Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 621: Justin Hollandsworth's Four Year Hunt for a Ghost Buck Named Woody

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Ep. 621: Justin Hollandsworth's Four Year Hunt for a Ghost Buck Named Woody · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the White tailed Woods, presented by first Light, creating proven
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand Saddler Blind, First Light,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Go further, stay longer, and now your host Mark Kenyon.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon, and this week on the show, I'm joined
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: by die Hard d i y bow hunter Justin Hollandsworth.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: you by First Light. We are back with another entry
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in our big buck breakdown series that we're doing this
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: month here in January twenty three, folkus. That's crazy. Uh.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: We're chatting with hunters this month about long, challenging, interesting,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: obsession worthy hunts for single specific bucks. That's what I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: wanted to find this month were these these these epic
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: sagas of a single minded deer hunter chasing down a
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: single deer and all the ups and downs I can
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: go with that. Now, last week we talked to Tyler
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Utter about a six year hunt that was definitely full
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of curveballs. Today we've got a four year hunt, a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: four year journey for Justin Hollandsworth. And if you're not
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: familiar with Justin Uh he films with the white Tail
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Addictions Crew. He is a deadly serious bow hunter. He's
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: hunted all over the Midwest, chasing white tails from his
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: home state of Ohio to Illinois, Iowa, all over the place,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: all these different white tail states, and he just gets
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: it done. He's kind of followed in the footsteps of
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that Andre de Quisto Um kind of lineage. And he's
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: very mobile, quick thinking, aggressive, but a but a smart,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: thoughtful hunter. And he's he's proven it year after year
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: after year with a whole lot of really nice deer
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: on the ground in in a wide variety of settings,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: so lots we can learn from Justin, and he does
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a very good job of kind of sharing what he
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: does and why he does it, which I've really enjoyed
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and all of our past conversation and Justin is someone
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: who we have talked to before on the podcast. This
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: was probably two years ago. We had a great conversation
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: with him kind of going through his whole style of
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: deer hunting, how he approaches the season, what his general
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: bow hunting philosophy is UM. So definitely go back and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: listen to that one and that first episode with him
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: was episode three and fifty seven, and that one's titled
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: getting out of your deer hunting comfort Zone, and that
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: was a great conversation, like I mentioned, so highly recommend
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: going back and listening to that to kind of lay
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the groundwork, and then with this one, we're going to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: get the blow by blow breakdown of how this hunt went,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: how he discovered this deer, everything he did to follow
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: along with it over the years, and ultimately the crazy
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: things that happened along the way as he tried to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: kind of close the deal get a shot at him
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: with his bow. He's a special buck, giant deer, old
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: deer um. You know. We cover everything from I think
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a big thing with him is how he goes about
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: getting access to new properties and how he tries to
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: gain new access around where a buck lives that he's after.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: That's a big thing we cover. We talk a lot
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: about trail cameras and scouting and glassing, and and what
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I think will stand out to you when you listen
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to the story is how much scouting goes into what
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: he does. It's it's not as much the hunting as
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it is glass and watching pictures, getting new access, driving
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: around there's there's a lot of that within this story,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and um, I think that's something to keep in mind
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: as we go through this as well. And then also
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: we get to see Justin go through some really low
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: lows in this hunt. Some stuff happens that I think
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: would send a lot of people into a funk. Some
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: stuff happens that would definitely bring your way down when
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: you're chasing a buck like this, and you have that happen,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and Justin was able to push through it. So this
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: is a story of kind of battling through some adversity, staying,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: you know, persevering through it and trying to find that
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: positive window and keep it ongoing. So we're gonna cover
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: that as well. So we're gonna learn a lot about
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: how he approaches these hunts from a strategy perspective, and
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: then also how he kind of as a person pushed
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: through and kept on going after this deer and ultimately
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: was able to get an arrow in him and a
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: great story to tell and a health of memory. So
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that's the game plan today. This is a long episode,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: as you can see, but you know it's it's funny.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: It doesn't feel long. At least, it didn't feel long
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to me. As we went through this conversation, it moved
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: along quickly because there's just so many interesting things that
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: happened in the story. And then we get into some very,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: um I thought, you know, worthwhile kind of rabbit holes
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: along the way as we kind of sunk our teeth
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: into a specific decision he made, or a specific set
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: up or or a thing that happened along the way,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: we kind of try to explore the wise behind each
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: one of his decisions and how he got to where
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: he got. So that's what we have in store. I
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoy this one. I hope this series
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: is a nice change of pace. We don't usually do
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: these story focused podcasts really ever, but I thought it
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: would be a nice way to kick off the year,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: kind of revel in some success stories and try to
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: learn from these specific hunts and these experiences that other
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: people have to hopefully set us up on a great
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: path heading into our own twenty three seasons. So let's
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: get into this episode with Justin. I know you're gonna
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: enjoy it. Thanks for in here. Here we go all
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: right with me? Back on the show is Justin Hollandsworth. Justin,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back man. Thank you for doing this, Thanks for
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: having me. I'm glad. I'm glad you can make it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Always always, always a good time to catch up and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: chat with you. I know, I was thinking the last
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: time we we did a podcast together, I was sitting
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: in my pickup truck. I was recording the podcast from
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: my pickup truck. It was like ninety seven degrees out
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in the summer. I didn't want to have the A
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: C on the truck because I didn't want like that
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: noise to distort the audio. So I was just like
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: sweating bullets and miserable. And now it's it's the opposite.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: It's like freezing cold here in Michigan. I'm in my office,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: but my podcast editor always complains about my heat kicking
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: on and off in the office and messing up that audio.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: So now I'm wearing a winter jacket to try to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: stay warm in my freezing cold office with the heat
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: turned off. So it's it's perpetual climate issues what I'm
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: talking to justin Uh, that's funny. I didn't know that
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: about the last one. Yeah, it was in the summer
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: when I was at my cabin and I have no
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: good quiet place to record inside the house. So I
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: was always had to go like in the truck or
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: when we have our camper opened up, I'll do that.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: And on that particular day, it was a it was
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a truck day. So yeah, this is this is a
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: little better, but just cold. Um. But but more importantly,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: today we're talking about your hunt. Um. We're doing a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: series this month all about you know, diving deep, peeling
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: back the layers on really special hunts for special bucks,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and trying to get inside the minds of folks that
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: chase a deer like that, um obsessively. And and it
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: sounds like that would accurately describe your hunt for for
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the deer you called Woody. Would you would you agree? Yep?
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: For sure? If if you could to kick this off,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I'm wonder if you can just paint a picture for
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: us of this deer. So as we go through this story,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: as we talk about this deer, as we talk about
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: your hunt and the year's long journey, we've got like
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: something in our mind's eye. Can you can you describe
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: anything about him as far as his age, his his size,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: his body, his his antlers, his anything that makes him unique? Like,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: what's the picture you want in our heads as we
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: go through this story. So if I could picture or
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: describe Woody, he is a I had four years of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: pictures of the deer. So I was thinking he was
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: a six and a half year old buck. He's either
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: five and a half or six and a half, That's
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: what I think. Um, big dark cherry forehead, um, um,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: big chocolate rack with um. Not a huge framed deer,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: but really heavy um with split brow times on both sides,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a split G two on one side. Um, he is
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a he is a five by six with a big
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: inner point as well. Um. So he had um he
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: had a total of sixteen points. Um. Just a just
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: a brute of a of a deer, a big body, dear,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: but not I've killed bigger body, dear. You know, somebody,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: some older bucks are just bigger bodied than others. And
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: he was. He wasn't that two eighty three kind of
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: brute kind of deer? Um he was Probably he's probably
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: too or so I would guess yeah, no, no slouch, No, No,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: it was a it was a little bit of a
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: roamer too, um in the area. Um. So especially you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you want to, you know, start
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: back at you know the time, you know, it's two
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: thousand nineteen. That's when I first started getting pictures of
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the deer. Okay, So before we start with the story, um,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and without giving away specifics of the story, I'm curious
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: for this one one additional thing to kind of lay
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the groundwork here. When you think about this deer, when
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: you think about this hunt, and maybe if you were
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: to fast forward ten years, if you were ten years
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: older than you are, and you're sitting in the you know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the lazy boy chair, drinking a cold one, sitting with
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: some buddies, and you think back on this hunt and
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: you think back on this deer. What do you think
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: stands out too? Is what makes this hunt and this
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: deer so special? If you could kind of high level
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: describe what it is about this hunt or or this
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: deer that you think makes this one or will make
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: this one something that sticks with you for a long time. Um.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Is it just because of the length of time you
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: hunted him? Is it because of um, the challenge or
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: something like that. Again, you don't need to tell me
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the specifics of those stuff. Yeah, but I'm curious, just like,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: what's the thing we should be paying attention to as
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: we go through this story that made it so special
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: for you, I would I would probably say I would
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: probably say the fact that he he disappeared for a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: season and I had no clue where he was to
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: reappear last season, and and without giving too much about
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: way and then um, probably probably a lot of the
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: things that were just you know, out of my control
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: at times, I could, I would say that, like there
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: was just things that happened along the way that I
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily say that I did wrong. It was just
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: unforeseen circumstances at times. So like a lot of ups
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and downs that you kind of couldn't control that made
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: this a roller coaster. Maybe yes, yes, well let's get
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: on the roller coaster. Then I guess two. You got
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: your first pictures of him. Um, it sounds like he
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: was like a small bodied, young looking deer at that point,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah, he was, I thought the deer
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: was by looking at the pictures, he just looked like
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: a two and a half year old to me. Um,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: But he had a big he had a big frame,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: but it looked big on a deer of that, you know,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: with the body got small and he had seventeen points
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: as a two and a half three and a half
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: year old buck. That's crazy. So I just you know,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I just, I mean, when you seen the deer, you
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: look at those old trail camp pictures of him, you
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: would just eat. Anybody that's seen that deer as young
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: as he was, you would just think that's gonna be
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: a two chuito. And and that's what I always thought
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: on my mind. And it's funny too, because one thing
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: that I always thought when I was looking at pictures
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: of mean throughout that that summer, he always reminded me
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of Gene once So killed a deer years ago back
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: in Iowa that he named Woody. And I just randomly,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: not purposely, I just started calling this deer Woody in
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: my head because that's what he reminded me of. M
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Now Jean had different He had a different reason for
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: naming the deer that he killed Woody. If you listen
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: to any of Jean's old podcast or interviews or anything
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: like that, um, Jean said that he named that deer
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in Iowa Woody because every time you've seen a deer
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: gave him a woody like that. There you go, that's uh,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: that's the kind of buck you want to chase. Yeah,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: So it was always comical to me that he that
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: he that that he did that and said that, and um,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: but that the deer just reminded me from the way
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: that that deer was built and everything. I just thought,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a boy, he could be he could be like that
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: deer someday. So when you get a deer like that
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that pops up on a place you hunt, what do
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: you do Because it's a young buck that it sounds
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: like obviously you didn't want to hunt him, you know
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: at that age. He's a deer that you had like
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: high hopes were in the future. Um. Do you do
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: anything different in that kind of situation where you really
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: badly want a buck to make it a year or
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: two more? Do you do you stay out completely? Do
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: you start putting more feelers out and just start taking
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: extra care to pay attention to what he's doing from
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: then on? Or do you just you know, go about
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: your hunting like you usually would, chase whatever dear you're
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: after and this buck just is kind of on the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: back shelf and you know, keeping tab some more far Um,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: probably a couple of different things. Um. A lot of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: times I'll try to you know, if I have an
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: opportunity to, you know, maybe to put some food in
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: there and maybe buy some crops or something like that.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: If a farmer, I'll I'll always try that route just
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to keep them you know, you know, keep them around. Um,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: you know, just try to. I like to just a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: lot of times put a lot of those a lot
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: of those um trow cameras out and just leave them
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: out for an entire season and just let them soak
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and not mess with them and just you know, try
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to give them their space just so they'll, you know,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: they'll stick around. And the problem when they're that young, though,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: is they they just you know, they're just squirreling and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: they just want to run all over the place. Especially
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: one late October through November hits. I mean, those two
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and three year old bucks could, oh my gosh, you
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: can end up anywhere, and I just really just try
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: to keep the pressure off of them. Um. I didn't
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: have a deer back there that I wanted to kill,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: but I did have a deer back there, um that
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: was an old bully buck um that was kind of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: running the show back there for quite a while. And
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I actually had Troy Pottinger out that year hunt during
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: late season, and Um, I told Troy about this deer
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and I we were trying to get on that old
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: bully buck that was that was back there, and I
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: wanted I was hoping we could get him out of there.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Um because he sure, I mean, he had a lot
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of effect on that on that farm and kicking up
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: other nice deer out of there. So that's about I mean.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: And just keep your fingers crossed, I mean, because I
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: mean I think as a two and a half three
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and a half year old bucker, he was probably um
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: at that age. Oh, I mean, nine times out of ten,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter the deer's age. You get a deer,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: you know that good in front of most guys, and
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: they're gonna shoot that deer. So so what ended up?
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: What ended up happening? Did you did Troy get that
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: bully buck? Did you see you're learning for more about
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: this deer? Um? How did that year end? So that
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: year as the season went on, Troy, Um, the deer
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: was around here and there. Um Uh, it seemed like
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: he kind of left out of there. Wants the velvet
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: once he shed velvet that year and that bully buck
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: was kind of running the show. Back there. Um So,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't get a lot of pictures of him, mostly
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: just summertime pictures that year. And then UM, Troy and
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I can we could never get on that bully buck
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: when he was out. Plus he he we ended up
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: finding another buck and that that he almost killed UM
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: when he was out that year. So never UM never
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: did get that deer that year. Um So I was hoping.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I actually I think I might have brought my son
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: back there too, trying to get on that bully buck
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: at one point. But season, you know, after season went out,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: you know, I I walked, I mean I walked a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: ton of miles that year looking for those sheds. I
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: never found the sheds to Woody that year, and but
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: kind of just fast forwards into the following summer and
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I loaded the place up with cameras. UM did a
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: lot of driving around that summer glass In in that
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: area looking for him. And I never got one picture
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: or one sighting from glass In in in the summer or
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: hunting or anything in the two thousand twenty season, not once.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: How common is that? Do you think? Justin for you
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: when it comes to these these deer you've chased over
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the years, where you get them in an area and
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: then a flat out disappear for a full season and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: then we know that I mean kind of getting ahead
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: of us ourselves a little bit. But he does come back. So, Um,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: how often does this kind of thing happen to you
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: or to your buddies when you hear from folks this
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: is kind of a common thing your experience, I would say,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I would say the bucks kind of pull that through
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: being act uh at some point. Um, some of them
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: are homebodies. Some of them never leave and they're always
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: right there, and then others they just um some some
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: you know, when they're they're younger, you know, they might
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: be kind of figuring out where they kind of want
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to settle in or where they can settle in because
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of other mature bucks in an area. Um, I think
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: that has to do a lot with it. Um, you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and I think and I've seen I've seen mature bucks
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: shift two just other farms or other areas before and
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: here that you never knew was around movement. Um, I
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: would say, of the time, Um, that might happen, I've
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: had only it's only happened to me once where I've
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: had a buck that I was really after completely disappear
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: for a year and then show right back up and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: the next year was like right back to normal. Um.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And I had always thought maybe it had to do
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: with crop rotation, because he was there the corn year,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and then the next year the whole farmer's beans and
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: he disappeared, and then the next year is corn again,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and here he was feeling comfortable. Have you ever is
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that something you ever think might have an impact just
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: you know, and maybe like cover places of light, uncover,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: we're standing corn so important for cover, maybe that's more
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: impactful or anything like that. Yep. Yeah, I just think too.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Like me personally, I would much rather have of corn
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: on a farm than than beans. I think it just
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: seems like the early season it might not be as
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: good because they're sometimes they sometimes they like they like
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: that cover or whatever, but a lot of times I
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: just feel like that corn holds them later in the year. Um.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: But I've you know, there's times where um, there's just
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: so many variables that can come in. Why why I
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: think a deer is you know, stays on a property right,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: why I decided to leave? I mean, um, pressure, you know,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: pressure is a huge thing. I don't think people put
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: you know enough, Um, I see two main neighbors from
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the word go of season. Um, just pound it and
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: on every day, it doesn't matter what the wind is doing.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Ye speaking of like what holds you know, deer and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: certain properties of certain areas, can you describe what this area,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: whether this property looks like, like, what's the set up,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: what's the terrain we're dealing with here? Um? What is
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: this this area that this deer was calling home? So
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: it's a lot of the area is a lot of
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: small woodlots, a lot of wide open fields, um, and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of fence rows. Um. There's a couple of
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: pretty good sections of timber around the area, but most
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: of it is pretty open farmland, pretty flat. Um. But
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: you just had these you know, there's this these there's
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: small pockets of just you know, good cover where that's
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: only going to hold maybe you know, maybe one mature
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: buck typically And I think too sometimes that that's kind
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: of what made the situation. I would probably say more,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you know, definitely more favorable on on his part because
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of of so many times that a deer, a deer
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: can bet bet in those small woodlots, and you just
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: it's just hard to get to him, so they see
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: so so in this situation, this buck had been on
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: this area he disappeared. Did you ever end up getting
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: any kind of strong guests on on why you think
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: he left or where he went? Did you get an
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: answer at any point to what was going on? Or
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: was it just you know, a mystery until the next
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: year and you you found him again. It was just
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: more of a mystery than anything. Um. I know some
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of the other guys in the area too. No, we
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: don't always tell each other about you know, all the
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: you know, the bucks that we're getting on camera. Me
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: and one good friend do we we tell each other.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: But I would say most of the other guys, you know,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: we you know, we're not we're not sharing a lot
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: of that information. I mean, it's just, you know, it
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: is what it is. I mean, that's just that's hunting,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you know. And I mean I don't I don't blame
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: them if they know if they were getting him on camera.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Um um. But I think that you know, in the area,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and that that year, that two thousand twenty season one,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I couldn't find a year. I spent a lot of
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: time driving and trying to locate that deer and being
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: in the bean fields and stuff like that, and even um,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: even that year I shot my buck here in Ohio
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: that year and like the first week of season, so
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I was done and had a lot of time two
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: get my truck even during November when I wasn't out
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of state hunting, and and try to and try to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: locate the deer. But I I just I could not
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: locate him that year. Absolutely I got an idea but
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: where he was. But then again later on I kind
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: of figured out through talking through a neighbor that um,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: he had never been getting pictures of him that season.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: So from what I thought and where he was and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the guy that had permission on that piece, um he
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: was never there. So when you're when you're trying to
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: relocate a buck like that, how wide a net are
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: you casting? Like when you're driving around glassing in the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: summer or driving around in November watching fields and all
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: the different stuff, talking to neighbors, you know, what's the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: range that you realistically are are searching? Is it like
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: you know, a mile square? Are you looking further than that?
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: What's that you know from your experience been the possible range?
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I would say I try to keep it within that
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: that two miles spam. Um, I feel like UM a
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: lot of times. And and farm land, you know, open
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: you know, farm country. It seems like that you can
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: usually locate them. But but I've been wrong. I mean
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: there's been times I know a buddy, me and a
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: buddy were just talking about this. We know of a
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: book that I used to get pictures on a farm
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and and he was getting pictures of the deer um
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: the year after that. And now the deer is like
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: five or six miles away from here. So I can't figure,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: you know. I just think they all have their own personalities,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and they all have their you know, and just other
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: you know variable you know, just reasons why you know,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: they want to leave a property. Maybe it's you know,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the hunting pressure there, or maybe it's um maybe they're
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: maybe they're a loner and the deer numbers are high there,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: they don't like that. I've seen that quite a few
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: times with deer before, especially older class bocks, where they
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: just don't want to be UM. I can say this
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: that I've had pieces before, I've had permission on that
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: I was able put food plots and do a lot
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: of work on them, and thinking I was going to
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: make the property better, and I made the property better
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: from a deer's number standpoint, but from a mature bucks standpoint,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't because it seemed like the older class bucks, um,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: they weren't there as much as they used to be
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: when they're the deer numbers were low. I don't I
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: don't know why. The only thing that I can well,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the only reason I can think of is just because
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: because they're loners and they don't like I don't know.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I think we all, I mean us as people, as
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: we get older, sometimes we get like that. You know,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: it's like it's the grumpy old manufact right. Yeah, I
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: think that. I think that happens with a lot of
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: deer um where they just want to be mean. Now,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: maybe they might show back up during you know, November
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: or something like that, because there might be a lot
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of does or something in there, or maybe late November
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: when there's when they're looking for that you know, last
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: dough or two or something like that. Um. But I think,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: I think, I think sometimes high gear numbers can definitely
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: be uh contributing factor to maybe the caliber animal that's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: not a property. Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. I can definitely
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: see how that would how that could be the case.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: They don't seem to like that stress of other deer
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: around all the time and competition for food and solitary
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: betting areas and all that kind of stuff. Um, So
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: in this case, though he disappeared, you couldn't find him.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: How how long do you keep the faith of that
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: deer is even alive? Did you kind of give up
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: on them that at some point that season say well
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: he probably got shot? Or were you think can man?
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: All the way through that year and into the next,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: you were still holding out hope that man he could
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: be back this year, he could be maybe five. You know,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: were you still operating in as if he was going
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: to show up or did you moved on? Well? Late
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: in late season of two thousand twenty, um, a good
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: friend of mine set me a picture of a deer
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: that got killed, probably like three or four miles from here,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: and it resembled him. He said, Hey, I think this
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: is that deer that you're called Woody, And um, I
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: looked at the deer, but it looked like a It
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: looked like a five six seven year old kind of
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: buck to me. In the pictures a lot of the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: same characteristics and stuff like that of that deer. Um,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: he really thought it was. I didn't so much. At
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: points I thought maybe it hits him and maybe that's
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: what he turned into. And other times I just thought
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: that it wasn't but it um. I honestly kind of thought,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: you know, that ship had sailed. Um. Going into two
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: thousand twenty one, I just thought, well, that deer is
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: gone kind of thing. Um, And that's how I went
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: into the season. I just kind of forgot about the
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: deer and kind of went up, you know, I went
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: back to what I always do and you know, trying
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: to locate you know, the bucks I want to go
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: after in the summer. So so fast forward us to
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: him where things changed again continues on. You've moved on
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: to other deer. You've got what you killed some big
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: flyer buck last year, right, isn't that what I remember? Yeah,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I killed a big non typical with a bunch of
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: He has got all these flyers and jump coming off
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: his bases and stuff. Um. So yeah, So two thousand one,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: so I I had a couple of different bucks that
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I was interested in and about, and I think it
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: was in July one of my uh, one of my
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: neighbors that um that used to hunt a farm right
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: right by it text me one evening and said, hey,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you hurt, but we lost permission
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: over there on our Maine farm. And I said, oh,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: you didn't. And it was it was by um it
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: was close to where I had killed Woody. And I said,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: oh really, And I said, I kind of figured out
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: because it's sold the property. There was an older lady
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that she passed away and they sold the property and
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: then they had hunted it for years and years. And
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: he said, well, I might as well at the call
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: of the bag. And I said, oh, yeah, about what?
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: And he said, I almost sending there were some true
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: camp pictures. So he said he sent me over some
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: trail camp pictures and Manson's I looked at him, I'm like, man,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: is that Woody? And the more I looked at him,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and I was going back and looked at a mine.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because then he asked me, like, you
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: know that buck, and I'm like, nope, I know that buck.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: And and he had told me he said, he was like,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: you should try to get permission around there, but he
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: said I heard people on the other side over there
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: do not allow any hunting. And and so I think
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: it was like the next day after he sent those
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: pictures to me. The day after that, I mean I
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: was over there. I think I knocked at four doors
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: over there, and I got two knows because um, they
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: had people hunting already. But then I got two yesses.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: And one of the yesses that I got was on
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: acre piece of added right up against the woods that
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: they were getting pictures of him, and and and and
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: he even he showed me, he dropped the pen and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: showed me this is exactly where my camera was in
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: there where I was getting pictures of him. And so
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I was only a couple of hundred yards maybe from
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: where he was getting pictures. And then here in Ohio
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and mean, we can you know, we can run bait
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: um so in the summertime. Um, I had date out
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: over camera over there, and I was I thought, for
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: sure I get pictures of him. I got pictures of
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: a ten that he was running with, but I never
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: got pictures of him, which was weird. So I drove
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: around a ton trying to figure out because I thought
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: maybe he might be squirting up the backside and heading
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: west out of that place and maybe staying out onto
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: some sense rows. So I was doing a lot of
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: glass and out through there. Some of the spots I
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: can't really get to though, to see him because the
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: way some of the properties come in there. And and
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: so I never did. I never did locate him. And
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: besides a neighbor um sending me some pictures, and I
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: was just hopeful that he was going to show up
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: on you know, I had three different places I had
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: permission on right there in that little area. So I
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: was just hopeful that he'd show up on one of them.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: What was what was the camera strategy across those three properties?
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Because you've got this buck you're really after, you're hoping
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: he's gonna pop up somewhere. Did you run the standard
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: camera strategy that you always do or did you have
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: anything different in this kind of like search phase for him. Well,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the one thing I did do too, because um, I've
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: noticed something the last few years that sometimes not all
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: not all bucks, but some of them get a little
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: funny around some of these cell camps. Um, So I
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that what I was doing was
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: not just the standard you know, sell cam over a
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: bait pile or or over a mineral site or whatever. UM.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I was trying to run some just standard cameras too
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: and just kind of keep them trying to keep him
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: up on the line of sight and stuff like that
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: of where he might be, you know, entering or exiting,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: you know, one of those three properties that I had
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: access to. And I was hoping that because I've had
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, uh, I've had some I've had some times
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: where where I've known a particular bucks on a farm
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: and if you didn't know, if you didn't have a
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: visual sighting, you wouldn't even know that they were there
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: because of some of them just don't like these cameras period,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: and some are you know, some of them are they
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: love to get their picture taken almost the seams, and
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: then others that they just shy away from it. So
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to. I just want to do my
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: due diligence and tried to make sure that I was covered,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: you know, uh, both strategies. I had a couple of
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: the spots too. I had mocked scrapes on um and
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: had a lot of bucks on both of them coming
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: into those and he was when he in two thousand nineteen,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I had him on a mock scrape a lot that year. Um,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: so I was thinking that navy, I can get him
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: back onto some scrapes again to get some pictures of him.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: But I just never did. I never got one picture
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: of that, dear. And what are you do in a
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: situation like that where you're you're just hoping he'll show
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: up but he never does? Did you did you still
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: hunt those properties hoping to see him? Or were you
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: staying out until you had confirmation he was there and
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: focused on elsewhere? You know? How did that? How does
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: that affect your strategy? Well, I the way I looked
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: at it, I was just gonna stay out and just
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: wait and see if he showed up. But the one
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: thing I wasn't gonna do is set back and wait
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: for a ghost and waste my whole season wait, wait,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and you know, waiting on something that's not there. And
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: so I had that non typical the one with the
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: flyers and the jump on the basis, and he was
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: the biggest buck um that I knew of uh that
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: year that I was that was around a lot. So
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I just put all my effort in time into that
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: year and and had an awesome game of cat and
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: mouse with him throughout the season, and then I finally
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I think it was a November four, I ended up
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: shooting that buck. He I've seen him in the morning
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: and he pushed the dough back into what I thought
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: was his betting area because I found a shed. I
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: found one of the sheds back there from the year before,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: and so I went in. I hung my one point oh,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: which I had two trails coming out UM. One was
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: just beat down with huge tracks and like a couple
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: of just just monster rubs coming off of it. One
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: was kind of a faint trail, but it had a
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: couple of his big tracks what I thought was his
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: big tracks coming out into this cut bean field, And
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: so I went in there and hung that set. Um.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: He stood up out of his bed when he was
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: with that dough. He was probably eighty yards away when
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: he stood up UM, and I knew from in the
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: morning because she was wanting to feed in that bean field.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I was like, I just knew that more than likely
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: they were going to move back out, and I was
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: hoping that the trail that I there was. I had
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: to split the difference on those trails, and I favored
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: obviously the one with the most sign on it and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: set myself up on the left team that shooter. And
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: so I set myself up with that trail on the
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: on the right side of me, so as they moved past,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: so I can take that shot. Well, you know, go figure.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: He follows that dough over on the other trail to
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: my left hand side, which was my and and I
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: ended up shooting him. Um, that's probably the part of
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: the center shot up. Shot up a buck with my bow.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I think it was like four yards through the woods
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: and and and he ran like fifty yards and died.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: But so here's the funny thing about this whole situation
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: is so two of my buddies are all they're tagged
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: out right, and one buddy meets me he needs to
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: meet meets me up at the farm at the barn,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: and we're setting my truck and we're waiting on my
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: other buddy to show up, and we're going to go
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: pull the steer out that I just shot, and my
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: cell can goes off and what he was on my
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: camera on the main farm where I've been getting pictures
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: er in two thousand nineteen, that night he's back. Yep,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: he's back, And now I'm tagged out what did he
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: look like that year? How much? You know? So now
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: he was were you guessed him? And he was he
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: was four or five? Is that right? Yeah? So I
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: would have Yeah, he was either four or five last year,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: is what I thought. Um, kind of a lot like
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: he did before. It was like he had the same configuration, um,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: non typical. He had some stickers and stuff coming off
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: of his G twos and h G twos and G
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: three's that year and which he didn't this past year,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: didn't have any of those stickers. And so then um
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: still had to like to split rowse. He's always kind
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: of carried at and I'm just you know, just in
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: but I thought he was going to I thought his
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: frame was going to get a lot bigger, um because
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: the way he looked when he was young, and but
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: he was still you know, still an awesome deer, big browse.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: But um, so sorry about my domer market. So um,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: but if I was, I told my I told my buddies,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: I'm like, how how was it possible that deer is
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: going to show up? I'm literally I just shot that
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: buck like three hours ago, three or four hours ago.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Now he's gonna show back up And you know, show up,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: show up in there. It was funny too, because after
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: he showed up over there, he stayed there all season
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: after that. Now, what what do you think that was about? Like,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: do you have any any guesses as to why, like so,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: why he showed up at the beginning of the rut
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: kind of and then just stuck it out the rest
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: of the year. Do you have any thoughts on what
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: happened there pressure around him or or what. The only
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: thing I can think of is that property that sold,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Um was when I maybe when they first bought that place.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: You know, I did see them rides and four wilders
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: back that way, um, side by side, stuff like that,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: and there was a small woodlot. So I don't know
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: if maybe the pressure kind of got to him to where,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: um where maybe he just relocated. Um, I'm not sure,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: to be honest with you. That's the only thing that
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I can think of that made him move over there.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because he was over there, I mean
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: all all year after that. My my, my, my farmer
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: buddy that lets me hunt there. Um, he kept messing
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: with me. He doesn't deer hunt, but um, he has
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: a little bit passed and he kept messing with me,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: goes and he kept sam, want to shoot that big buck.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I'm like, and what of I you know, he gives
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: me permission, So what am I gonna say, don't go
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: shoot that buck? I mean it's not but he just
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: liked antagonize me. I think with it is what he
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: was doing. And um, yeah, I think he I think
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: he can call me one time and said, hey, I
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: just shot that buck. I'm like and I remember sitting
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: there thinking for a second, I'm like, you know, I
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, and then I was like, you
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: want me to come help you and get him out?
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: He goes, not I didn't shooting? Yeah, So but yeah,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: he stayed on there all year and then um in December,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: mid December, I got some try came pictures of him
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: and he was holding up his back leg and and
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: he looked like he lost some weight, looked like he
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: had like something going on like high and and one
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: of his hips but and then his and then his
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: his back hoof looked like it was like really swelled
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: up or something like. I couldn't figure out what was
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: going on in it. And the pictures and it wasn't
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: a week after that he dropped both. It was like
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: December and he dropped both sides, and I thought for sure,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh boy, he's this is never good.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Nine times out of ten and I see this happen.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: It seems like they don't make it through the Winner
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: with those kind of injuries. So I don't know if
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: this helped or not, but I mean, I really poor
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: to feed to that deer. I mean, we can you know,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: we can date and use minerals and everything here, So
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I did I really put the minerals out and feed,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: And I mean I just I was just trying to
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: get him, you know, through that Winner is really what
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: I wanted to do. But walk my tail off. I
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: think I think I logged like fifteen miles or something
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: like that on Onyx track in my steps trying to
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: find those sheds that I never found either either side,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: because my hopes was if I could locate the sheds,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: that was just gonna at least give me a Hopefully
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: if I could, if they were back in a betting
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: area or something like that, maybe that could be like
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: a little piece of the puzzle or piece that I
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: could use going into next season to maybe at times
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: set up on him the killing yeah, so that that
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: brings up another question. Now that you you know he's there,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: you're hoping he survives. You had pictures of him on
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: the Aim property again you look for the sheds. Um.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Were you doing any other on the ground scouting to
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: just try to better get to know the area. Was
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: there anything else you were doing to try to kind
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: of narrow or try to kind of get in tight
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: on what the steer was doing and figuring him out
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: for the next year at this point, Oh yeah, Yeah,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I did a lot of winter scouting that year, just
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously I was trying to find those sheds
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: that hopefully dial something. But I did find a couple.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I found two different areas. I know for sure that
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: he was betting in a lot, And I mean there
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: was just there was by size rubs and both of
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: those areas and and the only thing that I could
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: figure out what he was doing was those were the
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: those were the spots that he was betting, um based
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: off of two different wind directions and UM. And what
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: I probably missed on and probably the thing that I didn't,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: I guess die on myself then is one of the
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: one of the the spots it was I think he
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: probably not so much from a wind standput point, but
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: more so on a visual standpoint, um, because and never
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: it didn't dawn on me at that moment in time,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: but later it did after I've seen him doing something,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: you know, after I seen him doing a few things
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: during the season, um. Because one thing I did, you know,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: pick up on during the season that I was hunting
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: in this past season was that year like the walk
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: with the wind at his butt all the time. And
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: I've I've killed a lot of deer on you know,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: those edge winds and and and um, you know, and
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: or just maybe the way that you know thermals work
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: in a certain area or something like that. But I
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: mean that, dear, I don't know how many different times
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: to see him walk with the wind right on his butt.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Why do you think that was? Like? Was there? Was
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: it just something about his betting years that the only
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: betting year he could use would not give him a
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: good win direction to go to certain food sources, or
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: or just a weird personality trader or what I think
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: it was more from a visual standpoint, I think he
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: would bed in these certain spots covers back trail, um,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: but then be able to walk because of the way
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: that you know, the area was with the you know,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: with the small woodlots, you know, flat farmland, you know,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of fence rows, that kind of stuff, um um.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: And I didn't make even even from even this past
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: season hunting him a few times, I still almost had
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: in my mind at times of hunting him more so
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: like he was going to use use the wind a
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: lot more than what he did. I think he used
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: his vision more than anything. Interesting. So so you found
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: these two betting areas, you never found his sheds. Uh.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: You're slowly putting some of these pieces together, work me
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: through as you start to see him again. And one
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: of these next steps after that two um, same thing
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: as I typically always did. But I loaded I loaded
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: up UM. I loaded up the farm. Actually, I loaded
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: up the main farm where I've been always getting pictures
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: him where he where. He kind of took up residencity
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: there in twenty one UM and put a small food
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: plot in as well. And then on the other two
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: pieces that I had just in case, because I thought,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: you know, this is a good chance to steer goes
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: back to those you know, to that area over there
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: with on the you know, the other wood lot. I
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: put a small food plot in there as well, just
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: in case. I g as a backup plan in case
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: he decided to move back to that area or whatever,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: you know, i'd have some have some things set up
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: for him. Um he didn't. He never moved back to
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: that area. He he be in the summer. He stayed
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: on that main farm all summer. I could, I mean
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: I could go over there and watch him almost every
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: single evening if I wanted to in the beans. I
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: mean he was over there with like five or six
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: other Bucks and he was just in those beans, I
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: mean constantly. And I was super hopeful that that he
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: was going to stick around. I I was a little
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: nervous about once he shed velvet, that's he might you know,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: do another disappearing act or whatever. But all the way
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: right until season, um he shed his velvet and didn't
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: seem like he was going anywhere. So two weeks prior
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: to season starting, my buddy, that lets me hunt that farm.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: He's got an old uh grain barn there, and it's
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: got a second story to it and you can open
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: up this this door that's on the top, and when
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: you do that, you can see the entire being filled
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: out out through there. So I remember, you know, saying
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: to myself, I'm gonna every single evening um for the
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: next two weeks, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be up here
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: and I don't have I'm gonna, I'm gonna have this
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: deer figured out before before season rolls in, and then
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna, you know, try to play off that
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: and see if he continues to do that. He was
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: super visual. I mean I could go over there and
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: see all the time, even after he shed his velvet.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was he was, he was in there.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: But the one thing that he did, he had about
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: four different places he'd come out, and he had two
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: different fence roads that didn't come out of, and he
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: had two different woodlots that he would come out of.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: And and it wasn't always based upon wind um. Sometimes
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: it was he come out with the wind in the space.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Sometimes he came out with the wind right out of.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: But so I couldn't quite figure out exactly where he
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: liked to, you know, like where he would like to
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: spend the majority of his time. There was one little
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: spot that he kind of favored a little bit. It
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: was by some pine trees and it seemed like that
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: was a little more favorable. But there was a location
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: in the field on a fence row, and there was
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: a little waterway that it just seemed like most of
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: the time wherever he came from, he ended up going
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: through that waterway. And I just thought, well, if I
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: can get a dead west wind and come down that
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: fence row and slide into one of those one of
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: those trees right there, pretty good, pretty good chance I'm
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: going to get a shot at him. So opening a
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: season that morning night glassed seeing him that morning glass
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: that evening again, I didn't have the wind, so I
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: just stayed out because I think sometimes I think that's
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: where all of us make a mistake. Is um, you know,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: is uh. We just want to get in there um
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: too soon. Um. Sometimes the best hunting is no hunting.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: And the next morning, which would have been Sunday morning,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: the second day of Ohio season, I wanted to play.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I was when I was really hoping the wind was
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: switching and it was going to come. They were saying west,
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: a touch of southwest to it, and I was really
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: hoping that he was going to um um, he was
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: going to go into bed somewhere that morning, and I
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: was going to treat it like a turkey hunt, where
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: basically I put him to bed and that I was
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: going to move it. I didn't want to go in there.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: I think guys can go in there, you know, mess round,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: check cameras, hang a stand whatever. I didn't want to.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: I don't want to touch any of that until like, Okay,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: I'm going in there hunt. You know. So I've never
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: seen him that morning, So I was a little bummed
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: about that, But I still had a really good idea
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: and where I wanted to be for that evening because
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: I felt like two, it was a it was a
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: safe it was it was a safe set where I
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: could go in and and get out without too much damage.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: It's worst case and he was out in one of
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: the fields or something like that, I could either call
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: my buddy that hunts the place or um that owns
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: the place, and you know, he could drive back and
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: pick me up. Or I could call my wife or
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: something like that and have her come, you know, drive
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: back and pick me up and and and then that
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: way we're going to see me get down and you
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: know that whole thing. Um. I went in there. I
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: hung that one point on that cens row and seeing
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: a ton of deer. The deer just manny really moving
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: that night, and had um several deer come right by me.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: And then right towards the end of the evening, probably
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: about an hour before dark, he came out of those
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: pines and he came all the way. He was coming
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: all the way across that bean field, and he was
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: gonna cut. He was gonna come right out in front
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: of me and would have been a twenty five yard shot.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: And right at the last minute, I don't know why
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: he did this, and he ended up cutting in behind me,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: which is something I never needing to do before. And
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: he started to cut him behind me. I thought, and
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: my wind is blowing straight back down that sensor row,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: and I thought, man, I'm gonna have to shoot him.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to shoot him before he gets that sensor.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Because he gets that sensor, I'm done. And I've ranged
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: at as he's walking, I've ranged the opening I had
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: right there, and I thought it was gonna be about
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: a thirty thirty two yard shot. I drew on the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: deer and I was at full draw, and I had
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: to let him clear one branch and um that when
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: the wind kicked a little southwest and he got me.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: He nailed me, And I thought he was gonna get
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: stupid enough to take a couple more steps, because it's
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: really all I needed. And you know sometimes like they
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: smell the smell you and then they're like, m I
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: think I smell but I think, but I'm gonna take
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: those couple more steps so I can get that little
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: bit more. And he just never did. Um when he did,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: when he decided to move, he's bolted out of there. Heartbreaker, Yeah,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: because I felt like a lot of that work kind
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: of put in in the summer was like, man, I
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: just made this way harder on myself than I was expecting.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: I you know, I would rather not even seen the
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: deer that that happened. Yeah, he had nine of everything
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: go right and then the worst possible thing happens at
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: the last possible moment. It's it's not a good feeling, No,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: it's funny. That night and a good friend of mine,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: like actually my buddy that I was with the evening
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: and I got a truck can picture of him when
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: I shot my buck the year before, he shot a
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: like a just a stud a pointer that night and
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: so he's oxided. So I'm going over there to help him.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: And you know, I'm over there. It was like He's
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: on the highest of pies and I'm on the lowest
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: of lows. And you know, we're pulling up this great,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: huge split G two eight point and I mean just
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: the probably and um and uh and and I I
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: remember him saying, he goes, he goes, Dude, I can
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: see the look on your face. He's like, you'll kill him.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I feel like I just screwed it all up.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: I said, it's it's early in the season. I mean,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: I got plenty of time to recover. But man, I
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: hate hunting them when they know they're hunted. Yeah, so
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: so what was the what was the next move? Then
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: he he got you, now, what what was the Yeah?
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: What what was the plan? And then walk me through
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: quickly to like the next moment of consequence in this
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: uh in this story. So after that, I decided to
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: back off. I was like, Okay, I'm not gonna hunt.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get back in that barn again and just
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch my cameras, but I'm gonna I'm gonna
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: glass a lot and just try to use. That's one
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: thing I've definitely changed as I got as I've gotten older,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: is I don't feel like I need to hunt all
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: the time. Um, boy, that I tell you. Glassing is
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: just so important. And if you can, if if you
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: can glass a ton and then make your moves according
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: to what you see based off of visual sighting rather
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: than always a trail camp picture like we. I think
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of us are gotten really used to doing. Um.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: I think you're you're picking up on things. You're seeing
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: small things that you wouldn't see from a traill camera. Um.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: So I spent a couple of nights up in that barn.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: I've seen him again. Um it was two, three, four
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: nights before I seen him again, and he was not
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: on the not on the cameras to as much as
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: he was either, So I definitely affected what he was
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: doing before. So um he started to be a little
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: predictable coming out of one spot a little bit. So Um,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: I made a move, went over hung a set when
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: I got to win, went in there, sat he came
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: out on totally out, but on the other end of
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the beam field out of another one lot. So um,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: I've seen that. So I'm like Okay, tomorrow night, I'm
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: gonna be over there. So over there on the other side,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: he comes out right in front of where I sat
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: the night before. I know this feeling too well, Oh,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: I know because you've I've I've followed a lot of
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: your hunts over the years, and you've been through the
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: same thing. So sorry, continue on. So so it was like,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: you know, you know how you know how it is.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: It's like the zig day zag, and it's like that's
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: kind of just started with going what was going on?
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: And and then I would think, I'm I'm hunting, I'm
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: hunting too much. I'm gonna back off for a little bit.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: And then you know, I was just I was in
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: that barn all the time. I mean I was. I
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: spent a lot of time glass in that deer out
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: of there and then wouldn't make my moves. And I
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: noticed it was probably mid October now. Oast season came
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: in September, I think this year, and it was mid
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: October now, and I noticed that he started coming out
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: of that that little uh spot where the pines were again.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: So and I noticed hadn't come out of there twice
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: and both times he had the win to his butt,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: and I thought, man, I need to be able to
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: get over there. But I'm worried because now I'm picking
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: up on it. I'm like, he's ben where you can
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: see is what it is. And that's why he's not
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: using the wind to come out. He's using his site. So,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: um my buddy owns the place. He was, Actually he
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: was he They were getting ready to start picking beans
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and so I asked him. I said, hey,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: there's any way that you could, you know, buzz me down.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: They're on the tracktor and just keep the track or
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: going and stuff like that and hanging. I'm gonna hang
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: the set and climate, and he goes, I don't care.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: So he takes me down there and drops me off
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: and just stays there. I hang that set and at night,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: um seeing a bunch of deer mostly does. And right
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: at last night, I was just getting ready to dig
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: it down and I heard something coming. I mean it was,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: it was. It was pretty dark and I could I
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: couldn't see because those pines are so dark inside the
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: woods where those pines were. And the next thing I know,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: I see a deer and it comes, I mean it
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: comes directly underneath me. And comes out and I was
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out that. I was trying to see
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: where it was. I couldn't tell until he got out
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: into the beans. And then I was able to put
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: my binoculars on him because it was so dark and
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: it was him, and he walked, I mean, right underneath me,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: and he got out into those beans. And I had
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: a steady, like probably fifteen win that night, so and
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: it wasn't definitely my favorite. And he got out there
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: and he acteel like he knew something was up. I
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: could tell. I was like watching to the binoculars. I
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: just think they got that I got that six cents
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: and they just know. And I could just tell. And
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: he kind of, you know, kind of kind of walked
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: out of there a little stiff legged, and and I thought, man,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: here we go again, you know. So he must have
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: knew something was up, because the very next day of
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: my buddy, I got a buddy that hunts just down
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: the road. And to keep in mind, this deer has
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: not been on him all year, and and he texts
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: me the next morning, said, hey, what he was on
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: me yesterday? And he set me a couple of tropm
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: pictures up and I was like, oh really. And I
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: was sitting there thinking, I was like, oh gosh, you know,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: here we go. You know, no push him on out.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: I just thought he was gonna he's gonna end up
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: killing this you know, kill this buck. Is funny we had.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: But it was kind of funny because we had a
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: funny conversation because he's like, um, you know, he's He's
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: calls me like the next day, says, hey, talk to
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: you about something. I said, I already know what you're
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: gonna say. I'm like, if if you think then I'm
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: going to be upset mad whatever about a deer if
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: he walks in I've said, if that deer walks in
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: front of you, better killing He said, well he goes.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: People get funny about these deer and they get attached
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: to him and this and that. He's an older guy too,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: and and I said, dude, that thing gets in front
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: of you, gotta shoot that. You gonna shoot that buck,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: like you know, I know that is what it is.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a wild animal. I mean, I don't
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: want him the deer. You know, it's not mine. It's
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: the States, you know. At that point, And and it
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: was funny, but the deer. He don't. He didn't stick
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: around over there but maybe a day and then was
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: and then was back. So so you you've now had
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: to kind of known educational moments with the deer where
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: he's he's learned something about you hunting him, and then
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: you've been you know, trying to figure him out along
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: the way to um what what was going through your mind?
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Not at this point is you're trying to figure out
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: you know, at least one of the things I'm thinking
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: about is you're telling me the story is is I'm
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: getting stressed out because of how you know, you've been
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: very reliant on seeing this deer coming in and out
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: of a bean field, and back of my mind, I'm thinking, man,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: how much longer is this buck going to stay on
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: this bean field pattern where it's coming in out of here?
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: And what are you gonna do when he moves off
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: to some other food source and never comes out into
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: that field anymore? So were you feeling like timing pressure
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: with that too, where you were like, gosh, I gotta
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: make him move on him on this thing because he
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: keeps on doing it. But you know, tonight might be
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: the last thing he does this because any time now
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: those beans are gonna be harvested, or you know, he's
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: gonna move on to something else, acorns or corn on
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: the neighbors or something. So there's this, you know, I
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: think we all have this thing where we know, like
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: we have to be careful with timing and we have
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: to try to take our shot at the right moment,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, like you never know how
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: fleeting that moment might be. Um, so what how how
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: were those kinds of things being worked out in your
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: head as you're trying to figure out what to do next.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: Was it like again I gotta fall back and be
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: patient again, or were you starting to Thank God, I
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: gotta get aggressive because he might he might disappear. Um
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: to me, I felt like I needed to start, like
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: I just needed to get aggressive because I knew, you know,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: any day, um, um my buddy was gonna pick those beans.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: Um he was already picking deeds other places and was
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: getting was getting ready to pick those beans over there.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: And and I knew too from our conversations too, that
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: he was going to put a lot of liquid line
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: on those fields. Um. So that was you know, all
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: those things. So yeah, I mean I was for I
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: was definitely feeling the pressure to get this deer down,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: and the problem was like it just I didn't have
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: the wood lots are so small, the French roads and
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, there's not you know, there's only so
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: many moves that you can make, so many different trees
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: that you can get in. Um, I've gotten permission on
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: a little tiny piece that butts up against the thin
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: the thicket that that one of the thickets that he
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: was staying in, and where I could literally come through
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: their yard and with any kind of south wind in
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: I could I could jump up into a couple of
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: pine trees right there. And I kind of overlooked that
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: and it was like a real safe in and out
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: and it was like I felt like it was a
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: better morning set because I figured if they're out in
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: the fields, then I can catch them coming back into
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: that spot and maybe milling around before they beat up
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: or whatever for the morning. So I had sat there
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: one morning and I'm pretty sure that I caught a
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: glimpse ofthing one morning, UM, and I was hoping that,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe get a crack out of there. So
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: you know, there's just so many places that you can go,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: and then you start repeating the same things again, and
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: then I feel like when you start repeating the same
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: things again that he's got you at that point. So
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: I was definitely feeling it. How do you how do
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: you go out? You know your hunt? You know, I
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: guess frequency then at that point, because because that then
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: becomes the next question is then you're feeling the pressure
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: of timing. But like you said a second ago, you
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: only had so many spots you could go, so you,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: I say, at this point, you're like, Okay, I can
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: either hunt the same handful of spots, like I've got
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: a handful of moves that can play. You keep keep
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: doing those things enough time and hope that you know
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: the volume approach eventually pays off, or did you take
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: the opposite, which is, man, I'm just gonna stay out
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: because I only have three or four good things I
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: could really do. I just need to wait until the
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: perfect day and then I'll strike at one of those
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: things to keep the pressure low. Like how do you where?
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: Which which approach did you end up taken? I ended
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: up at that point to take acroachokes volume and a
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: lot of sets and a lot of um I because
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: I did, I was running of time I just knew that,
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: you know, once they were going to be in there,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: they'd probably be in there for you know, two three days,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: you know, harvest of beans and all that kind of
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: stuff going on. And then I didn't know. I wasn't
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: sure on this liquid life situation and what that might
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: do to it, um, to the to the whole farm
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: in general. So um, I know that he also had
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: you know, he was also at some point he was
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: going to turn those fields over. And once he turned
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: those fields over, I knew that those deer were I mean,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: it was going to be like a ghost town as
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: soon as that happened. I just had you know, I've
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: been in that situation before where the fields get turned
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: over and it's like it's like a light switch. Get
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: who gets you know, turned on or turned off because
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: there's just nothing, you know, there's there's nothing there to eat.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: They're gonna go find something to eat. And I had
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: a feeling one morning, well I got pictures of a
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: cell camp and I just had a hunch, um where
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: I'm where I thought he might be going back into
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: bed that morning because it was like, um, maybe an
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: hour before it got light. And so I went in
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: hunt a set and had him coming across the field
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: through that waterway again but was coming over towards the
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: wood lot and you and I felt like he was
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: going to take this. You know, I've gotten some pictures
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: of him over there before taking this one particular trail,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: and he had a couple of big rubs that just
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: opened up over there, um that I've seen like a
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: couple of days prior to that. So I just went
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: on a hunch because, like you know, sometimes just calling
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: got you know, I've done that where I followed my
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: gut and killed deer, and I've and and then I've
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: had those gut feelings before where I didn't follow it
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: and would have killed deer, I would follow it. So
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: that's what I did that morning. I went in there
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: and pung that set. He started coming right across that field,
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: and the way he was coming in, I was like, man,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be a fifteen yard shot. And about that
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: time as he's coming across, I mean it's just breaking daylight. Um,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: here come the liquid lime trucks YEP. For three three
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: days straight. It was semi after semi after semi of trucks.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: It never let off, and he just kind of disappeared
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: from the farm, and I was so frustrated at that point, um,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: and all that activity back there, I mean when all
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: that was going on, I mean there was you know,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: the farmer and the side by side driving around back there,
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: and I mean it's just I mean there's just so
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: much activity back there. I was like, man, it's just no.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: I was so from I told but we have a
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: piece that we hunt out in Illinois. And and my
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: buddy Heath was getting ready to go out there, and
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: I said, I told him, I said, are you going
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: out to Illinois that I am? I said, I think
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: I need some new scenery or I'm gonna pull my
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: hair out. I said, I think I'm gonna come out
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: there and maybe hunt for a long weekend or something.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: And then it got then not by now, you know,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: by that time, it's you know, last couple of days
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: of October and the first couple of days in November,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: and it got really warm and and we were out
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: there and it was like a it was like a
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: ghost town. I mean, there wasn't much going on. Um,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: So it was kind of a you know, kind of
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: busted little a little trip. Neither one of us had
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: any luck I mean we were I mean it was
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: so warm, it was um, it was an awful spell weather. Yes,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: it was bad. Oh so yeah, sorry, continue well, so
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: then I just came back after that, and um, I um,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: he kind of he just he went missing for a while,
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: and I was just trying to locate where the heck
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: you know he could be. And then my farmer he
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: was getting ready to turn us fields over. And I
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: knew that, you know, once that happened, that was going
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: to be that was that was gonna really really hurt
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: that farm. So, um, I spent a lot of time
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: driving around in glass and and then he started turning
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: those fields over, and um it was, um, I'm located
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: in and I I there was a couple of pieces
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: I was gonna try to get permission on. When you
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: say you located him, so you were driving around you
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: glassed him in a field on some other property. Is
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: that what happened? Yep? Yep, A glass last him on
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: another property. Um, And I knew that I needed to
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: get access back in there. He was still showing up
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: like at night, mostly on on the main farm, and
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: but I knew I had to get permission. And so
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: one day during during the day I went and knocked
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: on some doors, got a real hard no my guy.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, like to the point where um, and act,
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: it was making me mad just to talk to this guy, like,
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: you know, the guy was ridiculous. Um, and then went
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: to another place. I gotta maybe I need to talk
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: to my wife kind of thing about it, and then um,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: and then got a yes um and then then maybe
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: turned into a yes. Later on that evening, the guy
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: called me and he said, did, yeah, we're good. So
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: I just had to go over there and get my
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: permission slip. So what's your approach with this? Because because
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: you've now done this two years in a row, you've
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: you know, learned something about where this buck is and
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: then picked up additional access around it. That's you know,
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: that's some extra work and extra stress that a lot
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: of guys won't won't go through. Um. And and it
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: seems like this is something that you know has worked
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: for you. What's your approach to those door knocking scenarios?
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: How do you what are you doing that's leading to
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: you know, four yeses and two years in one relatively
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: small area. You must be doing something right. Um. I
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: I guess my approaches is you know, I just go
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: there and say, hey, look, I would you know I
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: love the opportunity to hunt your property. I'll be honest
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: with you, I'm I'm not interested and all the deer.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: I'm just interested in one deer kind of thing. And
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: you know, strictly just a bow hunter. And and a
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: lot of times too, it always it always helps to
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: maybe you know, maybe if you can do a little
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: bit of research on the people to um, just the
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: kind of maybe have some avenues, maybe some things maybe
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: to um to talk about, get them comfortable with you.
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: It always helps to like when you live, when you
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: live in the area, so because that gets that seems
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: like it always gets brought up. Well where do you live?
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: That's it seems that always gets brought up. And so
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: that all that definitely helps UM. And you know, sometimes
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: too UM maybe just hey, do you mind if I
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: run a camera? You know, and don't even ask him
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: for permission to hunt. But in this case, I I
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: didn't have that, you know, I really needed to um.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: Well the one lady I did ask, hey, can I
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: run a Can I run a camera? And but it
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: was like when I put that camera out, UM, I
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: think he was one of the first years showed up
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: on it. So um it was I I think the
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: very next day I was like, um, going right back
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: over there or whatever. And and and I think I
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: was in there hunting and within the next couple of
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: days after that or something. Um, but he was still
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: like now we're talking like now it's you know, first
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: going into the second week in November and so and man,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: he just seemed to be he was on his feet.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: He he actually showed back up on my buddy's place
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of different times in between there and um,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: but thank god, by then he was tagged out. He
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: had already shot a big tank of a buck and
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: and he was tagged out. And um, but he would
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: just it was weird. It was like over there he
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: would just show up for a day and then he
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: then you're gone. And and for an older class, dear,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: it's kind of funny how much he would bounce around
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: on on these places. What's the distance we're talking about
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: between some of these locations we're talking Is this like
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: he came from this hundred acres to that hundred acres
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: or is it like he traveled a mile or what
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: I would say, Um, probably close to the mile probably, yeah,
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: probably pushing them. Um, that he would travel from you know,
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: the new permission that I got to you know, my
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: buddy's place over there, and um and and these crossing
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: some roads and stuff like that in between there too.
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: Um that that gets the traffic on them. So you
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: know I had that worry too going on. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: So so how are you how are you basing your
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: hunts now? Because you've got these two new extra properties.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: You have your main farm, if I if my memory
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: is right, you've got these two other access points. You've
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: got the year prior, You've got a lot of access now,
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: you've got cameras across all of it. It sounds like
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: you've seen him in a handful of different places. Um.
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: The first thing that comes to my mind now is
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: like paralysis analysis um or analysis paralysis. Sorry, you've got
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of options. You've got a deer that's moving
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: all over the place during the rut. Um, how are
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: you making decisions at this point about where to go?
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: Because I know that I've been in that kind of situation,
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: not not the exact same, but you can sometimes be
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: like chasing your tail where you get like a picture
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: of him yesterday and You're like, Okay, I'm gonna go there,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: and then he's you know, half mile away. The next day,
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: were you were you chasing trail camera pictures? Were you
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: trying to predict where he would be and and go
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: somewhere different than what the intel was telling you? You know,
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: how did you how did you approach this next phase?
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: I was probably chasing trail camp pictures at this point
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: more than anything, just because, um, because I knew that
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: he was getting hooked up with those as well. So
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: I knew that, um, you know a lot of times,
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: you know, like now, you know, we're in November. I
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: just knew that that, you know, if he was in
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: a spot and say I got pictures of him with
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: the dough or something like that, then pretty good chance that,
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: you know, I needed to be in there because um,
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: more than likely he wasn't gonna be you know, pushing
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: her very far, you know, from from that area. And
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: one evening I did set up. I did set up
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: in there and set in this little ash tree, and
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: I had a set really low because of the way
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: that brush was in the in the cover there, and
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: I just got in a couple just like a couple
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: of sticks high and I was in this little crotch
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: and um, I set up in there, and he came
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: out of the neighbor's property, out of the thicket, and
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: he was like frantically looking for his dough that he lost.
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: And he was now he's probably a hundred fifty yards
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: away when he was doing this, and nothing I could
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: do about it because he was over on on the
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: neighbor's piece, and I knew that there was a little
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: hunting that went on over there, so I never did
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: try to get any permission on that piece. And so
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: and he just he was just running all over the
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: place and trying to find her, and UM, I just
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: was trying to be I did have a lot, you know,
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: like the pieces that I picked up were small, you know,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: like one was five and one was six acres. I mean,
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: so they're just small, little, tiny pieces. So I just
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: had to, you know, just it was more about getting
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: in a lot of SIPs and so that it's kind
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: of what I was doing. And then um, and then
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: at once and then I went out to Illinois for
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: three or four days. I was kind of trying to
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: play the weather a little bit, and I went out
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: there and I timed it perfectly, and I was just
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: I was into I was in the Good Bucks every
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: every day and ended up shooting um, a really nice
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: ten point um when I was out there, and then
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: came and then here's the funny thing. Um, I'm out there.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: I have a good friend that I stayed with when
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: I when I'm remember I'm out there and him and
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: I are out to eat and and I'm getting pictures
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: of Woody broad daylight pictures, and I showed him. He goes,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: what are you doing out here? And I'm like, man,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: I only got you know, like I don't have a
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: lot of time in the year to come out here.
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: I said, but you know, our season at home goes
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: all the way until you know, the first Saturday in February,
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: I got a lot of time to hunt out there,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: but I don't have a lot of time to hunt here.
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: So I just figured to come out and I was
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: lucky enough. But you know, I made a short trip
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: out of it and end up putting a good ten
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: down And so I came back, got on got on him, um,
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: and it just I wasn't seeing him in a whole lot,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: and I got pictures of him. One morning he was
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: on a dough and you could tell him. You could
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: tell he was with this dough. I went in there,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: Um it was after work hunt and he was real
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: early on that field the day before. Got in there,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: set up and him he came out on this dough
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: like I mean it was it was probably three thirty,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: and followed her all the way across the field. Then
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: they ended up working their way all the way back
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: up to me, and it was a um. She worked
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: her way straight to me, and I had to watch
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: them make this slow walk all the way to me.
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: Remember at one point, like I put my head down
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: because I had myself so worked up. I said, I
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: can't look at him anymore. And he comes all the
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: way in. Um, the dose starts to angle out. He's
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: at yards and UM, I draw, and when I drew,
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: I think he well, he heard he heard me draw.
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: And then he ended up looking up at me when
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: I was at full draw and shot right over his
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: back and he ducked the arrow or the shot was high.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: I think it was both. I think the I think
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: the shot was high, but he also watching because I
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: videoed it. Watching the footage, he also ducked. But I
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: went through a weird situation this year where um, I'd
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: shot a single pin for the last ten years, and
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: then last year, one of my first elk hunt, I
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: decided to put a five pin site on my bow
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: because just um not ever elk hunting. It was the
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: first time I remember el hunted, and I wanted to
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: be I thought, well, I want to have multiple pins.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: I don't want to have to have a dial where
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: maybe I don't have the time to do that. You know,
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: there's the uncertainty of the of an elk hunt kind
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: of thing going on for me. And I had I'll
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: just say this when I was in Illinois. The first
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: morning I was there, I missed one high. The second
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: and the third morning I was there, I hit one
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: high through the tenderline. Um. And I'm just being real,
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: and I just went through a bad I had some
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: bad mojo or something going on this year. Now this
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: buck wouldy you miss him high? So you had real
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: serious mojo problems at that point. How do you how
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: did you handle that? I mean, I've been in a
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: similar situation that is a low pit to date yourself
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: out of. How do you how did you deal with it? Um?
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: I tell you what Mark, I was so frustrated with
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: that whole thing. Um, I I mean as soon as
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: I missed that shot, as soon as he took off
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: of that dough out on there or whatever. It's funny too,
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: because it wasn't shortly after I missed him, like they
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: run out into the field a little bit, he started
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: dogging that dough again, then they were gone. I just
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: got down immediately, and I was so frustrated. I mean,
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: it was only like I think I missed that, dear.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: It's probably four o'clock or something that evening when I
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: missed him. I was back at the house and swing
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: because my wife came in back here and she's like,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: I thought you were hunting tonight. I said, all I
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: already did, and she's like, what do you mean. I'm like,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: I'm missed him. She's like, oh, are you kidding me.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: I'm like no, I'm like, I gotta started because something's
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: going on. And UM, well, what I figured I was doing,
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: I was I was going in the backyard all the time,
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: and I was just um, I was shooting my forty
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: yard pin all the time, is is what I was
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: practicing all the time. And I had I had a
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: twenty that was green a thirty that was read and
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: a forty that was green, and I was just going
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: in the backyard. And what I was doing throughout the
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: whole season, you know, I would just take a couple
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: of shots before I went out and hunting, and I
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: think what I was doing, um, and I mean, just
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: to be real, because this is really what I did.
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: Is I think that I was shooting that forty yar tin,
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: practicing and all the time. So then when the moment
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: of truth would happen, I would go straight to that forty.
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: That makes sense, default to the to the to the
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: usual kind of automatic process, right, I mean that moment
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: when it's so hard to be thinking through everything, your
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: body just switched to what I had been doing. Yeah,
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: I mean that's that's what I was doing, and and
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: and but here's the funny thing. It didn't dawn on
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: me when I was at home. The true story I
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: got up that that night in the middle of the
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: night is about one thirty. I got up in the
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: middle of night to go take a leek, and and
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: I'm literally staying, I'm like, oh, I know what I'm doing.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: It just dawned because I couldn't. I was thinking about
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: that you know, like I was just thinking the bed
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: and I woke up, and I was just thinking about
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: the whole the whole thing, and you know, and just
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: because those opportunities are just so far and few, and
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: when you get one, you gotta make it count, like
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: you can't, you know, can't. You can't have stuff like
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: that because there's a good chance, you know that you
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: might not might not get another chance like that. So
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: I got up that very next morning, and I tell
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: you what I took that. I took that site off
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: my bow. I put that I had a spot hog
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: single pen that used for a long time, and I
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: put that thing right back on, got that thing dialed
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: in and got back to what I was comfortable with.
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: And and and uh and I was, you know, shooting great,
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: you know. And but he disappeared for about four days,
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: like no pictures, no sightings. He wasn't showing up by
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: my buddy's place, wasn't showing up on the main farm,
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: none of the other spots, like he was definitely missing
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: for a while. And it I kind of backed off
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: and was just kind of waiting for him to show
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: kind of backed up, and my farmer buddy calls me
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: and was on and I believe in the November, he
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: calls me. He says, hey, because in the evening he said,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: he goes, somebody just hit a deer out here, he said,
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: and uh, he said, I think it was a buck.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you gotta be shipping me. So I drive
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: over there and the guy hit a deer. I went
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: over to talk to him, and I had asked him,
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: you know, like I said, was it a boker dough?
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: I said a buck. I was like, was it a
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: big buck or you know, I'm like, this guy's hit
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: a deer, you know, trucks all smashed up and yeah.
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: And he's like, I don't know. I'm not a hunter.
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: You know, it looked like a big buck to me,
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: you know, but you know how that could be. You know,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: it could be it could be a hundred inch deer
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: or two deer, you know like that. So we jumped
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: on the side by side, his side by side, and
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: we drove around. We were looking out through the fields
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: and everything else, and then stayed had a trollman game,
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: and then he was helping us and we were looking
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: for the deer and stuff like that, and um hm,
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: so I couldn't find the deer anywhere. So the next morning,
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: I get up to go to work, and um, typically
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: my morning consists of getting up in the morning and
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: it's like, um, during during season, I don't I don't
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: try to. I don't get up and like workout or
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: anything like that during the hunting season because it's like
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: I don't have time. I like it's all about hunting
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: at that point. Like I come back to that later
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: in the in the in the year. But typically I
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: get up in the morning, makes a cup of coffee
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: and just look at truck camp pictures from sell camps,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: and I got I got up that morning and had
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: some stuff going on on a job. Um. And because um,
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: I'm a I've run our operations for a commercial construction
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: company and and are I was already mornings, already have
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: the shoes on jobs. So I was on the phone
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: to barely get in the shower that morning to get
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: out the door. Um. And so I never had a chance. Well,
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: I pulled into the farm, um on my drive and
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I'm gonna pull back
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: there and just see if I can't see what dear
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: that was. And when I pulled back into the farm
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: to look um, I seem deer laying in Fencer and
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, there's a deer over there. And it
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: was like right on the right next to the trees,
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: that the tree that I set up on on the
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: second night of season where I had almost killed him,
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: and I put my buyos and it was a buck
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: and it was a movement, and I was like, was
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: that the buck that was hit? You know? Then it turns,
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: it turns its head and I'm like, that's woody. So
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: I sat there watching him for just a little bit
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: and I pulled my phone out and I looked and
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, man, kind of a good wind.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: I started thinking like and then I didn't have a
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: meeting till nine that morning, will work, So I'm well,
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: I can give this. I can give this a try.
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: In the worst case, I bumped him and putting back
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: over across the street where I think he's more killable. Anyways,
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: were you thinking that he was Were you thinking that
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: he had been hit and that he was laying down
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: there injured or it was that not what you were thinking.
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: I was thinking he was either hit and injured, laying there,
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: or just randomly betted up there for the night. And
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: got kind of stuck in that spot. It is the
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: only thing that I could think of, or because because
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see any other deer that was with it.
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: So um, I backed my truck up through my stuff on.
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: Keep in mind, I got work pants on, you know,
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: like I got I um like, you know, work cheekings on,
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: and and um throw my boots on, grab my buying,
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: no harness and the whole nine yards. And I thought,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna try it. What do I
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: have to lose? So I just I had a wind
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: that was just blown, you know. I went across me
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: and out to the wide open field, and he was
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: I was. I was east coming west and he was
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: looking west. So I've never done it before, and I
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: thought why not? So I started in and I just
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: kind of pecked my way along and I would, you know, glassing,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: my ranging, my glassing, and about sixty or seventy yards
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: into that into the stock, I noticed he was better
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: with a doll. I didn't. I couldn't see the dough
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: before until I got that far. But she was facing
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: looking west too, and so I just kept on creeping
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: crawling up through there. Just took my time and everything
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: was wet from the night before too, so that was
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: kind of the ideal situation. And it was a little
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: bit breezy too that morning, so um, and I just
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: I just kept on and kept on, and I got
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: to twenty eight yards and I thought, man, I'm gonna
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: try to you know, I need to try to get
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: an arrow on the steer because I'm afraid I can't.
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid I'm not gonna be able to get any
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: closer than that. And at one point he turned his
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: head and he started looking. If he would have kept
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: bringing his head all the way back around, he would
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: have nailed me. And he just stopped and didn't. And
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: then he took his head and moved it back towards
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: looking towards the dough. And it's weird. Um, I've never
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: I've never shot a deer from the ground. Especially I've
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: never shot one laying down, So I mean, angles are
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: completely different. Um, And where you're going to place this arrow?
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: Because I always like to think too, like whenever I'm
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: shooting an animal, where is it going to exit? You know?
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: I think that's I think a lot of times that's
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: that's probably a big thing that we need to think
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: about when shooting an animal is where it's going to
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: exit just just as as much as anything. UM. So
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: it's just weird, you know. So I just kind of
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: picked the spot. And here's what's funny. Is like when
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: I was trying, when I was at full drawing, I'm
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: trying to move my body into position. UM, it was
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: covering you know, what was covering up um part of
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: his vitals was some branch is that I had trimmed
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: off those trees when I hunt the irony. So I
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: kind of moved around um and let it fly, and
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: I knew I made a I knew I made a
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: good solid hit on him, and and he ran down
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: and then just kind of went into this other little
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: section wow. Um and the dode took off with him
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: and they ran down through there. And so then real quick,
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: real quick, before you only further, I gotta get a
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: sense of how you handled that moment of truth coming
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: off of you know, the three you know, prior tough
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: situations with the shots, and then you ripped off the site,
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: put the new site on your shooting differently than you
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: have been all year. Um, Like what was going through
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: your mind when you finally have this set an opportunity
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: after all of this bad mojo. Were you just on
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: autopilot again and you weren't even thinking about that stuff
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: or did you have a I don't know what was
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: like your inner dialogue during this, because I feel like
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: this is incredibly high stakes after a lot of tough
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: you know, adversity had to push through. This is like,
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: this is a moment. What was going on during this moment?
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I'll be My my mind was
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: in a a in a place of like of almost
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: like almost like an angry state of mind of like
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: just get it done, just get the job done, like
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: this is it, just get it done? Like I wasn't. Um,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: I wasn't like when I had to watch him when
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: I'm missing that time when I when I had to
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: watch him come all the way across the field and everything. Man,
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: I had myself rattled numerous times in that moment. This
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: I wasn't like that. I was in a different I
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: was in a different state of mind. And I'm kind
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: of and I would say this, I don't know if
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: this happens to you, Like, um, there's times where certain dear,
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: certain situations whatever, Sometimes Um, I get worked up I mean,
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: I get fired up to where I can just hear
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: my I can hear my heart beat in my ears.
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: And then there's other times that I just don't get
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: like that. Sometimes I just get into like a you know,
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: get it done kind of deal. I kind in my
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: house called it business time. It's just like you're just
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: locked in. It's how I feel like in those moments,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: just get it done. I agree, yeah, And that's kind
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: of how I was, you know that, you know, I
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: was dead side in my head of like he's not
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: getting out of your without geting narrow and there's no way.
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: And um, I think you know, you know that that
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, helped the situation really instead of
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: like I think I had to build up what I'm
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: missed him two. Um, I think I missed that dear
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: for uh numerous reasons. Um, not just you know, poor
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: shooting on my part or using the wrong pin or whatever.
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: But I think too, like I built that moment up
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: in my head. And then when the moment, especially when
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: you're hunting one a specific deer and have long history
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: like that, you you it's easy to build that up
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: in your head where now here is the moment of truth,
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: and like now you've got to make it happen. And
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: and when you got to watch them for a long
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: time like that too, it doesn't help at all. So
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: I think in this moment, it was all like and
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: I was moving, you know, Um, I was moving and
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: not being and I wasn't forced to be stationary to
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: where when I did make a move it was drawn
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: my boat, get the pin on him the whole nine yards. Um.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: So I think that just I don't know. I think
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: I had a different state of mind and and I
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: think I think that helped a lot. So he got
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: the shot. You said, they ran off in another direction.
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: Uh it was this the nice easy recovery we all
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: dream of? Or was there was there more to the story?
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: So um, So after that, I went, Now, keep in mind,
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: I had a I had a meeting at nine thirty,
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: So I went back to my UM and then drove
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: back to the house, sat in my truck and took
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: my I had a a teen's meeting UM for a project.
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: And and it's kind of it's kind of funny that
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: my boss and I were good friends, and and he
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: made a joke kind of he made some kind of
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: wisecrack or something meeting. Oh, somebody had asked me something
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: about getting them over some some information or something. I said, yeah,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: I send it over to you, and and he had said, yeah,
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: he probably already have it over to you. He said,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: but his dog his deer hunting, and and he said
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: and he he said something along the line. He's like,
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, but he can't he can't get
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: it done this year or something along you know. He
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: was busting my jobs about something about me not being
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: able to get my dear this year or whatever. I said, well,
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: it's funny you say that. I said, I just shot
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: him and uh, he said no. I said, yeah, I
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: did he go send me a picture. I said, I
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: ain't even found him yet. I said, I had to
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: get on this call. Oh man, So I called a
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: buddy after that, and then um, yeah, so no, it was.
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: Um it is a pretty quick recovery, um founding. Um
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: didn't take us very long to find him. And and
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: it's funny, Um, you know, it's just a it's a
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: bitter sweet thing when you've known of a deer that long,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: um got all this history with them, and then chase
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: him for an entire season like that, and everything is
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: just it's kind of a weird thing. I can't. I mean,
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of guys I know this feeling,
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: but it's you know, you're never going to get to
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: see him again or trail camp pictures again or whatever.
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: And so it was it was funny because it's like, um,
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: on the recovery and then like even taking some pictures
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: and stuff of him and everything too, it was almost
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: kind of like, ah, this is this is what I've
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: been waiting for. But it's a but it's a very
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: bitter sweet moment for whatever reason. Yeah, it's it's uh,
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: like we were talking about earlier today, it's it's um.
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: It's the ending of something that was so much fun.
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: You feel a little empty though when that thing is
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: actually done, Like I've always found, like like you said,
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: like you're glad to happen, but the same time you
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: want to keep going um because it's just such a
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: such a cool thing to get to follow these animals
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: and studying them and hunt them and wonder and think
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: and strategize and and see him every once in a
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: while or a lot, and and build that I don't
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: know if relationships the right word, but you build some
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: kind of connection. Um, yeah, I mean I can definitely
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: can definitely relate to that. And I'm curious with you
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: if you're like me. I've realized with myself, like I
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: need what I found my weird obsession, Like I've I've
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: almost need to have one at least that like I'm
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: I'm chasing. It's like I'll kill one of these deer
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: that I've been after for years, and then like the
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: very next day, I'm like, Okay, now it's gonna be
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: this buck and I'm like already studying pictures and I'm
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: out glassing or something like I almost have like a
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: rebound like getting over a breakup or something like immediately
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: after I'm back out here because I need to like
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: be thinking about the next one. My wife's always so confused,
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: like you just kill the deer yesterday, Why do you
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: need to get out watching again tomorrow or hunt tomorrow
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: or whatever. I'm like, you know, I just I gotta
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: just want to keep it going a little bit. You
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: like that, Oh, I'm a d percent like that for sure.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: I get right back into it and I'm already like
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: thinking about the next one. And and um, I was
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: just telling a buddy what we got talking about the
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: same exact thing. And I said, and I said, I'll
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: be honest with him, a little depressed, I said, because
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: I don't going into the next year, I don't know
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: if I don't have a whole lot. I think two
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: two of the other two of the other bucks I
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: was excited about maybe hunting next year, I think they're
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: both dead. So um, um, so right now it's not
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: looking very that that part of the very promising. But uh, yeah,
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: that's fun, you know, that's the fun of it. Um. Also,
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: it is like, you know, I always like, you know,
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: I think I enjoy, you know, trying to find, you know,
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: new ground to hunt, new bucks to hunt. Um. I
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: always think it's you know, it's always it's always exciting
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: when you get a new new piece to hunt and
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: you don't know anything about it. And um, you know,
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: I I don't know, I've probably probably got probably over
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: twenty five bucks that would probably you know, probably gross
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: over or whatever. And I think over the years, I
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: think I'll bet you, I'll bet you out of that,
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: I'll bet you eighteen of them all came from different
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: properties over the years. Um, just because you know, just
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: because of a piece of ground produced a good deer
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: one year. I mean, it might be another three years
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: before it does again. So I think, you know, you
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: always have to be looking for you know, another piece,
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: um and um and trying to find you know, new ground,
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: you know, the hunt. M Because if I just stayed
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: stationary on on what I've had for you know, you know,
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: say I was talking two or three different farms for
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: the last or ten years or whatever, um, that gets
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: kind of boring for me. Um. I like a new
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: challenge and I like to I like to find new
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: stuff to to be able to you know, dive into
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: and learn. You know, your buddy, your buddy Andy May Um,
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: he intrigued me on the fact that how quickly he
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: can go out of state and um and get on
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: good bucks on new ground. UM. That I enjoy listening
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: and until a lot of his stuff because UM, you know,
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: I think that's the other part of this whole journey too,
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: that you go on. It's like you need a lot
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: of really good people over the years, and um, you know,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: and I me and Andy had chatted a little bit
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: and then just you know, some of my buddies and
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, where you know, you you picked up
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of different things. And I think that's probably
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: one of the cool things about you know, you know,
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: I think you're you know, you're the o G of
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: the the whole podcast, the whole hunting podcast thing. It's
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: you know, I would have died to have this information
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: when I was first starting off. I mean, the infesting
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: that guys have now is just um man, I mean
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: I just used to you know, I'm just trying to
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: pick up magazines and trying to pick up tips from
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: you know, other you know, the just good hunters and
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: stuff along the way. Like I think that's the other
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: part of it too, is like is you know, always
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: keep looking for new dirt and always and be open
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: minded to uh you know, uh taking a tip and
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: listen to somebody and trying something out. And I think
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: I think that's the fun of it. I think, yeah, yeah,
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of a lot of truth to that.
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: Um Speaking of that, you you you recently posted over
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: on Instagram about some of your your greatest influences when
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: it came to bow hunting, like your most impactful mentors
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: of sorts. When you look at this hunt specifically and
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: the things you did, the decisions you made, things that
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: happened along the way. Is there any one of your
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: mentors or any other person you know who shared information
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: with you or that you picked up something from kind
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: of like you were just talking about, is there anyone
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: whose insights or guidance you know, lad you or had
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: the most impact on this hunt. Is there any any
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: one of those people you've got something from over the
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: years that kind of comes to mind, like, Yeah, you know,
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: if it hadn't been for X person telling me this
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: or for me learning this thing from that guy, probably
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: never would have killed this buck. Is there any connection
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: like that when you look back, I would say probably.
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: They're the kind of two parted. Um. You know, I
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: always look back at the old articles and interviews and
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: stuff like that with Miles Keller, and you know, I
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: felt like Miles was kind of like the he was
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: a master at like, you know, finding finding big deer
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: on new properties, and and Miles was a little bit
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: in regards to like you know, we were just talking
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: about Andy. Um, you know, Miles would find these big
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: deer and I mean he'd have them down in three
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: or four days, I mean quick hunt kind of thing.
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: But um, you know, he but that's one thing that
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: he was always out. He that's what he was always
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: out doing, and was always out trying to locate um
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: big deer. Not not so much just like wow, that
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: looks like a good piece of property. UM. A lot
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: of times he was visually seeing these deer and stuff
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: like that. And I think that's when I think that's
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: how he killed. He killed a state record in Wisconsin
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: was an eight point um that way years ago. UM.
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: I think that's that's one part of it, you know,
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: like for me, like you know, um, you know, like
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: this hunt going back and you know what, he's making
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: some different moves and stuff like that and just trying
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: to you know, um, gain access to new properties. Um. UM.
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: I would say that's, you know, maybe something I took
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: for miles um um. But then the other part of
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: it is, you know, I always go back to this
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: is is being mobile and that uh that was you
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: know Andre, hands hands down. He showed me that whole
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: world um and really has helped me, you know, early on,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: understand the importance of being mobile, being unpredictable um um,
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: being persistent um. Because he's sixty two now and that
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: guy still hunts almost every single day. UM. I just
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: talked to him today and he's still He's still out
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: there grinding a way after wants to take their buck.
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, the dude hunts, trust me. I go through
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: his footage every year and he hunts every day. I
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: mean it's nuts like so, he he's a grinder. So
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 1: I would say some of that too, just you know,
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: being persistent grinding um, you know, not not giving up
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: until you get the job done. So what do you
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: learn from this hunt when you look back a few
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: years from now and you think back on with this, dear, Tacha,
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: is there is there anything that stands out yet in
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: your mind? I would say it's probably the biggest thing
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: would be UM. I think we all tend to think
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: that these big mature books always used the wind. And
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: this is not the first time that I've seen this,
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: but he's definitely the one that I've seen UM use
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: a visual way more than he ever used the wind
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: to his advantage. UM. That dear, I've never seen a
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: mature buck walked with the wind but as much as
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: I did that one. But it's I think it probably
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: more had to do with the fact that of the
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: terrain that that buck was staying in. UM. I think
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: if you would have took that, dear, say, you know,
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: he would have been in hell country. I think he
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: would have been using a lot of thermals, you know,
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: um a little more, you know, rolling hills, farmland. Um,
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: you know, he you know, might have been you know
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: using that you know, uh that quarter and two wind
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: or something like that or whatever. But I just think this, dear,
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: I think the big thing and is just being he
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: had so um he could visually see so much. I
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: think that's that that was his game and it kept
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: him alive for you know, five or six years of
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: doing it. So I guess it's a good I was
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: gonna say, it's a good reminder to never assume a
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: deer is gonna do like the thing they're supposed to do.
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: Like every deer's an individual, and no rule applies to
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: every deer in every situation. You always hear, oh, you know,
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: they want to have the wind in their favor to
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: some way, and all these things. And you know, if
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: you if you always operate like it's always going to
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: be like that, you are going to miss opportunities. You
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: do need to constantly be looking for the you the
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: the exceptions to the rule. You can't factor anything. You
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: can't write anything off before you can confirm or one
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: way or the other. Yeah, And I think that's why
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: it's so like just to become a better hunter. I
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: think it's um uh, you know, I just think it's
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: that's why it's always it's alway is good to just
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: you know, listen to other successful hunters or or even
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: guys that are starting to have a lot of success
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Maybe day've caught onto something and
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: you know, and and trying to trying to pick up
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: trips of the trades. You know, I've been I've been
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: in the trades for my my entire career. You know,
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: I never went to college. I got out of high
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: school and went straight into the trades. And the trades.
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: Trades to me is a is a lot like you
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: know in some regards of being um, a good white
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: tail hunter, Like as you learn the trades, you learn
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: the trips of the trade, and and you you know,
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: as you go along, um, you you hone your skills
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: over the years. And and I think a lot of
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: times a lot of that stuff comes from, you know,
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: others that you had worked around or in this case,
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: others that you'd you know, Um, you heard say things
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: and you tried to mimic it, and and um, seeing
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: what works for you and and and what and what didn't.
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: But I always think about a tradesman and a woodsman,
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: that's the same thing. Yeah, it's an interesting comparison. Ye.
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 1: Speaking of the yeah, the the yes, tricks of the
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: trade that are particularly popular right now. One of those is,
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: you know, this strong dependence a lot of folks have
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: on cell cameras now because they're they're an incredible tool. Um,
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are using them. I'm using them too. Um.
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: But we mentioned you mentioned to me before we started
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: recording that you had a little bit of an aha
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: moment in regards to your very own camera dependence with
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: this dear, Um, can you share the at what you
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: kind of what you realized after the hunt and what
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: that maybe touch you to. Yeah, so if so. A
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks after I had had shot Woody, I
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: had pulled a cell cam and and when I was
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: going through the SD card because sometimes you don't always
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: get every picture sent to you, or maybe you were
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: buzzing through them real quick, um, because maybe you have
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: multiple cameras or whatever. So when I was looking through
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: this SD card. I had had pictures of Woody at
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: four five a m. That morning, um and on the
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: on the farm that I killed him on, but in
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: a different spot of the farm. And the only reason
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: that I pulled into that farm that morning was because
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: I was really trying to confirm whether or not the
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: deer bade it and um and what and that he
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: was laying out there in the field somewhere. And if
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: if I would have, if I would have seen those pictures,
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: I doubt I would have ever pulled in there that morning.
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: I probably would have went straight into work, and I
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: probably would have tried to figure out a spot to
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: set up on for that evening. And and it's it
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: goes back to you know, you get so dependent and
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: on these on these cameras all the time. It's like, well,
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: whatever the camera tells you, that's how you make your
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: next move. And I think it's just a huge mistake.
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: And if I wouldn't have, if I would have went
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: off the if I would have went off that off
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: that camera and not haunted, I may not have had
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: that deer yet. I may not have killed that deer
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: at all this year. And I think that we make
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: they're a great tool. And like you said, I mean
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: we're both using them and and they're just they're a
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: great tool. But I think, um, boots on the ground,
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: you know, uh, a lot of glass. I don't think
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 1: there's anything that replaces those two sex. They still I mean,
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: just like any camera, they still just give you a
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: tiny window into what's going on. And I think the
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: funny thing with cell cameras is that because of that
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: added benefit of giving you, you know, these quick updates
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: and you can see what's happening day by day, we're
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: lured into this false sense that they're more powerful than
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: they really are. Like they seem like super cameras compared
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: to regular trail cameras, and so a lot of folks now,
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: I think are just like sitting back and waiting for
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: the pictures, and then as soon as you get the pictures,
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: they go. And I'm I'm willing to bet that cell
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: cameras have led to a whole lot of bucks getting killed. Yeah, absolutely,
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: but I bet you they've led to maybe just as
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: many bucks not getting killed because guys just aren't going
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: out there the way like you just said, with boots
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: on the ground or glass and eyes on eyes across
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: the field and instead of just like overly dependent on
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: a ten by fifteen yard window and hoping they see
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: something that tells them what they need and they're completely
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: you know, forgetting about how important it is to steal,
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: you know, get that full frame of you. And uh.
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: I imagine there's going to be like a recalibration in
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: the coming years. Is we've kind of gotten like people
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: have started using them a lot now and now they're
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: very widespread and use I think people are gonna starting
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: to realize like, Okay, I can't this is not a
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: silver bullet, even though it's great tool, it's you can't
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: you can't be so dependent. I think there's going to
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: be like a not a blowback, but there'll be people
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: refiguring it out now and realizing like, Okay, there's certain
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: ways the things work and there's certain ways that they're
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: still not going to be that magic bullet. And um,
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: and I'm certainly seeing that myself too well. And here's
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: a little story to that. A friend of mine. Um,
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: this is probably about probably eight or ten years ago. Now, no,
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: maybe not that long, because probably it's probably five or
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: six years ago. So you had a farm and there
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: was a giant on this farm. There's in another state
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: the steer whoa world class mega giant. I mean the
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: deer was around Um. He had a couple of cell
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: camps and then he had a couple regular camps on
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: the farm, and he was not getting any pictures that
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: deer in s cell camps and the other cameras, the
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: standard SD cards cameras were more towards the interior portion
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: of the farm. One was like in a um uh,
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: there's a big fence row that came down, I kind
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: of bottled necked everything down and he had one down there.
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: He wasn't getting any pictures of that deer. So he
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: didn't go in there and hunt that deer that year,
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 1: and that buck was later found dead after after season. Um,
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: they don't know what happened to it. And he checked
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: those cameras, those standard dusty cameras in there, and the
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: whole month in November that year had been coming through
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: that that that little bottleneck like every other day. And
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: if he would have, if he would have just went
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: in there and hunted and just got a visual of it,
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: because and here's the other thing about that deer, which
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: was so weird, is the deer didn't make a lot
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: of big sign There wasn't a lot of big sign
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: in there as far as big rubs stuff like that.
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: It was just mediocre signed. And then even upon finding
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: the deer, the deer, if you've seen this deer's hoof,
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: you would think it was like a big dough because
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: it just didn't have that big, massive, four finger hoof.
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: And I've seen that other mature bucks before, where you know,
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: a big track doesn't lie. It's usually a big deer,
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: but some times, um you know that sometimes in some
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: ways it can because some of them, you know, I
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: mean some people are just bigger than other people, you know,
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: um uh. And that's what this deer, you know. And
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: he got so dependent um um on just those cameras
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: and particularly those cell cams. He never went and hunted
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: that deer. They found that dear dead and shed season.
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: It was like two forty something inches, just a slammer
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: as a heartbreaker. Yeah, you know, it's I keep on
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 1: I kept on reminding myself this past year something that
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: Mark Drey said to me earlier this year, which was was, yeah,
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: like these these cameras are are great. The cell cameras
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: can give you some very very valuable information much quicker
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: than usual. But there are certain times in places when
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: you need to be the camera. And I kept telling
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: myself that. I kept on reminding myself that I've got
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: to be the camera, like I can't be too dependent
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: on these things. I've gotta remember, like you gotta be
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: the camera sometimes. And you know, the one of the
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: bucks I killed this year, it was it was exactly
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: a situation like this where I've been debating, like should
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 1: I wait until I get a daylight picture of him
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: showing back up like he'd been gone for a month,
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 1: And I kept on wanting to get confirmation he was back.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: And then I kept on debating back and forth, should
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: I just go for it when the conditions are right,
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: or do I need to wait till I know for
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: sure he's here? And like that phrase just kept popping
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: up in my mind, like be the camera, Be the camera,
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: and you know, everything else lined up, perfect annual pattern,
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah. I told myself, I gotta
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: be the camera, and sure enough, Uh I got a
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: picture of that night, and uh it's it's I think
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: something that was a good lesson learned for sure. I
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: mean some of the couple of my probably favorite podcast
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: ever was a couple of different times that you had
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 1: marketing on. Yeah. Man, he's so methodical and he's so
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: uh he can explain. He just he has a way
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: of explaining things that, um just you know, make a
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: lot of sense. I remember years ago, H'm saying that,
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: you know, when I started to get like into like
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: doing food plots and stuff like that, because I love
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: doing all that kind of stuff. And I remember years
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: ago he said, you know, you you you plan a
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: food plot, per the tree, per the access. And I'm
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: telling you I've used that, um uh quite a bit
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: over the years. I haven't shot a lot of deer
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: on food plots, but I've set up a lot of
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: places that way. Um and it does and it works,
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 1: and you can I mean instead of I mean, ah,
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know. The guy's just super methodical about a
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: lot of the things that that his approaches. And the
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: people like, you know, there's people out there to give them,
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: you know, grief and stuff like that and say, oh
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: they've got these you know, manicure charms and stuff like that.
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: But to me, I think Mark Jerr is a smart guy.
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: I think he Uh, I think again. It was a
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 1: methodical plan, and the methodical plan was of he's a
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: smart businessman. He put himself in position because he knew
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: that he wanted to make enough money to buy his
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: own ground to be able to hunt the caliber and
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: gear that he truly wants to go after. So if if, if,
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: if there's something wrong and working hard and and put
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: putting yourself in the the right place, and if there's
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 1: something wrong in that, then like us, I'm I'm probably
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: gonna be wrong a lot because I can't fault him
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: for them that hard work. No, No, because you know
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: that whole you know what they've done with Drewy outdoors
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: in general. I mean, I mean, um, that took a
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: lot of hard work. It had to, if I can
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 1: only imagine, no doubt about that. Uh Well, speaking of
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: of door media, I did wonder did you end up
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: capturing the end of this hunt on film? Were you
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: able to sell film that somehow? Or if not? Or
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: I guess either way. Are we going to get to
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: see an episode of this someday? Yeah? So, Um I have, um,
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: I have everything except for the kill shot. UM, I
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: have my mess, I have my full draw I have
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: other encounters, but I didn't that morning. I had no
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 1: way to film it, um because all I had was
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: my my, my, my video camera on my with my
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: with my camera arms so and honestly, I it was
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: kind of um you know, I filmed the recovery and
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff and everything afterwards. But um,
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: I I got lucky take it when it comes your way.
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: You know, that was luck, you know that. Like I said,
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: that was the first time I had ever shout a
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: deer off the ground, first time I've ever stalked one.
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: But boy, I could see where that could be addicting,
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: you know, Like I could see why guys get addicted
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: to like stalk and mule deer and stuff like that.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: Because I mean that was m You know, it kind
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: of got me thinking, like me and I need to
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 1: get out of Weston on a you know, spot and
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: stock mmulity or hunt. I think they'd be kind of fun. Yea, yeah,
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: you gotta be careful, they'll be new addictions awaiting you
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: real quick. Where. Uh. I went on an elk hunt
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: last year or last year and yeah, last year, and
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: I got one coming up in Wyoming this year, So um, yeah,
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: I could see myself getting pretty addicted to that. Yeah,
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: that's does That's that's pretty awesome. Well we're uh where, Justin,
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: where should folks head to see that episode? Whenever it's
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: available in all the rest of the the content you
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: guys have got coming out, so um, all of our
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: White Tail Addictions UM episodes are on our lowermost custom
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 1: gear YouTube channel. You can go there. You got our website,
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: um any you know Instagram or um Facebook, um, you
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 1: can find all that there um uh or or the
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: only thing that I really do on social media anymore.
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: It's just Instagram stuff at Mason's day at nineteen um um.
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: But yeah, perfect, Well, Uh, I appreciate we went longer
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: than I expected to starry for keeping you so late tonight,
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 1: but there's some good stuff we gotta too there and uh,
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 1: you know, when you get get us talking about this
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff, it's hard to shut up sometimes, so
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: so thank you Justin for sharing this. Well. I kind
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: of felt bad because we went so long, but it's
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: kind of a it's to tell the entirety of it,
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: and it's a kind of long drawing out process and
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: all the ups and downs that come along with it.
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Well, as far as I'm concerned, those are
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: the best kinds of hunts, the long, drawn out, years
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: long sagas like this, full of ups and towns and
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: uh tough moments in between, and uh that one final
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: highest highest. So this is this is great and awesome,
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: awesome buck, awesome story. Thank you for sharing and congratulations,
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 1: what a what a heck of a deer and accomplishment.
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: Thanks man, I really appreciate it. Let's let's do another
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: one of these in a year or two when you
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: get the next big one done. All right, I'll try,
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: all right, justin thank you, all right, and that is it.
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. Just a reminder, I know
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: the season is done for many of you, but we
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: are still pumping out lots of white tail content over
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 1: on the meat Eater dot com, so check out the
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: website for our latest written articles. Make sure to be
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: following along with Tony's Foundations series every Tuesday. He's got
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: those new shorter episodes here on the wire Hunt podcast feed.
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 1: He's got some great topics in mind for the coming
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: weeks and months here in the off season, so definitely
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: don't miss those. Uh heading over to the Mediator YouTube
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: channel if you want to scratch that hunting and fishing
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: itch here in the winter, there's all sorts of new
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: fishing shows, hunting shows. There's gonna be some new stuff
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: from our buddies over on the Element coming out on
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: the Mediator channel here in the coming months with some
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: of their white tail hunts from this past year. Uh
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: one week in November. The show that I was filming
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 1: this past November, that will come out later this year
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: over there as well, So stay tuned for all that.
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 1: And I think that's it. Thanks for listening. I appreciate
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: you being here with me. I'm excited to be kicking
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 1: off this new year with you, sharing my experiences and
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: those of all the great guests that we have here
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: on the show. Along with you, It's gonna be a
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: good year. Let's keep it moving. Thanks for being here.
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: Until next time, State Wired to hun