Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1043: Shawn Luchtel on Failure, Food Plots, and Big Buck Myths

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Ep. 1043: Shawn Luchtel on Failure, Food Plots, and Big Buck Myths · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods presented by first Light, creating proven
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host Mark Kenyon.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: What is going on? Welcome to Wired to Hunt. This
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: is Jake Hoefer and building off of the theme for
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: the month of June talking about failures and shortcomings and
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: mistakes that all hunters likely make somewhere along their journey.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: How do I address them now and fix them or
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: identify them for this upcoming season. I have Sean lucktele
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: with Heartland bow Hunter and we flip through the calendar
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: starting in June of some key things that he's been
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: able to avoid or do for each month throughout the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: rest of the year to have the best season yet.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: And we talk about some different trends that are sometimes works,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: sometimes don't for different folks. So I hope you guys
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: really enjoyed this episode with Sean. He's very active in
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: habitat work and just a diehard dear hunter that is
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: trying to get better, just like everyone listening to this episode.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: So hope you guys enjoy it. As you know, Wired
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Hunt is brought to you by Moultrie. Let's go ahead
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: and jump right into this conversation with Sean. Sean, Welcome
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: to Wired to Hunt. How's it going.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: It's going good, going good. Just just enjoying being inside
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: today for the first time. We kind of just had
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: some hot weather. It's I mean it's not terrible, but
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: a little bit higher heat indecks. I think right around
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: ninety degrees. It's the first really warm day. And the
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: older I get, the more I dislike the extreme heat.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: So you know that' allow me a chance to stay
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: in the office and get some things done.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's that's all part of it. So I mean,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: really what we're what we're hoping to dive into. You know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: hearing people's success can be helpful, but also hearing different
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: patterns and things that maybe impact your season. And so
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: basically you know, failure shortcomings, things that you've since identified
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and have maybe fixed, or some things that you are
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: still working in the process. I mean, hunting white tails
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: is always maybe one of the most humbling endeavors that
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: you can possibly go down. Before we dive into that,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: give me just a little bit about you, your style
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: of hunting and that way, hopefully people can relate to Oh, yeah,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: you know Sean and I hunt somewhat in a somewhar way.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Sure. So, yeah, my name's Sean Lucktel. I'm sure that's
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: already been put on here, but I am. I'm from
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Missouri and born and raised here. In fact, I live
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: like probably two hundred yards from where I grew up,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: So like my parents' house is next door where my
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: brother currently lives now. He bought the house from them
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: and they live across the road. So I'm living on
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: the pre that I grew up hunting. And yeah, pretty
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: much strictly only bow hunt. I hunt mainly private ground.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: I do hunt some public, but mostly I'd say ninety
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: ninety five percent of my hunting is done on private land.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I do the food plots, I do the habitat management,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: whether it be TSI prescribed fire, the whole all that.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I've just dove straight into that over the last gosh
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: five to ten years and absolutely love it. In fact,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: I would say that I love it probably more now
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: than I do hunting itself, just because of the endless,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: endless abilities to just change things and then the ground
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: that we hunt and just better improve it and it's
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: also a good good way I feel like to give back.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: You know, as hunters, we obviously are taking because we
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: are killing an animal and eating it. But it's fun
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: to go back out there and improve things and give
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: back the animals and you know, hopefully create a better
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: ecosystem for them. But yeah, just love bow hunting. And
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: I primarily hunt out of a tree stand. If there
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: is not an option for a tree stand or a saddle,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: I am typically in a blind, but I would prefer
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: much more to be in a tree or on the
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: ground in like a natural blind. But yeah, every once
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: in a while, I've got to hunt out of a blind.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: So yeah, fair enough that it's all part of the tools,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: because I I don't know anyone that really truly loves
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: hunting out of a blind. Maybe maybe if it's late
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: season and it's freezing cold, other than that, I don't
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: think anyway that's true.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Or it's pouring down rain and like, yeah, I mean
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: I'm probably not gonna sit in a tree and just
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: get dumped on. Yeah.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: So you You've done a lot of content of showing
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: almost before and afters or throughout different habitat projects, and
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I think this conversation will maybe lead into some of that.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: But you had recently done one with you know, taking
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: out a bunch of cedars and doing fire, and I
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: thought it was really cool. You have the charred ground
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: and you have a you know, deer bedded in the
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Is that the farm? Is that the one you grew
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: up on or is that a different piece?
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: That's a different piece. So I live in central Missouri.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: That's my parents' property in northern Missouri that they bought
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: probably thirteen years ago, i'd say, and just been working
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: on that ever since, and obviously learning along the way
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: a lot of different things. And there's essentially like in
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: the last three years, I've started working on a eleven
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: acre monoculture of seedars. So it's primarily all seedars, you know,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: I would say ninety percent of it as seedars. And
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: I've been just working away on cutting those back with
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: a chainsaw, dropping about at least seventy to eighty percent
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: of them, and I let them sit for about forty
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: five to sixty days to dry out, and then I
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: mean vitam on fire. I have a good fire line
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: around the perimeter and then light them on fire. It
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: consumes the majority of the sedar because they've it's allowed
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: them to dry out, they're still filled with quite a
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: bit of sap, so that ignites and consumes a lot
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: of the theater. What's left is essentially just a stem
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: of the cedar, so the trunk a charred trunk and
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: barren ground. It stimulates the ground obviously for native seeds
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: to come back, native plants to come back. You may
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: have some invasives, but right now, what you saw in
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: that video that you're referring to was pretty well barren
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: ground with stems laying on the ground, and then ashes
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: and deer and turkeys were coming in there. Some of
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: the deer were laying down. I just set up a
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: trail camera in there right after I had burned, and
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: within a week there were deer in there laying down,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: just hanging out. And I don't know, I don't have
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: the full answer on exactly why, but my speculation is
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: just because they're away from the ticks so parasites. And
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: then this was mid spring, so on those warmer days,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: I figure maybe they want to sit out in the
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: sun and it's just like a nice place to sit
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: where they have visibility and everything else. So that's my
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: only reason for them or hypothesis for them laying out
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: there like that.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: But it was really cool to see and unique. It
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: was super unique. It was it was actually really cool.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed watching that you had mentioned. You know, obviously
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: we picture, oh my gosh, we're improving the habitat, we're
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: opening up the the sunlight to let whatever is in
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the ground come up. And you mentioned fighting invasives on
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: that specific particular site. What are some invasives that pop up?
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: And then how do you do the post management work?
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Like everyone loves should say everyone, but a lot of
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: people enjoyed the fun work. So doing fire, running the chainsaw,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: but then treating invasives and maintaining that is tedious and
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: boring because it's not as instantly gratifying as the visual
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: impact that you do with some of the other steps
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: in the process.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: It really is. Yeah, I don't enjoy that part. I don't.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I don't enjoy treating invasives specifically because I mean, really,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: you have you have to use herbicide, and I don't.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: I don't know anybody that enjoys being around that. I
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: definitely don't. But specifically on that farm, in those areas,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: the invasive that I'm seeing predominantly come in right away already,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: even on that one walking through it, good vegetation in
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: there that's six to twelve inches tall already, and I'm
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: seeing cerci alesperdiza and that one is I would say
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: the most fast acting and what will well, obviously we're
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: seeing it right away, but I see it all over
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the farm. And the best way that I've found or
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: am finding out to treat that is through a herbicide
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: called MSM sixty. And it's a herbicide that basically will
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: kill a lot of broad leafs, and you run the
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: risk of killing native broad leaves with it. But my
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: plan of attack will be to go in in late
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: August early September when Crici Lespviza has bloomed out and
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: a lot of the native plants that are there beginning
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: to go dormant, and it will hopefully not affect them.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: And I didn't come up with this on my own.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: This is from my friend Matt Die with Landing Legacy.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: He was actually recommending that because I was like, man,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: I don't want to kill a bunch of these native
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: broad leaves that are in there, and he's like, well,
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: why don't you just delay the process and go in
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: and treat the cerisia then, And so that that's my
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: game plan in that generalized area and the rest of
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: the farm as well. And another cool thing with that
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: is I called up a guy. I found him locally.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: He's going to come in with a drone and spots
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: treat these areas where it's mainly localized. So if there
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: are you know, stems here here and there in areas,
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: I'm probably not going to mess with those, but mostly
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: focus on the areas where there's quite a bit and
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: treat it with a drone. So I feel like that'll
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: be the best application, most effective for many reasons. Because
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: of God, a lot of the country is extremely hilly.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: You have a lot of vegetation that's grown up really tall,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: so if you were to use a tractor or a
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: side by side, might be harder to get in there
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: to those areas, or even you run the risk of
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: rolling over. So a drone would be great for that.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: And I don't have to really come in contact with
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: that herbicide for the most parts.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: So I think we're in the very beginning stages of
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: drones potentially improving the landscape at a rate that has
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: not happened in the past where you mentioned, you know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: like hilly ground where it's hard to do a lot
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: of this, and you know, there's only a small amount
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: of people that are glutton for punishment enough to do
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: all of that by hand or you know, with a
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: lot of tools. But I'm really excited about the future
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: of utilizing drones to spray herbicide it, which I know
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: sounds really crazy when you say it out loud, but
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: way more effective than the alternative.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, and I'm pretty new to it, Like
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I haven't actually been there to witness something like that.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: But the guy that I called, obviously is running a
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: business locally I've never met or anything like that. But
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: in the phone call that we had, I learned that
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: I believe he has to be ten within ten feet
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: of what he's spraying, so he's he's very low. And
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: then how he was saying, well, I asked him about price,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I am totally naive to this, totally ignorant.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: I have no idea what's going to cost. So can
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: you give me a rough quote just so I an
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: idea so I know what to expect. And basically he
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: said in the grand scheme, and I understand people are
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: charging different across the country. He was saying that he
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: roughly charges eighteen dollars per acre. I supply the herbicide
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: he charges eighteen dollars per acre was actually far, yeah,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: far too reasonable than I actually thought it was going
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: to be. So for anyone wondering on that, like, that
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: was a huge surprise to me.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, no, that's exciting, so jumping in it. It's
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: June right now, and you know, white Tail's kind of
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: seemed like somewhat at the stands stif meaning like they're
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: growing their antlers right now, and you're kind of putting
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: together a loose plan. You probably have a punch list.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: But what did you believe, maybe like ten years ago,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: that you no longer believe when it comes to summer scouting.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: And this could be a dear behavior change that you
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: come to realize is not true, or maybe a project
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: that you've always done in the past and you're like, dude,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: I don't really think that really helps anything. So what
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: has changed in the last ten years in the month
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: of June when it comes to setting the stage for fall.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question, and kind of I kind
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: of have a I guess a mixed answer there. So,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: first off, I used to get a ton of pictures
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: in the summer of the bucks that we could that
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: we were going planning on hunting. So I had a
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: great inventory list built up in the summertime starting now
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: all the way through summery. Obviously that will grow and
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I get super pumped up, and then obviously they'd move
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: off and get off their summer pattern and maybe move
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: on to somewhere else, or you know, I just have
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: them sporadically from there on out. Well, it seems like
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: in the last ten years that's actually gone the opposite direction.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: The summertime, I really don't get that many photos, and
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: I'm referring to the specific property in northern Missouri. I
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: don't get very many photos in the summer of the
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: bucks that I'm gonna be hunting. I can only assume
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: because they've spread out around neighboring properties, vegetation is everywhere,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: they have lots of options for food and then in cover,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: and then as fall approaches, those things start to dwindle.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: And thankfully we have the majority of the cover in
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: the area and food, and so they just tend to
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: all kind of congregate there as we get later into
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: the year. But Son, I don't worry too much from
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: that aspect of what my summer inventory looks like or
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: or hit list of bucks, I guess you would say.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: But the other portion to that is the last five
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: to six years, gosh, I have I've put far less
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: focus on fall plots. I used to put a ton
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: of focus on that. Almost all of our eggs in
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: one basket in that realm, and now with fall food plots,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, we've gone into a drought trend in the
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: last five or six years every year, and so I
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: just don't worry about him as much. And my focus
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: in the spring and even now is maintaining clover plots
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: and alfalfa because it can be such a game changer
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: to have that greenery going into fall with how gosh,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: how well it can withstand a drought like it's very
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: drought tolerant clover, particularly and alfalfa, And if you can
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: have a good clover stand it's most likely going to
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: make it through those drought months and then very reliable
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: in the month of October. So yeah, focusing on that
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: stuff earlier on in the year is really my Yeah,
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: that's that's my goal.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: A lot of times do we're due for a good
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: fall weather pattern for fall food plots because the last
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: few years have been horrendous. It really has been. And
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: when you sit back and think about it, it's almost
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: a ridiculous assumption that was, like, Okay, what's the hottest
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: period of year where the least amount of rain are
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: We're gonna plan all these seeds and we're gonna hit
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: the timing perfect and they're not gonna get scorched when
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: it's still one hundred degrees late August or early September.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: We really do set ourselves up for failure. And you know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: for someone that says, well that you know, that sounds
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: great and everything, but you know, clover once a frost,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: ra alfalfa once a frost, you know, is it's not
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: as desirable. And you know, northern Missouri, I don't know
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: when your typical first frost is. I'm guessing third or
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: fourth week of October roughly.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I I don't I don't want
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: to like say that. I what I'm saying is like
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: gospel and like not you know, are like the only way.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: But in my opinion, I don't see a hard frost
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: really changing too much, even when even when that clover
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: shrinks up and UH is going into dormancy or even
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: dormant for that matter, I've seen that the deer still
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: hit them, hit it very hard on warm days and
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: including even when we've got like six ten inches of
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: snow on the ground. Like I have videos when I've
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: walked out into those food plots and you can see
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: where they've they've dug it up and they're eating the
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: stems and the roots that are left there. So you
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: don't obviously don't have the tonnage. I'm not saying that
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: it's dwindled down to hardly anything on the ground, but
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: they're still they're still going to it, and at least
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: in my experiences, yes, it's wild.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: So just so this makes sense to folks here too.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: So let's say you had how many food plots, how
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: many acres of food plots would you have on this
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: particular farm where you'd go all in and on fall
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: food plots?
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: Gosh, which that's even gone down as well, because I
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: finally learned, like, why am I creating so many options
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: for them? So initially when we first started planning them
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: on there. It was like if there was open acreage
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: that wasn't either in ag or something like that we
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: were gonna plant. It was flat and it was open,
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: we were planning it. And so I would say there
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: was every bit of gosh, twelve to fifteen acres Ofbraska's
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: or fall food pots, and now gosh, I would say
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: that's probably down to about six to seven. So cut
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: in half and just trying to kind of localize those
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: hunting spots rather than giving them multiple options all over
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: the place.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: These are these are great things that we all have
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: to learn. So that's this is a good illustration.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I came with trial and error. I'm like, wow,
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: we're in a great spot, and it's like, oh, you
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: check your trail camera. Obviously at that time, cell cameras
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: or anything like that wasn't around. You go back and
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: check later on you're like, oh, he was right over there,
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: like you know, a quarter mile away, or you know,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: three hundred yards away on the other food plot. Like
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: I gave him that option and he took it. Yeah.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Have you have you noticed some changing that strategy? Have
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: you noticed being much more effective with the having them,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: you know, with less places where they're likely going to
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: be feeding.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it sure seems that way. I mean
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: I try to my I would say, my goal there
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: is to create these plant these food plots with the
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: intention of them being staging plots so close to a
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: destination food source, which would be an agfield, whereas like
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: these other ones that I no longer plant. For one,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: the soil wasn't wasn't good, and I wasn't you know,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: I didn't I didn't do anything with the soil test.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: I didn't go in there and actually fertilize. So I
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: would take a soil sample and be like, oh gosh,
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: the you know, the pH is way off. It needs
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: lime or something like that, and I would neglect taking
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: care of it. And so that was one factor. And
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: then the second factor was just the main factor was
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: the location. I was like, it's in the middle of
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: the farm, Like that's great from a food standpoint, but
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: I got to go through everything to get to it,
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: and it's all it's doing is holding them up longer
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: from getting to destination food. So I was like, I'm
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: abandoning that, letting it fallow, and just going to whatever
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: comes up.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: So okay, you answered my question my follow up questions.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: So the acres that are no longer in food, you
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: just kind of let it go back up and then
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: you monitor for invasives basically.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Is that Yeah, Yeah, And it's like after you know,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: four or five years, there's a handful of natives that
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: have come up in there, but also there's ceresia less
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: bit easy that's come in there as well. But yeah,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: just treat it.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: And so you're you're six to seven acres that you
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: have in food on that farm. Now, how many isn't
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: how many acres are in Clover or alf alpha of
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: the of that.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: Right now, all of it, but there I would say, gosh,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: two to three of them just aren't looking that great.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Like in fact one in particular that I'm thinking of,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: I've had it in Clover for five years now, and
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: I'm just like trying my best to maintain it. I'm
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: spraying off grass and nuts edge that's kind of taken
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: over the food plot. And I was in there just
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: last week and I was like, oh, man, Clover's like
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: fifty percent in here, like it's it's getting overrun, like
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: it's it's kind of lived its lifespan. So I say
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: this fall. I'm going to attempt to have a good
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: fall plot of Braska's in there. And I can think
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: back to about twenty nineteen in that plot we had
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: a phenomenal one, but that was also you know, a
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: time a year with timely rains and just the right conditions.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: So we're doing that's happen again.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: We're we're doue for sure. So okay, that's that's pretty helpful.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: And for for anyone that's like, man, well what about
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: you know grains? Right? Everyone is Actually, I'm going to
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: say just about everyone would love to hunt over you know,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: a staining corn plot or a staining bean plot. And
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: then if you've converted all those acres into basically clover
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: or alf alpha, do you do you miss that or
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: do you have the opportunity to still hunt you know
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: a destination food source like a big agg field or
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: something like that.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So that that farm in particular, what I've done
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: is I've arranged with the farmer there to leave some
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: standing grain because we tried, my dad and I we
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: tried to plant grain there the first few years in
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: those smaller food plots. We even we even fenced them off.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: But I don't live on that farm, so I'm there
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: every other week. You know. We we'd plant it, or
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: we'd monitor it, whatever it may be, and we were like, oh,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: this looks great, everything's perfect. We come back, you know,
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: a week or two later, and a deer is blasted
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: to the fence. The rest of them got in there,
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: they ate down the crop, or maybe you know, it
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: took two to three weeks before we were there again,
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: and we got in there really bad. We weren't there
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: to maintain it or spray it out, and it just
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: became too much to handle without living right there. And
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: so on that farm, we just have an agreement with
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: the farmer to leave a handful of acres in the
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: standing in the in the grain fields, and it's been
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: a great trade off. He can grow crop better than
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: I can, and he's obviously there to maintain it all
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: the time. Whereas here at my house, I have quite
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: a few acres that I plant in standing grain and
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: have much better luck with because I'm here every day
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: to maintain that.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, is there anything else in the month of June
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: that you would tell folks to avoid or to ensure
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: they do based off your experience.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Make sure you're shooting your bow. I know that everyone's
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: heard that a million times. That's not that's not new news.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: But I'm I'm probably talking to myself there with that,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: like I getting lately, Yeah, no, I haven't. I have
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: not in the month of June. I can promise you that,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: And I usually start to I mean, I'll pick it
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: up very heavily in July, but just just getting a
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: few reps in here and there in June. I'm really yeah,
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: I'm just speaking to myself when I say that, I'm
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: I neglected a lot. It's a busy month for all
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: of us, especially with family activities and all that, because
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: a lot of people are vacationing. But man, yeah, I
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: gotta get out there and shoot a few times.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: All Right, we're flipping the We're flipping the calendar to July.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: How similar is June in July in your mind when
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: it comes to white tail prep.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: I'd say it starts to change a little bit, because, well,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: for one, if I'm doing any fall plots, I have
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: to stay on top of that in the month of July,
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: because there's been plenty of times where I've neglected it.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna get to it. I'm
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: gonna get to it, and then August hits and I'm like, wow,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: I haven't even started, and I need to First I
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: need to mow this plot off. It's you know, three
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: foot of grass or weeds whatever, and I need to
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: mow it off. Then I'll have to go in and
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: spray and then work the dirt. Whereas I personally would
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: like to have my fall plots in by August first
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: now to hopefully, you know, get maybe a late July
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: early August rain, because it seems to just really dry
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: up that second third week of August. So I'm I'm
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: hoping to have that stuff ready to go by the
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: end of July and in the ground. So that would
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: be my main focus at the beginning of July, is
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: kicking off or kicking off, is getting started on those
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: those fault plots. And then my I was saying earlier,
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: like my, I guess my chill cameras and whatnot in
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: July they used to be a huge focus. They're probably
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: less of a focus now because I'm just not I'm
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: not that concerned about what's going on in the last
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: of July.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Cool photo, But did that take some time where in
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: years past it's like July and everyone's like, oh, dude,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: check this steer out, check this steer out. And you're like, man,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: I got nothing, I got nothing. I wish I could
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: show you a deer I'm excited about, but I don't.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: And that's this is a trend that a lot of people,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, a trend that a lot of people
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: just feel like, man, I'm really nervous about this upcoming year.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: And then it's like a lot of farms, they seem like,
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: you know, depending on what time of year and what
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: food and what happitat you have, they get better while
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: everyone else that was super excited that gets worse. And
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: so it's like which end of the spectrum do you
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: want to be on?
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: Now? I'm glad I'm on the end of the spectrum
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: that I am on. I used to kind of freak
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: out a little bit. I'm like, what's going on? What
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: are they? Why is this happening? This is crazy? Like
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I want them to be here. But I have like
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: a small farm not far from my house that I
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: hunt and I get a lot of great pictures in
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: the summertime, and the majority of those bucks leave And
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: that was kind of the game changer for me to
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: actually or the testament for me to learn that. I'm like, well, yeah,
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: that's great to have them in the summer, but I'm
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: not hunting them then, so if they're going to leave, like, wow, awesome,
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: I got some good photos and I know what those
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: deer run around the neighborhood, But as far as them
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: like living right there, that's no longer. So yeah, I'm glad.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: I'm on the end of the spectrum that I am. Like,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: as Fhall progresses, the trail camera photos continue to increase
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: and new bucks continue to show up, and I would
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: much rather have it that way than the opposite.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: On maybe one of the deer, one of the bucks
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: you've shot in the last handful of years, did most
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: of them? Did you have pictures of them in July?
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Or did you not have pictures of them.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: At No, I didn't. In fact, one that comes to mind, gosh,
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: it was probably three or four years ago. It was
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: three or four years ago, uh Buck that we called Caesar.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: I typically had pictures of him in the summertime, and
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: then by the opening my opening day, which is September
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: fifteenth here in Missouri, I would for sure always have
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: a handful of pictures of him, and I I was like, oh, yeah,
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: he'll he'll show up. He'll show up the year that
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I'm hunting him hard, and uh, I didn't. I didn't
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: have him at all. And then oh gosh, it was
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: late September early October, and I was like, Okay, he's dead,
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Like he's not here, Like I don't know what happened.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: I had his sheds, like maybe it got hit by
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: a car, maybe he died from HD. I don't know
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: what happened, Like he's gone. And then I don't I'm
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: probably off on the date, but maybe it was like
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: October sixth or something like that. I got one picture
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: of him and I was like, wow, that's incredible. So yeah,
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: like back back to the question, like it was it
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: was wild to see that, Like I didn't have him,
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: and in the summertime and then as fall came in
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: he finally showed up. And then I think I killed
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: him about a week after that. So yeah, it's it's
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: been that with him and then the buck that I
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: killed the following year. I think it was I had
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: both of each. Each of those bucks I had all
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: the way through wintertime and they shed and and then
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: going into the summer and early season, I had zero
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: pictures and then they showed up and and I shot him,
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: So it was it was pretty cool, and it's Yeah,
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: I guess it's easy for me to say that I
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: enjoy that because it is what it is and that's
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: what I've experienced. But I don't know. I might have
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: a different answer if I were like, yeah, I had
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: him all summer and opening day, I killed each one
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: of them like this yest. But given the experiences that
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: I had right now, I think it's it's pretty awesome
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: the way that it's all played out.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, with with July, can you think of a deer
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: or two that's like he lived here in July and
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: I had him, you know, every couple of days in July, August, September,
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: and maybe one you didn't shoot too, because I know
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: you guys opened earlier than a lot of states. But
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: and then even through October, it's like this deer one
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: hundred percent lived here. Like, how many of those bucks
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: a year that are mature do you feel fall in
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: that category?
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: Very very very very few, like very few maybe maybe
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: once a year maybe if at most. Yeah, that's that's
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: so seldom it seems like and I'm talking like our
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: northern Missouri property is pretty big, and then even like
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: the property they live on it is small. And then
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I had another small piece not far from here, like
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: it's seldom, very seldom that I have a deer that
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: and it's like that like maybe once every other year.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: I guess I would say.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Dang, yeah, that's not the answer people want to hear.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Sean probably No, it just seems like a rarity, at
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: least for me. People others may have different experiences. But
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: I kind of like it that way. The reason being,
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: I feel like it just kind of always keeps you
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: on your toes and guessing and hoping, you know, something
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: new is going to show up. And for instance, like
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: right here where I live, I live on sixty acres,
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: and gosh, like this past fall, there was a buck
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: that showed up at the like right after Thanksgiving, and
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: I only had a handful of pictures of him, probably
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: like a well, yeah, I figure him to be like
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: upper one fifties, like right at one sixty type buck
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: and didn't have a ton of pictures. Like I was saying,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: you almost daylighted here maybe once or twice. But I
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: have no history with him years prior. I would love
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: to shoot him. And I've my son and I picked
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: up one of his sheds and that's like, that's the
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: biggest shed that I've ever found here on this piece.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: And I've lived here pretty much my whole life, So
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: stuff like that that's fun. I mean, I love the
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: years of history. I love that.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: But like you know, new surprises are always a black Yeah,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: well we'll flip into August now, and this is more
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: of a statement and I want to get your idea
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: regarding that. But something I've observed as as hunters mature,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: their ability to embrace uncertainty I feel as a benchmark
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: of growing as a deer hunter. And I feel like
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: uncertainty is peak in August to some degree as far
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: as preseason goes. Have you, you know, as you've matured
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: and grown and everything else, like is just think back
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, like your ability to
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: embrace uncertainty as it increased decreased, or say the same.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: I would say my ability to embrace uncertainty has has grown,
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: but probably more recently than than a while back. Like gosh,
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: in the last fifteen to twenty years, I feel like, well,
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: most of us were growing trying to do better each year,
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: and you know in our in our society as well,
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: it's like, oh, more and more and more, I want this, this, this, this, this,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: I want to do more and this and that, and gosh,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: like you have a lot of times, I think, especially
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: as hunters, we have false expectations of what's going to
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: happen or what we expect to happen in the fall.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: And this may not even have to do with August,
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: may have to do with the entire season as a whole.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: And you think, oh you, I mean, we all an
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: automatically think opportunistically, I think, and we're like, this is
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: going to be my best fall yet.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Well, gosh, I was just on the phone today saying
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: I was saying, like, I'm so excited about this upcoming year,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah. I was like, but
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: I had the self awareness, like, talk to me again
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: in January and there's a very good chance I'll say, yeah,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: it wasn't that great.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Like last fall was the worst fall that I've
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: ever had as far as what I was able to tag,
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: but as far as the time that I got to
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: spend out in the woods. I spent so much time
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: out there, it was amazing. I had to spend time,
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: a ton of time with my dad, a ton of
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: time with my friend Chandler, sometime with my son out there.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: He's young, and gosh, I got to experience so many
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: cool things, take a lot of photography, which I thoroughly enjoy.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: And I wasn't killing a bunch of deer, and you know,
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: like there were I'd be lying if I was, like, man,
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: that was that was that was great. You know that
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: I didn't kill a dear That was the most amazing thing.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: And it didn't It didn't bother me at all. Absolutely
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: it bothered me, you know, like I was sitting there
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: thinking like, man, is this ever gonna happen? It's ever
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: gonna happen? Am I going to get a buck? I
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: didn't kill a white tail last year? And I sat
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: there and thought about it. I'm like, man, you've been
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: doing this for twenty some years at the level you've
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: been doing it, and that's that's pretty prideful of you
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: to be like worried about not killing a deer though, well,
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: particularly like there are so many hunters out there that
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: go seasons without that happening, and and and that's happened
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: to me numerous times in my younger years, Like you
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: you built yourself up to be something that you're really not.
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: And so to answer your question, there was a lot
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: of uncertainty, uncertainty along the way with that. But in
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: the end, I'm like, man, that was a huge, huge gosh.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: I guess the word would be like, uh, I'm trying
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: to think what.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Like like like yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: Like I was at the end of the of the season,
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: it was I was filled with humility, like, man, you
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: were you are something that or you thought you were
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: something that you're not.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: So just uh, just realized did you make any daunting
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: mistakes last year? To why that.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Didn't I had? I did have one mistake for sure
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: with with a buck and it's easy to obviously, but yeah,
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: I hit a buck high. And this isn't an e
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: because at the end of the day, I shouldn't have
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: taken the shot. He had his head down, quartering away
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: at like I think thirty two yards in the moment,
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: like all of us would be as a hunter, as
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: a bow hunter, and I'm thinking, oh, I'm licking my
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: chops like I'm gonna, I've got him, and he ducked
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: the string, you know, and I can I can say
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: honestly say that because I can go back and watch video.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: But in the grand scheme I should have just not
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: taken the shot at that moment. I should have waited
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: till his head was up, because I'm sure most people
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: have heard, you know, they can react and they have
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: the momentum when their heads down, but the perpendulum, yeah, regardless,
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: like it's it's on me. I shouldn't have taken the shot,
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: and so I hit him eye in the shoulder. He survived,
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: I had him even after a season, so he made
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: it and everything. But yeah, that was quite the reality check,
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: and you know, it sucked. And that's how you learn
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: from instances like that. And even today after you know whatever,
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: it is thirty years of bowl hunt, not quite thirty years,
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: twenty some years of bow hunting, like, still make mistakes
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: and if I didn't, man, Yeah, what fun would it be?
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: That's how we grow, That's how we learn.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's two questions. So what was the date
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: when that When when that happened? And then you mentioned
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: his head was downe was he eating something? And if
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: so what was he eating?
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: October twenty third, And yes, he was eating clover.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: That was the case. I was hoping that was.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I killed the buck the year before in the
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: same stand basically that I think it was maybe a
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: day before that. So like pretty much identical setup. The
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: deer coming out of this big block of timber, and
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: they feed through the clover and they go out into
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: the bagfield to it behind me. Well, all of the
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: deer are have a generalized movement like that. He I
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: you know, I assumed he was bedded back there. Well,
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: he came from my left where there's a pond in
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: the timber about sixty yards away that I can't really
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: see because there's some trees growing up there, and he
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: popped out right there. I mean he was at thirty
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: yards basically when I first saw him. He didn't go
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: to the actfield. He came to the clover right in
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: front of me and walked right past me. And so
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: I'm like grabbing my bow, like it happened very fast,
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: and he just walked right out thirty two yards and
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: quartered away, put his head down, just munching on clover,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: and you know, like all of us, you're like, oh,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: my gosh, this.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Couldn't mean it's gonna happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, and
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: you have the added element of trying to film it
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: all and get awesome footage and everything else too, which
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: is it's for sure an added stress. You've been doing
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: it for so long. I'm sure it's kind of a
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: second second ature, but still an added element that most
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: of them don't have.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: Element. But at the end of the day, it came
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: down to me and just making the shot. Like everything
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: everything else was lined up perfect. It was you know,
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: none of that really should have had any effect on me,
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: but I'm human, and you know, it happened, and I'm
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: glad he made it. Uh, it was. It was a bummer.
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: I knew once once I hit him, like, well, first off,
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: it was weird. I knew it hit him high. But
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: what we heard we thought were his lungs, like you know,
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: if you double lung a deer, like you hear all that.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: It sounded just like that, and I'm like, wow, well
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: maybe I double along them. So there was kind of
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: a peak of excitement and then way back the footage
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh no, that's that's not what happened. Then,
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: you know, I found like virtually no blood, and within
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: a few days I got photos of him again, so
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: that was a good sign. But still just a just
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: gut wrenching when that happens, like horrible feeling.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna put some salt in the wound.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Hopefully that's okay, I feel. I don't know if it
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: was you or I, if it was you or someone
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: on Heartland be hunter or someone completely different, and I
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: could be wrong. Did you were going from a heavy
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: arrow to a lighter arrow? Is that right? And so.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: I went I went to a heavy arrow. Okay, gosh,
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: that was probably in like twenty nineteen. I don't remember
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: what I was, what weight I was shooting before, but
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: i'd moved to about oh, gosh, five hundred and five grains,
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: and yeah, like if they're I would say, if they're
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: within twenty five yards, like there's pretty well zero chance
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: they're gonna they're gonna duck my arrow. But my arrow
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: is obviously slower now and that definitely could have I'm
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: sure had had something to do with it, too. But
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: I've talked about going lighter now, you know. I I
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: did switch my setup for turkey hunting to a to
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: a to a lighter setup given the fact that I'm
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: shooting like a decap head. But yeah, I will probably
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: switch to a lighter setup for fall as well.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's an evolution. I'm not calling the failure,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: but I think there's the evolution of messing with arrows
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: and like, oh, but you know, like it's just it's
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: it almost seems like a cultural pendulum that goes back
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: and forth, where like gotta go light, gotta go heavy,
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: and then it's like everyone is constantly switching and obviously
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: nothing's perfect, but.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: Something something I completely agree because I fell into the whole.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Gotta have a heavier arrow, shoulder doesn't matter.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why I brought it up, because yeah, yeah,
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: like I enjoy a heavier setup, especially when you know
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: you make a great shot. But well, I mean, either way,
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: if you make a great shot, whether you pass through
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: or not, I know that argument's still out there to
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: this day. Accuracy over everything. You're still going to kill
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: a deer. So I fell into the whole, like god,
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: to have a pastor gotta have a pass through. Yes,
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: they're nice, and I would obviously love to have that
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: every time, but I would also love to have a
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: perfect shot more than anything.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: So yeah, So another thing in August, I feel like
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of people end up hanging their stands, readjusting stands,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: checking in on stands in the month of August. What's
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: uh something that you've maybe keep doing stop doing that
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: would be helpful for someone if they're thinking, like, okay,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: it's June. Yeah, in August, we always make a trip
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: and we always hang stands. What are some potential failure,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: shortcomings or mistakes that people can make when it comes to,
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: you know, setting the stage in August and when you're
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: hanging it and everyone does like the fake bow draw, like,
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: oh yeah, this is gonna be money. What what? What
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: can you tell people?
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: Well, gosh, there was a time where I would go
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: in and and hang them all in in August, and
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: then they're being handful that I wouldn't hunt. So uh. Mainly,
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: I feel like the ones that that I know are
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: going to produce or be really really good during the rut,
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: those are the ones that I'm focusing on in August
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: because I don't really want to come back to those
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: until it's time to actually hunt them. That's where I'm
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: going to spend my time messing with any stands, and
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: then as far as the ones on the perimeter are
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: the ones that I'm going to be hunting, maybe over
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: like a staging plot like I'm referring I was referring to.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't. I don't mess with those too much,
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: in particular in August if I have time. Yeah, but gosh,
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: we all look pretty busy lifestyles. Being honest, I don't.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: I don't get to all those that often. But yeah,
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: the rut heavy ones the ones that I tend to
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: want to focus on because never fails. It seems like
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: about October, I'm like, oh, yeah, I wanted to hunt that.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: We want to hunt that stand coming up? Like, let's hunt.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I haven't haven't trimed Blanees in there, so
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: we got to go do that first. And yeah, neglecting
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: those is is and should be my main focus in August.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: I will flip the calendar to September. Your your scenario
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: is a little bit different because you guys have a
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: mid month opener, and so in two different ways. For
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: the Missouri listeners or Kentucky like some of the other
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: states that opened a little bit earlier, the Dakotas what
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: MHM like, all right, we've been waiting for this day, well,
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: you know, since the end of last season, and this
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: is the plan and this is like what's your level
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: of aggression right out of the gates? And has it?
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: I assume when you were younger it was probably like
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: full court press, blitz, screeg, let's get it done. Is
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: that still how you are today?
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: Not so much. I'll usually hopefully have a western hunt
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: that I can go on, and so that's usually where
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: my time is spent. But even if I didn't know,
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: because I wouldn't be so aggressive now with trying to
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: hunt a buck. The first and most important reason is
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: my life has changed a lot. I have a wife
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: and children, so my time's more limited now and so
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: they need to come first in that time period. Unless
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: I feel like I have a really really good shot
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: killing a particular buck, I'm probably not going to hit
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: it too hard, and so I spend my time with
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: my family and at home if if if I don't
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: have something locked down on that. But another thing that
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: I would probably I want to spend more time on
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: if it's in the woods during the month of September
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: is shooting doughs. Honestly, I've I've neglected that in the
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: early season a lot over the last few years and
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: tended to do it more towards the late season. And
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: at that time period, I'm having less of an effect
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: on the deer that are actually living on the farm,
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: and so I'd like to spread that out more, try
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: to shoot some more does early and then closer to
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: the rut, and then after the rut as well.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, do you feel like you're more effective and
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: efficient by having a busy life and you know, having
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: to pick your strikes way more methodically than before where
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: it was just like almost like a volume game, like
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: oh we can go, we got to go, and then
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: now it's like okay, I'm gonna be gone for this afternoon.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: Like I feel really good about it. Have you noticed
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: to be more effective because I've recorded a bunch of
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: podcasts and like the guys that have twenty thirty, forty
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: fifty years of experienced or like I hunt less and
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: I have more success and as a as a young
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: guy myself, like it just seems so counterintuitive, Like I
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: hear you, but I unfortunately I'm not listening very well.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: But I hear you, We're like, are you in the
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: same school thought there?
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, as far as trying to kill a mature deer, absolutely,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: Now if I again, if I feel like I have
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: one that I have a really really good chance at shooting,
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: I'm for sure going to put my time in early
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: to try to shoot them. I just don't have really
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: any options then. And then, man, I found it to
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: be most effective. Uh man, those last like ten days
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: of October, if you have the right weather, it just
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: seems to be so good. And uh they're still so patternable,
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: they're they're they're on their feet looking searching, you know,
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: just getting ready for the rut and in my mind,
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: on their feet looking for that very first dough. And
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: uh so I feel like that's the most the most
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: effective time period out of the entire season to kill,
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: you know, a particular mature buck. And so I tend
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: to wait and not spend all my time hunting up
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: until then. But I totally get it too, like for
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: the people that have time. I mean when I when
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: I wasn't married and had didn't have children, I had
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: more time to go do that, and I just wanted
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: to be out there. So if that's what you want
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: to do by all means like, go do it. We're
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: all hunters at the end of the day, and it's
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: it's not all about just killing. So like, if you
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: want to be out there, go out there and do it.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's the beauty of it. It's it's
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: open and it's fun to do. Go shoot a dough
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: if you don't have a if you don't have a
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: buck to chase.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: So here's a random question. What what's a trend that
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: was maybe hot in the last twenty years that everyone
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: was talking about and you're like, I gotta try this.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: Everyone like this, whatever it is. It could be anything
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: that's like, man, this is everyone is talking about this,
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: and this seems to be, you know, so impactful, so efficient,
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: and you tried it and you're like that was a joke.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: It's a hard question because I don't know what my
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: answer would be myself.
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: I know I have some that I've tried and been like,
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: oh man, I'm just trying to think of what that
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: would be. Uh gosh, that's a really good question. I
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: can't I can't think of one right now. Maybe come
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: back to me on that one. Do you have on
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: in mind?
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: No, no, I asked a hard question I don't even
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: have an answer to. I think I don't know. Like
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: there's always these different phases, like like rub post or
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: water holes, and some of those do work for sure,
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: and I think they're when people try them, they're skeptical
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, yeah, this does work. But I'm
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: trying to think of one that's like, oh, I got
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: to get that a try. I don't. I don't have everyone.
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like the two things you didn't mention, well, I'm
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: not a rub post but a scrape tree. I'm like
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: a huge proponent of that, especially like I've even had
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: friends they're like, you're putting a t post out there
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: with a branch on it, like that's gonna really work,
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: And it does. I'm telling you, it's crazy. I've I've
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: gotten so many photos of bucks on those hitting those.
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: Now you gotta get them out early. And then the
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: waterhole thing, like I've tried that and I'm a friend
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: believer of it as well. In fact, we might. I
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: put one out here behind my house, within like a
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: couple hundred yards of my barn, and it's like a
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: I think it's a fifty or seventy five gallon tank,
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: so like not that much water. I was just doing
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: a test to see like how quickly they would hit it.
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: If they'd hit it at all. It's fiberglass, and you
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: know how it would go. So I put it out.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: Deer were smashing it in September and October when it
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: was dry, and I'd have to refill the thing because
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: it isn't very big. But the rut hit and I
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: kind of started to neglect it, and then I would
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: I would pass it my dad and I would pass
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: it to go hunt in the mornings back in like
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: this this funnel of timber, but you could see it
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: from like two hundred yards and all the deer would
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: go to that thing. They were just going to that.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: I'm like, why are we hunting this funnel? Apparently we
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: need to be over there owning that water hole.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: But you know, that's a good that's a good illustration.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: That's I feel like people are always skeptical water. And I
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: learned I learned from that from Jeff Turgis and a
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: long time ago, and I used it. I was like, dude,
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: it works, it really really does.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. But that's that's such a good question. On the bad,
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: I know, I've fallen into plenty of them, but I can't.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: I can't. Well, I'm going to get beat up for
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: this one. In fact, I have a friend that that
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: makes them or sells them and sells different sense. But
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: I personally I have tried like a scrape rope and
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: I've had horrible luck with it. I'm sure it's worked
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: for other people, and I've had a lot of people,
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: a lot of friends that say it's worked, including my
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: friend that gave me his his that he that he sells,
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: and I was like, man, it's just not working for me.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: Like the branch that it's hanging from, they want to
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: hit that. They look at the rope and they're like what,
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, the branch was just great before. So
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: I'm not hating on it. It may work for some people,
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: but it was a it was kind of a fad
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: that I tried and it didn't didn't quite work out
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: for me. I didn't have the best results. But maybe
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: I'm doing something wrong.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: There's there's a lot of ways to find success. So
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: you you mentioned though with the mox grapes t posts,
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: what type of tree branch or what species of tree
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: do you like to use? And you said specifically, you
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: gotta do it early. What is early to you?
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I typically try to have them all out
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: by the end of August, and uh, I always try
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: to focus on the gosh. I guess it'd be like
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: a red oak branch or even white oak, any oak tree.
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: It seems like they hold their leaves after you've cut
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: that branch, like for a very very long time. I
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: think I tried some soft woods and the leaves just
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: fell off after they died. The oak branch seems like
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: they die and they still hang on.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: And then shingle oak, Yeah, pink polak shingle oak are good.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: Burroaks could be good for sure.
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: Yep. I tried that one as well, and I don't
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: know those seem to work best, but.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you do you use any sort of scent or
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: anything with that, and like you just you just zip
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: tie it to the te posts and bring a rake
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: and open up some dirt and let it go.
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: Open it up and they'll start to naturally hit it.
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: In fact, that the spot where I hit that deer
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: last year and killed the buck the year before, I
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: have a tea. So it's like a gosh, probably like
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: a fifteen foot white gap between the timber edge on
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: each side, and the deer walk right through it to
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: go out into the egfield. And I put a tea
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: post in the ground with I don't know what that
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: thing was that I got, like maybe like a scrape
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: scrape stick or something like that. It's just like some
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: mechanism that goes on the top of a tea page. Yeah,
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: I know, you put your branch in there and tighten
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: it up. Got one of those years ago, But no,
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: I just stick it in there and tighten it up,
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: and then yeah, just rake the ground right there below it,
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: and they start hitting it. And both of those bucks
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: were hitting that scrape and not when I shot them,
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: but like I'd get pictures of him right there almost
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: every night going through there hitting the scrape tree.
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: So I think it was a scrape pix that makes that.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: But if someone wants to save a few dollars, you
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: can go on Amazon and buy a flagholder plastic flag holder.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: I don't even think about that.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll do the trick too. And you have an
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: Amazon Prime.
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: To your door. Well my yeah, and mine have since
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: rested out and like seized up. So I have to
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to swap them out. I'm gonna I
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: didn't thought about that. That's a great idea, I think.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: So we'll kind of breeze through October, November, December, because
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: I know that's a long ways away. But you had
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: mentioned October, that last bit of October with a good
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: cold front. But what's what's something that people need to avoid,
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: like the plague in the month about October that you
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: know it's second nature to you, but maybe someone that's
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: new where it's like, oh yeah, I didn't know that.
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: Pushing the envelope when it's hot number one, but one
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: that I can think of, especially early to mid October.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: We still have tics and like the seed ticks are outrageous.
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: I can't tell you. Like my dad and I have
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: tried at numerous times, like oh, let's just go try
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: to shoot a dough or somethinghe We'll go like have
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: an observation sit on a hot day and you know,
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: if we maybe we can just see him across the
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: field or whatever, and we covered in seed ticks. Oh
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: my gosh, that those are Like I despise those in August, August,
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: September and October if it's hot. So I don't I
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: kind of refuse to waste my time messing with any
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: of that then, because it's obviously miserable and just a
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: waste of time. So yeah, on the on the super
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: hot days, I'm not I'm not out there hunting.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: You're you're holding onto all your poker chips until the
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: hand is right in times limited to for me. So yeah,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: rolling right into November. Here it's June, but November feels
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: really far away. But we'll blanket, like you know, it's
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: time here, it is, it's November. Has your rut strategy
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: changed over time? You mentioned time is a valuable resource,
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: but I have to imagine you probably carve out a
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: lot of time in November. Are you just time on
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: stand kills big deer or you like no, I got
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: to bounce around and try to still strike, you know
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: with these minifronts or where are you.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: At time on stand kills deer? That's where I'm at.
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, it really does. But it's gosh, it's so
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: good or sweet because like I don't I enjoy November
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: and there's plenty of time where I'm like, okay, like
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: this this is this is a lot of time spent
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: away from my family, Like I've done this quite a
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: few years. Yes, it's a blessing of you out here,
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: but I would also like to be spending time with
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: my family and not being away. And I just know that,
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: like it can happen in the blink of an eye.
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: I think most of us obviously know that, and so
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: spending time on stand is is most important because you
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: never know when he's going to show up, But you
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: also don't know he could be two miles away and
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: you're totally wasting your time. It's just a total guess.
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: But the deer are on their feet, so you got
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: to be there.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: Our brains play a really sick trick when it comes
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: to November, because I can think of November. I hunted
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: eight bunch, I wasted a lot of time in the
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: tree stand. But when you say November, I say November.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: I think of like the two or three days where
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: it was this phenomenal and it was everything that we
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: always dreamed of. But my brain forgets the fourteen other
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: days where it's like this is I have so many
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: other things I should be doing.
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, come, yeah, yeah, But you know that I spent
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: more time this last November out there than I probably
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: have in years past because I hadn't killed a buck
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, it's gonna happen, It's gonna happen. It didn't,
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: But it also helped me gain perspective and appreciation just
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: to be out there like you we all take it
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: for granted, especially like I mean, I'm guilty of it.
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: I'll be there on my phone. I'm like, oh, it's
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: a slub just sitting here on my phone. And then
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: I'm you know, there are numerous times where I'm like,
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: why are did you come out here to sit on
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: your phone? Or did you come out here to you know,
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: like enjoy what's in front of you.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's it's an excellent thing to stay grounded
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: throughout that that mouth because it can be it can challenging,
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: it can be awesome, all the things everyone's always said before.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: But it'll be here before we know it. And then
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: so to close off the calendar for the rest of
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: the year, December obviously we can we can touch on
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: it very briefly, but are you just pretty much weather
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: weather in front when it comes to December for the
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: most part, and a.
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: Lot of times during trail cameras, if if the right
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: deer is showing up and I feel like I have
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: a good chance. I'm going to be I'm going to
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: be out there, but I'm yes, I'm very dependent upon
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: the right weather and for the most part only hunting
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: grain or or some sort of food source, because if
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: if I'm not, chances are pretty slim. I'm going to
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: be the on the on the on a deer that
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: I want to shoot.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: I got a couple more quick questions for you. What's
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: the piece of advice that you would give people ten
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: years ago that you would take back? Say, oh no, no,
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: forget that, I take it back.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: Early season hunting, Okay, Mike and I I remember we
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: used to give seminars all the time, and that was
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: like our number one thing was like early season honeting,
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: Like you can have so much success, you got to
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: get out there early and do this. And it's not
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: to say that you can't, because you definitely can, but
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: like we were like all in on it and thinking like, yeah,
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: this is when you're gonna it's gonna happen, and everybody
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: else skips it, and no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Everybody's
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: time is so limited and mine mine at that time
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: was not very limited. Just given where I was at
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: in life, and so I had the time to go
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: out there and do all of that. But no, no,
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't preach that.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: Now, that's funny, that's that's interesting. It's it's and I
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: think it's just like the phase of life you're in too,
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Like at that time, it worked and you had the time,
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: and it's almost like probably self fulfilling to some degree,
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: because like those farms I'm sure were like doomed up
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: for that first you know, snippet of season where you
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: could have go out there and put a lot of volume.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: Out right, And then I can understand also in states
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: where like, oh gosh, I've never hunted Kentucky. So so
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: I'm just speaking out loud because I know a lot
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: of people that have, and then Kansas up hunting Kansas.
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: But people that can bait in those states, they're probably like,
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: that's the best time you know they have they have
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: of course they have a deer on a pattern at
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: that point. But now as far as like patterning a
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: deer to going to its food source here in Missouri early,
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: which is what we used to give those seminars on,
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: it can happen. And we've been effective doing it, but
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: that would not be my number one time.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what is your number one time? Late October?
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: All right, what's one mistake almost every serious deer hunter
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: still makes And obviously you may be guilty of this yourself.
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: Letting your emotions get the best of you when when
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: the moment counts and or human and like we're designed
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: to have those types of emotions and heart rate all that.
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: If you aren't, then you know, I don't know, something,
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: something might be off there. But like if I could
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: better maintain those emotions when you know, it comes down
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: to that actual moment, maybe I'd be a little more
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: effective and and have have made better shots in certain instances.
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: But again, I'm human, and and that adrenaline rush that
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: we get when we're out there and that stuff's going on,
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: like that's one of the main reasons we're there.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: So I would would you describe it as traditional buck
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: fever or would you describe it?
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right, absolutely, yes, Yeah, I've been doing this
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: long enough to where like, yes, I can I can
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: maintain and like, you know, focus on what I'm doing
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: to a certain level, but like I'm not. I don't know.
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: I think people I've talked to friends and people before like,
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: oh man, you've probably just got it down where it
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: doesn't even bother you anymore. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it does. Yeah,
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: if I didn't, it might be something wrong.
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: So is there any way you try to combat that
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: well going into the year, like this is a year
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: I don't get my heart rate to two hundred pets
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: per second. I can't think now there really isn't.
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: The Only thing that I can say is, uh, like,
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: when I'm practicing, and I've always done this, I'll go
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: into like I try to go into that same mindset
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: as to when you know the moment of truth might
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: be happening, and then when that actually does happen, it
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: I think you will you go into like your actual
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: flow of the shot and everything much much easier. But yeah,
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: I think the only the only thing that I try
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: to do cognitively in that moment is just maintain focus
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: on what the animal was doing. Hence I still didn't
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: still screwed up last fall on that, but like really
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: focus on for instance, like a deer's leg with the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: the leg is back. I'm always conscious of that. I
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: feel like I've definitely trained myself to be looking for that,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: uh and and just my overall surroundings as well. But
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: there's no way I'm going to ever figure out how
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: to stop buck fever. And I'm okay with that.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's you know, if there's one condition to never fix,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: that's the one that you probably want to stick with.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: You mentioned, you know, focusing in on that deer's leg.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: Why do you do that?
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: Because if there, if their leg is back, it's covering
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: more of their vitals, so like rather than having I
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: don't know, I'm I don't know if this is the
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: right answer, but three quarters or they're long open with
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: the leg forward, with the lake back, it's probably covering
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: you know, maybe maybe half the lungs or more. I'm
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: not sure you know statistics on that, but that would
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: be my guess. So that's why, Yeah, why I would
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: like to go forward.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: Awesome, Well, Sean, I've really enjoyed this. Hopefully didn't pour
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: salt into too many wounds. But we were talking before
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: we started recording, like everyone, everyone feel makes massive mistakes
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: and failures every single year, and it's all about us
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: getting incrementally better.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Jake, I got an answer real quick on the trend.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: So I had a friend Adam Keith from Lannon Legacy.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: We were talking just a few days ago and he
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: was like, if you had the opportunity to shoot a
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: deer quartering away or broad quartering away, broad or broadside,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: which would you choose? And I said, well, maybe maybe
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: slightly quartered away, just a little bit, but not very
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: far at all. And back in the day, I used
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: to always want that hard quarter away or quarter definitely
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: quartering away shot because you know, you have the opportunity
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: to connect with a lot of idols, but your shot
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: window minimizes with that. So my answer now would be
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: what I just said, just maybe slightly quartered away, almost broadside.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's that's a great, great answer to that. Yeah,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: because I think once again, there's this always a different
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: trends and different theologies that tend to catch a lot
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: of momentum, and it always changes. It's always changing a
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: little bit. So Sean, if people want to follow along
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: with everything that you have going on, I encourage everyone
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: to go watch your guys YouTube channel. I really enjoy
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: a lot of the habitat videos. So you guys are
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: putting out, but where can people find you?
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you can find us on YouTube and then Heartland
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: bow Hunter on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. You can find my
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: own page on Instagram. I don't I'm not overly active there,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: but yeah, or you can just check out Heartland bow
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: Hunter if you like.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: Awesome. Thank you so much.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you Jay.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: All Right there, you guys have hope you guys enjoyed
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: this week's episode of Wire to Hunt. Once again, June
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: is the time to lay the foundation, make a game
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: plan for this upcoming year. Reflect back on the previous
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: year of what you wish you were doing in the
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: month of June or in the month of July that
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: you pushed off. Make sure you do it this year
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: and hopefully you'll have a better year. Next week, we'll
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: have Mark back on Wire to Hunt to host this episode,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: so I hope you guys have a great rest of
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: your week. We'll see y'all.