are
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: the nitty gritty details of of everything you do leading
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: up to that all day sit or that whatever the
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: big hunt is you have for the day? Um, what's
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: that look like for you? Well? You know, I mean obviously,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: if we're hunting rut in the mornings, you know, we're
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: getting up a good you know, good hour and a
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: half before it's time to be where we want to be,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: you know, and if we've got drive time, it could
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: be more. But if we're on the farm or close
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: to it, you know, I want to be in there
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: a good twenty minutes before daylight at least. And then
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: there's spots at times that I'll walk in in the daylight,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: like because I want to be able to see the field.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: If I got across an open field, I want to
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: be able to see instead of just blowing across it. Um,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: but I always make sure that I've got my dear
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: yarn that I used as a cover spray. I've got
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: the Phase phone, which is my face every thinking thing
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: in the world when it comes to an ascent elimination
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: product or a scent cover, you know, to help you
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: minimize scent. And I'm not trying to sound like a
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: plug here for my sponsors, but we truly believe in
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: these products. We've proven to them, proving it over and
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: over again on film that these products work. And this
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: has become like my ritual now. And you know, obviously
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: having your clothes as clean as you can keep them,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: whether they're hung outside or in a scent scent free
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: toads whatever you want to do. That's to each his own.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: But I typically just hang mine out if I can
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: in an area where they're not going to get soaking,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: wet or frosted or whatever. But um, you know, boots
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: clean things like that. Just trying to be as minimal
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: as you can. Packing my you know, black rack, a
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: grunt call, things like that. You've got to have those
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: kind of things in the rut because you never know.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Many times I've set up where I thought I needed be,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: and the deer might be chasing a doll or cruising,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: and he might be because when the rut comes out,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: you don't know what they're gonna do. They may be
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: seventy five yards away and would have been coming there,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: but might have got distracted because he got a whiffus something. Well,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: if you've got your rattling antlers or your grunt call,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: you still might be able to get him turned and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: have him come your way. So you gotta make sure
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: you have that kind of stuff, um, you know, making
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: sure your bows and shooting shape. I always checked my
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: strings and all that before I walked to the woods,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: making sure I don't, you know. And I carry two
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: releases because we've all left our release somewhere and walk
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: up stand and got son. You know, yeah, we've all
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: done it. And so I carry two releases now in
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: my pocket. And I'm I'm a fan of cover releases,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: that's what I shoot. So I always got two in
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: my bag, you know. Um, that's just about it, you know.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know that I do anything crazy special.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: I just you know, try to be prepared for what
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: I think I might need that day. You know. Definitely,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: first thing I'm doing looking at weather and wind, you know,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: because making sure things don't change on me. I look
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: at the hour by hour. I want to know what
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: that pressure is that day, if it's high pressure, low pressure,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: you know what time is the wind switching? Because I'm
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: already playing for the evening son if the morning hunt
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't work out, you know, so I try to adapt
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: and just be like a chameleon and be very versatile
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: and knowing what's going to be coming. Yeah, when do
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: you typically make your decision of where you're gonna hunt
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: the next morning? Is that like the night before you
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: have a plan and then you just double check the
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: weather in the morning, or are you kind of a
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: last minute, gut decision once it's just before time to
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: walk in, Like what's that process look for you? Look
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: for you? Well, mostly it's it's kind of it's always
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: wind oriented location of deer that I'm after. You know,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: what has he been doing and what do I think
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: he's gonna do? You know, um or what has the
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: most recent information told me that he's done type of things.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: So those factors all come into play. Very seldom do
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I just blind hunt, you know, like I'm just gonna
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: go sit this stand and hope for the best. You know.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: I don't typically do that now. I will at times
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: when I'm out of state, you know, because sometimes you
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: just have to um. But usually if I'm doing that,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting on an edge somewhere trying to scout, but
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: I'm also hunting at the same time. That makes sense.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of observing and seeing if I can
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: pick something up that may be a big factor, you know,
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: that might really help me, you know, put the put
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: the pin in one. So That's happened a lot, you know.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: When I go out of state a lot, especially on
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: new ground, I like to observe. I'll hang an observant
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: a stand and observing position where I do believe if
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: I can get a shot at a deer also or
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: call to one. But I'm also not just blowing in
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: there and blowing the farm up right off the bat.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: I want to be able to see what's going on.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you about that that first day
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: of an out of state hunt during the rut, and
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: and you maybe just answered it. But I'll just ask
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: a little more specifically. On day one of that seven
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: day rut hunt or whatever, let's say you haven't been
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: there yet that fall. Does day one a scouting day
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: or is it? You know, first thing in the morning,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: you're hunting in a prime spot. You know what does
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: that very first day breakdown look like? Well, so for me,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna base even that on like sake, cameras that
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: I may not have in that general area. But like,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: if it's just pretty much across the Midwest and social
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: media staying the deer rolling, I'm gonna hunt, you know,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: and I'll go to a good, fun, old good spot
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: in between, and I'm gonna hunt all day if we
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: can get away with it. You know, you just gotta
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: put your time in in those instances. You know. There's
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: a hot we did back in two thousand. Uh it
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: was called scrape Master, And I hunted that deer six
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: six or seven days before we killed him. Um, but
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: I came to the realization that he wasn't even on
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: the farm for like the first six days, you know,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: he just wasn't there. He had been there, and then
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: he disappeared, he went somewhere, and then he came back
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: and I killed him. So but if I wouldn't have
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: been hunting, I wouldn't have known he came back because
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: I killed him the day that he came back pretty much, um,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: you know. But during the rut, I mean, you gotta
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: put the pressure on because that's the most magical time
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: of year. That's when they're moving and you may run
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: into a deer that you've never even known existed. Just
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: because you didn't have pictures of him at that time
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: of the year doesn't mean that a buck from two
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: miles away not might not be coming through that timber,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: you know, and going gonna go through that pinch that
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: you're hunting. Yeah, I think if I were to oversimplify
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: the types of places people hunting during the rut, you
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: could put him into one of two oversimplified categories. You
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: could say, people are there gonna hunt some kind of
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: pinch point, or they're gonna hunt around some kind of
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: dope betting you're feeding are like a dope hot spot.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Let's just to keep it really, really simple. If I
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: had to force you to pick one of the two,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: you had to spend your whole rut vacation on one
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: of those two. You can't have both. You gotta pick one.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: Which would you pick? And why would that be your preference?
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna hunt, I'll pick dope betting areas are great,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: but I would rather pick a good known travel route
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: funnel because I feel I'll maximize the amount of different
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: bucks I'll see, and typically in the funnel situations, I
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: can get into them and out of them. The way
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: I set them up to hunt a multiple multiple times
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: that it's not tipping the deer off to where if
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: you're hunting a dope betting area and you got all
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: of them hobag's noses around, then you're gonna start tipping
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: them off and they may switch up what they're doing too,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: or they're gonna be busting your butt all the time,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: winding you're blowing, driving you crazy, and it could just
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: ruin your whole hunt. Yeah, it does. You said, the
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: way you set these spots up in these pinch points,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: is there anything like what do you mean by that?
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: What uniquely do you do when you're setting up on
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: a travel funnel like this that makes it work so well? Well?
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: I just I I gotta have the right way to
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: get into them, you know, I really planned that out.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: Whether it's a ravine, a ditch, a creek, you know,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: I look for those funnels. There may be five funnels
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: on a farm, but I'm gonna hunt the one that
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: has the best access for me to get in and
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: out of it. That's the one I'm gonna pick, and
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: that's where I'm gonna spend my time. I'm not saying
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: I won't hunt the other ones, but I like to
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: really not, especially if I've got to be on that
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: farm and that's the only place I can hunt for
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: a while. I really try to really not let those
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: deer know that I'm hunting them. Yeah, Now here's a
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: tricky thing with with some funnel spots like this is
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: and I know trail cameras could solve the problem here.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: So let's let's say for some reason we're not getting
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: trail camera data. That's gonna push us one way or another.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: But here's a challenge. Sometimes when you're hunting a spot
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: like this where you know that a buck should travel
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: through this funnel eventually but he hasn't yet, Like, how
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: much time will you give a spot like this that
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: just screams a rut travel quarter But you hunt all
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: day on day one and there's nothing, And then you say, well,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: you know it's been day one, but I know if
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I spend enough time here, he'll come through. And so
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: you go out there the next day and you know
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: you didn't spook anything, so you hunted again. Uh, and
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: then he still doesn't show up. Will you? Will you
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: go a second day, a third day in a spot
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: that just looks so great? Or do you say Nope,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: I gotta change it up. That's gonna depend on what
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: else I'm seeing, you know what I'm saying. If I'm
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: not seeing any deer, then no, I'm not gonna keep
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: doing it. If I'm seeing dear moving those bucks and
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: things like that, then I still know it's only a
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: matter of time. He's probably with the dough and he's
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: gonna break free eventually, and he's gonna be coming through
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: those spots Like I try to find those travel pitch
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: points that that lay between dope, petty curious. Those are
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: my key, That's what I love to find. Yeah, yeah,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: that's ideal. So that way I can maximize, you know,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: the activity of how many places they're trying to cruise
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: through this day. Yeah. Let's let's say you're in a
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: spot like that. You you found this dynamite funnel. You
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: know it works out well for your access in your
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: exit you know that there have been deer coming through here.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: It's just a matter of time until that right buck does.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: You're sitting out there, it's November three, four or five,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: something like that. End the big buck year after steps out.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: But he gets down, when do you? And he smells
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: you and he just he doesn't high tail it out,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: but he smells it and he's like, nope, he's gone.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Do you immediately moved to a totally different place? Do
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: you stay right where you're at? Do you adjust a
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: little bit? What do you do in that situation? Well,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: if he was with a hot dough, you might be
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: able to tweak it or stick it out, because if
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: she comes if she didn't get you, chances are she's
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: gonna come back through there and don't forget about it.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: But if if his mind wasn't on a dough and
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: he's still got you like that, chances are he's gonna
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: be done right there for a little bit, in my opinion,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: because a good chance next time he comes through there,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: he's gonna go around stiffing and trying to find your
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: tracks and what you're doing. You know, Yeah, that's that's
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: my take on that. You know, one thing I tell
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: people to do if they want to learn something about
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: a really big deer, or dear in general, just any deer.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Can you go into hanging tree sty and take an
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: extra camera with you hanging on the spot you're just
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: hunting that tree stand. When you walk out, you'll be
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: surprised at what follows your trail to that tree stand.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: H I think they they they're gonna scope off that
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: sent Huh. Well, I'm not saying that they know what
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: exactly it is. I'm just saying it's it's interesting to
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: see how dear de're curious, not necessarily saying that deer
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: smart enough to be like, oh, I'm gonna go sniff
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: out and find this ladder, and I know this is
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: what Ben's Honey. It's just they know somebody was in
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: their area, you know what I mean, and they're they're
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: searching it out. They want to know what was going on.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: You know. It's just like if you're not a smoker
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: and you're sitting and you're you know, you come home,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: you walk in your house, you smell a little bit
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: of smoke or a cigarette, but you see a cigarette
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: butt lane somewhere, you know something's up. You know that's
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: that's how dear are you know? They're the same way.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: You can't enter their world and them not know it
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: very often, So so what's the buffer? Then? If if
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: this happened, you're out there, he wins you, uh, he
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: moves off into the direction, and you think to yourself, Okay,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: I need to adjust because he's he's not with a
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: deal right now, he's he's kind of onto me. How
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: much of an adjustment do you think you need to
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: make to still to be in the game, because this
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: is a great spot you so you still think, like, man,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: they want to come through here. But he smelled me.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Is he gonna Are you gonna totally just cross that
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: whole funnel off? Or will you make like an eight
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: yard adjustment and hope that he'll still come through but
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: skirt where you were? Yeah, I mean he could still
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: be using it. I mean honestly, I mean he might
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: come right back through there in the next morning, like
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: like it was nothing. You just don't know for sure,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna be especially if they see you
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: or they're like almost pin pin point you. I think
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: you need to switch it up at least thirty forty yards,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, uh, but I think it
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: depends on really how bugger they got, you know. I
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: mean if he just kind of tucked his tail got
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: out of there and he just wasn't sure. I mean,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: he could just think, you know, it's a neighbor fixing
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: a fence or something. You know, he just got to
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: whip up a human. But if he comes back through
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: there again and get you the same spot again, yeah
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: you're done. You know you need to just graph it
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: for a little bit and then try to pick him
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: up somewhere else. Think about where he was at it
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: or going to try to pick him up there. Okay,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: So here's a different kind of curveball to that kind
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: of day. You're out there and you see the buck
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: you're after, but he's locked on a doe and he
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: follows that dough off away from you, and you know that.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: Let's say it's in the afternoon and he's heading towards
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: the gentles action of a food source. So in your
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: head you're thinking, man, it's it's really unlikely that he's
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: going to leave that dough and come back to where
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: I am. But there's still two hours of daylight left
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: or something like that, and you're only after this one buck.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: Do you just say, at well, that's my evening and
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna sit it out just in case, but I'm
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: not gonna do anything. Or will you get aggressive and
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: say all right, I'm gonna try to loop way around
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: and get ahead of him, or do you do you
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: do anything in that case? What? What do you do? Well?
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: I guess it just depends on you know, how locked
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: on he might be with that dough or you know,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: if he if he's in full in love mode and
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: just glued to her, chances are he's not coming back
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: through there unless she doesn't, you know what I mean.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: And there's a real good chance she's not even going
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: to go to an open area when she's feeling that way,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: you know, because she doesn't want to get her asked
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: by a bunch of other bucks either. And so typically
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: when those deer in that in that mood, they're not
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: getting out of the timber a whole lot. You know
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: they're gonna be So unless you know where there's another
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: good betting area, an area that maybe you can pick
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: them up. You know, I'm not saying you might as
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: well just finish out the hunt and just see how
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: it goes, you know what I mean, because you're already there,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: You've already walked in later sent you might as well
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: just hunted out and maybe she'll come back through or
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: type type thing. You know what I mean. It he'll follow,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: or maybe they'll be done and he'll come back through
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: looking for another dough that he was that he saw
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: earlier in the day. What does that mean for your future?
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: For like the next day. So when you see a
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: buck that really seems to be locked on to that dough,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: I know, and historically for me, oftentimes I've seen these
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: deer wolf really kind of shrink the area they travel,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: and I've always thought to myself that I've got a
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: day or two window where that buck is going to
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: be right in this little zone. And I do things
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: differently when I see something like that, versus when I
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: see a buck just cruising around. Um, what would you
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: do in that case where Okay, he moved off, he's
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: very locked on. Maybe you you saw him breed her
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: maybe and then they just walked off. What's the next
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: day look like for you? I'm gonna be right there again,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: because if I saw him there once, you're going to
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: see him there again. Most likely yep, same stand Or
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: would you adjust fifty yards based off what they did
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: or something like that. No, I mean usually I would
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: hunt the same stand. I mean, I you know, unless
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: the wind's gonna be sketchy, you know, then you need
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: to make an adjustment. You can, but that same general area.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: There's a reason they were there the first time you
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: see him. That's why they were going through there. So
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: trust your gut. He's gonna do it again, or she's
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: gonna do it again and he's gonna follow, or again
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: he's gonna lose her and feedback through. I mean, I'm
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: I'm okay with hunting those kind of spots multiple times,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: you know, because I do believe that's if you know,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: it's the right spot. Those are the place, you know. Yeah.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: One more locked on a dough situation. Is there ever
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: a situation where you would try to call a buck
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: off of a dough or yeah? I mean, do you
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: think it's realistic at all? The call a buck off
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: a dough that he seems to be locked on. Well,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: I'll always test them, you know what I mean. I'll
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: throw him a call or two and just see how
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: they feel and how they react to it and how
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: they react will tell me, okay, just don't push it,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: or okay, maybe I can get a little more aggressive.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: Because last year in Kansas, I called one off a
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: dough um. A few years ago I killed a two
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: fifteen was, you know, with the dough. But he was
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: with the dough of the morning before I grunted at him.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: He's like his tail let me knew he heard, but
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: he didn't bristle. He didn't even slow down. He just
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: kind of kept walking her and smelling her. I grunted
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: one more time. He didn't even react. You just kind
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: of flared, and I was like, you know what, I'm
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: just gonna I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna push him.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: So I left him alone. I killed him the next
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: evening in the next morning, so um in the same
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: general area, but I had to move a stand. We
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: moved at the middle of the day and moved it
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: like forty yards and I killed him on basically the
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: same same general area, about forty yards from where I've
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: seen him the day before. And killed him in the
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: morning without it though, and I caught him. I got
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: him to come in by tickling, you know, the antlers,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: And he was two fifteen the five inches broken off.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: So what specific what's the specific body language you would
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: need to see to make you say, Okay, I'm gonna
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: get aggressive and keep calling, versus oh no, I gotta layoff.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: This isn't the right time. Well, so like the hunt
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: it's on white Tail Edge and um season five where
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: I'm in Kansas, this but comes in with a dough
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: to a betting area. Yeah, I grunt a couple of
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: times at him, and he snort weez is instantly and
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: just flares up like haul Hogan, and I knew right then.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, he's he's mad and he's piste off,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: so I can I can work this buck. And we didn't.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: We didn't get him to come marching right to the tree,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: but he gave me a forty five yard shot through
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: a window, and you know, I was able to pin
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: wheel him. So it's one of those deals where like
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: if he wouldn't have reacted at all, then I probably
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have kept calling. But I got super aggressive with
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: him and I snort weez back. I grunted hard couple
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: of times and kept after it, and that dough actually
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: started to come towards us and he followed, and then
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: he was snort wheezing at the same time. And then
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to lose her, so he kept up,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: and he thought he was going to get into a fight.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: You know. He was basically bracing himself to come around
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: those theaters and run into another deer. He ran into something. Yeah, So,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just telling. It's just telling their language,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: you know, being able to read a deer when to
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: back off, you know, when to let it go. Yep, yep.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: They wag their tail. If if you call to them
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: and they wagged their tail, they've heard you, you know
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: what I mean, they know you're there. And then it's
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: just it's just kind of like a turkey. You just
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: keep feeling them out. You need to yelp a little more.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: Does the gobble or not? Or do you need to
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: heat him up? Or do you need to just back off?
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: You know, like a turkey that's goblin. Every time you call,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: I lay the pipe to him, buddy, I just keep
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: you know, and get him to come, because it just
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: excites them so much that they just like explode and
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: they come running to where if one's not answering you
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: every time you call, those are the birds that you
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: typically you just let him know you're there every so often,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: and eventually he's just gonna sneak in. Yeah, there's a
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: certain it's it really takes some time to kind of
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: learn what that right balance is, when to push it,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: when not too, how to read the deer. It's that's
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: an interesting thing. Yeah, No, it is, and I mean
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: it's and it's all just a matter of getting out
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: there and trying it. You know, you're gonna make mistakes.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: And that's how I learned. You know, I learned by
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: watching deer runaway go Oh he didn't like that. Yeah,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: those lessons stick. Yeah, I learned it on a really
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: big one once, so, you know, and that probably the
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: biggest deer I would ever killed my life. I learned
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: it and I was, you know, like two thousand four
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: and I was hunt in Illinois and I'm pretty sure
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: this deer was two forties and I I just called
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: too much to it, you know, I got two jacked
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: up on it. And here I thought he wasn't going
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: to come at all. Well, all I did was just
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: set him off to make him look for me, and
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: he came in down when and by the time I
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: realized he was there. He was twenty five yards behind
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: the tree. He snuck in so quiet, trying to sniff me.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: And I turned around and there he was. Yeah, in fact,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know he was there until I stood
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: up to look at my camera guy and just complain
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: one more time. I felt that I messed it up,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: and here he was right behind us and we didn't
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: even know it. This was an hour later. This was
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: an hour after I had what I thought scooped him,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: and here he came looking for us to bust us.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: So what's what's the lesson learned there? Like, what was
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: the thing that you thought to yourself afterwards? Ope, I'm
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: I'm never gonna do that again, or I will definitely
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: do this the other thing again. Well, one is, I
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: don't ever think just because you called that they're not
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: going to come. Always be looking down wind. Now, I
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: really try to set up in spots if I know
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: that it might be a calling situation where a deer
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: has really got to expose himself or really can't get
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: down wind of me without me seeing him, you know,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: but he can't sneak in the back door, you know,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: on me. Yeah, like having a pond or creek bottom
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: on their down wind side or opening. Yeah, anything, just
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: something to make it harder for him to get down
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: wind of view without you know, when he's doing it,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, alright, Ben, We Unfortunately we've got to
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: do a slightly shorter chat today that I sometimes like
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: to do, and I'm really enjoying this, so I hate
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: that we have to do this, but I want to
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: get into one last section here where I want to
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: just run you through five or six quick kind of
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: rapid fire questions. So just like a one word answer
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: if you can, and we'll bounce through these really quick
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: and uh and then we'll wrap it up. So are
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: you ready to do that? Yeah? All right? Does the
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: moon matter to dear movement? And would you like put
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: your life on it or would you put a season
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: of hunting on it? Yes or no? Yes? Would you
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: take a fifty yards shot at a white tail with
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: your bow? Yes or no? Yes? If you could only
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: have one of these for the rest of your hunting life,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: which would it be a set of rattling antlers or
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: grunt tube rattling antlers. That's a tough one, huh, yeah,
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: expandable or fixed blade broadheads, expandable. Should you stop a
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: buck with some kind of sound before shooting with the bow? Yes,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: what would you rather hunt over if you had to
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: choose only one of these options? A rub line or
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: a scrape? Scrape? All right, And here's the last one.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: It's not so much a rapid fire question, but it's
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a wonky one. Let's say that
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: I am the president of the United States or something
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: like that, and I have control over your hunting privileges,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to say that you cannot hunt for
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: the next ten years unless unless you kill a five
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: and a half year old buck this year. So you
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: have to kill a five year old half year old
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: buck this year. I'm only going to give you one
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: day to do it, and only one tree to do
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: it in. Which day of the year would you pick
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: and describe to me that perfect tree to kill this
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: very high stakes buck. Mm hmm, only one day of
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: the year? Huh, Well, then that's gonna be. I would
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: have to go late season on a very used food
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: source on one of the coldest days of the year,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: with a tree that is tucked in just enough on
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: their way to the field or to the food source,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: whether whatever it be that I can find a meating
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: on in those cold days, all right, and if you
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: had so that that would have to be that I
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: would have to pick that day to be somewhere in
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: that January time frame. Okay, I like it. I'm gonna go.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with their guts, you know, because the
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: rut is too they're too all over the board. You
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: can't you really can't pinpoint them to where one of
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: their slaves of their stomach is when they're the most patternable.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: That makes sense. Well, Ben, Uh, you past the rapid
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: fire test and I enjoyed it. Do you have anything
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: you can tell folks as far as where they can
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: go to uh follow along with what you're doing, or
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: watch your hunts or anything else they should keep an
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: eye out from you. Yeah. Sure. On so we air
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: on masiok Um that's an app that you can download
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: for you know, your TV, your smartphones, different things like that. Um,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: we are there. We're on YouTube, um, white Tail Edge
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: Official on Instagram, Whitetail Edge you know on Facebook. We
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: also do Spur Brand. That's where you can get all
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: our white Tail Edge apparel. Spur Brand is our Turkey brand.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: But it's a really cool uh clothing line and hat
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: line and stuff, and we even do turkey calls. Um.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: But you can go to spur brand dot com and
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: that's where you can get white tail edge gear also
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: and pats and shirts and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: So we need all the followers and views we can get,
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: so you know, again this, I feel very blessed that
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: I've had the life I've had to be able to
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: hunt the deer that I have. And you know, I'm
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: very humble about it. I don't normally talk. I can
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: be in a crowd for a long time before people
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: even realize I'm a deer hunter. So I think people
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: who enjoy the show the way we try to teach
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: people how to hunt deer um, And my biggest thing
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: is is just enjoy it. You know, if it's trying
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: to hunt mature deer is driving you crazy, you know
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: and taking the fun out of it, then get back
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: to reality, you know, like these I hear these kids
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: talking all the time about being thirteen fourteen years old
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: and how they're passing up deer and this and that. Man,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: when I was thirteen fourteen, I was killing everything that walked,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: you know, just just get out there and enjoy mother nature.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: Those green years of your career will be the ones
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: you remember the most. You know, the fresh learning experiences,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: the mistakes. Soak them up because their God's gifts to
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: helping us learn. You know. Yeah, that's that's great parting
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: advice A good place to end and uh and wise words.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: So Ben, thank you for taking the time. I I've
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: always enjoyed your videos and your hunts and uh there's
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: always something new I can learn from. So so thanks
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: for sharing this list today. Yeah, well thanks, thanks to you. Mark.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it's been awesome watching you grow in the industry.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: It's been really cool to follow you and see how
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: you've taking your passion and what you've turned it into.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: And now that you're with Steve doing stuff, I mean,
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: that's just awesome. Thank you. Thanks. Meat Eater. Meat Eater
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: is my favorite show. Dude. I don't watch I really
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: don't watch TV hardly ever. I don't watch hunting shows.
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: I don't even watch my own, but I watched I
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: watched meat Eaters because it's I don't know why, I
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: like that guy and I like how he does things
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: and it's just interesting. I think he's got such a
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: cool spin on something different and he can appeal to everybody.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: And you know, some kudos to Steve Ronella for that.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: And it's really cool that he's brought you into kind
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: of help do things, so that's good for both of you. Yeah,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: thank you. He's uh, he's definitely put a great thing
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: in place here and he's been a great mentor for
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of us. So I'm glad you enjoined it. Yeah,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: all right, and Steve need to come hune Ohio with
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: me sometime. Hey, don't be careful what you ask for,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: because before you know it, I'll be knocking on your door.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: All right, thank you for listening. That is a rap
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: on my conversation with Ben. Make sure you are doing
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: a couple of things in the meantime until our next episode.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: If you are not already subscribed to our white Tail
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: weekly newsletter, going over to the Meat Eater dot com
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: and sign up for that. That's gonna get you all
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: the latest white Tail content from the meat of your team. Also,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: make sure you're following me over on Instagram. That is
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: wired to hunt is the handle. That way you can
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: see what's happening in my own white Tail World and uh,
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: lots of different updates coming there as well, So with that,
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: I think we can wrap it up. This has been fun.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, thank you for listening, and until
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: next time, stay wired to Hunt.