Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #130: Reviewing the 2016 Rut & Late Season Tactics with Donnie Wilson

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #130: Reviewing the 2016 Rut & Late Season Tactics with Donnie Wilson · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This episode number one thirty tay.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: In the show, we're joined by avid big buck hunter
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and white tailed guide Donnie Wilson, and we're discussing the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen RUT late season tactics and much more.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: by Sitka Gear, and today the show, we are going
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to be joined by Donnie Wilson, an avid whitetail hunter
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and hunting guide or Real McCoy outdoors down in southern Ohio.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: And Donnie has demonstrated level of hunting prowess that's pretty
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: darn hard to match. But in short, this guy just
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: knows how to hunt and kill big, mature, free ranging
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: bucks like few others. But he's a guy that you know,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: he's not on a TV show, he's not one of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: these big names, but he just gets it done. In fact,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: he's killed two bucks himself and has had success like
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: this on both private land and public land. On top
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of that, because of Donnie's role as a guide. He
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: gets a really unique perspective every year, you know, as
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: he's able to hear from all the different hunters that
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: he works with. So kind of my thoughts for today
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: were to dive into this wealth of information that Donnie
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: has accumulated, both personally and from what he's seen and
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: heard and learned from all these other huntings he's worked
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: with in regards to the two thousand and sixteen rut
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: that we have just kind of wrapped up for most
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of us. And then we'll also move on to this
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: next phase of the season and talk about late season
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: hunt So that's kind of what the game plan is
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: going to be for the rest of our conversation today
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: with Donnie. But before that, of course, me and Dan
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: we got to catch up a little bit. So, my friend,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: how are you doing. Do you ever have one of
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: those days where you just kind of feel like drinking?
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, I definitely, I definitely have those days where
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I feel like doing nothing right, and but that not
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: just like doing nothing and a lot of drinking. I mean,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: maybe not quite as much as you do, but I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: definitely know those days, dude, I don't have. I hardly
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: drink at all anymore. But there's days like today, um,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and kind of it's probably something to snowballing into that, uh,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: because I had a terrible weekend, had a trail camera
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: stolen from me, and just kind of a bad day
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: at work yesterday and then kind of another stressful bad
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: day today, and it's just one of those days where
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: it's just, you know what, I think. I want to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: crack open an entire bottle of whiskey and drink it
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and then just kind of start over tomorrow. I know,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I know about that reset button sometimes for me, like
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: my reset is like give me an evening on the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: couch and I just need a cold beer for me,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: a cold that's my relaxing drink, and then either just
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: like decompressed with one of like my stupid binge watching
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: TV shows or something. Or I'm a geek. I like
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: to read too. It's like last last night I was
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I told the wife, well, actually the wife kind of
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: want to do it too. It was like, you know,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: let's have our own night, do our own things. So
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I just had a stack like four books and I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: went in my man cave and I just sat there
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and read books all night and I was about as
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: happy as a clam. Yeah. Every once in a while,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I'll take an hour to readjust or so, and I'll say, hey,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out into the garage. I'm gonna do
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: something and it's not very specific. But then I just
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: have this old chair. I just sit in no music
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and just sit there and stare at stuff. I don't
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: even do anything. It's just kind of to shut off,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: reboot and be like, okay, okay, all right, I gotta
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: be a dad and a husband again. Better. But I
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: don't know, let's talk about let's talk about what you've
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: been doing in the last couple of weeks. I don't
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: have as much exciting stuff to share as I wish
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I did, and um kinda you know, we talk a
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: lot about, you know, balancing right family and hunting and
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: all these kinds of things. And I'm fortunate, you know
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that with my job, you know, this is my job,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I'm able to hunt a lot more than a lot
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: of people. I don't have children right now, so I've
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: got fewer obligations than a lot of people. But you know,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: at some point you've got to also, you know, still
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: balanced with the family. I do have so I've been
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: spending some family time this last week and a half
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: or so. I have not hunted since I haven't hunt
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: in the last week. Um. I think the last time
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: we talked, I can't remember if we talked about what
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: had happened, not or not. I don't think we did. Um. So,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: after I got back from Ohio real quick, I'll tell
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: this a really quick story. Right after I got back
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: from Ohio, I was home. I just spent the week
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: at home with my wife, and then I went up
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to my Northern Michigan deer camp with my dad, uncle,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and my buddy for that weekend for two days. Had
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a great time up there. My dad killed a buck,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: which is awesome, um, which is really really exciting. That
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was a highlight of my season, getting to getting to
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: be with him when that happened. I was with him,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: but um, I actually it was. I mean, I'm gonna
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: tell two stories, um really quickly. This is our Northern
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Michigan deer camp. There are not a lot of deer.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: It is a tough place to hunt, but we go
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: up there because that's where our tradition is, that's where
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: I learned to hunt, That's where all these incredible memories
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: have been so this year. One of the things that
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: you know, we've been trying to do is try to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: improve things up there. So over the last year and
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: a half, I've been working on getting our first food
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: plotting and so we got that food plot plan. I
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: think we've talked a little bit about this. Um. Well,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: things are paying off because we had a camera up
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: there and we're seeing way more deer on trail camera
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: than we ever had before, including several like really nice bucks.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I'd shoot anywhere, um let alone in northern Michigan, where
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: my expectations would be much lower. Um. But so it's
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: it's our first day of the weekend. Me and my
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: dad get up there. He hunts in this ground blind,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: like a hundred and fifty yards away from the cabin. Um.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like the spot that you would never
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: think that you see deer, but he does. Um, he
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: does see deer over there every once in a while.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And so I had brought my climbing stand. I walked
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: over to where the food plot is. I hiked back
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that really really quiet, took my time, was really silent
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: trying to set my tree stand up. I just gotten
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: my climber up to where I wanted to be, and
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I was pulling my gun up when all of a sudden,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: here baboom. It's three five in the afternoon. I'm like,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: what in the world just happened? And there's no way
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: it could have been anyone but my dad because it's
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: so close. So I texted him, like, was that you?
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: And in my head I was thinking one of two things.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Either my dad just killed a buck up here, which
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: has not happened in the very very, very very long time,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: or he just accidentally shot himself. So I'm sorry for laughing.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: It's not that's not nice to laugh. But the way
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: you presented that comment was funny. Well, yeah, and like,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: and I thought it was, And I honestly thought it
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: was more luckily that he shot himself. I was that concerned,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and so I thought, oh my god, if he does
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: not text me back within thirty seconds, I have to
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: get out of this tree and run over there and
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: make sure he's okay. UM. Fortunately, he texted me back
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: immediately and said that he had UM. So that was
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: really exciting, and I got to help him track and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: recover his buck, and we just had a great time,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: really cool father son moments so that was an awesome,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: awesome thing. It wasn't a big buck, it was a
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: year and a half old. Um, but for him, that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: was a great deer. Um. I can't remember we talked
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: in the past, but my dad has some sight issues
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: so he has as it's a challenge for him. So
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I'm being able to have an opportunity any deer is
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a really special thing. And um it was just one
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of the absolute coolest things being able to be with him.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: He killed a deer at my one of my properties
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: in Michigan two years ago and now here. Um, those
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: are the first two deer he's killed since I've been around. UM,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: so just really really really special um special members. So
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: that was awesome. That is pretty cool. Yes, and luckily
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: he didn't shoot himself. Yes, thank goodness. So flash forward
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: two days. I get back from our cabin. I'm back home,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and I'm realizing, you know, I've been away from from
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Kylie for a lot over the last like three weeks.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I need to stay home. I shouldn't go hunting right away,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I should stick around here. So that first night back
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: it was really good and cold, great weather, but I
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: was like, I need to stay home. So I'm staying
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: home and I just worked that night, and I don't
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: hunt at all. Um, I'm assuming that my wife will
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: be home, you know, and we've dinner together and do
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Well, with like an hour
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: before dark, I find out that she's not gonna be
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: home until late that night, until after dark. So I'm like,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: we'll shoot. I should have hunted because she wouldn't have
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: been home anyways. Um, And for a half second, I
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: was like, is there any way I can sneak out
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: to this property where holy Field is and try to
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: hunt the last little bit of time? But I was
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: like it it would be so tough to sneak back
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: there that the leaves are crunchy, you'd you'd spook anything
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: trying to get out there. So instead I just went
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to a place where I could observe. And of course,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: with like forty five minutes of daylight left, holy Field
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: walks out into the middle of the field, stands at
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: probably about twenty yards from where my blind would be,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: then slowly circles all the way around, then goes into
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: the food plot where he would have been probably I
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: don't know. I never could see exactly how close he
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: got to my tree stand or the blind to have
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: out there the redneck, but he was probably all over it.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: If I had been hunting that night, I would have
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: killed holy Field and the store would have been done.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: But I was not hunting. Um, So he continues to
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: evade me. The next day, though I did go hunting.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: The next night, I went out. I snuck in there
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and I did not see him during shooting hours. But
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: then shooting hours closed, it was getting dark and I
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: was packing up everything in the blind, getting ready to leave,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: And right before I was about to get out of
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: the blind, I saw a deer out in the middle
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: of the food plot and pulled my binoculars and he's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: behind this one tree. It's he's behind this tree that
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: my tree stands in that I hunt with with a bow. Um,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And I can't see his head. I can just see
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a deer. So I keep on trying to move my
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: head to see on either side of the tree. Can't tell,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: can't tell. Finally the deer turns and walks out of
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the food plot and I can just see a big
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: white frame. Um. I can't stay with one certainty of him,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: because by this time it was so dark, I could
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: just see like you know a shape. Um, but it
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: was probably him. So that's the last time I've been out,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: so it's been a week. Um. I did get trail
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: camera pictures of him, um two days ago or three
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: days ago on the wireless camera, so he's still as
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: of a couple of days ago, he was still around. Um.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's kind of my latest. The story
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: of holy Field continues, and I don't know, maybe in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a week or so, I might try to get back
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: out there after him. Um, waiting for some cold weather
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: and um, you know some brownie points, Yeah, definitely. Brownie
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: points are very important this time of year. Yes, yes, so.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: But I wasn't even supposed to be telling all these stories.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: You're the one who has some stories to share, right
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Oh no, not really, Um no, I don't think so.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: My my one of my trail cameras got stolen and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: it really made me upset to the point where I
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: drove up and down the road. I knocked on like
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: five different houses doors, talked with people, tried to get
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: some information. Just blows my mind. How you know this
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: this road that that this farm is on is not
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: a main road you have Basically, you're not going down
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: there unless you live on it or you're you know,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: up to no good. And is this your main your
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: main farm or your northern farm. No, this is my
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: main farm down south. And uh, someone two year is
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: in a row, same exact tree trail camera stolen. So
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: shame on them the first time, shame on me for
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: not having it locked. Well the last time they cut
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: through the cable lock. Yeah, so they had a pair
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: of bolt cutters on them or something. Um, so yeah,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I gotta figure out who's doing this and like break
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: their hands or something. I don't know, or you can
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: do the do the double camera trick. Right, But I
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: have a feeling that I have a feeling that they
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: listen to this podcast or my podcast or follow me
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: on Facebook or something like that, because because I tagged
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: out earlier this year, right, I shot my buck early,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: so I left the farm and when I came back
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: it was gone, like three weeks later that camera was gone.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: So um, it wasn't until Shotgun season last year that
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: it was stolen. So I feel that they are familiar
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: with everything that kind of happens in my world, which
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: really sucks because I want to post pictures of the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: deer that I hunt. I want to post, you know,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: provide content to the listeners, to the people who follow
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: me on social media, and it just really makes it
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: hard to do that when you got some guy who
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: could potentially take advantage of that. The thing is my
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: stick and pick mount was still in the tree and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I had a tree stand right there, you know, five
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: worth of lone will sticks and uh, um stand that
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: they could have stolen but didn't, So that tells me
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: they were in there. I don't know, like I just
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: didn't want to be caught in there. Man. I hope
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: that I hope that's not the case. That you know,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: it's that type of situation where it's someone who has
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: this information because of the fact that you share so
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: much through this and other things, and you know, I
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: worry about that kind of thing too. Um. And I've
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: always I've always told myself that, you know, to have
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: faith in the decency of people. Um And you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I think, I know, I know, and I think that
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: nine percent of people out there are good people and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: wouldn't do this kind of stuff. And then of that
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: percentage of people, the people that follow Weird to Hunt
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and the nine Fair chronicles and what we're doing. They're
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: even better people, and I would hope that, you know,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: there would be I think we've been We've been very
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: fortunate to build a relationship with our listeners and our
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: readers and viewers UM in which I think they respect us.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I hope they respect what we're trying to do. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: but I worry about the same things. You know, I've
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: kind of had, you know, to be um, to be
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: frank or I don't know, forthcoming, Like I've had more
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and more people now around me, like know about why
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: you're to hunt. I've had people that hunt near me
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: come and like find out who I am and like
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: find out where a hunt. And now I'm having these
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: like encounters or people like, oh hey, I listened to
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I saw that, dear, And it's kind of
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: like whoa UM you know are like privacy, you know,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: it's like it's our fault in that, you know, we
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: share this stuff, so we have no one to blame
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: for ourselves. And I just I guess I've always said,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to continue to share because I'm
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: going to trust our listeners and our readers and everything
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to be respectful. And I guess that's all we can do, right,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: We just have to trust and hope for decency and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, for the most part that's going
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: to be rewarded. But there's gonna be those bad apples
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: every once in a while. And uh, man, I hope
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that if the person who did this to you is listening,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I hope they feel really crappy right now. Well, and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: it's not. What what really makes me mad about a
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: situation like this isn't the money. Isn't the actual gear
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: or even the trail camera or the trail camera pictures
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: that's stolen right to me, It's time. Time is the
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: is the only commodity that you cannot you can't get
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: it back. So all the time and energy that I
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: put into work working a job to buy the batteries,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to buy the gear, to buy you know, to go
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: out there set it up, and the time it soaks
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: getting pictures, and the time it takes for me to
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: drive back to check that trail camera and the gas
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: money and all that stuff. The time it takes and
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: that you can't get back is what really pisses me
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: off the most. And uh, you know, and like like
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I said, you know, if if that person is listening
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to this podcast, it's okay. I mean you make a mistake.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: If it's if you if you stole my camera the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: first time, and uh, you know, maybe this was an accident,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: or it's two different people and these were accidents. Just
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: put it back, That's all I'm asking. Even you know,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I'd like the trail camera pictures, but just to leat
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: yourself off the pictures and uh, and just put it back. Now.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: If this uh, if this person is a habitual and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: you know, steals traill cameras, like what he's done two
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: years in a row. This person has done two years
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in a row, you're a rat bastard and I and
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I and if I do find out who you are,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna try my damnedest to do it, I'm gonna,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you know, call the sheriff. I'm gonna call you know,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna get authorities involved, and then I
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: will use my quote unquote presence online to post your
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: name all over and let people know that you are
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: a thief, and maybe your reputation will be ruined as well.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: So there's that, there's that this turn. Well, I can
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: certainly understand your frustration and Uh, I hope this situation
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: is resolved and hopefully it's the last one happens to you. Amen.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about big Bucks. Yeah, let's talk about Dear.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: We've got don Donnie Wilson, who is one of those
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: guys that maybe not a lot of people know about
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: but probably should because he is killing really great dear consistently,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and uh, I think we're gonna have some interesting things
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: to learn from him. So I'm excited about this conversation, Dan,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: So you're ready for us to give this give this
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: guy call? Do it? All? Right? Well, let's first take
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: a break to think our partners at Sick of Gear
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and then we'll call Donnie. Alright, So, as always, we
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: want to give a big things to sit to Gear
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: for their long running support of the Wired Hunting podcast,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and today, rather than the Sikest story, I wanted to
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: give you a quick update on sit because Diverge photo contest,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: which has been going on for the past couple of
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: months this fall and now is coming to a close
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: of I think somewhere around ten thousand different photos submissions,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: thirty photo finalists have been selected and now the final
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: winners will be selected by the voting public that's you
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and me, so right now you can head over to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: sit kid gear dot com slash diverge to take a
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: look at some of the incredible photography that has made
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: it to this final stage and then place your votes.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: So voting is open from now through December fift so
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: head on over to sit kid gear dot com slash
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: diverge to check those out into place your vote now. Secondly,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: we also want to thank our partners that hunt Arra Maps,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: who are currently running a holiday promotion in which they're
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: offering off all of their mapping products that includes their
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: handy waterproof and tearproof field maps and their impressive poster
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: magna maps that all feature beautiful aerial imagery, topographic lines,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: three D shading showing terrain features, and all the different
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: custom work you might want Adam. Now, this offers only
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: running through December four, so time is running out. That said,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: be sure to uh subtly let anyone know that might
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: be buying for you this Christmas to get their map
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: ordered a stap for you. And if you've got a
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: fellow hunter on your Christmas list, this is a great
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: option for that too, so visit huntera dot com by
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: December four. That's HUNTERA h U and t E R
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: r A dot com by December four and get off. Now,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: let's get back to the show and get Donnie Wilson
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: on the phone. All right now with us on the line,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: is Donnie Wilson. Welcome the show. Donnie, Hey, Mark, how
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: are you? I'm doing well? Me and Dana. We just
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: wrapped up complaining about issues with trail camera thiefs. So
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: we're hoping that you can put us back on a
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: positive road here in our conversation. Yeah, I hear that. No, No,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: they're not. It's an unfortunate reality of um of our
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: world today, I guess. But Um, But Donnie, I I
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: got to know you through the sit COO Whitetail Ambassador program.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: We're both ambassadors for SITKA UM and I, you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: have started seeing some of the pictures you've been posting
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and we got to talk I don't know a few
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: months ago for one of our Sick of stories, and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I heard about some of your hunts, Um, And the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: more I hear, the more I've been impressed with how
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: you've been able to kill mature bucks, how consistently we
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: have been able to do it. And then also kind
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: of the operation that you work with their down in
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: southern Ohio. As a guy that seems like you've got
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of interesting irons in the fire kind of
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: when it comes to big mature deer hunting. So I
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: guess before we dive into the house and the what's
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: of what you do, I'm kind of curious about, you know,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: how you got to be here. Can you tell us
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit about your background as a hunter. Well, obviously,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: you know, my dad was a huge influence on me hunting. Um.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: He was a deer hunter, but he was kind of
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: a gun hunner. He didn't do much bi hunting. UM,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: so we always started out. I started rabbit, squirrel, that
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: type of hunting. And uh, I knew my dad went
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: deer hunting, but you know, he didn't really take me
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: deer hunting. I think it was just time to get away.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: So you know, I started hut and kind of all
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: my own. UM had pretty good luck with a gun,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and then I just decided that I was going to
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: start bow hunting, and uh shot my first dough the
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: first day that I went bow hunting, and the rest
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: is history. I mean I was hooked that day, like
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: so after that, you know, I started shooting anything that
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I could get a tag for with a bow. UM.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: And then a kind of transitioned to you know, after
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: five or six years, I transitioned to wanting to kill
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: big mature deer, you know, and that that's kind of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: where I'm stuck out now. I've I've been bow hunting
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: probably twenty years something like that, twenty two years. Um,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and now I'm strictly a mature white tail hunter. UM.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Score means something to me, obviously, but age is probably
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: more important it. Yeah. And and you now not only
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: hunt yourself, but you're also operating as as as a
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: guide as well. Right. Can you tell us a little
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: bit about what you do there. Yeah, I'm the head
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: guide for Real McCoy Outdoors down in Adams County, Ohio. UM.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I got started about twelve thirteen years ago. I had
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: a different outfit our Buckeye Outfitters asked me if I
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: want to guide for him, and I had never done
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it before, UM, but I thought it'd be interesting to do.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, you think that you're gonna get out
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: in the woods and have all the kind all kinds
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of time to hunt and spend all your time in
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the woods. But as a guide, you don't get to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: hunt much. So it's it's not what it's all cracked
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: up to be being a white tailed guide if you
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: like to hunt. Um, but I did that and then
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I take a couple of years off because I wasn't
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: getting to hunt. I wasn't enjoying the guiding thing. And
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: then uh, real McCoy Outdoor has made me an offer,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: said that I would get to hunt, and so I
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: started working for them about five years ago, and uh,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: we've we've done pretty good. We've we've done a lot
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: better each year. Things are definitely heading in the right
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: direction down there. So what does what does your what
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: does that job entail? I mean, I think there's like
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: assumptions from the outside of what the life of a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: guide would be in a white tail outfitting type business.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: But for you, you know, during the season, when they're
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: hunters in camp, what are you actually doing throughout the day?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: You know, most of the work is done before the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: season starts. You know, we we do a ton of legwork,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: hanging stands, trail cameras, food plots. Now, you do all
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: that stuff before hunters come into camp. So when hunters
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: come into camp, you kind of sit down with the hunters,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: go over to go over everything with them. Um, how
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the week's going to go, what we're trying to accomplish,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: what they are trying to accomplish. Um, what kind of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: weather we're gonna have, you know throughout the week. UM.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in the weather. I think it
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: means more than more than anything. Um. So we sit
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: down and we talked about everything during the week, and
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: then UM, we kind of decide where guys are going
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: based on their abilities. You know, a lot of a
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: lot of guys can't get up in a lock on
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: tree stand. They need ladder stands, So we have to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: go over all that and and you know what their
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: expectations are. What you know, there's a there's a ton
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: of stuff that we go through with the guys when
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: they come into camp. And then once the hunt starts,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you know, there's not a lot going on as far
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: as what I'm doing, so I can hunt. That's that's
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: that's why I do it for the McCoy's is you know,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I get to hunt once I get these guys taking
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: care are of and and situated, then then I could
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: get to do some hunting nice, that is, that is
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: a nice situation. Um. Now, one of my buddies, well,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: several of our mutual friends were down hunting with you
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: in late October. But uh, I know, you know, for
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of our listeners actually probably recognized Dennis Zuck,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: who did a lot with us over the past year
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: on the podcast for the sick Ad Spots. He was
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: down there and he killed a great buck with you guys,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: and then my other friend Matt McCormick missed a great buck.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: What happened on that hunt, Well, Dennis killed, Dennis killed
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: within the first hour and a half, so that worked
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: out pretty good for Dennis. And then Matt, well, Matt,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Matt had never really done much, um white tail hunting
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: from a tree stand. So when I was talking about
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: about coming to hunt Ohio, I mean, it's kind of ironic,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: but I said to Matt, you know the thing that
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I want to do most. Matt has put you on
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a white tail big enough it's gonna make you miss.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: And sure is that the guy missed, it's probably learned
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: is a big deer. I know he's he's still losing
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: sleep over that one too. I'm sure he is. He's
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: he shuns. You know, he came into camp, he sat
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: all day that day, and I came in that night.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: He missed that morning, and he came in that night.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: His eyes were still glowing. You know, he was on fire.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: It was. It's pretty awesome to see somebody that's that
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: excited after they spent ten hours in a tree stand.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: That's the truth. That's the truth. Well, that's that's what
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: makes deer hunting so so special, is that those moments,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: even the low points, they stick with you sometimes and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: sometimes in a pretty cool way. That seemed like an
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: encounter that he'll never forget. Just being around a deer
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: like that, it's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, Matt's not going
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to forget that one anytime soon, that's for sure. Hey, Donnie,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I got a question for you in regards to, you know,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: guiding for an outfit or or or whatever. How often
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: do people get mad or or maybe blame you if
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the hunting is not good, or if they're in the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: wrong tree stand, or you know, hey, this guy killed
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: at camp and I haven't seen crap. What's the problem.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: It happens way too much, you know, like we we
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: we got through it. I won't say on a weekly basis,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: but it's it's probably every other week we get one
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: guy in camp that you know has issues, and you know,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: we have the deer, the mature deer there, but it's hunting.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna go out and shoot a hundred and
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: fifty engineer every time you go out. If you did,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't it wouldn't be as fun, It wouldn't mean
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: as much to you if you went out there and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: shot a big deer every time you went out. So
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: it happens a lot. You you kind of deal with
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: it and you kind of let it go in one
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: ear and out the other. You know, you have to
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: right follow up question, who are the kind of people
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: that use an outfit or I I feel that if
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I paid money to an outfitter, I am therefore expecting
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: more encounters with better quality dear. Is that is that
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: kind of a myth? Or is that more accurate? I mean,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: that's that's what everybody's expecting, you know, But we do
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: all that we can the I mean, the most important
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: thing to me in the world when I'm guiding is
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: to put you on a deer, you know, and some
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: guys think that, you know, we're holding back or you know,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: we're we're doing other stuff so that the opportunities are
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the less. But my most important thing is to put
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you on a deer. I'm not going to save a stand.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I may save a stand for a day or so
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: if the weather is going to be better in a
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: couple of days for a particular spot, I may save
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: a stand. But you know, I'm trying to put you
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: on deer, that's for sure. Do you ever have do
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: you ever approach you're hunting strategy for areas that are
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: going to be for the guided hunters differently than you
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: would approach strategy for yourself. You know, if you were
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: hunting a property completely just you versus you're setting up
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a property or planning hunts and a plan for property
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: with other guys. How do those two things differ? Do
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: you have to I don't know. As I'm like kind
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: of thinking that this, I'm wondering if you have to
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: start making changes based on assumptions of different skill levels
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: or different abilities or anything like that. Yeah, I mean
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: we have to set some stands that are easier to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: get into, you know, just it just has to happen.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Some of some of the places that I hunt you know,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: there's the guys are going to do some of the
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: things that I would do UM typically to to get
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: into a place. You know. Some of the guys I
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: don't want to hike. Some guys don't want to be
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: in the stand, you know. So we have to we
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: have to set up some of the properties knowing that
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: we're going to have some guys that their abilities aren't
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the same as you know, mine or one of the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: other guys that UM that I hunt with. You know,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: so we definitely set up properties with that mine for sure.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: And do you are most of your guided hunts happening
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: during the rut or is it all season? Now? We
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: we concentrate on the rut, I mean, we we hunt.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Everybody's idea of the rut is two weeks, and my
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: idea of the right is four weeks. And that's you know,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: last week October, first three weeks in November. We hunt
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: those four weeks and then we do a little bit
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: of gun hunting and then we hunt that late muzzle
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: letter season and late muzzlotter in Ohio is the second
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: week of January. We're really only hunting about six weeks
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: out of year, so most of that time period now
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: is past, and you've been able to hunt, You've been
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: able to see, you know, or hear about hunts from
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: all these other guys have been hunting with you. What
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: would you say about the two sixteen rut? You know, what,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: what have you heard? What have you seen? From a
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: quality standpoint? I don't know what. How would you view
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: this past route that just happened? I from what I've seen,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: you know, any any one time we're talking to myself
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and the two brothers that run the outfitting company. We're
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: talking to on a daily basis, thirty to fifty different guys,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: whether it be phone calls or text messages, so we
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: get a pretty good idea of what's going on in
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: the white toil. Would you know, like every day we
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: see what's going on two thousand sixteen textbook came in.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: We saw seeking, we saw chasing, we saw the rut.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: We we got some lockdown. Um here, recently we've seen
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: some of these bigger bucks that you would not see
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: during lockdown. They've come off the dose and they're you know,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: walking through the fields in the middle of the day.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: So I think two thousand sixteen was pretty spot on
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: as far as textbook textbook rut goes. What about timing?
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: What what kind of time like as far as when
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: you saw that seeking and chasing starting, when did you
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: see lockdown? Did you is that like was it defined
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: enough that you could say, well, that first week was
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: really X, the second week was really why? Anything like that? Yeah,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it was a late rut. I
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: think there's still some deer out there that are running. So,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: you know, last week October, I think we're starting to
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: see some bigger get up moving around seeking. The first
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: week in November, we had a ton of chasing going on.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Second week in November, I think there was some lockdown
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: going on the third week. You know, we still had
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: some lockdown, but the deer were coming off doors and
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: looking for other days because it was pretty pretty textbook.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: What about warm weather because you guys had some warm
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: weather down there on that first week or so. Did
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: that impact things at all? It did it? You know,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: it impacted um sightings from from our from our hunters
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: for sure. But you know, we we just kind of
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: played that and you know, we knew that that was
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: going on. Those deer as still doing doing their thing,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: but they're just doing it at night. You know when
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: it's cool. But we had a cold front come through
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: that week that it was pretty warm. We had a
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: cold front come through Wednesday night Thursday morning, and after
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: that we put some guys in some spots they were
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: we were kind of waiting for that weather to come through,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: and we had a guy kill for the nj A plant. Nice.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: It worked out. Yeah, I mean when you get those
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: warm spells, I know, the guys are on a five
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: day hunt, you know, and they're wanting to hunt every minute.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: But a lot of times there's times to just sleep in,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: you know, or not go out at all. If you
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: only have one or two places to hunt, if you
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: have one or two best tree stands that you like
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: to hunt, I think it's best to just stay out
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: there until it's right and then go in. And uh,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I think I think people have a lot better luck
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: that way. Yeah. How do how do you determine? This
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: is back to an outfitting question. Let's say there's five
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: guys in camp. How do you determine who goes where?
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: Because if let's say me and Mark were sharing a
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: camp together, we both both want to be in the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: best possible stand after the biggest possible, most mature buck.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: How how do you delegate who goes where? Well, that's
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: a tough one. I mean, obviously we got some issues
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: with who can hunt where, so everybody being equal. I
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: don't think that we pick and choose as far as
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: we will pick four tree stands and we'll just tell
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: guys to go. We don't. We try not to play favorites. Um,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: but there's obviously if there's a guy that can't get
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: in a lock on, he's gonna get to a ladder stand. Um,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: there's some of that goes on as far as you
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: know who we're gonna put on the biggest buck. I
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: don't think we play favorites. I think we pick our
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: stands and we kind of leave it up to our
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: hunters a little bit. You know, we'll say these are
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the three stands. You guys can decide where you want
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: to go. We don't we don't show people pictures of hey,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: this stand, we're seeing this buck. You know, we're try
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: not to do that. We'll just pick the stands that
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: we want our hunters to go to and then kind
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: of let the guys decide where they're going to go.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Let them do get out. Yeah, you know it that
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: that takes the responsibility off of us. And you know
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: some some of the walks are longer, some of the stands.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: We want you to if you're gonna go in and
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: you're gonna take that hike, we want you to stay
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: there all day because of going in and going out,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you're making more disturbance than just staying in there all day.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: So that that place part in you know, where these
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: guys are going and and who wants to who wants
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: to go where? You know? Yeah, that makes sense. So
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: speaking of you know, people going different spots and everything
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: that what were the spots or the tactic or whatever
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: that worked for you guys or your clients this year?
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Was there you know a couple of examples you can
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: share with us where people had successful hunts in you know,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: a certain type of situation that you could describe for us. Yeah,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: I would. I would say the main thing this year
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: was just hunting pressure period. I mean the one property
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: we have, one property is nine acres um and we
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: hunt quite a few guys, are fifteen eighteen guys throughout
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the year we hunt there, but four deer were killed
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: on that property and one was missed. And out of
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: all of those deer. It was the first time in
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the stand. So that being said, there was some of
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the places that we'd hold you until later in the
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: week or until next week, not not purposely holding it back,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: but knowing that you know, the weather was going to change,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: or you know, we we got more hunters coming in
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: next week. You know, we gotta save some spots for
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: those guys. YadA, YadA. But the deer that were killed,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: they were killed the first sit in the tree stands. Mhm. Yeah,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: it seems to be such a consistent thing. Those those
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: first couple of sits are always almost the best. Yeah,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I was. We I mean, we had a few situations
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: that were pretty eye opening as far as pressure games
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: this year. I mean the I hate to keep bringing
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: up Matt's miss but Matt, Matt went to a standards
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: a couple of miles from the lodge. And we don't
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: run forwarders in the mornings. We don't do the a
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: TV thing. We if you're gonna hunt in the mornings,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: you're gonna lock to the stand we don't. We don't
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: start any vehicles, just trying to keep the noise down. Um,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: so you know, Matt hyped into this one stand. It
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: was two miles we we hadn't hunted it at all.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: But there's an adjacent outfitter that runs around on a
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: t v s and side by sides, taking hunters in
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: every morning, picking them up, dropping them back off. They
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: do that all the time. Well, we put Matt in
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: the stand based on their pressure. So we went to
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: an area that's close to where they hunt, but we
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: hadn't hunted, but their pressure um ultimately put the deer
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: in Matt's lap. So just the just the example is,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: so Matt goes in there, he looks in there, he
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: sees this dere and she said he doesn't connect with
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the deer. The deer spooks runs off. The next week
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: that outfit are killed that deer on their property. M
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: So we use their pressure to get Matt on the deer,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and then when Matt had his issue, the deer spooks
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: went back on their property. They killed it the next week. Wow,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: it's just it's just eye opening the how much the
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: pressure played a part in it. Now, down in that
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: part of the state, it's pretty hilly terrain, is that correct?
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: It's very hilly. Okay, So what kind of like I mean,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: are you hunting a lot of like terrain funnels, Like,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: is this a lot of like ridge hunting or finding
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: saddles and things like that. What type of like rut
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: spot do you guys really focus on down there? Yeah,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: it's definitely hilly terrain. We definitely hunt saddles. Um, I
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: like to hunt the tops of like draws, like when
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: they're gonna walk around a steep draw. We definitely used
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the terrain down in there. The property that we're hunting
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: most of the time, it has about a hundred acres
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: of a field. But if we're going into the woods,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: we're definitely hunting in a saddle or top of a drawl.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Some kind of terrain features is definitely what we're hunting. Okay, okay,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: now what about your rut? How did you do? I
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: did pretty well. I mean I I actually shot two
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: deer this year. Um, the first one I didn't find
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: and a couple of days later he was back at
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: the feeders, so he's okay, which was good. But I
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: actually had two opportunities to shoot. So I hunted five
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: sits this year, five times in the tree stand and
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the first time I hunted the property that I hunted
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: actually get it to hunt. That's kind of personal payment
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: for the guiding that I do. The first time I
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: sat in atreet stand there I shot, and then I
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: hunted a couple more times, and then um, I hunted
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: another property first time in that standard shot killed. So
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I had I had a really good year, but I
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: didn't get to hunt that much, only hunted five sits.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: I like to hunt more than that. But yeah, you
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: can make it. Yeah, I guess. So if it's that
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: percentage of shot opportunities two out of five sits, that's
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: pretty good. Yeah. Can can you describe those two hunts
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: in the situations. I'm always curious, you know, when all
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the things come together, I always want to know, Okay,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: what was the situation that led to that shot? Can
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: you describe those two scenarios? You know what, you know,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: what that set up was, like, why you chose to
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: be there, et cetera. Yeah, both spots I chose because
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the you know, first time in obviously, um both places
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: our big woods type country. It's it's big timber um.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: But I keep feeders in there and I keep him
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: going for a couple of months before the sea in
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: um with corn just to concentrate does and both situations
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the first one, you know, a D fifty Summits six
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: year old came in. He actually came to the feeder,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: and um, I always hunt probably sixty seventy yards away
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: from the feeders. I don't hunt right over the feeders.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I just like to try and catch them coming in.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: But he came in and I watched him for ten minutes,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: and then some does came in from behind me and
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: milled up to the feeder. And once he saw the does,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: it was still pretty early, so he wasn't really pushing
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: them around as much as he was just kind of curious,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: and you know, he came down, pushed the dose around
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: a little bit, came over to me. Um made a rob.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I shot him. I shot him at eighteen yards. It
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: was a super steep angle. I was probably on the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: tree and he was downhill another fifteen ft and uh,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: I shot, and I shot low. You know, typically these
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: bucks will will drop down when you shoot, so I
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: did him pretty low and he didn't drop and shot
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: him right in the armpit. And Dennis and I looked
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: for him the next day and we both decided that
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: he probably wasn't dead. We tracked four yards and then
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the blood stopped there wasn't much blood, and you know,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: five or six days later he was back at the feeder.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: So that one went pretty well. Um, pretty much the
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: same situation. On the second one, deer came into um
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: to the feeder, bumps and does around. Um, it was
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: a deer. I was kind of on the fence whether
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: or not I was gonna shoot. I had trail camp
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: pictures of him, so I got a little bit of
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: video of him before I shot him with my cell phone.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: And then as I looked over, you know, looked at
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: him over and over, I decided that he was probably
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: gonna be good enough. So I shot him at thirty yards,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: another steep angle, and I actually hit that deer in
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: about the same exact place as I hit the first year.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: But because the less less of an angle, he wan't
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: put the yards and piled up just you want to see.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: At the beginning of the podcast, you talked a little
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: bit about shooting. Um. You know, mature maturity is the
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: first reason why why you kill a deer, and then
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: maybe uh antler size is kind of an afterthought, but
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: you know, you probably wouldn't shoot a hundred and twenty
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: class five year old if that makes sense, Um, how
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: do you how did you know? I mean, are you
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: run in trail cameras on the on this property all
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: year long in order to know what exactly is happening
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: on this have you? Did you go into this property
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: before you hunted it to check trail cameras or did
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: you just leave it alone and then go in there
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: the first hunt in the first couple of hunts to
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: have success. Um, I run trail cameras probably from July.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: I started trail cameras in July on these feeders. I
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: don't really run trail cameras um anywhere else on the properties,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: just kind of on the feeders, and that way I
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: kind of get an idea of what's on the property.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily use the trail cameras for strategy as
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: much as just seeing the age class of the deer.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: I had both here on trail camera that I shot,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: so I knew that they were you know, the one
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: deer that I shot was definitely a six year old.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Um we got. I got a friend that's got hunts
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: in adjacent property. He's had the deer on camera for
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: three years. I've had it on camera for a couple
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: of years, so I knew what that deer was. Um,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: the second dear that I shot, I didn't have him
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: last year on trail camera, but I had him this year,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: and I had quite a bit of quite a few
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: pictures of him, So I was assuming that he was
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: four or five years old. So he was He was
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: right on the fence for me whether I want to
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: shoot him or not. Um. But yeah, you know, I
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: decided to shoot obviously. But yeah, I tried to use
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the trail cameras just to decide on age, just to
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: get that age structure gong. Now, speaking of mature bucks,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: one of the common knocks that I hear on using
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: a feeder or bait or something like that is that, yeah,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: it's great for bringing in deer, you know, does and
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: young bucks, but it's hard to kill him in sure
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: buck around that or near that. Um, So how come
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: you were able to be successful with that? Was it? Was?
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: It just a pressure thing. It's a pressure thing that
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: The one thing that I try to do is if
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: I'm going in there to check my trail camera, I'm
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: taking in some kind of reward for my scent being
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: in there, whether it's I'm filling up the trail camera
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: I mean filling up the feeder or I'm gonna put
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: out some kind of mineral or something like that right
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: there at that camera. If I go in there, I'm
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: leaving some kind of reward for my scent being in there.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: And then once I get, you know, a deer on
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the camera that I know that I would shoot, I
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: just stay out of there until until the weather's right.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: And what's the weather that you key in on. I
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: love to hunt right after right after cold front, like
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: when that when the pressure is rising. I think a
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: couple of days after a good cold front, I don't
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: think you can beat it. Yeah, I wish we had.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: I feel like this year we had a lot of
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: those like little miniquals, at least for me here in
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: southern Michigan, we had a lot of these little mini
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: cold friends that came through, like almost every weekend we
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: get one of those. But then there was a long
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: stretch of like monotony in late October through early November,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: UM where I was just dying for one of those
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: big fronts to hit, and we didn't get it until
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: until I don't know if it was like the eighth
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: of November somewhere around there, But that really can make
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: or break the action a lot of times. Absolutely, I'm
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: a firm believer in for sure. I mean even the
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: little cold fronts, just the little ones. If we get
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit of rain, just just enough, you know,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: just to change that pressure a little bit, I think
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: it makes a huge difference. I mean, the deer are
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: going to move, you know, they got to eat, um,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: And then you just saved the days your best spots
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: for when you get a little bit of change. Yeah. Now,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: all of these hunts we've been talking about, both you
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: and your your hunters have been private land, right, um.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: But I know you've also done a good bit of
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: public land hunting um and have had success to um. Right,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I believe if I'm wrong, but I think you killed
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the two on public land, Isn't that right? I did? Yeah?
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Can you tell us about how you did that? It
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: was just you know maps, You know that I killed
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: that one back in two thousand twelve. Um, that was
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: just when I started using maps on the cell phone.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: But I've always had you know, fifty or sixty Papa
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: maps that I would find the places on public land
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: that I figured nobody else would go to, and I
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: would just hike in and hunt, you know, a mile
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: two miles back in the woods and kind of use
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: other people's pressure. I mean, there's there's one thing that
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: I've I've said a couple of times this year, and
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: I've been saying it for years, but it's kind of
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: like going in the back door. Like if if you
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: can hike in two miles and hunt in the mornings
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: over a cornfield that's on um or private land, but
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: you're hunting state land, so you know that where the
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: deer of feeding, but you can hike in two miles
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: and come in the back door to catch them coming
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: back into state land where most people wouldn't do that.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: So and then you know, I used the I don't
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: know the deer there. I didn't know that deer was there.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: But I'm hunting a place that's unpressured, and I'm hunting
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: the terrain of the terrain of the land in in
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: what terrain or what on the maps were you specifically
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: looking for, I guess, I mean, I understand that you
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: were looking for spots to get away from you, far
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: away from other access points, but where you I mean,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: when you were looking in the situation, was that like, Okay,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: this ridge looks like there might be somethingbedded here, or
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: this spot looks like a spot they travel through. I'm
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: always curious because, at least for me, reading maps is
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: always like that really fascinating part of that. You can
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: almost predict exact actually where deer will go based on
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: these maps. Sometimes, Um, I'm curious if you went, if
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: you go to that detail, or if you're just trying
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: to get away from people. No, I definitely, that's that's
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a saddle. I'd
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: love to hunt a place where there's a big long ridge,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: there's a saddle, and the saddle usually is there because
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: there's two draws on each side of that ridge that
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: meet in that saddle, So you hunt either side of
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: that ridge and you hunt the head of that draw
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: in that saddle. So you've got kind of like two
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: terrain features working together there. And that's how I hunted
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: Stallion for years. I just hunt those saddles and heads
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: of big deep draws. So tell us about that, tell
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: us about that deer coming in. What were you thinking
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: when you would hiked two miles back or whatever and
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: then that thing shows up, So that deer mark I
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: hiked in. I got in there just a little late.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: It was already starting to crack daylight, and I had
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: my climber. I climb up in the tree. I get
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: everything situated. I pulled out my phone to text my
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: wife to tell her that I'm safe in the tree.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: And before I could get done texting, I look up
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: and he was probably forty or fifty yards by the
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: time I got locked on my string. He's a twenty yards.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: I stopped him and shot him. I mean it happened.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: I was in my hand for literally twenty minutes. That's amazing. Yeah,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: when I shot the deer, it's a good deer, obviously
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: it scores well. Um. But when I shot the deer,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: I thought I was looking at a hundred sixty d
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: sixty ten point, which is a great deer. But you know,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: it's not two hundreds deer um. But when I got
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: down went over to look at him, he had all
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: these uh sticker points around his basis. But there was
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: there was two points that came off the back there
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: were six inches long, and then you know he had
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: a total of twenty four points thirty four inches of
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: of non typical points. So I thought I was shooting
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: a d sixty five inch here, and I shouted to
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: nur four inch here. Jeez, wow, that would be a
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: nice surprise to walk up on. It was pretty nice. Yeah,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: I called my dad. The story goes, I called my dad.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: Tell my dad I shot another big one And he said,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: you know how many points is he? And I said,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I haven't counting yet. So I started counting.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: I get to twelve and my dad says, wow, great,
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: you know, great deer twelve point And I said that
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: it's on one side. Yeah, it was. It was pretty
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: It was pretty neat day, and you know I was.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: I was in there by myself and had a climbing
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: tree stambo and backpack. And now I got a turn
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: in his dear land on the ground and I have
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: to drag out by myself. That's the down part of
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: hiking in there two miles is once you shoot him,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: you gotta get him out. Yeah. Did you have any
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: trick for getting him out without breaking your back? No? No,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: I pretty much broke my back. You know. I tied him,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: used my lanyard for my safety harness, tied him to
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: my belt and started hiking. Wow. Well, I'm taking me
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: four hours of get him out, yis. I'm sure it
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: was worth it though, right, it was worth every drop
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: of sweat. Now, speaking of two bucks, that wasn't your
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: first one, right, Yeah? I killed uh, I killed a
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: nice typical, real nice typical back in two thousand seven.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: That's that's what I'm proud of that, the one you
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: know that we just talked about, that was on state land,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: which I'm proud of that. But like I said, he's
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: a pretty much the the typical I killed. He grosses
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: out exactly the same as the non typical day both
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: they both gross two or four and four eights, which
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: is crazy, um one fourteen points on points. But the typical.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: To look at him on the wall, I mean it's
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: it's frame is hundred nine in frame. I mean, he's gigantic.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: So what was the store on that one? How did
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: that happened? That was a private land, you know. I
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: had a buddy asked me come down and hunt with him,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: went down there and hunted. Didn't have trailcramers of him,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: you know. And this was this was in Brown County,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: which is flat you know, mostly cornfield, small patches woods,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: and he came in on a dough and uh pretty
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: much walked out of my life. And then I saw
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: him and the doe come out in the field at
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: about seventy yards and for whatever reason, that dough came
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: back to me and right on her tail was him,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: and I ended up shooting him at thirty four yards.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: He was he's a big one. He's he's one I'm
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: proud of. Yeah, I imagine. I know that there's those
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: deer that those it's the frame sometimes when you see
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: that frame, like for me, like when I you know,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: for me, if there's a buck that's over a in
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: that frame, you see a buck pick up his head
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: or you see that picture and you're just like, oh, booner.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: When you see that just kind of takes your breath away.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: There's like there's definitely a difference between like that hundred
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: fifty like, oh, that's an awesome buck, and then when
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: you see one of those next level bucks, were just like,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: oh yeah. The crazy thing is when when you shoot
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: a buck like that, you know that deer I was
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: thinking when I saw him, But when you get him
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: on the ground, the big ones they get bigger, The
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: small ones they get smaller. The big ones, I mean,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: they just get bigger when when we picked up the
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: head on that deer, I can't believe when I shot man.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I'm to this point. I've only ever had the ones
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: that I walk up on and they get smaller. So
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping for one of the bigger ones on these days.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: It's coming. Mark hanging there. Yeah, I'm gonna keep on
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: keeping on. Um. Yeah, that's awesome though, speaking kind of
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: taking a step back there a second, What is you know,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: going back to that initial conversation, what are you looking
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: for every year? What is do you have a goal?
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Is it a four year old? Is it a five
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: year old? Uh? Is it you know one forty one
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: fifty booner status or up? I wish I could say
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: it was booner status or up. But it's not like
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: I want to shoot a five year old or older.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: That's my goal, you know, Like this year, I honestly
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: believe the deer that shot to four year old. UM,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: so I want to shoot a five year old and
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: I'd like to see somewhere around a Now next year
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: it will be a h bigger you know. It Just
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: that's just way it is. This this year, I hadn't
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: shot a deer in three years, you know, So I'm
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: okay with holding out and and tag soup. I'm pretty
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: familiar with the way it tastes, so I'm okay with that.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: But you know, after sitting in a three for three years,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: it was time for me to shoot something. So next
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: year it will be a big one or nothing. And
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: then then my standards start going down every year after
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: So so next year when you say it's you know,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: it's gotta be a it's gonna be a peg. Um
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: if would you ever shoot? I mean because it sounds
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: to me like you have access to the same pieces
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: of property year after year after year. Um. And I
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: know me and Mark talked a little bit about this,
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: but a hundred and seventy three year old comes through.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Are you shooting that or are you letting it, letting
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: him go to potentially get a crack out in the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: next year. Yeah, it depends on the property. I mean,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: if I know that I'm gonna be hunting that property
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: next year and it's a sizeable piece of ground, I
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: mean there's some properties that we hunt our you know,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: sevent So it depends on the size of the property.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: It depends on if you know I'll have access to
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: that property next year. So there's a bunch of variables.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: I guess, um, I would hate to shoot a seventy
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: three year old. I can't say that I wouldn't because
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I arned seventies. But you know, it just depends. I guess. Yeah,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: what about you? Dan is pretty big. I can't remember, Dan,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: what you would do? What you've told me? What would
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: you you kidding me? I mean even as a three
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: year old. You know, I talk a lot about mature
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to shoot a mature buck. I have
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: yet to see a hundred seventy three year old in
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: my life. But if a hundred and seventy in or
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: came through, I don't know if I could focus on
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: his body, you know what I mean? Like, it's that's
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: a big, big buck. What about you? Yeah? Yeah, I
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: have to shoot him, even though it goes against everything
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: we say, because you know, I don't know for me. Right.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: Part of the reason why I like to target mature
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: bucks is because they're older, smarter, bigger body, and et cetera.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: Like those are the toughest bucks to hunt, right, because
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: a big part of it is a challenge. But another
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: part of it is because those types of bucks are
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: the most rare. You know, an old buck is the
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: most rare. They are the fewest of those out there,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: but the same thing goes for a hundred seventy in buck,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: whether the three or five, that's still incredibly, incredibly rare.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Um So there's something extra special about seeing an animal
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: like that, having encounter with an animal like that, and
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: then having the chance to kill one. Um. So, yeah,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: he's you know, if it's the situation where you can
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: control property, blah blah blahlah blah, and you know he'll
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: make it another year. I understand why guys might want
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: to do that, But for the hunters out there, that's
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: a once in a lifetime buck. Probably would be for
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: me to um So, that's a pretty special cool thing.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: So I'd be letting that air fly. Hey Donny, what
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: about um you you've killed two hundred inches and you've
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: killed uh one, you know one. How many deer have
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: you killed in between that? Two hundred and one fifty
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: range seven eight something like that? Okay, so not a ton,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: you know, but once, like the big one I killed
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: in two thousand seven, it pretty much changed the way
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: I hunted. You know, I killed a big one, So
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: then I was stuck on shooting a five year old
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: or bigger you know, So just like Mark said, they're rare.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: You know, five year old deer is rare. They're they're
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: hard to come by, and they're and they're smart. You know,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: it's it's not easy even if they scored one thirty.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: If they're five years old, you know, they're they're tough
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: to kill. There's there's smart critters, that's for sure. So
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: you know, once I killed a big one, then I
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: was stuck on that and I just wouldn't shoot anything
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: small or young. So you know, they're not out behind
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: every tree. So I didn't kill that many, got you, Well,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: that's I wouldn't say that's not many for most people.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: That that's a whole little big deer. So, um, so
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: I'm still working to catch up with you Downey, that's
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: for certain. Um Yeah, I've lost some deer, you know,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: so I think there's at least one other booner that
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: you know, I lost I shot and didn't find, you
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: know how, like I probably lost three or four deer
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: they were so, I mean, I haven't had the best
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: luck finding deer. I don't know if it's because i'm
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: a poor shot or bad tracker or what it is.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: But you know I've lost some. Yeah, that's that's the worst.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: That's very I've been there, done that, Yeah exactly. I mean,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: you live and learn. Though. You know, my daughter killed
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: she killed a nice buck this year. It's probably in
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: the one forties, six year old um and we started
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: tracking it. She shot up with a muzzle loader. We
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: tracked about seventy yards on good blood, you know, really
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: good blood. But once I went to seventy yards, I
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: was just getting Auntie about going after this deer if
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: it's layd there, you know, beded up and shotting one long.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: You know, I wasn't sure on the shot, I was
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: pretty sure, but you know, so we backed out and
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: I went back the next day and it was I
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: took ten more steps from where I stopped and looked
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: at my right and it was land there. So you know,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: the deer that I've lost, and I've seen clients lose,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: and you know, I've been around a lot a lot
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: more these days, so anymore, I just back out, like
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think you know, this goes
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: sound crazy for me to say, but I don't think
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: I'll lose any more. Dear that that I put a
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: lethal shot on because I'm not going to push them. Yeah,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: like I have the patience to wait and go back
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: the next day. It's almost always better to be safe
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: than sorry. It is. I can't I can't even say
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: how much. It is. Like they're gonna bed down within
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: a hundred to two hundred yards if they're if they're
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: legally shot, they're gonna bed down within a couple hundred yards.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: And when you back out and you go back in,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: you know, even the next day, you're probably gonna find
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: them within two hundred yards they'll bed down. So just
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: makes for a lot better next day than you know,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: not find them at all. Yeah, I don't think I
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: don't think I ever point this out in previous episodes,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: even to you, Dan, Um, But the buck I shot
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: in Ohio this year, Um, you know when I shot
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: at when I looked at the footage, like the shot
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: was back, but I thought a liver shop. Um, so
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: I figured, you know, a little, a very a very
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: small part of me was like, oh give him, you know,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: four or five hours and he'll be dead. But you know,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: I played it safe. I decided to wait till the
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: next morning. Well, I went back the next morning, so
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: I shot him, and I don't know, it was probably
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: five pm in the evening when I had shot him.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: I went back in there and probably it was I
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: can't remember exactly, but probably seven thirty or eight o'clock
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: in the morning the next morning when I finally got
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: in there. And um, when I found him, he was
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: probably a hundred hundred fifty yards away, laying down and
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: he was he was dead, um, but he had not
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: been dead for long, like, he was still warm, he
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: was not rigid at all. Um. So I think if
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: I had went any earlier, maybe even a couple of
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: hours earlier, that buck still would have could have ran off.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: I could have pushed that buck and maybe never would
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: have found him. Um. So I mean it was so
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: important that I waited to let that buck go overnight.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: And you know, I worried, you know, my I think
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: everyone's word is you know, you worry about coyotes or
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: some type of predator getting that meat and ruining that deer.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: And that is obviously you obviously don't want that to happen.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: You want to have that meat. Um, But you know,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: zero meat is a lot worse than se of the
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: meat or fifty percent or whatever it might be. UM.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: So that was just another big reminder for me that
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: even though I thought for sure that deer would be
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: dead in you know, eight hours or ten hours, it
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: was over twelve hours and he was still you know,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: just barely had had ended. So that was that was
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: another eye opener for me. Yeah, dear can doesn't live
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: a long time. One one long liver. You know, they
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: can lives, you know, you can take a while. I
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: got a random question for you, Donnie. Have you ever
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: I feel like all of your questions are Dan. I know,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: I know, I'm I'm in my own world. But Donnie,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: you have you ever had a buck that maybe you
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: were obsessed with and you were going after and going
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: after and going after, but never were able to seal
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: the deal and he either just you know, disappeared into
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: time or he was harvested by another hunter. No, I
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I just don't limit myself. You know, there's deer out
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: there that are big deer, but there's other big deer
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: out there. So I'm not going to limit myself to
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: one deer. I'm just this way I am. I'm more
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: than likely one dear, you're probably not going to kill
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: him more than likely. I mean, so you know I'll
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: get after one, dear. But you know, if I if
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: I hunted deer two or three times close to his bedroom,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go look for another deer because there's a
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: good chance he's already he's already won the game. And
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: there they're smart critters. You go in there and every
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: time you go in the woods, you eve sent you know,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: and gosh, they just pick up on that so so
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: well and they're gone. You know, they're tough critters to kill. Yeah,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: that's probably smart. You're you're an equal opportunity killer. You
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: don't get stuck on anything. I unfortunately have made the
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: mistake of becoming obsessed with a single buck, much to
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: my chagrin this year, and he's haunting me still. But
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: that's how it goes. And like you said, it's if
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: I had two or thirty incheer or something like that,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: something that was crazy big, then you know that might
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: be different. But I've never had that. Yeah. Yeah, it's
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: a challenge, no doubt of all that. Um So, speaking
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: of my challenge, is I'm still trying to kill this
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: one specific buck I've been after all year. I've hunted
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: him in the early season, I've hunted him through the
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: October law, I've hunted him through the rut. Now it's
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: the late season. You know we're getting into December or
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: shifting to those late season tactics. I'm curious to hear,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: Donnie for you, what what kind of shift does that
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: bring for you when it comes to your strategy. I mean,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've heard it before. Food. You know, they're
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: they're gonna come off those days and they're gonna go
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: to food. Um. I wouldn't hunt in the morning. I
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: wouldn't even I'd sleep in the morning and I'd hunt
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: food sources. And I would only hunt those food sources
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: on the best days. I know we run out of time,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: but I think you can mess up a place quicker
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: by over hunting it than you can by, you know,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: hunting a day here day there, on the best days
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: when those deer probably gonna be up moving. So I
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: wouldn't hunt back in the woods. I'd hunt field edges,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe thirty yards back into the woods, fifty
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: yards back in the woods. Um, but I wouldn't try
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: and catch them in going to their beds. I just
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: hunt food sources. What is it, I'm sorry, Is it
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: easier to hunt in a state like Ohio that allows
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: you to have feeders? You know, when that you know,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: during that late season time period? Oh? Yeah, absolutely, I
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: mean any time you can bait. I mean, I know
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of people don't like baiting, but it is
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: legal here. And jeez, when it gets cold out you
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: can bait. Man. I think it's probably the easiest time
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: to shoot a big one. And the ruds fun, you know,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: because they're running around, but when it gets cold, they
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: gotta eat. And you know, states you can bait in.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: I mean it's I won't say it's a slam dunk,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: but not going to come in to eat. Yeah, especially
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: if you pair that with low pressure, if you stay
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: out of there. Um, the trick I guess is how
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: do you get in bait without putting pressure on deer?
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: But I suppose you can do that with a vehicle
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: or something like that. They're not you know, associating that
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: with human contact as much. Um, what about natural Like
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: I said that before, Mark was you know, if you
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: go in there, you're leaving food, you know, so it's
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: almost a reward for this deer to smell your scent
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: a little bit of conditioning. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Last year.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: Last year there was a form that was dumping corn
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: on the ground, and you know, I'd pull in the
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: barnyard to dump the corn the hud yards behind the
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: barn and the doze. By the time I got back
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: to the stand, I drive down the road quarter mile
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: and walked back up getting the stand, there was already
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: dope eating the corn. And they'd watched me climb into
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: my tree stand and before I get my bow up,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: they were eating corn again. And they knew what I
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: was doing, you know, they they knew that Donny was
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: bringing food. It's interesting how quickly dear Kenny become conditioned
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: to things, whether it be conditioned to your scent as
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: a negative indicator of danger or as you know, something
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: brings something positive and then you sneak attack them with
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: the danger. But yeah, you know, I think it's definitely doable.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: Is you know, when you when you come in there
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: and you leave sent if you're bringing food, they'll associate
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: you're saying with food. You know that they absolutely will,
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: and annoys it you make when you bring it in.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: And I mean I've been bear hunting and when they're
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: dropping bait in the barrels, they're banging on the barrel
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: to let the bears know that they just brought food. Right. Well,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: it's interesting you talked about this because we've had two
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: other people on the podcast in the past couple of
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: years that do something kind of similar. Um. You know,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Lee Lakowski. He's got a situation where he has properties
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: that he controls, of course, and their managed, um, but
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: he makes a point to go into all of his
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: spots and check those cameras and check the feeders and
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: stuff weekly here on some type of consistent basis so
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: that the deer again become conditioned. And he does that
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: all year round before the season, during the season, after
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: the season, he does it all the time. So it's
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: just part of the natural routine for deer around there. Um.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: So that works in a situation like that where it's
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: you know, heavily manage big properties. But at the same time,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: then we talked to a guy here in Michigan, Tony Hansen,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: who hunts very pressured areas, so lots and lots of
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: other hunters and he's hunting a small property, um, and
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: he does something similar. He takes his four wheeler in
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: every week or so. I can't remember what the cadence was,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: but again he consistently always took his a TV in
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: there and checked the cameras or put the stuff in
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: front of cameras or whatever it was he was doing.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: But again he did the same things that they became
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: conditioned to that a TV coming in, and they didn't
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: mind him coming in to check the cameras, to get
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: the intel and stuff. So I think one thing, you know,
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: we always obsess about pressure. You might, I guess in
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: the more I'm learnings, you've gotta figure out how to
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: differentiate your pressure or apply some type of pressure, but
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: in a consistent enough basis that deer becomes so you're
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: used to it um while knowing what kind of intrusion
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: deer will tolerate, what kind of intrusion deer will not tolerate.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: I guess it's maybe the big picture thing, right absolutely.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, when you're when you're bringing something in, you're
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: leaving scent there, but it's not the same scent as
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: you're sitting in a tree stand, you know, forty yards away.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: That's that's a negative pressure bringing in foods. Positive pressure
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, very true. Um, what about natural food
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: sources or you know, non bait food sources. Do you
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: key in on any different type of food source based
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: on weather or factors? I know some guys you know,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: hunting grain type food sources with certain types of weather
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: and then hunt food plot stuff like Braskas and things
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: on other types of temperatures. Do you pay attention to
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: anything like that? No, But we can bait, you know,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: I mean we we definitely got some green fields. What
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: seems like, when you know it's warm, they are going
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: to be in some green fields. But when it gets
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: cold out he has some corn on the ground, you know,
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: and they're coming. So I guess, like I said, when
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: it's warm, you go to some green and when it's cold,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: you know, you get to your corn pile. Which sounds horrible,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: but you know it's it's true. I mean, it's true.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: Well hey, I mean, like you said, not everybody hunts
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: that way. Now everybody likes hunt that way, but plenty
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: of people do. And and really, like you said, it's legal,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: and it's a it's one more tactic that you can try. Um. Yeah,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: And the other good thing about it, Mark is you
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: can be really selective on you know what you're gonna shoot.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: You know what that deer is. He's coming, He's coming
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: to that corn. You've got a hundred pictures of him.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: You know that that that deer is probably five or
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: six years old. You know probably what he scores. You
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: can be really selective on what you're shooting over a
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: corn pile as opposed to a deer runs out into
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: a field. We've got a big ac he's got a
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty in rack, but his rack makes him look
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: his body makes his rack look even bigger. So you
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: think you're shooting a hundred seventy inch dear, but you're
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: shooting a hundred and fifty inch three year old because
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: his rack makes him look bigger. So you know, you
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: can you can kind of be more selective on when
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: you're baiting. Scene goes with bear hunting. You know you
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: you're not shooting salves, he's shooting boars. You can be
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: more selective on when you're shooting. So I think there
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: is some positive sides to bating. You know, a lot
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: of people don't like it, but there are definitely some
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: positive sides to it. And when I'm hunting corn piles,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: or or feeders or stuff like that. You know, I
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily hunt right over that. I would rather try
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: to catch deer coming into those areas, like a buck.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: I think a buck it's probably gonna circle down wind
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: four year fifty yard maybe even seventy five yards to
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: win that area before he comes in. So I like
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: to have my tree stands fifty six seventy yards away
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: from wherever I'm baiting, or a fear or anything like that,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: I'd rather be away from it. Yeah, that makes sense. Um, Now,
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: what about a situation like that when you're hunting it
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: in the late season in the evening, how do you
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: whether I guess whether it's a feeder or it's a field,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: Either way you're hunting a food source one way or
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: the other. How do you get out of there in
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: the evening without educating those deer because they're feeding there,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: either in the field or the corn pile or whatever
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: it is. What's your take on that? Okay, Well, if
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: we're hunting a property where I have somebody that can
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: come and pick me up, for instance, you know we
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: were I don't mind a bump deer off a field
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: with a truck or a fowl in the evenings. I'd
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: rather bump them off the field with that and then
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: climb down, as opposed to me getting out and walking
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: out as a predator. Um. If I'm hunting back in
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: the woods where somebody can't pick me up, I keep
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: a coyote holler in my backpack, and if I need
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: to get down, I'll blow a coyote holler and the
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: deer scatter, and then I get down and walk out. Nice. Yeah,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: I should probably bring in a coyote holler instead of
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: me just trying to make a bunch of barking and
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: yipping noises in the tree like I do, because I
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: sound like a Yeah it is funny, um, because like
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: it does work. And lots of times I've had, especially
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: in Iowa. I don't know if you've seen this, dand,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: but I've had lots of times success howling like that
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: and spooking the deer and then getting all sorts of
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: coyotes around me riled up and howling to um makes
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: for an interesting, little engaging talking encounter with coyotes. Yeah,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: and a nice interesting walk out. Yeah that too. You
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna do anything, but you know, you
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: never know. It's kind of it's always already here picking
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: kaya town within a yards of you. That's true. I
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: remember one time, mom, I was hunting up in our
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: northern Michigan property and I was young. I was like
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: twelve or fifteen or something like that by myself, and um,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just deep dark northern Michigan swamp, so
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: it's just kind of scary already when you're twelve or
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: thirteen or whatever that was. And then I remember just
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: sitting there and it was the last light and I'm
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: just getting ready to go. And previous to this point,
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: there hadn't been coyotes around that area, but now they
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: just moved in. And this is like the first time
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: I've ever heard them howl, because one just picked up howling.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: It sounded right next to me, to my left, and
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: then another one like it sounded like fifty yards farther
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: to the west, and then another one, and then another one,
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: then another one. Before I knew it, it was like
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: a full semicircle all the way from my left shoulder
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: to my right shoulder and all the way in front
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: of me, all of them going off, and it sounded
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: like they're right there, and I about cracked my pants. Yeah,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: it can be a little eerie. So well, Dan, do
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: you have any more random questions for downing here before
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: we wrap things up? I don't think so, I'm not,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Just just h f y I for you, Mark,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of coyotes. It's good to know. But
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: all the listeners. But but you are afraid to sit
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: on stand all day. So yes, that is that is
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: a fear. So we we have we each have our thing.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: Um well, Danny, I I appreciate you joining us and sharing,
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: sharing how you've been able to be successful, how you've
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: done this, And something I enjoy and appreciate about your
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: hunting style is that you not only are you an
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: equal opportunity killer of what you choose to shoot, but
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: you are an equal opportunity hunter as far as how
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: you hunt. I think it's pretty interesting that you're able
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: to kill big mature bucks, you know, an abating situation
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: on private land, You're able to kill big mature buck
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: two miles back on public land in a totally different
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: kind of way. And it seems like you've been able
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: to do it in all kinds of different ways, which
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: is pretty neat because you know, there's a lot of
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: different ways to skin the cat, you know, when it
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: comes to hunting mature bucks. And I think sometimes and
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: maybe I'm even guilty of this too, some of us
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: tend to say, well, there's one way to do it,
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: or this is the way you're supposed to do or
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: this is the right way to do it, um, And
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: really that's that's a bunch of hogwash. There's a lot
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: of different ways. Um. There's a lot of different different styles, um.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: And I think that's pretty cool. So it's neat to
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: see one person who kind of has done it in
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of different ways like this. That shows Hey,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: it's it's all good and there's a lot of ways
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: to do it. So interesting stuff done. Yeah, I mean
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: the main thing I would say, any any kind of
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: way you're going to do it, just think about pressure,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: you know, whether it's private, public, whatever. I think pressure
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: is the key. Yeah, very true. That is one consistent
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: thing across the board. So, Donnie, if anyone wanted to
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: learn more about what you're doing with the guide's service
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: down Ohio, if they want to come hunt with you
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: guys someday, where should they go to get information about that?
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: We have a Facebook page Real McCoy Outdoors, and we
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: have a website that's www dot real McCoy outdoors dot com. Awesome, well,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: we will make sure to link to all that stuff.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: And uh gosh, Danny, this has been fun. Thank you
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: so much for sharing your stories and experiences. You bet,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: thank you, And that is if folks, episode number one
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: thirty is in the books. I hope you enjoyed this one.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: But before we close things up, we do need to
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: think our partners who helped make this podcast possible. So
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: big thank you to sit a Gear, Redneck, Blinds Hunter,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: a Maps, Yetie Cooler's, Ozonics, Carbon Express, Maven Optics, and
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: the White Tail Institute of North America. As well as
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: thinking them, I do want to thank all of you
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: listeners and read leaders and viewers as well, because many
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: of you have reached out to some of these companies
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: and said, hey, thank you so much for supporting the
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: Wired Hunt podcast and that is awesome. That's a big
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: help for us and it really makes a big difference.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: Helps show these companies that you know, what we're doing
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: is making an impact and that allows us to continue
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: doing this. So thank you and thank you as well
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: for just tuning into this show, I hope you're getting
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: excited for some late season hunting, and I hope you'll
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: stay wired to hunt