Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 977: Rut Fresh Radio - Still Have a Tag? Don't Panic - It's Still November!

Transcript

Ep. 977: Rut Fresh Radio - Still Have a Tag? Don't Panic - It's Still November! · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to another episode of Rough Fresh.
0:03
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Koefer, and we have three Big Buck stories
0:06
Speaker 1: and updates from Kansas, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, and we're getting
0:11
Speaker 1: deeper into the month of November. Thanksgiving is just right
0:14
Speaker 1: around the corner, and I think this is one thing
0:17
Speaker 1: for everyone to consider when the calendars, which is two December,
0:21
Speaker 1: we're going to be wishing it was November again. So
0:23
Speaker 1: a lot of the advice and updates here throughout this
0:26
Speaker 1: episode is to remember it's November. Remember this is the
0:29
Speaker 1: time we've been waiting for, and to keep at it
0:31
Speaker 1: and keep just plugging away, Just keep plugging away, and
0:35
Speaker 1: I hope there's some great intel here for you folks
0:37
Speaker 1: in this episode. As you know, Roughresh is brought to
0:41
Speaker 1: you by land dot com, the leading online real estate
0:44
Speaker 1: marketplace to find your perfect rural, recreational, agricultural, or hunting
0:47
Speaker 1: properties here in the US. My challenge for you guys
0:51
Speaker 1: this week is just to keep positive mindset, keep out there,
0:54
Speaker 1: working hard, keep scouting, don't be afraid to call an
0:58
Speaker 1: audible on your game plan, and just give November everything
1:01
Speaker 1: you got on what you can do. I know, for
1:03
Speaker 1: myself personally, it's getting to the point of the year
1:05
Speaker 1: where I'm starting to feel little guilty for hunting really
1:07
Speaker 1: hard responsibilities are falling on the wayside.
1:10
Speaker 2: But we're gonna be missing this time period. So do
1:12
Speaker 2: what you can.
1:13
Speaker 1: If you can walk, walk, if you can crawl, crawl,
1:16
Speaker 1: And let's kick this off with Anthony Warren and Kansas,
1:18
Speaker 1: who just shy his personal best.
1:20
Speaker 2: Buck.
1:20
Speaker 1: Here we go, all right, first up on the line,
1:28
Speaker 1: we have Anthony Warren who just shot a personal best
1:31
Speaker 1: Is that right?
1:32
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, pretty pretty close.
1:34
Speaker 3: I don't score a ton of my dear, but he's
1:37
Speaker 3: definitely gonna be in contention, and I'm super stoked about it.
1:42
Speaker 3: And he was a real, real nice basically main framemate.
1:45
Speaker 3: So just a giant, giant body of a deer and.
1:49
Speaker 4: And just really great rack for an eight point anywhere?
1:52
Speaker 2: Really yeah?
1:53
Speaker 1: No, and so and that was in Kansas, right, Yes, yeah,
1:57
Speaker 1: it was Okay, So Kansas, big Buck has hit the dirt.
2:02
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about I know you had previous
2:04
Speaker 1: encounters with that deer in the past, but how did
2:06
Speaker 1: it come together here recently?
2:09
Speaker 4: Yeah?
2:10
Speaker 3: You know, this this season has been probably a little
2:14
Speaker 3: slower and I don't know what you know, everybody else
2:17
Speaker 3: is talking about their experiences, but so far.
2:20
Speaker 2: It's just seemed like everything's been pretty late.
2:22
Speaker 3: And the week leading up to that, I was actually
2:25
Speaker 3: in Illinois and it was almost dead there. You know,
2:30
Speaker 3: cameras were telling me that deer on my farm in
2:33
Speaker 3: Kansas were starting to move. And you know, there's not
2:37
Speaker 3: really a whole lot of secret sauces that goes into
2:39
Speaker 3: this one. You know, a little bit of a little
2:42
Speaker 3: bit of strategy on my part when it comes to,
2:45
Speaker 3: you know, the deer moving and kind of what I
2:47
Speaker 3: thought was going to happen, you know, mixed with some
2:50
Speaker 3: good fortune of some really cold days, you know, last week.
2:54
Speaker 3: But you know, really it just has seemed overall to
2:58
Speaker 3: me that the rut has been like a slow start
3:01
Speaker 3: off this year, like they just haven't really they haven't
3:05
Speaker 3: really been after it like they had in the past
3:07
Speaker 3: years this early. But I think I think we're kind
3:10
Speaker 3: of getting into that. But for this buck in particular
3:14
Speaker 3: last year, I actually I actually shot this deer on
3:18
Speaker 3: November the eighth, and I rattled the deer in and
3:22
Speaker 3: he came and came in super pad and heated and
3:25
Speaker 3: just rubbing up against every SAT plane on the way
3:27
Speaker 3: in and uh, you know, nerves kind of got the
3:30
Speaker 3: best of me. He circled in kind of whide trying
3:33
Speaker 3: to get down the end and I ended up skimming,
3:36
Speaker 3: skimming at the top of his back. And so I
3:38
Speaker 3: just tried to stay on them all all season, and uh,
3:41
Speaker 3: just never materialized.
3:43
Speaker 2: But this year, fortunately, I think he came back.
3:46
Speaker 3: A little bit bigger, a little bit bigger frame, and
3:50
Speaker 3: I had him at a couple of locations where I
3:52
Speaker 3: was trying to feed and really for me, you know,
3:56
Speaker 3: if you hold those and you and you can, you know,
3:59
Speaker 3: have food for you're gonna have bucks around. And historically
4:03
Speaker 3: this year has hung out on me from the months
4:05
Speaker 3: of October all the way through February. So, you know,
4:09
Speaker 3: I think the night before I saw the year on
4:11
Speaker 3: a on a trail camera, probably one hundred yards from
4:15
Speaker 3: where I shot him and where i'd hunted the evening before,
4:19
Speaker 3: and it was after dark, and I said, well, tomorrow
4:22
Speaker 3: is going to be the coldest morning so far of
4:24
Speaker 3: the month, and I'm just going to be between where
4:28
Speaker 3: he was last night and where he could be going.
4:30
Speaker 3: And it kind of was a strategy that that proved
4:33
Speaker 3: to be, you know, beneficial with that being said that,
4:38
Speaker 3: you know, kind of leading up the night before I
4:41
Speaker 3: shot him, I had a really great encounter with a
4:43
Speaker 3: three and a half three and a half year old
4:45
Speaker 3: ten point, just real pretty, and he was dog in
4:48
Speaker 3: a group of doughs that was I don't know, there
4:50
Speaker 3: were probably eight to ten dos in this group. And
4:55
Speaker 3: one thing that I banked on the next morning going
4:58
Speaker 3: back to this spot is that previous hunt before I
5:02
Speaker 3: killed him, I saw all these dos and they were
5:04
Speaker 3: just peeing all over the place, and I was like, man,
5:08
Speaker 3: what a what a better place to be than you know,
5:11
Speaker 3: where a bunch of does a feed? Now a buck
5:14
Speaker 3: is bound to be over in this area. Wanting to
5:17
Speaker 3: sin check that. And so sure enough, the next morning
5:20
Speaker 3: that I ended up shooting him, I watched him come
5:23
Speaker 3: all the way across the field towards some does and
5:26
Speaker 3: some feed that I had, and he would stop at
5:29
Speaker 3: every single location that I had kind of mentally bookmarked
5:33
Speaker 3: that a doe had stopped and urinated, and he was
5:36
Speaker 3: just nose down and he'd run to the next next spot,
5:39
Speaker 3: and then he'd he nosed down and then you know,
5:41
Speaker 3: he just came full sprint and just grunning and it
5:44
Speaker 3: was pretty gnarly to see such a big frame buck
5:47
Speaker 3: doing that, especially for that first daylight.
5:50
Speaker 2: So but yeah, that that was kind of how that unfolded.
5:54
Speaker 3: But you know, really just the history of knowing, you know,
5:57
Speaker 3: where this buck liked to be, and then kind of
6:01
Speaker 3: putting myself between two points of interest where I thought
6:04
Speaker 3: he would be, and then kind of being.
6:06
Speaker 4: Around where I knew does wanted to be was kind
6:08
Speaker 4: of the name of the game.
6:10
Speaker 3: And I'd actually never hunted this particular part of the
6:13
Speaker 3: farm before. It just doesn't really lend itself to being
6:17
Speaker 3: a great killing spot. But I was obviously pleasantly surprised
6:21
Speaker 3: I was able to intercept him between two major points,
6:25
Speaker 3: so it all worked out.
6:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, no, that's that's what we all hope for.
6:29
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I think paying attention to the
6:32
Speaker 1: dose right, like a lot of this stuff, the advice
6:35
Speaker 1: necessarily doesn't change year to year, but you still have
6:38
Speaker 1: to key in on that, like, Okay, there was a
6:40
Speaker 1: bunch of dozen here, and you know, it's that simple.
6:42
Speaker 2: Sometimes.
6:43
Speaker 1: Obviously there's a little bit of luck, a little bit
6:45
Speaker 1: of mental for two to be set up and be
6:48
Speaker 1: ready to rock and roll. But man, what a what
6:50
Speaker 1: an incredible buck and congratulations. Now for guys that have
6:54
Speaker 1: been struggling, maybe maybe they're in the part of the
6:57
Speaker 1: season where it's like, Okay, I've been hunting a deer
6:59
Speaker 1: and now I need to call an audible or I
7:01
Speaker 1: don't want to lower my standards necessarily, but I do
7:04
Speaker 1: want to potentially shift around. And so now it's November
7:07
Speaker 1: nineteenth and all the really exciting dates that are. You know,
7:11
Speaker 1: everyone has a favorite day. There's not too many people
7:14
Speaker 1: that say, my favorite day is November nineteenth. So with
7:17
Speaker 1: all that being said, we're leading up to Thanksgiving. Now,
7:20
Speaker 1: what's on the top of your mind for any of
7:22
Speaker 1: the tags on your pocket? In your pocket here as
7:25
Speaker 1: we you know, get deeper into November.
7:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I'm kind of adding on to what I
7:30
Speaker 3: said earlier. I truly feel like we're probably seven to
7:34
Speaker 3: nine days behind a typical runt schedule.
7:37
Speaker 2: I've talked to guys that.
7:39
Speaker 3: I met when I was hunting in Illinois and they
7:41
Speaker 3: felt kind of the same way. I'm still talking to
7:44
Speaker 3: buddies who are still trying to get it done in Kansas.
7:46
Speaker 2: They kind of feel the same way.
7:49
Speaker 3: Based on what I know right now at the time
7:53
Speaker 3: of us sitting down for this. Bucks are chasing, and
7:57
Speaker 3: I had seen, you know, even two days ago before
8:00
Speaker 3: I left Kansas, that bucks were starting to chase, but
8:04
Speaker 3: I had not been seeing really much more than three
8:06
Speaker 3: and a half to four and a half year old dear.
8:07
Speaker 3: So I know that I had a buddy that had
8:11
Speaker 3: a one seventy that was locked on a dough a
8:13
Speaker 3: couple of days ago. So I definitely think we are
8:16
Speaker 3: and everybody's kind of like, you know, mentally their favorite days,
8:21
Speaker 3: but we're just a little behind. You know, it's not
8:23
Speaker 3: November the seventh or November the fifth. I feel like
8:26
Speaker 3: we're kind of a week late. With that being said,
8:30
Speaker 3: my true gut feeling on this doesn't really change. I
8:34
Speaker 3: think you just need to be where those are going
8:37
Speaker 3: to be, so that that can be betting, that can
8:39
Speaker 3: be food, that can be you know, a betting to
8:42
Speaker 3: food pattern. You know, if you can be somewhere between
8:45
Speaker 3: those two things, you know, and depending on where you're
8:49
Speaker 3: going to be at in the country, obviously out in Kansas,
8:53
Speaker 3: it never hurts the being a pinch point between two
8:55
Speaker 3: betting areas or close to a food source.
8:59
Speaker 2: Again, my gut tells.
9:00
Speaker 3: Me that we are kind of in what I would
9:03
Speaker 3: consider like peak moving, you know, right into the lockdown
9:06
Speaker 3: stage of the rut in a lot of places across
9:10
Speaker 3: the country. But I do have I do have a
9:13
Speaker 3: couple of gun tags coming up for the next few weekends,
9:18
Speaker 3: and really my strategy is just to be in tight
9:21
Speaker 3: corridors and between bedding, and if you can be in
9:25
Speaker 3: that situation, you know, it's it's probably gonna be the
9:29
Speaker 3: best place to be until you know, i'd say mid December,
9:33
Speaker 3: where you're going to start shifting back toward food. But
9:38
Speaker 3: I still think if you're a guy and you're discouraged
9:40
Speaker 3: and you haven't seen, you know, a shooter buck yet,
9:44
Speaker 3: like it's just about logging hours right now, because at
9:48
Speaker 3: this point in time, you can't just rely on like
9:50
Speaker 3: the pre run or you know, those kind of tactics.
9:53
Speaker 4: Like what you really need is you just need to
9:56
Speaker 4: be in.
9:56
Speaker 3: A place where a dough is going to walk by
9:58
Speaker 3: and lead a big buck and that. And that's frustrating
10:01
Speaker 3: and it makes for long hours and and I've been
10:04
Speaker 3: there where you just hate it and you feel like
10:07
Speaker 3: such a bum sitting up in the tree.
10:09
Speaker 2: And you're like, man, what am I doing here?
10:11
Speaker 3: I'm driving myself crazy, and then at eleven ten am,
10:16
Speaker 3: you know, everything changes because the doe walks by with
10:19
Speaker 3: a you know, mature buck right behind her. So those
10:22
Speaker 3: things have a proclivity of happening this time of year.
10:26
Speaker 3: It's just going to be about, like you can you
10:29
Speaker 3: last through the grind. You know, I don't always love
10:32
Speaker 3: in all day sit, but if you were going to
10:34
Speaker 3: do an all day sit, you know, now it might
10:36
Speaker 3: be the time to do that, and then moving in
10:40
Speaker 3: toward the next week or so. I still feel really
10:43
Speaker 3: strongly about that. You know, time on stand is time
10:46
Speaker 3: towards success.
10:47
Speaker 2: I like that. I like that. Yeah, No, I think
10:50
Speaker 2: it's it's easy to get discouraged.
10:51
Speaker 1: Because I've logged a bunch of all day sits hunting
10:55
Speaker 1: a specific deer, and man, it's it's starting to I've
10:57
Speaker 1: actually enjoyed the process a bunch. But I feel we
11:01
Speaker 1: had a guest last week that said, right when you're
11:03
Speaker 1: about to give up is usually when you find success.
11:06
Speaker 1: So I think I think that advice rings true, you know,
11:09
Speaker 1: for the whole season, just don't give up. Yeah, absolutely,
11:13
Speaker 1: and and honestly, hopefully as we get closer to the
11:15
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving weekend. I still really like those dates a lot.
11:20
Speaker 1: You know, I still see a lot of a lot
11:21
Speaker 1: of really good movement, and depending on where you're at
11:24
Speaker 1: in the country, like I didn't see a lot of
11:27
Speaker 1: a lot of breeding still happening in the first two
11:29
Speaker 1: weeks of December.
11:30
Speaker 3: I mean it begins to taper down, but you know,
11:34
Speaker 3: like really, really, until you start talking about around Christmas time,
11:38
Speaker 3: I think you're really in the game as long as you.
11:40
Speaker 2: Are willing to stick it out.
11:42
Speaker 3: So hopefully, you know, as the holidays are coming up,
11:45
Speaker 3: guys can get more time off work and just love
11:48
Speaker 3: more more hours. And that's really I just think this
11:53
Speaker 3: time of year, unless you have one just absolutely pinned down,
11:57
Speaker 3: which I don't think anybody does us, the amount of time.
12:02
Speaker 4: You know that you can be in the woods is
12:05
Speaker 4: going to make the determining factor.
12:07
Speaker 3: And another thing I do like about really this upcoming
12:10
Speaker 3: week that I didn't say earlier, is there there's gonna
12:13
Speaker 3: be a chance that guys see really big deer that
12:16
Speaker 3: they have absolutely no history with, because all of a sudden,
12:19
Speaker 3: you know that buck may have bread does and in
12:23
Speaker 3: his home range or summer range or and and like
12:26
Speaker 3: you hear a lot of guys talk about summer ranges
12:28
Speaker 3: versus ball ranges, and I'm a firm believer that, you know,
12:31
Speaker 3: whether you have a deer that lives on one particular
12:34
Speaker 3: property or not, like there is going to be some
12:36
Speaker 3: crossover where some bucks come in and they start looking
12:39
Speaker 3: for new dough, so you know, another gut filling. Is
12:43
Speaker 3: that really over the next week or so, you know
12:46
Speaker 3: you're going to start to see a buck just show
12:49
Speaker 3: up at random and and that's really where it's going
12:51
Speaker 3: to pay off just to be in the stand, because
12:54
Speaker 3: it's it's gonna be one of the most frustrating things
12:57
Speaker 3: to see that deer on camera and then you you
13:00
Speaker 3: missed him, you know, because you weren't there, and you'll
13:03
Speaker 3: never see that year again. And that happens every single
13:05
Speaker 3: year where I see giant bucks and I'm like.
13:08
Speaker 4: Like, dude, where did that deer even come from? I've
13:09
Speaker 4: never seen him, And then you never see him again.
13:11
Speaker 3: It's just because he's frantic looking for you know, the
13:15
Speaker 3: last available dough and and then he's probably going to
13:18
Speaker 3: go back to where wherever his home range was and
13:21
Speaker 3: then kind of settle down for the year, maybe try
13:23
Speaker 3: to bread a few year ling dows that come in
13:25
Speaker 3: late and then really.
13:26
Speaker 4: Just focus on food at that point.
13:28
Speaker 3: But that's kind of you know, the last week point
13:31
Speaker 3: I think I make is over the next week. You know,
13:33
Speaker 3: you just don't know what's going to happen. You could
13:36
Speaker 3: you could end up having a chance at that one
13:38
Speaker 3: that you've looked at all the year, or you could
13:39
Speaker 3: have you know, the neighbors one sixty Uh, run you know,
13:43
Speaker 3: run over, you know, from a couple of miles away
13:46
Speaker 3: and be in your lap.
13:48
Speaker 4: It's just a matter of if you're if you're there
13:50
Speaker 4: or not.
13:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. That's great advice, wonderful advice. So
13:54
Speaker 1: looking here in the next week leading up to Thanksgiving,
13:57
Speaker 1: scale one to ten, ten being the best week of
13:59
Speaker 1: the year, one being one of the worst weeks the year,
14:02
Speaker 1: what do you put the potential big buck activity?
14:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I couldn't give it a ten because
14:10
Speaker 3: I just think that deer are gonna be locked down
14:12
Speaker 3: those right now, but it will be tapering off. So
14:15
Speaker 3: I'm still gonna be pretty optimistic and say probably somewhere around.
14:18
Speaker 2: An eight and a half to nine.
14:21
Speaker 3: You know, it's with the deer being locked on, you're
14:25
Speaker 3: just you've got to be committed to long hours in
14:28
Speaker 3: the stand because you just never know when something's gonna change.
14:33
Speaker 3: But you know, with that being said, I still think
14:36
Speaker 3: there's a really good chance that you know, we are
14:39
Speaker 3: in the best week right now, and then over the
14:41
Speaker 3: next seven to ten days, it's still going to remain high.
14:44
Speaker 4: You know, you're gonna be somewhere.
14:46
Speaker 3: Around at eight and it's gonna feel like a ten
14:48
Speaker 3: for some guys, and some guys it's gonna feel like
14:50
Speaker 3: a five.
14:52
Speaker 2: But that's just kind of the nature of this year.
14:56
Speaker 3: You just have to you just kind of have to
14:58
Speaker 3: be where there were they want to be and where
15:00
Speaker 3: they are.
15:01
Speaker 2: At that particular moment to make it happen.
15:05
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations once again, man, that was an awesome buck.
15:09
Speaker 1: Congratulations and hopefully good luck to everyone else out here
15:12
Speaker 1: that's got to tag in their pocket and you have
15:15
Speaker 1: some words of encouragement and advice for to help them.
15:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Well, good luck to everybody this season. And
15:20
Speaker 3: I know I've got a couple of tags remaining. My
15:24
Speaker 3: boat season kind of got cut short. I just located
15:26
Speaker 3: my shoulder, so I actually I'm picking up. I just
15:29
Speaker 3: bought a crossbow last night, so I got to become
15:32
Speaker 3: a crossbow hunder the rest of the year.
15:34
Speaker 2: So well you oasher out.
15:37
Speaker 1: There and uh sh hopefully your shoulder heels up to
15:40
Speaker 1: because I know you probably not enjoyed that.
15:43
Speaker 5: It was.
15:44
Speaker 2: It was a bummer. I've been through the ringer on it.
15:46
Speaker 3: But but yeah, I mean, good luck to everybody, and uh,
15:50
Speaker 3: you know, just lock those hours if you if you can, and.
15:53
Speaker 2: You know, callin sick, do interview you got to do to.
15:56
Speaker 3: Get out in the woods. But good good luck to everybody.
15:59
Speaker 3: I think we're we're about in the thick of it
16:01
Speaker 3: right now.
16:02
Speaker 2: Wonderful man. Well, thank you so much.
16:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Next up we have Lane within the
16:08
Speaker 1: presence Hunt Lane.
16:09
Speaker 2: How's it going?
16:10
Speaker 4: Oh, good buddy, how you doing?
16:12
Speaker 2: It's doing great? I know you You shot a giant
16:15
Speaker 2: Pennsylvania buck. How was that?
16:17
Speaker 4: Oh it was wild man, Yeah, it just an absolute unit.
16:20
Speaker 5: Man.
16:21
Speaker 4: It was insane. I found him in the summer and
16:24
Speaker 4: then he shifted on me like once Velvit came off
16:27
Speaker 4: and I was able to pick him back up and
16:30
Speaker 4: pretty much just wait till the conditions right slid in
16:33
Speaker 4: killed him.
16:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, how many times when you say waiting for
16:38
Speaker 1: the conditions we're right, and slid in there and killed them.
16:40
Speaker 1: Was that like a multiple count cat and mouse game?
16:42
Speaker 2: Or was it like? Nah, it just it just worked.
16:45
Speaker 4: It just worked, to be honest with you, Like when
16:47
Speaker 4: I said I picked him back up, Like I didn't
16:49
Speaker 4: even have any trail cams up there. I never got
16:51
Speaker 4: another picture of him, like once velvit came off. You know,
16:54
Speaker 4: I just kind of had a feeling he was in
16:55
Speaker 4: this clear cut that I found where he was like
16:57
Speaker 4: living close by in the summer. So I kind of
17:00
Speaker 4: flipped to the other side of it and found a
17:02
Speaker 4: whole lot of rut sign, like old, old historical rut sign,
17:05
Speaker 4: and I knew I just had to be in there,
17:07
Speaker 4: like when the conditioners were right. So, like I said,
17:10
Speaker 4: I found that spot probably October or like went in
17:13
Speaker 4: and scouted it and found it exactly where I needed
17:15
Speaker 4: to be, like early October. And then I tried it
17:17
Speaker 4: one more time right before the day I killed him.
17:19
Speaker 4: But I just tried it like further on down a
17:21
Speaker 4: little bit, and then I mean it just set up perfect.
17:24
Speaker 4: The morning I killed them northwest wind, it was cold,
17:27
Speaker 4: it was later on in October. You know, it just
17:29
Speaker 4: set up perfect. I was actually supposed to leave for
17:31
Speaker 4: Illinois that day, but I really wanted to try to
17:34
Speaker 4: hunt this buck and kill him, and yeah I did it.
17:36
Speaker 4: So it was freaking awesome. Man, I couldn't believe it.
17:40
Speaker 2: That's super cool.
17:40
Speaker 1: What have you been seeing for RUT activity here in
17:44
Speaker 1: the last couple of days? I mean, do you feel
17:46
Speaker 1: like we're starting to maybe break through lockdown or I mean,
17:49
Speaker 1: and I hate to categorize it because I know every
17:51
Speaker 1: area and everything's a little bit different. But for people listening,
17:55
Speaker 1: you know, what have you been seeing here for activity
17:57
Speaker 1: here the last couple of days?
17:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely. I think they're a little bit more
18:01
Speaker 4: on lockdown right now. Like I drove past my grandma's
18:03
Speaker 4: house just probably three or four days ago, and I
18:06
Speaker 4: mean it's there's two roads on each side of it,
18:08
Speaker 4: you know, and there's a just pretty much a field
18:10
Speaker 4: with like a little fentro and I've seen a buck
18:12
Speaker 4: and a dough out there, you know, and he was
18:13
Speaker 4: a good buck. So I definitely lockdown right now. And
18:16
Speaker 4: then he still catch bucks moving, you know, once they've
18:19
Speaker 4: done bring their dough. But I'm just you just got
18:22
Speaker 4: to get tight to betting, is my best advice. To
18:24
Speaker 4: anyone who's hunting right.
18:25
Speaker 1: Now, get tight your bidding and then as far as
18:39
Speaker 1: you know, the nineteenth leading up to Thanksgiving, I feel
18:44
Speaker 1: like this one people are digging deep and like, more
18:46
Speaker 1: than likely people have been hunting pretty hard. And what
18:50
Speaker 1: advice do you have for those folks that are still
18:53
Speaker 1: trying their darnest and they feel like maybe the best
18:55
Speaker 1: has already been behind them and it's like still good.
18:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, but the the.
19:01
Speaker 1: Fatigue And I feel like that's such a cheesy way
19:03
Speaker 1: to say it, but like the fatigue of the season
19:05
Speaker 1: is definitely setting in for people right now.
19:07
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, one hundred percent. I'd just say keep going, man,
19:09
Speaker 4: Like all it takes is a split second of your
19:11
Speaker 4: whole season to change, you know, Like I just I
19:14
Speaker 4: know it sounds a cliche, but just keep grinding. In
19:16
Speaker 4: my experience, I find a lot of the bigger books
19:19
Speaker 4: are moving in like daylight, and a lot more towards
19:22
Speaker 4: the end of November. You know, it kind of seems
19:24
Speaker 4: like there's waves of it, but it seems like the
19:26
Speaker 4: majority historically, what I found is a lot of the
19:29
Speaker 4: bigger deer. You know, I get a lot of showking
19:31
Speaker 4: pictures of them running doughs and stuff later on November.
19:34
Speaker 4: So it's never over, you know what I mean, till
19:36
Speaker 4: fat ladies singing and you're done for the season. So
19:39
Speaker 4: just keep grinding the minute it could all change and
19:41
Speaker 4: split second.
19:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And as far as you know tight to betting,
19:46
Speaker 1: you feel that like, obviously downwind of predominant betting areas,
19:50
Speaker 1: are you concerned, Like deer have probably been kind of
19:53
Speaker 1: messed with, pestered by humans and pestured by little bucks
19:57
Speaker 1: and it seems like, you know, dose are a little
19:59
Speaker 1: bit of no, as far as you know the increased
20:02
Speaker 1: pressure in the woods, and having that in mind, how
20:05
Speaker 1: concerned are you to get tight to betting? Or how
20:07
Speaker 1: much longer does it take the set up? Or are
20:09
Speaker 1: you bounced around from betting area to betting area? Like
20:12
Speaker 1: what does that look like?
20:14
Speaker 2: Yeah?
20:14
Speaker 4: I mean it kind of just depends, to be honest
20:16
Speaker 4: with you. Uh yeah, I meant like, just like I
20:22
Speaker 4: find I'm finding deer right now and just the thickest,
20:24
Speaker 4: nastiest stuff ever and as far away from human pressure
20:27
Speaker 4: as possible, Like I kayaked in a river to day
20:29
Speaker 4: and it was probably I don't know, two miles from
20:32
Speaker 4: the access all the deer I bumped. We're pretty much
20:34
Speaker 4: right next to that river bedded down, you know. And
20:36
Speaker 4: then there was a little betting pocket right in there,
20:38
Speaker 4: and I got on the backside of it and bumped
20:40
Speaker 4: a couple more, you know. So just thick, nastiest spots
20:43
Speaker 4: you can find as far away from human pressure as possible.
20:46
Speaker 1: M do you do you get discourage when you're bumping
20:49
Speaker 1: deer when you're going in to set up on something new, Like,
20:51
Speaker 1: you know, you throw in the kayak two miles and
20:53
Speaker 1: you're like, man, I gave all the way back here
20:55
Speaker 1: and I parked my kayak, I walked ten feet and
20:58
Speaker 1: I busted one right away.
21:00
Speaker 4: I wasn't even off the kayak and I'm blowing deer.
21:03
Speaker 4: I was so pissed. But yeah, it's one of them
21:05
Speaker 4: things where it's it's hard not to get pissed. But
21:07
Speaker 4: you just got to think, like you're already seeing deer.
21:09
Speaker 4: You're in where deer want to be, you know, don't
21:11
Speaker 4: don't hang your head. It's not like, you know, it's
21:13
Speaker 4: not like the deer are just gonna run forever and
21:15
Speaker 4: just be tear like tear off out of the state,
21:17
Speaker 4: you know, out of the country, like they're still in there.
21:20
Speaker 1: M yeah, No, I think that's good advice as far
21:23
Speaker 1: as food sources or or even you know, I feel
21:27
Speaker 1: like there's you categorize a few strategies. People are going
21:30
Speaker 1: to be deployed here for the next couple, you know,
21:31
Speaker 1: the next week, depending on whether potentially food sources may
21:35
Speaker 1: have some pull and attraction, and obviously it's dependent on
21:38
Speaker 1: where you're at in the country. Another one to be
21:40
Speaker 1: travel corridors in between betting areas. And then you know,
21:43
Speaker 1: tight to betting, and you think tight to betting is
21:45
Speaker 1: probably the one of your best approach for this time
21:47
Speaker 1: period leading up to Thanksgiving.
21:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, for right now, and then once late season comes
21:51
Speaker 4: and I kind of shift to food, you know what
21:53
Speaker 4: I mean. But as of right now, do tight to
21:54
Speaker 4: betting is my best advice, Like you know, down winside
21:58
Speaker 4: of betting, let bucks either crew is to your come
22:00
Speaker 4: in the betting area and check it out, you know,
22:01
Speaker 4: or maybe even they're found a doe in there and
22:04
Speaker 4: they'll squirret out, you know. It just it just really
22:06
Speaker 4: just depends. But tight to betting always have seemed to
22:09
Speaker 4: be the key for me.
22:10
Speaker 1: So mm hmm, do you think do you think it
22:12
Speaker 1: even carries more merit this time of year than earlier,
22:15
Speaker 1: or like, how would you rank that in terms of,
22:18
Speaker 1: you know, specifically this upcoming week.
22:20
Speaker 4: What tight to betting? I would say, I mean, it
22:26
Speaker 4: just really depends. Like early season, you know, morning sits,
22:28
Speaker 4: I'm tight to betting too, you know, the October, you know,
22:31
Speaker 4: early October, late October, I'm tight to betting. Like I'd
22:35
Speaker 4: say the majority of the things tight to bedding right now,
22:37
Speaker 4: you know, Like it's stupid to say it sounds like
22:39
Speaker 4: I'm just saying like a bunch of rubbish, But like, dude,
22:43
Speaker 4: that's that's where I'm flying. I'm just just tight to betting, man,
22:45
Speaker 4: Like it's they're just out and about in the betting areas,
22:48
Speaker 4: you know.
22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you've had an incredible year. How many bucks
22:51
Speaker 2: have you knocked down this year?
22:53
Speaker 4: I killed six?
22:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's a crazy season, dude.
22:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, wild dude, I can't belie that. The biggest one
23:01
Speaker 4: was that PA one and then I killed like one
23:03
Speaker 4: hundred and forty inch out in Illinois. I killed like
23:05
Speaker 4: one hundred and thirty velvet and uh Delaware, and then
23:09
Speaker 4: I killed it a decent Kansas bug. He was probably
23:12
Speaker 4: like right about one hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty
23:15
Speaker 4: inches and then uh, I killed like two Maryland bugs.
23:18
Speaker 4: I mean, they weren't the biggest bucks in the world,
23:20
Speaker 4: but they're still good to hear, pump me up.
23:21
Speaker 2: So that's that's an unreal season.
23:25
Speaker 1: And the follow up question I was, were they all
23:27
Speaker 1: type to betty?
23:30
Speaker 2: Where they all types of betting?
23:33
Speaker 4: No, well, the one was not too were okay, all right,
23:38
Speaker 4: three but all right, so pretty much five of them were.
23:43
Speaker 4: I'd say like the last the last ones were that
23:45
Speaker 4: the one I killed early season, like I killed him September.
23:48
Speaker 4: Second that wasn't tight to betting. I was still probably
23:50
Speaker 4: three hundred yards from betting, but I was pretty much
23:52
Speaker 4: sitting right next to a sway beanfield and they came
23:54
Speaker 4: right down the buffer zone. You know. I shot him
23:56
Speaker 4: in the woods, but I was still probably three hundred
23:59
Speaker 4: yards from betting. It's more betted.
24:01
Speaker 1: So yeah, And for people listening to when you say
24:04
Speaker 1: tight to betting, and I'm picturing I'm picturing more Eastern
24:06
Speaker 1: hunting in my own head right now. But when you
24:09
Speaker 1: say tight, is that I understand it's situational based off
24:12
Speaker 1: train and how close can you really get without you know,
24:15
Speaker 1: getting busted. But as a rule of thumb, is tight
24:18
Speaker 1: to betting to you one hundred yards, one hundred and
24:20
Speaker 1: fifty yards, sixty yards.
24:23
Speaker 4: Just to get someone to rule with them, Yeah, I'd
24:25
Speaker 4: say under one hundred for sure. You know, the closer
24:28
Speaker 4: the better, closer the better if you can get right
24:29
Speaker 4: on top of them. You know, if you have a
24:31
Speaker 4: bed picked out, you know you're bed hunting it, like,
24:33
Speaker 4: you know, getting tight as possible. But yeah, if you're
24:36
Speaker 4: just hunting a general bet betting area like a dough
24:38
Speaker 4: betting area, I'd say within you know, seventy five hundred yards,
24:42
Speaker 4: I'd say if you can get closer by all means,
24:45
Speaker 4: do it. You know, a lot of times you'll find
24:47
Speaker 4: edges right on the edge of the betting area, and
24:49
Speaker 4: a lot of times I can get right into there.
24:51
Speaker 4: That's the ticket for me one d percent.
24:54
Speaker 1: So looking here, the next week's scale one to ten,
24:56
Speaker 1: ten being the best week of the year, one being
24:58
Speaker 1: the worst week of the year. November nineteenth to blackout Wednesday.
25:05
Speaker 1: What do you what do you rank this week coming
25:07
Speaker 1: up for run activity for big Bucks?
25:10
Speaker 4: I'd probably say seven. I mean they're still they're ad
25:13
Speaker 4: meant they're definitely on lockdown, you know, but like they're
25:15
Speaker 4: still out and about and like I said, like the
25:18
Speaker 4: majority of the big Bucks I find do you know,
25:21
Speaker 4: pulling troil cramps and stuff like, I get a lot
25:24
Speaker 4: in that timeframe just moving. We see them out with
25:26
Speaker 4: those two, you know a lot of midday stuff too.
25:28
Speaker 4: So i'd say i'd say seven, depending on how the
25:31
Speaker 4: weather is. You know, if you can get a cold snap,
25:33
Speaker 4: it's on fire man, I'll guarantee. If it's seventy degrees,
25:36
Speaker 4: I'm sure it's going to shut things down a little bit,
25:38
Speaker 4: you know, but they'll still be running at night. But
25:41
Speaker 4: I like it.
25:42
Speaker 2: Where can people follow along with some of the hunts
25:44
Speaker 2: here that you had this year?
25:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, if every hunt and I've talked about so far,
25:48
Speaker 4: you can go on our channel just in the presence
25:50
Speaker 4: hunt pop right up for you. We're also on social media.
25:52
Speaker 4: If you type you know, Instagram, you type that in,
25:54
Speaker 4: will pop right up. Facebook type pop right back, pop
25:58
Speaker 4: up for you.
25:58
Speaker 1: So aw, Yeah, Well, dude, what an incredible season, and
26:02
Speaker 1: good luck the rest of the year. I don't know
26:03
Speaker 1: if there's any more Bucks safe with the tear you've
26:06
Speaker 1: been on, but congratulations.
26:07
Speaker 2: And good luck the rest of the season.
26:09
Speaker 4: Hey, thanks by I appreciate so much. Thanks shoving me
26:11
Speaker 4: on all right.
26:12
Speaker 1: Next up we have Shane Albert who just tagged this
26:15
Speaker 1: personal best buck in the state of Illinois.
26:18
Speaker 2: Shane, how does it feel.
26:21
Speaker 5: It's a huge relief.
26:23
Speaker 6: I mean, getting a deer down before for the Illinois
26:26
Speaker 6: gun season is seems like always the goal. So to
26:30
Speaker 6: do it and to do it do it with the
26:31
Speaker 6: bow on my personal best is Yeah. Man, it's been
26:35
Speaker 6: a big weight off the shoulders the last few days.
26:37
Speaker 2: That's awesome man. Congratulations.
26:39
Speaker 1: So before we get into the story and how it
26:41
Speaker 1: went down and what the activity has been here recently,
26:45
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you a tough trivia question
26:47
Speaker 1: in the state of Illinois.
26:49
Speaker 2: What is the.
26:51
Speaker 1: Surveyed your population in the state of Illinois, and it's
26:56
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands.
26:57
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you a little bit of a
26:58
Speaker 2: hit here.
27:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think I know it.
27:03
Speaker 6: Once upon a time, I think we used to shoot
27:05
Speaker 6: about one hundred thousand deer, just under a one hundred
27:07
Speaker 6: thousand deer. I think those numbers are down and I'm
27:11
Speaker 6: going off of memory there.
27:14
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go with I'm gonna do a round number.
27:20
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna.
27:21
Speaker 6: Get the prices right here. I'm gonna guess seven hundred thousand.
27:29
Speaker 1: It's actually two hundred and ninety thousand, which seems really
27:33
Speaker 1: that is I think that's too low personally.
27:35
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just drive a drive at night during November.
27:41
Speaker 5: I see feel like I see that man serious.
27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, So.
27:46
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about the breakdown here. I
27:48
Speaker 1: know you kind of hunt throughout the state of Illinois,
27:50
Speaker 1: and you had packed up your bags and went to
27:52
Speaker 1: a different part of the state.
27:54
Speaker 2: Break it.
27:55
Speaker 1: Break it down because I think showing up and hunting
27:57
Speaker 1: on the fly is maybe a benefit in November or
28:00
Speaker 1: maybe a detriment obviously worked out for you.
28:03
Speaker 5: Yeah.
28:04
Speaker 6: Yeah, It's chaotic, for sure, but it is. It is
28:07
Speaker 6: nice to have the options. So yeah, I live in
28:11
Speaker 6: northwest Illinois. I've got to I own a small farm
28:14
Speaker 6: up here and been hunting that pretty hard. Got a
28:17
Speaker 6: good deer on it and have had a couple encounters
28:21
Speaker 6: with him. But the middle of November I usually just
28:27
Speaker 6: take a mini ructation and then I'll take the gun season.
28:32
Speaker 6: So I had the days off to kind of just
28:34
Speaker 6: bounce around and do what the encounters and the cameras
28:38
Speaker 6: told me.
28:39
Speaker 5: So I hunted hard at home.
28:42
Speaker 6: I had some good encounters with several bucks, and it
28:47
Speaker 6: just wasn't it just wasn't there yet. I wasn't seeing
28:51
Speaker 6: the activity. The mature bucks that I was seeing were
28:55
Speaker 6: not doing what I thought I needed them to do
28:58
Speaker 6: to kill them. And we we have a I've got
29:01
Speaker 6: an uncle who owns a good farm down in south
29:04
Speaker 6: central Annoy It's about four and a half hours south
29:06
Speaker 6: of me and my cousin and I hunt that pretty
29:08
Speaker 6: hard and we manage that one as best as we can.
29:11
Speaker 6: And it's tough for me to get down there as
29:14
Speaker 6: much as I want to, but we spend a lot
29:16
Speaker 6: of time on the food plots and the trail cameras
29:18
Speaker 6: and the box lilnes and all that fun stuff.
29:20
Speaker 5: And we did we did have some good deer on camera.
29:23
Speaker 6: So about that time that my farm was kind of
29:26
Speaker 6: slowing down a little bit, I did decide to pack
29:29
Speaker 6: the bags and head down there.
29:32
Speaker 5: And uh yeah, So I headed down.
29:34
Speaker 6: If you want to just straight into the that few
29:37
Speaker 6: days that I had. So I left here on Monday morning,
29:40
Speaker 6: took a morning hunt off and dropped my kids off
29:44
Speaker 6: at school, and I was like, okay, doing the math
29:46
Speaker 6: and stop for lunch and fuel up. And by the
29:49
Speaker 6: time I get there, I'm like, it'll be about about
29:51
Speaker 6: time to hop straight into into a stand. So the
29:53
Speaker 6: whole drive down there, of course, I'm looking at wind
29:55
Speaker 6: directions and talking to my cousin about where to go, and.
29:58
Speaker 5: He's like, I just go to food.
29:59
Speaker 6: We had a big cold snap, heavy winds, a thirty
30:03
Speaker 6: degree temperature drop. He's like, I bet you there's gonna
30:06
Speaker 6: be deer on food and Bucks will swing by and
30:09
Speaker 6: see what they can find for doze.
30:10
Speaker 5: Right, It's just that time of year. And he nailed it.
30:14
Speaker 6: Give him, Give him that credit. I want his head
30:15
Speaker 6: to get any bigger than his doorways are. But he
30:19
Speaker 6: called it, and I raced all the way down there,
30:22
Speaker 6: and I'm kidding, I kid you not, Jake. I was
30:25
Speaker 6: pulled up to the parking spot, walked up, walked out
30:29
Speaker 6: to the blind. I didn't have the door shut on
30:31
Speaker 6: the blind and I looked up and are number one
30:35
Speaker 6: or number two, depending on if you talk to me
30:37
Speaker 6: or My cousin was walking across, walking into the food
30:41
Speaker 6: plot from the corner right in front of the blind
30:45
Speaker 6: and I had my backpack on. I did an arrow
30:47
Speaker 6: still in the quiver, no release nothing. I mean, I
30:49
Speaker 6: literally was didn't even have the door shut.
30:52
Speaker 5: So I'm in panic mode getting arrow knocked.
30:55
Speaker 6: The deer ends up angling towards the blind and cutting
30:58
Speaker 6: out about fifty yards.
31:00
Speaker 5: The wind was so heavy and he was through.
31:03
Speaker 6: A pretty good amount of weeds in the food plot
31:06
Speaker 6: that I was worried about a deflection if I were
31:08
Speaker 6: to were to shoot one, but not getting a good
31:11
Speaker 6: range on him and the wind and the panic that
31:13
Speaker 6: I had, I was like, I'm not going to shoot
31:15
Speaker 6: this year unless he happens to come into, you know,
31:18
Speaker 6: making make a move and angle into about thirty yards
31:20
Speaker 6: or less. So he comes in just got to fifty
31:25
Speaker 6: was about the closest that I was able to get
31:27
Speaker 6: a range on him, and he was able to basically
31:30
Speaker 6: check the whole food plot, didn't see a single dough
31:33
Speaker 6: and walked out. So that was at one thirty on
31:35
Speaker 6: Monday afternoon. So I was not expecting that obviously. Yeah, yeah,
31:41
Speaker 6: very early and by himself just doing what big bucks
31:44
Speaker 6: do on you know, that was November tenth.
31:47
Speaker 5: You know, he was just cruising.
31:48
Speaker 6: He was my guess, he was between doughs, and he
31:51
Speaker 6: was he was looking for his second, second or third one.
31:56
Speaker 6: By that time of year, it could have been the third.
31:57
Speaker 6: Even so a bunch of come out. He never comes
32:01
Speaker 6: back to check the plot. Had a great hunt, saw
32:03
Speaker 6: twenty to thirty deer, but no mature bucks ever ended
32:08
Speaker 6: up stepping out a hunt of the next morning in
32:10
Speaker 6: a big timber ridge in a saddle, saw another pile
32:13
Speaker 6: of deer, saw a good three year old chasing doze
32:16
Speaker 6: right underneath me. Small bucks cruising and I and I
32:21
Speaker 6: had an encounter with again.
32:24
Speaker 5: He now looking looking. Now we've got one, dear down.
32:26
Speaker 6: I would say that this is our the one that
32:28
Speaker 6: I saw Saturday, or I'm sorryday Tuesday, Tuesday morning, Tuesday morning,
32:35
Speaker 6: the one that I saw Tuesday morning. He's probably our
32:37
Speaker 6: number one now that I've got what and I think
32:40
Speaker 6: our number two is on the ground. But he shows
32:42
Speaker 6: up straight behind me in a saddle came in straight
32:46
Speaker 6: down win.
32:46
Speaker 5: I don't know if he ever got my win. He
32:47
Speaker 5: never spooked, but.
32:49
Speaker 6: The closest he got was about eighty yards. So I
32:52
Speaker 6: got a really good look at him. Saw a big
32:54
Speaker 6: split on one side. Thought it was my dear at first,
32:57
Speaker 6: because that was the most distinct thing about him.
32:59
Speaker 5: He's got double split g Tues.
33:01
Speaker 6: And so when I saw him on Monday afternoon, I
33:05
Speaker 6: thought this year on Tuesday morning, same year, I'm like,
33:07
Speaker 6: I saw a big split running through the woods.
33:10
Speaker 5: So I'm like, there he is again.
33:12
Speaker 6: Well, I got some video of him and we can
33:14
Speaker 6: actually tell he's only got one split on one side,
33:16
Speaker 6: so we're like, that's a different deer. So we kind
33:19
Speaker 6: of have a beat on two different bucks on the
33:22
Speaker 6: same side of the farm.
33:23
Speaker 4: Now.
33:23
Speaker 6: So my cousin comes down on Tuesday afternoon and I
33:27
Speaker 6: actually send him a pin. I'm like, I'm thinking about
33:28
Speaker 6: going right here in my saddle or a or a
33:31
Speaker 6: hanging hunt situation. And he's like, man's that's about where
33:35
Speaker 6: I was gonna go. And I'm like, all right, no
33:37
Speaker 6: big deal. I'm like, you go there. I was actually
33:40
Speaker 6: thinking about going back to that food plot and doing
33:42
Speaker 6: a hanging hunt.
33:44
Speaker 5: So the big thing.
33:45
Speaker 6: On Tuesday afternoon was that we had a wind shift
33:48
Speaker 6: from from northwest to southwest, and it was still a
33:53
Speaker 6: very strong wind. So with the south wind, I knew
33:58
Speaker 6: here's my big takeaway is that.
34:00
Speaker 5: I knew there was a good deer in the area.
34:02
Speaker 6: The odds he was going to do the exact same
34:04
Speaker 6: thing twice, we're slim, and even if he did and
34:07
Speaker 6: I was in the same spot, he's gonna skirt me
34:10
Speaker 6: at fifty yards again, right, So I had to make
34:12
Speaker 6: a move and do something different. So with the south wind,
34:15
Speaker 6: I was able to get on the northwest side of
34:17
Speaker 6: this food plot in the woods, just a little bit
34:20
Speaker 6: to where all the deer that entered the food plot
34:23
Speaker 6: come in straight up wind. So if everything happened at
34:26
Speaker 6: the same I had great wind for it.
34:30
Speaker 5: So that's exactly what I did.
34:31
Speaker 6: So my cousin went to my initial spot I was
34:34
Speaker 6: looking to go. I jumped back over in that food
34:36
Speaker 6: plot that I saw that big deer the night before.
34:40
Speaker 6: And this is where it got chaotic, is I got
34:44
Speaker 6: out of the woods from my morning hunt. I went
34:46
Speaker 6: and grabbed a tree stand that I'd hung somewhere else
34:49
Speaker 6: for my hanging bang set up. And I was back
34:53
Speaker 6: at the truck and I got my bow out. I
34:55
Speaker 6: shot a couple of arrows just to pass some time
34:57
Speaker 6: and make sure my bow's good after the you know
35:00
Speaker 6: hunting and all the drive and everything. Set my bow
35:03
Speaker 6: on the table I get all my game playing together.
35:06
Speaker 5: Get my tree stand packed up.
35:08
Speaker 6: I head to the woods and I throw my stand
35:11
Speaker 6: and my pack on and I'm like, all I just
35:14
Speaker 6: got to grab my bow and pull my open my
35:17
Speaker 6: back door my truck, pull my bow out, and it's
35:20
Speaker 6: not there, and I'm like, oh my gosh, left my.
35:23
Speaker 5: Bow at the cabin.
35:24
Speaker 6: I knew I was sitting right on the table where
35:26
Speaker 6: I left it after I got done shooting.
35:27
Speaker 5: So I'm like, all right, mind you.
35:29
Speaker 6: I wanted to be in the woods by one o'clock
35:31
Speaker 6: since I saw the deer by one thirty the day before,
35:34
Speaker 6: and so at this point it's about twelve forty five,
35:37
Speaker 6: I run back to get my bow. Come back now,
35:40
Speaker 6: I got everything right, So hike in about four hundred yards,
35:45
Speaker 6: get the tree stand hung. Takes I'm not super efficient
35:48
Speaker 6: at doing a hanging hunt yet, but I hang.
35:51
Speaker 5: About twenty minutes or so.
35:53
Speaker 6: I get set up, and I'm not super happy with
35:58
Speaker 6: myself for forgetting my bow.
36:00
Speaker 5: I'm sweaty. It was warmer that day.
36:03
Speaker 6: I was I was like, I just didn't feel super
36:06
Speaker 6: confident just all things considered, I was rushed, you know,
36:09
Speaker 6: the feeling, and you're covered in sweat. You just hung
36:11
Speaker 6: a stand, you know, straps in the way, and I'm
36:14
Speaker 6: all frustrated. And about that time I was like, all right,
36:17
Speaker 6: we're here, We're good, We're set up. It was about
36:20
Speaker 6: one thirty at that point, so of course I'm looking
36:22
Speaker 6: for deer and I'm like, all right, I got to
36:24
Speaker 6: get my binos out, start glass and see if this
36:25
Speaker 6: buck's going to come through. And that was about the
36:28
Speaker 6: time that I went in my backpack realized that my
36:31
Speaker 6: binos are not in my backpack. So I'm beyond frustrated now,
36:45
Speaker 6: and I think I even texted you that you know,
36:48
Speaker 6: this is going to be the day that you know,
36:50
Speaker 6: I think I called it. I said, I if this
36:52
Speaker 6: is as this as cluster, as clustered as I was,
36:56
Speaker 6: as this day was.
36:57
Speaker 5: I was like, this is the day that I'm going
36:58
Speaker 5: to randomly shoot a big deer. Right.
37:01
Speaker 6: Ended up standing there for ten minutes trying to look
37:05
Speaker 6: through the woods and see everything that moved that wasn't
37:08
Speaker 6: a deer, and I could not do it. I could
37:10
Speaker 6: not go ten minutes without binos. And I was like,
37:13
Speaker 6: you know what, the other than that big deer, the
37:16
Speaker 6: other deer that came out was at three h nine
37:18
Speaker 6: it is it is a one. I think it was
37:21
Speaker 6: one forty five. I said, I got plenty of time.
37:24
Speaker 6: Let's just go ahead and go get those binos. So
37:27
Speaker 6: I got down, went and got the bino's and the
37:31
Speaker 6: range finder.
37:31
Speaker 5: Min knew the rangefinders also in there.
37:34
Speaker 6: And I get back in the woods and I had
37:37
Speaker 6: a I remember time stamping this because I had sent
37:40
Speaker 6: a buddy a text message about forgetting my binoculars at
37:45
Speaker 6: two oh four, and I turned around to get some
37:50
Speaker 6: water out of my backpack because I was sweat like
37:52
Speaker 6: crazy just a walk. I went to grab a water.
37:54
Speaker 6: So I turned around and I see a deer walking
37:56
Speaker 6: through the woods and I was like, that's a big
37:57
Speaker 6: body deer. I got the binos that I just had
37:59
Speaker 6: to have. I got those vinys up and I realized
38:03
Speaker 6: I saw the double splits, and I was like, there
38:04
Speaker 6: he is.
38:05
Speaker 5: He's he's he's he's doing it. And so he comes
38:11
Speaker 5: and angles through the woods. And this is.
38:14
Speaker 6: Another part of it that I've reflected a lot on
38:16
Speaker 6: that I've I've evolved as a hunter and I've and
38:19
Speaker 6: I've gotten better, is that when I realized that I
38:23
Speaker 6: was in the game, I really focused on how things
38:27
Speaker 6: went from there up into the shot and post shot
38:31
Speaker 6: instead of just overwhelming, like getting overwhelmed with a big
38:36
Speaker 6: buck and the rack, and in the moment, I really
38:40
Speaker 6: harnessed everything and I and I executed as best as
38:43
Speaker 6: I could. And by that, I mean he was angled
38:46
Speaker 6: towards me. But I didn't just watch the deer. I
38:48
Speaker 6: really looked at the route he was taking and all
38:51
Speaker 6: the possibilities that he could go. And I remember thinking
38:54
Speaker 6: vividly like, he's gonna come check this food plot. But
38:58
Speaker 6: looking at the edge of this food plot, it is
39:00
Speaker 6: full of multi flour rows and it is it is thick.
39:05
Speaker 5: So that limits them.
39:07
Speaker 6: It kind of funnels them to the corners of the
39:09
Speaker 6: food plot. And he's angled to the corner that I'm
39:11
Speaker 6: sitting on. So I start ranging shooting lanes and I realized,
39:16
Speaker 6: I'm like, Okay, there's gonna be one at forty one,
39:19
Speaker 6: there's gonna be one at thirty three, and if he.
39:21
Speaker 5: Takes this way, I'll have a chip shot.
39:23
Speaker 6: So I'm doing all that stuff as he's coming in
39:25
Speaker 6: about seventy yards and he's angled to me. So instead
39:27
Speaker 6: of just watching the deer walk through the woods while
39:30
Speaker 6: I had.
39:30
Speaker 5: Time I start planning what's going to happen.
39:33
Speaker 6: I try to predict multiple scenarios, and sure enough he
39:37
Speaker 6: comes to it, comes to the right angle, and he
39:41
Speaker 6: comes to forty one, and I start to realize. I'm like, sure,
39:44
Speaker 6: I could shoot him at forty one, but the multiple
39:47
Speaker 6: rows is going to funnel him even closer. So five
39:51
Speaker 6: years ago, I might have just just said I got
39:54
Speaker 6: a shot, take it. But he was upwind. I put
39:57
Speaker 6: this stand in the perfect spot for this wind. He
39:59
Speaker 6: had no idea I was there. I mean, zero clue.
40:02
Speaker 6: He was just doing butt. He was just doing buck
40:05
Speaker 6: things in November, just checking out. He wasn't moving fast,
40:10
Speaker 6: he was just checking out, nose to the ground, see
40:12
Speaker 6: when he could smell and.
40:13
Speaker 5: See right, comes up to thirty five yards straight at me.
40:17
Speaker 5: Rubs on a seater.
40:18
Speaker 6: Gives me even more time to play out different scenarios.
40:21
Speaker 5: I ranged everything that I could.
40:23
Speaker 6: Of course, bos in hand releases is hooked, and I'm
40:28
Speaker 6: ranging everything I can. And I said, ninety percent chance
40:31
Speaker 6: he's gonna take this angle and he's gonna go right
40:33
Speaker 6: between those two trees at thirty three yards, And that's
40:36
Speaker 6: exactly what he did. So everything was played out perfect.
40:39
Speaker 6: The deer walks into the shooting lane. I draw as
40:42
Speaker 6: he gets to the first tree. The deer did not
40:46
Speaker 6: stop naturally in the shooting lanes, so I gave him
40:49
Speaker 6: the map. And the mistake that I made, this is
40:53
Speaker 6: the one mistake that I made, and it was a
40:55
Speaker 6: big mistake, is I did not let that deer stop.
40:59
Speaker 6: I predicted he was going to stop, so it was
41:02
Speaker 6: so windy, I don't think he heard the map, so
41:05
Speaker 6: I went map shot rather than map wait for them
41:10
Speaker 6: to stop.
41:11
Speaker 5: Shoot.
41:12
Speaker 6: So when he when he was when he hit my pin,
41:16
Speaker 6: I expected him to stop, so I shot. He didn't stop.
41:20
Speaker 6: He took another step, so I hit him about ten
41:22
Speaker 6: inches back. Not a good shot right off the bat.
41:27
Speaker 5: You know.
41:28
Speaker 6: Wasn't happy. But the second thought into my mind was
41:31
Speaker 6: dead deer. For sure, a dead deer. The next thing
41:36
Speaker 6: that he did was he sprinted into the food plot
41:39
Speaker 6: and I could see a big entry, a big entry hole.
41:43
Speaker 5: So that was good.
41:43
Speaker 6: I was happy with that, trying to get another arrow
41:46
Speaker 6: in just in case I could get another shot out
41:48
Speaker 6: of me, even if it was a long one. He
41:50
Speaker 6: didn't get in a good shooting window for me, so
41:53
Speaker 6: I just watched him. He cut into a draw and
41:57
Speaker 6: I was able to watch him for about one hundred yards.
41:59
Speaker 6: I saw the entrance again and it was it had
42:02
Speaker 6: it had blood coming out of that a big entrance hole.
42:04
Speaker 6: So I felt confident that this was a fatal hit
42:08
Speaker 6: at that point. It was just a matter of how
42:11
Speaker 6: much time to give him. So that was at two
42:14
Speaker 6: twenty so mind you, I got back in the tree
42:17
Speaker 6: at two o'clock with my bino's and I had an
42:20
Speaker 6: arrow in that deer at two twenty, so again really
42:22
Speaker 6: early first year out. I made a phone call my
42:28
Speaker 6: cousin who's hunting on that that other spot on the
42:30
Speaker 6: farm not too far away, and told him what happened.
42:33
Speaker 6: You know, we kind of we kind of had some
42:35
Speaker 6: predictions on where he's gonna go.
42:37
Speaker 5: A lot of deer have died in that draw that
42:39
Speaker 5: he went to.
42:40
Speaker 6: It's just a real thick draw between two food plots
42:43
Speaker 6: that they like to bed in and and and.
42:45
Speaker 5: They'll they'll hang out there quite a bit.
42:47
Speaker 6: Uh, there's a good chance that he could have died
42:50
Speaker 6: right in there in his first or second bed and
42:52
Speaker 6: then there's another bedding area about it's a it's a
42:56
Speaker 6: big long tree planning that's about fifty ten years old.
43:00
Speaker 6: So it's a bunch of small saplings. It's really thick.
43:03
Speaker 6: There's a creek on one side. It's just a heavy
43:06
Speaker 6: betting area that we we tend to find a lot
43:09
Speaker 6: of dead deer in from either obviously deer that we've
43:12
Speaker 6: hit or the neighbors. This was this was one of
43:16
Speaker 6: those scenarios where we knew we just had to wait
43:18
Speaker 6: and if we played our cards right, we're going to
43:21
Speaker 6: find this year.
43:22
Speaker 5: Never had the doubt in my mind that it wasn't fatal.
43:26
Speaker 6: And you even, you know, said start the twenty four
43:28
Speaker 6: hour clock, you know, after I told you that I
43:30
Speaker 6: got to hit in one and where it was, and
43:33
Speaker 6: so that's what we did. We called a couple of
43:36
Speaker 6: dog trackers in the area. Obviously this time of year
43:39
Speaker 6: they are swamped, so just getting them on the phone
43:41
Speaker 6: is tough to do. But I give a shout out
43:46
Speaker 6: to those guys because they save a lot of hunters
43:48
Speaker 6: this time of year. But I talked to a couple
43:50
Speaker 6: of them just out of you know, it's like, hey,
43:52
Speaker 6: even if you can't help me, I'd really like to
43:54
Speaker 6: just get your opinion on the time stamp that we
43:56
Speaker 6: need to be here, that we need to be waiting here, right,
43:58
Speaker 6: And that gave me the confidence to do exactly that,
44:03
Speaker 6: which is wait twenty four hours. So we waited twenty
44:07
Speaker 6: four hours. We had a we had a dog tracker
44:09
Speaker 6: on the way we went. We ended up going back
44:12
Speaker 6: down to the cabin while you know, we beat him
44:15
Speaker 6: down there by about an hour or so, and we
44:18
Speaker 6: decided to just kind of drive down there just see,
44:24
Speaker 6: just check the area out.
44:25
Speaker 5: There's a lot of hunters around the area.
44:27
Speaker 6: We just want to check and see if we check
44:29
Speaker 6: some fields, see if we see any big bucks running.
44:31
Speaker 5: And of course we weren't hunting.
44:32
Speaker 6: My cousin worked that day, and I was just in
44:34
Speaker 6: weight mode, right, so I wasn't I wasn't really interested
44:37
Speaker 6: in getting back out in the woods for even even
44:40
Speaker 6: though I have a second buck tag.
44:42
Speaker 5: Right, just I was focused on this, dear.
44:45
Speaker 6: And as we're driving down there, we drive past that
44:49
Speaker 6: second betting area that I mentioned earlier, and two buzzards
44:53
Speaker 6: popped out of there and we and it was right
44:56
Speaker 6: along a creek that that borders that betting area, and
45:00
Speaker 6: so we talked about it and we said, you know,
45:03
Speaker 6: if we go in there, the main track where we
45:06
Speaker 6: think this deer is is not boogered up. It's good
45:10
Speaker 6: for a dog. If we go in here and this
45:12
Speaker 6: year is not there, then I don't think we messed
45:15
Speaker 6: anything up. So we literally just wanted to go in
45:17
Speaker 6: and just we glassed a lot, and we were able
45:21
Speaker 6: to cover a lot of this bedding area with the
45:22
Speaker 6: glass instead of instead of tracking across the whole thing.
45:28
Speaker 6: So I went in one side, my cousin went in
45:30
Speaker 6: the other, and we like I dropped him off on
45:34
Speaker 6: one side, and he walked towards the truck, and I
45:35
Speaker 6: walked away from the truck, and we just this is
45:38
Speaker 6: one hundred yards wide and maybe five hundred yards long,
45:41
Speaker 6: so we were able to cover it pretty quick with
45:43
Speaker 6: the two of us. I walked down one side, he
45:45
Speaker 6: walks down the other. Neither one of us had any luck,
45:48
Speaker 6: no blood, no nothing. And so I'm like, all right, well,
45:52
Speaker 6: I'm just gonna make my way back your way, And
45:54
Speaker 6: I just took a little bit different route that's a
45:56
Speaker 6: little bit closer to where he was. And he was
46:00
Speaker 6: walking the edge of the creek, looking into the creek,
46:02
Speaker 6: expecting a deer to be down in the in the
46:04
Speaker 6: water in the creek. Bed and then he's glassing up
46:08
Speaker 6: into this bedding area. At the same time, I came
46:11
Speaker 6: back through more in the bedding area and I was
46:15
Speaker 6: about sixty yards away and I called him. I said,
46:17
Speaker 6: all right, I didn't have any luck. I'm gonna make
46:18
Speaker 6: my way back to the truck. We'll just wait for
46:20
Speaker 6: the dog come in and go to the hit. And
46:23
Speaker 6: I hang up the phone, and thirty seconds later I
46:25
Speaker 6: look over and I'm like, that really looks like a
46:28
Speaker 6: tye with the naked eye no binoculars.
46:30
Speaker 5: And then I was like, no, that is a tie.
46:32
Speaker 6: And I put the binos up and I'm like that
46:35
Speaker 6: that's a pretty big time. And I could just see
46:37
Speaker 6: two points sticking up out of a bunch of brush
46:40
Speaker 6: and weeds, and so I angle back to where I
46:44
Speaker 6: can see a little bit better.
46:45
Speaker 5: I get my arrow I had an arrow knocked.
46:47
Speaker 6: I get my release on, not knowing if this is
46:50
Speaker 6: a dead deer, alive deer, if it's my deer, and
46:53
Speaker 6: I kind of take an angle over and I could
46:55
Speaker 6: see I could see a body that's laying down sure enough,
46:58
Speaker 6: is dead or in a door nail.
46:59
Speaker 5: And then I was like, I don't know what deer
47:00
Speaker 5: it is.
47:01
Speaker 6: And then I could see the exit hole in the
47:04
Speaker 6: in the stomach, so it was it was at that
47:07
Speaker 6: point I knew it was my deer. And then I
47:09
Speaker 6: was able to knew it was dead. Took another step
47:12
Speaker 6: and I could see those big split g two's awesome, man.
47:15
Speaker 5: And and then it was I mean a million pounds.
47:19
Speaker 6: Off my shoulders, right, So a lot of a lot
47:21
Speaker 6: of thought after after the shot went into how are
47:24
Speaker 6: we going to recover this deer? So we were able
47:26
Speaker 6: to do it very uneventfully without you know, wild goose chase.
47:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you gave it time.
47:31
Speaker 5: It was awesome. We get a lot of time.
47:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well, no, man, congratulations And I think there's
47:36
Speaker 1: a lot of really key lessons in that for everyone on.
47:39
Speaker 1: You know, you just got to be out there. You
47:42
Speaker 1: got to trust your gut and then if something does
47:45
Speaker 1: not go right, you got to give the deer time,
47:47
Speaker 1: especially when you know where you hit them and you
47:49
Speaker 1: did everything right there.
47:50
Speaker 2: So congratulations.
47:52
Speaker 1: So looking here, you know, Illinois is a two bucks state,
47:54
Speaker 1: so you still have a buck tag here in your pocket.
47:57
Speaker 1: Looking from the nineteenth to the day before Thanksgiving, what
48:03
Speaker 1: what is top of mine?
48:04
Speaker 2: Here?
48:04
Speaker 1: Obviously are gun season kicks off this upcoming weekend. What
48:11
Speaker 1: what on a scale one to ten, what do you
48:12
Speaker 1: think the activity is going to be? And if you're
48:14
Speaker 1: a guy in Illinois with a tag in your pocket,
48:16
Speaker 1: what what?
48:17
Speaker 2: What do you tell that guy?
48:19
Speaker 5: Yeah?
48:20
Speaker 6: I think, uh, I think I like it, probably more
48:24
Speaker 6: than most Illinois hunters. I'm pretty partial to the second
48:30
Speaker 6: third week of November as opposed to the first. And
48:32
Speaker 6: I know, trust me, we all love when that calendar
48:35
Speaker 6: turns over and and the statistics on the sixth, seventh, eighth,
48:40
Speaker 6: the ninth, And I've killed on those days more so
48:45
Speaker 6: I should say I've killed on the ninth. I historically
48:49
Speaker 6: on multiple farms that I've hunted, have seen more activity
48:53
Speaker 6: from the tenth through the twentieth, and then then you'll
48:59
Speaker 6: you'll get into that gun season period. And we've had
49:02
Speaker 6: some really good gun seasons down there. Even if we
49:05
Speaker 6: don't we don't harvest everything we have in mind, visual
49:09
Speaker 6: sightings just happened to uptick in that in that timeframe.
49:13
Speaker 6: My personal opinion is, and there's a lot of opinions
49:15
Speaker 6: on it, but I really think a buck is most
49:18
Speaker 6: visible when he's between dose as opposed to looking for
49:22
Speaker 6: that first one I think my opinion is that in
49:25
Speaker 6: the first week of November we see a ton of
49:27
Speaker 6: running activity, but me personally, it's mostly small bucks that
49:31
Speaker 6: that I've that I have encounters with the mature bucks.
49:36
Speaker 5: I think they snag those dose without much effort.
49:39
Speaker 6: I think they snag those first doze without effort, so
49:41
Speaker 6: they don't have to travel very far to get them,
49:43
Speaker 6: whereas the small bucks got to work for it in
49:45
Speaker 6: that first week and then the the second and third doze. Whenever,
49:49
Speaker 6: whenever those bucks are coming off of the first one,
49:52
Speaker 6: I think that's when they're most vulnerable. And that's whenever
49:54
Speaker 6: I've seen and or killed more of my dear I've got.
49:58
Speaker 6: I was actually just talking to a buddy about it
49:59
Speaker 6: the other the thirteenth, the fifteenth, the eighteenth, now the eleventh.
50:05
Speaker 6: Obviously I killed on the eleventh. Those are the days
50:08
Speaker 6: of my four biggest bucks, so we're heading into the
50:12
Speaker 6: backside of that period that I really like. That being said,
50:17
Speaker 6: I think that you're with the if the weather's playing,
50:21
Speaker 6: the weather plays a big factor into it. I think
50:23
Speaker 6: that's gonna matter if they rut during or if they
50:26
Speaker 6: move during the day or at night.
50:27
Speaker 5: They're gonna rut.
50:28
Speaker 6: Either way, I think coming into this gun season, I
50:32
Speaker 6: think it's gonna be pretty good. I think most of
50:35
Speaker 6: our activity has been about a week or so behind
50:40
Speaker 6: where we would normally see it. I didn't see any
50:43
Speaker 6: mature bucks start to do much running activity until I
50:48
Speaker 6: think the seventh I saw one mature buck bumping a
50:51
Speaker 6: dough not even not even.
50:52
Speaker 5: Like super interested, like hot on her tail.
50:56
Speaker 6: I'm starting to see that now, both both in the
50:59
Speaker 6: last couple of days of hunting and on my cameras too.
51:02
Speaker 5: So I think it's I'd be pretty.
51:05
Speaker 6: Optimistic, and I'm naturally a pretty optimistic person, but I
51:09
Speaker 6: think that depending on what the weather's going to do
51:13
Speaker 6: in different pockets. So hunting two different areas in Illinois,
51:16
Speaker 6: it's pretty crazy. It'll be a twenty degree difference from
51:20
Speaker 6: where I live to the farm down south.
51:23
Speaker 5: So that was one reason I went down there, is.
51:26
Speaker 6: Because it got to seventy degrees, Like it's seventy degrees
51:30
Speaker 6: down there now, and I was like, I'm gonna hunt
51:32
Speaker 6: it while it's in the forties and up here it's
51:34
Speaker 6: going to be in the fifties, so.
51:36
Speaker 5: I've got much better weather.
51:38
Speaker 6: Better weather hunting up here whenever it's seventy down there.
51:42
Speaker 6: So if that weather's doing what it's, you know, what
51:46
Speaker 6: you need it to do where you're hunting, I think
51:49
Speaker 6: there's a good chance if you're out there, if you
51:52
Speaker 6: can catch that buck between does, they're pretty vulnerable.
51:55
Speaker 5: I think that this.
51:55
Speaker 6: Buck was between dose and I saw him twice in
51:59
Speaker 6: about twenty five hours. And I saw another mature buck
52:03
Speaker 6: doing the exact same thing, did not have a dough
52:05
Speaker 6: with him, was was cruising the woods, and and I
52:08
Speaker 6: think I think there's a good chance that that this
52:11
Speaker 6: this gun season could be pretty good for for a
52:13
Speaker 6: lot of guys in Illinois.
52:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, food or betting if you had, you know, just
52:18
Speaker 1: for someone that's like, okay, I still have a tag.
52:21
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be able to hunt, maybe a boat hunt
52:23
Speaker 1: a couple of days here before gun season, whether it's
52:26
Speaker 1: you know, Wednesday or Thursday, and then for the gun season.
52:31
Speaker 2: Betting, food, right place, right time, throw a doll.
52:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, well everything situation right, yeah, both right. I like
52:42
Speaker 5: to hunt the doze right now. And I'm and and
52:44
Speaker 5: I'm not.
52:45
Speaker 6: Like like hardcore got to be on the dose, but
52:49
Speaker 6: that's what he's looking for. And I like to be
52:53
Speaker 6: one big lesson that I've learned this year, and I
52:56
Speaker 6: kind of reflect and try to get better every year.
52:57
Speaker 5: I think we probably all do.
52:59
Speaker 6: And what I've realized this year is that if I
53:01
Speaker 6: have an encounter with a buck, I've got to do
53:04
Speaker 6: something similar to what he did, because he's gonna do.
53:06
Speaker 5: Something similar to.
53:09
Speaker 6: If we both do the same thing, that that deer
53:12
Speaker 6: is not gonna do the same thing two days in
53:14
Speaker 6: a row, I mean, the exact same thing.
53:16
Speaker 5: I think he's gonna do something similar. He's gonna be
53:19
Speaker 5: in the area.
53:20
Speaker 6: But if if if I just go do the exact
53:22
Speaker 6: same thing, I don't I don't think I'm gonna be
53:26
Speaker 6: in the chips. And what I've decided this year is
53:29
Speaker 6: be more mobile. So I've got a saddle set up,
53:32
Speaker 6: I've got a hang and bang, I've got lock ons,
53:34
Speaker 6: I've got ground blinds, I've got box blinds, I've I've
53:37
Speaker 6: got I've got all the tools that I can think
53:40
Speaker 6: of to put me in the in the right spot
53:42
Speaker 6: wherever that is. I've got hang ons that are that
53:46
Speaker 6: I just think I'm gonna I want to get a
53:48
Speaker 6: visual on him and then I can make a move
53:49
Speaker 6: from there. That's That's one of my big takeaways this
53:53
Speaker 6: year is mature bucks are are not on a pattern
53:57
Speaker 6: this time of year, but they are in an area
53:59
Speaker 6: and they do kind of tend to stick to that
54:02
Speaker 6: area if they've had if they found a dough there
54:06
Speaker 6: and they've been in the area, they're gonna look in
54:08
Speaker 6: for another dough in that same area. So I like
54:11
Speaker 6: to just move around with what the wind allows me
54:14
Speaker 6: to do and what the thermals allowed me to do.
54:17
Speaker 6: And that's exactly what I did on that buck the
54:19
Speaker 6: other day. I again, I knew he was going to
54:21
Speaker 6: be in the same area. I knew we had a
54:24
Speaker 6: I knew he had a really good I knew he
54:27
Speaker 6: had a really good chance to see him again. So
54:30
Speaker 6: my job was to get in the right spot, per
54:33
Speaker 6: the wind and hope that he makes the right move
54:37
Speaker 6: and you know, all the stars aligned perfect.
54:41
Speaker 1: Well man, congratulations once again, and and good luck everyone
54:45
Speaker 1: out there with the tag still here in Illinois firearm season,
54:50
Speaker 1: it is an exciting time to be on the woods
54:52
Speaker 1: and it's just one of the its opening days is
54:56
Speaker 1: truly one of those days of the year where you
54:57
Speaker 1: just truly don't know.
55:00
Speaker 2: What could happen.
55:00
Speaker 4: Go to a bath, anything, anything awesome.
55:05
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations once again, Shane.
55:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks, Jake, appreciate it.
55:09
Speaker 1: There you guys have I hope you enjoyed this week's
55:11
Speaker 1: episode of Rough Fresh. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.
55:14
Speaker 1: I hope you get a chance to sneak out and
55:16
Speaker 1: do a little bit more dear hunting. If it is
55:18
Speaker 1: a firearm season for you, like it is here in
55:20
Speaker 1: Illinois this upcoming weekend, Be safe, be a good neighbor,
55:23
Speaker 1: be a good friend, and we'll see you next time.