Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 573: How a Contrarian Mentality Kills Mature Bucks with Zach Ferenbaugh

Transcript

Ep. 573: How a Contrarian Mentality Kills Mature Bucks with Zach Ferenbaugh · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern whitetail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to the Wire to Hunt podcast, which is brought to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: you by First Light. I'm your host Tony Peterson, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: today I'm speaking to the one and only Zach Farrenbaud
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: from the hunting public. All right, folks, welcome to the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Wire to Hunt podcast, which is brought to you by
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: First Late you have probably figured out that this is
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: not the voice of Mark Kenyon. Marc is actually on
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: his ninth vacation of the year this week, so I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: hope he enjoys himself. He left me a voicemail last
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: week and mentioned that he and Spencer were headed to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Florida to collect seashells and shark's teeth on the beach.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: He said, so they could put them on display in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: shadow boxes they bought at hobby lobby or something. I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know, but I do hope those
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: boys find some cool stuff on the beach, I guess,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and that they use plenty of sunscreen. Today. I'm keeping
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: this going alive and well with the one and only
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Zach Ferrenbaugh. Zach is most well known for killing big
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Bucks on public land from the ground, but we're not
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: gonna get into that too much on this show. Instead,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: we actually dive into Zach's thoughts on the hunting media
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: trail cameras, what people think about big Bucks, and really
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: why his contrarian mindset helps him overcome some of the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: most difficult deer in the country. This episode is just
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: fun from start to finish. I think you're gonna love it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Zach Farrenboll, How the hell are you, buddy doing well? Man?
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Just well? I don't know. I say I'm doing well.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'm a little stressed down preseason stuff,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: but that happens every year. To me, it's like I
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: should be I should expect it more than what I do.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Depend Every year I'm like, oh damn, I got a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff. I gotta get done, editing stuff, I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: gotta plan out the season, and just all that stuff
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: is gets to my gets to where it's just running
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: through my head all day. Yeah, dude. My my wife
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: asked me the other day, She's like, you're really spun
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: up lately. And I'm like, every year you get to
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: you get to this certain point in the year and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: it's like I haven't shot enough, I haven't scouted enough.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I you know, I do this tag, but I didn't
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: draw this tag or where am I going in this
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: week in October? And I know it's dumb stuff to
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: bitch about. Yeah, I know it's first world problems, but
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: it like I become just like you, like I become
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: this kind of like a little ball of anxiety. Is that?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And then once you get into season, it's just sort
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of like the flow. It's so much easier. One season
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: starts to go with the flow and you're just like
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: not worried. And I think I think part of that
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: is just the anticipation in a way is so extreme
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: that it creates stress. Like I'm ready to do it
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: because it's so fun and I know it's going to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: be fun once it's here. But I just continue to
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: get more and more stressed. And at the end of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the day, it doesn't matter at all. It'll work itself out.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: It always does. Are you do You do you still
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: love it? Like the filming, Yeah, I definitely do. The
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: only thing that I would say I was telling you
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: a little bit before is just the editing can be
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a little extreme at times, and there's waves of it
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that are worse than others. So again I'm complaining. And
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: it's always been that way though for me, where it's
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: like I always want to be out there hunting or filming.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I don't like they're being a season open and sitting
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: at home. And if I'm sitting at home, I want
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: to hang out with my girlfriend or my friends or whatever,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you like, take a break, not not sit at the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: editor for you know, twenty four hours straight. And that's
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: that's a dirty little secret about when you make content,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Like the editing video sucks so much. Like there's parts
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: of it that I do like, and there's time times
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: where I'm really proud of certain projects, but there's also stuff,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: like in the middle of the season that I feel
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: like I'm just getting through it, just to get through it,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, there's a there's a editing.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: That stuff is a heavier lift than people probably assume.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And you know, I'm pretty good buddies with Tom Miranda,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, he's produced a billion different TV shows,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and that dude is up at three o'clock in the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: morning every day editing and until like the normal world
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: wakes up, and that's his you know, And and when
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: you talk to him about it, you know he's been
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: all over the world and killed everything that he can,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and you know, people think that that's like the bulk
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: of his job, and he spends more time sitting in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the editing sweet in his house than anything else, because
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: it's just if you want a good product, like there's
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: no it's just like writing a book, Like writing a
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: rough draft of a book. You know, if you're a writer,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: it's not that bad. Like it's a couple of months
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: and you're like, okay, sweet, and then you get into
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: editing process and you're like, God, just sucks so much. Yeah,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: it's just it's I think that's the part about it.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: It's it's so repetitive, like watching it the first time.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I always explained it's like watching aime film. Like if
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you played any like sports, there's always the opportunity to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: watch game film to see what you did, what your
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: opponents doing, how to adjust for the future. It's the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: same thing in hunting. When you sit there and you
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: watch the mistakes that you made, you can just really
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: break down every tiny little move and it's really fun
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: when you do it, that first initial rough cut. But
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: then when it starts to get to the point where
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: you're the only one looking at the rough cut, then
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the second cut, then the third cut needs to continue
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: over and over and over again. That's when it starts
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: to get exhausting. Yeah, it's a it's a tedious process
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that that that idea of you know, paying attention to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: your mistakes and you know, kind of reviewing a hunt.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I mean that that's one of the cool things about
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: filming is you get to see when you missed and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: what you know, Like in your head, you go, oh,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the dear was doing this, and then you get to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: watch it and you go, no, I remember this wrong,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: like and I think it's such a good lesson there,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: especially for encounters, because you're like, oh, you know, like
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: this this only lasted thirty seconds and it was a
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: five minute encounter vice versa, or I must have been
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: drawn on that deer for two minutes, and then you
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: watch it and you were like, yeah, it was twelve seconds, bro.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Like in your head you spun out and you were
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: you were like, I gotta make this ship happen now,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and then you watch it play out how it actually
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: happened and not how you're worked up buck Fever brain
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: took it. It's totally different. So many yeah, yeah, I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: just always crack up. But the things that I'm able
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to pick up going back through it. And it's funny too,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: because you know, my friends that aren't doing it, for example,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: like my friend Ben, who I spent a bunch of
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: time hunting with and he lives in Ohio. It'll be like,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: you know, a week after and like he's already kind
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of gone back to work and he's doing you know,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: doing other life things at that point, and I'm still
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: following him, like, Okay, do you remember, you know, at
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: nine in the morning when we went up over that
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: ridge and we solve this. I think the reason that
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: we saw that is this, this and this, And it's
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: just because I'm sitting there watching it over and over
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: again and it's just hilarious. But what you learned, So
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: there's pros and cons to it, for sure, There are,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: for sure. And I think the bigger lesson there is
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to really just face all your screw ups. And yeah, well,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I mean but you know when you when you look
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: at you know, and this happens to you all the time,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and I know it does. Where you you do a show,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you're at the Deer Classic or something. Everybody tells you
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: they're hunting story, and you know, they want to tell
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you about the big one they got, and they want
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: to tell you about the big one they almost got.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: And you hear aside from here and poaching stories all
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the time, which blows my mind. You hear you know,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the my arrowdeflectory, dumped the string or I used the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: wrong pen or like some excuse all the time. And
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: you know, like, I'm not a therapist, right, I'm an
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: idiot who writes scroll hunting articles. But like I listen
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to that and I go, I think you'd be better
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: off being honest about this and just going because that's
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: you know, like when you think about the stuff that
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: stings like that of mistakes you made that makes you
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: not want to make them again. Like failure is a
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: powerful motivator. And if you kind of like brush it
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: aside or dismiss it as like an excuse, like like oh,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: you know this was out of my control, that it
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: doesn't take you anywhere, you know. But if you're like, man,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: I that I should have had that buck dead and
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't because I made a dumb decision. Man used
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: that ship because it's gonna work for you in the future. Yeah,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know, while you learned something from
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: every experience, good or bad. I've always said in hunting especially,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: you learn best from your heart failure. And it's funny,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you know, nobody wants to fail, but somebody that consistently
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: fails is going to learn things really fast. And like
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: it's almost like it's almost like, in a way you
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: want to have you know, probably throughout the season major
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: screw ups and then about thirties percent of you know
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: what I mean of success or that would be ideal.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: But it's like you just have to take those mistakes
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and yet break them down and look at you know,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: not just mistakes too, is in the in the moment
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: mistakes but okay, did we really need to back out
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of that spot yet? Or should we have kept going
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and look for you know, more signed And it's like
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes you know, you you leave
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the area when you shouldn't have. Maybe sometimes you should have.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Just Like one thing that I always struggle with is
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: or I've been struggling with specifically, is I feel like
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I know in some some areas I've been hunting hilly
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: terrain I keep thinking, like I know where these deer are,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: but I keep spooking them and why am I doing that?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: And it's like I can keep lying to myself and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: making some excuse, but it's like, Okay, but what am
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I doing wrong? Why do I keep doing this? You know?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: And I think I think, I think I've come up
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: with a few answers on that, but you're gonna have
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: to test it this year to see. But you know,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: it's just yeah, you gotta just be honest with yourself
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and like really break that down and to be to
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: be honest. That's pretty fun to me. I really like
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: going back and looking at all those things that I
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: questioned about what we were doing or mistakes and definitely
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: make you learn. It's it's a nice place to be
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: in where even when you make a major mistake, it
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: doesn't like ruin your season where you're just like, okay,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: this you know this is this was always coming like
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: at some point this was gonna hit me again and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I was gonna do this. So on that note, what's
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: what's the one that haunts you the most? Which which
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: big Buck encountered? Can you think back to that brings
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a little tier to your eye and you're like that one,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I just blew it. There's two. There's two that were
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: kind of like right in the same window. So I
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: was in Ohio in two thousand twenty. It's spent quite
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: a bit of time trying to find a hot spot
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: during the rut. Like my style is kind of just
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: cruised around, find a bunch of sign and start hanging
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: out area more in a nutshell. And finally found it.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: And the morning before we had seen at least man
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: and this is abnormal compared to the other days that
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: we have been hunting. We saw like five bucks do
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the same thing, essentially like cutting across this. We went
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: there and set up. The next morning, we weren't seeing anything.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: It was going pretty slow and look down below us
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: on the bench and a buck was cruising that bench
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: parallel to the ridge top that we were right on
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the top of, and uh tried granting at him. He
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: didn't do anything. He just never really paid any attention
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: to that. I don't know if he couldn't hear it
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: or you know how that is where you're like, he's ship.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Seems like he should have been out to hear it,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but you don't really know. And he ended up making
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: it past us, and we're sitting there contemplating, like should
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: we chase this thing, which is my initial reaction always
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: like just go for him. But side note, it had
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: been seventy that whole week or ten days issue that
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I was hunting there. It was seventy plus degrees, no
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: wind at all, and just sunny and just beating down
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: dead calm, toughest woods conditions I've hunted in up to
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: this point, where there was no break and it didn't
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: matter if it was first light or an hour, you know,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: hour after last light. Those leaves are loud and cuntry
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: for every single day we were there, so you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: again my initial reaction is we'll just chase this, but
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: we'll catch heap with him. Well, pretty much right away
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it was like that's never gonna work because while he
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: didn't hear our gup call, he's gonna hear you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a couple of fools walking across these leaves. And we
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: ended up deciding we're gonna rattle because okay, take the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: advantage that they have a sound and kind of used
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: against them, and we just made a ton of noise,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Like a ton of noise. That's something I really like
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: doing since I started ground time things really and then
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the calling, and how much more realistic you can make
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a sequence because you can add that ground noise. You
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: can basically be a deer. As long as they can't
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: see you, you can make all the same sounds they do.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: So we just started making a buck fight, and me
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and Keith were up on this ridge just rolling around rattling. Well,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: when I had saw that buck, I put my bow
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: down and it was behind the way I was facing rattling,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and I rattled too long. And there's two there's two
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: mistakes made. One I should have stopped the sequence earlier
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and listened, and two I should have not had the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: tambo behind me. So I got the bow behind me,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and I'm rattling too long. Stop rattling. And just as
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I stopped, I looked at my right and he's already
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: at like ten yards like mouth open, has sprinted to us.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And I stopped. He stops and he looks up there.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: He didn't see us, because you know, you're blind, and
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: he looks around, he doesn't see anything, and he immediately
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just takes off run and right at us. So I
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: don't even have time to turn in my setup. I
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: had the cover to do it, but he was on
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: us in two seconds. And he was at like literally
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: to five yards broadside and he's standing there looking at
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: us like what the hell, and he blows and jumped down.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: He actually ran all the way around us. I was
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: drawn on him. I finally got my boat, got drawn
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and then he's like straight behind me, but I can't
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: point my bow that way because that's right where Keith
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: is And the spot was so perfect. It's it's a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: rare spot where we were on a ridge. It was
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: really steep and the wind was just sailing away and
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: he just never could smell us, so like he's doing
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: this circle around us and I it was just it
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: was all messed up as as soon as my bow
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: was behind me. And that's someone that haunts me because
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: it's like, you want to talk about it, gimme. But
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: then so the reason I kind of lump it into
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: two is because something very similar than happened. It is
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit shorter story, but we gave it a day,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: took a breather, and kind of did our what we
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: call the reset day. We're kind of get some sleep,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: get some work done, just reorganized and kind of clear
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: your brain because that, I mean, let's be honest, set
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: sucked and we ended up going back and we were
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: up on that same ridge, but I guess further down
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the ridge and it seems like we should be seeing stuff,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: but then it was hot and we won't seeing anything,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: and we're like, you know what, let's move down close
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: to where there's some water. It's a little bit cooler
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: down there. This is a great decision because as soon
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: as we got down there, we got in this setup
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that was like loaded with signed first time we had
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: been in that exact spot. It's like, this is gonna
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: be sweet. And in my head, un visualized as buff
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: walking right in front of us, you know, tended twenty
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: yards perfect, there's all kinds of rubs going just exactly
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: cross wind to us. Perfect and about one o'clock. This
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: is November tenth, I think one o'clock just heard. You
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: don't hear it very often, but you do. Get ready.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: It's just this crazy grunt. I've really only ever heard
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: it a couple of times, and when I do, it's
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: been a big sum bit, you know, And he just
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: goes and they're like whoa, like not even normal, And
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I can tell it's about a hundred hundred fifty yards
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: kind of off to our left, down the same creek
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: drainage that we're in, and I wait, keeps kind of
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: dozing off. I'm like, dude, but just granted, like real loud,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: something's going on. And uh, I don't know, maybe ten
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: more minutes when by Any did it again, same spot,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: and within like five minutes, it was just like you
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: could hear that classic buck just plowing through the woods.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And here's this even bigger buck than the couple of
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: days before, with the bow behind us, and he's coming
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: right down the trail. He's coming straight towards where I
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: think he's gonna come and turn broadside and go right
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: past us. And in my head, it's exactly what he's
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: gonna do, getting ready to draw, getting ready to draw,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: when it just never stops and just keeps coming and
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the ends up at like five yards and I just
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: never had clear there was nothing but dead branches between
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: me and him. But I just never put the effort
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: into clearing that spot off because I haven't never been
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in that exact spot. I didn't know that trail was
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: as heavily used as it was until he went down
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: it and uh yeah, that one got to buy. Look
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: it was the same deal, like what is that? And
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: then boom he's gone. You know, had I just had
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: even the slightest little opening at five yards, I was
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: shot him no matter what the angle was, like he
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: was slightly quartering too, but I mean he was seriously
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: so damn close that those two hurt because they were
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: just back to back and then it was like I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: had to leieve and and uh kind of and I
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: ended up shooting one in gun season there a couple
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: of a couple of weeks later with my friend Ben.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: That was an awesome hunt and I would have never
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: experienced that had I shot those two bucks. So that's
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the positive in the story. But in the moment, those
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: ones were like what are you doing? Like just not
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: just not totally prepared. The boat behind me is the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: one that's just like, yeah, that's foolish, because I well,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I know, I think a lot of pride of being
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: like prepared at all times. It was not at all,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: so whatever, But those are the ones that hunt you, right,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean if it's a situation where he
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: comes in hot and he might catch your wind and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: it's you know, unfolds fast and it doesn't break your
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: way here like well, okay, but when it's like he's
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: dead to rights and you make some dumb decision and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: it costs you, that's that hurts so much. You said
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: something there before we get into the where I really
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: want to go with this, you said something that's important.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: When you're talking about, you know, being on the ground
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: and calling that buck and you just just reading the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: conditions and go and listen, you know, the way I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: want a hunt him ain't gonna work. We're not. You're
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: never gonna sneak up on a deer like that. And
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: so you go the opposite direction and and make some noise.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: And I know, people, you know that this is not
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: a new thing like this has been around a while
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: where people are like, listen, if you're gonna rattle, I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: make it sounds like there's two bucks fighting, And I
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: think I think a lot of times people don't, like
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: you don't see buck fights that often. When you do,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: holy sh it, it's like, you know, I'll never forget
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I had. I was on the river out in North
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Dakota one time and I had two bucks coming behind
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: me and fight in the river, and I think it's
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the most noise I've ever heard animals make in the wild,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: other than maybe like l coming down the mountainside or
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: something when they come in hot, like it's like a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: boulder rolling down. But those those bucks, they're the noise
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: they made fighting in that shallow river and all those
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: rocks clanking and they fought. I was like, this is
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: like so different than every calling sequence. You know what
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I mean. And you know I mean, if you're a
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: deer and you live out there all night long with
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: all those other deer, when you hear buck fights, you
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: hear buck fights. You don't hear like tink tink tink
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: like little or that plastic e like sound with no
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: ground noise. It's like, no wonder that doesn't work. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I mean that's not to put anybody at fault. It's
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: just because, like you said, it is hard to expeare
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: arians butt fights, and until you do, you don't really
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: even understand at all how crazy it is. It is crazy.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I had I had a moment. Man. This was like
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: two thousand and like two or something, and I was
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: hunting in Minnesota for the rut, and I remember I
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: hung the stand in the dark in this place I
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: want to be, this ridge top and you know, then
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I was like hunting any buck and I got set up,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: you know, I got light out, and I was like,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I gotta I had a bunch of ship in front
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: of me that I had to get rid of because
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I'm like if I got to shoot over here, and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I'm like, how do you do this and not make
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a bunch of noise? And at that time, I had
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: like very little confidence in calling. But I'm like, I'm
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: just gonna break this while I grunt and maybe somebody
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: will here it and think there's a chase going on.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: So I started grunning and I broke these branches off
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and I looked up in this came running, just running,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and he stopped right in front of me. I shot
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: him and he ran down the hill and died. And
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: at that time, you know, and he wasn't very big,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: but it was like, holy shit, like I can't believe
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: that work. And you know, like when when you think
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: about stuff like that, it's like, so sometimes we're so cautious.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And I think I think that's one thing that you've
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: shown people, maybe more than anybody in the hunting industry,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: is like, listen, you've got to be smart about this,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: but you don't have to be overly cautious. We've been
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: fed this line that you're like, you got to preserve
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: dear movement and you can't do this, and you can't
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: do that, and you can't blow them out of there,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and you've got to be like, you know, so like
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: surgically precise, and you're out there and you're just like,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna chase him. I mean, but you know,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and it's like the danger with that is it looks
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: when you see like an edited version of it, it
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: looks easy because you see it work out or you know,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: you see like the the encounters, and it's like an
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: experienced thing because you know how to move and you
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: know when to move and to read the conditions and stuff.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: So it's not there's there's sort of a I don't
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: want to say, like a disingenuous look to it, but
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: it's like an incomplete picture. So it goes both ways.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: You know, well, and I think it's one of these
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: things where I still haven't fully explained or been able
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: to figure out how to explain how to start that
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: or how to break into that. But like, I mean,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: it kind of taps into the topic that you you
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: wanted to talk about it like giving bucks like all
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: this credit, like that they're they're so they're so smart,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and don't get me wrong, they are a mature buck
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: is smarter than most deer. But with that being said,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: he's still just a deer. He's still just a deer.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Even a five, even a nine year old buck has
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: been around the block a bunch of times. He's still
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: a deer. And I think that, um, you know, just understanding,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: like based off of your experiences, what they can see,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: what are the things that they can see, How easy
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: is it for them to smell you, how much nois
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: does it take to catch their attention? And then you know,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: just learning how to finesse those things is something that
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: only happens once you just dive into that head first
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and stop bringing about hey like I'm gonna I'm gonna
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: spook deer, But so is a guy walking to his
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: tree stand, Like there's no difference. Still just a hunter
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: in the woods to theas deer. It's no different. And
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: in some situations, I think it's a hunter in the woods,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: but it's less it's so much less predictable that that's
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: to your advantage, even when spooking deer. Right, So, you know,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you think about most bow hunters there they're setting in,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: setting up in stationary positions, a lot of times in
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: a tree, a lot of times in a permanent spot
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: where I mean you think about a big buck, You're
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: in his home and all of a sudden, you know,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: there's all this grounds on the ground, there's this new
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: metal piece sticking to a tree, you know, and then
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: when every time he smells that hunter, it's right in
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that same spot. You know. That's where I think it's
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: more dangerous, truly endear smarter than us in that way
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: than just me randomly running through a betting area, you know,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: or I don't say running, but you know, blowing up
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a betting area on accident. It's like, yeah, you know,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: they're kind of come back because they're not like that's
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: not predictable, Like how are they going to predict that again?
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Anyway, well, and I mean
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: it is true and it you know, one of the
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: reasons that we do give them so much credit is
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: because we tend to try to hunt them where we
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: want to hunt. And this is you know, I talked
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to any may about this, and this is like so common,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and you know, the message from a lot of like
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Public Land killers is like if you do what everybody
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: else does, it's not gonna work because they have you
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: dialed that way. And I always like I've really started
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to think and think about it, like you know, we're
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: the scariest predator they have out there. We don't think
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: about it that way, but like imagine, I mean, just
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: imagine like the average guns season out Like how terrifying
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: that was. I mean, you've got dudes everywhere in trees
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: with high powered rifles or shotguns, we're depending on where
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: you're at. And then all of a sudden, you've got
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: a line of seven of them walking through the woods
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: in the corn and you've got guys on the end.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Like imagine a scenario where you're, you know, like you're
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: a prey animal and you encounter that ship, you know,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and so like they're gonna dial into it. They're just
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: gonna go man when you know, even especially like the
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: things they learned about us after dark, like the scent
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: we leave and oh, this corner of this field on
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: public Land has fresh human scent every freaking time I
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: come out here. So I think probably I'm not coming
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: out here in daylight, you know, And I just think
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: it's like sometimes as simple as that. And I know,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I know there's individual variables out there, but really, like
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: if you're if you're taking the easy access and you're
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: sitting the places that you want to sit because you
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: can see a lot, you're probably sitting in a place
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: where deer have you. You and everybody who has done
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: that for however many years pretty much dialed in. Now
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: you don't see him every time by any means when
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: you do this. But in my opinion, to hunt a
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: whitetail buck, find like stick habitat that is tough to
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: access for one reason or another. And I mean not
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: to dive into the to the you know, creative or
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: tough access thing, but like think outside of your out
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: of the box, look at what the majority of people
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: are doing, and if they're doing something that's not leading
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: them to that thick area, there's going to be about
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: their period like it's not and and I mean that's
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the most dumbed down version of it. There's so many
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: fine details that you can take into consideration, but that's
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: your starting point. And then just go in there and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: have confidence and try something that is different or put
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: yourself in, you know, a situation that you haven't maybe before.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: And honestly, to me, that's when I started doing stuff
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that was off ball and I quit karen at all
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: about what I was supposed to be doing or you know,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: thinking about it a certain way. That's when better things
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: started happening. And even even you know, when I look
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: back on I mean, are there's so many hunts man
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: where it's straight up bumped a buck, straight up bumped him,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: And that's how I found out that he was there,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: like watching him run away, like he knows I'm there
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and he's going away. And now whether I shoot him
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: in that same spot where you know, a little bit
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: different spot or whatever, or see him even but like
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: like we just give him so much credit that it's
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: like once they you spook him, once it's over, it's like,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: well not necessarily, if you've got enough room to roam,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: like he's probably still I mean, he's definitely still gonna
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: just be on that area somewhere, So what's the next spot?
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I Mean it's just like I could look back on
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the wall here and just say that's that this one
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: than I bumped um one a bump bump bumped. You know,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: it's just like it's pretty ridiculous. Yeah. Well, and you
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: know what I always think about with that too, because
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: I you know, when I grew up, when I first
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: started hunting, that was a big deal. Like you don't
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: freaking do that. Like if you if they know you're there,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: you're done. You know, like it's over. And you know,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: as you get older and you start getting more experience
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: out there, like they don't go anywhere, like I mean,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: that's where he lives, and so he might change his
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: behavior where he lives to some extent, but he's given
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: you such a valuable piece of information because he was
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: there today in these conditions and you saw him. So
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you know, like now it's your move, and always think
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: about it. Like we we do a lot of rabbit
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: hunting in like January and February, and you know, like
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: we look at white tails, were like they're so smart,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: they're so okay, g there's such survivor machines. And then
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you go push a cotton tail rabbit out of like
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: a you know, cattail slew or like an overgrown homestead
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: and if you don't kill him you're not sitting there
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: thinking like, oh, well, that rabbit's never gonna be back
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: right like you, I think tomorrow that son of a
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: bitch is gonna be right here, and maybe when we
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: push him he'll squirt out a different way. Or you know,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the same thing with the pheasants on public land is
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: like you you run through slew one way one day,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: If you go back and do it the next day,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: it usually doesn't work as well. But those pheasants are there,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: so now instead of just blowing out the end, they
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: you know, they snuck to the edge of the open
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: water and they waited, or you know, all of a
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: sudden they flush behind you and they're just learning from you.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: But they're there and huntable. And I think quite too,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: like I think out too, Like I think there's the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: same thing like, yeah, we we look at them like
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: they got us really figured out on a level of
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: thinking that we're they don't have, Like they have survivor
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: instincts and they can learn. But it's not like, you know,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: we got a lot of advantages between our ears. Even
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the dumbest hunter out there is a hell of a
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: lot smarter than the smartest buck. Right, And I think
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: it's I think that voice though, or where where what
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: really separates folkses is when you start making the choice
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to learn from those mistakes or you learn from that
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and you say, hey, what can I do differently or
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: what like Okay, he was here, and what's he going
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: to do next? You know, maybe you have enough time
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to hunt him at day, Which that's one thing that
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: blows my mind, is like to me, to me, I guess,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: let me back up to me more and more. There's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: no better confidence boost than seeing Bucks in an area.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Like if you're seeing Bucks do something or whatever, it's like, okay,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: like I just need to go get in there and
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: just start, you know, committing some effort to that. And
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: if that's the case, then you know it's all about
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: just making fine decisions from there. But like there's so
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: many times I see, like especially on videos, where somebody
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: else see a buck and it's just like, okay, that's
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the target buck. But then they continue to just like
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: sit there and wait. And it's like, especially in bow season,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of times or the reason
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: that you just saw him is just because they already
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: know that that's where you're going to be. Like especially
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: with a bow. Now, they get quick when they start hearing,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: get quick to change when they hear guns go off.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: But like if you're bow hunting and they just kind
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: of make that loop around your stand and that stand
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: has been there for forever, especially if it's a buffet,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: you know, if it's like wait, maybe he's actually this
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: patterned me And I think you know, just to think
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: critically of your mistakes or not even your mistakes, but
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: you're maybe laughing success or maybe not the success that
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: you want. Just thinking outside the box a little bit,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: because again, you are smarter than them. Like you can
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: literally bump on it a day and that be his downfall.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I mean it happens all the time, and it's just
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: it's so funny. Though. I guess the bumping thing is
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: something that just it's honestly something I need to get
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: back to a little bit more. I need to get
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: a little looser and just start you know, not playing
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: don't play things cautious. And I think that's the other
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: thing too, where I mentioned he find a thick spot.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I mean this is very general, but thick spot where
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: not a lot of people are going. There's gonna be
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: a buck there, don't worry about like playing that spot
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: super safe because you're probably good enough to find another one.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: So if you mess it up, if you hunt it
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: ultra aggressive and you do feel like you messed it up,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: just go to the next spot, go to a different spot,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and just keep moving. And that's something that I find
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: when I feel like I'm making mistakes, especially after the season,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: I can really break it down. It's like maybe I
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: just spent too much time in that spot and I
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: wasn't looking at it, you know, I should have just
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: not tiptoed around there, just either went somewhere else or
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: just went straight to the money spot and then got
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: out of there and then with the different spot. Anyway,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I'm getting winded. Well, you know. You know where where
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I feel that the most, like currently in my my
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: white tail hunting is is situations where I'm like close
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: but not right on where I need to be, you
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. So it's not like I'm not
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: talking about like you're sitting on a hundred acre cornfield
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: that's been cut and they come out on the far end,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: and like like North Dakota last year, for example, I
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: had one buck that was like he was in play
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and he was you know, he was a nice deer.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: He wasn't a giant. He's like er in public land,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: and he was like the guy living there. And I'm like,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: he's the one I'm targeting. And I went in on
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: him to kill him on a water hole because of
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: where he was. And he came in the first night
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: and he was like six ft from being in my
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: shooting lane and he winded me because it was just wonky,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and I just I was pushing it whatever. I blew
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: him out, and I knew, I knew I was like
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: on the edge right, Like I knew this was like
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: it might break my way, might break his way. But
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I was also like, you're kind of sitting where you
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: want to sit when you probably should be like fifty
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: yards over there. And it's not right over the water,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: it's over one of the routes to it, but it
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: was right. And I sat there the next morning and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I watched a bunch of deer go by there, and
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know this, and yet you're like just
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: content to sit far enough off where it could work
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: for you instead of just getting down freaking moving. Yeah,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and and like what's what are you? What are you sacrificing, Like,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: what's the worst that happens? Like in your brain. To me,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: that's what always happens is it's like, oh, another deer
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: is gonna get down wind of me or something. It's like, so, yeah,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: if that's where the buck is gonna walk, be able
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to shoot that at ten yards, you know, but but
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: go on, sorry, but I mean, it's just it's the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: little stuff like that, and you know, it's settling, Like
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I think there's like so much danger in settling on
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: anything like that, because you know, when I think about
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: most of the public land bucks I've killed, it's it's
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: almost always like an observation and then a move and
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: a kill. It's you know, sometimes you get it right
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: right away. Sometimes it's a grind on day seven or
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: whatever like it. It goes a lot of different ways.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: But when I feel like I'm in the zone and
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I'm making it work, it's almost always like here's my spot,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: I'm watching, I see something, they give you, they give
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: you something, and then you're on the next day and
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: it just happens that way. And I think one of
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the things I want to ask you about this is like,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: do you feel when you're out there because you come
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: from Iowa. You come from you know, like Bill Winkie's
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: world a long time ago, and you know, like the
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: name bucks and grow them and and like the totally
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: different style from what you guys have done on th HP.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I think that there's like a a level of like
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: you kind of unshackle yourself when you go to public
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: land because you don't have that history and you're not
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a one buck hunter. You're like, where's the spot? And
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: you said this earlier, like where's this thick spot that
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: a buck lives? Because that buck that's in there is
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: probably big enough to make you happy. And you're not
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: like I gotta find X amount of hit listers. You're like,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: I gotta find a spot to hunt deer, and I'm
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: going to accept the fact whether I'm in Georgia or
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Nebraska or whatever, that the buck that is here, he's
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: gonna be good enough. And you'll decide in the moment.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: But usually when you find the spot, the buck lives
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: up to your expectations. And you know, I mean, if
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: you have a range, that's better. This is what This
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: is what I when I feel like I'm hunting my
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: best or us as a group, we're hunting our best
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: is when we have this mentality of we're hunting where
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: we think the biggest buck in the damn county lives,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: but if a nice one comes in, we're shooting him,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like whatever that means.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: A decent one comes in, you know, whatever that means.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: That made very place to place. But like it's it's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: just so important to have that mentality. I think, hunt
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: where you think there's a big one and like you said,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: there's probably a day and good chance he's going to
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: be there. And honestly, in my experience, a lot of times,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I'm so pleasantly surprised. There's been a lot of situations
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: where I'm like, oh, I didn't think that that was
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: going to come out of here necessarily, But I'm plenty
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: happy with that, and like yeah, you just know, you
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: just know in the moment too, it's like oh yeah,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: good enough, like shooting well. And I mean but at
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: that point there, that that was something that I encountered
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: when I really started hunting public land too, was like, man,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: what's supposed to be here versus what I'm seeing is
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: is better and and it's like everywhere you go, like
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't say that. A lot of places you go
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: to and you know, like you talk to the locals
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: and they're like, it's not worth it, and you don't
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: know if they're full of ship or if they really
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: believe it or whatever. Who knows. But so often, you know,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: there's like a stigma attached to a certain place, and
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: it's always always comes from the people who live there
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: who have kind of written it off, and then you
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: go in and it's like, jeez, you know, like everybody
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: talks about genetics and being in the Trophy States, but
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you get dear to three years old, which
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: happens everywhere. I don't care where you live. You're already
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: talking about deer that are gonna probably get most people's
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: heart rate up, and like be a great deer. Whether
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: it's a hundred inch or a hundred and thirty inch
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: or whatever, ninety I don't care. It's all situational and
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: they're out there, and I think I think that's like
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: so important, Like I think that's one of the things
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: you guys showed, and I think what's crazy about it
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: is like, yeah, you guys are good hunters, but you're
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: also just showing people what's out there, And so I
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: think people are often like, well, Jesus, what's their secret?
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Like why why are they capable of doing this everywhere?
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, they're good hunters, but they're also just
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: showing you what you didn't think was there because they're
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: out there doing this, and that's an important lesson. Yeah,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: And it's weird too because with public land there's generally
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: enough ground that you find something. Like I said, it's
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: better than what you expect because and and again, in
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: my experience, if I'm covering a bunch of ground, I'm
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: finding stuff. Eventually will find something. It doesn't always happen
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: on the second day. And like I like to think
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: of every trip that I make is like we're talking
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: earlier about being relatable. I like to think seven days
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: is fairly realistic. You know, I don't. I don't technically
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: have like a home base for whitetail anymore. You don't
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: have a home play. I don't have out my back
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: door scalt Like every time I go to Scout Dear,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: it's more than five hours away. You know, at minimum,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: that's very minimum. That's like the closest white tail stuff.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Everything else is you know, pretty much on the fly,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: So I like to think in seven days that's pretty
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: realistic to somebody's trip for the year. So in most
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: most of the time, I'm trying to fit that into
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: seven days. Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. But for
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: the most part, the progression goes like, find find areas
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: that are of interest, drive around them, spend a day
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: covering ground around them to see if what the access
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: is like, what the neighborhood looks like. Then go put
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: boots on the ground and just cover ground and just
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: try to find where there's this sign that's telling me
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: there is something there that's something I want to chase,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and eventually you find it. There's a lot of places
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: that yeah, it's like you get in there, it's like, oh,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: so this old stands, and you know there's four wheeler
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: trails where there shouldn't be, and you know there's all
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: this hunter signed. But then all of a sudden, if
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: you cover enough ground and you do that initial legwork
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: to kind of find places that are maybe off wall
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: a little bit, eventually you find something that tells you
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, this has got it. And honestly, a
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: lot of times more than I think it's going to
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: have more than one, you know, you get back there, nurse.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's an example I used earlier when we're
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: talking about the mistakes that those two bucks is two
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: bucks that I would have been more than happy to shoot.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: We're on the same ridge system, Like they were right
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: in the same area. They were within probably within four
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: hundred yards of those two encounters were. And it's like
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: in those two bucks were different bucks and what we
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: saw the day prior, so there was like four in
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: there that we would have, you know, been happy to shoot.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: So it's just I don't know, I think that's and
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: you know, there's also a lot of I hear a
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: lot about states like I actually won't even throw anybody
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: under the bus. I just will save them from it.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: But you know, you know, you're kind of a typical
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: states that you hear the most like kind of grape
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: them about. I guess like, oh, there's no bucks here,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: There's no And it's like you start looking at the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: map there and it's like there's so much public land
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: that there's absolutely a lot of mature bucks. I mean,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: anywhere where there's mountains in the Eastern United States, there's
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: gonna be hammers in there because there's just not that
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: many people like, you know, even more so than like
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: an elk country. So Elk country, for example, is super extreme,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: super rugged. But like the people that go out there
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: to hunt elk all have that mentality that we're going
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: anywhere where there's elk. It doesn't matter if it's you know,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: twelve thousand feet or if it's down at nine thousand,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: We're going anywhere and everywhere. White tail hunters don't do that.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: If there's a mountain that that is that you know,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: three some foot and it's super rugged, bunch of finger
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: ridges off the main ridge. I mean, there's magnum bucks
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: in there. Like they may not be they may not
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: scork d but there's bucks that are probably gonna dive
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: old age in that stuff. Well, and I know, and
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I think Pennsylvania is such a good example
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: of that. I was just going to name that one,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: but it really is, because you know, I grew up
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: hearing about Pennsylvania and how many hunters are out there,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: in the density of hunters and just like like an
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: insurmountable amount of pressure, and I know, I know something's
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: changed out there, But man, I have some buddies you know,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Clinton Campbell and Aaron Heppler and somebody's dudes out there.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: They're scouting their asses off out there, and they are
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: on big deer all the time. And I mean, like,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: dear that most people, if they were sitting on a
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: tree stander and Iowa, are going to shoot if it
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: comes down the trail. And you just look at that
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: and you go, yeah, I mean, like that's that's make
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: anybody happy. And I know, I honestly think that one
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: of the worst things we do about deer, you know,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: kind of not only given them too much credit, but
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: also just like just like buying into the negativity around
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: every freaking opportunity so fast when you look at that
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: and go like is this true? Is this really true?
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: That you know, this six thousand acre chunk of public
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: land here has no big ones in it because of
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: the right bahrners kill them all and it you know,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: like the best example is that, like when you hear
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: somebody from like Nebraska or like South Dakota complain about
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: that like, oh, you know, our gun season sucks. It's
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: just it's brown, it's down and there's no big bucks
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: in there. And I'm like, are you sure like have
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: you driven around in August and looked at some of
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: these places like they're there somewhere, you know. But if
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: you if you haven't made up in your head that
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: it isn't gonna work for you. It's not gonna freaking work,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: you're not gonna find it. Yeah, well, and and it's
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: not it's not necessarily something that I mean again, when
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: you compare things to what you're seeing kind of mainstream
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: media too, it's it's so much of a different situation
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: for the most part that it's like you're watching people
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: just like I don't know, look at this bean field
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: and watch an hour before dark, you know, a handful
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: of does, a couple of small bucks, and you know,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: one big giant body, big antler buck come out. It's like, man,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: it's so easy there. And it's like, yeah, honestly, it
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: probably is easier situation, but that doesn't mean it can't
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: be done in your spot. It's just going to take
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: a different learning curve. And like that's where you know,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: it really comes down to all hunting, just getting out
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: there and trying. You're never gonna get any better if
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: you just say, oh, I only want to wait for
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the good stuff. That's just I mean, that's just I
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: don't know, it's unrealistic and not get the hunt as
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: much as you want. You're not gonna get the become
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: as good of a hunter as you want if you
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: are only waiting for the good. It's just like we
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: were talking about elk before this, and it's like you
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: could be the type of person that's like, you know what,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: I want to hunt milk every year, and when I'm
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: done hunting milk thirty years from now, four years, when
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: I'm dead. That's what I'm hoping to be done, is
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: when I'm dead. But you know, I could sit there
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: and wait for the best opportunities, the best tags, weight
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: put in preferenced points, and draw these tags every five
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: or six years, and maybe on my wall in my
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: trophy room that I'm showing off to my buddies. Maybe
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: that makes me look like the better hunting. But if
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: I'm actually going every year, getting more experienced, getting more
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: days in the field, and I maybe have a couple
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: of rag horns to show for it, in my opinion,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the person with the rag horns, that's the person that's
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: that's the better hunter. He's getting the experience. Not to
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: say that you know, everybody likes to shoot a big buck,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: everybody likes shoot a big bowl. But like, at the
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: end of the day, getting experienced shooting deer, that's that's
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the most valuable thing that you could do as a hunter.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it doesn't always look pretty for you know,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: like it would as the guy in the magazine that's
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: got the hundred back. It's just like it's not always
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: like that, and that's okay that that doesn't mean you're
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: not a good hunter carry either, And I think keeping
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: that in mind too, he gets the ship. Anybody thinks, man,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: that's the thing who cares with it. And unfortunately to
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: be a big a good hunter these days because because
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: of pictures and social media, and it's the kind of
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the idea around hunting is like, unfortunately a lot of
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: people believe you have to kill big bucks and that's
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: just not true. Well and I mean the reality is
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: it's not going to work out anyway, yeah, you know,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: And hunting is such a weird thing because we don't
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: we look like everybody has like the same chance and
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the same skill level and stuff. It's just not true.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: And I was thinking about this the other day. I
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: can't remember how it came up. But we're talking. I
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: was talking to my daughters about artists, like you know,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: people who create different ships, and I was like, some
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: people just have it and some people don't, you know,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Like I always joke my wife hates it, but I
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: was joke like I don't. The only thing I'm manly
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: with is hunting and fishing. Like if you were like, hey,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: go change the oil in your truck, I like, I
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: don't know how to do that. I'm gonna screw that up.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Like I mean like in YouTube it or whatever. Like
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: we all have our different talents and like you just
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: might not You might not be good enough to go
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: out and kill big bucks everywhere. Well you also might
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: just not have set your your life up in a
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: situation where you get as much opportunity either. Like that's
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: another factor that Like last time we did a podcast,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: We're talking with Mark and he asked like the question
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: of you know, if you only have one morning to hunt.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: I I thought about that for years. It's like, yeah,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: stuff would look a lot different for me if I
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: had my life set up differently. And I think that, like,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: you know, you look at every person's hunting situation. Everybody's
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: in a different situation, different years of experience, different influences,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: different I mean, just think about like having a good
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: hunting mentor versus being you know, from the time of
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: your little kid to the time you know, you start
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: going on your own handful of years versus somebody that's
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: like out of college twenty two years old, twenty five
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: years old, and you're like, I think I might start hunting.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Think about how different that situation is. And if you
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: start to immediately measure yourself against other people, yeah, you
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: just start doing In my opinion, that's just the wrong
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: thing do in general, because you can't measure yourself because
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: your situation is not necessarily the same. YEA, think about
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: somebody who you know is hunting in the mountains of
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: North Carolina compared to somebody who you know, all of
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: a sudden, like just what happens, chance landed, you know,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: this big property to hunt in Kansas. I mean, think
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: about how much different those two situations look. And if
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: there's if the guy from North Carolina's sitting here looking
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: at the dough that he killed with his bow and
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: he's comparing it too. You know, this guy that shopped
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: this big back on his property in Kansas. Is that
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: the same comparison. It's like, in my opinion, it isn't.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: But you also can't get down that rabbit hole of
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: comparing either. That's why you just gotta worry about your
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: ship and keep going, just keep having fun, you know.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: I think I think one of the dangerous things that's happened,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: you know, with with hunting media and just like the
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: amount of content that's out there now is like I've
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: noticed this, especially like turkey hunting. I take a lot
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: of people out turkey hunting, and you know, you get
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: somebody who's only been doing it a couple of years
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: or whatever, but they've got like you know, they're all
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: cameled up and they have the gear and everything, and
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: you talk to him, and inevitably they watch you eyes,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: they watch meat eater. They they're consumers, and you know,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: they're they're almost trying to like learn vicariously through the content.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: And and like some of the content is really good
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: and like you can learn some stuff from it, and
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: but I think like the main commonative it is just
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: just inspiration, like go and try this ship on your
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: own and learn on your own. And I think I
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: feel like, you know, like when I was coming up,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: you didn't have a choice. You just did that, like
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: because that's you know, we didn't have the same kind
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: of content level that we have now, and it was
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: just like, well, you just go hunt, like you just
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: go go look for him in the summer and sneak
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: around and you glass them and in the fall you
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: have one tree stand and you just move around and whatever.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: You know, like you just learn. And now there's sort
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: of this illusion that you can just like learn this
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: by osmosis. And I think that like the best thing
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: about it is like, yeah, you can get some great ideas,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: like you listen to and you may tell his stories
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: like you're gonna get some ship out of it. That's
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: that works for you, like no question. But there's also
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: just like the inspiration level just like go out and
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: do this. And I really think, like you know kind
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: of what we're talking about earlier, and you said, like
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: go find that concentration to bucks or go find that
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: sign and the thick stuff, and you're gonna be around him. Like, man,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: the best part about deer hunting to me now is
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: that feeling of getting into that spot. I don't know
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: who's there, I see the sign, I got the you know,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: it gives me the warm and fuzzies, and you get
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: up in that tree and yeah, sometimes you blank, sometimes
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: you get busted. Sometimes like a lot of times it
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't work out. But that feeling of like I'm I
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: think I'm on it right now, that's the best. Like
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: it's it's different than you know, if you go into
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: a situation where it's like an easier hunt and whatever.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: People want whatever they want. But like for me, I've
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: done some of the easy ones and it gets fun
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: to see big bucks and kill one and not have
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: to work too hard. But it's not the same feeling
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: as like, man, when you just like I just I
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: figured this out. This is the spot that makes my
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: nuts buzz, and you get in there freaking love it
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: because you're learning any I mean, you get your askick
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: all the time, but you know, like you you you
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: at least brushed up against something worthwhile there something that
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: like I don't know, I M I know this is
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: very abnormal. And this is just the personal thing that
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: I would challenge somebody that maybe wants to get more
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: out of one thing. It's like, if you want to
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: get more out of it, consider ditching trail cameras. I
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: know there's a lot of people that don't use them,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: but like it's so popular these days, and I think
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: to myself, like there's nothing I want less than a
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: trail camera. I hate those things. I mean I hate them.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: I hate finding them in the woods. I hate I
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: I know that's abnormal, but they just drive me crazy
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: because I think of all the things that I get
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: to learn that somebody else just like comes in here
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: and slaps like this, like I'm getting to learn it
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: on my feet, and then I get to make this prediction.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: But then somebody else is just using this, like imagine
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: how much you can learn from that, and then it
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: takes away from what I like to get out of it.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: So for me, it's not necessarily about other people. It
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: more it's mostly just about like I don't want to
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: do that. I don't want to get all that info
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: when I'd rather just make a guess, see what comes
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: in if it excites me, make the shot or whatever,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: and just move on. And it's like the trail cameras
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: I think are Man, they're a weird thing. It kind
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: of starts to cross the line for me of like
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know, taking some sort of advantage to a
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: different you know, it's like it just changes the advantage.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: I actually think they also they change. They can if
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: you understand them. I think they can really help, but
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: I think in another way, they can also really hurt you,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: and they can really be this disease. And I feel
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: like I'm happy that I just decided that I was
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: gonna I shouldn't say I never use info from trail cameras,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: but it's not ever really anything that I'm using directly
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: from my hunts. It's more like my buddy ran this camera.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the pictures after the fact and just
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: looking at that, not necessarily ever using it from my
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: own situation. I haven't ever like I shouldn't say, ever,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: last I did was like and fifteen I remember really
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: have an amount, But I just think, but but that's
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: what you learned. I mean, I think I think that
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: they're amazing on private land in certain situations, like you
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: can you can dial and ship real well. When I
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: see them, I'll never forget. So when I do that.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: Last Iowa take two years ago, I had three spots
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: that had a concentration and bucks in them, like they
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: were just they were on and one of them was
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: just like a classic river bottom set up, and it
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: was it didn't have as many bucks in it, but
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: it had a ton of deer. It was just it
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: was dumb, like you you know, like you just walked
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: in there. There's CRP, there's some hardwood, and there's a
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: river like and it's Iowa. I went in there, and
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: there was there were guys hunting in there, like I
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: wasn't the only one. And there was a trail camera
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: set up, uh right by this guy's stand on this
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: like super obvious crossing through through these this little woodline
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: in the RP field, and I just kind of wanted
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: to hold up a sign in front of it and
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: be like they're here, dude, like come on in, like
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: you don't need to see anything more like look around.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: There was freaking rubs and scrapes everywhere. And you know,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: the first night I sat in there, I had fourteen
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: deer come through and I was, I was, I was
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: a little bit awful where he was. But it's the
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: same area and you know, like when you walk in
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: there and there's the sign is incredible. And this was
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: this was opening weekend, This was October one, you know,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: and I just look at that. I'm like, you're gonna
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: come in and check that and be behind the eight
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: ball on this, probably because me and a bunch of
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: other people are hunting in here and you're gonna be
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: looking at intel from three weeks ago, and yeah, you're
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: gonna have inventory and you're gonna be like this big
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: buck was here, but so was this dipshit who walked
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: by in first light and this guy and like you
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: it's it's like that's not the situation for it, probably,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, yeah, And I just it just it's
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: one of these things like I guess it can be used.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: I mean there, I guess that's the thing. To me,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: they're just so there's such a weird I don't know.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Here's where I've really got. It used to not be
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: that much of a problem for me to where I
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: wasn't really that bothered by it. But when it gets
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: to a point where they're just everywhere you go, that
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: starts to become a problem. And I've funded some places
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: where I'm walking down every single ridge in the timber
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: and they are literally lying down the ridge, and it's
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: like like to me, that starts to become it just
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: becomes so strange, especially on public land, where it's like
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: I know this is I'm probably gonna get a hell
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: lot of hate for this, but it's just like I
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: know that's the norm is to be buind trail cameras,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: but like as soon as I see my Boddy start
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: to do that, I tell them I don't like that.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: I don't like to like, I don't want to be
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: fine your cameras laying around everywhere out there, and it's
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: just like it's just another piece of woods trash to me,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: just another thing that people will leave out there, just
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: put in let deer know that, hey, we're actually out
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: here hunting you now, you know. And it's just I
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: don't know that it it's just something that recently has
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: become more and more annoying to me, where it's like
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: they just a popping up everywhere, like everywhere, and then
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: it kind of becomes this thing to where it's like
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: somebody's like reserving their little area, you know. On public land,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: it's like, especially when you put five down the ridge,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, if I'm gonna be hunting, oh I'm
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: gonna be doing is walking in front of your camera
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: every day. It's like that's not man, I know that
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: that part. I mean, but that's what gets a banned,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: right when you see the airs on a situation with
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: the water holes and stuff, because you know, there is
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: an issue with claiming spots out there on public land,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: and you know some states, you know, some states you
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: can't use them on public and that doesn't seem to
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: deter anybody hardly because everywhere but it is, you know,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: it it's rough. But I also think because people lean
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: on them so heavily, you can you can use that
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: to your advantage, you know, like I mean, because you
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: look at that and go, if that's your primary scouting strategy,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: you're missing a lot. And you and I agree, Well,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, like in this specific example
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: where like we found all these so actually one of
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the bucks that I shot um a couple of years ago,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: we were scouting this area. I don't know if it
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: was actually I actually think it was after we shot
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: the buck, but we shot this buck back. It was
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: one of these situations where it was like we picked
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: the spot, we went to it, he was, and he
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: was there, and we actually bumped him and then shot
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: him later that night. Everything that I've been talking about
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: as far as like picked spot, trust it, it's hard
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: to get to he's going to be there. While we
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: hunted there, it wasn't really much hunting. Sign Hunter signed
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: in that area, but then we moved so later in
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: the season, I was hunting filming in that same area
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: and I was with my buddy and we were closer
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: to the access point and we just we're going down
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: different ridges and that's when we found one example where
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: we found a bunch of trail cameras and it was like,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: if you take this piece of public land, you put
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: access at point A, and then at point B is
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: all these trail cameras. The buck was at point C
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: and we bypassed it the first time we went in
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: there and went straight to point C. Killed a buck
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: and that, but point B there's all these cameras. And
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that, you know, it's just it's not
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: saying the buck didn't ever spend time there. But it's
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: just like to me, it's just another thing to add
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: pressure onto an area too. It's this is attatchment with
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: a trail camera, especially when you've got that many up
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: a mount there and stands scattered into it as well.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: It's just it's just like you said, I don't know
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: that that's the best application for it. It's like, if
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: I was ever going to run a trail camera, I
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: would put it in the deepest, darkest hole that I
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: never wanted to go to leave it for an entire season,
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: in the most hidden spot where I don't think anybody
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: could ever see, and then I would just like not
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: come get it through a year, you know what I mean,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: and just use that for the following season. But even then,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: it's like I just still I personally, I feel like
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: my skills is an out you know, woodsman, I guess
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: or increased if I avoid using those things. Yeah, well,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: I think I've got to the same place. I still
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: use them, you know, on some of my private ground
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: because I just like it, and especially with the girls,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: and I know I'm gonna take the girls to blinds.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: I have set up like I have fun with that.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: But I noticed that I went through a phase where
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I got to rely on on them and I felt
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: like I was behind the eight ball all time, and
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: I was just like, I don't like I knew it,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: Like I'm like, you're leaning on this too heavy and
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: you're not having a very good year. And you know
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: when you think about like, if you have private land
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: and you have access to every freaking tool we have
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: what you do so you can run trail camras, you
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: can set stands, ladder stands, blinds, whatever the hell you want,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: and you're having worse hunts than when you travel on
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: public land and you're in the moment for four or
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: five days. There's a lesson there and that hit me
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: over the head, probably like six years ago or something
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: where I was like, not only am I having more
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: fun where I'm just freelancing it and figure out something
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: in the moment I'm doing, I'm killing bigger deer and
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: like more consistently. And then it's like it's an eye
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: opener because you go, why why would this be? And
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: it's you know, like I've told this on here before,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: but I'll never forget. I was in North Dakota one
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: time and there was a couple of guys, a couple
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: other guys from Minnesota with their camp next to us,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: and you know, they were big buck to the nth
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Degree're talking about bucks they've seen all over the place
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: and absolute dipshit. But just anyway, Uh, they they came
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: out there. They had kayaks, they had everything, and they
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: were running trail cameras up and down the river. And
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here, going, you guys have four days and
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: every quarter of a mile here is a peak you
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: can sit on and look over two miles of this
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: fricking river. Like you can get more intel with a
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: spotting scope in one night then you'll get with trail
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: cameras in three weeks. There, Like it's not the right
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: tool for the job. And you know they were. They'd
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: go up, paddle out and find a crossing, put a
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: put a camera on there, so the very spot that
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: they wanted or that the deer would go. Now you've
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: left your scent there, you've walked up on the bank
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, like you've probably knocked down some weeds
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And then you're like, I hope within the
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: next couple of days, I'm going to get a picture
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: of when I want to go to it, and I'm
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: gonna go there and hunt it. Like I'm like it's
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: a lost cause. And they left. Yeah, well and it's
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: so norm Like I said, it's just like it's just
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: what the hunting industry is doing and telling you, and
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: it's like so much of a content now, Like get
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: online and start scrolling, and you're gonna see a trail camera.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Like you follow any hunting page or anything, you're gonna
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: start seeing trail camera pictures pop up. And I guess,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: to me, it's just it's just not You could make
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: this sit here and say listen to all that I'm
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: saying too and say all trail care zact against trail cameras.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: Like he doesn't like, you know, he's saying that's an
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: unfair advantage, but he's using on X. You could say
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: the same thing about on X. I mean, yeah, it's
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: made things a hell of a lot easier for whatever reason.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Personally that doesn't cross a line for me, but for
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: some reason, the trail And it's not just the trail cameras.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: I think, being um, it's not all about like one
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: thing with the trail cameras. I guess it's like there's
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: a bunch of things that I think are disadvantages to
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: m to using them. There's also advantages to using them.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: But it's also just like mentally, it's this easy way out.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: It's like this easy way to just like kind of
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: lean on this a little bit and then it's also
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: you know, gonna hurt you in the heat of the
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: moment when really nice Buffy would shoot every day of
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: the week comes by, but because you've got this one
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: stupid picture of this really big buff that you're gonna
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: like miss that opportunity or you're gonna be like, oh,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: you know, I gotta go sit over here because this
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: camera was hot last week it's the weekend or whatever,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: and it's like, well, that happened, Like that already happened,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: you know, like that's the thing. And especially when you
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: get into self cameras, that gets even hilarious. It's like, oh,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go And I mean, don't get me wrong,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: you could certainly use a self camera to your advantage
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: if you can recognize what's happening in the situation of
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: the picture. For example, if there's a buck with the
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: dough and you're right next door, it's easy he run
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: over there and he's you know, he's gonna be much
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: more easy to make a stock on, for example. But
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: if a buck's cruising and he cruises past your self camera,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: so yeah, good, dude's gone already, you know what I mean,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: and you can chase your tail doing that, and that's
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: one of the Jake and I did that last year
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: when I was filming him. We just like I felt
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: like there's times where we were kind of just like
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: chasing this picture because he likes to run trail cameras
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: and I don't, but I, you know, I tag along
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: for whatever. And it's just like, you know, one of
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: those deals that it kind of gets down to, it's like,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: just go with your Gut's better off just to go
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: hunt with your gut. Just go to the places again,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: like we talk about man again, but all back to note,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: don't give them so much credit. Find the spot that
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: makes sense, and I promise there'll be a buff there. Well,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: if you find ten of them, that could be your
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: whole seat. You know, that could be your whole season.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: But just hind them all aggressively, go straight to the
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: X and go hunted. He's probably going to be in
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: there somewhere. I look at trail cameras right now, like
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: because I do have fun running them for my daughters.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: I love it because every deer is a shooter and
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: they just to get to get them pumped. It's so easy.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: But I always look at that like like I look
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: at the colors for dog training. You know, if you
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: if you look in the hunting dog world, you almost
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: won't find a professional trainer who doesn't send every dog
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: home with an e coller, Like that's how they they
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: got to get results in eight weeks or twelve weeks.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: And that's the easiest way to do it. And they're
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: like a great tool if you know how to use it,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: and you use it right with a dog that already
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: understands everything and you've at the process down. But then
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: the average person doesn't want to train a dog very well,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: and they go, this is a shortcut to a trained dog,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: and it's not. This is a shortcut to forced compliance
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: that's only going to happen when that caller is on
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: there typically. I mean it varies, you know, but it's
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: not it's not getting you where you think it's gonna
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: get you if you don't use it really well. And
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: I look at that with trail cameras too, like their
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: fogg they're they're a band aid, they're a shortcut. They
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: can be a badass tool if you use them to
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: complement a whole scouting strategy and you're like or even
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: just for like you know, just just to get the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: confidence ut there you're like, jeez, there's like six bucks
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: in this area that I would shoot, Like that's that's
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: pretty good if it gets you up up in the morning.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: But it does, I think. I think though it starts
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: to I think it's so easy to get in your
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: head in a negative way to where it's just like, oh,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not getting pictures, Like I know that there's been
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: examples with our group where pad of camera spot it's
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: not picking up ship and then in reality there's bucks
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: crawling all over just in the other corner of the
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: piece that you can't see from the camera, And I
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: think stuff like that like and ultimately for me, I
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: truly believe that I will end up with more, like
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: I guess, a better experience to where it will help
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: me in the future without them, Right Like, if I'm
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: seeing this sign and I'm making that decision Okay, this
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: is where I'm gonna set up today, and I make
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: that decision just purely based off sign, I just think
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: that that's more advantageous in the long run than trying
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: to use this trail cameras like a short term solution
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: to like, oh, I'm gonna find these bus this camera
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: or however you're choosing to use it and not like again,
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that. It's like I I said, I
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: hate them at the beginning, and I kind of regret
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: saying that. It's like I understand that people like them,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: I personally don't, and I think it's just one of
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: those deals. I also like being different. I kind of
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: like just you know, stirring the pot a little bit,
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: like leave your trail camera at home and see you
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: like and just see what you can come up with,
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: Like you'll be better for it, and like I kind
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: of like, just I don't know. That's kind of my
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: main point with all that is, like leaving at home,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: see where you can come up with on your own.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: You've got the skills to do it. Trust that it
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: doesn't have to be like wait to see on the TV. Well,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: trust that you can use your woods from ship skills.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: You know. In addition to us giving big Bucks too
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: much credit, I think a lot of people don't give
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: themselves enough credit, like especially you know, I was explaining
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: to this to my little girls the other day, you know,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: because they had a bad turkey season. They both killed turkeys,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: but they missed more turkeys in two sits than I've
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: ever seen in like twenty seven years of turkey. I mean,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: I was like, holy shit, guys, like we were we
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: were out of bullet it was anyway, it was, it
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: was melted down. I was like, these are my kids.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: We don't need to do a paternity test because they
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: freaking turkey fever to the nth degree. Anyway. So now
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: they're thinking about deer season, and I'm like, last year,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: you guys shot at three deer and you killed them
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: all and two really good shots, one bad shot that
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: worked out really well for us. And I was like,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: you just you got to understand that this takes time
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: to get comfortable and you'll get to a point eventually.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: You know, their tents, so it'll be a while, but
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: I'm lying to them, but I'm like, you'll get to
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: a point where you like, you know, I put those
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: cross hairs on behind the shoulder, or I put that
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: beat on that turkey's neck, and you'll just know it's over,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Like you'll know what you have to do. There won't
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: be this anxiety. But it takes a while to get there,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: and it's it takes a while for everybody to get
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: to those those places and when you start getting to
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: like some of that stuff happens, it's like it feels
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: so good because you're like, man, I got the confidence
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: to you know, like the first time you go and
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: kill a big one in public land, it's like, holy shit,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Like this is all of a sudden, it opens up
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: a world to you where now instead of that thing
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: being like a negative or like something that you wouldn't
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: really use in your arsenal, now you're like every chunk
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: of public is potentially a hunting spot for me. Yeah,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: And that's an enormous advantage to believe that, to not
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: look at it as a negative like it's over hunted
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: or whatever, but to be like, if this place doesn't
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: work for me, there's five other acres to figure this
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: stuff out. Then you're then you're on a path to
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: something that's like you're gonna get better because that's why
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: you're just got lit. Yeah. And I just think that,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: like one thing that I battle with all the time
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: with creating hunting content is that at the end of
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: the day, I guess the end of every piece of content,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: I just want to put disclaimer, like all this is
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: based off of our experiences. You go get your own
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: like go get your own experience. That's that's what you
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: just have to do to to And like I listen
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: to tons of people talk about hunting too, So just
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: like anybody else listening to this podcast or watching hunting
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: video or whatever, I do the same thing. Don't get
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: me wrong, Like I do the same thing. I'm watching
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: other people. I'm listening to what Johnny Berhard has to say,
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: I'm listening to Dan and Falder, Andy May or whatever
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: I am. I'm trying to do exactly what those guys do,
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: making your own style and understanding your hunting areas. You know,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: maybe that's you know, just one county in one state.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's a couple of counties and one state. Maybe
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: that's a couple of states, maybe it's a couple of species,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, just start chipping away and the only
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: thing that's going to make you learn is just getting
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: that experience. And like, you know, we sit here and
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: we say you and I sit here and we say
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: that we give big bucks too much credit. But the
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: only reason that we are able to say that is
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: because we've put a lot of time into hunting them
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: and we've got the experience to say, like, hey, you know,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: when you really break down those situations, we're probably giving
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: them a little bit too much credit. And I think that,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: you know, just try and different stuff, taken little snippets
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: from um what other people are doing, and then not
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: being afraid of failure is just so important, and like
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: maybe what you feel like you're doing is something you've
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: never seen before, And to be completely honest, that's probably true.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: Like when I set my bow behind me that spot,
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: I've still do this net. They never seen anybody hunt
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: with a bow in that type of a setup, but
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: it worked perfectly. The but literally was as close as
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: you could get. You know, it's just like he was.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: He could almost reaped down and touch him. And that
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: was the most oddball set up that you could ever
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: draw up compared to what most people do in those situations.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: Not to say that they're wrong, but what works for
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: me might not work for them, based off of style,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: based off of influence, based off of amow time to
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: go hunting. I mean again back to that, everybody's got
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: a different situation. It's just find what works for you
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: and have confidence in it, and then don't be afraid
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: to fail, Like, go have fun failing well and you
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: said something there that's a really really good point that
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: we should talk about just a little bit here. Is
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: you're right, like we're talking about people, you know, people
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: giving big bucks too much credit because we've gone through
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: the stages of like what that made me think of
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: is when I started hunting, I gave all the deer
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: too much credit and I couldn't freaking kill one. And
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: then when I finally started killing a few funds and
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: does it was like if it had antlers, I gave
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: it too much credit. Yeah, like if spikes on up, buddy,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: like one points on up. And I went through that,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: and like eventually you get to the point where you're like, okay,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: like I gotta kill some big ones because you know
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: the one and I asked in the two year olds,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: they're they're coming. I'm getting them now. And so you
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: go through these stages where you're like, okay, now this
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: is the like the insurmountable level, like the three and
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: a half year old on up, and then you break
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: through that you realize no, it's not. And like then
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: you break through and go not only is it not
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: on public land or private land, it's also not on
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: public So you go through stages. So a good thing
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: to tell people is, you know, one of the most
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: dangerous things you can do and this stuff is jump
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: the line and become you know, like that trophy hunter
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: before you've got enough of those other hunts in your
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: real view mirror to get there. Because that's probably one
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: of the biggest reasons people give them too much credit
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: is they're just not ready for them yet, Like you haven't,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: you haven't worked your way up the ladder, and that
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: that might be the biggest problem with social media and
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: the content we produce is we show cameras. Absolutely we
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: show too much of the end product of you know,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: decades of of hunting hard and having a lot of
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: advantages that other people don't have. And it it gives
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: a skewed view of this world, like are not seeing
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: us when we were fourteen and we couldn't kill anything
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: exactly like that, You're seeing more of a finished product
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: now than you would for you know, the first twenty years,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: and it that's a big deal. Yeah, And I just
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: I just oftentimes think, because I know that I do it,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: I oftentimes think of like, you know, if I ever
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: read the comment or question or something that says like, hey,
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm seeing this amount of sign what should
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: I do? Should I I've seen this year, this year
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: and this year, what should I do? It's like I
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: imagine that situation being very similar to all the times
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: that I do the same thing right where it's like
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: what should I do right here? And it's like the
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: only answer that is wrong is to do nothing, to
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: like stall out and just not make a decision. And
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: sometimes I do that too. And that's the thing where
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: you talk about like you always see the good, but
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: there's so many days, like a hell of a lot
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: of days that we go hunting and things don't work
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: out the way that we want. And the worst two
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: things you can do is stall out and not make
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: a decision and to let your confidence get messed up
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: because of a little bit of failure, I guess, or
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit of like just unanswered questions. I guess.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: That's the thing that happens all the time in bell hunting,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: especially in areas or or deer hunting in general, but
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: like especially in areas with like low visibility or low
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: deer densities, it's so easy to just be like, Okay,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: there's a scrape here, you know, I set up on it.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: He nothing came in for five hours, So what does
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: that even mean? Like do I sit there tomorrow? He's like,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, it's like if that was
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: your experience, I don't know what what do I do
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: in that situation? It's still I can't tell you because
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: it's like I don't even know that I would have
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: an answer for it if I was in that moment
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: right off the gate. Either. It's like it's just about
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: going and trying and just trying and trying, and so
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: it's just seems so ridiculous to say it. But there's
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: no there's no easy answer. I mean, there is an
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: easier answer. There's you know, by your own place and
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: and you know, control all the factors and buy a
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: bunch of land that nobody else can go on, and
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: that's going to make things easier. But like that's probably
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: not realistic to you. You know, yeah, that's not that's
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: not for everyone. I think one of the one of
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: the main points there that's like so so worth acknowledging
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: is just not riding a dead program, like understanding when
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: you're in one and how to get out, and you know,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: like because a lot of people have a high tolerance
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: for a dead program on on off chance they're coming,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, And I was like I I
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: used the rut as an example, right, Like if the
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: rut was the answer to all your problems, we would
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: have a hundred percent success rate for hunters in Iowa
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: with archery tags because you got the entire month of November,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: and if that was all it took, then you would
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: see a hundred percent. And you don't. You don't even
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: seem close to that. It's like want o every filling
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: their tag? And I always look at that and I go,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: this happens to everyone everywhere, Like where you get into
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: something and you're like I think this should be going
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: and it's not. And so instead of talking yourself into
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: just stay in there because it's like it's easy because
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: like they're gonna come, go find what they're doing. And
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, you know, Like we try to justify
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: why it's a dead program. Now it's like, well it
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: must be too hot, or it must be too windy,
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: it must be too cold, or must be the ruts
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: not popping off or whatever. It's like it doesn't matter,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: Like it doesn't like, it doesn't matter why my wife's
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: mad at me. I'm gonna have a bad night, you
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, whatever I did, she's gonna
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: punish me for. Like it doesn't at that point, it's irrelevant,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: and I gotta deal with what I gotta deal with,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: you know, like if if the deer aren't there, even
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: if the signs there, Like if you sit there and
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: it's the conditions are right, and you feel like you
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: didn't make a bunch of mistakes, and let's say you
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: get a morning in an evening there and it does
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: not happening, Like, man, I don't know, it's time to
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: acknowledge it and and move on. Yeah, I think it's
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: easy to say that what if, and like it's easy
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: to get stalled out. And I just think that that's
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: such a it's such a like I feel so free
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: because I haven't had it for so long. But I
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: do know what it feels like. I do know what
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: being stuck and stalled out and being like only confident
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: in this one thing, it feels like I always think
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: back the season. It was the last year that I
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: hunted from tree stands. Mostly it was the last deer
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: I shot from a tree stand. No, that's not true.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: I guess in seventeen I did. But even that I
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: shot that back out of a tree stand. But the
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: hunt hunt was so it was so different. It was
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: a bump and dump, like straight up did a deer
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: drive to see what would come out, saw him, shot him,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: that's it. Saw him come out, shot him a couple
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: of days later in that same betting area, so you know,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: don't get him too much credit. He came back. So
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: that was one of the examples of the bumps. With
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: the last buck that I shot out of the tree stand.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: Prior to that was rut hunting. Go find the spot
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: that was going to be on some edge down wind
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: of the bedding area and just sit there and like
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: that was so it was so crazy because there's this
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: part of you that's like, I gotta do something different,
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: But then there's this other part of you that's like, well,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: this has always worked, and yeah, it always has worked,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: and at some point it probably will work if you
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: got the days for it. But is that really what
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: you want? Is that what you want to just sit
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: there and hope and wait, because like you might take
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: a hunt that might have taken five or six days
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: to get that opportunity. You might just shrink it down
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: to like two or three maybe maybe not too But
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: if it's already not working, or it's already not working
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: at the you know paste that you wanted to, why
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: not just get out and try something different? Like man,
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: every single time, every single time that that happened, That's
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: what I mean. Really, these like most of these bucks
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: in here are the ones that are the ones I've
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: shot in the last five years or so, and it's
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: just like every one of them was just something different.
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: Was like not just the same old day not doing
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: the same thing. It wasn't hardly ever, like doing the
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: same thing for four days finally paid off. Never like never,
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: It's always like, you know what, let's go try this
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: totally be different piece of pub plan. Let's go try
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: to do a wind bump. Let's go try to you know,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: bump a buff or you know, let's go find a
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: buff better with the dough or something. I mean, whatever
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: it is, it's just like, let's just do something different.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: Every time I've made those moves, it ends up being
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: something that generally tips me off at the bare minimum,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: you know, But I think about the same thing, Like
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: most of my public land kills have just been a
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: what if situation or like or like I just get
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: curious about an area, like what why are they here
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: or there? Or like why don't I ever go to
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: this spot? Or does anybody hunt here? Or why like
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: why aren't they here? And then you just go like
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: I gotta see something different, like I gotta I just
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: have to go look at something. And Elk is like
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: a prime example of that. Like, man, if you hunt
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: like the last week of the Colorado season and you're
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: over the counter unit, you just have to be like
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: like what if, Like what if those bulls just like
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: hold up here below the trail in this black timber
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: hell hole and you know they're not making a bunch
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: of noise, but they're concentrated there. Or you look at
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: a map and you look at the you know, trailhead here,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: trailhead here, and this loops around here and there's this
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: one little basin, like what if they're there? And you
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: know you walk into them sometimes, especially like you know,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: when you talk about the scouting, you're like that's my spot,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: that's my spot, and that's my spot, and you walk
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: into two out of every three year, like it's not
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: my spot, but one of them or when you're walking
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: from one to the next one, you're like, holy sh it,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: this is my spot. Like I just just by asking
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: the question what if? And I think that's like I
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: think there's like so much value there and I think
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: people probably listen to this and they go, well, yeah,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: if you're on public land or you're on an elk hunt,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: And man, I started doing that on the private spots.
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: I have to hunt everywhere, even little like thirty acre
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: private land spots, like just like are they ever in
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: that will thicket there? Like is there a way to
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: set up on the ground there? And then you go
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: in there and you're like, there's more to your here
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: than I think on the rest of the thirty acre
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, like you have those moments and
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: you go, okay, now I question everything. Yeah, well, I
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: often get the question like when you're going into a spot,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: you know, what is it that you see that makes
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: you feel confident or whatever? And I mean I asked
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: myself that on time too, and like I don't really
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: even know, and I wish I could. I wish I
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: had a better way of explaining this. I still haven't
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: nailed it down, but it's like, just go at a
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: speed at which you feel pretty confident that you're balancing,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: covering ground and looking for the year, looking for a sign,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: and just start going off the trail, just get away
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: from where the people are and just start trying and
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: just start covering around. And like so many people just
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: again have that locked into their head or there's just
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: so many times where we all of us, myself included,
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: get in our head like, oh, we don't want to
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: bump a deer out of here. What if he is
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: over there and we bumped it. You're not really gonna
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: learn anything if you don't, especially if you set up
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: on something that you don't feel totally confident, you don't
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: see him, and then you keep moving. It's like maybe
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: he was just a little bit further, maybe that maybe
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: what you needed to figure out was just a little
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: bit further, and like it's just you break away, Like
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: it's like just take whatever weights on your shoulders and
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: just get rid of it and just go hunt like
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: you don't have like you care none because you shouldn't.
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: And I honestly think man of people, like just again,
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: stop giving bucks how much credit and just start hunting
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: where the sign is. Just play it loose. We always
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: have this joke like, hey, we'll play it loose. Keep
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: it loose, man, because like as soon as you start
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: overthinking of which is a terrible habit of mine. Like
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: I'm saying this, like keep in mind the day is
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: that you don't see on video. A lot of days
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: with me just like thinking about it too much, and
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: I sit there and I'm like stressing out and I'm
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: worried about stuff, and it's like the days that it
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: works out of the days that were like no, let's
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: just walk in here and see what happens. Or like
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: I shot a buck in North Dakota a couple of
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: years ago, and the progression of that was we found
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: the spot with with some white tails. We saw a
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: nice bucks, a handful of small bugs. The next morning,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: went back, did not see the big buck. You know,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, is this rarely really where we're
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: going to get the opportunity that we want where you know,
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: we can you know, hang with one until he beds
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: down and stalk him, and it's like this just doesn't
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: it like it could happen, But he's probably in a
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: bed in timber where we can't see him, and that
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: apparent apparently was what he had done that morning, because
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: we didn't see him. So we just said, you know,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: let's just walk the whatever. It was like two and
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: a half miles back to this other spot, get to
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: a high point where we can glass, and we started
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: seeing some bucks. It's like, okay, so that's stage one
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: of this story. Stage one is we see this little
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: group of bucks eight points in there in velvet that
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: I would have shot. Then there was another buck with
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: like a funky antler and he was shedding his velvet
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: and he was kind of bullying the other bucks around.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: But the eight point in velvet was a buck. I'm like,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go for him, and he actually made a
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: move on him the first night, didn't end up getting him,
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: didn't ever even see him once we got down in
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: the zone that he was in. But the next morning
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: it was like, we're going to stand in here if
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: you come back, so again, we'll get back to that
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: point where we're blast him. We see him and his
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: buddies the next morning, sure enough, and they they go
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: into a betting area thicket and kind of lose track
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: of them. No, they're like, no, they're in this tiny
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: little area but don't know exactly where his body is
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: on the ground. I get to thinking of myself, you know,
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: what the hell with us? I'm bored, Like I'm so
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: tired of sitting here, and I been doing it now
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: for like what feels like two days. So it's been
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: like an afternoon a couple of hours, and then a
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: couple of hours in the morning. But for me to
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: sit in once by that long too long. So I
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: just start walking down the ridge and I've got, i think,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: just my buy nose maybe out of spawning to go.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: But I'm just walking down the top and I'm like,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: obviously I'm like hiding behind the terrain, but I'm going
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: and peeking over and I get all the way to
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: the end of this ridge where it starts to play
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: out into the river, and I'm like, like, this feels weird,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: Like I feel like I'm somewhere where I should, you know,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: like big bucklets down here. And I just as soon
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: as I started to get that feeling, I jumped some
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: prong horn, which was abnormal, like they're tucked in this
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: really weird spot where nobody had ever bumped him, and
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: I was like that also tipped me off to like
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: some something you eat here, because it's not like we've
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: been seeing these things everywhere. And I went and peeked
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: over the other side, and that's when I saw this
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: big eight pointer and he's standing there feeding completely by himself.
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: Now I tell that story to just say like I
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't even explain to you the carelessness that I have
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: walking over there, And not to say that in the
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: negative way, I mean that in a good wayne. Well,
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: but what was gonna go wrong? Like those bucks that
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: had betted and I couldn't see they weren't gonna spook.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I get a different angle on them, I
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: get eyes on them, or I see this bigger buck
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: and end up killing that one. And that's exactly what happened.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: Is I moved down there. Had I not moved down there,
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: I mean not seeing that deer for you know ever.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: And it's just it's so funny to like get so
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: locked into the same old, same old, And I mean
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: I do it all the time. On the flip side.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: I'll tell one quick story. Hold on, hold on one second.
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's the buck that you could have
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: waved at me across that river. By the way, when
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: you when you killed him. We heard you guys celebrating. Really. Yeah.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: When I went to get my buck that I shot,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: I could wave that one of your cameraman up on
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: the hillside. Are you serious? I didn't know that. No, Joe,
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: my buddy was actually uh piece and out of meal
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: there across the river when you guys were cheering about
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: your buck. Are you serious? Yeah? And I was like, hey,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: can you guys pan that camera down and not show
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: these landmarks? Yeah? I tried. I tried on the on
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: the video when I saw that, because I was like,
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: no freaking way. I think you can see me glassing
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: at one of your videos. I remember seeing other hunters,
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: so I probably saw you. Yeah. I definitely saw other
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: hunters when I was up on that ridge. Yeah, it's hilarious.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: One of them was mere one of them, I think
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: about it. I do remember Minnesota plate because you have
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: Minnesota plates. Yeah, so that that was a while hunt
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: because it was covered in people. It was an opener hunt.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: I went out. I think I killed on the second
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: day of the season. I can't remember, because you killed
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: that was on the third day. Yeah, you killed the
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: morning that I was tracking my buck. I think, Um,
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: but I I shoulder shot a velvet buck out there
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: and got like no penetration, and I was like, son
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: of a bitch, like this is this is not going
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: to work out well. But you know how it is
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: out there. I went out the next morning and my
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: buddy killed up the river. My other buddy killed down
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: the river, and I was glassen just to see before
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: I went to spot and stock that dear because I
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: or to blood trail, I'm sorry, And I saw a
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: freaking coyote like six hundred yards away run over to
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: something and drop his head down, and I'm like, no way.
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: And I just watched the first kyote find my buck,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: and I walked out there and he was laying there dead,
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: and you guys were up on the freaking hill. That's hilarious. Yeah,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: that's so funny. I didn't even know that. I didn't
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: never know that that was true. Yeah, that's so hilarious. Yeah,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: we got a little excited about that one. Yeah, you probably. Yeah,
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: I can imagine the screams were heard from a while
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: aways away. The quality out there, I mean, it's different now.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: You know when I when I first started hunting, that
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: s about the first time I found it. That was
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: there was there were like fifteen bucks that were visible there.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: They were all shooters, like like unreal, and it's not
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: the same that the secrets out. But even then, now
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: now I've seen it switch where you know, they used
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: to be so visible, now they're not, but they're there.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: So instead of just like glassing wide open stuff and
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: what they you know, like they go walk along the
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: river and they fight, Like Nope, now you see these
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: little pockets of timber and you see them like working
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: the edge and browsing and like you see this the
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: behavior is different, but they're still there. So it's like,
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: you know, like the tactic that you had when it
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: was easy not so much anymore, but they're still in play.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: You just gotta figure out like now now they're like
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: there's too many freaking dudes on this river bottom. Yeah.
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: When I when we were there, it was pretty overwhelming
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: with the amount of people. And so that's an important
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: part of that that whole experience for me too. It's
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: like it was like everywhere we went, it was like
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: we're seeing these people. And then when we saw a
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: big buck finally one of the nights, and then we
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: decided to bail from that spot. That was a hard
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: That was a hard decision to make because we had
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: seen a nice funny they didn't end up being as
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: big as the one I ended up getting lucky enough
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: to get eyes on. But it was like to pull
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: away from one that you knew was like a no brainer,
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: like that's a that's a bucket I would commit some
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: days too. And that's another thing. I mean, I think
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: that's one thing that I feel like as as I've
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: got more experience, I've gotten more interested into a little bit.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: Is like if I do start to find that and
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: it and it depends certain situations are different, but it's
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: like if you start to see like a tendency where like, oh,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: I'm starting to see these bigger bucks, that's when I
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: will start holding out a little bit more. I wouldn't
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: say that I and that can be that can be
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: super like a very bad decision in some situations too,
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: because it's easy to be like, you know, this is
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: the standard that I'm going for him, and all of
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: a sudden, you've spent way too much time trying to
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: find that and that that that's hard too, But um,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: but I have had I've had had a lot of
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: fun and had learned a lot of things. Actually this
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: is completely this is a mule deer hunting. But I
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: hunted the same buck, which is the first time I've
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: ever done that. I hunted the same buck for like
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: seven days in New Mexico last year, and it was
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: like one of the most fun most memorable experience, definitely
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: one of the most memorable experiences that I've ever had
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: without shooting a deer. And that was like just because
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: it was fun to watch how and now it's invisible
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: because it's ration where you get a lot of visibility,
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: but just watching how he was hiding from other hunters
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: because he picked up on the patterns of what everybody
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: else was doing, it was it really helped for white
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: tail hunting too, because it's just like man like sometimes
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: it right under your nose. Like one of the times
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: that we lost him for a couple of days, he
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: was actually just tucked right up against the road in
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: this little valley and it's just like had had we
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: kept and that's there's another thing. It's like that's a
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: situation where you keep doing the same thing. And we
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: had lost him for like a day day and a half,
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: maybe two, maybe almost two days, we decided to go
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: in a different route, hit a different angle, and it's
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: like there is land right up in a spot where
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: nobody could see him. And it's just like, had we
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: never made that change, had we kept going to our
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: same glassing spot, we would have never found him again.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: And it's just so funny how change makes such a
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: big difference. You know. It's amazing how often when you
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: leave the road or the access from a way that
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: people usually don't what you run into mild A prime
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: example of that because is people want to glass them
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: from their truck if they if they can, you know,
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: and those deer figure that out so quickly, and so
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: instead of being seven miles in a lot of times
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: there's three yards in and just over the hill and
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: not in the night. Yeah, not a nice basin that
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: you can glass. They do it all the time. I've
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: never seen anything so consistent, like everywhere I go, this
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: is something else that I try to do, and it
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: kind of helps with that, like find the thick spot
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: and go to it, and it's like what's everybody else doing?
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: Like where are these parking areas? Where is the you
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: know where? Where how are people accessing? And how are
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: people mostly hunting and then how can I do something different? Well,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: this situation was easy. We were hiking to the top
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: of the mountain every morning and glass and from the top,
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: and every single hunter that we saw was driving and
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: glassing from the road. And it's like like you can
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: easily take one look at the map and say, well,
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: I can't see like at least fifty bare minimum of
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: this whole range being at the bottom. And it's just
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: so crazy, like how you can look at that tendency
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: and use that to your advantage, and like that can
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: be done anywhere. And I said, I definitely notice it
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: in elk hunting. Turkey hunting probably the most where you
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: can easily find a trend, like are people calling a
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: budge maybe with turkeys, maybe without the same thing? Am
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: I hearing a bunch of bugles? Or am I hearing
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: a bunch of guys pull up and you know, crack
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: on a call, roll out a box caller, crystal call.
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: It's like that's the case. Maybe I tone it back
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: a little bit, and I feel like just finding that
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: tendency doing something different is is just something I always
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: like to try to keep in the back of my
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: mind too, because it's really helped especially in situations like that.
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't kill the buff. I blew both stocks that
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: I made that I got closed, but heart breaking. But
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: that's that's what happens mostly when you spot in stock
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: meal deer. Two quick questions before we wrapped us up.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: The first one just what's what's the hardest state you've
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: ever hunted? What's the one where you're like, man, the
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: white tails in this state kick my ass. I mean,
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: I hate to say that because then people get a
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: chip on their shoulder. Um say it. Anyway. The one
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: that the one that we struggled with the most was
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: that Georgia plant that I was I don't remember says before.
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: We've been talking along enough time that I can't remember
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: if that was on here or not. But I was
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: with my friend Keith and we're hunting and Georgia and
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: we just struggled and we eventually got on them, but
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: it was just a struggle on. With that being said,
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: I think that I've had a hard time in any East,
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: Like you just run down the line of Appalachian mountains,
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: any state that's touching those, I've had. I've had big
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: timber Eastern big timber is with hills or mountains, whatever
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: you wanna call it. That is where I've I truly
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: enjoy it though like I probably like it and I'm
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: was drawn to it is anywhere just because I do
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: know it's going to kick my ass and I I
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: feel like physically I'm capable, but mentally I'm not there.
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: And that's what I like. It's like I can go
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: run around on the mountains and have a blast, get
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: hell of a workout every time, but then also just
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: like challenging myself and when I get done with those
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: hunts that the mental part of it is like tough.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: Your brain is like fried. So I'd say anywhere eastern
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: in the Appalachian Mountains or anything that's foothill touching it.
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's all that's all tough stuff, which I
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: love it. What last question, what's the dumbest thing you've
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: seen a big buck do that wasn't an Iowa buck?
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: Which one where you just killed one and you're like,
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe he just did that. Okay, there's there's
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: definitely gonna be something good here. Um, shoot, what is
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: the dumbest thing? I think? To look at your wall
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: of inspiration? Just different, just different, But one I mean,
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: there's been there's been some. The bumping ones are always
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: interesting to me, but I understand why they do it.
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: Um the one Okay, here's one. And I don't not
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: to like make this buck out to be a fool,
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: because I don't think he was. But in in New York,
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: this buck had a dope pinned to the road or
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, pinned to a fence line, and the road
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: was really close. We saw him from the road. He's
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: with this dough, big punk too, like by far the
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: biggest thing we had seen in the whole area, like
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: for days, this base six. I think up to this
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: point we had seen, you know, just a basket rack buck.
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: So we see this thing with a dough and he's
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: defending another buck and his position based off where he
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: was in relation to that paved road. It's like it
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: made sense, but only when they were betted, because as
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: soon as he stand up, he was in the wide open.
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: So he made he made that decision, which wasn't really
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: the end of the world, because, like I said, once
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: they betted down, you couldn't see him. But we started
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: I lost track of them because they betted down, climbed
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: a tree, got eyes on him again when he stood
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: up and actually bred the dough, and then I got
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: down and started to make a stock on him, and
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: when he when he okay, So this is this is
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: where it gets kind of interesting and where he made
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: some bad decisions and I made some good decision that
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: just worked out. I was watching Dylan who was filming,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: and he was up in that tree that I had
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: spotted him from. So he's off to my left, the
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: bucks kind of straight in front of me, and I'm
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: going down the timber or it wasn't at timber edge.
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: It was like a fence row edge. On the other
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: side of it was the private The public land line
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: was this fence row. So I'm kind of walking right down,
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: you know, my side of the fence on the public
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: The wind is coming from that fence line to my left,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: and the sun is setting over that fence row as well,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: so shadows. And he stands up with that dough. I
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: realized this my opportunity to start cutting distance fast because
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: I can see his antlers, and as I make in
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: my moods, he's all of a sudden, I didn't realize
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: what it was at the time, but he starts running
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: towards me like just bounding like afraid, like something spook him. Well,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: a vehicle had driven past alerted him, and he takes
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: off running towards me. Well, as he's doing that, I
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: had enough time, and I had a spot picked out
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: in the shadows that I just went right for that.
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: Tucked down in there, got low crouch and covered my
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: eyes and my face with my bow cam. And this
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: is where he made a pretty where he let the
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: dog get the best of them. He started thinking he
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: knew that there was something wrong there, but he didn't
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: know what it was, and because he never saw me move,
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: he just started to eventually let it go, and he
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: eventually started looking back at that dough. He started to
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: circle down wind of either me or the dough, I'm
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: not sure, because either way, he was putting the wind
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: in his butt and he was starting to make a
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: move out into that tall grass and he and he
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: eventually just kept looking towards that dough, and I let
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: him do it enough to where he started to really
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: trust me. And then I drew somewhere in between. And
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: when he looked the last time, I literally stood up
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: and I could have been standing in the you know,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: wide open on the fairway. It's like he could have
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: saw me so easily, and I just stood up and
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: shot him at twenty yards and he just looked was
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: looking the other way, and like that. That was the
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: dumbest That was the dumbest thing. But like any time
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: you get a big buck with the bed bedded with
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: the dough, it doesn't matter if he's an io or
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: if he's in the hardest you know, pressured area in
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: the country. Like he's gonna get foolish, he's gonna let
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: his guard down into me. It's not as much about
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: the buck making that mistake, it's about you taking an
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: advantage of his foolishness. And if you can do that,
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: that's that's when the best time of the year. I
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: mean no, if you can bow hunt and you can
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: get eyes on a buck with the dough, that's the
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: best time to hunt in the world. I'd take that
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: day any day of the week. Recognize when they they're
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: just they're not on their a game, all right, Zach.
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: I always love chatting with you, buddy. You know th
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: HP fame. Everybody knows where to find you. Thank you
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: so much for coming on, man, It's always a pleasure. Yeah,
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you having me on. I've had a blast talking.
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: That's it for this week, folks, be sure to tune
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: in next week for some more white tail goodness. This
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: has been Wire to Hunt and I'm your guest host,
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. As I always, thank you so much for listening,
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: and if you're looking for more white tail content, please
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: check out the meteor dot com slash wired to see
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: a pile of new articles each week from Mark myself
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: and a whole slew of white tail addicts, or head
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: on over to the wire to Hunt YouTube channel to
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: view the weekly content we put up