Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #104: Will Brantley of Field & Stream Talks Kentucky Deer Hunting

Transcript

Wired To Hunt Podcast #104: Will Brantley of Field & Stream Talks Kentucky Deer Hunting · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. In this episode number one four
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: tan the show, we're joined by Field and Streams hunting
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: editor Will Brantley to talk Kentucky deer hunting and much more.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Good morning, afternoon, or evening, and welcome to the Wire
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Sick of Gear,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and today, as I just mentioned, we've got a great
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: guest joining us as Mr or Will Brandley, a terrific
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: deer hunter and the hunting editor over at Field and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Stream is with us and we're going to be talking
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  Speaker 1: about his experiences deer hunting Kentucky and a number of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the different strategies and tactics that have worked from there,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: as well as some of the things he's learned from
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: other hunters across the country as part of his job
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: at Field and Stream. It's going to be a great chat.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: But before we get to that, in other news, my
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: co host Dan Johnson is not with me today as
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: he's out of town. I think for a basket weave
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in conference, so it's going to be just me and Will.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: But before we get that interview often running, I want
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to give a quick plug for my other podcast, the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: One Wild Podcast. If you haven't already checked it out
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and subscribed, I'd really encourage you to do so if
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: you haven't heard of it yet. It's my new joint
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: collaboration with Dreury Outdoors in which myself, Matt Dury, and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a great guest each week like Markart, Terry Dury or
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: other D o D team members, answer your specific hunting questions.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Our first three episodes of tackle turkey hunting, balancing hunting
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: with family time and self filming your hunt. So be
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: sure to give those a listen and please subscribe. And
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: now quickly before we give Will a call, we do
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: need to pause briefly for a word from our partners
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: at Sick Gear, who helped make this podcast possible. And
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: today we're continuing our series of sick stories, this one
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  Speaker 1: coming from Chad Bell of Louisiana, who a handful of
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: years ago head up to Illinois for his second year
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: of Midwestern deer hunting, and on this specific day, he
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  Speaker 1: snuck into a stand in the afternoon and then soon
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  Speaker 1: spotted one of those famed Midwestern bucks raking a tree
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  Speaker 1: in the distance, and then unbelievably watched as it walked,
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  Speaker 1: almost on a string, right to the base of his tree.
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  Speaker 1: The buck stopped, he sniffed to the ground right under
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  Speaker 1: Chad stand and then looked up. He stared for a while,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: but couldn't lack on anything, so he looked down again,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: sniffed some more, and then looked up again. Chad picks
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  Speaker 1: up his story right there, describing what that moment felt like.
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  Speaker 1: It was extremely intense. Um in fact, being that that
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: was only the of the second year that I had
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: actually taken bow hunting back up and at that point
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  Speaker 1: I had never killed a buck with a bow. Um.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: All my animals over the years of my hunting had
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: all been killed with a gun, other than some dooze
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: that I had killed with a bow. But I had
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: never taken a buck with my bow. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: I was, you know, I was all the thoughts going
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  Speaker 1: through my head of is this a deer that I
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: want to shoot? Um? You know, is it is he
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  Speaker 1: tag worthy? You know, all my buddies when you know,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be excited for me if I shoot this deer? Um?
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  Speaker 1: But the intensity of that moment, I think it was
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  Speaker 1: just everything racing through my mind and to feel like
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  Speaker 1: I was so pinned down, but I was so close,
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  Speaker 1: you know, And I think that's what we really craze
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: as white tail bow hunters is getting close to those
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: animals and being able to deceive them. But whether we
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you know, tag them, you know, put a tag on
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: them or not, is to be able to get so
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  Speaker 1: close and watch them in their environments and and see
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: how they react and learn from the things that they do.
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  Speaker 1: Is they're trying to, you know, find us and figure
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  Speaker 1: out what that is. Um there was absolutely intense and uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I just you know, just my brain was racing.
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  Speaker 1: Am I gonna, am I gonna draw this bow back
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  Speaker 1: if I decide to? Is he gonna give me the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to get my bow drawn? Um? Am I gonna
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  Speaker 1: be able to make the shot? Am I gonna get
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  Speaker 1: busted by these other deer in the seals? You know?
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  Speaker 1: There were just several things going through my mind, but
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  Speaker 1: it was just a thrilling experience that feeling right there,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: that is what it's all about. And this was the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: sickest story. As Chad was wearing the Sick of Fanatic
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Jacket and Bibbs on that hunt. If you'd like to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: learn more about Sick, you can visit set gear dot com.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And now let's get back to the show and give
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Will Brantley a call. All right with us. Now on
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  Speaker 1: the line is Will Brantley. Welcome to show. Well, thanks, Mark,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. Yeah, I'm excited to get to spend some
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: time with you here and catch up. It's been a
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: little bit. It's been a little bit time, so so
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: how you been. I've been good man. It's uh ah,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: what is it now? Late May? I'm not even sure
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the exact dait. I just got back from a week
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: in Nebraska turkey hunting. Been turkey hunting like crazy around
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: here in Kentucky and Tennessee before that, and down in
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  Speaker 1: Florida before that. I'm kind of a kind of a
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: turkey nut. Um have been have been a good spring
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and kind of winding down and shifting gears and man,
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  Speaker 1: have been seeing a few a few bucks running around
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  Speaker 1: with some little velvet nuts, and I don't know, it's
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  Speaker 1: kind of kind of got the wheels turning for this fall,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's exciting when when you
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: finally start seeing those velvet antlers, it just gets me like, really,
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  Speaker 1: the blood starts pumping once these early summer months arrived. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: for sure. How did the turkey hunting go? Man, I've
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: had a good season. I've had a really good season.
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  Speaker 1: Um we had a good good start in Florida. Killed
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: a couple of birds down there. Um took U took
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  Speaker 1: a buddy, mine, took his little boy here in Kentucky
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  Speaker 1: during the during the youth season. Got to see him
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  Speaker 1: kill his first turkey. UM killed my two Kentucky birds,
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  Speaker 1: killed the Tennessee bird. UM killed a few birds in Nebraska.
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  Speaker 1: My wife killed the bird. So we we have pretty
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  Speaker 1: outstanding season. We've got a lot of turkey meeting the freezer.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: And I actually had a had a big gold plate
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  Speaker 1: of fried nuggets last night. Nice, that's funny. That's exactly
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  Speaker 1: what I had for dinner Too's that year? There you go? Yep, absolutely,
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  Speaker 1: that's awesome. So so I guess before we get too
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  Speaker 1: much further, Well, for those that aren't familiar with who
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: you are, can you just share their audience a little
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: bit of your background and what you're doing today with
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: fielding stream? Yeah? Yeah, Well, I am HUM Fielding Streams
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  Speaker 1: Hunting editor. UM. It's herd for me to say hunting
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: with the g you know what I mean. I just
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: want to say hunting editor. But it's just this kind
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of a product of where I'm from, I guess. But yeah,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm the hunting editor and have UH have have
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: been in that position for UH a little more in
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: a year now. UM was a regular contributor freelancer to
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  Speaker 1: Field and Stream for a number of years before that,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: UM and UH. During during those years before that, I
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: was also a web editor for UH, for Realtree Camouflage,
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  Speaker 1: UM handled all of their website content, done a lot
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: of freelancing over the years, MARK for a lot of
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: different magazines. I kind of got my start in this
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  Speaker 1: business as AH as an intern with Outdoor Life, which
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of course is UH Field and Streams sister, but it's
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: also somewhat rival publication. UM. You know, they share an
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  Speaker 1: office in New York. UH. You know, of course, the
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: staffs of both magazines or her, you know, good friends.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: But but it's a good friendly competition. But yeah, that's
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  Speaker 1: that's where I got started. Actually, was was on the
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  Speaker 1: Outdoor Life side and and did some freelancing for outdoor
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  Speaker 1: life for a number of years and just kind of gradually,
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  Speaker 1: uh gradually moved over to the field and stream side,
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  Speaker 1: which is uh, which is where I am today. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So far as my hunting background, I'm a native of
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  Speaker 1: western Kentucky. I grew up in UH in a little
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  Speaker 1: town called St. Charles, Kentucky, which is pretty close to
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  Speaker 1: Dawson Springs, Kentucky, neither one of which are a very big. St.
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  Speaker 1: Charles got a town population of oh I think it
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  Speaker 1: was four hundred and fifty three last time I was home,
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  Speaker 1: and uh, man, there was just a lot of critters
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  Speaker 1: around there. Hunting fishing was was my thing as a kid.
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  Speaker 1: I squirrel hunted every day after school. Um, deer hunted,
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  Speaker 1: you know. I think I killed my first year when
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I was ten, hunting with my dad. Started bow hunting
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  Speaker 1: when I was uh I don't known six or seventh grade,
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  Speaker 1: and uh turkey hunting about that same time. And man,
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  Speaker 1: that's all I ever did growing up. To be honest
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  Speaker 1: with you, I didn't. I didn't play many sports. Um,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and I don't want to say I was a weird
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  Speaker 1: kid that kept quieting glass I had, you know, I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: have plenty of friends. But uh, but man, I just
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  Speaker 1: I didn't go to a lot of parties or anything
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  Speaker 1: like that. I was always hunting or fishing, um, doing
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  Speaker 1: something out in the woods. That was just always my thing.
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  Speaker 1: And then uh, you know, I always like to write. UM.
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  Speaker 1: I was always really intrigued with coming home uh and
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  Speaker 1: hanging around the adults. Uh. You know, my dad and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: all his buddies, they all hunted, and I just loved
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: sitting there listening to those guys tell their stories at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the hunt. And I was really fascinated
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  Speaker 1: by the details that the guys who really knew their stuff,
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  Speaker 1: the details that they could that they could put into
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  Speaker 1: that and that you know, and I realized that that's
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: what made a story come together, and that part of
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  Speaker 1: it struck me from an early age. I like to
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: be a part of it. I started keeping a hunting
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  Speaker 1: journal when I was a kid, and uh just started
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: writing things down. And uh as I got into high school,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: I started thinking, you know, what I would really like
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  Speaker 1: to do with my life is worked for a hunting
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  Speaker 1: fishing magazines. So I majored in journalism. Uh. I went
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: to Murray State University and had a few lucky breaks
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: in here. I am well, I I'm glad. I'm glad
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: things worked out for you and got you into this
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: industry because I need to publicly thank you. Well. You
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: were one of the first people who ever gave me
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: advice when it comes to writing in the outdoor industry
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and in submitting freelance articles and everything. So I'm glad
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: that you had head starting it so you could give
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: me a little bit of advice too, because it has
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: certainly helped. But man, you know, advice never hurts, and uh,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: you know, it usually comes usually comes for free, I guess,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: unless you're talking to a lawyer and I can make
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: lawyer jokes my dad. Um. But you know, man, I
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have I wouldn't have gotten to where I was
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: with without some good advice. But you know, you've You've
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: got the talent and the knowledge too, and it takes
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: more advice to to make it. So saying that you've
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: done really well, I'm kind of curious, you know, as
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you talked about the fact that you developed this love
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: for writing early on listening to other folks and they're
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: hunting stories and stuff. As I think about myself, I
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: definitely fall into that same camp. But I also became
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: a voracious reader. Are you do you also love reading
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: about hunting and things like that too, or you just
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: like sharing your own stories? Man, I do read a
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: lot um. I used to read outdoor magazines. Man. I
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: would have stacks and stacks and stacks of them. Um,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: read all kinds of them. Had you know, a few
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: authors that I really liked, uh, as I was kind
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: of getting into the business. Um. And the same thing
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: went for you know, outdoor television. Um, well it really wouldn't.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: It wasn't outdoor channel when I was coming up. It
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: was you know, there were some uh you know, he'd
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: go to the go to Walmart and get you some
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: hunting tapes and uh some DVDs, you know, the Monster
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Bucks videos and things like that. And man I grew
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: up watching those things. Uh. Um, And uh, you know,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I guess kind of the you know, outdoor television started
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: getting really popular just about the time that you know
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that I was growing up and starting to think about,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: you know, this is my career. Um. But you know
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I I, yeah, I read a lot um. I probably
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: don't read as many other outdoor magazines, uh now as
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I once did mainly just because you know how it is,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: You're you're working on on this stuff all day and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I kind of want
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: to read something different. So what I do like to read, Um,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I was I was a journalism major in college, but
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I was a uh, I was a creative writing miner. Um.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I do like to read some fiction whenever I had
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the time for it. I really like Southern literature. Um.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know, there's a few few guys that
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I that I really like to read when I'm fortunate
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: enough to get the time. And actually, um man, I'm
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: one of those guys that when I'm sitting in the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: deer stand always have a book with me. People can
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: say what they want, well, you're reading the book, you're
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: not paying attention. And maybe I might have spooked to
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: deer in my lifetime reading a book, or had a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: couple of deer come up and surprise me by reading
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: a book. But what I used to sell guys, whenever
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: they bring that up, I'm like, well, you know what,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: when I'm reading a book, I'm sitting there very still,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: um with a book in my lap, and I'm not moving,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and it keeps me in the tree longer and as
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: you well know, man, that is uh, that is everything
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: for deer hunting is being in that damn tree. And
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: so you know, if a book helps me stand the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: tree or stand the blind, uh, you know what, that's Uh,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: that's a chance I'm willing to take. And I read
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah. I've got a lot of friends
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: that think I'm crazy during the rut. You know, I'm
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: one of the guys that really likes to hunt all day,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: day after day after day. And my my secret is
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: no secret. It's just I read when I'm out there.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Just keeps your mind going, keeps your in it. And
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: like you said, yeah there maybe there's a small chance
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that you might spook something or you might not be
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: focus the entire time, but it's a heck of a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: lot better than if you're on the couch. So oh yeah,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: So you're hunting Kentucky a lot of the time. Are
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you hunting a number of other states for white tails?
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: To where you spending most of your deer season right home?
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: You know what, man, I travel all over the country, uh,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to turkey hunt and waterfowl hunt, and to hunt other critters.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I go out west and hunt some hunt antelope, elk
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and mule deer, and I've been fortunate to travel to
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: hunt a lot of things. Um, but when it comes
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: to my dear season, um, I it's hard to convince
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: me to leave home. Now. I am, I am. I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: have hunted some other states. I found it Hounty, Texas
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and uh. And of course I'm right here on the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Tennessee line. I don't know if you know that, but
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I'm about ten minutes from the Tennessee line. So I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: do have some places in Tennessee that I hunt. UM.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: So you know, yeah, I will travel a little bit,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: but man like, um, just going to shoot a big
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: buck is not the part of deer season that gets me, like,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: you know that that I really anticipate. Like what I
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: really enjoy uh is property management and seeing that come
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to fruition and you know, kind of doing my own thing. Um.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: You know, we own unfortunate enough that I co own,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: along with my dad and my wife and my brother,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the farm that I grew up hunting um in uh
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: in Calwell County, Kentucky. Um. It's about twenty acres and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: uh you get to do a lot of work there.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: And then Michelle and I also own another seventy acres
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: down here in Callaway County right next to Kentucky Lake
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Um that we bought a few years ago when we
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: bought it in two chunks. Over the years, and man, honestly,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I get as much enjoyment out of working on those
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: properties throughout the summer and you know, scouting of things
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and hanging my trail cameras and just knowing that in know,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: when it's when the sun starts going down, my food
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: pots gonna be full of deer. Uh. And knowing that,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you know, Michelle or my brother or my dad or
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: a friend, you know, if they're out there hunting, that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: they're going to be seeing deer and me too. Yeah,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you know, definitely, I definitely like to sit there and hunt. Um.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I don't want to take that away from and I'm
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: going out there to kill a deer for sure. But
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: but the point is, um between traveling to maybe a
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: better place where I've got a better chance of killing
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a big buck or staying here at home and shooting
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you know, a smaller buck or even a couple of
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: those that you know, I feel like I put in
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: my time for. That's kind of what does it for
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: me during deer season, So I like to travel for
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: other stuff. I kind of like to stay home to
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: deer hunt. When it comes to quality deer, though, these days,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: it's hard to find another state other than a couple
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: of those most hyped that are getting a whole lot
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: more press. Positive press in Kentucky has been over the
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: last five years or so. I mean, there's a lot
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: of great deer coming out of there, and so many
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: people have been kind of realizing this recently. What what
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: is making Kentucky such a high quality place to hunt
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: these Well, I you know, I think there's uh, I
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: think they're a number of things from a you know,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: from kind of a macro management perspective. Um, we have
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: been a one buck limit state. Uh for well it
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: my entire hunting career. Um. There may have been a time,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: you know, a few decades ago, I think where maybe
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you could kill two bucks. But you know, there are
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a few opportunities, you know, different quota hunts and things
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: in the state where you can still kill two deer.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: But for the most part, we're a one buck state.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: We've always been the culture of a one buck state,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: and and uh man, it's um, it's just one of
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: those things. The guy knows he can only kill one deer,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: he usually likes to make sure it's a pretty good one. Um.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: So we've got that going for us. Um, we've had
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: you know, Western Kentucky in particular where I am is
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: uh is a pretty agriculture heavy Uh. You know, people
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: think of Kentucky and they think of the hills and
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: hollers of eastern Kentucky, know where all the mountains are
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: are certainly pretty country out there, but there's not many
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: deer that lived there. All the deer kind of in
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: central and western Kentucky and it's a you know around here,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: it's uh, people are surprised when, you know, if they've
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: never seen it. It's a it's a heavy agricultural region, um,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you know, with with a lot of road crops, soybeans
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and corn. Uh you know obviously puts a lot of
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of deer food on the ground. But you know,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I think one of the ways that we differ in
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: kind of some you know, some of the Midwestern states
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: that you know that that have more act than us
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: is that you know, I think on average, we have
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: a little more cover. Um, you know, we've got a
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: longer growing season, we have some bigger blocks of timber um.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: You know, people people log their timber around here, and
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: our woods are just thick. Um. We have just this
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: abundance of natural brows, uh that that's growing for a
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: long time. Uh. And it's and it's around all these
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: crop fields, and you know, that's just that's just good
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: deer habit at. I mean, you know how important natural
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: brows is to you know, to a deer herd, to
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: your round health. And we have a lot of that
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and so you know, you can buy and all that
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and and some of our agricultural practices have changed over
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the years, you know, especially when you talk about the
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: last you know, five years, ten years. You know, once
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: upon a time, Kentucky was a was a pretty big
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: dairy state, a pretty big tobacco state. And you know
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: those things aren't, you know, aren't as prevalent now. And
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: so now those seals that you once had in in
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: dairy or tobacco, uh, they're either in soybeans or corn
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: or farmers have just let them go, you know, and
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: they've become all grown up and nasty and tangled and
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: uh man, that's just uh, that's just a recipe for
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: growing deer um. You know. So you you've got those
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you know, those fundamental habitat things you know in place, Uh,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: to to have a lot of deer and to give
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: them the nutrition and the habitat they need to to
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: get big and grow. And got the regulations that keep
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: people from from killing a bunch of little big books.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: And then you've also had some other mechanisms in place that,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: you know, let's be honest, uh, make it a little
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: bit easier to kill a big deer. We've got a
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: two week rifle season or you know, some parts of
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the state, I think it's three week rifles season. Uh.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: During the rut um you know, comes in the second week,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: you know, the second Saturday in November, I think is
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the is the traditional opener. Don't quote me on that, absolutely,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: but I want to. I want to look it up
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: on you know, on the Fish and Wildlife website. But
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it's right around that second week in November and stays
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: in usually until about Thanksgiving. And uh, and you know,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: when the bucks are out chasing does and you're sitting
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: over the high priwered rifle, it's it's a little bit
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: easier to kill them. We've also, um, we've got a
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: very early both season that opens the first Saturday in September,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and uh, typically for the first week of both season,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: our big deer, uh you know, they're in velvet and
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: they're very very easy to pattern at that time of the
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the year. Uh. If you've ever hunted velvet bucks bachelor bucks,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you know that. And you know the other reality, not
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: to sugarcoat things, is we can pour corn out on
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the ground and hunt right over it. And man, you
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: can kill a big deer that time of year that
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: is in full velvet. Really, regardless of your feelings toward
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: baiting deer, it's it's just an effective way to kill him.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And you know a lot of guys are killing some
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: really huge deer around here that first week in September
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: that the success rate is, it's pretty high. And I
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: think you'll find that some of our biggest deer season
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: after season are killed during that first week and it's
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: guys that have got them patterned on a corn pile
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: or you know, a corn pile off of a off
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: of a soybean field or a food plot or something
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: like that. Have you had much success in that early
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: time period yourself? Yeah, sure have, sure have? My uh
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: my biggest boat killed deer was, Uh, I think I
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: killed him. Oh, I don't know, September fift something like that.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: My wife's killed a couple of pretty nice full velvet deer.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And I mean, you know, we're not I'm not one
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: of these guys that you know, is uh has got
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a one forty minimum or anything like that. You know,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I like to I like to target three and a
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: half year old plus dear. Um. You know, let's say
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I'm managing pretty pretty small acreage and uh, I can
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: get one that that's pretty nice and gets my heart
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: right going, I'm probably gonna shoot him. So but but
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: we killed it. We kill a lot of good there
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: at that time, you're probably uh, you know, between that
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: week and the first week, you know, we don't do
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of gun hunting. We're mainly bow hunters. Um.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I did shoot one with a gun last year, but uh,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: you know, between that week and the first week in
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: November are the those my two favorite weeks of deer
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: season for sure. So so I have actually never been
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: able to hunt that early. All the states, all the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: states I've always hunted have always been that kind of
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: either late September or early October opener Um. But this
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: year for the first time. I'm going to be going
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: to Montana actually for their openers, So that's like September three,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: so I finally have a chance that one of those
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: velvet bucks. But it's a type we actually haven't talked
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: about a whole lot on the show ever. Could you
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: kind of walk us through what your game plan is
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: for that super early season, you know, early September hunting.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: You know, how are you patterning these bucks and then
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: getting a shot at one And let's I guess whether
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you use bet or not? I guess. Tell us, however,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: is that you're doing it? Yeah, yeah, well whether you
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: use beta or not? I mean, um, what what I
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: like about beta? And I and I do use bait.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I mean I've written about that. I'm you know, people
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: don't like it. That's that's fine. That's uh, that's up
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: to them. They don't have to use it, but you know,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: it's uh, it's one of those things that I will
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: use it in conjunction with with all the food plot
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: work that I've done all summer. And what I use
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: it for is to position that deer in a spot
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that is advantageous for me to hunt. So you know,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: so that I'm not sitting right over the top of
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: one of my food plots and blowing deer out of
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: there whenever I go in and I start kind of
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: creating my ambush. Really next month, um, you know, I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I have you know, food plots that you know on
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: our places that traditionally I know there's gonna be a
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: bachelor group of bucks using that thing. Uh during the summer. Um,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I'll have you know, mineral licks just off the edges
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: of those food plots and and start kind of you know,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: taking some inventory and getting pictures. And then what I
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: want to do is I like to uh, you know,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I like to set my you know, set my baits
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: site uh in such a way so that, um, it's
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: in a spot to where I can I can get
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to my stand and get out of my stand without
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: running all the deer out of the food plot. So
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: you know, usually it's gonna be in a spot where
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: you know, I and I'll set several obviously for different
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: wind directions, but I'll set them so that given that
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: wind direction, I can sneak right in and and uh,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: you know, see that deer come out in the food plot.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: And my hope is that you know, yeah, once he
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: comes out, he's gonna work his way at that bait
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: site and I can kill him. So, um, that's that's
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: kind of one of the ways I do it. We
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: hunt with a lot of a lot of pop up
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: ground blinds like them, and what I like to do
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: is I like to set them kind of right on
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the crest of a hill, right next to one of
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: my food plots, and kind of set my bait site
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: just down from the crest of that hill, so that, um,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm watching the food plot, I can get
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: deer upon the bait. If I don't get a deer
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: that I don't want to shoot, I can slip out
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of that ground line and immediately have a hill between
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: myself and the deer. And then of course I'm playing
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the win and man I can I can slip out
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: of the field and be within bow range of deer
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and get out of there without them knowing up there.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: And that's that's what I want. And it takes a
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: couple of years of kind of dialing into a spot
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to be able to figure that out, but that's, you know,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: that's ultimately the goal. You know. The other thing too,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: is I mean, I you know, I do knock on
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: some doors, and I've got permission to hunt some you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: some farms where you know it's big crop fields and things,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I I don't bait those areas.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: And I don't want to give the impression that the
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: only way you can kill an early season deers over bait.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: It's it's certainly not. It's just a it's a good
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: tool to have if you're hunting a you know, a
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: small property. Um. But you know, I've probably honestly killed
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: more early season bucks just by glass in them of
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: an evening, uh, you know, on big soybean fields or
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: big you know, hay fields, uh than I have by
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: setting bait. And what I like to do then, you know,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the baiting process on my farm, it's kind of an
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: all summer thing of you know, kind of getting them
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: condition to come into that spot and taking trail camera
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: pictures of them. But if I'm you know, scouting, you know,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: just kind of traditional farm country, I like to go out.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, trail cameras are great, but man, there's no
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: substitute for going out in the evenings with a pair
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: of binoculars and hiding in the fence row and just
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: watching that field and watching it come to life, you know,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: during that last hour of daylight. And uh, you know,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I like to see a bachelor group of bucks and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: you know, they don't um A lot of people think,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you know, well, if a group of bucks comes out
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: on this trail this nineties, they're gonna use that trail
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: all the time. And and I experience, I mean, they
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: might use the same trail two nights in a row,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: but typically, man, they're gonna use one of half a
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: dozen trails within a you know, two yard radius, so
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that part of the field is to come out. And
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: you know, at that point it just kind of comes
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: down to luck, and you just really it takes you know,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I like to glass a group of bucks for a
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: week and just kind of figure out like the area,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: uh that not only were they like to come out,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: but the area of the field where they like to
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: end up. And you'll find that a group of bucks will,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: while they might use that different trail to come out
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: in the field, they'll almost always end up in the
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: same area of the field for two or three nights.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if it's because that part of
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: the field has sweeter beans or whatever it is, but
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: if you can find that that spot of the field
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: that the deer going to, it kind of gives you
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the same advantage of of setting a bait pile, and
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: that you can you can hunt that spot, you know,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and kind of set up so that the deer coming
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: to you rather than you're setting up, you know, fifty
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: yards from where they might be bedded down. You know
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying. In that kind of situation where you're
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: glass in the field trying to figure out where the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: deer coming out of and where they're going to, and
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: it sounds like in this situation you wouldn't already have
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: a stand up? What's your game plan for getting in
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: there and getting a stand hung? Are you? You know,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: is that something you're hanging it that day and hunting
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: it right away or do you try to get in
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: there and wait a week or how? And and what's
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: your kind of plan for that? Um? I like to
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: hunt out of a climbing stand. Um, we've got a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: lot of tall straight timber around here, is uh, well,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: you've kind of got that all over the South. I
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: know you guys in the Midwest, you'll you'll like you
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: hang on stands, and I like hang on stands too,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: but man, a climbing stand, I can get in there
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: and carry it in on my back. And you know,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: that's that's what I'm doing a lot of the times.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Whenever I'm glassing at those deers, I'm looking at those
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: field edged trees and saying, Okay, that one's tall and
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it's straight. It doesn't have a bunch of limbs that
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I gotta cut to be able to climbate. I can
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: get up there twenty feet and uh, you know, I
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: know I can get to stand in that tree, and
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: man if I can't um Honestly, it is so thick
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and green around here. The first part of September, I've
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: shot a lot of deer just bringing in a little
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: fold out you know, dove stool and sitting on the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: ground right there in a fence row. And still so
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: any advice for hunting from a ground blind just in general,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: whether it be early season or later in the year,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that's something especially now with the advent of these, you know,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: easy to collapse portable ground blinds, more and more people
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: are finding these things to be pretty useful, whether it
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: be with that or just sitting in a stool. What
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: what helps you make sure that happens happens the right way. Well,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: sitting in a stool. I mean, I think it's um.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: A lot of guys, you know, really kind of overcomplicate things.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, Um, you sit out there turkey hunting, for example,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: you're in full camo, you're sitting still. I mean, how
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: many deer if you had walked within bow range of
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: you never know you were there. Um. It's one of
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: those things that you playing the wind is at a premium. Um.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: But what I like to do is kind of sit
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: where I've got good cover at my back, and then
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: I like to sit where I've got a big tree,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: you know, in to me, maybe you know, five or
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: six feet away. I don't want it to be so
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: close that like my knocked arrow is gonna bump against it,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: But I do like it to be right there and
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: that way. Uh, when deer come out, you know, especially
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the does and little bucks, and I may not be
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: shooting that afternoon. Uh, you know, you can kind of
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: lean behind that tree and you know, just you know,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and and honestly kind of move You're moving around a
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: little bit as they're out there, to keep that tree
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: between you and them. And then it is a great
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: tool for when you do have a deer that you
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: want to shoot when he's coming out, when he walks
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: behind that tree, when you can't see his eye, he
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: cannot see you, and you can draw back and you
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: can kill him as soon as he steps out. It's
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: not I've done it a bunch of times this way.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: I grew up deer hunting. Um, So that works. And
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys don't have the confidence to do
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: that because you know, they think they have to be
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: in a blind, that they have to be twenty feet
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: up in the tree. And the fact that the people
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: killed a lot of deer like that for a long
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: time and it and it, you know, they hadn't figured
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: it out yet. So it does still work, um, you know,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: for you know, for hunting the the places on our
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: farms that you know, where we know we're going to
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I definitely like to set a pop
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: up line. Um. You know, I like to set it
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: at least a month in advance the season, if not more. Um,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: I do brush them in a little bit and I'll
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: freshen that brush, you know, throughout the year. And I
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: think probably my biggest tips for for pop up blinds
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: is you know, set them in an area you know
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: that they're they're gonna have a zipper door on one
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: side of it, or or some type of door to
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: you lise if or you know, set it in an
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: area so that when you step out of that door,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: you're immediately in covering you can and you can get away, um,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: you know. And once it's set, man, Um, get in
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: there and look at the shooting windows that you're gonna
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: want to have open and open those the day that
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: you said it. Leave everything else shut and don't get
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: tempted to open them up. You know, you can definitely
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: kind of peer around them and loocancy, you know, watch
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: for deer coming in and stuff like that. But if
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: you can't shoot out of that window, you need to
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: leave it shut. Um. The darker that you have it
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: inside that blind, the better it is. Uh. And then
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: you know, like I say, the windows that you want
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: to shoot out, that will leave them open the entire year.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Because if you look at the ground blind, man, you
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: can you can look at a pop up ground blind
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: from three yards away with a pair of binoculars and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: if it's all closed up, it looks, you know, like
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: a big stump. If you open that window. It's got
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a huge black hole in it that you can see
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: without binoculars. And man, I you leave a blind closed
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: all season and you get in there to hunt it
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: the first night and you open it up. Dear, absolutely
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: notice that there's no doubt in my mind. And you
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: know hunting guides and stuff that I've talked to that
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: use a lot of ground blinds. I pay you the
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: same thing. Open your shooting windows that day you said
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: it and don't ever close them. Makes a lot of sense.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Keep it, keep it consistent, so you're used to it now.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: You you mentioned that the first week of September and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: then the first week of November are typically your best
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: weeks around your property there. So we've talked about you're
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: doing in September. What are you guys doing that first
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: week in November that's leading to all that success? Well,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: you know, we um I mentioned earlier that you know,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: we're not really what I would call And when I
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: say we, I'm I'm really talking about my wife Michelle
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and I. She's a very serious bow hunter as well.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And uh, she and I are you know, each other's
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: primary hunting buddy. Um we uh, although we don't get
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to hunt together a whole lot. We've got a two
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: year old son, and um, it kind of limits our
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: time together in the field. Um. You know, we we
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: do kind of really we switched back and forth. Babysit
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: one night and she hunts, and then we swap it
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: up the next night. So um, but uh, you know
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: our our strategy. You know, we'd like to say we
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: were not big, you know, trophy hunters. Yeah, definitely, if
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: we've got a good buck, we'll we'll try to kill
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: him and and hold off. But you know, during during
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of the latter part of September and
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: through October, we eat a whole lot of dear me
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: man um. We uh, we try to eat a whole
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: lot of store bought stuff. So we're shooting a lot
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: of those, are trying to get those in the freezer. Um.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: And then about oh, I don't know about October fifteenth week,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: quit shooting those. And the reason for that, uh is
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I like to get groups of you know, just family
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: groups of dose, you know, two or three big doughs,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: a few fallons. Um. I like to get them really comfortable,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: um and get them coming to a food source. And
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: and if I can keep from going in there and
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: bothering them, hunting them at all, I will you know,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys are really starting to really starting
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: to try to pattern a buck that time of year.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And you know, I want to know about pictures of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: bucks too, but I'm really worried, you know, not worried,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: but really focused on where those dose are gonna be.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: And I want to get several groups of dose, you know,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: habituated to the certain areas. And once I learned where
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: those doughse are before the you know, before the peat
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: breeding and all that, when the bucks first start chasing, man,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: those areas where those groups of dose are using every
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: day before they've been harassed and run out of the fields,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: that's where you're gonna kill a good deer. Um, that's
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: where you're gonna kill those first few deers that are
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: out cruising. And that's that's kind of our strategy. And again,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm kind of speaking for small properties and things,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: you know, when if I'm hunting somewhere else, you know, yeah,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for funnels and things to try to you know,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: kind of maximize all that deer movement traffic. But you know,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: that first week in November that has been my highest odds.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: You know, hunt is finding those groups of dose and
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and really hunting them and just waiting because that you
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: can guarantee that they're going to attract you know, whatever
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: good bucks are in the area, those bucks are gonna
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: come by and check that stuff. And just like you
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: said earlier, that's the time of year to me that
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I want to be on the stand as long as
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: I can. You know, all day hunt server great at
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the time of year. And now where those does are
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: hanging out, are you talking about their betting years they're
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: going to be in most of the time during the day,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: or are you focusing on where they're feeding. I'm still
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: focused on the food a whole lot. Um. Now, the
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: you know, the properties that that I manage, you know,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I managed for a lot of old field habitats, so um,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the times the areas that
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: I'm hunting are are you know, they are food plots,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: they are kind of primary feeding areas, but they are
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: immediately adjacent to this really nice thick old field bedding cover.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: And so you know, in a lot of ways, like
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the the bedding areas and the feeding areas that really
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: kind of wanted the same. You know what I mean.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: I mean that the deer just those groups of those
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: live right there, and they might bed fifty or a
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: hundred yards off of that plot, but I know that
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: they're in that area, and I'm going to set up
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: for him on the food sources because that is the
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: best way for me to keep from running them out. Uh.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: And that is the spot where I know, uh, you know,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: of a morning and especially in the evenings, I know
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna see them. And you know, the more times
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: you see them, the more like you know you are
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: to see them when they've got a buck chasing them.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: So give you a give you a classic example, man. Uh.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: One of our food plots that I had going last year,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: about a half acre plot, I did just that. We
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: started getting a big group of doze that was using
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: that thing in uh in October, and I just kept
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: tabs on him. I did not hunt them. Um, we
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: we didn't mess with those deer. Just kept getting them
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Montreil camera, kept getting them on Montreil camera. We're getting
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a few nighttime pictures of bucks. And then these doose
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: were you know, they were in there at night then
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: you know, usually about seven thirty eight o'clock in the morning,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: they'd ease out in that field, get them a bite,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and they'd ease on back to bed. And then late
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: in the evening here they'd be, you know, and they'd
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: be out there, you know, till after dark. And they're
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: there every day, you know, from the middle October up
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: through the first part of November. The first time, the
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: first morning that I went in there to hunt it,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: it was November one or November two. I got set
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: down on the blind and just started cracking daylight. And
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: as soon as the cracked daylight I could see one
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: of the fawns out on the food plot with me.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I thought, well, you know, mamas around here somewhere, And
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: sure enough I hear some does running around in the woods,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: and here buck grunting, and here comes the whole plan
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: of them trotting right out in the field, the whole
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: group of dose. And here it comes from a really
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: nice to endpoint. And uh, I screwed around and managed
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: not the killing. Um that plan just almost worked beautifully.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: But you know, it's it's one of those things that uh,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: you know, um the like saying all the pieces of
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: the puzzle came together, except killing that big deer with
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: a bow and arrow, and sometimes that's just the hardest
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: part of it. Gosh, that's the truth. You mentioned a
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: couple different times that you're you're getting pictures of these
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: deer and and maybe tracking these doughs or getting nighttime
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: pictures of bucks. How exactly are you using trail cameras
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: at that time of year, both leading into November and
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: then once you know they're actually starts to be some
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: of that running activity. Are you using it just to
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: keep tabs of daylight activity or specific bucks? How are
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you doing that? Well? You know, you'll probably notice, as
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about hunting year around, the common denominator in
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: in my deer hunting almost year around man is food. Um.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: And that's probably because we're hunting, you know, on such
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: small properties. Um. I like to really hunt the fringes
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: of stuff. And so then that's where I put a
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: lot of my food is kind of on the fringes
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: of that, you know, of that bedding cover, and that
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: keeps me from getting in there de you know, like
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I like to have all my food plots and my
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: trail cameras as many as I can to where I
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: can drive to them. Whether it's in my truck or
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: on a tractor, and I can just get out and
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: check them and get back in and I don't have
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: to walk through a bunch of stuff and scare a
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: bunch of deer off. So you know, that's that's where
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: I keep my cameras. Doesn't matter if it's in the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: early season or during the rut. You know, I don't
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: like to, you know, I put cameras over scrapes, and
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, you might get that one awesome picture
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: of a buck on a scrape. A man, I scared
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the hell out of bucks over scrapes with trail cameras,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and I've come to realize that, you know, yeah, that
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: that scrape is gonna be a great place to get
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: a picture, but it's probably not going to be the
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: place you're gonna kill that deer most of the time.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: And you know, my my trail camera scouting has been
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: better served by keeping those cameras on the food plots
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: and on the bait sides. You know, where I'm seeing
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: these does uh? You know? And and yeah, you can
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: definitely there are times when you know, say Halloween, you
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: pull a trail camera card and daylight pictures of does
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: and little bucks and then oh man, there he is,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: you know, three o'clock in the afternoon, he's coming out
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: there to check it. And yeah, that's definitely my queue
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: to get in there and uh and hunt that deer.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: So um, you know that's that's kind of my think
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: year around, you know, I think, Um, sometimes we kind
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: of fall into the trap of over analyzing what we
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: need to be doing as deer hunters. You know, do
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: we need to get back off in the in the
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: timber and in the funnels and hunt staging areas and
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: all this were really you know, kind of the the
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: whole formula of food doze bucks. Um. It works year around,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: so including the rut so true, so true. So being
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: the hunting at or the hunting at a very field
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: and stream, I imagine, and especially I guess with all
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: your time leading up to this, I imagine you've got
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: to meet and speak and learn from a tremendous number
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: of really really really successful hunters. And I kind of wonder,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: given that huge sample size of of hunting and expertise,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: is there anything you've found that most of these guys
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: or girls have in common the very best hunters. Is
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: there anything that you can look to now over all
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: your years and say, yeah, this, they all had this,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: or they all did that. Anything come to mind. Time
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: in the stand in a high quality area absolutely, Um.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: You cannot kill a big deer or any deer in
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: a place where they don't live. And that's just that's
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: just the way it is, man. Um. You know, So
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: you have to have an area where you know that
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: those dear lives. And and then beyond that, you have
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: to put in the time, um and and and and
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: it's not just a matter of going every day. It's
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: not that. But you have to put in the time
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: when the when the time is best for you. On
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the days when that wind is right, Uh, you better
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: be in a tree somewhere. Um. And And that's just
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: you know, that's that's one of the you know, it's
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: easy for me to say because you know, as a
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: part of my job, I can, you know, I do
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: need to go hunt a lot. And you know I'm
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: able to, you know, cut out of work every afternoon
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: at two o'clock during your season and go getting the standing.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: And I understand a lot of guys can't do that.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: And so you know what I tell folks is that look,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: you know, um the days when you think, well that's
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: it's too hot, or you know, the moon phase isn't
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: right or this and that, Um, then you still gotta go.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: I've killed bucks and howling wind, I've killed them in
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: the rain. I've killed him when it was ninety five degrees.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I've killed deer under about every weather condition you can imagine. Yeah,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: my favorite time is a is a high pressure, still
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: cold morning. Uh, just like everybody else. But you know
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: the fact is you have to you know, you have
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: to spend time in the tree because this is a
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: even when things are absolutely perfect. Um, you know, if
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: you're only gonna hunt one morning, you're going out there
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and and still the odds are against you that that
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: big deer is gonna walk by within bow range, and
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: so you just you just have to keep going. And
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: I think that's uh, that's kind of the same with
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: with every type of hunting, but with but especially with
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: bow hunting white tails. UM. I think that's you know,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: those those the two key ingredients. And again you know,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I'll emphasize that at that time. Uh it does you know,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: definitely don't go sit, you know, if you've only got
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: seventy acres to hunt. Don't go sit in a tree
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: when the wind is flat wrong, you know, just because
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Brantley said you need to be in the tree, it's
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: not that, it's when, when the conditions are right, you
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: need to be out there. So and when they're wrong, uh,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: you need to be somewhere else. So whether it's you know,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: on another farm that maybe it's not as good, but
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: you've got permission to hunt on or a pee the
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: public ground. Uh, you know, just go somewhere where the
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: conditions are good for you to hunt that day. Yeah,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I'm really glad you brought that up. That's such a
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: key point. Um. You know, I'm a huge advocate and
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: believer in the idea of of waiting until the right
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: condition is the right time to go into your best spots.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, to your point, you want
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: to be in a tree still. So it's great to
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: have like Burner stands, I kind of call me spots
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: you can go to where you can still get out
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: and hunt. But when the conditions aren't right, you're not
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: you know, risking ruining your best spots, but you're still
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: out there, still have the chance. And I think that's
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: that's a good idea. For people to try to go
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: into a season. Yeah, make sure you've got your good
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: spots and your main hunting property, but try to prepare
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: for those off days too, when it's not gonna be
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: ideally going to your best spots, but have a secondary
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: spot you can go to exactly. Man, you know I'll
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: wait all year to go deer hunting. I love it, um,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: And the afternoons when the weather is pretty uh and
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: the wind is not right for one of my you know,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: the stand that I really want to hunt. You know,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: it kills me to sit at the house and not go.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: And you know I would much rather go sit in
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: a burner stand as you call it, or you know,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, even if it's the stand where I'm
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: just like, man, I'm gonna go out and shoot it
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: though this afternoon. Um. The fact is I've had a
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: lot of hunts where I was going out to shoot
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: a dough on a given day or just really going out,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: you know, almost something like an observation stand, just to
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: see what I would see and end up killing the deer.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I'm one of the biggest boat kills I've ever you
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: know that I've ever gotten. He's sitting here on the
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: wall in the office, big old, pretty heavy eight point UM.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: I killed him one afternoon in September. I went out,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: uh and back when I was working for a fishing magazine,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: I cut out of work just a little bit early, UM,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: and I did not get in the tree until about
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: six o'clock, and I hunted just kind of the corner
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: of this big cut corn field, UM and got up
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: this high in that tree as I could stand it,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: so I could see the whole field. And I was
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: really just wanting to the glasses field and just see
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: what came out for the afternoon. And this bachelor group
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: of bucks came out probably four hundred yards away, and
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: damn if they didn't walk up bee line straight to
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: my tree and end up right under me. Right, I
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: kill one of them. And it was on the one hand,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: it was, yeah, I was lucky that I came right
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: to me. But on the other hand, you know, I
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: could have stayed home to the state at work, and
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: you know how I've never seen that deer. I guess
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: one of the things I hate the most is when
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I make the mistake of saying that it's not the
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: right night to hunt, and I just stay in the house.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: And then from behind my house and both sides of
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: my house actually I can see crop fields or food plots,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: and and whyde open areas so inevitably I'm checking the
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: window every like five ten minutes, and then when I
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: see a bunch of deer or a buck, I just
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: get so upset. There's nothing worse than that feeling. So,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, drive you absolutely nuts. So we just you
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: just share with us, you know, what would be some
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: of these key consistent things that the best hunters have.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: On the flip side, from everything you've seen and heard
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: given your career, are there any things that you find?
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Are there any mistakes I guess that you find being
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: made the most often, either by others or by yourself
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: that are kind of just chronic mistakes that we both
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: hunt keep making for some reason. Oh yeah, yeah, man,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that you know, we we
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: all do. Um. I think one of the one of
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: the things that I'm seeing in this area in particular,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: and it's, um, you know, it's kind of symptomatic when
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: we talked about all the good press that that Kentucky
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: is getting these days. Um, you know, it's uh, it's
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: a popular white tail spot man and it's uh, it's
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: it's obviously created a market for Kentucky deer hunt. And
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: so we've got some very successful outfitters in this area
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: that have leased up a lot of the ground that
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: was formally, uh you know, formally available for me and
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: my buddies to hunt. And you know, it's uh, I
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: don't I don't really blame the outfitters. I know a
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: lot of those outfitters, and they're good guys and they're
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: hard working, um but but you know the fact is
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: they've you know, they've driven the least prices up so
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: high that um, you know, it's as you can be
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: hard for you know, for the average guy to get
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: in there and find a place to hunt. And I
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: think because of that, you know, it kind of I
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: don't know, it almost kind of puts some guys into
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: a dear depression. They think, Man, you know, there's there's
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: nothing left out there to hunt. You know, I don't,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: I don't have anywhere to go because uh, you know,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: because everything is leased up, and and you know, I
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: think what guys end up doing is focusing on that
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: rather than either focusing on the ground if they do
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: have to hunt, or knocking on doors, looking for more
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: ground to hunt. You know, even though this is a
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: really popular area of you know for outfitted hunts. Um,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: there's still plenty of farmers out there that that will
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: still let you hunt. UM, and we'll especially still let
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: you hunt if you give them a little cash. There's
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: still leases to be found, and so or you know,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: you can you can do what you know what Michelle
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: and I did and save up your money for a
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: down payment on a farm. Yeah. Well we're gonna be
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: in debt for a long time, but you can't take
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: it with you. And hunting grounds important to us. So
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: that's what that's what we decided to spend our money on.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: So I think that's part of it is. Um. You
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: know that one of the big mistakes is not you know,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: working hard enough or early enough to you know, either
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: secure a new ground or to make sure the ground
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: that you're hunting is the best that it can be. UM.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: That's uh, that's that's one of them that you know,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: one big mistake that I see. And and you know
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: when you talk about um, you know, obsessing over things
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: like five obsess over anything. It's over how my food
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: pots are looking, you know, Um, you know, getting new
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: ones in the ground and uh, you know, making sure
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, spread the grass out of them and
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: keep the mode and all that stuff. And that's so
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: that's that's one big thing. Um. You know. I think
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: the other thing too, you know, just kind of you know,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: if you're talking about bow hunters in particular, um, and
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: take a drink of water. There. That's the something that
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: I that I certainly have fallen into. I had a
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: really bad season a couple of years ago, um, you know,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: and I, uh, you and I have talked about it before, um,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: which I shot a couple of deer and and lost them,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: and uh you know that's that's you know, it's a
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: reality for hunting with anything, I mean, gun or bow. Um.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: You know, every now and then you're gonna shoot a
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: deer and might recover it, and man, it just sucks. Um.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: And but where I made the mistake a few years
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: ago was rather than learn from it and recover from
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: it and move on and let it get into my head.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: And what happens when you mess up. You're gonna mess
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: up on some deer when you're hunting with a bow.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: That's just the way it is. Whether you miss him
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: or don't get a shot or spook them when you're
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: drawing back, or or hit him and don't find them.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: You you have to recover from those mistakes and not
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: let it get into your head. And you have to
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: remember at that moment of truth, man, this is the
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: game of inches and you have to settle that pin.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: And and so for me, the takeaway less and then
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: all of that was. You know, I'm a pretty good
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: shot with a bow. Um, I'd probably shoot more than
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: the average bow hunter. And I'm you know, constantly tweaking
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: on my equipment and working on my equipment, and you know,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: as part of my role at field and stream, you know,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of gear testing and so you
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: know I love to shoot long range. Here in the backyard,
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: I practice you know, out to nine yards pretty often.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: And um, you know, there for a while I kind
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: of had in my head, Man, I can kill a
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: deer at fifty yards and some people can. Um. But
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: the fact is, uh, you are probably at about of
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: your efficiency. Uh. You know, when you're shooting at a
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: deer compared to shooting at a target. Um, that adrenaline
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: just does crazy thanks to you. And it's not only
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: the adrenaline. It's the shooting stances that you find yourself
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: in out in the woods, whether you're sitting on a
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: ground blind stool or up in a stand. You know
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: your turn funny, it's getting dark. Uh you know, the
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: angles are sharp, and man, that adrenaline is just raging
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: and it it messes you up. And so you know,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: I I kind of took a step back last year
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: in particular, and I'm like, you know what, Um, I'm
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: not shooting at a deer with a bow anymore unless
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: he's thirty yards are closer. And man, it didn't cost
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: me really any opportunities at all last year, and uh
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: just you know, just made the deer that I you
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: know that I did take a shot at. I knew
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I was gonna kill him and I did. And that, um,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: you know, I think that's something that uh and I
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: won't say every bow hunter needs to needs to do
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: a better job at it, but it was something that I,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: you know, I kind of needed that reality check for
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: myself that you know, hey, we're we're both hunting out
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: here to get close to him. And uh that's uh,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: that's what I needed to do a better job of.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: And you know, make sure that when that moment of
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: truth comes that I that I make the very best
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: shot that I can and if I have any downs,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: just don't shoot. Let him go and you're probably gonna
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: get another chance at him. Yeah, that's that's such a
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: great kind of message because, especially today in the hunting
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: media and stuff, we see so many people taking super
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: long shots me with a rifle or with the bow. Um.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: And you know, in some case, at least in the
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: cases that you see on TV, they make the shot.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: And I think it gives the impression to a lot
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: of folks on the other end of the TV watching
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: that you know, I should be able to do that too.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: And even if you are a terrific long range shot
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: on the range, just like you said, well, things are
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: different out in the field, and I think, uh gosh,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: it's it's always better to air on the conservative side
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: because you're you know, this is a this is a
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: living animal. UM. I wouldn't want to take um, you know,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: take too many chances with that with that kind of responsibility.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: But well, here's what you don't see on TV. You
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: don't see you see the tears those guys kill. You
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: don't see the ones that that they shoot at from
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: sixty yards that they hit my hands and then get away.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Here the ones that they miss. Um, and Buddy, I'm
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: here to tell you. I've worked in the hunting business
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: a long time, been around a lot of TV folks,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: and I should say, uh, and good friends with a
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: lot of those guys. And I don't mean to just
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: disparage the TV guys, but what I am getting at is, uh,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: they have the uh uh you know, the luxury of
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: of not showing what they don't want to show. Um.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: And you know, things happened to them, just like that
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: happened to you and me. And you know, yeah, you
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: take four or sixty yard shouts to the deer, you're
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: probably gonna kill one of them. But what happens on
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: those other three exactly? Yeah, to this point and this
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: is actually I know You've got to run here in
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, and I've got one last question
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: for you, and it ties in very nicely with what
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: we just mentioned here. Um, you know, writing for Field
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: and Stream, now being an editor at Field and Stream,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: which is one of the absolute largest brands within the
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: hunting world and representatives of the hunting world to the
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: rest of the public. Um, I think, you know, whether
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: it be Field and Stream or anyone in the outdoor
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: media or really any hunter, any average guy or girl
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: hunter out there, we all represent hunting to the non
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: hunting public. Um. I guess I'm curious about what your
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: thoughts are though on how we're doing as the media
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: in representing what hunting is, what we do and you
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: know your perception that the non hunting public has of that,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: are we doing a good job? Do things need to
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: change from your perspective with Field and Stream, where do
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: we need to go in hunting media? And then as
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: average hunters what can we do differently too? You know,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: I think the hunting media is doing a doing a
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: pretty decent job, you know. You you look you know,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that just to just to toot
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: my own horn or to your horn, but um, you
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: know the I think there there is a you know,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: a pretty strong you know, conservation and family focus and
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: a focus on getting new people into the woods throughout
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: the hunting media. You see it mentioned all the time
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: on the TV shows, uh, you know, in the magazine
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: things like that. Um, you look at uh you know,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: you you you look at the rate of female hunters
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: in the woods, for example, it's higher than it's ever been.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's any coincidence at all that you've
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: had some really good role model like you know, Tiffany
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Lakowski and Melissa Bachmann and and folks like that who
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: have done a really good job at making huntings seem
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: accessible to to the ladies who would really like to
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: try it and maybe they never have tried it, and
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: so you know, yeah, I think on that point we
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: have done a pretty good job. Um. I think you know,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: maybe a couple of years ago we might have gotten
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit nutty with some of the big buck
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: craze and that's probably uh fueled some things that aren't
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: so healthy to the long term uh, you know, to
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: the long term health of of deer hunting and and
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: really all kinds of hunting. Uh. You know, when when
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: the focus becomes more on the antlers than than on
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: putting backstrap on your table. Um, to the average non hunter,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: that's not cool. Um. And you know, I think we
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: need to be cognitive cognizant of That doesn't mean going
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: out and killing every little buck you see, but it's
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: just it's just something we need to think about. You know,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: whenever we're focused so much on on score and and
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: the age of a door and things like that, you know,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: we need to remember that. You know, if a guy
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: shoots a deer, it's because that deer came out and
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: he was excited about it and he wanted to fill
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: his tag and s wanted it's his tag, and he
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: did it legally. It's really not anybody else's business, you
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. UM, Now, so far as you
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: know hunters in particular, you know, just kind of everyday hunters. UM.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I'll tie that into social media a little bit and
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: kind of get on my soapbox. Man. I think that
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: is the biggest I think that is the biggest threat
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: facing hunting right now. Um. The environment that um that
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: hunters have kind of created online, uh, toward one another.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: So often it's just men, it's just toxic. Um. You
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: look at uh, you know, for for Field and Stream,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: or whenever I was working for Realtrey, post a story
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: of a of a hunter that's been successful and killed
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: a good deer. UM posted the huntline. We do a
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: story about it, and they you know, they're excited about it,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: and and just immediately the people pile onto him saying
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: you know, oh, well they shot it with a crossbow
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: and that's not really hunting. Or they shot it over
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: bait and that's not really hunting, or they shot it
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: in a high fence and not knowing whether or not
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: they shot it in a high fence. And I'll say,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: for the record, I don't think shooting a deer in
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: high fence is really hunting. But a lot of people
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: just assume that if real trees sharing it, or the
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: field and streams sharing it, and it's a big buck
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: that people shot it in the high fence. And hunters
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: have just gotten to the point, not all of them,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: but a lot of them. They've just gotten to the
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: point where they're just mean to each other online and
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: that has to stop, because man, that is not doing
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: anybody any good. And um, you know, it's just you
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: hear the word in fighting a lot um and and
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: people say, oh, we've got to do something about this,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: We've got to stop the infighting, and you can write
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: about it until you're blue in the face, and yet
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: it doesn't stop. So you know, I I will continue
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: to call people out on that and and say that
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: that is a big problem. Um And I think that's
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: probably as symptomatic of our of our social media culture,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: you know, just as a nation as it is just hunters.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: But man, it's one of those things we've got to
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: get a handle on because it's a real problem, so true,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: and social media really, like you said, it's it's such
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: an enabler for you know, these types of behaviors that
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: probably were there always within the hunting culture or our
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: entire United States culture, I suppose. But once you have
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: this tool to put stuff out there online anonymously or
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: without having to be face to face to someone, very quickly,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: things conspiral into a pretty negative place. Yep, yep. Absolutely. Well, well,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: I know you've got to hit the road, so I
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: just want to thank you so much for taking the
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: time to join us here, and I guess before it
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: lets you go really quickly, is there anything that our
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: listeners should be keeping an eye out for from field
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: and stream or coming up on the website that you
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: want to direct them to or or to take a
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: look at soon. Yeah, Man, our subscription renewal notices, keep
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: an eye out for those and renews keep me in
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: the job. Perfect good advice. Now, man, we've got some
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: awesome stuff coming up. I'm working on a I'm working
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: on a big land management feature right now for August.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I'm late. Um, you gotta
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: get that thing turned in. But he interviewed some guys like,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: uh all, I don't know some guys you probably have
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: heard of them before, Eric Long and Craig Harper. Those
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: guys know a little bit about growing food plots and stuff.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: So um, you know, I I get to talking to them,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: they tell me, tell me about you know, everything that
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: I thought I knew that I really didn't. So um,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: so yeah, you know, we've we've got we've got some
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: cool stuff coming up. Um you know it just uh
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Field and stream staff and and outdoor Life. Uh you
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: know their their staff too. I mean really, um, you
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: know across the board, the editors, the the the designers
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: are our team and uh and our freelance contributors. Man,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: I'm always just amazed that, you know, you think, year
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: after year, like what else is there to be said
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: about deer hunting or catching a bass on the top
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: water plug? And and some how we find it and
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: you know, make cool stuff out of it and tell
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: good stories. And uh, I continue to be proud of
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: working with that team. And yeah, we we've got some
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: good stuff coming out this fall, so so yeah, like
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: I said, renew those subscriptions you can be sure to
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: see it perfect Well. I've been a lifelong subscriber myself,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: and I'll be keeping it going because, like you said,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: you guys are doing terrific work and uh man, I
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: really enjoy it. So everyone listening, make sure you do
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: get those subscriptions in and subscribe to Outdoor Life too.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: You'll see some stuff from me coming up here soon too.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: So well, thank you so much and good luck this
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: summer and fall. All right, mark you too, Butty we'll
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: talk sing thanks a lot, bye bye all right, and
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: with that we'll wrap things up a few quick reminders
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: before we go though. First, like I mentioned at the top,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: be sure to check out One Wild, our new podcast. Secondly,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: if you haven't yet, could you take a quick second
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: to leave us a rating or review on iTunes. It
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: would mean a ton and it helps a lot, so
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: thank you to those who already have done that. And
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: we also need to thank our partners who helped make
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: this podcast possible, so big, thank you too. Sick a
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: gear Trophy, Ridge Bear archery, redneck blinds, hunt, terra maps, ozonics,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: carbon express, maybe an optics in the White Tailed Institute
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: of North America. And finally, thank you for joining us.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoyed this
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: chat with Will as much as I did. And until
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: next time, to stay wired to Hunt.