Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 476: The Rut Hunting Mistakes We All Make (How to Avoid Them), with Alex Gyllstrom

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Ep. 476: The Rut Hunting Mistakes We All Make (How to Avoid Them), with Alex Gyllstrom · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
0:05
Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
0:15
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm your guest
0:18
Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson, and today's guest is white tail killer
0:22
Speaker 1: Alex Gilstrom. Alright, folks, welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast,
0:41
Speaker 1: which is brought to you by First Life. You might
0:44
Speaker 1: notice that this is not the voice of Mark Kenyon.
0:46
Speaker 1: He's off at the International Ventriloquist Convention, so I guess
0:50
Speaker 1: he's got a new hobby or something. Anyway, my guest
0:53
Speaker 1: today is Alex Gilstrom. Alex not only works for white
0:57
Speaker 1: tail properties, but he's also an accomplisht outdoor writer who
1:01
Speaker 1: hails from Michigan but now lives in Illinois. He's one
1:04
Speaker 1: of my favorite people in the hunting industry for a
1:06
Speaker 1: lot of reasons, but the main reasons are that he's
1:09
Speaker 1: just got a great attitude. He's such a good dude.
1:12
Speaker 1: He hunts his ass off, and he gets it done
1:14
Speaker 1: on both private and public land every year. I had
1:17
Speaker 1: a great time chatting with him on this episode where
1:20
Speaker 1: we get really deep into the weeds on hunting the
1:22
Speaker 1: rut and how to avoid the common mistakes that we
1:26
Speaker 1: all eventually make at one point or another, is we
1:28
Speaker 1: try to take advantage of this sweet, sweet month of November.
1:58
Speaker 1: Alex gilst from how you doing, buddy, Oh man, I'm
2:01
Speaker 1: doing well. It's uh, it's upon us. We're we are looking.
2:05
Speaker 1: We are entering the end of October into the earth
2:08
Speaker 1: into early November, and I can't believe it's finally here.
2:10
Speaker 1: I know it. I caught you just in the nick
2:13
Speaker 1: of time, because you are packed up and heading out
2:15
Speaker 1: tonight where you headed to. I wish I was packed up,
2:18
Speaker 1: but better if I pause, I'll stop filling into blanks
2:22
Speaker 1: for your life. Then you're totally unprepared. But you're still
2:24
Speaker 1: heading out tonight. Absolutely, that's that's exactly right. But by
2:28
Speaker 1: by tonight I will be packed up and I will
2:30
Speaker 1: in the truck, will be headed west. That's a that's
2:32
Speaker 1: a fact. Yeah, headed west to where South Dakota. Yep,
2:36
Speaker 1: it's a it's a trip I've been doing with with
2:38
Speaker 1: some buddy's for the last gosh, I don't know, six
2:42
Speaker 1: seven years now, I think seven years. And it's just
2:46
Speaker 1: a it's a great time. I mean, I know you
2:48
Speaker 1: hunt the dakotas a lot and you have. We've talked
2:50
Speaker 1: about it a lot, but it's it's a it's a
2:53
Speaker 1: special place. I mean, it's just it's so different than
2:55
Speaker 1: where we grew up. Obviously, you in Minnesota, Mea, and Michigan,
2:57
Speaker 1: it's like a lot of timber, a lot of farm country,
2:59
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, a lot of hills. Now
3:01
Speaker 1: where I live in western Illinois, there's a lot. It's
3:02
Speaker 1: a lot of hill country. And that's probably one of
3:04
Speaker 1: the things that I love about it so much. Is
3:06
Speaker 1: just so different, like the terrain, everything about it. It's
3:08
Speaker 1: just open country. Um, you know, r bottom slews, tall grasses,
3:13
Speaker 1: things like that. It's just, um, it's a fun time
3:16
Speaker 1: and it's a very fun place, and it's a phenomenal
3:18
Speaker 1: time to be there because obviously as movement increases and
3:22
Speaker 1: um and the bucks are starting to get after the
3:24
Speaker 1: dose a little bit. It's it's a it's just a
3:26
Speaker 1: it's a really really cool, cool area and regional hunt.
3:30
Speaker 1: And it tells you here, I should say, it tells
3:32
Speaker 1: the listeners how much you you value that hunt and
3:36
Speaker 1: how much you want to go because you're leaving Illinois,
3:38
Speaker 1: you know, right on the Cussba Halloween here to go
3:42
Speaker 1: to South Dakota. But those you know, we've we've talked
3:44
Speaker 1: about on on this podcast quite a bit. You know,
3:47
Speaker 1: it's been covered a lot, but those western Ish white
3:49
Speaker 1: tail hunts, they're just freaking cool. They're just they're just
3:53
Speaker 1: a different thing. Yeah, if I was in complete control,
3:57
Speaker 1: I probably would have made this. I probably would be
3:59
Speaker 1: ending the trip right about now and coming back. But
4:03
Speaker 1: you know, it's you only get so many deer camps
4:06
Speaker 1: and so many times, so much time with your buddies
4:07
Speaker 1: out there, So how many guys do you travel with
4:10
Speaker 1: for this? Um, I'm actually taking my dad. It's his
4:13
Speaker 1: first it's gonna be his first time he's hunted out there,
4:16
Speaker 1: so I'm really excited um to take him. He retired
4:19
Speaker 1: last year, so his schedule opened up a little bit more.
4:21
Speaker 1: He can do a little bit more of that fun stuff. So, um,
4:23
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take him. And then there's gonna be another five,
4:27
Speaker 1: four or five of us out there, So you just
4:29
Speaker 1: had to plan it around everybody's schedule basically. Yeah, it
4:32
Speaker 1: was just it was it was the schedule kind of
4:34
Speaker 1: nightmare and and there. And it's funny because like it's
4:36
Speaker 1: a couple other guys from the West and a couple
4:38
Speaker 1: other guys from Michigan. So it's like they don't have
4:41
Speaker 1: anything to really get back to, all right, so they're like,
4:45
Speaker 1: this is there, like you know trip, So it's like
4:47
Speaker 1: it's weird. I'm like, man, I'm leaving you know, the
4:51
Speaker 1: Golden Triangle right now and arguably the best time to
4:54
Speaker 1: be there. But you know, it's it's a it's not
4:56
Speaker 1: like we're gonna be out there for a really long time,
4:58
Speaker 1: if you you know it, We'll be out about about
5:00
Speaker 1: a week and then uh and then come back and
5:02
Speaker 1: it should be just rocking and rolling right here. So
5:05
Speaker 1: it'll it'll be a lot of fun. Be a little
5:07
Speaker 1: vague about this. You don't have to be too specific,
5:09
Speaker 1: but what what part of the state are you? Are
5:11
Speaker 1: you headed towards? Um, it would be the south central Okay,
5:15
Speaker 1: so you're are you are you bumping up on mule
5:18
Speaker 1: deer territory where you go? Yep, there's definitely things around
5:21
Speaker 1: and I do haven't any deer tag so it'll do. Yeah,
5:24
Speaker 1: it's well and you've you've hunted them out there too.
5:26
Speaker 1: It's it's weird. It's always sounds good, right like that.
5:31
Speaker 1: The sales pitch is always good where it's like, oh,
5:33
Speaker 1: either or you know, you have either either tag the species.
5:36
Speaker 1: But the kicker is it's like very rarely are you
5:40
Speaker 1: going to run into them in the same places. It's
5:42
Speaker 1: you kind of have to like set out that day
5:44
Speaker 1: of like I'm either going to hunt mule deer or
5:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna unt white tails because they just they typically
5:49
Speaker 1: there was some space some spots there where they you know,
5:51
Speaker 1: you can you can see both. But a lot of
5:53
Speaker 1: times if you're targeting, like you know, a good representation.
5:56
Speaker 1: You know, when I'm when I travel out of state,
5:58
Speaker 1: alls I really want to do is shoot a good,
6:00
Speaker 1: good representation buck of that area. That's my goal. And
6:05
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do that there, either you gotta get
6:06
Speaker 1: to get in the slews in the river bottoms for
6:08
Speaker 1: the white tails. You gotta go to kind of the
6:09
Speaker 1: breaks and the bluffs in the in the prairie for
6:12
Speaker 1: the mule deers. So you have to pick and choose
6:14
Speaker 1: a little bit. So I don't know, well, we'll see yeah,
6:17
Speaker 1: you don't. You don't see him mixed ton, but you
6:19
Speaker 1: do see him mix sometimes, you know. I mean I
6:23
Speaker 1: killed a buck out there in South Dakota probably four
6:26
Speaker 1: years ago, and the spot I killed him on the
6:29
Speaker 1: very first day I got there. I watched three meal
6:31
Speaker 1: dear Bucks go in there and I stalked him. They
6:34
Speaker 1: were fighting. It was cool. I got really close and
6:36
Speaker 1: then I got winded and started looking around, and I
6:39
Speaker 1: was like, this is just a deer area. I ended
6:41
Speaker 1: up killing a big white tail in there. But it's
6:43
Speaker 1: that's kind of an anomaly that doesn't happen that often. Yeah,
6:47
Speaker 1: the biggest areas at least, and in my experiences, the
6:49
Speaker 1: areas where I do see him mixed is if there's
6:51
Speaker 1: good food, Like if you have good agg around, that's
6:54
Speaker 1: really where you can you can get in and and
6:56
Speaker 1: have an opportunity potentially at both Um. That's at least
7:00
Speaker 1: my kind of what I've seen out there. So what's
7:02
Speaker 1: the strategy then for the white tails in the in
7:05
Speaker 1: that region you're headed to for you running gun buddy.
7:09
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's it's get out there, I mean,
7:12
Speaker 1: because it's it's like it's vast, you know. I Mean,
7:15
Speaker 1: it's it's almost intimidating, especially kind of them over it
7:19
Speaker 1: a little bit now. But I mean in the first
7:21
Speaker 1: couple of years where I was going out there, gosh,
7:23
Speaker 1: I mean you can. You're just like, how in the
7:25
Speaker 1: world am I gonna find cover it all? How can I?
7:28
Speaker 1: How can I? And and you know quickly you realize,
7:30
Speaker 1: just like anything else, you don't have to cover all
7:32
Speaker 1: You just gotta pick the best spots and and read
7:34
Speaker 1: the sign. And that's that's so, that's it. I mean,
7:36
Speaker 1: it's just gonna be get into um areas just from
7:41
Speaker 1: hunting in the past where I know there are deer,
7:43
Speaker 1: Like there's gonna be deer here, and then just try
7:45
Speaker 1: to read the sign and and go and just kind
7:47
Speaker 1: of break it down from there. Um knock on wood.
7:51
Speaker 1: The stars are aligning. From weather, I mean, it's it's
7:53
Speaker 1: it's been in the fifties, low sixties. Next week it's
7:56
Speaker 1: basically all highs in the low forties and then the
7:59
Speaker 1: low so the evenings in the mornings are going to
8:01
Speaker 1: be even in the twenties to low thirty to low thirties.
8:04
Speaker 1: So man, I mean it's it could get really really good,
8:08
Speaker 1: um from a weather and dear movement at standpoint, just
8:10
Speaker 1: in general. But yeah, that's that's kind of the strategy
8:13
Speaker 1: is just your your typical pre rut approach where I'm
8:17
Speaker 1: expecting to see bucks cruising a lot on their feet more,
8:22
Speaker 1: um try to find the dough groups. I'm reading the
8:24
Speaker 1: sign I'm looking for, um, the freshest buck sign possible,
8:28
Speaker 1: and and just kind of adapting to to what I'm
8:30
Speaker 1: seeing from that standpoint. Are you are you saddled up?
8:33
Speaker 1: Are you using a lightweight? Hang on? What are you
8:36
Speaker 1: doing there? Both? Also, I'll take a couple, I'll take
8:38
Speaker 1: a couple of lightweight uh stands, and I'll take a
8:41
Speaker 1: saddle with me too, So you'll be doing a lot
8:43
Speaker 1: of observation move observation move, and just to get on
8:46
Speaker 1: because you know what you mentioned there is a really
8:49
Speaker 1: good point about the scope of the land out there.
8:53
Speaker 1: It's easy to sort of just get locked up and go, Okay,
8:55
Speaker 1: well I can see so much. I'm just gonna keep
8:57
Speaker 1: watching and watching and never make that move. But when
9:00
Speaker 1: you get into white tails and that it's in in
9:03
Speaker 1: the western kind of regions like that, you realize it
9:07
Speaker 1: feels like they live big, and you know you do
9:09
Speaker 1: see them cruising, but there's little concentrations of them, and
9:12
Speaker 1: there's little pockets, and so you kind of you can
9:14
Speaker 1: look right over them sometimes thinking you're gonna just be
9:16
Speaker 1: picking deer up everywhere, and you really got to break
9:19
Speaker 1: it down. And it's kind of like fishing a huge
9:21
Speaker 1: reservoir or a huge lake, like, oh my god, I
9:23
Speaker 1: have so much water to work with. Well, like, okay,
9:25
Speaker 1: let's start, let's start narrowing this stuff down. You really
9:28
Speaker 1: see that with western white tails for sure. And it
9:31
Speaker 1: it's I know you and I talked you. You believe
9:34
Speaker 1: the same thing too. It's like, if you've got a
9:36
Speaker 1: five day hunt, I would rather scout two or even
9:39
Speaker 1: three of those and then hunt you actually like set
9:43
Speaker 1: up and hunt the last couple or whatever. And I,
9:46
Speaker 1: in my opinion, that strategy of scout war hunt less
9:49
Speaker 1: really help like really pays off here to exactly your
9:51
Speaker 1: point where. And it's it's kind of like a I
9:54
Speaker 1: gotta check myself a little bit, because I love mornings
9:58
Speaker 1: this time, like the next ten days, ten to fourteen
10:01
Speaker 1: days that we're encountering like that we're coming into from
10:03
Speaker 1: a hunting season standpoint. I love mornings like they're so good.
10:07
Speaker 1: They're active, bucks are really hitting sign they're really cruising,
10:10
Speaker 1: but almost out there in those wide open spaces, Like
10:13
Speaker 1: you said, one tech tactic that's kind of really benefited
10:18
Speaker 1: me is maybe sacrificing a morning or a couple of
10:22
Speaker 1: mornings that and just glassing, just getting up on a
10:24
Speaker 1: point overlooking a bottom um coming off of agg fields
10:28
Speaker 1: or something like that, and just kind of posting up
10:30
Speaker 1: and and just glassing and seeing what's there. That's i mean,
10:33
Speaker 1: getting eyes on them is one of the big things.
10:35
Speaker 1: Like you know here in the Midwest, it's you don't
10:37
Speaker 1: get to do that a lot because of the cover, right,
10:39
Speaker 1: so you have to read the sign and just and
10:41
Speaker 1: hopefully you know, use trail cameras or whatever just to
10:43
Speaker 1: try to just to try to make sense of like
10:46
Speaker 1: is there a good deer in the area. While out
10:47
Speaker 1: there you can get eyes on you can actually see
10:49
Speaker 1: what the good deer is, so um finding the just
10:52
Speaker 1: finding groups and finding the herds and where they're where
10:55
Speaker 1: they're feeding the you know, just kind of getting the
10:57
Speaker 1: main boxes checked of like prime food sources currently being used,
11:01
Speaker 1: betting areas currently being used, and trying to get eyes
11:04
Speaker 1: on something. It's been well worth my time. Two maybe
11:09
Speaker 1: sacrifice a couple of mornings or even an evening or
11:11
Speaker 1: two early in the hunt to really try to get
11:14
Speaker 1: you know, eyes on something that's that's a good target. Yeah.
11:17
Speaker 1: That's a big mistake a lot of people make is
11:20
Speaker 1: they think, you know, whether you're traveling or you're hunting
11:22
Speaker 1: at home, just like, well, it's the rut, I'm gonna
11:25
Speaker 1: go in, I'm gonna set this pinch point, I'm gonna
11:27
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna go in this field corner or whatever,
11:29
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna ride out the time and the ruts
11:30
Speaker 1: gonna send a deer my way, and you realize, you know,
11:34
Speaker 1: there is there's a volume hunting strategy in the right situation,
11:37
Speaker 1: especially when they're really running hard. But a lot of
11:40
Speaker 1: times it involves, you know, get eyes on them, find
11:44
Speaker 1: those fresh concentrations to sign and then start working your
11:47
Speaker 1: rut pattern. And you know, I think another mistake we
11:50
Speaker 1: make along those lines is we think, you know, like
11:54
Speaker 1: you said, you're going back, you've been You've been out
11:55
Speaker 1: to this place a whole bunch. A lot of people
11:58
Speaker 1: would be like, oh, he must have this figured out
11:59
Speaker 1: and he gonna walk right in and know where he's
12:01
Speaker 1: gonna go. But the stuff changes every single year, every
12:05
Speaker 1: single year. And one of the things we really get
12:08
Speaker 1: wrong a lot is we think, Okay, I got this property,
12:10
Speaker 1: this is gonna happen this way again, And yeah, sometimes
12:13
Speaker 1: it does. You know, if you have a if you
12:15
Speaker 1: have a banging property, you can count on some consistency.
12:17
Speaker 1: But a lot of people can't, and that that kind
12:19
Speaker 1: of messes with them a little bit, especially as you
12:22
Speaker 1: well know, out there in that open country. I mean,
12:25
Speaker 1: it's nothing for a deer to cover miles. I mean
12:28
Speaker 1: they you know, we what we envisioned in the Midwest
12:30
Speaker 1: is as a couple hundred yards is two or three
12:32
Speaker 1: miles for them, I mean out there that they'll like
12:35
Speaker 1: your to your point, the changing if food sources are different,
12:37
Speaker 1: if the recomp rotations out or something flooded out or
12:40
Speaker 1: didn't get or or something got harvested early or hasn't
12:42
Speaker 1: been harvested yet, you just don't know. I mean it can,
12:45
Speaker 1: it can so much, can change their patterns. And and
12:47
Speaker 1: I think that's another your point is exactly right? Is
12:50
Speaker 1: just banking on something being consistently the same, isn't I
12:54
Speaker 1: mean that that you know, setting yourself up for disappointment there,
12:56
Speaker 1: I think at that at that point, and and it
12:58
Speaker 1: is so vast and I love learning new stuff too,
13:01
Speaker 1: so I mean every time I go out there. I
13:02
Speaker 1: always make it a point to try to scout a
13:04
Speaker 1: new area or or or find something, because you never
13:06
Speaker 1: know when you're gonna stumble on the next gym, right,
13:09
Speaker 1: and you don't want to limit yourself when it it isn't.
13:11
Speaker 1: I mean, what are you gonna do? Just go to
13:13
Speaker 1: go to your your typical, tried and true spot and
13:15
Speaker 1: then the year you go, you know, say this, yere
13:18
Speaker 1: go out there and it's just a dud and there's
13:20
Speaker 1: nothing wrong. IM gonna throw my hands up and just say, well,
13:22
Speaker 1: hopefully one cruises by. I mean, I'm not it's too much.
13:26
Speaker 1: You got too much riding on it just to just
13:28
Speaker 1: to do that. You got to keep keep looking and
13:30
Speaker 1: keep going for sure. So I think that is a
13:32
Speaker 1: really big mistake, is just getting too comfortable in one
13:34
Speaker 1: specific spot. We can't. I won't. I won't do that.
13:37
Speaker 1: I can't let myself do that. So I completely agree. Yeah,
13:40
Speaker 1: And you know, when you're when you're talking about people
13:44
Speaker 1: might think that your strategy out there of glass and
13:46
Speaker 1: finding these concentrations is is more of a Western thing.
13:51
Speaker 1: But this this plays out in the Midwest and the
13:53
Speaker 1: East too. When you see you know, it might be
13:55
Speaker 1: in an entighter confines, but seeing it when they show
13:59
Speaker 1: you something, you know, are a lot of rut hunting
14:02
Speaker 1: strategies are you know, Okay, that's good, but I'm just
14:05
Speaker 1: gonna rattle and bring him in, or I'm gonna sit
14:07
Speaker 1: here and eventually he's gonna chase that dull in my way,
14:09
Speaker 1: or these bucks are gonna cruise my way. And when
14:12
Speaker 1: you start talking to a lot of people who really
14:13
Speaker 1: get it done in the rut on pressure ground, they're
14:16
Speaker 1: not they're not waiting, they're not trying to get the
14:18
Speaker 1: deer to come to them. They're going to the deer.
14:21
Speaker 1: And I think that's I think that's a big problem
14:23
Speaker 1: we have with rut hunting as we we think we
14:25
Speaker 1: can just call them in, you know, like it's not
14:27
Speaker 1: like you can't. But man, when you're working some pressure
14:31
Speaker 1: deer and they're doing something they show you, Hey, we
14:33
Speaker 1: like going through here, we're crossing the fence here, Like
14:36
Speaker 1: that's that's a freaking gift if you're willing to move
14:39
Speaker 1: absolutely And and I know it's the rut, and it
14:43
Speaker 1: can be tough, and and and and like you said,
14:45
Speaker 1: there's there tends to be some of this this this
14:48
Speaker 1: unfortunate mindset where I'm just gonna sit and wait or
14:51
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to call one to me. But I'm
14:54
Speaker 1: a big believer that, you know, even on pressured ground,
14:57
Speaker 1: that deers still have their tendencies and they still will
15:00
Speaker 1: developed some form of a pattern even if that pattern
15:03
Speaker 1: changesn't just sure, of course a buck can get on
15:06
Speaker 1: a dough and chase her for five miles. That's I mean,
15:08
Speaker 1: that can happen. That's going to happen something. But you know,
15:11
Speaker 1: I believe a lot in in in you know, bucks
15:15
Speaker 1: at the given time of the year checking dose and
15:18
Speaker 1: their typical spots they've got like what's been you know,
15:20
Speaker 1: you call it like a rut circuit or something like that,
15:22
Speaker 1: where they'll check certain better betting areas at certain times
15:25
Speaker 1: a day. And if you can find some of those
15:27
Speaker 1: tendencies even on pressured ground, I mean, and that's where
15:31
Speaker 1: it's really gonna pay off. Is like not just like okay,
15:33
Speaker 1: there's a giant rub here buck sign like everybody else
15:36
Speaker 1: is probably seeing or finding when they're walking into the
15:38
Speaker 1: woods and just posting up hoping one's gonna cruise by.
15:40
Speaker 1: It's you know, mark that note that but adapt to
15:44
Speaker 1: it and what's the bigger picture telling you about what
15:46
Speaker 1: these deer doing and where they're moving. And that can man,
15:49
Speaker 1: I mean that that can put you way more in
15:51
Speaker 1: the game. And like you said, I think that ties
15:53
Speaker 1: right into moving to them instead of just waiting for
15:55
Speaker 1: them to come to you. Yeah. I mean, it's it
15:58
Speaker 1: kind of boils down to you know, how infinite you are.
16:01
Speaker 1: Because I'm when I traveled to ruth Hunt, I I
16:04
Speaker 1: primarily adopt what you're talking about, where I'm like, I'm watching,
16:07
Speaker 1: I'm moving, I'm watching I'm moving, and I I think,
16:09
Speaker 1: you know, we kind of glossed over it. But your
16:11
Speaker 1: point about, you know, sand bag and a day or
16:13
Speaker 1: two to really figure out what's going on before you
16:15
Speaker 1: get in a tree so important a lot of times.
16:19
Speaker 1: But once in a while you do run into those
16:21
Speaker 1: situations where you just read the terrain and you go, man,
16:24
Speaker 1: if I put in four or five days here, I
16:26
Speaker 1: think it's gonna happen. And you know, again, though you
16:29
Speaker 1: you can devote some time to that, but what are
16:31
Speaker 1: the deer showing you? You know, I I always think
16:33
Speaker 1: about that's really not my style, but I did run
16:35
Speaker 1: into it in North Dakota a few years ago on
16:38
Speaker 1: public land and I just I picked a spot on
16:41
Speaker 1: on X walked in and I said, this is where
16:44
Speaker 1: I think I had four or five days to hunt.
16:46
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not leaving here, and the deer
16:49
Speaker 1: just gave me just enough every day to keep it going,
16:52
Speaker 1: even though you know, the day before I killed my buck,
16:53
Speaker 1: I saw one for key and the dark to dark
16:55
Speaker 1: sit but it was just like they're just here, like
16:58
Speaker 1: somebody's gonna come through in the next morning, a great
17:01
Speaker 1: buck trail of dough in. And so sometimes those volume hunts,
17:04
Speaker 1: if you're on like you know that was that was
17:07
Speaker 1: like a classic river bluff kind of connecting two big
17:11
Speaker 1: patches of timber. I mean, it was just there. There
17:14
Speaker 1: are situations out there where that's worth it. But you know,
17:16
Speaker 1: if you sit there for a couple of days and
17:17
Speaker 1: you don't see anything, man, you're not on it, and
17:19
Speaker 1: it's it might not ever be come in your way.
17:22
Speaker 1: Hats off to you on that, dude, because that's that's
17:25
Speaker 1: one of my bigger weaknesses is I get too maybe
17:27
Speaker 1: too impatient at times where it's like if it's just
17:30
Speaker 1: not happening, after a couple of cents, I'm gone like
17:32
Speaker 1: I'm out or I'm moving to the next, I'm moving
17:33
Speaker 1: on to the next or something. But I mean, it's
17:35
Speaker 1: it's that fine line, right of saying, when you know
17:39
Speaker 1: they're here, this is the spot, I just gotta put
17:41
Speaker 1: my time in. And it's a little bit of a gamble.
17:43
Speaker 1: But obviously it paid off for you in a good way,
17:46
Speaker 1: and and that's that's important too. I mean, we talk about,
17:49
Speaker 1: you know, not to speak for you, but I would
17:51
Speaker 1: I would say we're kind of the same mindset of
17:54
Speaker 1: you know, being mobile as much as possible right where
17:56
Speaker 1: we're staying on the move, staying on the freshest sign,
17:59
Speaker 1: continuing to hunt the yer down as best as possible
18:01
Speaker 1: to know where they are. But I think that's something
18:04
Speaker 1: that can be a mistake too though at times, is
18:06
Speaker 1: you get a little bit too aggressive or antie at
18:09
Speaker 1: times and moving um or moved too much, or or
18:12
Speaker 1: bail on a place too soon when you haven't had
18:15
Speaker 1: it given it a chance to really develop. Um. So
18:18
Speaker 1: I mean that's your your points well made. I mean,
18:21
Speaker 1: if you're in a thought, you're seeing plenty of does,
18:23
Speaker 1: you're seeing buck activity, it's probably just a matter of
18:26
Speaker 1: time at that point like you said, it is. It
18:28
Speaker 1: is probably worth a couple of sits and just having
18:30
Speaker 1: a little bit more patients there. Yeah, I mean it's
18:33
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I should address that because I
18:36
Speaker 1: only saw one dough and she's the one who brought
18:38
Speaker 1: in the buck that I killed. But every day I
18:41
Speaker 1: saw at least one cruiser and I I did see
18:44
Speaker 1: a couple of bucks in there that didn't come through
18:46
Speaker 1: that were good. And the buck I killed ran right
18:48
Speaker 1: past me two days before I killed him. I couldn't
18:51
Speaker 1: get him to stop, and it was it's just enough.
18:54
Speaker 1: There's just situations out there where you're just like they're
18:56
Speaker 1: just giving me enough where I don't I don't want
18:58
Speaker 1: to leave it yet, Like and you know when you're
19:01
Speaker 1: I think I got out there on Halloween or someone
19:03
Speaker 1: right around there, and so every day you're like, you know,
19:07
Speaker 1: now you're watching the weather, it's going to get better,
19:09
Speaker 1: and you're just in a place where you're like, this
19:11
Speaker 1: is probably gonna happen. And I should say too. On
19:13
Speaker 1: that buck specifically, I walked in hunger Stan, I saw
19:17
Speaker 1: a nice buck the next morning and it just I
19:20
Speaker 1: just didn't feel right about it. I ended up moving
19:23
Speaker 1: like a hundred yards after I saw a few deer,
19:25
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, this there's a there's a better
19:27
Speaker 1: spot on spot here, even though I'm only working with
19:30
Speaker 1: like five acres, you know, I mean it was it
19:32
Speaker 1: was a bigger chunk of land, but there was like
19:33
Speaker 1: five acres they were going through. And so even then,
19:36
Speaker 1: and you know, instead of trying to call him in
19:38
Speaker 1: or decloim or something, I'm like, I can just move
19:40
Speaker 1: and get right on top of that. And I think
19:43
Speaker 1: you know that lesson. You know how this goes. When
19:47
Speaker 1: you spend a lot of time on public land and
19:49
Speaker 1: private land and you just hunt wherever you can, you
19:52
Speaker 1: just realize like you have to make that happen because
19:55
Speaker 1: you don't know what's coming and you don't know who's
19:57
Speaker 1: gonna walk in, or who's gonna drive in, or how
20:00
Speaker 1: many people are going to show up. And that's that's
20:01
Speaker 1: another thing I want to talk to you about is
20:04
Speaker 1: I think the one of the biggest mistakes we make
20:07
Speaker 1: for the RUT is we we focus on the dear behavior.
20:12
Speaker 1: The books are gonna get dumb, They're gonna be chasing everywhere,
20:14
Speaker 1: They're gonna give me a shot. What we don't think
20:16
Speaker 1: about is the people behavior and the added pressure. And
20:19
Speaker 1: this is you know, public lands obvious, but private land,
20:22
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, just think about the difference of
20:25
Speaker 1: you know, in your home state of Michigan, when you
20:27
Speaker 1: drive out on October tenth or something, is he trucks
20:30
Speaker 1: out and pulled into field drives and whatever. But think about,
20:33
Speaker 1: you know, November two, third, fourth, how many more you
20:35
Speaker 1: see like this. It's a different world out there, and
20:40
Speaker 1: we don't a lot of times really factor that in
20:42
Speaker 1: until we bump into it out there, and then it's
20:44
Speaker 1: that spins us out. And again I think it just
20:49
Speaker 1: goes back to the old adage of of that like
20:51
Speaker 1: not not just the time of the year, but because
20:53
Speaker 1: this it definitely helps and it can be really any
20:55
Speaker 1: time of the year. But exactly what you're talking about,
20:57
Speaker 1: the pressure is, don't get I mean, I could definitely
21:02
Speaker 1: fall victim to overthinking or you know, pro proalysis by analysis.
21:06
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say, not to Mark Kenyan level of overthinking,
21:09
Speaker 1: but but definitely I don't think I don't know if
21:11
Speaker 1: anybody really, any hunter is really that you know, thinks
21:14
Speaker 1: overthinks to that to his level, but um, but definitely
21:18
Speaker 1: where it's okay I need to go. I need to
21:20
Speaker 1: get on you know this transition where you know, this
21:22
Speaker 1: soft transition where there's gonna be this rough funnel and
21:24
Speaker 1: they're gonna cruise. Do I need to find the most
21:26
Speaker 1: scrapes and the most prubs and and it's like again, one,
21:30
Speaker 1: that's probably what the rest of the pressure everybody else
21:32
Speaker 1: is thinking. So that's where the pressure is probably going
21:34
Speaker 1: to be applied, and too, I think, especially when you're
21:37
Speaker 1: on a trip or something like this, or or coming
21:39
Speaker 1: into this pre rod time, just find the deer. I
21:42
Speaker 1: mean that that's that's the big thing that really I
21:44
Speaker 1: think has has helped me when I just kind of like,
21:46
Speaker 1: you know, slap my forehead and say duh, I mean,
21:49
Speaker 1: get out there and just just find where the deer are.
21:52
Speaker 1: And most likely if you can, if you stay a
21:54
Speaker 1: little bit mobile, you kind of keep your wits about you,
21:56
Speaker 1: wind in your face, and just kind of scout along
21:59
Speaker 1: doing that. I mean, the deer gonna adapt to the
22:01
Speaker 1: pressure too. So if you find where they are, likely
22:04
Speaker 1: no one else is there or at least not there
22:06
Speaker 1: right now, and you can start putting a game plan
22:08
Speaker 1: together on where the deer are right now, just not
22:11
Speaker 1: on I mean I always kind of talk about this,
22:13
Speaker 1: like whenever I write anything or say anything, UM, it's
22:16
Speaker 1: always like, you know, hunt where the deer are, not
22:18
Speaker 1: where you want them to be or where they should
22:20
Speaker 1: be right hunt where they actually are. And I think
22:22
Speaker 1: that's a that's been the biggest thing that's helped me,
22:25
Speaker 1: especially on pressure. Ground is adapting to that pressure. Is
22:29
Speaker 1: looking at you know, whether it be on a on
22:31
Speaker 1: X or looking at whether it's glass and scouting or
22:34
Speaker 1: looking at a digital map. Is okay, this is where
22:37
Speaker 1: deer should be, and I probably should ground treat that
22:39
Speaker 1: and see what's going on there. But I all of
22:42
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm starting to see more vehicles here. I'm
22:44
Speaker 1: starting to see I can bet that most of the
22:46
Speaker 1: time that's where these hunters that are getting after it
22:49
Speaker 1: are gonna go. They're gonna go to these spots where
22:50
Speaker 1: they're seeing the sign, which obviously, yeah, I mean that's
22:53
Speaker 1: not saying it's that's a that's a bad approach. Just
22:55
Speaker 1: temperate with that pressure that you're talking about and adapt
22:59
Speaker 1: to where you're actually seeing the deer right now. I
23:01
Speaker 1: mean that because they're they're adapting to the pressure, you
23:03
Speaker 1: have to adapt to the pressure, and especially during the
23:07
Speaker 1: time period of this pre rut where the bucks are
23:09
Speaker 1: seeking the does. I mean, I think that's the big
23:11
Speaker 1: thing too, is a lot of times, you know, guys
23:14
Speaker 1: that are targeting bucks focus too much on the bucks
23:17
Speaker 1: sign itself and get wrapped up in the sign where
23:21
Speaker 1: it's being laid down. How fresh is it? You know,
23:23
Speaker 1: all this instead of like, okay, if I just can
23:25
Speaker 1: hang with this dough group, or if I'm watching this
23:27
Speaker 1: dough group and if they're starting to act, you know, right,
23:30
Speaker 1: or or starting to see some young bucks come in
23:32
Speaker 1: or other bucks. I mean that to me, that's that's
23:35
Speaker 1: one of the most I know. It's super simplified, and
23:38
Speaker 1: it seems like like duh, just followed does during the rut,
23:41
Speaker 1: But I think it's I think it's something that we
23:43
Speaker 1: over analyze and often miss. Well, yeah, and you the
23:47
Speaker 1: way that you're you're talking here, I mean, I've I've
23:50
Speaker 1: started to lean into this so hard, and I think
23:52
Speaker 1: it is just like when you go you show up
23:55
Speaker 1: at random public land somewhere, your first job is to
23:57
Speaker 1: find a concentration of deer and to white people like
24:01
Speaker 1: you have, you have two things you gotta do, and
24:03
Speaker 1: what it What it's kind of made me realize is
24:06
Speaker 1: I've I've brought that to these private land chunks that
24:08
Speaker 1: I have permission to hunt. And I realized, like right
24:12
Speaker 1: when you started that, you said, you're like, you have
24:14
Speaker 1: to find the concentration of deer and it What it
24:16
Speaker 1: really makes me think about is if we go into
24:18
Speaker 1: a spot where used to hunting and we have permission
24:20
Speaker 1: on or at least we're taking it for granted at
24:22
Speaker 1: the deer are there, and we're going, Okay, well, the
24:25
Speaker 1: deer live here. We're not thinking like where specifically are
24:28
Speaker 1: the deer right now? Like where are they right now?
24:32
Speaker 1: We're thinking, the deer live here? So they're here, and
24:34
Speaker 1: I'm good. And when you go travel and you show
24:37
Speaker 1: up at a new place, especially a public land place,
24:39
Speaker 1: you go, I don't have that luxury. I have to
24:42
Speaker 1: find a concentration right now. And really it kind of
24:46
Speaker 1: makes me I feel uneasy about I've created so much
24:50
Speaker 1: white tail content in my life, and you know, there's
24:53
Speaker 1: there's pressure from the top down to be like how
24:55
Speaker 1: to kill big Bucks, how to kill big Bucks? How
24:57
Speaker 1: to kill big Bucks? And as you know, like the
24:59
Speaker 1: phase im in right now, I'm like most of My
25:01
Speaker 1: big bucks came from finding concentrations of deer. First. It
25:04
Speaker 1: wasn't like I walk into the woods and I'm like,
25:07
Speaker 1: there's a big buck track, there's a big buck rub.
25:09
Speaker 1: I know this dude lives here, and I'm gonna hunt
25:11
Speaker 1: that buck. Specifically, it's like where are the deer now?
25:14
Speaker 1: And then you start getting in there and working them,
25:16
Speaker 1: and then they give you something that leads you to
25:19
Speaker 1: a big one and it usually doesn't. Usually don't go
25:22
Speaker 1: in with this mindset of like I'm only thinking about
25:25
Speaker 1: big bucks. That's all that matters, and I'm gonna get there.
25:28
Speaker 1: And when you talk about the rut, like you're talking
25:29
Speaker 1: about right now with these dough betting groups and stuff
25:32
Speaker 1: like do you really know where the boat does are betting? Like,
25:35
Speaker 1: do you really know where these dough concentrations are. I'm
25:37
Speaker 1: not talking about them walking out into the bean field
25:39
Speaker 1: that you know they're going to do eventually. Where do
25:42
Speaker 1: the does live, where do they travel? How do the
25:44
Speaker 1: bucks work them with certain kinds of winds that stuff?
25:47
Speaker 1: Those are the things that you really want to answer
25:50
Speaker 1: if you want to have a really badass rut. Absolutely.
25:53
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, like like buck betting is like
25:56
Speaker 1: super hot right now, it's like a hot topic. Everybody's
25:58
Speaker 1: talking about it, wanting to like, oh, I want to
25:59
Speaker 1: hunt buck beds. I want to find buck beds. I
26:01
Speaker 1: want to get on them and do all that. Like,
26:03
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, there's a lot of value to that, Like, yes, yes,
26:05
Speaker 1: it's a good idea to know where bucks that is,
26:08
Speaker 1: that that would help you. But but like to me,
26:11
Speaker 1: I mean I see that as being not that you
26:13
Speaker 1: can't be successful with that approach or strategy right now.
26:16
Speaker 1: But that's early season before, you know, that's when bucks
26:20
Speaker 1: are still being Bucks. Mean, they're still doing their own thing.
26:22
Speaker 1: They're kind of isolated, they're doing their often you know,
26:24
Speaker 1: especially we're talking about a little bit older older bucks too,
26:26
Speaker 1: they're kind of doing their own thing off and doing that.
26:29
Speaker 1: But you're exactly, I mean, it seems like every time,
26:32
Speaker 1: it's like this time of the year when you're coming
26:34
Speaker 1: into this pre roup phase, but the next fourteen days
26:36
Speaker 1: look like for us, I feel like when you're on
26:39
Speaker 1: dough groups and you're on just just your herds of
26:42
Speaker 1: deer and you're seeing multiple deer in a night, and
26:45
Speaker 1: you know they start filtering out or coming through or
26:46
Speaker 1: moving through you see them standing up or moving around,
26:49
Speaker 1: and it's like you're seeing more and more and more
26:51
Speaker 1: like those are the times, the evenings of the mornings
26:55
Speaker 1: where I see bigger bucks. Like you're like that this
26:59
Speaker 1: is where the year are and and this is you know,
27:01
Speaker 1: because the bucks are shifting to They're not they're not
27:04
Speaker 1: using those same like deep dark holes of betting all
27:07
Speaker 1: the time. Right now. They're they're on the move, They're
27:08
Speaker 1: they're betting on the go or laying down for a
27:10
Speaker 1: little while and getting up and then cruising through again.
27:13
Speaker 1: And I totally agree, man, I mean it's it's it's
27:16
Speaker 1: finding those groups of deer right now where they are,
27:20
Speaker 1: because that's I mean, that's where the bucks are going
27:22
Speaker 1: to be. Yeah, we've been talking about this quite a
27:37
Speaker 1: bit lately, where there's really kind of two strategies to hunting,
27:42
Speaker 1: you know, kind of the heart of the rut or
27:44
Speaker 1: just the immediate pre rut, and it's it's either get
27:47
Speaker 1: on that funnel, get on that pinch point, or get
27:49
Speaker 1: somewhere on the downwind side of a dull betting area.
27:52
Speaker 1: And I ran across something, uh working I was working
27:55
Speaker 1: on an article for met Eater that isn't out yet
27:57
Speaker 1: about just you know, how to adapt to hot weather
28:00
Speaker 1: there during the rut essentially, because we hit it often,
28:03
Speaker 1: you know, at least every couple of years you get
28:05
Speaker 1: unseasonably warm tempts. And I found some dear research that
28:10
Speaker 1: that kind of highlighted it. It was from down south,
28:12
Speaker 1: so it might not be applicable everywhere, but I kind
28:14
Speaker 1: of think it might be where you know, the rut
28:17
Speaker 1: doesn't stop. We know that, and we think, okay, well
28:20
Speaker 1: they're gonna run at night or they're gonna be chasing more. Yeah,
28:22
Speaker 1: probably to some extent, it is probably gonna tilt towards
28:24
Speaker 1: the nocturnal movement, but those bucks are still going to
28:27
Speaker 1: be looking those doors, are going to find those microclimates
28:30
Speaker 1: of cooler, cooler spots, and they're going to bed there.
28:33
Speaker 1: And what it kind of highlighted to me was, you know,
28:37
Speaker 1: if you're dealing with a hot rut, those dos move less.
28:39
Speaker 1: They radio collared them in this study, so they're gonna
28:42
Speaker 1: stay bedded longer. Those bucks are still gonna look for them,
28:45
Speaker 1: and so if you're it just it was kind of
28:48
Speaker 1: a lightbulb moment for me where I always find myself
28:50
Speaker 1: between those two, Like, am I gonna go try to
28:52
Speaker 1: post up somewhere in the end of this ridge where
28:54
Speaker 1: I know does better? Am I gonna go get on
28:56
Speaker 1: this this badass train feature? And if it gets warmer,
28:59
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, well we know those does bed longer,
29:01
Speaker 1: those bucks are gonna look for him. And then you know,
29:03
Speaker 1: when you hear something like that or you read that
29:05
Speaker 1: where it's where science is like flush that out a
29:07
Speaker 1: little bit for you, then you start thinking and you're like, man,
29:09
Speaker 1: when was you know, okay, I've killed that buck when
29:11
Speaker 1: it was seventy five degrees during the rep what was
29:13
Speaker 1: he doing? Like he was doing exactly what they're talking about.
29:16
Speaker 1: And so you have these options if you know how
29:20
Speaker 1: to handle them when when the rut weather throws you
29:23
Speaker 1: a curve or the pressure throws you a curve. All
29:24
Speaker 1: that stuff is important for sure, absolutely, yeah. I mean
29:28
Speaker 1: we last year was a perfect example. We were kind
29:30
Speaker 1: of plagued with it last year. This year, knock on
29:32
Speaker 1: what it's looking a little better, but you know, it
29:34
Speaker 1: was got seventy degrees, high sixties in the seventies south
29:37
Speaker 1: what we were plagued by constant south winds all last November.
29:40
Speaker 1: It was nuts. But um, and you have to do
29:43
Speaker 1: I mean, but but even there again, whether you've got
29:45
Speaker 1: great weather, terrible weather, whatever, if you find the doughs,
29:48
Speaker 1: if you find where the deer are, you will you're
29:51
Speaker 1: gonna see the deep word that dear. I mean, a
29:52
Speaker 1: buck isn't gonna cruise by a dough betting area where
29:55
Speaker 1: there's clearly does in it and saying, oh, I'm i
29:57
Speaker 1: gotta go in there and chase her around because it's daylight.
29:59
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wait, only I'm not gonna wait. I'm gonna
30:01
Speaker 1: wait till dark to do that. Now he's not gonna
30:02
Speaker 1: say that, he's gonna get in there and you know,
30:03
Speaker 1: do his thing. But uh yeah, so I I completely agree.
30:07
Speaker 1: And and and it's just it does get your wheels turned
30:09
Speaker 1: a little bit when you say, man, at the end
30:10
Speaker 1: of the day, they're they're dear, They're still going to
30:12
Speaker 1: be dear and they're gonna do dear stuff. And when
30:14
Speaker 1: you can find them, that's really early gonna be Yeah,
30:17
Speaker 1: And you know, let's let's go down this this hot
30:21
Speaker 1: weather road a little bit because even though we doesn't
30:23
Speaker 1: look like we're gonna get it, last year we got
30:26
Speaker 1: it bad and some of the stuff. I looked up
30:28
Speaker 1: it said, I think it was I think November twenty
30:32
Speaker 1: was the fourth warmest November on record in the United
30:35
Speaker 1: States since they've been keeping tracks so in like the
30:38
Speaker 1: last hundred and thirty years or something like that. So
30:40
Speaker 1: it was a hot one. And what it what it
30:43
Speaker 1: makes me think of is people will say, well, you know,
30:45
Speaker 1: the ruts gonna be late, or it's not gonna happen.
30:48
Speaker 1: And magically we had a bunch of funds in April
30:51
Speaker 1: and May that we're born, and it turns out the
30:53
Speaker 1: rut happened one way or the other. And you know,
30:55
Speaker 1: like you said, this, this is not Hopefully we're not
30:58
Speaker 1: gonna be facing it too much this year, but there's
31:02
Speaker 1: still things you can do and things you can plan for.
31:04
Speaker 1: And I I had a dear biologists tell me one time,
31:09
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly what we were discussing, betting in
31:12
Speaker 1: cornfields or something, and he mentioned micro climates and he said, yeah,
31:15
Speaker 1: they got they got all that stuff figured out. You know,
31:17
Speaker 1: it's if it's two degrees cooler bedding in the you
31:20
Speaker 1: know the top soil of the you know, the dark
31:22
Speaker 1: soil of the at the in the bottom of Cornfield.
31:25
Speaker 1: They're gonna know that. And I've got this route I
31:28
Speaker 1: run by my house that dips down into is that
31:32
Speaker 1: I take a little trail through this park and dips
31:35
Speaker 1: down into this cattail slew. And where I live is
31:37
Speaker 1: pretty flat, and so you're talking au elevation change of
31:41
Speaker 1: maybe like forty maybe. But when when you run through there,
31:45
Speaker 1: especially in the mornings and the evenings, the temperature difference
31:48
Speaker 1: feels like it's like six seven eight degrees, and you
31:52
Speaker 1: just you hit something like that, and you go, if
31:55
Speaker 1: you lived in a square mile of land, if you
31:57
Speaker 1: were a deer and you were four and a half
31:59
Speaker 1: years old and you've spent most of your life in
32:02
Speaker 1: one square mile, you know every spot like that. So
32:05
Speaker 1: you know every spot like that, and and how the
32:08
Speaker 1: wind behaved in there when it blew out of every
32:11
Speaker 1: single direction. And so we think about this stuff and
32:14
Speaker 1: in adult wood too, right, And so we sit there
32:17
Speaker 1: and go, oh, man, it's fifteen degrees above. You know,
32:20
Speaker 1: it's sixty five degrees and I wanted to be thirty. Like, man,
32:23
Speaker 1: they got it figured out. They're gonna make some baby
32:26
Speaker 1: deer somehow, Like what are you gonna do to adapt?
32:29
Speaker 1: To it, and I mean, it's so many dots connect
32:34
Speaker 1: and things click when you're in exactly instance you're talking about,
32:36
Speaker 1: I know, the feeling to like you drop down into
32:38
Speaker 1: a bottom or come out. You can you can physically
32:40
Speaker 1: feel that the temperature change, I mean. And so the
32:43
Speaker 1: deer obviously are understanding that too. And what are you
32:45
Speaker 1: getting to get again thinking about the rut or pre
32:48
Speaker 1: rut of bucks, looking for those, especially bigger bucks and
32:51
Speaker 1: older bucks, they're more efficient. They they've been through a
32:54
Speaker 1: couple of ruts. They get the gig. They know how
32:55
Speaker 1: this thing works. They want to be efficient with their
32:58
Speaker 1: time and their travel, and they're they're not just gonna, like,
33:00
Speaker 1: you know, just zigzag all over the place like you
33:02
Speaker 1: see every you know, four corn year and a half
33:03
Speaker 1: old do or something like that. You know they're gonna
33:05
Speaker 1: they're being efficient with their travel. They know those reasons.
33:07
Speaker 1: Not only are more comfortable for deer in general to
33:11
Speaker 1: live in bed and things like that, but a lot
33:13
Speaker 1: of times you're getting thermal pull down there, you're getting
33:15
Speaker 1: winds swirl, which they love because then they can kind
33:17
Speaker 1: of sent check all directions and they can keep the
33:20
Speaker 1: keep their you know, the nose to their advantage and
33:22
Speaker 1: things like that. So that's again just increasing the odds
33:24
Speaker 1: of them being in those types of areas. Um, it's
33:27
Speaker 1: a great thing to pay attention to. I mean, I
33:29
Speaker 1: love that. Yeah, that's a great I mean, it's it's
33:31
Speaker 1: great to to find those little those little nooks and
33:34
Speaker 1: crannies like that. And you're only going to increase your
33:36
Speaker 1: odds when the conditions are tough and pressure to do
33:38
Speaker 1: the same thing. I mean, you could get a lot
33:40
Speaker 1: of times you're getting habitat diversity in those spots where
33:43
Speaker 1: it will be thicker, higher stem count stuff. Um, Again,
33:46
Speaker 1: you can't over generalize it, but there's just usually in
33:49
Speaker 1: those instances, there's a lot of things that play to
33:51
Speaker 1: play to a deer's and two hunters advantage both of
33:54
Speaker 1: finding them setting up and and getting a crack. And
33:58
Speaker 1: you know, the deer instinctively are going to find where
34:01
Speaker 1: they can be safer, cooler, more comfortable, and have more
34:05
Speaker 1: more elements play into their advantage. And those are those
34:07
Speaker 1: kind of setups like you're talking about here exactly that. Yeah,
34:10
Speaker 1: And it's those kind of little aha moments when you
34:15
Speaker 1: when you figure that stuff out. They really they come
34:18
Speaker 1: from time out there, you know, Like I mean, and
34:21
Speaker 1: I always think about, you know, in the summer, when
34:23
Speaker 1: you go hang stands and you go scout a new
34:25
Speaker 1: property and you're walking around, if you're open to that stuff,
34:29
Speaker 1: you find it, you know, where where there's a real
34:32
Speaker 1: you know, it's it might be harder to find in
34:33
Speaker 1: March when the temperature doesn't change ten degrees all day, right,
34:36
Speaker 1: But when you go out there in July and it's
34:40
Speaker 1: you know, eighty five degrees and you're you're running around
34:43
Speaker 1: on the top of a bluff and then you dip
34:44
Speaker 1: down to the bottom by the trout stream, you know,
34:47
Speaker 1: it's different. And then you gotta think, Okay, well, if
34:51
Speaker 1: I were you know, two hundred and twenty five pounds
34:53
Speaker 1: of horned up deer, and I had a you know,
34:56
Speaker 1: winner code on and I was going to run fore
35:00
Speaker 1: hours a day, but I'd probably swing through here or
35:04
Speaker 1: you know, this would probably be a part of my route.
35:06
Speaker 1: And you know, you said something earlier that I want
35:08
Speaker 1: to touch on about this, uh as far as like
35:11
Speaker 1: kind of their clover leaf pattern or these circuits these
35:13
Speaker 1: bucks run, you know, like we we think it's just
35:16
Speaker 1: random chaos across the countryside. Nature doesn't work that way.
35:21
Speaker 1: Nature defaults to calorie efficiency all the time. And so
35:27
Speaker 1: when you and we see this in some of these
35:29
Speaker 1: radio collar studies right where these these bucks they call
35:32
Speaker 1: them and they do the like the clover leaf pattern,
35:34
Speaker 1: or they have some kind of route where when they
35:36
Speaker 1: when they overlay the route day to day to day
35:38
Speaker 1: to day during the rut, you know, it's every six hours,
35:40
Speaker 1: every twelve hours, same route, same you know, unless the
35:44
Speaker 1: wind shifts. I'm sure they change it a little bit.
35:46
Speaker 1: But you see this there there there's very little randomness
35:51
Speaker 1: to It's kind of like if you if you see uh,
35:54
Speaker 1: like a graphic of wolf packs when they live next
35:56
Speaker 1: to each other, you know, wolf packs that share region,
35:59
Speaker 1: Like there's it's very clear where the boundaries are. Like
36:02
Speaker 1: you might think the wolves are running all over the countryside,
36:04
Speaker 1: Like nope, they know exactly where they're going. Dear do
36:06
Speaker 1: the same thing. And so again kind of back to
36:09
Speaker 1: what we were talking about before, if you're not on them,
36:12
Speaker 1: like you might really not be on them. This this
36:15
Speaker 1: is still happening out there somewhere, you're just not on it.
36:18
Speaker 1: Because when you see those studies, you're like, yeah, they're
36:20
Speaker 1: covering freaking ground. Yeah for sure. I mean, yes, I agree,
36:26
Speaker 1: And I there's I mean, yeah, don't get me wrong,
36:28
Speaker 1: and there's you know, nothing is absolutely there's there's randomness,
36:31
Speaker 1: and there's you know, they'll get on a hot dough
36:32
Speaker 1: finally and then that's when things, you know, kind of
36:34
Speaker 1: go crazy. But I completely agree in that circuit concept
36:37
Speaker 1: and approach. I've seen it. I know that's what they're doing.
36:40
Speaker 1: I mean again, it goes back to Bucks wanting to
36:43
Speaker 1: be efficient and wanting to to to get to their
36:46
Speaker 1: end result, which is find a hot dough. So they
36:48
Speaker 1: know where those does bed and they know the multiple
36:51
Speaker 1: family groups, they know where that they are, and they're
36:53
Speaker 1: gonna go from one group to the next until they
36:56
Speaker 1: find one in heat or or getting close to and
36:58
Speaker 1: then they'll go and you know, locked down there. But
37:00
Speaker 1: it's they're just gonna keep moving and running those running
37:03
Speaker 1: those routes and circuits every day until then one finally
37:07
Speaker 1: smells right and then it's and then then it's on.
37:09
Speaker 1: So I I completely agree with that. If you can,
37:11
Speaker 1: if you can kind of see through the chaos of
37:13
Speaker 1: the rut and kind of just simplify it down to
37:15
Speaker 1: that and find where those those groups are and understanding
37:18
Speaker 1: like and that's in my opinion, where we talk about
37:21
Speaker 1: funnels and we talk about pinch points and things like that.
37:23
Speaker 1: But when you can understand, Okay, go group here, betting
37:27
Speaker 1: group here, where's the funnel or pinch point in between
37:30
Speaker 1: the two, Like that's something to set up, like you
37:32
Speaker 1: not just finding like a where something next down and
37:34
Speaker 1: just hoping for random movement you know, come cruising through,
37:37
Speaker 1: but but really think through, like at the basic level
37:40
Speaker 1: of dose are betted here or other doors are betted here?
37:43
Speaker 1: How can I get between those two for the best
37:46
Speaker 1: set up and approach and like I mean more than likely,
37:49
Speaker 1: and and if that particular route or whatever isn't on
37:51
Speaker 1: that Bucks Bucks circuit or isn't on that travel pattern,
37:54
Speaker 1: then shift and try another one. But those I mean again,
37:57
Speaker 1: I think somebody just be overcomplicated so much and try
38:00
Speaker 1: to get so in the weeds with like approach and
38:03
Speaker 1: strategy and all these other things. But I think, once
38:06
Speaker 1: if you can get it down to that level, and
38:07
Speaker 1: again it's I know it's a lot easier to to
38:09
Speaker 1: talk about and say that actually get out there and
38:11
Speaker 1: really see it, right, But once you get out there
38:14
Speaker 1: and start realizing some of those tendencies and in those areas, man,
38:19
Speaker 1: that's when you're putting yourself in the game in my opinion. Myka,
38:22
Speaker 1: So let's talk about these these funnels and pinch points,
38:26
Speaker 1: like what's your ideal like if you if you had
38:28
Speaker 1: to just drop up a dreamy scenario, what's your ideal
38:32
Speaker 1: pinch point? I got a couple of them. But I um,
38:37
Speaker 1: like you, man, I love water. I love creeks. Um
38:40
Speaker 1: you're getting because you're not only you're there's just I mean,
38:43
Speaker 1: we could talk for days on water in general, but
38:45
Speaker 1: just it's because it's so great, but especially when you're
38:48
Speaker 1: on trips. But like creeks and creeks and you know,
38:51
Speaker 1: are my are one of my favorites because you're getting
38:54
Speaker 1: a resource, especially right now when deer cruising a lot,
38:56
Speaker 1: bucks are running and they're chasing, and they're they're they're
38:59
Speaker 1: on there there, they're running their routes or cruising their routes.
39:01
Speaker 1: They need water. Uh usually have cooler temperatures. There's usually
39:05
Speaker 1: a wind advantage there for them with a swirl or
39:07
Speaker 1: a thermal pole or something like that. And there's almost
39:10
Speaker 1: always a train feature that in that that inspires some
39:14
Speaker 1: type of movement where it's either got it's gonna manipulate
39:17
Speaker 1: either movement in some way because of the way it's
39:19
Speaker 1: cut out in dear. I mean, we'll take the lead
39:21
Speaker 1: path of least resistance and they'll just walk around something
39:23
Speaker 1: or crossing where that's narrow or wherever so narrow creek crossings. UM.
39:29
Speaker 1: You know, with two habitats come together. I say it's
39:31
Speaker 1: like a CRP CRP edge or like an old field,
39:34
Speaker 1: grown up edge whatever, UM a timber like a timber
39:38
Speaker 1: finger and a creek that runs with that where you've
39:40
Speaker 1: got a bunch of that stuff kind of coming together
39:42
Speaker 1: in one spot. I love stuff like that, UM where
39:45
Speaker 1: you just have you have structure transitions, UM edge kind
39:50
Speaker 1: of all coming together in one place. I really love that.
39:53
Speaker 1: UM grown grown up, thick CRP fields or another one.
39:58
Speaker 1: I just I absolutely love them. UM. Just the thicker
40:01
Speaker 1: than ask, you're the better figuring out the edges around
40:04
Speaker 1: those where that where the transition happens. How they're entering
40:06
Speaker 1: and exiting a lot of times for betting, whether it
40:08
Speaker 1: be dough betting or whatever. UM, how they're getting into that.
40:12
Speaker 1: UM are are another really great ones. And those can
40:15
Speaker 1: either be. You know, if you've got a hillside that
40:17
Speaker 1: kind of dumps down into a bottom, I mean that
40:19
Speaker 1: hillside in itself will help follow movement. I mean, yes,
40:22
Speaker 1: they will transition along the they'll move or travel along
40:25
Speaker 1: the hillsides. But a lot of times if you look
40:27
Speaker 1: at that top third or the bottom, that's where the
40:29
Speaker 1: movement's happening. Usually not some you know, not a lot
40:32
Speaker 1: in between. But if you can get on that top
40:34
Speaker 1: of the hill or the slope or at the bottom
40:36
Speaker 1: up along that wherever that thick cover is, um man,
40:40
Speaker 1: a lot of that's that's a lot bet a lot
40:42
Speaker 1: of really good travel and cover there too. Um yeah,
40:46
Speaker 1: I mean just those are those are probably two of
40:48
Speaker 1: my favorites. I'd say, along those those thick brushy creek bottoms,
40:51
Speaker 1: either at a crossing or where it kind of where
40:54
Speaker 1: it kind of winds in and creates a pinch or
40:58
Speaker 1: a travel a tight travel court, or where they kind
41:00
Speaker 1: of just have to go through there in a cree
41:02
Speaker 1: in a winding creek, or up on a habitat or
41:06
Speaker 1: train transition with a CRP field, there's some kind of
41:08
Speaker 1: thick cover where wherever you're having to a change in
41:11
Speaker 1: habitat is just in itself is a really really great
41:15
Speaker 1: funneling kind of a funneling. There is a funnel factor
41:18
Speaker 1: that happens there. So some of the a lot of
41:20
Speaker 1: the stuff you're talking about, I mean, the creek bottom
41:22
Speaker 1: thing is just money. Like there's that's my favorite too.
41:26
Speaker 1: But you know, obviously if you get around a c
41:28
Speaker 1: RP field, you've got some edge habitat you're doing. You're
41:31
Speaker 1: doing all right too. But let's just let me throw
41:33
Speaker 1: a curve your way. So let's say somebody was like Alex,
41:37
Speaker 1: you're heading up to the up in Michigan and you're
41:41
Speaker 1: gonna be hunting relatively flat ground, uh, you know, miles
41:46
Speaker 1: of unbroken timber. So you don't, you know, because a
41:49
Speaker 1: lot of the examples there are a lot of things
41:51
Speaker 1: you just talked about. You you've got some elevation, you
41:54
Speaker 1: got some up and down to work with. That makes
41:56
Speaker 1: to me, that makes finding pinch points and funnels a
41:59
Speaker 1: lot easier and working to win. But what if you've
42:02
Speaker 1: got a big woods flat situation, what are you doing there?
42:07
Speaker 1: Then it's for me in that situation, it's it's gonna
42:10
Speaker 1: be as as much habitat as possible so it's the
42:14
Speaker 1: habitat change. So a lot of times you'll find, you know,
42:17
Speaker 1: you'll find clusters of you know, whether it be muth
42:21
Speaker 1: floor rows, just some some something thicker that breaks up,
42:25
Speaker 1: that breaks up, just the sea of big timber, um,
42:29
Speaker 1: higher stem count. Even it doesn't even DECEI have to
42:31
Speaker 1: be a different species of habitat. It can just be
42:33
Speaker 1: you know, if you're in a there's giant maples and
42:35
Speaker 1: oaks and and everything like that, or in this big
42:38
Speaker 1: wood setting or even pines, just finding younger stuff, like
42:43
Speaker 1: just just higher stem count, younger stuff group together, you're
42:46
Speaker 1: just likely gonna find higher concentrations of deer. Like soft
42:50
Speaker 1: edges within the big timber setting I think are great.
42:53
Speaker 1: I love that stuff. It just attracts deer not only
42:56
Speaker 1: to hang out in bed, but also it gives them
42:58
Speaker 1: more food variety. They've they've got just different stuff to
43:01
Speaker 1: browse on and eat, just natural vegetation things like that. Um,
43:04
Speaker 1: that would be a big one first and foremost um
43:08
Speaker 1: And just I guess understanding what kind of food that
43:14
Speaker 1: big wood setting offers that deer liking, or that you're
43:17
Speaker 1: seeing deer sign in and around and just trying to
43:19
Speaker 1: focus on whatever. The largest concentration of that type of
43:22
Speaker 1: food for them is if it's a certain browse, if
43:24
Speaker 1: it's um. Just again, like I said, natural vegetation that
43:27
Speaker 1: they're eating um, focusing on that food and then try
43:31
Speaker 1: to see is there clean gosh. I mean I founded
43:35
Speaker 1: big woods a little bit. I don't hunt it probably
43:37
Speaker 1: as much as you are, or I wouldn't say I
43:39
Speaker 1: hunt it a lot. But even just the slightest little
43:43
Speaker 1: variants in training, even if it's if it is mostly flat,
43:46
Speaker 1: if you find this little depression or like there's this
43:48
Speaker 1: little knob and coming off that back side of that knob,
43:51
Speaker 1: if there's you know, if it's somewhat a little protected,
43:53
Speaker 1: or there is even a habitat uh transition or change
43:58
Speaker 1: there um, you care all almost find a trail, find
44:01
Speaker 1: some signs, find something there. So I'm looking for that,
44:04
Speaker 1: just even the slightest mix and habitat or cover um
44:07
Speaker 1: and try to help focusing on on what what they're
44:10
Speaker 1: what they're eating kind of food just naturally in the
44:12
Speaker 1: in the big one setting. Yeah, the soft edges, a
44:15
Speaker 1: little bit of terrain. I ran into something, uh a
44:20
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. I was out with with the dogs.
44:22
Speaker 1: I was hunting woodcock in northern Wisconsin, and I just
44:26
Speaker 1: I was on this huge chunk of county land and
44:29
Speaker 1: I've been in there the weekend before, mostly hunting grouse,
44:32
Speaker 1: and I saw this area that I kind of forgot about,
44:35
Speaker 1: but it was clear cut, and it was probably it's
44:39
Speaker 1: pretty young, maybe maybe a two or three year old
44:42
Speaker 1: clear cut, so a little bit younger than I usually
44:44
Speaker 1: like to hunt. But you know, driving by it hunting
44:47
Speaker 1: some other stuff, I was like, I'm gonna, you know,
44:49
Speaker 1: one of these times this fall, I'm gonna run in
44:51
Speaker 1: there with the dogs and just see. The next weekend
44:53
Speaker 1: I got, I had my chance, had a little bit
44:54
Speaker 1: of time in the middle of the day, so I
44:55
Speaker 1: took the dogs in there. It was full of woodcock
44:58
Speaker 1: and I'm hunting along and I looked over and I
45:01
Speaker 1: saw a shed antler hanging in a tree. And I'm
45:03
Speaker 1: not the first hangar I've ever found in my life,
45:05
Speaker 1: and there was it was a decent defer up there.
45:07
Speaker 1: It was pretty nice. But I'm like, man, this is cool,
45:10
Speaker 1: you know, like you don't find October sheds all that often.
45:13
Speaker 1: And I started looking around and I was like, man, like,
45:17
Speaker 1: there's there I'm just on this little kind of knob
45:20
Speaker 1: in here, And if you looked at it from the road,
45:23
Speaker 1: you're like, it's just a flat, you know, a couple
45:25
Speaker 1: hundred acres that they cut. But when you get in there,
45:28
Speaker 1: like there's some there's just such subtle terrain to it.
45:32
Speaker 1: And you started looking around, I'm like, I could see
45:33
Speaker 1: why he why he wintered in here. But then we
45:37
Speaker 1: I hunted sort of out towards the edge where the
45:39
Speaker 1: swamp met this kind of high woods, older growth stuff,
45:42
Speaker 1: and where the where that clear cut hit. And you're like, Okay,
45:46
Speaker 1: now I have a nice edge, and then I've got
45:49
Speaker 1: a swamp that's kind of funneling them around. I started looking.
45:51
Speaker 1: I'm like, there's it's pounded in here, even even in
45:54
Speaker 1: a low density area. And I was like, this is
45:57
Speaker 1: a place where if you posted up with the right end,
46:00
Speaker 1: dose probably bet in there. The bucks are real comfortable
46:02
Speaker 1: in that clear cut. And it just you start looking
46:05
Speaker 1: at it and going it's easy to think that those
46:08
Speaker 1: big woods situations don't really offer you a whole lot,
46:11
Speaker 1: but it's a it's subtle, you know, it's not like
46:14
Speaker 1: the in your face, you know where a bluff bumps
46:16
Speaker 1: up to a nice river out west or something like.
46:18
Speaker 1: It's a subtle transition or a subtle soft edge. But
46:22
Speaker 1: when you start finding them, me go, this is it,
46:24
Speaker 1: Like this is what you start working, you know, And
46:26
Speaker 1: I mean in in that situation, it might be better
46:28
Speaker 1: to be running a bunch of cameras if you could
46:30
Speaker 1: or whatever, but but you could observe in there and
46:33
Speaker 1: be moving and you know, so it's I think it's
46:36
Speaker 1: important to look at this. I realized we do something
46:40
Speaker 1: a lot. I'm curious your take on this, Alex. I'm
46:43
Speaker 1: trying to focus on the things that are positive out there,
46:48
Speaker 1: like what what do you have working in your favor?
46:50
Speaker 1: Because you know, like with the with the hot rut
46:52
Speaker 1: or windy weather, you know, extra people out there. We
46:54
Speaker 1: tend to just kind of glom onto the negative and go, well,
46:57
Speaker 1: this is working against me right, sad all day? Yes
47:00
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything. I had three idiots walked through
47:01
Speaker 1: with cock crossbows over their shoulder. Like we we always
47:04
Speaker 1: focus on the negatives instead of going all right, what
47:07
Speaker 1: is what are they given me right now? You know?
47:09
Speaker 1: And like you mentioned, the forecast is shaping up real nice? Uh,
47:13
Speaker 1: what do they give you? As far as you know
47:15
Speaker 1: what you can observe, What are they giving you for sign?
47:17
Speaker 1: What are you giving yourself a chance to really figure
47:20
Speaker 1: out instead of just being like you know, kind of
47:23
Speaker 1: focus on the negative and being like, well I'm just
47:24
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and hope that I can rattle one in.
47:26
Speaker 1: I think the mindset part of that is huge, so big. Yeah,
47:31
Speaker 1: mindset is here, and I'm I'm fortunate so whatever. For
47:35
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I was born a serial optimists, so I'm
47:37
Speaker 1: probably pretty much positive about everything, which is, which is,
47:40
Speaker 1: it's great. But I didn't realize I didn't realize how
47:45
Speaker 1: much of an advantage that would play into hunting until like,
47:48
Speaker 1: you know, a few years back where just like because
47:49
Speaker 1: I just the way I was, like I just always
47:51
Speaker 1: looked at the glass half bull. I'm not all right.
47:52
Speaker 1: I know I can't control like these yahoo's that are
47:54
Speaker 1: coming in here and like you know, mucking this whole
47:56
Speaker 1: place up and just causing issues with all this hunting
47:59
Speaker 1: pressure and man, dear just aren't moving right now. Like
48:01
Speaker 1: what am I gonna all the weathers coming to? Uh?
48:02
Speaker 1: You know, I just I just I just naturally don't
48:06
Speaker 1: think like that. So that's really really It's been a
48:08
Speaker 1: really positive thing for me for deer hunting because man,
48:11
Speaker 1: i'd really just it's caused me to filter through all
48:14
Speaker 1: that stuff and just find what is happening. Okay, well
48:17
Speaker 1: it's not happening right here. Man, this has been really tough.
48:19
Speaker 1: I need to move on and find the next spot
48:20
Speaker 1: I need to go. I need to keep and keep
48:21
Speaker 1: moving until I find it where I'm finding here yet
48:24
Speaker 1: it's it's hot. They're just not moving there. Man. They
48:26
Speaker 1: should be cruising up and down this ridge no problem
48:28
Speaker 1: at all, Like they just should be a magnet for
48:30
Speaker 1: this place. But they're not here. I need to I
48:32
Speaker 1: need to move down a little bit um and find
48:35
Speaker 1: where there are you know, maybe it's hot and it's
48:37
Speaker 1: like we're talking about, they're they're sitting in that lower
48:39
Speaker 1: where that that just that climate change or that climate
48:42
Speaker 1: hub where it's just a lower spot down where it's
48:44
Speaker 1: a little cooler. It's gonna pull. So I just I've
48:46
Speaker 1: always thought just what kind of like that really just
48:49
Speaker 1: optimistic outlook, um, and it is a huge advantage. I mean,
48:53
Speaker 1: I would, you know, urge everybody just to try to
48:55
Speaker 1: be as positive as possible, because at the end of
48:57
Speaker 1: the day man, Like you say it all the time,
49:00
Speaker 1: we're hunting, We're not we're not solving, we're not carrying
49:03
Speaker 1: cancer out there. Right, It's like we're just we're we're trying.
49:05
Speaker 1: We're meant to enjoy it, and we need to be
49:07
Speaker 1: positive and find the things that are just really um
49:10
Speaker 1: that are working in the favor for the deer movement. Whatever.
49:12
Speaker 1: There's always and I truly believe if you look hard enough,
49:15
Speaker 1: or if you or if you just keep the right mindset,
49:16
Speaker 1: like you're saying, you can always find something. There's always
49:19
Speaker 1: something that because it's not like the deer just vanished
49:21
Speaker 1: off this, you know whatever that track is, that piece,
49:23
Speaker 1: if there's signed there, then yeah, they may have shifted
49:27
Speaker 1: or there may not be as many as there were
49:28
Speaker 1: or whatever. But if you look close or if you
49:31
Speaker 1: think of the right mindset, you're gonna find something. You're
49:33
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna find something that's gonna tell you, tell
49:35
Speaker 1: you a positive thing that you can cling on too
49:37
Speaker 1: as a clue and keep keep moving. One thing that
49:53
Speaker 1: I've come to realize on that sort of on this
49:56
Speaker 1: note is how you're at it, dude, is will keep
50:01
Speaker 1: you looking. It's a it's a self fulfilling prophecy, right
50:03
Speaker 1: like if you if you believe you're gonna find it,
50:06
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep looking and you're gonna find it. And
50:08
Speaker 1: I also think it helps you handle the mistakes much better.
50:12
Speaker 1: So I can remember, I was not born like a
50:16
Speaker 1: muppet like you were. I was not born a total optimist.
50:19
Speaker 1: I was born pretty pessimistic. And it's taken me a
50:22
Speaker 1: long time to crawl out of that hole. But I
50:26
Speaker 1: can think back to times in my hunting career where
50:29
Speaker 1: you know, I had a I had a situation I
50:32
Speaker 1: think I was probably about early twenties and I was
50:37
Speaker 1: like at the point where I had killed some two
50:38
Speaker 1: year olds and I was like, I need to, like
50:40
Speaker 1: I need to put my big boy pants on and
50:42
Speaker 1: kill a big one here eventually, like this has got
50:43
Speaker 1: to happen. And I had a night where I had
50:47
Speaker 1: a like a one fifty come in, which to me
50:50
Speaker 1: in Minnesota at that time was unreal. I mean it
50:52
Speaker 1: was like holy balls missed him, and then I missed
50:56
Speaker 1: a like pointer like ten minutes later, and I was like,
51:01
Speaker 1: and I hadn't killed a big, big buck yet, and
51:03
Speaker 1: I I'm telling you, dude, I was in a bad place.
51:07
Speaker 1: And this was definitely not the first time I had
51:10
Speaker 1: missed a big one, but it was the first time
51:11
Speaker 1: I had missed two really good opportunities. And it just
51:14
Speaker 1: total fell apart and that crushed me right, like just stupid.
51:21
Speaker 1: And now I think about when things like that happened.
51:24
Speaker 1: So just just for example, last year, I had about
51:27
Speaker 1: six days to hunt Minnesota right before the gun season,
51:29
Speaker 1: so the beginning of November, and you know, okay standards,
51:34
Speaker 1: I wasn't like I don't I didn't need a one
51:35
Speaker 1: fifty like I needed just like an okay buck right
51:38
Speaker 1: because I knew, I knew where I was. It wasn't
51:40
Speaker 1: like you were gonna. I wasn't on Iowa. But I
51:43
Speaker 1: went out and just kind of got my ass handed
51:47
Speaker 1: to me, you know. I just I was on some
51:48
Speaker 1: little ones, but I just couldn't get in and going.
51:51
Speaker 1: There was a lot of people on that farm, and
51:54
Speaker 1: I ended up the last morning I had before I
51:56
Speaker 1: had to leave, I texted my buddy and I said,
51:59
Speaker 1: if a deer comes by, I'm shooting it. I'm getting
52:01
Speaker 1: out of here. I got doe TEGs, I got buck tags,
52:03
Speaker 1: and I want to be done. Had a little buck
52:05
Speaker 1: come in just a gift shot him. He ran off
52:07
Speaker 1: and died, and I was I was sitting there getting
52:09
Speaker 1: my stuff ready. I started looking around a little more closely,
52:13
Speaker 1: because this is a morning hunt. This is a place
52:14
Speaker 1: I've hunted since I was fifteen years old. I've spent
52:17
Speaker 1: some time there. And I started looking and I was like, man,
52:21
Speaker 1: all those rubs are leading to and from the corn
52:24
Speaker 1: field below me. And I'm looking at the cornfield that
52:27
Speaker 1: I've looked at and I've walked through hundreds of times,
52:30
Speaker 1: not joking, and I'm just looking at the terrain and
52:33
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I found a shed right out in
52:34
Speaker 1: the middle of that two years ago, and there's like
52:36
Speaker 1: a little hump out there. It just clicked and I
52:39
Speaker 1: was like, he's betting out there. There's a big one
52:42
Speaker 1: in here, and he's betting in that corn and he's
52:44
Speaker 1: coming through here at certain times. And it was just
52:46
Speaker 1: like such a stupid revelation. It was one of those
52:48
Speaker 1: times where I was just like I felt good about it.
52:51
Speaker 1: I was like, even though like the hunt didn't really
52:53
Speaker 1: go the way I wanted to, I just had this
52:55
Speaker 1: moment where I was like now I know now, I
52:58
Speaker 1: like it took a lot of you know, bumbling around,
53:02
Speaker 1: but that little thing was really important to learn and
53:06
Speaker 1: to use. And I'll use that for a long time,
53:08
Speaker 1: I promise you. And I think when you when you
53:11
Speaker 1: when you go in with a bad attitude or something
53:12
Speaker 1: happens and it's just not going your way, it's just
53:16
Speaker 1: harder to learn from the dumb stuff you've done. Like
53:18
Speaker 1: I should have figured that out, Like if you look
53:20
Speaker 1: at my resume, I should have had that one dial.
53:23
Speaker 1: I didn't, and I didn't for a long long time,
53:25
Speaker 1: but now I feel like I do. And I think
53:27
Speaker 1: attitude just plays into that so much. I agree man entirely.
53:32
Speaker 1: And it's it's it's all about mindset and figuring it
53:35
Speaker 1: out and it's and that's again I think just just
53:38
Speaker 1: the a lot of that plays into just the having
53:43
Speaker 1: the kind of this search for knowledge right as we
53:46
Speaker 1: just want to learn as much as we possibly can.
53:48
Speaker 1: And that's where you're getting, you know, just get I mean,
53:51
Speaker 1: because what are you doing at that point? You know,
53:52
Speaker 1: if you're just if you're just going back to the
53:54
Speaker 1: same spots over and over and over again where you
53:55
Speaker 1: had success and you're gonna have some more success. But
53:57
Speaker 1: it's like you're not learning anything new, or you're not
53:59
Speaker 1: looking at it with the different mindset or perspective or
54:01
Speaker 1: trying to understand something new about this this certain spot.
54:05
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's everything. I mean, you've got to
54:08
Speaker 1: continue to grow and evolve an adapt if you really
54:10
Speaker 1: want to, you know, be be the best hunter you
54:13
Speaker 1: can be. You know whatever that whatever that definition is
54:15
Speaker 1: for yourself. Um, I think that's it's so important to
54:19
Speaker 1: to find and keep looking and and and yeah, I
54:22
Speaker 1: mean those failures suck, and it does take you to
54:24
Speaker 1: a dark place. Man, There's there are no I've been
54:26
Speaker 1: there many times. I mean this there's a public peace
54:29
Speaker 1: in here in Illinois that I hunt. Um, I've been
54:31
Speaker 1: hunting it really hard actually for the last three years,
54:33
Speaker 1: and I've never i haven't killed a deer on it,
54:35
Speaker 1: and I've wounded a really big one and I've missed
54:37
Speaker 1: another one. And it's just like it just it deflates you,
54:41
Speaker 1: I mean absolutely just takes it out of you. But
54:43
Speaker 1: at the same time, if you look at it with
54:45
Speaker 1: another perspective, after you know, after the sting wears off
54:48
Speaker 1: a little bit, you're looking at it with another perspective
54:50
Speaker 1: of what can I learn about this what did I understand?
54:52
Speaker 1: What did the deal? How did I break down what
54:54
Speaker 1: this deer was doing? Why was he there at this
54:56
Speaker 1: particular time? And you know, at this moment and what
54:58
Speaker 1: brought him in? And you start looking at it from
55:01
Speaker 1: you know, a higher, more basic level perspective of what
55:04
Speaker 1: you can take away from that and and learn from
55:06
Speaker 1: the situations or the encounters again putting a positive twist
55:09
Speaker 1: on maybe an otherwise negative situation. It's only gonna help
55:13
Speaker 1: you grow and learn in the in the longer. Ru
55:15
Speaker 1: and I'm and and even I've even tried to do
55:18
Speaker 1: it from even successes, even when you shoot one and
55:21
Speaker 1: it's like great, I got one, like and and and
55:23
Speaker 1: that's kind of where it stops a lot of times,
55:25
Speaker 1: and it's like, wait a second, do you really understand
55:29
Speaker 1: how you got to kill that deer? Like? What what happened? What?
55:31
Speaker 1: What transpired you? How do you access how the deer
55:34
Speaker 1: come in? Where were you set up? Why were you
55:36
Speaker 1: set up? When? How you know those those who? What? When? Where? Why? Things?
55:39
Speaker 1: Those questions, just especially the why questions A big one
55:42
Speaker 1: is just continuing to try to generate knowledge and looking
55:46
Speaker 1: at it from a positive angle of like how can
55:48
Speaker 1: I play this to my advantage? How can I What
55:50
Speaker 1: can I learn? What can I take away from this
55:51
Speaker 1: to be better moving forward? Um? It's I think that
55:56
Speaker 1: is the most basic way to improve as a hunters
55:58
Speaker 1: as is having that positive mindset it and learning from
56:02
Speaker 1: obviously mistakes but also you know your success is too
56:05
Speaker 1: and really break them down and analyze it. Yeah, wouldn't
56:08
Speaker 1: it wouldn't it be interesting if after every deer that
56:11
Speaker 1: you shot, you could see a print out of all
56:13
Speaker 1: the negative thoughts you had that day leading up to it.
56:16
Speaker 1: It would be awesome, you know, absolutely, if you could
56:19
Speaker 1: just there was just a ticker tape and it was
56:21
Speaker 1: like this access sucks, ORR, I stepped on this stick,
56:24
Speaker 1: or that guy walked in, or there's three more trucks
56:25
Speaker 1: here than I expected. And then you see the buck
56:27
Speaker 1: coming and you're like, don't miss this up, don't screw
56:29
Speaker 1: this up? Should I call to him? Should I not
56:30
Speaker 1: called to him? I mean, it would probably be really
56:33
Speaker 1: fascinating to to take a deep dive into your psyche
56:36
Speaker 1: in those moments and realize how often you probably break negative.
56:40
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but those are killed days,
56:43
Speaker 1: like when everything is going wrong and I've done every
56:45
Speaker 1: single thing wrong in in the books. That's I'm like,
56:47
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see a big one like that's gonna happen.
56:49
Speaker 1: I'm probably and I'll probably kill him because everything else
56:51
Speaker 1: has been a nightmare. It's like the days where it's like, man,
56:54
Speaker 1: I got it. I got there like way early. I
56:57
Speaker 1: snuck in, didn't make a peep, I got set up,
56:59
Speaker 1: hung my standard, I got set up without even you know,
57:02
Speaker 1: scratching any bark or anything like that. It's just that
57:05
Speaker 1: I got it, got settled, and everything is perfectly quiet.
57:07
Speaker 1: And then I started sitting there, I'm like, yep, that
57:09
Speaker 1: was way that happened, way too easy. There's that. I'm
57:11
Speaker 1: not gonna see a thing like that. It's always the
57:14
Speaker 1: it always seems like it's the reverse. When things are
57:16
Speaker 1: a nightmare, that's what it's gonna come together. So yeah,
57:19
Speaker 1: you're right, just gotta think positive all the time. Then
57:22
Speaker 1: you gotta be the eternal optimist out there. What was
57:25
Speaker 1: the single best rut hunting day you ever had in
57:27
Speaker 1: your life? Oh? Wow, Um gosh, that's tough, dude. There's
57:44
Speaker 1: a couple. There's been a couple of really good ones.
57:46
Speaker 1: I've been blessed. Um, there's two. One. It was about
57:56
Speaker 1: oh Man, probably years ago, and that's when I was
58:01
Speaker 1: still living in Michigan. Uh. It was Halloween morning, and um,
58:07
Speaker 1: I watched six bucks and about a hundred and forty
58:14
Speaker 1: five inch nine point maybe even pushing one fifty in Milligan.
58:19
Speaker 1: This is in Michigan, so it's a it's a big one, um,
58:21
Speaker 1: And it's a big one anywhere, but it's a it
58:23
Speaker 1: was a really big one for there. And I actually
58:25
Speaker 1: watched him lockdown and braided dough for six hours. He
58:30
Speaker 1: brought her like three times. Um. I watched him out
58:33
Speaker 1: in this field, and of course, you know, she got
58:36
Speaker 1: up and I wasn't going there, planning on sitting all day.
58:38
Speaker 1: Actually had some stuff going on that afternoons. I was
58:40
Speaker 1: gonna hunt till about midday down Halloween morning and then
58:43
Speaker 1: and then bail and I ended up sitting all day
58:45
Speaker 1: dark to dark in that spot, um and watched him,
58:48
Speaker 1: you know. Then the dough got up when the other way,
58:50
Speaker 1: of course, and let off. But the other time was
58:52
Speaker 1: in Kansas. I was on a piece of public and
58:55
Speaker 1: there was no good trees to get in, and I
58:57
Speaker 1: called it. I kind of I hunted a couple of
58:59
Speaker 1: times then then, but it has never been as good
59:01
Speaker 1: as it was this year. And we've talked about this
59:03
Speaker 1: a lot out there in Kansas cows right, cows on
59:05
Speaker 1: public and walking ground. So it was a super dry year.
59:10
Speaker 1: So that franch er rotated his cattle off early and
59:14
Speaker 1: and into another spot, which was great because then deer
59:16
Speaker 1: moved in and once the cows are off that you
59:18
Speaker 1: move into this place and it kind of creates this
59:21
Speaker 1: it's in this like little this this little role there's
59:23
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a low spot between two rolls.
59:25
Speaker 1: The low spots probably fifty yards wide between these two
59:28
Speaker 1: roles in in these in the these hills and these
59:31
Speaker 1: in this prairies pasture, and there's a row of as
59:34
Speaker 1: an old fence row that's all brush brushed up and
59:36
Speaker 1: there's no good trees. So there's a couple of young
59:39
Speaker 1: cedar trees that you can kind of have like a
59:40
Speaker 1: natural ground blind if you just sit in them. So um,
59:44
Speaker 1: and it worked like magic. I I found there was
59:46
Speaker 1: it was tore up like scrapes, tore up scrapes along
59:49
Speaker 1: this old fence row. Um, and it was I mean
59:51
Speaker 1: from where the structure was to the brushy French row.
59:54
Speaker 1: It's about thirty five yards wide. So I called it.
59:57
Speaker 1: I kind of started calling death alley. I was like,
59:58
Speaker 1: this is awesome. It's like anything it comes down here
1:00:00
Speaker 1: is is toads and so um I had man. I
1:00:05
Speaker 1: hunted it for two days, um grade encounters. All all
1:00:08
Speaker 1: days I passed the buck I shouldn't have passed. The
1:00:10
Speaker 1: first morning I ended up shooting a really good eight
1:00:12
Speaker 1: point um. The second morning, my dad was out there
1:00:16
Speaker 1: with a tag. I took him back to the exact
1:00:18
Speaker 1: same spot, uh that evening and he killed and he
1:00:22
Speaker 1: killed his best, one of his best bow bucks out
1:00:24
Speaker 1: of the exact same spot the same day I shot mine.
1:00:26
Speaker 1: In the morning, he shot his out the same spot
1:00:28
Speaker 1: and eating on public ground. UM So, those those two
1:00:31
Speaker 1: are probably my best my best rock memories, those are
1:00:33
Speaker 1: those are pretty special. And it's you know, even though
1:00:36
Speaker 1: that's Kansas, that's still a testament to how good you
1:00:39
Speaker 1: can have it out on public land. I'm telling you, man,
1:00:41
Speaker 1: absolutely yeah. The biggest buck I ever killed in my
1:00:45
Speaker 1: life was on public land during the rut in Nova
1:00:47
Speaker 1: in Nebraska, and it was bonkers bonkers, and you know
1:00:53
Speaker 1: it can it can definitely happen out there. But the
1:00:56
Speaker 1: the one thing that we should have touched on I
1:00:59
Speaker 1: want to touch on right now about you know, sort
1:01:02
Speaker 1: of the optimism conversation we just had, and what you're
1:01:05
Speaker 1: talking about right now is when you believe, you know,
1:01:09
Speaker 1: like you you went in and you found the death
1:01:11
Speaker 1: Alley down there in Kansas, and you're like that, that's
1:01:14
Speaker 1: the kind of spot where you're putting in time, like
1:01:16
Speaker 1: you're gonna be like, you believe in it, you believe
1:01:18
Speaker 1: in yourself, you believe in your scouting, you believe in
1:01:20
Speaker 1: that spot, and you're gonna put in the time. And
1:01:23
Speaker 1: I think we talk a lot about dark to dark
1:01:26
Speaker 1: sits and we talk about you know, days and days
1:01:28
Speaker 1: on end, and most people really aren't doing that, Like
1:01:31
Speaker 1: they can find reasons to talk themselves out of you know,
1:01:34
Speaker 1: go in for launch or do whatever. But when you've yeah,
1:01:38
Speaker 1: I mean, but when you've got a good attitude and
1:01:40
Speaker 1: you believe you're gonna see dear, that's like the real
1:01:43
Speaker 1: key to rut successes, because then you're gonna put in
1:01:46
Speaker 1: the time and you need to absolutely thirty minute rule.
1:01:50
Speaker 1: I was always telling myself thirty more minutes. Just the
1:01:52
Speaker 1: thirty more minutes. It's like another half an hour, man,
1:01:55
Speaker 1: that's all. You gotta have just thirty more minutes and
1:01:56
Speaker 1: then sure enough, then by the time it's one, and
1:01:58
Speaker 1: then you're like, it's one o'clock. What am I gonna do? Like,
1:02:01
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, if you're in the right spot,
1:02:04
Speaker 1: I mean typically how I personally, you know, if I
1:02:06
Speaker 1: had to, if I had to average it out ninety
1:02:07
Speaker 1: percent at the time, my all day sits are. You know,
1:02:09
Speaker 1: I've got lunch snacks, water in my pack, starting one
1:02:13
Speaker 1: spot in the morning because I'm usually there for a
1:02:15
Speaker 1: morning reason, right, and then and then just get down,
1:02:17
Speaker 1: moved who whatever is going to capitalize on evening or
1:02:20
Speaker 1: or some type of later in the day and then
1:02:22
Speaker 1: set up again immediately. So it's like I'm all day.
1:02:25
Speaker 1: It's just I might be in two different spots depending
1:02:27
Speaker 1: on what looks like. But don't I mean, there's absolutely
1:02:30
Speaker 1: those spots where you just you know, train features, habitat location,
1:02:35
Speaker 1: reason for why you just you ride it out dark
1:02:38
Speaker 1: to dark all day and you just you gotta I
1:02:41
Speaker 1: mean for me, and then you know it gets tough, right,
1:02:43
Speaker 1: I mean, you'd be been there. It's it's November twenty
1:02:46
Speaker 1: and you're just like, gosh, I've been doing this for
1:02:48
Speaker 1: the last thirty days and it's like I'm just you know,
1:02:51
Speaker 1: beat and tired, and you know, I just want to
1:02:54
Speaker 1: lay down and take a nap, and you do it.
1:02:56
Speaker 1: But it's like they need to start thinking about you know,
1:03:00
Speaker 1: literally between January in August, the fifty miles I've scouted
1:03:07
Speaker 1: and I've walked and scouted and I've and you know,
1:03:10
Speaker 1: the different you know, the investment of time, time away
1:03:13
Speaker 1: from my family, the wife, time away from you know, everything,
1:03:15
Speaker 1: and it's like, what are you doing it? I mean
1:03:17
Speaker 1: it's like, if why would I bail now? Right? Like
1:03:20
Speaker 1: everything I've done all the time and the commitment. So
1:03:22
Speaker 1: it's like that helps me too. It's like I've got
1:03:24
Speaker 1: so much invested in this and it's fun. It's a
1:03:26
Speaker 1: good thing. It's gonna feel so good when it pays off.
1:03:28
Speaker 1: And that's the thing, not if but when. You've got
1:03:30
Speaker 1: to just have that that mental mindset of just that
1:03:34
Speaker 1: positivity of not if but when, And and sometimes you
1:03:37
Speaker 1: find those perfect places or those beautiful spots where you
1:03:39
Speaker 1: do just gotta sit there and write it out. Yeah,
1:03:42
Speaker 1: And I think recognizing that's real important. And also what
1:03:45
Speaker 1: you said there where you know you're gonna hunt all day,
1:03:48
Speaker 1: but it might be from two different locations that that
1:03:52
Speaker 1: happens by choice and by necessity a lot. And so
1:03:55
Speaker 1: I think I think we've sold this idea of the
1:03:57
Speaker 1: dark to dark sit is the answer to the rep problem, bums.
1:04:00
Speaker 1: And it certainly can be if you if the wind
1:04:02
Speaker 1: holds up for you and conditions stay in your favor
1:04:05
Speaker 1: and you've got that faith. But man, I I've had
1:04:09
Speaker 1: a lot of times I had this happened last year.
1:04:11
Speaker 1: I went into a spot, you know, like November five, six,
1:04:14
Speaker 1: whatever it was, and I was I was gonna sit
1:04:16
Speaker 1: all day. It was a creek crossing, it was, it
1:04:19
Speaker 1: was right on a million different accounts, and I saw,
1:04:23
Speaker 1: like I can't I think I saw seventeen deer or something.
1:04:26
Speaker 1: By like ten o'clock in the morning, it was on,
1:04:29
Speaker 1: but the wind was like not doing what it was
1:04:32
Speaker 1: supposed to, and it kept getting worse as it got warmer.
1:04:35
Speaker 1: And then I had somebody else come in on me,
1:04:37
Speaker 1: and at like eleven o'clock, I was like, now I'm
1:04:40
Speaker 1: doing more damage here than good. And I say this
1:04:44
Speaker 1: because I had a backup, like I could walk out
1:04:46
Speaker 1: there and get to my truck, go to a new spot.
1:04:48
Speaker 1: And I always know that when I go in for
1:04:50
Speaker 1: an all day sit because that stuff happens that you
1:04:54
Speaker 1: can't control. And so if if you go out there
1:04:57
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, I'm gonna sit here from dark
1:05:00
Speaker 1: a dark and something happens, if you don't have that backup,
1:05:03
Speaker 1: you don't have you don't have something in mine where
1:05:05
Speaker 1: you're like, you know, if this one blows up, I'm
1:05:06
Speaker 1: going here, then it's easy to go home, or then
1:05:09
Speaker 1: it's easy to just maybe even worse right out that
1:05:12
Speaker 1: spot hoping the ruts gonna save you when the wind
1:05:14
Speaker 1: is dead wrong. That's that's danger ground or danger zone
1:05:18
Speaker 1: there for sure. Absolutely, and planning too, I mean. And
1:05:22
Speaker 1: on the other side that point is if you plan
1:05:23
Speaker 1: for it, if you plan for it, all they sit.
1:05:25
Speaker 1: If you're going with the mindset of man, I can't
1:05:27
Speaker 1: wake up to wait, wait tomorrow, mynight, I got my
1:05:29
Speaker 1: lunch pack, I'm gonna have food, I'm gonna I'm gonna
1:05:31
Speaker 1: be good to go. There's not gonna be any reason
1:05:32
Speaker 1: for me to come out of there. If you go
1:05:34
Speaker 1: in with that mindset there's gonna be like you said,
1:05:36
Speaker 1: wind switch, something changes you're seeing for whatever reason you
1:05:41
Speaker 1: know you're This happened to me last year. I went
1:05:43
Speaker 1: in and there was one of those spots where here
1:05:45
Speaker 1: in Illinois where I knew it was gonna be great.
1:05:47
Speaker 1: And it was just ridge, the thick top crp field
1:05:50
Speaker 1: that dumped down into these this creek bottom and there
1:05:52
Speaker 1: was three ridges kind of like a turkey foot all
1:05:54
Speaker 1: came together right there at the bottom. And I was
1:05:56
Speaker 1: up on one of those ridges, well a hundred yards
1:05:59
Speaker 1: away where I know I was set up here. I
1:06:01
Speaker 1: knew there was a good sign, and I you know,
1:06:02
Speaker 1: and I knew it was a good spot. I was
1:06:04
Speaker 1: gonna sit dark to dark, well hundred yards away, you know,
1:06:06
Speaker 1: by ten o'clock. And after the fifth buck came through
1:06:09
Speaker 1: and like the twelfth year on the other ridge yards
1:06:12
Speaker 1: of me, I was like, hey, dummy, get down and
1:06:15
Speaker 1: go over there to the other ridge and set up.
1:06:17
Speaker 1: And that's what I did, um, and I had to
1:06:18
Speaker 1: cut another couple of bucks, you know, good do nothing.
1:06:20
Speaker 1: No shooters came by, but another couple of good ones.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: So I mean, just again going with the mindset, I
1:06:25
Speaker 1: think that you're I'm prepared to be here all day
1:06:27
Speaker 1: and I know I'm in a good spot at high
1:06:29
Speaker 1: level of confidence. I've got food, I'm good there, I've
1:06:31
Speaker 1: got play of clothes, I'm not gonna get cold, you know,
1:06:33
Speaker 1: just just doing everything you can, but obviously being willing
1:06:36
Speaker 1: to make those adjustments like I had to. I mean,
1:06:39
Speaker 1: like I said, my all day you know, all day
1:06:41
Speaker 1: sit and you know, basically resulted in a hundred yard
1:06:44
Speaker 1: move and then I was there for the rest of
1:06:46
Speaker 1: the day. But I mean, the right mindset saying I
1:06:49
Speaker 1: can tackle this thing. I can do this all day
1:06:51
Speaker 1: sit thing, and I know it's gonna pay off. But
1:06:53
Speaker 1: just you know, don't be blind to those other things
1:06:56
Speaker 1: too that you know, if you need to adapt and
1:06:58
Speaker 1: do something different than do something different. What's your go
1:07:01
Speaker 1: to snack for all day sits? Oh man, I am.
1:07:06
Speaker 1: I go back and forth, so I would. I grew
1:07:09
Speaker 1: up my dad always when he started taking me hunting
1:07:11
Speaker 1: before I could even hunt, you know, and it's like, gosh,
1:07:14
Speaker 1: you you're taking your little girls. You gotta be prepared, right,
1:07:16
Speaker 1: you gotta have the snacks. You gotta be dialed in
1:07:19
Speaker 1: because it's you know, it's gonna matter so it was
1:07:21
Speaker 1: nine o'clock. So nine am is pop tart time. So
1:07:23
Speaker 1: that was what all growing up through my youth, it
1:07:26
Speaker 1: was like always, so I still honor that. Sometimes it
1:07:28
Speaker 1: rotates back and forth. I rotate back and forth between
1:07:30
Speaker 1: cliff bars and pop tarts, but usually it's always either
1:07:33
Speaker 1: one or one or the other at night am, so
1:07:34
Speaker 1: that's my first snack. Lunch is either oh, it varies
1:07:39
Speaker 1: kind of a lot. Um. I'd say it varies between three.
1:07:44
Speaker 1: I either have a few slices of cold pizza um,
1:07:48
Speaker 1: either like a turkey sandwich or a wrap or a
1:07:51
Speaker 1: peanut butter and jelly. So there's either a couple of
1:07:53
Speaker 1: those sandwiches for lunch, and then an afternoon snack is
1:07:56
Speaker 1: usually like I'll try and do something a little bit healthier,
1:07:59
Speaker 1: like some have a like raw edgies like a carrots
1:08:01
Speaker 1: or chowlery or something like that, or um or even
1:08:04
Speaker 1: uh um, another like another cliff bar, sometimes an apple
1:08:09
Speaker 1: something like that. So that's kind of what my but
1:08:11
Speaker 1: I like to eat. Man almost I'm a big dude.
1:08:13
Speaker 1: I'm not you know, I'm not a I'm not a
1:08:14
Speaker 1: little guy. I like I like to eat. I gotta yeah,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: and honestly, if there's something that chases me out of
1:08:19
Speaker 1: the out of the woods earlier, if I or if
1:08:21
Speaker 1: I have a weak moment, it's always hunger like. It's
1:08:23
Speaker 1: never tired, it's never cold, it's never anything like that.
1:08:26
Speaker 1: I can battle all that stuff. But man, if I don't.
1:08:28
Speaker 1: If I'm not prepared with food, I'm out interesting. You
1:08:33
Speaker 1: are much more responsible with your food choice than I am.
1:08:37
Speaker 1: I uh, you know when you when you mentioned bringing
1:08:40
Speaker 1: you I want to hear your list? What do you want?
1:08:45
Speaker 1: My list is embarrassing. I I'm almost always bring two
1:08:50
Speaker 1: yeties full of coffee. Now, I drink coffee all day long.
1:08:53
Speaker 1: I hate it. I uh, I'm just an addict. Man,
1:08:57
Speaker 1: I gotta have something, and so I bring I always
1:09:02
Speaker 1: coffee is is mooe im portante. Gotta have it. And
1:09:06
Speaker 1: if you were if you were to look in my
1:09:08
Speaker 1: backpack on like November seven, you would be like, okay, well,
1:09:12
Speaker 1: Tony just obviously gave his nine year olds like a
1:09:14
Speaker 1: hundred dollars and said go candy shopping, because it's just
1:09:18
Speaker 1: freaking you rated their trick or treating stash. You just
1:09:22
Speaker 1: brought it all with you. It's embarrassing. Dude, I eat
1:09:25
Speaker 1: so much candy when I'm when I'm sitting all day,
1:09:28
Speaker 1: and you know, I do make like a decent sandwich
1:09:31
Speaker 1: or two for the day, usually to like turkey sandwiches
1:09:33
Speaker 1: or something, and I try to try to make them
1:09:37
Speaker 1: because it's that's a weird situation, you know how This
1:09:39
Speaker 1: is like when you when you go elk Hunning or
1:09:41
Speaker 1: out West, where you should be hungry all day, a
1:09:44
Speaker 1: lot of times you're really not, like you kind of
1:09:45
Speaker 1: got to bring food that you're you're gonna want to eat.
1:09:48
Speaker 1: So you know that that's a mistake a lot of
1:09:49
Speaker 1: people make when they go el Kunning. Is like they
1:09:51
Speaker 1: buy the food people tell them to buy. You know,
1:09:54
Speaker 1: this is only a couple of ounces and its x
1:09:55
Speaker 1: amount of kellori. You gotta have this almond butter or something.
1:09:57
Speaker 1: It's like, well, if you don't like almond butter, this
1:10:00
Speaker 1: no boyne, you know, like because you're not gonna eat it,
1:10:03
Speaker 1: Like even though you'll be in this weird state of hunger,
1:10:05
Speaker 1: you're not gonna eat it. And so I tried, like
1:10:06
Speaker 1: with a turkey sandwich, I try to like make some
1:10:09
Speaker 1: bacon beforehand or something like I have something like where
1:10:11
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at that sandwich and be like I
1:10:12
Speaker 1: want to eat that, not like I have to force
1:10:14
Speaker 1: myself to eat it, and I can't really do. Like
1:10:18
Speaker 1: you mentioned cliff Bars. I get a little bit physically
1:10:21
Speaker 1: sick thinking about cliff Bars because that was like our
1:10:24
Speaker 1: go to thing for so many years. And I've got
1:10:26
Speaker 1: to I've got a hunt and buddy who's he's really
1:10:29
Speaker 1: cheap and he bought cliff Bars for one of our
1:10:31
Speaker 1: trips like fourteen years ago, and he still brings that
1:10:34
Speaker 1: bag around like we still haven't finished it. And so
1:10:37
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're ten years beyond their expiration date.
1:10:40
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, I I have stuff I've My
1:10:44
Speaker 1: mom is not a very good cook, so growing up
1:10:46
Speaker 1: we ate the same four or five meals all the time,
1:10:48
Speaker 1: and there's certain things like I cannot Yeah, like if
1:10:52
Speaker 1: you if you were like if you put a plate
1:10:55
Speaker 1: of Google losh in front of me, I would be like,
1:10:58
Speaker 1: oh god, that's one of my face everorite deer hunting,
1:11:00
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite darhunting meals. My mom makes
1:11:02
Speaker 1: awesome goople I love No, no, thanks, yeah, no, I
1:11:07
Speaker 1: can't do it. And so I A long story along
1:11:10
Speaker 1: my back my backpacks full of stuff that you shouldn't eat,
1:11:14
Speaker 1: probably like my backpacks full of candy and ship that
1:11:17
Speaker 1: you should not eat. But I I like to reward myself,
1:11:22
Speaker 1: so I you know, you said, like, oh, another half hour,
1:11:24
Speaker 1: another half hour, I do stupid ship, Like I'll be
1:11:27
Speaker 1: sitting there like I'm gonna give myself a drink of coffee.
1:11:29
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat like a Snickers at ten o'clock and
1:11:32
Speaker 1: then at noon, I'm gonna have some more coffee and
1:11:34
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat some Eminem's or something like. I have
1:11:36
Speaker 1: to do these little games, you know, Otherwise it's you know,
1:11:40
Speaker 1: like you said, man, it's if it's hard to stay
1:11:43
Speaker 1: out there, it's you know, we sell this terminator, you know,
1:11:46
Speaker 1: kind of attitude of like, oh, it's it's you know,
1:11:48
Speaker 1: go out and sit dark to dark, and like it's
1:11:51
Speaker 1: not that easy. No, if you're a human being, No,
1:11:55
Speaker 1: I mean it's yeah, it's it's not. I mean, you
1:11:57
Speaker 1: get you get distracted, you get frustrated, you get you know,
1:12:00
Speaker 1: you get tired. It's yeah, I mean everyone has I mean, yeah,
1:12:03
Speaker 1: everyone rides that is flirting with that burnoutline. At some
1:12:07
Speaker 1: point in the season, I mean it's gonna happen for sure,
1:12:09
Speaker 1: and yeah, I love that. I might have to do that.
1:12:12
Speaker 1: I might have to I might have to adopt the
1:12:14
Speaker 1: food or food reward things for staying on standing. I
1:12:17
Speaker 1: think that's good. I mean, that's and that's where it's like,
1:12:20
Speaker 1: you got I agree with you totally. You gotta get
1:12:22
Speaker 1: it's and that's what's fun about the season. It's like
1:12:23
Speaker 1: you're traveling, like you know, we got cases here in
1:12:26
Speaker 1: the Midwest, and it's like, I mean that's pretty much
1:12:28
Speaker 1: my diet, which is not great, but it's Casey's pizza,
1:12:31
Speaker 1: you know, the the little chicken tender like cups that
1:12:34
Speaker 1: they've got or like these you know, the pork tenderloin
1:12:37
Speaker 1: that's like, you know, it's got this little like you know,
1:12:40
Speaker 1: have circle sized bun, then the and then the pork
1:12:42
Speaker 1: tender one that's the size of your head. You know,
1:12:43
Speaker 1: you're eat You're you're eating those. That's like your diet.
1:12:46
Speaker 1: You get excited about that. You're like, this is awesome.
1:12:48
Speaker 1: I get this. When I get to live on for
1:12:49
Speaker 1: the next month, this is cool. You know. That's what
1:12:51
Speaker 1: when you know, back when Mark Kenyon was actually cool,
1:12:54
Speaker 1: right like when he used to have his rut like
1:12:56
Speaker 1: he'd have his rut set up where it's like oreos
1:12:58
Speaker 1: and mountain dew and like all this stuff. And now
1:13:00
Speaker 1: you know he's he's super healthy and you know, just
1:13:03
Speaker 1: I guess better than us. But because he's like a
1:13:05
Speaker 1: freaking robot, it's probably I was gonna so let's wrap
1:13:08
Speaker 1: this up. What do you think Mark's ideal snack is. Now,
1:13:12
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say celery plane and maybe like a box
1:13:17
Speaker 1: of raisins or something. He seems like he would eat raisins.
1:13:20
Speaker 1: I think it's a I think it's a ziploc bag
1:13:23
Speaker 1: of a couple of handful of bulls of unsalted, unroasted
1:13:27
Speaker 1: raw almonds. Yeah, he seems like that that would be
1:13:30
Speaker 1: a good a good choice for him. Yeah, because the protein, right,
1:13:34
Speaker 1: and it's got the good fats, and you know he'd
1:13:36
Speaker 1: be dial so his brain development, so he knows exactly
1:13:39
Speaker 1: when the blind call. Oh man, I love it, alright, buddy,
1:13:47
Speaker 1: I know you gotta get you gotta get packed up here.
1:13:49
Speaker 1: We got a lot of stuff to do. I really
1:13:50
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming on. Man. Good luck in South Dakota.
1:13:53
Speaker 1: Good Luck when you get home and you you kill
1:13:55
Speaker 1: a big one on Illinois. Good luck for the rest
1:13:57
Speaker 1: of the red Buddy, Thank you, man, I really appreciate
1:13:59
Speaker 1: it's fun talking to me as always, and good luck
1:14:01
Speaker 1: to you man. I know you've got a lot of
1:14:03
Speaker 1: hunts coming up to and you're gonna be hitting it hard,
1:14:04
Speaker 1: so best of luck to your shoot straight awesome. Thanks buddy.
1:14:07
Speaker 1: So Ya, that's it for this week, folks. Be sure
1:14:11
Speaker 1: to tune in next week for more white tailed goodness.
1:14:13
Speaker 1: This has been Wired to Hunt and I'm your guest host,
1:14:15
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. As always, thank you so much for listening,
1:14:19
Speaker 1: and if you're looking for more white tail content, be
1:14:21
Speaker 1: sure to check out the meat eater dot com slash
1:14:24
Speaker 1: wired again. That's the meat eater dot com slash wired
1:14:29
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1:14:31
Speaker 1: Mark myself and a whole slew of white tail addicts,
1:14:34
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1:14:36
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